Chapter 70: Lia’s Bloodline

As soon as the numerous panels appeared before Lia, the temperature inside the room suddenly increased, heating up the space that had just cooled down after Seraphina’s awakening.

Lucian, who was standing beside her, felt the heat more strongly than the cold he had felt earlier from Seraphina.

A faint layer of sweat began to form across his skin.

He frowned slightly, unable to understand something.

‘She has a lower potential, right?’ he thought, recalling Lia’s talent being D-rank.

But if her talent was D rank, then how was her affinity stronger than Seraphina’s?

Seraphina had awakened with A rank talent, something considered far above average.

Normally, talent dictated how quickly one could master power, how high their ceiling was, and how efficiently their body could channel energy.

He asked Akasha after giving it some thought.

[Affinity doesn’t just depend on Talent. It depends on bloodline and hard work too.]

‘Hmm,’ Lucian nodded silently, as he had already suspected it might be something like this.

‘She just got her affinity and talent.’

He looked at Lia, who was still horrified by the sight of the dead goblin, before her gaze suddenly flicked upward, as if something had appeared right in front of her.

‘So it must be her bloodline,’ he concluded.

He didn’t disturb her for a few seconds.

He simply watched.

Then—

“What happened?” Lucian asked in a low voice.

Lia blinked, startled by the sound, as she stared at the empty air before her, as if there was something floating in front of her eyes.

For a moment, she didn’t answer.

Then she came out of her stupor and finally looked at Lucian.

“I-I awakened,” she said.

Her voice was slightly shaky, though excitement was slowly beginning to replace the fear inside her.

She stretched out her hand to touch the screen, but her fingers simply brushed past it, passing straight through the glowing panel—like phasing her hand through a thin layer of fog.

She slowly lowered her hand, sensing a new kind of strength quietly coursing through her body.

What she didn’t notice was that the ring on her finger—previously bearing faint cracks—had multiplied and grown wider.

It looked fragile, like it was on the verge of breaking apart, but it still didn’t break.

The increase in her strength wasn’t much—almost too faint to notice.

She had only felt it the moment she awakened.

And along with that—

‘Thirsty,’ she thought absentmindedly, feeling her throat parch slightly.

Setting that thought aside, she turned and smiled softly at Lucian.

“I awakened,” she repeated, leaning her head toward him slightly, like she was silently asking for approval, recognition… or maybe praise.

Her eyes sparkled with clear expectancy.

Lucian couldn’t quite believe how she was behaving.

Just a few seconds ago, she had been trembling at the sight of the goblin’s death, and now she looked as if she had completely forgotten about its existence.

And her eyes—they seemed different too.

There was something in them now that hadn’t been there before.

Intensity.

Poor goblin—it wouldn’t even be remembered by anyone.

Still, seeing her lean her head slightly toward him, he simply chuckled softly and gently patted her head.

Lia’s smile widened almost instantly.

But before she could say anything—

Lucian suddenly leaned forward and lightly kissed her on the forehead, startling her.

“Good job.”

His words were soft, almost whispered, as he gently pulled her into his embrace.

Lia felt as if she had been electrocuted by that sudden closeness.

Her brain seemed to have short-circuited.

Her heart pounded loudly inside her chest as a deep blush spread across her cheeks.

Her lips curled into a strange, wide smile as she let out a quiet, breathy giggle.

Seraphina, who had stepped before them again after her small investigation on the goblin, was feeling kind of weird.

Her eyes turned slightly complicated.

She didn’t think Lucian had any such intentions about her.

He hadn’t ever looked at Lia like that, even though he did seem overly protective, almost obsessed over her, but Lia, on the other hand…

Seraphina sighed quietly, keeping her thoughts to herself.

The warmth still lingered inside the room.

“What talent and affinity did you get?”

Lucian finally brought her out of the hug and looked at her.

Lia blinked again, still slightly dizzy from Lucian’s sudden affection.

Her ears were red, and she still had that weird, almost crazy smile on her face, which Lucian found cute, but didn’t comment on it.

He asked her curiously, though there was also a trace of sadness hidden behind his smile.

He already knew what talent she had gotten, although he was surprised by the fact that she probably had a fire affinity.

She hadn’t told him anything about that in his previous life.

What he didn’t know was that she hadn’t done it because she couldn’t properly manifest her Fire element, and because she had never risen higher than F rank in his previous life, making its existence almost useless.

Lia called out her status window again.

She looked at the screen properly as it materialised before her, reading its contents one by one.

“I got… Fire Affinity,” she said, looking at the Affinity section on the screen.

Her voice carried a hint of excitement as she wondered if she would now be able to create fireballs or something even more impressive.

Lucian nodded.

That much was obvious.

After a few seconds, as she read further, her lips twisted downwards.

She looked at Lucian, and then at Seraphina, who also seemed slightly curious, even though neither of them truly understood how the talent rank actually characterised a person.

Lia let out a small, dejected sigh before saying,

“C rank.” She said with clear frustration in her voice.

“My talent is C rank.”

She didn’t sound happy. There was no sense of pride in her voice.

She sounded… disappointed.

Just moments earlier, when the glowing panels had appeared before her eyes, Lia had felt her heart surge with excitement. The moment had felt magical—like standing at the threshold of a new life, a door opening before her that would lead her away from weakness and helplessness.

She had hoped for something grand.

Something extraordinary.

She had hoped for something higher than what Seraphina had gotten.

But now…

Her expression dulled slightly.

Her gaze shifted slowly toward Lucian.

She wanted to see his reaction. She needed to see it.

But seeing that his eyes had widened slightly, she felt confused.

Then, as she watched his expression slowly shift into a faint frown, her confusion only deepened.

‘Is he disappointed?’ The thought struck her suddenly, shaking her entirely.

Her heart clenched tightly.

The warmth she had been feeling earlier vanished instantly, replaced by a cold anxiety that spread through her body.

She couldn’t handle his disappointment.

She didn’t want that.

Not from him.

Lucian was the person whose opinion mattered the most to her.

If he looked at her with disappointment—

If he thought she was weak—

If he believed she wasn’t good enough—

She didn’t know how she would handle it.

Her fingers tightened slightly at her sides.

Her breathing grew a little uneven.

But—

That wasn’t the truth.

Lucian wasn’t disappointed.

Not even close to it.

He was just surprised, because Lia was supposed to have a D Rank talent.

Not a C.

For a moment, he even wondered if she might have read it wrong.

So he decided to check it himself.

His gaze focused on Lia.

Then he quietly activated his skill.

‘Analyse.’

[Analysing…]

After a second, a screen appeared before him, showing her status window… or at least some of it.

[Status Window]

Name – Amelia Foster

Race – Human

Rank – F

Bloodline – ???(Suppressed)

— — —

Lucian’s frown deepened the moment he saw the question marks.

His attention immediately shifted away from the talent issue.

In fact, he completely forgot about the talent part after seeing those question marks, which he shouldn’t have been able to see at all, since his current skill [Basic Analysis] only allowed him to view a person’s name, race, rank, and bloodline.

His gaze slowly lifted from the panel and returned to Lia, who was staring at him anxiously, her body slightly tense as she noticed the frown on his face.

Even Seraphina, standing nearby, had noticed the strange silence stretching between them.

She tilted her head slightly, confusion appearing on her face.

“What bloodline do you have?”

Lucian asked her directly, rather than looking at it himself.

Lia frowned in confusion at the sudden question, but still did as he instructed.

She looked at her floating status panel again.

Her lips parted slightly as she read the name written there.

“Scarlett Bloodline,” She said, feeling her heart begin to beat faster just from speaking that name.

She felt something the moment the name left her lips.

A strange familiarity—like it was something she should have remembered, something she should have known, yet somehow didn’t.

“Scarlett…” Lucian muttered quietly to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

Of course, he didn’t know anything about it, but for it to be hidden from his skill…

‘Do you know anything about it?’

He asked the question to the only one who might know.

[I am not ans—]

‘I am not asking that.’ Lucian interrupted before she could finish her sentence.

He already knew she wouldn’t answer each of his questions.

But he was curious about something else.

‘Just answer me this. Is her bloodline something like mine? And, why can I not see it through analysis?’ His eyes flicked briefly toward Lia again.

She was still watching him nervously.

But he didn’t notice it as he was lost in his own thoughts.

‘You can at least answer these, right?’

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