Night Monarch's Cannon Fodder Bride-Chapter 29: Normal Is Defective

The bright sunlight shone on Severine’s face through the windowpane, surrounding her in a golden halo.

Click.

Gray eyes snapped toward the sound, only to find the culprit sneaking pictures of her again.

"Alina," she warned.

"Just one picture won’t harm you. And you look so pretty in this," Alina shoved the phone screen to Severine’s face. "See? Totally worth it."

Severine pushed the screen back, silently observing her dorm mate. "You look happy."

"Of course, I am." Alina giggled. "Today is a brilliant day."

The teacher had taken emergency leave, giving them an early break.

Severine was dealing with the acquisition of The Xing while also keeping an eye on the stock market. Her target was the profitable firms she had witnessed in her dreams.

Meanwhile, Alina kept fluttering around her.

That beaming smile nearly blinded her. "What happened?"

For her to be so thrilled, it had to be something important. Was it related to the original story?

Severine’s mind was already imagining hidden plotlines when Alina threw herself into her arms.

"Do you remember the boy I told you about? That bastard Inori? He is transferring. He even came to apologize to me. Ain’t that awesome?"

So it was about Inori Mion.

"I see." Severine pressed the tip of her finger against Alina’s forehead and gently pushed her away.

Alina wasn’t the least bit discouraged by such a cold attitude.

"An angel must have heard my prayer. I am such a pure-hearted person after all."

In a way, Alina and Damien were equally narcissistic, Severine mused. Is that why they ended up as a couple? How peculiar...

Alina’s bright yellow eyes scanned Severine, and she fell silent. Staying in the St. Michael Academy had taught her quite a few things.

One of them was that no one would give her the time of day if not for something to gain.

So why did that boy suddenly transfer?

"It couldn’t be your doing, right?" she asked, hesitant about her guess.

"Whatever you say," Severine didn’t even lift her head from the pile of pages. "You should focus on your matches now."

"You..." Alina had too much to say. "How the hell did you do it?"

"I talked to his brother."

Alina understood the hidden meaning. Inori’s brother had transferred him and even forced him to apologize.

"Then," Alina thought for a second before asking, "Is he your friend?"

"No."

"Why did he agree to you?"

In Alina’s mind, family was the top priority. Why would someone go so far for a stranger?

Severine let out a soft scoff. Her eyes deepened, as if she were looking at a child who didn’t understand worldly affairs.

"Inori won’t be taking over the business; his brother will. And he, or others, can’t stand against me. Just as I can’t stand against Damien."

The whole ladder of the business world had started to clear up in Alina’s mind.

Only then did she realize that the people who bullied Severine were strictly from Damien’s group. None of the other students dared to intervene.

They were clearly afraid of retaliation from both sides.

"I didn’t expect you guys to follow the old tradition of giving the throne to the oldest son." Alina let out a snort, clearly disdainful of these rules.

"Inori is a normal person—a defective product in front of his Awakener brother."

In a world run by the Awakeners, where would he get the chance to stand?

"Why do you think the academy gave you the scholarship out of all people?"

Alina fell silent.

Yes, she was an Awakener. Her strength and agility weren’t something others could achieve with hard work alone. And she had always been proud of her identity.

However, when she heard Severine calling normal people ’defective’ while being normal herself, it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Exactly what kind of environment had this young lady grown up in that she easily labelled herself as a defective product?

"Severine," Alina patted her chest with rare seriousness. "If you need anything in the future, just ask me. I’ll go through the sea of blood to help you."

"Oh, then work hard and build a good future for yourself."

With that, Severine turned her gaze back to her work.

The notification diverted her attention again. When she read Samuel’s report on Liam Tollkien’s contract and the successful acquisition of The Xing, a fleeting smile appeared on her face.

Another step toward my freedom.

Then there was another click of the camera, making her sigh at the heroine’s childish behavior.

It had been almost two weeks since Damien had that accident. Without him, life had gotten back on track.

As Severine lay on her bed, a sudden realization hit her. She hadn’t felt any pain in her shoulder.

She rolled her shoulder, moving her arm, and yet there were no violent tremors of pain.

"Huh?"

Her gray eyes blinked in surprise. "Was it supposed to heal that fast?"

The doctor had clearly told her that it would take a few weeks before they could remove the sling, and even then, the pain would remain for at least a month.

A faint glimmer of hope ignited in her heart.

Grabbing her phone from the bedside table, she typed "symptoms of a pre-Awakener" and hit the search button.

A long list of pages filled her view, telling her all she needed to know.

When someone awakened their bloodline, they would experience changes related to that animal. Some would have their eyesight sharpened. Some underwent a change in their hair color.

"Like mother."

Isabella’s hair color was silvery white, and her aura had an elegant trace in it.

While her father had elongated fangs, just like Austin.

When Severine was a child, she would often hear her mother’s plans for her future. All of them were based on one fact: her awakening.

Despite having Awakener parents, she couldn’t cross that threshold, becoming the butt of people’s jokes.

The more she scrolled, the more her heart settled back into the deepest pit of her stomach.

Her healing was most likely due to her young age. Nothing more, nothing less.

The barely there light dimmed further, dissolving into pools of gray.

"What was I even thinking? So stupid."

What she had told Alina earlier wasn’t an exaggeration. Awakeners were at the top.

And her half-brother just happened to be exactly that kind of powerful person.

One failure and her entire future would depend on how Austin maneuvered.

She would become another Inori, unable to resist the orders from Austin and her parents.

"Haa..."

It was going to be another long night.