Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 111

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

“Got it!”
Diana nodded as if telling me to ask whatever I wanted.
“What is it?”
“…Young Lady, until now you’ve been saying I’m pretty, calling me a princess…”
“Yes!”
“And just a moment ago, when you saw Grand Duchess Bellus, you said I look exactly like her.”
“That’s right!”
Unlike me, whose words came with difficulty and whose lips trembled repeatedly, Diana answered without hesitation.
Rendered speechless by her candor, I swallowed hard and hesitated for a moment before finally asking the question.
“Young Lady. What color do my hair and eyes appear to you?”
“Your hair and eyes?”
“…Yes.”
I bit my lips hard and clenched my fists tightly.
〈Hey, Jack… Do my hair and eyes look brown to you too?〉
〈Yes. Your eyes are a deep brown, and your hair is a softer, slightly lighter brown.〉
〈Master. To your eyes, do I also appear to have brown hair?〉
〈….〉
Never again.
I had sworn never to voice this question again.
I already knew what answer would return, and at the same time, I was terrified of it.
I had long believed myself to be an existence that could settle nowhere, merely drifting in this world.
But if I became conscious of my own reflection in a mirror that no one else could see, would I be condemned as a madwoman trapped in a world of my own?
‘If I receive the same answer again this time, I won’t be able to bear it….’
“It’s pink!”
At that moment, Diana cried out loudly, as if bewildered by such a question.
“Your hair is fluffy pink like cotton candy, and your eyes are sparkling pink!”
“….”
“Just like the princess! So beautiful!”
“Sob.”
In that instant, tears I didn’t know I had been holding back burst forth.
I sank to the floor and began to weep bitterly.
“Oh, sister?”
Diana, flustered and not knowing what to do, began to hop anxiously before following suit and whimpering, but I could not stop.
With thick tears streaming down my face, I asked again.
“Is it really true? To your eyes, do I….”
As I choked on my words, Diana, with tears glistening in her eyes, nodded and suddenly sprang to her feet, saying “Wait!”
She brought back the princess drawing she had given me before.
It was the one she had carefully kept in a frame on the table beside my bed.
“I drew this of you. Because you’re as beautiful as the princess.”
In the drawing was a princess wearing a dress and a golden crown. The princess’s hair and eyes were pink.
“Ha ha….”
Only then did everything click into place.
The way he’d told me every day that I was beautiful, that I was a princess.
How Allen had gifted me that hairpin adorned with a pink diamond, and how he’d clapped his hands saying it suited me perfectly.
To Diana’s eyes, I must have looked exactly as I appeared in the mirror.
The moment this realization struck me, an overwhelming shock crashed down.
‘Then I am… truly….’
I’d simply noticed what my real appearance was.
Without a shred of evidence regarding my bloodline.
Yet I was already half-convinced.
‘I might be the Grand Duchess Bellus.’
The granddaughter of Marquis Diapel and Askart’s lost sister.
It was so unbelievable that a scream nearly burst from my lips.
I quickly clamped my hand over my mouth and held my breath.
My chest heaved as I fought back tears, but my mind raced furiously.
‘Am I under an illusion spell? Or a curse?’
Recalling thoughts I’d entertained only in early childhood, anxiety crept into my heart.
‘What if this is all just my mistake or delusion?’
This time, it didn’t feel like it would end with just my own heartbreak.
It would affect others too….
‘First, I need to know for certain.’
I had to find my reason. I couldn’t just sit here crying.
‘I’m not a child anymore, after all.’
The fortunate thing was that House Elrad and the Bellus Grand Duchy were extremely close.
Tomorrow evening alone, the Duke’s Estate was hosting a dinner and had invited the Grand Ducal family, Marquis Diapel, and Bianca.
By observing them up close, I would surely catch something that could prove this conviction.
‘If I’m being honest with myself, I want to rush to the Marquis’s Residence right now and see the Grand Duchess’s face again….’
Instead, I decided to hide like a patient hyena stalking its prey and wait for my opportunity.
And….
that opportunity came far sooner than I’d anticipated.
* * *
Marquis Diapel held a cigarette in his hand and sighed.
‘I wish there were some candy or chocolate in front of me.’
This was all his restless mouth could find. For some reason, everything tasted more bitter, and his heart felt hollow.
With his eldest daughter and her husband arriving in the Empire yesterday, aside from his son left behind in the Marquis Territory, his entire family had gathered in the Capital City for the first time in ages.
So this morning, the Marquis had opened the Dining Room door with excitement in his heart.
But all his eyes found was an empty table.
He’d anticipated his eldest daughter wouldn’t be present—her body had grown so frail that merely arriving safely in the Empire was cause for celebration—but….
Even his physically healthy son-in-law and Askart, who had been coming down for breakfast with him just yesterday, were nowhere to be found.
The moment the Marquis sat down with a displeased expression, he fixed a sharp stare on the Butler, who promptly explained with an “Ah.”
“The Grand Duke and the Grand Duke’s son are in the Separate Quarters.”
I was exasperated. Just last night, the two of them had locked themselves in a room and didn’t emerge until morning.
Of course, my station was lower than theirs, but surely I was still an elder of this household.
It wasn’t as though they were openly excluding me, yet my mood had soured considerably.
“Hmph! I didn’t particularly want to see that pretty face of his from the crack of dawn either, the one who bewitched my daughter.”
The Marquis grumbled and complained about the Grand Duke—something he hadn’t done since his grandson was born with a face identical to his son-in-law’s.
Now that I thought about it, my second daughter had also stopped visiting after I’d scolded her on the day he arrived in the Capital City, and even when word came yesterday that her elder sister had arrived, she showed no intention of appearing.
“Enough of this! But why hasn’t she come yet?”
The Marquis clicked his tongue and shook his head, then suddenly sprang up from the sofa.
He peered out beyond the Reception Room door, watching for when the child would arrive.
Askart’s words had made me concerned about my eldest daughter, but after sending the children away like that yesterday, my heart hadn’t been at ease.
It seemed the journey to the Empire had been arduous—my eldest daughter was still sleeping, or so I’d been told.
She would likely wake later and take her breakfast in her room.
If her condition improved, perhaps she would visit the Rose Greenhouse.
The Marquis, thinking the Grand Duchess would have no reason to come to the Reception Room, sent a messenger to Elrad Duchy to fetch Lia immediately after breakfast.
“She should be arriving soon now… Ah!”
Just then, through the window, I could see the Butler approaching in the distance with a small, adorable little Maidservant.
The Marquis quickly took his seat, pretending he hadn’t been waiting.
“Tiny as a chestnut, yet moving so sluggishly!”
The moment the Reception Room door opened, he didn’t forget to bellow loudly.
“If you had any conscience, you’d come early in the morning for the sake of this old man you injured… Wait, why does your face look like that!”
The Marquis, who had been about to launch into a lengthy tirade, jumped up in alarm.
It had only been one day since I’d last seen her, yet her eyes were visibly swollen and reddened—something must have happened.
“Have you been crying? Did you cry?”
“Well, a little…”
“Who made you cry! How dare they!”
The Marquis shouted in agitation, then stopped short upon seeing the child’s eyes glistening with fresh tears.
Thinking the child had been frightened by his raised voice, he suppressed his excitement and asked again more gently.
“Did you make a mistake at work and get scolded?”
“…It’s not that.”
“You can tell me the truth. I can even scold Duke Elrad, whom you serve. What more could I do to those beneath him—a butler or maidservants?”
“I wasn’t scolded. I do my work well.”
When Lia forced out a laugh, the Marquis fell silent with a dissatisfied expression.
At that, Lia also dropped the forced smile.
She had cried through the entire night before falling asleep, so her face was a mess.
She seemed to have had some dream while sleeping, but she couldn’t remember it.
At breakfast, everyone had been startled by her appearance, so she’d made a vague excuse about having had a frightening dream, but…
Then, suddenly summoned by the Marquis, she’d come to the Marquis’s Residence without even a moment to compose herself.
And when she saw the Marquis’s worried expression, Lia felt a lump form in her throat.
Even now, she didn’t want to appear as though she were some incompetent who went around receiving scolding everywhere.
Just yesterday, I thought I wasn’t really a child, but acting so childishly like this made me feel a bit embarrassed.
“But weren’t you receiving treatment? Why are you in the Reception Room….”
Lia, who was hurrying to change the subject, faltered.
“What you’re holding in your hand….”
“Hm?”
The Marquis glanced down at his hand without thinking and was startled. He hadn’t even realized he’d been holding a cigarette all this time.
“Why are you smoking something like that when it’s not good for your health?”
“I, I was just curious about it….”
“Then wouldn’t it be better if I got you some snacks like candy or chocolate instead? I’ll go tell the Butler right now. So please don’t smoke, Grand….”
The child, who had been gently scolding him with a sigh, suddenly covered her mouth with her hand and gasped.
At that moment, the Marquis, his brow furrowing, muttered without thinking.
“How does House Elrad even train their maidservants?”
“I’m, I’m so sorry! Marquis.”
At the same time, the startled child apologized, her eyes downcast and puffy.
The Marquis felt his heart flutter once more at the sight.
Had she called him Marquis from the beginning? He couldn’t understand why she had to call him grandfather and make his heart feel so unsettled.
The Marquis, whose mouth twisted in displeasure, cleared his throat and opened his lips.
“You… may call me that.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————