Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I nodded, and Mother began massaging both my hands again alongside Father.
My hands had grown cold from the continuous seasickness brought on by the unfamiliar sea and my first voyage aboard a ship.
‘Though perhaps it wasn’t merely the seasickness.’
From the moment I boarded and watched the Empire—where I had spent my entire life—recede rapidly into the distance, my heart had churned with unease.
Joy and sorrow, relief and regret coexisted within me.
Though I carried many painful memories, all my cherished ones remained in the Empire.
The thought that I would now live an entirely new life in a completely different place left me unsettled.
“Are you very nervous?”
Perhaps my anxiety about the uncertain future had written itself plainly across my face. Father, who had been watching me intently, asked gently.
I nodded.
“I’m a little worried. Even though it’s said to be illusion magic, I don’t resemble Mother and Father at all…”
Though those at the Grand Duke’s Castle had been informed beforehand, I feared whether they could truly accept my sudden appearance.
There was a time when I had viewed myself as a drifting existence, unable to settle anywhere, certain I could never become family with anyone.
And still, I remained terrified of not being welcomed.
“Who would say such a thing! Adriana, you look exactly like your mother did at that age!”
“Especially your eyes—you have my eyes precisely.”
At that moment, both Mother and Father vehemently refuted my words.
Yet perhaps they thought so because they had seen my true form, however briefly?
My doubting gaze was met with an immediate answer.
“It doesn’t matter if your hair color or eye color are different!”
“…Really?”
“Of course! If you look carefully, there’s not a single feature that doesn’t resemble us—it’s almost miraculous.”
Though my parents, who doted on me excessively, were likely simply offering their usual words of comfort, I found myself reassured and smiled.
And since the mana rampage incident, I had heard many say I had suddenly become beautiful—perhaps the illusion magic had partially unraveled then, making me truly resemble them.
“We shall arrive shortly, Your Highness.”
Bianca then informed me that I should prepare to disembark.
As I drew a nervous breath, the hands clasping mine from both sides tightened reassuringly.
Shortly after, the ship docked, and I, my hood pulled up over my head, boarded the carriage that had been waiting in advance.
I could see the citizens of the Grand Duchy—who would never have dreamed that the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess who had departed for the Empire would return—tilting their heads in confusion at the sight of the Grand Ducal House’s carriage.
Despite the winter season, the weather was warm; the sun was setting over the seaside. Observing the vibrant atmosphere, joyful laughter, and people strolling leisurely, I realized I had arrived at Roane, the Capital City of Bellus that I had only read about in books.
As I gazed out through the small window in the carriage, it soon began ascending a steep incline toward a high hill.
And moments later.
“Adriana, let us descend.”
Father, who had alighted first, escorted Mother before extending his hand to me.
My heart felt as though it might burst as I carefully grasped Father’s hand.
“…!”
And I froze at the sight before me.
Upon a cliff overlooking the azure sea stood a magnificent, stately white castle with tall, pointed roofs, and before it stretched a long line of thirty knights in white ceremonial dress bearing the distinctive golden epaulettes that marked them as Sword Masters, alongside nearly fifty servants, extending to the path leading toward the castle.
They bowed in unison.
“Grand Lady, we welcome your return with utmost sincerity.”
Welcome, welcome….
At the resounding voice echoing endlessly, I blinked my eyes.
I felt bewildered, and the situation before me seemed hardly believable.
Then an elderly man with pristine white hair, not a single strand out of place, swept back from his forehead, approached from the front of the group.
“Grand Duchess, you must have had a difficult journey. You have done remarkably well.”
The stern-faced Butler’s eyes, which seemed too rigid to allow even a needle to pass through, gradually grew moist.
Sensing that he understood how much hardship I had endured to return here, my own eyes welled up with tears.
“Thank you, Arthur.”
“…Do you know my name?”
“I heard it from Father and Mother on the way here. They said you were a wonderful person who has protected the Grand Duke’s Castle for a very long time.”
He was a Butler who had served the Bellus Grand Duchy for three generations, managing the Grand Duke’s Castle in place of my ailing Mother, overseeing everything from large and small financial accounts to charitable works.
Even when Father and Mother left their posts for my brother’s graduation ceremony, he was a loyal person trusted enough to entrust the Grand Duke’s Castle to.
“Oh, I envy the Butler!”
“Is that the fairy of Belus Duchy….”
“How clever she is.”
“She’s so lovely….”
At that moment, the servants around us murmured softly among themselves.
Perhaps because there were too few servants to manage the vast Grand Duke’s Castle, even small voices sounded loud.
After I was kidnapped, Father had apparently replaced all the servants and filled the castle only with trustworthy people, and these seemed to be that select few.
As I listened quietly to their words with flushed cheeks, Mother chuckled and spoke.
“There, you see. No one dislikes you, Adriana.”
Before her words even finished, voices rippled out like waves saying, “How could anyone dislike her?”
“Your Highness, I believe it would be best to show the Grand Duchess her room now.”
At that moment, the Butler, who had been wearing a slightly heavy expression, spoke.
As Mother nodded, we finally stepped inside the castle.
Befitting the prestige of the Bellus Grand Duchy, the interior of the castle exuded both majesty and splendor.
The floor and ceiling gleamed with gold, and white marble columns and walls were carved with sculptures whose delicate craftsmanship resembled fine art.
“Grand Duchess, this is the room with the finest views in the castle. It has been designated as your room since before you were born.”
Following the Butler’s guidance, I climbed the grand staircase for some time before stopping short at the sight of an enormous door.
But the astonishing spectacle was only just beginning.
The moment the door opened, a vast terrace came into view, and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows lay the sea.
The glow of sunset painting the horizon crimson stretched into this space, bathing the pristine white room in warm light.
As I stood mesmerized by the sight, Mother approached me.
“I wonder what you think of it.”
Her voice trembled slightly with concern that I might not like it, and I was taken aback.
Who could fail to love such a magnificent sight?
“Grand Duchess, this is the Reception Room. The right side leads to the Bedroom, and the left to the Study. The Bedroom has a bathroom and Dressing Room….”
Jane, who had become my personal Maidservant after a fierce competition with Mother’s other attendants, eagerly explained the room’s layout, but I could barely hear her words.
Looking at the small cream-colored sofa and table placed in the Reception Room, and the delicate tea set upon it, I bit my lip hard.
I had assumed that upon hearing of my arrival, they had simply reorganized the room anew, but the furniture and objects here were clearly things that had been carefully maintained with devotion for a very long time.
For a master who would one day return.
“Oh, Adriana? Are you crying right now?”
“Young Lady! What’s wrong!”
From the very first day, I hadn’t wanted to become a crybaby, so I’d tried to hold it back—but my face contorted foolishly.
“What’s bothering you? I’ll fix anything. Or should I change your room entirely?”
“No!”
I startled and clutched at Father. Then, through hiccups, I spoke.
“This is my room. This castle is my home. I won’t change it, never.”
Father, momentarily at a loss for words, knelt and gently wiped my wet eyes.
“That’s right. This is your home. I will never change it.”
“Wahhhhh….”
Foolishly reassured by those words, I wept again.
I had always been anxious.
I had longed to belong somewhere, to become someone needed by another.
And now.
For the first time in my life, I felt certain that I was where I belonged.
This place was my home.
* * *
The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess laid the child, exhausted from crying, upon the bed, gazing at her with tender pity before their expressions softened into gentle smiles. Her sleeping face was utterly angelic.
“It feels as though I’ve lived all this time simply to witness this moment.”
The Grand Duchess delicately wiped the tear stains from Lia’s eyes.
The Grand Duke answered bitterly.
“I regret it. Every moment that has passed.”
Her first cries at birth, rolling over, taking her first steps….
The moments I missed ached so deeply it was unbearable.
And all the things the child should have rightfully enjoyed until now.
Thinking of the time she hadn’t experienced them, the hardships she shouldn’t have endured, the countless wounds she must have suffered—my throat tightened with sorrow.
“I’m truly greedy, aren’t I? I should be grateful that an opportunity has come at all.”
The Grand Duke, his nose stinging, asked awkwardly, and the Grand Duchess smiled.
“I feel the same way, so there’s nothing to be done. But you’re right.”
She gently patted Adriana’s chest as she spoke.
“We’ve been given a miraculous opportunity. The future.”
“The future….”
“Everything we couldn’t give her before, we can give now. Calling her name tenderly, holding her hand, wishing her good night, greeting her….”
We will protect and cherish her, spending together a time far longer than all the moments we’ve missed.
“Rather than lament what has passed, the present is too precious. We know this well, don’t we?”
“Indeed. Just hearing it feels like a dream.”
The Grand Duke, whose eyes had reddened without notice, nodded gently with a soft smile.
“I hope Askart returns soon as well.”
“Of course—though he should rack up some points before he does.”
“Ah, you’re absolutely right.”
The jealous couple, noticing that Lia seemed to favor Askart more, pressed their foreheads together and giggled softly.
Then, startled by Lia stirring with a soft murmur, they held their breath.
A moment later, the two of them smiled happily once more.
* * *
Those dreamlike days flowed past—one day, two days, and then one year, two years… so very swiftly.
And before long, the day before Lia’s eighteenth birthday arrived—the eve of her coming of age.

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