Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 165

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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 watched Lucio, whose smile seemed perpetually out of place, and found myself wondering.
‘Who could he have had a secret meeting with?’
Did I fear he wouldn’t answer if I asked? Not at all.
I glanced at the unconscious Kenneth before answering lightly.
“Prince Nicholas.”
“….”
In that instant, the smile vanished from Lucio’s face.
His expression hardened abruptly, and I felt a flicker of alarm.
‘Was I not supposed to acknowledge it?’
But I’d already hinted at it when I sent a message to Darel.
“Hmm.”
Now that I thought about it, this was likely a sensitive matter for someone preparing for such an undertaking, and I’d broached it far too casually.
“I’m sorry, Duke Elrad….”
I was about to apologize quietly while gauging his reaction when Lucio spoke first.
“Why do you call him by his name while you call me Duke Elrad?”
“Pardon?”
“Call me by my name too.”
“….”
For a moment, words escaped me.
‘Calling me by my name….’
The request carried such weighted significance.
As I stared at Lucio in bewilderment, I suddenly recalled a distant moment when he’d asked me the same thing.
‘…Back then, I’d knelt and begged never to speak the Young Master’s name again.’
That person from that day had long since vanished, yet I alone carried such vivid memories—and today, that felt inexplicably unfair.
Simultaneously, a question I’d harbored resurfaced.
I’d long suspected that Lucio was the one who’d commissioned Terenthium on Diana’s birthday in the past.
‘And perhaps he’s been searching for me all this time….’
Yet no matter how much I pondered it, I couldn’t fathom his reason.
I wondered if he’d discovered I was the Grand Duchess, but that seemed nearly impossible.
He couldn’t see my true form like Diana could, nor could he have learned about my hair color from Raezl like my Father had.
If anything, it might have happened after the birthday party—perhaps Diana saw my appearance and grew suspicious, telling Lucio, prompting his actions—but the timing didn’t align, so that theory fell apart as well.
‘What on earth….’
“Is it really so difficult to call my name?” Lucio sighed, observing my silence.
I’d been lost in thought for a moment, but calling his name felt genuinely awkward.
Yet his subtly wounded expression made my heart ache.
“Isn’t it unfamiliar to you?”
Desperate to shift the mood, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other… and my hair color has changed. Everyone else was startled and found me strange.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and your hair color has changed too. Other people were surprised and found it unfamiliar.”
In fact, just like Allen and Jack, Lucio had never seen my true appearance either.
As I pondered this and glanced at him, I felt Lucio’s gaze slowly trace across my forehead, eyes, nose, lips, and finally my chin.
After a moment, he tilted his head and spoke.
“Why does it feel unfamiliar? Only the color is different—you’ve grown up looking exactly as you did when you were young.”
“….”
“I recognized you at a glance.”
At his answer, I found myself muttering, “That’s impossible.”
Then Lucio countered with, “It’s true.”
“It’s exactly the same as back then. Especially the way you stare with your eyes wide open like an idiot….”
“An, an idiot?”
I paused at his words, then quickly glanced at him sideways. Lucio tapped my furrowed brow with his finger.
“That expression too. You smile so effortlessly in front of others, making their hearts flutter, but in front of me, you’re always sulking.”
“….”
Seeing Lucio appear delighted despite his critical words, my mood became strangely unsettled.
When I thought about it, everything was peculiar.
His words, his actions, his expressions….
Confused and fidgeting with my fingers, I impulsively asked him a question.
“What if I had kept my brown hair and brown eyes? Would you have recognized me then?”
Even knowing it was an absurd question, I found myself tensing and swallowing hard for some reason.
“Yes.”
His answer came back remarkably concise.
“Really?”
“Yes. I would have definitely recognized you.”
Perhaps it was because of the certainty in Lucio’s eyes.
I couldn’t bring myself to ask how he could be so sure.
‘Perhaps he remembers me from the past as well….’
“Anyway, if this truly isn’t a secret meeting….”
That was when it happened.
Lucio, his eyes cold as he gazed at my reddened wrist, suddenly snapped Kenneth’s arm with a sickening crack.
“Stop!”
I cried out too late—Kenneth’s arm was already completely bent backward.
Seeing Kenneth writhe in pain even while unconscious, I let out a sympathetic sigh.
“He’s simply paying the price for laying his hands where he shouldn’t have.”
Lucio added this as if making an excuse when he saw my reaction, but my sigh only deepened.
“…Did I go too far?”
“It’s not that….”
I shook my head at Lucio’s cautious question.
“I was planning to handle it myself, so I’m disappointed I didn’t get the chance.”
At my words, Lucio let out a hollow laugh, but I simply shrugged and asked.
“But how do we clean this up?”
Seeing Kenneth Petite sprawled across the floor, I couldn’t help but sigh.
I’d tried to hold back, worried it would become this troublesome.
As I wore an expression of distress, Lucio retrieved a communication device from his pocket.
Not long after, a man dressed in black materialized from thin air.
“Bert, take care of it.”
At Lucio’s terse command, the man called Bert nodded and effortlessly hoisted Kenneth over his shoulder.
Seeing this, I quickly cast a simple binding spell on Kenneth, then handed one of the wine bottles from the terrace table to the man.
And to Bert, who was looking at me with a bewildered expression, I spoke with a smirk.
“Take him away and pour it down his pants.”
Understanding my meaning, Bert let out an “Ah” and quickly pressed his lips together.
But his mouth corners trembled as he struggled to suppress his laughter, and he nodded.
“Heh… Yes, I shall obey your orders.”
“No need to be so formal about it. Thank you for your trouble.”
How exhausting it must be to hover around Lucio like a shadow every single day.
Remembering my old days of infiltration work, I offered him a brief word of encouragement.
At that, Bert, who was already displaying a respectful demeanor, seemed to brighten his eyes even more and bowed deeply.
‘Anyone watching would think I’m his superior.’
I shook my head as I watched Bert disappear rapidly from the third-floor terrace with ghostly movements. Then I stopped and cried out.
“That’s right, Darel!”
“Darel?”
“Yes. I was meaning to bring it up anyway!”
As I raised my voice about the suddenly remembered topic, Lucio’s expression turned serious.
“Now that you mention it, you said you were angry. I thought it was because of the bracelet…”
“The bracelet?”
“No, rather—did my subordinates make some mistake with you?”
“No, not at all. They did nothing wrong. Though I did think their acting was a bit lacking… But the real problem is customer information management!”
“Customer information management?”
At Lucio’s confused expression, I burst out indignantly.
“How could you let it slip that the Grand Duchess is a VIP of the Guild? What does that make my position?”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb. The moment I showed the invitation, they started examining my hair. They clearly knew I was the Grand Duchess.”
“Well, of course they did.”
“Pardon?”
Looking at him with a confused expression, Lucio seemed to realize something and murmured.
“So that’s why the reply letter…”
“…?”
“It’s certainly easy to misunderstand, but that invitation wasn’t for a VIP—it was for the Grand Duchess Bellus. I even wrote the invitation myself.”
And he added reassuringly.
“Contrary to what you’re worried about, only I know that the Guild’s VIP is the Grand Duchess. My subordinates don’t know, and even Bert, who was present during your previous transactions, doesn’t know.”
“B-but that can’t be right. Then what was that reaction all about…?”
“A reaction?”
Lucio tilted his head slightly.
I spoke with an aggrieved expression.
“You’ve been far too kind to me. Excessively attentive, really—it was embarrassing.”
“You’re my guest, so of course I should be. Besides, I know who you are.”
At Lucio’s response, as though everything were purely my misunderstanding, I felt an inexplicable heat rise within me.
Of course, thinking that invitation was a message being passed to a VIP had been my mistake.
But the clerk’s behavior when I visited Lueje was excessive by any measure.
“The Information Guild’s informants know all the secrets of the nobility. Yet you’re saying they showed such an attitude simply because of my status?”
So I narrowed my eyes and spoke.
“Don’t assume that just because the leader is a noble, the informants are the same as servants of a noble house.”
The more an informant knows, the more they value hierarchy within the Guild and the sources of information over status or rank.
‘In fact, that world is a place where they’re kinder to an orphan who brings valuable information than to a high-ranking noble who comes to buy information. And they’re saying it was really just my misunderstanding?’
I could only conclude that the clerk’s behavior that day was because I was a VIP of Darel.
“…I see.”
It was then that Lucio nodded, as if understanding what I meant.
Just as I was about to raise my chin triumphantly, proving that my confusion had good reason—
“It seems everyone thinks you’re my lover.”
A shocking statement tumbled from Lucio’s lips.
“L-lover?”
What on earth was he talking about?
“W-what! Why would you think such a thing?”
I, who had doubted my ears for a moment, jumped up and cried out.
But Lucio merely chuckled at how adorable I was being.
…Yes, as if I were adorable.
In that moment, a truly absurd thought flashed through my mind.
‘Could it be that Lucio….’
No, that couldn’t be!
I quickly shook my head vigorously and muttered.
“I haven’t even contacted the Grand Duke once until now, so why such a misunderstanding….”
“That’s exactly what you said—informants and servants are different.”
“…!”
“They don’t judge based solely on surface information, do they? True, even if I used Askart as an excuse, I was rather excessive in sending you gifts. They probably thought it was a secret romance. Though it seems the person I hoped would notice hasn’t caught on at all.”
As if his subordinates’ speculation wasn’t wrong after all, Lucio smiled.

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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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