Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 166

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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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Her captivating smile—the kind that made one’s head spin—left me momentarily speechless.
Lucio, interpreting my dazed expression, posed a question.
“Don’t believe me? Should I call her over and have her confirm why she did it?”
“No, please!”
I cried out in startled alarm.
There was no need to verify anything further.
The moment I heard Lucio’s words, countless pieces fell into place.
Had I not been savoring everything he’d sent me through Askart as naturally as breathing?
Just this morning, I’d drunk the mint tea he’d thoughtfully brought all the way to the Empire to help me wake.
‘And even the soft, fluffy shower robe I wear after bathing…!’
〈Lia, do you want to wear this? Lucio must have made a mistake. Isn’t this the one he sent for a woman?〉
I couldn’t lift my face from the shame of it.
Even when Mother would constantly remark that Father and Askart lacked perception, I’d nod along and agree, “Yes, they’re rather like that.” But here I was!
‘Yet how could I have not considered such things…’
So it meant that Lucio—of all people—harbored such feelings for me.
Even now, I felt uncertain and unconvinced. I probably wouldn’t believe it unless I heard it directly from his lips.
“Lia?”
At that moment, Lucio’s face suddenly entered my field of vision as I stared at the ground.
His exquisite features, captivating enough to bewitch anyone, drew near in an instant.
Startled, I lifted my head, and Lucio—bent at the waist to meet my eyes—asked tenderly.
“So you’re not angry anymore?”
I nodded.
My heart felt as though it might fall away, so I nodded vaguely to brush past the moment, and he laughed again. Something felt strange.
Then came his next words.
“Then I suppose you owe me an apology too.”
The smile vanished from Lucio’s face in an instant, and he raised an eyebrow, pressing the matter.
“How could you not write to me even once? I understand you had no choice but to break our promise. But is it truly the end if you simply leave behind a message of gratitude and depart?”
“…”
“Weren’t you curious about me? Whether I was well, how I was living?”
“…From Diana.”
My voice trembled, and I swallowed before continuing.
“I heard from her often.”
“…”
At my response, Lucio, who had fallen silent as if at a loss for words, suddenly furrowed his brow.
“So you thought I was doing well?”
Seeing his expression, I felt as though I’d committed some grave error, yet I nodded honestly.
“Yes. There was no reason you wouldn’t be.”
“Ha.”
At that, Lucio let out a low laugh.
“So it never occurred to you that I might have wanted to see you.”
“…!”
“I missed you.”
Lucio said so gently, carefully tucking my hair behind my ear.
“I wanted to see you so badly that there were countless times I nearly boarded a ship to Bellus on the spot. Do you know what it cost me to hold back….”
All that restraint, utterly wasted.
At his parting remark, I snapped back to my senses and retreated, evading his touch.
“W-why are you doing this?”
“You don’t know why?”
“Of course I don’t!”
“Liar.”
Lucio scoffed softly and advanced as I retreated, closing the distance I’d created.
Then one step further.
Before I knew it, Lucio stood directly before me, his silver hair cascading over my forehead.
He whispered against my ear, his voice intimate and low.
“You already know why I’m doing this.”
“….”
“Even if you insist you don’t understand, that’s fine. Because then you’ll keep thinking of me until you figure out the answer.”
That wouldn’t be so bad, either.
His deep, velvety voice tickled the edge of my ear, and my head felt like it was spinning.
I wanted to escape this moment immediately, but I couldn’t grasp how to extricate myself from the situation.
A long trumpet fanfare sounded from below.
It was the signal announcing the start of the ball.
* * *
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor and Her Imperial Majesty the Empress make their entrance!”
“The First Imperial Princess and the Second Imperial Prince make their entrance!”
At the attendant’s sonorous announcement, Serphin’s brow furrowed involuntarily.
She composed her expression as she contemplated the nobles she would soon face, but the displeasure did not fade.
It was because of Nicholas, who had begun to be announced alongside her introduction, and who now walked beside her with unwarranted presumption.
‘A vulgar bastard, no less.’
How dare he stand as her equal—she, the legitimate daughter of the Emperor and Empress.
Her fingertips tingled with the urge to strike him across the face immediately, but Serphin barely restrained the impulse.
The occasion demanded she maintain her dignity, and besides, Nicholas’s momentum in expanding his influence of late was anything but ordinary.
She had never doubted since birth that she would become the next Emperor, yet she could not fathom how her position had come to be threatened.
Though her pride was wounded beyond measure, Serphin held her head all the higher.
“May infinite radiance shine upon the Empire!”
As all the nobles in attendance moved in unison, parting to create a path, and she walked it with confidence, her mood improved somewhat.
With rising satisfaction, Serphin smiled faintly and surveyed the bowing nobles and envoys from other kingdoms with pleasure.
Then she noticed two figures standing unusually upright.
The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Bellus Duchy.
“….”
Aside from the Emperor and Empress, there were two people who need not bow to anyone—yet knowing this, Serphin’s brow twitched slightly at the courtesy they extended to her.
Especially that pink-haired Grand Duchess, whose very appearance made her skin crawl.
‘Because of that woman.’
Nicholas and those tainted bloodlines confined to the Separate Palace dared to claim themselves imperial family, just like her.
Serphin clenched her fists so tightly that her nails bit into her palms, struggling to suppress the murderous intent that rose unbidden within her.
No matter how much she despised them, she could not touch the Belus Duchy.
The Grand Duke Bellus, a Arch Mage, the mages of the Magic Tower, and the mana stone mines….
To dismiss them as merely a small duchy would be foolish—they possessed wealth and power far too formidable for even the Empire to ignore.
Rather, precisely because they were the greatest threat, she needed to draw them closer.
Having swiftly calculated her strategy, Serphin attempted to replace her displeasure with a radiant smile.
Yet her resolve to cultivate good relations with the Belus Duchy shattered in less than ten seconds.
Serphin’s eyes blazed with sudden fury.
‘Why are those two together?’
Scanning the Banquet Hall habitually in search of Lucio, Serphin’s gaze fell upon the Grand Duchess Bellus standing beside him.
Though her pride had cracked from his rejection in the Liven Kingdom, it was precisely for this reason that Serphin desired Lucio all the more.
She had been contemplating various proposals to persuade him again upon her return.
‘I knew the bonds between the Bellus Grand Duchy and House Elrad ran deep, but….’
Unlike their families, who had gathered in the center of the Banquet Hall, the two stood apart near the entrance—as though they had been spending time alone together moments before.
Lucio, who had never before offered his arm to any woman save the Duchess Elrad and Diana, now had the Grand Duchess’s hand resting upon it.
As if they had coordinated beforehand, Lucio in his pale grey jacket embroidered with delicate silver thread and navy shirt harmonized perfectly with the Grand Duchess in her blue gown.
The nobility within the Banquet Hall, feigning indifference at the sight of the two, cast meaningful glances their way.
“Raise your heads, all of you.”
It was then that my eyes met those of the Grand Duchess, who had lifted her head at the Emperor’s command.
Watching her flinch at my cold, piercing gaze, I felt a brief surge of triumph.
“…!”
My eyes widened.
Lucio glanced between me and the Grand Duchess, then whispered something softly near her ear.
Without thinking, I gripped my dress, trembling with rage and humiliation.
Having observed him for so long, I could see it at a glance.
The Lucio Elrad now whispering tenderly to the Grand Duchess was not the cold, stubborn Duke I had always known, but merely a young man deeply, passionately in love.
* * *
When my eyes met Serphin’s, a chill raced down my spine.
Dressed in a brilliant crimson gown adorned with gold embroidery, Serphin was as beautiful as a blooming rose, yet her eyes gleamed with such murderous intent that they seemed sharp as thorns, ready to pierce skin and draw blood.
Though I knew she could pose no real threat to me, her fierce hostility made my body instinctively recoil.
“Pay her no mind.”
It was then that Lucio whispered softly near my ear.
Simultaneously, Serphin’s gaze grew even more cutting.
I stared at Lucio with exasperation.
Sensing my silent curse through my pointed look, he whispered again.
“The Bellus Grand Duchy cannot be made an enemy, so she won’t attempt anything foolish.”
Yes, I agree with you on that.
Even if the Imperial Princess were to lose her composure and try to strike me, I have no intention of simply accepting it.
‘But there’s no need to provoke her deliberately!’
Her obsession with Lucio was so intense that she’d even turned her blade on a mere maidservant, and I couldn’t begin to imagine how I must appear in Serphin’s eyes now.
It was almost laughable that I’d felt relieved simply for escaping that moment alone with Lucio on the terrace.
And Serphin wasn’t the only one weighing on my mind.
The moment I’d hurried back to the Banquet Hall at the sound of the trumpet fanfare, the nobles’ gazes had turned pointedly our way—all because I’d made my entrance alongside Lucio.
‘Especially among them….’
My family’s expressions were the most telling of all.
My Grandfather, who had made the journey back to the Capital City from the Marquis Territory, looked as though we were standing on a battlefield, his face dark with foreboding. And there was Father with his eyes wide and frozen, and Mother with her mouth agape.
‘We merely entered together, that’s all….’
Seeing my family’s shocked reactions, an indescribable embarrassment washed over me, and my face burned with heat.
‘That’s exactly why I said we should enter separately!’
Irritated by Lucio’s stubborn insistence, I shot him a glare, and he simply mouthed a casual “Why?” as if nothing were amiss.
When I glared at Lucio, who was stubbornly insisting on something for no good reason, he asked “Why?” with his lips, as if asking what the problem was.

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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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