Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 174

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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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“Clara, I’m on my way to decline the Emperor’s gift right now. Won’t His Majesty be displeased if I dress too extravagantly?”
Clara couldn’t counter my argument and nodded in agreement.
Just then, a messenger arrived from outside to announce that the Imperial carriage had come to collect us.
“Then I’ll see you at the Sword Tournament Arena, Diana.”
Diana gave a listless nod in response to my farewell.
Watching Diana stand motionless as Clara and I departed weighed heavily on my heart.
At that moment, I caught sight of Clara, who had boarded the carriage before me, beaming brightly as she looked back at Diana.
That expression of triumph made my stomach turn—even though I knew that bringing Clara along was the wisest choice in this situation, I found myself deeply irritated.
* * *
“Adriana, are you listening to me?”
We were not far from arriving at the Imperial Palace.
Clara, who had been speaking to me incessantly since boarding the carriage, asked in a sullen voice.
I turned from gazing out the window and nodded.
“Yes, I’m listening.”
Even to my own ears, my response sounded insincere.
Clara’s expression darkened as expected, but I paid it little mind.
I had never intended to indulge her whims from the start.
Even if I treated her well, she would only view me as a fool to manipulate, and she would surely speak ill of me behind my back—so why should I humble myself before her?
Besides, Diana’s image kept surfacing in my mind: how she had wept all night out of concern for me, how she had said she wanted to become family with me, and how her expression had grown dejected when she couldn’t accompany me to the Imperial Palace.
Meanwhile, Clara continued to grate on my nerves.
“Truly. I don’t know how Lady Elrad behaves in front of you, but toward the other young ladies, despite her tender age…”
“Yes, Clara. Diana is still young.”
I cut off Clara’s words with a sharp edge to my voice, and spoke coldly.
“Yet she’s remarkably composed and intelligent for her age. I’ve never met a child quite so endearing. Of course, as you say, her confidence might appear bold to some, but I’ve never once found it presumptuous.”
“Ah, Adriana…!”
“And regardless of age, Diana is the Empire’s only Grand Duchess. What’s the harm if she carries herself with a touch of pride? If anything, I’m more concerned about you speaking of Diana—someone of higher station than yourself—in such terms. I won’t misunderstand since you’re my cousin, but you should be more careful in front of others.”
Speaking as though I were concerned for her sake, the way Clara had always done for me, she fell silent and closed her mouth.
It seemed she hadn’t anticipated that I would take Diana’s side so openly.
Tears glistened in her eyes, looking quite aggrieved.
Yet I turned away without regard for Clara’s expression.
Had she thought that to manipulate me, she needed to first eliminate the person beside me?
The moment Clara boarded the carriage, she naturally brought up Diana, probing the depth of our connection.
And when I mentioned we had only exchanged letters for a long time, she began to disparage Diana.
Though she spoke in roundabout, elegant terms, her meaning was singular.
That Diana might prostrate herself before me as a Grand Duchess, but in truth she was arrogant, presumptuous, and spoiled—and I should keep her at a distance.
But to speak ill of Diana, of all people, right in front of me.
Honestly, had we not been arriving at the Imperial Palace soon, I would have expressed my anger far more forcefully.
Perhaps sensing my resolve, Clara, who had been silent, changed the subject.
“Rather, Adriana, are you truly going to decline the Emperor’s gift?”
What an abrupt topic change this was.
I couldn’t understand why she would say such a thing while going to such lengths to refuse the gift, so I gave her a questioning look, and Clara’s cheeks flushed red.
After a long, bashful pause, she dropped a bombshell.
“The truth is, I’m in love with Prince Nicholas.”
My eyes widened in shock.
The fact that Nicholas’s name came up here meant Clara had clearly understood the true meaning of the tiara the Emperor had given me.
But what surprised me even more was Clara’s statement itself.
“Is that really true?”
As I asked with a startled expression, Clara’s face hardened.
“Why? Are you saying someone like me shouldn’t like the Prince?”
“What? That’s not what I meant at all…”
“Then what did you mean?”
“That is…”
At Clara’s question, words momentarily escaped me.
I was inexperienced in such matters between men and women, and they say only the parties involved can truly understand such things…
Honestly, the gap between the image she showed me in childhood and who she was now was too vast for me to easily accept that Clara harbored feelings for Nicholas.
Though he had shed the stigma of being a mere prince in name, Nicholas spoke of himself as a neglected prince, a child of lowborn origins who had been scorned…
I paused. As I continued my thoughts unconsciously, I suddenly looked at Clara with realization.
“Clara, I…”
I tried to continue hastily, but the hunter who had already laid her trap spoke with a satisfied smile.
“It looks like we’ve arrived. Let’s get out, Adriana.”
* * *
At that moment, in the Imperial Palace Foreign Affairs Department.
“I never expected His Majesty would grant me the honor of a dance, even breaking precedent. So what can I do? Since His Majesty has set the stage, all I can do is show my earnest efforts.”
Nicholas set down his teacup with his characteristic light tone.
At that, Lucio’s aide Nix unconsciously swallowed hard and observed Lucio’s complexion.
His expression remained as impassive as always.
But was his inner state truly the same as usual?
Nix, who prided himself as Lucio’s closest confidant, could definitively say it was not.
Currently, Nicholas, who had visited the Foreign Ministry under the pretext of hearing the delegation’s report, was conveying to Lucio details of the ball on the first day of the Founding Festival and the Emperor’s intentions as he had come to understand them.
The atmosphere had already grown tense due to Nicholas dancing with the Grand Duke’s daughter so thoughtlessly, but to think the Emperor had actually marked the lord’s beloved as a potential imperial consort!
That alone was astounding, but at the words that followed, Nix’s eyes widened.
“Well, I’ll admit she’s pretty as His Majesty said. But she’s not my type.”
Oh, heavens. If the Grand Duke’s daughter were Nicholas’s type, that would be a problem in its own right…
It was as Nix was glancing nervously at Lucio.
“Still, I thought she’d have a personality as blunt as Askart’s, but that wasn’t the case. When I provoked her a little, she trembled so delicately—it was cuter than expected. Though watching her dance for a full hour makes her seem a bit foolish too.”
I heard her body was also weak.
Nicholas chuckled and shook his head.
At the same time, Nix’s face turned as pale as a suffocating man.
The remark he had just made was extremely dangerous.
Last night, he had received a report along with his lord that the Grand Duke’s daughter had collapsed when she visited the Duke’s Mansion, apparently from the strain of that dance.
‘Should I silence the Prince right now?’
Nix had graduated top of his class from the Academy following Lucio, earning the envy of his peers as he secured his position as Aide.
‘It’s invisible, but asking Bert—who must be somewhere in this room—to knock him unconscious would be….’
It was the moment when this talented Nix seriously contemplated assaulting a member of the Imperial Family.
“Now that I think about it, I knew the House Elrad and the Bellus Grand Duchy were close, but I had no idea you knew the Grand Duke’s daughter. I do exchange letters with Askart from time to time, but I’ve never heard anything about the Grand Duke’s daughter.”
Prince Nicholas asked with a sly smile.
“You seem quite close to Lady Elrad as well, and I hear you have quite the friendship with her too… is that true?”
It seemed he had belatedly heard that Lucio and the Grand Duke’s daughter appeared to share a special bond.
But since it was Lucio—who had shown absolutely no interest in the opposite sex until now—his expression suggested he thought it was merely a baseless rumor.
At Prince Nicholas’s probing question, Lucio set down his teacup with a soft clink.
“I’m not sure why I would need to explain that.”
“Why? Haven’t you been listening to me this whole time? The Emperor sent a tiara to the Grand Duke’s daughter yesterday.”
“And you said she would enter the palace today to refuse it.”
“But thanks to that, I’m scheduled to have lunch with her soon.”
To Prince Nicholas’s irritatingly swift counterattack, Lucio—who rarely showed his emotions—stiffened visibly.
Seeing this, Prince Nicholas gasped in surprise.
“Don’t tell me it was true?”
“….”
“Lucio! His Majesty is a persistent man. Just look at the Imperial Princesses in the Separate Palace—can’t you see? He’s already set his sights firmly on the Grand Duke’s daughter. Don’t you think it would be wise to prepare yourself now?”
“What sort of preparation are you referring to?”
“Why, making a Young Lady from a family that will serve as the cornerstone for your great future—one His Majesty would find acceptable—your Imperial Consort.”
At Prince Nicholas’s words, Lucio’s eyes grew cold.
“Your Highness shares similar thoughts regarding marriage as the First Princess. Blood truly is frightening, isn’t it.”
“…What?”
In an instant, the air froze over.
Prince Nicholas’s usually languid face turned rigid, and Nix was equally startled by Lucio’s biting remark.
“My words were harsh.”
Then, as if releasing a sigh, Lucio brushed his hair back and apologized.
At Lucio’s swift apology, both Nix and Prince Nicholas finally relaxed their tension and exhaled.
“…I understand what you’re saying, but isn’t lumping me together with Serphin a bit much?”
Prince Nicholas had also heard that Serphin had proposed to Lucio in the Liven Kingdom.
Recalling this and letting the matter pass with a joke, the atmosphere softened once more.
But it was short-lived. Lucio picked up the teacup he had set down and spoke.
“I’m not sure why you insist, but choose your consort as you see fit.”
“Ahem, ahem.”
“And.”
Lucio, who had been gazing intently into his teacup, lifted his eyes to meet Prince Nicholas’s gaze.
As Prince Nicholas unconsciously swallowed, words came forth like a declaration, as if Lucio knew all his innermost thoughts.
“If you truly wish to make me yours, do not lay a hand on my person.”

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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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