Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 179

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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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“Adriana?”
“I need to use the restroom for a moment.”
I scrambled to my feet in a daze.
My parents looked utterly bewildered as I abandoned my seat the very instant my friend—whom I’d been so proud of—claimed victory.
But I had no choice.
My heart thundered wildly at the roaring cheers and thunderous applause that filled the Tournament Grounds.
Was this what it felt like to be struck in the back of the head by a massive iron club?
I was well aware that my life had been woven from tragedy.
Yet I found myself laughing hollowly at how profoundly this shock had shaken me.
Just moments ago, seeing Master unexpectedly had already robbed me of my composure.
〈Lia, are you happy in this life?〉
Though I’d only glimpsed the movement of his distant lips, his words resonated in my ears as vividly as if he’d whispered them directly against my skin.
I had long suspected that Master might be a demon, yet I had never truly confirmed it—or rather, I had refused to.
I kept denying it, again and again.
But the moment he mentioned my new life, something only Raezl knew of, I could no longer deny the truth.
‘How did he know? Is it truly connected to my return?’
Then why had he left me alone until now?
What reason did he have to appear now?
My mind spiraled into chaos in an instant.
I tried desperately to regain my composure, but it was impossible.
Though I felt guilty toward Jack, I could barely focus on the match.
As I watched the tournament with half my mind elsewhere, an uncanny sense of déjà vu suddenly engulfed me.
Each time Jack’s silver blade cut sharply through the air, it felt as though something razor-sharp was piercing through my very chest.
And then, the moment Jack launched his final attack.
“…!”
My eyes snapped shut of their own accord.
My entire body trembled as if seized by a chill, and an overwhelming terror painted my vision black.
The fear of death—something I’d forgotten.
‘Jack… it was you.’
I could sense it instinctively.
Or perhaps I had been subconsciously intuiting it all along.
One of them—Jack or Allen—might have been the one who killed me.
But I had tried to bury the past, treating it as merely history.
I had refused to let my thoughts drift in that direction at all.
After all, my death—whether it was Jade’s scheme, Master’s design, or something else entirely—stemmed from my infiltration into House Elrad in the first place.
‘That’s why I really didn’t want to know….’
As I slowly opened my eyes, Jack, who had decided the match, was extending his hand to his opponent.
Amid the crowd’s roaring chants of “Jack Seidian,” a voice suddenly pierced through my ears.
‘Yes, that’s how it was.’
Jack, too, had an epithet by which people called him—much like Allen, who was known as the “Guardian of Justice.”
Whether I had unconsciously avoided recalling it or had simply forgotten it entirely, I could not say.
A glorious title he had earned after laying waste to his enemies during war.
‘…The Iron-Blooded Arbiter.’
The moment that name surfaced in my mind, I could no longer remain still.
Seized by the thought that I had to leave this place, I turned away from my parents and slipped out of the Tournament Grounds, desperately trying to compose myself.
‘It was for the mission, but it was I who infiltrated the Duke’s Estate in secret.’
Moreover, I had been about to use a powder of unknown composition—circumstances more than sufficient to be misunderstood as an attack on the Young Lord.
And Lucio, unlike his usual self, had let his guard down completely, which would have made him appear all the more vulnerable.
‘Of course, I wish it had ended with mere restraint or intimidation….’
Yes, if only it had been that way.
‘If Jack had not killed me….’
I stopped walking and shook my head.
‘I mustn’t harbor resentment. It was all my fault.’
I harbored no desire to blame Jack.
Yet the fact that I had unknowingly ascended to Jack’s judgment seat and met my death was something I could not accept.
Then I felt a burning gaze settle near my cheek.
As I slowly turned my trembling body, my eyes met Jack’s directly.
His gray hair, now that his helmet was removed, fluttered in the breeze.
Pleased by his victory, his usually stern eyes curved upward in a gentle smile.
I wanted to wave back at the bright smile playing at his lips, but my body would not obey.
Just as I, unable to overcome my desolate heart, was lowering my head—
“Shrieeeeeek!”
A bizarre cry unlike anything I had ever heard pierced the air with deafening force.
Startled, I lifted my head to find dark clouds gathering across the clear sky, the world plunging into darkness in an instant, and a terrible tremor emanating from the earth.
The sound alone set every nerve on edge, and a noise that stirred primal fear from deep within my chest reverberated ceaselessly in my ears.
The spectators, and even the Emperor who had come to the railing to present the victor’s laurel, all froze, their breath caught.
That was when it happened.
“Wh-what is that…!”
Someone pointed at the sky and cried out, and all eyes turned in unison toward a single point.
I too turned my head—and went rigid.
As if a rift had opened in the heavens themselves, a monstrosity was bursting forth from the void.
Blood-red eyes gleaming with an eerie light.
Thick legs and razor-sharp claws.
The moment I beheld that colossal, oppressive form, I recognized its nature at once.
Servants of the demon that, in ancient times, had claimed countless lives.
“A-a demon beast!”
As if it had leaped from the murals of the Temple itself, others too seemed to grasp the creature’s identity and cried out in horror.
“Kyaaaah!”
In an instant, the Tournament Grounds transformed from a festive celebration into absolute chaos.
Hundreds of demons suddenly erupted from the void, their forms blotting out the sky in a writhing mass of darkness.
In that instant, the face of Master—whom I had encountered moments before—flashed through my mind.
‘Could it be that he appeared now because of this…?’
“Kieeeek!”
Frozen in place by the suffocating dread that seized me, the world suddenly inverted with a bone-chilling screech.
Someone rushing from behind wrapped their arms around me protectively and rolled us both across the ground.
In that firm embrace, I caught the familiar scent of mint.
Simultaneously, my mind—heavy as waterlogged cotton—began to clear and sharpen.
“Are you alright?”
Lucio fixed me with a grave expression.
I nodded reflexively, then turned my head.
The spot where I had been standing moments before was completely obliterated by the demons.
The sight jolted me fully awake.
I quickly surveyed my surroundings.
People scattered in panic, fleeing desperately from the sudden onslaught of demons.
Amid the chaos, Father maintained a massive protective barrier while Duke Elrad and Allen fought the creatures with drawn blades.
I felt a measure of relief seeing Mother, Duchess Elrad, Diana, and Grandfather all unharmed, but the situation remained dire.
The knights stationed at the Tournament Grounds attempted to fight rather than flee, yet their attacks dealt no damage to the demons whatsoever.
It was inevitable. Demons could not be harmed by mere physical attacks—swords and arrows alone were useless.
‘Unless the attack was based on mana—aura or magical power…’
“Kyaaaagh!”
In that moment, I heard a demon cry out in agony.
Turning, I saw a brilliant aura radiating from Jack’s blade, piercing straight through a demon’s body.
Witnessing the creature writhe in pain for the first time, the knights who knew how to channel aura infused their weapons with mana without hesitation, and the mages and sword mages from Bellus in the spectator stands began their assault as well.
Father maintained his barrier with one hand while drawing intricate magical circles with the other.
The white frost blooming from his fingertips indicated he was preparing ice magic.
Yet there was insufficient time to withstand the relentless barrage of demons pouring endlessly from the void.
The scene—with screams echoing, people stumbling and falling as they fled for their lives—resembled a painting of hell itself.
I rose to my feet quickly, glaring at the ferocious creatures.
The successive shocks of reality were devastating, but this was no time to stand paralyzed.
“Lia!”
At that moment, Lucio, who had been shielding me from the fleeing crowd, seized my arm with urgent intensity.
A sword had appeared in his hand—I wasn’t sure when he’d acquired it.
Clever as he was, he surely understood that attacks without aura were meaningless, yet the dire circumstances seemed to have prompted him to reveal the strength he’d been concealing.
‘In the past, he kept it hidden until the very end…’
As guilt—faint though it was—kindled within me, I didn’t hesitate. I raised my hand high and cried out.
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“Everyone, get down!”
From the pandemonium that had become a living hell, a thin yet irresistible voice rang out with absolute authority.
Those gripped by terror obeyed as if enchanted, immediately lowering their heads and prostrating themselves upon the ground.
A piercing shriek tore through the air—crash, crash, crash!
The ground trembled violently beneath us, and a horrifying sound erupted, revealing a sight that defied belief.
“F-fire!”
Had the end truly come to this land?
As if the demons erupting from thin air weren’t enough, colossal fireballs began raining down from the heavens.
The inferno swept across the Tournament Grounds and beyond, threatening to consume the entire world with its overwhelming fury.
My body went rigid, seized by primal terror.
Yet, astonishingly, the flames scorched nothing on this earth—they converged with surgical precision upon the demons alone.
The creatures shrieked in agony, shaking the very foundations of the world, before crumbling like sandcastles before a wave. In moments, they ignited entirely, their forms reduced to unrecognizable ash.
As the dumbfounded spectators watched, thick black smoke billowed across their vision.
Then, moments later.
As the smoke cleared, where countless demons had stood, only a handful of ashes remained.
Those who had watched this impossible spectacle with vacant expressions instinctively turned their heads in unison, their eyes fixing upon a single figure.
A woman with pale pink hair, her hand stretched toward the sky as if to seal the very breach from which the demons had poured forth.

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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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