Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 19

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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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“Did you really think I was going to hit you? What kind of person do you take me for! You’re so scrawny and small there’s barely anywhere to hit, and you think I’d lay a hand on you!”
Allen spewed out his words in rapid succession, his irritation evident, before shooting me a look that could kill and attempting to walk past.
And I—
“Wait, what!”
I grabbed Allen, though I couldn’t fathom where the courage came from.
In truth, it wasn’t just a matter of days—the fact that a face so similar to Diana’s regarded me with such disdain had been weighing on my heart.
‘Besides, this is partly my fault too.’
I swallowed hard and spoke.
“It’s not that I thought you were going to hit me, Young Master. It’s not because of you… it’s just that when I saw your hand coming up so suddenly, I got scared.”
In my previous life too, whenever a hand rose before my eyes, my first thought was ‘I’m going to be hit!’—and my body would shrink back instinctively.
I thought I’d improved as I grew older, but returning to eight years old brought me right back to square one.
Unless I mentally prepared myself beforehand, my body moved of its own accord in sudden situations.
And speaking of such things aloud for the first time—including my previous life—made me inexplicably nervous.
‘If Allen is still angry, I feel like all my strength will drain away…’
As I lifted my head with a mixture of hope and dread, I saw Allen’s face contorted.
For a moment, my heart seemed to ache with a painful thud.
Then Allen flinched and hid his hand behind his back, saying:
“You’ve got chocolate on your mouth.”
Oh!
I quickly covered my mouth with my hand and touched the corner of my lips.
The chocolate had hardened into a crusty smudge from when I’d eaten the cookies earlier.
As embarrassment flushed my face crimson, Allen burst into laughter.
Despite my irritated glance at him, he only laughed harder, and I was just about to say something when—
“Lia?”
At the familiar voice reaching my ears, I turned to see a boy just stepping down from a carriage.
“Jack!”
Delighted, I rushed toward Jack in a single bound.
“Are you alright? You’re not in any pain now, right? Thank you for coming all this way!”
As I examined Jack’s body here and there with concern, he looked at me with a bewildered expression.
Well, Jack and I weren’t exactly close to begin with.
‘Suddenly acting friendly must seem absurd to him.’
But remembering Jack lying unconscious and collapsed, I felt I was actually showing considerable restraint.
“Is that your friend?”
Allen’s voice came from right behind me.
The sound was far closer than I expected, and I startled, my head snapping up.
Then, with a soft thud, Allen grabbed my shoulder.
“You almost fell.”
Allen clicked his tongue and immediately withdrew his hand from my body.
He clearly found touching me distasteful, and the feeling was entirely mutual!
Pouting inwardly and turning my head away, I sensed something odd.
Jack must have learned everything that happened to us while he was recovering his body.
So he came all this way to join the knight order of House Elrad.
Since he would have discovered that Diana, who was with us, is the youngest princess of House Elrad, he would have also noticed that this silver-haired boy resembling her is one of the two older brothers Diana mentioned before.
But why was he glaring at Allen with such hostility in his eyes?
Perhaps because of Jack’s gaze, Allen’s momentum was equally intense.
Two people who would become the closest of friends in the future were creating an atmosphere so harsh it was almost absurd.
‘Well, it should be fine, right?’
Surely their relationship wouldn’t change because of me.
‘Children grow up through fighting anyway.’
As I deliberately turned my head away from the murderous atmosphere, I caught sight of Taize with a darkened expression.
Seeing him standing beside the carriage, it appeared he had brought Jack here himself.
‘So it’s not just a passing connection after all.’
Shaking my head inwardly, I was just suppressing my anxiety by telling myself that Jack and Allen’s relationship would improve like it had in my previous life.
“Ha, this is ridiculous.”
Allen’s expression twisted sharply as he looked at Taize.
“You couldn’t even properly protect Diana, and now you’re thinking of clinging to House Elrad again?”
….
“No matter how safely Diana returned, if you had any conscience, you should have stepped back on your own, shouldn’t you? My teacher said that commoners are shameless beyond compare, and it seems he was absolutely right.”
Allen lashed out at Taize as sharply as if he had a blade in his mouth.
The very air around us seemed to grow cold and heavy.
As Allen turned to leave, he suddenly froze and looked at me.
Seeing his reddened face, it was clear he was truly furious enough to have forgotten my existence for a moment.
Though his words were harsh, I knew how much he cherished his younger sister Diana, and I also knew that Taize was indeed at fault, so I lowered my head.
I wasn’t foolish enough to provoke an angry person further.
Fortunately, I felt Allen walking away with heavy, thundering footsteps.
‘Hmm. I’m a bit worried about Jack.’
For some reason, their first meeting felt tangled from the start.
Well, they’ll probably work it out between themselves.
I was just about to carefully turn my head to observe Jack’s expression.
“Are you feeling wronged?”
One man left, and another appeared.
He was also a knight, built just as large as Taize.
He had come to greet Jack, but what was this situation?
Even in my previous life, Jack hadn’t walked only a path of flowers, I thought, shaking my head inwardly, when the man’s sarcastic words continued.
“But there’s nothing wrong with what he said, is there? It’s His Grace’s will, so we have no choice but to overlook it, but when you deserve to have a limb cut off, a mere few days of confinement is too lenient. There should be limits to shamelessness.”
“…Do you really think so, sir?”
“What?”
“It’s true that I failed to properly carry out my mission, but you’re not exactly blameless either, Vice-Captain.”
“You brat!”
The man who grabbed Taize by the collar bit his lip as he spoke.
“In the first place, House Elrad and the Lexion Knights are not places for commoners like you to set foot in.”
“Please stop. There are children present.”
Taize lowered his voice, conscious of our presence.
But the man only grew more displeased and began to mock us.
“This is absurd. You’re not fixing one problem; you’re creating another.”
Then he shoved Taize roughly and strode toward us.
My body instinctively stiffened, but Jack stepped in front of me.
The man pushed his finger against Jack’s forehead as he spoke.
“Don’t dream that you’ll become a knight just because you were fortunate enough to join the Lexion Knights through the Duke’s grace. You’re destined to remain a servant for the rest of your life.”
“Vice-Captain!”
Taize tried urgently to stop him, but the clear hierarchy within the knight order prevented him from actually laying hands on the man. Instead, as he moved Jack and me back to confront him, the man laughed viciously and turned away.
Displeasure and anger boiled up at his arrogant retreating figure.
Honestly, his words about commoners were duller than the cutting remarks I’d heard while living as a beggar, so they struck no real blow.
What infuriated me was not understanding why Jack had to endure such baseless contempt.
Despite his curse-like words, I knew better than anyone that Jack would one day become a knight whose name would resound across the continent.
But my anger was fleeting.
Perhaps it was the training from my years as an informant.
As I listened to the conversation between the man and Taize, I instinctively sensed that there was something between them.
* * *
“What? What did you say? Then that means you didn’t fail to protect Dana—I mean, the young lady!”
Afterward, I relentlessly pressed Taize until he revealed the secret the two of them had been hiding.
The full story of the incident was nothing short of shocking.
“How could the Vice-Captain of the Lexion Knights tell such a lie!”
Taize, who had naively stepped down from his escort duties at the Vice-Captain’s command, only realized he’d been deceived after Diana went missing.
Then, as Jack listened to the circumstances, he suddenly asked.
“Are you certain it wasn’t a mistake on your part?”
His tone suggested he was suspicious that Taize might be deflecting blame for his own error.
Not trusting the man who would become his adoptive father someday!
I clicked my tongue inwardly, but Taize spoke with a hardened expression.
“I swear it wasn’t. The Vice-Captain… well, it’s somewhat awkward to tell you children this.”
He had clearly been frustrated for a long time, and he grabbed us and began to pour out his grievances.
“I participated in wars as a mercenary, and by chance, I caught the Duke’s attention.”
More precisely, it began when Taize detected an enemy trap during a single battle.
I already knew how Taize had joined the Lexion Knights through the stories of knights who admired him, so I could imagine how deeply the Vice-Captain, who prided himself on being the Duke’s confidant, must have resented him during that process.
I was familiar with being envied and hated in such a manner.
“Joining the Lexion Knights was an incomparable opportunity for me. Becoming a knight was both my long-cherished dream and my father’s dream.”
As Taize spoke, he bit his lip repeatedly, clearly trying to hold back tears.
It was somewhat startling to see a grown man’s eyes glisten with tears, but Jack seemed deeply moved, listening intently without blinking.
“But lately, I’ve begun to question why I must continue to be a knight. I’ve even started to think that, as the Vice-Captain said, I’m not suited to be an honorable knight…”
And as I listened to Taize’s lament, I could no longer contain myself and cried out.
“Sir, are you an idiot? The one who doesn’t suit being a knight isn’t you—it’s that Vice-Captain bastard!”

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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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