Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 2

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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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* * *
Though I’d told Jade otherwise, the truth was that I shared an indelible bond with the Elrad Duchy—one that bordered on a curse.
If anything, it was closer to a blood feud.
Duke Elrad, known as the Blade of the Laksten Empire, had such a fearsome reputation that even a crying child would fall silent at his presence.
But I knew from experience that his notoriety wasn’t mere rumor—he was genuinely terrifying.
Even after ten years, I couldn’t forget those razor-sharp eyes and his decisions devoid of even the slightest mercy.
Remembering that time didn’t change what I had to do today, though.
“Find out who visits the Elrad Duchy tonight and what the Duke discusses with them. That’s the mission, right?”
I gazed at the massive main residence with its blue roof and white walls, the auxiliary buildings beside it, and the tall, sturdy walls enclosing everything, mentally reviewing my assignment for the evening.
My palms grew clammy, and I clenched and unclenched my fists repeatedly before exhaling sharply.
Though nervous, the thought that I’d finally earned recognition from my Master and my colleagues who’d always belittled my abilities filled me with exhilaration.
I desperately wanted to complete this mission flawlessly and prove my worth beyond doubt.
‘If I fail to earn recognition even here, my spirit will break completely….’
I didn’t want to experience being cast aside as unnecessary again.
I forcibly suppressed the deep desire that suddenly surfaced and turned my head to observe the guards.
‘The entire Lexion Knights are deployed here? What kind of guest warrants this….’
Despite having learned this information beforehand through Jade, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in wonder.
Though fewer guards and escort knights patrolled the mansion than usual, they weren’t ordinary knights—they were all the Duchy’s pride, the silver wolves, the Lexion Knights.
‘Still, I’m confident.’
Without hesitation, I pulled my mask up to cover my face.
Then I manipulated the mana within my body, concealing my presence as if dissolving into the air itself, and surrendered to the darkness.
In an instant, as though teleporting, I passed through the Duchy’s walls, crossed the vast labyrinthine garden, leaped over the silver wolf statue and grand fountain that symbolized the Elrad house, and concealed myself against the main residence.
Peering through the large arched window, the mansion was consumed by darkness.
‘Why is it so quiet?’
Compared to months ago when I’d infiltrated Diana’s birthday party as a maid, the silence was unnatural for a night with guests.
If the guards hadn’t all been Lexion Knights, I would’ve thought this was a wasted trip.
Then I saw a black carriage with no emblems approaching from the direction of the rear entrance.
Shortly after, two figures descended—both entirely concealed in jet-black robes.
Their considerable height suggested they were men, but their faces were hidden beneath the robes’ hoods.
After studying them carefully to identify the guests, I drew a sharp breath.
‘I naturally assumed a butler or attendant would greet the visitors!’
The one who opened the mansion door was Duke Elrad himself.
But there was no time to process this.
The mysterious guests, Duke Elrad, and the butler and aide following behind quickly disappeared into the mansion.
I immediately tracked their movements from outside the residence.
They moved with extreme secrecy and speed—toward the third floor of the main building where the Duke’s study was located.
‘Could they be plotting treason?’
That was my first thought.
I had a premonition I’d uncovered something massive.
As expected, upon reaching the Duke’s study, they immediately drew the curtains and checked security, but I quietly cracked open the window and peered through the curtain gap.
Just as one of the robed men was about to remove the hood covering his head.
“Who goes there.”
I felt the sharp presence of a blade from behind.
Given my natural talent for concealing my presence, I was exceptionally sensitive to the presence of others.
Yet somehow, this person had drawn within arm’s reach without my noticing.
“Reveal yourself, or I will kill you.”
At that low voice, my heart suddenly raced.
‘Surely not.’ With that thought and an absolute resolve not to be discovered, I climbed toward the roof without even turning my head.
Soon after, a whistle sounded from behind, and tremendous presences began moving simultaneously.
‘Damn it, he’s called the wolves.’
It seemed the Lexion Knights—an order boasting some of the Empire’s finest knights—had begun their pursuit.
And before the knights could even close in, I was seized by the scruff of my neck by the very person who had spotted me from the Elrad Duchy’s spire.
At the cool sensation of steel against my throat, I slowly knelt.
He stood before me, his blade drawn in a semicircle from behind.
In that moment, as if fate were playing a cruel joke, the moonlight shifted smoothly across his face.
“…!”
Dazzling silver hair and the blue eyes visible between the strands.
Before me stood someone I absolutely did not want to meet in these circumstances.
A man of breathtakingly beautiful features—Lucio Elrad, the eldest son of the Elrad Duchy.
‘Why is he here!’
Jade had clearly said that Lucio had left for the Duchy today, leaving the manor empty.
Had I known he was here, I would have prepared far more thoroughly before infiltrating.
‘Terenthium is famous for dealing only in accurate information, so it couldn’t possibly be wrong information….’
In that moment, a thought seared through my mind, and my head went white.
‘He deliberately gave me false information.’
Shock and despair drained the strength from my body.
I knew Jade hated me, but I never thought he’d push me to the brink like this.
And yet we’ve worked together for nearly eight years now….
‘This disloyal bastard!’
The faces of the executives, and then Master, flashed through my mind one by one.
All those years of struggling to earn recognition.
It was the moment I felt the thin thread of belonging snap cleanly in two.
Lucio raised his blade and swung it swiftly.
A light wind blew, and my mask—which had been precariously perched on my nose—was sliced cleanly in half, exposing my face.
“…You.”
Lucio’s blue eyes widened, then began trembling finely as if buffeted by wind.
Sensing the violent turmoil in his gaze, I was greatly taken aback.
‘Could he have recognized me?’
There was no way he could remember me—just another person with common brown hair and common brown eyes.
Besides, I had only ever watched Lucio from a distance, but he hadn’t seen me in nearly ten years.
To Lucio, I was nothing more than a beggar he’d shown a moment of pity to.
There was no way he could have recognized me.
“Why on earth are you….”
His voice trembled.
Faced with Lucio’s bewilderment for the first time, I couldn’t hide my own turmoil.
In his gaze fixed upon me, I felt the certainty that he knew who I was.
The moment that realization struck, tears threatened to spill forth uncontrollably.
Lucio was the only person who had shown me kindness during my most wretched and worthless days, teaching me what tenderness truly meant.
And I couldn’t bear for him to see me like this.
Desperately chanting a summoning incantation in my mind, a handful of powder materialized in my palm.
‘If I scatter this special powder developed by Terenthium at my opponent, it will obscure their vision and all sensations for a time—I should be able to escape in this chaos….’
Whoosh!
In that instant, my body froze before I could even scatter the powder.
Slowly lowering my gaze, I saw the blade that had pierced through me from behind.
So focused on the person before me, I’d forgotten entirely about the Lexion Knights pursuing from behind.
To those accustomed to reading mana and sensing auras, my summoning of the powder must have appeared as an attempt to strike down the young duke.
Countless miscalculations, oversights, and regrets flashed through my mind….
“Ugh.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
Blood dripped steadily between my fingers.
“Lia…!”
Even as my vision blurred, Lucio’s voice calling my name felt strangely unfamiliar.
I had never once imagined my name would ever leave his lips.
Then, with a faint crackling sound, a surge of overwhelming mana I’d never felt before shook my entire being.
And shortly after.
As the world flickered into darkness and I closed my eyes, one fact came to mind.
I had never taught Lucio my name.
* * *
How much time had passed?
I felt my heart pounding heavily, beating in rough, rapid thuds.
‘At least I didn’t die.’
Even if I might face severe torture ahead, I was satisfied simply to be alive.
For someone with no family and nothing to lose, ‘survival’ was the paramount objective.
But separate from that, the betrayal of a comrade I’d regarded as family still felt unbelievable.
I want to think it was Jade acting on his own, but who knows if that’s truly the case.
〈Do you really think people will accept you by doing things like this?〉
〈I can never be a good person to you. So don’t delude yourself no matter what anyone else says.〉
〈Remember, Lia. Never trust me.〉
Why did Master’s habitual words come to mind at this moment of all times?
He was the one who had saved and rescued me—a street beggar, dying in the rain.
And he was also the one who pushed me to my limits time and again with harsh words and grueling training I could barely endure.
Yet I never once took Master’s words at face value.
I believed everything he said was meant to make me stronger.
‘But now I’m not so sure.’
I felt a tear streak down my closed eyes, and in that moment, I was at a loss for what to do next.
‘How did I even survive this?’
I had clearly seen with my own eyes as my heart was pierced through.
Even with the best luck imaginable, could survival from such a wound even be possible?
Most of all, it was strange that the excruciating pain I felt when I was struck left no trace whatsoever.
As I hurriedly pushed myself up to assess the situation, I involuntarily frowned at the creaking metallic sound.
It was the sound I despised most in the world.
I had hated the cheap bed from the Orphanage so much as a child that the very first thing I bought after saving my wages was a plush bed….
“Gasp!”
A musty smell, torn curtains, dust rolling about, and cracked old walls with fissures running in multiple directions.
Clapping my hand over my mouth at the sight that was identical to the place I had never forgotten for a single moment, I looked down at my hands in shock.
“What, what is this!”
Seeing my thin, small hands covered in grime, I was so dumbfounded that words escaped me.
After a moment, my mouth, which had been frozen in shock for some time, finally opened.
“Did I… go back in time…?”

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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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