Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 203

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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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“First, no matter how exceptional Crown Princess Bellus’s abilities may be, I fail to understand why she should sacrifice herself for the Empire’s public sentiment or continental peace. Does she have any obligation or responsibility to do so? Moreover, arranging a marriage without even asking for her consent makes even less sense.”
“W-what did you just say?”
The Emperor’s face went blank for a moment before he jumped to his feet with a shout.
“Are you in your right mind?”
“Of course I am, Your Majesty.”
“How dare you speak to me like—!”
The Emperor’s expression turned incredulous.
At the same time, the Grand Duchess’s shoulders, which had risen with tension, sagged.
The Emperor had posed his question with such confidence that I found myself tensing involuntarily.
But the man who had wanted to unite Lia with his son so badly that he’d even sent the family heirloom could hardly back down now.
“And.”
At that moment, a cold smile played across Duke Elrad’s lips—lips that always remained perfectly composed before the Emperor.
Just as the Emperor was about to call him out, sensing something ominous, Duke Elrad spoke first.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, but Crown Princess Bellus is my daughter-in-law.”
* * *
“….”
“….”
“….”
A silence so profound it seemed you could hear a pin drop descended upon the already quiet banquet hall.
“Ah.”
Duke Elrad swept his gaze across the shocked assembly before offering an apologetic smile and lowering his head slightly.
“I misspoke.”
“Y-yes, of course you wouldn’t—”
“She is still my future daughter-in-law, but I consider her family in my heart, so the words simply slipped out.”
Duke Elrad shrugged with practiced nonchalance.
The Emperor stared at Duke Elrad blankly for a moment, rendered speechless.
“You—you!”
“What audacity, spouting such nonsense!”
The Grand Duchess and the Previous Marquis began pointing accusingly at Duke Elrad, their voices rising indignantly.
“Daughter-in-law? Mind your tongue!”
Even the usually composed Grand Duke raised his voice, leaving the Emperor no room to interject as he prepared to express his own anger.
“This is outrageous! She’s barely come of age! No, wait—she hasn’t even spent ten years with her parents, so she’s not even ten years old yet!”
Particularly shaken by the Emperor and Duke Elrad’s successive attempts to claim his daughter, the Grand Duke began revising Lia’s age downward to under ten.
The problem was that the Grand Duchess and the Previous Marquis vigorously agreed with him.
“Exactly! You spoke well! Our Adriana is only nine years old!”
“That’s right. Marriage at such a tender age makes no sense whatsoever.”
The Grand Duchess shot a pointed look at Duke Elrad as she spoke.
In truth, during the finals, the Grand Duchess had witnessed Lucio rushing toward Lia the moment the Demon Beast appeared.
Convinced that Lucio would prioritize and protect Lia in any circumstance, the Grand Duchess had decided to overlook the age difference.
Though she found it presumptuous that he had coaxed her innocent daughter and even kissed her, seeing that Lia’s heart had inclined toward him, she had inwardly permitted them to court formally.
‘Marriage out of the blue?’
The Grand Duchess let out a scoff of disbelief.
Due to the Emperor’s courtship that bordered on stalking, the only man in her life besides family was Duke Elrad, who was no different from a brother.
Fortunately, she had met a virtuous and affectionate husband by fate and fallen in love at first sight, but….
Still, her honest wish was for her only daughter to experience love freely.
There were several decent young men around, and she had been keeping an eye on the noble heirs of the Duchy with the thought of keeping her daughter close.
Yet here was the Duke, driving a nail into the matter before the Emperor and trying to steal away her daughter in marriage.
“Ha! Where does he get off trying to obstruct our daughter’s marriage?”
At that moment, as if anticipating the heated response from the banquet hall, Duke Elrad, who had remained composed throughout, heard the Grand Duchess’s murmur and lifted one corner of his mouth.
“Obstruct the marriage? Wasn’t the Crown Princess’s betrothal already decided long ago?”
“What are you talking about….”
“How disappointing, Stella. Have you completely forgotten the promise we made so long ago?”
The moment Duke Elrad finished speaking, the Grand Duchess’s expression hardened.
Unease washed over her face.
“Surely not….”
And just then, the Duke produced a small envelope from his pocket and handed it to the Grand Duchess.
Taking it hesitantly, the Grand Duchess hurriedly checked its contents.
Her hands began to tremble, and soon a voice of shock burst forth.
“You actually found it? I was certain I hid it securely—how on earth did you…!”
She had said “surely not,” but he had actually brought the covenant she had written as a child!
Unable to hide his delight at the Grand Duchess’s astonished expression, the Duke burst into laughter.
In truth, after Lia departed for the Duchy, the Duke had searched the Library thoroughly to find this covenant for some future occasion, but ultimately failed.
Yet unexpectedly, Lucio had handed it to him last night.
Judging by its condition, it appeared he had found it long ago and preserved it carefully.
Unable to hide his pride in his son’s meticulousness, the Emperor asked urgently.
“Duke, what exactly is that?”
“A covenant, Your Majesty.”
“A covenant?”
“Yes. The Grand Duchess and I wrote it long ago, promising that if we each had children, we would betroth them to one another.”
Duke Elrad declared this with complete confidence.
“This is just childish nonsense! It’s void!”
Fearing her nose would truly be pinched, the Grand Duchess cried out urgently and tried to tear the covenant.
But no matter how much force she applied, the aged and brittle paper would not tear.
Seeing this, the Duke shook his head and spoke.
“How cowardly, Stella. I saw your true nature from three days after I taught you the sword, when you asked for a sparring match.”
“No, why won’t it tear? What did you do to it!”
“Why don’t you ask the Grand Duke about that?”
At that, the Grand Duchess faltered and looked at her husband.
The Grand Duke’s face had turned ashen, having fallen silent ever since the Duke produced the envelope.
“Your Grace, surely you didn’t cast a preservation spell on it?”
The Grand Duchess, who grasped the situation in an instant, pressed for details, and the Grand Duke nodded with a look of despair.
“Yes. Duke Elrad came to me urgently last night and asked for my help….”
“How could you cast a spell without even checking what it was! Didn’t I tell you not to trust people so easily! People like you are always falling for scams!”
“But it is Duke Elrad we’re speaking of.”
They had been on friendly terms even before finding their daughter, but after discovering her, they had become closer than ever—the kind of closeness where one would roll up their sleeves and help with anything asked.
“Undo the spell at once….”
“That’s impossible.”
Duke Elrad immediately snatched up the oath and carefully placed it in an envelope, sealing it away as if to make a show of it.
The Emperor stared blankly at the entire sequence of events.
At this point, his expression suggested he couldn’t tell whether this situation was reality or fantasy.
Duke Elrad, observing the Emperor, smirked with one corner of his mouth raised.
That was when it happened.
“No, my daughter!”
The Grand Duchess suddenly cried out and lunged toward Duke Elrad, but let out a strangled sound and collapsed, clutching her neck.
The Grand Duke and the Previous Marquis hastily rushed to support the Grand Duchess, and as the Emperor, his face drained of color, called for the Imperial physicians, the Imperial banquet came to an end like a scene from a play.
* * *
“Sister, aren’t you hungry?”
“Perhaps the food isn’t to your taste? We prepared the things you used to enjoy as a child.”
Diana, seated beside me, and the Duchess Elrad, across from me, asked in succession.
I, who had been lost in thought with half my mind elsewhere, startled and apologized for my rudeness.
And I spoke to the two of them, whose expressions were filled with concern.
“The truth is, I’m worried about what’s happening at the Imperial Palace.”
Lucio had told me that at today’s banquet, the Emperor would surely insist on pairing me with Nicholas.
When I confessed this to the Duchess Elrad and Diana, who had learned that I had become Lucio’s lover, Diana wrinkled her nose as if to say I was worrying needlessly.
“Sister, it will be fine. The Grand Duke isn’t the type, and Princess Bi certainly isn’t someone so easily swayed! Of course, the Previous Marquis is the same.”
“Mm.”
That’s precisely why I’m worried—that my parents and grandfather might overturn the banquet hall.
“And our father is there too!”
At Diana’s confident words, I too eventually laughed and nodded.
Now that the demon artifact no longer existed, Duke Elrad would not be swayed by the Emperor.
If anything happened to my family, it would be entirely the Emperor’s fault, and Duke Elrad would be a great source of strength in that process.
I picked up my fork again, trusting that Duke Elrad would never do anything to perplex our family.
Before me lay an abundance of food that the Duchess Elrad and Diana had pushed toward me.
‘I’d be full just tasting each of these one by one.’
Thinking of the people of House Elrad, who were always trying to feed me this and that, whether then or now, I felt full before I’d even taken a bite.
“Actually, I’m more worried about my older brother than the Imperial Palace. What if he angers the Crown Prince and ends up being disliked?”
At Diana’s words, I thought of Lucio, who would be with Askart by now.
“Come to think of it, all the gifts Lucio’s sent me so far seem like bribes! He was trying to look good as my older brother. That bastard Lucio. How did you know that what I like most is you!”
Askart confessed that he and Lucio had been exchanging letters all this time, and he’d been chattering away about me in detail.
And when Lucio seemed to have used him, he grew indignant and made plans to meet with Lucio separately instead of dining together at the Duke’s Estate today.
I kept my mouth firmly shut, knowing that if he discovered these weren’t bribes at all but gifts he’d anticipated I would receive, it would truly cause a catastrophe. Still, seeing Askart so furious for the first time left me genuinely worried.
Yet Lucio’s reassuring words kept echoing in my mind as he soothed my concerns.
〈It’s fine. If you just tell him you’re so beautiful and adorable that he had no choice but to fall in love with you, Askart will immediately agree.〉
‘He truly has no sense of shame….’
I was astounded by Lucio’s shameless audacity in saying such things without the slightest hesitation.
But I had to admit—Askart would absolutely fall for Lucio’s silver tongue and enthusiastically agree, “That’s right! Falling in love with Lia is simply inevitable!”

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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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