Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 209

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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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In that instant, the man’s lips twisted into a snarl.
Boom, boom, boom!
A barrage of attack magic far more powerful than before crashed down upon Lucio.
The shockwave alone was enough to rattle the tightly sealed windows with deafening clamor and shake the very ground beneath them.
Lucio narrowly evaded the onslaught with animal-like reflexes, but his limits were being tested.
Each time the devastating magic struck, the protective enchantment that countered it was similarly depleted.
When the protective magic enveloping his entire body finally exhausted its effect, Lucio gasped and doubled over.
Beneath his neck, he tasted iron.
Yet the man seemed far from satisfied, his gaze upon Lucio turning glacial.
Without the protective magic, his life would have ended long ago.
Of course, he could not violate the contract, so he had intended merely to shatter the protective enchantment, but seeing not even a scratch left behind twisted his mood into something darker.
“How very touching, Lia.”
At the familiar name spoken from the stranger’s lips, Lucio’s head snapped up despite his groans.
Yet Lucio could not resist.
Black mana flowing from the man’s hand transformed in an instant into sharp, claw-like chains that coiled tightly around Lucio’s wrists and ankles.
Blood dripped from Lucio as the chains bit into his flesh, and he collapsed to his knees.
A soft clink, then a rolling sound.
Something fell from Lucio’s garments as he bent forward, clattering across the floor.
Lucio reached out desperately, but the pain only intensified, and he could not grasp it.
The man’s eyes descended slowly to the small glass vial filled with rosy liquid that had come to rest at his feet, watching it shimmer.
He knew precisely what lay within that vial.
He understood the depth of affection and care poured into this small bottle.
Because once, there had been someone who shyly pressed such a thing into his own hands.
In that moment, with a sharp crack, the glass vial shattered beneath the man’s foot.
He could not bring himself to destroy what she had given him, but he showed no mercy toward what she had given another man.
Through the haze of pain clouding Lucio’s vision, he saw Serphin drawing near.
She trampled across the floor stained with glass shards and blood, her hand slowly caressing Lucio’s pallid cheek.
“Do not touch me,” Lucio managed to say through gritted teeth.
Yet at the anguish in his voice, Serphin’s expression bloomed with delight.
Her usual aloof and indifferent demeanor was beautiful, but this helpless state held a different allure entirely.
She gazed upon Lucio, now reduced to little more than a bleeding mass of flesh, her expression feigning sorrow.
“Why did you choose her over me? When I love you so desperately….”
So much that I would sell my very soul to a demon.
“The moment I saw you kiss the Crown Princess, I could not contain myself.”
Serphin spoke with resentment, recalling the scene she had witnessed days ago when she had gone to the Foreign Ministry to meet Lucio.
And the instant her words ended, the man’s movements ceased.
At the man’s sudden shift from his usual composure, Serphin tilted her head and asked.
“Is something wrong?”
The man did not answer, instead fixing his gaze upon Lucio.
His lips curled upward as though regarding some contemptible creature.
“So the slayer of my Demon Beasts has finally laid hands on what is mine…”
In that instant, the teacup on the table passed into the man’s hands.
“Then I suppose I should return the favor.”
He seized Lucio’s jaw with brutal force, wrenching his mouth open.
“Prove to me that girl is worth such devotion.”
As the liquid forced down his throat burned past his resistance, Lucio felt as though he were plummeting from a cliff—his ears ringing, his vision blurring into obscurity.
〈I love you too.〉
〈Perhaps far more than you imagine, and for far longer than you know.〉
Lia’s voice drifted to him like a distant dream.
When he opened his eyes, he seemed to see Lia smiling shyly before him.
Yet Lucio could only stare blankly before collapsing entirely.
Her sweet gaze, the gentle curve of her eyes and lips—all of it swirled like a vortex, consuming everything until darkness claimed him.
Moments later.
His vision, shrouded in blackness, began to return in fragments.
As the haze lifted and clarity returned, Lucio’s eyes fell upon Serphin, her face radiant with unbridled joy, smiling brilliantly down at him.
The chains of black mana that had bound him were gone entirely.
Drenched in blood, he knelt before her as though impervious to pain, one knee touching the ground, his head bowed.
Serphin gazed down at Lucio, who had knelt respectfully before her, her eyes gleaming with exultation as she slowly extended her hand.
Lucio pressed his forehead to the back of her hand and whispered softly.
“Your Imperial Highness, I am yours.”
* * *
“This won’t do. I must go myself.”
I spoke, pacing anxiously through the lobby of the Duke’s Mansion.
The Duchess and Allen exchanged bewildered glances.
“Is there really any need…? Father went himself, so surely nothing is amiss…?”
Allen spoke hesitantly, his formal speech awkward ever since learning of my engagement to Lucio.
But I had no composure left to smile at his discomfort.
Hours earlier, Nix, Lucio’s Aide, had arrived at the Duke’s Mansion in urgent haste.
Lucio had gone to the Princess Palace after being summoned by Serphin during the day, and no matter how long we waited, he did not return.
The Duchess and Allen seemed puzzled by Nix’s behavior—after all, Lucio was hardly a child, and it was unusual for him to report such matters directly to the estate.
But I, the Duke, and Diana—who had long sensed an ominous aura from Serphin—all went rigid the moment the word “Imperial Princess” was spoken.
It had already been two hours since the Duke departed for the Imperial Palace.
And an hour had passed since the scheduled evening meal.
Tonight, we were finally to gather as both families and conduct our formal meeting, setting the engagement date.
Unless something extraordinary had occurred, there was no reason Lucio would be late to such a promise.
‘Serphin, what have you done?’
I clenched my fists, hiding my trembling hands.
Fearing the Imperial Princess might harbor such extreme thoughts as ‘if I cannot have him, no one shall,’ I had hastily prepared an antidote to Splecia.
I knew of Lucio’s strength, and I had layered protective magic upon him as well.
Yet my heart remained consumed with dread.
〈Crown Princess Bellus, in truth, the reason I rushed here so hastily was because of Bert. He said that though he followed my lord toward the Princess Palace, no matter what he tried, he couldn’t enter inside. As if there were some sort of barrier in place.〉
The words Nix had whispered to me alone came flooding back.
Bert’s stealth technique—the way he dissolved into the air itself, concealing his presence—was comparable to that of a first-class operative of Terenthium, and a door that even such a skilled individual couldn’t breach meant….
I bit my lip in regret.
‘I should have gone with him after all.’
Last night, Nix had said that if the Emperor fell ill, it was uncertain whether he would grant my usual request for an audience.
It seemed he believed the Emperor’s illness stemmed from my rejection of the marriage proposal he had suggested.
But I suspected it was far more likely caused by shock at the destruction of the demon artifact.
I was on the verge of sending a messenger to the Imperial Palace in haste, even prepared to sneak in if the Emperor refused permission.
“Sister, look over there!”
Diana cried out urgently.
Turning my head, I saw the House Elrad carriage passing through the main gate.
Thinking that Duke Elrad must have brought Lucio with him, I ran forward with my skirts billowing behind me.
Just then, the carriage door opened and Duke Elrad’s curt voice rang out.
“Bring a stretcher.”
“!”
I suddenly felt my breath catch, and I froze in place.
“Lucio!”
“Brother!”
Even as the startled Duchess Elrad and Allen rushed past me, I couldn’t move.
I didn’t want to believe that the metallic scent of blood assaulting my nostrils was coming from him.
“…!”
But I saw it nonetheless—Lucio being carried on the stretcher, his clothes completely drenched in blood as he was taken to his room.
My lips trembled, and my mind grew hazy.
In that instant, I instinctively moved to follow him.
“Um, sister.”
Turning at the touch of a hand grasping my skirt, I saw Diana’s face drained of all color.
The moment I saw the child’s frightened expression, reason returned to me.
“It’s alright, Diana.”
I forced my lips upward in a smile to reassure her, though they barely obeyed.
“It will be alright, truly….”
Lucio would be alright.
He had to be.
* * *
I gazed down at Lucio lying in bed with worried eyes.
Though he had already been changed into clean clothes and looked far better than when I’d first seen him, the bleeding had been so severe that his complexion was deathly pale and his lips were cracked.
Seeing him so haggard and emaciated overnight, tears threatened to spill from my eyes unbidden.
‘After I’d just comforted Diana, and here I am being foolish….’
Just moments ago, I had entered Lucio’s room with determination, but the instant my eyes confirmed the wounds covering his body, I burst into tears.
The attack had been powerful enough to shatter even my protective magic, leaving countless severe wounds across his entire body, but his wrists and ankles in particular….
The sight of him bound by something sharp made it painfully clear that he had been treated worse than a beast.
The only mercy was that none of the wounds threatened his life, and I had quickly cast healing magic the moment I regained my senses.
Yet even as the physical injuries faded, the sight of him lying unconscious pierced my heart.
I exhaled softly and carefully arranged his disheveled silver hair, which shimmered like jewels as it caught the moonlight.
Doing this now made it feel as though a thought I’d once had while watching Lucio sleep in the library had become reality.
Of course, remembering the foolish display he showed immediately after, it wasn’t exactly a cherished memory….
“!”
Then, my wrist was suddenly seized, and my vision spun without time to resist.
The moment my back touched something soft, a cold voice fell from above my head.
“Who are you?”

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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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