Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 215
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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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Lucio traced the source of the sound and resumed walking.
Moments later, he came to a halt before a particular room.
‘This room should certainly be empty….’
With eyes narrowed, I thought as much, yet somehow I sensed I knew who the occupant of this room was.
Of course, understanding did not come easily.
The Main Building of Elrad Duke’s Mansion was, by nature, a place permitted only to the direct bloodline of House Elrad.
‘Yet here was the Adjacent Room of Diana, a duke’s daughter no less.’
Even if she were my fiancée, it would have been proper to offer her a guest room in the Annex Building.
Moreover, considering that the Diapel Marquis Estate—her maternal family home—stood directly across from the Duke’s Mansion, it made even less sense.
Lucio, suspecting the reason lay in some memory he could not recall, felt an inexplicable sense of frustration—whether from the muffled sobs seeping through the door crack or from his own unsettled mind—and knocked.
Knock, knock.
At the neat sound of the knock, the weeping ceased abruptly.
The movement that had likewise stopped resumed with frantic energy, and soon a voice emerged, hastily composed.
“W-who…?”
“….”
Come to think of it, I had only seen Lia for the first time last night, and heard only a few words from her.
Yet strangely, the moment I heard her voice trembling with tears, I recognized her at once.
The person I had suspected to be the room’s occupant was indeed her.
In the interim, the door opened slightly.
“Diana…?”
Though she had wiped away her tears, the Crown Princess Bellus could not conceal her reddened eyes as she peeked her face through the opening.
Upon seeing me standing before the door, she appeared startled, her eyelids fluttering visibly.
Lucio regarded Lia in silence.
I had expected her to be angry—not only had I failed to remember her and treated her coldly, but I had also shown myself in the company of the Imperial Princess.
Indeed, had she not expressed her displeasure by sending forth a gale strong enough to destroy an umbrella?
But if she were seething with rage, I would have understood; I had not anticipated finding her weeping in such a forlorn state.
Now that I reflected upon it, though I had tried to ignore it, I had witnessed her expression gradually crumble from the moment she arrived at the Duke’s Mansion.
Recalling this, I felt my own cold reason beginning to crumble alongside it.
“Crown Princess Bellus….”
The moment I opened my mouth with the sudden thought that I should apologize, Lia’s expression immediately grew sorrowful.
The title I had used seemed to wound her deeply; her large eyes glistened anew, and the corners of her mouth drooped downward.
Watching her, I felt both pity and something strangely….
Lucio quickly bit the inside of his mouth discreetly.
Here was this person before me, distressed and at a loss, and yet I found myself wanting to laugh.
This transcended mere rudeness—it was a flaw of character.
And yet why was her whimpering so endearing….
It was at this moment that Lucio shamelessly concluded that the Crown Princess Bellus bore some responsibility for this as well.
“Why have you come? What of the Imperial Princess?”
Lia, pouting her lips, asked in a petulant voice.
“The Imperial Princess has returned to the Palace.”
“…I heard you were going out for dinner together.”
At Lia’s response, Lucio raised an eyebrow slightly.
How on earth had the Crown Princess found out about that?
It was Nix, his aide, who had carried out the instruction to make a restaurant reservation.
His family had warned Nix several times not to make mistakes with the Crown Princess, and it seemed all of his close associates were favorable toward her as well.
Still, Lucio decided he would need to reprimand whoever had carelessly disclosed the schedule, and he changed the subject.
“Was it you, Crown Princess, who did what happened in the back garden just now?”
“Is that why you came? Are you angry because I chased after you and got in the way?”
Her voice trembled uncertainly, tinged with the sound of tears.
‘That wasn’t what I was trying to do….’
If anything, he had intended to warn her not to unnecessarily provoke the Imperial Princess.
Though I didn’t know the Crown Princess’s exact capabilities, I thought it best to be cautious since the Imperial Princess, now a Demon Worshipper, could potentially cause harm through corrupted sorcery.
Because of that possibility, I had deliberately been cold and distant, yet she had fearlessly chased me all the way to the back garden.
‘It was fortunate the Imperial Princess was distracted elsewhere, or else….’
Lucio suddenly felt his mouth go dry with anxiety.
“Crown Princess, from now on, please don’t do anything dangerous….”
“You terrible person!”
The moment he hastily opened his mouth, Lia burst forth with all the anguish she had been holding back.
I had only created a gust of wind to prevent the kiss, not to harm the Imperial Princess.
Yet he called it dangerous!
Lia glared at Lucio, her shoulders trembling.
“Did I say I wanted this first? You seduced me into it!”
“What?”
In that moment, bewilderment rippled across Lucio’s beautiful face like a disturbance on water.
“What do you mean…? And why are you suddenly speaking informally…?”
“When you said you loved me, that you couldn’t imagine a life without me—when was that?!”
Lia cried out loudly, pressing her lips firmly together to hold back her tears.
She hastily tilted her head back and glared at the ceiling.
But the indignation and sorrow would not fade.
She was hurt not only by Lucio coming to be angry with her on Serphin’s behalf, but seeing his current attitude….
“You did it, didn’t you?!”
Lia cried out sharply, unable to bear the thought that Lucio and Serphin had kissed just as he and she had.
At last, hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
Lucio, who had been frozen in momentary speechlessness, felt his heart tear apart at the sight of tears glistening and falling from her small face.
Confused by emotions beyond my control, Lia bit her lower lip and glared at Lucio, unable to contain her sorrow.
At the same time, Lucio bit the tender flesh inside his own mouth.
Even amid the ache in my heart, the way she glared at me was so adorable that I felt as though I might die.
Then, as Lia sniffled, Lucio instinctively rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a handkerchief.
“Your nose….”
“You said you only wanted to be loved by me, you liar!”
And so, as Lucio naturally moved to wipe Lia’s nose, he froze.
‘She wanted to be found pretty…?’
He could scarcely believe he had uttered such words—and to the Crown Princess, who was so impossibly young. Yet she could not possibly be lying.
Lucio’s ears flushed crimson in an instant.
He had thought himself out of his mind when he spoke to Serphin, but he now realized that was a grave miscalculation.
He was perfectly capable of saying far worse things while in full command of his faculties.
“How… how could I…?”
What drew Lucio’s consciousness back from the abyss was a voice equally shaken with shock.
“Even if you weren’t in your right mind, that’s too much!”
Lia, her face flushed crimson as she huffed indignantly, glared at the silent Lucio with resentment before crying out as if to provoke him.
“I’ll repay you! With a man far superior to the Imperial Princess!”
At those words, Lucio’s expression, which he had been struggling to compose, hardened like stone.
“I’ll do it right in front of you! Kiss a young, handsome, wealthy man…”
“No.”
The word came out rough and grinding, as though he were gnashing his teeth.
When Lia hesitated and looked up at him, Lucio dragged a hand across his face before speaking.
“That is not acceptable.”
“…Why?”
Lucio did not even register the defeated tone in Lia’s voice as he clamped his mouth shut.
His mind overflowed with logical reasons to dissuade the Crown Princess.
That no matter how wounded one’s heart, a kiss should not be used as a means of venting anger; that despite his lost memories, he was still a man with a lover, and propriety forbade such a thing.
Yet his insides roiled so violently that such words would not come.
‘How could she be with another man while I…’
But Lucio also remembered what he had been about to do moments before, so he barely swallowed his fury and opened his mouth.
“I did not.”
Lucio spoke to the bewildered Lia with deliberate clarity, as though imparting a fact.
“I did not kiss the Imperial Princess.”
At his firm declaration, Lia, who had been whimpering softly, opened her eyes wide.
Her tears ceased naturally.
Yet the traces of tears lingering at her eyes and cheeks continued to trouble him, so Lucio began to carefully wipe her face with the handkerchief he had retrieved earlier.
Lia remained still, as though accustomed to his tender touch, yet hesitated as to whether she should believe his words, and asked cautiously.
“Truly…?”
A soft laugh escaped him.
Finding Lia so endearing, Lucio finally broke into a smile and nodded.
Just moments before, he had been so furious.
Even he could not fathom such a volatile shift in emotion.
When Lia pouted and glared at him, Lucio quickly suppressed his smile.
Thinking that he should have spoken sooner if he had known she would be so hurt, he opened his mouth.
“In truth, I was acting.”
“Acting?”
“Yes. I thought I might be able to extract something like a confession from the Imperial Princess. But then the atmosphere became… strange.”
Lucio caught sight of Lia’s expression, which had suddenly grown somber, and carefully gauged her reaction.
“To be honest, I was trying to humor her, but I failed to kiss her.”
“Did I get in your way?”
“No, it’s not that. I simply couldn’t do it. I felt nauseous.”
At those words, Lia’s dejected expression shifted to one of surprise.
She suddenly recalled the image of Lucio beneath the broken parasol, his pale face covered by his hand.
Lia blinked slowly, then fixed her gaze upon him.
Then, without warning, she reached out and grasped both his cheeks, pulling him toward her.
As Lucio’s upper body tilted forward, she lifted her head and kissed him.
Lia pressed her lips against his in an impulsive gesture, then pulled away and asked.
“How was that? Do I make you want to vomit too?”
Make me want to vomit?
Frozen by her unexpected action, Lucio let out a hollow laugh at her question.
Just moments before, though their lips had touched only briefly, his heart had raced wildly.
It was not mere surprise.
A sensation close to pleasure had rippled through his entire body.
It was the complete opposite of the revulsion he had felt toward the Imperial Princess.
Yet Lucio answered with shameless audacity.
“I’m not certain. It was far too brief.”
At those words, Lia threw herself into his arms once more, wrapping both arms around his neck.
This time, Lucio lowered his head first.
Their lips met in an instant.
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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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