Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 223

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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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Lia hesitated for a moment at the melancholy in my voice, but then nodded honestly.
“Yes. I’ve heard many rumors about my older brother, but I’ve never actually seen him.”
I hadn’t known it then, but through this life, I learned that the Grand Duke and Askart had been tracking my mana to find me.
So in the past as well, Askart was likely consumed by the singular determination to find his lost sister, practically living in the Academy Library as he devoted himself to his research.
Naturally, he rarely ventured outside the Academy, so it was perhaps inevitable that I had never seen his face.
Askart couldn’t hide his disappointment at these circumstances and his voice wavered.
“Foolishly, not knowing you were so close to me….”
“That’s only because you didn’t know, as you said yourself.”
Lia comforted Askart while speaking practically.
“And even if we had happened to meet by chance, we probably wouldn’t have recognized each other anyway.”
At least in this life, because I served as a maidservant in House Elrad, I was able to meet Askart.
But if I had encountered him as an Academy student and a beggar child standing before it, we likely wouldn’t have even been aware of each other’s existence.
Moreover, even in this life when we had become familiar with one another, it took quite some time before it was revealed that Lia was his younger sister.
‘So there’s no need to say anything more about back then.’
“That may be true, but….”
Though Askart understood what Lia was trying to say, he lamented that such is the way of human affairs.
It was then.
“Here stands the most foolish, senseless, and stupid person in all the world.”
The Previous Marquis, blowing his nose into a handkerchief, spoke while looking at the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess and Askart.
“You all have something to say since you never met at all. But I….”
I had regretted and felt troubled for so long that I hadn’t recognized her even when she was a small maidservant.
Upon hearing that in the previous life, the Previous Marquis had formed a deep bond with Lia, my heart ached terribly.
“Not even recognizing my own child, how could I be so foolish….”
At that thought, tears burst forth once more.
Lia quickly moved to comfort the self-reproaching Previous Marquis.
“Grandfather, it was the same when I was young, but in the past too, because of the spell, you had brown hair and brown eyes. It’s only natural you wouldn’t have recognized me.”
“But still, I feel like such a fool….”
“My goodness. Then am I not equally foolish? Even calling you Grandfather like that… I never dreamed that I might be the granddaughter you were searching for.”
Whether because of the Previous Marquis who kept wavering on the edge of tears, or because old memories surfaced.
As Lia comforted the Marquis, her nose tingled and she scrunched her face.
Then, suddenly realizing something, she spoke.
“Come to think of it, my wish came true.”
“Your wish?”
At Askart’s words, Lia nodded.
“You know the Wishing Fountain near the Academy? I used to go there every dawn to make a wish. I wished to meet my family.”
“….”
“At first, I thought it didn’t come true because I didn’t put in a coin, but even after putting in the gold coin the Young Grand Duke gave me, it still didn’t come true—I cursed it so much in my heart.”
But I simply hadn’t recognized it.
I met my grandfather as I wished and built a deep bond with him.
As Lia smiled faintly, thinking how mysterious it all was.
“Lucio was that kind to you?”
Askart, who had been dwelling on Lia’s earlier mention of meeting Lucio during her days as a beggar, muttered with evident displeasure.
Lia, noticing the despondent Previous Marquis, quickly spoke up.
“Well, it was really Grandfather who was kind to me!”
He would order mountains of desserts and insist I eat them with him, saying they tasted better when shared. He gave me fine clothes I’d never worn before, delicious packed lunches, and even meal vouchers from famous restaurants.
“Back then, I remember thinking how wonderful it would be if Grandfather were truly my grandfather.”
Only now did the Previous Marquis grasp the truth behind the words young Lia had spoken to him, and his eyes grew misty once more.
“Given my temperament, I surely wasn’t kind to you in any graceful way….”
A flinch.
Lia smiled wryly as she watched the Previous Marquis evaluate himself with surprising objectivity.
She couldn’t bring herself to tell him outright that he had once reproached her for wandering about like a beggar, starving every day.
“No, you really were kind to me. So please stop blaming yourself.”
Thus, Lia gently shook the Previous Marquis’s arm and spoke with affection.
“After all, we’ve met again like this.”
At those words, the Previous Marquis finally nodded.
“Yes. That’s right. I’m truly grateful for it now. You look exactly like your mother….”
Had Lia not harbored suspicions upon seeing the Grand Duchess, she would have failed to recognize her family in this life as well.
“You’re right, it really is fortunate!”
Askart also emphatically agreed with the Previous Marquis’s words, placing a hand over his heart.
It was then that Lia asked carefully.
“But Older Brother, doesn’t it creep you out?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Askart frowned, not understanding.
“Well, in a way, my mental age is higher than yours.”
In truth, while hiding the regression from her family, I had worried considerably about this aspect as well.
Though I had grown up being treated as a child because of my appearance, my mind was not that of a child. Perhaps they would find it unsettling.
It was then.
“Wow! I thought my little sister was smart, but it looks like she’s actually an idiot!”
Askart met Lia’s eyes directly and spoke.
“Adriana, even if you become a grandmother with white hair covering your head, you will always be my one and only kind, adorable little sister!”
At his earnest tone, devoid of any jest, Lia—who had been inwardly tense—let out a laugh and wrinkled her nose.
Tears had nearly spilled from her eyes without her realizing it.
Having laid bare all her secrets to her family, the anxiety that had plagued me melted away, and the tension released, leaving me overwhelmed with emotion.
Noticing her feelings, Askart gently pinched Lia’s nose and let go.
And the Grand Duke, who had been watching the affectionate siblings, exhaled softly and closed his eyes.
In truth, he had listened silently to his daughter’s story, but his heart was in turmoil.
He could not fathom how many times this child had pierced his heart.
‘When I learned she had lived in that wretched Orphanage and worked as a Maidservant, it felt as though my heart would tear apart….’
The thought of a small child wandering the streets begging, struggling desperately to survive among Demon Worshippers without even knowing they were her enemies, made his chest ache and his blood run cold.
That his daughter had closed her eyes forever without ever knowing her family’s existence was unbearable, and he could not endure it.
‘I didn’t mention whose hands ended my life….’
The Grand Duke couldn’t bring himself to press Lia further about who had killed her, as she confessed that her last moments had been an ambush during a mission somewhere.
Given that her regression had already been revealed, her silence suggested there was more to the story—something she chose to keep hidden.
Of course, the fact that his daughter had already died once was too horrifying, too agonizing for him to even speak of.
As the Grand Duke struggled to swallow the lump rising in his throat, his gaze fell upon the Grand Duchess, whose face had hardened like stone—unable to cry, just as he was.
Before finding Lia, his wife had been tormented by nightmares, unable to sleep peacefully for even a single night, consumed by fear that something might happen to their daughter.
The Grand Duke reached out, thinking his wife must be suffering the same anguish he felt.
He intended to let her lean against him and hold her close to offer comfort.
But then….
Bang!
Just before his hand could touch her shoulder, the Grand Duchess suddenly knocked over her chair and shot to her feet.
“…My lady?”
The bewildered Grand Duke had barely begun to call out to her when—
“Dominic, you bastard!”
The Grand Duchess exploded with a curse.
Lia, who had been basking in the warmth of comforting the Previous Marquis and Askart, suddenly turned in shock at the outburst.
“Mother…?”
“I’m going to confront him right now!”
>”Confront him? Where?”
“Where else? Duke Elrad!”
The Grand Duchess clenched her fists, trembling with barely contained fury.
“I thanked him for bringing you from that wretched Orphanage, and he lets you wander about like a pauper? He should have recognized your worth when he made you a maidservant instead of sending you to another Orphanage in the first place!”
“Stella, you’re absolutely right!”
At those words, the Previous Marquis also shot to his feet.
“If one’s own child matters, then so does another’s! How could he be so cruel to innocent children!”
Lia had thoroughly explained to her family why the past Duke Elrad had been so harsh to the Orphanage children, and she had even shared her own theory that perhaps a demon had interfered, clouding his judgment.
But the Grand Duchess and the Previous Marquis refused to accept any of it.
Seeing them immediately treat Duke Elrad as an enemy, Lia stepped forward with a troubled expression to block their path.
“No, you can’t!”
“Move aside, Adriana!”
“That’s right, dear. I’m going to grab that wretch by the collar and give him a piece of my mind for raising him so poorly!”
“Grandfather, I told you—perhaps the Duke was brainwashed by a demon at that time.”
“That’s just your speculation! How would you know?”
“Brainwashed or not, it doesn’t matter. That weak fool is supposed to be my friend!”
The Grand Duchess, who had been about to rush out to the Duke’s Mansion, suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“Come to think of it, Adriana, you should reconsider your engagement too. A man who falls for a demon’s tricks just like his father and can’t even remember you….”
“No, absolutely not!”
When the conversation finally turned to Lucio, Lia could no longer hold back and cried out.
“Duke Elrad is our family’s benefactor!”
Lia had remained silent because Duke Elrad seemed to have no intention of revealing anything about the Emperor and the demon’s relics.
But I could no longer stand by and watch him be treated so abominably by his own family.
Lia took a deep breath as she observed the Previous Marquis and the Grand Duchess staring at her as though she had spoken utter nonsense.
And once more, she began a lengthy account.
* * *
Patter, patter.
Lucio, who had been resting against the chair in his study with his eyes closed, snapped them open at the sound of rain tapping against the window.
The sky had been overcast all morning, and now rain was falling.
As he gazed at the raindrops streaming down the windowpane, anxiety suddenly flickered across Lucio’s face.
“Bert.”
The moment he called, Bert appeared and bowed, and Lucio immediately asked him a question.
“Have you found her?”
“…Pardon?”
“I told you to find the girl.”

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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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