Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 224

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

“A girl…?”
Lucio’s brow furrowed at Bert’s bewildered expression.
“Yes, in front of the Academy….”
He faltered.
Mid-sentence, Lucio’s head suddenly spun and his stomach lurched. He pressed his palm against his forehead.
Then, in urgent desperation, he shook his head and tried to recall what he’d been thinking moments before.
It felt as though I’d forgotten something I shouldn’t have.
Something precious that I’d been searching for so desperately, waiting for….
“My Lord?”
Even at Bert’s call, Lucio only pressed his eyes repeatedly.
His eyes felt heavy and ached as though he’d gone sleepless for days and nights.
No… they might have grown warm.
Unable to bear showing his subordinate such an unseemly display, Lucio raised his hand to shield his eyes.
It was then.
Suddenly, a ringing echoed through his ears.
〈If you were going to do this, you shouldn’t have saved me! If you’re just going to die like this!〉
〈Please, just open your eyes. Don’t leave me and die…〉
Lucio’s eyes snapped open, gasping for breath like a man who’d barely survived drowning.
His clouded vision cleared, and simultaneously, his hazy consciousness slowly returned.
He drew ragged breaths and reflexively gazed toward the window.
The sky was stained a deep indigo, and rain was falling.
“…Where is the Crown Princess?”
Bert was bewildered by his lord’s abrupt question, but remembering that his condition was far from normal, he answered.
“She departed in the afternoon and has not returned.”
Lucio closed his mouth and nodded slightly.
Understanding the meaning from that gesture alone, Bert withdrew from sight.
After a moment, Lucio, who had been gazing endlessly out the window, murmured softly to himself.
“…She said she’d come back.”
I kept waiting.
Even knowing it was unreasonable, an inexplicably resentful emotion washed over me.
I felt uneasy when the Crown Princess was not in sight.
No, it was the same even when we were together.
The moment I looked away, even briefly, it felt as though she would vanish.
‘When has she ever fled from me?’
Lucio’s gaze suddenly fell upon the notebook on his desk.
It was a record he’d written by hand so as not to forget what Lia had told him.
Upon checking the very first page, the date of his first meeting with the Crown Princess—who had been a maidservant at the Duke’s Mansion at the time—was recorded there.
Lucio, observing this quietly, narrowed his eyes.
‘Is this truly our first meeting?’
Somehow, he couldn’t be certain.
Lucio began flipping through the next pages with growing discomfort.
Half of the entries were already unfamiliar, vague recollections at best—stories that felt utterly disconnected from his own experience.
As he desperately tried to summon these memories, a sharp headache bloomed alongside an inexplicable unease that rose from his chest.
Frustrated, he drained a cup of hot mint tea, yet ever since the curse took hold, his mind had rarely felt clear.
Then he paused.
Lucio discovered a record noting that when he had gone to inspect the Duchy, Lia had departed for the Grand Duchy without a proper farewell.
“Could this be why I’m so anxious?”
Nearly ten years had passed since they last met—reason enough to justify his unease.
But…
“Saying she fled doesn’t quite fit, does it?”
Lucio muttered a quiet curse under his breath and pressed his palm to his forehead.
“Without my memories, I can’t understand anything properly.”
More precisely, he couldn’t be certain of anything.
What this anxiety truly was, where its roots had begun—he had no answers.
What irritated him most was that he couldn’t simply ask the Crown Princess when she had ever fled from him.
Lucio despised revealing his memory loss to Lia.
He hated appearing flustered in her presence.
And whenever he saw the Crown Princess’s expression grow tender and wistful as she recalled their past, his heart twisted painfully.
Even knowing that the affection she yearned for was directed at him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t truly his to claim.
Despite hearing countless times that it was fine if he never recovered his memories, that she would stay by his side, fear gnawed at him—fear that if the curse didn’t break, the Crown Princess might grow weary or change her heart and abandon him.
So while he desperately hoped the curse would lift…
Lucio was equally terrified that once his memories returned, he might no longer be able to face the Crown Princess with such shameless candor.
“I’m trapped between two impossibilities.”
Lucio couldn’t recall when he had become so indecisive and anxious.
Perhaps it was only concerning the Crown Princess that he worried so deeply.
“Sigh.”
Lucio added a final note to his journal documenting his condition, and also recorded that Lia had promised to return but hadn’t.
Then he rose from his seat.
It seemed she wouldn’t come tonight, so he decided to retire to his room.
Ordinarily he could read reports through the entire night without fatigue, but after spending the day waiting for someone, exhaustion had finally caught up with him.
Just as Lucio reached his bedroom door after dismissing Bert, he froze.
He lifted his gaze.
A silhouette lay upon his bed—unfamiliar yet achingly familiar.
His heart instinctively recognized her presence and sank with a heavy thud.
* * *
Several hours earlier.
Raezl, who had gone to the Duke’s Mansion leaving my parents and me behind, returned to the Marquis’s Residence without encountering Diana, who still hadn’t returned from her outing.
He had bathed thoroughly and changed into fresh clothes before visiting the Duke’s Mansion, appearing remarkably neat and composed—quite different from before.
He claimed embarrassment, fearing the guards of House Elrad might stop him, but I was certain Raezl had purified himself before meeting the Saint.
Had Diana not expressed such obvious disdain, he would have been the type to dive before her every time, crying out “Saint!”
In any case, Raezl grumbled that he should have stopped Diana from going out in the first place instead of letting me make a wasted trip, and I questioned him sharply about why he hadn’t met with Lucio before coming here.
To that, Raezl replied that his divine power was depleted today anyway, so he couldn’t perform purification.
After hearing the story about Duke Elrad and the Emperor, my family—now visibly calmer—left my room, and he spoke.
“You were too agitated earlier to hear this, but there’s something you need to know. The demon likely bound your soul to his soul stone to confirm the moment your breath stopped.”
“……”
“Moreover, he would have sensed the seal weakening each time you suffered.”
Hearing Raezl’s words, I found the demon’s heart utterly incomprehensible.
If he loved me, how could he cause me such suffering?
And after tormenting me like that, why did he turn back time with the power he regained the moment the seal broke?
But one thing I could understand.
‘That final mission that drove me to death that day—it wasn’t Master’s order.’
I had always believed that Jade lied to me on Master’s command.
But Master had not wished for my death.
‘So Jade must have set the trap on his own.’
Of course, even so, the fact that all of Terenthium was my enemy didn’t change.
Above all.
‘…I can’t believe that Master loves me either.’
Even though my comrades had said many times that Master showed me favoritism, I had never once thought he regarded me as special.
Back then, I didn’t truly understand what it meant to like or love someone, yet I was certain.
The only thing you could trust in a harsh and cruel world.
Something that always stood by your side.
Something so warm and tender that tears came naturally.
Because I vaguely understood ‘love’ in that way.
And now.
I thought of my family and the people who always cheered me on, supported me, and cherished me.
Surrounded by those who poured out the love I had always longed for in the depths of my heart, I found it even more impossible to accept.
How could that possibly be love?
‘That’s not love…’
I believed that a feeling which wounded the other person and caused harm to others was not love.
It was for the same reason I believed the obsession of the Emperor and Imperial Princess was never love.
‘Besides, it doesn’t matter whether I acknowledge the demon’s feelings as love or not.’
What mattered was that I had now confirmed Master’s true heart, which I had so desperately wanted to know.
Honestly, when I first learned the content of the curse, I was so angry and consumed with the desire for revenge against the demon that I said anything to Raezl, but I also know this.
I absolutely cannot die.
If I die and the demon’s seal breaks, it means war will erupt on this land once more, and a dark age stained with fear and blood will return.
And I could not let my beloved family and precious people suffer such pain.
‘Yes, in a way, I should be grateful.’
It was better than having to choose in a situation where my death was necessary for the world’s peace or where such sacrifice was unavoidable.
By the time I had sorted through my complicated thoughts alone and made my resolve, evening had already fallen.
“Since you’ve said so, you must come without fail.”
I recalled my promise with Lucio.
My mind snapped awake in an instant.
Though it was late at night and I wondered if he might still be waiting, I knew sleep wouldn’t come to me in this state.
‘Besides, I should greet him properly anyway….’
To execute the plan I had carefully arranged, I needed to leave this place for a while.
But before that, I wanted to spend at least a brief moment with Lucio.
So I made my way to the Duke’s Mansion without my family’s knowledge.
“…?”
Lately, Lucio had been suffering from severe headaches and often fell asleep early, so I thought today might be the same and went straight to his bedroom.
But the room was empty.
‘He said he didn’t have much work today, so he should be back soon.’
With that thought, I decided to wait in the room for a moment.
I must have yawned several times after that….
Before I knew it, I had fallen fast asleep.
Startled awake by the sound of the door opening, I quickly sat up, embarrassed that I had dozed off on the bed without the owner’s permission.
The room was bright enough from the moonlight that we didn’t need to light a lamp.
So I could clearly see Lucio frozen like ice at the doorway.
I asked with an awkward smile.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————