Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 227

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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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Upon seeing Master’s smile, I couldn’t help but freeze.
I had never imagined he would greet me with such a welcoming expression.
“I’m glad, Lia.”
Even as I stood rigid and speechless, Master descended the staircase without the slightest concern, continuing to speak.
“I was thinking I should come fetch you, but I worried just in case. This should be more than enough for you to adapt.”
“!”
I immediately grasped the meaning behind his words.
And I understood why he had filled the cafe with mana.
‘It was a deliberate test.’
To see how much of his mana my heart had absorbed.
‘He really does intend to take me to the Demon Realm.’
Though I had already anticipated this and steeled myself mentally, my heart lurched irregularly, pounding against my ribs.
Yet I feigned ignorance of his words, narrowing my eyes slightly as I turned my gaze around the space.
Thanks to the lights that had just been switched on, the cafe interior—which had been pitch-black moments before—now revealed itself in vivid detail.
And in that instant, my frown became genuine.
“Ha…”
A helpless sigh escaped before I could contain it.
When Master moved our headquarters from the Back Alley Bar to the Downtown Cafe, he ordered me—disheartened at not receiving a proper assignment—to decorate the new base.
At that time, I had only lived as a street beggar before training as an informant, so I was completely ignorant of interior design.
With barely adequate help from Rope, I established a design concept, and afterward, I decorated it cozily to my own taste, insisting it would appeal to noble young ladies.
The result was a dessert cafe that no one would ever suspect was the headquarters of the Information Guild.
And now, the cafe was decorated identically to how I had arranged it—so much so that I wondered if I had somehow traveled back in time.
A quiet laugh escaped me.
Back then, Master had neither praised nor criticized me, acting as though he had no interest whatsoever.
Yet now, he had recreated the space I had designed exactly as it was.
It seemed he was claiming he remembered everything I had done, which struck me as absurd.
I turned my head, my gaze growing colder.
Our eyes met instantly—he had been watching me all along.
For a long moment, we simply stared at each other in silence.
“It’s been a while.”
Unlike me, who maintained a rigid expression to conceal my profound revulsion, Master spoke first, his face suffused with longing.
“You’ve finally come to see me, Lia.”
Watching Master’s eyes as he called my name with such tenderness, I felt it anew.
How disturbingly crimson his irises truly were.
“Yes…”
I barely managed to speak, my voice trembling as I felt my breath catch.
“Master, I’ve come to see you.”
At my words, he narrowed the corners of his eyes and slowly extended his hand.
His fingertips brushed past my face.
Tap.
“So that’s why you tied your hair the same way as before?”
At that very moment, the ribbon binding my hair came loose, and the high ponytail tumbled down to my lower back.
“How adorable.”
Master gently stroked my hair.
Just as he used to treat me like a child back then.
…As though nothing had ever happened.
I pushed his arm away and dodged his touch.
Then I fixed my gaze upon him with all the intensity I could muster.
If I didn’t, my expression would crumble entirely.
I could feel the skin around my eyes burning red.
“I missed you. All this time.”
His gentle yet somehow tingling tone left me speechless.
“Didn’t you miss me?”
“…I did miss you. That’s why I came here.”
“No. If that were true, you would have come long ago.”
Master swiftly refuted my hastily offered response, smiling in a way that sent chills down my spine.
“You’re still terrible at lying.”
“….”
“Yes, you came because you wanted to ask me something. Ask away—I’ll answer anything.”
His words, as though he could see straight through my soul, ignited a stubborn defiance within me.
“Are you the demon Setikaael, Master?”
So I asked provocatively.
Whether you were truly not human, but a demon.
Master’s crimson eyes then slowly traced over me from top to bottom.
He stared directly at my neck, twisting one corner of his mouth.
“To ask such a thing while wearing that necklace…. Very well. If you wish to hear it from my own lips, then I shall answer.”
“….”
“That’s right. The demon Setikaael—that’s me.”
At his matter-of-fact admission, I bit my lip.
I had asked hoping he would show some sign of disturbance, yet it was my own heart that trembled instead.
Then came his next words.
“Do you remember? There was once a privilege I granted only to you. To call me Kael.”
Master spoke with a languid yet violent smile.
“Just as I granted you the pet name your parents had given you.”
“!”
* * *
Setikaael watched Lia quietly, her lips parted but unable to form words, her face drained of all color.
And he added one more thing.
“Haven’t you realized yet that your name was taken from Grand Duchess Bellus?”
At that moment, a revelation struck her like a thunderbolt, and Lia’s eyes widened in shock.
I’d occasionally thought something was off, but I’d denied it, thinking it couldn’t be.
‘But it really was….’
“I personally brainwashed the Orphanage Director and had him give you that name. Truly?”
The words came as I was denying that such a thing could be possible.
Lia’s face, which she’d been desperately trying to control, contorted mercilessly.
“So, you really did entrust me to that Orphanage….”
“Yes. It was a place I carefully selected for you.”
At his confident tone, as though he’d made the best choice for her, Lia’s complexion turned deathly pale.
It was shocking enough that he’d entrusted her to an Orphanage where children were sold into slavery and abused.
“Why, why of all names….”
In her eyes, a desperate hope flickered—perhaps he’d shown her some small mercy. Setikaael spoke in a cold voice.
“Because I wanted to see you live without even knowing it was a pet name your parents gave you, without any affection or gratitude.”
“!”
Lia, who had gone rigid for a moment, slowly blinked her eyes.
I see.
Even as he subjected me to harsh training, even as he issued commands to me, he must have delighted in calling me by the pet name my parents had given me.
In that moment, a hollow laugh escaped Lia’s lips, sounding almost like a sob.
Suddenly, Setikaael felt as though he’d crossed a line he couldn’t take back.
But soon he shook his head and sneered.
He’d already crossed that line long ago, many times over.
And he harbored no regret for what he’d done to Lia.
Then Lia looked at Setikaael with eyes that clearly showed she was wounded.
Seeing her clenched lips as she held back tears that threatened to spill, a strange glimmer flickered in Setikaael’s eyes.
‘Ah. Still….’
He found the sight of Lia crumbling like this unbearably delightful.
Then it came.
“If you hate me so much….”
Lia’s counterattack began.
“Why did you save me?”
In that instant, Setikaael’s composed expression froze cold.
“You said you’d already killed me once before.”
“….”
“You needed to kill me to break the seal anyway. So why did you turn back time?”
Lia, her eyes as sharp and cold as frost, asked again before Setikaael could even respond.
“Did you really do it because you love me?”
For the first time, Setikaael found himself at a loss for words and fell silent.
But Lia didn’t avert her gaze, as though waiting for his answer.
Finally.
“…Yes. I turned back time because I love you.”
As though reluctantly admitting something he didn’t want to acknowledge.
Setikaael answered in a voice that scraped the very bottom of a deep mire.
“It was a miscalculation. That you died.”
He furrowed his brow as though recalling a painful memory.
“I hoped you’d hate me enough to want me dead, but it would’ve been troublesome if you actually killed me.”
“….”
“Even knowing that human emotions can explode in an instant, I left you be. It was my mistake, I admit it.”
With those words, Setikaael let out a soft laugh.
“Still, don’t be too disheartened, Lia. I’ve already dealt with Jade.”
“!”
Only then did Lia fully comprehend the truth.
The man before her was truly not human, but a demon.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t speak so callously about “humans” and say he’d “dealt with” a subordinate who’d followed him for so long.
“Why did you do that?”
Lia cried out reflexively.
“You isolated me and tormented me to the brink every time! You were the one who provoked and incited Jade to hate me, so why did you kill him?”
“My, my.”
Setikaael gently tapped Lia’s cheek as though to calm her agitation, speaking softly.
“Still so needlessly kind. Are you pitying Jade right now?”
Lia couldn’t move an inch under Setikaael’s gaze, which treated her like a child.
In his eyes, she found both deep affection and an even greater hatred.
“Lia, that’s why I can’t help but love you. No matter how much I torment you, you appear the next day with that foolish smile on your face.”
So you can forgive me no matter what I do, can’t you?
As if asking this, Setikaael looked at Lia.
But.
“If you loved me that much… why didn’t you treat me well?”
Lia barely managed to lift her head stubbornly as she asked.
“Was there ever even once when you were sincere with me?”
Setikaael’s eyes hardened in an instant.
“Well….”
The demon gasped under the weight of a malicious desire—to corrupt Lia’s soul, which was so relentlessly innocent and pure in every moment.
And he’d always acted faithfully to that desire.
So if asked whether there was ever a time he was sincere, he could always say yes….
“Master, I believed you were my benefactor and my savior.”
It might have been better if she’d raged and cried out in anger instead.
“I was so tired of living in constant anxiety, afraid of being abandoned, desperate for recognition.”
At the sight of her pitiful form, silently bearing sorrow and resentment, he found himself unable to speak.
And finally.
“I was so lonely and in such pain… if you’d only been a little kind to me, I would surely have loved you….”
Seeing tears stream down her cheeks, Setikaael impulsively pulled Lia into his embrace.
Lia, who seemed to stiffen for a moment, gently leaned her head against him.
And she whispered softly.
“…Did you really expect me to say that?”
A dull thud.
In the same instant, Setikaael staggered back two paces.
A sharp dagger was embedded in his chest.

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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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