Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 228

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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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Setikaael lowered his gaze to the blade embedded in his heart, his eyes cold and unflinching.
For an ordinary human, it would have been a fatal wound.
Since he had actually died that way once, Lia—who knew this better than anyone—barely managed to steady her trembling hands.
Yet her eyes held no trace of fear, nor any hint of regret for what she had just done.
The moment Setikaael’s lips curved into a smile, a metallic taste surged up his throat, and he hastily clamped his mouth shut.
Blood trickled down his palm in a crimson stream.
Setikaael spat out the blood filling his mouth and let out a hollow laugh.
“Was it infused with holy power?”
He yanked the dagger from his chest in one fluid motion, and the blade glistened with his blood.
He had assumed the pain came from inhabiting a human body, but that wasn’t it.
Thud, thud, thud.
Setikaael approached Lia, who stood frozen like a statue, moving with deliberate slowness, his lips curling upward.
“Do you know what happens when you come at me like this, Lia? It delights me even more.”
His smile was breathtakingly beautiful and utterly cruel.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t die so easily.”
Lia showed no sign of distress at his words.
She had known all along that such holy power wouldn’t be enough to kill him.
But she needed this small act of defiance, if only to ease the suffocation in her chest.
“Don’t resent me for deceiving you. I’m simply returning what Master did to me.”
With no need to hide her true feelings anymore, Lia spoke without concealing her disgust.
Setikaael laughed brightly.
“Did I deceive you?”
“Or was it mockery?”
“Oh, it seems you’ve misunderstood. Haven’t I told you repeatedly, Lia? Never trust me.”
….
〈I can never be a good person to you.〉
〈Remember, Lia. Never trust me.〉
Setikaael gazed at Lia’s frozen expression, his face taking on an almost sorrowful cast as he reflected on how she had failed to heed his warning.
“How much do you look down on me, really?”
As if a switch had been flipped, Lia’s voice erupted.
“You must have found it pathetic—me struggling to survive by any means necessary! After you destroyed every happiness and peace I could have had! How could you possibly expect me to love you?”
That was when he spoke.
“When did I ever ask to be loved by you?”
“…What?”
Lia’s mind went blank as if struck by a hammer at his words.
“What did you just….”
“I told you not to resent me for deceiving you. But the truth is, I’m neither resentful nor angry.”
….
“Because I’ve imagined killing you so many times that I’m sick of it.”
In fact, I had already torn his soul to shreds, leaving it utterly mangled.
“So you think I’d be angry at you stabbing my heart?”
He muttered softly, a self-deprecating smile crossing his face.
“But the flesh is irreversible once I lay hands on it, so I’m restraining myself with all my might. Because I love you.”
“…Do you really think what you’re doing is love?”
Lia found it appalling how Setikaael spoke of love so brazenly.
Yet he remained composed even as he watched her contorted expression.
“Then yes, I love you. Even if you don’t love me, emotions like hatred and resentment are enough for me to feel satisfied. Of course, I cannot permit you to love any other human.”
“You’re truly insane….”
“Besides.”
Setikaael interrupted Lia’s words, speaking as though troubled.
“I haven’t been able to lay proper hands on your family or those unpleasant men hovering around you, for fear you’d grieve too much.”
Crash!
At that moment, a figure burst through the glass window with a shattering sound, leaping into the cafe.
Lia’s eyes widened as she recognized the intruder’s identity.
“…Jack?”
* * *
Jack, what are you doing there…?
I stood slack-jawed at the appearance of this completely unexpected person.
Jack landed on the floor and straightened up, asking urgently.
“Lia, what is this place? Why can’t even aura penetrate it…?”
“You’re one to talk—how did you even get here? Weren’t you supposed to be on vacation?”
Seeing my bewildered expression, Jack scratched his head awkwardly.
“Where else would I go? And….”
“…?”
“You said you wanted me to protect you. Even though I couldn’t take the knight’s oath….”
Jack trailed off and confessed that he’d been hovering around me all along.
“How could you follow me all the way here!”
I’d deliberately come alone, separating myself from my family, Raezl, and Diana!
I never imagined Jack had been following me.
I was carefully choosing my words to quietly send Jack away, gauging Master’s reaction.
“You two seem quite close.”
Master, wearing a sinister smile, dropped a bomb before I could prepare myself.
“Does he know? That he stabbed and killed your heart.”
“Master!”
I cried out in a shrill voice, too shocked to contain myself.
But it was already too late.
“He probably doesn’t know. Since he doesn’t, he hovers around you, talking about protecting you.”
Jack, who had been wearing a confused expression, slowly turned to face me with a look of shock.
“Lia, what is this person saying right now…?”
“Jack, it’s all nonsense. Don’t listen.”
“No matter how much time you’ve rewound or how many times you’ve been resurrected, the fact remains that you died, Lia.”
Master’s lips curved into a twisted smile as he swiftly countered my words.
I bit my lip and glared at him.
I should have heeded Raezl’s warnings more carefully.
Demons truly are cruel, vicious, and merciless.
“Rewound time… resurrected?”
“It’s all a lie. Such a thing couldn’t possibly exist in this world.”
I knew all too well that sometimes ignorance is a blessing.
When I discovered that the one I had trusted and relied upon for so long as my savior was actually the architect of all my tragedies, I truly wanted to die.
So I wished Jack wouldn’t know either.
But.
“Why did I… you?”
Jack seemed to have already grasped the entire truth.
Seeing his face stained with despair and desperation, I spoke urgently.
“It was all my fault. I infiltrated the Duke’s Mansion on my own… you were simply eliminating an intruder.”
You bear no blame whatsoever.
Everything was my responsibility.
These words weren’t merely meant to comfort Jack.
But to Jack, my words must have sounded like a final confirmation.
A sharp pain flickered in his eyes.
“I really did… you…”
Jack stared at me without blinking, and only after a considerable time had passed did he release the breath he’d been holding.
“I’m sorry.”
Tears finally streamed down Jack’s face.
In each teardrop that fell to the ground mingled bewilderment, self-reproach, and regret.
Witnessing this, my heart felt as though it were being crushed.
“Jack…”
“If you’re sorry, why don’t you just disappear?”
Then, Master—shameless and remorseless—spoke brazenly.
In the instant I turned to glare at him in exasperation.
“Let’s go together, Lia.”
Jack hastily wiped away his tears and extended his hand to me.
He seemed to have realized that this place—and the person before us—posed a danger significant enough to set aside his apologies for now.
I could feel his determination to protect me at all costs.
And at this sight, Master’s crimson eyes gleamed with a perilous light.
“That won’t do.”
Crash!
Jack immediately rolled his body to the side to evade the sudden attack.
Then he quickly infused his sword with aura and attempted a counterattack.
But his resistance was brief.
Jack lost consciousness the moment his eyes met Master’s and collapsed to the ground.
Raezl’s warning suddenly came to mind—that souls fallen to the depths of despair would lose their reason if they met a demon’s crimson gaze, so one must guard their heart firmly.
“Jack!”
I rushed toward Jack to check his condition, but Master, who was closer, was faster.
“In your past life, you owed me a debt of gratitude, so you must have been born with this much mana. Yet you ungratefully drove a blade through my heart.”
I could only freeze in place.
“Should I kill this wretch the way I killed Jade?”
It was as if he were informing me that he had killed Jade in exactly this manner.
Master, bent forward, gripped Jack’s neck as though he would snap it.
“Don’t touch Jack.”
At my firm voice, Master surprisingly released the tension in his hand and straightened up without resistance.
In that moment, I was about to approach Jack, who lay collapsed on the floor.
“Then come with me.”
Seeing Master extend his hand, I hurriedly stepped backward.
At the same time, his brow furrowed mercilessly.
“Don’t avoid me.”
Master, his expression betraying unmistakable displeasure, issued a final warning and attempted to seize me, while I struggled to evade his grasp.
But escaping from him was fundamentally impossible.
〈Keep your striking points in mind as you move.〉
How to maintain balance, how to defend, how to find openings.
From the stance of my feet to the angle of my arms.
Master had taught me everything.
Though long years had passed and I now lived a new life, I could not abandon habits so thoroughly ingrained.
So it was inevitable that I would be caught by Master, who read my every movement.
“Let go of this!”
I tried to wrench my wrist free from Master’s grip.
But no matter how desperately I twisted to pull my hand away, the force binding my wrist only grew stronger, and all my efforts were in vain.
“Lia, I don’t want to destroy you any further.”
As if he hadn’t already shattered my soul into pieces.
The demon stretched his lips into an arrogant smile.
Then, gathering a handful of my hair and brushing it back, he grasped my chin.
“So stop this futile resistance and come with me.”
“…hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
So close that our breaths nearly touched, I met Master’s gaze directly and spoke.
“Promise me you’ll leave Jack as he is. Don’t lay a hand on my family or those around me.”
“If you obey me well, I have no intention of touching them.”
I’ve left them alone all this time, haven’t I.
Master tapped my cheek gently, as though coaxing a stubborn child, then softly caressed it.
Though I felt the pathetic sensation of having become a cherished puppy, I clenched my fists, suppressed my tears, and nodded.
As if waiting for my consent to fall away, the grotesque magic circle drawn upon the floor began to emit light.
In an instant, the ground beneath my feet crumbled, and darkness swallowed my vision.
Feeling my consciousness drift further into the endless, frigid abyss, I slowly closed my eyes.
A faint whisper seemed to brush against my ears.
“Come with me, to my Hell.”

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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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