Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 235

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

There’s no way.
No, it couldn’t be.
I watched Setikaael bristle with indignation over Spleshia’s name being erased from the Temple, and I urgently suppressed an ominous thought that had suddenly surfaced.
But.
〈The Saint has arrived!〉
〈The Saint has appeared!〉
Why did the fanatics’ voices—those that had swarmed to the Marquis’s Residence after the Sword Tournament finals ended—keep echoing in my ears?
I moistened my parched lips and asked, desperately hoping my suspicion was wrong.
“Surely… you didn’t summon a Demon Beast for such a reason?”
It couldn’t be.
It mustn’t be.
To summon a Demon Beast merely to have people exalt his name.
“Then why else would I have done it?”
But Setikaael shattered my hopes with those words.
His expression bore the satisfaction of one who had accomplished what needed to be done, so I fell silent.
It felt naive and foolish to have interpreted the summoning of the Demon Beast as merely a warning to return to the Duchy.
Perhaps attempting to fathom a Demon’s thoughts was itself a foolish endeavor.
“Ah…”
How many humans had he sacrificed to open the gateway to the Demon Realm and summon another Demon Beast to this land?
I couldn’t finish my sentence and dragged my hands across my face.
“Master… I truly cannot understand you.”
Everything he thought terrified and repulsed me.
Setikaael remained silent as he watched me, looking as though I had absorbed all the despair in this world.
After turning back time, he had endured much for me, and he had prepared much as well.
So he believed that no matter how much I claimed to have found family in this life, if I became isolated as I had been in Terenthium, I would soon come to rely on him.
Yet now, for the first time, Setikaael felt uncertain.
Even if he were to blind and deafen me again, sever my limbs, and keep me at his side so I could never escape, could I truly return to what I once was?
And yet…
He could not let go of the past.
After a long silence, an expression rarely appeared on the Demon’s face—a face that knew no regret.
“Then shall I tell you an old story?”
At his half-impulsive words, I, who had been hanging my head low, reacted.
Whether it was because it was so unexpected or because I was genuinely curious, Setikaael was satisfied with that alone.
“Then will you be able to understand me?”
It was a question that felt absurd even as he spoke it.
The arrogant Demon had never sought anyone’s understanding in all his existence.
But.
“Please, tell me the old story.”
At my answer, a faint smile appeared on Setikaael’s lips.
* * *
“May you come to love a human you regard so trivially, Setikaael.”
“…Don’t be ridiculous.”
“And as those who fell by your hand suffered, may you witness the agony of the human you love.”
“Silence!”
“When that human’s final breath leaves their body, may your unsealed soul become the most wretched thing in existence.”
“Please, just shut up!”
The Saint sealed the Demon’s soul and laid down her curse.
Boom! Crack!
Lightning descended from a sky plunged into sudden darkness, the earth convulsed, and flames, the stench of blood, and billowing smoke painted the entire world black.
It was as though the end of all things had arrived at the threshold.
Yet absurdly enough.
“Hurrah! The Demon is dead!”
“The Saint has triumphed!”
“Peace has come to us!”
With the Demon’s death cry, the Human World—ravaged and broken—reclaimed its peace.
The Demon Worshippers were swiftly eradicated, and the Demon Beasts that had slaughtered humanity fell easily to those who had stolen their master’s power.
Humans sang of hope and dreams in their reclaimed homeland, raising their glasses in celebration.
Setikaael, his soul—the very source of his power—sealed away and clinging to life in a mere human body, watched from the shadows.
It was humiliating, devastating, infuriating, and utterly unjust.
Setikaael understood perfectly how he, who had aspired to become the King of the Demon Realm and a god of the Human World, had collapsed in a single moment.
‘That girl—I could devour her and still not be satisfied.’
Not the Saint whom humans revered, the one who had sealed him and cursed him.
Spleshia.
A human with nothing remarkable about her.
Her only distinction was a soul so pure it inspired nothing but contempt in a Demon—yet this girl had dared steal his power, and everything unraveled.
From Setikaael’s perspective, she was a human deserving of death, which was why he had acted. But the world turned upside down.
After that child died, the ignorant masses gathered as one, wailing and praying, and began to awaken sacred power.
A force unlike anything he had ever encountered, fundamentally opposed to demonic energy—the Demon Worshippers found themselves helpless against it.
Yet had that girl not left behind Spleshia, embedding mana in human hearts through her death, he would not have fallen into such wretchedness.
In the end, all that remained to him was the red soul stone the Saint had hurled away after pouring her curse upon it.
“Love. Love, they said…”
The Demon ground the curse beneath his heel and resolved to love humans willingly in order to unseal his soul.
And because he did not understand ‘love,’ he mimicked its appearance in human fashion.
He captivated with beauty, whispered honeyed words, courted ardently, and confessed his affection.
And then… he killed them.
The seal did not break.
Speaking of love with his lips alone, without sincerity, was a futile endeavor.
It was impossible for Setikaael, a Demon, to truly love a human.
To him, humans were contemptible insects, creatures beneath acknowledgment.
One cannot genuinely love a bug.
In the end, Setikaael abandoned his futile hopes and devised a new plan.
If he could not break the seal, he would at least reclaim the fragments of his power scattered across the world.
Had Spleshia not stolen his power, he would never have been sealed in the first place—but such was the cruel irony of fate.
Yet paradoxically, it was precisely because of this that Setikaael could gather his strength anew by using humans infused with mana as sacrifices.
Thus the Demon transformed countless humans into Demon Worshippers through the methods he mastered best, draining their mana and souls.
Fortunately, the Black Forest connected to the Demon Realm was not easily accessible to humans, and the flow of time differed between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm, making it ideal for his machinations.
Moreover, with the resolve to subjugate humans more thoroughly this time and seize the Human World, Setikaael established the Information Guild Terenthium.
Rather than recklessly waging war as before, he chose to follow the methods of mankind.
And then, as he gradually and methodically reclaimed his power, an event unfolded.
Acting under the Emperor’s command, the Grand Duke Bellus swept away the Demon Worshippers in a single stroke.
The Grand Duke could not have known.
That the Emperor, who issued the order under the guise of purging Demon Worshippers infesting the Empire, had actually orchestrated this to covet the Demon’s relics.
But regardless of the reason.
“We must have our revenge!”
“Indeed. We have only just opened the gateway to the Demon Realm…!”
The Demon Worshippers turned their arrows of wrath toward the Grand Duke.
More precisely, they aimed at the House of Bellus itself, not the Grand Duke alone.
The House of Bellus, which had produced exceptional mages generation after generation, was always a thorn in the side of the Demon Worshippers who had gained demonic power by offering their souls.
Of course, Setikaael, who knew that the ancestors of the House of Bellus had received grace from Spleshia, harbored his own displeasure toward them.
Yet Setikaael did not wish for the House of Bellus’s bloodline to be extinguished.
The House of Bellus, whose descendants were born with ever-formidable mana, was like a cornucopia to Setikaael as he recovered his strength.
Until he found a way to absorb their mana in a single stroke at the opportune moment, he had no intention of laying hands on them directly.
Yet he could not simply overlook those who had inflicted such grievous losses upon him.
“The Grand Duchess Bellus is currently with child. I hear the unborn child possesses such vast mana that her movements have become quite labored.”
“Then surely she will seek out the Snowflower.”
Setikaael approved his subordinates’ plan to kidnap the Crown Princess Bellus, who would soon be born, and use her as a sacrifice. Through the Grand Duchess’s Sister, he learned with remarkable ease when the Grand Duke would depart for the End of the Continent.
After that, events unfolded with breathtaking speed.
Already severely weakened from their previous losses, the Demon Worshippers had no intention of confronting the Grand Duke directly. While he was away, they infiltrated the Grand Duke’s Castle and succeeded in kidnapping the newborn child.
And at last, Setikaael came face to face with Lia.
“Master, this child is the Crown Princess Bellus.”
Adriana was a docile infant who rarely cried.
With her eyes tightly shut, she slept peacefully—like a beautiful doll lying in a crib.
When she awoke, her large eyes would flutter open and she would burst into delighted laughter.
Unaware that she had been separated from her parents.
Unaware that those she reached toward like a toy mobile were the very enemies who had torn her from her mother and father.
She embodied the typical image of human foolishness and ignorance, yet she was utterly endearing.
Even the subordinates who had advocated for kidnapping the Crown Princess found themselves glancing at her repeatedly.
But.
“Ha.”
Setikaael instantly understood why he could not tear his gaze away from Lia.
A pure soul that repelled him merely by existing.
From ancient times until now, dwelling in the Human World, he had only ever encountered such a soul once before.
Unable to believe it so easily, he verified the mana densely filling the infant’s heart, and even let his own mana flow into her to test it.
And as Setikaael watched the child naturally absorb his mana, he became certain.
‘This is Spleshia’s reincarnation.’
His crimson eyes deepened in intensity.
A violent impulse surged through him—the desire to devour her from head to toe.
If he absorbed all of the child’s mana as it was, he could recover considerable power.
Yet Setikaael could not kill Lia according to his original purpose of kidnapping her.
His soul stone—which had remained unmoved despite his countless attempts to break the seal—trembled violently for the first time.
〈Ah… I see.〉
The soul stone was the source of his power, so it was only natural that it would respond to a human who carried his mana in her heart.
And Setikaael understood.
The human who had so audaciously stolen his power was, precisely because of that, the only human he could ever love.
Setikaael chuckled softly, tapping Lia’s plump cheeks as he smiled back at her.
〈If the Saint knew you were the human who would break my curse, she would tear at the ground and weep.〉

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