Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 241

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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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The dress was truly beautiful.
Yet my face bore no excitement or joy at wearing a wedding dress for the first time—instead, it was filled with deep resignation and sorrow.
Fearing tears would spill over, I quickly pressed my lips together.
I tried to think calmly that clothing hardly mattered when the final confrontation was at hand.
But now that I was adorned like a bride, my heart ached with such profound sadness.
As I bit my lip and twisted my face, I felt the women around me growing flustered, lamenting that my carefully applied makeup was being ruined.
When one of them brought a handkerchief to wipe the tears gathering at the corners of my eyes, I turned my head away coldly.
Rope nodded to the bewildered women.
They quickly began placing a veil over my head.
Perhaps it was my imagination, but my face seemed all the more pitiful through the flowing fabric.
‘If only I had the ring Lucio gave me….’
My heart would not ache and grieve so deeply.
I stared at the Demon’s soul stone adorning my exposed nape, then lifted my gaze upward as fresh tears threatened to fall.
One light touch and everything would crumble to pieces.
My soul was already shattered beyond repair—perhaps the feeling alone was no longer metaphorical.
“Shall we go now.”
Once the preparations were complete, Rope turned sharply and spoke in clipped tones.
Unlike before, when her manner had been respectful yet subtly intimate, her attitude had grown cold—apparently the Master had discovered that my earrings were a tracking artifact, and she was upset about it.
Though I had been the same in the past, all of Terenthium’s informants deeply dreaded disappointing the Master, so I understood her changed demeanor well enough.
Yet I felt no remorse whatsoever, so I straightened my spine and rose from my seat, finally escaping this suffocating room.
As expected from the tower’s peak, what greeted me upon stepping out was a spiral staircase with a rather steep incline.
The depths below looked dizzying enough that I instinctively thought of teleportation magic, but Rope showed no intention of using any spells.
‘Is she conserving magical power to open the Demon Realm Entrance at the end?’
It would have been entirely possible if we hadn’t gathered all the sacrifices, but the thought of descending such a long staircase in this attire drew an involuntary sigh.
Yet Rope showed no consideration for my circumstances and quickened her pace.
Since I didn’t know where to go and couldn’t use teleportation magic alone, I obediently descended the stairs.
Round and round—how long did I descend?
At last reaching level ground, Rope stopped and spoke.
“From here, you may proceed alone.”
She pointed to the far end of a long corridor lined with marble columns, where massive doors stood wide open on both sides.
Watching Rope disappear quietly with the women, I swallowed hard.
The Black Forest already had magical energy permeating the very air.
But the magical energy flowing from within those doors was far more sinister and dense, making it difficult to breathe.
Though my feet refused to move, I clenched and unclenched my fists as I slowly walked toward it.
I tore away the cumbersome veil and cast it to the ground.
As I drew closer to the doors, I heard a bizarre sound—whether a wail or a laugh, I could not tell.
And finally.
“…!”
Standing directly before the doors, I froze as goosebumps erupted across my entire body.
Though I had anticipated it, this was indeed where the Demon Realm Entrance lay.
What first caught my eye in the vast space as wide as the enormous gate was the altar at the center, where flames surged upward.
Above it, a vortex of abyssal black swirled rapidly, growing larger with each passing moment—a sight that sent chills down my spine.
I instinctively understood that this was the Demon Realm Entrance.
All the writhing, malevolent mana flowing through this place emanated from that vortex.
〈When the gate to the Demon Realm opens completely and I take you there, your soul will become entirely mine. Then, no matter how many times you die, you will never escape the Demon Realm. Never.〉
My heart pounded violently.
If I were to be sucked into that maelstrom, there would truly be no turning back.
But there was something far more terrifying than that.
Beneath the altar, people draped entirely in black cloth bowed in frenzied devotion, their voices rising in an endless, incomprehensible chant.
So these were the source of that grotesque sound, I realized in that instant.
“Ugh!”
I had to clap my hand over my mouth desperately to stifle the cry that nearly escaped.
Within the flames consuming the altar, I saw clearly the face of someone whose eyes had not yet closed.
Now I finally understood why Raezl held such contempt and revulsion for the Demon Worshippers.
Now I understood the true nature of those who made pacts with demons and wielded the power of darkness.
‘How… how could people do such a thing…’
It was truly horrifying.
As if draining all their mana were not enough, they offered their own kind as sacrificial fuel, using the remaining flesh and souls to open the Demon Realm Entrance.
Those cast into the flames, though already dead, seemed to wail and cry out as if begging for their lives, as if refusing to die.
Their agonized screams pierced my ears, and I wanted nothing more than to cover them, yet my body remained frozen—like a beast caught in a snare.
That was when it happened.
“Lia!”
Along with hurried footsteps came a man’s voice desperately calling my name.
My heart dropped, and my senses snapped into focus.
I knew who owned that voice.
‘Lucio…’
It was him.
Bewildered and confused as to why it was Lucio and not Diana who had come, I felt tears suddenly well up at the joy that he had come searching for me.
“Where are you! Answer me, Lia!”
His desperate cry sent a wave of longing crashing over me like spray from a breaking wave.
I bit down hard on the tender flesh inside my cheek and turned my head.
At the same moment, the silver hair I had missed so dearly came into view.
Lucio, who had been calling out from the corridor while looking about like a lost child, froze the moment he saw me.
Seeing his eyes trembling like a flooded lake rippling in the current, my feet moved of their own accord.
Unable to wait for him to reach me, I nearly headbutted him as I rushed forward and threw my arms around him.
Lucio held me in return, his embrace so tight it nearly stole my breath.
The moment I was enfolded in his arms, the tears I had been holding back burst forth.
“Why did you take so long to come!”
How terrified I had been.
How much I had longed to see you.
I had never expected Lucio to come, yet all the sorrowful emotions swelling within me erupted as resentment.
And so Lucio, who had done nothing wrong, apologized to me.
“I’m sorry. For coming so late….”
For remembering so late.
“…!”
Upon hearing his added words, I lifted my head in astonishment.
‘I had briefly wished that Lucio would remember me when we met again, but truly…?’
The demon’s curse had dissolved far too quickly to believe, and in that moment of bewilderment as I gazed upon his face, I found myself unable to speak.
Tears streamed silently down Lucio’s pale cheeks.
From him, I felt an indescribable emptiness and a profound longing.
Frozen in shock at the sight of a man weeping without sound.
Lucio wiped away the tears from my reddened eyes and brushed aside the strands of hair clinging to my wet face.
His touch was so tender and careful, as though he were handling glass that might shatter at the slightest contact.
I quickly reached out and wiped away his tears with my thumb. Then I whispered softly.
“You’re not late.”
He was not late at all.
Neither in finding me nor in remembering me.
“Not in anything.”
At my words of comfort, Lucio’s face contorted slightly as a small laugh escaped him.
Somewhere along the way, this smile had become more familiar to me than his indifferent, cold expression.
Satisfied by it, I was about to forget the situation and laugh along with him.
Suddenly, Lucio stiffened, and his face twisted violently.
“I’ll kill him.”
Startled by his murderous words, I only then realized that Lucio’s gaze had fallen upon the dress I was wearing.
“This, this is….”
It wasn’t a wedding dress I had chosen to wear, yet I felt a pang of guilt and hastily tried to make excuses.
Suddenly, the air filled with a sharp, piercing killing intent.
* * *
Sensing Setikaael’s presence, Lucio immediately concealed Lia behind him.
He would not even show the Demon’s shadow to Lia.
He had been present long ago when the Saint sealed the Demon and laid her curse upon him, and he remembered everything with perfect clarity.
Thus, the moment he saw the wedding dress Lia wore, he grasped the entire situation.
He barely restrained himself from showing her a harsher side, yet bile rose to the back of his throat.
To have slaughtered Spleshia so mercilessly and dare to love Lia.
It was utterly intolerable.
He would kill him. This time, without fail.
Yet Lucio’s resolve drew no interest from Setikaael whatsoever.
“Lia, come here at once.”
Setikaael merely shone his eyes—crimson as blood—and extended his hand to Lia, who had rushed into another man’s embrace.
It would be better if he simply killed them all.
Even now, I could barely restrain my anger and had no choice but to extend my hand—a lament to my own futility.
And the moment I witnessed Lia shake her head, utterly dismissing all my efforts, Setikaael’s fury erupted.
“I told you to come at once! Must I resort to force?”
With a sharp voice and eyes blazing with madness, Setikaael closed the distance to Lia in an instant.
And just before he could seize her wrist—
“Don’t you dare lay a hand on her.”
Lucio, blocking his path once more, pressed a sword wreathed in luminous aura beneath Setikaael’s throat as he spoke.
Setikaael stared at his empty hand in bewilderment, then curved his lips into a smile as he met those azure eyes that glared at him as if ready to kill.
“Have you recovered your memories?”
The former High Priestess Raezl’s divine power could never have unraveled this so swiftly.
It seemed the strong resistance to magic had caused an unexpected side effect.
But it mattered not.
“You, in turn, keep your hands off what is mine.”
For Setikaael, reclaiming Lia was the absolute priority.

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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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