Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 242
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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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“Mine?”
At Setikaael’s words, Lucio’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Now that you mention it, you spouted nonsense like that before too. You said you came looking for what was yours, didn’t you?”
Not long after a sword had pierced through Lia’s heart in her previous life and her breath had ceased, a Demon appeared at Elrad Duke’s Mansion, scattering malevolent energy.
When Lucio, wary of the sudden intruder, demanded to know his identity, the Demon had said he came looking for what was his.
Back then, Lucio hadn’t even properly understood that Lia was the Grand Duchess Bellus, let alone known of the Demon’s existence.
But now, looking back, I realized that it was the Demon’s machinations that had not only kidnapped Lia but also groomed her as an informant, burdened her with dangerous missions, and forced her into a life of shadows.
I had desperately prayed for her to live a peaceful and serene life.
Lucio could not possibly forgive the Demon who had ruined Lia’s life once more.
Setikaael watched Lucio burning with hostility toward me and Lia worrying for him, then laughed coldly.
“Am I playing the role of the spoiler?”
The villain who forcibly tears apart a beloved lover.
“Lia, do you love that man?”
Setikaael asked Lia with bloodshot eyes.
Seeing his crimson irises gleaming with savage intensity, Lia felt a chill run through her entire body.
Those blazing red eyes, radiating tremendous killing intent, flickered like a massive inferno with terrible strength.
Lia couldn’t speak carelessly, fearing that if she told the truth, he might kill Lucio in an instant.
At the same time, she hesitated, not wanting to disappoint Lucio either.
“No, don’t answer. I don’t want to hear you say you love another man in front of me.”
Setikaael, his voice turning glacial, reached out to the side.
In an instant, tremendous flames erupted in the Corridor, engulfing the surroundings.
Lia hastily erected a barrier, and Lucio too protected himself with his aura, but the intense heat made it difficult to breathe and his entire body felt as though it were melting.
“How dare you think you could stand against me when you’re nothing but a thief of my power?”
Setikaael laughed mockingly, adding killing intent to his magical force.
As if his throat were being strangled directly, a suppressed groan escaped between his lips.
In truth, Lucio also knew that with this power, he could not stand against the Demon.
The mana that had killed Spleshia.
That power whose source he himself could not fully accept was none other than the Demon’s.
But he had no intention of succumbing helplessly.
He had to endure and wait.
Until someone truly capable of facing the Demon appeared.
Unaware of such thoughts, Setikaael exhaled sharply and passed by Lucio, who suddenly dropped to one knee.
And just as he reached out toward Lia, who had frozen under the overwhelming killing intent—
His movement stopped abruptly.
A fierce wind grazed his face.
No, it wasn’t wind—it was an arrow.
Setikaael, touching his cheek absently, saw blood on his hand and opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
At that moment, a young girl’s clear voice rang out sharply through the Corridor.
“Hey, you demon bastard, why don’t you get lost?”
“You damn demon, why won’t you get lost?”
* * *
My heart swelled at the achingly familiar voice.
In truth, from the moment Master had appeared and begun venting his fury, I had sensed a faint aura of holy power nearby.
Within a space saturated with intense demonic energy, I felt something distinctly foreign—powerful and crystalline.
Raezl had once explained that holy power and mana were fundamentally opposed; one could sense and track the traces of mana through holy power, but not the reverse.
Yet because I had spent so long purifying myself with holy power to break the illusion, I possessed an unusual ability to sense holy power despite my mana-infused body.
Especially Diana’s holy power—as a Saint, her aura shone far more vividly and powerfully than Raezl’s.
So I had held my breath, waiting for Diana’s arrival, and her cry came at precisely the right moment.
Unable to contain my overwhelming emotion, I quickly turned my head.
Whoooosh!
Brilliant light suddenly poured forth, the flames consuming everything around me extinguished in an instant, and a refreshing wind began to blow.
The gale was so fierce I could barely stand; I managed to squeeze my eyes shut and then open them again.
“Sister, I’ve come to save you!”
Diana appeared, her silver hair streaming in the wind.
I stared at her in a daze, feeling utterly overwhelmed.
With a bow as large as her own body slung across her shoulders and Holy Knights and Priestesses arrayed behind her, she cut a magnificent figure that was truly….
‘Just like the brave hero from the fairy tales I read as a child, coming to rescue the princess!’
Seeing Diana—still small and endearing, having come all this way to protect me—I felt so moved that tears threatened to spill forth in an embarrassing flood.
As I gazed at her with trembling lips, biting back my tears, Diana smiled brilliantly as if to reassure me.
With each step Diana took toward me, I felt the clinging demonic energy being purified away.
Then it happened.
* * *
“…A Saint?”
Setikaael’s pupils wavered momentarily in surprise before he let out a scornful laugh, his voice dripping with malice.
“Did you also undergo reincarnation?”
His eyes gleamed with the hatred of one gazing upon an ancient enemy.
Diana’s gaze had long since turned as cold as a frozen sea.
She spoke in a voice as frigid as her eyes.
“You who looked down upon all things on the Human World and treated humans as insects—did you truly not know?”
“I should have anticipated it, I suppose….”
Setikaael shook his head and added, “But I had no interest in the likes of you.”
Diana scoffed at those words.
“Setikaael. For all the eons you’ve lived, you remain as arrogant as ever. And you should speak truthfully.”
It wasn’t that you had no interest—you simply didn’t know.
“With the power you boast of so proudly, you cannot sense holy power…so you wouldn’t have known until I underwent reincarnation and awakening.”
Diana mocked the Demon with a jeering tone.
Setikaael’s face hardened into a rigid mask.
But only for a moment.
He let out a hollow laugh, his lips twisting into a smile.
“Well, it worked out nicely then. I owe you my gratitude. Thanks to your curse, I came to love Lia.”
“…!”
“Today, you will watch as Lia—the very gift you gave me—descends into Hell at my side.”
“Don’t spout such nonsense!”
In that instant, Diana’s voice erupted with an fury so immense it defied description.
“Why her? Why, of all the countless humans in existence, did you have to love her?”
“Is that what the Saint whom humans revere would say? That it’s acceptable for any other human to suffer, so long as it isn’t her?”
Setikaael cast a glance toward those standing behind Diana, his question cutting through the air.
“Wouldn’t it be troublesome if your subordinates heard such things?”
His tone carried a thin veil of mockery and amusement.
It had been a curse born from the failure to anticipate that a demon’s love could be so brutally cruel.
Moreover, Diana sought no admiration, nor did she concern herself with the gaze of others, and thus she fell not into the demon’s trap.
So she answered without the slightest regard for the eyes of the Temple that revered me.
“Spare me your petty provocations. You already knew I was never merely a virtuous human, didn’t you?”
Setikaael clicked his tongue sharply upon witnessing Diana’s composed retort, as though his dark intentions lay bare before her.
“Setikaael, I came here to accomplish what I could not five thousand years ago. I will annihilate you this day, without fail.”
“And I shall ensure you never reincarnate again—not a single fragment of your soul shall remain.”
Setikaael raised his arm without hesitation.
In that moment, colossal wings unfurled from his back, and his short hair lengthened until it cascaded to his feet.
Enveloped in a fallen aura, his raven-black hair danced upon the wind, his pallid skin and crimson eyes blazing like blood—as Setikaael spread his wings wide, razor-sharp demonic energy surged forth on fierce winds toward Diana.
Diana swiftly erected a barrier of holy power and began her preparations for counterattack.
Yet the merciless demonic energy unleashed by the demon proved far beyond what a holy barrier alone could withstand.
Crimson blood erupted from the faces, arms, and sides of the Priestesses and Holy Knights standing behind Diana.
The Holy Order, gasping out groans, stared upward at the demon with eyes wide with shock.
In truth, even facing the torrent of Demon Beasts pouring into the Black Forest had been no simple task for them.
Yet the demonic energy emanating from the demon transcended that of the Forest and its creatures entirely.
The pitch-black energy, visible to the naked eye, evoked the sensation of a natural calamity—something no human could possibly resist.
Simultaneously, a chill ran down their spines.
Such ferocity, such cruelty, and power saturated with nothing but murderous intent….
Boom!
Two colossal forces collided, sending tremors across the entire expanse.
Diana, having repelled the demon’s assault, bellowed at the Holy Order.
“What are you standing there gawking for? Have you all lost your minds wanting to die?”
The words that fell from the young Saint’s lips were somewhat crude, yet all the sharper for it, snapping their senses into focus.
Any moment of relaxed vigilance now would bring certain mortal wounds—and with them, death.
They urgently channeled the holy power within their bodies, erecting thick protective barriers around themselves.
In the interim, the collision of holy and demonic forces erupted multiple times, and the pillars of the Corridor where they stood were obliterated without a trace by the tremendous explosions.
Their admiration for the fierce and violent battle lasted only briefly.
The Holy Order recalled the instructions Diana had given before entering the Forest and began their coordinated movement.
Setikaael faltered upon witnessing them move with sudden, perfect unity—neither aiding the Saint nor targeting her rear.
Simultaneously, Boom-boom-boom-crash!
“You think you can afford to be distracted with me standing right before you?”
Countless arrows of holy power rained down upon Setikaael like a summer downpour.
Even as he evaded and blocked the relentless assault, Setikaael sensed something peculiar.
This barrage of attacks, designed to keep him from gathering his wits, was not the Saint’s usual style.
Something felt off—as though she were desperate and anxious, which troubled him.
‘Where is Lia?’
The thought struck him suddenly, and Setikaael turned his head at once, but Lia was nowhere to be seen.
In the brief moment his attention had wavered at the Saint’s unexpected arrival, she had vanished without a trace.
Given her nature, she should have either aided the Saint in attacking him or done something—yet she had done nothing at all….
In that instant, his eyes widened.
Setikaael spun his body around urgently.
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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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