Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 249

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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 Guild members who had been exchanging grave glances about relocating the headquarters froze at the sight before them.
To the Terenthium Guild members, Setikaael’s smile had always been either a cold, blade-like laugh tinged with murderous intent or a contemptuous sneer mixed with disdain.
But the smile that now graced his lips was fundamentally different from anything they had witnessed before.
‘As if he were genuinely delighted and joyful….’
Lia, who received that smile, simply nodded as if it were perfectly natural.
That was when it happened.
“Jade.”
“…Yes? Yes, Master!”
Jade, who had been staring at Lia with displeasure, startled at the sudden call.
Setikaael’s lips twisted slightly as he read both fear and reverence in Jade’s eyes.
The executives, having watched over and raised Lia since childhood and served Setikaael closely, seemed to sense that she was someone special and treated her with particular deference.
However, the regular Guild members, being neither Demon Worshippers nor aware of Terenthium’s true nature, regarded Lia—who treated this place like home—as an eyesore.
Unaware that Setikaael had placed a seal on Lia’s heart and restricted her to limited abilities, they believed he bestowed upon her alone the power they so desperately desired.
And Setikaael exploited this very knowledge and resentment.
In other words, he provided the Guild members with justification to torment Lia, or created opportunities for them to do so.
Jade’s recent discovery of Lia’s infertility was also his doing.
He found it irritating how she, foolishly unable to create the family she so desperately wanted through her own strength, harbored not a shred of resentment and instead smiled as if it were fine.
He wanted to remind her that she was utterly alone in this world.
And he intended to use Jade, with whom she had never been close, to accomplish this.
But.
‘I thought I’d take her out to play since the Master keeps her around—maybe she’s good at night work—but did you really think you had any charm as a woman?’
‘Don’t delude yourself. The Master keeps you around because you can’t function as a woman, so there’s no risk of complications—not because he actually likes you.’
Jade had wounded Lia in a manner Setikaael had not anticipated, and he had thoroughly displeased him.
That night, Setikaael personally dealt with Jade, and afterward, Jade apologized to Lia as commanded.
Since Lia pretended not to notice and moved past it without concern, he ceased to dwell on it as well.
He never anticipated that Jade, unable to resolve the lingering resentment from that day, would relay a false mission to Lia instead of the one he had entrusted to him.
In the life where he had already turned back time, Setikaael had personally taken Jade’s life.
‘And he had regretted it ever since.’
How dare he disobey his orders and lie.
And because of it, Lia had died.
He should have made it more painful.
Setikaael, who had lamented that he killed him too easily, felt his lips curl upward as an opportunity to dispel that regret finally presented itself.
“M-Master…?”
When Setikaael smiled at him with an eerie expression, Jade startled as if his unspoken malicious intent had been discovered.
His eyes darted about nervously, but Setikaael turned his body and extended something to Lia.
“Lia, I’ll follow shortly, so pack your things and depart first.”
“Alone?”
“Yes. You can manage that, can’t you?”
She had been delighted to finally be entrusted with an important mission, only to be treated like a child.
Lia pouted her lips slightly and examined what Setikaael had handed to her.
It was a portal pass that led directly to the harbor.
‘So I’m really leaving the Empire.’
Lia, who had only now grasped the reality of it, nodded with a solemn expression.
Setikaael laughed softly at that face.
With laughter still lingering in his expression, he shifted his gaze to Jade, who continued to wait for his words.
His full, crimson lips curved into a smile as they parted.
“Jade, I have a separate task for you. Come with me.”
* * *
The harbor closest to Lunderhil, the capital of the Laksten Empire.
Two figures who had just disembarked wrapped themselves even more carefully in pitch-black robes, ensuring that no hair or face was visible beneath them.
The man, who was slightly taller, spoke to his companion.
“Father, please wait here for a moment. Duke Elrad said he would send a carriage for us.”
At the nod, the taller man hurried off to confirm the carriage at the designated location.
The fastest way to reach Duke Elrad’s Mansion in the capital would have been to use a portal.
However, the two of them were keeping their arrival in the Empire a secret, so they could not use the identification portal.
Still, with acceleration magic cast on the carriage, they would arrive around midnight.
“I wish the High Priestess—or rather, the Great Sage—were still alive.”
And his wife as well…
If she had not wasted away so pitifully and departed so suddenly, they might have walked upon the Empire’s soil together by now.
Weighed down by the guilt of failing to protect her, he had stepped down from his position and withdrawn from the world, receiving Bianca’s protection…
It was as the solitary man gazed out at the vast sea and released a long sigh.
“Wow, so this is the sea… Oof!”
A youthful voice came from behind, and suddenly someone tumbled forward and collided with him.
“I-I’m so sorry!”
An apologetic voice followed immediately, but the man was too busy adjusting the hood of his robe to respond.
Only after he had ensured that not a single strand of his golden hair was visible did he turn his head.
Then he saw a brown-haired girl repeatedly bowing and apologizing, saying, “I’m truly sorry. I got so excited that I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s fine, so please stop.”
The sun had set and the surroundings were dark, and he too was covered entirely in a black robe, so how could he blame the girl alone.
At his gentle voice and kind forgiveness, the girl slowly straightened up.
Her face was as youthful as her voice.
‘Around sixteen, perhaps?’
Yet her brown eyes seemed deeper than he had thought.
The thought that she might be the same age as his daughter caused his eyes to grow dim.
“Um… are you perhaps hurt somewhere?”
The girl, noticing his darkened expression, asked carefully.
She seemed concerned that the collision might have injured him.
“No, I’m fine. Just a bit tired.”
“Ah…”
The girl nodded awkwardly.
Upon closer inspection, the man was a strikingly handsome middle-aged gentleman with features rarely seen in ordinary company.
Yet whatever hardship he had endured was written plainly across his face—his cheeks had hollowed, and the skin beneath his eyes was dark and sunken.
With bloodshot eyes that spoke of sleepless nights, his admission of exhaustion could not be doubted.
And yet, separate from that understanding, something stirred inexplicably in my heart.
The girl, whose feet seemed reluctant to depart as her lips moved ceaselessly, suddenly began rummaging through the bag slung at her side.
The man regarded her with puzzlement, but the girl abruptly thrust a small flask into his hands.
“It’s warm tea. It should ease your fatigue.”
“Ah… thank you.”
“Please, think nothing of it.”
The girl answered with a radiant smile.
In that moment, the man froze.
An inexplicable sense of déjà vu washed over him—something beyond words.
He could not fathom why such a feeling had seized him.
Then, unbidden, the smile of a woman surfaced in his memory.
It was his wife’s smile—the one she had worn before she closed her eyes forever, after enduring days of torment following the loss of their child.
He had forgotten it, having not seen it for so long.
‘But why now…?’
“Excuse me, are you truly all right?”
The girl asked with concern, noticing how the man’s face had drained of all color, turning ashen.
He wanted to assure her he was fine, but his throat constricted, and no words would come.
It was then.
“Lia, come here.”
A man appeared suddenly from somewhere, calling to the girl from a distance.
Startled, the girl’s eyes widened, and she gave a slight nod before immediately running toward the man.
Grand Duke Bellus stared blankly at the two figures receding into the distance, his lips moving.
“…Lia, you said?”
If it was coincidence, it was a cruel one indeed.
The girl’s name—the very name that had conjured his wife’s smile after so long—was the pet name he had chosen for his daughter before she was even born.
The Grand Duke’s expression, which had twisted into a bitter smile, suddenly hardened like stone.
“Father.”
His son, Askart, who had gone to inspect the carriage, approached.
“If we leave now…”
“Askart, what exactly did Duke Elrad say?”
“Sir?”
“He said he had found a child who appears to be our Adriana, though her hair and eye color differ. That is what he said, is it not?”
Askart’s eyes widened in surprise at the Grand Duke’s sudden raised voice.
Though bewildered, he nodded nonetheless.
“Yes, the Duke did send such a message. That is why we came here, after all.”
In truth, Askart could not comprehend either Duke Elrad’s words or his father’s sudden frantic insistence on rushing to the Empire upon hearing them.
He could not imagine how a child with hair and eyes that were not pink could possibly be Adriana.
“What exactly did Duke Elrad say at that moment? Tell me again, in detail.”

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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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