Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 267

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

Lucio asked carefully, noticing my reaction.
“Did I choose the wrong place?”
I snapped back to attention, my expression softening.
“No, not at all. I’m just surprised—I never expected to come here.”
“I suppose it’s not the most typical date spot.”
Lucio offered an awkward smile before continuing hesitantly.
“Still, I wanted to come here with you.”
At those words, I gazed around with fresh eyes.
Since afternoon classes were in session, students were nowhere to be seen, though merchants occasionally appeared cleaning the storefronts.
That’s right—Lucio had brought me to the Academy.
Returning here after so long, the place felt strangely unfamiliar.
Yet at the same time, I felt a warmth of nostalgia.
Now, the memory of attending the festival with Diana, my heart racing with excitement, was far more vivid than the pain I’d once suffered here.
And wasn’t it on that very day that I first met Askart, my older brother?
The bright, innocent version of him I can no longer see….
Recalling Askart as he was then—that sorrowful, beautiful boy who had lost his sister and grown distant from his family—a small laugh escaped me.
Moreover.
‘When I think about it, my previous life held many precious memories.’
Of course, they were all memories Lucio had created for me.
When I was trembling in fear of that noble boy who bore such a striking resemblance to Duke Elrad, whom I’d seen at the Orphanage, Lucio treated me with such genuine kindness.
During those harsh days as a beggar, encountering Lucio occasionally became a source of great strength for me.
His kindness was so unfamiliar that I didn’t know how to respond, yet it was something I would treasure and never forget for a very long time.
Remembering those days, my heart fluttered strangely.
Perhaps Lucio felt something similar to what I felt.
So I asked carefully, wondering if that was why he’d brought me here.
“Why did you want to come here with me?”
“…I wanted to apologize.”
But Lucio’s answer was not what I expected.
“Apologize?”
“Yes.”
Lucio answered with a dejected expression, as if he’d done something wrong, then took my hand and began walking slowly.
“I told you before—your friend Jack Seidian was looking for you.”
I nodded.
Lucio hesitated briefly before continuing.
“I only learned you were from Tessar Orphanage when he came to find me.”
He learned your name from the Beggar Gang children and discovered how you’d drifted from an orphanage in a territory outside the Capital City to here.
“But I never imagined Diana had spent her childhood with you….”
Since Lucio had been in the Capital City rather than the Duchy when Diana went missing, he only heard about it later, and though he eventually learned about Jack’s origins and how he came to be taken in by House Elrad, Lucio said he hadn’t paid much attention at the time.
It was only after Jack came to find him that he learned the details of what had happened back then.
“I shouldn’t have let innocent children end up on the streets like that.”
Lucio exhaled a heavy sigh, wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
“It’s strange—whenever those Beggar Gang children who were with you saw me, they’d always avoid me. I thought they were just intimidated by nobility, but that wasn’t it at all.”
They had been terrified because he resembled Duke Elrad far too closely—the father who had dismantled the Orphanage and abandoned them so cruelly.
Confronted with this unexpected revelation from the past, my eyes trembled violently as I listened to Lucio’s words.
Without concrete evidence, it was highly probable that the Duke in my previous life had been brainwashed by the Demon who orchestrated and observed my misfortune.
I was about to tell him there was no need for such guilt-ridden expressions.
“Thinking of how much you must have suffered, I shouldn’t make excuses like this… but Father’s condition seemed rather strange back then.”
I paused and asked.
“Strange? In what way?”
“He didn’t remember you or the other children.”
“Ah…”
Jack, who had lost consciousness while shielding Diana and only regained awareness later, apparently learned that the Duke had left the children behind and requested to be returned to where he originally belonged.
Knight Taize, who had been privately concerned about the children, brought the matter up.
〈What are you talking about? Children?〉
The Duke responded as though he had completely forgotten everything that had happened at the Orphanage.
“Since Knight Taize and others all told him the same story, Father became confused but still sent his knights back to the Orphanage.”
To move the children to a safe place.
My mouth slowly fell open as I learned this truth about the past I had never known.
“But when they arrived there, the children were already…”
“Gone.”
Lucio gave a bitter smile at my words and nodded.
“He said they searched every nearby village to find the children.”
They were still young, and not much time had passed, so he had no doubt they would be found quickly.
But they only discovered the single village the children had briefly passed through after descending the mountain, and ultimately never learned where they had gone.
I couldn’t understand how even the smallest village could drive away children without letting them stay even a single night, but there was no point in growing angry—it was already too late.
The villagers themselves, just like Father, only repeated that they couldn’t quite remember or didn’t know.
“Still, Jack Seidian couldn’t give up.”
Even skilled knights far more experienced than I was eventually abandoned the search.
“After becoming a formal knight in House Elrad, he continued searching for you. Starting from the areas around Tessar Orphanage, he checked villages and convents where orphans might have settled… and even the Beggar Gang.”
“Ah.”
Only then did I fully understand the process by which Jack had come into contact with Lucio.
‘I had already heard that while tracking the Tessar Orphanage children, he learned that Lucio was also searching for me…’
Jack had gradually expanded his search area until he finally encountered the Orphanage children here, in front of the Academy.
And Lucio had asked those children my name and inquired about me.
〈Jack? You’re that Jack?〉
〈Goodness. You became a knight? Well, it makes sense since you saved the youngest lady of House Elrad.〉
〈Lia…? She left here a long time ago.〉
〈Why are you looking for her?〉
〈Why else? The Young Duke must have sent someone again.〉
Perhaps some conversation like this had taken place.
Jack was taken aback by Lucio’s sudden appearance, but it was clear he had sought him out to gather information, knowing that Lucio was also searching for me.
‘What am I supposed to be?’
Jack had even confessed his feelings to me, but truthfully, his emotions didn’t resonate with me.
In my previous life, we had barely exchanged more than a few words, which made it all the more difficult.
Yet hearing such a confession, I found I couldn’t help but believe him.
Now I understood why Lucio had insisted that Jack was sincere, even knowing that Jack had taken my life in the previous world.
‘The reason he cares so deeply for Jack.’
But I felt only apologetic and grateful toward Jack—nothing more.
I had been looking down for a moment, but now I lifted my gaze.
My eyes met Lucio’s, who was watching me with a somewhat fearful expression.
I regarded him quietly before asking.
“So, have you finished making all your excuses?”
“…Yes.”
“Then shall I tell you the truth now?”
“The truth…?”
“You said Duke Elrad didn’t remember things well from the Orphanage. At that time, there was nothing that stood out to you either, was there? But doesn’t something come to mind now?”
Lucio, who had been blinking slowly at my words, froze.
“Surely not.”
“Similar to when you were under the Demon’s spell?”
“Yes.”
Lucio’s expression grew hollow as he belatedly grasped the situation.
I offered a bitter smile.
“When I suspected that Raezl and Master were ‘Demons,’ I had already pieced together to some extent.”
That Duke Elrad had abandoned me and the orphanage children due to the Demon’s brainwashing.
“But I didn’t know he had sent knights.”
The memory of steeling myself to obtain mercy, not knowing that, for fear the Duke would abandon us again, struck me as almost absurd.
But.
“The real problem was me.”
My lips slowly curved downward.
If only I hadn’t existed.
The Demon would never have brainwashed the Duke, and the orphanage children would never have ended up on the streets.
The Duke would have guided them to a proper orphanage.
“Because of me…”
“Not because of you. All of it was because of the Demon.”
Then Lucio cut off my words with firm resolve.
My eyes grew hot as I looked at Lucio, whose face had hardened with determination.
Trying to hide this, I furrowed my brow slightly and spoke with a hint of petulance.
“You’re right. It was all because of the Demon.”
“From beginning to end, everything. So don’t you dare blame yourself.”
“Okay.”

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