Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 268

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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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I nodded obediently several times, then pressed my lips together firmly.
Watching Lucio’s expression soften with relief at my answer, my hollow heart suddenly overflowed with happiness.
Unable to suppress the trembling corners of my mouth, I laughed brightly as if I had never been on the verge of tears.
“Were you worried? That I might still hold that incident against you?”
“No, the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“You’re so foolishly kind that I thought you’d forgiven Duke Elrad without hesitation.”
I wanted to make excuses on Duke Elrad’s behalf, but I was afraid there might still be an uncomfortable knot in my heart.
So Lucio confessed that he had deliberately come all the way to the Academy to bring up this conversation.
“You worry more than you let on.”
I tend to overthink things myself, but he’s no different.
“If I’d been bothered by such things, I wouldn’t have followed Duke Elrad in the first place.”
No matter how much Diana caught my eye, or how determined I was to restore Jack’s position!
Besides.
‘In truth, Raezl, Mother, and Grandfather blamed Duke Elrad and told young me that I bore no fault….’
But my thoughts were different.
Beyond keeping silent because I was frightened of the Director, I had always felt guilty about turning away from little Diana, who lingered around me.
So when my friends at the Orphanage resented Duke Elrad, I nodded outwardly while my conscience pricked me inwardly.
If only I hadn’t pretended not to know Diana like Jack did….
I sometimes imagined that if I hadn’t, perhaps I could have gone to House Elrad, and I envied that possibility.
But knowing Lucio would call me foolish again if I said such things, I gently led him toward the Fountain and changed the subject.
“So. Does your heart feel lighter now?”
“No.”
“Why?”
The misunderstanding about Duke Elrad has been cleared up, and I’m fine, so why not?
As I asked in bewilderment, Lucio, who had been studying my expression, let out a small sigh.
“You seem completely unbothered by your previous life now. But being here, I feel strange.”
I keep remembering the moments when I lost you….
Perhaps recalling how I had fled, Lucio’s eyes grew deeply shadowed.
He said he thought dealing with Kenneth Petite was the priority at the time.
If he had known he wouldn’t see me for so long, he would never have done it.
Unlike me, who had only recalled good memories in front of the Academy, seeing Lucio speak with a voice full of regret made my nose sting.
But to change the mood, I deliberately pretended not to understand and asked playfully.
“So you broke Kenneth Petite’s wrist? And even attacked his family?”
“He falsely accused young you of something absurd and used violence. He deserved to experience the same. And I never fabricated charges that didn’t exist.”
Lucio spoke with utter confidence.
I laughed as if it were ridiculous, but inwardly I was moved by how Lucio spoke as though he had never doubted me for a moment.
Even though the wound had already healed, it felt as though the moment I had felt most wretched in the world had closed cleanly once more.
Moreover, though I spoke reproachfully about his retaliation against Kenneth Petite, I was actually grateful.
That young me had been so terrified and wronged, so sorrowful, that I had even harbored the dark wish that I might have died instead.
Of course, I never shared such thoughts with Lucio.
It was obvious he would be hurt, and I despised the thought of him pitying me.
This had been true even in my previous life, long before I ever acknowledged my own feelings.
At first, I was too frightened by Lucio—his face so resembled Duke Elrad’s—to even think him handsome.
But as time passed, I found myself anticipating the days we would meet.
It wasn’t merely because he brought me food or medicine.
I cherished how he spoke to me in that soft, measured voice, gently coaxing away my fears.
‘He was an odd man, occasionally asking me to call his name or deceiving me by claiming chocolate was a magical potion… but still.’
I wanted to see him.
Yet at some point, meeting Lucio became something I dreaded.
I was too ashamed to show him my ragged, filthy appearance.
Even as I grew older, it remained the same. Even when I finally became a first-class Agent after grueling training and felt proud of myself, I could never stand confidently before Lucio.
‘Though I stopped viewing nobles as extraordinary… I still regarded Lucio as someone noble.’
Unable to even name my own feelings, I could only watch him from afar.
I thought that would be enough.
‘Of course, I occasionally imagined Lucio calling my name… but.’
Even when that wish was granted before I closed my eyes, I didn’t understand my own heart.
But now I do.
Why I was so ashamed to stand before him.
‘It was merely petty pride—not wanting to appear wretched in front of someone I cared for.’
And even now, receiving a confession from Lucio that I never imagined could be mine, becoming his lover, I felt that same emotion.
Embarrassed by it, I found myself speaking sharply without thinking.
“Still, there was no need to do all that just for some worthless street urchin…”
“You were never just a worthless street urchin.”
Lucio refuted me the moment my words ended.
I looked up in surprise, but he gazed at me as though he had no intention of taking it back.
“It’s you, no one else. In any circumstance, you could never be ‘just’ anything to me.”
I wanted to ask why.
But seeing the profound depths in Lucio’s eyes, no words came.
“Because you were so small and fragile.”
“…”
“And because you seemed afraid of me, I couldn’t approach you and could only watch from a distance. But.”
Lucio’s expression hardened coldly.
“How could I stand by when someone dared to insult and hurt you, someone I didn’t even know how to treat properly?”
It wasn’t a question asked in expectation of an answer.
Yet I reflexively wore an expression of disbelief.
Lucio’s brow furrowed slightly at my reaction.
“I’m serious. There was never a moment you seemed worthless to me.”
Not when you were a street urchin, nor when you were a maidservant.
“If I had ever disregarded you, I would have brought you to Duke’s Residence long ago without even asking your opinion.”
Though I spoke in a lighter, more playful tone than before, I could sense the deep regret beneath Lucio’s words.
My chest grew heavy, and Lucio seemed strangely distant.
Just as I had failed to bare my true feelings due to pride, Lucio too seemed unwilling to share everything with me.
For instance, why I could never be anything more than “merely” to him in any circumstance, and so on.
Yet I could sense the reason instinctively.
Still, even if I pressed him now, I doubted Lucio would confirm it.
‘There’s a plan anyway.’
Postponing the matter, I squeezed Lucio’s hand firmly.
“It’s all in the past now. We’re together like this right now, aren’t we?”
At my words, Lucio nodded with a clouded smile.
Unlike me, for whom pleasant memories from my previous life burned brighter, Lucio still carried vivid painful ones, and I felt a pang of sympathy.
‘What can I do?’
After a moment’s thought, I quickly retrieved something from the bag I’d brought.
And then.
“Here, try this.”
“…?”
I popped a round chocolate directly between Lucio’s slightly parted lips.
As he stared at me in surprise, I spoke with triumphant confidence.
“This is a magical potion that lifts your spirits.”
“….”
“So, do you feel better now?”
Lucio, whose eyes had reddened at some point, looked at me and let out a soft laugh.
“Not yet.”
“What?”
How could he not feel better after eating such sweet chocolate? Especially when I’d deliberately prepared mint chocolate just for him!
As I made an exaggerated expression of shock, Lucio’s smile deepened.
He tilted his head slightly and whispered into my ear.
“If you kiss me, I think I’d really feel better.”
Never again would this place bring melancholy to mind.
‘Oh my, I’ve lost it!’
Right in front of this sacred Academy!
* * *
“Ta-da!”
Lia spread both hands wide with a proud expression.
Lucio couldn’t help but break into a radiant smile at the sight.
Just moments before, Lia’s face had flushed crimson as she repeatedly muttered “I’ve really lost it!” while nervously glancing around to see if anyone had heard him—and how adorable she looked.
What had begun as half-jest had instantly transformed into genuine sincerity without a trace of falsehood.
Whether it was the longing he glimpsed in her eyes or his own desire to replace the sad memories of this place before the Academy with beautiful ones.
After a moment’s hesitation, Lia whispered, “Then let’s go somewhere else,” and took his hand.
And so, through teleportation magic, they arrived here.
“What do you think? My secret place.”

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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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