Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 271

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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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One of the few Sword Masters on the Continent.
Even the Emperor himself—talents coveted by foreign nations—knelt first and waited for Lucio to speak.
It seemed he would do anything at a single word from him.
Though his expression was desperate enough to burst into tears at any moment.
‘And yet he claims no blood relation….’
If the child were truly his kin, I would have understood.
But after hearing the explanation, that wasn’t the case at all.
Lucio looked down at Jack with eyes that made no sense of it.
Then, suddenly, he realized something.
That he himself was searching relentlessly for a child with whom he shared not a drop of blood, a child whose name he hadn’t even known at the time.
Unlike Jack Seidian, who may have built unique memories together in the same Orphanage….
Lucio, belatedly aware that he was the one truly acting mad, let out a hollow laugh within himself.
At the same time, his mood twisted in an oddly uncomfortable way.
The person offering to help with the search possessed considerable ability, and since he had volunteered first to do anything—logically, he should have been pleased….
“I said I wouldn’t ask why you’re searching for that child.”
“Yes.”
“What if I’m searching to harm her?”
Lucio spoke words he didn’t mean, acting out of petty spite.
And seeing Jack’s startled expression, he was immediately engulfed in self-reproach.
He was about to take back what he’d just said, finding his own childish behavior unfamiliar.
“That’s impossible.”
Jack answered firmly first.
“Lia is… that child is quiet and well-behaved. She couldn’t possibly have offended the Young Duke.”
“….”
“I don’t believe the Young Duke would search so long to harm such a weak and small child.”
Jack Seidian, embarrassed at having taken the child’s side without knowing any of the circumstances, added this with a rare blush coloring his face.
Seeing him speak as though he knew the child well—setting aside his unwavering trust—my expression suddenly turned cold.
But this time, instead of acting spiteful, I nodded readily.
“No, you’re right.”
There’s no way I could harm that child.
It was impossible even to imagine.
Even now, all I want is to bring her to my side, feed her delicious things, give her precious gifts, and keep her safe.
Suddenly, regret washed over me for not chasing after her immediately on the day she fled, and my chest tightened with anguish.
Lucio sighed inwardly and asked.
“You said you’d do whatever you could. What makes you think I won’t ask something difficult of you?”
“Anything is acceptable.”
As long as we can find Lia.
The answer came back so quickly that the unspoken words were clear.
Feeling Jack’s desperation, Lucio clenched and unclenched his fist where no one could see.
“Are you certain I can find that child?”
It’s already been years without any progress.
So I’m terrified and anxious that I might never find her at all.
Of course, such feelings would never show on the surface.
Lucio was far too skilled at concealing his emotions.
Yet when Jack hesitated before answering, I found myself puzzled.
“…Yes. Unlike me, Young Duke, I believe you will surely be able to find Lia.”
Jack answered belatedly, his gaze lowered, his tone dripping with bitterness.
Only then did I realize the reason for his hesitation—the frustration and helplessness of being unable to find her through his own strength alone, forced to seek another’s aid.
Yet despite such wounded pride, the fact that he had come to me meant he truly, desperately wanted to meet that child.
Lucio let out a quiet laugh without thinking.
‘Remarkable.’
I was Duke Elrad, who even operated the Information Guild behind the scenes, while Jack was counted among the continent’s greatest Swordmasters.
Of course, I too was a Swordmaster, though unknown to the public.
My abilities were known only to my father Duke Elrad, Allen and Jack who had sparred with him several times, and my subordinates.
I couldn’t speak for Allen and Jack, but everyone else believed I concealed my strength because of the Emperor.
It wasn’t entirely wrong. After learning that my father had been subjugated by the Emperor due to a Demon artifact, I became extremely cautious to prevent any information about myself or House Elrad from leaking.
But long before I knew the true relationship between my father and the Emperor, I had hidden the fact that I was exceptionally skilled at handling mana.
There was no particular reason. I simply found the mana that everyone called a blessing deeply unsettling and uncomfortable, so I didn’t wish to use it.
Unaware that mana was actually the cause of Spleshia’s death, I clicked my tongue.
Not only was I like this, but the fact that Jack too was desperately searching for a child with such singular devotion was utterly astounding.
‘Isn’t this comparable to the Crown Princess that House Bellus and House Diapel have been searching for all these years?’
As this thought crossed my mind, my expression hardened.
Despite all the time that had passed, no clues about the Crown Princess had been found.
I was reluctant even to think it similar, fearing it might somehow affect the search for the child.
Clicking my tongue again at my own severity, I looked directly at Jack.
His visit today was entirely unexpected, but it seemed timely enough to resolve the concern that my father and I had been struggling with.
It was the matter of the Emperor forcing the marriage between Nicholas and Diana.
If Jack, a Swordmaster, swore the Knight’s Oath to Diana, even the Emperor couldn’t insist.
“You said you’d do anything within your power.”
“Yes.”
“Then swear the Knight’s Oath to Diana.”
“The Knight’s Oath…? Even without such an oath, as one belonging to House Elrad, I can pledge my loyalty to the Lady….”
“Do it publicly, so everyone knows.”
With those words, Jack realized that Lucio wanted it known throughout society that Jack harbored romantic feelings for Diana.
Jack, who had said he would do anything to find Lia, found himself hesitating without meaning to.
His resolve hadn’t wavered.
It was only that from the moment he learned of the “Knight’s Oath,” he remembered there was someone else he had long wished to pledge it to.
“Then, as you wish, I’ll share information about that child with you as well.”
But faced with these words, Jack could only answer that he understood.
Even if the Knight’s Oath had sailed past, meeting her first was necessary to protect her for a lifetime.
Lucio, with his keen perception, saw through Jack’s feelings at a glance.
But he pretended not to notice.
It wasn’t consideration.
Lucio was the kind of person who could seize even such emotions as weaknesses and shake them if necessary.
However, the moment he realized that the look in Jack’s eyes when he thought of that girl was strikingly similar to his own, he had a premonition that he too would need to name the emotions he had forcibly buried.
After Lucio thus turned a blind eye to Jack’s heart and his own feelings.
True to his word, Jack swore the knight’s oath to Diana before many witnesses, and the Emperor fell silent as if to say, “When did you bring up marriage talks?”
Lucio, relieved and releasing his tension, felt that day that everything was peaceful and proceeding smoothly for the first time in a very long while.
For the past several years, he and his entire family had endured such difficult times that he didn’t even want to recall them.
It had begun with his mother’s death.
Her sudden and futile death had left indelible wounds on all of his family.
Allen and Diana, who still needed their mother’s touch, and especially his father, wandered about like a man who had lost his very soul.
Had it not been for his children, he might have lost his reason entirely.
It was Lucio who, in his father’s stead, uncovered that the Head Maidservant was entangled in his mother’s death.
At the time, I honestly resented my father greatly.
He had inherited the title almost by force from my grandfather, the Previous Duke Elrad, and because of his contract with the Emperor, he had no room to properly govern the house.
No matter how much I tried to understand it that way, it was difficult to accept that he hadn’t known about such an evil person in his own home.
The same was true when the betrayal of Sid Valery, Vice-Captain of the Knight Order and from a vassal house of the Elrad Duchy, came to light.
But while comforting his father, who was severely reproaching himself, Lucio believed he too bore responsibility.
Had he paid more attention to matters within the house before establishing the Information Guild while trusting only his father and extending his antennae outward, perhaps the tragedy could have been prevented.
After spending time marked by self-reproach and regret, his family was finally beginning to emerge from the shadows bit by bit.
Of course, they still felt the empty space left by their mother, but they earnestly comforted each other’s wounds.
It was a day when I thought that if only we could find that girl safely and sever the noose around my father’s neck, there would be nothing more to wish for.
“That informant’s name is… ‘Lia’?”
“Yes. Brown hair and brown eyes. The appearance and distinctive features match those of the person my lord was searching for.”
“Her age?”
“She recently came of age, it is said.”
Lucio clenched his fist at the clue he had finally discovered.

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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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