Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 273

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

“My Lord! The Imperial Princess from the Liven Kingdom has…!”
It all began when Serphin, who had gone as the representative of the Liven Kingdom’s delegation, caused quite the scandal.
The Crown Prince, already notoriously aggressive by nature, had just ascended to the throne, and the entire Continent was on edge.
Surely the Foreign Ministry officials and those around her who accompanied the delegation must have made this fact clear to her.
“No matter how thoughtless one might be, to lose control of one’s temper and cause trouble in a foreign land….”
It was undoubtedly because Lucio had refused to accompany the delegation under the pretense of Diana’s birthday, and she’d thrown a fit, her irritation twisted into a catastrophe.
Of course, Lucio felt no sense of responsibility for the incident, nor did he regret not going to the Liven Kingdom.
For him, the fact that he had confirmed Lia’s existence with his own eyes was far more important than anything else.
Still, fearing that Serphin’s recklessness might provide a pretext for war, he had no choice but to rush to the Liven Kingdom immediately.
As expected, the New King of Riben escalated the Imperial Princess’s rudeness into a serious matter between nations and demanded excessive compensation.
Lucio, rushing about to resolve this, spent far more time in the Liven Kingdom than originally planned.
It was as if someone had deliberately bound his feet in place.
The clues he thought he’d almost grasped kept slipping through his fingers right before his eyes, and he had to endure one difficult situation after another.
By the time Lucio finally managed the crisis and even settled the matter of succession in the Liven Kingdom, several months had passed.
Naturally, Lucio was extremely anxious.
‘He must have already met with Jack Seidian by now.’
In fact, before departing for the Liven Kingdom, he had summoned Jack and provided information about Lia as promised.
Of course, he hadn’t mentioned the part about working as an agent for the Information Guild.
He had only told him about the cafe in Terenthium’s headquarters where Lia worked as a clerk.
How he would discover and find his way there was left entirely to Jack’s discretion.
Lucio hoped that Jack would be honest about it.
If he heard that Jack had also been searching for Lia for a long time, perhaps—just perhaps—Lia might come to find him first.
However, the one who greeted Lucio upon his return to the Empire was.
“Older Brother! I think I saw the Crown Princess Bellus!”
It was Diana, his youngest sibling, spouting something completely unexpected.
“You saw whom?”
“Grand Duchess Bellus! Pink hair and pink eyes, and she was a beauty who looked exactly like the late Grand Duchess!”
Lucio, calming down the excited Diana, asked a question.
“Diana. Wasn’t it quite a long time ago that you last saw the Grand Duchess?”
“No matter how long it’s been, she was my godmother—how could I forget?”
Diana, realizing her older brother didn’t believe her, widened her eyes and puffed out her cheeks.
Her younger sister’s threat wasn’t frightening in the slightest, but if she sulked, it would last quite a while, so Lucio let out a shallow sigh.
“This isn’t something to speak of lightly. If you’re wrong….”
Not only would relations with the House of Bellus become awkward, but those who had already suffered such tremendous wounds would be burdened with yet another sorrow.
Diana, understanding the situation, spoke with conviction.
“I’m certain. She really is Grand Duchess Bellus.”
“Fine. But if you’re so certain, shouldn’t you meet that person and discuss it with her first, rather than telling me?”
“That’s why I came to find you!”
“…?”
Confused, Lucio heard Diana cry out in exasperation.
“On my birthday, I saw someone working as a maidservant in the Banquet Hall. They posted a temporary help notice, and I heard my older brother was the one who hired the maidservant. Do you know anything about it?”
“…What?”
In that instant, Lucio’s face stiffened almost imperceptibly.
Though it lasted only a moment, he couldn’t perfectly conceal his agitation as he feigned a calm voice and asked.
“Are you sure you didn’t see wrong? Maybe you mistook someone among the banquet attendees….”
“No! She was definitely wearing the maidservant uniform of our Duke’s Estate. Though her beauty couldn’t be hidden….”
Diana furrowed her brow suddenly as she spoke.
“But older brother, there’s actually a problem.”
While the Grand Duke’s golden hair wasn’t a common color, the Grand Duchess’s pink hair was an even rarer shade.
Moreover, the Grand Duchess’s beauty had never spread widely across the Continent—not after the Emperor had closed the Imperial Palace gates and taken to his sickbed in profound grief when she died.
Yet a woman bearing a resemblance to the Grand Duchess walked through the Banquet Hall without drawing a single glance from anyone.
Everyone, that is, except Diana.
“I asked the Butler, and he said the temporary maidservant they hired back then had brown hair and brown eyes….”
Lucio listened motionlessly to Diana’s dejected murmur.
Diana, oblivious to Lucio standing in the midst of a raging tempest, spoke carefully.
Diana, unaware of Lucio standing in the midst of the fierce storm, spoke carefully.
“Older brother, actually, you know when I was kidnapped as a child and stayed at an orphanage?”
Lucio’s fist, resting on the desk, trembled slightly.
Why, of all times, was Diana bringing up the Tessar Orphanage now?
I’d heard that the incident had been so traumatic for Diana that she’d fallen gravely ill after returning to the Duke’s Castle, and afterward, she rarely spoke of her time there.
Later, when Lucio reunited with his younger sister in the Capital City, he’d felt relieved seeing her restored to brightness.
He’d thought that at her young age, she must have forgotten everything from that time.
But then.
“Actually, I was so scared and hurt back then. I missed Mother and Father so much that I cried every day, and whenever I did, the other children would glare at me menacingly….”
Surprisingly, Diana remembered those days vividly.
As if merely recalling it brought sorrow, Diana’s lips pouted slightly, and her eyes suddenly changed.
“I saw her back then. A beautiful older sister with pink hair and pink eyes.”
“…!”
“But I kept thinking it was a dream. Because, well, if there really was a child with such an appearance, Father wouldn’t have just left her behind.”
Lucio recalled his father’s account of how strange the situation had been at the time, but he couldn’t even move his lips.
His mind felt clouded with fog, suffocating, while simultaneously a panic seized him as if he’d fallen into a terrifying trap.
Diana continued speaking as if she didn’t particularly expect an answer from the silent Lucio.
“But when I saw a woman resembling the Grand Duchess at this banquet, that memory came back. And when I heard that no one had seen anyone with pink hair and pink eyes…I wondered if maybe it only looked that way to my eyes.”
Knowing full well how unbelievable her story was, Diana opened her mouth again to persuade Lucio.
But Lucio spoke faster.
“I understand. Now leave.”
Diana frowned, but seeing Lucio appear confused in a way unlike himself, she eventually rose from her seat.
Click.
The moment the door closed, Lucio exhaled the breath he’d been holding and gripped his forehead.
The Crown Princess, of all things.
Even as I thought it was absurd, my heart thundered in my chest as though I’d stumbled upon some tremendous secret.
“Summon Jack Seidian.”
“At once.”
Though uncertain how to process this situation or what course of action to take, Lucio summoned Jack with the ease of one who already knew precisely what needed to be done.
Since Jack had been absent from the Empire, he would have met with Lia during that time—it seemed prudent to hear his account first.
But then.
“You didn’t meet her?”
“No, sir. I went to the location you mentioned, but Lia was not there.”
Jack’s face darkened as he spoke, his initial anticipation curdling into disappointment.
In that moment, Lucio sensed that something had gone terribly wrong.
When Jack reported that he’d questioned other staff members about Lia but received no useful answers, Lucio hastily summoned even Darel’s informant—the one attempting to make contact for recruitment—only to find that avenue equally barren.
‘Could it be because of me?’
Because he had approached Lia…?
Indeed, after Lia’s visit to Duke Elrad’s Residence, she’d been walking about in a daze, which made it quite plausible that the Demon had noticed something amiss and taken countermeasures.
Of course, Lucio could not have deduced such truth, and he clenched his teeth.
Perhaps Lia had deliberately vanished to avoid him—the thought struck his heart like a blade, sharp and piercing.
Yet if this were not of her own will but forced upon her, that was far more dangerous.
Seized by sudden suspicion, Lucio questioned Jack again.
“Did she ever ask you about her hair color or eye color?”
He held no great hope—only that Diana’s words continued to gnaw at his mind.
And then, Jack’s expression shifted to one of profound shock as he replied.
“How did you know that?”

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