Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 298

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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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Though the war with the Demon Realm still raged, the Human World gradually reclaimed the peaceful visage it once knew.
A man stood motionless, watching pale petals cascade like rain from blossoms that bloomed in profusion, when a sudden question stirred within him.
‘Would she have cherished this too…?’
Snow accumulated relentlessly each day—enough to weary anyone—yet Spleshia would brush the flakes from her pink hair and smile brilliantly, declaring the snow flowers beautiful.
Surely, then, she would find joy in spring blossoms that resembled me.
The man attempted to conjure that image, but it eluded him.
Furrowing his brow, he slowly turned his body toward his sanctuary.
It was a cave much like the one where he and Spleshia had dwelt together on Snow Mountain.
He entered the dark, humid space where not a single ray of sunlight penetrated, and settled against the frigid wall.
A biting cold pierced through his skin, burrowing deep into his very bones.
Familiar cold. Familiar solitude.
In the darkness, the man’s blue eyes blinked slowly as he reflected.
‘Yes, this is right.’
A world where he eternally swallowed loneliness alone—that was the one befitting him.
Everything before had been aberrant.
So it was that she lived, and those brief days we shared together….
Yet why?
That fleeting span—mere moments in the vast expanse of my existence—now felt like a dream, yet those moments refused to fade from memory.
No, that is a foolish question.
Spleshia was the first spring I had ever encountered.
Those days were so warm and tender that my heart, having wandered unwelcome and lonely everywhere, seemed to have finally found a place to rest.
‘How could I possibly forget that…?’
The man, reproaching himself for his foolishness, laughed coldly.
Yet his face bore not the slightest trace of mirth.
His pallid cheeks held no hint of blood, his lips were parched, and only his blue eyes gleamed with intensity.
He appeared simultaneously as though a single misstep would bring catastrophe, and yet so fragile that the gentlest touch might shatter him like a sandcastle.
Because of this, despite being a principal figure in the Castle War and an undeniable ally to humanity, the man was not an object of admiration but rather a shunned figure—called a Monster Hunter.
Of course, the man paid no heed to such gazes.
Had Spleshia lived, perhaps he would have cared, but now everything felt meaningless.
Even the will to live that had barely rekindled felt the same.
When facing Demon Beasts, his blood boiled with vengeance against the Demon Realm.
But when he was not, he sank into profound helplessness.
And in those moments, invariably….
‘I should have stopped being stubborn and let her listen instead of making her shiver through the night in the cold.’
‘I should have told her that I too, like those around her, wanted to become her family.’
‘…No, I should never have opened my heart from the beginning.’
He always spent such hours consumed by thoughts of her.
Sometimes with resentment, sometimes with regret, sometimes with prayer….
There were countless days when he felt like a madman, yearning for and remembering someone already dead and gone with such terrible intensity.
Yet he could not stop his thoughts.
Even when he closed his eyes and sought sleep, the memories kept surfacing.
A youthful face wearing a gentle smile, carefully cradling delicate grasses in both hands beneath sunlight that shimmered with unusual brilliance.
A crystalline voice humming cheerfully with each buoyant step, as if walking upon clouds, despite having nothing good in life to celebrate.
A pale pink luminescence—vivid and unwavering—gripping him with a frame so small it could shatter, with wrists so fragile they seemed ready to break at the slightest pressure.
“….”
Before long, his distorted eyes glistened with moisture.
As if to conceal his tears, he raised his arm to cover his face.
Are you happy now, having left me alone in this Hell?
Emotion surged within him, yet today sorrow and regret ran deeper than resentment.
I missed you so terribly. I wanted to see you again.
That child who would smile tenderly when our eyes met, who would ask if I was in pain and place a hand upon my forehead, who would gaze at me with such warmth while I ate.
“If only I could speak honestly.”
The truth was, no one had ever given him a name.
Though he had already been exposed as a rejected existence, he wanted to hide that he had been abandoned from birth.
He wanted to confess that he had deliberately pretended not to hear whenever asked his name.
The expression of disappointment—lips pouting slightly—lingered painfully in his chest as he exhaled a breath like a whimper.
“…!”
The man, whose already keen senses had grown even sharper upon becoming a Sword Master, suddenly lifted his head.
He sensed the presence of Demon Beasts not far away.
In his azure eyes, hatred blazed like scorching flames.
Rising swiftly, the man rushed out of the Cave.
With movements as elusive as a phantom, he began slaughtering the Demon Beasts in sight with ferocious abandon.
His blade was wreathed in a vivid azure aura.
He resented and despised having gained the power of the Demon that had caused Spleshia’s death.
Yet when he considered it one of the traces Spleshia had left upon this world, it became bearable.
Of course, this too would only last until the day he annihilated all Demon Beasts from the Human World and took his revenge upon the Demon.
After leaping high and cleaving the final Demon Beast in two, he wiped the blood from his cheek with indifference and pondered.
He hoped that day would come as soon as possible.
Once he killed the Demon and completed his revenge for Spleshia, then he would….
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“…!”
Lucio’s eyes snapped open, and he hastily rose from his seat.
At the same moment, the book he had been holding until just before sleep fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Only then did Lucio glance around, confirm he was in the familiar Library, and exhale a shallow sigh before wiping his face broadly with his hand.
Feeling an inexplicable chill at the nape of his neck and a parched throat, he reached for the cup on the table, only to find it empty, and immediately rang the bell.
Lucio ordered warm tea to be brought and leaned back against the sofa.
“I should have just slept in the Bedroom.”
Since recovering all memories from ancient times and his previous life, he had naturally recalled the past on numerous occasions.
But he had never experienced such vivid dreams of the past in this manner.
I tried to convince myself it was due to the uncomfortable bedding, but I knew that wasn’t the real reason.
“Lia….”
The truth was, I longed for my beloved even in dreams—that tender ache of wanting to see her.
Suddenly, regret washed over me.
Had I known Lia would suddenly depart on this journey with Diana, I would have forgone taking another vacation after the coronation and simply thrown myself into work instead.
It was a miscalculation on my part to have assumed Lia would want to spend as much time with me as possible before leaving for the Grand Duchy.
Though I felt a touch of disappointment, at least it afforded me the opportunity to conduct a thorough final review of the proposal.
Yet no amount of preparation could fill the sudden void in my schedule or ease the ache of her absence.
Just then, the tea I had requested arrived.
Lucio reached for the cup without thinking, then paused slightly.
The crisp mint-scented tea was something he had always savored and kept close at hand.
But thanks to the dream I had just experienced, I now understood clearly why I had come to cherish this particular fragrance.
〈This is Mickenel grass. It’s good for pain relief, and especially effective for headaches.〉
Because Spleshia carried medicinal herbs for pain relief, she always carried a subtle mint fragrance about her.
Her fingertips and clothes bore traces of plant oils from handling the herbs.
Whenever I found myself gazing at her in that state, utterly captivated by her charm—
〈W-what are you looking at?〉
A startled Spleshia would quickly hide her hands behind her back.
〈I’m clean!〉
〈…What?〉
〈It’s not dirt! I really do wash my hands thoroughly. So don’t get the wrong idea!〉
Everyone knew Spleshia spent all day gathering herbs and handling plants—surely no one would harbor such a misunderstanding.
Besides, she herself had never minded tending to patients who hadn’t bathed in days….
When I was left speechless by her obliviousness, Spleshia would grow even more distressed, insisting on her innocence.
Then and now, her lack of awareness and her lovable nature remained exactly the same.
Thinking of Lia, Lucio let out a soft chuckle, took a sip of tea, and set the cup down. Then he murmured quietly.
“Even if you truly were dirty, it wouldn’t have mattered to me at all.”
Certainty rang through those brief words.
Because it was the truth.
In my previous life, when I saw Lia as a grimy beggar, I never once thought her dirty.
Rather, I felt an almost inexplicable sense of her being precious—so much so that I wanted to embrace her with all the world’s goodness and let her experience every joy.

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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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