Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 56

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

“Pardon?”
At the maidservant’s words, I felt my mind go completely blank, as though all the color had drained from my world.
“That doesn’t make any sense….”
“So I searched around and found these things.”
My eyes widened as I saw what they presented as evidence.
It was a dress that the Duchess Elrad had prepared for me when I stayed at the Duke’s Castle for a banquet.
“The Duchess gave that to me!”
I cried out urgently.
That dress, identical to Diana’s, was one of my treasures, so I had kept it in a box deep within my wardrobe.
Beside it, I had also carefully preserved the letter Bianca had given me.
Shock and fury made my vision tremble violently.
Then the maidservant holding the dress let out a scornful laugh.
“What? The Duchess gave it to you? Even if the Duchess favors you, you’re still a maidservant. Yet she bought you a dress adorned with all these jewels? This is an expensive dress you couldn’t afford even if you saved every penny from a lifetime of work. You expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true. The Duchess….”
“Sonya, you said it clearly, didn’t you? You saw this dress in Miss Diana’s wardrobe.”
The maidservant who attended to Diana’s grooming nodded.
“Yes. It’s exactly the same. She definitely stole it.”
“Did you really think you could lay hands on your master’s belongings and face no consequences?”
“I knew something like this would happen eventually! To think we let such a light-fingered girl run wild in this mansion.”
As they spoke, already convinced I was a thief, my blood ran cold.
Though I felt wronged and utterly defiled, I tried to compose myself.
“The Duchess bought me the same dress as Miss Diana’s. I didn’t steal it. I’m telling the truth. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the Duchess….”
“Pfft.”
The maidservant holding the dress couldn’t contain her bursting laughter, her eyes narrowing with malice.
“My, how bold. Now you’re even telling such ridiculous lies? Did you think I’d be intimidated? Or perhaps you’re hoping the Duchess will overlook this because she favors you?”
“That’s not it….”
I was about to retort immediately, my chest feeling ready to burst from frustration.
Then I spotted a crumpled letter scattered on the floor.
“How… how could you do such a thing….”
In that moment, the maidservant’s face, twisted in a cruel smile, looked like a monster.
At the same time, I felt an unfamiliar and savage impulse—a desire to tear that maidservant to shreds without mercy.
I had never felt this way before.
With trembling lips, I barely managed to speak.
“Truly, I didn’t steal anything. This isn’t a lie….”
In that moment, a sense of déjà vu washed over me.
As though I had experienced something like this before….
〈How dare this beggar girl steal my things?〉
〈No, no! I didn’t steal anything!〉
“…hah.”
It was no mistake.
Then, and now.
I had always pleaded with utmost sincerity, yet all that returned was mockery and contempt.
I clenched my teeth and laughed with a ruined face.
As I suddenly burst into laughter, I felt the maidservants’ bewilderment.
The temperature in the room grew progressively colder.
Yet paradoxically, my body burned with a strange, searing heat.
Like an arrow piercing my chest, a fiery pain erupted in my heart.
That was when it happened.
“A wicked child like you deserves punishment.”
One maidservant spoke coldly, and the others immediately seized both my arms.
They grabbed my skirt hem and lifted it upward, exposing my calves.
As my body trembled with rage, the maidservant—perhaps thinking I was frightened—smiled with a thin, cruel sneer and produced a long, slender rod. She spoke with menace.
“Once you leave here, you’ll have nowhere to go, you orphan girl. Do you really think someone as unremarkable as you have the right to act so brazenly?”
In that moment, I finally understood what I had done wrong.
My sin was being too ordinary.
Those who envied me despised that someone so utterly unremarkable received love.
In their eyes, I was neither beautiful nor accomplished—so painfully ordinary that I was beneath them, yet somehow I received love instead of them, a fact that filled them with resentment.
No matter how hard I strived for recognition, no matter what I actually accomplished, they could never acknowledge it.
I was the kind of person who made them see white with envy.
Easy.
Defenseless.
The kind of existence they could crush whenever they wished.
I know I am unremarkable and pathetic.
I know I am not extraordinary enough to deserve such love.
But I could not endure being trampled upon like this.
At last, my chest ignited with a blazing fire.
“Do you know what?”
I muttered, as if spewing this scorching flame.
“I have been tolerating you all this time.”
“What? You all?”
“I truly endured it. I was just trying to let it pass quietly.”
It was the truth.
In fact, I could have left House Elrad at any moment.
I told myself I was still too young, that I needed both money and time to prepare for independence.
I had not left because I thought I owed a debt of gratitude to House Elrad.
None of these were lies, yet simultaneously, they were all convenient excuses.
I could have gone to the bank and retrieved the money I received when I found Splesia, I could have prepared for independence elsewhere, and I could have repaid my debt in other ways.
So my continued work as a maidservant, enduring these whispers and torment, was ultimately my own choice.
Because I wanted to be by Diana’s side.
Because I wanted to save the Duchess Elrad.
And so I had sworn in this life not to be bound to anyone else, yet I had given my heart away once more.
“How foolish.”
“Ha! So you’re showing your true colors now, are you?”
At my words, the Maidservant who had been frozen in place flushed red and promptly raised a riding crop high into the air.
“…?!”
“Kyaa, kyaaah!”
“Aaaaah!”
In that instant, the Maidservants began screaming in unison.
But all I could see before my eyes was crimson.
Flames.
* * *
“Did I get the time wrong?”
Duke Elrad tilted his head as he entered the Dining Room.
It was certainly evening, yet only Allen sat at the table.
“Allen, where are the others?”
Allen shrugged as if he had no idea.
It was just as Duke Elrad took his seat, bewildered.
“I’m sorry, I’m a bit late.”
Duchess Elrad entered the Dining Room with Lucio.
“How did you two come together? Did you meet on the way?”
“Ah, well….”
The Duchess trailed off and smiled shyly.
“We were having tea together just a moment ago.”
“The two of you?”
Duchess Elrad nodded, her joy unmistakable in her expression.
Seeing this, a faint smile spread across Duke Elrad’s face as well.
“Tomorrow the sun must be rising in the west. What on earth is going on?”
“I’m not entirely sure what you mean, Father.”
But his eldest son’s expressionless, indifferent reply quickly dampened his curiosity.
“Where are Diana and Lia?”
Though the chairs in the Dining Room were quite full, it still felt empty.
In truth, it was only two young girls who were absent, yet the emptiness their absence created was far from trivial.
“The young lady is still resting. She was sleeping so soundly that I couldn’t bring myself to wake her. Should she wake later, I shall bring her dinner separately, so please don’t worry.”
The Head Maidservant answered in her usual curt manner.
Allen, who had gone looking for Diana after training only to come up empty, now recalled Lia, whom he had also failed to find in the library.
He clicked his tongue, thinking the two must have been having quite the time together.
“What about Lia? Even if Diana is sleeping, the child needs to eat dinner.”
“Well, when I went to wake the young lady, she wasn’t there, so I suspect she’s either in the library or has returned to the Dormitory. There is a Servant Quarters dining area, so please don’t worry too much.”
The Head Maidservant replied flatly to the Duchess’s words.
From the start, she had disapproved of Lia eating here, so the Duchess fell awkwardly silent.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the Head Maidservant seemed unusually displeased today.
“I’ll go fetch her!”
At that moment, Allen shot up from his seat.
Whether she was in the Library or the Dormitory, he was ready to find Lia and bring her back immediately.
‘The Servant Quarters dining hall, no less.’
Allen had always thought that if someone who ate so little found themselves separated among the servants, they’d be too anxious to eat properly.
The Duke and Duchess, unaware of this, exchanged puzzled glances—wondering why Allen, who usually complained about Lia, was suddenly looking after her.
“Go ahead.”
“Huh? Yes.”
That was when Lucio’s unexpected approval came.
Allen was hastily turning to leave, still bewildered, when—
“P-please, Head Maidservant.”
A maidservant burst into the Dining Room with her hair and clothes disheveled.
The Head Maidservant immediately frowned.
“What is the meaning of this! How dare you barge in here like—”
“I’m so sorry! But it’s urgent!”
“What’s happened?”
At the low voice, the maidservant finally noticed the Duke and his family, and she faltered.
As she hesitated, glancing nervously at the Head Maidservant, the Duke’s expression hardened coldly.
“Do I need to ask twice before you answer?”
“It’s… there’s a fire in the Servant Quarters!”
The terrified maidservant cried out. Simultaneously, the Duchess’s face went pale.
“In the Quarters? How did… Lia!”
“How large is the fire?”
The Duke rose from his seat and asked. He was preparing to go see the scene himself.
Then the Head Maidservant stepped in his way.
“I’ll go check on it, so please continue your meal. It’s raining outside, so it should be extinguished soon. There’s no need for you to go yourself over such a trivial matter—”
“No.”
That was when—
Lucio rose with a rigid expression on his face.
He, who had always been indifferent to everything, felt a sudden, profound tension the moment he heard the word “fire.”
“Father, I think it would be best if you went to see for yourself.”
Before Lucio’s words even finished, the Duke bolted from his seat.
Allen moved to follow Lucio, but the Duchess stopped him.
“Allen, you stay here. I’ll go check.”
As the Duchess left the Dining Room, Allen, left alone, felt his strength drain away and sank back into his chair.
Something told him that something serious was unfolding.

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