Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favourite - Chapter 73

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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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Watching Askart flustering about before the scattered desk, I found his flustered state oddly endearing, and I smiled inwardly as I spoke.
“It’s quite alright. The eldest young master also tends to leave his desk in quite a mess.”
As I observed Askart, whose face remained flushed despite my reassurance as he continued organizing, I quickly scanned through the books he had been reading.
‘Wow….’
Though I had anticipated it to some degree, they were all advanced grimoires without exception.
Seeing this, I suddenly had a thought.
‘Wouldn’t Askart be able to resolve my curiosities as well?’
In truth, I had been in quite a confused state recently while reading grimoires.
Magic fundamentally involved constructing and releasing incantations through magical power derived from mana, and understanding the incantations was the foundation of magic implementation.
Delving deeper, there were subdivisions from attributes like water and fire to categories such as offense, defense, summoning, and manipulation, but the problem was that this was something I had never heard of once while learning magic from Master.
The mana manipulation techniques Master had trained me in so thoroughly also had no related content whatsoever.
Ultimately, I had no choice but to discard everything I had previously known and study magic almost as if acquiring entirely new information.
Of course, there were overlapping parts among them.
The ‘quality of mana’ and the ‘quantity of mana’ differed from person to person, and both were innate and unchanging through acquired effort.
‘Yet I have become completely different from before.’
Given that I had returned from death, perhaps this was already a matter of a different realm entirely.
“Oh no…!”
At that moment, the books being organized collapsed, and the papers that had been on top scattered to the floor with a flutter.
It seemed Askart was the type who made more mistakes when flustered.
Feeling an odd sense of kinship, I quickly bent down to pick up the scattered papers when I paused.
The paper I held displayed a magnificent magical circle I had never seen before.
The geometric form composed of dozens, hundreds of straight and curved lines was shockingly intricate and beautiful.
“Wow, so beautiful… huh?”
I examined the magical circle closely and tilted my head.
“Grand Prince! The mana flow here seems a bit strange. It looks like it’s colliding.”
At my offhand remark, Askart blinked, then quickly grabbed the glasses he had carelessly left on his desk and approached my side.
The moment the thin silver-rimmed glasses settled on Askart’s well-defined nose, which had emanated such an endlessly gentle atmosphere, he transformed instantly into an intellectual appearance.
I felt momentarily flustered as the handsome student-like Askart suddenly appeared like a cynical scholar, and I suddenly grew tense.
In truth, I had only recently begun properly studying magical circles, and it was not a field I knew well.
I was regretting foolishly speaking up, certain that he must have drawn a higher-dimensional magical circle that I simply didn’t understand.
“Oh my goodness.”
After examining the section I had pointed to for quite some time with a troubled expression, Askart drew a breath with a short sigh.
Unable to suppress his intense emotions, he trembled and cried out with shaking hands.
“How could I have missed this part? With opposing attributes arranged like this, it never activated properly!”
He immediately pulled out a fountain pen from his pocket and began correcting the magical circle while calculating formulas.
I watched Askart’s concentrated form with interest for only a moment before he quickly finished the corrections and looked at me with gleaming eyes.
“Lia, are you perhaps a genius? I’ve been struggling with this for weeks, and thanks to you, I’ve solved it! I was foolishly only examining the wrong parts.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
Seeing Askart unable to hide his joy, I too found myself smiling naturally.
“No, it’s more than that—you’re truly, truly brilliant!”
Contrary to his initially composed demeanor, Askart transformed the moment we began discussing magic—his excitement palpable, almost unrecognizable. Even when I pleaded with him to stop out of embarrassment, he continued lavishing me with compliments about my intelligence and genius.
My cheeks burned from the praise, yet I couldn’t help but smile shyly, and so I ventured to ask him carefully.
“Um, there’s something…”
“Yes?”
“Well, when I write to Bianca, may I mention that you said I was intelligent?”
“What? Aha, haha.”
I wasn’t sure what he found so amusing, but Askart suddenly burst into laughter and gently patted my head.
“So intelligent, yet adorably cute too! Is this what it would feel like to have a younger sister?”
The moment those words left his lips, Askart seemed startled by his own statement, his body trembling slightly.
Soon, a wistful smile crossed his face.
The atmosphere plummeted in an instant.
And I suddenly understood why the air had grown so awkward.
Though it happened quite some time ago, anyone with even a passing interest in the Bellus Duchy would know of this tragedy.
‘Of course, I only learned of it much later, after entering Terenthium…’
“The truth is, I had a younger sibling too, just like Lucio.”
Askart began speaking in a subdued voice.
“I never got to see their face properly before losing them. But seeing you makes me keep thinking of them. Or perhaps… it’s been this way ever since I heard that Lucio’s siblings were coming today.”
I hadn’t wanted to face this…
Yet without realizing it, I left the library, Askart laughed, calling himself foolish for doing so.
I had never seen someone smile while looking so sorrowful.
“Do you miss your sibling?”
When I asked gently, Askart bit his lip and nodded.
“I do. And my parents must miss them even more than I do.”
“…”
“If I hadn’t lost them, they would have grown up kind and intelligent like you. Do you think they would resent us?”
Watching his eyes tremble and contort, I felt tears threatening to spill.
“Your Highness, I’m an orphan. I have no parents or siblings, so I don’t fully understand… but still, I think it would bring happiness to know that somewhere, family members are missing you like this. I would never resent anyone for that.”
My voice wavered slightly as I finished speaking.
Fearing I might break down, I quickly turned my head away and drew a deep breath to suppress the overwhelming emotions.
After a moment, I felt Askart also regain his composure, his breathing becoming steady.
When I turned back to look at him, he seemed embarrassed that we had shared such a conversation upon our first meeting, offering an awkward smile.
Yet his gaze toward me held a warmth that hadn’t been there before.
“Lia, you’ve solved a problem that’s been troubling me, so I want to repay you. Is there anything you’d like or need? You can ask for anything. Oh, if you’re interested in magic, I’ll formally invite you to the Bellus Duchy. You know the largest Magic Tower on the continent is located in our duchy, right?”
Askart spoke with uncharacteristic pomposity, apologizing to the mages of the Empire and kingdoms, insisting that the mages of the Bellus Duchy operated on a different level.
I wondered why he had come to study at the Imperial Academy if his duchy was so superior, but something he mentioned suddenly came to mind, so I spoke without hesitation.
“Your Highness! Then please help me solve this problem!”
* * *
“Who did Lia go with, and where?”
Having barely escaped the gathering of noblewomen, Duchess Elrad immediately sought information from the knights escorting her and made her way to the Academy Dormitory where the children were said to be.
While searching for Lia, who was nowhere to be found, she was startled upon hearing Allen’s explanation.
“You went to the library with Ascart? And here I thought you’d come to enjoy the festival!”
Allen himself found little amusement in the festival—the student vendors’ makeshift stalls held no appeal, and touring the lecture halls and academy facilities had grown so tedious he could scream.
He simply wanted to hurry to the Martial Arts Building to watch some duels, perhaps catch the fireworks, and be done with it.
The only reason he’d agreed to visit his brother’s dormitory was a fleeting curiosity.
“Brother, how do you even live in such a cramped space?”
Allen remarked with evident astonishment as he surveyed Lucio’s dormitory room.
In truth, Lucio, as the Academy’s top student, enjoyed far better accommodations than most, yet to Allen—who had spent his entire life in the Duke’s Mansion and Duke’s Castle—it remained hopelessly confined.
Given that the Academy strictly assigned dormitories by academic ranking, he would receive something even smaller, and the prospect of his future living quarters already filled him with dread.
“You manage somehow.”
Lucio answered without concern for his brother’s deep worries, taking Diana’s hand as she bounced on the sofa, signaling it was time to leave.
The Duchess Elrad watched her son’s gruff yet tender demeanor with quiet satisfaction, and as they stepped out of the dormitory, she found herself glancing toward the library.
‘Of all people, it had to be Askart.’
The news that Lia was with the Grand Duke of Bellus Duchy—Bianca’s target—set the Duchess’s heart ablaze with worry.
She understood well enough; with such talent, Lia’s passion for magic was boundless. Yet the thought that she might suddenly announce her departure for Bellus filled the Duchess with anxiety.
“Diana, I’ve told you—character matters more than appearance!”
“His character is handsome too! He’s kind!”
“How would you even know?”
It seemed Allen and Diana were already bickering about Askart themselves.
Diana called out to the huffing Allen.
“That older brother sparkles just like big sister! So he must be kind!”

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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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