Everyone Was Obsessed With Me After I Became the Youngest Princess Favorite

“Are you okay, Dana? Are you hurt anywhere? I was very scared.”

Diana rubbed her cheeks like a kitten as Lia, with her weary face affectionately stroked, looked at her. The people of the duchy who were watching her, forgot that it was a serious situation and all looked surprised.

‘To think that a normally fussy young lady behaves so meekly!’

Only Lia, who did not understand why, tilted her head at their reaction and met her eyes with the Duke, who was looking at her with an expressionless face. Then she spoke in a friendly voice the Duke hadn’t expected.

“Diana, come here. You have to go home.”

At that, the Duke picked up Diana, who jumped up and down excitedly, with one arm.

“I tried to scold her, but she didn’t cry, and she seems to have stayed strong, so let her look at you this once. Instead, will you listen to me now?”

“Huh.”

Diana rolled her eyes and groaned. She then smiled, as if playing her tease. Even though her hair was oily and her face was full of soup, she looked lovely.

“Sister crow, you will do it. No one will recognize you.”

Even though he recognized his daughter at a glance, when the Duke made a teasing remark, the knights watching her also helped one by one.

“I know what you mean.”

“If I go like this, the mistress and the young ladies will be surprised too?”

Little Diana puffed out her cheeks, not realizing that she was being teased. Cute in her form, the Duke smiled, holding Diana lightly. Smiles were also drawn on the lips of the knights. It felt as if the fatigue from all the while struggling to find the young lady had disappeared.

Lia stared blankly at the figure from her side, and once again the Duke’s eyes met hers. Her heart sank for nothing. She’s like a child caught doing something bad. When she saw her insensitive eyes, as if she were looking at her inanimate objects, instead of the affectionate look he had when he looked at Diana, she somehow felt that her secrets had been revealed. Fortunately, the Duke turned his head to Diana instead of saying anything out of the ordinary.

“If I go back like this, I’ll be ridiculed for the rest of my life, but I can’t hear resentment later. I’ll have to stop by the inn on the way back. Prepare the wagon for now.”

It was really time to break up with Diana. It wasn’t even that she didn’t know, but because she felt sorry for her, Lia lowered her gaze.

It was then.

“Daddy, what about missi?”

“…It would be nice if she goes with us if she wants.”

At that, Lia raised her head and looked around her with her puzzled eyes. The Duke, who watched her with his eyes narrowed, said.

“As long as she was looking for the child, she didn’t have to worry. If she comes to her senses, she will be sent to the same nursery school as the other children.”

Lia felt sorry for her.

“Would you like to come with us?”

“Jack has to go with you, not me!”

“Hmm?”

“Jack was hurt trying to save Dana.”

“…”

There was no change in the Duke’s expression at those words, and Lia became impatient. 

Seeing Jack rescued from being locked in the attic with Diana in her previous life, the Duke took him to the Duke’s house without saying a word. So she thought they would accept him again if he told me how he threw himself to save Diana. Then the Duke’s mouth opened again.

“Good. After the child wakes up, let’s talk. But do you not want to go with me?”

“I-I…”

As Lia hesitated to answer her question, the adults around her put on sad faces, as if they were still young and ignorant of the world. But Lia knew too. Without a doubt, she knew that following Duke Elad was a better choice than the nursery school.

‘Originally, with my status, I can’t even enter an ordinary aristocratic family. But if I can be hired by the Duke of Elad…’

It was too much of an opportunity for an insignificant orphan. But she was reluctant to answer, saying that Lia was still willing to go. She vaguely thought of going with the children at the nursery school, but she hadn’t even considered her option of following Duke Elad.

“Missi, isn’t it worth going?”

Then Diana looked at Lia with the look of an abandoned puppy. Tensions rose among those around her as she looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment. Lia, who had been keeping her mouth shut, didn’t know what to do, then nodded her head.

‘First of all, let’s appease Diana, and make sure Jack’s place is restored to its original position.’

It seemed like it would be a good idea to think about her own affairs after that.

* * *

While Duke Elad gave instructions on disposing of the nursery, she waited for the carriage with Diana on the other side of the nursery’s yard. She was drowsy because she hurriedly ate the bread and soup the knights had just handed out. Just then, a knight suddenly approached her. Without hesitation, he got down on one knee and bowed his head respectfully, placing his hand on his chest.

“My lady, thank you very much for being safe. Child, I also want to say thank you for taking good care of the young lady.”

The man said with desperate eyes and lowered his head once again.

“I will pay the full price for not escorting the lady properly.”

Then, he cut the jewel decoration on his sword exactly in half. In an instant, her eyes widened.

“Please accept the memento left by my father. Even if he were to be deprived of his knighthood, he would risk his life to protect the young lady…”

At that time, Duke Elad thumped and struck the back of the head of the man who presented the half-jewellery.

“Ignorant bastard.”

“Dismiss…”

“You are the only ones who take your parents’ belongings as proof of your negligence.”

She was convinced when she heard Duke Elad bruise her, saying, “I should worry about going back to work.”

Taze Seidian. A knight who wore a jewel ornament split in half on his sword. He was Jack’s adoptive father and the person who would later become the vice-captain of the Lexion Knights. Regarding the ornament he wore, many knights who adored him made numerous predictions close to fiction, such as being split during a life-and-death battle, a jewel that saved his life, and a ticket he shared with his deceased lover. It was a little futile, but it was a time when she thought that she could sell this information at a high price later.

“The carriage is ready, so let’s go.”

At the Duke’s words, Diana held her hand as if she had been waiting. She seemed worried that Lia might change her mind and not go with her. Even though they only spent a few days together, she was a little embarrassed to be with them more earnestly than a family she had a hard time meeting. Furthermore…

“I-do I ride this carriage too?”

It was clear that they had been in a hurry to get to this mountain range, but a wonderful-looking carriage caught his eye. She couldn’t ride on a horse like the knights, so she thought of course she would go by the wagon with the legislators and wizards standing in the back.

“Missi, go gachi with me!”

With Diana holding hands… 

“It’s enough for a small child like you to ride, so stop making noise.”

Hearing the Duke’s indifferent voice, she got on the carriage without hesitation. The chairs in the carriage seemed soft, and the clean ones seemed to smell good. On the other hand, she doubted if she could sit comfortably because her hair was dirty and her clothes were tangled. However, since she couldn’t stand up, she ended up sitting in a chair awkwardly. 

Soon she felt the carriage departing. She looked out the window at the nursery school, which was moving away, and noticed the children standing in a row and getting into different wagons one after another.

‘In my previous life, I watched Jack ride in the wagon from among those children.’

Being in the carriage leaving like this made her feel unfamiliar. With the realization that the future has changed, she wondered if she could live a new life. She, who had been wiggling her fingers in a vague and fearful heart, suddenly raised her head.

As the carriage departed, Diana, who had been very excited, fell asleep in the Duke’s arms. And just like that, she met eyes with Duke Elad, who was looking at Diana.

He asked her as if he had been waiting.

“What is your name? Age?”

“Li-this is Lia. There is no last name. 8 years old…”

Being an orphan, it’s only natural that she didn’t have a last name. Thinking that she added useless words because she was so stiff and nervous, she blamed her stupidity in her heart. She was worried that her face might have heated up, but the Duke’s mouth opened again.

“Did you know Diana’s identity? who I am.”

“… … !”

My eyes widened at the unexpected question.

‘You think I’m strange. Do you have any doubts?’

Contrary to the nonchalant way of speaking, his piercing eyes made his heart beat uncontrollably.

* * *

Duke Elad was curious and strange about Leah.

The child in front of her was a child with no corner to catch her attention.

She was a pale-faced child with a messy face, dressed in shabby clothes similar to the children I saw at the nursery school a while ago.

If he hadn’t been seen away from the attic, and had he blended in with the other daycare kids, he would have been an ordinary kid.

However, when the child who came to his senses clung to him with fear-stricken eyes, he was dazed as if he had been hit in the back of the head.

While he hesitated about what to do, as if he had been subjected to an unexpected surprise attack during the war, the child held out the evidence he had stolen beforehand as if he knew that someone would come to solve all the problems.

Evidence that can completely destroy the head of the nursery school.

In common sense, it was not an item that a child in such a small nursery school could recognize, and even if it did, it was not an easy action to steal it.

Only then did the duke begin to see the child again.

His body, hidden by his baggy clothes, was as thin as a skewer, and his face, bruised and scarred, was pale enough to show through the veins.

Her brown hair, randomly cropped short, was stiff and ragged at the ends, and her shallow-breathing cheeks were neither full of breasts nor flushed like Diana’s.

Did he notice that he was observing himself?

The child bowed his head and said.

“I recognized that Dana was a precious child.”

As he looked at the child who averted his eyes, the Duke became angry for some reason.

Strangely, he also felt stuffy, as if his chest was completely blocked.

—————————————————————

Translator Note:

Support me on Patreon