Chapter 9

The youngest princess's favor was monopolized, so everyone is obsessed with me (Chapter 9/247)

* * *

“There’s an orphanage in such a remote mountain area.”

Led by Duke Elard, the Lexion Knights arrived at the Tesser Orphanage.

As soon as they entered the gate, a desolate atmosphere lingered.

Weeds grew haphazardly.

An old swing, rusted and creaking in the slightest breeze.

The space was so gloomy that it was hard to imagine it as a place where children lived.

The Duke, with a cold gaze, observed the scene and then spoke.

“Bring the director here.”

“Yes, sir.”

And a moment later.

“I, I didn’t know such a distinguished person had come.”

A man in shabby clothes rushed out of the orphanage, unable to meet the Duke’s eyes. He quickly moved to gather the children in the snow-covered courtyard, trembling in the cold.

The children, barely clothed, shivered and bowed their heads.

Before the Duke, frowning, could say anything, the director lifted the emaciated arms of the children, his eyes brimming with tears. He pleaded that the children barely survived each day on the meager government subsidies.

The Duke, seeing the director’s overt display, quickly scanned the children.

Sure enough, Diana was not there.

Even though he had suspected that the missing child was the work of kidnappers and that she wouldn’t be in such an orphanage, he still felt a sense of disappointment.

Then, the Duke suddenly felt a strange sense of unease from the director.

The director, acting submissive and fearful, was overtly seeking support and claimed to be concerned about the children, yet had left them in the cold.

“Have you ever seen a girl with silver hair and blue eyes?”

As the Duke asked, the children visibly flinched. One child, who had lifted his head out of curiosity, quickly averted his gaze.

“Answer quickly, don’t you hear? Hurry up!”

Prodded by the director, the oldest-looking child spoke.

“I’ve never seen such a child.”

“If you lie, I will never forgive you.”

“I, it’s true.”

The child’s trembling voice made the Duke’s face grow colder.

Seeing this, the director felt a chill but quickly put on a brazen expression.

He had installed recognition-blocking artifacts in the attic and his safe, spending half of the money he had saved up to date.

He was confident that even Duke Elard and the Lexion Knights would not find evidence of the child and slave trade.

At that moment.

Bang!

Before the search began, the mana in the air suddenly fluctuated, and Bianca, who sensed it first, rushed forward.

“I feel the flow of mana.”

“Indeed. Director, can we inspect the orphanage?”

The director, taken aback, nodded, and the Duke turned his gaze. The search team moved in unison.

At that moment, the director felt a foreboding sensation run down his spine.

* * *

“...What is this?”

Bianca, who first detected the mana flow and arrived, was frozen in place at the unexpected scene.

She couldn’t move a finger at the sight of a child lying on the ground.

“Commander!”

One of her subordinates snapped her out of her daze.

“I feel mana from that child.”

Bianca, hearing this, felt a pure and powerful mana that she should have noticed earlier.

The child’s body was emitting an uncontrolled mana aura.

However, the mana was wildly distorted.

‘There’s no other entrance nearby, so it seems the child fell from upstairs. But the injuries are minimal. Did the child unconsciously use magic to protect the falling body?’

It was rare, but such cases existed.

Before learning to control their magic, some children’s mana would run wild.

The problem was that if left unchecked, the child’s small body might burst.

Determined to save the child, Bianca approached in a single stride and extended her hand.

At that moment, knights surrounded the backyard, and Duke Elard and the director arrived.

The director’s face turned pale upon seeing the fallen Ria.

He had blocked the windows with multiple planks, so how did this happen!

Moreover.

“Daddy!”

The unexpected voice made Duke Elard immediately look up.

It was Diana, who had been hiding and watching the situation after Ria’s fall, now shouting upon seeing the Duke.

The Duke, who had never expected to see his daughter here, felt a moment of relief.

But it was short-lived, and his expression turned stern.

Diana was precariously leaning out of a broken window, ready to jump.

The Duke’s mouth opened in alarm.

“Diana, stay there and wait.”

At that moment, the director’s face, which seemed to have reached its limit, turned almost ashen.

“Cough!”

Then, Ria, whose wild mana had been calmed by Bianca’s help, began to cough.

“...!”

Ria, regaining her senses and blinking, froze at the sight of the icy blue eyes.

Though the same color as Diana’s, whom she had spent days with, Ria felt an instinctive fear, and her mouth moved involuntarily.

“P-Please save me.”

At her words, Duke Elard, with his statue-like beauty, frowned, and Ria’s heart sank in terror.

‘Scary person.’

No one in the empire was unaware of the rumors that Duke Elard was cold-blooded, but Ria knew better than anyone that the rumors were true. She had experienced it firsthand.

In her previous life, Duke Elard had executed the director on the spot and left the Tesser Orphanage children, who had seen Diana’s danger but remained silent, to return to his estate. He only took Jack, who had protected Diana.

The orphanage children, with no place to go, became vagrants and eventually joined a beggar gang.

Ria was no different.

She shivered in the cold, begging all day, only to have her earnings stolen by the gang leader, and hunger became a daily routine.

One day, she was falsely accused of stealing.

The next day, she ran away, gasping for breath, not wanting to live another day.

‘I can’t repeat that.’

This time, she would never defy his will.

But what she needed to do now was.

“Jack is upstairs... my friend is hurt. Please help.”

“Did this one do it?”

Bianca, standing beside her, asked, and Ria’s eyes widened.

The woman with her chestnut hair tied high had a strong and kind appearance.

Ria, feeling more at ease, nodded and said without thinking.

“He always insults us and says he will sell us all as slaves!”

“Slaves?”

Bianca, already speechless at the visible signs of abuse, was even more shocked.

The director’s face turned pale.

“It’s a lie!”

He reached out to cover Ria’s mouth.

As the large hand approached, Ria closed her eyes, bracing for the pain.

“Aaaah!”

At the same time, a scream erupted from the director.

Ria stared at the large back blocking her view.

It seemed the director’s wrist had been completely twisted backward by the Duke.

A tear fell from her eyes.

Ria, startled, wiped away her tears.

‘I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t afraid.’

The Duke’s anger was not directed at her.

But... she couldn’t be completely at ease.

“Child!”

Ria, ignoring Bianca’s call from behind, ran to the orphanage courtyard.

She saw the children, dressed in rags, standing in a line, as if waiting for punishment.

Ria, feeling her heart ache, began to dig under the tree where she had left a mark.

“Sister!”

Then, a moment later, Duke Elard, holding Diana, appeared with Bianca, the knights, and the restrained director.

Ria felt relieved seeing Jack being moved by the knights.

She also felt a heavy sense of responsibility seeing the pale faces of the children.

“What is this?”

“This is the secret ledger documenting the director’s transactions of children!”

The director, who thought he had hidden all evidence, panicked upon seeing the familiar cover of the document Ria handed to the Duke. He began to scream and rave, and was eventually gagged by the knights.

The children, who had seen the once all-powerful director being subdued, looked confused.

Ria, who had experienced this before, desperately shouted.

“There are many documents of embezzlement and corruption as well! The director never treated us like humans. The children pretended not to know, but it was all because of threats...”

As Ria’s explanation grew longer, the expressions of not only Bianca but everyone present hardened.

The Duke’s eyes were especially cold and terrifying.

“So, the children said they hadn’t seen a girl like Diana. Are you saying the children are not at fault? No matter the reason, those children lied to me.”

Ria felt a freezing fear at the Duke’s calm voice.

But she didn’t look away. How could she turn a blind eye to the future of these children, knowing exactly what would happen to them?

“Please forgive us. We were scared. We were wrong!”

Ria knelt and begged for forgiveness, tears streaming down her face.

The children, one by one, followed her, kneeling and crying, begging not to be killed.

Seeing the emaciated and crying children, Diana, too, began to sob, her lips trembling.

The Duke, pressing his temples, spoke in an annoyed tone.

“Begging for your lives. When did I say I would kill you?”

“...Sniff.”

“I won’t kill you, so stop crying.”

“...Sniff?”

“I mean to forgive you.”

Only after hearing that the children would be moved to other orphanages did Ria finally stop crying.

With the problem she had been so worried about resolved, she felt drained.

“Sister!”

At that moment, Diana, who had been struggling in her father’s arms, ran to Ria.

“Sister, are you okay?”

Diana, with tears in her large eyes, examined Ria’s face and body.

Only then did the Duke and the knights realize that Diana’s sobs were for this child.

They also realized who had been looking after their precious young lady all this time.