Celebrity Lady - Chapter 102

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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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Celebrity Lady
Episode 102
Click.
Lark quickly opened the desk drawer and pulled out a First Aid Kit.
So that’s what he came for.
“Sorry for waking you. Go back to sleep.”
“Wait!”
I scrambled up and snatched the kit from Lark’s hands.
“Rubetria, ow.”
“Good grief. How did you even…”
There was no need to ask—wounds from fighting the assassins the Second Prince had planted, no doubt.
“Sit down. Let me take care of it.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Quickly.”
I muttered irritably, my tone sharp with frustration, and Lark—noticing my mood—quietly sat down.
“Ah.”
As I wiped away the blood, a pained groan escaped his lips. The wound was clearly serious; he clenched his teeth, wincing.
“Sigh.”
As I examined the wound with uneasy eyes, I felt his gaze on me. I looked up and our eyes met.
“Ha.”
“What’s so funny…”
“Look here.”
Lark pulled something from his back pocket and waved it in front of me while I was disinfecting the wound.
At first glance, it looked like a Map with scattered red X marks scrawled across it.
“I caught them all.”
“Pardon?”
“The last team had some capable fighters, so I had to work for it, but I got them all in the end.”
“You finished already?”
“You wanted to go to the Ball, didn’t you?”
I blinked in disbelief, and Lark chuckled softly.
“I had to let you go. It’s your first and last debut in High Society, after all.”
“…”
“It’ll be extravagant. A party you’ll never forget. I went to some effort for you, you know.”
“…? You prepared the Ball? Isn’t that usually the Princesses’ work?”
“True. But the host for this Ball was Lizbet.”
“Ah.”
It seemed Lark had taken over while Lizbet was in Confinement.
I couldn’t believe he’d managed such an exhausting schedule—even ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough.
“…Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Unable to find other words, I continued tending to Lark’s wounds.
Sitting awkwardly with both arms propped behind him, Lark winced each time my hands brushed him.
“Your Highness.”
“…Yes?”
“You said you trust me, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation, and I paused as I applied Gauze to his wound.
“How could you change so much? What if I betray you?”
“Ha, if you were going to betray me, you would’ve done it long ago. You knew Nathan would become Emperor and prosper, yet you deliberately chose the harder path and came back to me. Why would you do that if you meant to betray me?”
“I suppose that’s true.”
I grew a bit smug as I began wrapping a Bandage around Lark’s waist.
Lark, who had been chuckling, spoke quietly.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
I paused mid-wrapping and glanced up, only to find Lark’s eyes inexplicably sad.
His hand gently touched my cheek.
“It’s just… I thought I had to become the kind of man worthy of you while you grew up. I forgot that while I was waiting.”
“…”
“If I had found you a little sooner… perhaps many things would have been different.”
It seemed Lark, without asking me anything, had somehow pieced together the truth.
“Maybe you wouldn’t have had to endure that painful life at all.”
The Wish I had made to Wishit—that wasn’t a vision of a future yet to come, but a Regression, undoing what I had already lived through.
I nodded slightly, affirming his guess.
“It’s all right. I got a second chance, didn’t I?”
“True. Ow, that hurts. Be gentle…”
“Stop complaining.”
I’d barely wrapped a few rounds before running out of Bandage—his frame was simply too large.
As I fetched a fresh one and continued wrapping, Lark called to me softly at the end.
“Ruby.”
A bit more tenderly than before.
“Yes?”
“Thank you… for finding me.”
“…”
“No matter what happens this time, I’ll protect you.”
His sincere confession flustered me. In the end, I couldn’t say anything and simply continued wrapping the Bandage.
Each time I wrapped it around his waist in an embrace, I became oddly aware of his chest brushing my cheek.
“Mm.”
I tried my best to compose myself and quickly finished the treatment.
“All done—”
And then.
Lark gently caught my arm just as I tried to pull away.
I froze. His face was inches from mine. Beautiful, strange golden eyes shimmered with danger.
…This was definitely a kiss moment.
Tension crept quietly up my throat.
Slowly, his face drew nearer. With it came the familiar scent I’d grown accustomed to. I closed my eyes.
…?
But the lips that should have met mine remained distant.
I cracked open one eye. In that breathtakingly close distance, his gaze was fixed entirely on my lips, as if anguished.
Seconds passed.
He laughed softly, then pulled back.
“This is driving me mad.”
Lark rose, still smiling, and ran a hand over his own cheek.
He turned to me, who was sitting there blinking.
“We need to graduate you from being a Business Partner soon.”
* * *
Ordinary days.
Ordinary times.
Even without Rubetria, every moment flowed as harshly unchanged as before.
“I’m going, brother. Today Lilia will be the star!”
“Biego, wait—I, Ricky, will bring honor to our House!”
“My, children. Don’t run so carelessly. Let’s go together.”
“Hurry, Mother!”
The twins, who had barely slept in days waiting for the Debutante Ball, departed for the Imperial Palace early that morning.
‘Did Grandmother and the twins already forget about Rubetria? How can they be so unbothered?’
Biego watched the Carriage bearing Molga and the twins disappear from the second-floor window and let out a bitter laugh.
‘We don’t even know where Rubetria is or if she’s alive…’
It had been a month and a half since Rubetria was kidnapped.
Now it seemed everyone had forgotten her.
“You’ll drop dead yourself at this rate. Rubetria will be fine. Stop worrying and do your own work.”
Even Father.
“Hmm, she’s not dead. Rubetria’s probably alive. She’ll come back when the time comes. Look after your own health.”
Even Victor.
“Rubetria…”
Only Biego remained trapped in shock, thinking of her.
Then.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The door burst open with hurried footsteps.
“Brother!”
“…Victor?”
Biego’s heart suddenly began to race. Victor had been organizing the Imperial Knight Squad to search for Rubetria.
Had he found some trace of her…?
“Come quick! We found Rubetria! She’s downstairs right now!”
“What?”
“We found her this morning. I told you so. I said she’d be safe.”
“Really? Wh-where? Wait, no—”
There was no time for questions. Biego practically shoved Victor aside and rushed from the room.
His hurried footsteps were so reckless they nearly slipped, yet somehow he made it to the first floor.
“Biego.”
“Ah, little Duke. You came?”
The parlor was quiet.
There stood Leonard, Lark, and—contrary to Victor’s words—
A single unfamiliar woman of strikingly flamboyant appearance.
“Your Highness!”
Biego rushed to Lark like a madman and gripped his shoulders tightly.
“You found Rubetria? Really? Where is she? How is she right now?”
“Hm?”
“Ugh. H-where… ugh…”
Guilt. Longing. Relief.
These churning emotions spilled over without warning. Tears streamed down as he began to cry like a child, his vision blurring.
“Ugh. Ah, ugh… Rubetria, hurry…”
“L-little Duke? Calm yourself.”
Leonard, for some reason looking displeased, caught Lark’s eye, and Lark quietly nudged the woman standing behind him forward to Biego.
An unfamiliar woman suddenly entered his tear-filled vision.
Her slender frame and luxuriant red hair flickered across his tear-blurred sight, but…
Biego had no time to examine a stranger’s face right now.
Instead of his longed-for sister, some random woman hovered in his sight, and Biego felt frustrated.
“Move aside.”
“Oof!”
Biego pushed the woman’s shoulder somewhat irritably, shoving her to the right.
“Are you all right?”
“Y-yes, I’m fine.”
Leonard caught the woman before she stumbled and expressed concern, but Biego had no mind for it.
He turned back to Lark and pleaded again.
“Your Highness, please. Show me Rubetria right now. This instant…”
“Little Duke. The lady is right here.”
“What?”
“Ha-hahahaha!”
Victor, who had followed behind, burst out laughing while holding his belly. Leonard immediately frowned and scolded him sharply.
“Heh-heh, ah, I mean, this is funny, right? What do you call it? Missing what’s right in front of you?”
“Don’t show off.”
As Leonard rebuked him, Lark—gauging the atmosphere—tried to coax Biego with an awkward smile.
“Come now, little Duke. Wipe your eyes. You can’t see properly like this. There we go.”
“Show me Rubetria, please…”
Biego, still agitated, roughly used his sleeve to wipe his eyes.
The boy was burning up inside—why wouldn’t they show him Rubetria already?
“Good, that’s good. Focus your eyes now. And look here.”
Lark brought the woman forward again and positioned her in front of Biego.
As his blurred vision cleared, the woman’s face finally came into focus.
“…?”
The woman before him, once he could see clearly, was a complete stranger…
“Rubetria?”
…wasn’t she.
Skin as white as spun sugar. Golden eyes and crimson hair. And a small tear mole beneath her left eye…
Though her slender frame, completely free of excess, differed entirely from the last time he’d seen her, her face was unmistakably Rubetria’s.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“You… you really…!”
What on earth had happened to Rubetria since her abduction? What cruel people had put her through such suffering that she’d become half of who she was?
“Why…”
Though he had countless questions, Biego shook his head.
Whatever had happened, whatever hardships she’d endured—none of that mattered now.
She had returned safely. Rubetria.
To this House. To her family’s embrace.
That alone was what mattered.
Biego pulled Rubetria into his arms with trembling limbs.
“O-older brother?”
The tears came again, flowing freely.
All the dignity of a Head of Household seemed trivial once he’d cried like a child.
“Ah…”
“…?”
Every night he’d soaked the pillowcase with tears, ashamed even to fall asleep, so desperate was he for her return.
“N-no… Please, don’t cry. It doesn’t suit you. What will people think?”
“Rubetria…”
As she gently stroked his back to soothe him, Biego managed to choke out the words he’d been holding back.
“I’m sorry.”
“Pardon?”
This was the one thing he’d desperately wanted to say.
The first words he’d meant to speak when she returned.
“I’m sorry, sister. I failed you.”
“…”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

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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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