Celebrity Lady - Chapter 117

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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
Chapter 117
* * *
“They said it wasn’t overwork…. You didn’t feed him spoiled food just because you dislike your brother, did you? Even if I hate him, I should be the one doing it?”
“Oh, you’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t even eat with the young Baron yesterday. I had no idea I’d end up retching in the middle of the street. Was I too harsh…?”
The next day.
Lark was taken aback by Rubetria’s question as she made time to visit him despite her busy schedule.
“Too harsh? What did you say to him?”
“Nothing much.”
Rubetria, who had been staring intently at Lark as he shrugged, let out a sharp sigh.
“It’s about time you told me what’s going on with the investigation into our house.”
“Ah, well, about that…”
“I imagine you don’t want to tell me to protect me. Would the shock be bad enough to make me retch like you did?”
At Rubetria’s sharp intuition, Lark scratched his cheek.
“I’m grateful that Your Highness is helping even though there was no need for it. I’ll prepare myself mentally and wait for whatever comes.”
“Why would I not need to help? Your affairs are my affairs now.”
“Haha.”
“And… could you tell the Duke to stop by the Imperial Palace sometime this week? I have things to discuss and favors to ask.”
“Hm? Father?”
“Yes. I’m a bit reluctant to contact him directly and summon him myself… I’ll have to ask you.”
Rubetria nodded as she watched Lark smile awkwardly.
“What exactly will you tell him?”
“…”
“Something that might shock him just as badly as it did you, right?”
Lark smiled bitterly.
“As long as you’re by my side, it should be fine.”
“Yes, I will be.”
It wasn’t difficult to infer that all her suspicions were true.
Rubetria, unwilling to pry open Lark’s mouth and confirm the facts herself, rose with a forced smile.
“Oh!”
As Rubetria turned to leave the room, she placed the tip of her index finger to her lips with a soft kiss, then pressed it gently to Lark’s lips.
“…?”
Rubetria giggled at Lark’s expression of surprised stillness.
“We’re still just business partners, so that’s as far as it goes for now. I have a meeting with merchants this afternoon, so I’m heading out. See you later.”
“Oh…”
“See you, Len~”
With a wave of her hand, Rubetria breezed out of the office like the wind itself.
Lark stood dazed for a long moment, then cleared his throat and turned, revealing Leonard with his shoulders slumped.
“Lucky you…”
“Now, none of that nonsense.”
Lark forced down the corners of his mouth that were rising and walked past Leonard.
In one corner of the office stood a massive stone tablet covered with cloth.
“Let’s work.”
Lark swept away the cloth that Leonard had hastily covered to hide the tablet after Rubetria’s surprise visit.
The tablet was covered with evidence of numerous crimes.
Densely written characters. Names. Photographs. Multiple sheets of paper….
Molga Diolus = Miss Molga of Baron Bert’s household
Baron Bert, Gale Bert = Molga Diolus’s younger brother, accomplice
Benjamin Herman = Physician to the Diolus Duchy, accomplice (currently imprisoned)
Lark’s gaze, sweeping over the tablet with sunken eyes, came to rest on one particular spot.
Second Prince, Nathan.
Dealings with the “Sorcerer.”
Traces of medicinal materials used by the Sorcerer found in Bert Territory.
The Sorcerer…
Presumed to be Gale Bert.
It is suspected that the connection with the Second Prince began when Gale Bert, who sought to profit from running illegal establishments, received the Second Prince’s cooperation for convenience.
Subsequently, the Second Prince is believed to have sought Gale Bert’s assistance in schemes to usurp the succession.
“If we hadn’t investigated Molga Diolus’s background…”
“It would’ve been difficult to uncover the Sorcerer’s true identity.”
Lark picked up Leonard’s trembling words.
The sorcerer that Nathan had forced to confess to expedite the lifting of Rubetria’s Fantasy Sentence was, of course, a fake.
But they had only suspected that the confessed sorcerer was a decoy. Finding the real culprit seemed difficult…
“How is it that villains always huddle together like this? Well, at least we don’t have to do two jobs, so that’s something.”
As Lark investigated Bert Territory while looking into Molga’s background, an unexpected discovery came his way.
In the herbal garden that Gale Bert secretly maintained in Bert Territory, there were numerous medicinal materials with names unknown to anyone.
The “Sorcerer’s” medicines, whose origins remained a complete mystery. Their ingredients…
Gale Bert
Leonard tapped his name on the tablet.
“If we can just get this bastard to confess, we can nail the Second Prince too. But unless he’s an idiot, he’ll never break, right?”
“…”
“Getting him to talk won’t be easy. Ten fingers, ten toes—that’s twenty. Even after twice that, he’ll never open his mouth. If he confesses, it’s death either way. And besides…”
Leonard ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
“If it comes out that you interrogated him like that, your image will tank, no matter how villainous the bastard is.”
“No, we don’t need torture. Let’s make him open his mouth cleanly, without so much as a scratch.”
“Huh? How?”
“We’ll have to ask for help.”
Lark turned, stretching his stiff neck.
“Help from who?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I’m going to ask the Duke for help.”
“Huh? What… Eek!”
Leonard’s eyes widened as understanding dawned, and he covered his mouth.
“You don’t mean… the Duke’s spirit, right?”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Wow, that’s insane… That’s cruel. Why have you become so cruel?”
“Cruel? What’s cruel about it?”
Lark frowned and turned to Leonard sharply.
“Did you think people who did things like that would get off easy, even in hell?”
“Well, no, but…”
Leonard’s face paled as he traced over the names on the tablet.
‘Better luck next time. Beheading would’ve been a mercy.’
According to the laws of the Deccard Empire, the greatest punishment for the gravely guilty is the Beheading Sentence.
However, there exists one punishment, not written in the code, deemed even more extreme.
It is called
the Fantasy Sentence.
This is only imposed, with the consent of the Contractor, when the spirit Illusion has a Contractor.
Illusion, the spirit of fantasy.
Her other name is the Executor.
“Ugh, I’ve never actually seen someone undergo the Fantasy Sentence, but just hearing about it makes me tremble…”
The moment Illusion executes the Fantasy Sentence,
even the criminals who had kept their mouths shut begin to shriek like madmen, foaming at the mouth, and confess within barely a minute.
No one knows what kind of fantasy Illusion plants in them.
But one thing is certain: the horrifying fantasy that wears away the mind feels to the criminal like hundreds—or rather, thousands—of years.
Even though in reality only a minute has passed…
“To get caught when the Executor shows up.”
Leonard muttered. Illusion currently had a Contractor.
And that Contractor was…
Coincidentally, the man who most wanted to hold the reins of power: Leonard Diolus.
“But no matter how villainous they are, the court wouldn’t sentence them to the Fantasy Sentence.”
“Exactly.”
Lark’s eyes shone without mercy.
“They’ll die before they ever set foot in court.”
* * *
Four days later.
Early snow fell in November.
The Duke Leonard was returning from a rare solo outing.
Called suddenly to the Imperial Palace, Leonard had spent approximately three hours in conversation with the Crown Prince.
“Your Grace.”
Got, the adjutant standing beside him, spoke in a worried tone. Leonard did not respond.
Yet somehow,
despite his outward appearance being unchanged, he seemed like a man crumbling from within.
“Your—Your Grace!”
Suddenly, Leonard staggered sharply, and Got quickly steadied him.
“Are you all right, sir?”
“…I’m fine.”
Leonard waved off the support, stretching out his arm, and stood still for a moment with his eyes pressed shut.
He began to walk again.
And then.
“Oh, Leonard!”
Of all times.
He encountered Molga coming down the upper stairs.
She, who had been looking down and muttering, turned her body as if to make way for him.
“Madam.”
But Leonard stopped her with a gentle voice.
“Yes?”
“I’ve spoken with Biego.”
“…What?”
“I was shortsighted. My discomfort with looking at your face is my own matter, but the children are different.”
“…”
“You must have felt hurt when I told you to move out. Please forgive me and stay here. It seems all my children want that.”
“Oh.”
Molga was startled as Leonard spoke with a gentle smile. Tears immediately welled up in those angelic eyes.
“Leonard, I…”
“…”
“I understood your heart well enough. I knew you were always uncomfortable with me. So I tried not to resent you, but… still, still, we’ve spent so many years together…”
Soon tears rolled down her cheeks.
A face so pitiable and beautiful that anyone would want to embrace her at once.
That.
The face of a demon.
“Leonard feels so heartless to me. But I understand, so… I was so lost wondering how I and my poor children would survive on our own…”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“Sob. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Leonard smiled toward the tearful Molga and resumed walking.
Very slowly.
As he made his way to his room, the expression gradually faded from his smiling face.
Soon, the still figure of Leonard twisted in a terrifying grimace.
A body trembling pathologically.
Eyes wide and bloodshot, wet with tears that seemed about to fall.
Teeth bared in such a fierce rage that every single one was visible.
Veins bulged grotesquely from the fists clenched around his robe.
“Hgh, ha, hghh…”
Murder.
That keen emotion made Got tremble beside him.
“Hah, ghk.”
An impulsive urge to kill gripped his entire body, making it impossible to breathe properly.
His vision blurred into white haze.
“Honey, I understand you can’t like the First Lady, but even so, don’t humiliate her so much. Your expression is so frightening. Even if I were the First Lady, I’d find it hard to look at your face.”
What? What did my wife do wrong?
Not even realizing she was being kind to a monster hiding a blackened soul?
“S-still… thank goodness the First Lady is here. What would become of our children if they grew up without a mother? I’d be heartbroken.”
“…”
“Honey, I’m sorry. Still… our little Ruby is still so young… the First Lady needs to be beside her. So please, don’t hate her too much…”
The reason Molga was able to stay in this house was not, in fact, because of the late father’s will.
His poor wife had trusted her.
She had believed that Molga alone could fill the void she would leave behind.
And so she had asked Leonard to open his heart a little.
“Hkh, ha, hah…”
Knowing nothing.
Pitiful as you were.
Knowing nothing at all…
“If I die first, you won’t remarry, will you?”
“Don’t say unlucky things. You won’t die.”
“Sigh… I’m worried you’ll never look at another woman. Who will care for our children? Your nature is so cold.”
Her final smile, worn even on a face shadowed by death itself.
That face he would never see again…
Then.
In his dimming vision, the image of his dead wife appeared like magic.
“…Rona.”
Was it a fantasy?
No…
“Father?”
Rubetria.
A daughter who resembled her mother so closely.
Rubetria approached slowly, stopping with surprise at the expression on Leonard’s face.
Leonard clutched his shattered heart tight, his sobs escaping in silence.
Rubetria asked nothing.
She simply held the weeping Leonard gently, offering comfort.
“Huu, ah, ah…”
Only after he pressed the small warmth in his embrace did the tears finally begin to flow from his eyes.

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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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