Celebrity Lady - Chapter 119

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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 119
* * *
As always, resting my head on my wife’s lap allowed me to forget everything.
The longing that never faded even after so many years, the suffering while awake…….
Leonard opened his heavy eyes.
His wife, Rona, was smiling at him with her usual tenderness.
“You know.”
“Mm.”
“After you died, I was planning to follow you.”
……
Rona, who had been silent for a moment, gave his forehead a soft thump with her small fist.
“Ow.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“I hit you because it should hurt. Is that what a father of three children should say?”
“I’m sorry.”
“So you were going to die?”
“No. I wanted to die, but……. Rubetria—that child—didn’t know anything. She was just laughing. Because she was so young, she didn’t understand that you were gone. She just kept laughing.”
……
“I didn’t want to suffer more than the children I’d leave behind. I’m so selfish that I planned to die, but…….”
……
“When I saw that child laughing, not understanding anything, I remembered your wish. You said she stayed with me the most.”
“That’s right. She would grow up so beautifully. I was so curious to see what she’d look like as an adult.”
“So when I meet you after I die, I won’t have anything to say. I wanted to tell you how Rubetria grew up…….”
“So our daughter saved her father?”
“Yes. But there’s something. I couldn’t…… give her anything.”
His voice trembled. Covering his eyes with his large hands, Leonard wept.
“I’m sorry……. It was so hard. Waking up without you in the morning was so…… so painful. Just breathing became difficult…….”
He clutched at his chest. His face twisted as he sobbed.
Rona, smiling bitterly, pulled Leonard into her arms. He cried like a child in his wife’s embrace.
“I was wrong.”
“Yes, I was wrong……. That wasn’t what you asked of me……. You were asking me to be there for her, in your place, until she grew up beautifully…….”
“It’s a shame, but there’s still time. Our Rubetria takes after me, so even if I’m an aloof father, she might forgive me once.”
Rona released Leonard from her arms and wiped away his tears, smiling.
“So will you listen to my request properly now?”
Leonard nodded slowly, his eyes closed.
“That’s good.”
“Rona.”
When he opened his eyes again, he was smiling brightly. Much more relieved than before.
“From now on…… I won’t come looking for you like this again.”
“Yes.”
“Until I die, we…… will never meet again in this illusion.”
“Yes.”
“Our children. I’ll raise them beautifully, as you wished. And I’ll see them have children too. Like that, I’ll grow old and live…….”
“Yes, my love. Just come back after living long and healthy like that.”
He closed his eyes again. Feeling the tears that had gathered flow down his cheeks, Leonard murmured.
“It will take a long time…….”
“That’s fine. I’ll wait.”
“Yes…….”
I hope your last memory is of me smiling.
The man smiled brightly even as he wept.
* * *
When I opened my eyes.
For the first time, waking from the illusion didn’t bring pain.
It wasn’t only because his heart had changed.
“Rubetria…….”
The sight of my daughter sitting awkwardly beside the bed, nodding off in her sleep.
It must have been because of this warmth she had given by staying beside me while I slept.
“Oh, Dad.”
Rubetria, as if hearing that soft call, rubbed her sleepy eyes and woke up.
“Are you feeling better now?”
“……Yes.”
“The reason I was here was that your condition looked bad, so I asked if you could call a Spirit to help, but if you get addicted to it again—”
“I won’t fall asleep like this again. Don’t worry.”
At Leonard’s resolute answer, Rubetria, who had been staring at him blankly, smiled and nodded.
“That’s good.”
“Rubetria.”
Leonard sat up and faced his daughter.
“Let me…… hold you once.”
“Huh?”
“What. Don’t you want me to?”
“I’m all grown up now, Dad. You should’ve hugged me when I was little. I’m a grown woman—this is creepy~”
“If you don’t want me to—”
Rubetria suddenly embraced him, cutting off his words.
Soon his trembling arms slowly rose and pulled his daughter close.
Something welled up deep in his chest.
“I’m sorry.”
“……If you’re sorry, then live long.”
At her blunt words, Leonard let out a soft laugh.
“See your children get married, watch your grandchildren be born, be a gray-haired grandfather.”
“Yes…….”
Rubetria pulled away and laughed. The face of Leonard—her father—smiling back at her was tender.
Exactly as she had always imagined it.
“But.”
“Yes.”
Rubetria answered in an upbeat voice, her mood much improved.
“……About my marriage partner, is there really no room for compromise? Does it have to be the Crown Prince?”
……
Her voice filled with displeasure.
Rubetria laughed and turned away.
“I’ll handle that myself, Father!”
* * *
Leaving Father’s room, I didn’t return immediately, restless as I was. Instead, I looked around the Mansion.
This place where—no, where Rubetria had lived for forty-five years…….
“I’m sick of this place. This house.”
Standing at the first-floor entrance, I could see the grand interior of the Mansion clearly.
High ceilings. Broad staircases.
I looked around the house and imagined quietly.
My mother still alive. My father healthy. My older brothers…….
And among them, me—Rubetria Diolus—laughing happily.
‘Good. Now everything will fall into place. I’ll be sad just for today.’
And as I was about to return to my room,
I stopped.
At the sound of footsteps coming down to the first floor, I looked up.
Lilia, dressed up and attended by her loyal handmaids like she was a princess, seemed ready to go out.
“So now you’re freely walking around the house?”
I let out a bitter laugh at her voice as I tried to head to my room, ignoring her.
“This is my house. Can’t I walk around my own house as I please?”
“My house, right? You’ve been cooped up in a cramped little room, never coming out, and now you think the whole place is yours?”
Lilia stepped closer, pressing her face near mine and whispered quietly.
“You told His Excellency to throw us out, didn’t you, you crazy bitch.”
……
“But what can you do?”
Lilia grinned.
“All Biego had to say was one word and suddenly it never happened.”
“Is that so? Too bad.”
I gave a casual reply, but suddenly I became curious.
Did the twins really not know? That their mother was a murderer? Or could it be they knew but…….
“You’re disgusting, acting cute with that fat, lumpy face of yours. Father listens to everything you say now. Think this is your world?”
……
“Just wait. That cocky attitude of yours won’t last long.”
Lilia crossed her arms and added with a venomous smile.
“You’re best off just staying locked in your room quietly and holding your breath. Or you’ll get stepped on and it’ll hurt, you worm.”
“Ha.”
I sighed quietly and muttered.
“You’re just like your mother—so vulgar. Everything that comes out of your mouth is worthless.”
“What?”
Lilia’s eyes widened.
“You……, what did you just say?”
“Well. That’s all she taught you, so how could you speak anything normal?”
“Ha, ha. You…….”
“I have to say, I find it hilarious every time you make that surprised face.”
I laughed and mocked her.
“If you vomit garbage with that vulgar mouth, then someday someone will make me swallow what they spit out too. You should’ve thought of that.”
“Wh-what are you——”
“So why can’t you stand it when garbage gets fed to you? Why do your eyes flip? Huh?”
“You, you crazy thing. You, to our mother, you——”
Lilia’s eyes quickly reddened, and she turned to look at the handmaids behind her.
“Did you all hear that? Did you hear what she’s saying about our mother?”
The handmaids, frozen in terror, nodded.
“You heard, right?”
“Why, you want proof or something? There’s no need. If you want, I can say it all again as many times as you like. Why.”
I shrugged and added.
“A vulgar mother, a vulgar daughter just like her. And the parasitic filth that is you and your mother—crawling into someone else’s home with just that cheap body and nothing else—that’s who deserves to be a worm. Not me.”
“You!!!”
Lilia finally exploded and grabbed my hair. My body swayed violently.
“This is crazy.”
“Ah!”
I didn’t back down either and grabbed her hair. We tangled and struggled for a long time.
The handmaids, frightened, couldn’t intervene.
“Let go, let go! Ow!”
Then.
“Hey! What are you two doing!”
Strong hands separated Lilia and me, who were entangled.
It was Ricky.
“Lilia, are you okay?”
“Ah……. Ricky, do you know what that girl said about our mother?”
Lilia began whimpering to Ricky as he straightened her disheveled hair.
“She said Mother’s vulgar! That I’m like her! That I’m a parasite living in this house with just my body!”
“What?”
I swept the pulled-out hair from my head to the floor and watched the scene calmly.
Soon Ricky walked over and stood before me. He had grown so much in a year that he was now a full head taller than me.
“There are things you can say and things you can’t.”
“I don’t remember things I can’t say.”
“You’ve really gone crazy. Aren’t you scared of your brother?”
Ricky laughed incredulously.
“Your brother knows you told His Excellency to throw us out. Why don’t you have any sense? Who do you need to impress in this house? Is your head really that empty?”
“The empty head is yours. All you know how to do is say ‘brother’ and be a lapdog to your older brother.”
“That lapdog was what kept you from crawling around this house like a bug and drawing attention before.”
Ricky chuckled and leaned in close, whispering.
“No matter how hard you flail around, it won’t work. Do you know what kind of person our mother is to Biego?”
……
“We’re family. You’re the parasite and impurity in this house.”
Ricky stood up again, smiling brightly.
Looking at him—the twin who resembled his mother and had that infuriatingly beautiful face—I found myself at a loss for words.
The twins, who don’t know they’ve been given a death sentence…….
In contrast, my past life where I knew nothing. If it had been then, Ricky’s words wouldn’t have been wrong.
I was a parasite and an impurity.
In this house.
“Thinking about it just makes me angry again.”
“What?”
I pressed my throbbing temples and spoke.
“Pssh. Yeah. Keep playing lapdog. Your pretty-faced mother is clinging to this chance for dear life. You’d better hold on tight and keep it together so you can do your duty as her child.”
“Hey! Why do you talk about our mother that way!”
Lilia, standing behind, cried out and tried to rush at me, but Ricky held her back with one arm.
“Vulgar face, this and that……. Quite the eloquent mouth you have. But so what?”
He murmured and smirked, leaning in close to me again.
And then he said.
“You don’t even have a mother like that, do you?”
……
I went blank for a moment.
“……What?”
“Puhahaha!”
At my hardened expression, Ricky bent over laughing.
Looking at his pathetic face, something rose up violently in my chest.
Not from anyone else.
From him?
The son of my lifelong enemy, the man who killed my mother…….
“You crazy bastard.”
Crack!
I quickly opened my tear-filled eyes wide and swung my hand hard, slapping Ricky’s cheek.
Laughter burst from his face as it turned.
“Ha, ha……. Did you hit me again?”
……
“You hit me first?”
He grinned and with all his strength, struck my cheek in return.
Crack—!
The force was tremendous. Unlike with Ricky, my entire body swayed under the blow.
“Ha.”
My held cheek throbbed.
It hurt…….
But honestly, I barely felt the pain.
I just felt sad. Hurt and sorry for myself.
It’s already over. The demons don’t have much longer to put on their acts.
But knowing that, I still wasn’t relieved. And Ricky reminded me why.
That’s right.
My mother, who has passed away, will never return.
“Big brother!”
Just then Lilia ran off crying.
It was Biego, who appeared at the commotion.
“Brother!”
Ricky also ran over and stood beside Lilia, chattering about something.
I stood quietly, watching them. My ears seemed to have gone deaf, and I couldn’t hear their voices at all.
The beautiful-faced twins crying and complaining. The handmaids backing them up, joining in their accusations…….
“Rubetria!”
“Brother, my cheek hurts so much. She has a habit of being violent. It’s always like this!”
……
They looked like a real family, while I stood far apart, yearning for the love of a family.
It was a familiar sight.
Soon Biego walked toward me.
……
I looked up at his expressionless face quietly.
Though Biego knew all the truth, strangely, I had no confidence in what his reaction would be.
‘Will he think the twins are blameless? Even if he casts out Molga, maybe the twins are different…….’
For some reason, annoyed by his sharp gaze, I turned my body away.
If he were foolish enough to reproach me again, I might not be able to resist and could end up slapping his cheek.
“……?”
But at his gentle touch on my arm, turning my body, I found myself facing him again.
……
His gaze was still sharp as a blade.
But his eyes, slightly averted, weren’t on me—they were on my swollen cheek.
“Brother!”
Ricky, who came beside him, whimpered.
“……Was it you?”
“I got hit first!”
“I see.”
“This time I wasn’t even playing around! Rubetria just grabbed Lilia’s hair suddenly, and to our mother—”
Crack—!
Thud.
“……!”
Ricky collapsed, and I suddenly clapped my hand over my mouth in shock.
Biego, who had struck Ricky’s face with all his might, looked down at him with dry 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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