Celebrity Lady - Chapter 120

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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 120
Ricky lay crumpled on the floor, clutching his cheek, utterly bewildered by what had just happened.
“Ah…….”
He simply stared at Biego with wide, startled eyes and trembling lips.
Ricky wasn’t the only one caught off guard.
Lilia stood with her mouth agape, and the servants beside her wore identical expressions of shock.
And so did I.
‘What on earth is happening.’
Footstep.
As Biego took another step forward, Ricky flinched.
His gaze was sharper than ever—cold enough to send chills down my spine as I watched.
Biego then slowly bent one knee, bringing his eyes level with Ricky sprawled on the ground.
“Uncle.”
“……?”
The unfamiliar address widened Ricky’s eyes in alarm.
“Do you have any idea how much effort it took me to convince Father to allow this?”
“…….”
“If you act so recklessly again and cross Father’s nerves, I’ll have no choice but to abandon you as well.”
Each syllable of Biego’s cutting voice was carved into the heavy silence.
Ricky, who had been lying stunned and processing his words, quickly scrambled to kneel upright on the spot.
His stiff neck bent forward like that of a condemned man.
“Who is this child?”
“…….”
“Answer me.”
“Ru, Rubetria…….”
“Yes, Uncle. Rubetria Diolus is an illegitimate daughter of this house. No matter how hard you and Aunt may scheme, unlike that child, you cannot deny the stain of base blood in your veins.”
Ricky’s shoulders tensed at the razor-sharp words. His fists, resting on his thighs, trembled with fear.
Biego continued speaking in an unmoved tone.
“Everyone appears to smile and follow the two of you, but inside, they all know the truth.”
“…….”
“That you are the very ‘blemish’ of this ducal house.”
Biego smiled and patted Ricky’s head. Though the touch was surely affectionate, Ricky flinched away.
“Now do you understand why I had no choice but to go this far?”
“I……I apologize.”
“…….”
“Sub, Sub-Duke…….”
Quick-witted Ricky swiftly dropped the formal address and called out to Biego.
His manner was pitiably frightened.
“From now on.”
But Biego, his eyes as dry as bone, smiled in feigned gentleness and continued.
“I’m teaching you who in this house you must curry favor with, Uncle.”
“Y, yes…….”
“If that child tells you to lick her toes, you do it. Understood?”
“…….”
“Answer.”
“……Yes.”
Having extracted even that humiliating acknowledgment from Ricky, Biego rose to his feet.
Footstep, footstep.
Only the sound of his steps echoed through the silence.
As Biego approached me, Lilia, who had been standing dazed, startled and stepped hastily to the side.
Passing before her, where she trembled with her head bowed, Biego spoke.
“Don’t touch her.”
“…….”
“If you wish to remain in this house.”
Lilia, gripping the hem of her skirt, swallowed hard and answered.
“Yes, yes. Sub-Duke…….”
Biego’s receding figure.
Even after he disappeared, the twins still trembled, unable to meet my eyes.
‘Well, well.’
Oddly satisfied, I pursed my lips in a teasing smile and turned on my heel with a lighter step.
* * *
The next day.
To share this invigorating mood, I visited the Imperial Palace without notice as soon as my busy schedule ended.
Lark had already returned from his official duties. I had considered leaving when I heard he was bathing, but…….
At his insistence that I wait without fail, I was invited to his chambers instead of the study.
“……So your older brother acted quite cleverly, did he?”
“He did.”
Lark, shaking out his wet hair, plopped down beside me in his shower robe.
Noticing his appearance, I laughed and apologized awkwardly.
“Sorry for coming without notice.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I told you that you can come anytime. Keep going.”
“Right. Anyway, honestly, slapping him once felt amazing, but I was worried about how to handle the aftermath. I was afraid they’d notice their leash had come loose and bolt.”
“Mm.”
I recounted yesterday’s commotion to him without missing a single detail, but Lark seemed oddly unmoved by this satisfying tale.
If anything, his expression had hardened, as if something displeased him…….
‘Hmm, does he think Biego acted too brazenly?’
I tried to reassure Lark.
“In the end, there’s no problem. Father is still the real power in this house, and they understood well enough when it was made clear that to stay here, they need to keep me in good humor.”
“Mm.”
“It really was refreshing, but at the same time I felt a bit wronged. Turns out all it took was one word from my older brother to make them cringe and obey like that.”
“Mm.”
“This morning when I was heading out to work, I ran into Ricky. And you know what? That bastard, he flinched, kept his eyes down, and scurried away!”
“Mm.”
“……?”
What is it. Does he dislike this satisfying report?
I watched Lark’s expression for a long moment as he continued replying tersely with that hardened face, then asked.
“……What’s bothering you?”
“That’s it?”
“What?”
“Just a slap? That’s all?”
For a moment I was confused about what he meant.
He stared at my swollen left cheek with frightening eyes and muttered.
“The Sub-Duke still hasn’t come to his senses.”
Lark grabbed the water glass on the table as if to cool his anger, drained it, and added.
“If he can manage things that easily anyway, wouldn’t it be fine to break something or other?”
I flinched.
“That’s overkill…….”
“The more I think about it, that crazy bastard…….”
……He was talking about Ricky.
Knowing well that Lark disliked crude language, I nudged his ribs gently.
“Surely you’re not angry now? Because I got hit?”
“……? Not angry? How could I not be angry when your face came in this puffy?”
“It’s not that puffy. It’s gone down quite a bit.”
“Hah……. The Duke—he hasn’t said anything?”
“I avoided running into him because I was worried he’d find out about our plans and derail everything. It should be completely gone by evening when I go home, so don’t worry.”
Lark’s expression, eyes fixed on my cheek, was truly frightening.
His jaw was clenched tight, holding back anger with great effort…….
“Is……is it that visible?”
“…….”
It was an expression so terrifying and unfamiliar that I could say it was the first time seeing it since I came to know him, yet somehow…….
How should I describe this feeling?
“Well, my skin is naturally quite delicate. And Ricky—that guy, he’s grown so much taller and broader, and so much stronger since I last saw him. I thought I was going to die from the pain.”
I pouted my lips and leaned against his shoulder in a childish complaint, deliberately stoking his already-kindled anger.
In his grip on the water glass, veins bulged prominently from the force.
He was clearly furious. Yet strangely, the sight of it was……how do I put it.
‘I love it so much!!’
That was it.
Having someone I could run and tattle to like this about what I’d suffered, someone who believed my words unconditionally regardless of context, someone who grew even angrier than me on my behalf.
It was something unimaginable in my past life.
The twins, constantly running to Biego to whine spitefully and hide behind him—they must have felt this same way?
“Hahaha!”
“……It’s not funny at all. Why are you laughing?”
His reproof came with concern evident in his hand as it brushed my swollen cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
“Suddenly? For what?”
“We’re all set to arrest the Madam, but you’re being held back because of me.”
Lark irritably rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Ah.”
The reason we hadn’t brought Molga to court despite having all the evidence was because of Nathan, the Second Prince.
Molga’s younger brother, the sorcerer Gale Bert, was entangled with the Second Prince.
Our plan was to bring Gale Bert before the court and expose the Second Prince at the same time.
“Why should Your Highness apologize for that? Of course I should cooperate…….”
“Let’s end this. We have enough evidence to lock up Nathan.”
Resting his chin on both hands as he spoke seriously, Lark absently plucked a grape that lay on the table.
He simply stretched out his arm and brought it to my lips naturally, continuing.
“Hmm.”
“Once we get Gale Bert to confess, Nathan will likely be deposed and sentenced to confinement.”
“Mmm.”
Baden Island Confinement.
The punishment that had nearly been imposed on Lizbeth before—a sentence given only to the royal family.
‘It’s delicious.’
Enjoying the sweetness, I popped a few more grapes in my mouth and said.
“Surely you don’t think confining the Second Prince on Baden Island will actually restrain him, do you?”
“Of course not. We don’t know how Nathan will use his Spirit Ability.”
“Right. If he really decides to orchestrate an escape, it won’t be difficult for him.”
“So what if we push for a lifetime confinement sentence at the Tower of Silence instead?”
I meant the Tower of Silence, where Spirit Abilities cannot be used—where Sealing Stones are installed.
I plucked another grape and fed it to Lark as I spoke.
“Your Highness, why are you saying this? Didn’t we already agree on this? To send the Second Prince to the guillotine?”
He turned to look at me intently.
“He’s someone we can’t know what he’ll do if left alive. We can’t let our guard down even with the Tower of Silence. He must be sent to the execution block unconditionally.”
“But.”
“Don’t worry.”
Capital punishment is not imposed on the royal family unless they have committed regicide.
And unfortunately, since we’d already removed all the traps beforehand, the Second Prince had not yet committed the crime of fratricide.
Originally he would be that dastardly villain who’d kill even the Crown Prince and send his blood sister into a comatose state and dispatch his much younger brother, the Eighth Prince, without hesitation…….
“It’s dangerous. Let’s not do it.”
Lark, tilting his head back against the sofa armrest, dragged both hands across his face.
“We already settled this. Why are you changing your mind now?”
“The more I think about it, this doesn’t feel right. You want me to push a noblewoman to her death just to catch one Nathan? Have you forgotten the promise I made to you back then—to keep you safe forever?”
“If people heard that, they’d think I was walking barefoot into a lion’s den. It’s just a single meeting with the Second Prince, one-on-one. What danger is there in that?”
There was exactly one method to get capital punishment imposed on Nathan if he lived.
I had devised that method and agreed willingly to be the bait.
“You don’t know what Nathan’s ability is, and yet you’d willingly place yourself in his hands? Your head could fly off before you even know it’s happening.”
“Of course I know. But if not me, who else could possibly trap the Second Prince?”
“Think about it more.”
“Your Highness.”
I tried to calm the anxious Lark.
“Do you remember the day we first became business partners?”
The day after I gave him that suspicious Note, we arranged a meeting where I claimed to be the contractor of Wishit, the Spirit of Wishes—an outrageous deception.
I’m speaking of the day I made a bold gambit.
“As you know, even then, one wrong word and my head could have been flying off. Yet how did I act so boldly?”
Lark closed his mouth, understanding my meaning.
“Hmm, well, I suppose I had a hidden card, so to speak. Yes, something like that…….”
“Hah.”
Even knowing that I was the contractor of Wishit, the Spirit of Wishes, Lark had made a tacit agreement never to mention it.
He finally nodded along with a sigh.
“……Right.”
“Just trust in me. But to execute this grand plan, the Second Prince needs to believe in me first—he has to think I’m someone who has grasped his leash, someone whose future he’s dying to hear.”
Tomorrow, that is.
“Tomorrow, right? The friendly exchange schedule with the Leubon Kingdom.”
“Yes.”
The contents of the Note I had delivered to the Second Prince on the Debutante Ball night would bear fruit then.
“All right. I’m counting on you tomorrow.”
Watching me smile wickedly, Lark sighed again and absently hooked both elbows over the sofa armrest.
‘……?’
The robe he was wearing fell open. My gaze instinctively drifted to his exposed chest.
His sculpted, carved chest was clearly visible through the gap in his robe.
‘My, oh my. How masculine.’
I immediately averted my eyes and bit my lip slightly.
“Ahem.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I should probably head out. We should meet in the study from now on.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden.”
“I told them I came about business, but if an unmarried lady and gentleman stay in a bedroom for more than an hour without coming out, people might get the wrong idea.”
“……?”
Lark tilted his head, confused, then glanced down at himself and let out a dry laugh.
“Wow, Lady. Isn’t that too harsh? I’m not that kind of man. Did I really give you so little reason to trust me?”
“No, no. That’s not it. It’s not about Your Highness.”
Avoiding his wounded gaze, I thought to myself.
‘It’s me who’s the problem—I’m the beast—!’
I jolted to my feet and dredged up memories from when I attended the Cathedral during my time as Juliet. I traced a cross over my forehead and chest and muttered.
“Begone, demon.”
“What are you saying.”
Lark rose after me and pressed his body close behind me. Fresh soap scent washed over me as he’d just emerged from bathing.
His hands lightly gripped my waist as he rested his chin on my shoulder, whispering in a voice that was quite dangerous.
“Stay a little longer.”

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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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