Celebrity Lady - Chapter 124

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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 124
“Pack your things and come out.”
“No, Your Highness! Not me! This is unfair! I don’t care a whit about that woman, Madam Ruby or whoever!”
If I cared, that would be a real problem…….
Victor protested his innocence, but Lark chuckled and left the Dormitory first.
“It’s not like that. Just pack up and come out quickly.”
“Wait, please!”
Victor hurried after Lark and caught hold of him.
“At least tell me why, so I know whether to pack or not!”
“Go home and be an older brother for a while.”
“Pardon?”
Out of nowhere—what did he mean by being an older brother?
“Play with her if she gets bored, make sure she eats properly. And…….”
Lark added the words while looking irritated, chewing at the inside of his mouth.
“Protect her well if anyone bothers her. Yes? I don’t trust the younger Duke.”
“…….”
Victor listened in a daze to Lark’s words, bewildered.
No matter how he looked at it, the subject seemed to be his younger sister, Rubetria Diolus.
“You mean Ruby?”
“Yes.”
“But she’s doing much better than I am, isn’t she?”
“Hm!”
Lark’s eyes narrowed threateningly, and Victor flinched.
“For now, you’re exempted from morning and evening training. You don’t need to attend. After lunch, come to the palace at one o’clock, do the three-hour afternoon training, and then return home.”
“What did you just say?”
He’d become unemployed overnight?!
“While you’re home, I’d appreciate it if you’d look after the Duke’s daughter closely. You could do it better than any Guard I might assign, right?”
“No, I…….”
Without allowing further objection, Lark patted Victor’s shoulder and turned to leave.
“Pack your things and return home within ten minutes. Dismissed.”
* * *
“What the heck?!”
“……In any case, that’s how it turned out.”
That evening.
Victor arrived. Completely out of the blue.
With his belongings from the Dormitory bundled up in his arms.
Apparently Lark had sent him away, saying he didn’t trust Biego and wanted me to be looked after instead.
‘He’s still bothered by the slap from Ricky.’
That had to be it.
Lark, who wouldn’t have imagined that even with all their insults and glares, the twins would resort to physical violence. He seemed quite shaken by it this time.
He didn’t trust my father or Biego, so he’d sent Victor as my shield instead.
Well, with Biego’s leverage working so well, there was little chance the twins would act up in front of me again…….
‘Still, it’s better to have him than not.’
The thought of my house becoming lively again after so long with Victor here didn’t feel bad.
“Excuse me, Young Master?”
“Ugh! When was the last time I was called ‘Young Master’?! It’s creepy!”
Rebecca, who’d been in the room with us, spoke up, and Victor jumped.
Rebecca suppressed her laughter and continued.
“So you’ll be commuting for a while? In that case, you’ll need to stay in your old room. It’s been empty for so long, it’s not tidied up yet.”
“Never mind, never mind. I’ll just sleep in the guest room tonight. It’s always been that way whenever I’ve visited.”
“Yes. Then I apologize for the inconvenience, but just for tonight, please. I’ll have your room ready soon.”
“All right, thank you.”
The moment Rebecca left, Victor pouted.
“Am I even family? I come back after so long, and I don’t even have a room in my own house…….”
“Heh.”
I turned around from the Vanity where I’d been applying a mask, looking at Victor sitting on the bed, and laughed.
“Playing coy, are you? Why would we keep your room cleaned every day when you never come home? That’s a waste of manpower.”
“Is my complaint really about the room? I’m saying that you’re the only one who welcomes me…….”
Victor stuck out his lower lip and grumbled. Watching his forlorn expression, I suddenly felt bad.
“It’s too late anyway. We can greet each other properly tomorrow.”
Molga and the twins pretended to sleep early, perhaps having guessed the real reason Victor was home. Father and Biego said nothing more than “understood.”
Besides, Father was the type to be that way, but Biego’s refusal to see me was probably my fault too.
‘My brother doesn’t want to see my face.’
That was right. Well, to be precise, he felt terribly sorry.
Less that he didn’t want to see me, and more like: ‘I swear I’ll never linger in front of you.’ That sort of feeling.
In any case, I tried to comfort the forlorn Victor.
“Brother, brother. Tomorrow morning, let’s have breakfast with Father and Biego. How long has it been?”
“Whatever.”
As I chattered excitedly, Victor replied in that outwardly gruff manner.
“Hey, but I’m curious about something.”
“What is it?”
I answered while looking in the mirror with the mask on, and Victor approached from behind with suspicious eyes.
“Are you dating His Highness?”
“Huh?”
By “His Highness,” Victor surely meant Lark. I turned to him and answered without shame.
“No?”
“Can’t you take off this weird mask and talk properly?”
“I can’t. I just put it on. Anyway, why are you suddenly asking that?”
“It’s just strange. Do you know how high-ranking a personnel I am in the Knight Corps?”
“I know.”
“So why? You chase me away with just ‘go be a good brother’? You’re not even a kid. You tell me to play with you if you’re bored, make sure you eat, and all that?”
“Maybe His Highness is giving you the opportunity now, since you haven’t taken good care of your cute younger sister all this time?”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking—why would a stranger’s older brother concern himself with all this?!”
“Hmm.”
“Look, I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, so just tell me the truth. There’s something, isn’t there? You two are dating, right?”
“I’m really not.”
Not yet…… We’re not dating yet. So it’s not a lie.
Meeting Victor’s suspicious gaze without flinching, I added:
“If we do start dating, I’ll tell you first.”
“What are you saying? So you might date him?”
“Mm-hmm~”
I looked back into the mirror and changed the subject.
‘Sorry, but just let brother stay in the dark for now…….’
Through the mirror, I watched Victor hitting his chest in frustration and thought to myself.
Lark had said we should absolutely keep Molga’s situation and everything else secret from Victor, and I agreed completely.
“If Captain Victor finds out, it could complicate things.”
“I agree. I can’t even imagine him staying calm and patient.”
While Father and Biego were fairly rational, Victor was the exact opposite.
He was the hot-blooded, emotional type who’d erupt like a volcano if you so much as touched him wrong.
It was our decision to worry that Victor, unpredictable as he was, might become an unwanted variable if he learned the truth.
We could have even hinted to Victor that Lark and I had some kind of spark between us, but…….
‘If I did that, he’d immediately start prying: when did it happen, how did it happen, what were you doing together?’
It was probably Lark’s own decision to send Victor home to prevent any physical conflict with Ricky, but I couldn’t tell him that either.
I felt a little sorry, so I got up.
Time to deploy the apology aegyo!
“Hehe, big brooo~”
“Ugh, what?! Gross!”
When I linked my arm through his, Victor frowned. Yet despite his expression, he let himself be held quite meekly, which was rather endearing.
“This is so nice. I can’t remember the last time we had a house with my brother in it.”
“…….”
“Oh!”
I clapped my hands together, struck by an idea.
“How about we sleep in my room instead of the guest room tonight?”
“……? What——”
“With Father!”
“What?”
Suddenly, I found myself thinking of little Rubetria, envying the twins.
The twins snuggled close to their mother and fell asleep together. I’d envied that so much.
There’s no mother now, but…….
“I’ll go get Father! Come on, the bed’s big enough for all three of us.”
“Your father will say he sleeps perfectly fine with a grown daughter and son pressed against his sides? Gross.”
“Don’t worry. Father listens to everything I say.”
“I vote absolutely not.”
“That’s something we have to ask him about. Anyway, you’re okay with it, right?”
Victor looked down at me with bright, eager eyes, then with a sigh, nodded.
“Fine, whatever.”
“Great! Then I’ll go ask Father!”
Ah, I feel so happy.
I yanked off the mask from my face and threw it onto the Vanity, then left the room.
* * *
“This is so nice. I can’t remember the last time we had a house with my brother in it.”
“I’ll go get Father! Come on, the bed’s big enough for all three of us.”
After Rubetria left, Victor recalled her excited voice and let out a quiet sigh.
He’d been glad to see his younger sister brighten up in recent times, and so he’d been able to ease his mind somewhat, but…….
She must have been lonely and bored.
The firstborn brother who favored only the twins, the second brother who fled the house like he was escaping, and a father who rarely ventured outside his room.
Only now could Victor somewhat understand what Lark had been thinking when he suddenly sent him home to play the role of an older brother.
Victor felt a sudden heaviness and sat up abruptly.
“That’s right! Since I’ve taken a leave anyway, this older brother will play with her until she’s sick of me!”
He rolled up his sleeves and smiled with satisfaction, but then glancing around Rubetria’s room, he frowned.
“Tsk, this brat!”
Several dresses were scattered across the bed as if she’d been choosing what to wear tomorrow. The bedding was a mess too.
She’d grown up and started adorning herself, so the Vanity was cluttered with cosmetics he’d never seen before.
“How am I supposed to sleep in this disaster?”
Victor began neatly folding Rubetria’s clothes.
“I wonder if that scatterbrain will even make a proper marriage……. Tsk.”
Grumbling away, Victor tidied her room with practiced efficiency.
Four years in the Knight Corps barracks. With the soldier’s discipline he’d honed over time, he even folded the bedding sharply with perfect corners before he smiled with satisfaction.
“And what’s this?”
The Nightstand beside the bed was also a mess. Pens and perfume bottles scattered everywhere.
Victor shook his head and carelessly swept them into the drawer.
Then, suddenly.
‘Hmm?’
In the bottom drawer, he discovered a notebook with a Lock.
“Hm.”
Obviously a Diary. The key was even sitting right next to it, almost as if it were crying out “Please look at me!”
“No, I’m not that kind of bad older brother who secretly sneaks a peek at his younger sister’s Diary.”
Tempted for a moment, Victor muttered to himself, shook his head sharply, and closed the drawer with a tap.
Then Lark’s voice came to mind.
“Play with her if she gets bored, make sure she eats properly, and protect her well if anyone bothers her.”
Victor was almost certain because of Lark’s uncharacteristic behavior.
He knew about Rubetria’s entanglement in the Imperial Succession Dispute, and he knew that’s how they’d become close in their own way, but…….
Something unspoken seemed to be flowing between them, as if that had been the beginning.
And what’s more.
“If we do start dating, I’ll tell you first.”
No matter how he thought about it, Rubetria’s words had sounded laden with meaning.
“It’s not like I’m going to eat her. Why hide it? Are they really not together?”
Victor pouted and muttered, then, with a thoughtful hum, carefully opened the Nightstand drawer again.
Their relationship aside, he was also curious about how Rubetria had been managing on her own all this time…….
“I really won’t look at anything else. Just whether there’s any mention of His Highness or not. Right? Really. Right?”
With that self-serving compromise, Victor unlocked the Diary and opened it.
[Imperial Calendar 1520, November 28th.
Today, Biego slapped Ricky soundly. Very satisfying. Recording this in my Diary after a long time so I don’t forget this refreshing feeling. I think I’ll start writing again from now on.]
Victor’s eyebrows shot up as he casually skimmed the entry on the last page.
‘My brother hit Ricky? What happened?’
Even though Biego had always spoiled the twins no matter what foolish things they did, he’d actually raised a hand against Ricky. That wouldn’t happen without a serious reason…….
Increasingly intrigued, Victor carefully began flipping through the Diary backwards, page by page.
It seemed she hadn’t written in a while—the only entry for this year of 1520 was about Ricky getting hit by Biego.
The entries before that ended around spring of 1519.
[Imperial Calendar 1519, April 4th.
Why won’t my weight go down? I ran for thirty minutes yesterday…….]
[Imperial Calendar 1519, May 6th.
I’m really not eating anything after today. If I eat again tomorrow, I’m not human.]
[Imperial Calendar 1519, May 7th.
I guess I’m not human.]
“Heh.”
Victor covered his mouth with the back of his hand, suppressing a laugh that bubbled up involuntarily.
‘So cute.’
She’d eventually become as slim as she’d wished, so his younger sister’s willpower was no joke.
[Imperial Calendar 1519, March 27th.
Oh, so today was the day Ricky got hurt. I forgot like an idiot. I should have told him not to climb the Enchanted Tree…….
Sure enough, Biego got angry again. It was sad, but since I knew and still couldn’t stop Ricky, I felt it was my fault too, so I just apologized.]
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
Today was the day Ricky got hurt.
Knowing, yet couldn’t stop Ricky.
‘What does that mean?’
Tilting his head, he flipped back several more pages.
[Imperial Calendar 1519, March 15th.
Ricky pinched my belly again today, and for some reason it hurt so much that when I checked during my bath in the evening, there was a bruise.
I’m upset. Could he please be gentler? Ricky really annoys me.]
[Imperial Calendar 1519, March 18th.
The day I saw Cedric after a long time. I expected it and dressed prettily to go out, and the twins were there too since they weren’t feeling well.
From what I remember, the twins were really sick that day and we couldn’t play together, but…….
Ricky and Lilia made fun of me in front of Cedric, saying I smelled strange. I’d bathed cleanly. I was so embarrassed. I’m upset.]
“What the hell is this?”
Victor’s expression went blank as he cursed under his breath.
As he turned to flip through a few more pages, his hands had become rough.
[Imperial Calendar 1519, February 8th.
There was a social gathering. From what I remember, that day was truly the worst, so I made an excuse that I wasn’t feeling well, but Lilia cried without me. So I went anyway. I lost at a game and had to do an elephant trunk dance on stage, and my head was dizzy and hurt.
But more than that, my heart hurt more listening to the children mocking me, saying I was a pig imitating an elephant.
I need to lose weight.]
[Imperial Calendar 1519, February 15th.
I told Biego that Grandmother hates me. In This Life, I don’t want to live the same way, so I really hope my brother will trust me.
So I told him more firmly than before, but…….
My brother only trusts Grandmother and the twins. It’s unfair and frustrating and so sad.]
Victor’s breathing grew rough.
Nearly eighty percent of the Diary was filled with similar entries. Traces of torment that were almost painful to read.
But what confused him most of all were the mysterious phrases scattered throughout that made no sense.
From what I remember—
From what I remember, that day was——
In This Life, I don’t want to live the same way——
Victor ran his parched lips across once, then with trembling hands, flipped backward through the Diary to the first entry.
The first page. The first Diary entry.
After reading its contents, Victor went completely still.
[Imperial Calendar 1519, January 7th.
I’m back.
Father is alive. Thank you, God.]

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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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