Celebrity Lady - Chapter 13

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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 13
“Ah, Father. Gasp…….”
“Rubert!”
Clinging to my blurring vision, I instinctively threw my arms around Father’s neck.
His body stiffened at my touch.
‘Does he hate me? He must think I’m a disgrace to the family, just like all my shortcomings. He only refrains from pushing me away because I’m his blood daughter……, isn’t that it?’
Thoughts I would never have harbored before—thoughts that screamed like shrieks inside my skull—echoed back at me.
Fragments of emotion that Rubert’s body remembered, feelings that had tormented her throughout her life.
“Ah, Father…….”
“…….”
In exchange for absorbing every moment of Rubert’s life, I could not escape her emotions.
It was an instinct—the body responding before the mind could.
“I, I, I know you d, don’t like me. I know it, gasp…….”
“What?”
You wouldn’t love me, would you? All those hours spent trembling with preemptive fear, or
“B, but even so, ah, Father, I, right now, it h, hurts so much, p, please don’t sh, shake me off……?”
All those days I swallowed my tears alone, still yearning to be loved.
Emotions layered thick upon thick, engraved reflexively into my body—pure instinct.
“J, just a little. U, until I feel better, j, just for a m, moment like this…….”
As Father’s scent reached me, my rapidly racing heart began to slow.
It was a bitter truth—that the only being who could truly soothe Rubert was family bound by the same blood.
“Father…….”
Terrified that if Father pulled away, the shock would rob me of breath again, I clung desperately to his neck.
Mercifully, Father held me close without releasing his embrace until I had fully calmed.
* * *
Bang!
How much time had passed? The door to the Duke of Diolus’s Bedroom—one that had scarcely ever opened from the inside—swung wide.
Leonard strode across the corridor with Rubert cradled in his arms, her back toward him.
“What, what is this? Did the Duke really just leave his room?”
“Why is the young lady…….”
The maids they passed exchanged glances of disbelief, whispering among themselves.
Leonard stopped abruptly as he encountered someone in the hallway.
“Leonard?”
A beauty whose brilliant golden hair and blue eyes arrested attention.
Having just returned home, she was the great lady of this house, the Duchess, and Leonard’s stepmother—only a year his senior—Molga.
Molga, who had been heading toward Leonard’s room, gasped in surprise at the collision.
“Wh, what on earth is this? Why is Rubert like this?”
“She appears to be unwell. I’m taking her to see a physician.”
“G, goodness……. What ails her? Why so suddenly?”
Molga’s face drained of color, and she fumbled to see Rubert’s face. But Leonard narrowed his eyes with irritation and swept past her without pause.
“We can speak later.”
His voice was cold as always, yet Molga sensed an uncharacteristic alarm and concern beneath it.
“No, Leonard. Come back to your room. The girl—she struggles to leave it.”
Molga rushed to seize his arm and called to the maids nearby.
“What are you standing about for? Help Rubert—”
“That’s enough.”
Leonard frowned and shook off Molga’s arm.
“I’ll see to her. You need not trouble yourself, madam. Rest from your journey.”
“W, wait!”
Before she could protest further, Leonard disappeared down the corridor with long, purposeful strides.
Molga, who had been nibbling her lip anxiously and shifting her feet, let her expression drop entirely the moment his figure vanished completely.
Her beautiful, doll-like face tilted slightly.
“Damn it. What a wretched mess is this?”
* * *
Lying in a sheen of cold sweat, Rubert murmured in a half-conscious haze, barely audible.
The fragmented words were difficult to parse, but Leonard heard them clearly.
“You must hate me…….”
“I’ve done wrong.”
“Please don’t abandon me.”
“This appears to be Mental Trauma Disorder.”
“……What? A disorder?”
The physician who had examined Rubert’s condition offered his diagnosis.
The young physician’s name was Aaron Mueller.
He was someone Rubert had brought in specifically to examine Leonard’s physical condition and proved quite competent.
The diagnosis of “disorder” did not sit well, but he could hardly have spoken falsely.
“What do you mean?”
Leonard demanded sharply.
“I have some experience treating patients with these symptoms. Typically, they are individuals seized by memories of traumatic or frightening events they have endured.”
“…….”
“The condition manifests in various ways. As with your daughter now, patients often suffer nightmares or become distressed recalling those moments.”
“Traumatic or frightening events? What could a child confined quietly at home possibly have experienced?”
“That I cannot presume, as I do not know the full circumstances of the young lady’s situation. However, among the patients I have seen were soldiers who witnessed the horrors of the battlefield firsthand, or…….”
“…….”
“……most often those who suffered abuse—whether physical or psychological—in their childhood.”
Leonard stilled at Aaron’s words.
“Has the young lady seemed hypersensitive? Has she expressed anger? Or harbored negative thoughts? Has she believed herself rejected or abandoned?”
Leonard lowered his gaze stiffly, staring blankly at Rubert’s face.
“I jumped in on purpose because I wanted to die.”
That remark about deliberately jumping into the Pond.
Though dismissed as a jest, it could not be overlooked—because of the expression on Rubert’s face.
The memory returned of his daughter, burdened by accumulated grief, the resentful glint in her eyes as she regarded her distant father.
“……Yes. I believe that may have been the case.”
Observing something strike a chord in Leonard, Aaron simply nodded without pressing further.
“Is there no cure?”
“Not at present, I’m afraid. This is not an ailment amenable to medicinal treatment—it is a disorder of the mind. What the young lady requires most is her own will to recover and the support of those around her.”
“In what manner?”
“If it were possible, might Your Grace consider assisting in her recovery?”
“Myself?”
“Yes. From what I understand, Your Grace possesses the Spiritist ability related to Hallucination.”
He was referring to Illusion, the spirit bound to Leonard.
“As these memories resurface, they bring tremendous psychological suffering. Were Your Grace to implant a pleasant Hallucination to obscure those recollections, it would provide temporary relief.”
“What sort of hallucination should I show her?”
At Leonard’s question, Aaron paused thoughtfully before answering.
“Perhaps the daily life she has longed for? The sort of thing young ladies of noble birth typically wish for?”
“…….”
The daily life that Rubert longed for.
“I wanted to have meals with Father like other daughters do, to go out and play, to pout and be silly…….”
Leonard closed his eyes, considering, then gave a quiet nod.
“I understand. You’ve done well. I’ll contact you once I’ve observed the child’s condition further.”
“Yes, Your Grace. And if I may offer one more caution: Hallucinations are only temporary relief. Please ensure the young lady’s actual surroundings become a place where she can truly find happiness and peace of mind.”
Aaron replaced his hat, gathered his medical bag, and departed the room.
Alone with Rubert, Leonard gazed at her face for a long while.
‘Hallucination, then…….’
Would such a thing truly help this child?
For eleven years, since his wife’s death, Leonard had spent nearly every hour of every day lost in her Hallucination.
Living and breathing were agony, but only in dreams was he free from that pain.
Yet each time he awoke from the Hallucination, a devastating emptiness consumed him. To fill that void, he turned to drink, then returned to sleep…….
Days like that repeated endlessly.
‘Does a temporary Hallucination not simply summon greater suffering? Why show her false dreams at all…….’
Leonard’s thoughts faltered.
The circumstances of his daughter differed from his own—his wife no longer existed in this world.
What Rubert desired was different.
“Having meals with Father, going out and playing, pouting and being silly…….”
Even if she woke from the Hallucination, it was something he could fully provide her in reality.
“……Illusion.”
As Leonard’s low voice resonated through the quiet room, Illusion materialized.
The spirit, whose form was that of a pure white woman, drifted gently through the air and replied.
“You called, Contractor?”
Leonard issued his command immediately.
“My daughter is trapped in a nightmare. Give her a pleasant dream instead.”
Taken aback by this unusual command, Illusion noticed Rubert lying down.
“A pleasant dream—of what sort?”
Leonard, lost in thought, closed his eyes gently.
“With me…….”
“Having meals, going out to play, pouting and being silly…….”
It wasn’t difficult.
“With me…….”
Leonard’s lips twisted, and he rose from his seat as he spoke.
“A dream where she dines with me, goes out with me, and throws tantrums to her heart’s content.”

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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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