Celebrity Lady - Chapter 14

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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 14
Click.
Leonard left the room, and Illusion, left behind, gazed at Rubetriah’s face before lifting his gaze.
On one side of Rubetriah’s bed sat another figure.
Leonard wouldn’t have known, but she was a Contract servant Spirit who had been at Rubetriah’s side all along.
“Wisht.”
For some reason she was disguising herself in a human form, but there was no way not to recognize her.
Wisht, who had been watching over the suffering Rubetriah all this time, met Illusion’s eyes.
“Have you been well? It’s been hard to catch sight of you at the Spirit Spring lately.”
“Well, I’ve been summoned almost constantly for the past eleven years. I have to show my contractor the illusion of his wife…….”
“I see. You’ve been through much.”
“Still, I was able to rest these past few days. My contractor has been spending more time with this little lady, it seems.”
Illusion drifted once through the air, gazing down at Rubetriah with sorrowful eyes.
“Help me.”
“Of course.”
Illusion cupped Rubetriah’s cheek and pressed a brief kiss to her forehead. The illusion would soon unfold like a dream.
Watching as Rubetriah’s expression eased, Illusion murmured softly.
“Hmm……. This fragment of her soul certainly feels a little different. She’s confident, has high self-worth, and above all, she’s kind. I can’t say how grateful I am that she looks after my contractor’s wellbeing.”
Illusion spoke with a smile, then added in a worried tone.
“But if her mind is unstable like this…… will she be able to endure without falling further apart?”
“……I wonder.”
“This time, I must surely set you free, Wisht.”
“…….”
“I believe in you. After all, you are the only contractor I have waited for all this time.”
Illusion chuckled and rambled on with words Wisht didn’t understand, prompting him to wave his hand dismissively.
“Enough of your nonsense. Now be off.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
With a slight bow, Illusion murmured the greeting, and Wisht froze, his brow furrowing.
…….
Then he quietly raised his index finger and pressed it to his lips with a soft shush.
Illusion, at the silent warning, laughed once with a playful expression before vanishing without a trace.
* * *
Diolus Duchy.
The chamber of the mistress, Molga Diolus.
After hearing the chatter of the twins reunited for the first time in over a month, Molga drummed her fingers on the table with a grave expression.
“The child has changed ever since she nearly drowned in the pond?”
“Yeah, Mom. I still hurt……. Go ahead and punish that little brat. She should apologize.”
Ricky whimpered while clutching his cheek, where Rubetriah had struck him.
From the day the accident happened four days ago, Rubetriah had been acting like she’d lost her mind, they said.
It was surprising enough that she’d struck Ricky’s cheek…….
‘Going to find her father on her own?’
Due to Molga’s repeated abuse, Rubetriah maintained considerable distance from Leonard. She believed he was ashamed of her, that he hated her, unable to bring himself to love his own daughter.
The truth was far simpler—he was merely an indifferent father. A man grieving the loss of his wife, too broken to care for his children.
‘This is troublesome. Very troublesome indeed.’
On top of that, the butler Rob was no longer in the manor, having been dismissed.
Rob had been a faithful servant for years, his only fault being that he’d overlooked the abuse—could Leonard have cast him out without reason?
‘She opened her mouth. But why, all of a sudden?’
What change of heart could have come over that meek, timid little girl who’d grown so accustomed to being trampled that she’d barely dared to whisper a word?
‘But there’s no evidence anyway.’
All the servants in the duchy were on her payroll, and even the regent, the young duke Biego, trusted her completely.
Even if Rubetriah had revealed that she was being abused, Leonard could not press charges against Molga without proof.
And yet.
‘He’ll start to suspect…….’
Leonard, who had shown no interest whatsoever in the household’s affairs, might very well change.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
Molga ground her teeth, recalling Leonard’s face as they’d passed. That haughty gaze—dismissive, as though he couldn’t be bothered to associate with her.
‘And he has the nerve, knowing full well I raised his children, not even pretending to be grateful.’
Molga had cared for Leonard’s children like a mother, in place of his wife who’d died young.
Of course, it had never come from genuine affection. She had merely concealed her claws and played at kindness out of necessity.
Leonard was ruthless toward anyone who displeased him, his eldest son Biego was the heir to the duchy, and his second son Victor had a temperament as volatile as fire…….
“Insolent wretch.”
The inferiority Molga harbored toward Leonard was immense. His seat upon the ducal throne, which her own children could never claim, grated on her sight, as did his offspring.
So when she learned that her youngest daughter Rubetriah was meek and fragile by nature, Molga began to vent all the inferiority, resentment, and jealousy she’d accumulated toward Leonard directly onto his daughter, abusing her mercilessly.
‘I thought I’d trained that stupid girl so well, but now this—if Leonard begins to suspect the abuse, it will be troublesome…….’
Molga, still gnawing at her nails, whirled around to face Ricky.
“From now on, be careful with your behavior. Avoid any involvement with Rubetriah as much as possible, and don’t torment her for a while. Watch your conduct in front of the servants.”
“What?”
“I will find out what’s changed in Rubetriah. With Rob gone, I’ll be quite busy from now on.”
“What do you mean, Mom? Avoid involvement? She hit my cheek! Aren’t you going to punish her?”
“You fool!”
Molga’s sharp rebuke made the whimpering Ricky flinch.
“When Mother speaks, you answer properly with ‘yes,’ not backtalk like this.”
…….
“How many times must I tell you? Without me, how would you two strut about in this household?”
“I’m… I’m sorry…….”
“Mom, please calm down.”
As the twins spoke hesitantly, Molga’s sharp gaze swept between them.
Her son Ricky and daughter Lillia were beautiful, taking after their mother, but each time Molga looked upon the twins’ faces, she felt her anger rise.
The Diolus noble family all bore red hair by bloodline…….
Yet these twins, who looked so much like only her, felt like an unpleasant reminder that they would never be truly accepted as members of the Diolus clan.
“Ricky, and Lillia. Listen well.”
“Yeah…….”
“Mm-hm.”
Molga knelt and grasped each of the twins’ arms, her eyes gleaming with sinister intent.
“Your fifteenth birthday is still a little over a year away, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. You said we just have to hold on for one more year.”
Lillia answered promptly, and Molga nodded with a smile.
If everything went according to plan, she would finally be free from this life spent constantly watching Leonard’s mood within this household.
“You haven’t forgotten the promise you made with Mother, have you?”
“No, of course not…….”
Ricky nodded hesitantly.
“When you choose a Spirit, you must not be distracted. There are countless Spirits in the Spirit Spring, and their abilities will all be tempting.”
…….
“But you must never, ever be seduced. You will make a Contract servant bond only with the Spirit Mother told you of, and bring it back. Do you understand?”
“I’ll find it! I will!”
Lillia’s eyes gleamed with avarice.
“Heh heh……. What does it matter who finds it? As long as either of you succeeds, that’s all that matters.”
The reason the Diolus family members were treated like imperial royalty was precisely because they were descended from Spirit contractors.
At fifteen years of age, they too would be granted the right to enter the Spirit Spring at the imperial altar and form a contract with a Spirit.
“But Mom, what if, like Rubetriah, the Spirit doesn’t choose us?”
Ricky asked with worried eyes.
“That child is a fool. There’s no reason a Spirit wouldn’t choose you two. Even without red hair, the blood of Diolus surely flows through you.”
The twins’ gleaming golden eyes were an unmistakable symbol of Diolus bloodline that could not be denied.
“That’s right, Rubetriah wasn’t even chosen by a Spirit…….”
Molga murmured this to herself, regaining her peace of mind.
‘Even if she writhes, she’s nothing but a worm—I have no reason to be this anxious.’
Rubetriah, the perfect blemish on the Diolus household, was a convenient existence that dimmed Molga’s own inferiority.
Until now, every member of the Diolus family who had entered the Spirit Spring had successfully formed a contract with a Spirit…….
Yet Rubetriah alone, extraordinarily, was the only fool in all the empire’s history never to be chosen by a Spirit.
“In any case, Ricky, if you can find that Spirit, what did Mother say?”
“That I could even become Emperor.”
“That’s right, my clever boy.”
As Ricky clenched his fist with determination, having learned his lesson well, Molga smiled with satisfaction and stroked his hair.
“But Mom, can we really…….”
The Spirit for which Molga held such obsessive desire was.
One that had appeared only once hundreds of years ago and, after its contractor’s death, returned to the Spirit Spring,
“……find the Spirit of Wishes?”
A legendary Spirit that was now considered myth.

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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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