Celebrity Lady - Chapter 141

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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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Celeb Lady
Chapter 141
* * *
Time.
It cannot stop,
and the future
will come regardless.
“Randian.”
White hair fluttered softly in the breeze.
Bista, a Spirit who always kept his eyes firmly shut.
Though his eyes had never opened once, there was nothing he could not see.
“Are you thinking of breaking the Taboo? Will you reveal the future to your Contractor?”
“No.”
Randian, who had been listening impassively to the future Bista had shown him, shook his head with an unmoved expression.
“Are you certain?”
“You showed me the future without need to speak of it because you know better than anyone that I’m not the sort to break the Taboo.”
“Hmm, I suppose so…….”
“I have no intention of disturbing order. If that is my Contractor’s fate, then I must accept it.”
“Yes.”
Bista, laughing softly, drew in a breath.
Invisible, yet always beautiful—his domain could be known by the sweet scent that drifted through the air alone.
“How cruel, then.”
“…….”
“Time, which can only flow forward—that is the cruelty.”
* * *
Indifferent time flows on without pause.
The same for all.
* * *
“Brother, you can do this, right?”
A girl stood rigid before the returned mansion, gripping her brother’s hand tight—Rubetria Diolus’s time, too.
“Yes.”
A boy now grown, learned enough to suppress even his anger—Victor’s time, too.
“I’ve cried all my tears. Now let’s just hold on a little longer and be happy.”
“……yes.”
“Good, let’s go in.”
* * *
“Hick, hee, hhh…….”
Dark, secret Underground Dungeon.
“Not much time left, Duke Diolus.”
A man stepped out from behind half-mad prisoners, indifferently removing bloodstained gloves—Lark’s time, too.
“Yes.”
A man who smiled faintly, conjuring the face of his wife etched beneath his eyelids—Leonard Diolus’s time, too.
* * *
“Ha, haha…….”
Evidence of countless framing schemes discovered today in his room with Rubetria Diolus’s help.
Finding stack upon stack of poisons, he burst into mad laughter—
“You bastard……. You were going to send me away like this? Lark, you…….”
The Second Prince Naysan’s time, too.
“Time for you to hang yourself with your own noose. You wretched dog.”
* * *
Molga Diolus had been having nightmares lately.
Churning lava far below a cliff’s edge. The people Molga had killed were there.
They reached up from hollow eyes weeping blood, clawing her down into the abyss.
She barely managed to pull herself up to the cliff edge, and when she lifted her head, there was Rubetria Diolus.
She smiled wickedly, treading on Molga’s hand.
Then Molga would plunge into the hellfire far below and wake from the nightmare.
“Something feels wrong.”
With a face worn thin by nightmares, Molga quickly gathered her things.
As she madly stuffed clothes and some money into a travel bag, her eyes caught on a letter lying on the table.
[I’m going on a trip to the Southern Region for a while. I’ll contact you right away when I return. Take care.
Gale.]
It was a letter her younger brother Gale had sent two months ago, after disappearing without telling their father Bert.
Though sudden, the handwriting was unmistakably Gale’s, so Molga had thought little of it.
But.
‘Something is wrong.’
Gale’s trip stretching on too long, the suspicious lack of incident recently, the quiet atmosphere of the Diolus Duchy Mansion—all felt suspicious.
What most unsettled Molga was Victor, who had returned home a week ago.
Originally stationed at the Imperial Palace dormitory, he had begun commuting from the mansion a few days ago, and had been acting oddly affectionate toward Molga and the twins.
‘Is that really his nature?’
In place of Biego, who had grown taciturn, watching Leonard’s mood, the twins had quickly grown close to Victor—but
Molga could not shake an ominous feeling.
It was perhaps a belated warning signal, sent by her instinct from the brink of disaster.
‘I need to get away. I’ll say I’m going on a trip, then head south to find Gale.’
Molga’s hands quickened as she packed.
Then.
“Grandmother~”
Molga, startled, turned slowly around.
Rubetria Diolus stood smiling broadly, her hand on the doorknob.
“Where are you going?”
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart pounded, sensing the omen.
Molga rose, feigning composure.
“I’m feeling cooped up. I thought I’d go somewhere nearby and get some fresh air.”
“I see.”
Rubetria Diolus’s smiling face overlapped with the face from her nightmare.
The cruel face that had been driving her into the hellfire pit…….
‘Yes. It was from the day she suddenly changed.’
That was it.
‘From then on, something—something went very wrong.’
Molga, biting the inside of her cheek, soon smiled and asked,
“Does Victor still come home for lunch today? Then I suppose we should eat together before I go.”
“Well, today is uncertain. They say he’s been called out on Military Police work.”
“……Military Police?”
“Yes. There’s supposedly a nasty criminal. He was grinding his teeth about what poor quality the crime is, and volunteered to escort the prisoner personally.”
“I see.”
Molga nodded absently, then gazed steadily at Rubetria Diolus.
The little girl who used to tremble whenever they were alone—she was gone.
What had changed that foolish girl so completely?
Was it her own complacency, assuming this child would remain forever the same?
Either way, Molga now knew that confronting Rubetria Diolus would bring her no advantage.
“Rubetria Diolus.”
She approached her slowly.
“Yes, Grandmother.”
Rubetria Diolus, leaning against the closed door, answered respectfully.
“This may come as a shock, but an opportunity has come up, and I want to say it.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“It’s just a brief reflection on my life.”
Molga touched the empty air with hollow eyes, as though remembering.
“You see, I had some regret toward your father, Leonard—as you know, since I entered this mansion.”
Molga’s voice continued.
“I received looks of contempt. Well, Leonard is only human—how could he be kind to his father’s mistress?”
“Is that so.”
“To speak honestly, I hated Leonard very much. But in my position, how could I show my displeasure to the Head of Household?”
“…….”
“I released all that pent-up resentment in the wrong direction. Rubetria Diolus, you were……kind, timid, and even I, who hated you, foolishly followed you.”
Though she was saying this to placate Rubetria Diolus, it was not a lie.
She had vented the inferiority and malice she felt toward Leonard by abusing his daughter, Rubetria Diolus.
“Though it comes late, I’m sorry. I wanted to apologize. I’ve come to regret it somewhat.”
“I see.”
Rubetria Diolus nodded and asked,
“Even if I had continued to act obediently, kindly, and foolishly? Would you still have regretted it and apologized?”
No, you stupid girl.
Of course not.
“Yes, I think I would have. If I could turn back time, I would not repeat the many wrongs I committed against you.”
“…….”
Rubetria Diolus’s eyes wavered.
Watching the mocking expression crumble, Molga continued,
“You were so young and so delicate. Looking back now, I can’t understand why I did such things. Rationalizing it as being your father’s fault in my heart, while you had done nothing wrong, I…….”
Molga closed her eyes tightly and dropped her head.
“Rubetria Diolus.”
“…….”
“Shameless though it is, if I ask for your forgiveness now……. Is it too late?”
“Do you mean it?”
“You probably won’t believe me. Even if you never forgave me in your lifetime, I couldn’t blame you.”
“If you mean it.”
Rubetria Diolus added, her voice trembling slightly,
“I’ll forgive you.”
An answer given without hesitation.
To gauge its sincerity, Molga looked into Rubetria Diolus’s eyes.
Was it genuine?
Those slightly sad eyes and trembling lips—the expression seemed far too true to be feigned.
Molga smiled weakly, slowly opening her arms.
“Will you……give me a hug?”
Then.
Suddenly, there was commotion outside the door.
“Mother!”
“What, what is it!!”
Lilia? Ricky?
The sound of several military boots approached, and the door that Rubetria Diolus had been leaning against burst open.
“……!”
Military Police in red uniforms poured in and surrounded Molga.
“What is this?”
And then, at their rear, Victor appeared last.
“Victor?”
His eyes, which had grown oddly affectionate lately, were now cold as ice—as though they had never been warm.
And as though she already knew how this would unfold, Rubetria Diolus approached Molga calmly.
Her expression was still downcast.
“Grandmother, I’ll accept the apology you’ve given me with gratitude. However.”
Rubetria Diolus leaned her face close to the bewildered Molga.
A sickening smile.
Molga understood in an instant.
‘That bitch.’
The wounded, small-animal expression from moments before was nowhere to be found.
“You need to apologize to our mother too.”
The lips curling upward matched exactly the cruel expression she had seen in her dream.
“With that pretty mouth of yours.”
Rubetria Diolus’s slowly rising hands seized both of Molga’s cheeks hard.
“Go and meet her directly.
Her grip tightened with fierce anger.
“And say, ‘Forgive me.'”
Rubetria Diolus whispered quietly near Molga’s ear,
“You wicked thing.”

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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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