Celebrity Lady - Chapter 142

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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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Celebrated Lady
Episode 142
Molga’s pupils trembled beyond her control.
Rubetria’s words—asking her to seek forgiveness from her mother—their meaning was unmistakable.
‘How is this possible…?’
It had been a very long time ago.
To survive in this household, she had eliminated the obstacles one by one…
“Rubetria, I don’t understand what you’re saying—”
Shing.
At that moment, the sharp ring of a blade drawn from its sheath made Molga’s eyes snap up.
Victor, standing near the door, had unsheathed his sword and spoke.
“If you don’t understand what she’s saying, you can always go ask her yourself.”
And with that, he strode forward in great strides.
“Oh my!”
Molga, startled, hid herself behind a Military Police officer at her side.
The sight of her trembling behind her escorts as though they were a lifeline was almost comical, but there was nothing to be done about it.
“……”
Molga knew all too well that, given Victor’s temperament, that blade could slit her throat in an instant.
“Calm yourself,” she said, her voice steady.
Victor stood halted, restrained by officers holding his arm, his eyes fixed on her.
That blazing gaze was filled with genuine conviction.
‘What in the world is happening?’
Molga still could not comprehend this situation.
And rightfully so—she had never imagined that the secret of an ancient, hideous murder she could no longer even remember would come to light.
Her vision whiteout, trembling, Molga suddenly recalled the whereabouts of her suspiciously absent younger brother.
‘Could it be… Gale? Where is he right now?’
* * *
“Go on inside now.”
At that same moment, in the Imperial Palace.
Lark, leading Leonard with an impassive expression, spoke.
This was Soleil, the auxiliary palace.
The Soleil Palace, maintained by generations of imperial heirs, has no basement.
Or rather, it is said to have none.
But beyond a hidden entrance and down a considerable distance, many things lay concealed.
For instance, prisoners suffering under Illusion.
“Huh… huh-huh… huh-uh…”
An elderly man, gagged, his hands and feet bound, his eyes rolled back, lay sprawled on the cold floor.
Until a few months ago, he had been Leonard’s personal physician: Benjamin.
Bribed by Molga, he had worked long in the Duke’s household and had taken part in poisoning the former Duke and Duchess, as well as Leonard’s wife…
A medical man who had abandoned his oath.
Click.
Lark entered the cell, straightened Benjamin, and removed the gag from his mouth.
Then Leonard withdrew the Illusion.
“Ah-uh…”
It took roughly one minute for Benjamin to comprehend his emergence from the Illusion.
His eyes then blazed with sudden clarity.
“…!”
Lark, reacting swiftly, thrust his hand into Benjamin’s mouth.
Benjamin’s jaw clenched with all his strength to bite off his own tongue, but unfortunately, his teeth found only Lark’s hand instead.
“M-master… f-forgive… me…”
His eyes rolled back, Benjamin hung there weeping copiously.
Lark, regarding Benjamin with an impassive gaze, replaced the gag in his mouth.
“That’s right. You’ll die soon enough. Until then, rest.”
Lark hauled Benjamin to a corner of the cell and rose to his feet.
He wrapped his wounded hand roughly with a Handkerchief and moved on.
“Are you all right?” Leonard, following behind, asked as he observed the wound.
Lark shrugged his shoulder.
“I’m fine. If you’d like, you can keep feeding him Illusion until the end.”
“No, don’t bother. He begged for death, so this is enough.”
“…All right. Tell me again if you change your mind.”
Footsteps echoed through the silent corridor.
Upon arriving at the next prisoner’s cell, they peered inside.
“Huh-eee-eee…”
Gale, eyes rolled back, drooling uncontrollably.
Molga’s younger brother, confidant of the Second Prince, a genius of pharmaceutical arts who had created countless poisons—a Sorcerer.
He now looked much the same as Benjamin had.
Click.
Lark opened the door.
* * *
Gale walked without cessation, looking up at the sky.
An infinite Void Space stretched endlessly before him, no matter how far he walked.
All that was given to him was one impossibly high wall and a ceiling open enough to see day and night.
How many days had passed?
Or was it years? Or decades? Or centuries?
Gale bit his finger and drew a single mark in blood upon the wall.
The red traces of countless days already covered the wall densely.
“Ah…”
When he first entered the Illusion, his entire body tore and shattered, then reassembled.
Every pain was felt acutely, yet his mind remained lucid.
Ten years? A hundred years?
Time flowed on, immeasurable and endless.
Next came drowning in boiling lava, thrashing helplessly.
Another ten years? Another hundred?
His lucid mind felt his flesh dissolving in the agony.
And then, like this.
An eternity began, wandering without purpose through the empty Void Space.
Gale walked in a daze and prayed.
If only they would tear his body and submerge it in lava instead…
In that moment when agony consumed all other thought, at least he could endure.
“How many thousand years has it been?”
Gale muttered, his mouth hanging slack.
A wall covered in crimson marks.
There was no way to gauge how much time had truly passed.
Then, suddenly.
What could this be?
The vision blocked by the blank wall inverted.
“Gasp!”
Foreign air flooded his lungs.
By instinct, Gale understood.
He had returned to ‘reality’.
And—
Before his eyes appeared a face, dim in his memory from some ancient time thousands of years past.
The Crown Prince!
“…Hah… hah…”
My savior!
My savior has come!
Gale seized Lark frantically, clinging to him.
“S-save… save me. Please. Stop. Stop it…”
Lark, looking down at Gale with impassive eyes, forced the gag back into his mouth with a rough hand.
“Mmmph! Mmph! Ugh!”
And with an expressionless face, he murmured:
“You still want to live.”
Then darkness fell again.
Gale’s eyes opened as he lay down, and he saw a blue sky above.
Slowly turning his head to the side, he saw that accursed Void Space once more.
All the marks he had written in blood upon the wall had been erased.
Again.
It was the beginning.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
The eternity within this Illusion, from which he could not even die by his own will.
* * *
Upon leaving Soleil, Leonard looked up at the crystalline sky and drew a deep breath.
“Let’s wait a while longer. The Duchess should be transported here soon.”
Molga Diolus.
She too would now enter an eternity of Illusion more terrible than death, before facing the law’s judgment.
“…Yes.”
Leonard closed his eyes tightly and trembled.
The day he would condemn this vile demon with his own hands.
It had come at last.
“I have been helped tremendously. Without you, I would have lived out my life in foolish ignorance of everything.”
“Not really. If it weren’t for the Duchess, there would have been nothing I could do either. I think I owe it all to her.”
Lark laughed softly and added:
“Remember? The Duchess was concerned about the Duke’s poor health, so she investigated his medicine, caught the scheming physician, and asked me to uncover the secret of the Duchess behind him.”
“…Yes.”
Leonard’s face twisted into an expression that was neither quite laughter nor quite tears as he recalled his daughter’s face.
“She bears no resemblance whatsoever to her useless father. She must take after her mother.”
Witnessing Leonard’s expression crumble at the memory of his late wife, Lark smiled bitterly.
“Still, it is true that you have helped greatly. As long as I live, I shall repay every kindness you have shown.”
“Really now?”
Lark’s playful smile showed keen interest, and Leonard hesitated.
He had expected a polite refusal, but this was an unexpected response.
‘Is there something you want?’
As Leonard pondered this, he suddenly thought of his daughter and let out a small exclamation.
“That’s not happening.”
“My, how decisive you are.”
The pair understood each other without words, declining and regretting in the same breath—and Leonard laughed at how absurd it was.
“I was only joking.”
“Hmm?”
“How could I refuse her anything when she loves you so?”
For days now, Rubetria had been pestering Leonard relentlessly about marriage.
It seemed that once all this was resolved, marriage was the first thing she wanted to do.
“Dad, Dad! I want to get married in May! I’ve always dreamed of being a May bride!”
“Do as you wish. Who would stop you?”
“Really? Just like that?”
“Well… around May of 1540, in spring, wouldn’t be bad.”
“…? You’re telling me to marry twenty years from now?”
Recalling his playful conversation with his daughter, Leonard laughed aloud.
After laughing for a moment, he turned to find Lark staring at him vacantly.
“Of course, that’s only possible if you fulfill the preparations you promised earlier.”
“Ah!”
Lark, who had sworn to marry once the Marriage Law was changed.
“No matter how much I love my daughter, a Proposal Letter without my seal is worthless, as you well know.”
“Of course.”
Lark, brimming with excitement, answered immediately, then grew shy and clasped his hands behind his back, toying awkwardly with his toes.
“Then, Duke…”
“Yes?”
“Once the Marriage Law amendment passes, you’ll send me a Proposal Letter?”
Watching Lark turn red to his ears and clear his throat sheepishly, Leonard felt an inexplicable spite arise in him.
How dare he already wear the air of a bridegroom…
“I will do so.”
Yet Leonard answered readily.
No matter how capable Lark was, he could hardly rewrite the ancient Marriage Law of the Empire in a single day.
The Emperor would not easily consent to amending the law, so Lark would surely struggle for at least several more years.
‘A few years would be sufficient.’
He needed time to leave good memories with his daughter, whom he had given so little to.
“Ha ha ha…”
“…?”
For some reason, Lark burst into loud laughter, then wiped his nose sheepishly and spoke.
“Then I’ll ask you by the end of this month.”
“…Pardon?”
Leonard’s eyes turned fierce in an instant.

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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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