Celebrity Lady - Chapter 150

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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 150
……This doesn’t make sense.
Lark barely held together his chest, which felt like it was shattering into dust and scattering away.
It was sordid, but he couldn’t back down now.
“Prince Helios.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Even his name was handsome…….
Lark, biting his lip, set down the Proposal Letter from Helios that he’d been holding.
“Ah, this.”
“I apologize for bringing up an uncomfortable matter at our first meeting, but I too was planning to propose to the Duke’s daughter.”
“……What?”
“I was simply waiting for permission from Duke Diolus, the Duke’s daughter’s father. This situation is quite bewildering and displeasurable to me.”
“Your Highness? Wait a moment.”
Rubetria interjected, but Lark continued speaking.
“I don’t know what was discussed between you just now, but I would appreciate it if you would leave so I might speak with the Duke’s daughter alone.”
“No, Your Highness!”
Rubetria shot to her feet.
Rubetria’s flustered expression, and Lark’s eyes glaring as if to chew her to death.
Helios, looking between the two of them, soon realized and spread both hands wide.
“Ah, I seem to have misspoken…… didn’t I? When I said I would spend my life with the Duke’s daughter, I didn’t mean it in that sense.”
“…….”
“Haha. I meant to spend my life in ‘business partnership’ with you, well, I suppose I put that poorly…… that’s what I meant.”
What is he talking about?
At Lark’s suddenly wary expression, Helios burst into an awkward laugh.
* * *
So it had been two weeks ago that the Proposal Letter came from Helios, the second prince of the Belcan Kingdom.
He had no idea how Helios learned of her, but replying with merely a one-line refusal posed certain problems.
Prince Helios was not merely some nobleman—he was royalty.
Moreover, she was in the midst of opening an overseas branch of Blanc de Rubis in the Belcan Kingdom.
“……That’s the situation. I’m truly sorry I cannot give you a better answer, Your Highness.”
A meeting she’d ventured to in person to give a sincere refusal to Prince Helios, who had traveled for two days by ship.
Contrary to her worries, he was cool about it.
“Wow, so you’re to become the Crown Princess soon then?”
“……Perhaps?”
“I congratulate you in advance!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh no, not at all. Rather, you must have been taken aback by such sudden contact, so I should be the one apologizing. Truth be told, I sent the Proposal Letter partly because I was captivated by the Duke’s daughter’s virtuous deeds and impressive business acumen that even reached across the sea.”
“……?”
“But more than that…….”
Prince Helios had a different purpose.
“……You see, my shop was told that partnering with individual businesses in the capital could lead to monopolistic abuse. I agreed. Our clothes are quite popular, after all.”
“They are.”
“So if the Imperial House could contract with me directly, they suggested offering commission rates lower than private businesses would.”
“Right.”
“And since you seemed to have such a healthy mindset—funneling the profits from those commissions into public welfare—it looked promising enough that I decided on a business partnership.”
“I see.”
“Your Highness?”
Inside the carriage.
Lark was staring only out the window.
From the flush creeping up his ears, it was clear he was embarrassed at having misunderstood the relationship between her and Prince Helios.
“……I’m sorry. I got far too worked up.”
“No, it’s not that. Father was being too mischievous. He knew all along that I was going to refuse the proposal.”
“Sigh, no. I’m the fool for not trusting the Duke’s daughter.”
“Oh, anyone would lose their mind in a situation like that. I would’ve flipped out too!”
As she twisted to sit and grabbed his collar, Lark turned to face her.
“If it were me, I would have grabbed Your Highness by the collar first.”
“…….”
“A month since we’ve seen each other.”
Despite the long time, Lark’s handsome face hadn’t changed at all.
Still embarrassed, he avoided her gaze slightly, so she cupped his cheek and pressed him.
“Look at me.”
“…….”
“Were you very busy? Did you not want to see me?”
Lark grasped the hand holding his cheek and drew it down, then sat properly and let out a long sigh.
“I wanted to see you.”
Over their clasped hands, he slowly stroked her knuckles with his index finger.
“Have you finished with all your busy matters?”
“Yes. Let’s be together all day today.”
……All day?
Her ears perked up as the devilish thoughts that never failed to possess her at such an opening resurfaced.
She stole a glance at Lark’s handsome face.
Eyes without a trace of ulterior motive. A solid, usual expression.
However…….
‘At twenty-one, I know all there is to know, surely. Biego was born when our parents were eighteen!’
She released the hand she was holding and gently placed it on Lark’s thigh.
She felt him tense.
“Hmm, what should we do all day? Your Highness, you’ve already eaten, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
Even as she continued to pinch his thigh, pretending not to notice, Lark remained utterly still.
Just as she was about to feel a bit hurt by his obliviousness……
“Ha.”
Lark suddenly let out a sharp breath and swiftly pulled the curtain hanging on the carriage window shut.
Then he reached out and drew the curtain on the opposite window as well.
“Oh my.”
His broad chest suddenly loomed before her eyes, and she flinched.
The inside of the carriage rapidly dimmed.
“Rubetria.”
Through the veil of soft light filtering through the curtains, Lark’s silhouette flickered as he sat upright.
His golden eyes gleamed dangerously even in the darkness as he asked.
“Is this okay?”
“What, I don’t know what you mean, but yes.”
The moment she nodded, Lark cupped her head and brought his lips to hers.
The movement was bold, as if he’d been holding back for far too long, pressing into her lips. She could barely keep up with his pace.
“Hah, hah.”
“…….”
Barely gripping his collar, she gazed at him as she caught her breath.
An intimate space void of light.
Only his eyes, fixed solely on her, gleamed like a predator’s.
“Mm.”
Before her breath could even settle, Lark rushed toward her again, and she barely managed to receive him, feeling the world spin around her.
That such rapture could come from merely pressing lips and mingling breath.
“Ah, wait, I…….”
Her body, driven back by the fervent kiss, had nowhere left to retreat as it pressed against the door.
“Mm.”
Lark rose fully, bracing his hand against the door to trap her as he kissed her with renewed persistence.
Like electricity coursing through the intimate stimulation, her entire body tingled.
His arms trembled as he held her tight, clinging to his neck.
As if he could barely contain the surging excitement…….
With a soft sound, Lark sealed her lips with a final kiss, then slowly moved to her left cheek, kissing along to her ear.
And in a voice thick with passion, he whispered.
“Ruby.”
“Mm.”
“You……, I like you.”
“…….”
“Dangerously, actually.”
Thump-thump.
In the silence, only the sound of a racing heartbeat—whether his or hers, she couldn’t tell—echoed.
After a long silence, Lark chuckled softly.
Whoosh—
From that position, Lark pulled the curtains open, light spilled in, and his expression was revealed.
A face that looked almost painfully strained as he struggled to contain his excitement.
Soon after, forcing a smile, Lark sat up properly and slowly dragged his hand down his own cheek.
“……I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Mm.”
Smoothing down her disheveled clothes and turning back, she found Lark sitting with his eyes closed, his head tilted back.
“I want to marry you.”
She was startled by his directness.
“I want to take back what I said about waiting for a Proposal Letter from the Duke. Why did I say that back then? What was I thinking?”
“…….”
“Now that you’re of age too, Helios is just the beginning. There’ll be proposals lining up one after another.”
Lark let out a long sigh, tugging at his bangs in agony.
She stifled her laughter and twisted around to face him.
“Do you really want to marry me? You don’t need to think about it more?”
“……?”
“If you marry after meeting only one person, you might regret it later. ‘Oh, I wish I’d met more people before getting married,’ and all that.”
“Are you being serious right now?”
“Well, what I mean is……”
“After waiting nine whole years, you come out with something like this?”
“No, no, I didn’t mean that.”
She soothed the aggrieved Lark who was venting his frustration.
“I don’t want to meet other people. I really like you, Your Highness. You’re handsome, kind, and have broad shoulders.”
“Then what? Are you saying I’ll regret it?”
“I’m just asking just in case. I’d be hurt if you changed your mind later.”
“Sigh.”
Lark turned his body toward her entirely and sat.
After letting out several heavy sighs while regarding her for a long moment, he leaned his head back against the headrest.
“You’ve saved and rescued me countless times, made it so I can’t even think of anyone else.”
“…….”
“Yet if you insist on hearing why I won’t regret this, then I will.”
His extended hand grasped her chin and brushed her lips.
“Let me tell you how much I love you.”
Lark continued in a voice that had grown serious.
“Everything I’ve ever possessed up until now…… has become meaningless. My convictions, my duty, my station…….”
“…….”
“The Crown Prince of an empire broke the law for the first time in his life, changed it, rewrote it.”
He smiled slightly as he added.
“And I don’t regret any of it. I feel like I could do anything for you. No—I feel like I could abandon anything for you.”
“…….”
“If being the Crown Prince had held us back until the very end, I would have just left the Imperial House. I was shocked at myself when I first had that thought.”
His hand, which had been toying with her lip, gently caressed her cheek and hair.
“I thought I would live my entire life for the empire and continue to do so, but the fact that I could so easily abandon that…… surprised me.”
“…….”
“You do that to me. You make me not myself.”
At his unguarded confession, she felt a little shy.
In truth, she had deliberately pressed him from the start wanting to hear words like this, but…….
“Mm.”
Avoiding his burning gaze, she hesitantly moved closer to Lark.
As she wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against him, his arms gently encircled her shoulders.
“How about we spend our honeymoon at my place? We can commute to the palace.”
“All right.”
“Really, with no second thoughts?”
“I’ll do anything.”
“Pfft.”
“You said you wanted to raise a tricolor cat in a Three-Story House on Imperial Court Outskirts with good air. A tricolor one.”
It was a wish she had mentioned to Lark once before.
“Right, that’s true. Oh, speaking of which, this is perfect timing.”
“…….”
“I brought a cat.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
She kissed his cheek, hiding her sinister intent.
“Want to come see the cat at my place?”
* * *
Visiting Rubetria’s Three-Story House on Imperial Court Outskirts after a long time.
Her wish to build a three-story mansion in a place with good air and raise a tricolor cat had……
‘Come true after all.’
Lark found himself smiling at Rubetria’s determination in even bringing home a cat.
“Give me your coat.”
“Huh?”
For some reason, the house felt hollow—no one but the two of them, not a single servant’s hair in sight.
Last time he’d visited, there had seemed to be quite a few servants and attendants around…….
Rubetria took his outer robe and swiftly disappeared somewhere, leaving Lark to glance around the spacious living room.
“By the way, where is the cat?”
Hidden away, perhaps.
As Lark moved his head to survey his surroundings further, he suddenly felt a presence approach close behind him.
A hand resting on his shoulder.
Before he could turn, Rubetria, rising on her toes, brought her face close to the nape of his neck.
Whoosh.
And then, abruptly, warm breath against his ear made Lark flinch.
“What…….”
Then Rubetria whispered into his ear.
“Meow.”

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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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