Celebrity Lady - Chapter 168

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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
Side Story, Episode 10
Wishit, who had just let out an exclamation, soon sighed and added more.
“……I’m sorry for making you see such a future. If Bista had kept their promise and only tipped me off, we could have let it pass quietly.”
“…….”
“Spirits all have their own sense of self, so there’s nothing I can do to control them.”
“Ha. Fool. You apologize for everything.”
Rubetria laughed it off and flopped down across Wishit’s lap. Then, looking up at him, she spoke.
“Maybe it was Bista’s way of strengthening the bond between us. To be honest, I’ve always thought you could see our entire future.”
“…….”
“You don’t want to see it either, do you? Our goodbye.”
Rubetria closed her eyes gently, her expression serene, and added softly.
“I’ll come back for you eventually.”
“……Yes.”
“Don’t look at the future anymore.”
Rubetria opened her eyes again and spoke.
“Let’s focus on this moment when we exist together. Don’t worry by imagining our parting, and just be happy. We don’t have enough time for anything else.”
Following Rubetria’s smile, Wishit chuckled quietly and nodded.
“Alright.”
“Oh! But there’s a problem that came up.”
Rubetria clapped her hands together and stood up.
“A problem?”
“Yes. My husband found out about the future where I die. So yesterday he gritted his teeth and said it—he absolutely won’t have children. He won’t even engage in the act of having children.”
“Oh my.”
“But no matter how much I tell him I won’t die—”
“He doesn’t know about my existence, so he won’t believe you. Which means you can’t engage in normal reproductive activities.”
“……That’s right.”
Rubetria blinked, watching him carefully. Wishit, who had been pondering as he studied her face, stood up as if annoyed, running a hand through his hair.
“There’s no way around it. We’ll have to tell him that you have a contract with me.”
“I’m sorry……. We really promised hard and true when we renewed our contract.”
“It’s fine. This might actually work out well. It’s not bad for the Emperor to know. You’ve been feeling guilty about hiding my existence from him anyway.”
“Wait, wait!”
Rubetria grabbed Wishit as he made to leave the room without thinking.
“What?”
“How exactly are you planning to tell him?”
“I’ll show him my form. That’s faster and more accurate than explaining it with tricks. Most spirits can’t do this.”
A spirit’s form is visible only to their contractor’s eyes. But Wishit intended to reveal his existence to Lark by showing himself.
“Right. I agree that’s the fastest and most accurate way, but…….”
Rubetria seemed to hesitate for some reason. Wishit tilted his head.
Rubetria examined the true form of Wishit, the Spirit King, carefully.
Golden hair that shone brilliantly like spread silk. Facial features positioned with perfect mathematical precision, as if carved by calculation itself, arranged flawlessly in every way.
Not human, of course, but a celestial beauty so otherworldly it could never appear among mortals.
The problem, however, was……his masculine form!
Of course, spirits have no gender to speak of, and Lark knows this fact.
But humans cannot help but be swayed by visual stimulus.
At their first meeting, seeing Wishit in this form, Lark would perceive him as closer to a “man.”
And that too……an extraordinarily beautiful man who had been by his wife’s side twenty-four hours a day, something he’d never dreamed of.
Rubetria imagined it.
It was only a mercy that other people’s spirits weren’t visible to her eyes, but what if Lark’s spirit, Randian, were a stunningly gorgeous woman far beyond comparison to herself?
Even knowing spirits have no gender, somehow, for some reason, she felt it would bother her.
Having considered Lark’s position, Rubetria quietly pressed her palms together and spoke.
“I’m really, really sorry, Wishit. Could I ask one more favor?”
* * *
The Imperial Palace, Grand Conference Hall.
After the usual Nobility Council meeting ended and all the other officials had dispersed,
only the elders remained.
And all of them wore expressions of shock at the bombshell Lark had just dropped.
“……Are you serious?”
“You’re asking us to believe that?”
“What in the world is this…….”
Raizer, Merlin, and Ferdi spoke in turn.
“Yes. Everything I’ve just said is true, and I mean it.”
Lark recalled his conversation with Rubetria the day before, watching the shocked elders.
There wasn’t much of a conversation to speak of. After hearing all the facts, Rubetria had given no response.
“So you’re dying, and I won’t have children”—she should have said it plainly like that, but she didn’t.
She seemed to be thinking hard about it, somehow…….
‘Is this really something to deliberate over?’
Lark let out a hollow laugh.
His worry had become reality.
Rubetria might, perhaps, after thinking a bit longer—
“We really do need to have children. Please take good care of our child even without me.”
—come out with something ridiculous like that!
So Lark decided to strike first. Decisions about children required agreement between spouses, he’d always said he’d respect his wife’s opinion, and he’d promised never to abuse his position as Emperor between them. But
‘I’ll break them all.’
This would be his first and last transgression.
What a willful man!
A husband who wouldn’t consult with his wife!
An Emperor who abused his power!
Truly the worst, but there’s no helping it!
“Your Majesty……are you saying you cannot produce an heir?”
Raizer asked, his expression dumbfounded.
“Yes. Must you make me repeat the same shameful words multiple times? Didn’t you all find it strange? No matter how much I tried to postpone plans for children, a child’s arrival is Heaven’s will—yet here we are, three years into the Imperial Marriage with no news?”
Lark spoke shamelessly.
He certainly couldn’t tell the officials he’d seen the future. And he couldn’t just throw a tantrum about not wanting children.
So he’d created this script…….
“The Empress and I have both made efforts for an heir from the beginning of our marriage, despite our busy schedules. But there’s been no news.”
It was true he’d been careful about contraception for Rubetria’s sake, but even Lark had found it strange.
It wasn’t as though they hadn’t engaged in marital relations, and as human beings, there could have been mistakes over time—yet for three years, it had worked perfectly.
Now, that fact felt like a stroke of tremendous fortune.
“The palace physicians have observed us closely all this time and considered what the problem might be, and they’ve identified the most probable cause.”
Even if he spouted this nonsense that he was infertile…….
“Your Majesty’s……? Your, problem, you mean?”
“Exactly that.”
It sounded credible enough!
“Both the Empress and I are in good health. There’s no reason a child shouldn’t come. Moreover, with the aid of a healing spirit, we’ve confirmed the Empress’s body is perfectly capable of bearing a child. But there’s one thing even a healing spirit cannot determine…….”
“That being Your Majesty’s, that is to say, seed, the, presence or absence of it……?”
Lark nodded, his expression grave, chin resting in his palm.
“In truth, I’ve suspected my problem for quite some time, but I kept it hidden because it was embarrassing and shameful. But I’ve decided I can no longer hide it. This is a matter on which the succession of the Imperial House depends.”
Lark made eye contact with each of the noble officials as he spoke.
“I have no face to show you, who have worked so hard to preserve the honor of the Imperial House. If the Emperor lacks reproductive capability, the first consideration must be abdication.”
“No, Your Majesty!”
“There are many independent cadet branches, and there are still brothers in the palace awaiting contracts with spirits. Among them are several capable prospects. Please discuss this thoroughly and report back to me.”
Lark stood from his seat without hesitation and added,
“We’ll discuss the specifics of abdication at the next regular meeting.”
“Your Majesty!”
“Wait, please! Just a moment!”
“Please wait!”
The elders scrambled to their feet, but Lark had already swept out of the conference hall like the wind.
Raizer, who sat down heavily with a hollow thud, spoke first.
“……Does anyone believe that?”
Merlin and Ferdi immediately shook their heads.
Soon the gazes of the three Dukes turned toward the two men on the opposite side who had maintained silence throughout.
Leonard Diolus, the Empress’s father, and Biego, the Empress’s brother.
“…….”
“…….”

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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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