Celebrity Lady - Chapter 176

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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
Omake 18
“From childhood, I was skeptical about the fact that I had to bear children. It was just my duty—I thought someday I’d have to produce an heir with someone. That was all.”
Lark, who had begun speaking, met my eyes and smiled bitterly.
“You know? Until my father’s time, children didn’t feel like the fruit of love—they felt like the result of an attempt to produce more Spirit Masters.”
He turned his gaze toward the empty air and continued flatly.
“If I had children the same way, could I truly love them with all my heart just because they’re mine? No—before that even. Could I, like ordinary people, truly have children with a woman I genuinely love? It all seemed difficult, so I had no expectations.”
“…….”
“I just decided to live fulfilling my duty, the way my father did, and his father before him……. That’s what I thought as I lived.”
Lark turned to me, his eyes deepening as he continued.
“Then I met you and fell in love.”
Lark drew my face close, cradling me in his arms, and pressed his lips to my forehead. His lips, rubbing softly against me, and his hands gently caressing my belly—all of it was fevered.
“I always say this, but what you mean to me is beyond words. You’re the first thing I chose with my own will after being born. If I had never met you, I would have become an emperor no different from what I swore to be as a child, living the life everyone expected.”
“…….”
“But my life changed, Ruby. All the effort I poured into winning you ultimately made me someone special.”
“Ah, yes…….”
“I’ve been given the chance to spend my whole life with the person I truly love, where we belong only to each other. And because of that…… so many of my thoughts have changed.”
Lark’s gaze turned to my belly, which he’d been caressing. I watched his eyes, brimming with so many emotions, in a daze.
“I’d imagined it before, but now that the day has come when you carry my child…… I can’t put the feeling into words. Am I really the same person who never desperately wanted children?”
“…….”
“That a new life—bearing my likeness and yours—is living and breathing inside the woman I love most…….”
Lark’s eyes deepened as he laughed, reaching into the empty air. The overwhelming emotion he felt was laid bare across his face.
“It was almost unbearable in its joy. I can say right now that I love this child, not yet born, as much as my own life.”
“…….”
“And my feelings for you have grown terrifyingly deeper. You were simply my wife before…… but now you’re also the mother of our child.”
“…….”
“How could I possibly love you any less? More, more…….”
Lark lifted my hand and kissed each fingertip, gazing at me with burning intensity.
“……I love you too much to love you more. There’s no one in my life more precious to you. Our child, when born, I’ll love as much as my own life—but you, I’ll love more than my own life.”
“Ah…….”
I felt ashamed. I wasn’t ignorant of how much he loved me.
Perhaps the reason I kept bringing up worries I didn’t even need to voice was simply because I wanted to hear his sincerity confirmed again and again.
“I’ll tell you countless times. So you won’t be anxious for the rest of your life. I’ll express it in words and in action. You’re all I have. You’re the most precious and cherished thing I possess.”
Lark, as if knowing all that lay in my heart, kissed me deep into the night while telling me this again and again.
* * *
A few days later. The new year had dawned, and the Empire was in uproar.
The excitement of beginning a new era spread throughout the realm. Nobles held festivals large and small across their territories, and the Emperor was too busy with the New Year Festival proceedings within the Imperial Court to catch his breath.
Only the pregnant Empress—myself—idled away like a contented bear, waiting for her speech during the middle of the festivities.
‘Hmm, is this really all right?’
Everyone said it was fine, but Rubetria’s conscience prickled uncomfortably at doing absolutely nothing.
Today too, I rose late, ate lunch, took a brief walk, and settled onto the bed with a magazine to leaf through.
“Not busy?”
Rubetria asked Biego, who sat beside the bed and peeled an apple with his own hands.
“Busy.”
Biego answered while concentrating on peeling the apple. The neatly stripped fruit was sliced into pieces and arranged on a plate.
“If you’re busy, why are you sitting here peeling apples? There are plenty of people in the Imperial Palace besides you who can peel apples for me.”
“Even if I’m busy, it’s only an hour a day. Don’t complain. I need to check on you every day to feel at ease.”
“Hey, I never said you were a bother. I was just worried you were pushing yourself while being so busy.”
Rubetria accepted the fork with apple slices from Biego and grumbled. Biego immediately began peeling a tangerine with his own hands as well.
“If anyone saw you being this attentive, they’d think you were my husband…….”
Biego chuckled. Though Rubetria teased him every day about why he kept coming, she was genuinely moved by her eldest brother’s dedication.
Unlike their father, who had stopped visiting after a few times because he grew tired of it, or Captain Victor, busy with the New Year Festival, Biego had shown up consistently without fail.
“Brother, but why aren’t you married?”
“Out of the blue?”
Biego answered absently, surprised. The plate of apples emptied quickly from his sister’s relentless fork.
She really does eat well. He began peeling another apple.
“Out of the blue? How old are you now? You’re not seriously planning to let our family line die out, are you?”
“You worry about everything.”
Worry couldn’t be helped. Rubetria carefully retraced a future she no longer needed to recall, now that so much had changed.
Biego had originally rushed to find a match after Leonard’s death, inheriting the Duke’s title.
He’d sent a proposal to some unremarkable Count’s house—a marriage arranged with Molga’s meddling. If a daughter from a powerful family had come, Molga wouldn’t have been able to meddle in household affairs so freely.
But…… Molga had gone to hell, and Leonard was alive and well. Just in case, Rubetria had searched her memories for the woman who would have been Biego’s wife.
‘She’s already married.’
It was shocking. Since nothing flowed as it had in the original timeline, the future she’d glimpsed at forty-five—a short life—was now completely useless to recall.
So she worried about the unknown future. Though he was a blood relative with many bitter memories, it would be sad to see him stumbling through life unwed.
“You’ve got a respectable build and a handsome face, so why haven’t you dated anyone by your age? Stop working so much and go out more. Should I introduce you to someone nice?”
“No thanks. I’ll figure it out.”
“You always say you’ll figure it out.”
Biego laughed at the way Rubetria spoke with disapproval while clearly worried.
“I’ll take my time. If I get married, I might neglect my family, after all. I want to enjoy the present. When you go on business trips, we travel together as a family sometimes, spend time together…… It’s nice. I treasure these days now, building memories I couldn’t build before.”
“…….”
Rubetria paused. As Biego said, the past three years had been a time when the family’s bonds had grown remarkably strong.
Whenever there was a business trip abroad, Leonard, Biego, and Victor would adjust their schedules and travel together like a vacation.
“Well, do as you like…….”
Rubetria said sulkily and popped a tangerine segment into her mouth. Biego smiled.
“When the weather clears, let’s go see the spring flowers in May. Looking at pretty things and wandering around will be good for the baby too.”
“Where?”
“Well, where do you think? Somewhere not too far so it won’t strain your body. Ah, how about the central region where they hold a rose festival in early May? Duke Merlin has his territory there, so he’d welcome you with open arms if you said you were coming.”
“Ooh, I love it! There’s a beach there too, right? The sand is so soft. Let’s build a sandcastle and write letters next to it!”
Biego gazed affectionately at his sister, who brightened up immediately and chattered excitedly. When she, who handled so much burden at such a young age, occasionally acted innocent like a girl her age, Biego found it endearing.
“Sure. Let’s do whatever you want.”
“Ha. But…… brother.”
“Hmm?”
Rubetria, who had been gauging his reaction carefully, asked hesitantly.
“Father—is he angry with me? Why hasn’t he shown his face since he left that day?”
“…….”
Biego, who had been peeling an apple, stiffened slightly.

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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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