Celebrity Lady - Chapter 19

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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 19
That day was when I came of age to contract with a Spirit, and I visited the Imperial Palace for the first time.
* * *
The Spirit Altar within the Imperial Palace.
Dark-colored Flags were planted along the white marble Corridor, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away in my overwhelming excitement.
Each flag bore a marking that symbolized a different Spirit.
‘Once I make a contract, one of these markings will appear on the back of my hand too, won’t it?’
As I looked down at my unmarked hand, I spoke to Father with unwavering resolve.
“Father! I’ll… I promise I’ll come out having contracted with a wonderful Spirit!”
That day I was in high spirits. Father, whom I rarely saw despite living under the same roof, had agreed to go out with me.
Father’s face, which I hadn’t seen in so long, was still expressionless, but I cherished even that.
I even dared to hope that if I succeeded in contracting with a splendid Spirit, Father would praise me for my effort.
‘I’m timid and foolish, so perhaps I’m not a daughter he could be proud of, but still… once I have a contract, maybe Father will praise me a little.’
My two older brothers, after all, had both contracted with impressive Spirits and were Father’s pride.
Unlike them, I was lacking in many ways, but wouldn’t things improve once I had a Spirit of my own?
With such thoughts in mind.
But.
“Father… I’m, I’m sorry.”
I found myself facing a situation I never could have anticipated.
A Spirit whose very existence was uncertain, one that existed only in legend, classified as the most dangerous among the highest-ranking Spirits…
The Spirit I had chosen was the Spirit of Wishes, and I learned that I could not truthfully reveal that I had contracted with it.
According to Wisht, the Imperial Household secretly seals away Contractors who have made pacts with Spirits classified as Danger Classification. In plain terms, they’re killed without mercy.
“If you want to live, tell them that no Spirit chose you.”
Bewildered and nearly sealed away, I had no choice but to speak as Wisht instructed.
“I’m truly sorry. I… I… no Spirit chose me.”
Through whatever means Wisht employed, the Contractor’s Mark that should have appeared on my hand never materialized.
Father stared at my unmarked hand for a long while, then turned on his heel and left without a word.
“Wait, Father! P-please… let’s go together! Father!”
I ran after him, breathless, down that wide, cold, endless, hollow Corridor.
I remembered falling.
Even as my knees throbbed with crushing pain, I bit back tears and lifted my head.
But Father’s figure had already vanished.
It was truly… a bitter and terrible memory.
* * *
“I understand Father’s heart. You showed it in your expression that day. I don’t really fail to understand it either. Being the daughter of such a remarkable father—well, it’s true I’m lacking in many ways.”
“… I don’t remember.”
Father frowned and shook his head.
“I don’t know what my expression was like then. I don’t remember. But I’ve never once thought you were a disgrace to our family. There’s nothing wrong with failing to contract with a Spirit.”
“Is that so.”
My voice dripped with sarcasm, and Father irritably ran a hand through his hair.
“Don’t you believe me? The failure to contract wasn’t your fault.”
“That’s right. It wasn’t my fault. It’s something beyond my control, so I don’t blame myself either. But…”
“…”
“Couldn’t you have just said it was all right?”
Father froze mid-stride.
“That I didn’t do anything wrong. That there was no need to feel ashamed. That there was no reason to apologize.”
“…”
“You could have… said that, you know.”
On the carriage ride home after the failed contract, a vague realization settled over Lubet.
I would probably never be Father’s proud daughter, no matter how long I lived.
Not only timid and foolish, but now a witless fool with no Spirit at all, bringing dishonor to the family name.
“When I think about crying until my eyes were swollen that day, I hate Father so much I could die.”
Tears welled up in my eyes again, and I turned away sharply.
* * *
What was almost their first outing together as father and daughter ended in absolute disaster.
Throughout the meal at the restaurant, Lubet sat in brooding silence while Leonard, for his part, lost in thought, kept his mouth shut.
“Thank you for today.”
The moment they arrived home, Lubet hurried inside.
Leonard let his hand, which had wavered in the thought of stopping her, fall uselessly, and with barely a step, he retreated to his room.
Got, the adjutant who had accompanied them on the outing, followed behind him.
“Got.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Was it six months ago? That would be… Lubet’s birthday. That day we went to the Imperial Palace for her contract.”
“Yes.”
“Were you there as well.”
“Yes, I accompanied you.”
Leonard removed his outer coat and handed it to Got, then collapsed listlessly onto the bed.
With his arm covering his eyes, Leonard struggled to recall the faded memories.
“Father’s expression lodged itself so deeply in my heart that I can’t forget it.”
“You looked at me like I was an idiot. And you just left me alone and walked away.”
Was that how it was? Why?
“Damn it. Drinking myself into a stupor and half-conscious living has left my memory hazy. Tell me what you remember of how I was then.”
“Well, my lord… aside from the young lady failing to contract with a Spirit, there was nothing particularly remarkable. Oh.”
Got, searching his own memory on Leonard’s behalf, let out a brief exclamation.
“You attacked Raus, the Altar Director, for which the Imperial Palace issued a fine against you?”
“Ah, that’s right. I beat that damned old fool.”
Now, bit by bit, the memories of that day came flooding back.
Six months ago, Lubet’s fifteenth birthday.
As a member of the Diolus family with Selected Bloodline, Lubet had no exception—she too was required to contract with a Spirit.
The place she had to go for the contract was the Spirit Altar within the Imperial Palace.
Leaving roughly ten officials in white robes and her father Leonard behind, the daughter had entered the Altar alone, her expression brimming with anticipation.
“Father! I’ll… I promise I’ll come out having contracted with a wonderful Spirit!”
Her face, so like her mother’s, had been filled with such hopeful longing that he’d found it endearing.
“Father… I’m, I’m sorry.”
When she emerged from the Altar, the daughter’s expression had turned deathly pale.
“I’m truly sorry. I… I… no Spirit chose me.”
Even Leonard, who rarely found himself taken aback, had been shocked at that moment.
Among all those who possessed golden eyes, not a single one had ever failed to contract with a Spirit.
Yet his one and only daughter had become the protagonist of an unprecedented situation—a member of the Selected Bloodline rejected by a Spirit.
Leonard’s mind had been thrown into such turmoil that he hadn’t had the presence of mind to comfort his weeping daughter.
“If this is true, it is nothing short of a grave disgrace.”
Raus, the aging Altar Director who managed the Spirit Altar, ground his teeth with a look of shame beside the weeping girl.
Hearing that muttering, Leonard’s confused thoughts seemed to have turned to ice as if drenched with cold water.
The Altar officials all stared at Lubet with wide eyes… and that sight had kindled in Leonard a fury he could not bear.
For now there were only around ten pairs of eyes, but once word spread, dozens, hundreds of mocking gazes would pour down upon his daughter.
“Come here and show me your hand.”
He pulled his daughter’s right hand with desperate force, grasping at straws. The back of that hand bore no Contractor’s Mark as it should have.
His daughter’s words—that no Spirit had chosen her—were the truth.
“This is the worst. I’d worried about the rumors that she was lacking, and my fears were justified.”
Among the murmurs, the presumptuous voice of Altar Director Raus cut through the air with particular clarity, piercing Leonard’s ear.
A wave of disgust washed over him, and his brow furrowed.
Unable even to comfort his trembling daughter, Leonard slowly lifted his head and looked around.
All eyes were the same.
The gaze upon Lubet, as if appraising a piece of meat laid upon a butcher’s block.
“A defective has appeared in Diolus.”
Words that the shocked daughter would undoubtedly hear with her own ears. And knowing that.
Altar Director Raus left with a look of such contempt, as if regarding an insect, and departed the Altar with a tsk.
From that point onward, his vision had gone red, and memory grew hazy.
He needed to catch that presumptuous old man and smash his arrogant jaw—he’d pursued him with rapid strides.
“Wait, Father! P-please. Wait just a moment. C-come with me! Father!”
Perhaps Lubet… had followed after him. He didn’t look back, so he wasn’t certain.
When he rushed down the long Corridor of the Altar building in one breath, Raus, who had already come outside, came into view.
“What did you say to my daughter just now? Defective?”
“W-what…? I beg your pardon, Duke! Ugh, urggh…!”
Leonard had beaten the old Altar Director’s greasy face into a pulp before he finally came to his senses.
The Imperial Palace couldn’t simply overlook the assault on the Altar’s director, yet they couldn’t sentence the Diolus Duke to imprisonment either, so a month later they issued a light fine.
That was what Leonard dimly recalled of that day.

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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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