Celebrity Lady - Chapter 23

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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 23
Lilia’s weeping face—so angelic, so perfectly innocent—stirred a pang of pity even in me, who knew the truth of her nature.
‘Phew, she takes after her mother. Her acting is practically Hollywood-caliber.’
Victor, watching Lilia’s tearful face, let out a hollow laugh.
“What exactly did I do wrong that you’re crying about?”
“Wahhhhh…….”
“Victor!”
“What?”
“Soften your eyes. Lower your voice. You’re scaring her.”
“For crying out loud……. I mean, this is absurd.”
Victor tilted his head back at the empty air and mussed his own hair in exasperation.
“V-Victor. I’m sorry. You misunderstood me, and you didn’t even give me a chance to ex-explain myself, so I was just so frustrated…….”
“You made fun of Kedrick and Rubetria, didn’t you!”
“Don’t raise your voice, you brat!”
“Oh my god!”
What a mess. I swallowed a sigh from where I stood.
“No, Victor. I swear it’s all a misunderstanding. Maybe Kedrick did, but not me. And when I saw Rubetria fall, I was trying to help her right away. You just showed up before I could.”
“Fine, let’s say that’s true. But why drag this out? With you crying and carrying on like this, we’re the ones who look bad to the head of the house.”
“Can’t you speak more gently?”
“R-right. You’re right. Biego, I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding—that’s why I asked you for help. I wasn’t trying to fight with Victor. So please don’t be angry with me. Wahhhhh…….”
“Stop crying. That’s enough. It’s fine.”
Could this really be the same Biego whose face dripped with such coldness just moments ago?
He was a gentle older brother only to Lilia—and now he reached out with a worried expression to wipe away her tears himself.
“Alright, I understand. I was mistaken. That’s enough. Sorry for making my precious sister cry. Now go, brother.”
“You.”
Biego, grinding his teeth at Victor’s defiant attitude, turned his gaze directly on me.
“Rubetria.”
“Yes?”
“You’re the one who caused all this chaos, yet you’re sitting there silent as a stone. If Victor was going to misunderstand Lilia and lose his temper, shouldn’t you have stepped in and stopped him?”
“…….”
Victor, listening, bristled immediately.
“Why are you suddenly turning on her? Rubetria is the victim here. Kedrick shoved her on the Staircase and mocked her and everything. You heard it all from Lilia yourself, didn’t you?”
“Victor. What happened on the Staircase wasn’t Kedrick’s intention. And the mocking of Rubetria…….”
Lilia, stealing a glance at me, shrank into herself as she continued quietly.
“Kedrick said he’s been suffering so much because of Rubetria lately. Even though he kept refusing, she kept following him around and asking to see him…….”
Oh, clever.
“So when he saw Rubetria while he was upset, his words came out harsh. I’ll make sure Rubetria knows she needs to apologize to me. So please forgive me.”
“……Ha.”
“…….”
Victor started to object, then closed his mouth. Biego stared at me with an expressionless face.
Lilia’s words weren’t groundless. Besides, there wasn’t a soul in this room who didn’t know I’d been trailing after Kedrick like a fool.
‘This is actually hilarious.’
Of course, it wasn’t that Rubetria had foolishly clung to a hopeless connection—every time she tried to let go, Kedrick would gently coax her back…….
“Rubetria.”
“Yes, brother?”
I answered obediently to Biego’s low voice.
“Are you three years old? When are you going to grow up?”
“…….”
“Lilia told me just now. Apparently you threw yourself into the Pond on purpose before.”
“Huh? Jumped in the Pond? What are you talking about?”
Victor spun around to look at me.
“Did you really throw yourself in to blackmail Lilia? I was so worried I dropped everything that day and waited six hours for you to wake up.”
Biego added, grinding his teeth.
“How does it feel to make your brother look like a fool?”
“What are you saying? Why would Rubetria blackmail Lilia?”
Victor’s voice rose in agitation.
“A man’s life is more precious than his own. She apparently tried to threaten Lilia with her own death, telling her not to stay close to Young Master Kedrick. I’m at my wit’s end…….”
“…….”
Victor, finally grasping the situation, went rigid.
‘It’s so easy to bury someone.’
Suddenly the madwoman who threw herself into a suicide spectacle over one man, I swallowed my sigh silently among them.
The sad truth was that Rubetria had weathered countless misunderstandings of this sort without uttering a word of protest.
“I’ve told you again and again. You’re like an older sister to Lilia. You’re sisters—the only ones we have under heaven. You should cherish her and grow close to her, and that’s still not enough……!”
Biego began firing off words like a man bent on conviction.
“You nearly threw your life away over such a trivial reason just to scare her? And that wasn’t enough—you had to have the butler fired as well?”
“…….”
“Lilia looked up to him like a father, didn’t she? I can see how that would bother you.”
“…….”
“And you even struck Ricky when he came looking for you out of concern.”
Lilia whimpered from beside him.
‘That girl Lilia—she’s woven quite a tale. Biego believes every word.’
Biego pressed on relentlessly.
“Open your mouth and speak! You were such a good, obedient girl—where did this wickedness suddenly come from?”
Without a chance to defend myself, listening to his words, I simply stared at him.
‘A worse brother than no brother at all.’
* * *
Biego didn’t hate his sister Rubetria.
He knew to worry when she was ill, and despite his busy schedule, he made time to come have tea with his younger sister who sat in her room all day with no intention of leaving…….
That’s the kind of brother he was.
“The weather’s nice. Why are you always in your room?”
Biego mussed Rubetria’s hair and sat across from her.
“Lilia was complaining to me. She said she wants to play with you and go out, but you always refuse, and it hurts her feelings.”
“Ah, well…….”
Could anything be worse than going outside to play with the twins?
The moment the eyes watching them diminished, those two bullied and mocked Rubetria all the more harshly.
“I just haven’t been feeling well.”
Once a week, Biego would visit for a brief tea time together.
Though it may have stemmed from some sense of obligation on Biego’s part, foolish Rubetria had been grateful even for that attention.
‘The Cat Doll I made!’
A birthday gift for her oldest brother, sewn with clumsy hands and stuffed with cotton.
When she saw the Cat Doll, which she had secretly placed in the Study, dangling from his jacket.
“H-hehe, brother, that…….”
“Oh, this.”
Biego touched the doll lightly and smiled, then spoke.
“I wonder who made something so cute. It was obvious, so I asked, but she said she didn’t know. Then when I showed her, she confessed. Lilia did.”
“……Yes?”
“She said she was embarrassed by her clumsy work and couldn’t bring herself to admit she’d made it. What a funny girl. But honestly, it means more to me than any expensive clothes or jewels.”
That’s not true. I made that.
“By the way.”
Biego looked at Rubetria with a weary expression and pulled a small box from his pocket.
“You told me a few days ago that Grandmother seems to hate you.”
The barely-voiced concern she had ventured to share with her own brother was…….
“That’s just your imagination, Rubetria.”
Shut down far too easily.
“When Grandmother came back after her Recuperation, she spent two hours in my room talking about nothing but you. How she wanted to see you and came back early, how your sensitive nature worries her, how she wants to keep you with her for life without marrying you off, how you’re even closer to her heart than the twins…….”
“…….”
“After Grandfather passed away when she was still young, she’s done nothing but dedicate herself to our family.”
“…….”
“Is it possible—are you drawing a line between yourself and Grandmother and the twins just because she comes from a concubine’s background?”
“N-no. I…….”
Biego set down the box with a sigh.
“Do you know what this is? Grandmother bought this for you herself on a trip because she was concerned you’d lost weight and weren’t healthy. I’m your blood brother, yet I’m too busy to look after you properly…….”
“…….”
“I’m not bragging. But that’s precisely why I feel even more indebted to Grandmother and grateful. So.”
Biego rose to his feet and spoke as he left the room.
“Try opening your heart a little.”
* * *
“Pft.”
As I recalled and laughter burst from me, all eyes turned toward me.
How stupid can someone be to live their whole life deceived like this? They’d lose their organs to a con artist—absolute idiots, the lot of them.
“Rubetria, did you just laugh?”
“Oh, sorry, brother. It’s just so absurd that I couldn’t help it…….”
“Absurd?”
“Yes.”
I rolled my eyes slowly and spoke.
“I really almost died when I fell in the Pond that day. I lost consciousness—you know I was lying there unconscious, brother.”
“…….”
“If I really intended to threaten Lilia because of Kedrick, I would’ve just scared her, wouldn’t I? I wouldn’t actually try to kill myself. What’s the point? There’s no Kedrick in hell.”
With a shrug, I asked Victor beside me, “Right?”
Victor, staring blankly at me, slowly nodded his head.
“……Yeah?”
“Anyone with basic sense would see that. For you—someone who can’t manage even that simple thought because you’re ruled by emotion—to be the head of this household? What are you even doing?”
I folded my arms firmly across my chest and met Biego’s gaze unflinchingly as I continued.
“I just hope you don’t run the whole family into the ground.”
“Huh.”
“……What?”
At the defiant words from the younger sister they’d known as meek and obedient, both brothers were naturally shocked.

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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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