Celebrity Lady - Chapter 24

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Celebrity Lady
Chapter 24
“Lubet, Lubet. What kind of manner is that to speak to your brother? Don’t do this. I hate seeing you and him grow distant because of me.”
With both brothers at a loss for words, Lilia stepped in.
‘How infuriating. That pint-sized thing.’
She’d been cunning since childhood, taking after her mother, and had spent her entire life tormenting Lubet as she grew.
‘But if I’m only going to suffer the same treatment in my Second Life, I feel rather wronged.’
Playing innocent like Lilia—pretending to be good, naive, passive—this wasn’t the time for such an act. That kind of performance only worked when you had an audience willing to believe in you no matter what you did.
Therefore, my current role was “the younger sister who nearly drowned in the Pond and came back completely transformed.”
No acting required.
All the words that Lubet, who had kept her mouth shut her whole life, had always wanted to say.
‘I’ll say them all.’
“I’ll clarify every misunderstanding you’re laboring under.”
I smiled and raised both hands in mock surrender.
“First—you’re saying the butler Robb was fired?”
……
“Half of that is true. I did go speak with Father about it.”
As I admitted it with a smile, Biego’s eyes narrowed.
“But there’s been some misunderstanding—I had no personal grievance whatsoever. I simply reported that his conduct was inappropriate for a servant who was being so presumptuous.”
“What are you talking about? Don’t you know how long Robb has worked for our family—”
“Why does it matter how long he’s worked here?”
I cut him off sharply, my expression turning cold.
“I went to see Father, and when I finally got the chance to visit him, what does the butler do? He orders the young mistress of the house to confine herself to her room?”
“Is that really true?”
Victor frowned deeply as he asked, and I nodded.
“It seems the servants in this household think they gain the right to speak insolently to the young mistress just because they’ve accumulated some seniority.”
……
“If I’d said nothing after hearing that, it would have been far worse. For me to dismiss a butler who’s abandoned all sense of Hierarchy—am I truly to be scolded for it?”
“Robb……”
Though visibly conflicted, Biego—doubting my words after all—simply sighed and shook his head.
“Believe what you wish. I’m not offering this explanation in hopes you’ll believe me, anyway.”
“What did you just—”
“But the one certain fact is that I didn’t fire Robb myself. Father made the decision. And as for Father……”
I turned to Victor, who had been listening intently.
“If I threw a fit demanding he fire a servant—would he actually do it?”
“Of course not.”
Victor quickly agreed and added:
“Besides, the fact that Father acted directly on something is enormous in itself. You can’t get fired by Father without committing a serious offense. What on earth did that man do?”
“You see? Even Victor knows it. Surely you don’t imagine Father would act on a trivial matter, do you? You know him well enough.”
……
“The butler had multiple problems, and Father judged him worthy of dismissal—so he dismissed him. If you take issue with that decision,”
I gestured toward the still-open door and smiled sweetly.
“Go ask Father to account for it.”
Biego stared at me dumbfounded for a moment, then let out a hollow laugh, his expression a mixture of confusion and anger.
I casually shrugged and continued.
“And rushing over after hearing only one side of the story to bully your younger sister—one three years your junior, no less. That looks rather pathetic. Perhaps you should exercise some restraint in the future.”
In that instant, everyone froze.
“Do I really need to spell out for you that the Head of Household’s image is the family’s image? As if you were a toddler?”
I threw his own words back at him with a sneer.
“Hey, hey. Ruby……”
Victor, startled, grabbed my shoulder and tried to stop me.
“Ah, let me go. I’m not finished.”
I shook free from him and stepped forward.
Heh.
Victor retreated, his neck recoiling slightly.
An unthinkable confrontation: the always stern and formidable older brother against the obedient, demure younger sister. Victor seemed quite taken aback by the reversal.
“Easy, easy……”
Yet perhaps because Victor himself carried resentment toward Biego, his attempt to stop me lacked real conviction—almost seeming to enjoy it.
I smiled mockingly and continued.
“Go ahead and keep thinking I fell into the Pond on purpose if you like. No matter how many times I ask you to believe me, your ears won’t hear a thing you don’t wish to hear.”
……
“But I’ll ask just one thing. I understand you want to listen to everything Lilia says, believe everything she says, but at some point……”
I smiled and tapped my own head mockingly as I continued:
“……you might try thinking before you act. Promise me that much.”
Biego had gone rigid, and Lilia beside him looked thoroughly panicked.
Normally, she’d be helpless before Biego, her only response a constant stream of apologies. His moron younger sister’s counterattack seemed to come as quite a shock.
“Well, last thing. What else was there? Ah—I slapped Ricky’s cheek, didn’t I?”
“B-but that’s true. I saw it myself. You hit Ricky, didn’t you? We only came looking for you because we were worried you’d drowned in the Pond……”
Lilia suddenly sniffled and grabbed at Biego’s collar, apparently feeling the need to say something.
“Lubet must hate me. That’s why she treated Ricky so badly.”
“……Yes, right. You did slap Ricky’s cheek, didn’t you? Is that true?”
Biego’s question, emerging from a daze as if he’d been struck repeatedly, now carried a different tone—genuine inquiry about the facts.
‘So he’s finally regaining his senses.’
I suppressed my laughter and asked Lilia:
“Did you see it yourself? You were there, just as you said—with your own mouth?”
“Yes!”
I nodded and admitted readily.
“That’s true. I did slap Ricky’s cheek.”
“Why?”
“When you ask why, isn’t it because you know I’m not the sort of person to do something without reason?”
When I turned the question back on him, Biego fell silent. It was an affirmation.
Truth be told, he must have found this whole string of events difficult to believe himself. He was a good brother, timid and poor at expressing his own thoughts—he knew well the character of his meek, inarticulate younger sister.
I walked directly toward them both, or rather toward Lilia, stepping forward briskly.
“If I looked like that—bloated and slovenly—I think I’d have just died instead.”
Then I pinched Lilia’s side sharply.
“Aaaagh!”
“Ugh, look at that. Greasy and slick from all that fat.”
“Lubet? What are you doing—!”
Lilia was shocked at the unexpected attack, and Biego even more so.
Undeterred, I pinched the back of Lilia’s neck.
“Hey, where is your neck anyway? Let me look for our lost Lilia’s neck for her, shall we?”
“Aaaah! Ah! Ow, it hurts, it hurts!”
I hadn’t even pinched that hard, but listen to her whining.
“Stop!”
Crack!
Biego brushed my hand away roughly. My hand, swatted with considerable force, flushed red almost immediately.
A startled Lilia burst into tears and threw herself into Biego’s arms, and he held her, patting her back.
“Waaaah……. O-older brother. Sniff! Waaaaah!”
“What on earth do you think you’re doing!”
“Wasn’t that deserved?”
I held up my swollen, reddened hand as I asked.
“Is that what you call an explanation?”
“That’s exactly why I slapped Ricky.”
……What?”
“Everything I just did and said to Lilia—Ricky did the exact same thing, even though he claimed he’d come looking for me out of concern.”
Biego’s eyes wavered.
He studied my eyes for a long moment, trying to gauge if this was truly the case, then gently pulled the sobbing Lilia away and asked:
“Did Ricky really do that?”
“Sniff, no, no. Ricky, Ricky was……, he was just joking, joking arou—ugh! It was just that but……”
Shocked by my unexpected assault, Lilia foolishly let slip the truth.
‘Is this girl an idiot? She should have denied it all the way through. Though granted, Biego would have suspected me anyway—I’m not the type to slap someone without cause.’
Either way, Lilia’s own mouth had vouched for Ricky’s misconduct, so I was satisfied.
I shrugged casually.
“When the person receiving it doesn’t take it as a joke, it isn’t one. So consider that a joke from me too, Lilia.”
“You, you—yours wasn’t a joke!”
“Lilia. First of all.”
Biego grabbed the hiccupping Lilia upright and roughly wiped her tears with his hand.
“Go to your room for now.”
“Ugh. Sob……”
Lilia, who had been sobbing pitifully, soon pouted and trembled, cast one last glance at me with resentment, and left the room.
Lilia would grow even more cunning, until she became a complete demon—though at least she was still young enough to be somewhat clumsy. That was something, at least.
‘I can’t lose a fight with a grade-schooler.’
Satisfied, I turned to Biego, whose expression was one of confusion.
“Explanation finished. In summary: I fell into the Pond by accident, Robb was fired because he deserved it, and Ricky was hit because he deserved it. Settled?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————