Celebrity Lady - Chapter 42
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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
Chapter 42
Six idle young nobles—boys and girls—had already gathered around the table.
Lilia, seated at the center, smiled at me and waved her hand.
“What kind of game is this?”
Lizbeth, who quickly claimed a seat, asked in an excited voice.
Ricky sat beside her and explained with an affectionate expression.
“It’s not difficult. You simply choose one of two gold cups.”
Two gold cups, their interiors invisible, sat upturned on the table.
It seemed to be Lilia’s turn, so she picked up Ricky’s explanation and continued.
“Your Highness, you know about the Sathur Diamond, don’t you? The one that the Sathur Trading Shop recently brought to Roben?”
“Yes, of course I know. It’s incredibly famous.”
Its current market value was, by my knowledge, approximately four hundred million marks, though it hadn’t been released to the public.
If it went to auction, wealthy nobles would vie to drive up the price—no need to sell it at market rates.
It would likely be the first-priority auction item at the official auction house next month.
“I want to have that,” Lilia said, pointing at the two gold cups.
“If you choose one of these cups correctly, I win. The Sathur Diamond is the prize, and the game participants will give it to me as a gift.”
“Ah, I see. Then what’s in the other one?”
“If you lose, I’ll give each of the participants jewelry worth fifty million marks.”
Only now understanding the game’s rules, Lizbeth opened her mouth slightly in surprise.
The participants were nine people, including Lizbeth and myself. So this was an insane game where hundreds of millions of marks were exchanged before our eyes.
Yet for these wealthy children gathered here, it was just a familiar pastime.
“Then I’ll choose.”
After thinking for a while, Lilia opened the left gold cup. She unfolded the small note inside, let out a laugh, and showed it to us.
[Michael’s Choice]
“I chose the Angel Michael’s Choice, so I win!”
Lilia opened the other cup she hadn’t chosen and showed the note inside to Lizbeth.
[Lucifer’s Choice]
“If I’d chosen that one, I would have lost.”
“Oh. Now I understand how it works.”
Lizbeth’s eyes wavered. Having sat down at the table just moments ago, she was now a participant obliged to get the Sathur Diamond for Lilia.
Then Cedric, who was sitting beside Lilia with his legs crossed and affecting an air of sophistication, laughed.
“Don’t worry, everyone. I was planning to buy that diamond for Lilia anyway.”
“Ooh…!”
“Wow, classic Cedric!”
“That’s so cool!”
The idle children seated around the table giggled and cheered.
Tap-tap.
Ricky tapped the table twice to draw attention and then asked Lizbeth.
“Your turn next, Your Highness. Is there anything you’d like?”
“Huh? Me? I don’t really…”
“Usually people desire expensive gems or artwork, but it doesn’t have to be an object,” Ricky said with a gentle smile, and Lilia added as if she’d been waiting for the opening.
“How about having Ricky escort you for the entire party?”
“What…?”
Lizbeth’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“Is… is that allowed?”
“Of course. If there’s something you want, you can ask for anything. Is that what you’d like?”
Ricky tilted his head slightly and smiled.
Soft blonde hair fluttered across his pale face—he looked just like an angel. But…
‘Ugh, really. He’s a demon. A complete demon.’
Knowing Ricky’s true nature, I shook my head inwardly.
“So what goes in Lucifer’s Choice?”
“This game thrives on extremes, so…”
Ricky pretended to think, then let out an exclamation: “Ah!”
“Your Highness was quite looking forward to this party, weren’t you? So if you choose Lucifer’s Choice, you’ll have to leave immediately. How’s that?”
“What…?”
I knew it would be like this.
Lizbeth was annoying, but being royalty meant she couldn’t be completely ignored—he still had to deal with her.
And it was precisely because her very existence was a headache for Ricky that he’d devised this scheme. He wanted to get rid of her quickly.
“That’s… that’s too extreme?”
“But without balanced stakes, there’s no fun. If you’re worried about losing, you can forfeit,” Ricky said, pressing his lips together as if disappointed.
Watching Lizbeth begin to bite her nails in worry, I sighed inwardly.
‘How on earth is that shiny-faced brat any good?’
I really couldn’t understand. He’d finally gotten her to come to the party, and yet she was hesitating like this…
As I clicked my tongue silently, I suddenly stopped and laughed at myself.
‘Right. It’s ridiculous for me to look down on Lizbeth. I know that heart better than anyone.’
Wasn’t I the one who’d lost to this damned game dozens of times?
I slowly scanned the laughing children around the table.
Their mocking voices rang clearly in my ears.
“So will our dear Lubet’s choice lead to a kiss with Cedric?”
“Get ready and open it!”
“Haha! Lucifer again!”
“The kiss is off the table!”
“Oh, so we get to see Ruby’s fabulous butt dance again today?”
Lubet, who had no choice but to draw Lucifer’s Choice every single time, would have to climb onto the stage at every party and wiggle her hips in an absurd fashion.
Once she’d put on an elephant mask and spun around in place twenty times before getting dizzy and collapsing onto the floor with a bang. When tears of shame started to fall, they were even more delighted.
‘Damn demons.’
And yet Lubet had never once forfeited from this game.
Though it was partly because they’d corner her through semi-coercion, saying she’d ruin the mood if she refused.
‘I really did want to kiss Cedric once. The odds were fifty-fifty, so I was sure Michael would come up someday.’
I rested my chin on my hand and laughed softly, gazing at Cedric sitting across from me.
‘Purely liking someone is truly frightening.’
The memory of Cedric comforting a sobbing Lubet when she was eight years old loomed too large.
So large that she’d clung to him for her whole life just to hear that gentle voice once more.
“You’re Lubet, right?”
“Why are you crying here alone?”
Lubet met Cedric at the Masquerade Festival held for a national holiday, and she fell completely in love.
“You have a beauty mark. Do you cry often?”
“When you grow up, I’ll come propose to you.”
Cedric then was kind and gentle and somewhat innocent. It was hard to believe he’d grown into the trash he was now.
‘Does that bastard even know that the cheap necklace he bought from a general store to console her tears became the greatest treasure of Lubet’s forty-five years?’
Although I wanted to throw it into the gutter then and there, I couldn’t bring myself to do it because of Lubet’s precious heart, which treasured it so.
“Sigh.”
Emerging from my reverie, I turned my gaze back to Lizbeth.
‘You’ll be the same. You’ve already fallen, so what can you do? Even though it’s your own heart, you can’t control it.’
When she finally nodded with determined eyes, saying she’d play the game, I let out a sigh.
“Your Highness will play. Shuffle them.”
Lilia laughed and ordered the attendant standing beside her.
The servant placed the two notes inside the gold cups, then shuffled them back and forth across the table many times.
Lizbeth stared intently at the two gold cups, and watching her, the demons held back their laughter and exchanged glances.
“Now choose.”
“I… I will…”
Ricky gently drew the two distant gold cups toward Lizbeth.
‘Whichever she picks, it’s Lucifer’s.’
Lizbeth, hopefully waiting, would unfortunately never get Michael in her hands.
I’d played this game dozens of times and never once drawn Michael, and that was no accident.
“The left one!”
“The left one?”
But could I cry foul and declare it a fraud?
No. This game had no arbiters. Besides, it was a setup designed from the start purely for the demons’ amusement.
When I, who’d always drawn Lucifer ten times out of ten, asked to see what was in the cup I hadn’t chosen…
‘I frowned, cursed, and made a fuss about the rules.’
I stood up abruptly and snatched the note from the left gold cup before Ricky could grab it.
Everyone’s gaze locked onto me.
“This is the one you chose, right, Your Highness?”
“Huh? Oh, yes, that’s right.”
I looked each bewildered demon in the eye one by one, then grinned and stuck out my tongue.
Then, before their very eyes, I placed the note on my tongue.
“Hey!”
Ricky sprang to his feet in an instant.
I turned to look at him as I rolled the note on my tongue, wetting it, and then—
Gulp.
“…!”
Swallowed.
Ricky’s jaw dropped open.
Lizbeth was equally startled.
“What… what are you doing? Why are you eating that, Lubet?”
I took a sip of the cocktail beside me, then laughed and spoke.
“It’s fun.”
“What? No, why on earth…? If you swallow it, we can’t check what it was!”
“Why not?”
I played innocent and pointed at the other cup Lizbeth hadn’t chosen.
“One of them is Michael and the other is Lucifer, so we can just check this one.”
“Ah!”
“Right, Ricky?”
I looked at Ricky, now gone pale, and smirked.
“If the note in here is Lucifer, then Your Highness drew Michael.”
The faces of the other demons, who knew both were actually Lucifer, were a sight to see.
‘How long did you think I’d keep falling for this rigged game?’
After giving each of the hesitant children a look, I spoke to Ricky again.
“Well? Open it.”
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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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