Celebrity Lady - Chapter 44

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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 44
“Why do you look like that? Are you all right?”
Lark’s gentle voice scattered, and a distant memory surfaced.
* * *
Lubetria Diolus, eight years old.
That day, young Lubetria had wandered out to see the Festival and gotten lost.
“G-Grandmother. Riki, Lili…, oh!”
Threading through a crowd so dense she could barely take a single step, finding her companions was far too much for an eight-year-old child to manage.
‘I-I’ve lost my way like an idiot.’
Lubetria panicked.
It frightened her more that she’d let go of Molga’s hand foolishly than the fact of being lost itself.
“Why are you always such a stupid, dim-witted thing? Look at your brother and your twin siblings. How clever and capable they are.”
“No wonder your father dislikes you.”
She heard such things every single day.
“W-what… what should I…”
Pressing her back flat against the weathered stone wall of an old building, Lubetria trembled as she looked around.
Though it was evening, the streets glowed with light from street vendors’ stalls.
“I’m scared… gasp.”
Yet the sight of people towering far above her, each wearing grotesque masks that obscured their faces, struck her as an alien terror.
“Ugh… gasp…”
Lubetria clutched at the small Butterfly Mask covering her eyes and shrank further into herself.
Even the pitying glances cast her way by passersby felt threatening.
“Why are you standing here alone, crying?”
Then, a hand suddenly extended before Lubetria.
Looking up along that hand, she saw—
“Eek!”
“Easy, easy now.”
A fearsome lion with wild, disheveled mane stood before her.
Or rather, a boy wearing a Lion Mask.
He was perhaps a head taller than Lubetria, and while his voice was youthful, it held a certain gentleness.
“Why are you crying? Did you lose your mother?”
“Hic… gasp… oh…”
“I see.”
The boy, finding himself at a loss before Lubetria’s endless tears, soon led her into a narrow Alley.
For more than thirty minutes, while she did nothing but cry, the boy sat quietly beside her.
“Are you feeling a little better now?”
“…”
“Did you perhaps get lost—”
“I-I didn’t get lost! I only let go of Grandmother’s hand like an idiot and was crying! I know the way! I’m not stupid!”
“Ah, I see.”
She needed to return home.
Yet she dreaded that if word got out she’d been guided back by someone, she would be dismissed as an idiot again and scolded.
The boy, as if reading Lubetria’s heart, spoke to her with genuine kindness.
“I’ll take you home.”
“I didn’t get lost—”
“That’s right, that’s right. I understand. But the night is dark, so I ought to help ensure the lady’s safe return. That’s what I was taught as the Gentleman’s Code.”
As he spoke, the boy gazed intently at Lubetria’s face before suddenly pausing.
“Your eyes…”
“…”
“They’re beautiful. They’re gold.”
Lubetria’s eyes went wide, and she hung her head down abruptly.
Unlike the boy’s Lion Mask, which obscured his entire face, Lubetria’s Butterfly Mask left the eyes visible.
Now that the boy had seen the Spirit User’s golden eyes directly, he might well guess her identity.
‘No, no. Lubetria Diolus will be gossiped about as a fool who can’t even find her way and does nothing but cry. Then Grandmother will be angry, and Father… Father…’
“Could you be Lady Lubetria?”
“P-please don’t tell anyone!”
“What?”
“That I foolishly got lost and let go of Grandmother’s hand and was crying! Promise you won’t tell anyone…”
“Hmm? Got lost? Well, you made it home safely today, and you let go of Grandmother’s hand to play with me, and I didn’t see any crying.”
“…”
As Lubetria stood there dumbfounded, the boy suddenly thrust a Rose into her hands with a smile.
“I thought it looked pretty over there, so I bought it for you. It suits you better.”
“Ah…”
The boy gestured to her hair as he spoke: “The color matches.” Then he smiled.
“Shall I take you home now? Your family must be worried?”
Home…
The boy didn’t know, but there was no such thing as family waiting to welcome or fret over Lubetria there.
There likely never would be.
“No.”
“What?”
“There’s no one waiting for me…”
At Lubetria’s reply, the confused boy extended his hand.
“Then, since you’re already out, why don’t we enjoy the Festival some more?”
The boy’s gentle voice, and a single Rose.
And beyond him, the enchanting night of the Festival spreading before her.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Lubetria took the boy’s hand.
“…Let’s play.”
“All right.”
It was her first taste of breaking free.
The brilliant, dazzling lights sent her young heart soaring, the clowns’ ridiculous performances delighted her, and the Sugar-Coated Fruit Skewers were the sweetest dessert she’d ever tasted.
Lubetria held the boy’s hand tight and savored the Festival deep into the night.
“But brother.”
“Yes?”
She had grown quite close to the boy, and his name was now on her mind.
“What’s your name?”
“Me? Well, I’m…”
Yet for some reason, the boy hesitated, looking uncomfortable.
“A secret.”
“A secret? What kind of secret is that? You know my name.”
“I’m sorry. The truth is, I came out without my father’s permission, so I can’t let anyone find out. I’ll tell you next time we meet.”
“Hmph…”
Lubetria was disappointed but didn’t press him further.
In truth, even without asking, she had a faint sense that he was the young master of a rather prominent noble house.
His ease in deducing her status from nothing but her golden eyes, his unhesitating kindness toward her once her identity was known, and the aristocratic bearing in his gestures all told their tale.
“Ooh…”
“Do you like it?”
A small stall in front of the General Store, its wares adorned with charming ornaments.
Charmed by the way Lubetria’s eyes lit up examining brass Pendant Necklaces, the boy asked her to choose one.
“Hmm, I’ll choose…”
Among the necklaces carved with flowers, butterflies, and clouds that young ladies would favor, Lubetria suddenly seized one.
“That one? Really?”
“Yes!”
“Ha ha ha…”
It was a Pendant Necklace carved with the imposing head of a lion—just like the boy’s mask.
“To remember our meeting today!”
“Heh heh. All right, all right.”
And so the two of them wandered the Festival streets once more.
The memory of that day was so joyful that Lubetria found herself wishing, for the first time, that time would never pass.
“I should go home now.”
She didn’t want to part.
Even after the boy walked her to the Diolus Duchy Residence as promised, Lubetria held his hand for a long time.
“Say, brother.”
“Yes?”
“Will you stay over at our house tonight?”
“What?”
“Our house is huge!”
“Well, yes, I know it’s big.”
“I don’t want to say goodbye…”
There was no one at home who treated Lubetria with the same kindness this boy did.
Molga would scold her for being a foolish, dim-witted girl, and her twin siblings would tease and torment her.
Father did nothing but groan in his room all day, the eldest brother was always busy, and the second brother had his mind fixed solely on swinging a wooden sword from dawn to dusk…
“Waaaah…!”
“Easy, easy. Stop crying.”
“D-don’t go! Please don’t go! Let’s live together in my house! Yes?”
Because Lubetria clung to him and wouldn’t let go, the boy found himself at a loss.
“I have to return home too.”
“You can ask your parents, and then you can live in our house.”
“No, that won’t work.”
“Why won’t it?”
Could she not understand why?
Lubetria simply wanted to throw a tantrum. She simply did not want to part from him.
Even at Lubetria’s unreasonable sulking, the boy gently soothed her, stroking her hair.
“A family lives together only with family members. We’re not family.”
“Then become my brother. Please?”
“That’s impossible because we have different parents…”
“Waaaah…!”
“Shh, shh. There are some things that simply cannot be.”
At the boy’s firm tone, Lubetria grew frightened and swallowed her tears.
Seeing her distress, the boy hesitated before speaking again, his voice both kind and stern.
“Listen carefully. A family lives together only if they are spouses, or parent and child, or siblings. Do you understand? Thank goodness I’m not a suspicious person, but if you go around asking just anyone to let you sleep over or live with them, that’s very dangerous.”
“So… I can absolutely never live with brother?”
“That’s right. We are not siblings, nor are we parent and child, nor are we spouses—”
“We could become spouses!”
“What?”
“You’re not my father, and you can’t be my real brother, but we could be spouses, couldn’t we?”
“…”
“There, that settles it! Please stay over!”
The boy could only laugh at Lubetria’s petulance.
“Being spouses doesn’t happen overnight just because you say so…”
“Waaaah…! You’re a liar, brother! You said spouses could live together! You said they could!”
“Lubetria.”
When the boy’s voice, touched with laughter, called her name for the first time.
Lubetria was startled by the clear, joyful thump-thump of her own heart.
The boy, surely smiling beneath his mask, gently removed the Butterfly Mask from Lubetria’s face and met her eyes.
“Ah.”
The boy spoke softly as he traced the corner of her left eye with a gentle touch.
“You have a tear mole. Is that why you cry so often?”
“…”
“Today it’s sad, but we must part now. So let’s go inside, yes? We’ll meet again.”
“Sniff… but you said we can’t live together…”
“My, do you like me that much?”
“Yes!”
Seeing Lubetria answer without a moment’s hesitation, the boy paused before breaking into open laughter.
“Then let’s do this.”
“…?”
When you grow up, I’ll come ask for your hand.”

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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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