Celebrity Lady - Chapter 52

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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 52
Haha, watching me laugh continuously, Lizbet giggled along with me.
“Right? It really is.”
I murmured to myself.
“A liar can’t lie twice, can they……”
“Huh? What are you saying?”
“Nothing, ma’am.”
My doubts and worries melted away like snow in the sun. I smiled with relief and pulled Lizbet into an embrace.
“Thank you so much, Your Highness. Thanks to you, the worry that was weighing on me has cleared up completely. I’m grateful you let me come to the Library today too.”
“Hehe…… Oh, that’s right, Lizbet. Then.”
“……?”
Lizbet giggled and pulled a small letter envelope from her sleeve.
‘Here it comes. A love letter.’
Recognizing it at once, I laughed softly.
“Hand this over to Prince Ricky for me, will you? Don’t sneak a peek?”
“Why are you so smitten with someone you only see for his face? What’s so good about him?”
“Only his face! Prince Ricky is such a kind and gentle man!”
“That makes no sense.”
Watching my expression of disgust, Lizbet added hesitantly.
“Of course, I’m not asking you to deliver it by word of mouth……”
Soon she pulled out something else and held it out to me.
It was a small vial.
“What is this?”
“A Weight Loss Potion. I’ve only got a few left and I treasure it dearly, but I’m giving it to you out of the kindness of my heart.”
“Pardon?”
Frowning, I snatched the vial from Lizbet.
“Where does a Weight Loss Potion exist? Did you fall for some scammer and buy this?”
“No scammer. It’s a real Weight Loss Potion. I drank it and already lost five pounds, I’m telling you.”
“That’s not true. It’s all marketing tactics. When you eat this, the only thing that disappears is water, not fat. Later you’ll gain it all back.”
“You don’t believe me? This isn’t just any ordinary potion—it’s a Magical Potion.”
“Yes, yes. That’s how ordinary scammers advertise, isn’t it? A magical weight-loss supplement where you can eat delicious food to your heart’s content and still shed pounds effortlessly!”
As I spoke sarcastically, Lizbet huffed.
“It really works! There was a Hair Growth Potion too, and I gave it as a gift to my seventh uncle who’s been suffering from hair loss. The next month his hair grew in so thick!”
“Goodness, that does sound tempting. A hair loss treatment might actually work, but a weight loss potion? No. Only proper diet and exercise can give you a slim figure.”
“Ugh, ugh! I’m telling you it’s real! You don’t know how powerful the Sorcerer who sold these is!”
“Yes, yes. Of course—”
I was nodding absently and about to stand and organize the books when I froze.
“Pardon?”
“Huh?”
“What did you just say? A Sorcerer?”
At my question, Lizbet’s eyes widened in alarm and she clapped her hand over her mouth.
Alarmed by her reaction, I pressed her immediately.
“A Sorcerer? What do you mean, a Sorcerer? Is she someone who sells these so-called Magical Potions?”
“Ah, no……”
“Tell me right now!”
“Why are you getting so worked up?”
“What kind of potions did you buy from that Sorcerer? The Weight Loss Potion and that hair loss medicine? That’s all, right?”
“W-what’s the problem? Do you know the Sorcerer too?”
“Answer me! You only bought two kinds of potions, correct?”
“No……”
Frightened by my pressing, Lizbet answered with trembling lips.
“……I bought two more.”
“What were they?”
“O-one was already taken from me by my brother? There was another potion I was supposed to give to someone else. A magical potion that, once consumed, would make them nod yes to whatever I asked……”
As I listened to Lizbet’s words, I recalled a concern Lark had mentioned before.
“My fraternal sister has been causing some trouble.”
“She smuggled poison into the Imperial Palace.”
‘So that’s what that Magical Potion was.’
I felt my lips dry and asked again.
“What about the last one?”
“That one’s really nothing special. Supposedly a potion to restore vitality to those with weak constitutions. You might not know, but my older sister is seriously ill and bedridden every day……”
“Ah.”
The older sister Lizbet was referring to was the First Princess of the Imperial Palace.
The half-sister of Lizbet, born weak and chronically bedridden—second in the line of succession after the Crown Prince.
I asked urgently.
“You haven’t given it to the First Princess yet, have you?”
“Huh?”
Sensing something ominous in my expression, Lizbet went pale and murmured.
“Um, I gave it to her the other day……”
“Oh, God.”
My mind went blank white.
But there was no time to waste. I immediately shot up from my seat and rushed out.
* * *
“Please let me see the Crown Prince. It’s urgent.”
“Er, my lady. His Highness is currently away. And to have an audience with His Highness, you must contact him in advance……”
The guard standing before Lark’s Office stopped me in confusion.
A noblewoman barging into the palace on impulse demanding to see the Crown Prince must have been quite awkward for him, but……
‘I can’t help it! This is a critical situation!’
While I was shifting anxiously from foot to foot.
“My lady?”
A familiar voice came.
Turning around, I saw Lark coming back from the Training Grounds, his hair damp with sweat.
“Your Highness! This is urgent! I have something to—”
“Ah yes, that’s right. How could I forget? We had an appointment today, didn’t we? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Come in, quickly.”
Noticing how distressed I looked, Lark calmly opened the door to his Office.
We quickly slipped past the bewildered guard’s gaze, and soon we were alone in the Office.
Lark pressed his index finger to his lips and spoke.
“From now on, speak quietly.”
“Your Highness, you said before that Princess Lizbet brought poison into the Imperial Palace, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Did you find out how she obtained it?”
“Yes. A minor servant in the Palace approached Lizbet and introduced her to a woman called a Sorcerer from the Empire. It seems Lizbet met her secretly and obtained it from her. She tricked Lizbet into thinking it was a Magical Potion.”
“And that Sorcerer—”
“By the time I found her, she’d already covered her tracks and fled. The shop where Lizbet met the Sorcerer was already completely cleared out, and the servant who introduced the Sorcerer had vanished.”
“Good heavens.”
“I expected her to escape so thoroughly anyway, so there’s nothing to be done. But is there some other problem?”
“Yes. The potions the Princess obtained from the Sorcerer weren’t just that one. She acquired several kinds and has been keeping them.”
“What?”
Lark was taken aback.
“There’s a First Princess in the Imperial Palace, isn’t there?”
“First Princess? You mean Bella?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes tightly, trying to calm my agitation.
The events about to unfold played out like a panorama in my mind.
‘The First Princess, Lark’s half-sister. Bella van Rashmah Dekard.’
She is currently second in the line of succession to the throne.
‘Born so weak she’s called a living corpse. Yet her will to live is so strong she’s sought out medicines everywhere.’
And that First Princess will, ultimately, die about ten years from now.
Or can it even be called dying?
To be precise, it was something like a coma. She breathed and lived, but could not open her eyes, spending her entire life bedridden and kept alive by needles.
‘All because she consumed a potion obtained from that suspicious person called a Sorcerer.’
I spoke immediately.
“I’m sorry, but there’s no time for a long explanation. Please go see the First Princess right now and check on her condition.”
“Did something happen to Bella?”
“Yes. In the Future I saw, the First Princess will, that is, about ten years from now, collapse and never wake up again.”
Lark nodded, alarmed.
“Bella was always weak.”
“No. She doesn’t collapse because she’s weak.”
“Then what? Is it the Second Prince? You’re saying Nathan has made a move against Bella too?”
“Possibly. The First Princess falls into a sleep neither dead nor alive, and the Imperial Palace is thrown into chaos. Orders come down to find out what she ingested—”
“No way.”
Lark’s eyebrows rose as he began to grasp it. I nodded immediately.
“A maidservant testified. She said a suspicious man calling himself a ‘Sorcerer’ met directly with the First Princess. The First Princess obtained potions from that Sorcerer.”
“So she was tricked into buying poison from the Sorcerer just like Lizbet was.”
“That’s right. Believing it would sustain her weak constitution, she drank poison.”
I added in despair.
“Of course, when the Imperial Palace was thrown into upheaval, they issued a nationwide manhunt for the Sorcerer, but—”
“They naturally never found her.”
Lark continued, biting his lip.
“That’s the Future, then? In that case, from now on I must watch carefully to ensure Bella never meets with that suspicious person.”
“No.”
I said firmly, and added with a tremor of fear.
“I’m truly sorry to say this, but you must go to the First Princess immediately and check whether she’s taken any suspicious potions.”
“Right now? You said what happens to Bella occurs ten years from now, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s definitely what I saw.”
I paused to catch my breath.
How shocked I was when the word ‘Sorcerer’ suddenly came from Lizbet’s lips.
She’s a criminal who shook the entire Empire, yet her name appears so much later in the Future.
“I never dreamed the First Princess would meet that Sorcerer first. But one of the several potions the First Princess obtained from the Sorcerer is exactly……”
“Damn it.”
Lark gasped and pressed his head as understanding dawned.
“You’re saying it’s the same potion that causes Bella to collapse in the Future? Lizbet already gave that potion to Bella?”
“Yes. She gave it to her the other day.”
“God.”
Looking at Lark’s pallid expression, my vision blurred and my heart pounded.
I tried to hide my trembling voice as I defended myself.
“The Future flows as I see it, fundamentally. But when I interfere and try to change it, it naturally becomes different.”
My relationship with Father and my brothers, growing this close to Lark—everything was different from my previous life.
And it would continue to be different.
“But I’ve never touched anything related to the First Princess’s wellbeing. I had no connection with her. Plus, it was the Future in which the First Princess herself obtained the potion, and even that was something that would happen much later, so……”
I squeezed my eyes shut and continued.
“I was negligent. I’m sorry. I should have been more thorough, keeping in mind that the Future could change, but I didn’t……”
“My lady.”
Lark’s deep voice pressed down upon me.
“Why are you apologizing?”
Feeling the gentle touch of his hand on my head, I opened my closed eyes and looked at him.
“Good grief. Why are you trembling like this?”
“……”
“Don’t worry. You bear no responsibility for this.”
“Ah……”
“From the start, you should have simply lived your own life and made it better, taking Vista with you.”
He smiled slightly as if to soothe my fear and added.
“You had no need to involve yourself in this sordid Succession War, nor any obligation to help me survive. Yet you chose to help me anyway, enduring the inconvenience.”
“……”
“I’m always grateful. So even if you made some mistake or withheld information from me, I could never blame you for it.”
Lark said this and quickly took his overcoat from the rack.
“I need to go to Bella now.”
He must have been just as anxious as I was.
Hiding those feelings so carefully, Lark smiled with effort and left after comforting me to the very end.
“Nothing will happen. Let us hope that, as you saw in the Future, the tragedy unfolds only ten years from now.”

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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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