Celebrity Lady - Chapter 59

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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 59
Wow, what’s this? Is he really the Lark I know?
Of course, I’m deliberately trying to share Lizbeth’s fault myself, and Lark is supposed to help me with a clear conscience, but…….
Even so, such a remark was unlike him—a principalist who strictly separated public from private.
“That hardly sounds like something Your Highness would say.”
“I’m sorry it came across as a jest.”
Lark shrugged, accepting the comment, though his expression appeared grave.
“Really, you mustn’t draw your sword or anything like that, all right? I’m uneasy, but I’ve thought through even the worst-case scenarios before acting.”
“Same here. I’ll think through how to manage the situation even after drawing the sword, and then act accordingly.”
“No, Your Highness! I’m telling you, once you draw a sword, you can’t take it back. Weren’t you supposed to be famous for your principles? Why are you acting like this—it doesn’t suit you at all…….”
“Such tendencies change depending on who you’re dealing with. Are you seeing me as some kind of withered human being?”
Lark shrugged again and added,
“If I were a person without blood or tears, I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to extract Lizbeth, even at the cost of burdening the duchess.”
“Well, I suppose that’s true.”
“I’m human, too, so greater values do exist for me. And so, from now on in all my actions, the duchess alone will be the exception.”
Lark’s face, laughing softly, was sincere. I felt a little embarrassed and fidgeted with my fingers as I spoke.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I can manage just fine on my own. If you keep doing things unbecoming of Your Highness because of me…… it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Hmm……. Duchess.”
Lark suddenly called out to me.
“You’ve only seen the future—you haven’t actually lived through all of it yourself, have you?”
“…….”
“And yet you carry yourself in a way unbecoming of a fifteen-year-old. At an age when it’s still acceptable to pout, cause trouble, and be petulant, there’s no need for you to already act like an adult who must stand alone.”
Lark smiled bitterly and continued,
“That future you saw…… it must be what made the young duchess this way. Your father, your brothers—neither could have been someone you could rely on completely.”
“…….”
“Isn’t that rather sad? So if you’re willing, let me try. Give me the chance.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Someone you can complain to without worry. Someone you can make unreasonable requests of without hesitation. Someone who can clean up your messes. Someone you can turn to when things are hard…… I want to be that for you.”
Lark turned to look at me and smiled. I felt embarrassed and looked away from his gaze.
A few steps away, I saw Wisht, who had been watching us, make an exaggerated retching gesture in jest.
That spirit, throwing cold water on a perfectly decent moment……
“……Even just those words, I’m grateful.”
“I mean it, though.”
“I know. Come to think of it, Your Highness turned a blind eye to me keeping Vista, who is a Dangerous Spirit. Well, I suppose it was because it benefited you too…….”
“Even if it hadn’t benefited me at all, if you’d asked for my help, I wouldn’t have turned you away.”
Lark shook his head and let out a long sigh.
“Sealing a Dangerous Spirit contractor is not an ethical act. It’s an Imperial custom to prevent disturbance beforehand, but…….”
“My, you really think that way? Then perhaps you’d have turned a blind eye even if I’d contracted with a different Dangerous Spirit, not Vista?”
As I asked with a spark of hope, Lark nodded casually.
“It would depend on the person, but you—the duchess I know—aren’t the type to abuse a spirit’s power.”
“Isn’t that right? You think that way too, Your Highness?”
Continuing to lie like this makes my conscience uneasy. Should I just come clean? That I’m actually contracted with Wisht, the Spirit of Wishes?
At that moment of hesitation, Lark chuckled and added,
“As long as it’s not a Spirit of Wishes, we’re fine.”
“…….”
……Well, that didn’t work out.
I saw Wisht snickering with delight. The spirit who was the root cause of all this—what did it have to laugh about?
I frowned and responded sarcastically.
“So even though I’m the type who won’t do foolish things while contracted with Vista, if I were contracted with a Spirit of Wishes, I might develop ill intentions?”
“No, no, that’s a misunderstanding.”
Lark shook his head.
“It’s not that I distrust you—it’s that I distrust humanity.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wisht is…… ambiguous to classify as merely a ‘spirit.’ If they can fulfill any wish, that’s already stepping into the realm of gods rather than spirits.”
I wanted to say, But they can only use that power three times?
“No matter how free from greed a person is, once they wield such power, there’s no telling how they might change. And monitoring only the contractor doesn’t solve the problem.”
“……I suppose not.”
“If the duchess were Wisht’s contractor, and the Second Prince caught your fancy instead of me? That fool could become Emperor quite easily.”
“…….”
“The poor could become rich overnight with your favor alone, and the sick could be healed in an instant.”
In short, if the contractor so wished, they could fulfill the desires of dozens, hundreds of people.
Just as Lark said, it would be no different from humans transgressing into the realm of divinity.
Yes, theoretically speaking, a ‘Spirit of Wishes’ would naturally raise such enormous concerns.
‘Ah, the truth is, they can only grant three wishes—totally incompetent spirit~!’
The internal cry I couldn’t voice echoed silently. Instead of speaking the truth, I ventured a probe.
“But wouldn’t such a powerful spirit truly have no limits to their power? What if they turned out to be incompetent, with a fixed number of wishes or something?”
“No. There’s nothing like that.”
Lark spoke with such certainty that I grew curious.
“Wisht has appeared before, you know? The first contractor was your ancestor, Duke Diolus I herself. She founded the Empire together with Emperor Dekard I, my forebear.”
“Ah, yes, I know that.”
“It’s said that Diolus I, as Wisht’s contractor, was revered as almost divine.”
“But did she use wishes without limit?”
“Don’t you know? It’s your own house’s history.”
“Well, I do know, but…….”
My ancestor Diolus I, as Wisht’s contractor, reputedly lacked nothing.
She healed the sick as if washing away an old wound, brought wealth to the poor—she was certainly revered as a god-like being, but…….
‘Wasn’t it just exaggerated founding mythology? Like mugwort and garlic making a bear human, or Park Hyeok-geose being born from an egg?’
Since Wisht later told me they could only grant three wishes, I naturally assumed the stories about Diolus I were exaggerated oral legends.
‘Could it be that back then, they granted every wish?’
I glanced toward where Wisht had been, but the spirit had vanished.
‘……Conveniently disappearing whenever unfavorable topics come up—such a consistent little spirit.’
I was trembling over the irritating incompetent spirit when Lark added,
“Diolus I’s life was quite tragic, they say. She was selfless and altruistic, but perhaps that very quality made her more unhappy.”
“She granted everyone else’s wishes too, didn’t she?”
“Indeed. Among them were surely many who shed false tears for their own benefit…….”
“…….”
“The good deeds she performed with kind intentions ultimately caused much tragedy. Being virtuous, the guilt she must have felt…… who could measure it?”
So there was that backstory. I began dimly to understand why Wisht had imposed the limitation of three uses.
“In any case, don’t misunderstand—it’s not that I distrust you. For the future of the Empire too, a Spirit of Wishes must never appear again.”
“Ah, yes…….”
I nodded, turning away from my aching conscience. Lark, who had been smiling, suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!”
“Speaking of which, I came here because I had something to tell you, but I’ve been talking about everything else.”
He reached into his pocket and produced a single sheet of paper.
“Today is the final council meeting that will determine your fate. These are the proposals that have been narrowed down through previous sessions.”
Rubetria Diolus
—Home Isolation, 1 month (2)
—Reuben Isolation, 12 months (0)
—Widro Isolation, 12 months (9)
—Widro Isolation, 24 months (1)
—Hevannon Isolation, 12 months (14)
—Hevannon Isolation, 24 months (6)
As I scanned the domain names—Reuben, Widro, Hevannon—I became curious.
“What do the numbers next to them mean?”
“The vote count of council members in favor of that proposal.”
I examined the paper again carefully.
The most probable destination was Hevannon, with fourteen votes.
Next was Widro with nine votes.
Hevannon and Widro were our family’s domains in the central continent.
‘If the capital is Seoul, Hevannon would be Daegu, and Widro about Daejeon…….’
Estimating the distance roughly, I sighed.
‘I’m stuck. I’ll rot away locked up. I expected it, but this is really troublesome.’
“So with the most votes for Hevannon’s one-year isolation, I’ll be sent there?”
“No. The Council’s involvement ends here. The final verdict will be decided by thirteen judges taking these proposals into consideration, and the Chief Justice will declare it in the Courtroom.”
“Oh? So…….”
I swallowed dryly and traced my finger across one option.
—Reuben Isolation, 12 months (0)
My heart raced with anxiety.
“Could it be…… that even though this has zero votes, there’s still a chance it could be adopted……?”
“Ah.”
Lark hesitated and shook his head awkwardly, laughing.
“The probability of a Reuben isolation sentence is almost none.”
“……I see.”
“Widro and Hevannon have higher adoption probabilities and are the most realistic proposals. I’ll do my best to shift votes toward Widro, which is closer, rather than Hevannon in today’s session.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Lark smiled and placed a hand on my head.
“Don’t worry too much.”
* * *
“Don’t worry too much.”
Lark certainly said that…….
‘But he said not to worry, didn’t he?’
Standing in the middle of the Courtroom, I looked up at the high bench of the Chief Justice and trembled.
“Next, I declare the verdict concerning the Witness, Rubetria Diolus.”
The Chief Justice began reading the verdict with a blank expression.
“The Witness has been in contact with a Suspect presumed to be a ‘Sorcerer’ and testified to having introduced him to the Fifth Princess.”
“…….”
“Though there is no evidence of collusion with the Suspect, responsibility cannot be avoided for providing the cause to the Fifth Princess and conducting transactions at an illegal establishment.”
The verdict sounded ominously threatening.
My heart pounded rapidly.
“Until the Imperial Investigation Bureau apprehends the Suspect and clarifies the truth, the Witness must cooperate faithfully with the investigation, and during the investigation period, in…….”
The Chief Justice, reading from the verdict, looked down at me with a cold gaze and declared,
“I sentence you to twelve months of Isolation Sentence in ‘Reuben’ of the Diolus Domain.”
Bang, bang, bang—
‘What? Reuben?’
My heart pounded violently.
Crash!
At the same moment, a loud noise erupted from the Council member’s bench.
I turned to see my father standing abruptly, chair scraping against the floor.
Unable to contain his rage, Father breathed heavily, glaring at the Chief Justice as if he would kill him.

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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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