Celebrity Lady - Chapter 6

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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 6
“I need knowledge of this place. It would take too long to learn by trial and error, adapting as I go. And…….”
As I tried to continue, my chest suddenly grew tight.
Through the deep hours of dawn, I thought about many things. First, I mourned my short twenty-five years of life, and I spent a very long time thinking about Rubetra, who had willingly died in my stead.
In the course of that, I felt a multitude of emotions toward her—a woman I’d never even met.
There was the guilt of having treated her like a vile stalker when she’d needed even a single word of comfort, and the debt I felt toward her for giving me a new life before she departed…….
“Rubetra said she lived oppressed for forty-five years, right? Then she got a terminal diagnosis and reversed time. But even after that, life was still so hard she considered suicide? And she was younger than me when this happened?”
“……Probably.”
The moment I woke in Rubetra’s body, I recalled the faces of her siblings who had mocked her.
“I can guess the general picture, but just hearing about it doesn’t make it real to me. Why did Rubetra envy my life? What was the life like that drove her to suicide…….”
“…….”
“……I want to truly understand her heart.”
It seemed an unexpected request; Wisht’s eyes widened, then he rubbed his chin, muttering.
“Then how will you make your Wish? If I implant knowledge of this world into you and attune you to Rubetra’s emotions, wouldn’t that be two Wishes?”
I furrowed my brow sharply and fixed Wisht with a stare.
“You’ve got a merchant’s cunning, haven’t you? Is there no welfare benefit for a poor soul like me? Wouldn’t you provide knowledge of this world for free, say?”
“I’m afraid not. It’s a matter of principle.”
Wisht shrugged firmly, and I swallowed a sigh before speaking after a moment of thought.
“I don’t need to waste two Wishes. Let me remember her entire life—all forty-five years of it—as if it were my own.”
“I see.”
“All of her knowledge, her memories, her emotions……. Every moment she saw, heard, and felt. That way, one Wish will solve everything I need.”
Wisht nodded at my request and fell silent, but then—oddly—he sighed.
“It’s certainly an efficient way to use a Wish, but you’ll come to regret it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re saying you’ll absorb Rubetra’s life as completely as your own, aren’t you? That’s the same as becoming Rubetra yourself. Can you really handle that?”
At his warning words, I hesitated briefly before nodding.
“Of course I can. Rubetra died in my place, after all.”
“……Well, fine then. I suppose a good long sleep would be best.”
Wisht snapped his fingers once more, and I lost consciousness as if plunging into sleep.
After that came a long succession of dreams.
* * *
Rubetra Diolus.
Born into a rigid class society, she had been born grasping not gold, but diamond-spoon—possessed, perhaps, of even more brilliant a pedigree than my own.
Good bloodline, wealth that never ran dry, and she hailed from a Spirit User family blessed by Spirits; by her fifteenth year, she even had a Spirit who granted her Wishes.
And that was not all. She possessed…….
A father who was the head of House Diolus, wielding power that rivaled even the imperial throne; an Elder Brother who had managed the family affairs as acting head since merely fourteen years of age, a man of great talent; and a Second Brother who had risen to Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights at a young age through his exceptional Martial Prowess.
Yet sadly, none of that was enough to prevent Rubetra’s predetermined misfortune.
She never truly wielded what she held in her hands, lived her entire life enduring, and received a terminal diagnosis from obesity-related complications at forty-five.
That absurd early death was the greatest tragedy of her life, arriving at the end of a life that had feared worse calamities might yet come.
‘But Rubetra used her first Wish to reverse Time.’
Before death, Rubetra underwent Regression. To truly live her reluctant life anew.
Yet if Rubetra, having reversed time and grown healthy, was driven to contemplate suicide, it was because…….
‘Abuse.’
There was a fundamental cause that had prevented her from ever spreading her wings in the first place.
I raised my hand in question and asked.
“Say, Wisht. Is it not allowed to Wish for someone to be killed?”
“No. Within this world, there is no Wish I cannot grant except reviving the already dead.”
At Wisht’s plain answer, I felt bewildered.
“Then why didn’t Rubetra simply Wish to be rid of these trash in her household?”
“Her heart was too weak.”
“……Interesting.”
Despite my words, my mood was anything but pleasant.
In the Diolus Duchy, there were more than just Rubetra and her family.
Unfortunately, creatures more devilish than devils themselves lived there—and Rubetra had endured emotional abuse from them her entire life.
The severity of the abuse inflicted upon her was the worst. I had inherited the memory and accepted its scope, yet still felt rage rising in my chest, my jaw clenching despite myself.
I recalled Ricky, who yesterday had taken a slap from me and run off crying, “I’m telling Mom!”
‘Molga Diolus.’
Molga Diolus was precisely the “mother” that child had spoken of. The biological mother of the impertinent twin siblings, the true power behind the throne of House Diolus for a lifetime, and the primary perpetrator of Rubetra’s abuse.
She was a woman who had been the mistress of the previous Duke Diolus—Rubetra’s grandfather—and ultimately seized the position of duchess.
A delicate beauty with lustrous golden hair, eyes as blue as the sea, and fair skin.
‘Though her appearance and her nature are utterly at odds.’
With Duke Diolus, Rubetra’s father, she was officially stepmother and son—but they were separated by barely a year in age.
‘A scrambled household with a tangled family tree on top of it all.’
Frustration welled up in me, and I rubbed my chest repeatedly with my palm.
Since the dream came, not only information about them but also all of Rubetra’s memories and feelings toward them had soaked into me, and I could not easily calm myself.
‘Molga——that woman will make my life miserable from now on. I still have two Wishes left; wouldn’t it be fine to simply dispose of her?’
I considered it seriously, then shook my head.
Besides, it would be wasteful to use a Wish on that. Without Wisht’s help, I could exact Rubetra’s revenge well enough.
“Will you make another Wish?”
Wisht asked with an air of faint hope; I shook my head.
“So what will you do now?”
“Hmm…….”
I considered, then rose from the bed.
“Start with what I need most right now.”
“And what’s that?”
Instead of answering, I pulled the white tablecloth from the table at the center of the room and spread it across the bed.
Then I opened the first drawer of the bedside table. Inside were roughly ten individually wrapped Macarons in various colors.
‘She hoarded snacks like this and ate them endlessly without pause.’
I removed all the Macarons and transferred them onto the spread tablecloth.
Next, the second drawer held Candies and Chocolate; the third, Cookies in bite-sized bundles. I moved everything onto the tablecloth as well.
As I turned to move to the next location——
“…….”
Wisht stood before me.
Suddenly, a memory of Rubetra’s surfaced.
“Stop crying. If you hate being mocked, make a Wish to me. Wouldn’t it be enough to become pretty and thin?”
“I don’t want to. If I start making Wishes, I’ll keep wanting more. And then I’ll waste all three Wishes in no time. That means I’d have to part with you forever. That would be too sad.”
The reason Rubetra had lived her entire life without making a single Wish wasn’t actually that she wanted to avoid wasting them.
“You’ll disappear once I’ve used all three Wishes, won’t you.”
“…….”
Wisht went still and looked down at me quietly.
‘Once all three Wishes are spent, Wisht will disappear. That’s why Rubetra went to such lengths to save them.’
For Rubetra, who had been alone her entire life, Wisht’s presence as her only friend meant everything—enough to explain how she had endured without making those Wishes.
And perhaps…….
‘To this alien being as well, Rubetra was an irreplaceable friend.’
I could not begin to imagine what it had been like for Wisht to grant her Wish to die, knowing he was condemning a cherished friend to oblivion.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention, but either way, I’ve cost you a dear friend.”
I apologized quietly.
Wisht gazed down at me in silence for a long while, then turned his gaze away and spoke.
“……No. It was Rubetra who first wished to glimpse your life, and it was I who granted that Wish. You bear no responsibility here.”
Feeling my chest grow heavy, I swallowed a sigh and crossed the room toward the wardrobe.
Opening it revealed vast, billowing dresses tailored to Rubetra’s size.
Reaching between them, my hand brushed against snack bundles the size of my forearm, gathered in abundance.
I withdrew them as I spoke.
“Listen—Rubetra didn’t consider suicide because you wouldn’t matter to her. She thought of it because living had become unbearably painful, genuinely and truly overwhelming.”
I couldn’t see Wisht’s expression from where he stood behind me, but I could imagine what his face must have looked like.
‘After all the effort to reverse Time, Rubetra’s fundamental nature remained unchanged. She lacked the coldness to punish the wicked, and in the end, she couldn’t resist as her life unfolded the same way as before.’
Reversing Time changed nothing. If anything, the terror of living through that hellish existence once more, identically, had haunted her alone.
“Haa…….”
With a sigh, I opened the lower drawers attached to the wardrobe as well. They overflowed with Rubetra’s favorite chocolate Cookie packets.
I gathered the Diet obstacles I’d found in the wardrobe in both arms, returned to the bed, and emptied them all onto the tablecloth.
“And there’s something you’re misunderstanding.”
“What’s that?”
I turned to Wisht with a slight smile and spoke.
“Rubetra didn’t want to live as a pretty, thin woman. She simply wanted to live happily.”
“…….”
“The only reason she envied the life of a pretty, thin woman was because she’d convinced herself that her unhappiness stemmed from being plain and fat. The demons in this household made her think that way.”
“……That’s true.”
“If she hadn’t been abused, she wouldn’t have suffered over her appearance…….”
Speaking, I finally bent down and reached under the bed.
“……at all, I think.”
My arm brushed against rustling Candy wrappers; I gathered them all up. It was quite a pile. I picked them up one by one and transferred them onto the tablecloth.
“Whew, is that everything?”
I quickly wiped the sweat from my forehead, then grasped the edges of the tablecloth and tied them securely. The sealed snack bundle was truly enormous.
“I owe Rubetra a debt, so I’ll grant her wish. She wanted to live happily, so that’s what I’ll make happen.”
“Alright, I understand, but…….”
Wisht suddenly thrust his face close to mine as I looked down at the snack bundle.
“Why did you wrap all of these up? What are you doing?”
“What do you think? I’m going on a Diet.”
At such an obvious question, I furrowed my brow in response, and Wisht let out a scoff.
“That’s contradictory.”
“What is?”
“Just moments ago, didn’t you say that all Rubetra wanted was a happy life? Doesn’t being thin not equal being happy?”
“Well, yes?”
“Yet you say you’ll go on a Diet—which means you simply don’t want to live as a fat Rubetra, isn’t that so?”
“Hmm…….”
I waggled my index finger in front of Wisht’s face.
“Even if happiness isn’t about appearance, the weight still has to come off. Starting today, it’s hellish Diet time.”
“Why?”
“Why do you keep asking obvious things?”
I shrugged and spoke.
“Obesity is the root of all illness. I’m not about to live a life where I die from obesity-related complications at a mere forty-five.”

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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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