Celebrity Lady - Chapter 70

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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
Episode 70
* * *
Four days later.
Lark had cleared his entire day’s schedule and come to Lyubon to play, just as he’d promised.
I fitted him with a Men’s Formal Wear sample and marveled at the result.
Clap, clap, clap!
“Unbelievable~!”
“What?”
“I’m in awe. You look absolutely perfect!”
Watching me click my tongue and clap my hands, Lark laughed as though I was being absurd.
“Say, Your Highness.”
“Mm.”
“That Black Tie you’re wearing—would you mind pulling it off a bit roughly, like, with that wild, commanding energy? Just to see how it looks?”
Lark hesitated for a moment at my request, then tilted his head slightly and undid the Black Tie around his neck with a rather rough gesture.
“…Like this?”
Good heavens! Combined with that gesture came an arrogant, haughty, utterly commanding expression. Lark had nailed what I didn’t even ask for.
“Ha…”
I pressed my forehead, swaying slightly with the rush of excitement building inside me. Perfect. This was going to be an absolute hit.
“Why are you this perfect? If you’re intelligent and handsome, shouldn’t there be at least one flaw? Why do you have to make other men feel so painfully inferior…”
At my gushing, Lark let out an embarrassed laugh. I approached him and began retying the loosened tie.
With my touch upon him, Lark slowly opened his mouth.
“Ruby.”
“Yes?”
“Why do you treat me so well?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“…The watch, I’ll chalk that up to a birthday gift. Of course, even that was an extravagant gift beyond measure.”
For some reason, Lark couldn’t quite meet my eyes, his gaze drifting off diagonally into empty space as he continued.
“But do people in ordinary relationships really just give gifts randomly like this? Isn’t that something lovers usually do? Am I misunderstanding something…”
“Ah.”
When I thought about it, I could see how it might seem strange.
Just four days after giving a fifty-million-mark Diamond Wristwatch, I’d now pressed a complete luxury wardrobe into his hands.
‘The thing is, all these gifts have a purpose behind them,’ I thought.
Still unable to bring myself to ask him to model as a favor, I dodged instead.
“Your Highness has done so much for me, I’m simply grateful.”
“Really, that’s all? Not even a hint of ulterior motive?”
Raising one eyebrow, Lark pinched his thumb and forefinger close together and thrust his face forward. “Not even this much of an ulterior motive?”
At the sudden closeness, I flinched.
This face, sculpted by the heavens with such care—it never loses its power, no matter how many times I see it. Keeping an ulterior motive at bay is honestly difficult.
“Rest assured. How could I ever harbor improper thoughts toward Your Highness?”
Finishing the tie and pushing against Lark’s chest, I spoke with finality. He chuckled and shrugged.
“So you’re telling me not to make advances on you, a crown prince who’s supposed to marry five times over?”
“Come now, why do you have to say such hurtful things?”
“Because I’m sad. You keep turning me into a lazy crown prince who doesn’t work and lets his mind wander.”
“What are you talking about? Are you blaming me for your own reluctance to work?”
“Haha. I’m joking.”
Lark made his way to the sofa and collapsed into it, tilting his head back. For some reason, his face—eyes gently shut—looked more weary than I’d ever seen it.
I quickly sat down beside him and asked.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Something did?”
“Well, actually it did.”
“What?”
“I had an argument with my father. I disappointed the Emperor.”
“With His Majesty? About what?”
Lark cracked one eye open and looked at me as he answered.
“Secret.”
“Come on, tell me. They say shared troubles are lighter than solitary ones.”
“It’s really nothing serious.”
He cut me off flatly and closed his eyes again, so I couldn’t press further.
After sitting in silence for a long while, a sigh-like lament escaped Lark’s lips.
“I don’t want to work…”
“My?”
Such a complaint was utterly unlike Lark. So he was capable of words so genuinely human after all.
“I want to play… Jedo is in festival season right now, but I’m the only one who can’t enjoy it…”
“…”
“Well, to be precise, I’m not allowed to play…”
Lark wanting to play? Is this really him? Did we somehow switch bodies?
Startled, I fell silent for a moment.
Come to think of it, it was a little sorrowful—the fact that during the National Holiday Festival celebrating Lark’s own birthday, he himself was the one forbidden from enjoying it.
“Sometimes I wonder what it would’ve been like if I’d been born into an ordinary family, lived an ordinary life.”
“…”
“It’s not that I’m dissatisfied with my current life… but I think I might’ve been happier.”
With his head tilted back, gazing at nothing in particular, Lark turned to look at me and smiled.
“But then I’d never have had the chance to see your face, would I?”
“I think I’ve been mistaken about something.”
“About what?”
“I thought Your Highness was sufficiently satisfied with his life. If it were me, I’d have run away screaming within a day. But you carry it so well. The thing is… well, how should I put it…”
I pressed my cheek against the sofa’s backrest and faced Lark directly, studying his face carefully before continuing.
“Your position is certainly grueling, but I thought you at least enjoyed your work by nature, found fulfillment in it.”
There’s a saying: he who wears the crown must bear its weight.
Of course, if anyone asked me to be Emperor, I’d just throw it off and flee. No question.
Living a fully authentic life in that role comes with too many obstacles. There’s too much to sacrifice and compromise.
But Lark, lauded as a “perfect” imperial prospect, I thought was different.
I believed by nature he simply didn’t enjoy playing, that work brought him more joy than leisure.
All his actions up to now had suggested as much, and not just I but everyone who saw Lark marveled at him.
“I thought you were the type to break out in thorns if you didn’t work hard even for a single day.”
“Ha… Who actually enjoys working?”
I stared at Lark’s profile as he laughed tiredly, then suddenly stood up.
“Your Highness.”
“Mm.”
“I… have something I’d like to do.”
“What is it?”
“Since I’m currently serving a punishment, I need your permission to do this. Is it possible?”
“I don’t know what it is, but as long as it’s not asking me to sell out the nation, I’ll allow it.”
Ah, the exhilarating taste of wielding power without restraint.
At the crown prince’s coolly easy approval, I couldn’t help but grin.
* * *
Devian Street, Jedo.
During the National Holiday Festival week celebrating Lark’s birthday, Jedo was teeming with noise and chaos.
The streets were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people who’d come out to enjoy the festivities in broad daylight.
Even among the dense throng, we stood out conspicuously. I heard whispers from those who caught sight of Lark and me.
“What’s with those lion heads…”
“Why are they wearing masks in broad daylight? Isn’t the Masquerade supposed to be an evening thing?”
If it became known that a crown prince who wasn’t supposed to be enjoying himself and a noblewoman under house arrest had shown up in Jedo, chaos would ensue. So now we were fully disguised.
Not only in deliberately worn-out clothes, but completely hidden behind Lion Masks that covered our faces, hair, and even our eyes.
“The taste of wielding power is the best! Abusing the investigator’s authority is the absolute best!”
“Shh, shh.”
Even though I’d whispered it quietly into Lark’s ear, he seemed anxious and fumbled to bring his index finger to his mask’s mouth.
“This is way too conspicuous.”
“If we didn’t wear masks, how would we even enjoy the festival? Besides, as long as nobody forces us to take them off, there’s no way we’ll be caught. Don’t worry.”
“So you really wanted to play this badly?”
“Me? You’re not very perceptive. It’s because Your Highness wanted to play that I came along gladly.”
“Haha… Right, that makes sense. I know what’s in your heart, Ruby.”
“Ahem.”
“Let’s go over there.”
Indeed, Lark looked childlike with excitement—entirely unlike himself. He grabbed my hand and quickened his pace.
“Don’t you remember the old days, Ruby? We used to walk around holding hands like this back then.”
“No, Ruby. Shh. Please stop saying ‘Your Highness.'”
“Oh, that’s right. Then what should I call you? Ah, like back then…”
I thought for a moment, then spoke.
“Big brother?”
Lark, who’d been walking ahead, stumbled slightly.
“Is that okay?”
“…Mm. Yeah, that works.”
“Then what about me—”
“Ruby?”
Lark turned back and said it. I could feel him smiling behind the mask.
“Haha, I like it.”
“Good, Ruby. Time flies when you’re having fun, so we need to enjoy every moment. There’s a magic show on at Devian Block 3 Central Stage around now—let’s go watch that first.”
It was amusing that Lark had memorized the entire festival schedule and venue locations. How sad must he have been not to play all this time.
“Wow, it’s been seven years since I’ve properly enjoyed a festival.”
Gripping my hand firmly and hurrying along, glancing around in wonder, Lark breathed in amazement.
“Seven years? You mean since the day you played with me, you haven’t even caught a glimpse of the festival?”
“That’s right. I got caught by my father that day and received a terrific scolding. After that, I was strictly watched during every festival season.”
“Goodness. How did you get caught?”
“On the way back from seeing you home, I bumped shoulders with a boy around my age. It was just an accident—our shoulders brushed.”
“Oh my.”
“I don’t usually get into scuffles over shoulder contact, but this guy was twice my size. I even apologized, but he kept picking a fight and grabbing at me. His temperament was absolutely vile.”
“How unfortunate. So then… did you fight him?”
“Well, it wasn’t so much a fight as me being the one who… one-sidedly—”
Smack!
“Oof!”
That was when it happened.
As I was being hurried along by Lark, my body suddenly collided hard with someone, and I lurched forward with the impact.
“Are you alright?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine…”
A large shadow fell across the space behind Lark, who was turning to check on me in concern.
“Damn it! What the—”
It was the man I’d collided with. With a face as rough as his build, he immediately hurled an expletive.

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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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