Celebrity Lady - Chapter 73

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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 73
What’s this atmosphere?
For some reason, it felt like the only way the next moment wouldn’t feel awkward was if we naturally kissed.
For an instant, I was swallowed by countless worries, but Lark chuckled and straightened up, taking a couple of steps back.
Then he tapped the ground lightly with his foot a couple of times.
“Oh my.”
And as if by magic, a single rose bloomed.
The deep red rose—the kind you couldn’t even find at a flower shop, let alone forged—resembled the one he’d given me exactly seven years ago.
Lark bent down, snapped it off gently, and handed it to me.
“Here, a gift.”
A rose offered with playful laughter.
I stared blankly between Lark’s face and the flower, then accepted it with a slight avoidance of his gaze.
“Thank you. You’re still smooth at this.”
“What?”
“No charming line? Saying it matches my hair color?”
“Oh, so I’m smooth, am I? Let me tell you it was the pure-hearted sincerity of a twelve-year-old boy.”
“Sure, let’s go with that.”
“Ruby.”
In that moment, Lark—playful just a second before—called me in a serious voice.
“Yes?”
“I’m curious about something. Can I ask you one thing?”
He drew closer, bent down to meet my eyes, and smiled. My gaze fell naturally to the slow curve of his lips.
I pretended not to notice and looked off into empty space as I answered.
“Why ask for permission now? What is it?”
“You said it before. That you didn’t want to date me.”
“My goodness, did I really phrase it that way? If anything, it’s not that I don’t want to—it’s that I can’t.”
“That’s the same thing, isn’t it? You said there are all these things I can’t do because I’m the crown prince.”
“Either way, there’s a difference, isn’t there?”
“Look.”
Lark tilted his head slightly and continued.
“If it weren’t for the fact that I have to marry five times, I could be your romantic partner, right?”
……
I felt a sudden tension, and I swallowed hard.
“Why are you asking something like that?”
“I don’t know.”
Lark shrugged. Unlike me, who was flustered by this odd question, he seemed perfectly at ease.
I tried my best to sound casual as I spoke.
“Well, I suppose so? That was the reason I drew a line with you in the first place, after all.”
“Good. That’s all I needed to hear.”
At his affirmative answer, Lark broke into a bright smile. I stared at his face intently.
Behind his radiant laughter, the deep sunset glow that fell was quite beautiful.
“Shall we head out?”
Lark extended his hand to me as if to escort me.
In that moment, I couldn’t tell whether it was the beauty of the sunset landscape or the beauty of his face.
“I’ll take you home.”
A soft laugh escaped me.
At words so like those from seven years ago, I found myself laughing helplessly and placing my hand over his.
“Alright.”
* * *
Inside the carriage as Lark drove Rubetria back to Rubon.
Lark, who had been gazing out at the passing scenery, quietly lifted his own hand and looked down at it. The hand they’d held all day.
‘Quite… impure, wasn’t it?’
To be honest, he couldn’t claim it was with the pure heart of an older brother escorting his younger sister around, the way it had been seven years ago.
“Hah……”
Embarrassed despite himself, Lark let out a laugh.
“Looks good?”
Just then, a gruff voice came from beside him.
A massive frame that made even the spacious carriage feel cramped—a white-haired man with bronzed skin. This was Randian, Lark’s Spirit.
For some reason, he wore a decidedly uncomfortable expression as he spoke.
“When are you going to stop treating me like a gardener, you brat?”
“Hahahaha!”
“A few days ago you had me planting trees here and there, and today what—making flowers bloom again?”
“You’d been bored. At least this way your powers don’t get rusty.”
Lark, resting his head against his hands at the back of his head, spoke playfully.
Randian scoffed dismissively and turned his gaze out the opposite window, muttering.
“You’ve been acting like a completely different person lately.”
“Me?”
“If it were the old you, you’d be busy getting into trouble that’d land you in hot water with the Emperor. How many Imperial laws has that young lady made you break, and here you are slacking off work and running around……”
Displeased, Lark shrugged.
“Well, I suppose that’s true these days.”
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m saying it’s a good thing.”
Turning back to Lark, Randian smiled slightly.
“At least it seems like you’re living more like a person now than before. I like it.”
“Once you break the rules, the first time is hard, but the second time is easy.”
“So you’ll do it again? You’re really going to grant that young lady’s request?”
“Request? Ah.”
Lark chuckled and gazed back out the window, thinking of Rubetria.
Before they parted, she—difficult but impossible to hate—had brought up a request with that sly, merchant-like expression.
The watch and clothes he’d given her as gifts, the festival they’d watched together—all of it probably had some scheme behind it.
“She’s too much, really.”
Yet despite his words, Lark’s expression when thinking of Rubetria was full of smiles.
“What else can I do? Whose request is it?”
“This one’s pretty big, though, isn’t it? The Emperor will probably throw a fit.”
“Can’t be helped.”
At Lark’s casual response, Randian’s eyes widened in surprise.
Lark had lived his entire life treating his father, the Emperor, as law itself, so he expected at least some hesitation.
“My Contractor has gotten entangled with quite a dangerous young lady. At this rate you’ll give up your liver and kidneys and everything else.”
“That’s right. She really is a dangerous woman.”
In more ways than one. Dangerous enough to carry the massive secret of being contracted with a dangerous Spirit.
Suddenly remembering something, Lark spoke.
“Come to think of it, you would’ve known the young lady is Vista’s Contractor all along—you just couldn’t say anything because of the Taboo.”
Spirits communicated through the Spirit Spring, so there were no secrets among them. Randian must have known Rubetria’s situation.
But in their world, there were strict Taboos, so they couldn’t easily reveal another Spirit’s secrets to humans.
“Vista, you say……. I’m not sure?”
For some reason, Randian kept chuckling and tilted his head evasively.
“What’s with that reaction?”
“Well, she’s certainly a dangerous young lady, but she’s someone you need more than anyone else. If she gets caught and Sealed, that’d be a real problem, so take good care of her.”
Lark watched Randian’s expression uncertainly and muttered quietly.
“Need her……”
It would certainly be an enormous gain to have the Contractor of Vista on his side.
But.
“Still, it doesn’t matter now. Whether or not she has Vista.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“My reason for keeping her by my side out of necessity… that’s ancient history now.”
……?
At that answer, Randian’s mouth slowly fell open.
“You’ve fallen for her……”
* * *
Several days later.
A Filming Studio on the second basement level of Rubon Villa, decorated with considerable care.
On the white-painted interior walls, text meant to serve as captions was written beautifully.
His Luxurious Secret—
Standing with my back to the wall, I slowly walked forward, meeting the gaze of each Image Stone placed around the studio one by one.
Model Walking on a set was something I hadn’t done in quite a while, but it was still familiar—after all, it had been my profession my whole life.
Once I’d reached the end, I smiled slightly and spoke.
“Aloof smile here.”
Then, looking directly at the Image Stone on the left, I delivered the line.
“From Blanc de Ruby’s winter collection.”
And turn.
I thrust my hands deep into the pockets of my formal trousers and turned away, showing my back. Done.
Then I turned back and spoke.
“So, how was that? Not difficult, right?”
Lark was here in the studio with me.
He’d agreed without hesitation to my request that he be a model—my angel, my light, my salt!
“……Young lady.”
Lark, who’d been watching my demonstration blankly, blinked a couple of times.
“Yes? Are there any difficult parts?”
“No, that’s not it……. Where on earth did you learn to do this? You’re amazing.”
“Hehe, what’s difficult about it? It’s easier than eating cold soup. Come on, try following along.”
Lark, who’d been hesitant at first, soon approached me with a walk, doing exactly what I’d shown.
‘……?’
As he drew closer, he placed an aloof smile on his lips just as I’d instructed, and turned.
‘What is this. What is this.’
Nearly six foot three. Broad shoulders and long legs stretched perfectly. An inverted triangle physique and proportions blessed by the gods.
Honestly, even with a burlap sack thrown over him he’d shine, but dressed in a refined Black Suit and displaying veteran-level Model Walking, it was almost blinding.
My jaw slowly fell open.
‘How is he better than me?’
Could Lark actually be a model-turned-Hollywood star whose body got swapped with someone else’s……?
“How’s this? Does it work like this? Should I loosen the Cravat a bit?”
……
“……Why? Don’t you like it? What should I fix?”
Embarrassed by my silence, Lark asked timidly.
“No……”
I blinked and stared at him for a long moment, then slowly shook my head.
“You’re so perfect and handsome that I’ve lost my words. There’s nothing to fix. Just do it exactly like that, and the gesture of loosening the Cravat will look great too.”
I’d always thought I was a genius, but it seemed this wide, wide world was full of talented people.
Even our exclusive model Sera was like that, and Lark seemed to be someone who’d had no weakness since the moment of birth……
Excited, I hurried to capture Lark with an Image Stone, then stopped.
“Um, Your Highness.”
“Hmm?”
“You know……. I’m grateful you agreed to help, but are you really sure about this?”
“Sure about what?”
“It’s probably a bit late to be saying this now, but I worry it might be too much of a burden on you. You have your image to consider.”
After all, Lark was no less than the Crown Prince of the Empire itself. And here he was, appearing as a model for a clothing boutique.
The promotional video would play on screens across the boutique district, so his face would be known throughout the neighborhood.
‘It’s definitely a bit shameless, isn’t it?’
When I’d first planned to use Lark as a model, I’d had strictly business-minded thinking and hadn’t worried much about it……
“The Emperor is strict, isn’t he? Won’t you get scolded for doing something like this?”
“It’s fine.”
Unlike my worries, Lark smiled carelessly.
“Don’t just say it’s fine without elaborating. If you have any concerns, it’s really okay not to……”
“I know what you’re worried about, and it’s really fine. It’s not something I’m doing just to grant your request—I’m looking to get something out of it too.”
“……Something? How so?”
“Well, shouldn’t I have a little fun in this too?”
Lark raised one eyebrow and smiled.
There was something in his expression that suggested he wanted something, and I felt inwardly delighted. That was exactly what I’d been hoping for.
I’d felt uncomfortable extracting every last drop out of him for just a few favors……
“Oh my! Then yes, my dear Crown Prince!”
I immediately pressed my palms together and rubbed them like one of his loyal retainers.
“Just tell me how you’d like to benefit. If it’s a modeling fee, I’ll make sure it’s very generous.”
“Hahahaha!”
Lark burst out laughing at my playful tone and shook his head.
“I don’t need money.”
“Then what do you want? Just say the word. I’ll do anything.”
Lark smiled slightly and spoke.
“Just kiss me a little.”
“……Pardon?”
“What, don’t you want to?”
No, that’s a bit—
Flustered, I immediately clamped my lips shut and stepped back a couple of paces as if fleeing.
“……?”
Lark watched my reaction with puzzlement, then pressed a hand to his forehead and burst out laughing.
“Not that mouth.”
……Huh?

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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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