Celebrity Lady - Chapter 77

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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 77
“Why did you lose so much weight?”
When Ricky asked with wide eyes, Lilia pouted her lips sulkily.
“Well, what can you do…….”
“Besides, what’s in Lyubon that made you two insist on coming to celebrate my birthday? It’s cold, so why not just stay home?”
Even as I asked with a vein pulsing at my temple, I wore a smile—and the twins answered with forced grins of their own.
“My, Rubetria. Is today just a birthday? This is your first birthday since becoming an adult, isn’t it?”
“Right, right. Of course we have to celebrate. Biego even brought the head chef from the most famous fine restaurant in Jede, so eat plenty. We need to put some weight back on you.”
“I suppose…….”
We exchanged pleasantries as if we were simply close siblings, but another person stepped down from the carriage.
‘……What is she doing here?’
A girl with brown, shoulder-length hair and a somewhat gloomy expression. Her face was dimly familiar.
“Come on down.”
Lilia pulled the girl’s arm as if snagging it, then introduced her.
“You know Nora Pelkan, right? She’s my closest friend.”
“Nora, yes. I know Nora…….”
How could I not know Nora Pelkan, who had been glued to Lilia’s side and rattling along beside her for her entire life?
The girl had already earned a reputation around town for having a foul temperament. She regularly visited our shop, shrieking for orders, and poor Becky had even developed stress-induced gastritis from it.
‘Right. This was the girl who hung around beside Nora Pelkan, wasn’t it?’
At last I remembered when I’d seen this familiar yet unfamiliar girl’s face.
“Nora caught a cold and couldn’t come today. Instead, she sent her friend—so let’s all have fun together. Say hello, will you?”
“……I’m Evelyn Torso. Nice to meet you. Happy birthday.”
Evelyn Torso, daughter of Baron Torso House.
Nominally a friend, but really the girl Nora Pelkan dragged everywhere and treated like a servant.
Ordering her around, hitting her without hesitation if she was displeased…….
‘The girl who knew she wasn’t being treated as a friend, yet threw away her pride and took on maid’s work for the sake of scraps.’
They must have worried it would be tiresome to toy with me now that I’d become a mad beast. So they’d brought a substitute—someone they could handle carelessly without restraint.
I trembled inwardly at my twins’ cruelty as I answered.
“Thanks. Have fun while you’re here.”
* * *
Servants hurried back and forth across the glittering tables of the villa’s courtyard, where fires had been lit warmly in various spots, carrying food.
“The air in Lyubon is nice. Even though you got punished for doing something stupid, you’ve been having a great time lounging around and eating, haven’t you?”
Lilia, watching the view from the villa’s best second-floor guest room, grumbled.
“If she was lounging around, she wouldn’t have lost half her body weight. Is something wrong with her health?”
Ricky clicked his tongue at the thought of Rubetria, whom he was seeing for the first time in ages.
The unrecognizably slender Rubetria was now beyond the point where anyone could tease her about being a pig.
“That’s what I’m saying. Is she really the lady I knew? Did the Isolation Punishment weigh on her mind that much?”
Dominic Alon, the young marquis of House Alon, sitting in an arrogant pose on the sofa, was also surprised.
He was one of the primary troublemakers in the twins’ gang, alongside Nora Pelkan.
“More like she did it on purpose.”
Cedric, the young duke sitting between Ricky and Dominic, shook his head slowly.
“She probably wants to look pretty to me.”
“What good would it do if she dieted? You can’t turn a pumpkin into a watermelon just by drawing lines on it.”
Lilia, throwing sharp remarks, tossed a jab—and Cedric laughed warmly at her.
“Of course. No matter how hard she tries, how could she ever compare to you? Why is our Diolus’s swan in such a foul mood?”
“Hmph.”
Lilia snorted with a peevish expression and sat down beside him, and Cedric laughed as he ruffled her hair.
“You! Don’t mess this up—do it right!”
Lilia shouted sharply at someone.
It was Evelyn, standing in a corner with her head bowed low like a servant attending to others. She nodded quietly.
“The wardrobe is in Basement Level 1, Third Room on the Right. Don’t forget.”
“Yes…….”
The twins had visited Lyubon several times before, so they knew the villa’s interior layout intimately.
The wardrobe in Basement Level 1, Third Room on the Right was an especially meaningful place for them—where they had locked Rubetria away every time they came to play.
As if there was anything so terrifying about being confined—Rubetria who cried and snot-dripped every time, shrieking to be let out…….
“Hehehehe!”
Just thinking about it thrilled them.
Following Lilia, who quickly brightened and giggled, the little demons smiled wickedly.
* * *
“Happy birthday, happy birthday~!”
“To our beloved Rubetria~, happy birthday~!”
“Wooooo!”
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
Right now, in this moment, listening to the birthday song while wearing a party hat among some thirty or so children…….

I felt my smile muscles beginning to twitch from the strain.

I glared at Wishte, who was standing off to the side watching as if it were none of his concern, and blew out the candles on the Three-Tier Cake that Biego had specially ordered.
“Yay!”
“Congratulations, Miss!”
“Thanks for coming, everyone!”
The one thing that made this wretched birthday party bearable was that most of the nobles invited by Biego were practically strangers to me.
They didn’t know I was being ostracized by the twins’ gang.
So today, the demons wouldn’t dare openly torment me for fear of the loose-lipped children watching.
“Should we play Hide and Seek?”
But I could hardly relax before Ricky made the suggestion.
“Hide and Seek?”
“That sounds fun!”
The girls who had been flushing and sneaking glances at the clean-faced Ricky quickly nodded.
“Our villa is huge! We can’t go outside, but there’s plenty to do for fun! If you hide well, it’s really hard to find!”
Ricky pointed gleefully toward the villa behind him.
With two basement levels, three above-ground floors, and an attic, the Lyubon villa was as massive as Ricky claimed.
‘Ah, here comes the trauma.’
Lyubon was close enough to Jede that the twins came to play here often.
The guardian was Molga, and the twins’ gang was always with them. Rubetria alone was left behind.
Just from hearing this, can’t you guess what happened in this Lyubon villa?

Wishte tried to stop me, but I scoffed.

As I sat listlessly, thirty or so children soon scurried into the villa to hide.
Even the remaining punk gang also stood up with ominous smiles.
“I’m the seeker!”
Ricky approached a tree in the courtyard and announced it.
“Ricky.”
At the sound of my voice stopping him, Ricky turned back. I smiled gently at him.
“You will find me, won’t you? Yeah?”
“What?”
“I mean, don’t pretend you can’t find me even though you obviously know exactly where I am, and then fool around for half a day, okay~”
“You’re something else. When have I ever done that? I’ll find you first~”
“Sure, whatever.”
I took off the stupid party hat and stood up.
Just as I was about to head into the villa.
“Um, Rubetria…….”
Evelyn Torso, who had been hesitating in a corner, approached and spoke to me.
“What?”
“D-do you want to hide together?”
“…….”
Huh. I twisted my hair, looking back and forth between Evelyn and Ricky leaning against the tree in the distance.
‘These little things really use their heads.’
I shrugged and smiled at Evelyn.
“Fine.”
Besides, there was something I wanted to ask this girl anyway.
* * *
My last clear memory of Evelyn Torso was from when I was exactly fifteen.
Normally, Evelyn wouldn’t have come to my sixteenth birthday party.
Or rather, by that time, Evelyn probably wouldn’t have been in this country.
‘She was always trailing behind Nora Pelkan, but then for about half a year, I didn’t see her. Later I found out her whole family went into Exile abroad, or something?’
I don’t know why they suddenly left the Empire. I was going to ask now.
“Evelyn.”
“Y-yes?”
I grabbed Evelyn, who was heading downstairs as naturally as if she’d been to the villa many times before.
“Is your family preparing to move abroad?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Her expression suggested this was the first she’d heard of it.
‘So it wasn’t a planned Exile they were preparing for. Then they must have fled the Empire as if fleeing from something…… But why?’
As I was wondering, Evelyn suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me urgently.
Basement Level 1, Third Room on the Right.
It was a place far too familiar to me.
“Sigh.”
I followed Evelyn into the room without resistance. Inside was a large wardrobe.
I crossed my arms and asked sharply.
“Listen. Why do you choose to be Nora Pelkan’s maid like this? Can’t you just cut ties with her?”
When I asked bluntly, Evelyn’s eyes went wide.
“W-what?”
“Why live so pathetically? Because your family is doing well, you think scraps might fall if you stick around them? Honestly, seeing kids like you makes me sick.”
Looking at Evelyn’s wavering eyes stirred my irritation.
“You’re trying to lock me in that wardrobe because they told you to, aren’t you? Don’t you know me? Don’t you feel any guilt toward me?”
“…….”
“This is a crime. Do your parents know you’re acting like a maid to these nasty kids? Have you ever thought about how heartbroken they’d be if they found out?”
“N-no, you don’t know anything!”
Suddenly, Evelyn glared at me with gritted teeth. Her eyes were reddening.
“You think I’m doing this because I want to? If I don’t listen to Nora, my whole family starves!”
“What?”
Evelyn choked out the words, wiping her tears with her sleeve.
“You wouldn’t know, would you? You’re from a rich family. Do you think all nobility is the same?”
“What do you mean? Why would your whole family starve if you don’t listen to Nora Pelkan?”
I asked, but Evelyn’s lips sealed shut. She looked panicked.
She’d blurted it out in the heat of anger, but now seemed to regret it—Evelyn began to sniffle and apologized.
“I-I’m sorry…….”
“Apologies don’t matter. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m, I’m truly sorry. Please, I’m b-begging you.”
Trembling with fear, Evelyn pointed at the wardrobe with shaking hands.
“Please, please go into the w-wardrobe…….”
“Ha.”

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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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