Celebrity Lady

Chapter 146

Chapter 146The translation's quality improves over time, even I've got to admit it was kinda shite in the beginning... So I just knew TODAY (Sept 1st 2024) that this novel still has 16 chapters of SIDE STORIES! I'll finish it before September ends, so please keep checking this page? Haha

Lark sensed that something was amiss with Rubette’s condition.

“Why are you here? What’s going on?”

“Ah, uh...” Rubette, partially relieved and partially too excited to calm down, finally managed to open her mouth, “You’re alive...?”

“...”

It was an incomprehensible, strange question.

But Lark instinctively understood why she suddenly came to him and asked such a thing.

“Yeah, I’m alive. Nothing happened.”

“Thank goodness. Really. Whew. I’m so relieved...”

Lark carried the unsteady Rubette to his bed, sat her down, and knelt before her, gently arranging her disheveled hair. Rubette was only wearing indoor clothes and just threw on an overcoat, not even bothering to change her slippers at home.

‘Why?’

Perhaps she wanted to confirm his life or death with her own eyes.

“Did you dream of me dying?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“It wasn’t a dream.”

“...I see.”

Lark bit his lip. With that answer, he realized for sure what he had vaguely suspected. “Things have taken a turn, haven’t they?”

“Your Highness, I... I don’t have any wishes left now.” Rubette, choking back tears, embraced Lark. “So you absolutely must not die this time. Never...”

***

Spirits that manipulate time can instinctively sense disruptions in the natural flow of time. They feel discomfort in the passage of time as if someone had cut a line and spliced another one in between.

“Hmm.”

Pose, one of the three Spirits of Time, suddenly felt this discomfort.

He had experienced a similar sensation 30 years ago.

Perhaps it was caused by the power of the ‘king.’

“We don’t have much time left. Just thinking about that foolish Lark’s oblivious expression makes my blood boil.”

January 13th.

It was a misty dawn outside.

Nathan, who hadn’t slept a wink, was trembling with excitement, and Pose had been trying to restrain him until just a while ago.

Pose’s eyes cautiously settled on the vial of poison in front of Nathan.

‘It seemed like a trap...’

Pose picked up the powdered poison, leaving Nathan bewildered.

“What’s going on? Give it to me.”

Because Pose had been suspiciously discouraging him from taking this opportunity, Nathan became fearful of his sudden actions.

“Wait, Nathan. Let’s think for a moment.”

“Oh, sure. Who’s stopping you? Just give me that first, and you can think all you want.”

Ignoring Nathan, Pose floated away into the distance.

“Hey!”

Although a half-day seemed to have been awkwardly cut off from their timeline, Pose had no memory of the missing time.

‘Someone rewound time.’

If it were the ability of an intermediate spirit like Gestern, it wouldn’t apply to Pose, who was of the highest grade. So if there were supposed to be memories, and yet there were none...

‘It must be the king.’

The king’s contractee had rewound time.

‘Why would she urgently rewind just one day when she could have one more wish left?’

Today, Nathan would poison the emperor’s teacup. Despite repeatedly urging him to think carefully, Nathan’s eyes were resolute and filled with madness.

Perhaps, most likely... Nathan had indeed poisoned it. Pose was sure of it.

‘So, did the king’s contractee rewind time to save the emperor who died from the poison?’

No...

Pose chuckled bitterly.

Even if they imprison Nathan, was there any guarantee that a disaster wouldn’t occur until he aged and died? That was the worry that had led to the plan to send him to the gallows...

“Marriage laws are one thing, but that bizarre legal system that favors the nobility also seems to need change.”

“I agree. And about the wish you mentioned this morning...”

“Ah, yes.”

“I suspected that your spirit abilities were somewhat restricted.” Lark added with a worried sigh, “Now, the fact that you have no wishes left sounds very dangerous to me.”

“Yes.”

Lark weakly smiled and gently stroked Rubette’s cheek. “So, then...”

At that moment, Lark’s eyes widened.

She was there one moment.

Gone the next, as if by magic.

“Ah.”

There was no trace of the warmth that had been in his palm.

There was nothing to think about.

It was Nathan’s doing.

“Rubette!!!”

Lark’s scream as he burst out of the study door shook the mansion.

***

“Ah...”

I simply closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I was bound, hands and feet, in a place I couldn’t identify.

‘This is bad.’

I could easily guess who had transported me from Lark’s study to this place.

‘There’s only one person who could do something like this, the 2nd Prince.’

But I couldn’t understand why the 2nd Prince was acting like a madman already. To openly kidnap a noblewoman and use the abilities of a spirit, right from the palace...

‘Why is he going so far?’

Killing Lark before she rewound time was because he thought there was no longer any hope for himself.

But now?

“Hmm.”

As I was contemplating, I suddenly felt the cold touch of a blade against my throat.

“Hello. Don’t be too surprised.”

Fortunately, the small knife quickly moved away from my neck.

Sitting on a chair in front of me, leaning on the backrest, was none other than 2nd Prince Nathan.

“Your Highness, why did you suddenly...”

“I have a question. Can you answer it?”

“Yes.”

Nathan abruptly pulled the chair closer, and with the tip of the knife he was holding, he lightly touched my waist.

I was tied up.

“Just answer what you see. It’s not difficult.”

“Yes...”

“Shall I untie this rope now, or shall I not?”

At that question, I froze.

‘It’s f****** over.’

I knew the meaning of this question.

“Do not untie it, please.”

The question was whether I could see the future.

“Oh, right. Vista’s contractee is different, but what’s different? Now, the next question.”

“Ugh.”

Nathan pressed the knife against my throat again. “Should I harm your neck right now, or should I not?”