Celebrity Lady

Lark hastily cut off the recording and asked, “What’s going on?” Confusion was evident on his face.

“It was recorded well, right?” On the other hand, Rubette, who jutted her chin toward the projector stone, was calm.

Tak. Lark, who snatched the medicine bottle, checked it out.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a weight loss drug. I got it as a gift from Princess Lisbeth.”

“What?”

“By any chance, did you find a good way? I heard that the princess would be unable to avoid her dethronement.”

“…” Lark, who had calmed his excitement, slowly closed his eyes and opened them. “I am not sure if the real culprit even exists. It’s nearly impossible to catch the shaman by next week when we have our last debate in Congress.”

“Then, the abdication of the princess would be certain. Can it be removed?”

“What do you mean by confinement? The princess is innocent.”

“Damn it, I know.” Lark, who had had a hard time maintaining his composure, collapsed. Holding his head with trembling hands, he took a painfully harsh breath. “There’s nothing I can do about the deposition. However, after we catch the real culprit, we may be able to reinstate her.”

“How long does it take to catch the real culprit? One month? Two months? Or a year? Ten years?”

“…”

“I’m sorry to say this, but even in the future I saw, the whereabouts of the shaman were forever unknown. If the dethronement of the princess is decided this time, it must be said that there is no way for her to be reinstated again. We always have to assume the worst.”

Not a word was wrong. Lark, with his eyes closed, took a breath.

Rubette, who was looking sadly at Lark, dragged an empty paper and pen that was on his desk.

“There is no way for the princess to escape her responsibility. So, from now on, we should aim for a way to reduce her sentence so that the dethronement of the princess can be prevented.”

“… What?”

“Can I use this?”

As Lark nodded, Rubette scribbled something on the blank paper without hesitation.

A witness to prove that the shaman exists.

“Princess Lisbeth’s claim is being dismissed because the shaman cannot be found despite her claim of getting the poison from the shaman. They could’ve risen to the sky or gone underground, for all we know. It’s unclear if they exist.”

“…”

“Then we need to make a fake witness who saw the shaman.”

Lark’s eyes narrowed.

That’s the idea. It’s not that he hasn’t tried it, but…

“It would be even better if it was someone who had gotten medicine from the shaman themself.”

Rubette scribbled using the pen again.

The circumstance is that Princess Lisbeth did not find the shaman first but met the shaman through the introduction of a witness.

“The witness introduced the shaman to the princess, and the princess only met the shaman from the introduction.”

Rubette tapped and lowered the pen.

“This is enough. It will prove that the shaman exists, and it wasn’t the princess who visited the shaman first.”

“…”

“Anyway, most of the nobility of the Parliament would not believe that the princess did this on her initiative. What does a little girl know? But it’s frustrating because we need someone to take responsibility for this case.”

“…”

“The best way to get around this situation is to split the person in charge in two. Set up a fake witness who will share the punishment for the princess’s ‘mistake’.”

Rubette wrote a few more letters with the pen she had put down.

Underage.

Must have a good relationship with Princess Lisbeth.

“The fake witness should be underage. If it’s a child who doesn’t know what to do yet, it can be considered a mistake. They must introduce the princess and testify that they went to the shaman’s store with her, so the witness should be acquainted with the princess in moderation.”

“Princess.”

“Yes.”

“I understand what you wanted to say.” Lark flipped the paper away. It was a rather angry gesture. “In other words, you mean to put an innocent person under perjury to commute Lisbeth?”

“That’s right.”

Lark added, looking at Rubette with cold eyes, “An underage, on top of that.”

“Yes.”

“…”

“…”

“I misunderstood you.” Lark, who had gritted his teeth, avoided Rubette’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but if I had to involve an innocent person to do the work, I would have made a fake shaman and put them on the guillotine.”

“…”

“There is a limit to what an underage can take into account. Commoners have no room for extenuating circumstances, and the penalty for the same crime is much more aggravated. The perjury of introducing the shaman to Lisbeth alone is the death penalty.”

“I suppose so.”

“I am Lisbeth’s older brother, but I am also the prince of this country. As much as I cherish my sister, the lives of each and every citizen of the empire are weighed with the same weight.”

Rubette, staring at Lark’s resolute gaze, lowered her head and smiled slightly. “I knew you’d say that.”

“You must have come here to help me all the way, so I’m grateful for your heart. But you’ve got to go.” Lark narrowed his eyes in anger.

“I’m not bad enough to put someone innocent on the guillotine.”

“…”

“The person I thought best suited the conditions of a witness. Even if they share the guilt with the princess, there is no way they will be sentenced to death. A noble from a family with some power and one immature young lady the same age as Princess Lisbeth,” Rubette added, picking up a vial rolling on the desk. “I’ll do it.”

“… What?” Lark frowned and looked at Rubette.

“This is a medicine to lose weight. It turns out they’re made of herbs that help your bowel movements. Well, to put it simply, your bowel movements go smoothly. Usually, if you eat something like this, you’ll initially see the effect of losing weight.”

“…”

“The shaman first sold a plausible drug that was really effective to the princess. It was to gain trust.” Rubette, who stood the bottle before Lark, added through the transparent glass, making eye contact with him.

“I was also obsessed with losing weight. I first found a shaman’s store in the capital, bought some weight loss pills, and it worked.”

“…”

“The princess wasn’t suspicious by the store that I, someone close to her, introduced.”

“Now, that’s-”

“Yes. My plan.”

“Ha.”

“Can you come up with a more complete alternative than I thought by the last meeting next week?”

“…”

“No, right? Then you’ll do as I say?”

“No. I can’t let you take responsibility for things you didn’t do. As you say, you will not be sentenced to death, but you’ll have no way to avoid a trial. You will get punished, either heavily or lightly.” Lark rubbed his forehead as if confused and met Rubette’s clear gaze. “I don’t quite understand. Why on earth are you doing this? I’ve never pressed you to help me or asked you to sacrifice, but why every time, so unconditionally-”

“I feel responsible. Because the future has changed, and Princess Lisbeth is framed because of my actions. Because I made a different choice than the original.”

“No, please. Let me be clear. You should never feel any sense of useless responsibility or guilt. I was stupid, and it was all my fault.” Lark bit his lip tightly. A sense of shame and helplessness, which he had never felt before, appeared clearly on his distressed face. “From the moment you made it clear that my enemy was the second prince, I wasn’t careful and acted like a fool-”

“In the end, I was the one who made you move,” Rubette smiled and stroked Lark’s clenched fist as if to soothe his trembling fist. “It is meaningless to argue further with each other. I’ve told my dad that I will cause trouble, so…”

“…”

“I’ve been thinking about it for days and came to turn myself in. Directly to the crown prince, the head of the investigation of this case,” Rubette smiled broadly, tipping her head toward the turned-off projector stone. “Then turn that thing back on.”

***

“Damn it.”

Sitting in the corner of the empty training ground, where dusk fell, Lark cursed repeatedly.

A sense of helplessness, and guilt, tormented him to the point of distraction.

“Uwa, that’s a little scary. Your Highness, can you use your power so I can get a light punishment?”

For the entire hour, Rubette went back in perjury for Lisbeth in front of the recording projector stone.

Her terrified expression, trembling voice, and crying act in the middle of the testimony were all unimaginable as perjury.

Lark couldn’t even guess how much she had thought and tried to make such a show alone.

‘A kid who knows the future…’

Rubette looked like someone who had returned directly from decades of firsthand experience.

“Hey, why do you look like that? Everything has almost been resolved. Why is the person who should be most happy so gloomy?”

On the contrary, standing before her made him feel more like a child.

“Smile. Laugh. Relax!”

When he remembered his ugly self, who couldn’t even manage his facial expressions due to a sense of guilt, and Rubette, who even comforted him before going back.

Lark said to himself with a distorted face, “Haha… seriously. If you keep doing this…”

What should I do?

“Brother, the evening breeze is cold.”

At that time.

Lark slowly raised his head after hearing the familiar voice behind his back.

‘Nathan.’

Lark’s, who had his back on Nathan, face was horribly distorted with a burst of anger.

Soon Lark slowly raised himself and turned around.

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