Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 10

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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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Chapter 10

Then why the fuss?
Finn smiled enigmatically, as if reading my innermost thoughts.
“Scott takes very good care of his master.”
“I see…….”
Though I couldn’t quite bring myself to trust him in other respects.
Still, I was grateful that Ambrose seemed perfectly well.
‘I’m hardly in a position to worry about someone else’s health.’
I swallowed both relief and anxiety at once.
In my past life, I was diagnosed with the same disease my mother suffered from around late autumn, when I was nineteen.
Of course, the onset itself likely came much earlier.
Morgan estimated it had been roughly two years prior, but I’d never been able to pinpoint exactly when—neither then nor now.
A body worn down by labor is always aching and exhausted.
If my fingers hadn’t grown so numb that I kept dropping things, if I hadn’t lost job after job because of it, I never would have thought to see Morgan for an examination.
‘I remember how much Morgan wept that day.’
I didn’t cry at all.
Treatment was beyond reach anyway, and my mind was too tangled with worry about where to place my siblings before winter came.
In any case, less than a year after the diagnosis was confirmed, I gradually lost the use of my limbs, and that hot summer when I turned twenty, I died.
Mother’s situation was much like mine.
‘Though mother was far more stubborn about it, if I’m honest.’
She must have sensed something amiss with her body long before, but she refused to acknowledge it until her feet hardened like stone and wouldn’t leave the ground—only then did she stop dancing and sit down.
And within just two or three months, before anything could be done, she was gone…….
From my current vantage point, that had been only recently.
Eyes downcast, I found myself resenting the source of this inexplicable miracle.
‘……If only you’d sent me back a few days further.’
So I could see mother’s face once more.
I wanted to hold that thin hand again and ask her this:
Mother, I was in such terrible pain and suffering—how did you endure it all so steadfastly?
Though I suppose I already know what the answer would be.
“Bebe, older sister!”
Huie and Dido came waddling over, searching for me.
Both were dressed up in comical fashion, decked out in the gifts I’d given them.
These two couldn’t wait and had gotten into mischief.
“I can’t bear it.”
I muttered the phrase out of habit, and then I laughed despite myself.
It was always this sight that made living feel worthwhile.
Yes, made me feel like living…….
‘Wait?’
It was then.
That I suddenly noticed my own hands and knees.
This is fate.
Some strange certainty seized me.
“That physician from earlier……Scott, was it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“He seems to be a brilliant healer.”
Scott?
Finn murmured something noncommittal, but it barely registered with me.
I slowly opened and closed the hand whose wound had nearly disappeared.
I’d found my physician.

* * *

After bundling up Huie, who complained of a slight ache, and setting him loose in the Garden, I settled myself with Dido at a small table inside a birdcage-like Greenhouse nearby.
How was it that even in winter, every corner of the garden remained so tidy and well-maintained?
Thanks to that, there was no worry even when Huie ran about wildly. And Dido, pressed against the gleaming crystal pane of the Greenhouse, looked utterly content.
I smiled as though no greater satisfaction could exist.
Yes, this is Ambrose Estate, where only the finest suffices.
‘Then the physician must naturally be the finest as well!’
I jiggled my knee cheerfully, where only faint marks of the scrape remained.
Surely Scott’s Ointment from yesterday had been remarkably effective.
Otherwise, given how thin and fragile my skin was—inherited from mother—there’s no way it could have healed so quickly.
Good. A worry had lifted.
Even if the disease flared up again around age seventeen, as Morgan predicted, it didn’t seem like I would die senselessly as I had in my past life.
Now I had both the money to buy Black Ginseng and the finest physician in the realm. What was there to fear?
‘Of course, prevention is best.’
Even expensive Black Ginseng could only maintain the current state—this was an incurable disease, with no cure.
So rare that it hadn’t even been given a proper name yet.
Few physicians knew of it at all, and even Morgan, for all his learning, said he’d only read of it in some old foreign book from his youth; mother was the first actual patient he’d ever encountered.
Among those who knew, the name they gave it was…….
‘Wax Disease.’
So called because the limbs hardened as if coated in wax.
In the early stages, one merely feels exhausted. As the condition deepens, the fingertips and toes grow numb.
Paralysis begins.
Unbearable pain accompanies this numbness, and as the paralysis gradually claims the limbs and creeps toward the lower abdomen, one must prepare oneself mentally.
Because in the end, the heart would harden and cease.
‘……It’s horrible. I never want to suffer it again.’
I shuddered anew at the memory.
Beyond the pain itself, the helplessness of lying motionless while one’s heart is slowly squeezed—I would sooner throw myself into hellfire than endure that again.
Fortunately, Black Ginseng could hold back the paralysis, so I would save it as a last refuge.
‘If I just receive regular examinations from Scott from now on, that should work, shouldn’t it?’
As befits the finest physician, he would naturally know of Wax Disease, and if I could coax him into research, he might miraculously discover a cure.
What if he came to dislike me a little?
If he was the savior of my life, I could grovel as much as needed.
The only problem was that Scott appeared to be roughly the same age as Ambrose.
‘What if he suddenly retired……?’
Just imagining Scott’s absence made me anxious.
Surely other capable physicians in this vast Estate were training diligently, but the title of chief physician sounded far too sweet.
Chief Physician to the Ambrose line itself! That meant the absolute finest of the finest!
Ah, if only he had an apprentice who’d inherited all his secret methods.
A young, healthy, earnest apprentice prepared to learn…….
‘If not, I’ll create one.’
I arrived suddenly at a simple yet perfect conclusion.
Perhaps I even already knew someone suited to the role.
With the satisfaction of a problem solving itself, I tapped the table rhythmically with my fingers.
The timing was perfect anyway. I owed a debt, after all.
‘If the Ambrose heiress suddenly makes contact, that timid person might faint dead away.’
The thought was so plausible that I chuckled to myself.
Good, then I’ll shelve the matter of my disease for now…….
‘Actually, I need to get accustomed to being the Ambrose heiress first.’
It still didn’t feel real that I was now a person who received gifts from the imperial family, but I couldn’t remain like this forever.
I would live well.
The promise I’d made to mother in my past life, the one I couldn’t keep—I had to honor it this time, unmistakably.
In that sense, my goals at present were, first, survival; second, raising my siblings splendidly; and the third was surely this:
‘Extravagant spending!’
Goodbye to a life of shabby poverty!
Thrift and modesty could go to hell!
I’d live lavishly and wastefully, openly enough to make onlookers weary!
But first, I’d have to reform this petty, commoner mentality that made me feel overwhelmed every time I saw the golden bathtub in the bathroom…….
I steeled myself.
I’d adapt gradually. And enjoy it.
The way of living as the heiress of a ducal house.
Just then, Huie came rushing back into the Greenhouse, his face flushed with excitement.
He held something tightly in his small fern-like hands.
I greeted him as gracefully and kindly as I could manage.
“What is it, Huie?”
“Snake sleeping big.”
“……Put it right back. It needs more rest.”
I immediately took a stern tone and ushered Huie and the hibernating snake right back out.
Goodness, how does he always find such things to handle?
I shuddered and then pondered seriously.
‘Should I take him to the Knights Order once?’
I wasn’t planning to push the child into anything prematurely, but if he showed talent, I ought to develop it.
Fearless and lively Huie seemed perfectly suited to knighthood, but then what about our gentle Dido…….
Crack!
I turned at the sound and nearly fainted.
Dido was striking the thick crystal pane with a stone he’d picked up from the ground.
I rushed over and grabbed Dido’s wrist.
“Dido! That’s dangerous!”
“Mm-mm…….”
Dido stiffened his hand and resisted.
It was no use. I firmly took the stone from him and looked Dido straight in the eye.
“No. You can do anything else, but you cannot hurt yourself. Not ever.”
At that, Dido’s lips trembled slightly and he turned his head away sharply.
‘Really, what does it matter if you pout now? You’re just too cute for it.’
But why the sudden outburst?
Even if I asked, no answer would come.
‘Dido needs to be cared for steadily, that’s all.’
I swallowed my sigh as the youngest fled outside as if he didn’t want to be near me.
Slow though he might be, a guardian’s heart couldn’t simply let him be.
“Wait. Come with me, sister.”
I was trudging after Dido, keeping my distance, when it happened.
Rustle.
A small sound, and a kitten appeared.
Ah, that baby kitten from yesterday.
“……It’s white.”
When I’d glimpsed it before, I’d thought it had gray fur, but looking more carefully, it was simply a white kitten that had gotten dirty.
And its eyes were that golden color I loved most.
‘It would be quite pretty if washed, you little thing.’
‘Though I have no intention of washing it.’
Even as I am now, I’m not at an age to casually pick up lives and carry them along.
Unaware or perhaps aware of my cold human heart, the young kitten approached warily and bumped its cool nose softly against my ankle.
But it soon startled at the noise Huie and Dido were making nearby and scampered away with its tail between its legs.
I watched its afterimage fade, then turned my attention back to my siblings.
I had the responsibility to wash, feed, and put to bed two humans—not a kitten.
And so the day tumbled on until evening came, when I applied Scott’s special ointment generously and went to sleep.
By the next day, the wound had disappeared completely.

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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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