Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 2

I stared at the blurred coffin before my eyes and thought.
Could this be my own funeral?
My resentment had run so deep that I’d become a ghost, it seemed.
‘No, this is…….’
I blinked slowly.
A tear that had pooled in my eye fell to the ground with a single white snowflake.
This makes no sense.
It’s summer right now, yet suddenly heavy snow?
And why was my viewpoint so low?
As I gazed around in a daze, landscapes even more incomprehensible revealed themselves.
The site of the Public Cemetery, destroyed by development years ago.
Neighbors struggling to dig into the frozen earth.
And my small younger siblings clinging to me, crying.
How could I ever forget this day?
‘It’s Mother’s funeral.’
A dream? Or a vivid hallucination?
But the winter air cutting through to my bones and the bitter wind felt so real.
As I stood unable to understand the situation, simply blinking.
“Cough……!”
The sound snapped me alert.
Looking down, my younger siblings—barely three and five years old—were trembling from the cold.
Ah, my little Hui and Dido.
By instinct, I knelt and pulled them into my arms.
Yes, I remember now.
After Mother’s funeral ended, they both came down with terrible colds.
Cold, sorrow, and not enough money for firewood.
I was so terrified when I thought they might die too.
‘How helpless I was…….’
It wasn’t only then.
Even working until my hands cracked and bled, the living expenses never stretched far enough, and I was always an powerless guardian to my growing siblings.
Thunk!
The young Morgan and the neighbors began to bury Mother’s coffin.
The cheap coffin sank slowly into the cold earth, and soon a crude cross made of two planks was erected on the rough mound in place of a headstone.
Just as bleak as I remembered it.
‘……Did I really come back?’
To the past?
Why? How?
A sharp pain shot through one corner of my mind.
Wait, something’s trying to surface…….

‘Ahhhhh! Damn it, I can’t die like this with such grievance!’

Maybe it’s better not to remember.
A brief flash of me crawling frantically somewhere like a caterpillar.
No way. It must be a mistake.
I shook my head to brush away the lingering unease.
Whether it was a miracle, magic, or the gods playing tricks, I had to deal with the immediate reality before me.
“Big sister…….”
My younger siblings, streaked with tears and snot, burrowed into my embrace.
Then they whimpered as they turned away from the grave.
“Sniffle, so c-cold.”
“When will Mother come?”
My throat tightened at the sight of my innocent siblings.
To meet you again like this, when I thought I’d never see you again.
I stroked their frozen cheeks with my small hands.
If things stayed as they were, these poor children who didn’t even understand what death was would sicken and die.
There was no time to think further.
I drew out the Necklace from beneath my thin coat.
At its end dangled a Ring, rusted and devoid of any ornament.
‘This is from the Ambrose family…….’
Even now I can hardly believe it.
After polishing away the rust, it would be just a plain silver Ring, but the shop owner recognized it at once when I tried to sell it.
‘There must be magic on it.’
I’d heard about it during my time working as a servant at that estate.
Ornaments that changed appearance only at the owner’s command.
More precisely, they bordered on being Magical Artifacts, but in any case, this could serve as definitive proof depending on the situation.
I looked at the Ring, my siblings, and Mother’s grave in turn.
Oh, Mother.
I still don’t know what’s happening or how.
But I think I know what I need to do next.
Taking a deep breath, I said.
“……Let’s go.”
To our new home.
But I need something first.
Right then, our neighborhood’s official mark shuffled toward us.
“Kids, it’s all done now, so let’s head…….”
“Doctor Morgan.”
“Hm?”
“Could you lend me some money?”
I’ll pay you back with interest.

* * *

People cited three reasons for the long prosperity of the Atera Empire.
First, the Temple where an Archangel descended.
Second, the Manor of a great mage.
And finally…….
“That’s the Ambrose Estate over there.”
The greatest magnate in history.
Head of a vast trading company whose influence stretched across the entire continent, far beyond the Atera Empire.
War, famine, Demon Race invasions—whenever the treasury ran dry or the imperial family faced bankruptcy, this figure appeared without fail as the savior.
The old hired carriage came to a stop before that very Ambrose Estate.
“Thank you.”
With my youngest slung over my shoulder—dozing fitfully—and my second-youngest’s hand in mine, I jumped down from the carriage.
Having spent the entire afternoon traveling since Mother’s funeral ended that morning, the sun was already setting in the distance.
The travel expenses, as well as the loan from that well-meaning simpleton—rather, Morgan—paid for everything.
‘That fellow’s probably struggling with funds himself, yet he handed them over without hesitation.’
Even though he rarely received proper payment for his medical work.
So he’s little more than a doctor in name, while to the elderly of the neighborhood he’s regarded as nothing but a mark.
Shaking my head, I looked ahead.
So this is it.
The Ambrose Estate, at the heart of the Capital.
I’d heard the Imperial Palace was close enough to touch if you leaned forward…….
‘Is this not the Imperial Palace?’
Just the gate alone was so extravagant.
It was a world apart from both the slums of the outer districts where I’d spent my whole life and the baronial house where I’d once worked as a servant.
The building itself exuded an overwhelming aura.
I was starting to feel intimidated when the guard posted at the gate asked me.
“What brings you here?”
“Ah, I’m Ravigne…….”
No.
I cleared my throat and spoke again.
“I’m the daughter of the Ambrose heir. Please let me see the master of this house.”
And I began searching my clothes for the Ring.
The guard looked at me with startled eyes.
“You can’t do this here!”
He drove me away.
What a disaster.
The sky was growing dark and the cold was intensifying.
After scuffling with the guard trying to drag me far from the gate, I finally collapsed against a nearby wall with my siblings.
Then, with cruel timing, snow that hadn’t fallen anywhere in the Capital began to dance joyfully.
‘Even the heavens mock me!’
I brushed away white snowflakes accumulating on my siblings’ heads, biting my lip.
Why won’t anyone believe what I’m saying…….
Clink!
Just then a single copper coin rolled toward us.
I reflexively picked it up, and a passerby clicked their tongue as they went by.
“Tsk, poor things. Begging on a night like this…….”
That’s certainly how it must look.
I gazed anew at our shabby appearance.
We certainly didn’t look like we could set foot in such a palace-like mansion.
But I couldn’t leave.
Because.
‘I have no money.’
I clutched the coins in my palm.
That cursed money, money, money.
Even in death and rebirth, it’s still so wretched.
I was laughing bitterly when the guards suddenly grew restless.
Beyond the white snow, a massive carriage was approaching.
In that instant, instinct spoke.
This was my last chance.
“Hui, Dido, stay here.”
“Big sister……?”
Handing my youngest to my second-youngest, I charged forward.
Toward that enormous carriage.
The coachman and guards spotted me too late and shouted.
The four sturdy horses pulling the carriage came on unrelenting.
I thought I’d be trampled, but it wasn’t as terrifying as I’d expected.
Money terrified me most.
Look now—money was what would freeze me and my siblings to death in the street.
Screeeech!
And money would be what saves us.
Right before my eyes, the magnificent horse and carriage came to an abrupt stop.
The coin I’d dropped was teetering precariously beneath a hoof.
Hah, hah.
My breath mingled with snowflakes in confusion.
After a moment to catch my breath, I threw all my strength into my belly and shouted with ringing clarity.
“I am Ravigne Ambrose……!”
So the person inside this returning carriage would hear me plainly, as though I belonged in this noble household.
As though proclaiming it to the world itself.
With frozen hands, I snapped the old Necklace string and held the rusted Ring up high.
“I’ve come to reclaim my life!”
So let me in.
Please.
Standing firm with my back to the still-closed gate, the guards suddenly panicked and tried to drag me away.
And at almost the same moment, the carriage door opened.
“Lady Naomi!”
The woman who stepped out appeared to be in her middle years.
At the appearance of this woman with an icy expression, the guards grew even more flustered.
“We apologize. We’ll remove her right away…….”
“Stand aside.”
A voice as cold and sharp as her expression.
The woman brushed aside the guards as though shooing away annoying mice, then approached me with stately steps and bowed slightly from the waist.
“Little miss, might I take this?”
“……You’re borrowing it.”
The woman smiled faintly as she took the Ring and turned to go, and the carriage wheels began to roll again.
A man’s deep voice flowed out from within the carriage as it passed me coldly.
“Let her in.”
Creak!
At last, the gate opened.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————