Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 24

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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 24

“……Wait. Let me think about it once more.”
The Duke turned his head away with an air of indifference and shrugged his shoulder.
Easy for him to be so relaxed when his own life wasn’t on the line.
This is really infuriating. Just one blow. Please, just one.
I eyed the back of his head, thinking dark thoughts.
Never mind my life now—if I get this wrong, I lose to that man.
‘That’s what I hate most.’
I’d rather die than that.
Think. Squeeze your brain.
I forced myself to reason.
If not Howard.
Then who else could it be?
‘Clara, who was lurking near my room?’
After all, a pink corsage was found near the door alongside Howard’s traces.
If I weren’t here, Clara could certainly be adopted as the Duke’s granddaughter.
And everything I received would become hers. Would she want that?
True, she’d have more claim than some distant relative of a son and duchess who don’t even exist here……
‘Something just doesn’t sit right.’
Intuition.
Motive. Motive. Motive.
A clear motive.
Something to gain only if I die.
Only if I die……
‘An inheritance.’
A scene flashed through my mind.
A scandalous affair I’d read about with great interest.
And beneath it, an article about some peculiar inheritance dispute.
It had been on the front page of Snearge today.
[As the wealthy widow A of District Damid has passed away suddenly, all eyes are on the question of who will inherit her properties.]
Normally, children inherit estates as a matter of course.
[Her only daughter is classified as a Person Under Guardianship, which prompted her natal family to file suit.]
But if that daughter were in sound condition……
[The Special Property Rights Protection Act for Married Women was established to protect the assets and lives of women who were once treated as their husbands’ property. In inheritance proceedings, it prioritizes reversion to the natal family over the husband. Yet widow A, despite her close relationship with her husband in life, failed to specify her daughter’s inheritance in her will, allowing legal loopholes to be exploited in this manner…… We wish to express deep regret over a court battle that would never have occurred had she been able to properly assert her rights.]
Fragments of the article surfaced in my memory.
And the piece had ended with sympathy for widow A’s daughter.
[Had she only been able to properly claim her rightful inheritance, this legal dispute need never have happened. We express our sincere regret.]
An heir unable to assert their rights properly.
I stared at the Duchess’s portrait, just as the Duke had done.
‘……What about the missing person?’
In Atera, they were fairly good about protecting missing persons’ rights.
After all, the war had only ended ten years ago.
You could still see houses in the slums that remained untouched for years, the homes of soldiers who never returned.
‘But there are legal thresholds for distinguishing the declaration of a missing person……’
One year of lost contact brings a Declaration of Missing Person; ten years after that brings a Declaration of Death.
Eleven years total.
Disappear for eleven years, and you become legally dead.
All legal rights are forfeited.
The realization made me dizzy.
I could have throttled the ten-year-old me who thought of this so lightly.
“Susan Hawk.”
“…….”
“The Duchess’s niece wishes to kill you.”
Because she stood to lose the Duchess’s personal fortune—enough to run the Ambrose Medical Institute nationwide.
That precious opportunity, born when the Duchess’s only son went missing, was being snatched away by a granddaughter who appeared like a bolt from the blue.
And the goal was almost within reach.
“Hmm, why make it so complicated?”
How irritating.
I glared at the Duke, who always had to add one more comment.
I wished he’d either sneer or look pleased—just pick one.
“Then I’ll handle it right away.”
With that, the Duke rang a small bell on the table.
Handle what, exactly?
Before I could ask, there came a knock—two sharp raps—and the door opened.
“Mmph!”
What.
I froze in place.
I thought I was dreaming with my eyes open. The scene unfolding before me was almost surreal.
Knight Alec dragging Susan Hawk in with a gag shoved in her mouth, entering alongside Philip Ridley—nothing about it was ordinary.
What…… what is this?
While I stood there stammering, Philip and Knight Alec entered the room as casually as if this were nothing unusual.
“It seems you were planning to settle this today—I take it my answer was correct.”
With that, Philip handed a Document Envelope to the Duke.
His expression was that characteristic, detached mask.
Meanwhile, Knight Alec dragged Susan along like a stuffed doll.
For all that he was supposedly a knight, there wasn’t a bead of sweat on Knight Alec’s mischievous face.
I looked up at him with astonished eyes.
First, explain this whole mess to me.
“Ah, no worries, Miss! I’ve pressed her pressure point—she’s in a state where she can’t resist. Rest assured.”
What a thorough explanation. My gratitude is boundless.
I spoke haltingly, my expression utterly unamused.
“I mean, I don’t understand the situation, and besides, she hasn’t actually done anything yet, so……”
Philip then pointed to the Document Envelope he’d handed the Duke.
“The evidence and circumstances of attempted murder are sufficient.”
“……Attempted murder?”
I’d thought about dying, certainly, but hearing the word stated so directly made it feel unreal, so I echoed it back.
“To be precise, since she was going to murder you anyway, the plan was to kidnap you first, demand ransom anonymously, then dispose of you cleanly afterward.”
Philip delivered this horrifying summary without blinking, then shrugged.
Kidnapping, ransom demands—me?
‘That actually sounds almost appealing.’
For a moment I was tempted, then I shook my head sharply.
Get your head on straight. You almost died.
‘……Ah, so that’s why there were so many blue corsage traces outside?’
Susan’s traces, marked by the blue corsage she wore, had been found mostly outdoors.
At a formal gathering, guests taking walks in the garden wasn’t unusual, so I’d dismissed it—she was probably just stepping outside for a breath of air——
But seeing as the traces also passed near my spare room below, it seemed she’d been scouting the mansion’s abduction routes in advance.
At that moment, Susan writhed and looked at me.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
She seemed to have something to say.
When I nodded, Knight Alec removed the gag.
Susan’s first words were these:
“What? All things come to those who wait, is that it……?”
Her neck reddened, her laughter turning bitter.
“How long did I wait? How long did I endure? That money is mine! MINE!”
The dignified knight who’d patiently soothed a drunk Howard had vanished. Before my eyes stood only someone mad with greed.
“Shall we proceed with Swift Execution then?”
Knight Alec asked cheerfully.
Why does someone with such an innocent face love cutting things down so much?
My head was pounding. I waved my hand.
“Do as you see fit. I told the Duke the method doesn’t matter.”
“Then we’ll proceed with the House of Ambrose’s way!”
What is that? Why does he look so excited? It makes me uneasy.
I turned my gaze away from the grinning Knight Alec. I didn’t want to know.
A strong instinct told me that escaping quickly would be best for my health.
I fled the bedroom, leaving the Duke and Knight Alec to their sinister laughter behind me.
It felt like I’d barely crawled out of some baseless nightmare.
“…….”
Or was I still trapped inside it?
Why were we walking side by side so naturally?
I spoke to the man beside me, my voice tinged with exasperation.
“By the way, where on earth did you find Susan?”
“In the back alley of a Gambling House where she virtually lived.”
She was a gambling addict?
People really can’t be judged by appearances alone.
He was no exception.
Philip Ridley.
The owner of the green corsage, whose traces were scrupulously confined to the lounge.
And the operator of Snearge.
“……You gave me hints, didn’t you?”
Hints about inheritance, so I could deduce Susan’s motive.
“While simultaneously laying a trap.”
“What…… Don’t tell me it was Clara’s corsage?”
Somehow I knew it.
Clara, acting with the grace befitting a princess, would never have lurked outside someone else’s room so undignifiedly.
I turned to look at him slowly.
A snake.
The shadow of the tall, slender man merged with the dim corridor as if they were one body.
And it wasn’t just him.
Knight Alec, who appeared when I was in danger. The portrait the Duke had been studying.
Nothing—not one thing—had been coincidence.
‘A rigged poker game.’
Susan wasn’t the only one at the table. I was in the middle of the game board too.
Suddenly the Duke’s earlier phrasing came to mind.
Detective Game.
‘……He really did let me play a game.’
I frowned.
Fortunately there had been no real danger to my life, but before that realization hit, I felt like I might die of irritation.

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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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