Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 26

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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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Episode 26

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I never thought I’d actually fall for something so childish, but here I was.
‘Though I suppose that proves how earnest they were about it.’
If I’d received a threat like this from my own siblings, I’d have been foolish and stubborn enough to do exactly as they asked—stupid though it was.
If it seemed like a prank or a trap meant for me, I’d have rushed over without hesitation.
Probably looking just as much a mess as Howard does now.
In the late-winter chill, Howard wore no coat—just a shirt with buttons fastened haphazardly.
At a glance, anyone would’ve sworn he’d been sprawled at home, drinking himself stupid.
And one shoe lay discarded on the floor.
I stared at his grimy bare foot for a moment.
“……You said awful things to me too, Howard, so we’re even.”
You did it on purpose the night of the dinner, after all.
The man who’d been glaring at me suddenly hunched his shoulders lower and let out a convulsive laugh.
“Ha, haha…… You shameless wretch…… Threatening an adult with lies? Where’s your fear?”
He rambled on as if the drink were hitting him belatedly, wiping his face roughly with his hands.
But who’s lying here?
I frowned and muttered under my breath.
“Liar.”
Howard Nelson.
The shame the Ambrose Duke House keeps hidden.
The elder brother is a man of global wealth. The younger sister became a queen consort.
Rumor had it he’d despaired at his own station when compared to his siblings, and drowned himself in drink.
Well, it’s a plausible enough story, but……
“It’s all lies.”
I met Howard’s eyes directly.
At first, I’d been uncertain.
His appearance was that of a pitiful drunkard, no question.
But as time went on, I could tell the difference.
“You’ve never been drunk once.”
My words fell into silence.
And then, bit by bit, Howard’s face transformed.
From that of a drunk into an ordinary man.
The twisted expression smoothed away, and clarity returned to those previously glazed eyes.
“……How did you know?”
He spoke in a clear, distinct voice now.
His hunched posture straightened.
Now he really did look like the Ambrose Duke’s true brother. I nearly smiled.
“I just knew.”
I placed a hand gently against my own chest.
“I felt it here.”
Damn it all.
My expression grew cold without my meaning to.
In my four years working the Tavern, I’d seen how many drunks cause trouble.
I closed and opened my eyes tightly.
I didn’t want to recall those memories in detail.
Watching my reaction, Howard said something with sudden gravity.
“You perceived me with the Eye of the Heart…… is that what you mean?”
“Well, yes, I suppose.”
“Remarkable—such sight awakened in one so young.”
“Well, yes, I suppose.”
It’s just an ability born from hard experience.
Everything was difficult, but working in that tavern was hell.
Ordinary people were bad enough—add drink to them and they’d evolve into something otherworldly and depraved.
Especially since I was a defenseless child.
Even the owner had his eyes on profit and wouldn’t protect his staff.
So I had no choice but to learn the art of survival—distinguishing a drunk from across the room and slipping away like a ghost.
I cleared my throat loudly and spoke.
“At first, that’s why I was wary of you, Howard. I thought you were trying to lower our guard.”
Playing the drunkard to disarm us, then targeting Ambrose and me from behind.
It would’ve been a decent strategy, I thought.
“But you don’t care about the Ambrose Dukedom at all, do you?”
“That’s absurd. Who would ever turn down the Ambrose Dukedom?”
“Well, that’s just it……”
I cupped a hand to my mouth as if sharing a secret.
“It’s obvious how much you adore him.”
Then Howard asked in a very low voice.
“……Much, you say?”
Yes. A lot.
I nodded emphatically.
Howard, hands clasped behind his back, let out a groan.
Last time I’d told Ambrose that he wouldn’t understand his brother’s affection—but it seems I was wrong about that too.
Yes. Strip away all prejudice and misunderstanding, and Howard was simply a younger brother.
One who, grey-haired and wrinkled with age, still loved his elder brother dearly.
“Even if that were true, what makes you so confident? What if I tried to harm you again?”
“Oh please, you don’t want to be disliked by him. That night of the dinner you did the same thing and then lurked outside his bedroom.”
Which made me think you were coming to ransack my room instead.
I laughed and shook my head.
“After you said those cruel things to me, your expression reminded me exactly of Huey and Dido when they break my things and get nervous about being scolded. That guilty, hopeful ‘please don’t be mad at me’ face.”
“……Huey and Dido?”
“My siblings. Five and three years old, for the record.”
Howard let out another groan.
Then he folded his arms and leaned back heavily.
He seemed to have run out of energy to keep up the act.
I leaned forward toward him and asked.
“Why go to such lengths pretending to be a wastrel?”
I had some idea, but I wanted confirmation.
Howard answered like a sigh.
“My very existence is a threat to my brother.”
“………”
“From childhood, just breathing made certain people approach me with honeyed words, urging me to cast down my brother and become the Ambrose Duke myself. It’s easier to play drunk, to pretend not to understand, to simply act that way and live in peace.”
“So you never married? Never raised an heir?”
“There’s no force more powerful than a family.”
A deliberate act of self-destruction and isolation—refusing to build a household or a faction of any kind.
All to ensure he could never become a stumbling block to Ambrose.
I let out a short laugh and asked.
“Your brother means that much to you?”
“Well…… he’s an admirable man. How could he not?”
Howard continued with an embarrassed cough.
“Our parents died young, and my brother was mother and father to me and Lillian both. He managed the house and the business while raising us—and he wasn’t even of age yet……”
Howard fell silent, lost in thought.
I could feel that toward the man who’d raised him, he carried more sorrow than gratitude.
I wondered—would Huey and Dido one day feel the same way toward me?
‘I hope not.’
Wishing fervently that they wouldn’t, I changed the subject.
“Then the Prince—you dislike him greatly?”
“I do. Very much.”
He turned his head away like a sullen child.
“Going off to war at such a young age and not returning safely. Shouldn’t he have spared our brother such sorrow? That wretched man……”
Howard gazed into the distance, muttering.
His bitter expression poured forth a torrent of feeling.
I blinked, then let out a quiet laugh.
“Yes, I dislike him too.”
Because he made my mother sad.
So we spent a long time hating the same person for the same reason.
I opened my mouth several times before finally speaking what I most wanted to say.
“But Howard—your noble heart aside, you’re wasting your life for your brother’s sake. If my siblings did something like that, I think my heart would tear in two……”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pardon?”
Howard cut me off as if mystified, letting out a dismissive snort.
“Yes, I deliberately play the drunkard, but living this way as a wastrel actually suits me fine. I’m cut from different cloth than my brother, who buries himself in work instead of drink. I don’t want the burden of a serious post, thank you.”
I blinked stupidly.
So in other words……”
“Being a wealthy idler is your calling?”
“Exactly so.”
“Ah.”
I’d found my role model.

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When I returned to the Mansion that day, I ran straight into Ambrose.
The moment he saw me, he said
“Don’t torment him too much.”
just that one thing.
Hmph. Now he’s hiding neither what he knows about me nor his affection for his brother.
But at least it was peaceful.
My life was safe, and the Mansion—troublesome as it was, constantly praising and criticizing in turns—had become familiar.
A few days passed that way, and then a stranger appeared.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Young Noblewoman. I’m Aileen of the Naro Trading Company.”
The Naro Trading Company—wasn’t that one of the famous trading houses under Ambrose Commerce?
Their main stock was probably……
As I was thinking this, something stacked itself onto the Reception Room table with a thud.
“Catalogs.”
“Catalogs……?”
Why those?
Aileen answered my unspoken question brightly.
“You’ll need to shop for furniture.”
Should I scream with joy?

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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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