Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 28

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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 28

The day we finally moved, after all the preparations were complete, turned out to be a perfect spring day.
My bedroom was flooded with sunlight.
When I stepped carefully inside, the furniture Aileen and I had chosen was arranged in place.
My room, decorated exactly as I wanted it.
There wasn’t a single corner I disliked.
Even what Finn added while explaining everything else was just right.
“The pieces you selected separately, Miss, have been stored in the warehouse.”
The ones I’d picked out purely because they were expensive.
He really bought all of them? The corners of my mouth quirked up.
I hadn’t expected much, but it felt like receiving an unexpected gift.
Good—I’ll let those age nicely and sell them off as vintage furniture later.
My younger siblings also moved safely into the East Wing.
But since Maya flatly refused to share a room with me, Huey and Dido found themselves suddenly living independently.
Though their rooms were just next door to each other anyway.
In any case, things have been progressing rapidly ever since that so-called detective game.
‘Hmm. They say when an Academy student passes a difficult exam, their parents give them a reward.’
Maybe this is what that feels like?
As I was enjoying the light with sparkling eyes, Finn standing beside me smiled contentedly.
“Under such bright spring sunshine, your eye color truly resembles the young master’s exactly.”
Hm?
I blinked my eyes rapidly in surprise.
‘……That man’s eyes.’
I’d heard the comparison often, but suddenly I felt curious.
What did he look like? Had he inherited half from each parent like I did?
Where had he disappeared to?
The disappearance of Duke Ambrose.
It was an incident no citizen of the Atera Empire could be ignorant of.
Eleven years ago, the final battle against the Demon Race in the South.
After a year of stalled fighting, humanity emerged victorious, but Duke Ambrose, who had led the charge, vanished without a trace.
It happened the very year I was born.
‘Would Mother have heard the rumors that day?’
But since she didn’t know that the man she’d been waiting for was Duke Ambrose, she likely dismissed any sinister gossip in one ear and out the other.
Clutching her swollen belly alone, believing that man wouldn’t disappear like Duke Ambrose would.
‘How foolish.’
No matter whether my biological father was a good man or the missing Duke Ambrose, the fact that Mother was foolish remained unchanged.
In the end, she steadfastly trusted and waited for a lover who wouldn’t even reveal his own identity, raising their daughter alone.
Does everyone become like that when they fall in love?
‘……I won’t do that.’
Not that kind of foolish love.
As I grumbled inwardly, Finn suddenly asked me something.
“Would you like to see it?”
“I’m sorry?”
“There is a portrait of the young master in his room.”
To get a Red Badge in this household, did one need to be quick-witted?
Entertaining that reasonable suspicion, I nodded slowly.
A portrait. That man’s face.
I never met him in life, but I could see his likeness in a painting.
With an odd feeling in my chest, I followed Finn along with True.
“The young master preferred quiet places, you see. That’s why he used the most secluded room in the East Wing.”
Saying so, Finn led us down a long corridor and stopped before a door at the end.
Creak……!
The door made an unpleasant sound, as if it hadn’t been opened in a very long time.
When I shivered at the sudden chill, Finn stepped back slightly, gesturing for me to enter first.
I hesitantly stepped into the dark room.
‘……It’s like it’s been snowing in here.’
Cold and desolate, everything covered in white cloth.
It was like a silent snow-field, or perhaps a funeral hall without a coffin.
Standing in the center of the vast room, I turned slowly to look around.
This was Duke Ambrose’s…… my biological father’s room.
Beyond feeling unfamiliar, it felt like I’d walked into a place I had no right to enter.
Finn and True, who had followed me in, opened the curtains.
Then the dust accumulated in layers began to dance and shimmer in the flood of morning sunlight.
How long had it been since anyone cleaned this room?
When the owner’s absence had stretched past a year? Or perhaps after two years, clinging to a fading hope? Or had far more time passed?
For Mother, it was five years.
Only when I’d turned five did she finally abandon that hopeless waiting.
She accepted another man’s courtship, dreamed of a new life, and tried to enjoy each day with a freedom that bordered on recklessness.
Yet she never forgot her first love in the end.
‘How exactly did he look?’
That was something I always wanted to know.
Mother’s descriptions had their limits of imagination.
She’d only heap on empty flattery—saying he shone like a halo, or that she thought a statue had come to life.
She claimed that meeting Duke Ambrose helped her understand somewhat, but everyone she’d encountered—not just Huey and Dido’s father, but all the men Mother had met—were handsome.
So let me see just how handsome he really was!
“The portrait is here.”
Where Finn pointed, a large frame covered in white cloth like the other furniture leaned against the floor.
I wondered why it wasn’t hung on the wall, but that hardly mattered now.
I was finally about to see it.
If he turned out to be less handsome than I imagined, so much the better.
With that competitive spirit, I positioned myself solemnly.
And when the cloth fell away.
I became a complete and utter defeat, forced to squeeze my eyes shut.
Ah!
Mother.
I understand. I get it now.
‘He really was a prince…….’
I grasped it immediately upon seeing him. He was the kind of prince every girl in the world dreamed of at least once.
His fair complexion and honey-colored hair gave an impression of gentleness at first glance, but the moment your eyes met his, a burning, passionate light overwhelmed you.
Features so fastidiously refined they seemed cold, coupled with an air of world-weary ennui.
In short: breathtakingly handsome.
The kind of handsome you’d never forget until your dying day.
‘And his personality was apparently taciturn yet subtly tender.’
Guilty as charged. Life sentence without parole.
Easily enough to captivate a passionate woman’s heart eternally.
Even the young maid behind me appeared to have fallen into hopeless first love.
True, you’re going to drool if you keep that up.
I glanced at True, whose mouth hung agape, then turned my eyes back to the portrait.
Letters inscribed beneath the painting caught my eye.
I read them awkwardly aloud.
“Ansley Ambrose.”
“Yes, that is the young master’s name, Miss.”
“But I…… always heard it as Ancel.”
I knew the name Ansley Ambrose.
But the name Mother had used for my father was the cute diminutive Ancel.
When I spoke the name I’d heard from Mother, Finn’s face filled with surprise and longing.
“That was the young master’s childhood nickname. The late Mistress called him that…….”
Ah, so that’s how it was. But what was there to be so surprised about?
Young lovers could use terms of endearment together, after all.
“It is remarkable, Miss. The young master disliked it so much that no one but the Mistress was allowed to use it.”
“Is that so?”
It seems they were even cozier than I’d thought.
It was a ticklish feeling, but not entirely unpleasant.
Just then, Finn suddenly broke into laughter.
“My goodness, Miss! You have exactly the same habit as the master!”
My mood crashed immediately.
I don’t even want to know. Some things are better left buried deep.
I pretended not to have heard anything and focused intently on studying the portrait.
There’s a number written next to the name here……is that a birth date?
After checking the year, I had to squeeze my eyes shut again.
Good heavens, Mother.
‘He was younger than her.’
Mother had been twenty when she bore me, while Duke Ambrose was barely eighteen at the time.
I’m sorry. All my life I’ve called you a scoundrel who seduced an innocent young girl…….
There was so much else to apologize for.
I’d cursed you countless times, asking how you could abandon a pregnant lover. I’d definitely insulted you as trash who relied only on a pretty face.
But the truth was, he was a knight who had gone to war for his country and vanished.
Or perhaps…….
‘He died.’

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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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