Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 30

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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 30

If he hadn’t disappeared—if he’d married properly and fathered legitimate children instead—someone like me, a flaw in the bloodline, might have been cast out without a whisper.
The thought stirred something strange in me.
My biological father’s vanishing had actually worked in my favor.
Paradoxical, really.
But then again.
“Hello, Mrs. Madison. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Time to work my charm on this stiff old woman.
A tired melodrama, but one that never failed to land.
“So my mother never learned, right up until the day she died, that the true love she’d waited for so desperately was Prince Ambrose himself.”
“Oh my goodness!”
“If I hadn’t steeled myself and refused to sell the token he left behind—even with my younger siblings’ futures hanging in the balance—if I hadn’t, by sheer chance, found my bloodline, I would never have met the kind Mrs. Madison here today. What a stroke of fortune that turned out to be…….”
As my carefully crafted tale came to an end, Mrs. Madison laid a hand over her heart, visibly moved.
I dabbed at my eyes and let out a soft laugh.
The one useful thing Mother had taught me: how to manipulate people.
She’d always been adamant about it.
‘Bebe, pity and affection are separated by the thinnest of lines.’
Indeed. I was living proof of it.
Even the neighborhood gossips who’d condemned Mother for cycling through husbands had been won over by a few crocodile tears—though admittedly, not to the degree Mother had mastered.
From that moment on, Mrs. Madison was favorably disposed toward me, and she threw herself into the lessons with genuine dedication.
As promised, she was a master of accelerated instruction, with a gift for cutting straight to essentials without a wasted word.
She managed to cover everything about the Holy Temple, Pandium, and House of Ambrose in just a single day.
Her remark that these three alone constituted a complete education in Atera particularly stuck with me.
When we reached the Pandium section, I found myself thinking of the ring I’d carried for so long.
‘That daughter of the baron I’d worked for had thrown such a tantrum wanting it.’
In the end she never got it—the price was absurdly high, and Pandium rarely took commissions—but that hadn’t stopped her whining.
At the time, I’d thought how insatiable nobility was.
Pouring a fortune in estates into a single accessory just to prove their worth…….
‘And I was actually wearing it?’
Only to take that secret to my grave.
The irony was almost too much.
We also touched briefly on the imperial court that House of Ambrose held in such contempt, and remarkably, there were reasons for it.
The more history I learned, the more clear it became that the imperial family ought to be serving House of Ambrose, not the other way around.
Then we naturally moved on to the genealogies of the noble houses.
“From this point, you alone will be registered with House of Ambrose…….”
Mrs. Madison broached the subject carefully, almost hesitantly.
As if deliberately excluding my siblings.
She continued speaking in circles after that.
I looked her directly in the eye.
“Mrs. Madison. If you have something to say, say it plainly.”
“……Well, it may be presumptuous of me to say so, but unlike you, your younger siblings carry purely common blood. To bring them along would not serve your future interests.”
In other words, she was telling me to abandon them.
I understood. I really did.
But I knew exactly what I had to say.
“We’ll survive together.”
“…….”
“I have a responsibility to my life and my siblings.”
Mrs. Madison fell quiet and smoothly changed the subject.
I sat lost in thought, turning my pen over and over in my hands.
No matter how I looked at it, the suggestion made no sense. Leave Hui and Dido behind?
I’d rather return to poverty and die at twenty.
The words came without hesitation, and I lowered my gaze.
‘If only Mother had lived.’
If she’d been belatedly acknowledged as House of Ambrose’s daughter-in-law.
Then she would have brought all of us to this mansion, no matter what it took.
There was no doubt in my mind.
Even then it wouldn’t have been easy, but at least we’d have been better off than now.
‘Pointless thinking.’
I laughed softly to myself and shook my head.
Mother was gone. There was only me and my siblings.
We were all we had in this world.

* * *

Mother used to say something else, too.
‘Bebe, coming from Ritz, this mother of yours is quite the model of propriety!’
Shamelessly, I might add.
Though to a degree, I couldn’t entirely disagree.
After all, Mother did confine herself to one lover at a time—unlike those who juggled multiple paramours at once.
Still, even Mother would have fled in exasperation if she’d heard Atera’s rules of propriety.
“As the saying goes, Men and Women Should Not Sit Together After Age Seven…….”
I listened to Mrs. Madison with glazed-over eyes.
We’d agreed to basic historical knowledge alone, but her zeal for education had driven her to teach me Social Etiquette Training unprompted.
“When taking your escort’s hand, grasp it lightly with your thumb and forefinger, positioning your ring finger at a forty-five-degree angle…….”
“But a moment ago you said one must never casually hold hands with anyone outside family or betrothed.”
“Yes, that’s precisely why—it’s only for Escorting.”
What difference did it make?
Why was it acceptable while walking but not while standing? What was the logic?
Seeing my vacant expression, Mrs. Madison spoke with sympathetic understanding.
“I imagine this is difficult for you to grasp. Unlike Atera, Ritz is known for its freedom in matters of romance…….”
“That’s right. My mother used to say my maternal grandfather had five lovers.”
“My, I imagine your grandmother was quite distressed…….”
“My grandmother had thirteen.”
Mrs. Madison left.
She never came back. I felt a twinge of regret—though not much, really.
In any case, her instruction had been thorough. I’d learned exactly what I needed.
And not long after, the fruits of that education were put to the test.
My first official Tea Party.
My formal debut into society.
As Tru helped me prepare,
“Miss, please don’t get into a fight?”
she whispered.
I’d try my best.
I couldn’t promise anything, so I just smiled weakly.

* * *

The gardens of the Marquis Julliard Estate were famous for their beauty.
The Tea Party held there each spring had become something of an institution, and every Ateran noble dreamed of receiving an invitation.
It had always been that way.
‘Though this year was different.’
Everyone kept glancing toward the garden entrance.
There was someone notable attending today.
The veiled Princess of House of Ambrose.
Half-foreign. Daughter of a missing father. An Illegitimate Child.
Whatever the label, it was scandal enough to captivate the curiosity of impetuous youth.
“She’s late.”
“How could someone like that possibly observe proper etiquette?”
Of course, most of that curiosity was far from charitable.
Marquis Julliard’s Daughter, the event’s host, was more conflicted.
As a high-born noble, she couldn’t help but bristle at the princess’s circumstances, yet she was genuinely eager to meet her nonetheless.
How delighted she’d been when the princess had chosen her Tea Party for this historic debut!
Our family’s pride—the famous gardens—had caught even the eye of the Princess of Ambrose.
Still, she should be arriving any moment now. Where could she be……?
That was when it happened.
The archway of blooming roses stirred with sudden movement.
‘She’s here!’
The protagonist had arrived.
Marquis Julliard’s Daughter realized it instinctively.
She bolted from her seat and hurried to the end of the table to greet her guest.
Let me see. What does she actually look like……?
‘Lilac?’
Or perhaps lavender.
Something in that family, in any case.
A beauty less flashy than roses but intricately layered, with a fragrance all the more captivating for its subtlety.
In short.
‘She’s absolutely stunning!’
And no wonder. Everyone in the gardens of the Marquis Julliard Estate had refined aesthetic sensibilities.
They were the sort who simply couldn’t resist beauty.
And those eyes.
‘Unmistakably House of Ambrose.’
The deep crimson eyes of a lion. The hallmark of nobility.
Such eyes alone were enough to make ordinary nobles pale in comparison.
Marquis Julliard’s Daughter was smitten at first sight.
They should become close friends. True, her parents had warned her against getting too intimate, but girls her age never listened to their parents anyway.
“Welcome, Princess!”
“Hello.”
Even her voice was beautiful!
Marquis Julliard’s Daughter fussed excitedly and quickly ushered the princess to her seat.
But the moment she sat down, a voice rang out from somewhere.
“What’s she doing here?”
The princess’s eyes remained unchanged as only her mouth curved into a smile.
Then she stood up immediately from her seat.
The crimson eyes of House of Ambrose flashed cold as steel.
“I’ll return before the tea gets cold.”
Please, don’t kill anyone…….
Marquis Julliard’s Daughter pleaded silently with her eyes.
Lavigne simply turned to leave with an enigmatic smile.
Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely she’d honor either her or Tru’s request.

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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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