Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 35

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

Episode 35

A small country, yet a great one.
That was Ritz’s epithet.
There was no more apt description of Ritz than that.
Though it would have been impossible to foresee that it would come to possess a history short but consequential.
The reason Ritz fell was unmistakable.
Excess and indulgence.
To be precise, the kingdom weakened from such pursuits, and when monsters invaded at that very moment, it collapsed utterly without so much as a chance to resist.
And now, Aterra and other neighboring countries had divided the land amongst themselves and absorbed it.
Thus Ritz, which glittered briefly before vanishing, had exerted enormous influence on Aterra even now.
During the rise and fall of Ritz, its fashions in clothing and cuisine constantly rippled outward across the entire continent, including Aterra.
There was a reason Aterra could not entirely dismiss Ritz, even while scorning it for the excess that destroyed it.
Thud.
I closed the book I’d been absorbed in.
A newfound sense of reflection came over me, having found this history of Ritz with difficulty in the study.
Mother had been caught in the tempest of that very era.
It was then.
“P-pink Sealing Wax……!”
Tru, who had been sorting letters beside me, let out a shriek as she clutched one in her hand.
“A Love Letter! Miss Bebe has received a Love Letter!”
My goodness. I nodded with satisfaction.
I’d read about it in another book I brought before the Ritz history tome.
‘You can taste the contents of a letter through its Sealing Wax.’ The marketing brilliance of Ambrose had remained intact from centuries past until this very day.
“But Tru, the letter you just threw down has Gold Sealing Wax on it.”
“Ah, yes.”
“That came from the Imperial Palace, didn’t it.”
“Ah, yes.”
I was wasting my breath. Tru’s mind was entirely fixated on the Pink Sealing Wax.
Though come to think of it, that was supposedly real gold-infused Sealing Wax that Ambrose supplies exclusively to the Imperial Palace…….
I gazed bitterly at the Golden Imperial Decree scattered across the floor as I opened the letter.
In any case, it was strange. A Love Letter with Pink Sealing Wax, so suddenly.
‘Has anyone ever expressed such affection toward me before?’
It didn’t seem like it yet. After all, I’d only begun venturing out recently.
According to what I’d learned, order mattered in Aterra’s noble society.
Even a simple invitation to play with a close friend required a properly formatted letter, coordinated through a secretary—that was daily life in such a society.
And expressing affection was no different.
“At minimum, one should grow closer through at least five ordinary letters of well-wishes first, then proceed to dining and a brief outing, present a chaste White Rose, and only then—certainly not by sending a Love Letter out of the blue like this. How utterly presumptuous.”
“What on earth are you talking about? That sounds so archaic!”
“Archaic? Call it aristocratic, if you please. Though I suppose it amounts to the same thing.”
To be honest, I didn’t quite understand it myself either, but still—the proper convention was to follow the established confession route step by step, wasn’t it?
I recalled the teachings of Madame Madison, whom I’d sent away, and the contents of several books I’d studied.
And above all.
“Regardless of station, to confess one’s love recklessly and without regard is not the mark of a romantic, but of a scoundrel who shows no consideration for the other person.”
“Ah, anyway! At the tea party that day! It seems he fell for you at first sight!”
That sounded even less sensible.
I recalled the teacup and tablecloth that had scattered so spectacularly.
“Well, if that were the case, he should have used a tentative Yellow Sealing Wax instead. With the meaning, ‘I wish to come to know you carefully.'”
Rather than affixing such a burdensome Pink Sealing Wax out of the blue.
Unlike Tru, who remained excited, I was distinctly unmoved.
Romance, is it.
I truly feel no pull toward it. I’d rather dig through the ground with all that devotion and effort just to find one more coin.
Mother’s face came unbidden to mind.
Though I loved Mother most in the world, that didn’t mean I wished to live as she had.
In my life, men—my younger siblings and all the men who had passed through Mother’s existence—were sufficient. More than enough.
Though I vowed it then, I did not yet know that the world’s affairs do not unfold as one wishes.

* * *

There was a reason Love Letters, congratulatory cards sent by the Imperial Palace to all nobility, and such things had suddenly come my way.
Because that day had arrived.
The Feast of Saint Flora.
On this day, when the entire Empire was dyed in flowers, Mother’s first love had begun.
“Sister Bebe, will you really play with me?”
“Of course. Let’s go quickly.”
I’d promised to venture out to the festival specifically with Genie.
With Morgan busy now that he’d become a formal healer, I ought to look after her.
Besides, Huey and Dido had little interest in such festivals.
A date with just my little sister—I was looking forward to it as well.
“Let’s go!”
We took a carriage to a nearby plaza first, then got down in a quiet alley.
After all, riding around in an Ambrose carriage would draw too much attention.
The coachman and maidservant who’d taken on guardian duties for the day followed at a respectful distance.
“Wow, it’s so busy!”
Genie laughed, her eyes spinning.
It was understandable—the festival was far more dazzling and had much more to see than the slum we’d lived in.
“Oh, Sister Bebe! Look, a puppet show!”
“You’re right. Shall we watch?”
Genie nodded eagerly.
We found seats near the front and sat down.
It was an old tale being performed.
Once upon a time, when the Divine had created the world.
The primordial land, newly born, was exceedingly peaceful.
Laughter and happiness flowed without end, and pain and conflict were unknown.
All creatures fashioned by the Divine’s own hand—humans and animals, plants, and even the tiniest creatures—cherished and loved one another equally.
But the Divine was not impartial.
It cherished and loved most dearly the human made in its own image, and eventually bestowed even a fragment of its own power.
Thus light came into the world.
Yet where there is light, there must be shadow.
The tiniest creature did not know happiness alone.
It was too small, dwelling in the shadow beneath all other life.
And there, the birth of the Demon Lord was foretold.
The creation myth puppet show for children ended there.
Any further would have brought only war and crime, hardly suitable for young viewers.
But when curious Genie pressed me with questions about what happened next, I gave her the best answer I could manage.
“……And so priests came into being, and later, sorcerers too. In other words, Divine Power is a force received directly from Nivellis, the Divine, while Magical Power is a force stolen in secret when the Divine fell asleep.”
Their origins were the same, but their paths had diverged greatly.
Moreover, there existed a complicated and fraught history between those who wielded Divine Power and those who wielded Magical Power.
“So the two groups don’t get along?”
“There’s no way they could.”
Both the Temple and Pandium were groups with tremendous pride in their own ways.
Setting aside all manner of history, priests who valued righteousness and benevolence could hardly see eye to eye with sorcerers who were aggressive and pragmatic by nature.
Each side would say to the other, ‘I’m right, and you’re wrong!’
Indeed, the two sides leveled accusatory glares at one another at every turn.
‘Those insufferable sanctimonious fools!’
‘Such reckless dissolutes!’
That was roughly the sentiment.
And yet they had to work together for ages.
For there had been war with the Demon Race for centuries.
But after the ceasefire ten years ago, monsters vanished from sight.
Thus came the age of peace.
An era where sorcerers became inventors, and priests became sanctuaries of rest.
The power they wielded was no longer spent in slaying monsters.
They could now focus on human convenience and prosperity.
‘And peace brings wealth.’
Perhaps it was because I’d been reading so many books on investment lately that my thoughts ran this way.
Was Pandium, the sorcerers’ domain, truly the answer?
In the years to come, they would produce genuinely extraordinary inventions.
For a genius of the age had emerged from that place.
Though I didn’t know exactly who…….
It was then I fell into that reverie.
“Huh?”
Genie had vanished.
I spun to look beside me and saw a circus troupe passing through.
Because of it, the coachman and maidservant who’d been following us were no longer visible either.
I became panic-stricken and began to dash about.
“Genie! Genie!”
The crowd was too thick to search easily.
I had no choice but to slip into a quiet alley.
I was about to search there when suddenly.
The scent of flowers hung thick in the air.
“Looking for someone?”
And a boy in some kind of robe appeared.
Like magic.

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