Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 42

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

Chapter 42

* * *

“Matilda? What brings you here—come in, quickly.”
It was one of those days when summer rain fell in sheets.
Matilda, who had knocked on the door of Ambrose Mansion without warning, stood dripping wet and shivering.
Her hand, which I caught to lead her inside, was bitterly cold.
I had just sat her on the sofa and was drying her hair with a towel when she spoke.
“I… I want to a-apologize first…”
“Apologize?”
To me, suddenly?
Matilda cried out with her eyes squeezed shut.
“I… I actually a-approached you just for your m-money!”
“Good heavens!”
I staggered back in shock.
And then I gripped Matilda’s hand tightly.
“Thank you…”
“Y-yes?”
“Thank you… thank you so much.”
In all my years, I’d never heard words quite like that.
It was oddly touching.
If she would just go to my luxurious room now and weep about how difficult life was while hurling expensive dresses and jewelry about, I couldn’t ask for more.
Matilda looked bewildered at my reaction.
“N-no, that’s not… I m-mean, I purposefully b-befriended you with a g-goal in mind…”
“I see. What exactly was this goal?”
I asked graciously.
Go ahead—explain it in great detail.
Still flustered, Matilda went on, her hands fidgeting.
“S-so that if I could catch the eye of you and A-Ambrose’s house… th-then our f-family business could get an i-investment…”
“My word!”
This time too, I was startled.
“That’s quite a reasonable objective.”
“R-really…?”
“You’re truly my friend. I like that.”
And I meant it.
At only ten years old, her greatest ambition was just to have her family’s house looked upon favorably and receive investment?
“However did you come up with such an idea?”
Already, commendably so.
Matilda murmured softly, shaking water from the ends of her hair.
“F-father kept s-saying he was s-struggling…”
So she was even a filial child.
It was at that very moment I was nodding thoughtfully.
“A-and so… father was… I t-tried to understand…”
“Matilda?”
“If j-just I sacrificed m-myself… then e-everything would be fine…”
Matilda’s trembling was pronounced.
When I looked at her closely, her small shaking hand seized my sleeve.
As if grasping her only lifeline, she held on tight.
“B-but then… I r-remembered you…”
“…”
“Y-you even m-made a Magic Device to c-check if I was s-safe…”
Matilda whispered weakly.
I simply stroked her hand.
At that touch, Matilda’s eyes contorted sharply.
“W-why… don’t you a-ask anything…? Even though you s-saw… how I’m tr-treated at home… and m-my stammer too…”
“Does that prevent us from being friends?”
Matilda’s eyes widened.
She attempted something like a smile, then her face crumpled, and soon thick tears began to pour down.
“B-because you’re so k-kind… I got c-careless and dared to l-lean on you… sob!”
Matilda wept in torrents, her words tumbling over each other.
After a long while of soothing and comforting her, what I heard was shocking.
The victim I’d been aware of all along was Matilda.
It was because of Matilda’s father—the Hastings Marquess.
In Aterra, the Western Region lacks power. A desolate place with no granaries, no tourist attractions, no Pandium.
With almost no profit from the territory, the Family Patriarch has to rely heavily on his business acumen.
And the Hastings Family, originally from that Western Region, had begun to see their business decline.
So he contrived this.
‘Every night, he loosened the ceiling screws of the carriage bed where Matilda slept, bit by bit…’
So that his own daughter would be crushed underneath and he could collect a massive compensation.
It was horrifying. How must Matilda have felt, witnessing this and pretending not to see? What of the Muel Workshop, whose business had suddenly collapsed?
The real victims, then, were Matilda and the Muel Workshop.
Had there even been a proper investigation back then?
Matilda was just a child, and the Muel Workshop was a commoner’s business. Would anyone have listened if they’d spoken up?
And hadn’t people thought, “No matter what, how could a parent do this to their own child”?
People often become trapped by convention rather than truth.
So they struggle to accept that someone capable of such profound callousness exists.
Especially when that person is someone close to them.
“Surely… surely he couldn’t have…”
A woman with a delicate appearance trembled, her lips quivering.
It was Matilda’s mother—the Hastings Marchioness.
Before her confused expression, I swallowed a sigh.
‘As expected, I suppose.’
Yes, she wanted to deny it. But the Magic Device I’d just read from Matilda’s bed glowed a sharp red before us.
Matilda’s testimony and irrefutable physical evidence. And perhaps even sufficient circumstantial proof.
And yet she simply… could not bring herself to believe it.
“It must feel overwhelming.”
I spoke gently.
“Now you don’t know what to do, you wonder if you can do anything at all, and though you’ve mustered courage, all the changes ahead frighten you, terrify you…”
The Hastings Marchioness’s eyes wavered.
In this conservative land, a noblewoman’s virtue lay in faithfully supporting her husband.
To dare to rise against him would be unthinkable.
I understood. I didn’t want to blame her outright.
“But madam, think how much more overwhelmed Matilda must be.”
“…”
“Not only a father who wants to hurt her, but a mother who refuses to see it.”
I deliberately thought of Matilda, whom I’d left at Ambrose Mansion.
I didn’t want her to see her mother like this.
Crumbling under her own limits and weakness, finally breaking down in tears.
And the Hastings Marchioness too would not want to show this to her daughter.
A woman who, in her own way, had done her best in her position to love her child.
But she needed to find a little more courage.
For Matilda and for herself.
The Hastings Marchioness, who had been weeping for a long time, dried her tears with both hands.
From her wet face came a sense of resolve.
“He’s going away on business soon. S-so when I bring Matilda back, I’ll lock the manor doors from the inside…”
I looked at her warmly and nodded.
It was a fragile but courageous first step.
“Ha. The more I think about it, the more absurd it is. All these years, every foolish thing he’s done, I overlooked because he’s the children’s father—nothing more and nothing less. And now he hurts the child for money? A beast wouldn’t do such a thing. That’s it, I’m done. I’ll expose every last shame of this house to get him prosecuted. I’ll make sure that garbage never shows his face at my home and my children again!”
Not very fragile after all.

* * *

In any case, Matilda’s case ended as an attempt.
In truth, with only the current evidence, it would be difficult to punish the Hastings Marquess.
‘If I spread rumors, it will hurt Matilda…’
And as the Hastings Marchioness said, to expose him on other grounds as the current Family Patriarch was also awkward.
We might send him to prison, but on paper they’d still be family. Moreover, the Hastings Family would suffer backlash too.
‘In the end, divorce is the answer.’
If the Marquess has sins, those are his to bear alone afterward.
But even if the Hastings Marchioness had resolved to divorce, a problem remained.
‘The divorce itself is the problem.’
I exhaled a long breath.
In this conservative Aterra, a nobleman’s divorce could never be simple.
And the Hastings Marchioness’s case was even more complicated.
Originally, she had been the young lady of a Hastings marquess.
That is, the current Marquess had entered as a Son-in-Law Entering Family and inherited the title.
‘A man with no conscience whatsoever…’
He took her title and yet treats her and her daughter with such contempt?
I clicked my tongue in disapproval.
Yet he was unmistakably the current Family Patriarch.
If they divorced as things stood, the Hastings Marchioness and Matilda would likely be the ones cast out.
That wouldn’t do. Why should the victims suffer? Besides, that title was originally hers.
‘It’s too unfair to lose even one thing.’
They must never leave Hastings Manor empty-handed.
But what could be done?
“Wait. If that’s the case…”
I suddenly dashed to the storeroom.
And I tore through the place frantically, searching among all manner of gifts and furniture.
Where is it, where could it be…
My eyes suddenly lit up.
Found it.
The Purple Velvet Box.
“Don’t worry, Matilda.”
I held it in my hand and spoke with solemn determination.
“I’ll make sure you never need a father.”
With this, I was going to the Imperial Palace.

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