Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 44

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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 44

So that young lady does turn out to be useful to my life sometimes.
I let out a laugh, and suddenly my eyes met the Empress’s.
From the moment we first met, I’d sensed it—she was more like a tree than a flower.
For someone so young and beautiful to radiate such weighty gravitas.
She who had been the Crown Prince’s betrothed from birth in the womb, passed through the role of Crown Princess without incident, and ascended to become Empress, asked me:
“So what brings you to the Salon, young lady? It seems as though you’ve suddenly dug up an invitation you’d tucked away in storage.”
Smile. Don’t let them see it’s the truth.
I instinctively steadied my trembling lips.
“I needed advice.”
“Advice?”
“A rather delicate matter has come up, and as everyone knows, I don’t have a mother to turn to.”
At that, the women who had been staring at me with sideways glances the entire time I stood alone with the Empress let out a few awkward coughs.
It seemed the Salon was populated far more by ladies of the Empress’s generation than by debutantes like me, who hadn’t even had their coming-out.
Then I would play the part of a dutiful, somewhat pitiable child.
“Instead, I hoped to seek the wisdom of Your Majesty the Empress, mother to all the realm. Truth be told, I hesitated greatly before stepping into such an honored gathering, but I gathered my courage and came. Should I fall short in any way, I ask that you regard me kindly, with the boundless heart of the sea.”
I felt their glances flicker—surprised that I was not as they’d imagined.
Everyone here was among Atera’s highest-ranking women. So it was easy enough to guess what they thought of my origins.
Prejudice, in any case….
“What? They say you overturned a tea table at the Juliad Tea Party in Snearji.”
My own karma, it seemed.
I let their whispers pass through my ears, smiling elegantly.
“Well, yes. Before I hear what troubles you, there’s something I must say first.”
The Empress spoke with sudden gravity.
Had she seen through my polished evasions? Would she scold me for mocking her, who had invited me, after all this time?
I asked back, my heart trembling slightly.
“What might that be, Your Majesty?”
“Goodness, why do you look so pale and drawn? Are you eating properly? These days all the young ladies go on about diets and such, skinny as rails. Aagh. Tsk. Here, have some Ginseng Tea—warming and delicious.”
A young-hearted elder….
Before I could stop it, the thought crossed my mind and I squeezed my eyes shut.
Don’t. Don’t become like the Ambrose Duke.
Only after I’d composed myself did I begin to understand.
Well, thinking about it, it’s hardly difficult for the upper echelon of a conservative nation to be old-fashioned.
But rather surprisingly, given that….
“There now, you’re drinking it nicely. Try some of these Pine Nut Cookies too. Yes? That’s right.”
Rather than despising me, she seemed quite concerned.
Unexpected. For someone with such deep-rooted old-fashioned views, “half-blood illegitimate child” would seem a combination worth simply disapproving of and dismissing.
Or was it simply that, as an Ambrose young lady, she was obliged to be kind on the surface?
But the warmth in her gaze went beyond mere kindness.
‘It’s burning…… hotter than the Ginseng Tea.’
I couldn’t fathom why she looked at me with such tenderness.
Regardless of the reason, it was deeply uncomfortable.
Only after I’d reluctantly consumed the Ginseng Tea and Pine Nut Cookies while watching her expression did the Empress seem satisfied.
“So what is this trouble of yours?”
“Ah, it concerns my friend Hastings. Lately she’s been so worried about her parents’ relationship, and I want to help, but I’m not sure how….”
At that, the Empress—her old-fashioned soul reinstalled—murmured:
“Ah, yes. I’ve already received the Divorce Papers from the Hastings Marquise. Tsk, with two children, she ought to be more careful. How can she be so quick to raise them as if they’re fatherless?”
I, who had brought her here to lose her one true friend, laughed dimly.
“Is that really how it should be…?”
“Hmm?”
“A child with no father, a child with no mother…… are such children doomed to fail?”
“Yes?”
At my bitter words, the Empress and everyone present turned to stare at me.
Drooping my already-downturned eyes even more pitifully, I felt their gazes waver.
I continued in a voice on the verge of breaking:
“I see. So I truly am a child beyond redemption, no matter what I do. Since Your Majesty, so wise and wise, says so, I must accept it. I’m fundamentally broken. Unable even to bear the insult to my departed mother, a child like me who ruins others’ parties….”
It was because someone had insulted our mother that I overturned the table.
In fact, when I pointed this out, several of the noblewomen let out embarrassed coughs. They’d likely insulted our mother themselves.
As I reddened my eyes deliberately in front of them, they began squirming with guilt.
“I, I don’t think His Majesty meant it in such a way.”
“That’s right, young lady! Her Majesty was only worried for Hastings….”
“And to think there was such a circumstance at the Juliad Tea Party…… well, ahem, the young lady had every reason to act that way.”
I touched the corners of my reddened eyes with my fingertips and shook my head pitifully.
“No. My dearest friend mustn’t become like me. I must work hard to dissuade the Hastings Marquise. Follow Your Majesty’s wisdom and endure for the children’s sake. Though the Marquis’s income is rather lacking, my friend is even smaller and thinner than I am….”
“What did you say?”
At that moment, the Empress, who had been at a loss, stirred.
Good.
Someone with such deep-rooted old-fashioned views like her was consistent about role assignments.
If a wife’s sacrifice is virtue, then a husband’s incompetence is sin.
I looked at her and spoke darkly:
“…If things continue this way, the children might go hungry.”
“Annul the marriage at once!”
An old-fashioned elder with power—there’s nothing better.

* * *

Not long after my visit to the Empress’s Salon.
[Marital Breakdown of the Hastings Marquis Household! By the Righteous Judgment of Your Majesty the Empress, the Title and Custody Rights Go to the Hastings Marquise….]
“Hehe.”
I read the Snearji newspaper with delight.
I laughed even wider at the part where the former Hastings Marquis had been cast out with nothing.
I’d already heard the story through a letter from Matilda, but seeing it like this in the papers felt different altogether.
Incidentally, Matilda’s brother Marco had gone off to the Monastery.
‘If things turn out this way, shouldn’t I be the one to receive the Title instead of mother?’
He’d challenged her on that, and chaos had ensued.
The Hastings Marquise—or rather, she who had now become the Hastings Marquis—kindled her will for parenting, late though it was.
She pledged to raise her pitiful daughter tenderly and to reform even her wayward son.
She’d sent him to a monastery famous for its strictness, and I was curious whether he’d adapt well.
In any case, thanks to all this, Matilda, who now spent her days alone with her mother, seemed radiant.
‘Life becomes worth living once you have some breathing room.’
Just like me.
Laughing and rolling about, I caught sight of my reflection in the full-length mirror.
My goodness. Look at me. Lounging on a plush bed in Chiffon Pajamas, stroking a cat while lazing about.
A complicated laugh escaped me.
I will live.
Truly, these were days worth living for.

* * *

‘I’m going to die.’
The Ambrose Trading Company—lifeblood of Atera’s economy.
Its dreaded regular meeting.
‘…Why am I in here?’
The story was this.
Originally, I had been having a perfectly peaceful day.
But let me first explain my routine these days.
Wake in the morning, wash my siblings and feed them, send each off to Sword Technique and Art lessons respectively.
Then tea time in the morning.
Scold Shasha in the interim.
When the siblings return, have lunch together and play with them.
Then more tea time in the afternoon.
Quarrel with Shasha in the interim.
After an enjoyable dinner, occasionally engage in a game with the Ambrose Duke that I call a contest but which is really extorting pocket money.
Get bitten by Shasha in the interim.
In the evening, bathe leisurely and retire, awaiting the next day.
I repeat this every day.
How to put it. In a word, I was living somewhat like….
‘A leisured lady of a wealthy household…?’
It wasn’t bad.
Honestly, it seemed to suit my temperament well.
Even after learning I was an Ambrose young lady, I’d never harbored the sort of passion to conquer the realm.
‘My humble goal is just to spend money lavishly and live long.’
Somehow or other, I’d gradually drain the Ambrose fortune to live well and long with my siblings!
That was precisely the extent of my resolve.
In that sense, I had been quite satisfied lately.
I’d already pruned away the family members who would interfere with my new life. I’d even resolved my friend’s domestic troubles.
So there was nothing particularly troubling!
“Please run an errand for the Duke.”
And now my head ached.

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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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