Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 55

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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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Episode 55

Why does this madman keep acting like this? Tsk. Well, he’s mad, so what else would you expect.
Ravigne, who had long since grown sick of Zadkiel’s eccentricities, clicked her tongue and looked away.
Meanwhile, Zadkiel, whose mood had become visibly darker, reached into empty air—and a transparent chain gleamed into existence.
He fastened it around Sky’s hands and torso.
It was a High-Grade Mana Artifact designed to suppress a Mage’s power.
Sky protested that he wouldn’t run away even without such measures, but Zadkiel didn’t even pretend to listen.
Clearly he enjoyed dragging him along like a slave.
He was, in a word, a Demon.
‘My wretched fate…….’
Sky, the runaway from Pandium.
A promising young Mage, for all that.
And the direct slave of the Demon Zadkiel.
Zadkiel’s current civility in capturing him was surely the resolve to return to Pandium and beat him senseless.
He could only pray his limbs remained intact.
‘But why now, when he never even glances south?’
He was nearly in tears from sheer injustice.
Sky’s flight south had been born of one reason alone: Zadkiel himself.
The Demon was always holed up in Pandium in the north, and though he made periodic trips to the Capital, he returned at once when business was done.
He hated people and disliked traveling in general, but he seemed to have a particular aversion to the south.
So Sky had gone so far as to disguise himself in women’s clothes and bleach his hair to hide in this southern backwater…….
Sky’s throat tightened. Surely the heavens had abandoned him.
‘……But what in the world is this mad Demon dragging along at his side?’
Some fragile-looking young girl. Could she be the Demon’s sacrifice?
Desperate as he was, Sky finally got a good look at Ravigne.
“Want your eyes clawed out?”
He dropped his gaze at once.
He didn’t bother asking why.
Zadkiel was simply a foul-tempered bastard with no rhyme or reason.
Zadkiel drove the chain binding Sky into the ground with a violent thrust, then withdrew a small Mana Device from his pocket and jabbed at it repeatedly.
It looked like some kind of compact communication tool for Mages.
Merely for sending and receiving signals?
As Ravigne watched with curiosity, she suddenly realized they were flying through the sky again.
Gods, please. Just take me somewhere normal. I don’t even understand why he insists on dragging me along when he comes and goes like this.
The inscrutable young Mage flew through the night sky and set her down alongside a pair of plush Slippers, then—
“See you soon.”
—vanished without a trace.
Alone, Ravigne stood for a moment at the window, gazing up at the night sky.
Why must he always come and go under cover of darkness, leaving her rattled each time?
* * *
They had finally arrived.
This was the main castle of Ambrose Territory.
“……It’s rather plain?”
It was plainer than expected.
Though the Ambrose Territory wasn’t paved with gold on the streets, of course.
But the castle and grounds themselves appeared far larger and more expansive than those of the Capital.
Instead, the area was overgrown with wildflowers and untended trees, lending it a natural, almost wild quality.
And perhaps because it was the far south, the air itself felt warm and pleasant.
She’d heard there was a sea in the distance—she thought she’d like to see it later.
As she was musing thus and watching servants carry in the luggage—
“Meow?”
Shasha suddenly tilted her head as if hearing something, then trotted off in some direction.
“Huh? Shasha, where are you going?”
I hurried after her.
No matter how reliably Shasha returned to me, I felt uneasy leaving her alone in a strange place.
By the time I realized we’d wandered quite far from the others—
I was reaching down to pick her up when—
Whirrrr.
At first I thought it was the wind.
Whirrrrr.
Then I wondered if it was my ears ringing.
I scratched at my ear and turned toward the sound.
‘That… that can’t be—!’
A beehive.
A beehive was walking.
“Who might you be?”
And it could talk.
What exactly was I looking at? A… a Bee Monster?
The violent buzzing grew louder and louder.
How… horrifying.
Frozen by the sheer visual and auditory horror of it all—
A mysterious form, covered from head to toe in bees with not a gap between them, lumbered toward me.
Before I could even scream, it was upon me.
I’d always thought insects didn’t frighten me much.
But this—
‘There are just… so many bees!’
If even one stung me, there’d be nowhere left on my body for another.
Several were already circling exploratively around me.
I couldn’t even breathe, terrified that the slightest movement would trigger an attack.
Don’t come closer. Don’t. Please don’t come any closer!
As I stood paralyzed, Shasha, who’d been growling in my arms, leaped down with sudden bravery.
Then executed a tactical retreat.
‘You ungrateful little wretch! Saving yourself and leaving me behind!’
Part of me wanted her to live; part of me wanted us to die together.
Just then, the servants who’d been following in our direction finally spotted me.
“Aaaaaaah! Miss Ravigne!”
“……Miss?”
The Bee Monster froze.
Looking at me still frozen stiff, it murmured—
“Ah. Young mistress.”
Ah? Young mistress?
You only just realized what state I’m in?
The Bee Monster finally took a step back from me.
With the bees receding, I found I could move my legs again.
“Ah… save me, Ambrose…….”
As I stumbled, Orka rushed over and steadied me.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine except for my sanity.”
The Bee Monster still loomed in my line of sight, even at a distance.
‘That’s… human, right?’
A person entirely covered in bees.
An uncanny individual had infiltrated Ambrose Main Castle.
I needed to have them thrown out immediately—
“Are you the Acting Lord?”
I’d nearly snapped something ridiculous at Orka when the Bee Monster nodded.
It had a head!
What I’d taken for a solid mass moved—the face section shifting up and down.
As it did, the bees dangling from its jaw undulated like organic matter, producing a sound like waves—whooooosh, whooooosh—the very crashing of the sea I’d only heard in stories.
I… I want to go home…….

* * *
“It is my pleasure to meet you. I am Ivan Dorman, Acting Lord of Ambrose Territory.”
“I’m Ravigne Ambrose…… or you can call me Shasha…….”
I answered without energy.
The Bee Monster’s presence still hung over me.
“You seem quite startled.”
That’s an understatement. Who wouldn’t be startled by such a sight?
I was well aware that Ambrose Territory had been famous for beekeeping since ancient times.
‘But I never imagined the mansion itself would be an apiary!’
Ambrose Mansion was infested with beehives.
No—the entire Ambrose Territory was one vast beehive!
Of course, when asked where all that Ambrose-brand honey and beeswax came from, there was no counter-argument.
As I silently wept inside, I studied the man sitting on the opposite sofa.
Without the bees, Ivan was quite a handsome man.
Though the dark shadows under his eyes suggested he was burdened by some worry.
“……So who is the person who’s taken ill?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You mentioned someone important was ill.
I wanted to finish my business here quickly and return to the Capital.
So my assumptions had been roughly this:
If the direct line of Ambrose was being sent, it must be someone extraordinarily important. Perhaps an elder of the family?
“You’ve just met them.”
“I have?”
When? Where?
I glanced around.
But I saw only interior decor that was more subdued than the Capital mansion.
As I turned my head back, Ivan said with a gloomy air—
“The bee is very ill…….”
Your head isn’t?
I wondered for a moment whether this was truly how the Acting Lord of Ambrose Territory was supposed to be.
Well. Even so, surely not. Would Gustaf Ambrose really send me all this way because his bees were sick?
“I originally sent a plea for assistance to the lord, but he said he was sending you specially in his stead.”
That old man. I’m not letting this slide.

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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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