Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 68

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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 68

True enough, just as there was a Central Nobility Council in the system, Exchange Associations existed in each of the four cardinal regions.
Olson and Freeman were both from the East, so they’d naturally built connections. Their territories weren’t far from each other, either.
That explained why the disowned Olivia had thrown herself on their mercy.
I carefully read through all the documents and set them down with a decisive tap.
There was nothing wrong with them.
Which was precisely the problem.
‘Looks like I’ll have to probe Olivia and Terion directly after all.’
I’d wanted to circle around the issue—the risk of blowback on myself was too high otherwise.
But there was no helping it.
I adjusted my source of information.
No need to summon Philip again.
“Tru.”
“Yes, miss?”
“Would it be all right if I asked you a few things about Olivia and Terion?”
Tru, called before me, hesitated in her response.
Observing the color drain from her face, I continued smoothly.
“After all, you’ve already sold some of my information to them, haven’t you?”
“H-how did you—!”
I was just guessing. But I’d guessed right. Not particularly surprising.
I let a generous smile cross my face.
“I understand, really. A creature like you, fluttering about like a bat with your eyes only on profit, was always going to come back to Ambrose in the end. But now that a new Ambrose has appeared—”
“N-no, miss! I look at beauty too, not just money!”
“Which is exactly why you’re wavering.”
“Exactly!”
An honest child. I do like honest children.
There’s no one quite like Tru when it comes to extracting stories—pour money in and hear tales pour right back out.
I laughed softly and beckoned her closer with a gesture.
“Let’s keep it simple. How much did they offer you?”
Tru, hesitating, leaned in close and whispered discreetly near my ear.
“Well… they said 150 bels as an advance, to start.”
“So you actually received 100.”
Tru flinched again. “H-how did you—!”
I knew exactly what she was like. She couldn’t lie, so she always tried to bluff.
I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
“Just a service fee, then. You haven’t passed on anything serious yet. Probably just my schedule, perhaps?”
“Ah! O-of course, miss. I am your most loyal personal maid!”
Tru dropped to one knee with a snap.
I always had to remind her like this, now and then.
It was somewhat tiresome, but Tru was certainly a useful asset.
I gave her shoulder a gentle pat.
“There, there. I believe you. So—I’ll give you 200 bels. Will you answer my questions?”
“Yes! Anything at all!”
Tru’s face brightened, and she answered every question I put to her without reservation.
As I’d thought, Tru knew the Mansion’s affairs better than anyone.
She remained Philip’s finest hand, by far.
“…Yes, I see.”
After confirming a few facts, I nodded to myself.
Nothing contradicted what I’d already suspected.
“Ah. And perhaps… no, never mind.”
I swallowed the question that had formed on my tongue.
The odds were high I’d be wasting my breath.
Otherwise, I’d give them ammunition against me.
Because Tru would simply report my very questions back to them.
“Here, take it. Now go.”
I cheerfully handed over the promised sum to Tru.
The moment she left the room, delighted, I ordered my thoughts.
‘First, Olivia knows nothing of the Count’s affairs.’
She sends letters in secret every day, apparently.
The recipients: her parents.
But Olson’s side had cut her off completely—no replies, not even word of a parent’s death.
The Current Head of House, who will inherit the title, seems intent on honoring his predecessor’s wishes in full.
My worry that he might assist Terion could be put to rest.
‘The Freeman Baron Family, on the other hand, maintains good relations with her.’
They still send her luxuries like Perfume and Dresses.
That’s fairly common among the nobility, truly.
When one party’s circumstances grow difficult, the other provides support.
But the duration varies by closeness, and to see such consistency over a decade suggests the bond runs deeper than one might expect.
‘And Terion’s hobby.’
That was light enough to brush off.
With my other questions about their situation, adding just one more detail about his interests would let me claim I’d only been curious to befriend them.
Why wouldn’t they have done the same, asking only about my schedule? Same thinking, surely.
Of course, they’d also extracted any juicy details—people I was close to, recent interests and pursuits.
There’s no particular reason his hobby came up.
I simply asked, following my instinct, whatever tumbled from my lips.
“But his hobby is bathing.”
Is this really a fourteen-year-old boy?
I let out a hollow laugh.
Terion apparently loves settling into warm water and spending time in quiet solitude, so he bathes two or three times a day.
And what else?
“Olivia attends to him personally…”
Doting, indeed.
To her, of course, he’s an irreplaceable son.
According to her account, nothing peculiar about the Bathing Chamber.
Without my even asking, Tru had described it in detail.
Just ordinary Fragrant Oil and a Sponge, she’d said.
I tapped my fingers lightly on the desk.
Still no major red flags.
But if my instincts say something’s off, then it’s off.
‘I’ll move carefully.’
My presentiment was good.
I smiled with quiet confidence.
And then events took an unexpected turn.

* * *

“Bwahahaha! Just as I’d expect from you, Lady Olivia!”
The source of that cheerful laughter from early morning was Scott.
His mood lately seemed unusually buoyant.
And why wouldn’t it be? His ideal master had appeared.
He spent entire days chasing after Olivia and Terion like some eager fool.
I felt a peculiar heaviness watching him like that.
Not that I regretted parting with Scott, exactly.
‘My instincts aren’t infallible after all, are they…’
Now that I thought about it, Scott was my one exception.
The star example of my spectacularly failed intuition.
Since arriving at Ambrose, I’d never misjudged a person before or since.
Perhaps I simply hadn’t adjusted yet? It hadn’t been long after arriving at the Mansion.
Still, my sense of people hadn’t been poor in my past life either.
‘The women I worked with even showed me who they’d marry, before they did.’
Sadly, intuition only flourishes with the leisure to act on it.
I could grasp at first glance, “That boss is no good,” but if money was tight, I had no choice but to work.
With options too narrow, there was no real choosing.
Living that way so long, I eventually gave up noticing anything at all.
When you’re powerless, it’s easier to play the fool.
But that’s not how things are now.
I watched Scott’s back, so thoroughly smitten with Olivia and Terion, and then moved on.
My destination was the Underground Communication Room.
“Send this for me.”
I handed the note I’d prepared to the communication room attendants.
They asked three times if I was really certain to send it to her, but I simply nodded through each time.
And not long after, she arrived at the Mansion.
Precisely the person I needed right now.
“What business do you have calling this woman about?”
Clara Anne von Wagner.
Our proud Wagner princess.
She’d come to Atera solely for the Ambrose name.
Rather than languish as some forgettable dozens-times-removed princess in her homeland, she’d chosen to enjoy herself here as a sought-after bride with fine prospects—a pragmatist through and through.
‘She’d been angling for the position of the Duke of Ambrose’s beloved granddaughter when I appeared and threw her slightly off balance.’
Still, so long as she could bask in Ambrose’s prestige, she was content.
Call her here or there, and so long as I sent a carriage bearing the Ambrose crest, she’d come as often as I wished.
“After riding so comfortably in a fine carriage, why the complaints?”
“Complaints? How dare you speak so carelessly—”
“I’ll send you in a Six-Horse Carriage when you leave.”
“Make sure those two fine white horses from last time are included.”
I answered with a smile, “Of course, of course.”
She really was an endearing sister.

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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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