Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 76

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

Chapter 76

* * *

That evening, I went to find Grandfather.
As always, he was reviewing documents in his office.
“Are you busy?”
“Always. Get to the point.”
Right. Always so irritating.
I walked in briskly and dropped myself onto the sofa without ceremony.
“Where should I start explaining?”
Tell me what you already know. I’m not going to spend all day talking. You’ve probably gathered information about this already, haven’t you?
When he asked curtly without lifting his eyes from the documents, Grandfather continued speaking.
“So Terion is going to the Temple, is he?”
He already knows everything. How irritating.
I leaned the back of my head against the sofa’s backrest.
“He still doesn’t know much. He’s never discovered anything on his own.”
Terion hadn’t explained things in tedious detail, but his childhood was easy enough to infer.
Olivia hadn’t met a man at the capital’s coming-of-age ceremony and strayed.
She had met followers of the Demon King and fallen into corruption.
Born beneath such a mother, I could only imagine what kind of childhood he’d had.
I clicked my tongue.
‘A noblewoman proselytized at a capital party? How widespread is this thing?’
The Helmut Religion’s roots ran deeper and wider than expected.
And it had targeted Ambrose.
It had even managed to infiltrate Ambrose, though we barely stopped it in time.
That annoying old man probably set me another task just for fun, but I’ll overlook it for now.
‘What about other places?’
If there were others hiding throughout the empire in the same manner,
None have been confirmed yet, but they might simply not have been exposed.
Perhaps they already have been.
As the thought turned frightening, I shook my head.
It was probably excessive speculation.
After all, they targeted Ambrose for a reason.
With all the power of Atera’s pillar, the great magnate, everything—it would be far easier to resurrect the Demon King.
I grumbled.
“What a noisy family this is. No one lets anything rest.”
At that, Grandfather snorted and spoke casually.
“So, do you dislike it?”
“I’m sorry?”
“If you wish to seize it, then do so.”
I blinked.
Seize it.
Suddenly, it struck me as a subtle choice of words.
Just as Terion had his body and freedom seized, I had almost had everything taken from me by him.
Yes. That’s what I’d thought—that it was being seized.
Not just my money.
The power of Ambrose and everything else that I’d always held at a distance, insisting it wasn’t mine.
‘It’s mine.’
Mine.
My family.
My company.
My Ambrose.
‘Ah.’
Now I understood.
It wasn’t about Terion being slow to grasp things.
I didn’t know myself very well either.
But that annoying old man had known me all along.
Grandfather’s gaze had shifted from the documents to my eyes.
Probably watching as ambition spilled over and overflowed through them.
He smiled as if he’d known this would happen.
I swallowed a sound of frustration.
Because I understood in that moment that I was voluntarily stepping into hell.
But what else could I do?
If my Ambrose was in that hell, I had to go claim it.
‘I have too much ambition.’
Though I’d never admit it even in death, it seems I take after the person right before me.
I pouted my lips and asked.
“…It’s a late question, but did you believe in me from the moment I guessed Terion was a fake?”
“No. I believed in my son.”
For no particular reason, I kicked the table in front of the sofa with the tip of my shoe.
Grandfather’s laughter reached my ears.
Really, he’s infuriatingly clever.

* * *

A few days later.
Terion had improved gradually.
He could sit up on his own now, and walk around the room.
He still spoke little. His movements remained measured and careful. That seemed to be his nature.
Yet he was no longer doll-like as he’d been at first.
I opened his door at the time I visited each day.
And Shasha was always already inside, sitting at Terion’s feet and gazing up at him intently.
Terion was blinking down at her again today.
“Pet her.”
At my word, he moved.
He slowly, awkwardly extended his hand and stroked Shasha’s head gently.
Shasha’s eyes closed and her tail wagged contentedly.
“See? She takes after me—she likes beautiful people.”
“My face isn’t…”
Terion murmured briefly.
Well, that’s true enough. Naturally, I sat down at the edge of the bed and stared at his profile.
When he felt my gaze, he turned to meet my eyes.
At the same moment, I nodded with certainty.
“Mm. Your real face was handsome too.”
“…What?”
“How do I know? Intuition.”
“……”
“The intuition of Ambrose. I’m always right.”
I was about to gloat with my eyes closed.
A tiny breeze rustled past.
When I opened my eyes, that breeze was already gone. But—
I looked past the hand that was stroking Shasha, somewhat more gently than before, and gazed out the window.
Slowly. Imperceptibly, but undeniably.
Winter was fading, and spring was coming.

* * *

Yes. It was spring.
Which meant that day was approaching.
‘A Debutante ball.’
Usually, the day young nobles between fourteen and sixteen formally enter society.
In truth, the boundaries of society were ambiguous.
Take myself—I never had a Debutante ball, yet I’ve attended smaller parties and frequented the Empress’s Salon, so I’ve been quite active in society already.
But the Debutante ball had its own peculiarities.
‘First, meeting the Emperor.’
I had only met the Empress and Jeremiah; I’d never once seen the Emperor.
The Debutante ball begins with paying respects to him, the father of all people.
‘And second, one gets to choose a partner.’
Why would little girls need a partner before their Debutante ball?
They only need guardians to keep them out of trouble.
But at a Debutante ball, where one must demonstrate oneself as a proper member of society, conversing with one’s peers of the opposite sex and becoming partners was the custom.
‘And thus, third and finally, there is dancing.’
Now that one has a partner, one may properly dance.
Social Dance was the only time in the strict, rigid Ateran aristocracy—where even a touch between unrelated men and women was guarded—that physical contact was legal.
So it was then that one usually felt each other out.
What kind of person this is, whether affection could be shared, and whether a deeper relationship might be possible.
In short.
“Perhaps Miss will finally find her love!”
I let Tru’s words go in one ear and out the other. I’d heard it so many times I’d lost count.
But other thoughts occupied my mind.
Terion had left for the Temple yesterday.
He had little luggage. Just one bag. Even the snacks and odds and ends inside had been packed by me and the maids.
We hadn’t had a long conversation.
‘I’ll go visit,’ I had simply said.
And Terion had nodded, just slightly faster than usual.
Then morning came the next day.
And this is what I’m dealing with now.
Since dawn, Tru and the maids had descended upon me.
Between bathing, preparing my hair, and putting on my dress, half the day had slipped away.
Thank heavens Matilda and Juliet, who were having their Debutante balls too, were waiting, or I’d have been tormented much longer.
The familiar path to the Imperial Palace.
As I stepped down from the carriage, Matilda and Juliet greeted me.
“Bebe!”
“Miss, over here!”
As I approached, the affectionate Matilda and Juliet, who preferred to maintain some propriety, showered me with compliments.
“Wow. Bebe, you look so beautiful today.”
“Really, Miss is always beautiful, but!”
“Thank you. You two are gorgeous as well.”
We chatted as we walked into the ballroom.
Gazes were noticeably thick around us.
‘Ninety percent of it is because of me.’
I already drew eyes, and with the commotion I’d caused, it was inevitable.
The correction about Terion was brief, published through Snearji.
Since we still couldn’t reveal details about the Helmut Religion or witchcraft, it simply stated that there had been mistakes and misunderstandings at the Assessment Session.

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