Surviving as a Terminally Ill Heiress - Chapter 79

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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 79

I opened my eyes wide. Then I burst out laughing.
“Do you know how to dance?”
“If I don’t know, I’ll learn.”
That’s true enough. The way my mother taught me.
I laughed and reached out both hands.
Without hesitation, Hui and Dido grasped them at the same instant.
There was no music. No grand lighting, no spectators save a cat and an old man.
In the middle of the hall, lit only by moonlight, the three of us spun clumsily hand in hand.
We laughed, our feet colliding, laughing again, descending into complete chaos—my white dress hem especially trampled until it was covered in footprints.
Then Dido tumbled with a crash and naturally went straight to the old man beside us.
The old man patted the dust from Dido’s palms and knees with rough, weathered hands.
And Dido came back, still holding the old man’s hand.
We had become five in our mess. Yes, Shasha too.
What is this, I thought, and burst into laughter.
So important, they said, one’s first dance.
And yet this is where we ended up.
No music, the dress completely wrinkled, my partners were children who stepped on my feet, with a cat and an old man getting in the way.
It was not bad. No—it was better than anything.
It was the perfect debutante.

* * *

Inside the Cave, candlelight wavering.
Someone with their face hidden spoke in a low voice.
“Olivia of the Comrades has entered Dormancy.”
Those wearing such pointed hoods bowed their heads in unison.
It was a moment of silence for their fallen comrade.
“She has stepped onto the Path of Circulation. Though she is dead, she is not dead, and she shall remain with us forever.”
“She shall remain with us.”
“The Temple and the manor conspire against us, and other Comrades suffer hardship in their schemes. Yet when Helmut is reborn, he shall gather the souls of all the Comrades and grant them bodies stronger than before. Fear nothing.”
“Fear nothing.”
“When one is lost, one returns. And this time too, Helmut has shown us this truth.”
His fingertip gestured toward the deeper Cave.
Clang.
The sound of cold metal striking metal echoed forth.
Growing ever closer, it appeared beneath the faint candlelight.
A man whose entire body was encased in Armor.
Ohhhhh!
Those in hoods threw up their hands and bowed in reverence.
It was a weapon into which they had poured tremendous effort, their last hope.
They had nearly given it up for lost, yet true to their faith, when one was lost, one returned.
Or perhaps they had never needed alternatives in the first place.
Their faith was always right and true.
“Helmut! Bring us perfect peace! Long live, long live!”
Before their frenzied cry, the man did not move.
Only from within the scarred Helmet did a blood-red light flicker.

* * *

With the debutante as the start, the spring social season in earnest had begun.
An avalanche of Invitations, tedious as it was relentless.
When Tru eagerly excavated the pile, I sorted through it simply.
“This one?”
“Not going.”
“And this?”
“Not going.”
“Then what about this…?”
“Not going.”
“Goodness, where exactly are you planning to go!”
I held up the single Invitation that remained after discarding all the rest.
“This one.”
Tru’s face fell into despair.
“The Juliad Tea Party again?”
“This will be enough.”
“Well, I suppose so, but…”
Tru pouted but offered no further protest.
There was no way to call the party of the Marquess Juliad, deemed the finest in Atera’s central society, insufficient.
Let’s see, what were the requirements for this Tea Party?
[Partner Required]
My heart sank.
Juliet Juliad… now that she’s made her debut, she’s truly come into her own.
Matilda, for her part, has been exchanging steady letters with Yeong-shik, that man she danced with that day, while Juliet apparently changes partners at every party she attends these days.
It was amusing to watch, how different my two friends’ natures were.
“In any case, will your Partner be Orka again? Ah, or perhaps since it’s the Juliad Tea Party where everyone is acquainted, it would be lovely to go with Vincent!”
Before simple Tru could launch into more such excited prattle, I struck first.
“Whatever happened to that servant of yours?”
“Oh, he found a girlfriend! Emily, a maid in the Dakota Earl’s kitchen! She’s pretty and kind! So I’m not even angry…!”
Still, Tru seemed sad, burying her face in the table in defeat.
I patted her head gently and rose from my seat.
Make a clean escape like this and the matter was closed.
“Master Dido has been injured!”
Closed, it seemed, was me.
The moment I stepped into the corridor, the maid I encountered said this, and I rushed frantically to Dido’s room.
I burst through the already-open door to find Henley, a sculptor who had come for a private lesson, holding Dido’s hand and stopping the bleeding.
Yet with blood flowing freely, I nearly fainted. No—what happened to that small, precious hand!
Soon Morgan arrived and treated the wound, and I heard the full story.
Dido had recklessly taken a sharp Carving Knife from Henley’s tool bag.
“I should have been more careful. I was careless. I am truly sorry.”
“No, it’s our child who acted recklessly. I’m sorry for startling you.”
We had to bow our heads to one another repeatedly.
Just the other day I’d gone to apologize to the Training Grounds because Hui had thrown a Wooden Sword, and I already felt my spine bending from my younger siblings.
In any case, I managed to see off the startled Henley and examined Dido’s wound more carefully.
Morgan spoke reassuringly.
“Fortunately, only the skin was torn. There’s no damage to the nerves at all.”
Still, the wound was quite deep. A scar would likely remain.
I made a bitter face, troubled.
Dido himself, however, didn’t blink once and remained composed.
That child’s default expression was always blank and inscrutable, as if thinking of nothing at all.
I sighed and stroked those lovely pink, curly locks.
“Since you need to heal quickly, let’s not use your hand much for a while, all right?”
“No.”
Sure, say it nicely and maybe I’ll listen.
Keeping my cheerful face, I had the maids confiscate paints and sculpting tools.
And so it began. Dido’s rebellion.
Did children get puberty at seven these days?
“Eat your food.”
“…”
“Dido Phlange.”
Having shut his mouth tight, Dido no longer answered at all.
Already a quiet child, he kept his lips pressed firmly together.
Wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t eat. It was clear protest.
I set down the dish I’d been trying to feed him with a sharp clink.
Then Hui, beside me, whispered nervously.
“Eat. Sister’s angry.”
“Yes, Dido… eat well and get better quickly so you can draw again, yes?”
Morgan, who’d stopped by to disinfect, added his own words.
But Dido didn’t listen to them either.
Only his lips quivered faintly.
“Fine then. Don’t eat.”
I spoke coldly and rose from my seat.
I handed the simple meal to a maid to be cleared away, and decided to see Morgan out instead.
I walked alongside Morgan, who carried his medical bag, toward the Western Hall, muttering.
“See? That stubborn one.”
“Ha, well, since he loves drawing and sculpture so much, that’s just how it is.”
Yes, I know it well now. Dido is a child who cannot live without drawing.
Even when we lived in the Slums, he would always squat in the dirt, gazing at flowers and reproducing them with his fingers.
Back then, even knowing this, I could do nothing, so I turned away from it inside. But now I wanted to give him anything he wanted.
Except in matters of safety. On that, I would not compromise at all.
“So they say raising a child is the one thing in the world you cannot control.”
At my musing, Morgan burst out in full-hearted laughter.
Then he nodded, as if in agreement.
“That’s truly so. I feel it all the time.”
“Come now, Morgan? Where would you find a child as self-reliant and sharp as Genie?”
I thought of Genie, who was now at the Academy.
There were the occasional quirks, but still, a child like Genie would need no worries if placed anywhere.
Yet Morgan himself sighed as if he had troubles of his own.
“When the time comes for advancement, Genie says they want to go into the Medical Department.”

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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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