The World Mistakes Me for Terminally Ill - Chapter 32
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The World Thinks I’m Terminally Ill Episode 032
‘…Elisia?’
She recognized her counterpart immediately. It was truly a scene that passed in an instant, but she couldn’t fail to recognize her.
When she was young, she thought ‘Why am I not a Seton?’ As she grew older, she envied Elisia who monopolized everyone’s attention.
She was a shadow obscured by an overwhelmingly bright light. She couldn’t bear how pitiful she felt for herself.
‘Why are you still happy?’
Shasha Lert had wanted to become Elisia Seton her entire life.
Her beauty, money, power. She wanted to have that dignity that never cowered before anyone and that shining self-esteem.
‘You should be unhappy. As much as I’m struggling, you should be even more unhappy. While you’re in this remote countryside, why, how are you still being revered!’
A being too distant becomes an object of worship, but when there’s a gap with someone who seems within reach if you just stretch out your hand… people are prone to breaking down.
While she was shivering in the cold among these insignificant people, seeing her counterpart comfortably riding in a carriage and passing through the city gate made the comparison even more miserable.
Longing, admiration, hatred, jealousy.
Those dark red emotions that had improved somewhat when Elisia left the capital upon marriage bloomed fully in her heart.
“Resuming inspections.”
“Merchant guilds with trade contracts with Lunein, please come this way.”
As if a storm had swept through and passed, the area in front of the city gate was in disarray.
Cheeks reddened from the cold, a face clearly showing signs of exhaustion. Yet rather than looking unsightly, the person who appeared delicate and fragile shed tears pitifully.
“Um, I’m sorry… We came in such a hurry that we left our identification behind.”
“Then go back. Those whose identity cannot be verified cannot enter the city.”
“Wait, wait a moment! I informed the castle’s Bella, that is, sister Elisia of my visit. I’m her maternal cousin.”
As she said this, she removed a brilliant jeweled necklace from around her neck and held it out.
“This is my mother’s keepsake, so sister Elisia would recognize it. I think she could verify our identity, so could you please check once?”
The claim of being a relative of the lord’s family, no less.
No matter how brazen someone might be, they wouldn’t attempt such a fraud with something that would be exposed immediately. After all, they’d lose their head if they did.
So a knight from the capital, far from war, might have been surprised and immediately offered an escort.
“Do you have means to prove this?”
“Ah, if I could contact my sister-“
“If you have no immediate means of proof, I cannot permit entry.”
However, what Shasha, who had only grown up in the capital, didn’t know was that such things didn’t work in the Northern Region.
Especially not with this Gray Wolf Knight commander who was harder than an iron wall.
Seeing the knight remain unmoved despite invoking Elisia’s name, Shasha bit her lips.
‘Does she have no influence with the knights? Well, no matter how capable that person is, she couldn’t have taken control of everything here already.’
Misunderstanding the situation, Shasha felt secretly pleased despite being troubled.
Seeing his daughter being rejected, Degen Lert shouted angrily.
“Do you know who we are! You’ll regret this!”
“Father, please stop. Sister is also at her in-laws’ house. It would be troublesome for her. Since commoners like us married into nobility, how difficult it must be. That’s why we came to comfort her…”
While pretending to stop Degen, she subtly let slip her words.
It was an attempt to escalate the situation to trouble her opponent while simultaneously emphasizing that Elisia was a ‘commoner’ to diminish her status.
As expected, murmurs of ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘They say they’re Bella’s relatives?’ could be heard from behind.
A crack appeared in Luke’s iron-wall-like expressionless face.
Shasha smiled triumphantly to herself at the situation unfolding as she expected.
“Jeron.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“They are dangerous individuals whose identity cannot be determined. Confine them to the guard post.”
“Yes.”
“What? Wait a moment. Kyaa! What is this…!”
However, what Shasha hadn’t expected was that Luke was an even more impregnable fortress than anticipated.
“Come to think of it, Lunein would merely be in-laws to Bella, so I wonder why she looks after her in-laws so attentively.”
The people of Lunein didn’t simply admire Elisia.
To them, Elisia was someone grateful who developed the Northern Region in positive directions with everything she did.
A kind of totem, perhaps. She had become an existence similar to a goddess statue to whom they prayed for good health, successful hunts, and harvests.
“Hey! When you live closely together, you become family.”
“That’s right, that’s right. Family indeed.”
“But was Bella a commoner? She looks so elegant that I didn’t know.”
“What does that matter? She bears Lunein’s name now, so she’s nobility.”
“Exactly! She’s Lunein for life now. Since she’s of commoner origin, wouldn’t she understand the circumstances of people like us?”
Rather, they were extremely worried she might return to the capital or collapse from illness.
After Shasha was dragged away, only stories completely different from her intentions circulated among the remaining people.
Jeron, who had confined the Lert father and daughter to the guard post on Luke’s orders as knight commander, asked with some concern.
“Commander, but will it really be alright? If they’re truly Bella’s relatives…”
Then it would damage Elisia’s reputation and she would be displeased.
Jeron didn’t want to upset Elisia.
Apart from being the lord’s family he served, she was a grateful benefactor who had helped treat his younger sibling.
Was that all? He clearly remembered what happened the last day he met Elisia.
‘Then when you return, tell the knights to get medical checkups. I see no one came. You can’t just work them hard because they’re sturdy.’
Bella had even looked after the knights with care!
Of course, if Elisia had heard this, she would have objected that it was just nagging, but unfortunately she wasn’t here now.
How shocked he was to hear she had collapsed after coughing up blood.
‘With her ailing body, she worried about our health… Even her inspection visit was because she wanted to personally look after us.’
What Elisia said after awakening had already spread throughout the entire knight order.
All the knights who heard her message were deeply moved.
This was largely due to the effects of the salary increases and welfare improvements she had prepared with the meaning ‘you can’t escape.’ The Gray Wolf Knights had received financial therapy.
The result of both material and spiritual enrichment.
‘Bella is Lunein.’
‘Gray Wolf Knights protect Lunein.’
‘Therefore, we protect Bella with all our might.’
The Gray Wolf Knight Order’s current stance was more solid than ever.
Luke answered curtly.
“There’s a high probability they are indeed relatives. Usually fraudsters mix 20% lies with 80% truth. They wouldn’t lie with such easily exposed words.”
“What? Then what should we do? Should we release them right now?”
“No, keep them confined longer.”
When Jeron made an uncomfortable expression, Luke explained.
“If they were truly important guests, there would have been word from above. There’s no way there would be no preparation for receiving guests.”
“Ah!”
“Therefore, they’re unwelcome, troublesome guests. Bella finds this father and daughter’s visit disagreeable.”
“I understand.”
“Still, we need to confirm, so you go and carefully inquire about her intentions. How much longer to drain them.”
And Luke was also a Gray Wolf Knight.
A knight’s role included dealing with enemies first when they appeared, so that no harm would come to those they served.
Before long, Jeron, who had gone to the castle, returned.
Following orders from above, the knight order had to neglect the guard post while conducting formal training with very complex and lengthy procedures.
‘Unavoidably,’ ‘due to administrative procedures getting tangled,’ ‘unintentionally,’ the Lert father and daughter shivered in the uncomfortable guard post’s iron bars for several hours before finally being released.
By then, Shasha, completely exhausted in mind and body, was left without even malice.
‘I want to rest.’
She desperately craved delicious food and a warm bed. She also missed the embrace of a solid man who would coax and comfort her.
With her spirits in tatters, she headed toward the castle under knightly escort—written as escort but read as surveillance.
“Do you require an escort?”
A low, sweet voice tinged with gentle laughter was heard.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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