I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 121

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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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A day before.
Yuri’s heart began to grow restless.
I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it started, but it was around the time Isabel decided to meet with Aselia.
That night.
She couldn’t fall asleep and tossed and turned for a long while.
‘Why am I like this?’
She felt as though she had become a truly wicked child.
‘It would be wonderful if the Princess made another new friend.’
Armitel and Isabel had shared many conversations.
For some reason, Isabel expressed a strong desire to meet with Aselia, and Armitel accepted the proposal.
In the process, Isabel had said, ‘Perhaps we could become good friends.’
‘But why do I dislike it? Why? What am I upset about?’
Yuri pulled the blanket over her head.
She wanted to hide away where no one could see her.
She couldn’t attend to Isabel with such a restless heart.
She needed to understand why she felt this way.
After thinking long and hard, she arrived at a single answer.
‘I was the Princess’s only friend, so perhaps that’s why I feel hurt.’
But even this wasn’t quite the true feeling.
She herself couldn’t articulate her own emotions clearly.
If it were mathematics, at least there would be a definitive answer, and if it were chemistry, she could write out a reaction equation.
‘I don’t even understand why I feel hurt.’
But there was a bigger problem.
‘I hate myself for feeling this way.’
She had always wished for Isabel’s happiness.
Isabel had given her a new life, helped her wholeheartedly to care for her mother, and made it possible for Yuri to be herself.
So she had thought it would be wonderful if Isabel made more friends.
Yet when Isabel actually said she would travel far to meet another child her own age—and the same age at that—she felt terribly disappointed.
It wasn’t something she should have felt upset about.
It was a strange feeling, as though Isabel were being taken away from her.
‘Am I a bad child?’
Am I only good on the surface?
I can’t call myself a good maid like this.
This emotion was nearly self-loathing.
“Sigh….”
She exhaled a deep breath.
It had been a very long time since she had lost sleep.
She was overlooking one crucial fact.
While Isabel’s only peer friend was Yuri, conversely, Yuri’s only peer friend was Isabel.
And Yuri was still only ten years old.
* * *
“I think I need to scold Yuri quite severely.”
At those words, Yuri burst into tears.
I was greatly startled.
“…Huh? Yuri? What’s wrong?”
What should I do about this.
I immediately approached Yuri and pulled her into a tight embrace.
I had only suspected that something was troubling her, but I never imagined it would be serious enough to make her cry like this.
“Pat, pat.”
I gently tapped Yuri’s back.
Though I still didn’t know the reason, Yuri was crying quite miserably.
‘I shouldn’t tell her not to cry.’
In my past life, the words I hated hearing most were “don’t cry.”
I was in pain, and I had never learned any way to relieve stress.
The only thing I could do was cry, yet people told me not to.
That had hurt me so deeply.
‘Yuri is nine years old, so….’
I recalled myself at nine years old.
When I was crying my heart out, what words would I have wanted to hear?
“Did something really upset you?”
Looking back on that time, I didn’t think I had wanted grand consolations or brilliant solutions.
I think I simply wanted someone to ask me why I was crying.
More precisely, I think I wanted someone to simply show me they cared.
I held Yuri close once more.
“You must be very upset.”
You’re hurting so much.
You must be struggling so hard.
I simply loved words like that.
What I had needed was just a piece of empathy.
I gave Yuri what I had learned and experienced.
Yuri cried miserably for a long time.
I didn’t pry into the reasons.
“If you don’t tell me, I won’t know.”
If only Yuri had mana, I could sense it right away.
Because the emotions a person feels are woven into their mana.
After quite some time had passed, Yuri stopped.
Looking at me with puffy eyes, she asked.
“Your Highness… why are you crying?”
“Because I’m upset.”
There was no grand reason for it.
My dear friend was crying so sorrowfully that I couldn’t help but shed tears as well.
“Please don’t cry because of someone like me.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m not a good person worthy of the Princess’s tears.”
“Yuri is a good person.”
“No, I’m not. I’m bad.”
“Why do you think that?”
Yuri’s shoulders slumped.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can tell you.”
“Then I’ll feel quite hurt.”
“If you command me, I can tell you.”
I paused for a moment, then shook my head.
“I don’t want to do it that way.”
I took Yuri’s hand.
Her hand was unusually cold today, and it trembled faintly.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but she seemed terribly afraid of something.
“I won’t give you orders. We’re friends.”
And I decided not to ask any further.
Everyone has secrets they wish to keep.
I had no right to force someone to reveal what they didn’t want to share.
No matter how much we call ourselves friends.
“I believe that someday when the time is right, you’ll tell me. It would be a lie if I said I’m not hurt that you won’t confide in me now, but believe me in this one thing: no matter what you say or what you think, I won’t be disappointed in you. I will never think badly of you. I promise you this.”
Everyone has moments of hardship and loneliness.
What’s needed in those moments isn’t something grand.
Just someone who stays by your side and shows you unwavering faith.
That one person makes it possible to overcome the pain.
At some moments, it was a nameless benefactor, and at other times, it was doctors and nurses and teachers.
Today, I decided to become Yuri’s benefactor and doctor and nurse and teacher.
“So promise me one thing: don’t speak badly of yourself. As your closest friend, I can’t bear that. No matter what kind of person you are, I’m fine with it. I hope you’ll think the same way too.”
“….”
“We’re still young children, after all.”
We are not adults.
Adults don’t need to be perfect, but I think children need it even less.
Children have their own time to grow.
“When we arrive at the village, I want to drink the lemon tea you made. Can you do that?”
Yuri, who had been looking down, lifted her head.
She spoke in a small voice.
“I promise.”
“Really?”
“I’ll make you the sweetest lemon tea in the world.”
“Yes, okay.”
I rose first and extended my hand.
Yuri grasped it and stood up.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed like things had improved a little.
We climbed back into the carriage, and General Armitel sat there with a strangely pleased expression on his face.
* * *
Isabel and her group arrived at Calphoa Village.
The Coachman bowed deeply at the waist.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the Princess.”
Any lower and his head would have touched the ground.
‘He doesn’t need to go that far.’
Isabel couldn’t understand why the Coachman was showing such extreme courtesy.
He said he was deeply moved, but she had already forgotten why.
Armitel, a man of common birth, marveled once more at the sight of Isabel.
‘She truly has no idea why the Coachman was moved, does she?’
Armitel knew the truth.
Isabel had saved the Coachman when Balkio had shouted at him like a madman.
Yet Isabel had forgotten this fact.
‘That’s likely because it wasn’t a special event for her.’
Isabel’s consideration for the Coachman wasn’t an incident—it was simply her everyday nature.
So she attached no particular significance to it.
‘Aselia would surely be delighted to meet the Princess.’
Yet for some reason, the Princess seemed slightly tense.
Calphoa Village wasn’t very large, and there weren’t many paths for the carriage to travel.
“Humble though it is, our home is located at the end of that alley.”
Isabel felt a bit puzzled.
For someone as successful as General Armitel, he lived in quite a rundown place.
The novel had never described General Armitel’s home in detail, so she couldn’t know the full circumstances.
She could only guess vaguely.
‘Is it because of his sister’s medical expenses?’
In any case, Isabel stepped inside the house.
The moment she entered, she could sense it.
‘That familiar scent. The smell of a hospital.’
Despite this not being the modern world, the air carried a scent similar to that of a modern hospital.
Having spent so much time in hospitals, this smell was far too familiar to her.
Isabel found herself trembling involuntarily.
“Princess? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
She couldn’t tell him that the scent had brought back memories of her past self.
Isabel forced a bright smile.
“Pardon my intrusion!”
Isabel stepped into the house.
A voice called out from deeper within the room.
“Who is it?”
Isabel recognized that voice immediately.
The voice of someone in pain.
A voice so weakened by suffering that it barely carried any strength.
It was a voice she herself had uttered every single day.
‘She’s here… Asellia is here.’
As if entranced, Isabel walked toward the room from which the voice had come and opened the door.

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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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