I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 144

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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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My body floated weightlessly in the air.
“Just a moment.”
Viscount Biatonn carefully lowered me down.
“Brr, it’s cold.”
“It is cold, isn’t it?”
Fearing he might lift me again, I spoke urgently.
“Not yet! Not yet! Just one more minute.”
“One minute, then.”
I kicked my legs about.
Splash! Splash!
Water sprayed everywhere.
I couldn’t tell if the lake was trembling or the sky itself.
Before I knew it, I burst into laughter.
Today too, my heart was overflowing with happiness.
‘This is wonderful.’
It felt so good that my stomach began to rumble.
Just then, Viscount Biatonn said, “Your minute is up.”
I answered immediately.
“Understood.”
It wasn’t because I was hungry that I answered so quickly.
I’m serious.
They say even the most beautiful scenery pales after a meal, so I should eat something first.
I pulled a sandwich from the basket. My nostrils flared without thinking.
“This sandwich looks absolutely delicious.”
Chomp.
I took a big bite of the sandwich.
Though I was accustomed to Yuri’s cooking, this sandwich wasn’t bad either.
I’d heard somewhere that scenery could serve as a side dish, and I suppose this was what they meant.
The sandwich tasted incredibly delicious.
“Wow, what is this grape juice? It’s absolutely delicious.”
The grape juice was as delicious as what Yuri made.
Viscount Biatonn couldn’t help but marvel at the grape juice as well.
“It’s more delicious than any grape juice I’ve ever tasted.”
“I made it myself. It’s good, right?”
But Viscount Biatonn’s body stiffened.
“You made it yourself, you say?”
Viscount Biatonn’s expression turned grave.
“Yes. Is something wrong?”
“Why…”
Viscount Biatonn trailed off there.
Something felt off.
My body had suddenly gone rigid.
“What’s wrong, Bia…?”
But I was in the same predicament.
I tried to reach out my hand to Viscount Biatonn, but it wouldn’t move.
‘It won’t move?’
My entire body was paralyzed—even my tongue wouldn’t obey.
It felt as though I had turned to stone.
Sermon spoke in a calm voice.
“Viscount Biatonn, you’ve grown careless.”
“…”
“Even for someone like Viscount Biatonn, it will take six hours to detoxify. If you struggle unnecessarily, the detoxification will take even longer, so it’s best to wait patiently.”
Sermon’s hand touched my cheek.
His hand was still warm, but the sensation it conveyed was vastly different from before.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘What… what is this?’
I felt a murderous intent so pure and transparent it was almost crystalline.
And it came wrapped in an intense, unsettling affection.
* * *
A few days prior, Sermon had sought out Duke Bladog.
Duke Bladog was the primary caretaker of the young prince and served as his father figure.
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
For Sermon to seek Duke Bladog out first and pose a question was hardly a pleasant matter for the Duke.
It meant the Shadows—who should move only when commanded—had developed a will of their own.
However, Duke Bladog did not let this show.
After conversing with Sermon, Duke Bladog sensed that something had gone awry.
‘What has shaken Sermon’s mind so thoroughly?’
For assassins, emotion is a luxury.
The Shadows must grow as Shadows should.
They must be capable of handling tasks mechanically, without feeling.
Duke Bladog guided the conversation calmly without revealing his concern.
You’ve become curious about the emotion of sadness? You wish to share in the emotions of others?”
“Yes.”
For the Shadows, such things were a luxury.
To share emotions and exchange experiences.
That was something only humans—not Shadows—could enjoy.
“If I commanded you right now to kill everyone around you, who would you want to kill last?”
“It seems it would be Isabel.”
Had Duke Bladog instead asked, “Who is the most precious person to you?” Sermon would not have been able to answer.
The concept of “precious” was too vague.
But the question of “the person I’d want to kill last” was crystal clear.
“Then what if we tried killing Isabel once?”
“….”
“Why do you hesitate?”
“Viscount Biatonn is always by her side. Assassination would be difficult.”
“Then we must engineer the right circumstances. A situation where we can neutralize Biatonn and eliminate the Princess.”
“….”
“Let her lose the Princess. Perhaps then she’ll understand what sorrow truly is.”
Duke Bladog’s eyes burned crimson.
It was brainwashing through blood sorcery.
For over a decade, Duke Bladog had been infusing his own blood into Sermon’s body, allowing the blood sorcery to take hold.
Sermon nodded as though entranced by something.
After Sermon left, Duke Bladog spoke.
“Will this suffice?”
A skull-shaped form materialized in the empty air, woven from magical energy.
Duke Bladog conversed with it.
“Yes, I’m certain it can be handled. The resistance was stronger than usual, but the brainwashing was absolute.”
Having finished his report to someone, Duke Bladog removed his upper garment.
A skull-shaped tattoo was etched across his back.
“No. I merely did what was required.
The skull pattern floating in the air seeped into Duke Bladog’s tattoo.
Duke Bladog’s body trembled.
“I am grateful for this grace. Yes, once the task is complete, I shall return as well.”
As though nothing had happened, he dressed himself again.
The Ducal Residence remained silent today as well.
* * *
Sermon spoke.
“I still don’t understand what sorrow is.”
It was vague and difficult.
Yet I wanted to know what it was.
A hollow feeling, as though I were living having lost something profoundly important as a human being.
Things I had never felt before began to stir after meeting Isabel.
It felt like being intoxicated by a drug.
Every day was hazy, and my heart grew heavy.
So I wanted to verify it.
“If I lose you, will I be able to feel sorrow?”
Sermon withdrew his hand from Isabel’s cheek.
“I can’t imagine it.”
He stepped back. Then, with a soft push, he shoved Isabel.
Splash!
Isabel’s body plummeted into the Glass Lake.
She couldn’t move her body.
‘What…?’
It didn’t feel real.
‘Am I… dying?’
I had never imagined an ending like this.
Sermon’s face appeared above the water’s surface.
The ripples distorted the water, so I couldn’t tell what expression he wore.
‘My body… won’t move.’
My breathing grew increasingly ragged.
My chest tightened unbearably, and dizziness swept over me as my vision began to blur.
‘I’m not even twenty yet.’
I thought I could at least live until I turned twenty.
I was so grateful to have been granted a healthy and happy life.
‘Why?’
What did I do wrong?
I haven’t done anything wrong.
‘Why do I have to die?’
My body sank deeper and deeper.
I didn’t know how deep I had descended, but my ears grew muffled and began to ache.
Yet that pain soon faded from my awareness.
‘I can’t… breathe…’
* * *
Sermon watched silently as Isabel sank.
He hadn’t drunk the grape juice, yet his body wouldn’t move.
The water was so clear that no matter how deep she descended, he could see Isabel’s form completely.
‘No bubbles.’
She seemed to have lost consciousness.
She would die soon.
A sharp pain pierced through him.
His chest ached.
It felt as though his blood was rushing rapidly through his veins.
‘This feeling again.’
He always felt this way after completing a mission.
Afterward, his mind would become peaceful, and he would feel nothing at all.
Though Sermon didn’t know it, this was the influence of Duke Bladog’s blood sorcery.
‘It’s the same today, it seems.’
I thought today would be different, but it wasn’t much different at all.
Quite some time had passed.
Suddenly, I recalled Isabel splashing about in the water.
I couldn’t fathom what made her laugh with such joy, or why she found it so entertaining.
He climbed atop the boat’s railing.
Far below, in the depths, Isabel lay submerged.
“You are below, and I am high above.”
In truth, revealing myself in the tree had been to foreshadow this very moment.
A prelude to what would unfold today.
‘You can’t play around from high places! And what if you attack the carriage? What if the passengers get hurt? What if something terrible happens? Do you want to be scolded terribly? I’m really angry! I won’t let you off easy!’
I also remembered Isabel standing with her hands on her hips, utterly furious.
Isabel had said this too.
‘Brother! It’s dangerous! Come down!’
When I came down and sat beside Isabel, what had I felt then?
That feeling had been quite pleasant.
‘What is sadness?’
Yet now there was only a hollow emptiness inside me.
“If I do something dangerous, will you scold me again?”
If I jumped from here, would Isabel scold me once more?
That was the feeling I had.
‘What is sadness?’
Still, my mind could not comprehend it.
‘I succeeded in my mission.’
I had lived for nothing but this until now.
‘Why does none of this bring me joy?’
The sense of accomplishment and happiness I usually felt upon completing a mission was entirely absent.
Tears streamed down Sermon’s eyes.
They were the first tears he had shed since he began to mature.
‘So this is what crying is.’
My mind grew turbulent.
So many emotions erupted at once, suffocating my chest.
The blood magic that had suppressed and controlled his emotions clashed and warred with his genuine feelings in a tangled, chaotic struggle.
Something felt as though it were bursting within his heart.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
And in that moment,
‘Isabel?’
Isabel came into sharp focus.
‘This cannot be.’
Blood surged through my body, pulsing with intensity.
Some external force seemed to be trying to bind my body with overwhelming constraint.
‘Isabel!’
I stopped trying to think through anything with my mind.
Whenever I tried to think about something, my body refused to obey.
It felt as though parasites dwelled within me, dominating my flesh and emotions at their whim.
‘I mustn’t think with my head.’
I shut down reason and surrendered myself entirely to instinct.
My body moved of its own accord.
Splash!
I plunged into the water.
But my breath caught, and my body went rigid.
This was the price of rejecting the blood art.
Duke Bladog’s blood, infused into my body over more than a decade, gnawed away at Sermon’s flesh and spirit, paralyzing me completely.
My body hardened like stone and sank toward the depths.
Far below, I could see Isabel.
‘I don’t want to witness Isabel’s death.’
Never before had I feared someone’s death so deeply.
Yet I could do nothing.
I was confident in killing, but not in saving.
‘I’m terrified.’
The approaching future filled me with such dread.
It was an emotion I had never felt before.
‘And sorrowful.’
Now I understood.
This was grief.
My vision blurred as consciousness slipped away.
Through the haze, something appeared.
‘What… is that?’
A magical circle materialized beneath Isabel’s feet.
Having witnessed this much, Sermon lost consciousness.
Kim Beolggol burst forth from the lake’s bottom.
[Hero, making an entrance.]

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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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