I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 198

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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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‘I want to live.’
A desire to live in the face of certain death.
I had a feeling that this contradiction would somehow bring about a miracle.
‘This… this is…!’
Arun’s lips touched mine.
It felt as though a thick blanket was covering my body.
It wasn’t as thrilling or intense as I had imagined.
Because Arun was far too desperate for this to be called a first kiss.
‘Ah…!’
I felt a sensation I had forgotten long ago.
Once, I could feel the emotions of others just by holding their hands.
I thought that ability had completely vanished, but it hadn’t.
‘I can feel Arun’s heart.’
Without realizing it, tears welled up in my eyes.
And they fell, drop by drop.
Arun’s emotions had merely been transmitted to me.
Yet a torrent of feelings I could scarcely bear came pouring down upon me.
‘I must live.’
That yearning to save me—it overwhelmed me with sorrow, filling me to the brim.
‘I must live.’
Even though I am dead, I must still live.
If I didn’t even make a desperate vow to live, it felt like an insult to Arun’s earnest plea.
Arun’s desire to save me was truly pure.
There was nothing but the wish to be with me.
Arun’s earnestness was almost sacred.
I felt I must answer that sacredness without fail.
“Thank you, Arun.”
My words were muffled with our lips pressed together, but it didn’t matter.
Just as Arun’s heart had been transmitted to me, my heart would be transmitted to him.
I felt enveloped by the radiance of his immense magical power.
It was as though his very existence was burrowing into me, beyond just his emotions.
‘I’ll open my mouth a little wider.’
So that I could fully accept Arun.
So that his sacredness could touch my desire to live.
‘Something seems to be transmitting.’
It didn’t seem to be physical matter.
It felt like a slick mass made of magical power was being transferred into my mouth.
‘His tongue?’
It wasn’t his tongue.
I didn’t know what it was, but it was incredibly soft.
I heard Arun’s voice.
[Don’t be tense. Relax your body.]
His voice carried an immeasurable depth of love.
The tenderness of it made my ears tingle.
Arun’s voice touched my heart like a whisper of affection shared between lovers.
[It’s okay. I’ll take care of everything.]
I released the tension from my entire body.
It wasn’t easy to relax in this situation—sharing something between a kiss and not quite a kiss, though truthfully it was closer to artificial respiration—but I decided to trust Arun.
I closed my eyes.
I simply trusted Arun and surrendered myself to him.
‘Something is…’
It felt as though something transmitted from Arun’s lips was entering my body.
It writhed like a living creature.
[Does it hurt?]
I nodded ever so slightly.
In response, Arun held me a little tighter.
And he grasped my limp hand.
As if to tell me not to be afraid, as if to assure me he would save me no matter what, he interlaced his fingers with mine and held firm.
[If it hurts or you become too frightened, squeeze my hand tightly.]
‘I’m not scared at all.’
I still didn’t fully understand what Arun was doing, but one thing was certain.
Arun truly loved me.
With all his heart.
So there was nothing to fear.
‘Huh?’
My chest tickled.
I could discern what that writhing, living thing actually was.
‘A mass of mana?’
I could understand why it felt so comforting.
Diverse mana was woven together, and what covered it was Arun’s mana.
In other words, Arun’s mana had become a pouch, and within that pouch lay formidable mana.
‘This is…’
Something took root in my chest and began to beat.
‘A heart?’
Thump! Thump!
An unfamiliar heartbeat echoed.
It was so loud and intense that I felt a moment of fear.
‘No. I am not afraid.’
I had to live.
For my family, and for my beloved.
‘Arun is giving me his heart.’
If that were the case, I had to accept this heart fully and make it entirely my own.
‘Because it’s from Arun.’
So it was fine.
No matter how foreign it felt.
I could accept it.
“Mmph!”
A slight pain shot through me, but I endured it.
I felt Arun flinch.
Through our pressed lips, his concern flooded into me.
‘It’s okay. I was just startled for a moment.’
After hesitating briefly, Arun resumed channeling his mana into me.
It hurt at first, but soon it became bearable.
The foreign sensation within my body had somehow become one with me, now pulsing with a rhythmic thump, thump.
‘I don’t feel like it’s foreign anymore.’
It truly felt as though we had become one.
The intense sensation of mana had now transformed into a gentle, warm energy enveloping my body.
‘It’s really… beating.’
Just like my own heart.
It was pulsing as though it had always been mine.
‘It doesn’t hurt anymore.’
That brought me the joy of being able to live.
The flickering flame of my life blazed brilliantly once more.
As if I were witnessing the miraculous moment of life being born before my very eyes, an indescribable euphoria bloomed within me.
I could know with certainty.
‘I didn’t die.’
I lived.
I never knew that the feeling of being alive could be so transcendent.
I opened my eyes.
“Arun.”
Heat radiated from every part of Arun’s body.
“Thank you… mmph!”
Arun kissed me again.
After a very brief kiss, he pulled me into his embrace once more.
Arun’s body was trembling.
“Thank you for staying alive.”
I should have been the one saying thank you, yet Arun was the one expressing gratitude.
I gently patted the back of the weeping Arun.
“I’m the one who should be grateful.”

* * *
Arun nearly lost consciousness several times while transplanting a heart into Isabel.
Bestowing new life was never an easy task.
Arun had to make vows countless times.
‘My life is composed of Isabel.’
This was a vow made to Order itself.
Since he was disrupting the proper order, Arun too had to pay the corresponding price.
‘I swear. My life is composed of Isabel, so I shall close my eyes on the same day and hour as her.’
It was a dragon oath.
When he first proposed to Isabel, their souls had been bound together, and now he had reinforced that bond even more firmly with this dragon oath.
The price for completely reviving Isabel was all of Arun’s remaining dragon life.
And in the end, he succeeded.
From Isabel emanated a vibrant life force unlike anything before.
Kadelina, who had been quietly observing everything, smiled softly.
‘He finally did it.’
She left without saying a word.
‘Ah, what should my final amusement be?’
She hadn’t decided for certain yet.
But like five hundred years ago, she wanted to enjoy her youth by dating a cute and handsome human man in sweet companionship.
‘I wish I could die on the same day and hour as my lover, just like Arun.’
She examined her own body.
‘Do I have roughly seventy years left?’
It wasn’t certain, but it seemed about right.
Compared to dragon life, it was but a speck of dust in duration, yet it felt all the more precious.
‘I’ve rarely felt my life to be this precious.’
Because of those seventy short years, this time felt all the more treasured.
So this is why humans carry so many joys and sorrows throughout their lives.
Having felt this, Kadelina shrugged her shoulders lightly and walked down a narrow path.
‘Hm?’
She spotted a man in armor.
“How cool! Whoosh, Your Highness! Whoosh!”
He was singing a strange song, though his vocal skills were hardly impressive.
He laughed, then cried, then blew his nose loudly, displaying bizarre behavior.
“I am! So happy!”
He was shouting his happiness while looking anything but happy.
“You look sad at first glance, don’t you?”
“Y-you! Who are you!”
He fell backward on his rear.
“State your affiliation and name! I am Captain Lucain of the Vilotian Empire Army!”
“Lucain?”
“You’ve heard my name, haven’t you?”
“Never heard it.”
“Born from the Erbe Mountains, a soldier who rose to become an officer—the second commoner to achieve such rank—and the composer of the Isabel Hymn. You’re telling me you don’t know Captain Lucain?”
“All I see is a fool spouting nonsense out of sheer nervousness.”
“Listen here.”
“What?”
“You really don’t know?”
“Know what?”
Lucain suddenly erupted in fury.
He could tolerate many things, but ignorance of the Isabel Hymn was absolutely unforgivable.
“Then I’ll teach you!”
“….”
“The Isabel Hymn.”
He approached and began teaching it earnestly.
Kadelina listened with one ear and let it pass through the other, smiling wickedly.
‘He’s rather cute, isn’t he?’

* * *
Arun spoke.
“You said you’d bring a betrothal gift. Now you really have to marry me.”
“L-let’s just go back for now.”
Isabel’s face flushed as she recalled what had just happened.
‘Did I… did I really interlock my fingers with him?’
And they had shared a kiss—or something close to it.
It had been too desperate before for her to fully register it, but now she felt it clearly.
‘That… that was definitely a kiss!’
Without thinking, she tensed her toes.
She forcibly suppressed the urge to bounce on her feet.
“L-let’s go back to my family first. I need to let them know I’m alive.”
“Promise me you’ll marry me first.”
“I can only agree to marriage after returning to my family.”
At those words, Arun lifted Isabel into his arms.
“We’ll warp there.”
He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
It was not a simple kiss—he had woven magic into it.
“W-what did you do?”
“I altered your face and appearance slightly. We can’t have too much commotion. Hold on tight.”
Arun chanted the dragon’s incantation.
In that instant, Arun and Isabel’s bodies vanished to somewhere else.
The two appeared at a Transportation Gate.
‘This place is….’
It was Isabel Square.
Countless people had gathered to celebrate, and my biological father was giving a speech from a distant platform.
‘Wow… there are really so many people.’
The crowd was so dense that there was barely room to stand.
They had all gathered to honor Isabel’s death, and were enjoying the festival with wine and bread as she had requested.
“…Therefore, as the ruler of this Empire, I command you all. My daughter, the Empire’s daughter, Isabel’s….”
Ron stopped speaking.
The faces of the event coordinators turned ashen.
“W-wait, why isn’t the sound coming through?”
“Check the amplification device quickly! Hurry!”
They scrambled to respond, but it wasn’t a malfunction of the equipment.
Ron was staring blankly at something.
All of the countless crowd had vanished from his sight, and only a single figure remained in his eyes.
‘That child is….’
It was a girl with red hair he had never seen before, yet Ron recognized her at a glance.
Just as his daughter had recognized her disguised father in an instant.
‘I’ll go get her.’
Ron’s figure disappeared from the platform.

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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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