I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 31

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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 tilted my head in confusion.
I almost found myself repeating those words without thinking.
“Huh? Orc—…”
Viscount Biatonn hastily covered my mouth and condensed mana to fashion a small earplug, which he promptly inserted into my ear.
The sensation felt oddly squishy.
“I apologize. Please don’t listen.”
Remarkably, this earplug selectively filtered out only the most severe profanities with a sharp beep sound.
Viscount Biatonn furrowed his brow and spoke.
“Old man, I’d appreciate it if you’d watch your language in front of the young Princess.”
“She’s your Princess, not mine. I’m not an Imperial citizen.”
Tesleron chuckled with amusement.
His laughter was so irritating that Viscount Biatonn’s entire body trembled.
Wait, hold on. This is getting under my skin.
Watching him mock Viscount Biatonn filled me with indignation.
“Ah, so Viscount Tesleron is vulgar.”
“What?”
“Adults who curse in front of children are vulgar, you know.”
Tesleron blinked his eyes.
He seemed to want to argue back, but he didn’t seem particularly inclined to engage in a serious debate with a child.
“But I don’t think you’re a bad person.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because we’ve had such a happy journey here.”
Tesleron had set up an extensive magical barrier.
He disliked intruders, and even Arun, the male lead, had suffered injuries while seeking him out.
“If Viscount Tesleron were a bad person, you would have tormented me.”
“Hmph, my magical barriers simply malfunctioned.”
I nodded as if I understood and changed the subject.
“But Viscount Tesleron, do you really dislike Viscount Biatonn that much?”
“Of course. I despise him.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s human—an intruding human—a swordsman who is human and an intruder—and worse, a human intruder swordsman who uses magic too? He’s the very embodiment of everything I despise, a walking collection of my hatreds.”
I tilted my head in confusion.
“Then why haven’t you left?”
“This is my territory! Why would I flee from my own home?”
I had read it all in the novel.
Tesleron had actually quite liked Arun, the male lead.
I had even read his true thoughts directly.
「’If I hadn’t come to like you, I would have abandoned this place and left.’」
Which meant that Tesleron didn’t actually dislike Viscount Biatonn as much as he claimed.
If he truly hated him, Tesleron wouldn’t be here at all.
“People don’t avoid feces out of fear—they avoid it because it’s filthy. But Viscount Tesleron didn’t avoid me.”
“W-wait, Your Highness, I’m not feces.”
Viscount Biatone looked somewhat dejected, but what mattered now was persuading Tesleron.
I gave a light wink with my left eye, and Viscount Biatone broke into another broad smile.
“Though honestly, I don’t think it would matter even if I weren’t human.”
I thought I heard something strange, but I was too focused on Tesleron to catch it properly.
I spoke to Tesleron.
“Yet you’re still here despite seeing something far more repugnant than feces. And you didn’t even cast a single spell while we were searching for you.”
“Hmm….”
Tesleron stroked his beard.
“So, how old are you?”
“Six years old!”
“Such a tiny thing, yet you speak so eloquently. Come inside for now. Let me hear what you have to say.”
I quickly raised my arm and grasped Viscount Biatone’s hand.
If I didn’t restrain him like this, he would surely react strongly to comments like “tiny thing.”
Fortunately, Viscount Biatone didn’t have a fit.
We were able to enter the cabin safely.
* * *
Isabel engaged Tesleron in various conversations.
No matter what she said, Tesleron’s words always circled back to one conclusion: “I hate humans.”
Tesleron was a fervent animal lover.
He repeated several times that humans were inferior to animals and that animals were far more lovable.
That remained true even now.
“I’m telling you, I hate humans.”
“Then why did you pursue exchange research so diligently?”
“What’s a mage researching magic?”
Isabel knew all too well why Tesleron had been expelled from the Mirotell Magic Federation and why he had come to despise humans.
“Didn’t you actually want to help people?”
“Did the kid get altitude sickness? What nonsense are you spouting?”
Isabel quickly lowered her hand beneath the table and placed it on Biatone’s knee.
She had already sensed that Biatone’s patience was nearly at its limit.
She feared he might pour that scalding tea over Tesleron or draw his sword.
“I was quite puzzled why such a brilliant mage as Viscount Tesleron was expelled.”
Tesleron picked his nostril with his index finger as if uninterested.
“I thought perhaps there were simply too many wicked adults in this world.”
“….”
The finger picking at his nostril stopped.
Tesleron’s eyebrows twitched.
“Why do you keep spouting things as if you know everything?”
“Your research, Viscount Tesleron, was research that could have helped many people.”
At more affordable prices, anyone can easily enjoy the fruits of magical engineering civilization.
What only the privileged few can enjoy now, many will be able to enjoy.
That theory forms the foundation for it all.
“Bad adults never share what they clutch so tightly in their hands, do they?”
Magic is a privilege.
A precious right that only the privileged few can enjoy.
Tesleron wanted to share that right with everyone.
“That’s why the adults seemed to hate Viscount Tesleron’s research.”
That was the reason Tesleron was expelled from the Mirotell Magic Federation.
In truth, Tesleron loved people.
In his childhood, Tesleron had a dream.
He wanted to benefit people and make them happy.
“So they drove out and rejected Viscount Tesleron.”
Until then, Tesleron had not hated people.
Even after being expelled from the Magic Tower, he wanted to live as a mage for the people.
But it was ordinary people themselves who hounded him after his expulsion from the Magic Tower.
“Because of you, mage dispatches were refused!”
“You pathetic excuse for a mage.”
People did not trust Tesleron, a mage expelled from the prestigious Magic Tower.
Instead, they dragged him down further.
No one understood his sincerity, and he suffered daily violence and threats.
The young dream of becoming a mage for ordinary people shattered like that.
“I don’t think Viscount Tesleron is a bad person. I think Viscount Tesleron was right.”
Tesleron, who had been listening silently to Isabel’s words, snorted and turned his head sharply away.
“It’s all meaningless talk. It’s already in the past.”
“Viscount Tesleron is actually a good person, you know.”
Tesleron looked at Biatone as if bewildered.
“What is she saying?”
“She’s calling you a good person, old man.”
“Is it even possible to look that way?”
“Nothing is impossible for the Princess. The Princess is the embodiment of possibility itself.”
In truth, Biatone didn’t quite understand either.
He simply thought that perhaps what I cannot see might be visible to the Princess’s eyes, and left it at that.
Tesleron shook his head firmly.
Even by his own assessment, he could never appear as a good person.
“What exactly are you looking at to call me a good person?”
“You just seem like a good person.”
“Hmph, no logic, no context, acting just like a little child.”
“That’s because I am a child.”
Isabel held up six fingers.
“Six years old?”
“….”
“Six is just a child.”
Tesleron also found himself momentarily at a loss for words.
Because what Isabel said was absolutely true.
‘Sigh. How can a six-year-old be so precocious?’
Throughout our conversation, I had forgotten that Isabel was only six years old.
Of course, she appeared to be around ten at first glance, but regardless, Isabel had only lived for six years.
“I hope you’ll become a good adult, Viscount Tesleron.”
“Little one. The world doesn’t want good adults. It favors those with money and strength.”
“I like good adults.”
Isabel pointed at Biatone with her finger.
“That’s why I like Viscount Biatone so much.”
She moved her finger to point at Tesleron.
“I’ll like you too, Viscount Tesleron.”
“….”
Biatone slowly sipped his tea.
Today, the tea tasted particularly fragrant.
“And I am the Princess of Villorian. I can help you, Viscount Tesleron.”
Isabel did not appeal to emotion alone.
She needed a powerful incentive to move Tesleron.
She rolled up her wrist.
An hourglass-shaped mark became visible.
“A Narbidal mark?”
“Not just any princess, but a princess in quite a hurry.”
“….”
“So I can help you with all my strength, Viscount Tesleron.”
A person in a hurry.
Those who are desperate move with urgency.
“I’m in such a rush that every single day is precious. I have less time than others. I desperately need a good adult.”
“…Why do you speak so insistently of needing a good adult?”
In the novel, Arun had said this when persuading Tesleron.
「”Because I dream of a slightly more just world.”」
Isabel spoke.
“Because I dream of a slightly more precious world.”
“…So why?”
“The world gave me the gift of twenty-one years.”
“….”
“So I want to repay the world too.”
She was sincere.
That became the reason Isabel could live happily.
Isabel drove the wedge deeper.
“You know, there’s a ratel at the Imperial Palace who understands me perfectly when we talk?”
The eyes of Tesleron, the animal lover, began to shimmer with interest.
“Its fur is so soft and fluffy.”
With each word she spoke, Tesleron’s body trembled.
“And it smells of honey.”
“….”
“It’s incredibly cute.”
He swallowed hard.
“And incredibly brave.”
Unable to restrain himself any longer, he responded aloud.
“B-brave, you say?”
“It rides a snow sled incredibly, incredibly well.”
“Y-you mean it rides a snow sled? A ratel does?”
Tesleron, half-mesmerized by the image of a ratel conversing while riding a snow sled, swallowed thickly.
In his own way, he began asking very serious questions.

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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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