I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 4

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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 biological father gazed at me with emotionless eyes.
“If you truly understand what I’m saying, blink your eyes.”
His voice was terribly cold.
Then, Viscount Biatonn stepped forward.
He knelt respectfully on one knee and spoke with proper courtesy.
“Since Your Majesty has asked me to provide proof, if you would simply trust and entrust this to me, I shall take full responsibility and demonstrate it.”
“Granted.”
Viscount Biatonn, still kneeling on one knee, rotated his body halfway and met my gaze.
It felt as though sunlight itself was pouring down upon me.
The rumors of his beauty were true.
He spoke to me in a remarkably affectionate and playful tone.
“Blink blink blink blink, Your Highness! Will you blink your eyes for me?”
His pitch had risen considerably.
“Blink~ blink!”
It was the exemplary and textbook manner in which adults interact with infants.
Without thinking, I burst into laughter.
I opened my eyes wide.
“Blink blink!”
I blinked my eyes.
Viscount Biatonn blinked his eyes exactly as I did.
As I blinked, it seemed as though he was mirroring my every movement.
I felt like I had become a magician.
Giggle.
Laughter burst forth.
“Now, Your Highness, this time we’ll do it twice. Twice. You understand, yes?”
Viscount Biatonn covered his face with his hand.
Whether his hand was large or his face was small, his entire face was hidden.
Thump thump.
My heart raced.
‘So, this must be the peekaboo game I’ve only heard about.’
When would that beautiful face emerge?
When would he reveal himself?
As an infant, I was instinctively thrilled.
“Blink~ blink! Blink~ blink!”
“Giggle!”
I burst into another round of laughter and focused my eyes intently.
I blinked twice.
“Blink blink! Blink blink!”
It was so entertaining that my pride was wounded.
My pride was wounded, yet because I was thrilled by it all, my pride was wounded all over again.
But it was truly so much fun.
“Your Majesty. The Princess blinked her eyes twice in succession. Would you accept this as evidence?”
“….”
My Biological Father stared down at me intently before opening his mouth.
“What is your name?”
“Isabelle!”
I bowed slightly at the waist. I spoke with careful politeness.
“Isabelle, I am, me, that.”
Uh, uh.
My head was so disproportionately heavy that I lost my balance and fell—wait, no, I didn’t fall.
‘He picked me up?’
There was none of that classic romance novel princess-in-arms carry.
My Biological Father held me with an expression as if he were looking at a pathetic fish that couldn’t even support its own body.
Using only his thumb and index finger, the way he picked me up looked exactly like he was grabbing trash.
I flailed in the air like a fish caught on a fishing line.
‘Argh! What is this ridiculous sight!’
The fact that I was being held up in such a comical manner was bearable enough.
What truly wounded my pride was that I found even this amusing.
‘This is… humiliation while soaring through the air?’
Saying it that way sounds too pathetic, so I should just call it ascending humiliation.
It was a strange experience tasting both joy and humiliation simultaneously.
“Then what is my name?”
“Ron! Ron Vilotian, that is.”
“Did you choose me?”
“Yes, I did.”
“So you truly understand all my words and answer accordingly.”
“Yes, I did.”
Viscount Biatonn added on.
“Is it not also true that Your Majesty is the sharpest blade in the Empire?”
“Yes, I did.”
“….”
“Perhaps that blade was the most magnificent?”
“Yes, I did!”
My Biological Father continued with an indifferent expression as if my answers were of no consequence whatsoever.
“The Princess has chosen a blade.”
He asked Viscount Biatonn.
“What blade did the Princess choose?”
“Ron Vilotian, the final blade of the Sword Art Empire Villorian, and Your Imperial Majesty himself has been chosen.”
No one had anticipated this development, so everyone fell silent.
The Sword Scholars seemed to be in the same state.
“Therefore, let the scribe record this. The Princess’s choice this day.”
* * *
In the end, the assassin never appeared.
Judging by the atmosphere, my choice didn’t seem to be a bad one.
‘Successfully twisted the original story.’
That so-called law of original story preservation—it seemed like no such law actually existed.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me.
It was the same dizziness I felt every time before losing consciousness.
Whenever this happened, the nurses would bustle about frantically, and I could only open my eyes much later.
‘I’m scared.’
The fear I had briefly forgotten consumed me.
Was it the law of original story preservation? Since I twisted the original, was punishment falling upon me?
‘I don’t want this.’
If I lost consciousness like this, I felt certain I would wake up in the hospital ward again.
A hospital filled only with the smell of medicine, without Mother, without my Biological Father, without anyone. What if I returned to how things were?
‘I don’t want this!’
I didn’t want to lose consciousness.
I didn’t want to suffer like that again.
‘Please. I’ll be good. I promise.’
Someone once told me.
That I was born this way because I committed sins in my past life.
‘I won’t commit any sins. I’m fine with just living until I’m twenty-one. I’ll really, truly live virtuously.’
I didn’t want to return to that time.
I desperately pleaded with someone.
‘I’ll protect all these people here too. I won’t even be greedy asking to be loved. I’ll just live diligently for twenty-one years. I’ll leave behind such precious gifts before I go. Please, just let me live until then. Please.’
This dreamlike time felt as though it would shatter.
So I desperately clung to my fading consciousness.
‘No… I can’t…!’
I lost consciousness anyway.
And when I opened my eyes again, I felt something strange.
An unfamiliar sensation.
No—a warmth I had never felt even once in my entire life.
‘It’s warm.’
I was being held by someone.
Remarkably, my Biological Father had been holding me all this time.
‘I’m being held.’
The fact that someone was there to hold me. That someone was my Biological Father.
What might be obvious to others was a miracle to me.
My Biological Father’s embrace, which I had never felt in my past life, was vast and warm.
It was a warmth I had never experienced in the hospital.
“Waaah!”
Tears burst forth against my will.
I clutched tightly at my biological father’s shirt front.
As if I would never let go.
“Waaah! Mine!”
Then suddenly, the back of my neck grew cold.
‘I have to hold it together.’
The Vilotian Royal Family was originally the Iron-Blooded Imperial House, devoid of blood and tears.
No matter how much I inhabited an infant’s body, a whimpering child would fall out of favor.
‘I don’t want to be abandoned again.’
I desperately tried to suppress my tears, but the floodgates that had already opened showed no sign of closing.
My biological father muttered as if annoyed.
“What a noisy child.”
I found myself missing my mother.
Babies seek out their mothers like that—it must be instinct.
The selection ceremony had ended, and only my biological father and Viscount Biatonn remained in the room.
“Since you seem quite troubled, I shall take her into my care.”
“Do as you see fit.”
Viscount Biatonn lifted me into his arms.
At that moment, I was able to stop crying.
“You’ve stopped crying now that I’m holding you, I see.”
Glancing up, Viscount Biatonn was grinning widely.
“It seems my embrace is more comfortable, Your Majesty.”
“It must be because your muscles have softened.”
Viscount Biatonn, holding me with utmost care, gently patted my back with tender hands.
Those careful and affectionate touches made my heart flutter and my body grow drowsy.
“Yes, let us attribute it to my softened muscles.”
Without thinking, I burrowed into Viscount Biatonn’s chest.
The embrace of the childcare master Viscount Biatonn was truly comfortable.
“For the sake of the young princess, I wouldn’t mind if my muscles softened entirely.”
“….”
“I shall hold her carefully and escort her to her chamber.”
Viscount Biatonn walked carefully while cradling me in his arms.
It felt as though I were floating upon clouds.
Viscount Biatonn walked down the corridor with me in his arms.
He whispered very softly.
“It seems an expression has appeared on Your Majesty’s face. How delightful.”
A smile so radiant it was almost blinding came into view.
He gazed at me with a heart full of love.
“Well, the princess is so adorable that if she didn’t show any expression, she’d be a beetle, not a person.”
I burst into laughter without realizing it.
“Viscount Biatonn, I like you.”
How could I not like him?
Someone so affectionate and thoughtful, yet one of his character traits is being a former assassin and sword demon—it made no sense.
This had to be the author’s mistake.
“Really?”
“Mm.”
Viscount Biatonn, looking flustered, rubbed his cheek against mine repeatedly.
Though it was the cheek of a sturdy adult man, it wasn’t rough at all. It felt like soft, pillowy dough.
Viscount Biatonn laid me down in my crib.
He placed a light kiss on my forehead.
It felt like a fluffy jelly had touched my forehead.
‘He’ll probably give the Villorian salute and greeting before leaving, right?’
To the righteous sword path, radiant glory.
“To righteous cuteness, radiant love.”
If someone else said it, I’d cringe, but coming from Viscount Biatonn, it felt completely natural.
Indeed, the completion of words is the face.
‘Ugh… I’m sleepy.’
I couldn’t resist sleep.
I fell asleep without even saying goodbye to Viscount Biatonn.
I repeated an endless cycle: sleeping when drowsy, eating when awake, and the rest after eating.
* * *
Several months passed.
In that time, my vocabulary skills grew by leaps and bounds.
“Mama mama mama! Hold me (please).”
At my request to be held, Mother smiled as if she had gained the whole world.
“How does she speak so well? Could this child be a genius? Even among the palace scholars, this is the first child with such rapid language development.”
“It’s not just language development. I hear her emotional expression is remarkably rich yet mature. It’s truly amazing how cute she is while having such an adult-like side.”
Luluka praised me with genuine enthusiasm.
And praise made the baby dance.
Bouncing and swaying.
My hips moved on their own.
“Moreover, she’s even memorized the Ancestral Oath. I’ve heard that fewer than 0.1% of children in the Mirotell Magic Federation memorize the Ancestral Oath.”
“Really?”
“Yes! The princess is definitely a genius.”
Mother and my nanny always observed me with affectionate eyes.
I didn’t dislike that attention.
No, let me be honest.
It wasn’t just that I didn’t dislike it—I genuinely loved that attention so very much.
‘I never knew I could be such an attention seeker.’
And at last, the long-awaited day had arrived.

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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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