I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 74

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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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What Robena saw in her eyes was unmistakably fear.
Its size was no larger than a millet seed.
It was likely because Ron was concealing his heart, hiding it, and hiding it again.
‘But the depth of that tiny speck….’
Though he sought to conceal it, that depth was unfathomably profound.
That fear, so immense that no human could bear it, was an emotion capable of shattering an ordinary person’s mind.
‘Ron has learned fear?’
Robena couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
She sensed fear emanating from a man who seemed to know it not at all.
For Robena, it was quite fascinating and delightful.
“Now you seem somewhat human.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing at all.”
Robena’s mood had brightened considerably.
“In any case, Your Majesty, I’m in quite a good mood now. So would you lower that sinister blade of yours?”
“….”
“Very well. I’ll cancel taking five years from the Princess.”
Only then did Ron relax his stance and sheathe his sword.
“But I’m genuinely curious… if I hadn’t conceded, would you really have gone through with it to the bitter end?”
“….”
Silence was affirmation.
Robena exhaled a deep sigh.
“Really? You truly intended to do it? Heh, hehehehe!”
“Why do you laugh?”
“I sometimes wondered if Your Majesty might be a dragon, or perhaps a machine? But seeing you today, I know you’re not.”
The mere fact that Ron felt fear was deeply intriguing.
But what was even more amusing was that the source of this fear stemmed from love.
He loved Isabel so deeply that he feared like this.
‘Loving Isabel to such an extent, yet barely showing it before her.’
The entire situation painted itself in her mind.
Emperor Ron was perfect in every way and demonstrated mastery, but Father Ron seemed somewhat clumsy.
That’s why he donned that thick robe and hovered around Isabel.
Unable to step forward confidently before Isabel, he merely schemed from behind like this.
It was all rather awkward.
She laughed again unexpectedly.
‘Even that remarkable being experiences fatherhood for the first time.’
An absolute transcending human limits. Even such a being was experiencing fatherhood for the first time, and as a father, he was imperfect.
“So Your Majesty has things you cannot do.”
After laughing for a while, Robena continued speaking.
“I won’t take those five years from that child. But I must verify your sincerity. You should concede at least that much, Your Majesty.”
Robena and Ron spoke together for quite some time.
* * *
Isabel was known to be a mage from the Belloti Marquis family.
But the fact that she was actually not a fallen noble but a Princess became widely known.
“So she wasn’t a mage hiding her identity? I thought she had transformed herself into a young child through magic.”
“So she really was just a seven-year-old child?”
“Yes. Because she had a Villorian body, she appeared to be around ten years old.”
Rumors about Isabel spread like wildfire.
“Is that even possible?”
“It’s impossible.”
To ordinary people, mages were extraordinarily mysterious beings.
They were transcendent entities who summoned lightning and destroyed castles.
That was how mages appeared in the eyes of common folk.
And typically, such mages were elderly.
Magic was an incredibly difficult discipline, and it took an immensely long time to master it.
There was another reason the people were shocked.
“How could someone so adorable possibly be a mage?”
A mage as charming as Isabel had never even been used as material for fairy tales.
Mages were usually treated as strategic weapons.
If a fairy tale about such a cute mage like Isabel were published, it would certainly be ridiculed as an absurdly far-fetched story.
“I was quite shocked by it too, but what can we do when it’s the truth?”
There were far too many people who had directly witnessed Isabel’s magic for anyone to claim it was false.
“That pulley system was truly remarkable.”
“That’s not all. Among the volunteers who handle food, there’s been much praise for the Princess. What was it called again… air conditioning?”
And many people were curious about why Isabel had hidden her identity.
“Why did the Princess conceal her status?”
There were numerous opinions on the matter.
Among them, Hector’s opinion began to gain traction.
“I believe she did not wish to stand out particularly among the volunteers. Given her character, she must have thought all the volunteers were precious and valuable beings. In a place where everyone should shine, she simply did not want to shine alone.”
A few people who saw Hector murmured to each other.
“That guy’s eyes… something’s off about them.”
“Yeah, seriously.”
Hector’s eyes were glistening. It was the appearance of a fanatic consumed by a cult.
“Had Duke Robena not appeared, I believe she would have hidden her identity forever. We would have remembered, wouldn’t we? On some day, on some warm day, there was a beautiful mage in the form of a young girl. She made us all shine.”
As he launched into his speech, people began quietly drifting away from his vicinity.
But Hector paid no mind whatsoever.
He was the person who had watched Isabel from right beside her, and he prided himself on knowing her true heart better than anyone.
“She tried to hide herself until the very end. To avoid shining herself. To make everyone else shine. Without hesitation in difficult work, she gave her all to disaster recovery, sweating profusely—she was, to my knowledge, the most beautifully radiant member of the royal family I have ever known.”
Numerous journalists who caught the scent of a scoop rushed to the scene.
Yuli, the chief reporter of the Whispers, the most authoritative news publication on the continent, had also arrived.
‘How is this even possible?’
When conducting interviews about any person, there’s a common phenomenon that typically emerges.
‘If nine people praise someone, one person will inevitably criticize them….’
Even if not outright criticism, someone always finds fault.
This aspect was good, but that part fell short.
Yet regarding Princess Isabel, there wasn’t a single negative comment.
She was an experienced journalist, and she had grasped one thing with certainty.
‘Everyone here loves Princess Isabel.’
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they didn’t merely like her—they practically adored her.
“She was always more diligent than us. She even volunteered for the tedious digging work that everyone else avoided. While we dug ten times, she dug a hundred times, and when we were exhausted and frowning, only she smiled as brightly as the sun.”
“It’s a bit funny to say, but that radiant smile gave us tremendous strength.”
“I’ve never seen anyone smile so beautifully in my life. Just watching her made me happy.”
The volunteers spoke in unison, their words aligned.
‘I need some photographs.’
A camera was an extremely expensive magical engineering device.
It was so rare that only senior journalists received one.
Generally, obtaining photographs was incredibly difficult, but fortunately, one of her longtime friends was a recorder documenting the disaster site.
Yuli tilted her head in confusion.
“Wait, why is Princess Isabel in one out of every five photographs?”
“Well, that’s….”
The Isabel in the photographs looked slightly different from the Isabel she knew.
She had hidden her identity, so it seemed she’d altered her appearance somewhat.
But one thing was certain.
Even with her changed face, Isabel was smiling with immense happiness.
“No matter how lovely Princess Isabel is, why did the people recording the disaster site only record Princess Isabel like this and not the actual disaster? This is grounds for criticism.”
“Grounds for criticism, my foot.”
Michael, the recorder dispatched to document the disaster site, chuckled.
“The locations are all different. In this photo, she’s wearing a hard hat, in that one she’s pulling a pulley, in that one she’s in the makeshift kitchen, and in this one….”
“…Oh? You’re right?”
The backgrounds of the photographs were all different.
“I wasn’t following Princess Isabel around taking pictures—she was at every single site. As if she had ten bodies. If she were an ordinary person, she would’ve collapsed from overwork.”
“….”
“She was present at every single location. Wherever she was, everything truly sparkled and overflowed with vitality.”
Even that young girl worked so hard, volunteered with such happiness—we adults should do better.
That’s the kind of inspiration she stirred in people, he said.
Yuli stared intently at the photographs of Isabel.
As an experienced senior journalist, she could read Isabel’s expression in the photographs and discern her sincerity.
‘That smile isn’t forced. How is this even possible?’
She had fourteen years remaining.
She had to give five years to the Duke, so now only nine years remained.
Yet Isabel shone like sunlight itself.
“…Huh? Yuli, why are you crying?”
“It’s nothing, really.”
Yuli gently bit her lower lip.
She immediately made her way to the Royal Palace.
Since she had connections with Isabel, she was easily granted permission to meet with her.
“Reporter Yuli. It’s been so long!”
“Princess. There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you about.”
But at that moment, an emergency alarm began blaring throughout the entire Royal Palace.
Biatone entered the room without knocking.
Though his expression appeared composed, the fact that he had entered without knocking meant this situation was far from a leisurely one.
“T-Teacher, what’s happening?”

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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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