I Was Just Having Fun With The Time Limit - Chapter 91

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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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Before coming to Sky Island, Narmore had made a request of Isabel.
“If I ask for your agreement on something and say something, you must absolutely agree with me.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I’ll decide what to say depending on the situation. Your Highness, just agree with me.”
“Hmm….”
If someone else had said such a thing, I might have been more suspicious and given it further consideration, but this was Narmore.
We were already in the same boat, and the Narmore vessel was certain to sail steadily toward success.
“Understood.”
And now, in the debate hall.
Narmore spoke.
“Your Highness could not turn away from the starving poor people, so you personally ordered the development of ramen. That is why you are here now, enduring this hardship yourself. Is that not so?”
“….”
Isabel could not answer for a moment.
It wasn’t that I lacked such sentiments entirely, but truthfully, at first I simply wanted to eat ramen so badly.
If you put ramen in tteokbokki, it becomes rabokki, and I desperately wanted to try rabokki.
This was actually the biggest reason.
The reason being something like: I’ll eat everything I couldn’t eat in my past life!
“Your Highness does not usually promote or make efforts to publicize your own good deeds. Good deeds are merely the natural duty of the royal family, and you do not consider them a virtue. Your motto is to let your right hand not know what your left hand does. That is why you are being silent now.”
Me, me?
Unable to say those words, Isabel swallowed hard.
“That is precisely why the renowned chief reporter of the Whispers gave up everything she had and even entered Arena Palace. I cannot know the deepest thoughts of Reporter Yuli, but I suspect they are similar to mine. By the way, Reporter Yuli receives nothing from the Imperial Palace beyond basic food and lodging. This means she remains by Your Highness’s side out of pure goodwill. I am much the same. I am a person filled with laziness from head to toe.”
Indeed, he had been lounging about in the slums.
And then he met Isabel.
“Truth be told, I still find it terribly bothersome. I am a person who has never had any ambition whatsoever. I have no goals, and I consider idling about to be the highest value.”
Isabel nearly cried out.
A lie!
In the novel itself, Narmore Rocket becomes the wealthiest person on the continent—how could he be someone without any ambition?
The setting explicitly describes him as a miser!
Yet Narmore continued speaking shamelessly.
“It was Your Highness’s noble ideals that transformed me. Had it not been for Your Highness, I would still be idling away my days in the alleys of the slums, thinking that I was already resting but wanted to rest even more passionately.”
Maresents frowned slightly.
“What exactly is the point you’re trying to make?”
“What could Princess Isabel possibly lack that she would create such food—something those esteemed association officials over there don’t even consider food—ramen? What benefit could she possibly gain from doing this? At best, there’s nothing to gain, and all she gets is caught up in scandal. Could you not have anticipated that something like this would happen today? You are someone who has already faced numerous obstacles through the Teisabel Teleportation Gate.”
“Hmph, you’re not trying to hide the fact that Narmore Corporation will soon belong to the Princess, are you? Who doesn’t know about your impure intentions to make money off the entire continent?”
Narmore grinned.
From the moment they built the ramen factory, he naturally knew such words would come.
A shocking statement burst from his lips.
“Narmore Corporation has not profited a single coin from ramen.”
We sold ramen at prices nearly equal to cost. The profit margin was virtually nonexistent.
Originally, this was Narmore’s strategy.
I believed this was the early stages of the business, a time when aggressive investment was necessary.
People gathered meant money earned.
I judged that drawing crowds and raising reputation took priority over immediate profits.
Besides, with the active support of the Kingdom of Alpea, I could afford the short-term losses.
“I can disclose all accounting records. Narmore Corporation is selling and distributing ramen without any profit whatsoever!”
‘That’s how I’ll make the real money!’
Narmore displayed timely indignation, slamming his hand on the table with a sharp crack.
“I simply wish to prevent misunderstandings about Princess Isabel’s beautiful and noble intentions. Profiting off the continent? On what grounds do you make such accusations?”
“That, that is…!”
His tone was somewhat disrespectful for someone of commoner origin, yet among the thirty thousand spectators, no one pointed this out.
“And what are these esteemed members of the culinary associations doing? You inject food through needles and call it dangerous, you feed lethal doses of vitamins and call it dangerous. This clearly looks like forced fault-finding. Isn’t this rather suspicious?”
“That, that’s not….”
“Why? Because it pales in comparison to your refined cuisine? Is ramen, which can simply fill a hungry child’s belly, garbage, while only food prepared with care by renowned chefs counts as food? Is the compassion that couldn’t turn away a hungry child so filthy and ugly? Why do you so distort the beautiful and noble heart of a Princess who is merely seven years old? I find your true intentions highly suspect. In truth, it seems to you esteemed ones that ‘proper food,’ cleanliness, formality matter more than the reality of the poor starving to death, doesn’t it? Is only what you esteemed ones eat considered food, while what the poor eat is garbage?”
It was the moment Narmore, the head of Narmore Corporation, made his mark before thirty thousand spectators.
* * *
Robena, the Duke of the North and master of Sky Island, sat in the VIP section with her legs crossed.
‘That fellow has some skill.’
Narmore, the representative of Narmore Corporation.
He elevated Isabel while immersing himself in filth.
‘Dividing sides and fostering conflict—that’s the first strategy of agitation.’
To Robena, Narmore was a schemer and an agitator. She judged he had likely taken on this role deliberately for Isabel’s sake.
‘He divided people into two classes—the poor and the esteemed—and heated up the atmosphere.’
Many people who had vaguely thought ramen was dangerous began to reconsider.
‘The perception will strengthen that the culinary association’s chefs fabricated false rumors because they hated their territory being invaded.’
Isabel’s earlier logical arguments would serve as evidence for this.
Robena smiled wickedly.
‘She’s gathered such good people around her.’
She understood well why good people gathered around Isabel.
In Robena’s own heart, a desire to become a good person for Isabel was stirring.
Isabel possessed such power.
“Might I propose a mediation?”
Robena’s voice was soft, yet it reached the debaters and the thirty thousand spectators clearly.
It was mana control so delicate and precise that an ordinary mage could never dream of achieving it.
In an instant, the venue fell silent.
“Isabel has one friend she cherishes more than her own life. For that friend, she was willing to give up five years of her fourteen-year lifespan. Those who know of this will understand, and since I am the party involved in that matter, I have nothing to say regarding its truth.”
A friend for whom one could sacrifice five of fourteen remaining years.
That was worthy of being called a true friend.
Everyone seemed to agree with this.
“Isabel, if the ramen and MSG you speak of are truly safe, then you could feed them to that friend as well, couldn’t you?”
For reference, that friend’s name was Kim Beolggwol, and she was currently sitting on Duke Robena’s lap.
Though our first meeting was tumultuous, Kim Beolkkot had opened his heart to Duke Robena.
[I’ll eat as much as you want.]
Kim Beolkkot was confident in his exceptional physical abilities.
The VIP section was positioned at the highest point within the arena, and Kim Beolkkot suddenly sprinted and leaped toward the sky.
[I can fly! The sky!]
He spread his limbs wide like a flying squirrel.
He seemed to leap high into the heavens, but a ratel was not a flying squirrel—it was a ratel.
No matter how confident in his jumping ability, flying was beyond his reach.
Kim Beolkkot plummeted toward the spectator stands.
Duke Robena shook her head slowly.
“Quite the independent spirit, aren’t you.”
Where did such magnificent confidence come from, thinking he could jump from here all the way to that debate stage?
Duke Robena snapped her fingers with a sharp click.
Kim Beolkkot ceased his fall. Instead, he gained a strange propulsive force and soared forward.
Kim Beolkkot believed it was his own power.
[See that?]
[Call me. Flying Kim Beolkkot.]
Kim Beolkkot landed on the debate stage.
Unable to contain his desire, Kim Beolkkot rushed straight to Isabel and nuzzled against her affectionately.
The moderator looked toward the VIP section.
“You mentioned he was a friend…?”
“Yes. That ratel. The child Isabel risked her own life to save.”
Kim Beolkkot was brimming with confidence.
[Kim Beolkkot is omnivorous.]
[Ramen. I’ll eat a hundred bowls.]
Maresents gauged the atmosphere.
‘The momentum has completely shifted to their side. At this rate, we’ll lose decisively.’
She had underestimated them for being children and now faced a predicament.
They had few options remaining.
Since the Northern Duke herself had stepped in to mediate, it was difficult for Maresents’ side to mount further objections.
‘All I can hope for is that he vomits while eating… or gets an upset stomach.’
* * *
In the end, Kim Beolkkot ate the ramen.
[Slurp.]
Isabel’s most precious friend had eaten ramen.
[One more bowl!]
[One more bowl!]
Kim Beolkkot consumed a total of five bowls of ramen.
This debate was an overwhelming victory for Isabel.
However, something neither Isabel nor Narmore had anticipated unfolded that very night.

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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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