Limited Extra Time - Chapter 1

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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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The Time of a Doomed Extra

A Full-Length Romance Fantasy Novel by Ja Eun-hyang

The Time of a Doomed Extra

Chapter 1

Prologue

“Your Grace, your fiancée, the young lady of Leopold House, has arrived.”

“…What? What day is it? The wedding isn’t scheduled for another year.”

“Yes, but… it is indeed the young lady Carina Leopold.”

The man, who had been occupied with processing documents, lifted his head with a sharp, piercing gaze.

He clicked his tongue and rose from his seat. What on earth could bring her from the Southern Territory all the way to the Northern Territory without a single word of warning?

His crimson eyes flashed with irritation at the interruption to his work.

His bloodshot eyes flashed sharply, irritated at being interrupted from his work.

The man’s tone was sharp—his nerves frayed to their limit by the recent, sudden surge of demonic creatures in the Northern Territory.

Millaiyen Pestellio, the Duke, spoke with cutting precision.

Behind him, the Duke’s butler, Peng, felt his face flush with dismay.

“Tch. What was Father thinking, arranging such an absurd political marriage before he passed? I’d drag him from his grave just to hear his excuses.”

The words were disrespectful, yet Peng could say nothing in response.

It was a rude remark, but Peng couldn’t say anything in response.

Frankly, Millaiyen was buried under work and battles against magical beasts

and had no time to deal with women.

Moreover, now was the season when he had to manage his territory busily in preparation for the coming winter.

Yet out of nowhere came news of his fiancée’s visit.

Aside from seeing her face at the one simple betrothal ceremony held, he could honestly say he had never laid eyes on her even once.

She seemed to have no interest in Millaiyen, and naturally, Millaiyen had no interest in her either.

I had no interest in her.

“Breaking the engagement now would be difficult, wouldn’t it?”

“…”

Peng, who always answered with crisp precision, gave no response this time.

‘Irritating me in every conceivable way.’

As Millaiyen, whose sensitivity was more acute than someone starved for five days, glared and turned his head, I caught sight of Peng’s gaze fixed toward the entrance.

‘Tsk, he heard everything.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly. At the end of Peng’s line of sight stood my fiancée.

She was gazing toward me with an expression that seemed far paler than when I had seen her before.

Thinking I should offer an explanation, I opened my mouth.

“What I just said…”

“Breaking the engagement sounds good to me.”

“…What did you say?”

“Your Excellency and I are scheduled to marry in approximately one year, correct?”

Millaiyen listened with arms crossed, his posture rigid as he tried to comprehend what Carina was saying.

He listened to her words with a faint sense of irritation.

Standing before documents that recorded three days of sleepless work, he was extraordinarily on edge. Indeed, the shadows beneath his eyes were pronounced and dark.

“To be blunt, I would like to stay here for somewhere between six months and ten months.”

“…Have you lost your mind, Miss Leopold?”

Millaiyen asked in genuine bewilderment.

It was crude language that most nobles would never use, yet he found himself unable to refrain.

Carina’s coarse brown hair swayed at her waist. Her deep blue eyes fixed directly upon Millaiyen.

“In exchange, I will dissolve our engagement when I leave this place.”

“…Surely you’re not suggesting you’ve run away from home at your age?”

“At this age, marriage is natural. It’s less than a year anyway. Six months at the shortest, ten months at the longest. I noticed there appears to be a separate annex somewhere on the grounds—that would be fine instead of this manor. As you can see, I’ve brought nothing with me. Oh, but I did bring the dissolution documents.”

She removed a single sheet of paper from a shabby cloth bag, her bare hands flushed red from the cold, and displayed it to him.

Millaiyen’s expression twisted.

Where on earth had she procured that pathetic cloth bag that looked as though it belonged in a waste bin?

“…Are Leopold House’s circumstances truly so dire?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Carina tilted her head in confusion.

Realizing his gaze had fixed upon the cloth bag in her hand, she shook her head. She had simply purchased it cheaply from someone who was discarding it.

“If I carried an expensive bag, I might have encountered trouble during such a long journey.”

“How on earth did you travel such a vast distance?”

“I paid for carriages and rode them to suitable stops, then walked, or hitched rides with merchant caravans along the way.”

Leopold County lies at the very edge of the Southern Territory. The Count rarely ventures to the Capital, so she had journeyed from Leopold County

all the way to the Duchy at the northern frontier where he resided. Even with a private carriage and without rest, the journey would consume a full month.

Millaiyen’s expression darkened.

“When exactly did you depart?”

“Two months ago.”

“Not a single word of contact in all that time—but before that, what possessed a sheltered noblewoman who knows nothing of the world to traverse such a treacherous path alone?”

“…Perhaps because this will be my first journey and my last.”

Carina Leopold spoke words laden with meaning.

Through the wide-open entrance of the mansion,

a chill wind swept in. She gazed silently at the stern-faced nobleman before her and opened her mouth.

“I wanted to accomplish something with my own strength, by my own steps, just once.”

This journey was her first act—the first thing she had chosen to do of her own volition.

With the precious time remaining, she intended to spend it doing as she wished.

‘Her last journey?’

Millaiyen’s expression grew peculiar.

Indeed, a noblewoman could hardly undertake such a reckless journey twice. He shook his head slowly.

It was fortunate nothing had happened; otherwise, she would have faced true hardship.

“Is that not possible?”

“And if I refuse?”

“I have a backup plan as well. I could always join some merchant guild at a lower rank and do odd jobs while traveling around—”

“Should I go…?”

I had considered it, but truthfully, my health was not in good condition.

Whether from exposure to the cold wind or something else, ever since arriving in this territory, I found myself losing focus at odd moments.

My plan had been to remain here quietly, painting and taking short journeys to nearby places, all while preparing for the end.

“Ha!”

Millaiyen was utterly taken aback.

Beyond her audacious words, the very atmosphere around her was so different from when I had seen her before that I could scarcely believe

she was the same person.

Carina Leopold shrugged at his reaction.

“In truth, I never expected you to refuse, so the backup plan was merely something I imagined in passing.”

“Why is that?”

“You dislike me, sir. From the moment we first met at the betrothal ceremony,

I could see it in your eyes—that look of displeasure.”

When Millaiyen’s expression turned bewildered, she added her words with unmistakable pride.

“I’m quite good at reading such things. That’s why I felt certain this opportunity would not slip away.”

Carina Leopold waved the paper before him once more.

Millaiyen glanced at Carina, his fingertips flushed crimson from the heat. Regardless, he couldn’t very well leave an unexpected guest standing in the entryway.

He gestured toward the interior. “Come inside.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll live as though I’m barely here—as if I don’t exist at all. When I disappear one day, just assume I’ve left. Think of me as nothing more than an annoying wart that finally fell off.”

At Carina’s words, Millaiyen exhaled a weary sigh.

Her pallid complexion stirred an inexplicable guilt within him—guilt he had no legitimate reason to feel.

Feeling somewhat wronged, he fixed her with another scrutinizing gaze.

Though she tried to hide it, she trembled visibly from the cold. Millaiyen swallowed back the words forming on his tongue.

“Peng, prepare a suitable vacant room for her at once. And have the attendant draw a bath.”

“Very good, sir.”

“We’ll talk after you’ve bathed, Miss Leopold.”

Carina followed Peng, who was dressed in a neat butler’s uniform, leaving Millaiyen’s scrutinizing gaze behind. He promptly made his way to his study.

Mountains of unfinished work awaited him.

Millaion glanced at her retreating figure and headed straight to his office.

There was a mountain of unfinished work piling up.

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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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