Limited Extra Time - Chapter 136

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

—— Page 1 ——

A Doomed Extra’s Time by Ja Eun-hyang — A Full-Length Romance Fantasy Novel

A Doomed Extra’s Time

Chapter 136

“Carina Leopold….”

His voice spilled forth thin and trembling, saturated with moisture.

The usual audacity was absent from his swollen throat. His shoulders quivered as tears streamed relentlessly down his cheeks.

“Live…. Please, stay by my side….”

Even knowing the words would never reach her, I felt as though I would suffocate and perish if I did not speak them aloud.

Millaiyen pressed his forehead against Carina Leopold’s shoulder as she lay motionless.

“Don’t leave me behind….”

His voice was on the verge of scattering into nothing.

She had already abandoned him and departed. In the moment she drew that painting, she surrendered her own life as the price to save his.

That truth pierced his heart ceaselessly.

He had grown accustomed to her presence. Already, the one who had cast herself into death—

—— Page 2 ——

how could he possibly save her?

How could he possibly prevent her from turning her back on this world?

After robbing her of an ordinary life and the miracles of the art she cherished so dearly…could she truly heed his selfish plea to remain for his sake?

Tears fell without cessation. I had never imagined that losing someone, that the anguish of loss, could be so terrifying.

My heart plummeted as if someone were dragging me deeper into an abyss of darkness.

As tears fell ceaselessly, Millaiyen reached out his hand, wiping Carina Leopold’s cheeks with clumsy fingers as his jaw clenched.

“Ugh….”

Millaiyen scrubbed his face roughly with the back of his hand. Emotions kept welling up inside him. Part of him wanted to destroy everything like a child and beg her to stay alive.

In that moment, Carina Leopold’s eyelids trembled faintly.

She forced open her heavy eyelids. Blinking several times as light suddenly seeped in, her eyes widened.

Millaiyen Pestellio, his eyes red-rimmed, kept rubbing his moist eyes with the back of his hand.

“…Mil, laiyen…?”

A hoarse voice emerged faintly, almost like a whisper. Though she hadn’t screamed, her throat felt as though it had reached its limit.

She tried to lift her arm to touch her throat, but her arm wouldn’t respond. She could barely move a single finger.

“Carina Leopold?”

Millaiyen called out her name, his eyes wide with emotion.

Carina Leopold smiled, an involuntary laugh escaping her lips as the corners of her eyes crinkled.

“Good evening, Millaiyen.”

—— Page 3 ——

At Carina Leopold’s greeting, Millaiyen’s face crumpled.

Seeing his wet face, I wanted to lift my arm and pat his back.

“What should I do? Millaiyen. I want to hold you, but my arms won’t move.”

“Then I’ll hold you instead.”

Millaiyen answered matter-of-factly and drew her into his embrace.

Even so, it was only Millaiyen who held her in his embrace. With trembling fingers, Carina gently patted the back of his hand.

“Millaiyen.”

“Yes.”

“I think I love you more than I realized. What should I do? I’m so reluctant to part with you.”

Millaiyen’s eyes widened at her words.

He shook his head. Since he hadn’t explained what had transpired after she collapsed, there was no helping it. Yet even knowing the truth, hearing her speak of the end was agonizing.

“You will live. I will save you. So do not worry.”

“…Wasn’t it that you couldn’t save Haron?”

“You… awakened the Dragon that slumbered in This Land.”

Carina’s eyes widened at Millaiyen’s words.

A Dragon? What did he mean? At her bewildered gaze, Millaiyen smiled silently.

In the drawing she had made then, only an inexplicable light had appeared…

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. It emerged and devoured all the Magical Beasts. What exactly did you wish for in that drawing?”

“I hoped you wouldn’t strain yourself because of me.”

Once his body recovered, he would have attempted to subjugate the Magical Beasts again to obtain Haron.

He would surely have been injured once more. A powerful existence capable of slaying Herta, the leader, had been necessary.

—— Page 4 ——

‘…I was somewhat mad.’

I surrendered myself to the encroaching madness. Though I achieved what I desired, I honestly hadn’t anticipated ending up like this.

Carina Leopold’s heavy eyelids fluttered open slowly.

“Yes, thanks to you, I’m perfectly fine.”

Millaiyen’s lips twitched. He attempted a forced smile, but ultimately his shoulders sagged and his head drooped.

Carina Leopold stiffened in surprise. Millaiyen took her hand and pressed it against his chest.

“But… this place is so tattered that I feel like I’m dying. I think I could have endured it better when my entire body was pierced with holes.”

“…Millaiyen.”

“Please, don’t. Don’t try to protect me. Don’t sacrifice yourself for anyone but me, Carina Leopold…”

It was a selfish and callous thing to say.

He had abandoned everything to protect himself, yet he demanded that she abandon nothing for him.

Millaiyen didn’t seem to realize that he was her only irreplaceable person.

“It’s only Millaiyen.”

“What…?”

“Only you can use me this way. You’re the one I would sacrifice my very life to protect… the one and only person in my world.”

Even if he wished to use this power for personal selfishness, she could not refuse him.

It had already become that way. At her words, Millaiyen’s fists clenched tightly.

“That’s… what I wanted to say.”

Millaiyen answered in a heavily suppressed voice.

“It seems Haron is an object formed from accumulated mana residue of the Dragon.”

“Really?”

—— Page 5 ——

“Yes, and the Dragon gave me Harun. He even showed me how to save you.”

Though Millaiyen spoke words of hope, his expression remained clouded. Carina Leopold gazed at that troubled face for a moment, then offered a faint smile. She understood the reason well enough.

After a brief silence, as if lost in thought, Carina Leopold parted her lips.

“Even if I survive this time, will I still die soon?”

“….”

Millaiyen could not bring himself to answer affirmatively.

It was not difficult to speak the words. But he could not bear to acknowledge them.

If he let those words escape his lips—if she nodded and accepted them—then it would become reality.

“Millaiyen.”

“Five years….”

“Five years?”

At Carina Leopold’s question, Millaiyen drew a deep breath.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, praying his voice would not waver. Hoping desperately that he could convince her.

“The life already surrendered as payment cannot be reclaimed. Instead, the Dragon proposed fusing your heart with a Dragon Heart.”

“A Dragon Heart?”

“Yes—merging Harun’s essence with your own heart.”

At Millaiyen’s words, Carina Leopold’s eyes widened in surprise, but she soon nodded with composure.

“I see.”

“By extending it that way… you would have five years to live.”

Millaiyen spoke as calmly as he could manage, but his composure finally crumbled at the end, his face contorting.

I gazed silently at Millaiyen’s crumpled expression—as though he might weep at any moment—and smiled without a word.

“That’s wonderful news. But why do you

—— Page 6 ——

look like you’re about to cry?”

“The story is long. Will you hear me out?”

“Of course. I always listen carefully to what you have to say, Millaiyen.”

She moved her feeble fingers with a delicate tremor, then carefully placed her hand over the back of his.

Millaiyen gently grasped her hand in return and opened his mouth to speak.

Throughout his entire account, Carina remained silent. She appeared deeply shocked and bewildered, yet she made no outward show of it.

Or rather, it seemed she was desperately struggling not to.

Perhaps that was the truest way to describe her efforts.

“…So from now on, you cannot use miracles, and no matter how grievously you’re wounded, you won’t die unless your heart is pierced?”

“Yes.”

Millaiyen clenched his fist and answered heavily.

I hadn’t wanted to speak these words. I had wished only to share good tidings with her, to see her smile in happiness.

That was all I desired.

“Still, I hope you’ll live. I know it’s selfish of me. If I ask this of you… Carina, will you hate me for it?”

“You’re asking me to become a monster, aren’t you, Millaiyen?”

At Carina’s cold voice, Millaiyen’s eyes widened. As I watched his shoulders tremble faintly, Carina smiled bitterly.

Yet despite everything, no denial came from him.

“…Were you planning to give up if I said that?”

“No.”

The answer came swift and resolute.

Carina Leopold nodded at Millaiyen’s words.

We had already decided to live. The answer was predetermined, and I still wanted to be by his side, even if it meant abandoning everything I held in my hands.

“A miracle is the only breath of air I discovered when I felt like I was suffocating to death

—— Page 7 ——

—it was you.”

“…Yes.”

“When I was struggling, you held me. When I cried, you comforted me. You moved exactly as I wished, exactly as I desired.”

Whenever I reached out my hand, you grasped it as if you had been waiting.

Whenever I wept, you seemed to anticipate it, extending your small hand to wipe away my flowing tears. Because that was what she so desperately wanted.

“But that was probably because I wished for it so earnestly. Because I offered a price in exchange. I prayed for you to save my lonely self.”

It was a miracle that would never have occurred in a lifetime if I hadn’t drawn pictures while making such wishes and offering that price.

“But now it’s different.”

Now I no longer needed to draw.

Because someone had appeared who would shed tears over my worries and fidget anxiously for me—without me having to draw while crying, without me having to offer my life as a price and make desperate wishes.

“Because Millaiyen is by my side.”

“…”

Millaiyen’s pupils trembled faintly. His eyes, which had widened like lanterns, slowly returned to their normal size.

Carina Leopold smiled hazily. Her eyelids were heavy, but she still had the strength to cling to consciousness.

“Millaiyen will stay by my side even without me paying a price, won’t he?”

“Yes…”

“You… won’t abandon me, will you?”

At Carina Leopold’s words, Millaiyen grasped her hand firmly and nodded.

Seeing the resolute gleam in his eyes, she gently relaxed her lips into a smile.

“Never. So let’s live.”

“Yes, I will.”

—— Page 8 ——

Millaiyen carefully bent down and pressed his lips against hers. At the faint saltiness of his lips, the corners of Carina Leopold’s mouth trembled slightly.

“Don’t cry. Your lips taste salty.”

Thinking of the anguish he must have endured alone, my chest tightened.

Deliberately keeping my voice gruff, I half-closed my blurred eyes as I spoke. Millaiyen smiled faintly and nodded.

“Let’s get some rest now.”

“Yes, I’m exhausted and need to sleep.”

Watching her heavy eyelids flutter open and closed repeatedly, he clenched his fists.

Sudden dread seized him.

Millaiyen reached out and grasped Carina Leopold’s wrist. Her slowly blinking eyelids lifted once more.

“…Millaiyen?”

At her drowsy voice, Millaiyen drew a sharp breath.

“Yes, Carina. Tomorrow…”

“Yes….”

“Tomorrow… morning, let’s see each other. I’ll wait for you.”

A voice heavy with exhaustion settled into place alongside a barely mustered smile.

Yet Carina could no longer bear the weight of her descending eyelids. She found herself unable to even form a proper response between her parted lips.

Soon, Carina’s eyes closed completely.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————