Limited Extra Time - Chapter 140

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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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—— Page 1 ——

Soft light seeped through the darkness beneath my eyelids, which had fallen like a curtain.

I grasped at my consciousness, which had sunk to profound depths, and moistened my lips.

“…Millaiyen.”

“Carina Leopold?”

Millaiyen lifted his head slowly, his voice trembling with disbelief. At the anxiety I sensed in his wide-open eyes, I offered a faint smile.

The corners of my eyes curved gently as our gazes met.

‘Golden eyes?’

Millaiyen’s eyes widened upon discovering that they were not the familiar blue he knew.

I turned my head as though gauging the time of day. My golden eyes shifted toward the window.

—— Page 2 ——

It was a night drenched in moonlight.

The full silver moon, and the breeze flowing through the slightly ajar window, awakened the consciousness that had been dormant within me.

Without deep contemplation, I understood. This was my final hour.

I lowered my head and clenched and unclenched my hands.

‘Still, I can move.’

I can reach him.

Summoning every ounce of remaining strength, I extended my arms and gently cradled both sides of his face in my hands.

“Carina Leopold… your body…”

“Millaiyen.”

At his low voice, Millaiyen’s eyes clouded with unease.

“Yes.”

“I love you.”

In our locked gazes, I could see only warmth.

Millaiyen froze in place.

She stared intently at his wide-open eyes. For some reason, my chest felt heavy.

As Millaiyen struggled to compose himself, Carina Leopold’s lips parted slowly once more.

“In all my life… for the first time, I gave you my entire heart. I began to want to live.”

“…”

At words that sounded like a final farewell, Millaiyen found himself unable to speak.

He looked up at her urgently.

Her eyes, twisted with an apologetic and pitiful expression, kept catching his attention.

“To me, Millaiyen is irreplaceable. That life could be this joyful, that I could be this happy simply by opening my eyes each morning—you taught me all of it.”

“Carina Leopold, I too… I feel the same way. Because you exist, my life

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became joyful. Because you exist, I resolved to live with all my strength.

Millaiyen answered urgently.

‘So please don’t speak as though you’re leaving.’

As he was about to add more, he found himself gazing blankly at Carina Leopold, who smiled more radiantly and beautifully than ever before.

“Yes, thank you.”

I gently caressed his cheek, which Carina Leopold held in her grasp.

“And I’m sorry. I lied to you.”

“…It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”

He shook his head urgently in response. Whether he had lied a hundred times or a thousand times made no difference whatsoever.

At that plaintive expression, Carina Leopold fell silent. She pressed her forehead against his once, then opened her mouth to speak.

“You know, I don’t think I’ll be able to see you tomorrow morning.”

“…No, you will be fine.”

He forced a smile and shook his head like a child.

As if unwilling to accept the truth before his eyes. Carina Leopold gently stroked his disheveled hair.

“Things might work out and I might open my eyes again… but if they don’t, I felt like the lie I told you would be my last.”

“…You will be fine.”

He barely managed to answer, forcibly suppressing the surge of emotion welling up inside him.

Carina Leopold nodded.

“Yes, I hope so.”

Her whispered voice was fragile, as if it might scatter at any moment.

Millaiyen Pestellio urgently wrapped his arms around her waist.

With her hand still cradling his cheek, Carina Leopold lowered her head and pressed her lips against Millaiyen Pestellio’s.

At the sudden touch of soft warmth,

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Millaiyen Pestellio’s eyes widened greatly.

It was an awkward, fleeting kiss. Merely lips meeting lips—nothing like the deep, passionate kisses we shared on ordinary days.

“Carina Leopold…, don’t….”

His expression crumpled as though he might weep.

“I had so much I wanted to say, but time slipped away.”

Carina Leopold’s body swayed violently. The hand cradling her cheek went limp, and her arm dropped to the floor with a soft thud.

Millaiyen’s eyes widened in alarm. He rushed to catch her falling form.

“…Carina Leopold?”

“Millaiyen, I… just need to rest for a moment….”

Her eyes slowly closed.

Millaiyen bit down hard on the soft flesh inside his cheek, as though trying to silence a scream of protest.

The metallic taste of blood brought a sliver of clarity.

He carefully laid her on the bed and brushed the tangled strands of hair from her face.

“…Yes, sleep well.”

Millaiyen clenched his fists.

“In the morning, we’ll see each other…. I’ll wait.”

Carina Leopold forced her lips upward into a strained smile.

She didn’t answer. She lacked the strength, and besides, her vision was fading into darkness.

Even his voice grew distant, receding further away.

“No matter which morning it is, I don’t care. If the journey grows difficult, you can rest. Take your time—just come back to me.”

Carina Leopold’s head, wearing a faint smile, tilted to the side and fell.

Millaiyen’s head bowed heavily. The smile that had graced her lips faded slowly away.

The chest that had risen and fallen came to stillness. The heart that had circulated blood and offered its faint warmth no longer beat—as if it had simply ceased to exist.

—— Page 5 ——

Everything that had kept her alive had stopped.

My insides felt hollow, as though I had carved out my own heart.

My entire body burned with heat, and my eyes stung with tears. I could not ask her to stay, could not beg her not to go. For no one wanted to remain more than she did.

“You never asked to be saved, not even to the very end.”

So that neither I nor Periel would be consumed by guilt should we fail.

Even in that final moment of death, she had not voiced a single selfish desire. She had not uttered one greedy wish.

“Since you did not weep….”

My subdued voice fell with aching weight.

Soon, droplets fell one by one onto the pristine white bed, leaving dark stains in their wake.

Watching them spread, I clenched my teeth.

“Then I have no choice but to weep.”

Loss, emptiness, and the dread that had finally materialized before my eyes—all of it gripped my heart in anguish.

Millaiyen stood motionless in that place, tears streaming silently down my face.

There was no one left to cry out to, no one left to pull close and seek warmth from.

Carina Leopold was dead.

Sooner than expected, leaving my world turned inside out.

The vibrant world had transformed into grayscale in an instant.

Carina Leopold was dead.

Word of her death spread within days, reaching from the Northern Territory through the Capital and into the Southern Territory.

Count Leopold learned the news while traveling back to the Southern Territory.

“…Who… died?”

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“It can’t be… It must be a mistake. Just days ago, she didn’t seem that unwell!”

Count Leopold collapsed in place, his eyes vacant and hollow. Infrick, watching him, attempted to redirect the conversation back toward returning to the Northern Territory.

Of course, he was beaten by the guards Millaiyen had assigned and stuffed back into the carriage.

Before the dazed Count Leopold even arrived at the Southern Territory, the news had already reached Countess Leopold.

Upon hearing the news, the Countess fainted, and the twin siblings locked themselves in their room, weeping all day.

Word of her death spread through high society as well. It was exactly as Carina had wished.

Carina Leopold ceased to exist as a person.

Not long after, they received news of an accident involving Nocton, their physician.

On his way back from the Northern Territory to the Southern Territory, he had been ambushed by bandits and met a gruesome end.

The scene was so horrific that the first person to discover it suffered from trauma. Not a single intact corpse could be found—the funeral couldn’t even be properly conducted due to the grotesque state of the remains.

Winston, too, was devastated upon hearing the news and fell ill for several days.

He personally collected what few remains he could find and held a funeral, burying what was left of Nocton in a sunny spot that Peng had provided.

The Leopold Family Estate remained secluded for a time, and even the management of the household and domain fell into disarray.

Belated regret brought nothing back.

This was all that the world knew.

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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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