Limited Extra Time - Chapter 151

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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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“Seren…”

Periel Kalos peeked his head through the doorway, his eyes darting about like a thief searching for the child.

Millaiyen Pestellio guarded so fiercely that even after more than half a year since the child’s birth, Periel Kalos had barely managed a proper glimpse of the infant’s face.

Of course, it wasn’t as though he’d seen nothing at all.

Millaiyen Pestellio had grudgingly shown him the child’s face from a distance of fifty to a hundred meters, as if protecting some enemy stronghold.

And today, Periel Kalos had finally lost his patience and infiltrated the Pestellio Family’s Capital Residence just to catch a glimpse of the child’s face.

‘This one only I know about!’

That was what truly frustrated Periel Kalos.

Even Ajidahaka the Dragon and Winston

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could see the child, and even Peng could see the child. So why must he alone be forced to maintain distance? He wanted to see the child up close, to touch the infant!

“If you touch him, our child will become filthy.”

That was the only response he’d received when he pressed for an explanation. Even now, thinking back on it, fury burned through him from head to toe.

Periel Kalos quietly opened the door where the child was likely to be.

“Seren.”

Suddenly, a voice from inside another room made Periel Kalos freeze in his tracks.

It seemed Carina Leopold and Seren were together. Periel Kalos scratched his cheek with a slightly awkward expression and gave a light knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The moment permission was granted from within, Periel Kalos quietly turned the doorknob.

Carina Leopold, who had been sitting on the bed, widened her eyes upon seeing the familiar figure enter.

“Periel?”

“It’s been a while, Carina.”

“How did you get in here…?”

Carina Leopold’s eyes widened in genuine surprise as she scooped the child into her arms and settled back onto the bed.

She rose from her seat and gazed at Periel Kalos, who offered no explanation, smiling silently.

“Would you care for some tea?”

“…It would be my honor.”

Periel Kalos smiled.

There was nothing particularly awkward about it, yet it had been quite some time since they’d found themselves alone together, lending the moment a certain bashfulness.

Periel Kalos followed Carina Leopold and took a seat across from her.

Carina Leopold poured tea into his cup and cold tea into her own, then cradled the child in her arms as she settled across from

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Periel Kalos.

“Millaiyen Pestellio has been so reluctant to show me Seren that I came to sneak a peek.”

“My, and you managed not to get caught.”

“Well… I do have my methods.”

At Periel Kalos’s playful wink, Carina Leopold burst into laughter. Seren, who had grown considerably, was now quite adept at crawling and could even sit up on his own.

“Aw!”

“How adorable. I truly wonder what he thinks I might do to the child that he’s so determined to keep him hidden.”

Periel grumbled.

The child shook a rattle in her hand back and forth, though the sound it produced was remarkably faint for an ordinary toy.

To Periel, it felt like little more than a few grains of sand tumbling about, yet the child was too busy giggling with delight to notice his indifference.

“Still, it seems she’s become much more settled, which is a relief.”

“She visits the Temple without fail once a week. Perhaps that’s why she cries far less these days. It must be exhausting for her.”

“Ma! Ma!”

Seren tapped Carina Leopold’s leg insistently.

Carina Leopold deftly set the child down on the floor, and she immediately crawled about busily, occupied with something.

Periel watched the child’s movements in silence.

“She seems to have grown accustomed to conversation now.”

“Ajidahaka warned that if she rejects sound too much, she’ll suffer more later. He said if she’s to live in the human world, we should help her adapt.”

So recently, the servants were permitted to move about freely throughout the residence.

Whenever she sensed activity from outside, Seren would stop everything and perk up her ears,

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glancing left and right, though she no longer burst into tears as she once had.

“When Seren was around three months old, she couldn’t sleep because of insects.”

“Ah, I heard about that. Millaiyen Pestellio apparently waged some sort of war against the tiles….”

“Yes, the servants all shut the manor doors and hunted insects.”

Even now, the memory of that spectacle made her laugh.

It had been a year since she first held the child, and another half year had passed since then.

Whenever Carina Leopold thought of time slipping away bit by bit, her heart simply ached.

It was certain she would not be able to spend a long time in the child’s life. So she made every effort to spend as much time as possible with Seren.

She rarely left Seren’s side, and she always personally prepared Seren for outings.

Whether going to the Temple or painting, Seren was always at Carina Leopold’s side.

“By the way, where is Millaiyen?”

“He went to the Imperial Palace today. He plans to stay in the Capital until Seren becomes accustomed to the surroundings. It seems there are various procedures to take care of.”

“Then that’s reassuring.”

Periel Kalos finished his teacup and abruptly rose from his seat.

He approached the child and crouched down in front of them, carefully stroking the child’s cheek with a gentle touch.

“Kaa! Kaa!”

Seren shook his head vigorously, flailing both arms.

He thrashed about so desperately that Periel Kalos, his hand still outstretched, froze completely like a statue.

“Seren, it’s your uncle….”

“Maa!”

Seren quickly turned and scrambled toward Carina Leopold.

Or rather, to be more precise, it would be more accurate to say

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that he crawled desperately as if running.

Periel Kalos’s lips trembled, and soon his expression turned to despair as he drooped his head. Kneeling with both hands placed undignified on the ground, his figure was utterly forlorn.

As Carina Leopold picked up Seren, the child buried his face between her chest and arms.

Then he rubbed his face and scrunched it up in displeasure. Carina Leopold, who had been gazing down at the child with quiet attention, lifted her head.

“…Periel, did you go somewhere before coming here?”

“I came directly from the Leopold Manor, so there was nowhere else I stopped by.”

Periel Kalos answered as he unsteadily rose to his feet.

He sat down heavily on the bed with a rather shocked expression. It was clear he had no desire to approach anywhere near Seren.

“Hmm, could it be the Research Laboratory?”

“Yes, that’s usually where I am.”

“Ah, then that must be it.”

Carina Leopold answered with a relieved expression, as if understanding at last.

When Periel Kalos tilted his head in confusion, Carina Leopold let out a low laugh.

“Don’t you remember? Seren has an exceptionally sensitive sense of smell.”

“Ah… But I’ve been washed clean the entire way here, so there shouldn’t be any scent.”

Periel Kalos buried his face in his own clothes and sniffed deeply.

When he pressed his nose firmly against the fabric and breathed in sharply, there was indeed a faint chemical scent lingering.

Seren, looking thoroughly distressed, kept his face buried in Carina Leopold’s chest with no intention of pulling away.

“He’s sensitive about it. Perhaps if you bathe and change clothes, it should be fine?”

“…Ugh, the princess is quite particular.”

Even so, Periel Kalos opened the wardrobe with practiced ease.

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As if it were the most natural thing, he retrieved fresh clothes from Millaiyen Pestellio’s wardrobe and exhaled another sigh.

“I’ll wash up in an empty room.”

“Yes, I’ll be here soothing Seren for a moment.”

“Yes, you absolutely mustn’t go anywhere else! Today of all days, I want to hold her….”

“Understood.”

Periel Kalos slipped out of the room without hesitation.

Once Periel Kalos had gone, Carina Leopold opened the window wide for the child who still appeared distressed. Only then did Seren exhale a breath like a sigh, a soft puff of air.

‘Sometimes he acts like such a child himself.’

Seren pressed her face close to the window, breathing in and out deliberately.

Carina Leopold finally burst into laughter and pressed a kiss to the child’s cheek. This was what tenderness meant, she realized—

something she had been learning of late.

“Seren.”

At Carina Leopold’s call, Seren’s eyes sparkled as she turned her head. Those two eyes of different colors remained subtle and wondrous.

“I love you.”

At Carina Leopold’s words, Seren’s smile bloomed like a flower opening.

Then, with tiny wriggling fingers, she reached out and handed Carina Leopold the rattle she had been holding, before clinging to her skirts.

“Ma! Ma!”

“I wish I could spend more time with you.”

At her softly murmured words, Seren tilted her head.

Supporting the tilting head gently with her palm, Carina Leopold drew Seren into her embrace and pressed a kiss to her plump cheek.

“I hope you’ll always be happy, Seren.”

Forever.

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I wished for her to see the bright parts of the world rather than its darkness. I hoped she could empathize with others’ pain and grow stronger than anyone. Unlike my own life, I wanted her to make many friends and have people she could rely on.

Seren, who had been laughing brightly, fell silent and gazed up at Carina Leopold with an unreadable expression. Each time her eyes blinked, her blue irises sparkled like the sea, catching the sunlight.

The child sometimes looked up at her with that expressionless gaze. Whenever that happened, she would pull Seren closer into her embrace.

Perk.

The child’s ears twitched upward. It was the reaction Seren showed whenever someone approached. Carina Leopold naturally turned her head toward the door.

‘Has Periel Kalos returned already?’

It didn’t seem like much time had passed for that to be the case.

The doorknob turned, and the door quietly opened. Carina Leopold, holding Seren in her arms, fixed her gaze on the entrance along with the child.

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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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