Limited Extra Time - Chapter 161

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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 ——

The Pope emerged, steadying himself against Kalan Dium’s shoulder, and swept his gaze across Carina Leopold and the infant Serenus cradled in her arms.

“Your Holiness.”

“…The Pope? I heard he rarely ventures outside.”

“My child asked me to come after so long, so here I am.”

The Pope glanced dismissively at Millaiyen before responding with indifference. Then, turning his gaze away just as casually, he strode purposefully toward Carina Leopold. His loosely bound hair swayed gently with each step.

I walked forward. My loosely tied hair swayed from side to side.

“Oh, that’s certainly fascinating. I managed to survive by forcibly postponing death.”

Carina Leopold’s eyes widened considerably.

Carina Leopold’s eyes widened.

The Pope’s long fingers pressed firmly between her breasts. Divine power still remained, but the magic suppressing it was even stronger.

His divine power is draining my life force.

—— Page 2 ——

Horsepower is suppressing and blocking it. Literally, it’s forcibly postponing death.

The moment divine power becomes greater than magical power, time that had stopped will flow away helplessly.

The Pope stroked his chin before bringing his face close to hers.

“That was pretty close.”

It seems the magical power was originally stronger.

But the divine power she possessed from birth was persistence.

If so, mana forcibly injected from outside is consumable.

From the start, it seemed my body had been given only enough capacity to withstand the overload, and since even that was being consumed, there was no helping the fact that my magical power diminished with each passing moment.

In other words, this precarious balance I maintained would soon tip to one side, and the equilibrium would shatter.

And which way it would fall was as clear as daylight.

“…Pardon?”

“No, are you living well?”

The Pope extended his hand and gently stroked Carina Leopold’s hair as he spoke.

At that manner, as if addressing a small child, she blinked once before quietly smiling.

“Yes.”

The Pope nodded with a refreshing grin.

If it was a flame destined to burn out anyway, it was better to let it burn brilliantly in that moment.

It feels good to burn.

“That’s right. Do your best so you won’t have any regrets.”

“…Your Holiness, you…”

“God is really too much. Selfish beyond compare. There’s no way a fragile human body could endure what they call their love.”

Carina Leopold’s eyes widened at the Pope’s words.

“Can I hold you?”

—— Page 3 ——

She pointed at Serenus, who was nestled in Carina Leopold’s arms, and asked.

Carina Leopold glanced down at the child once, then nodded obediently.

As she carefully held out the child, the Pope took Serenus firmly into his own arms.

Nestled between slender arms, Seren’s eyes widened in surprise before bursting into bright laughter.

The Pope regarded Seren intently for a moment, then lifted her gaze toward Carina Leopold.

“Child, from a certain point onward, your body may gradually begin to fail you.”

“….”

“What do you mean?”

As Carina Leopold remained silent, Millaiyen, standing beside her, stepped forward.

The Pope’s gaze briefly touched Millaiyen before slowly withdrawing.

Without sparing him a glance, she turned her attention back to Carina Leopold and spoke again.

“Yes, at first… it will feel as though you’ve caught a mild cold.”

Carina Leopold’s eyes widened slightly.

“Then, as your body grows weary and your strength drains away, your vitality will fade. If you can run 100 meters now, it will become 90, then 80, then 70… gradually diminishing with each passing day.”

Understanding perfectly well what she was describing, Carina Leopold’s lips trembled faintly.

Millaiyen’s expression hardened menacingly as he took a step toward the Pope, but Kalan smoothly blocked his path.

“Step aside.”

“…Before I kill you, don’t speak foolishness.”

“Blood-stained blade… no matter how desperately you struggle to plug your ears and cover your eyes, what is destined will find its way to you.”

At the Pope’s words, Millaiyen’s face grew darker still.

—— Page 4 ——

—— Page 4 ——

As he tried to step forward, Kalan this time properly blocked his path.

“Your Holiness. Mind your manners.”

Kalan’s face hardened into an unyielding mask.

Carina Leopold remained silent, her lips pressed together—neither stopping him nor offering any words to the Pope. She appeared almost dazed, as though her mind had drifted elsewhere.

“This is not a matter of whether a god intervenes or not.

You have already chosen to abandon the divine guidance of your own volition. And miracles do not occur twice.”

“You overstep your bounds.”

The Pope exhaled a weary sigh and shrugged his shoulders. The way he shook his head carried a gaze of one observing something troublesome.

He ceased his engagement with Millaiyen and turned his head toward Carina Leopold.

“What you have resolved yourself to do will arrive

slowly. But it will most certainly arrive.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. The flames consumed your body, and we barely extinguished them with water, yet the embers still smolder within you—and they will inevitably ignite once more.”

Seren fidgeted restlessly before beginning to nod off in drowsy succession. Carina Leopold watched the child, then silently nodded with a faint smile gracing her lips.

“The fire was kindled by the divine, so we mortals

are powerless against it. I would aid you if I could, but I too serve the gods. I would become poison to you.”

“It’s all right. I knew this would come to pass.”

I had chosen this path with full knowledge of what awaited me.

It would be a lie to say I harbored no hope whatsoever, yet neither did I find myself resenting anyone for it.

The Pope, who had been observing Carina Leopold, looked toward the child—

—— Page 5 ——

I gazed down at the child with an unreadable expression.

The child, by contrast, was brimming with magical power. That power was ravaging the child’s body—more precisely, it was destroying a body that had not yet fully matured.

Once the child learned to control that force and the body grew a little more, it would instead become the child’s greatest strength.

‘What’s holding back this overflowing magical power is…’

The divine power the child possessed, and the divine power that Kalan frequently channeled into the child.

“The truth is…”

The Pope gazed down at Seren, a wry smile playing at his lips.

Carina Leopold, whose eyes met his in the empty air, suddenly shook her head as though she had grasped something.

The Pope let out a light laugh and nodded his head gently.

“Very well, if you’d rather I didn’t speak of it, I won’t.”

The Pope shrugged and willingly fell silent.

“In any case, child.”

“Yes.”

“If you are destined to burn, then burn brilliantly. Burn so that no one will ever forget, so that even after that flame has extinguished, this child will remember you for a long time to come.”

At the Pope’s words, Carina Leopold’s lips parted slightly before closing slowly. The reality that the child would be left alone suddenly ached within her.

How she wished this moment would remain in memory for a long time.

The painful truth that the child might not even be able to remember was unbearable.

She exhaled a long breath and gazed down at the sleeping child.

“I’ve placed a blessing upon the child, so at least for this one day here, the child will be at peace.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Carina Leopold accepted the child from the Pope’s arms, speaking softly. A bitter smile had formed at the corner of her lips before quickly dissolving. The infant, carrying the gentle scent of milk, was utterly endearing.

—— Page 6 ——

“Next time you visit, come play in the Prayer Chamber. We can have some refreshments.”

“…Oh, is that truly acceptable?”

“It’s a refuge anyway. I don’t spend all my time there in prayer.”

At the Pope’s refreshingly candid response, Carina smiled and nodded in agreement.

Undeniably straightforward and unpretentious, yet her presence carried the warmth of a gentle sun.

‘…What a remarkable person.’

One could sense her papal authority even from a distance.

If the Emperor were the blindingly brilliant sunlight of a scorching summer day, then she was like…

‘…the tender warmth of spring sunshine.’

Not harsh, not painful—a gentle radiance that carefully thawed the frozen things of winter without startling them, cradling them tenderly as they melted.

The Pope gently stroked Carina’s hair and turned to leave.

“Go and enjoy yourself.”

“I shall take my leave.”

Kalan bowed respectfully and disappeared following the Pope.

Millaiyen immediately approached and pulled her into a tight embrace. Though Seren’s breathing in his arms—sleeping peacefully—was not strained, his yearning and desperation radiated from his very skin.

Carina rose slightly onto her toes and pressed a kiss to Millaiyen’s cheek.

“It’s alright.”

At Carina’s soft voice, Millaiyen’s eyes widened considerably.

“We’ll certainly be fine.”

It was a calm voice, whether she was reassuring herself or whispering to Millaiyen.

* * *

“How troublesome, yet how delightfully

—— Page 7 ——

interesting a discovery.”

The man hidden behind the pillar let out a low laugh.

His voice still carried the youthful timbre of one not quite fully matured.

He spun the object in his hand lightly between his fingers before turning on his heel.

“I never imagined such a creature could exist….”

But that is certainly a monster that could prove useful.

What it carried within itself seemed to hold considerable promise. Gaining its favor did not appear to be difficult.

“I must have that. Make preparations.”

“…That woman is the wife of Duke Pestellio.”

“No, not that. Of course, that is intriguing as well….”

The man’s deep pink eyes curved with a cruel smile. In that twisted gaze lay a glimmer of

vicious amusement.

He adjusted his clothing and tilted his head lightly.

“What I desire is the object she holds in her arms.”

“…Master, that child is….”

The man standing before me went deathly pale.

Everyone in the Capital’s nobility knew how dearly Duke Pestellio cherished his child and wife.

In particular, no one was ignorant of the fact that his reason for visiting the Capital and establishing himself here for such an extended period was because of his child.

My pink eyes, which had been smiling with childlike innocence, curved even more gently.

I raised my pale, slender hand and placed it upon the shoulder of the middle-aged man who stood fidgeting before me.

“Count Leopold, I didn’t ask you. This is an order, not a request.”

—— Page 8 ——

I tightened my grip, seizing the Count’s shoulder firmly.

The nobleman listening to my words went deathly pale. My pink eyes, which had been gazing down at the man with his head bowed, curved into a round shape once more.

“If you wish to obtain what you desire, Count Leopold, you must cooperate with me.”

“But Duke Pestellio is a man without mercy or compassion. The way he treasures the family he now holds in his embrace….”

“Do not worry. Salutaris will surely guide us all to separation.”

My pink eyes met his gaze directly as I spoke.

The Count’s shoulder trembled slightly, and with a dazed expression, he slowly nodded. I patted his shoulder twice before continuing forward.

“Then prepare a suitable place for me. I shall handle the rest myself.”

“Ah, and… I hear the Pope has been invited.”

“That is within my expectations.”

My voice, tinged with laughter, echoed once more. I turned and vanished completely into the darkness.

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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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