Limited Extra Time - Chapter 2

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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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“Lia, your complexion looks so much brighter today. What a relief.”

“Hehe, it’s all thanks to Mother and Father for bringing me such wonderful medicinal herbs every day.”

“Ugh, the stuff you eat looks so bitter to me.”

“Pel, Lia’s constitution is delicate. She must finish it all, no matter how bitter.”

Father, Count Leopold, had opened the conversation, but it concluded with Mother’s gentle rebuke directed at the twin youngest siblings.

Seated directly beside Count Leopold was Infrick, the heir and eldest of Leopold House, who smiled faintly as he observed the unfolding scene.

Infrick Leopold, the eldest, was a man of exceptional talent in both martial and civil affairs. Whispers in society suggested he was already worthy of becoming the master of Leopold House.

The two younger siblings born as twins

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were so endearing that they drew smiles from everyone around them. Karina loved them too. Even though she had never been a particularly warm older sister, they smiled brightly at her nonetheless.

Yet at the same time, she could not help but feel envious. It was a contradictory emotion.

Leopold House was a family of beautiful people. Karina gazed at the dining table where brilliant golden hair, lovely crimson eyes, and blue irises coexisted, and she thought to herself: “…Why was only my hair this dull brown color back then?”

It was only later that she learned she had inherited her hair color from one of her grandparents, though there had been times when she resented it. Karina picked at her salad for a moment, then set down her fork. Her stomach felt heavy, and she could not bring herself to eat more. She rinsed her mouth with water from her glass

and rose from her seat. “I have finished my meal, so I shall retire first.” “Very well.”

At least Mother’s reply reached her ears. Everyone was too absorbed in conversation to pay proper attention to Karina. Mother’s gaze soon turned to Abelia and Ferden instead. Within that low presence, Karina naturally bowed her head and withdrew without fanfare.

As she walked down the corridor, rubbing her heavy chest with her palm, she felt something welling up inside her, surging and pressing against her throat. She drew in a deep breath, glanced around, and straightened her shoulders with as composed an expression as she could muster. She walked down the familiar corridor without needing guidance and headed straight to the second floor. But that respite was brief. Before she could even finish climbing the stairs, nausea

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She rushed into her bathroom right in front of her, her mouth covered by Karina.

She pressed her face down and retched—once, twice—expelling what little food she had consumed.

The half-chewed remnants she had forced down came up, and she hastily flushed them away before collapsing onto the bed with trembling limbs.

Every ounce of strength had drained from her body.

‘There’s never been a case where things deteriorated this rapidly.’

Karina thought bitterly.

A few days ago, she had secretly slipped away from the mansion to visit a renowned Physician.

“I apologize for speaking so bluntly, but I’m baffled as to how your organs are barely functioning at half capacity.”

“…Is it serious?”

“Quite. Frankly, it’s remarkable you can walk at all. If you were healthy before and this came on suddenly, I’d suspect the Artist’s Curse.”

“The Artist’s Curse…?”

“There are those born with the talent of exceptional artists who work miracles. Among them, some require their very life force as the price for wielding that gift.”

Even as an inconspicuous supporting character, was this how the world repaid her—hurling the word ‘death’ so abruptly in her face?

She found the world profoundly unjust.

Yet there was nothing she could do about it.

“You work miracles yourself, don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

“Your condition must have worsened each time you used your ability. Haven’t you undergone regular examinations? Those blessed with miracle-working powers are typically required to have periodic checkups.”

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“…”

“Had I known sooner, it wouldn’t have progressed this far.”

“Is that so.”

His words struck at the heart of the matter, and I could only nod blankly in response.

I had never considered that the miracles I performed would gnaw away at my own life force.

I pressed my forehead quietly with my hand.

It was mere stubbornness—not revealing my ability.

A pointless pride and obstinacy toward those who had not listened properly when I first tried to speak of it. And afterward, there was only worry.

If I revealed this ability, my family would surely look at me.

But I could not be certain whether they would truly be looking at me, or merely at my ability.

So I hid it. I never imagined it would return to me in this manner.

“You mentioned anemia and coughing blood? And you often vomit up the food you eat without properly digesting it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s serious. I hate to say this, but… at your body’s current state, you have at most a year. Since you cannot properly absorb nutrition, your body will only grow weaker. Honestly, even a year is a generous estimate.”

The elderly Physician in his white coat treated commoners in his shabby Clinic for meager fees.

Yet his diagnosis was not suspect. His eyes were keen and clear.

“I understand.”

“What, you’re not asking how to survive? I thought you’d naturally ask.”

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“Is there a way to survive?”

“No, not that I know of yet.”

At the Physician’s words, I simply nodded, placed two gold coins on the table, and turned to leave.

The Physician stared at the gold coins she had given him, then let out a weary sigh. As he watched Karina’s retreating figure, he uttered words laden with meaning.

“Still, you might be able to buy yourself a bit more time. If you have the will, come back again.”

Karina barely heard his words as she slipped out of the shabby clinic.

It was a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Her health had been deteriorating rapidly of late, so she had sought out a physician other than Count Leopold’s personal doctor, just in case.

‘No, the reason I couldn’t go to the Count’s physician was….’

It wasn’t so much that she feared worrying her family, but rather that she didn’t trust him.

Leopold House’s health was entrusted to a remarkably young physician of considerable skill and high reputation.

Yet from all I had observed of him, he did not hesitate to lie when circumstances demanded it.

And he cherished Abelia like a blood sister.

‘It may be mere paranoia, but if he thought that my illness might shock Abelia….’

If he judged it would harm her, he would surely lie.

After retching, my nerves settled somewhat. I wiped my chest with my hand and sat by the window.

Beneath the sunlight, my skin became even more translucent. A bird soaring through the sky caught my eye. It fluttered down and perched itself upon a distant tree branch.

“If only I had wings too.”

Even if I died, I wanted to soar through the heavens as much as I wished,

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and then die.

I wanted to do what I desired and then die. I trembled at the surging yearning within me.

Truth be told, I had not been unloved. My parents always tried to be fair. But someone was ill, and someone was too young to manage alone. In such circumstances, there were inevitably moments when fairness could not be maintained.

In that regard, the second child was terribly in-between.

One of the Leopold Family’s twins suffered from frequent ailments, while the other was reckless and constantly injured from various mishaps.

And I was neither the heir like my eldest brother. As a result, the attention given to the second child who conducted herself with discretion was as minuscule as a grain of sand.

After experiencing all of this firsthand, I decided to call it ‘attention worse than none at all.’

The world seemed to revolve entirely around Leopold House. Money fell at their feet wherever they walked.

But all that lay in my path were countless stumbling stones.

I love my twins too, but I cannot deny the jealousy that gnaws at me.

We emerged from the same womb and were raised in the same household, yet how could I be so utterly unlike them?

Constantly envying and despising someone else only made me appear contemptible in my own eyes.

The fact that they were my siblings made this burden all the harder to bear.

“…Am I dying?”

In truth, I had suspected it faintly ever since I coughed up blood.

“Should I simply leave?”

Within the mansion, I was always forced to smile.

I had to be someone who could handle anything alone with composure, someone with a magnanimous heart capable of yielding to all—

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the embodiment of such virtue.

But I could not bear to maintain that facade even as death crept near.

I could not imagine what expression my family would wear.

If they looked upon me with eyes that saw me as a troublesome burden, I feared I would never rise again.

I had no desire to tell my family about my situation.

I didn’t even have the strength to cry out that I wanted to live.

No one had visited my room in a long time. I had said I could manage on my own, so no one paid me any attention.

‘If I were to leave, where would I go? What would I do…?’

Sitting on the windowsill with my forehead pressed against the glass, I pondered.

At most, it was one year. Compared to the twenty years I had lived thus far, it was terribly short—a span of time that would slip away in an instant.

I had always existed in the shadow of my eldest brother, who excelled at everything, and between my affectionate twin siblings who received abundant love and attention. My presence had never truly been acknowledged.

I needed someone to see me wholly. Whether they despised me or cherished me, I simply needed someone to see me completely.

“What is the Young Lady, some sort of squid? Swaying this way and that as instructed, and if you lack motivation, you shouldn’t have come at all. If you had refused, this entire matter would have been avoided, wouldn’t it?”

What suddenly came to mind was my first meeting with my Fiancé.

His face was so perfectly sculpted with graceful lines that one might think the divine had squandered beauty upon him.

With that otherworldly face creased between the brows, he had spoken to me with cutting harshness.

‘When I think about it, he didn’t refuse either—

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did he.’

At that time, I couldn’t utter a single word against his barrage of accusations, but thinking about it now, wasn’t that precisely the case?

Pale blue eyes reflected in the windowpane.

My skin looked even paler than before, at least to my own eyes.

My anemia had worsened. Fortunately, I hadn’t needed to move about much, so I had managed to live ordinarily thus far.

“Perhaps I should go to the Northern Territory.”

With nothing but my own two feet.

Moving of my own accord.

My lips, which had been pressed shut with stubborn resolve, slowly parted.

“Let’s go.”

My deliberation was brief, and my decision came swiftly. I resolved to journey to the Northern Territory alone.

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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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