Limited Extra Time - Chapter 21

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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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I instinctively realized it was better not to speak those words. Though I hastily sealed my lips, his expression remained unmoved. I found thinking easier than speaking. I preferred following someone else’s opinion to voicing my own. In truth, it wasn’t a preference—it was how I had been conditioned. My opinions were almost always suppressed grievances or desperate longings, yet I could only voice such things when circumstances were already unfavorable to me. And in those moments, my opinions were typically crushed or shattered beneath some greater force. Naturally, I had grown clumsy at conversing while expressing myself. And from years of experience, I was certain that nothing good would emerge from Millaiyen’s lips now.

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I shrank back and gnawed at my lower lip.

“…What do you mean, pretend it never happened?”

After a long silence, he spoke in a subdued voice. It was clear he was suppressing emotions that threatened to flare. My lips parted, then closed again.

My fingers fidgeted anxiously, betraying my distress.

“Carina Leopold.”

“Yes.”

The answer came back evasive again. Bothered by the way he kept carefully gauging his reaction, he swallowed a sigh and opened his mouth once more.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“I was just thinking, couldn’t I go to the Separate Residence now and stay there without being a bother?”

Of course, I don’t think I can ever be completely indifferent to something that has once caught my eye.

But even as Carina Leopold, there was no way.

There was no way to erase the memory right now, and Millaiyen Pestellio didn’t seem like the type to back down just because of some vague excuse.

I won’t be angry. So tell me. How can I help if you don’t say anything? Are you going to lose your eyesight or something?

Carina Leopold hesitated.

If I were to be honest and open my heart, it might become lighter. However, Millaiyen Pestellio’s heart would become just as heavy as mine becomes light.

Should I ignore his feelings just to make things easier for myself?

“Or is it paralysis in the arms or legs? I heard that losing one’s life force is an extremely rare case. It’s not that, right?”

Carina Leopold simply closed her mouth.

She couldn’t grasp what to say, and chose silence over uttering meaningless words.

“…Are you truly going to leave like this?”

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What?

“I’ll return when the time is right.”

She decided to be a little selfish about it.

Regardless of circumstances, he had told himself he would accept her on the condition of breaking the engagement.

“There’s no Physician in the Northern Territory to help with your treatment. Leaving now is already too late. Once we depart, the beasts will begin their activity before we can escape the north.”

Carina Leopold gazed at Millaiyen Pestellio intently.

In truth, that wasn’t really a problem for her.

As long as she could vividly envision a place she’d visited, traveling far was no great obstacle.

The hardship of coming to the Northern Territory stemmed only from never having been there before.

“I don’t need a Physician. There’s nothing that can be done anyway.”

“Maria said that your art affliction would cease if you simply let go of the art that triggered it.”

“…There would be nothing left.”

At her hollow voice, Millaiyen Pestellio’s gaze turned toward Carina Leopold as she averted her head.

He furrowed his brow, unable to immediately comprehend her meaning.

Fortunately, Carina Leopold’s lips parted again.

“If I abandon painting, there’s nothing left in my life.”

My words scattered like wind.

I had spent most of my life with paintings, pouring endless hours into creating them.

“How could I possibly abandon the only friend who has been with me my entire life?”

Watching the gentle curve of my eyes, Millaiyen Pestellio fell silent.

Even as he gazed at me with that stern expression, I simply smiled softly, and he finally closed his mouth.

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“Then at least tell me why you came here.”

“…Pardon?”

“Don’t tell me you won’t say that either. I’ve been holding back considerably out of consideration for you, young lady.”

At Millaiyen Pestellio’s question, I hesitated for a moment.

There was no one in my life to confide my troubles to.

The only ones I could open my heart to were those I created within my paintings—fleeting things that would crumble and vanish within a day.

I would pour out my frustrations and grievances, pull the blanket over my head, force myself to sleep for a moment, and wake to find my heart somewhat calmed.

That was how I learned to endure and digest everything alone.

“You’re not asking how I came here, are you?”

“If you tell me, I promise to listen sincerely.”

I opened and closed my lips repeatedly, unable to speak.

Not to a teddy bear, not to a butterfly, not to a fairy… to confide in something I didn’t create myself?

I honestly didn’t think it was possible.

Yet I also knew well that keeping everything locked away like this would only leave my heart in tatters.

After hesitating for a long while, Carina Leopold finally spoke.

“…About a week before coming here, I realized I had contracted art sickness.”

Millaiyen Pestellio, who had been about to press her for answers out of frustration, barely managed to suppress the words rising in his throat just in time.

“My younger sibling is ill, isn’t she? Besides, my older brother was an exceptionally talented person. I can’t do anything well, I have no special qualities, and I’m ordinary, but my siblings are all so remarkable.”

The faintly drawn smile carried an ambiguous quality—whether it stemmed from genuine pride or the opposite sentiment was difficult to discern.

Millaiyen Pestellio silently nodded his head

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in response to her words. “It might be baseless inferiority complex and paranoia, but still, I couldn’t help feeling a little wronged.”

“For instance?”

“Well, my younger sibling fell ill on my birthday, so I had to spend it alone, or I had a precious wallet I received as a gift that I was forced to lend out, or even though I worked hard, I rarely received praise, yet my sibling was praised for doing even the smallest things….”

I traced through my memories one by one, extracting several of them.

Even as I spoke, I carefully observed Millaiyen Pestellio’s reaction. Glancing at him, I fidgeted with my fingers as I continued.

“It’s rather childish and immature, isn’t it?”

I looked at Millaiyen Pestellio as if seeking his agreement.

I was afraid. I was terrified that Millaiyen Pestellio would say the same thing my parents did—that it was only natural.

Wouldn’t an adult who couldn’t even understand what was natural appear foolish and immature?

However, Milay Eun tilted her head at Carina Leopold’s question.

“Why? Did you ruin your younger sibling’s or older brother’s birthday party in retaliation for having to spend yours alone?”

“…No?”

“Or did you throw a tantrum demanding the wallet back? Did you strike your sibling?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Or perhaps you were annoyed at being the only one praised, so you sabotaged your sister’s work and threw everything away?”

“No, what on earth have you been saying since—”

As Carina Leopold spoke with a flustered expression, Millaiyen Pestellio crossed his arms and let out a hollow laugh.

“But what’s so childish and immature about that? If throwing everything down and lying about throwing tantrums is childish, then it would be childish,

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but you didn’t do that, did you?”

“Yes, yielding to one’s sister is only natural——”

Carina Leopold’s lips had been moving reflexively at Millaiyen Pestellio’s brazen tone, but she suddenly fell silent.

Her face darkened instantly.

She had been terrified that he would call it natural, yet she was uttering those very words herself.

The moment she realized it, a surge of emotion welled up, and

her composure crumbled in an instant. Something she had been desperately holding together collapsed without warning.

‘When did I start thinking this way?’

When had she come to accept all of it as inevitable, even in her own mind?

Her emotions laid bare across her crumbling expression, she hastily raised her palms to bury her face.

“Young Miss.”

“…”

“Carina Leopold.”

“…Yes.”

“Don’t cry.”

“…Yes.”

Watching Carina Leopold mechanically obey and bite her lower lip, Millaiyen Pestellio’s expression darkened with frustration.

He quickly shook his head.

“No, no. I misspoke. Cry. Just cry.”

Millaiyen Pestellio rose from his seat and perched on the edge of the bed, awkwardly extending his arms to draw her into an embrace.

‘…It seems people usually comfort others like this when they cry.’

If anyone else had wept, he would have struck their back and made them run ten laps around the training grounds. That’s what he would have done.

He had never once attempted to console someone with such tenderness. Because of this, his back was naturally rigid and

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tense.

Crying will help. You can tell me after you’ve wept.

His rough hand awkwardly patted her back.

At his words, Carina Leopold burrowed into his chest and buried her face.

Millaiyen Pestellio’s eyes widened in alarm. As she clung to him desperately, his ears flushed slightly red.

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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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