Limited Extra Time - Chapter 29

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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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The Doomed Extra’s Time

A Long Romance Fantasy Novel by Ja Eun-hyang

The Doomed Extra’s Time

Chapter 29

“Did anything go wrong?”

“No.”

“Such incidents are common in the Northern Territory. If you’re to survive the winter, you’d do well to steel yourself. Of course, no demonic beasts have breached these walls thus far, so you can rest assured.”

Millaiyen Pestellio extended his hand and patted her shoulder reassuringly. A distinctive scent—bittersweet with a hint of sweetness—brushed against her nose.

“That just now…”

He opened his mouth as if to belatedly explain the situation.

“I heard it was a demonic beast called Herta. It appeared recently and has been causing considerable trouble…”

Carina Leopold glanced at the guard.

“He explained it to me.”

“I see. Once we engage in earnest subjugation and clash with it directly, we’ll gradually uncover its weaknesses through trial and error.”

“Trial and error?”

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“Yes. We call the process of discovering a new demonic beast’s weaknesses ‘trial and error.’ New beasts appear from who knows where, ones we’ve rarely or never seen before, and each time they cause considerable damage. This one is particularly troublesome, which is why we’re in a bind.”

He explained lightly, then ran his lips together several times as if regretting something. Shortly after, he finished instructing the Knights to reinforce the guard and turned away.

Watching Carina Leopold follow after him with quick steps, Millaiyen Pestellio smiled wryly.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a proper time.”

“No, it’s fine.”

It truly was. Yet at the same time, I longed to return to Leopold Manor and sketch the Demonic Beast.

With her abilities, she could uncover the weakness they sought.

If I could be of help to him in that way, I would be happier than anything.

As Carina Leopold remained lost in thought, Millaiyen Pestellio reached out and pressed his hand to her forehead.

“You’re cold. We’ll see the Festival again tomorrow instead.”

“Yes.”

I offered no further words. The weight of genuine exhaustion had settled over me.

Millaiyen Pestellio walked ahead. I followed beside him, my gaze drifting to his hand.

If I just reached out a little, I could grasp it—yet no suitable excuse came to mind.

– Hold the hand of someone you love.

Hearing his words, I recalled that line from my bucket list, written down a second time, and my head drooped low.

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* * *

After fidgeting with my fingers for quite some time, the carriage came into view.

“Get in first, Miss.”

“Ah! Yes…”

I boarded the carriage with evident disappointment. The moment of hesitation had lasted far too long.

Throughout the ride, my mind was consumed entirely by thoughts of the Demonic Beast.

The prospect that my abilities might help someone made my heart race with anticipation.

Moreover, he was someone who knew that she could work miracles through her paintings.

He didn’t pry deeply into the Art Sickness either. She wanted to be of use to him—for the first time, through genuine experience and of her own volition.

“Ah, speaking of monsters, this just came to mind. It’s nothing much, but take this.”

Millaiyen rummaged through his garments and produced something.

When Carina Leopold opened her palm beneath his clenched fist, he unfurled his fingers.

Something slightly heavy fell onto my palm with a soft thud.

It was a translucent stone of ashen gray, its interior brimming with jewels that glimmered like an aurora.

A stone resembling a gem she had never encountered before.

Judging by the crude leather cord attached to it, it appeared to be a pendant.

“A stone…?”

Carina Leopold grasped the stone with a puzzled expression.

In that instant, something surged through her body, and the weariness that had threatened to overwhelm her eased considerably.

‘…What is this?’

As Carina Leopold’s eyes widened in bewilderment, Millaiyen spoke.

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“It’s a rare item that drops when you subjugate a monster and dissect its corpse. We call it a Harun.”

“I see…”

But why was he giving this to her?

Carina Leopold regarded him with confusion, and he gave a slight shrug.

“It’s a custom of the Northern Territory. There’s a superstition that if you give it to someone with a weak constitution, they become healthy.”

“…I see.”

“I hope you grow stronger.”

At those simple, earnest words, my eyes widened. Something warm blossomed within my chest.

I smiled faintly and opened my hand to examine the stone from every angle.

“Thank you. I’m so happy.”

My face brightened as I smiled, and I immediately fastened the stone around my neck.

The leather cord looked rough, yet somehow it complemented the grey stone all the better for it.

Watching me laugh softly, Millaiyen Pestellio scratched the tip of his ear with a slightly embarrassed gesture and nodded.

“…All I have now is this, but the next time I return from a subjugation, I’ll bring something larger and craft a proper bracelet for you.”

“Yes.”

I smiled faintly, my cheeks flushing slightly as I nodded.

“Someday, when you’re a little stronger than you are now, I’ll take you to Snow Mountain in the Northern Territory.”

“Snow Mountain?”

“Yes. A mountain blanketed in snow. At its peak lies a beautiful lake. In all my years, I’ve never seen a landscape more beautiful than that. I’m certain you, who paints, would love it.”

“Oh my…I truly wish to see it someday.”

Though such a day seemed nearly impossible, that single promise of a future he offered

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made me flush with joy as I answered.

Millaiyen Pestellio smiled faintly in return at my smile and nodded.

As their brief conversation ended, silence settled once more within the carriage.

Millaiyen Pestellio’s cool, composed gaze still retained traces of the exhilaration and irritation from his battle with the monster.

The necklace adorning his neck emanated a weighty presence.

Pleased by this alone, she refrained from disturbing his contemplation and held her silence.

Through the quiet, the carriage soon arrived at the Duke’s Estate.

Before the carriage had even come to a complete halt, a commotion could be heard from the mansion’s gates—murmuring voices raised in dispute.

It appeared to be a quarrel between someone barred by the iron gates and the guards.

“As I’ve said, there is no such patient in this estate. Haven’t you come to the wrong place?”

Millaiyen Pestellio, who had been resting with his eyes closed in weariness, sighed at the disturbance and descended from the carriage of his own accord.

Carina Leopold opened the window and peered out cautiously.

“What is this about?”

“Ah, this elderly gentleman insists on meeting a patient named Lina. We’ve told him no such patient exists here, but he refuses to leave.”

Millaiyen Pestellio turned to face the guard after hearing the explanation.

An elderly man in a white coat—one that seemed it would barely reach his chest.

Though he bore the appearance of a Physician, there was no patient by the name of Lina.

“…Physician?”

It was Carina Leopold, leaning from the carriage window, who recognized the familiar voice.

The Physician, who had been engaged in quite the dispute with the gatekeeper, immediately brightened and hurried toward the carriage.

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He gazed at Carina Leopold intently, then nodded with evident satisfaction.

“Your complexion has improved wonderfully. It’s been quite some time, Miss.”

“Ah, yes. It’s been so long since we’ve… wait, why are you here?”

Carina Leopold had been returning the greeting naturally enough when she faltered, her words trailing into bewilderment.

Winston bared his teeth in a playful grin.

“It’s freezing out here—surely you wouldn’t leave an old man to freeze to death without inviting him inside?”

Winston spoke with shameless charm.

Periel Kalos had been narrowing his eyes since morning, watching a hawk perched upon the sunlit windowsill of Leopold Manor, preening its feathers.

The hawk had appeared at an unusually early hour.

Moreover, it had brazenly invaded the Dining Hall just as breakfast was beginning, tearing away several pieces of meat without hesitation.

Only then did it cast down a small wooden tube—the sort that might contain a letter—before commencing its grooming.

“In any case, its behavior mirrors its master perfectly.”

Periel Kalos let out a derisive snort.

How long had it been since this messenger arrived?

I swallowed a sigh while eyeing the wooden tube sent by a dear friend who, in ordinary times, gave no sign of life or death—communicating only when necessity demanded it.

The long-haired man possessed eyes of exquisite, graceful beauty.

His lustrous silver hair, shimmering like starlight, cascaded to his waist, and his voice was honeyed as though meant to melt the heart of any listener.

He was a beautiful man.

An angel descended to earth, one blessed by the goddess of beauty herself. A genius of the age. A divine

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masterpiece of creation.

The fact that he was reaching out after so long meant he had something urgent to attend to, yet Periel Kalos found Millaiyen Pestellio rather bothersome.

He would have preferred to set it aside for a month or so before reading it, but the timing was hardly opportune now.

The very fact that Millaiyen had gone so far as to use a messenger bird to contact him during the season when the Northern Territory sealed its gates meant he desperately needed a swift reply.

Periel Kalos, arms crossed, fixed his gaze upon the wooden cylinder.

With long fingers, he slowly traced the wooden tube, then opened the lid and inverted it to retrieve its contents.

What emerged was a letter and a single sheet of paper bearing a sketch.

A drawing that remained unfinished—merely a preliminary sketch.

“…The skill is rather impressive.”

Though he had not examined it closely, each stroke of the pencil was delicate and meticulous.

Rather than scrutinize the drawing further, Periel Kalos first read his friend’s letter slowly with his eyes.

In essence, it was a sketch drawn by a young lady of the Leopold House, and it seemed she was afflicted with some form of artistic malady.

Yet he would not specify what manner of artistic malady it was.

The inquiry was whether there existed a method to identify the type of artistic malady and whether a cure existed.

He also asked that word be sent to Count Leopold that his daughter was being kept here.

“Hah, is that all?”

Periel Kalos turned the single-page letter this way and that with a dismissive gesture, then let out a hollow laugh.

The crude letter, devoid of even the customary pleasantries or well-wishes that typically adorned correspondence, contained nothing but the bare matter at hand.

The closing was even more absurd.

[If you have the time, show me that vaunted miracle of yours

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Use some of it and show me this. Look at it.

The last line, hastily scrawled, was unmistakably written without thought.

“What a crude bastard.”

Periel Kalos, his beautiful face curling into a sneer, uttered the coarse greeting.

Periel Kalos discarded the letter as though casting it aside, then seized the painting in his hands.

He recognized the place at once.

I messed up.

It must have been a morning when the cold was bitter and a chill wind swept through.

And through the painting, he could sense that its creator had gazed at that landscape in a daze for a long while, seized by loneliness.

The emotions emanating from this monochromatic work were so varied they defied description.

To feel such depth in a mere sketch—what would the completed work evoke?

My heart raced.

As a fellow artist, I yearned to see its finished form.

“Why on earth did it go to that ignorant fool who doesn’t even know the first character of ‘art’?”

He lamented with genuine regret. What Millaiyen Pestellio had shown him was raw ore—uncut diamond.

I wanted to meet the one who created this painting. My lips curved into a graceful arc.

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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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