Limited Extra Time - Chapter 32

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

—— Page 1 ——

“I nearly lost you. But you’ve traveled all this way to the Northern Territory, so I suppose you’re not truly lost after all.”

Winston gently corrected Carina Leopold’s words.

“Still, our first meeting was as a Physician and patient, so it feels a bit awkward now that we meet again like this…”

“Pardon?”

“It seems to me you’re a person of considerable standing, yet you speak so casually. Is that truly acceptable?”

“Yes, of course. It’s perfectly fine.”

Regardless of her upbringing in the Nobility, my bond with Winston was not as the daughter of the Leopold Family Estate, but as Carina Leopold—a person in my own right.

Naturally, I had no desire to layer power or status upon that foundation.

“Well, that’s a relief then.”

In Winston’s lighthearted laughter, there was not the slightest hint of tension from someone who had nearly lost his sight.

Nor did it seem as though he could not see what lay before him.

—— Page 2 ——

“Has your Art Affliction improved?”

Millaiyen Pestellio voiced the question I had been deliberating over without the slightest hesitation.

Millaiyen Pestellio showed considerable interest in the Art Affliction.

It was information he rarely possessed, and since I had offered not a word on the matter, his curiosity had been piqued.

“No, to be honest, there is no clear cure for the Art Affliction.”

“No cure? Yet by your own account, it appears you have not lost your sight.”

A smile played at the corners of Winston’s mouth at Millaiyen Pestellio’s question.

I smiled with practiced ease at a question I had likely heard dozens of times over the years, dulled by the passage of time itself.

“I set down my needlework.”

How much time had been required to deliver that answer with such composure?

Carina Leopold watched in silence as Winston’s strained smile finally dissolved.

Could one truly accept the end of one’s own life and appear unmoved before family?

Could one speak one’s own ending with such calm indifference?

Only questions lingered in my mind—no answers came.

“Is it truly necessary to abandon art entirely in order to treat this artistic affliction?”

“The simplest and fastest solution is indeed to do so.”

Winston nodded in agreement.

“As I mentioned before, not everyone contracts this artistic affliction. Among those who perform miracles, the probability is merely one in ten.”

“One in every ten, then.”

“Precisely. Artists brilliant enough to perform miracles number fewer than one hundred over a span of fifty to sixty years. Therefore, over a century, at most twenty to twenty-five individuals develop the artistic affliction.”

—— Page 3 ——

Information unknown to the others flowed effortlessly from Winston’s lips, as though he had long studied the matter.

As I watched him count on his fingers, the rarity of my own condition finally became tangible.

“Among those infinitesimal odds, the rarest manifestation is not blindness or sensory loss, but the sacrifice of one’s very life as the price of miracles.”

“What are the odds of that occurring?”

“Based on current records, it appears in approximately one out of every hundred individuals afflicted with the artistic condition. Over fifty to sixty years, among all artists who develop this affliction, only one will experience such a symptom—an extraordinarily low probability.”

A faint glimmer of relief crossed Millaiyen Pestellio’s eyes as he listened.

Winston’s gaze hardened as it shifted toward Carina, who sat rigid in her seat, while he caught the unmistakable relief flickering across Millaiyen Pestellio’s eyes.

I swallowed hard, my throat aching from the tension I’d been holding back with clenched muscles.

Meeting Winston’s concerned gaze, I found my fists tightening without my consent.

Winston swallowed a sigh as he observed my hands, drained of all color.

“Then, if you have no further questions, might I pose one to you, Miss?”

“…Yes.”

Winston’s lips parted the moment Carina’s answer ended.

Unable to turn my gaze toward Millaiyen Pestellio, my eyes remained fixed on Winston.

I clenched and unclenched my fists repeatedly, trying to cool the heat gathering in my damp palms, before finally squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again.

What I’d considered a trivial matter had spiraled beyond control, and now guilt pressed down upon me alongside overwhelming emotion. I hadn’t anticipated it would come to this.

I hadn’t known that every glance from Millaiyen Pestellio would weigh so heavily on my mind, nor that the burden of concealing the truth would feel this suffocating and unbearable.

—— Page 4 ——

“Perhaps we might continue our conversation in my room instead?”

I forced the words out through my aching throat with difficulty.

At this unmistakable boundary I’d drawn, Millaiyen Pestellio’s spine stiffened where he sat in silence.

His expression hardened into sharp lines as he slowly turned his head, lowering his gaze toward me.

The wall I’d thought had softened somewhat materialized before him once more, reinforced and impenetrable.

I averted my eyes slightly and bowed my head.

“It matters not to me.”

Winston, who had been sitting across from us and observing both of us in turn, answered quietly.

At Winston’s response, Carina nodded and slowly rose from her seat.

“…Today was enjoyable.”

As I stood, my fingers clenched the fabric of my dress so tightly it had gone pale, and I struggled to part my lips.

My heart thundered so violently it rang in my ears—nothing like the sweetness I’d felt when deliberating whether to take his hand.

The blood rushed through my veins so rapidly it felt as though it were draining from my entire body, leaving me cold and hollow.

“If you don’t mind….”

I parted my lips again, which had been trembling.

He was the only one who had ever told me I could do the countless things I’d believed I shouldn’t do for fear of being despised.

“Next time as well… would you suggest it to me?”

I barely managed to extract one desire I’d been suppressing so desperately from within myself.

Millaiyen didn’t answer her words and simply lifted his head quietly.

My eyes, which had always tried to meet his gaze during our conversations, remained fixed on the floor.

As I waited for his answer, my lower lip trembled, and finally, when no response came, I bit down on it.

“I’ll be going now, Millaiyen.”

—— Page 5 ——

Waiting for his answer, I turned my body very slowly.

Even after Winston left first and closed the door, no words came from behind.

My legs felt heavy, as though they were weighted down.

Only after I’d closed the door and moved far enough away from the Reception Room could I finally release the tension from my stiffened waist and neck.

“He didn’t say anything.”

“I couldn’t tell him. It would upset him too much.”

“Upset him?”

“…Living with someone who will soon die. Millaiyen Pestellio isn’t the kind of person who can be indifferent to others, so he can’t do it now.”

I had no sense of what reaction my words would provoke.

Carina Leopold moved with heavy steps, barely making her way to the room.

She asked a passing Maidservant for tea and refreshments before taking a seat at the table.

Carina Leopold, sitting across from Winston, straightened her posture and opened her mouth.

“I apologize for deceiving you.”

“Hmm? What do you mean? If it’s about the bride, that’s fine. Regardless of your reasons, you were a patient.”

At Winston’s words, Carina Leopold smiled faintly.

How much comfort the letters he had written had brought me throughout my journey.

I wanted to express my gratitude for that as well.

“Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Carina Leopold of the Leopold Family Estate.”

“…Leopold?”

Winston’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes.”

As the Physician of the territory, he would certainly know the lord’s family name.

I was watching his expression carefully, worried he might find it burdensome, but his reaction was peculiar.

—— Page 6 ——

“Doesn’t the Leopold Family Estate have a personal physician?”

“Yes.”

Carina Leopold spoke with a bitter smile playing at her lips.

Winston’s eyes widened, and an odd look crossed his face as he turned toward Carina Leopold.

“Why didn’t you go to your personal physician?”

Carina Leopold paused to consider.

There were countless reasons, countless concerns, but after thinking it through since arriving here, I arrived at a single answer.

“I wanted to see someone who didn’t know me, and….”

Carina Leopold glanced cautiously at his expression.

“I found it difficult to trust him.”

“Why is that?”

Winston’s eyes narrowed.

“Did something go wrong with your physician?”

Winston stroked his chin thoughtfully as he posed the question.

At Winston’s inquiry, Carina Leopold’s gaze drifted downward. The image of Nocton smiling gently surfaced in her mind.

“It felt like he was gossiping about me….”

Carina Leopold laughed awkwardly and trailed off.

“Gossiping? There’s nothing wrong with that. If something troubled you, you can speak freely about it.”

Winston shook his head.

“This works out well. Why don’t you tell me your story while we’re at it? Keeping things bottled up is the root of all ailments.”

At his hearty, unguarded response, Carina Leopold’s eyes curved into crescents.

“Yes. I have twin siblings—my brother is healthy, but my sister has been frail since birth.”

Her long lashes cast shadows downward.

“Is that so?”

Winston feigned ignorance as he posed his counter-question.

—— Page 7 ——

He was well aware that Nocton’s periodic visits to the Leopold Estate stemmed from that sickly youngest daughter.

Yet since he had heard nothing substantial from Nocton himself, he wished to hear the circumstances directly from Carina Leopold’s lips.

Carina Leopold nodded, acquiescing to his unspoken question.

‘She resembled my dead sibling, or so I was told.’

Perhaps that was why she displayed a somewhat morbid attachment—

I had cast words of concern a few times, but she was skilled at concealing her true feelings, so who knew what thoughts churned beneath that composed exterior.

“Did you know, Physician?”

Winston did not answer.

It was obvious without deliberation that she did not seek a response.

Carina Leopold’s brow furrowed.

As she strained to suppress the sound rising from her tightening throat,

her throat ached.

“At the center of my world, there has always been Lia.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————