Limited Extra Time - Chapter 34

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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 ——

“I despaired and wanted to die.”

“….”

The confession was shocking.

I never imagined that Winston, who had traveled so far to save me, carried such pain within him.

“Art Sickness can never be cured, and the only way to stop its progression is to let go of everything you’ve devoted your life to, or so they say.”

Winston’s words were true.

Painting was my only refuge. The only

time I could truly empty my mind of everything else.

Only when I painted.

“People turned away, and my parents were disappointed. I set out on a journey to end it all, to leave everything behind.”

I stared at Winston blankly. He smiled faintly.

“Like you, I wanted to put everything in order before the end. But then I stumbled into a Refugee Camp.”

“….”

—— Page 2 ——

“It was filled with people who wanted to live. To some eyes, it might have seemed squalid and desperate, but it was a fierce, passionate struggle for existence.”

My lips closed. I began listening to his story again, quietly.

“There were those fighting against illness. I… wanted to save them. And someday, I wanted to ensure that Art Sickness would no longer be called an incurable disease.”

And then I suddenly understood.

He had found another dream.

That dream had allowed him to set aside his embroidery, which he treasured as dearly as his own life.

“I found something else to obsess over instead of the needle. Fortunately, medicine suited me well too.”

Watching him smile, I closed my lips quietly. I cannot let go. I never had such a dream.

Winston’s gently curved eyes met mine.

“Seeing you reminded me of myself. That’s why I couldn’t pretend not to notice.”

“…Yes.”

I answered quietly.

He did not reveal in detail what thoughts occupied him or what suffering he had overcome.

Yet it touched my heart. But it was not my story. It was his story, crafted by his own hands.

It could never become the story of Carina Leopold.

“I was the same way. Everyone has difficult times, moments when they wish to turn their back on the world.”

“Yes…”

“You have done nothing wrong. You are not wicked. It was right for you to distance yourself from your home now.”

“…Truly?”

“Yes. Only when one moves away from the source of one’s anguish does a person finally stand at the starting point.”

—— Page 3 ——

What does it mean to stand at a starting point? When does a person truly stand there?

Does someone who never suffers, never bears wounds, never stand at a starting point their entire life?

I gazed blankly at Winston.

“Some say that confronting one’s wounds is the shortest path to healing them, but I believe that moving away from one’s wounds is also a way to heal.”

“….”

“It’s a worn phrase, but people inflict wounds just as people heal them.”

Winston had carefully composed the words he’d wanted to say throughout her entire story, and now he spoke them with measured calm.

Carina Leopold listened to his words, her hand still held within his grasp.

“Now that you’ve stepped beyond the fence, you’ll forge many new bonds.”

Winston spoke quietly.

“They will help you unlock the memories of your past and become new recollections for you, bringing you laughter. And then, someday, you’ll be able to face everything with clear eyes.”

“But I fled in cowardly silence, didn’t I?”

“The world calls those who flee cowards, but even in war, advancing and retreating are part of the daily rhythm. Retreat gives you the strength to advance once more.”

The unexpected analogy caused Carina Leopold’s eyes to widen perceptibly.

“To reorganize, replenish your strength, devise a plan, and then move forward again.”

Winston continued speaking without pause, though he suppressed any hint of excitement in his tone.

At the faint smile that bloomed across Carina Leopold’s face, he raised a weathered hand and brushed it across his own cheek.

“Consider yourself at that very stage now. Even the first Emperor, who conquered and founded the Empire, surely experienced re

—— Page 4 ——

treat. No hero has ever claimed victory alone.

…

Failure, flight, retreat—they are all preparation for the leap that comes next. So do not be ashamed.”

…Yes, I will.

After a long moment, Carina Leopold answered with a faint smile.

* * *

So why hadn’t the topic of the young lady’s personal physician come up yet? What was the problem?

As if to break the prolonged silence between the two of them, Winston spoke again.

Ah, a soft gasp escaped between my parted lips.

Ah…

Carina Leopold’s eyes moved, and I slowly opened my lips that had been sealed shut.

The physician came to Leopold Manor when I was around seventeen years old. He was about two years older than me.

I see.

Winston moistened his lips with the cold teacup as he replied.

I studied Winston’s reaction, but reading the expression of an elderly man fortified by years of experience was hardly an easy task. Since I had already begun the story,

I couldn’t stop midway, so I moved my lips again after that brief pause.

To be honest, it’s a bit embarrassing… but I found myself drawn to him the moment we met.

A faint smile blossomed across my expressionless face, and Winston’s eyes widened.

He narrowed his eyes for a moment, then opened them casually and nodded.

—— Page 5 ——

“Oh my, I apologize. I didn’t realize anyone was here…”

It was a meeting in the small garden attached to Leopold Manor.

Nocton was a captivating person from the very first meeting.

His eyes folded beautifully into crescents, and his lips curved upward in an enchanting way that captured one’s gaze. His tone was gentle, his voice clear and refined, sweet as honey dripping slowly.

Like a young sprout receiving the first spring rain, a belated spring arrived for me as well.

“I’ve never seen such a grand manor before, so I asked for permission and have been exploring the grounds.”

“…Who are you?”

“I’m Nocton, the newly appointed physician for Count Leopold’s Residence. It’s a pleasure to meet you, miss.”

He was a man with exceptional conversational skills.

Nocton’s distinctive blend of smooth charm and gentle warmth allowed him to quickly build rapport with the servants throughout Count Leopold’s Residence.

And he was particularly kind to Abelia.

While Nocton was kind to everyone, the tenderness he showed Abelia was distinctly special.

Abelia always conversed with Nocton with a bright expression, and like anyone else, he naturally found himself drawn to her radiance.

The way Nocton looked at Abelia was neither sticky nor unpleasant.

He described her as being like a younger sister to him.

Nocton’s gaze was always fixed on Abelia. It was always he who noticed any changes in her condition.

I always watched Nocton’s back, but he was always looking at Abelia.

—— Page 6 ——

“It was an unrequited love on my part alone. I didn’t begin with any expectation of reciprocation, and it took me considerable time to even recognize and accept those feelings.”

It was an unrequited love that shattered not long after I acknowledged it.

Yes, that day was no different from any other.

Because Abelia’s health was not good, Carina always had to spend a lot of time with her in the Library, and that day was also when she was searching for a book in the Library.

“Sister, I want to go outside and play too….”

Abelia grumbled in dissatisfaction while trailing after me, repeatedly pulling books from the shelves and replacing them with a listless expression.

Since we always followed the same routes, Abelia had grown tired of them as well.

In the Library, there stood a bookshelf that was scarcely half-filled, and Carina Leopold stood before it, carefully examining each newly arrived book one by one.

That was the problem. One might even say she had been unlucky.

The bookshelf creaked with a sharp squeal each time Abelia touched it, as though something within had warped.

Though the tilting shelf appeared precarious, the simple act of inserting and removing books posed no real danger.

The bookshelf was of a type with an open back—no rear panel, allowing passage straight through.

It was a design crafted for convenient storage of vast quantities of books, where one could lock eyes with a person on the opposite side upon withdrawing a volume.

What proved unexpected was that Abelia, intending to startle her, had withdrawn a book from the opposite side and thrust her face through the narrow gap between the shelves.

The unstable bookshelf collapsed forward in an instant.

“Ahhhhh!”

—— Page 7 ——

“Ah…”

With Abelia’s scream, the massive bookshelf came crashing down upon Carina Leopold.

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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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