Limited Extra Time - Chapter 35

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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 ——

Books cascaded down in a torrential shower, striking her entire body.

As her legs gave way and she collapsed, heavier tomes rained down upon her.

Mercifully, the falling bookcase caught on another shelf, halting mere inches before it could crush Carina Leopold beneath its weight.

“Abelia!”

The first to arrive was Nocton, who had been searching for her to conduct an examination.

Abelia cried out in alarm. Yet it was Carina Leopold who had truly suffered the brunt of the disaster.

My head throbbed where the edge had struck it, and my hand, pinned beneath the heavy books that had fallen across my limbs, trembled with involuntary spasms.

But Nocton’s attention remained wholly fixed upon Abelia.

—— Page 2 ——

“Good heavens, Abelia. Are you unharmed? Where… where are you injured?”

“I… I’m… fine…”

Listening to Abelia’s voice, rigid with shock, I managed to push away the pile of books covering me one by one.

At the sound of the falling books, Nocton turned his gaze toward me.

His expression darkened instantly.

“What on earth were you doing?! Unlike you, Miss Abelia is fragile! We never know when she might perish!”

“The bookcase suddenly collapsed…”

“Thank goodness it fell toward you—if it had fallen on her, what would have become of her? Why would you bring her to such a dangerous place?!”

Sharp fangs flashed briefly before vanishing.

His voice was nothing like his usual gentle tone.

The man spitting out words of relief that the chaos had spilled toward me was not someone I knew.

Nocton emanated a fierce, bristling aura as if protecting his own offspring.

Like a terrified beast with fur standing on end, he cradled Abelia in his arms while baring his teeth.

“She is fragile. Without protection, she will perish.”

“Do you… like Abelia?”

“Not in a romantic sense. But if anything would harm her, I will desperately prevent it, no matter what it takes. …Because I cannot lose her again.”

With those words, he left the Library without hesitation, still cradling Abelia in his arms.

“Books hurt quite a bit when they fall, you know.”

—— Page 3 ——

Winston muttered something under his breath, his expression clearly shaken.

Carina Leopold fell silent again, as if lost in thought.

“…Did that physician perhaps return?”

Her voice cutting through the quiet was remarkably low and cold. The warmth that had filled it moments before had hardened into stone.

Carina Leopold did not sense the strangeness in Winston’s clipped tone.

She was too preoccupied composing her own emotions as she recalled the past.

“No.”

Winston’s eyes grew even sharper. Carina Leopold turned her gaze toward the window and laughed bitterly.

“I was so startled, my body ached, and I had no idea what to do, so I simply collapsed in that spot and waited blankly.”

A self-deprecating tone seeped through her words.

Ten minutes passed, then thirty, and even when servants who had received belated orders came to clean up and found me sitting there with a pallid face, Nocton did not return.

“Carina Leopold…? What brings you here…?”

“….”

“Ah! If you’ve come looking for Miss Abelia out of concern, the Physician is currently in her room examining her condition. Please go up to the Second Floor.”

The Maidservant’s words left me with no desire to explain the situation.

My mind was merely blank, my body ached, and my hands continued to tremble—these were the only things I could barely register.

At least my legs had stopped shaking enough to allow me to walk, which was some small mercy.

With what little strength I could muster in my legs, I climbed the stairs. The moment I reached the Second Floor—

—— Page 4 ——

the voices of family members reached my ears.

“Good heavens, why on earth would you do something so reckless…”

“If anything had happened to this child, I would have been in such agony. Thank you for helping her, Nocton.”

“Not at all. I merely did what was necessary. As for Miss Abelia, she was simply startled, so there’s no harm done. Besides, she’s sleeping soundly now.”

Standing before Abelia’s Room and listening to this exchange, inexplicable laughter spilled from my lips.

I could not suppress the laughter that burst forth in bitter waves.

That was the day my feelings toward Nocton shattered.

“Carina should have at least stopped the child from doing something dangerous. As an older sister, you can’t even look after your sibling properly…”

“It’s true that Carina can be rather thoughtless at times.”

“Still, how could you not visit even once when your sister was hurt?

Really, she’s my daughter, but she’s so selfish.”

“She’ll be better once she matures a bit more.”

I didn’t even wonder what she had heard or how much of the conversation had reached her ears.

What I could infer was that Nocton hadn’t properly conveyed the truth about me to our parents, and that they, in turn, hadn’t worried about me in the slightest for being caught up in this affair.

I simply came to understand that my worth was nothing more than being “Abelia’s older sister.”

I simply learned the true heart of someone I had cared for.

He was a man capable of concealing the truth if it would harm Abelia.

Carina Leopold limped quietly down the corridor to her room at the far end.

—— Page 5 ——

Only upon reaching her room did she lower her head, belatedly feeling the pain radiating from her ankle. The memory of being struck by the falling book came back to her too late.

That day, Carina Leopold wept.

It was a sorrowful cry she choked back and endured in silence.

With a blink, as her eyelids closed and opened once more, the image of eighteen-year-old Carina Leopold collapsed upon the bed blurred before her eyes like an afterimage.

She blinked slowly. Before her eyes was a hardened expression

Winston’s trembling pupils bit at his lips.

‘So that man ultimately….’

After all those warnings.

Despite all my repeated cautions not to conflate my younger sister with a patient, to treat everyone with equal fairness—he ended up behaving like this.

Knowing his obsession with his younger sister better than anyone, Winston exhaled a sigh and pressed his palm to his forehead.

“I just realized it back then. Nocton…

No, the Count Leopold’s Residence’s personal physician would never do anything to harm that child. That child would be the priority in everything he does….”

Carina Leopold calmly confessed what she had kept hidden from everyone for so long.

I never imagined I would tell this story to anyone while I still drew breath.

I couldn’t predict how my family would react if I revealed it.

I didn’t want to disappoint Nocton any further. Abelia would certainly be shocked.

And if my condition were to worsen because of it, they would all blame me.

‘No, Nocton would never allow such a thing to happen.’

My thoughts branched and rebranched endlessly. Before long, fear took root.

I simply buried it within myself—that incident which left its mark in places unseen, like a fever, in the deep hollow that had been carved out

—— Page 6 ——

within my heart.

“Perhaps if I had undergone an examination from him and he had learned of my illness first, he would not have told me honestly.”

“…Hmm.”

“If it were a grave illness, might he not have hidden it for fear of the shock it would cause Abelia….”

It may be mere speculation, Carina added, laughing once more.

What was there to smile about so persistently?

Winston briefly considered whether he ought to scold her for it.

The smile on her lips was forced to anyone’s eye—a laugh that had been worn for far too long.

A smile worn not for oneself but for another’s sake stirred something deeper within Winston’s chest.

“That’s why I didn’t go to my regular physician. …That’s why I came to you instead.”

Having heard Carina’s explanation, Winston

shook his head slowly.

Knowing the child bore a flaw, yet witnessing their will to live, I made them my Physician.

I believed that as I treated others, the guilt of failing to protect my younger sister would gradually fade.

Recently, I had indeed stopped bringing up my sister’s memory, and my pathological fixation and concern for those around her age had diminished.

I thought I was slowly moving forward—

only to discover it was because I had found someone onto whom to project my sister.

‘…Nocton!’

Winston’s fury burned within.

Nocton came to mind—always smiling and saying it was fine whenever I offered counsel.

I had trusted Nocton. Yet Nocton was exploiting that trust, weaving lies.

‘How much longer will I remain shackled by this phantom?’

—— Page 7 ——

Seized by a burning thirst at this realization, Winston forced down the now-cold tea.

Winston’s trembling eyes squeezed shut in pain.

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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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