Limited Extra Time - Chapter 78

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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 ——

Throb—!

Carina Leopold froze mid-step as she descended toward her room to prepare for the banquet, seized by a sudden, piercing pain.

She pressed a trembling hand to her chest, her breath catching as her eyes darted frantically around her.

‘The intervals are getting shorter….’

Once, she might have questioned whether the intervals had truly shortened, but now it was unmistakable.

Multiple times each day, pain—sometimes brief, sometimes prolonged—would seize her.

While the most intense, longest-lasting episodes still came mostly at night, the troubling reality was that symptoms were beginning to manifest during daylight hours as well.

‘Winston said at most a year.’

Which meant it could easily be far less than that.

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There was nothing preventing her from hearing one day that only a month remained. Carina’s face contorted as she gasped for breath.

Throb, throb—.

The excruciating pain twisted her features involuntarily. When she breathed deeply, it surged forward; when she held her breath, the agony gradually receded, as though it had never been.

As though she were hoping her breath would simply stop altogether.

‘Should I paint?’

When you create a miracle as pain arrives, the pain subsides. As if you’re calming the pain at the cost of another life.

“To my room, for now….”

With her face twisted in anguish, she groped along the railing, descending the Staircase one careful step at a time.

The slightest misstep would send her tumbling. Tension made her palms slick with perspiration.

“…Carina?”

At the sound of that voice, my body went rigid.

Why did I have to hear the voice of the one person I least wanted to see right now? I squeezed my eyes shut.

To appear as unbothered and composed as possible, I forced my hand down from my chest with great effort. I managed a faint smile.

“Millaiyen? What brings you here?”

My heart trembled. I prayed my voice sounded casual enough.

I hoped it hadn’t wavered.

Millaiyen climbed the Staircase and approached me with long, purposeful strides, saying nothing.

“Is it an episode?”

“I… what?”

“When did it start? Is the pain severe?”

Millaiyen spoke as he gathered me into his arms.

Just as he had at the Lakeside, cradling me like a child, he carried me down the Staircase

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swiftly.

“…”

I fell silent.

I had meant to hide it. I thought that if it bothered him, he would simply pretend not to notice, and I desperately wished he would do exactly that. At the very least, I hoped he wouldn’t see through me.

I didn’t want to show him my pathetic state. Wasn’t it a weakness, a flaw to be ashamed of?

Pain itself was not a sin, but to me, pain had always been one.

Because of this, she was unfamiliar with the situation.

“Periel Kalos isn’t here today either, is he?”

“No….”

Carina Leopold clenched her teeth and answered, enduring the pain.

Her trembling hands reflexively tried to rise toward her chest. She pressed down on her thoughtless hands with her other hand and forced herself to smile as though nothing were amiss.

“Don’t speak. A nod will suffice.”

“….”

Millaiyen walked directly toward Carina’s Room.

He moved so swiftly that the surroundings barely registered in his vision.

He appeared desperately urgent, his face contorted as though he were the one suffering in her stead.

“How… did you know?”

“I’ve grown accustomed to your concealment. I simply know by looking. I can see that you’re enduring it even now.”

“….”

How far did this man intend to see through her?

Things that even family—those she’d lived with for twenty years—had never discerned, he had discovered in mere months.

“…It’s truly unfair.”

Millaiyen was an unfair man indeed.

How much of my heart must he take before he’s satisfied?

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How much must he make me depend on him before he’s content?

Cold sweat trickled down my forehead.

My back was drenched. The color drained from my fingertips, leaving my mind in a fog. My vision blurred, and the world seemed to spin around me.

Millaiyen locked the door behind him and laid me down on the bed.

He positioned me properly on my back,

but the pain was unbearable, and I curled into a ball like a roly-poly.

“You can scream if it hurts.”

“…Hah….”

How does one even scream?

I’d never screamed before, so I didn’t know how to do it or what would happen if I did.

Though I couldn’t predict what kind of pain would assault me or how, watching me tremble with clenched teeth, unable to make a sound despite the agony, Millaiyen’s

face twisted in distress.

“This will damage your teeth. Please, just scream.”

He climbed onto the bed and pulled my curled form into his embrace, slowly stroking my back.

Even as he did, he retrieved Haron from the nightstand and placed it in my arms.

“Hnngh….”

My stifled sobs showed no sign of becoming actual screams.

Unable to bear it any longer, Millaiyen slowly rubbed my lips with his thumb, then carefully pushed his finger into my mouth.

I was biting down so hard I was worried I’d actually break his teeth.

“Haaah…!”

A proper whimper finally escaped between my parted lips.

Only after embracing Haron did Carina Leopold regain some semblance of composure, and only then did she become aware of the foreign object lodged in her mouth.

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She gasped for breath and opened her eyes, which had been squeezed shut.

“Don’t…!”

The moment she tried to say not to do it, a terrible pain seized her heart again, as if someone were tearing it apart.

Carina reflexively clenched her teeth without thinking, her eyes widening at the firm yet soft object caught between her teeth. She looked at Millaiyen with a startled expression.

“Shh, it’s alright.”

Millaiyen, seemingly unaware of the pain in his own fingers, was too busy gently stroking her back with a helpless expression.

Carina shook her head and tried to push his hand away.

“That’s enough—if you hurt yourself any further, what will I do? Your bite doesn’t even tickle, so don’t worry.”

Carina shook her head instead of answering.

“Are you feeling better now?”

His tender voice pierced through her ears.

My vision, already blurred, grew even more obscured. I clenched my fists tightly. More than the pain, my heart ached because of him standing before me.

Why are you so endlessly kind?

He was so tender that I despised and hated myself for deceiving him. As if I might fall into this tenderness I had never experienced before in an instant.

“Why….”

I couldn’t even ask why he treated me so well.

There wasn’t.

What reason could there be for him to treat me so kindly? It would be better if he wanted something in return.

Yet he asked for nothing. That fact twisted my insides even more.

Through my blurred vision, tears spilled down my cheeks and onto the sheets.

Patter, patter.

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As tears began to fall in earnest, Millaiyen couldn’t hide his alarm, his eyes darting about.

With tears cascading down like rain, I wept in silence, unable to stop the deluge.

“Are you in that much pain?”

Millaiyen carefully withdrew his fingers from between my lips and pulled me into his embrace.

His clumsy patting of my back, done with such bewilderment, broke something within me—my tears flowed forth in torrents like a dam

bursting open.

“C-Carina. Should I call Winston?”

“Sniff….”

My face grew wet as I choked back sobs, my body trembling.

From such a small frame, where could all this moisture come from? Tears fell like rain, drenching his shoulder in moments.

The clothes he’d changed into for the upcoming party

were becoming soaked, though that hardly seemed to matter to him.

“Carina.”

Millaiyen swiftly lifted me into his arms and rose from the bed.

As if soothing a small child, he began to pace the room in figure-eights, cradling me against him.

“Shh, don’t cry. Are you hurting that much?”

At Millaiyen’s words, Carina shook her head.

The pain had been visiting her for quite some time. The intermittent aches would come and go silently, disappearing without a trace. So it was never truly a problem.

The pain had been visiting her for quite some time. The intermittent aches would come and go silently, disappearing without a trace. So it was never truly a problem.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Millaiyen had begun to apologize.

Though he didn’t know what he’d done wrong, he sensed there was reason behind her sorrowful tears.

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Carina Leopold.

…Hm.

He gently stroked her back as she gradually calmed.

The only memory I had of being comforted was from my father holding me when I was very young. Beyond that, there was nothing.

Though it was an old memory, almost reflexively, he soothed her much as he had when she was small.

Carina burrowed into Millaiyen’s embrace, curling her body inward.

He was a gentle person, yet that gentleness felt like poison.

Are you feeling better now?

Yes…

Carina answered quietly, her voice hoarse from crying.

At the deflated tone, Millaiyen examined her carefully. Not only was her voice hollow—her head hung low as well.

Did it hurt terribly?

He tried to ask as tenderly as possible.

How much pain must she be in for someone who always insists she’s fine to shed tears so sorrowfully? Millaiyen examined her face carefully, turning it this way and that.

I’m all right.

Her answer was hollow.

Millaiyen carefully seated Carina Leopold on the Bed and knelt on one knee before her.

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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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