Limited Extra Time - Chapter 95

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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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He was as unobstructed in his departure as he had been in his arrival. The man drew deeply on a cigarette that still had half its length remaining.

‘…Dying?’

For someone afflicted with such a condition, he carried remarkably little shadow. He laughed as though he knew no end to his days.

Surely he could not be ignorant of his own mortality.

To know the hour of one’s death, however distant—that was a terrifying thing. Even losing both arms had been enough to

make him tremble with such dread and fear. But what of a heart whose very life hangs in forfeit?

‘…And yet he purchased painting supplies.’

He could not let it go—just as I could not. Even if painting consumed his life itself…

The night was bright with moonlight, yet somehow my spirits would not lift. The pale rays seeping through felt unusually cold tonight.

After a long while, the man extinguished his cigarette and

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sank deep into his chair.

‘My left arm—the one already gone—seems to ache.’

It was a day that promised no sleep.

The horse whinnied long as Millaiyen leaped from its back. It had only just managed to gallop here, struggling against his violent movements.

Before the horse could even come to a full stop, it cried out again, as though protesting its master’s abrupt dismount.

“Periel.”

Periel Kalos—that bastard had lied!

Rage consumed me entirely. I had called out to him in trust. Because I believed in him completely, I had held my tongue despite his uncertain words.

“How dare you….”

She had wagered her own life and toyed with him.

Had she known all along? Was that why she seemed so close to Periel Kalos? Had Winston deceived him as well?

“Master…, is something the matter?”

“Where is Periel Kalos?”

“…I saw him going upstairs with Miss Carina Leopold just now.”

Millaiyen, who had been heading toward the Basement, stopped in his tracks.

Rage flooded through him until his vision turned white.

A ringing echoed in his ears—agonizing. But the true torment was knowing they were together at this very moment.

Millaiyen bounded up the Staircase two steps at a time. Dignity and propriety no longer mattered.

His heart constricted with pain, his breath caught in his throat—he had to move, had to act, or he would suffocate.

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“…seems right. I think it would be better to just leave like this.”

Millaiyen’s hand froze on the doorknob. What had he just heard?

Leave?

She was leaving?

With whom?

What was she saying to someone else while he stood right beside her?

“Periel Kalos, I’m dying.”

His racing heart plummeted in an instant. For a moment, he could not comprehend what he was hearing.

Is this a dream?

Or perhaps… a vicious nightmare?

The ground beneath my feet crumbled away, and I felt myself collapsing into the void. If such an abyss existed, surely it lay beyond that door—nowhere else to search.

It felt like descending into suffocating darkness.

“Each day, the seizures worsen and the pain intensifies…”

My heart ached at the sound of her crumbling voice.

I felt the simultaneous urge to burst through that door, pull her into my arms, and a bitter resentment toward her for refusing to confide in me until the very end.

“I can feel the end approaching…”

Her voice beyond the door was calm, yet trembling with moisture.

Ah, she was weeping.

I could no longer endure listening to this.

Even knowing that what awaited beyond that door would carve a deep scar into my soul, I could not pretend ignorance, could not feign blindness.

I clenched my teeth and slowly turned the doorknob.

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“Hah…”

Not long after Millaiyen left, a dull ache began rising from her chest.

In panic, she grasped Haron, who lay nearby. The stone-like object was too large to hold in one hand, so she pulled it into her embrace.

Her eyes, drained of all color,

trembled with terror.

The pain would surge forward again.

I know she will moan helplessly and thrash about in agony.

‘I hate this….’

She hated it. Tears welled up in her eyes in an instant.

She hated the pain. Perhaps—perhaps death would be better. Anything to escape this terrible suffering and the maddening urges that threatened to consume her.

A pain that came once and ended would have been bearable.

A pain with a known duration would have been more manageable.

Whether it lasted an hour or two, she could simply endure it.

What terrified her most was not knowing when this pain would disappear.

And the fact that the duration kept increasing.

Last time, the pain that began at dawn persisted until sunrise.

She had no idea how many hours it lasted. She simply clenched her teeth, held her breath, and waited for the pain to subside.

Each time it came, she could only grit her teeth in relief that it happened at night.

Haron’s embrace certainly helped when he held her, but even with him holding her, the terrible pain continued relentlessly now.

As if Haron’s protection meant she should feel even greater agony instead.

“Ugh….”

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It felt as though someone was squeezing her heart.

Carina Leopold wondered if her heart would burst from this. When she held her breath until her face flushed crimson, the pain lessened slightly.

It worsened when she exhaled again. What had been only heart pain now ached with every breath. It seemed something had gone wrong with her respiratory system.

…It was getting worse like this.

Spreading and spreading until death finally claimed me.

Eventually, there would be no part of me left without pain. Inevitably, the day would come when I would desperately wield the brush against my own will, painting simply to survive.

A day might come when drawing was no longer joyful or fulfilling.

I would pick up the brush to numb the agony, to merely exist. No different from the other Creators that Periel Kalos had shown me—

no different at all.

I understood their hearts now.

Why they painted like madmen despite all the warnings, why they carved away their own lives.

Knock. Knock.

Someone was at the door.

Carina Leopold clapped her hand over her mouth and held her breath. She needed to sound fine, but she had no confidence. Her face had gone deathly pale as she wiped it.

“Carina Leopold, it’s Periel Kalos.”

“…Periel… ugh…”

The moment she spoke, a searing pain crashed through her as if her ribs were shattering. She clutched at her chest, groaning.

Hearing the sound from outside, Periel Kalos drew a sharp breath, and she felt him seize the door handle.

“Carina Leopold, forgive my intrusion.”

“Hah…”

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She had no strength to respond. No way to stop the door from opening. She could only watch helplessly as it swung wide, rolling across the bed.

Seeing her disheveled form on the bed, breathing in ragged gasps, Periel Kalos hurriedly shut the door behind him.

“Carina Leopold!”

“Ugh….”

Carina Leopold bit down on her lower lip.

I felt as though I were dying. I would have welcomed death. Each time the pain surged, that was the only thought that consumed me.

Physiological tears clung precariously to the corners of my eyes before rolling down my cheeks.

I wanted to see Millaiyen Pestellio and yet

I did not want to see him.

I did not want him to witness me in such a pathetic, contemptible state. How absurd that I found myself grateful it was Periel Kalos instead. How ridiculous.

“Is it a seizure?”

“…Tch.”

Periel Kalos’s face twisted as he watched me—unable even to nod, my body curled inward and trembling violently.

Periel Kalos contorted his face as he watched.

Even with Haron cradled in his arms, there was nothing he could do for me.

‘All I can do is put her to sleep.’

It was the only remedy within his reach.

“Millaiyen Pestellio has taken one of my Harons from me.”

At Periel Kalos’s words, my ears perked up involuntarily.

I forced my curled body to straighten, lifting my head with effort.

‘…How utterly single-minded.’

I see only Millaiyen Pestellio.

I could not fathom why he conducted himself like some savior for whatever he had done. Yet it was undeniable—it was precisely this that allowed me to endure the pain.

Periel Kalos opened his mouth slowly.

“I’m not sure what he intends to use them for. When I got angry at him for taking away my research materials, he simply paid for Haron

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and had them collected and stacked throughout one corner of the Research Laboratory.”

“Ha…”

Carina Leopold laughed faintly, even as cold sweat dripped down her face.

It was painfully evident how much she adored Millaiyen Pestellio. Periel Kalos’s expression darkened.

As Periel Kalos spoke of Millaiyen Pestellio, Carina Leopold let out a soft laugh with each mention.

Like the last fragile leaf of a dying winter, poised to fall at any moment—

her smile was precarious, yet the fact that she could smile at all mattered.

After a long while, Carina Leopold slowly rose, cradling Haron in her arms.

Her contorted face and tightly clenched lips betrayed her struggle, yet her complexion had improved somewhat from before.

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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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