Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 106

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

Chapter 106
* * *
Not long after, the King and Crown Prince returned.
At the Royal Physician and Lady-in-waiting’s report, the two men’s expressions shifted through a remarkable spectrum of emotions. They paled at the news that the Queen had coughed blood and collapsed, brightened at the news that I had treated her, and both flushed with joy and emotion at the news of her pregnancy.
I couldn’t throw cold water on this festive atmosphere.
‘…First, I should ask Samshin Grandmother about this. Why didn’t this child receive a blessing? Is there any way to have one bestowed again?’
And I’ll think about solutions after I understand the cause.
‘Until then, I’ll need to keep treating the Queen’s internal injuries to keep her stable… but I can’t have her lying in bed receiving medical treatment all day… there must be some way… ah!’
A decent means of buying time occurred to me.
“My lady!”
The Crown Prince burst into the tent. I greeted him with an innocent smile, as if I knew nothing.
“Congratulations, Your Highness! You’re getting a younger sibling.”
“Thank you, my lady! I can hardly believe I’m getting a younger sibling. I’m already excited and thrilled about it.”
The Crown Prince spoke in a trembling voice, then suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
“It’s all thanks to you, my lady!”
“Eek! What?”
“Because you awakened my mother, this came to pass. And I heard you helped my mother this time as well! Truly!”
The elated Crown Prince lifted me effortlessly while holding me in his arms.
Wait, no matter how much taller he is than me, he’s still just a boy—how is he lifting me so easily? How strong is he!
I was flustered and braced myself against his shoulders with both hands, looking down at him.
“Your, Your Highness!”
“Why do you bestow only blessings upon me, my lady? Surely you must be a celestial maiden descended from Heaven?”
Wow, you startled me. I did come down from Heaven, but I’m not a celestial maiden, definitely not.
I hurriedly shook my head.
“No, I’m….”
Before I could finish speaking, the Crown Prince spun around while still holding me aloft.
“I’m quite certain you must be a celestial maiden!”
The deep blue hem of his robe rippled, and my skirts billowed and swirled in a circle. Beneath his official hat, a beautiful boy’s face gazed up at me, brimming with radiant laughter.
“How could someone like you have come to me? Surely you descended from Heaven?”
Delicately folded eyes, flushed cheeks, a voice flowing like a stream, gleaming dark eyes, and my face reflected in them.
“Thank you for coming to me, my lady.”
A starlit night sky cradling me. For some reason, my face felt warm.
I patted the Crown Prince’s shoulder.
“Please put me down, Your Highness! What will people think if you suddenly do this!”
“Ah, my apologies. I was simply too delighted.”
The Crown Prince set me down gently. As I stumbled away and retreated, the boy’s eyebrows drooped with disappointment.
“Did you dislike being held by me?”
“Oh, no, I was just startled by the sudden embrace. I’m not used to it.”
“I hope you become accustomed to it from now on. By the time you come of age, you’ll be unable to touch the ground and will be carried about in my arms.”
“That’s only if you win the height competition, Your Highness!”
When I pushed back with some heat, the Crown Prince laughed aloud.
“My lady, do you recall the tally marks we carved into the wall by the red plum blossoms? At this rate, my victory is assured.”
“There’s still plenty of time left! We won’t know until we see it through to the end. If you grow complacent just because you’re growing quickly, you might lose to me, who’s been growing steadily!”
“Well then, if you cancel now, I shall carry you all day long.”
“The wager was supposed to be granting the winner’s wish, wasn’t it? When did it change to carrying the loser around all day?”
“That is separate from the wager. You were the one who said first that later, when you grew larger, you would carry me about.”
“…Did I really say that?”
“You certainly did. I could even swear an oath before the Celestial Deities.”
The Crown Prince spoke with a solemn expression.
Did I really say that? It seemed like I might have said something similar…. Uncertain, I furrowed my brows and tilted my head, when the Crown Prince, who had been watching me, suddenly covered his mouth with his hand.
‘What is this? Is the boy coughing up blood too?’
It was only a few hours ago that the Queen had coughed up blood like that. I rushed toward the Crown Prince in alarm.
“Your Highness!”
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell me you’re coughing up blood!”
I hurried over and pulled his hand down—it was perfectly clean. As I exhaled a breath of relief while gripping his hand, the Crown Prince remained silent for a moment before whispering softly.
“It seems you were quite startled today.”
“…A little.”
I was utterly shaken by it all. Things happened that I could never have imagined. I felt adrift, uncertain how to handle any of it. Though I had momentarily forgotten about it while bickering with the Crown Prince.
‘Being with him really does calm my heart.’
While helping with practice, whenever the darkness raged, I held his hand and kept soothing it, and now holding the Crown Prince’s hand seemed to steady me as well.
As I absently fiddled with the Crown Prince’s hand, he gently wrapped his arm around my shoulders and patted me.
“I am fine, my lady. Please do not worry about me.”
“…You weren’t injured during the hunt, were you?”
“Of course not. I am unharmed anywhere. I even brought back a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
“The military officers are preparing it outside. Given a day like today, it would not be a particularly pleasant sight to see, so I shall show it to you after the preparations are complete.”
Normally I would have wanted to see it, but certainly not today—I have no desire to see any more beast’s blood.
“Yes, I’ll see it later then.”
I nodded and released his hand, stepping away from the Crown Prince’s embrace. Then I retrieved the small box I had taken from the Eight Pillar Order earlier.
“Your Highness, please give this to the Queen. It is a pregnancy gift from both of us.”
“What is this?”
I opened the box to show him. A dark bluish stone, about the size of an adult’s fist.
“This is….”
“It’s the inner core you extracted from the Ten-Thousand-Man Snake last time—the Ten-Thousand-Man Blood Stone.”
A universal cure containing the life force of ten thousand people. It works merely by touching bare skin. Each time it is used, it shrinks in size, but until it disappears entirely, it will heal any wound or illness it touches.
“It’s a stone that heals pain when touched. Tell the Queen to keep it nearby and touch it whenever she feels unwell.”
“You would give something so precious to my mother?”
“You were the one who caught it. And since it’s a gift to your mother, it should be from you.”
“It was a demon I caught thanks to your guidance, and it was something I gave to you. Keep it and use it when you are ill.”
This child doesn’t understand how precarious the Queen’s condition truly is, so she acts like this.
“It will be more helpful to Her Majesty than anything I could offer. Please deliver it to her without fail.”
I pressed the box into the hesitant Crown Prince’s hands.
‘This should buy us time.’
I needed to write to Samshin Grandmother quickly. If An-si carried it, it wouldn’t take long at all.
* * *
I wrote the letter on my way back to the Palace and gave it to An-si. With an anxious expression, An-si slipped Gwang-chul’s bracelet onto my wrist before ascending to the Heavenly Realm.
It didn’t take long for those who had been celebrating the Queen’s pregnancy to sense something amiss. Soon the Royal Physician came to the King with a gloomy expression, and the Queen took to her sickbed once more.
“Thanks to the Ten-Thousand-Man Blood Stone that the Crown Prince and Crown Princess obtained, I’ve improved considerably. I’m truly grateful.”
The Queen smiled as she received my well-wishes, but there was no way she could truly recover. The Ten-Thousand-Man Blood Stone was an inner elixir that healed wounds, not one that prevented them from occurring in the first place.
Eventually, from that day forward, the Crown Prince and I were forbidden from paying our respects. They claimed it was for the Queen’s recuperation and the health of the child she carried.
“It seems Her Majesty’s illness is no ordinary sickness. My younger sibling appears to be continuing to torment her.”
Days passed, and just as the Crown Prince began to grasp the situation despite the King’s attempts at secrecy, An-si returned with Samshin Grandmother’s reply.
* * *
After the martial exercises ended, the weather began turning cold in earnest. In preparation for winter, the palace attendants of Unyeon Hall made me a lined robe from the silver fox fur that the Crown Prince had caught.
On his first hunt, he brought back not a rabbit but a rare silver fox—the boy showed real promise. He’d said he’d surprise me, and truly, I was surprised.
‘It’s beautifully made.’
Compared to what I wore in Heaven, the silver fox robe was modest, but because it was made from fur the Crown Prince had caught himself, I found myself liking it more and more each time I looked at it.
‘I should wear it soon and show the Crown Prince.’
As I laid the robe on the writing table and stroked its soft fur with a grin, a gruff voice reached my ears.
“That’s not great. Looking at it makes me feel weird.”
It was Seok-ran, sprawled on the lower part of the heated floor like a rice cake, supporting her belly.
I let out a small hum.
“Because you’re the same species?”
“Kekek, same species?! How could a thousand-year-old Thousand-Year Fox like me be the same species as that pathetic creature!”
“Then why do you feel weird?”
The fox demon, lying with her chin pressed flat against the floor, rolled her eyes and muttered in a disgruntled tone.
“It looks a bit similar, doesn’t it, chirp… It’s like that feeling humans get when they see a cloth doll or something broken and it bothers them…”
“Hmm, now that you put it that way, I understand.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t stand to look at it, no. Since it’s already made, wear it warmly and keep it close, keng keng. Don’t catch a cold!”
The gossiping fox rolled halfway over and then began lying on her back on the floor. I gathered up the robe and asked.
“But Seok-ran.”
“Kaeng?”
“Why have you been glued to my room every day lately?”
“Kekhing, I’m on vacation from evil deeds.”
“If you’re on vacation, you should go out and play. Why are you here?”
At my question, Seok-ran laid her ears back.
“I want to go out and play too. I’ve been starving lately, keng. I need to nourish my body. I want to spend a passionate night with a cool, bitter-sweet handsome man after an intense romance. I want to sweetly seduce a soft, sweet handsome man and gobble him up whole… slurp.”
“Instead of just lying here drooling, why don’t you go seduce someone?”
“I can’t. The Black Phoenix isn’t next to the princess right now.”
“An-si? I sent her on a brief errand to the Heavenly Realm. I thought she’d return quickly, but it’s taking longer than expected….”
“Your Highness!”
A sudden gust of wind burst the window open, and a small bird with iridescent plumage flew in, clutching an envelope in its talons.
Seok-ran burst into delighted laughter.
“That Black Phoenix will never be a proper lady.”
An-si ignored the laughing fox and flew directly to me, setting the envelope on the Writing Table.
“Your Highness, I have brought a reply from Samshin Grandmother!”
“Well done.”
I praised her by gently stroking her small head with my fingertips and reached for the letter, when An-si chirped excitedly and added more.
“By the way, Your Highness, this An-si has brought startling news from the Heavenly Realm! Most joyful news indeed!”
“Oh? Joyful news, you say?”

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