Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 112

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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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Chapter 112
“Ah, well….”
I summarized the meeting contents I’d stolen glimpses of throughout the night and relayed them to the Crown Prince. Then I briefly explained how I intended to thwart their schemes.
The Crown Prince, who had listened carefully to my account, soon offered his opinion with deliberation.
“Lady, what if we approached it this way?”-
“That method… would be difficult for Your Highness.”
“But if it succeeds, the effect would be far greater, wouldn’t it?”
“But the danger if it fails is precisely the problem. Your Highness could be injured!”
“There is no danger. Because the Lady will assist me.”
The Crown Prince continued with a slight smile.
“With the Soulflower Tea.”
“…?”
What was Soulflower Tea again? As I tilted my head in confusion, I suddenly understood.
‘The Soulflower Tea I used to awaken the Queen!’
Since I couldn’t openly say it was made from the Western Paradise Flower Field, I had invented the name Soulflower Tea, claiming it was a medicinal tea from the Xuezu’s secret traditions.
“If the Lady would simply provide me with a cup of tea, I shall overcome their conspiracy head-on.”
My original plan was to prevent the envoys from finding any opportunity to provoke the Crown Prince in the first place. It could block danger at the source, but it might invite some gossip.
‘People could criticize that he lacks confidence and therefore cannot prove his safety.’
In contrast, the plan the Crown Prince had just proposed was to accept their test on their own terms, ignore the trap, and prove himself through direct confrontation.
If he failed, he might be treated as a monster again, so it would be natural to be cautious and protect oneself.
‘Considering how he went alone to find the Left Prime Minister’s ledger before, and how he’s subtly bold—even though he clearly isn’t fearless when I see how he cultivates darkness.’
I’m coming to understand through the Crown Prince that one can be bold even while fearful. After all, courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the refusal to yield despite it.
‘This is something he’s decided to do after carefully weighing the pros and cons, so it’s not recklessness either.’
He remembered the efficacy of the medicinal tea I’d used while treating people, and the moment he heard what schemes the envoys might employ, he thought to use it.
‘My little husband is truly brilliant.’
I marveled anew and agreed to the Crown Prince’s plan.
“Very well, Your Highness. I shall provide you with the Soulflower Tea, and you shall silence those villains yourself!”
We devised the specific plan together and even shared lunch. Only after returning to my room and being alone did I realize something odd.
‘The Crown Prince… didn’t ask me a single thing about how I discovered this conspiracy, or whether the information was accurate.’
It’s not as if he deliberately avoided asking; he simply believed everything I said outright.
Doesn’t this child trust people far too easily? What if I had lied or misunderstood something! To be so free of suspicion….
‘Even though he’s clever, he’s too kind and pure to harbor doubt. I’ll need to protect him even more carefully from now on.’
* * *
The Pyeong Empire envoys immediately sprang into action. First, they spread nonsense about how they had only now learned the details of the black wine incident, how shocking it was that what they thought were exaggerated rumors were actually true, and how they would never have sent the precious Pyeong princess to such a monster Crown Prince if they had known earlier.
Everyone in the Palace knew the marriage had been orchestrated with the hope that the monster Crown Prince would kill her, yet when the Pyeong envoys brazenly insisted with a straight face that they had thought it was a legitimate union between nations, there seemed to be no adequate way to refute them.
‘It’s similar to how I confidently walked past the Palace staff who came to dispose of the corpse at first.’
Since both the Crown Prince and I had already established our position, we couldn’t openly reveal that this was never a legitimate union but merely a plan to dispose of both nations’ problems in one stroke.
After laying this groundwork, the Toad Envoy, the representative of the envoys, had an audience with the King and formally raised the issue. As Pyeong envoys, they could not return to the Empire leaving the princess with such a dangerous person. They demanded that the Crown Prince prove he was not a monster so they could verify and be reassured. Otherwise, they would take the princess back to Pyeong…
‘I could have asked Chief State Councillor Yi Do-hyung, who became Chief State Councillor, to obstruct them at court and subtly interfere from behind to prevent the verification itself.’
But since we had decided on direct confrontation, I did not.
The court erupted in endless debate, and the atmosphere within the Palace grew increasingly hostile toward the Ping Empire Envoys who insisted on verifying the Crown Prince of another nation. Fortunately, no one had yet suggested that if they felt this way, they should take the Ping Empire Princess and leave, since she was no longer needed.
Rather, according to Seok-ran’s investigation of Palace sentiment, the prevailing opinion was: “You Ping Empire dogs, did you finally grow jealous? But she’s no longer your princess—she’s our Crown Princess now, so stop your greed and get out!”
I felt quietly satisfied, thinking to myself that I had indeed established a solid position as Crown Princess.
I waited patiently, while the Crown Prince actively cooperated with the verification, declaring he had every confidence in proving himself.
After extensive deliberation in court, the King clutching his head in frustration, and the Empire Envoys stubbornly insisting, a venue for the Crown Prince’s verification was finally arranged.
The 27th day of the 11th month, Year 14 of Seo-gwang.
The Unjeung Pavilion. The very banquet hall where the black wine incident had occurred.
The Empire Envoys and Yun Kingdom ministers sat facing each other in rows. Behind them, the supernatural guardians of each nation stood quietly. The Queen, bedridden due to her pregnancy, knew nothing of these proceedings. Thus the King sat alone at the head seat.
Then a single chair was placed in the center. The Pyeong Sorcerer brought by the envoys and the Woon Sorcerer from the Jagyogapsa stood side by side around that chair.
The verification method for the Crown Prince’s safety, as proposed by the Ping Empire Envoys, was for their sorcerer to use sorcery to directly confirm whether the darkness the Crown Prince wielded was abnormal.
In truth, they would pretend to verify while casting a sorcery that would strip away his reason, driving the Crown Prince into madness.
Yun Kingdom was not foolish enough to expose the Crown Prince defenseless to a foreign sorcerer. Thus, the Woon Sorcerer would monitor whether the Pyeong Sorcerer attempted anything suspicious.
The Ping Empire Envoys naturally anticipated this. They actually welcomed the surveillance—it meant they could claim the Crown Prince was the problem rather than their own scheming.
The problem was that they had a way to destroy the Crown Prince while evading surveillance. One sorcerer would cast the spell while another, the one conducting the verification, would focus solely on deceiving the Yun Kingdom sorcerer’s eyes.
First, they would deploy the genuine verification sorcery—if the Crown Prince fell for it, all the better. If not, they would forcibly drive him into frenzy with a mind-shattering sorcery. And if, by some chance, even that failed…
A trap layered in triple schemes, but I knew it all, having heard every detail of the meeting.
Sorcery that attacks the mind. I didn’t know exactly what form it would take, but it didn’t matter. There was no need to know.
“I remember what you said while treating people with that tea, my Lady. You said that tea could cure anything that clouds the mind.”
“Yes, I… did say that.”
“Then could that medicine not overcome their scheming as well?”
Seolhwa tea was far more remarkable than the Crown Prince realized. It was made from the Honsal-i flower, which could even awaken the souls of the dead. Of course, treating the schemes of a human sorcerer was nothing to it.
Even if the Crown Prince wavered and the black wine threatened to spread, it was this very tea that had healed the aftermath of that black wine incident.
Still worried, I prepared additional countermeasures beyond the medicine.
Since my little husband’s safety depended on this, I had to prepare defenses layered in triples as well.
I carefully steeped the golden tea and cooled it, then poured it into a small jade pastry with its center hollowed out, replacing the sesame filling.
“An-si, seal this for me now.”
“Yes.”
An-si plugged the hole in the jade pastry with a piece of candy and sealed it by gently melting it with a candle. Thus, a single bite-sized jade pastry containing Honsal-i flower tea was completed.
As I waited with the jade pastry, the Crown Prince entered the stairs leading up to the Unjeung Pavilion. I approached him and quietly handed him the finished pastry.
“You must be careful, Your Highness.”
“Do not worry, my Lady.”
The Crown Prince smiled as if unconcerned, concealed the jade pastry in his mouth, and climbed the stairs. Following behind, I noticed his hands ahead of me were clenched into fists so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
He had endured such an ordeal in this very place before—of course he would be afraid.
He was afraid, yet he bore it with composure. My feelings were complicated. He was admirable, yet pitiable.
Once this is over, I must take him somewhere to play and let him rest.
After ascending the Unjeung Pavilion together, I took my seat near the King while the Crown Prince headed toward the chair in the center.
Before sitting, the Crown Prince bowed to the King. The King, who had been watching him with a worried expression, let out a small sigh, then glared at the Empire Envoys and opened his mouth.
“We shall now begin the verification of the ‘Dark Spirit Art,’ the ‘sorcery’ of Hyo-eon, the Latent Dragon of Yun, the Crown Prince.”
The Woon Sorcerer stepped forward first. Talismans floating in the air wrapped in a circle around the Pyeong Sorcerer and the Crown Prince. He opened his eyes wide and glared sharply at the Pyeong Sorcerer.
“Do not even think of attempting any foolish tricks.”
“You are quite suspicious.”
The Pyeong Sorcerer accepted the remark with composure, clutching a talisman as he regarded the Crown Prince.
“Crown Prince, first, please demonstrate what you call dark spirit essence.”
The Crown Prince nodded silently, and from his shadow, darkness slowly rose and took form. Gentle darkness billowed around him like black clouds.
Witnessing this, the Pyeong Sorcerer withdrew a talisman and held it aloft.
“This talisman is a universal mystical charm that reacts to malevolent entities—demons, vengeful spirits, and the like. Now, observe.”
The Yun Sorcerer accepted the talisman and examined it meticulously before addressing the assembly.
“This is indeed a talisman designed to detect anomalous spiritual forces.”
“Then, shall we test it directly?”
At the Pyeong Sorcerer’s suggestion, the Yun Sorcerer tore the talisman and cast it into the darkness swirling around the Crown Prince.
I watched the scene unfold, suppressing an inward smirk.
‘This proves nothing. Twilight was never a demon or vengeful spirit to begin with.’
The torn talisman sank into the darkness without the slightest reaction—no different from discarding a scrap of paper to the ground.
Confirming the absence of any response, the Yun Sorcerer grew triumphant and spoke to the Pyeong Sorcerer.
“Did you see? The darkness His Highness commands is not malevolent but sacred. Our Crown Prince is one whom Unryong’s messenger bowed before and acknowledged as Unryong’s descendant!”

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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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