Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 119

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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 119
Cheoyong, the God of Calamity Dispersion—born of divine blood between the Dragon King and humanity, who vanquished malevolent spirits and ascended to godhood through his earned rank.
He accepted my sacred offering as his divine tribute. And he granted my prayer in a far more powerful manner than I had anticipated.
Suddenly the surroundings darkened, and the smoke left behind by the burning offering surged toward me. The pale wisps enveloped me, swirling around my form before coalescing into the towering figure of a man wearing a ceremonial crown and mask, long white sleeves draped from his robes, standing solidly behind me.
‘Cheoyong manifested himself directly?’
When a god uses a medium to send a sort of avatar down to the Mortal Realm, it is called a manifestation.
But even if he had offered his own sacred object as tribute, did he really need to descend personally as an avatar like this?
‘Just sending divine power alone would have been enough to obliterate a minor spirit like that.’
Regardless of my bewilderment, Cheoyong, manifested through the smoke, sang out in a resonant voice.
“I played in the bright heavens, but at your call I descended. Now seeing the earth, I find my name worn by two! Who dares steal what is rightfully mine—where do you dwell, and what is your name?”
The Shaman in Navy Robes, watching Cheoyong’s manifestation with a face of shock, trembled violently throughout her entire body. A pale blue shadow burst forth from her form and scrambled desperately to flee.
“Where do you think you’re going, in broad daylight like this?”
Cheoyong swung the long sleeves attached to his robes. With the flowing fabric, he caught the fleeing minor spirit in one swift motion, compressed it into a ball, and stuffed it into his bosom.
‘He’s probably going to drag it away to punish it directly or send it to Hell.’
Having vanquished Heo-ju in an instant, Cheoyong knelt before me, bowed his waist, and met my eyes, then smoothly extended a jingle bell ornament adorned with colorful threads and jeweled beads.
“This is newly made, Princess. I am certain it will prove useful this time. Please do me the honor of carrying it with you.”
Cheoyong whispered in a voice only I could hear through divine speech, pressed the ornament into my hand, then transformed back into smoke and dispersed, vanishing away.
I gazed at the jingle bell ornament in bewilderment.
‘The very thing I burned as an offering has returned to me. But it’s far more ornate than before, and it’s brimming with divine power… crafted with such painstaking care…’
Did Cheoyong somehow realize I’d been thinking the jingle bell was rather useless? Or did Mother or Father perhaps scold him about its poor protective performance?
‘…Could he have manifested just to give this to me personally?’
No, surely not.
I shook my head and looked forward to find the Shaman in Navy Robes standing rigid, her face drained of all color.
‘She must be shocked—the tutelary spirit she believed to be such a formidable god was captured and disposed of so easily.’
She gazed vacantly down at her own hands, then at the empty space where Cheoyong’s avatar had stood moments before, and finally looked back at me.
“I… just now… what happened…?”
“Heo-ju has been vanquished.”
“That… that deity was…?”
“The real Cheoyong.”
“How… how could someone so young and pale subdue such a colossal god so effortlessly…?”
“I happen to have some connection with him.”
I refastened the newly received jingle bell ornament to my waist as I continued.
“As you witnessed, what was possessing you wasn’t Cheoyong at all, but a deceptive minor spirit. Since Cheoyong himself drove it out, I do hope you’ll now serve a truly proper deity.”
“…”
The Shaman said nothing. Her divine disciples and priestesses exchanged uncertain glances.
“Was that truly the real Cheoyong just now? Something about his presence felt entirely different from the deity Mother served…”
“Shaman Mother, won’t you explain? Have you been deceiving us all this time?”
As the disciples pressed her, the Shaman, who had been staring blankly at me, responded weakly.
“…I didn’t know either. I’m sorry.”
“No, then all this time we’ve been…!”
A tall disciple blocked the other disciple who was about to protest, speaking in a relatively calm tone.
“It’s fine.”
“…?”
“Even if Shaman Mother was possessed by Heo-ju, the shamanism she taught us wasn’t wrong, was it? So it’s fine. Look at how much she’s done for us all this time. Isn’t that right?”
The tall disciple turned to look at the other disciples and asked. Then they all nodded slowly.
“That’s true… It doesn’t matter what spirit Mother was serving. I owe her my life, after all.”
“Heo-ju has been expelled now, hasn’t he? She can simply serve a new spirit instead.”
“Don’t worry, Mother. We’ll help you!”
“If it’s you, Mother, you’ll surely be able to serve an even greater spirit soon. We all know how wise and remarkable a shaman you are!”
“That’s right, that’s right!”
At the disciples’ words of comfort, the shaman’s eyes grew red. She struggled to speak properly, managing only a quiet thank you. The disciples crowded around her, clinging to her, embracing her, laughing.
I watched the scene with a peculiar feeling. It was distinctly different from that charlatan like Gwang-chul.
‘Is she a victim, in a way, created by the aftermath of the method to distinguish between Heo-ju and one’s tutelary spirit being put into practice?’
The truth was, I hadn’t come to interfere with Baek Tam-sol’s Heo-ju ritual to start trouble—I’d come because I heard that a shaman who didn’t even perform the sacred dance was driving away the tutelary spirit of my divine child, and I wanted to stop that.
‘Baek Tam-sol must have understood that point too, which is why she just told her to contact Hoguk Temple if she needed help and sent her away.’
Seeing how she came charging in like this for her divine child, and how the disciples wrapped around her like this… it seemed she had been a rather good Shaman Mother.
‘If she truly didn’t know her tutelary spirit was Heo-ju and mistakenly thought Baek Tam-sol was a real charlatan, then I understand why she did such a thing.’
Humans really are multifaceted creatures.
While I stood there lost in such thoughts, the shaman wiped her tears with her sleeve and approached me, bowing her head.
“Thank you, or rather, thank you so much.”
“….”
“To be able to escape ignorance like this… it was truly a precious opportunity. Someday I will repay this debt.”
“….”
“Please tell Princess Cheonmyeong that I’m sorry and grateful as well. I’m too ashamed to face her directly right now.”
The shaman, with her completely transformed attitude, apologized and bowed deeply to me, then turned and left.
I watched her stiff back surrounded by her disciples, then impulsively opened my mouth.
“Pray to Princess Cheonmyeong!”
“…?”
The shaman stopped and turned to look at me. Her expression was puzzled. I explained in more detail.
“You’ve heard of her, haven’t you? Princess Cheonmyeong is a spirit who grants opportunities, so try praying to her. You might be able to serve an even greater spirit.”
Explaining myself in my own words felt rather embarrassing. Still, I brazenly lifted my chin and spoke.
The shaman smiled brightly and bowed.
“Thank you. I will definitely pray to her.”
The shaman in navy robes left.
I stood there for a moment, then slowly walked back to Zelkova House.
‘Will that shaman really pray to me?’
If she does, I think I’d want to grant her prayer. Since I’m not yet a proper spirit and can’t help her with my own power… but I could tell other spirits about a shaman like this.
‘At first I thought I’d scold her like I would Gwang-chul, but she wasn’t an impostor after all.’
Moreover, because of this human, Baek Tam-sol came to perform the sacred dance, and I obtained a new concept called “passion”—something I hadn’t aimed for or expected.
‘Couldn’t this also be called an opportunity? The opportunity I gained. The opportunity to discover the concept of passion and find my first candidate for the Straw God.’
I walked forward lost in thought, barely registering An-si’s chatter beside me.
‘What exactly is a fateful opportunity?’
I carefully traced back the vague concept I’d always known.
Fateful opportunity (奇緣, 機緣). A strange twist of fate. A connection forged by chance.
Something that emerges from an unexpected place for unforeseen reasons. Something that sometimes leads to tremendous growth.
It’s fortune given by chance, but when you’re prepared to accept that fortune, you gain great benefit. Fortune perfectly suited to you.
‘Isn’t that what a fateful opportunity is?’
The inevitable result born from repeated coincidences. Seizing a fortunately given chance and transforming it into the most beneficial outcome for yourself.
‘Coincidence and inevitability at once….’
My driving away that Shaman’s false spirit just now was my whim, pure chance. But my desire to help as Princess Cheonmyeong was inevitable—born from the goodwill that Shaman had cultivated.
‘Something similar happened before.’
Nain Choi Ja-myeong. My looking into her through my Cheonmyeong Eyes was chance. But my decision to help her was inevitable—thanks to the achievements she’d accumulated. So, inevitability.
What transforms a randomly given chance into inevitability is everything that person has built up. Not random fortune, but an opportunity perfectly suited to the life that person has lived. Luck arriving from an unexpected direction, yet miraculously fitting for them. A connection strange in its timing yet perfectly aligned.
Perhaps that’s why it’s called a ‘strange’ twist of fate and a connection ‘forged by chance’?
‘Then, a fateful opportunity is….’
[Princess!]
An-si, who’d approached without my noticing, suddenly lifted me up. My view elevated, and I saw crowds of people everywhere. It seemed she’d lifted me so I wouldn’t be buried among the adults.
Among the gathered spectators, the Merchant’s Son was performing a ritual with Baek Tam-sol’s assistance.
“I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech Princess Cheonmyeong.”
The man bowed, calling out my title.
‘My ears are tingling.’
The man’s father lit incense, his prayer burning with sincerity. A person’s heart rose like smoke from the incense burner.
That prayer, which had been rising toward Heaven, suddenly shifted direction and approached me. It seemed this happened because the deity who was the object of the prayer was near.
I instinctively spread both hands and received that prayer. From within the smoke gathered like a tiny star, I heard whispers like a prayer.
‘May a good deity descend upon my son….’
I wanted to grant it. Such sincere devotion from a human directed toward me, who wasn’t even a proper deity.
But to know what kind of deity would be good for that man, I’d first need to understand him. To know a human, I’d need to look through something like the Thousand-League Mirror or the Karma Mirror….
‘Ah.’
I see.
The concept of ‘fateful opportunity’ I’d been contemplating was a coincidence perfectly suited to that person, and an opportunity only they could seize.
Then the first thing to do to connect someone with their fateful opportunity would be to understand that person.
It was the same when finding the lost secret techniques for the Gwae-ryeok-nan-sin. I didn’t give them anything random—I found what their ancestors had created, what suited them well, and gave them that.
‘I can only connect what I understand by looking into it.’
Therefore, the divine power of ‘fateful opportunity’ would be embodied in… a mirror. A mirror that could reflect people, the entire lives they’d lived, everything they’d accumulated.
‘Moreover, since a fateful opportunity is where chaotic chance ultimately converges into inevitability, it’s something that converges, and since it’s an opportunity given whether desired or not, it’s also passive. It suits the nature of Yin (陰).’
As I sent the prayer that had entered my embrace back up to Heaven, I drew my divine power through my lifeline. I separated the darkest and most chaotic parts of my divine power and gave them a name. I granted them concept.
‘Fateful opportunity.’
Was my understanding correct? Was this truly the concept of the ‘fateful opportunity’ that humans wished for from the deity called ‘Princess Cheonmyeong’?
I could sense the answer to my question instinctively. A smile naturally bloomed on my lips.
My third concept.

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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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