Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 124

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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 124
Why on earth? It’s not as though I was born into circumstances so dire that I can’t live properly.
‘Is it because I’m hurting Mother? Does she fear the baby will be in greater danger if born as things are?’
I can’t fathom any other reason. But that’s precisely the sort of problem that improves only with divine blessing, isn’t it? To save Mother, the baby must receive its blessing quickly!
‘Could it be… the baby simply doesn’t know?’
Of course—how could an unborn child possibly comprehend the concept of divine blessing or the will of the Celestial Deities? The baby doesn’t even understand why Mother is suffering.
‘Then I just need to convince it that receiving the blessing is the better choice…’
Suddenly, my head throbs. How am I supposed to make an unborn fetus—not even a newborn, still incomplete—understand this? It’s difficult enough for adults who don’t know what the Celestial Deities are…
[Little one, can you hear me?]
I attempted to use heart-speech, speaking directly to its mind. As expected, the baby gave no response whatsoever.
‘Of course it won’t work… a fetus that can’t even babble, let alone cry.’
This was an obstacle I hadn’t anticipated. I gazed down at the tiny, curled form within the Queen’s womb, feeling utterly helpless.
‘…What if the baby refuses the blessing just as I did?’
I was fortunate enough to have remarkable parents, so I could be born even in this state. But you, little one—if you remain as you are, you will die.
‘Don’t you want to live? Don’t you want to be born? Your mother will be fine. So please, little one, seize this chance.’
I pulled at the threads of fate with desperate longing. The baby didn’t stir.
‘What do I do? Wake up, please?’
I drew forth more divine power and tried to touch the baby. But divine power without any specific intent only startled it, making it curl up further, while divine power infused with the concept of healing merely caressed it gently.
‘This is maddening.’
I’ve come so far. I obtained the concept of fate itself, and I’ve smoothly connected it to destiny. And now I’m blocked by this?
‘There must be some way. I can’t give up like this.’
I tried speaking to it, resent heart-speech multiple times, infused it with divine power, poured more fate into it. I didn’t just attempt things with the baby—I tried everything imaginable with the mirror as well.
But nothing bore fruit. As I drew upon divine power for hours and maintained the connection of fate, only my own stamina dwindled.
“Your Highness, the sun will rise soon.”
“Already?”
Though the outside was still dark, An-si’s words meant that dawn truly was imminent.
I had stayed awake through the entire night.
‘Should I give up?’
I had done my absolute best. I had accounted for the consequences of failure, yet I was certain I would succeed.
‘I came in so confidently, and now this. Is this really failure?’
Will this baby be stillborn soon?
‘This happened because of me, and I can’t help?’
I kept the mirror beside me, its threads of fate still connected, and drew my knees up. I buried my face against them and thought.
‘…Perhaps the baby simply doesn’t want to be born right now. It doesn’t know what life is. But if it lives, it might feel differently. Just as I did… once born, it might come to believe that being born was the right choice…’
I, who refused the blessing until the very end, am now eagerly planning how to fight that terrifying Doo-eok-sini because I want to live. An-si even said I’ve become more vivid and pleasant to look at.
‘Could I convey this feeling directly?’
Not through words, but by letting it feel this heart? How would I describe this feeling?
The will to continue living. The instinct to desire more life. The force that stubbornly clings to existence.
‘All living things already know this feeling, but you haven’t been born yet, so you don’t understand it.’
Everyone wants to live. No one wishes to die. If someone desires death, it’s because something has broken their heart. Those who are not suffering—all of them wish to go on living.
‘Everyone born into this world already possesses it—a heart of extraordinary strength.’
In most cases, the survival instinct is powerful enough to crush all other desires. Among the yearnings of living creatures, it is the most potent.
‘That unborn baby must surely possess the desire to live as well… Wait.’
I lifted my head suddenly.
‘…Yang represents the active, dynamic, and radiating force, while Yin represents the passive, receptive, and converging force.’
Opportunity—the chance encounter given by fate—is Yin.
Then the Yang needed to deliberately seize it… The most active and dynamic heart a life can possess, the force that reaches outward beyond oneself, is.
‘Willpower? No, it’s similar but more primal, more universal, less refined than that… Yes, aspiration.’
The living always hunger for something as they exist. The fundamental aspiration everyone possesses is the yearning for life itself. And upon that foundation, each person builds their own unique aspirations.
Some covet wealth, others pursue justice. Some live for their own peace and pleasure, others for the happiness of family and loved ones, some for recognition from others, and still others for personal goals.
It is not easy to act with the will to achieve one’s aspirations. Yet the aspiration itself exists in everyone. Even those who desire nothing else still wish to continue living.
Something everyone possesses if they live. Something that gives vitality and vigor to existence. Excessive, it brings harm, yet without it, life cannot endure.
‘Something I already possess. The force that keeps me alive.’
With my eyes half-closed, I looked inward. Divine power flowing through the lifeline connected to Heaven. I gathered the most vibrant and luminous divine power among them and gave it a name.
‘Aspiration.’
The divine power, called upon, swirled brilliantly. The response was subtly different from before.
It was not a concept newly granted because it was desperately needed like healing, nor was it one naturally formed through indirect experience like passion, nor was it a concept I had carefully understood based on others’ expectations like opportunity.
‘It feels almost like… why did you only recognize me now?’
As if I had possessed it from the very beginning….
‘Ah!’
Watching the bright divine power gather within me and shine like a star, I understood.
‘This concept has been keeping me alive all this time! Even as I was crushed beneath overwhelming divine power, it was because of this power that I never died!’
So from very long ago, perhaps even shortly after my birth.
‘Because I wanted to live, because I didn’t want to die, I unconsciously obtained this concept back then, so long ago I don’t even remember it.’
It was not a concept I had newly discovered. I had merely become conscious again of something I had failed to recognize.
‘If it’s this… !’
Once I recognized the divine power of aspiration, it felt the most familiar and easiest to handle. It was the power that protected my body from shattering under excessive divine force when I was in the Heavenly Realm, the power I had instinctively wielded for two hundred and ten years—of course it would be.
‘I’m sorry for only noticing now.’
Though divine power was not a being with consciousness, I apologized inwardly with a peculiar feeling. Then I drew up that shimmering cluster of stars and gathered it in my hands.
‘My own aspiration to live, and… the aspirations of the family I have watched, yearning for this baby’s birth. Little one, can you feel this?’
I extended my hands over the tightly curled unborn baby. Divine power visible only to me poured down like stardust and seeped into the baby’s body.
I kept my Heavenly Eye wide open, unblinking, watching over the fetus. Within the baby, now softly glimmering with the seeping light, a new star slowly ripened.
‘Has the baby gained aspiration?’
Did you feel my aspiration? Like you, I too rejected my fate, yet now I wish to live a little longer.
Did you feel the heart of the King, the Crown Prince, and the Queen, who leaped with joy when they learned of the pregnancy? They desperately aspire for your birth.
‘How is it now? Do you wish to be born?’
Gazing at the still faint star, I clasped my hands together tightly and waited with a prayer in my heart.
“Princess, the sun is beginning to rise! Soon the court ladies will….”
“Wait. Just a moment longer.”
The newly formed aspiration of the baby glimmered delicately. Drawn by that light, the darkened thread of opportunity pulled taut. From beyond the mirror, the baby’s form began to be drawn slowly forward.
‘That’s it! Hang in there, little one!’
I watched anxiously, my heart swelling with encouragement.
The thread that had been pulling slowly at first suddenly accelerated. In the blink of an eye, a faintly shimmering form of the baby burst from the mirror and was drawn into the baby herself.
The moment the baby’s destiny merged with her, the thread of fate that had completed its purpose snapped and vanished.
“Princess! There’s movement outside—”
“It’s done! Let’s go!”
I severed the divine possession immediately, hastily gathered the sacred objects, and rose to my feet with my arms outstretched toward An-si. She scooped me up without hesitation and leaped urgently through the window.
Over An-si’s shoulder, I glimpsed the Queen’s face growing noticeably more peaceful in sleep. A sigh of relief escaped me naturally, and a smile blossomed on my lips.
We had safely received the blessing.
“Princess, have you succeeded?”
“Not just success—a resounding triumph.”
“My lady?”
I hadn’t merely saved the baby and the Queen; I had also obtained a fourth concept.
* * *
The Central Palace Hall was in turmoil all that day. Officers from the Uigeum Bureau and the Royal Physician came and went constantly. The incident where all the palace staff had fallen asleep was certainly troubling, and the Queen’s changed condition needed to be verified.
‘Good news should arrive soon, shouldn’t it?’
I set aside the gifts I had purchased for the King and Queen at the South Market and waited patiently.
Several days later, the Queen rose from her sickbed.

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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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