Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 147

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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 147
In the moment I sought to gauge the Crown Prince’s reaction, the surroundings brightened in an instant. Though it was still a moonless night with faint starlight, the darkness felt considerably less oppressive than the suffocating gloom of moments before, lending an illusion of luminosity.
The darkness that had ebbed away like a receding tide settled obediently into the Crown Prince’s shadow. After observing how the writhing silhouette grew calm and composed, I lifted my head with a radiant smile.
“Remarkable! You’ve done it, my lord!”
“….”
The Crown Prince stood with his neck flushed crimson, one hand pressed against his cheek. Why did his eyes look like that? His gaze had lost focus again.
“My lord? What’s wrong?”
“A-a-a, it’s nothing at all.”
“You’re stammering. Are you truly all right?”
“I-I-I’m fine. Perfectly fine. Absolutely, completely fine.”
He didn’t seem fine at all.
‘Father was delighted, but the Crown Prince is different.’
Well, he isn’t Father, so naturally his reaction would differ. Still, I’d thought he cared for me considerably—perhaps not as much as Father, but enough that I expected a similar response. Or perhaps he’d smile broadly like the Sangra Palace Celestial Maidens, or embrace me as Mother does….
Yet the Crown Prince had instead stepped away from me. What was the difference?
“Did you dislike what I just did?”
“I-I beg your pardon?”
“The kiss on your cheek. Mother and the palace maidens were delighted by it….”
I nearly mentioned Father, but I couldn’t—Se-ru-hwa’s father was the deceased Emperor of Pyeong, and that wasn’t something to discuss.
“That is….”
The Crown Prince faltered, his lips opening and closing soundlessly. I tilted my head in confusion.
No, if he’d truly disliked it, the darkness wouldn’t have lifted so completely. The way he’d regained control so swiftly showed the effect was remarkably potent.
‘Ah, perhaps he wasn’t displeased—merely embarrassed?’
He was gentle and docile by nature; such a reaction was plausible. Even applying salve to his wounds had made him blush before, and he’d never properly explained why.
‘Come to think of it, wasn’t that salve applied to his cheek as well? Perhaps he finds it burdensome when others touch his face. That’s understandable.’
I’d need to be more careful in the future.
“I only meant to help… but I seem to have startled you greatly. I won’t do such a thing again.”
I spoke apologetically and turned to leave, but my sleeve was gently caught. Turning back, I saw the Crown Prince, still flushed, speak with quiet resolve.
“It was tremendously helpful.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It was truly of immense benefit, and should such a situation arise again, I would earnestly request your assistance, my lady.”
“Again? You mean in the future?”
“Ideally, such circumstances should never recur, but the future is uncertain, is it not? This method appears far more effective than merely holding hands.”
Speaking rapidly, the Crown Prince gradually composed himself. His unfocused eyes regained their clarity, and his final words emerged with a gentle smile.
“I am truly grateful, my lady.”
“Yes, of course….”
The effect was undeniably potent, and his earnest words suggested he could tolerate contact with his cheek. As for myself, I felt an inexplicable warmth—was it from his reaction? Regardless, it wasn’t an unpleasant sensation.
‘If it aids his control over the darkness….’
I nodded and turned back toward the glass lantern. The Crown Prince followed, asking quietly.
“Do you do this often with others?”
“Do you often do this to other people as well?”
“Not often. Just occasionally, when Mother or the adults around me seem overwhelmed.”
“Occasionally.”
“Everyone seemed to like it. They found it endearing.”
“…I suppose they would.”
Right beside the glass lantern lay the corpse of an assassin, foam flecking its lips. I glanced cautiously, worried the child might be startled by the body, but the Crown Prince seemed lost in thought.
Then his gaze brushed across the assassin’s corpse with a chill. His anger had not yet subsided.
‘I was worried he’d be shocked.’
Showing mercy even to enemies was virtuous, but it burdened both oneself and those around you. Mother, Father, the Sangra Palace Celestial Maidens, An-si—they all showed no quarter to enemies and never hesitated in battle.
‘He said to deliberate carefully when making judgments, but once decided, never falter.’
It was reassuring that the Crown Prince wasn’t merely docile. I examined the enormous glass lantern, as large as my own body, with relief.
‘The sorcery is plastered all over it… what kind of sorcery is this?’
If An-si or Gwang-chul were here, I could identify it quickly. As I turned the lantern over in my hands, the Crown Prince spoke from behind me.
“That lantern appears to have accumulated sunlight from the day over a long period.”
“Sunlight?”
“Yes. Those who did this know my nature extremely well. I am….”
The Crown Prince, as a shadow spirit, explained methodically how he recovered at night and how his vitality was consumed during the day.
‘So these people knew about shadow spirits far better than I did, and they’ve been targeting the Crown Prince for a long time, preparing this ambush.’
This was something ordinary humans could never accomplish among themselves. There couldn’t possibly be a human who understood shadow spirits this well. Most people only knew the Crown Prince as a user of Dark Spirit Art, and didn’t even know what a shadow spirit was.
‘The assassins are human, but whoever’s behind them is definitely not.’
The first name that came to mind was Doo-eok-sini. Ever since sending an Imperial Envoy to take me away, he had been quietly lurking in Pyeong.
‘No, not quietly. The Pyeong Empire is growing increasingly chaotic.’
Seok-ran was communicating steadily with Seok-juk using a fox bead, relaying news from Pyeong. Recently, Seol Deung-hwa and Seok-juk had established an organization disguised as a merchant guild called Hongiik and begun full-scale searches and rescues of the missing.
‘With disappearances increasing and exploitation worsening, civil unrest is breaking out everywhere. Both security and administration are deteriorating, making it surprisingly easy to operate.’
I thought Doo-eok-sini was paying less attention to Yun because of Pyeong’s situation, but that might not be true. He’s been sending things to Yun all along, but An-si’s Black Phoenix siblings guarding the border have been blocking everything in advance, so we’ve been fine until now.
‘So instead of yokai, he sent human assassins to conspire with Yun’s humans?’
If the mastermind behind this attack really is Doo-eok-sini, why target the Crown Prince?
‘Because of me, after all?’
Kill the Crown Prince so he could say, “The Imperial Princess has lost her husband, so I’ll take her back to Pyeong”? But assassinating a foreign crown prince would be difficult to manage. And there’s no guarantee I’d return just because the Crown Prince died.
Besides, if he’d discovered the Crown Prince was a shadow spirit, wouldn’t it be easier to try public opinion warfare again, claiming “the Crown Prince is a dangerous existence”? Why go through the trouble of killing him?
‘Wait, if yokai can’t even cross over because the Black Phoenix siblings are blocking them, how did Doo-eok-sini find out about the Crown Prince’s true nature?’
A human shadow spirit was unprecedented, so it would be difficult to deduce. I couldn’t have predicted it myself before witnessing it directly.
Or is there a different yokai behind this—a yokai living in Yun Kingdom? Could that yokai be colluding with forces targeting the Crown Prince, like remnants of the Wan-eon Faction…?
‘…No, I’ll worry about the mastermind later. Once An-si returns with Heuk-yeon, I’ll investigate the Doo-eok-sini angle more thoroughly. What’s urgent and important right now is….’
Finding out who the spy is.
“My lady, there appears to be a spy among the instructors or assistant instructors.”
As if sharing the same thought, the Crown Prince spoke quietly. I set down the glass lantern and rose, nodding.
“That must be it. They knew exactly where we were headed and waited for us.”
The instructors use beads from the Sejoedae to track all students’ locations for safety, so they can hear distress signals and come to the rescue. So only an instructor or an assistant instructor with easy access to them could target us this precisely.
‘The explosion was so loud, yet no one has come yet. Something must have happened with the instructors too.’
That’s probably why they split the assassins in half. But with this much noise, the students should have been startled. Yet no one has appeared.
‘Ah, could it be that he’s set up a barrier around this area? So that no one notices even if there’s a commotion….’
I was about to examine the flow of energy with my Celestial Vision when the Crown Prince was already moving.
“It seems there’s a barrier set up around us.”
“Yes, that appears to be the case. Since it hasn’t been dispelled even though all the assassins are dead, it looks like they used a tool or formation method.”
“If no one is actively maintaining the barrier, then we don’t need to search for the caster. Once we break through it, we’re done.”
It’s incredibly convenient being with the Crown Prince. If it were An-si, Gwang-chul, or the other students, I would’ve had to explain my entire thought process first. Ah, I wonder if someone like Je-gal Pyo would have figured it out on his own?
Through my Celestial Vision, I could clearly see the strange energy enveloping the surroundings in a hemispherical dome.
“My lord, it seems we can only escape if we somehow break that barrier.”
Though the Crown Prince lacked Celestial Vision, he sensed the barrier with the same sharp energy perception that had surprised Ki Ho-cheol, and approached the invisible boundary line without hesitation.
“I’ll try to dispel it.”
“What? My lord, how would you do that? You’re not even a sorcerer….”
“Young-jun taught me something.”
Huh? Not Ki Ho-cheol, but Sa Young-jun? What did that fool teach the Crown Prince?
As I looked at him in bewilderment, the Crown Prince drew the Dark Spirit Sword from the shadows.
“With sufficient power.”
Black energy rippled along the dark blade. The Dark Spirit Sword swelled as it drew in the darkness, growing longer and expanding sideways.
The boy holding the sword, now as massive as the tree beside us, continued with a faint smile.
“There’s no need to use your head.”
The Dark Spirit Sword descended and collided with the barrier.

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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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