Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 15

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

Episode 15
An-si hurried along behind me, matching her pace to my shorter strides. Behind us, I could hear the Imperial Envoys whispering among themselves.
“I’ve never seen that blonde attendant before, have you?”
“Who knows? She must be an attendant that Yun assigned to her.”
They assumed Yun was my original attendant from the Pyeong Kingdom, and that Pyeong had separately assigned An-si to me. Within this convenient misunderstanding, An-si’s presence slipped by without scrutiny.
‘Well, it would be strange to make a fuss over just one young attendant anyway.’
Seol Deung-hwa was confined under strict surveillance, practically imprisoned. When she insisted I enter alone, I had An-si wait at the entrance.
[When I go in, seal the sound so nothing leaks outside. Use the wind to block it well.]
[Yes, Your Highness. I’ll seal it tight, so don’t worry!]
With that, any concern about eavesdropping from outside vanished.
As I entered the room, a silver-haired woman who had been sitting blankly at a table suddenly lifted her head.
“Se-ru-hwa!”
She cried out my name and rushed toward me. Before I could even sit down, she pulled me into her embrace.
“Oh heavens, Se-ru-hwa, my child, you’re alive, you survived! My precious daughter, ah, thank you, Celestial Deities, thank you…!”
The woman holding me tight spoke in a torrent of words before breaking into sobs. Desperate weeping clung to my ears. The arms around me trembled violently.
This was… rather difficult.
‘I can’t comfort her the way I would An-si. What do I do?’
I couldn’t bring myself to suddenly tell her that I wasn’t her daughter and that her real daughter was already dead.
‘Let me wait until she calms down first.’
I awkwardly embraced Seol Deung-hwa in return. Her hand endlessly stroking the back of my head felt so tender that something stirred strangely within me. My chest ached with a dull throb.
Only after soaking my shoulder with her tears did Seol Deung-hwa lift her head and examine my face carefully.
“What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?”
In her gaze fixed upon me, I saw my mother. Every time I died and was revived, every time she lay ill in bed, my mother’s face as she watched over me from my bedside. Her face resembled that. My words caught in my throat.
Still, I had to tell her. I couldn’t deceive someone like this.
I steadied my voice and opened my mouth.
“Seol Deung-hwa.”
“…Se-ru-hwa?”
“I’m about to tell you something shocking. Don’t be alarmed and listen to the end.”
“Hmm? My precious flower of a daughter, what is it…?”
“Seol Deung-hwa, I am not your daughter Se-ru-hwa.”
I spoke while meeting her eyes directly. Seol Deung-hwa’s expression changed as she finally realized my eyes were different from Se-ru-hwa’s.
“Child, your eyes…”
“I told you, I’m not Se-ru-hwa.”
I swallowed a sigh that rose naturally, continuing calmly.
“I am Sang Ra-hee-yo, and my title is the Princess of Heavenly Fate.”
“…”
“I am the only daughter of the Jade Emperor and the Yama King, the princess of both Heaven and the Afterlife. I met your daughter Se-ru-hwa in the Afterlife and made a deal with her to obtain this body.”
Seol Deung-hwa’s mouth fell open blankly. I stepped back from her embrace.
“You know my words aren’t false, don’t you? You are of the Xue Tribe, after all.”
“…”
Seol Deung-hwa remained silent, her face drained of all color. Yet her very silence—neither dismissing it as a joke nor denying it—was answer enough.
All members of the Xue Tribe possessed an innate ability to discern lies. They might fail to detect falsehoods spoken with genuine belief, but deliberate deception? They caught that with absolute certainty.
I wasn’t a true member of the Xue Tribe, so I didn’t know the precise mechanism. But according to Se-ru-hwa’s memories, the Xue Tribe distinguished lies through “scent”—something different emanated from falsehood itself.
‘This is an ability all Xue Tribe members are born with. And among them, some are born with even stronger powers.’
Within the Xue Tribe, there occasionally emerged individuals capable of distinguishing not merely lies, but the very scent of fortune and misfortune.
‘To distinguish fortune from misfortune means accepting luck while avoiding calamity. It’s certainly an ability the Empire would covet.’
Though it seemed the Empire had ultimately failed to locate that powerful individual they sought.
Any human clan that wielded such extraordinary power across generations was almost certainly descended from unions between humans and deities. Such humans, bearing divine blood, were called the Godborn.
‘Given their ability to see through lies and distinguish fortune from misfortune… I think I know whose divine bloodline the Xue Tribe carries.’
Both powers belonged to Gamun-jang, the Goddess of Fate.
‘Since Gamun-jang herself lives contentedly in the Heavenly Realm with her husband, they’re probably not her direct descendants.’
I’d heard that long ago, one of Gamun-jang’s elder sisters, lamenting that she could not become a Goddess of Fate herself, renounced her divine status and descended to the Mortal Realm to build a life with a human.
‘Which one was it? Noit-jang or Eun-jang? Ah, seeing that all the Xue Tribe have silver hair, it must be Eun-jang.’
So the Xue Tribe were descendants of Eun-jang, Gamun-jang’s eldest sister, and thus Godborn themselves.
‘Since their power stems from divine force, Seol Deung-hwa will immediately recognize that my words are true.’
But knowing something was true didn’t necessarily make it easier to accept.
I expected her to ask something, but Seol Deung-hwa remained silent. Unable to bear the quiet any longer, I began speaking of my own accord.
“I met Se-ru-hwa on the banks of the River of Three Paths. There, that child….”
As my words continued, Seol Deung-hwa’s complexion grew increasingly ashen.
“…So she changed her name to Xiao-hua. She’s living well now in my palace in the Heavenly Realm, serving as a celestial attendant.”
“….”
“I know you must want to see her… but humans cannot ascend to the Heavenly Realm without extraordinary circumstances, and immortals, deities, and celestial beings cannot descend to the Mortal Realm carelessly. This is the law of the Celestial Deities.”
“….”
“However! If Xiao-hua grows well and becomes a magnificent celestial maiden, she can be assigned missions that bring her down to the Mortal Realm. Then you’ll be able to see her.”
“….”
“…I promise you’ll meet before you die. Even without an official mission, I’ll find some errand to send her on, no matter what it takes….”
“….”
“…So please, don’t cry.”
I murmured awkwardly.
Seol Deung-hwa’s ashen face was wet with silent tears. She didn’t wail or sob—just sat frozen, as if her soul had departed, tears streaming down in a steady, relentless flow.
I truly despised seeing anyone cry before me. I’d witnessed far too much of it already.
‘At least this time… it’s not because of me.’
Seol Deung-hwa was crying because of Se-ru-hwa.
Yet watching this was no easier to bear. A mother realizing her daughter was dead, grieving as though death itself were preferable. I could imagine my own mother wearing that expression when my coin landed on its reverse side, and the sight was unbearable.
“Don’t cry. Xiao-hua is living well in the heavens, I’m telling you. It’s not as though you’ll never meet again, is it?”
Seol Deung-hwa showed no response, as if her ears had gone deaf. Tears continued their relentless descent from her terrifyingly pallid face.
I almost wished she would scream and cry out instead.
The lifetime of Se-ru-hwa that I’d witnessed through karma flashed before me—the glimpses of Seol Deung-hwa within it. This woman who had lost family and homeland, dragged before her enemy the Emperor and imprisoned, had found her entire world in a daughter who bore her likeness.
‘…Is this person… planning to follow her daughter in death?’
A vivid premonition seized me, and fear struck hard. So I spoke urgently.
“I’ll get your revenge for you!”
Seol Deung-hwa looked at me with bloodshot eyes. She drew a deep breath and continued.
“To those who killed Se-ru-hwa, I will exact every ounce of vengeance as ‘Se-ru-hwa’ myself.”
So don’t you dare die before you see it all unfold. I swallowed the rest of my words without speaking them aloud.
“…!”
At the mention of revenge, a flicker of life returned to Seol Deung-hwa’s eyes—eyes that had been ready to follow her daughter into death at any moment. I exhaled with relief and pressed on.
“I will find not only those who struck down Se-ru-hwa, but also whoever ordered her assassination, and I will make them pay. Is there anything else you desire? Tell me, and I will grant it.”
Seol Deung-hwa closed and opened her eyes slowly. Her eyelids trembled. Then a voice emerged, low and mournful.
“…Please kill him.”
“What?”
“Kill the Emperor.”
“The Emperor? You mean the Emperor of Pyeong?”
“Yes. The one who slaughtered my parents, my siblings, my friends, my neighbors, and burned my homeland to ash—and that was not enough. He violated me, and then he killed my daughter.”
For a moment, I thought I saw a brilliant blue flame blazing in Seol Deung-hwa’s eyes. She spoke through tears and laughter at once.
“If you truly can do anything, please kill the Emperor.”
Kill the Emperor of Pyeong.
I fell silent for a moment.
The Emperor of the greatest empire in the Mortal Realm. A man sheltered within the Imperial Palace, surrounded by countless mystical formations, elite guards, and supernatural protectors of fearsome power. Could I kill such a man?
My deliberation was brief.
Who am I?
At least a dozen methods came to mind instantly. All I needed to do was choose the one that would draw the least attention, cause the least upheaval, and still constitute proper vengeance.
I answered with a genuine smile.
“Very well. I’ll kill him—the Emperor.”
“…Truly? You mean it?”
“You asked me to kill him, didn’t you?”
“B-but….”
Seol Deung-hwa stammered as if unable to believe her ears. She sank into a chair and continued.
“I am the Heavenly Princess. Princess of the Heavens and Princess of the Afterlife.”
“….”
“If I wished it, I could call down lightning from the sky to incinerate the Emperor, or I could alter the records of the Underworld’s ledger of lifespans to ensure he breathes his last by tomorrow.”
“…!”
“But that wouldn’t satisfy you, would it? You’d want your revenge in a more human way.”
“A more human… way?”
“Assassination, perhaps. Or rebellion. Which would you prefer? If you wish to kill him yourself, I can arrange that too.”
“….”
Seol Deung-hwa seemed confused, her lips moving silently for a long while before she finally spoke.
“The method matters little. I only wish that he dies knowing—knowing that it is because of what he has done, that it is the vengeance of Se-ru-hwa, of me, of the Xue Tribe.”
It was a wish I understood perfectly. And I already had a sense of how to make it happen.

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