Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 168

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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 168
“…That money… wasn’t an investment or anything like that. It was a consolation gift for my master. A token of my apology… I asked my parents to help me prepare it….”
“Huh? What? A consolation gift?”
“My senior brothers… misunderstood the sequence of events… What happened first wasn’t our family’s donation… but me killing my master’s Demon Beast….”
Je-gal Pyo removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes roughly with the back of his hand. I asked in confusion.
“What are you talking about? So you’re saying you killed your master’s Demon Beast, and then asked your family for help as compensation for that?”
Je-gal Pyo nodded vigorously, his eyes still covered.
“That’s right, so… please don’t open any investigations… My master didn’t receive a bribe… it was legitimate compensation… because the fault was mine… I’ll explain everything….”
The boy took a shaky breath and began to stammer out his story in a trembling voice.
“I’m… a coward. That was my problem….”
The story that followed seemed to be something even Je-gal Pyo’s senior brothers were hearing for the first time.
Born into a wealthy Merchant Guild, Je-gal Pyo had been fascinated by Demon Beasts since childhood. While Demon Beasts were generally wicked creatures, some among them occasionally possessed gentle natures or were relatively auspicious, and there were cases where they rejected their origins and cultivated the Way to ascend to the Heavenly Realm.
‘Like Myotusa, Seok-ran, and Seok-juk.’
The boy was helplessly drawn to such Demon Beasts. He carried a Demon Beast compendium all day long and wanted to know about every single one. So when he heard that he had the aptitude of a sorcerer, he followed someone who recognized his potential and ran away from home to enter Sipseungji.
Contrary to his senior brothers’ misunderstanding, Je-gal Pyo’s master had accepted him not out of pity, but because he recognized the boy’s talent.
‘Je-gal Pyo actually had a constitution that absorbed demonic energy extremely well….’
If a Demon Beast is an animal, then demonic energy is that animal’s flesh, and a sorcerer is a person who eats that flesh and gains power.
Ordinary people cannot eat a hunted animal’s flesh whole. They must strip away the bones, organs, and other inedible parts, then prepare and cook the meat. After cooking, they must chew and swallow it carefully while digesting it.
The process of a sorcerer accumulating demonic energy is the same. Demonic energy carefully extracted from a Demon Beast must be processed to suit oneself in order to be properly accumulated. It was a process requiring meticulous attention and training. Eating it raw would inevitably cause problems.
‘Like how Yi Yeon-ju nearly became a Demon Beast after absorbing Myotusa’s demonic energy without even learning sorcery.’
But Je-gal Pyo was different from ordinary sorcerers.
‘To use an analogy… Je-gal Pyo was like a snake that could digest food without chewing it.’
Je-gal Pyo could absorb a Demon Beast’s demonic energy entirely without filtering or processing it. Yet he didn’t transform into a Demon Beast like Yi Yeon-ju or become influenced by them. He could make the demonic energy completely his own simply by swallowing it whole. With no side effects whatsoever.
It was an extraordinary talent as a sorcerer. This was why a runaway child was immediately accepted into a massive sect like Sipseungji, and why Je-gal Pyo’s master quickly took the boy as his disciple.
But Je-gal Pyo had a major flaw.
‘Swallowing something whole means accepting all of it without filtering out the bad parts.’
Je-gal Pyo couldn’t filter and accept demonic energy the way other sorcerers did. When he attempted absorption, he would inevitably draw in everything from that Demon Beast. The problem was that most Demon Beasts grew their demonic energy by devouring humans.
“I felt like I was going to vomit… Everything felt completely intact within the energy accumulated in my body, as if I myself had directly devoured people….”
Je-gal Pyo covered his mouth, his face pale, and continued speaking in a thin voice.
“…In the end, I vomited everything up. The food, the absorbed demonic energy, all of it… only after I vomited it all out did I finally feel okay.”
Absorbing a Demon Beast that had devoured humans apparently felt as repulsive as committing cannibalism. Even if eating it caused no physical harm, it was like eating filthy meat—the terrible taste and smell made it unbearable to consume.
After repeating this cycle of absorbing and vomiting several times with Demon Beasts that Sipseungji had subjugated, Je-gal Pyo instinctively began to reject accepting the demonic energy of man-eating Demon Beasts. The shock had been too great.
So Je-gal Pyo’s master devised another method for his disciple.
“A Demon Beast that had never harmed people… A kind and gentle one… the one my master was raising… the one that was trying to share its demonic energy with me….”
Je-gal Pyo hunched his shoulders and buried his face in his hands. Words flowed out like a moan.
“…I killed it.”
The boy was a gaping maw without a filter. Any ordinary Demon Beast would be swallowed whole the moment he approached it. For the boy, it was impossible to absorb only a little so the Demon Beast wouldn’t die.
After unintentionally absorbing his master’s Demon Beast until it died, Je-gal Pyo vomited it all up again. This time, not because what he’d eaten was repulsive, but because he found it so revolting that he had devoured a kind Demon Beast that had never harmed anyone.
He couldn’t absorb Demon Beasts that deserved to die because they were repulsive. He couldn’t absorb virtuous Demon Beasts because he didn’t want to harm them. So Je-gal Pyo completely sealed shut the mouth that could swallow anything.
“…Because I swallowed my master’s Demon Beast… I felt so sorry toward my master that I asked my family to prepare a consolation gift… It wasn’t a bribe or anything, that was money I naturally had to give….”
Je-gal Pyo’s master had regretted losing the tamed Demon Beast, but it seemed he paid even greater attention to Je-gal Pyo’s potential.
‘Close bonds like those between Yi Yeon-ju and Myotusa are rare. Most sorcerers raise Demon Beasts the way one raises livestock… so that must have been the case.’
After that, his master apparently made various efforts to help Je-gal Pyo absorb demonic energy without vomiting it back up. Once he confirmed that receiving demonic energy from people caused no rejection and that Je-gal Pyo didn’t absorb it indiscriminately, he had his senior disciples share their accumulated demonic energy so Je-gal Pyo could grow accustomed to diverse types.
“…Even though it’s a Demon Beast that normally devours people, he b-b-brought one that had n-never eaten anyone yet, and t-t-told you to try absorbing from it….”
If Je-gal Pyo had possessed a temperament like Yun Ra-sa’s, he might have adapted gradually. But Je-gal Pyo was a boy who loved Demon Beasts dearly, with a tender heart. He couldn’t simply dismiss what was wrong as merely wrong.
“I, I, I know you’re making an effort for me… but that kind of thing is p-p-painful… and receiving the d-d-demonic energy from my senior brothers keeps making me feel t-t-terrible… so, I actually r-r-ran away to Seongsul Academy… My master said it would be b-b-better if I went after I could build up my own d-d-demonic energy on my own… but being th-th-there was too h-h-hard for me….”
“…So your master showed favoritism toward you?”
“B-b-because I’m lacking and have so many problems… he kept l-l-looking after someone like me… it’s not my m-m-master’s fault. It’s all m-m-my fault. My senior brothers also kept having their d-d-demonic energy drained because of m-m-me….”
Why are you blaming yourself for all of this?
I swallowed back a sigh that threatened to escape. What am I going to do with this boy?
“Je-gal Pyo.”
“Y-y-yes….”
“Your master made efforts for you not because you’re lacking or insufficient. It’s because you have talent and the potential to become an excellent sorcerer. Your qualities are remarkable.”
“…!”
“And your master’s favoritism toward you was your master’s fault, not yours.”
“B-b-but….”
“You didn’t ask your master to do any of that, did you? They knew that full well, but they took out their frustrations on you because you were an easy target. You don’t owe them an apology.”
“B-b-but because of me….”
“That’s not something you did—it’s something your master did. It’s a problem between your master and your senior brothers. It’s not something you need to take responsibility for or bear. Do you understand?”
“Y-y-yes….”
After I laid it out so plainly, Je-gal Pyo let out confused groans.
‘This isn’t something that can be resolved with just a few words, so that’s only natural. But I think I can solve the fundamental problem.’
I paused to choose my words carefully.
I was organizing in my mind the method that had occurred to me the moment I heard Je-gal Pyo’s story.
“…And regarding your demonic energy absorption problem, I think I can help you with that.”
“W-w-what?”
“It’s actually simple. All you need is a Demon Beast with benevolent demonic energy that’s safe for you to absorb, and one that you absolutely cannot devour no matter what. Training with that Demon Beast would help you develop the knack for it.”
“H-h-how could such an impossible condition exist? The more b-b-benevolent a Demon Beast is, the harder it is to accumulate demonic energy, so they’re w-w-weak….”
“It exists.”
I smiled brightly as I spoke.
“A Demon Beast so overwhelmingly strong that it’s impossible for you to swallow no matter what you try, yet one that has accumulated auspicious demonic energy.”
It had been ages since it last devoured humans, so it was already quite pure by nature. It had been steadily consuming heavenly peaches lately, and these days its demonic energy had become so fragrant it was questionable whether it was even a Demon Beast anymore—a thousand-year-old creature with an abundance of demonic energy that I happened to know very well.

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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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