Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 2

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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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Episode 2
From the moment I was conceived, my parents built Sang Ra Palace in the Heavenly Realm—a palace created solely for me. The Afterlife simply wasn’t a suitable environment to raise a child.
After I was born, both my parents stayed at Sang Ra Palace while commuting to Jami Palace in the Heavenly Realm and Yama Palace in the Underworld respectively. Thus, Sang Ra Palace became our family home in practice.
But since it’s fundamentally my palace, everything in Sang Ra Palace is tailored to me, and traces of my presence linger throughout.
If I suddenly disappeared from there, my parents would feel an enormous void. It might hurt less if we lived separately, but my parents aren’t the type to live apart from me.
‘What if I moved out and lived elsewhere?’
It was an impulsive thought, but the idea of living somewhere else felt incredibly appealing. I’d only ever lived in Sang Ra Palace.
‘Should I really move out? Where would I go? How would I manage?’
As I patted the still-crying An-si while pondering this, the ferry carrying that Silver-haired Child touched the sandbar.
‘Hm?’
Behind the girl disembarking from the boat, I glimpsed a faintly glowing thread.
‘That’s not a lifeline, is it?’
A lifeline is the cord connecting a soul to its body. When it’s severed, the body becomes a corpse and the soul becomes a spirit of the dead.
‘Why does a spirit still have a lifeline attached?’
The luminous thread wavered and extended beyond the River of Three Paths toward the Living World.
The Underworld Messenger leading the child seemed to notice the lifeline belatedly. He grumbled.
“So that’s why there was remaining lifespan.”
The girl looked up at the Underworld Messenger in confusion. He pointed to the thread connected to the Living World.
“Hey, grab that and go home. You’re not dead yet.”
Watching from a distance, I finally understood what was happening. When malevolent spirits or deities strip away flesh and kill a human, the lifeline remains like this. The person dies from the wound, but if their natural lifespan hasn’t expired, they can be revived with a little help. Ancestral blessings, fervent prayers from the living, or the power of a greater deity than the malevolent one—something like that.
‘Something like that.’
Since they died before their natural lifespan ended, the Afterlife doesn’t prevent their revival. In fact, my father told me the Afterlife actively sends them back.
‘In a way, it’s similar to how I survived through my parents’ power.’
Either way, it wasn’t a common occurrence.
“Once you grab the lifeline, you’ll naturally return to the Living World, so hurry up and go.”
As the Underworld Messenger urged her on, the girl stared blankly at the lifeline connected to her, then shook her head.
“I don’t want to go. I… I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“Even if I go back, I’ll just die again soon anyway…”
Her youthful face looked heartbreakingly forlorn.
What kind of circumstances would make such a young child say she’d die again if she went back?
‘Is she ill like me? Or does going back mean she’ll be struck down again?’
As I watched with conflicted feelings, the Underworld Messenger’s expression hardened.
“That’s not my concern, so just go quickly.”
“I… I don’t want to…”
“Bad luck’s attached to me now. Listen, you can’t even enter Yama Kingdom with that lifeline—you’ll be kicked out at the entrance.”
“I’ll just die again soon and come back anyway… So I… I don’t want to go back…”
“Then hurry up and go die again and come back.”
“D… dying hurts. I hate pain…”
“Ugh, what kind of troublesome brat did I get stuck with?”
“I’m s-sorry….”
“Should I just kill you again right now? A few more hits and your lifeline might snap on its own, hmm?”
The Underworld Messenger raised his fist menacingly, and the girl instinctively flinched.
Had that bastard lost his mind?
I shot to my feet. An-si, who had been too consumed with tears to notice anything, looked up in confusion.
“Your Highness?”
“Move aside for a moment.”
I pushed An-si out of the way and approached the Underworld Messenger.
“You there.”
“Hm?”
The Underworld Messenger turned to face me, his expression shifting to one of utter disbelief.
“What is this now?”
“I’m the daughter of your supremely distant superior.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“What were you about to do to her?”
“Ha, little one, the dead shouldn’t meddle carelessly in a messenger’s duties. Where is your assigned messenger?”
“An Underworld Messenger’s role is to guide the deceased, not to threaten them. Now answer me properly—what were you trying to do?”
“You insolent brat!”
The Underworld Messenger reached out to grab me by the collar.
Behind me, An-si’s presence became terrifyingly intense. But there was no time for her to intervene.
“How dare you.”
From the crimson sky, dark clouds poured down like a waterfall behind me, swiftly coalescing into the massive form of a man.
“Lay a hand on my daughter?”
A thick, enormous hand seized the Underworld Messenger’s wrist just before it could reach me.
“You dare?”
Father had arrived.
The Underworld Messenger’s complexion drained of all color—paler even than the spirits around us.
“Y-Y-Your Majesty…?”
The Underworld Messenger recognized him instantly. While it was possible he didn’t know me—I’d been recovering at the Palace and rarely ventured out—there was no way he could fail to recognize his superior’s superior.
Father twisted the Underworld Messenger’s arm with a sinister smile.
“I distinctly recall instructing all officials who traverse the River of Three Paths to memorize my daughter’s appearance.”
“Aaaagh! I-I-I’m a new recruit…!”
“That information is included in basic training for recruits. It seems you dozed off during your lessons.”
Wait—memorizing my face was part of basic training for Afterlife officials? No wonder whenever I fell into the River of Three Paths, even Underworld Messengers and officials I’d never seen before recognized me immediately….
“It appears discipline in the Yama Kingdom has grown quite lax these days. To think such a wretch has been commissioned as an Underworld Messenger.”
Father smiled while fixing the messenger with a terrifying gaze, then flicked his fingertips through the air.
“Gangrim.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
A man in a black robe and navy vest, wearing a black official’s hat, materialized as if parting through mist. It was Gangrim—Father’s right hand and the commander of the Underworld Messengers.
“Handle it.”
“Yes.”
Gangrim approached the trembling Underworld Messenger with a bright smile.
“You.”
“Yes! Underworld Messenger, Northeast Division, Unsung Department, Second-Class Messenger Lee, Number 28, Park…!”
“Spare me the formalities. Go gather everyone under you and above you right now.”
The Underworld Messenger’s face went pale as if he might faint on the spot.
‘He’s done for at work now.’
I felt little sympathy. After all, I’d seen him trying to strike a child.
“My princess.”
Father scooped me up into his arms. In that instant, my perspective shifted higher, and I could see the moisture glistening in Father’s eyes.
Father always cries. Because of me. My chest ached.
“Did you wait long for me, Father?”
“Not at all. You came right away.”
“Weren’t you cold?”
“It was fine because An-si came to keep me company.”
“Thank goodness. Come, let’s head home quickly.”
“Wait just a moment, Father.”
I stopped Father from whisking me away and pointed to the trembling child.
“I’d like to take that child with us too.”
“Hmm?”
Father’s eyes narrowed as he observed the lifeline connected to the child’s body. I quickly explained.
“That child has a lifeline but refuses to return to the Living World, so that Messenger was trying to strike her, asking if he should kill her again.”
Father’s brow twitched.
“Gangrim.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You understand?”
“Yes. I will severely punish the Messenger in question and add mandatory attitude training and case study education for all Second-Class Messengers in the Northeast Division, not just the Unsung Department.”
“Good.”
Gangrim, who had served Father for over a thousand years, answered without hesitation, and Father gave a small nod.
Collective responsibility. That Messenger would soon be begging to be killed instead.
Gangrim kicked the Messenger, who had gone rigid with shock, and dragged him away.
Father met my gaze while holding me.
“Hee-yo, you want to take that child to your palace?”
“Yes, I’m curious why she doesn’t want to return to the Living World.”
Father glanced back and forth between the trembling girl and me. I caught a soft murmur: ‘She really has no peers around her… my poor princess.’
No, that’s not why I’m doing this.
‘I’m just curious.’
Whether she refuses to live because she’s suffering like me, or if there’s another reason—that’s all I want to know.
Father gestured to An-si to look after the child, then whispered tenderly to me.
“Before the first rooster crows, she must follow her lifeline back to be resurrected. So you can only play together until then.”
“…Yes.”
Not that I was trying to humor her, but I simply nodded and wrapped my arms around Father’s neck.
* * *
After leaving the Underworld, when I opened my eyes, the familiar ceiling greeted me.
My bedroom in Sang Ra Palace in the Heavenly Realm.
“Ugh…”
My throat felt parched and my limbs tingled, drawing an involuntary groan from me. My head throbbed as though it might shatter.
‘Cursed body.’
When I was at the River of Three Paths as a spirit, the dull sensations were almost a mercy.
Still, this was manageable. There were times I’d be too busy retching the moment my eyes opened.
“Hee-yo-ya!”
As I tried to sit up, Mother, who had been waiting beside my bed, quickly brought a bowl of medicinal broth to my lips.
The same pain reliever I always took. Terribly bitter, but I couldn’t function without it. I obediently drank every last drop.
Mother gazed at me intently.
“…Are you feeling better?”
“Yes, I don’t think I need any other medicine.”
My tongue felt numb and slightly paralyzed as the pain subsided—much like when I was in the Underworld.
Mother popped a candy into my mouth and gently pulled me into an embrace.
“Rest more. I’ll keep holding you.”
“I’m fine!”
I broke free from Mother’s arms with a bright smile.
“I’m not in pain anymore, so you can go. You must be busy.”
“Not particularly busy.”
A lie.
The Jade Emperor is busy. She must oversee everything from the heavens to the depths below—truly far busier than Father, who only needs to concern himself with the Underworld. Two or three times as much, I’d wager.
‘Yet Mother is always by my side whenever I wake.’
She handles her backlog of work late into the night and attends to urgent matters from my bedside, always staying close to me.
So I should send her away of my own accord.
“Actually, I brought a child back from the Afterlife this time. It’s a child I need to return to the Living World before the first rooster crows.”
“You brought someone back from the Underworld? You did?”

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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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