Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 26

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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 26
“Your Highness, I suspect the darkness doesn’t spread when you’re in a good mood. Look—your shadow is so well-behaved when you’re smiling.”
“…I see. Now I’m beginning to understand.”
The Crown Prince, who had been gazing at me from a distance, smiled once more.
“So it truly was a matter of my own resolve. Then, depending on how I set my mind….”
The Crown Prince lowered his eyes and extended his hand. The soft, boyish warmth drained from his face in an instant, replaced by a chilling frost. Between his long, delicate lashes, his dark eyes grew cold as a winter night. As those eyes fixed upon the shadow cast beneath his hand, it rippled and suddenly swelled. Darkness spread like spilled ink across paper, consuming the floor in moments before crawling up the walls and engulfing the ceiling. The entire chamber was swallowed by shadow.
Except for the space around me.
“Wow!”
In the pitch-black darkness devoid of even a glimmer of light, only the spot where I sat remained brilliantly illuminated. It was quite a remarkable sight, even for someone like me who rarely found cause for surprise.
I reached my hand toward the undulating darkness beside me. The moment my fingers touched it, the shadow retreated precisely that distance.
“Amazing!”
As I moved my hand about, the darkness sluggishly yielded to my movements, brightening in response.
I felt like the moon itself. Everywhere I touched grew luminous, as if casting moonlight across a starless night.
I rose and spun slowly through the darkened chamber. With each footstep, the shadows parted and the room brightened—it was wondrous.
‘This way it’s not so oppressively dark. That strange fear doesn’t grip me nearly as much.’
Darkness with light was not frightening. Just as a starlit night sky is beautiful. I traced my finger through the empty air, and the shadow retreated along its path, fading like a shooting star.
“How beautiful….”
The admiration escaped me unbidden. I turned to the Crown Prince with excitement.
“Your Highness, this is incredible! How did you do this?”
“I didn’t know it would turn out this way either. I simply expressed the feeling I was experiencing as it was….”
The Crown Prince, who seemed surprised himself, answered with a slightly excited tone before trailing off.
“Your feeling? Ah, so the darkness is no longer frightening when you’re with me?”
“…That’s not entirely wrong. But rather than simply being unafraid, it’s more that you seem to me like….”
The Crown Prince’s voice grew quieter, dropping to a low murmur. I was too absorbed in moving my hands through the darkness, conjuring light, to catch the rest of what he said.
“Pardon? What did you say?”
“It’s nothing. Rather, would you help me with something?”
“With what?”
“I’m trying to withdraw the darkness now, but it’s not working well.”
“Shall I hold your hand?”
Ever since the day I removed the Crown Prince’s gloves, we had primarily held hands during our practice sessions. It seemed to help settle him more.
“…Yes, I would appreciate that.”
For some reason suddenly shy, the Crown Prince answered with slight hesitation.
I made my way toward him through the darkness. Since everywhere I touched grew bright, finding him in the pitch-black was no longer difficult. I sat beside him and spoke.
“If we continue practicing like this, we’ll be able to show the Queen when she awakens.”
“What? That…Father King won’t approve.”
“Still, we should show him that Your Highness has improved. And apologize as well.”
“…What I’ve done cannot be glossed over with an apology.”
“But it wasn’t intentional on your part—it was an accident.”
“….”
The Crown Prince’s expression darkened.
Regardless, the Queen might be uncertain, but the King in his current state won’t apologize or meet the Crown Prince at all.
‘I need to find out the treatment method from the Flower Keeper somehow.’
In truth, it would be faster to use the Eight Pillar Order to go directly to the Western Heaven Flower Field and ask outright, but I’m worried it might expose my absence.
‘I should send An-si to ask indirectly.’
I grasped the Crown Prince’s hand firmly with both of mine and spoke with determination.
“I’ll speak to them first and get permission. Once I do, let’s go pay our respects together!”
“You don’t need to strain yourself on my account, my lady.”
“It’s not a strain. Your Highness needs to be acknowledged so that I can be at ease too.”
“But because of me….”
“No, this is all for my own sake. Don’t misunderstand, Your Highness.”
I lifted my chin and spoke with deliberate coolness, and the Crown Prince let out a laugh. Following that sound, the darkness rippled and receded. The candlelight flickered back to life. The boy’s smile bathed in that glow was truly beautiful to behold.
‘…I’m going to grow attached at this rate.’
Already at this point, if we spend years together….
‘I need to be careful.’
If I grow too attached, parting later will be painful.
* * *
Seok-ran appeared exactly two weeks after our agreement. Even though she adjusted her investigation direction after realizing there were almost no people from the Crown Prince’s side, the fact that she kept the deadline suggested she was indeed no ordinary thousand-year-old fox.
“Princess, it’s been a while, meow.”
A white fox with striped markings around her eyes and mouth, dressed in elaborate clothing and sitting primly on a cushion like a person, looked oddly comical. It was even more so with a larger fox sitting formally behind her with dignified bearing.
That one only has a black-tipped tail.
“Is this the younger sibling you mentioned before?”
“That’s right. His name is Seok-juk, meow.”
“He doesn’t seem to be a Thousand-Year Fox….”
“He’s not even a thousand years old yet, meow. Hehe, and he’s an aspiring Heavenly Official, meow.”
“Ah, so he’s cultivating the Way.”
“Right, unlike me, he’s quite the scholarly type. Seok-juk, pay your respects.”
At Seok-ran’s words, the fox demon behind her bowed his head with proper courtesy.
“I have the honor of meeting you, Princess…ack. My name is Seok-juk…ack.”
Huh? Why does his speech sound like that?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Seok-ran smacked the back of Seok-juk’s head with her front paw.
“Hehehehe, look at you putting on airs. Just speak comfortably. The Princess is merciful and won’t fault you for such things, meow.”
Ah, so he was trying to use a formal tone but couldn’t pronounce it properly.
Seok-juk, having been hit, suddenly grew angry and growled.
“Grrrr, do you think I’m as reckless as you, Sister? To become a Heavenly Official, one must be careful!”
“What does becoming a Heavenly Official have to do with that? As long as you cultivate the Way properly, isn’t that enough?”
“Cultivating the Way is just the basics! To be selected, I have to pass the final interview! If I fail the interview because I was disrespectful to the Princess, you’ll be responsible!”
“That’s why I’m telling you the Princess doesn’t care about such things! Right?”
Seok-ran turned to me as if seeking agreement. I was about to nod when Seok-juk yelped in alarm and leaped up, then pressed down on his sister’s head with his front paws.
“You foolish sister! The Princess is your friend! Show proper respect!”
“Meow! The Princess said it’s fine, so why are you making such a fuss!”
“Even if you say it’s fine, there are lines that must be kept! I feel like I’m going to die from stress before I even reach a thousand years because of you!”
An-si, watching the fox siblings snarl at each other, whispered to me.
“That fox seems slightly better than Thousand-Year Fox, perhaps because she’s aspiring to be a Heavenly Official, Your Highness.”
“I think both of them are fine.”
I shrugged and gestured to the bickering siblings.
“That’s enough. Speak comfortably. Forcing formality when it doesn’t work is even more unpleasant to listen to.”
“See!”
“….”
Seok-ran became triumphant while Seok-juk fell silent, watching my expression.
I smiled warmly at the massive fox whose shoulders had shrunk into itself.
“And don’t worry—this won’t affect your final interview for the Heavenly Official examination. In fact, if you help me well with my work, I might even give you bonus points for good conduct.”
“…! Thank you so much!”
Seok-juk, who had been dejected, instantly revived at the mention of bonus points, his eyes sparkling brightly.
I continued with the same smile on my face.
“Of course, if you don’t do it properly, I might end up disappointed enough to complain to the Heavenly Official that there’s a fox like this in the Mortal Realm.”
“…!”
Seok-juk’s fur stood on end as he trembled, then buried his head at lightning speed.
“I will devote myself entirely to Your Highness! Please command me to do anything!”
He’s easier to handle than his sister. Still, being a Heavenly Official candidate, he maintains proper respect even in fox form—though his pronunciation is a bit odd.
Seok-ran looked at her younger brother with disgust, then pulled out a book and handed it to me.
“Well, this is the result of the investigation my brother and I conducted on what you asked for.”
“Good work.”
I opened the book and skimmed through it.
“I did most of the investigation, and Seok-juk organized it. Hey, Seok-juk, explain it for me.”
“…From the beginning, there’s the list of deaths during the black wine incident, the list of madness patients at that time, the list of victims from the past two years of the shadow sickness, the current status of forces supporting the Crown Prince, and finally the results of the additional investigation on current factions within the Palace that you instructed. I’ve attached a table of contents at the very front.”
At first glance, the investigation was far more detailed and excellent than I had expected. The organization was also clean in the Heavenly Realm style.
‘They didn’t waste a thousand years. The younger one seems to be preparing seriously for the Heavenly Official examination.’
A Heavenly Official is a fox who, despite being a demon, has been recognized by the Heavenly Realm and registered in the celestial records. Since they must receive the Heavenly Realm’s approval, they naturally had to become familiar with the ways and laws of heaven. Therefore, Heavenly Official candidates were ultimately similar to humans preparing for civil service examinations.
‘It’s convenient because the familiar format makes it easy to read.’
Putting detailed examination aside for later, I flipped through it roughly to check only the condition of the materials, and something caught my eye.
“There are people with red dots marked on the list—what are these?”
“Oh, those are fake victims.”
“Fake?”
“They’re rumored to have been killed by the Crown Prince, but actually, someone else killed them and pinned it on him. There are quite a few cases.”
“What? Is that really true?”
I was so taken aback that my voice sharpened involuntarily. Seok-ran was startled and quickly laid her ears flat, explaining earnestly.
“We gathered information by investigating every demon and wandering spirit living inside and outside the Palace! We even found and questioned all the earth-bound spirits! They said they saw it themselves! It should be accurate!”
Seok-juk added to the explanation.
“I’ve organized it so that for each item, it shows who testified and what their testimony was. We’ve completed cross-verification, so it should be nearly accurate.”
I flipped through the book in disbelief. At first glance, the names marked with red dots far outnumbered those without them.
Now that I thought about it, it made no sense that so many people had died in Jamnyong Hall—a place where the Crown Prince had been confined like a prisoner ever since the dark incident. If entering meant death, why would so many people deliberately venture inside?
‘Most of them probably killed their political rivals or enemies and secretly dumped the bodies in Jamnyong Hall to frame him.’
Honestly, until now I’d assumed the Eunuch had simply fabricated rumors about deaths that never occurred. But it seemed he’d actually murdered people and pinned the blame on the Crown Prince.
“Humans truly are… endlessly creative in their depravity.”
I snapped the book shut irritably. As I pressed my fingers to my forehead, I noticed the fox siblings tensing visibly, so I waved a hand to reassure them.
“You both did well. What reward shall I give you?”
“K-kyaa! A, a reward? You’re actually giving us one, Princess?”
“Did you think I’d work you for free? Tell me what you want. I’ll grant it if it’s within reason.”

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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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