Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 4

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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 4
I decided to put my hastily devised plan into action immediately.
“Xiao-hua, dawn will break soon.”
“A-already? Can’t we stay here just a little bit longer?”
The child’s face crumpled. I asked her seriously.
“Do you still not want to return to the Living World?”
“No, I don’t!”
“Then I have a proposal for you.”
As I continued speaking, the child’s eyes grew wider and wider.
“You would… you would oversee the rest of my life, Your Highness?”
“Yes, and in exchange, I’ll register you in the celestial registry. You can continue living in my palace.”
I explained to Xiao-hua step by step what it meant to be registered in the celestial registry.
“So… if I become a celestial attendant, I can keep living here, and if I study hard, I can grow up and become a celestial maiden serving you, and if I become a celestial maiden, I can even go meet my mother, right?”
“Exactly.”
“I want to do it! Please, please let me do it!”
Xiao-hua urgently clutched at my sleeve.
I glanced up at the sky. I wanted to explain more details, but there wasn’t much time left before the first rooster crowed.
“Then let’s do it right now.”
I entered my chambers with Xiao-hua.
I wrote a letter to leave for my parents, another letter with instructions for An-si, and one more for Hyang-dan, the celestial maiden who oversees all of Sang Ra Palace.
‘Running away preparations complete.’
An-si would handle the rest on her own.
Since only my spirit would slip away and my body would remain, there was no risk of my absence being discovered for some time.
‘Everyone will think I’ve simply overexerted myself and fallen into a deep sleep.’
Next, I retrieved the celestial registry that recorded all the immortals belonging to Sang Ra Palace.
“By the way, Xiao-hua, what name would you like?”
“What do you mean, what name?”
“If you keep your human name, lingering attachments will require you to practice longer. And now that I’ll be living under your name, the karma I accumulate could affect you.”
“I… I don’t quite understand, but… basically it’s better to choose a new name, right?”
“Yes, it’s a new life, so a new name is cleaner.”
“Then… I’d like to be called ‘Xiao-hua.'”
The child smiled brightly.
“My mother thought I would be a tear flower when she gave birth to me, but after I was born, she realized I was a laugh flower instead, and she regretted giving me the wrong name.”
“…That’s lovely. It has meaning and is a beautiful name.”
I wrote ‘Xiao-hua (笑花)’ in the celestial registry and recited the blessing.
“The Celestial Princess Sang Ra-hee-yo makes this declaration to the Celestial Deities.”
A radiant light emerged from the characters written in the registry, hovering in the air like butterflies.
“The human Se-ru-hwa has been registered in the celestial registry as a retainer of the Celestial Princess.”
Following my gesture, the light seeped into Xiao-hua’s forehead.
“From this moment forth, she shall be reborn as the celestial attendant Xiao-hua.”
Light enveloped the child’s entire body before gradually fading away.
The child, now Xiao-hua instead of Se-ru-hwa, marveled at her own forehead as she touched it.
“Is it finished?”
“Yes. The celestial maidens at Sang Ra Palace will teach you what to do from here on.”
“My head feels so clear now.”
“Refreshed?”
“Yes. My body feels stronger too, and… my words come out so easily.”
“That’s because you’ve become a celestial being and developed an immortal’s physique.”
“What is an immortal’s physique?”
“The body of a celestial. It may look similar, but it’s quite different from a human body.”
“Wow…”
Xiao-hua, marveling at her own body as she turned it this way and that, suddenly gasped when she saw her lifeline.
“Your Highness, my lifeline is fading! Has the first rooster already crowed?”
“No, it’s because you’re no longer human—your connection to the Living World is being severed. We need to leave before it’s too late.”
I quickly grasped Se-ru-hwa’s lifeline. The faintly glowing thread felt warm and soft to the touch.
“Are we leaving right now?”
“Yes.”
Xiao-hua’s expression showed she wanted to cling to me. She must have been afraid of being left alone here.
I rose on my tiptoes and stroked the child’s head.
“Grow strong and become a wonderful celestial maiden.”
“Your Highness…”
“Oh, and if you draw fresh water at dawn and call my name while making a wish, I’ll hear everything.”
“Really?”
“Truly. So if anyone ever troubles you, tell me everything. I’ll make sure to punish them.”
At my words, Xiao-hua laughed briefly, then whispered with tears threatening to spill.
“Thank you so much, Your Highness.”
“I’m grateful to you too.”
“…My life was humble and difficult, but I hope yours will be filled with joy.”
Xiao-hua swallowed her tears, smiled, and waved her hand.
I smiled back and pulled the lifeline. I felt myself being drawn in, and my surroundings blurred. My eyes closed of their own accord as my body tilted. In the darkness, Xiao-hua’s voice grew distant in my ears.
“…Please tell my mother… I’m sorry…”
It was the only lingering attachment Xiao-hua had left.
Chapter 1
When I opened my eyes, I heard the rooster’s crow announcing dawn. It was an unfamiliar room.
‘Was I not late? Did it go as planned?’
I immediately got up and looked for a mirror. And before even seeing my reflection, I realized it.
‘It succeeded.’
My body felt light. I experienced a slight dizziness as I stood, but still, it was a freshness I had never felt in my entire life.
Breathing is easy. My limbs are not heavy. No headaches. My ears are not ringing. Walking barefoot, my soles don’t ache.
‘How remarkable.’
Everyone walks so freely.
Within just a few steps toward the mirror, I began to feel giddy.
‘What should I do? I’m already so delighted!’
With excitement bubbling up, I looked into the mirror and saw a small girl with a pale face staring back—the silver-haired rabbit-like child I’d been facing moments before.
‘Se-ru-hwa.’
Nine years old. Compared to the celestial deities of the heavens where no child was without beauty, Se-ru-hwa was quite adorable, yet she was far too small and gaunt.
‘When I first saw her, I thought she was only seven or eight, not nine.’
Unlike my previous illness, she had been neglected and starved, which was why she looked this way. That meant if she ate well and slept well, she would become even healthier than now. After all, she had a constitution robust enough to live to a hundred.
‘Even now it’s wonderful, but to think I could become even healthier than this.’
A life where I wouldn’t collapse from moving, wouldn’t vomit from eating anything, wouldn’t feel dizzy from standing, and wouldn’t struggle to breathe from nosebleeds.
What would that feel like? Just imagining it brought an involuntary smile to my lips.
‘Let me grow stronger quickly! I’ll mature and do everything I couldn’t do with my old body, travel to so many places….’
My heart raced with anticipation. I felt this same way the night before my first picnic with Mother and Father.
That picnic never happened because I collapsed, but the life I’m about to live as Se-ru-hwa will not be cut short—I will live it fully.
‘Now, to make that happen, I should first resolve the troublesome issues tangled around this child.’
With a body like this, I can easily untangle even the most twisted fate.
I examined Se-ru-hwa’s face carefully once more. My original hair had been black like the night, inherited from Father. This body’s hair, however, gleamed with silver.
‘She inherited it from Se-ru-hwa’s Mother, didn’t she?’
Silver hair as beautiful as a curtain woven from snowflakes—the same hair as Se-ru-hwa’s Mother, and a hallmark of the Xue Tribe, the ethnic minority forcibly subjugated by the empire.
‘Se-ru-hwa was born when the empire’s emperor violated the Xue Tribe’s chieftain’s daughter, Se-ru-hwa’s Mother.’
That was why the child’s name carried such melancholic meaning—like a tear-stained flower. Se-ru-hwa didn’t know much about her own tragic origins, but she was acutely aware that she was unwanted.
‘How could she not know, when even the servants mistreated her and barely fed her?’
The emperor invaded the Xue Tribal Lands where they lived peacefully and committed massacre. The emperor dragged Se-ru-hwa’s Mother away by force. The emperor fathered Se-ru-hwa. Yet it was not the emperor who was cursed as base and filthy—it was the innocent mother and daughter who bore the blame.
‘All that karma will make him regret it when he goes to the Afterlife… such is humanity.’
I clicked my tongue at the mirror when I suddenly froze.
‘Wait, these eyes—aren’t they my eyes?’
The eyes reflected in the mirror gleamed with an otherworldly jade hue. The color that symbolized the Jade Emperor, the jade shade I inherited from Mother.
‘Se-ru-hwa originally had black eyes.’
It seemed my possession had changed her eye color.
‘Is it because of my Mandate of Heaven?’
This shade wouldn’t naturally appear among humans. Isn’t this too conspicuous? Will I be discovered?
I stared at the mirror, troubled, then shook my head.
‘No one but Se-ru-hwa’s Mother will notice the change anyway.’
Who would remember the eye color of a neglected, scorned princess? Only Se-ru-hwa’s Mother, who loved this child with all her heart despite being the enemy’s daughter, would notice.
‘Besides, everyone here will be seeing Se-ru-hwa for the first time.’
Se-ru-hwa was the Pyeong Empire’s eleventh princess, born and raised her entire life within the imperial palace. But the place where Se-ru-hwa died, and where I was reborn in her stead, was not the Pyeong imperial palace.
“Just do it roughly, roughly.”
“But is this really okay?”
“She’ll be dead by the Crown Prince’s hand tomorrow anyway, so what does it matter?”
“I still don’t understand why only we were assigned to the princess who’s supposed to become the Crown Prince’s consort.”
Shadows of attendants flickered across the paper door, and it burst open without ceremony, ushering in a crisp autumn breeze that cut through the air like a blade. The cold was nothing compared to the chill in the voice that followed.
“Rise, Miss! You must prepare at once….”
“Oh my, you’re already awake.”
This was the royal palace of Yun Kingdom, one of the allied nations of the Pyeong Empire.
“Princess Se-ru-hwa, we’ve come to assist with your wedding preparations.”
And today was the day of Se-ru-hwa’s wedding to the Crown Prince of Yun Kingdom.

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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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