Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 43

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

Chapter 43
The cool, calculating gaze I’d fixed on the Fire Ghost vanished without a trace, replaced by a frightened child clinging to me, his eyes darting nervously about the room.
I was startled. I hadn’t realized he could manipulate darkness with such sophistication already. Was it the pressure of the crisis that awakened it?
“Your Highness, just now….”
I was about to ask the Crown Prince how he’d wielded darkness in that manner, but then it struck me that this wasn’t the moment for such questions, so I swallowed my words.
“I’m relieved you’re unharmed.”
Once the Crown Prince confirmed I was safe, he exhaled in relief. His darkness subsided in tandem with that breath, dissolving back into the shadows.
The boy extended his hand to me.
“We must leave at once, my lady.”
“No.”
I grasped the Crown Prince’s hand and led him not toward the exit, but toward my bedroom instead. There was no point telling him to go alone—he wouldn’t listen anyway.
“We’re not leaving. We need to extinguish the fire. I don’t want to see Unyeon Hall burn to the ground.”
“With my darkness, perhaps? Once you’ve evacuated safely, I can attempt to——”
“There’s a safer way.”
I pulled the Crown Prince along as I ran.
My bedroom had been slightly scorched by flames spreading from the sitting room, but was otherwise intact. Behind the folding screen, a modest altar table came into view. At its center lay a painting of a dragon rendered in ink, and a water bottle sealed with a pine branch stopper.
“This is… a rain-summoning ritual altar, is it not?”
“That’s right.”
I nodded to the bewildered Crown Prince and picked up the water bottle. This was the contingency I’d prepared in advance.
With no time for explanations, I immediately inverted the water bottle sealed with the pine branch and let droplets fall upon the dragon painting. As I did, I invoked the privilege of humanity.
“Dragon Spirit, I beseech you. I offer this sacrifice—accept it and grant us rain.”
A rain-summoning ritual stripped to its bare essentials. Yet the response came instantly. The falling droplets seeped into the ink of the painted dragon, spreading and forming new characters.
Accepted.
“What is this…?”
The Crown Prince read the characters formed by the spreading ink and murmured in astonishment.
In that instant, the ink dragon’s eyes snapped open. Simultaneously, rain began pouring down outside the window like a waterfall.
Screams of the Fire Ghosts echoed from all directions. Soon I could see them scrambling over the walls and fleeing in panic. The flames consuming Unyeon Hall were doused by the downpour. Any fire remaining indoors would be extinguished by the Stove Goddess herself.
At last, the tension released. My body felt limp as a water-logged cotton pad. From waking the Queen to my private audience with the King, from the Uigeum Bureau to the Audience Hall to preventing the fire—it had been an exhaustingly long day.
‘Come to think of it… I suppose I’ve grown attached to this place.’
I could have simply fled, yet here I was, going to such lengths to extinguish the flames.
As I exhaled in relief, the Crown Prince asked, bewildered.
“Just now… what exactly was that?”
“A rain-summoning ritual.”
“No, I mean the ink spreading across the painting… Surely the divine spirit responded directly?”
“Well, that is…”
I hadn’t wielded divine power to perform a miracle, nor had I employed any special ability. It was merely a ritual and prayer that any human could perform, so rather than offer lengthy excuses….
“I’m simply beloved by the spirits.”
I smiled as I spoke, and the Crown Prince’s mouth fell open in shock. Then, startled, he reached toward me.
“My lady!”
What was he doing?
Only when the Crown Prince caught me did I realize my body was swaying. Dizzy and exhausted. My original body had often felt this way, but this one—this was the first time I’d experienced such sensations.
‘I pushed myself too hard today….’
With that thought, I lost consciousness entirely.
* * *
An-si dragged three warriors who had attempted to set fire to Jamnyong Hall, bound with rope, back to the East Palace. It had taken longer than expected to capture them since they’d scattered in different directions.
A torrential downpour was falling around the East Palace. It seemed the Princess had ultimately performed the rain ritual she’d prepared just in case.
Then Unyeon Hall had been in danger too?
‘Where is the Princess?’
The young phoenix instinctively sensed her master’s location, then abandoned the unconscious warriors beneath the eaves and rushed to find her master.
“Pri… Squawk!”
Upon entering the bedroom of Unyeon Hall, An-si jumped so violently she nearly left the ground. The master who had been fine when she left was now lying in bed with a deathly pale complexion.
The human Crown Prince stood guard beside her, but that was of no concern to An-si. She rushed forward and pressed her hand to her master’s forehead.
It burned like a coal. Feeling her blood run cold, An-si frantically looked around. The Crown Prince held a damp cloth in his hand. Beside it sat a basin of water.
Without a word, An-si snatched both the cloth and the basin, wrung out the cloth in the water, and placed it on her master’s forehead.
Why was she ill? She wasn’t dying, was she? She wasn’t going to sleep for decades again, leaving An-si behind, was she?
Fear and worry welled up, and tears fell unbidden. The young phoenix’s face crumpled as she clung to her master.
“Princess….”
The Crown Prince gazed at the sniffling An-si for a moment, then asked quietly.
“Where has the Crown Princess’s guard been?”
“The Princess ordered me to do something, and I’ve just returned…, Your Highness.”
For a divine being among divine beings—a phoenix—to speak with formal deference to a human felt strange on her tongue. Yet An-si maintained the respectful speech her master had requested toward the human Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince found the title “Princess” somewhat odd at first, but then recalled that An-si was the original lady-in-waiting who had followed Se-ru-hwa from the Empire, and accepted it readily enough. They must have called her that there.
“The Crown Princess ordered you?”
“She told me to guard Jamnyong Hall and capture anyone who came to set it on fire…, Your Highness.”
“Jamnyong Hall?”
The Crown Prince’s eyes widened, then narrowed. The boy fell silent, his expression thoughtful, before asking quietly.
“Did you capture them?”
“I’ve bound them in the courtyard…, Your Highness.”
“Well done. The Crown Princess has fallen ill, so care for her well.”
The Crown Prince entrusted Se-ru-hwa to An-si’s care and left.
An-si watched his retreating figure with a displeased glare.
‘I hate that human!’
When Princess Cheonmyeong was sleeping in the Underworld, the Jade Emperor had summoned An-si and given her several instructions.
“It is dangerous in many ways for the Princess to move freely between the Celestial Realm in a human body, so your role as a phoenix who can traverse the Three Realms freely is of great importance.”
“If the movements of demons become suspicious, or if the Princess struggles with human life, come and inform me.”
“And I hope this is merely my concern, but…”
At this point, the Jade Emperor hesitated in a way most unlike her usual self. Then, with a deep sigh, she spoke.
“The Princess may come to care for that gloomy boy, so watch carefully.”
“The gloomy one is impure. We cannot know what influence he might have on the Princess. Because he is neither demon nor ghost, it is all the more impossible to predict.”
“If the Princess seems likely to grow too close to that boy, you must absolutely inform me.”
An-si understood the Jade Emperor’s words to mean she should interfere and prevent the Princess and Crown Prince from growing close.
‘Do not worry, Your Majesty! I shall do my utmost to ensure the Princess comes to despise that man!’
The young phoenix clenched her fists with determination.
* * *
Rain poured down in torrents.
The Crown Prince examined the arsonists An-si had captured. All three possessed considerable martial skill, yet they lay unconscious, thoroughly beaten and trussed like dried fish by a girl who appeared no older than thirteen or fourteen.
‘These men attempted to set fire to Jamnyong Hall.’
And Fire Ghosts had come to Unyeon Hall. It was undoubtedly a plot aimed at him. Se-ru-hwa must have sensed it and moved to stop it.
Scarcely had I awakened the Queen after an all-night vigil, and while I myself was too delighted to think straight, she had perceived the danger alone. With that small frame, she had exerted herself to the point of falling ill.
‘Acting as though nothing were amiss, pretending to be fine….’
How terrified I was when she suddenly collapsed? The body I caught felt like a burning ember—I thought my heart would stop.
Had the Inner Chamber Court Lady and the attendants who returned as soon as the rain came not said that the Crown Princess had fallen ill, I would have lost control right there in the darkness.
The Crown Prince stood before the subdued men and gazed down at his own hands.
‘My Lady does so much for me, yet what have I done for her? Have I not only dragged her into my own dangers?’
I wanted to grow stronger. Both physically and in every other way.
But how?
“Even if you cannot reverse the darkness itself, if you can learn to control your own power, that would be enough. In fact, it would be wonderful! Wielding such darkness with such mastery is far more formidable than the abilities of most supernatural beings.”
Words Se-ru-hwa had spoken.
“The Crown Princess has already laid the foundation. Truly a remarkable child. So henceforth, you shall live as a sorcerer who wields the Dark Spirit Art. Any power you can control will surely become your weapon.”
Words Father King had spoken today.
“Stay right there!”
Words that had burst from my lips the moment I saw my Lady standing in that burning corridor.
‘The power I possess….’
The darkness that had extinguished flames and driven back Fire Ghosts. A power that, if controlled, could become a weapon.
The Crown Prince regarded his own darkness with new eyes—no longer as a curse.
‘Yes, I should not fear this… I should think of it as my strength.’

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