Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 44

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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 44
There was no guarantee this would be the last of such incidents. Even if the Crown Prince uprooted all his own enemies, there would be others in the Empire who sought to harm the Lady. Those who had once forced a child into a place of death would never simply let that child go, no matter how miraculously she survived.
The best course of action would be to have Se-ru-hwa flee the Palace, but the Lady herself had refused such a thing, and besides…
‘I don’t want that. Now I… I need the Lady to stay by my side.’
If one wished to hold onto something, if one could not bear to let it go, then one had to protect it with one’s very life, did one not? Danger could arrive at any moment.
Therefore, the boy needed strength. A weapon to protect his Lady.
In the boy’s dark eyes, a firm and icy resolve took root.
‘Let me try doing it the way I just did.’
How had he extinguished the flames just moments ago?
The instant he saw Se-ru-hwa within the inferno, terror seized him utterly—fear that his Lady might be harmed. Yet he did not collapse beneath that fear. Instead, desperation drove him to overcome this dreadful situation by any means. Rage kindled against those who had terrified him.
As he took that step forward, darkness moved according to his will.
‘In the end, it is my emotion that is the key.’
Cheon Gyeol-u hardened his expression and cast his gaze downward. Then, from the shadows, darkness crept upward, flowing through his fingertips and swirling around them.
‘Summoning darkness is simple. One merely needs to imagine fear. The problem comes after…’
In the Crown Prince’s grip, the darkness swelled greatly, then was crushed like something bound by reins, only to swell again. The boy clenched his teeth, cold sweat beading on his brow.
‘To fear and yet not be swayed by fear. To face the terror within myself while… refusing to let it dominate me.’
Extreme terror sometimes transforms into extreme courage—the kind of power that allows a cornered mouse to bite at its predator.
The Crown Prince deliberately brought himself into such a state. Simultaneously recalling the darkness that had enveloped him for two years and the girl who had held his hand within that darkness.
He did not deny his emotions. He acknowledged his fear. He accepted his own weakness. Yet he would not surrender to it. He honed his terror into courage.
‘A weapon for me to grasp. A sword to protect… the Lady!’
In that moment, the darkness that had been writhing chaotically stabilized into a definite form.
A curved blade wrought of pure shadow—a hwan-do. Still small enough to be called a short sword, but precisely because of this, it was something he could grip and wield rather than be wielded by.
‘This is it. I simply need to maintain this state.’
The boy, drenched in sweat, grasped the black blade. The sword born from his own darkness clung to his palm like an extension of his body.
Cheon Gyeol-u, holding the undulating hwan-do, turned his gaze toward one of the arsonists sprawled across the floor.
‘If someone is engulfed by my darkness, they feel fear, go mad, or die. But what if, instead of complete coverage, only a portion makes contact?’
He lowered the blade over the unconscious arsonist. Darkness surged forth as if to pour down upon the living, but he gripped it tightly, allowing only a portion to seep through. Then, from the blade’s edge, darkness flowed like a rope, touching the warrior’s forehead.
The boy clenched his teeth and maintained that state. Moments later, the warrior’s eyes snapped open with a terrible scream.
“Aaaahhh! Aaahhh! Gaaahhh!”
The warrior’s cries were swallowed by the heavy downpour. Darkness spread like ink, threatening to engulf the warrior’s entire body. Mad with terror, he thrashed wildly, eyes rolling back.
‘No more! I must control it!’
Once the darkness had spread, it did not easily return. The Crown Prince, straining with all his might, recalled the Lady’s words.
“Perhaps when Your Highness is in a good mood, the darkness doesn’t spread? Your shadow seems so well-behaved when you’re smiling.”
The boy deliberately smiled. His mood did not improve. The corners of his mouth felt only awkward and forced.
‘Then…’
He recalled those jade-bright eyes, wide and gazing down at him from beneath the painted eaves. He recalled the girl rising slightly on her toes beneath her long skirt. He recalled her cheerful prattle asking what sweets he preferred.
Then the forced smile transformed naturally into genuine laughter. Simultaneously, the darkness spreading toward the warrior began to recede.
The warrior, who had been thrashing within the world’s most terrible nightmare, opened his eyes to find himself facing a beautiful boy smiling radiantly.
“Who sent you?”
His voice, incongruous with the smiling face, was cool and measured as flowing water.
The Warrior’s eyes widened in shock.
“W-what?”
“I asked who dared command you to do such a thing.”
“Ah…?”
Only then did the Warrior recognize the boy before him as the Crown Prince. He also realized how his operation had failed and how he’d been captured and knocked unconscious. Even in failure, he couldn’t reveal his backer—he feared the consequences too much.
The Warrior clamped his mouth shut and surveyed his surroundings. No one but the Crown Prince was visible. It didn’t seem he’d been brought to the Office of Interrogation yet. Being one of the Gwae-ryeok-nan-sin, he drew upon his power to shake off the rope binding his body.
Every muscle in his frame tensed, yet the rope didn’t budge an inch. This was clearly no ordinary cord.
‘What is this rope?’
He had no way of knowing that An-si had bound him with a celestial rope from the Celestial Realm—one that no ordinary strength could ever break.
The smile that had graced the Crown Prince’s face as he watched the Warrior struggle faded away.
“If you won’t speak willingly, I’ll make you want to.”
The boy extended his hand once more.
The Warrior watched with wide eyes as darkness rose from the boy’s shadow, becoming a blade, grasped by a pale hand, and a sword rippling with blackness approached him. Darkness flowed like thread down the blade’s edge toward him. The moment it touched his chest, everything went dark.
In that darkness, the Warrior beheld a terror beyond all others—not a vision shown by another, but a nightmare of his own making, the most horrifying dread his own mind could conjure.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
The fear was unbearable. So unbearable that he would have bitten his own tongue to death rather than witness it. Yes, just kill me, please kill me….
Then, as if it were all a lie, the darkness lifted.
The delicate boy stood smiling like a portrait, looking down at him with composed elegance.
“Who is your backer?”
“….”
The Warrior gasped for breath, terror-stricken. The young, fair face of the boy no longer appeared childlike to him.
Was the Crown Prince truly like this…?
He’d heard the Crown Prince was weak and timid, so cautious about harming others that there was no need to fear something like the Black Wine—a mere rumor of a monster, yet a “good child” too gentle to kill even an insect! That’s what he’d heard.
But what the Crown Prince was deliberately showing him now—wasn’t that the very “Black Wine” he’d only heard whispered about?
“Still unwilling to answer, I see.”
With those words, the smile vanished from the boy’s face once more. Darkness rose up. The Warrior trembled violently throughout his entire body.
‘That’s the Black Wine. The Black Wine that turned the Unjeung Pavilion into hell two years ago. The one that drives people to madness and death….’
The nightmare that had consumed everything moments before came flooding back. It was as if he experienced every worst-case scenario he’d ever imagined all at once—as if the boy was dragging forth from the depths of his own being the very thing he feared most and thrusting it upon him. Such terror.
Now he understood why people had gone mad during the Black Wine incident. Now he understood why some had torn out their own throats. The fear was so overwhelming that death itself seemed preferable.
The moment the pale hand grasping the murky darkness like a blade drew near, the Warrior lost control of his bladder.
The boy looking down at this pathetic sight smiled softly. Scattering the blade held in his grip, the Crown Prince asked.
“Now do you wish to answer?”
The Warrior nodded frantically.
“Who is your backer?”
“The L-Left Prime Minister, Your Excellency the Left Prime Minister! His Excellency the Left Prime Minister ordered us to set fire to Jamnyong Hall and burn Your Highness the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Crown Princess to death!”
“…Was it also your doing that summoned the Fire Ghost to Unyeon Hall?”
“What? A Fire Ghost, you say?”
“Ah, I see… you know nothing of that.”
The boy continued smiling. The Warrior felt relief wash over him—until the Crown Prince spoke again with that same smiling face.
“I cannot trust whether you’ve told me the truth about your backer.”
“Pardon?”
“What if he just threw out some random name to hide the real mastermind? I don’t even believe that someone like you received direct orders from the Left Prime Minister.”
The Crown Prince shrugged and raised his hand again.
“I suppose I’ll need to verify this myself.”
Black darkness bloomed from the boy’s palm. The assassin’s face drained of color as he shook his head frantically.
“No! I’m telling the truth! The Left Prime Minister truly—!”
“You’re a reckless fool who dared set fire to the East Palace. Why should I believe the words of such a man without proof?”
“Please believe me! If you investigate the Joongga Trading Company, you’ll find all the evidence you need!”
“The Joongga Trading Company?”
“It’s a merchant house the Left Prime Minister cultivated for covert operations! They’re raising Gwae-ryeok-nan-sin soldiers under the guise of company guards! I worked there recruiting and training lowborn rabble, so I know it well! Those men don’t even know who their true backer is, but I know exactly!”
“…So the Left Prime Minister sends expendable men who don’t know their real backer, yet he sends you—someone who knows all these details—on a mission that would be catastrophic if it failed? That makes no sense. It’s even more suspicious.”
“Because this operation is crucial! So crucial that they selected only the most exceptional assassins to ensure absolute success, which is why we—who normally stay hidden—were chosen!”

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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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