Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 48

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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 48
‘Why am I like this, in front of a child! She’s an eleven-year-old human girl, and I’m a 209-year-old deity! Why am I suddenly acting like this?’
Trying to forcibly suppress what was bursting out, I found myself choking back tears.
“Ugh….”
Why now? I’d been fine all this time.
As I began to tear up, the Crown Prince startled and flustered.
“My Lady! I’m so sorry, it’s my fault. I won’t let you feel hurt again. Please, don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying!”
My voice denying it strongly trembled with tears even as I spoke. I felt An-si’s alarmed gaze upon me.
No, I can’t let An-si see me like this. I’m her master. A superior can’t appear anxious and struggling before a subordinate. A great deity, an adult, Princess Cheonmyeong cannot be like this. Besides, An-si knows she could die at my whim, so seeing me distressed would only worry her more.
‘I don’t want her to see me crying!’
I reflexively covered my face and dragged the Crown Prince into the room. Only after closing the door and escaping An-si’s sight did I feel relieved, and then the tears burst forth, and simultaneously, understanding arrived.
‘Ah.’
Why my emotions suddenly surged like a child’s before the Crown Prince.
‘Because the Crown Prince… is actually just a child.’
And he’s not my subordinate.
‘Moreover, he doesn’t even know I’m Princess Cheonmyeong….’
Everyone around me until now had been adults or my subordinates. In Heaven, my parents and the deities, the celestial maidens. These past few days, human palace attendants. An-si, who’s always beside me, is a divine beast under my command.
I am the only daughter of the great Jade Emperor and Yama King. Princess Cheonmyeong, who must always maintain pride and dignity. A lofty princess revered by all in Heaven and beneath the earth. A fragile and precious being always walking with one foot in death’s shadow, whom everyone worries over and frets about.
A single tear of mine could turn the Palace upside down, and one complaint from me could cause chaos in all directions. So I always conducted myself with composure and calm. Like a great deity. Like a princess of the Celestial Realm.
But the Crown Prince, this little one before me now, knows nothing about me. Before this child, I am not Princess Cheonmyeong. Not a terminally ill patient uncertain of when I’ll die.
‘Even if I whine about being sick, he won’t worry that I might die. He’ll just treat me normally… like a healthy person who’s temporarily ill.’
The Crown Prince won’t become serious and fret or cry over my small complaints. He’ll naturally think it’s nothing, believe I’ll recover soon.
It’s okay to act like a child before him. Because he’s not an adult either. We’re both children. It’s okay to whimper. He’s not my subordinate, nor my superior. Like my parents, we’re equals in a spousal relationship. The child who, as my husband’s duty and right, protected me and even took a slap in my stead.
…Though truthfully it’s a fake marriage, but still.
‘So that’s why I suddenly became like this before him….’
I gripped the Crown Prince’s sleeve that I’d pulled, tears streaming down my face. Even as I sobbed and hiccupped, I felt oddly relieved and at ease.
Seeing me cry, the Crown Prince became grave. He knelt down to meet my eyes, then hurriedly rummaged through his robes and pulled out a handkerchief.
“Why are you crying so? Have I hurt you so deeply, my Lady?”
“You haven’t, hic, you haven’t come even once. I’ve been, sniff, sick for days.”
“I’m sorry, my Lady. I had urgent business to attend to. I’d been to a dirty place, so I felt too ashamed to see you….”
The Crown Prince, his beautiful brows drooping with concern, carefully wiped my tears with the handkerchief. Then he gently patted my shoulder as if to tell me not to cry. At that tender touch, I gave up holding back entirely and wept freely.
“Waaah… what does that matter, sniff, you could just wash up and come, hic….”
“My thinking was shallow. I didn’t realize you’d be hurt like this… Seeing you cry so sadly pains my heart. From now on, I’ll be by your side whenever you’re ill, so please stop now.”
“Staying by my side isn’t, waaah, what I meant… if you’d just come once, sniff, I wouldn’t feel this hurt….”
“I did come once. I came when you were sleeping….”
“Then you should have woken me… hic, what good is it if you come when I don’t know, waah….”
“I’m sorry, my Lady. I won’t do that again, so please stop crying. Your eyes will swell.”
The little one fumbled to comfort me. I clung to him and whimpered like I’d become nine years old again.
“Waah, all this time we couldn’t practice archery together, couldn’t practice handling darkness, hic, couldn’t eat together, waaah, didn’t you miss any of it?”
“Of course I regretted it. Far more than you could imagine, my Lady. More than you might suppose, I….”
The Crown Prince trailed off with a deep sigh, then gently patted my trembling back and whispered.
“So you must rise and compose yourself quickly. If you continue weeping like this, you’ll need to remain bedridden much longer.”
“…!”
He was right. Crying consumed far more energy than I’d realized. If I kept this up after just recovering from my illness, I’d collapse again. My heart felt lighter, but my body couldn’t afford it!
‘That’s enough. Stop it.’
I clamped both hands over my mouth and swallowed my sobs.
“Hic… hic…”
“Oh dear.”
The strange sounds escaping as I stifled my tears startled the Crown Prince. The anxious boy simply lifted me up and set me down upon the unfolded golden bedding, then wrapped me snugly in blankets.
Then he brought his handkerchief to my nose and spoke gently.
“Come now, blow.”
“….”
That single word jolted me back to my senses.
‘This is far too childish!’
No matter how comfortable I felt, blowing my nose into the Crown Prince’s handkerchief was simply too much.
My reason, which had nearly abandoned me, returned in full force, and I felt my face flush crimson. At least my tears stopped.
I thrashed my hands free from the blankets and pushed the handkerchief away.
“I, I’m fine now.”
My voice stumbled of its own accord. How mortifying… I’d just acted like a child in front of him again.
‘I understand now why I act this way before the Crown Prince… but that doesn’t make the embarrassment any less real.’
As I covered my burning face with both hands, the Crown Prince asked with concern.
“My Lady, you’re not crying again, are you?”
“No, I’m not crying. I’ve stopped now.”
I looked up in alarm, and the Crown Prince smiled brightly.
“Thank goodness.”
‘Ah, his smile… it was always beautiful, but something has changed.’
A smile as delicate and graceful as plum blossoms blooming at the tip of an ink-brushed branch on rice paper. It had become smoother, deeper somehow, and noticeably more mature.
I stared blankly at the boy’s lips before blurting out.
“Has something happened to you?”
“Pardon?”
“You seem… different somehow.”
I spread my fingers as wide as they would go. Slightly longer than a hand’s span.
“Your Highness seems to have grown. About this much?”
“You mean in height?”
“Not height, but something else, I….”
I sensed it intuitively but couldn’t quite articulate it. As I struggled, the Crown Prince’s expression became enigmatic.
“You have keen perception, my Lady.”
“Did you really grow?”
“Yes. Though I’m uncertain if ‘grown’ is the precise term….”
The Crown Prince extended his arm to the side. Darkness coiled like smoke from his fingertips, stretching outward until it solidified into a sword.
“I’ve grasped how to manipulate darkness.”
A curved blade forged from shadow itself.
‘Just now… he created a weapon using Eodukseo’s darkness?’
My eyes widened involuntarily at the sight of something I’d never witnessed before.
“Your Highness created a sword from your own darkness?”
“Yes.”
“And you can create and dispel it at will?”
“That is correct. It was difficult at first, but I’ve practiced considerably over these past few days and have become quite proficient.”
“Wow. That’s incredible!”
The Crown Prince responded bashfully to my admiration.
“My swordsmanship is clumsy, so I cannot yet wield it properly.”
“You can learn swordsmanship from now on! It’s truly magnificent, Your Highness!”
As I clapped and expressed my delight, the boy’s cheeks flushed slightly. He withdrew the sword back into his shadow and lowered his eyes shyly.
“It is hardly so remarkable. It is not particularly impressive… rather, it is only sinister.”
“Just recently you couldn’t control the darkness properly, yet now you’ve created a weapon from it. It truly is an extraordinary and magnificent power.”
When I offered to help, I never imagined the boy would master darkness so quickly. It was genuinely rewarding beyond measure.
“Seeing that you’re already capable of such feats, Your Highness must be talented. No, not just talented—you must be a genius! Your Highness, won’t you become the founder who established Dark Spirit Art as a proper mystical art?”
Speaking enthusiastically and lavishing praise without restraint, the Crown Prince’s blush spread all the way to his neck as he shook his head.
“You are too generous with your praise. Dark Spirit Art was merely a name I gave it on a whim.”
“Your Highness is the first person to master Eodukseo’s darkness! So if you refine it and establish it as a mystical art, then it will truly become Dark Spirit Art from now on.”
“Ah.”
The boy’s expression shifted as if he had realized something, and he gazed down at his own shadow.

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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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