Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 58

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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 58
“…Have the plum blossoms already bloomed in the garden?”
“Yes, since you’ve been staying at Jamnyong Hall, you likely haven’t seen them yet. Would you like to go look?”
There was still time before Princess Onseol arrived. I nodded, clutching the flower branches in both hands.
“I’d love to see them.”
At that moment, a long shadow extending from beneath the Crown Prince’s feet crawled up the railing and lifted me effortlessly, transferring me into his arms.
“Kyaaah!”
Even I, accustomed to all manner of mystical occurrences, had never been lifted by a shadow before, so a shriek escaped me unbidden. I caught sight of An-si, who had been pinning Gwang-chul down by the pond, ruffling her feathers and rising to her feet at my cry. I hastily sent her a mental message.
[It’s nothing!]
The Crown Prince set me down gently beside him after receiving me from the shadow, then fussed over me anxiously.
“Were you startled? I apologize.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine…. But Your Highness, your mastery of shadow manipulation has grown even stronger.”
“I’ve only just grasped the basics of how to wield it. Though I do find myself controlling it better when you’re near.”
The Crown Prince answered with a bashful expression and extended his hand to me. I reflexively took it, and he walked ahead with a smile drawn as if by brush and ink.
“Do you remember the wall in the rear courtyard of Jamnyong Hall where we marked our heights?”
The memory came rushing back the moment he spoke. Before going to wake the Queen, the Crown Prince and I had made a wager to see whose height would be greater when we each came of age.
‘After we’re fully grown, the Crown Prince will surely be taller… but the celestial maidens used to say that girls grow taller quickly, while boys grow later but continue growing for longer.’
So if we compared our heights at eighteen, when humans observe their coming-of-age ceremony, wouldn’t I be considerably taller? The Crown Prince would continue growing after that, but by then I would have reached my full height!
‘That’s why we wagered that the winner would grant the loser’s wish.’
Later, we decided to measure ourselves precisely and mark our heights on the wall in the corner of the rear courtyard of Jamnyong Hall so we could compare them accurately.
That had been several months ago now.
“Of course I remember.”
“The tree planted beside that wall was a plum tree. I noticed today that it has bloomed.”
As the Crown Prince and I rounded the corner of Jamnyong Hall, the tree came into view.
“Wow.”
Though it was still several days until March, the tree seemed impatient, with deep crimson plum blossoms hanging abundantly from every branch. The flowers, a shade of deep pink bordering on red, scattered across the bare branches like pigment splashed upon ink-drawn lines, filling them completely.
“So many have already bloomed!”
I rushed forward excitedly and circled the tree once. Though it hadn’t yet burst into full bloom, the blossoms appeared strikingly vivid against the clear blue sky. Had this been an ordinary plum tree in the Sang Ra Palace gardens, I wouldn’t have given it a second glance, but here it looked truly beautiful.
As I admired the flowers, the Crown Prince suddenly called to me.
“My lady.”
“Yes?”
“You appear to have grown taller.”
“Really?”
Startled, I followed his gaze and spotted the marks we had made beside the plum tree.
11th month, 11th day, Year 13 of Seo-gwang
Cheon Gyeol-u ￣ Se-ru-hwa ＿
The young Crown Prince’s neat handwriting, carved as precisely as if written with a brush by a sword’s edge.
I held the crimson plum blossom branch I’d been carrying up to the line marking my height and stood beside it.
“…!”
The branch wasn’t above my head—it was about a finger’s width below, positioned beside my head! My eyes widened in astonishment.
‘He really has grown tall.’
My body—Sang Ra-hee-yo’s body—hadn’t grown even a single inch over more than 100 years, let alone 200.
Day after day, time passed, yet I remained unchanged. Yesterday became today, today became tomorrow, and nothing ever shifted—the same pain, as though the future of becoming an adult would never arrive, as though I could never grow at all.
‘My height… it’s increased.’
Intellectually, I had always known it. Se-ru-hwa was different from Sang Ra-hee-yo—growth was natural for her. She could grow.
From today to tomorrow, from tomorrow to the day after, as time flowed, I grew bit by bit, my body capable of becoming an adult. Unlike the immortals who lived for millennia, I was human—difficult to live even a hundred years—and thus I grew far more rapidly.
But knowing it abstractly in my mind and actually feeling my height increase were entirely different things.
‘I’ve grown, I really have grown!’
I truly had. After 200 years, my height had increased. Instead of the same unchanging today, a transforming tomorrow had arrived.
My heart raced, and warmth flooded my eyes. An indescribable joy spread through my entire being.
‘If I keep growing like this… could I truly become an adult?’
I was over 200 years old yet had never grown, always a child, and I had always longed to become an adult.
‘If I can grow, it doesn’t matter if I don’t live long.’
If I remained in the Heavenly Realm at Sang Ra Palace, lying in bed, I might live longer. But even if my life became far shorter, I wanted to live healthily, to grow, to become an adult.
So my choice to become Se-ru-hwa was right.
Mother’s words were right too.
“Ten years as a human will feel far longer than a hundred years as an immortal.”
“Live ten years like a hundred. Do everything you wish, gather many experiences… and be happy.”
My height had grown by merely the width of a finger, yet it brought such happiness—that my presence changed those around me brought happiness, that I received rewards for my efforts brought happiness, that the humans I helped were doing well brought happiness, that the shadowed child now smiled beautifully brought happiness.
‘Already this happy, I look forward to the days ahead.’
Here, I anticipate tomorrow’s arrival.
I felt tears that had gathered at my eyes begin to fall.
“My Lady, why are you suddenly crying?”
The Crown Prince rushed toward me in alarm. I answered cheerfully.
“Because I’m happy!”
“Pardon?”
“My height has grown!”
“…Is that truly something to cry about, my Lady?”
“Of course it is!”
I nodded and, still clutching the crimson plum blossom branch, rushed to the Crown Prince and embraced him tightly. At this moment, I wanted to embrace anyone!
“M-my Lady?”
The Crown Prince’s expression was bewildered, yet he still held me in return.
Warm and thrilling.
I laughed brightly in the boy’s embrace.
“I’m so glad I came here. I love it so much, Your Highness!”
“…!”
For some reason, the Crown Prince’s face flushed as crimson as the plum blossoms, but that mattered little to me now. I released him and bounded toward the wall.
“Your Highness, please mark my height here again, won’t you?”
My heart raced with anticipation, yet the boy simply stood there dazed, his hand oddly covering his mouth.
“Hurry, please hurry.”
I approached and tugged at the Crown Prince’s sleeve, urging him forward. He finally moved, and where I had stood beside him, he left a mark.
Se-ru-hwa ￣＿
A new line had been drawn. Evidence of growth. I gazed at that mark for quite some time.
* * *
Princess Onseol arrived at the East Palace alone, without attendants or guards. The Crown Prince and I received her in the pavilion of the garden, where refreshments awaited.
She appeared somewhat different from a typical monk of the Yeonhwa Order. Draped in a crimson kasaya over a white monastic robe, with a white hood upon her head, her attire seemed at first glance identical to the vestments of the monks, but upon closer inspection, subtle differences became apparent.
The most striking difference was her long hair. Princess Onseol had not shaved her head; instead, she wore her hair in long braids that cascaded down behind her hood. Pheasant feathers, like those worn by shamans, were affixed to the hood, and alongside the kasaya, she wore a tricolored sash of yellow, blue, and black. Upon her chest hung paper flowers of the kind adorned on funeral biers, rather than prayer beads.
‘It’s as though she’s combined the garments of a monk with those of a shaman.’
Before Princess Onseol’s arrival, I had studied Hoguk Temple where she resided. Hoguk Temple was ostensibly a temple of the Yeonhwa Order, yet in reality, it was scarcely different from a shaman’s house. They claimed to send women there to avoid becoming shamans, yet upon entering Hoguk Temple, one did not become a monk—one received divine descent and became a shaman.
‘So the monks of Hoguk Temple are actually shamans in truth, merely called monks in appearance.’
I wondered if the Yeonhwa Order would take offense at this, yet Hoguk Temple enshrined the Buddha alongside other deities, performed regular Buddhist services and various Yeonhwa Order ceremonies without fail, so they were treated as something of a half-fledged monk order.
‘Is the perception of shamans so poor that they must pretend to be anything but shamans to this extent? Moreover, when they are functionally shamans in all but name, does it matter only that their official status is not called shaman?’
Yet it did not seem shamans were persecuted or forced to live in hiding. Recalling how the Left Prime Minister’s faction had spoken of shamans during the Yongryong Ceremony when they plotted the divine descent conspiracy—they had discussed shamans much as they would any other supernatural entity. There was no sense of contempt or degradation in their words.
‘They avoid becoming shamans so much that they must pretend to be monks, yet the treatment of shamans themselves is not poor? What on earth is this?’
I had pondered this before, but it was truly a custom difficult to comprehend.
Just then, Princess Onseol set down her teacup and spoke.
“Divine illness, in fact, comes in two varieties.”

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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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