Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 65

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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 65
‘I suppose I’ll have to abandon all martial arts. I wanted to try hand-to-hand combat and staff techniques too….’
Fortunately, unlike me, the Crown Prince was demonstrating such exceptional swordsmanship that Ki Ho-cheol couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
‘His posture was impressive when he shot arrows, and now he’s wielding the sword beautifully on his first lesson. Is it because his basic stance is naturally upright?’
I understood why Sa Young-jun was gazing at the Crown Prince with such admiration. When the gap is too wide, admiration replaces jealousy. Just as I felt nothing but admiration for the Crown Prince.
And so my first sword lesson became my last. Instead, we agreed to continue breathing exercises together for the sake of my health.
* * *
About a month passed after that. For the first time since arriving in the Mortal Realm, I fell into despair.
‘I really… don’t have any talents, do I?’
Remarkably, over the past month, I had shown not even a shred of talent in most of the fields I attempted. Horseback riding, polo, needlework, calligraphy, jumping on a seesaw, painting, pitch-pot, weaving, singing, dancing, and the guqin.
The only things I was decent at were Go and mathematics. I was skilled enough in those two that the scholars actually wanted to stay in the study and teach me more.
So what good is that?
‘Both are things you do sitting still without moving your body! I could have done those at Sang Ra Palace….’
I was truly hopeless with physical movement—if something required moving my body, I couldn’t do it. So horseback riding, dancing, seesaws—all of it was inevitably terrible.
‘I even fell off a horse. And it wasn’t even moving—it was just standing still.’
If An-si hadn’t caught me, I would have been seriously injured.
At that news, not only the Crown Prince but the King and Queen themselves were horrified and forbade me from horseback riding. The King even provided me with a full retinue of palanquin bearers and a luxurious palanquin, making it clear I was never to ride a horse again.
‘It’s unfair enough that I’m clumsy, but how can I have no manual dexterity either?’
With no manual dexterity, needlework, calligraphy, weaving, and painting were all disasters.
‘If I can’t even draw a straight line with a brush, there’s nothing more to say.’
Moreover, since my clumsiness seemed to stem from a lack of rhythm, I was also tone-deaf, making music-related pursuits like singing and the guqin completely hopeless.
‘At this point, wouldn’t it have been better when I hadn’t tried anything yet and could still dream?’
As I grew increasingly dispirited, the Crown Prince tried to comfort me however he could.
“The scholar who taught you mathematics has submitted a petition to the Crown Princess, saying she is a mathematical prodigy and begging to teach her more.”
The moment I arrived at the Training Ground for breathing exercises, he rushed over and suddenly said this.
‘I must look quite depressed.’
I swallowed a sigh that was trying to escape and replied weakly.
“Mathematics is fine.”
“Why? You’re so skilled at it.”
“It doesn’t seem like a particularly healthy specialty.”
“Pardon?”
The Crown Prince blinked in confusion.
Oh, I answered too honestly without thinking. How do I fix this?
“…Well, um, I thought sitting in front of a desk all the time might not be good for my health. So I wanted to learn other things besides mathematics.”
“Ah, I see…”
“It would be better to simply give up, if I may say so.”
Sa Young-jun, who had already arrived and was doing breathing exercises, interjected with his usual odd manner of speaking.
“From what I can see, the Crown Princess’s mind is far stronger than her body, if I may say. It would be better to leave physical exertion to others and exercise your mind at the desk, would it not?”
“But if I just sit around, my body will deteriorate!”
“Why are you so concerned about your body? The Crown Princess is merely clumsy, but your health is actually quite excellent, if I may say.”
“That’s….”
What? My body is already healthy, so there’s no need to strain myself to become even healthier.
As I trailed off, Sa Young-jun continued flatly.
“If you’re so concerned about your health, then eat well, sleep well, and take walks. There’s no need to become a warrior, after all.”
“…!”
“Stop being so gloomy. If you keep walking around with that sorrowful expression every day, even your good health will deteriorate.”
His words reminded me of my original purpose, which I had forgotten.
I had come to the Mortal Realm to rest, to spend my remaining time in a healthy body and at leisure.
But what good was it to spend these precious, limited moments in melancholy, trying to show Father and Mother that I could do something well, trying to leave them with such memories?
‘I had it backwards.’
My parents would treasure even the grotesque paintings I drew or my clumsy calligraphy, and they would find my awkward dancing and my fumbling guqin playing endearing.
Father and Mother didn’t love me because I excelled at something or became their pride. They had simply said that my happiness alone was enough.
‘…Yet here I am, letting these precious moments slip away while drowning in gloom.’
Whether I succeeded or failed, I should just do what I enjoyed and live joyfully. Lately, I’ve been wasting time….
‘No, it wasn’t a waste of time.’
Trying various things, failing, and seeing the messy results—what seemed absurd at the time now felt rather amusing and fun when I recalled it.
‘It’s better to have tried and failed than to merely dream without attempting. And since I’ve tried, I have no regrets, and it’s become a memory of sorts.’
When I return to Heaven and tell Mother, Father, and the celestial maidens about all the chaos of this past month, won’t they find it entertaining?
I felt a smile spreading across my lips. I looked at Sa Young-jun with grateful eyes.
“Thank you.”
“…Yes?”
“Thanks to you, I feel relieved. Really, why was I walking around looking so miserable?”
As I spoke with a bright smile, Sa Young-jun’s expression faltered. He stared at me with vacant eyes, then murmured in a dazed voice.
“…Wow, you’re so beautiful when you smile….”
Then the Crown Prince suddenly fixed his gaze on Sa Young-jun. Sa Young-jun flinched and took several hesitant steps backward.
Puzzled, I called out to the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness?”
“…I wanted to be the one to make you smile.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The Crown Prince mumbled so quietly and unclearly, unlike his usual manner, that I couldn’t hear him properly. When I asked again, he smiled as if drawing one on.
“It’s nothing.”
Hmm? That looks like a fake smile.
Since he began wielding darkness, the Crown Prince had taken to wearing a false smile as a means of controlling his emotions. Having long assisted him in this practice and knowing how radiant his genuine smile was, I could distinguish between the two at a glance.
“It’s hardly nothing, right now…”
Wait? Suddenly my throat constricted. Then something surged up from within.
“…!”
Something flowed from my mouth, so I covered it with my hand. The taste was familiar—the thick, metallic taste of blood that I had grown accustomed to from frequent vomiting in Heaven. I lowered my hand to look, and it was bright red.
‘…Why?’
“Princess!”
An-si screamed from a distance and rushed over. Sa Young-jun’s eyes widened in shock, his mouth falling open. The Crown Prince turned deathly pale and reached out toward me.
“Lady!”
Then my vision went black.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I was submerged in the River of Three Paths, dark as ink. The familiar landscape and familiar cold. This was the River of Three Paths.
‘…Have I died again?’
Unable to believe it, I remained suspended in the water. As I lay still, my body gradually sank deeper. The water’s surface, shimmering with light from the Afterlife’s crimson sky, slowly receded above me.
‘So suddenly? Why? What did I die for? Is this the end? Is it already over?’
Questions bubbled up like foam and scattered into the dark water.
It was happening far faster than I expected. Would I simply vanish like this?
“That child can be reborn, ascend to paradise, or become an immortal! But Your Majesty cannot!”
Just as An-si had said before…. Even gods have the Peach Blossom Land as their afterlife, but I lack the qualifications to enter that place.
‘I’m neither a proper god nor an immortal, nor a human bound to the cycle of reincarnation….’
Being nothing, when I die, I simply scatter and leave nothing behind.
The Samshin Grandmother had said something to me.
“Princess Cheonmyeong was born without a destiny. Foreseeing that she could not live even if born, you refused to receive a destiny of your own accord, so by rights you should have been stillborn….”
My Father and Mother risked their lives to save me from being stillborn.
Not receiving a destiny meant I was never meant to be born. It meant I had no innate fate. A child who should not have existed by divine providence. One with no predetermined future, no fixed tomorrow.
Yet I still… think I was right to be born. So much so that I regret it ending like this….
Gradually, my breath becomes suffocated. My exhaled breath rises as bubbles.
‘Wait, if I can still feel my breath being cut off… this is a state I’m familiar with!’
The boundary between life and death. The state where Father always comes to rescue me, where my lifeline still remains.
‘Now that I think about it, my lifeline is….’
I turned my head in the water and found the pale thread. The severed end of my lifeline fluttered like seaweed in the current. Flailing, I grasped it and examined the end, where I could see patches of mending made with black and jade-colored threads.
‘This… is Mother and Father’s hair….’
Every time Father tied my lifeline back together to save me, he used both of their hair.
Strangely, I felt like I might cry. As I gently touched those patched marks, there was a splash from above and bubbles scattered wildly.
Startled, I looked up to see Father, his face deathly pale, plunging into the River of Three Paths and reaching toward me. I could read the shape of his lips.
‘Sang Ra-hee-yo!’
‘Father.’
I reached my hand toward his. My weakly extended hand was caught by Father. I was pulled upward and cradled in his embrace. I felt his large, thick hand wrap around the back of my head.
‘Thank goodness. It’s not over yet, it seems.’
I felt reassured and closed my eyes again.

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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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