Since I’m a Time-Limited Princess Who Has No Tomorrow - Chapter 69

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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 69
I retrieved the plush slippers waiting near the bed and slipped them on. As I rose from the mattress, dizziness swept over me, and I remained standing motionless for a moment.
Once the vertigo subsided somewhat, I took a few steps toward the door, but my entire body suddenly went numb. I grasped a nearby table midway and rested.
‘The painkillers… their effect has worn off.’
Without them, even walking a few steps becomes agonizing with this fragile body, so medicinal broth should always be kept nearby.
Leaning against the table, I surveyed the room and spotted a covered bowl of medicinal broth on the side table next to the bed.
‘Ugh, I have to make it all the way over there.’
It’s only about six steps with my short stride, yet it feels impossibly distant.
‘Should I call a celestial maiden to help… No, it’s the middle of the night. Everyone must be asleep.’
I took a deep breath and barely managed to shuffle back to the side table. Drenched in cold sweat, I drank the medicinal broth in one gulp. I popped a candy from beside it into my mouth and sucked on it for a moment before the medicine gradually took effect.
‘Now I feel somewhat alive again.’
My body still lacks strength, but at least the pain is gone—that’s something.
After living in that weightless human body, returning to my original form where everything aches and exhausts me is startling. How on earth did I survive in this body before?
I let out a hollow laugh and left the room. This time, I didn’t need to rest midway.
‘My chest feels tight. I need some fresh air.’
Beyond my chamber lies a long corridor, and beyond that stretches the Garden. As I opened the door, I saw the corridor drenched in moonlight. The Garden was painted in a bluish silver, creating an entirely different atmosphere from daylight.
And beside the railing that separated the corridor from the Garden, a large, dark figure sat hunched like a brooding bear on a long bench.
‘…It’s Father.’
Why is he sitting there in such a pitiful manner in the middle of the night?
‘We had a fight.’
I dragged my slippers and approached Father from behind. He should have sensed my presence, yet he remained completely still.
Too lazy to walk around to the Garden entrance, I placed my foot on the railing. I intended to climb over, but this weakened body lacked the capability for such demanding movements. The moment I stood on one leg, my body tilted precariously.
‘When I was human, I could vault over a railing like this so easily!’
Even if I was clumsy, that body was certainly sturdy and healthy. I reached for the railing to steady myself as I fell, but my hand didn’t reach it. As I flailed and cut through the air, a large hand suddenly grasped mine and steadied me.
“You should be more careful.”
Father muttered in a heavily strained voice, then simply lifted me up, carried me over the railing, and set me down in the Garden. Then he slumped back onto the long bench like a dejected bear. I approached and sat beside him.
We sat side by side for a while, watching the moon traverse the night sky. Then I spoke first.
“Father.”
“…”
“Have you ever felt exhausted and worn down?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever wanted to give up on everything and just stop? Wanted to abandon it all?”
“Everything?”
“Anything.”
“Me?”
“…Yes. Myself.”
Father turned to look at me. The moonlight cast shadows that made his expression difficult to read.
I swung my legs dangling beneath the bench and spoke almost to myself.
“Honestly, there were times when I wanted to do that. Times when I wanted to give up on everything, and—ow.”
…I shouldn’t even be doing something as simple as sitting on a chair and swinging my legs in this body. I’ve forgotten everything after living in a healthy one.
As I clutched my throbbing ankle and whimpered, Father startled awake and knelt before me in alarm.
“Let me see. Take your hand away and show Father.”
“Ugh…”
With tears glistening in my eyes, I removed my hand. Just a slight movement, and my ankle throbbed with a dull ache.
Father carefully grasped my ankle, examining it from every angle. In his large palm, my ankle appeared as delicate and fragile as a reed stem.
“You’ve twisted it.”
“…But I only moved it a little. It’s sprained?”
“At least the bone isn’t fractured. That’s fortunate.”
Father withdrew a handkerchief and wrapped it around my ankle, then summoned divine power into his palm. With his cooled hand, he gently enveloped my ankle, applying a cold compress.
Holding my ankle thus, Father spoke softly.
“Sang Ra-hee-yo.”
“Yes.”
“There have been times when even Father wanted to give up.”
“…”
“Not on you, but on other things.”
“…?”
“The position of Yama King, the Underworld Officials I must govern, the principles of the Celestial Deities, the laws themselves.”
Father lifted his head and looked at me. I was small and he was large, yet even though I sat in a chair and he knelt on the floor, our eyes were nearly level.
“…There were times I wanted to abandon it all and simply be Sang Ra-hee-yo’s father.”
“…!”
“But if I did, I couldn’t save you. So I endured.”
His large hand drew near. Barely touching my cheek, he whispered softly.
“How could you ask if I ever wanted to give up on you? To me, you are not something to be weighed and measured. You are my one and only child, and I am your father.”
Tears pooled in Father’s eyes like a well. With trembling hands, he cradled my cheeks.
“But still, even so, my one and only daughter, if you find living too difficult, if you wish to stop hurting, if you wish for it all to end…then.”
Father’s lips twisted into a smile.
“No matter what Mother says, Father will…help you.”
I stared at him speechlessly. Father continued with agonizing tenderness.
“Our desire for you to live is our own selfishness. If you’re enduring for our sake, if you truly wish to rest, I will help you.”
“…Father.”
“Father is a god of the Underworld, so I can help you without pain.”
“Father.”
“Don’t think of us, yes? If you’re truly struggling, come to Father anytime…”
“Father!”
I couldn’t listen anymore. I threw my arms around his neck.
“Stop. Please stop.”
Tears burst forth like heavy snow, streaming down in torrents. I sobbed against the nape of his neck.
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“Sang Ra-hee-yo.”
“I didn’t mean it when I said it would be a relief. I’m sorry. I just spoke in anger. So…”
“Sang Ra-hee-yo, your father…”
Father embraced me in his broad arms.
“Whatever choice you make, I hope it’s not one where you’re enduring or bearing something. You’re already struggling enough… why would you burden this small body with anything more?”
His voice, thick with emotion, trembled against my ear. Father continued speaking, his hand stroking the back of my head endlessly.
“Do what you wish. Choose what you truly desire. Whatever it is, we will support you. Your mother and I are fine, understand?”
“…I’m sorry, Father. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t cry. When you cry, your father cries too. If I show up at the Yama Kingdom tomorrow with puffy eyes, all the Underworld Officials might faint.”
Father spoke in a deliberately playful tone. I gripped his clothes so tightly they wrinkled, and sobbed quietly.
“I won’t cry tomorrow. Only until today… only now. Right now… I want to cry.”
“…Yes, then let’s cry our fill today. Until we feel better.”
In Father’s embrace, as he held me close, we shed tears, melting away the sorrow that had accumulated within us.
* * *
“The Human King said I seemed like a twenty-nine-year-old adult rather than nine years old. Impressive, isn’t it?”
“Impressive indeed. Our Sang Ra-hee-yo is clever too.”
“Oh, and I can tie my own robes now. My manual dexterity is terrible, but the knots turned out beautifully. I’ll show you later!”
“Do show me. But wait—our daughter has poor manual dexterity? Who dares say such a thing?”
“I did… I tried embroidery, and even I could see it was beyond redemption. I even pricked my fingers on the needle…”
“You pricked your finger? Where? Where! How dare that needle wound our precious princess!”
“Father, there’s no point looking for needle marks here. It was on my human body in the Mortal Realm.”
“Ah…”
“Oh, and there was a Human Child I made medicine for, and after two months, the illness completely disappeared. And after that, they started studying…”
* * *
More than ten days had passed since I returned to my body in the Heavenly Realm. It was time to descend to the Mortal Realm. Everyone must be terribly worried.
I carefully rewound the scroll of the “Straw God” and placed it on the table.
“I won’t decide now.”
My parents, sitting across from me, looked at me. I smiled brightly.
“I’ll use the precious time you gave me wisely, think it through carefully, and then come back at the end to make my choice.”
“Yes, do that.”
“In ten years, I won’t die immediately anyway, right?”
“That’s right.”
Mother nodded and added.
“Think it through carefully until the very end. It’s such an important matter.”
“Yes, I will think about it.”
The crossroads of choice that awaited me in ten years. Whether to continue this present life, uncertain of when death might come. Or to be sealed away with the Straw God, sleeping a long sleep while dreaming of the future.
‘I can’t choose now.’
I don’t want to waste the time my parents earned for me.
‘They gave me ten whole years of stable lifespan—it would be such a waste to be sealed away immediately.’
I decided to live a little longer, enjoy a healthier life more, experience more things, think about it thoroughly until I was tired of deliberating, and then decide what to do with my future.
I took hold of the lifeline of “Se-ru-hwa” that Father had been holding. Grasping that thread, I turned to my parents and bid them farewell.
“Then I’ll be going!”
This greeting, too, is no lie.

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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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