I’m in Trouble Because The Emperor Thinks My Time is Limited - Chapter 13

As late spring came to an end, the palace grew busier with everyone caught up in their work. This was always a busy season, but with the changes caused by my situation, it felt like everyone was running around even more than usual.

For instance, the Imperial Guard, where I was once stationed, was swamped. The deputy captain’s position had been left vacant, and key members, including the Captain, were occupied with external matters because of me. Sionel had also become visibly busier as he dealt with work that had been delayed because of me.

In the midst of all this chaos, I was the only one sitting idly, feeling somewhat guilty. But on the bright side, it gave me the chance to meet Laroche.

However, something about Laroche seemed off when I saw her after so long. She wasn’t her usual self. Gone was the carefree expression she normally wore, and instead, she stood with her lips tightly pressed together, her face rigid.

As she handed me the contract she had brought from the palace, I looked at her curiously.

“Is something wrong?”

“Lindel.”

Her voice was low as she called my name.

“I’ll have to leave for a while.”

“What? Where are you going?”

“An urgent matter has come up. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

I was taken aback by her sudden notice.

“With your current condition, how can you go anywhere alone?”

I immediately regretted my words, knowing they had come out without thinking. Sure enough, Laroche bit her lip.

“Even though I look like this right now, I’m still a dragon. I’ll be fine.”

Her voice had a sharp edge to it.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry.”

“I know. No need to apologize. If anything, I’m the one who should apologize. I’m sorry for bringing this up when there’s so little time left.”

Laroche bowed her head as she spoke. She wasn’t going to change her mind, and yet her apology seemed sincere as she avoided my gaze.

There was a heaviness in the air around her. I stared back at Laroche with a hardened expression, not sure what to say.

“……”

At this moment, Laroche was in her ideational form—a body made purely from mana that housed her consciousness. Our contract was to find Laroche’s true body and break the seal that bound her. The contract was set for one year, and we had already spent nearly half a year searching the empire without success. That left us with very little time.

This was why I had resigned as a knight in the first place. Unable to find her body in the empire, we had planned to search beyond its borders.

But now I was stuck here, and Laroche was suddenly talking about leaving.

Logically, I knew I should stop her.

“If we don’t fulfill the contract, both you and I will die, remember?”

If the contract wasn’t completed, I would die as a result, consumed by the power engraved on my body at the time of the contract’s signing.

Laroche, on the other hand, wouldn’t die because of the contract itself. Her danger came from the prolonged use of her ideational form. Without a physical body, Laroche would eventually fade away, leading to her eternal death.

“…Even so, I still have to go.”

“……”

Laroche kept repeating the same thing.

Despite the stakes, I made a different decision.

“Alright. Be safe.”

She was surprised by my response, clearly not expecting me to agree so easily.

“You’re not going to tell me not to go?”

She asked playfully, but I could tell her bravado was just a front.

“As long as you’re not going off to die, I won’t stop you.”

The playful smile on her face froze at my words. I looked at her quietly before speaking again.

“Wherever you’re going, take care of yourself. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Laroche stared at me in silence for a while.

“What if I’m late? What if I don’t come back at all?”

“Then you better be prepared to walk the afterlife with me.”

I swept my hair back, feeling a bit frustrated. Laroche just watched me silently.

“But you will come back, won’t you?”

“…Do you trust me?”

“Who else would I trust?”

Normally, I would’ve answered with a teasing remark, but this wasn’t the time for that.

I locked eyes with Laroche as I continued, “I trust you. So don’t get hurt and come back.”

Laroche’s face softened. Though her expression was hard to read, it stirred a faint sense of protectiveness in me.

She looked almost sad.

“To repay your trust, I’ll have to come back.”

This side of Laroche was unfamiliar to me, and I found myself gazing at her quietly. She bowed her head, whispering softly, though it sounded more like she was talking to herself than to me.

“I’ll be back soon. I just need to confirm one thing. Thank you for understanding.”

She murmured those words in a low voice.

I didn’t know what it was she needed to confirm, but I nodded. It seemed like the right thing to do.

“I’ll give you something in the meantime.”

Laroche pulled a small vial from her pocket and handed it to me. Inside the clear glass was a reddish powder.

“What’s this?”

“Estelle. It’s a rare medicine that only dragons can make. Take it if something goes wrong while I’m away.”

“What do you mean ‘if something goes wrong’?”

“Just in case. It’s unlikely, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”

I eyed the ominous red powder with suspicion before asking, “When exactly should I take this?”

“Well, when you feel like you’re going to die, maybe?”

“……”

I glared at her, and Laroche burst out laughing. “I’m joking. If the contract starts causing strange changes in your body, like when you coughed up blood last time, take it. Estelle helps restore balance to your body. It should help in some way.”

“Then why didn’t you give it to me when I was coughing up blood?”

“I didn’t have any at the time. Because of the seal, I couldn’t make it on my own, so I got some help from a friend to make it.”

I inspected the supposedly valuable medicine with newfound curiosity. It didn’t look particularly impressive, but that was probably because I was human.

“If it’s so precious, should I just take it now?”

“You’d better not.”

“Didn’t you just tell me to take it?”

“It’s still a dragon’s medicine. It might have side effects on the human body.”

“…And you’re telling me to take something that might have side effects?”

I glared at her again, but Laroche just grinned. “That’s why I didn’t give it to you before. I was with you anyway, so there was no need. But now I’m leaving, and I don’t know when I’ll be back. If something happens while I’m gone, you’ll have to rely on this. Only use it in emergencies.”

“So whether I take it or not, I’m doomed either way.”

“That’s why you should hope you won’t need it.”

Seeing the look on my face, Laroche seemed even more pleased.

I regretted worrying about her a few moments ago.

Taking a step back, Laroche made a light movement, leaping into the sky. It seemed she was already on her way back.

I watched her leave when, suddenly, she turned to look at me again.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

I tilted my head in confusion, and her pink eyes crinkled into a half-moon shape as she smiled.

“It’s okay if the contract gets delayed a little.”

I stared at her, dumbfounded.

I had been ready to let her go quietly, but she just had to say something so outrageous.

Before I could even reach out, her form was already disappearing.

“What?! You told me I couldn’t let it be delayed!”

I shouted at Laroche’s vanishing figure.

“Hey! Stop! You told me it couldn’t be delayed!”

Was that a lie too?

If it was, what was the point of all the stress I had been under? She had been the one pushing me to meet the deadline!

Seeing how frustrated I was, Laroche burst into laughter, her carefree expression returning.

“I just didn’t want you to drag your feet!”

As I raged at her, Laroche grinned playfully, as carefree as ever.

“Hey!”

“Take care! Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone!”

“Laroche!”

Even the last strand of her black hair had vanished.

I was left standing there with the vial of red powder in my hand, yelling at the empty sky.

“You trickster!”

I could almost hear Laroche’s laughter echoing in my ears.

***

“Once this busy season passes, it will soon be time for the Founding Festival.”

“That’s right.”

“Everyone is more excited this year because the sky has been unusually clear. They say the stars will be especially visible on Ursilla Night.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Um, Miss Lindel.”

“Hm?”

“Are you alright?”

Hearing my name suddenly called, I finally came back to my senses.

I realized that I had been zoning out again. I raised my head, only to see Luna looking at me with concern.

It seemed I had been lost in thought once more.

“Sorry. I didn’t catch that. What did you say?”

“It was nothing important. But, really, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

The truth was, I couldn’t stop worrying about Laroche, which made it difficult to focus on anything else. Especially the fact that she hadn’t answered me when I told her not to get hurt—that made me feel uneasy.

What was a dragon, who couldn’t even use her full power due to the seal, planning to do? I had no clue. I had been mulling it over for a while, but there was no way I could tell Luna about any of this.

‘No, wait. Why am I worrying about her? That trickster!’

Suddenly, the memory of how Laroche had tricked me surfaced, and the worry gave way to anger. The thought of all the stress I had been under, thinking about the tight deadline, made my blood boil.

My expression must have changed dramatically because Luna’s face grew even more worried.

“If you’re not feeling well, I’ll call the priest right away.”

“No!”

At the mention of the priest, I practically jumped out of my seat, stopping her immediately.

“There’s no need to call the priest. I’m not sick. I’m just a little tired, that’s all.”

If the priest came, he would inevitably diagnose me with some new ailment that didn’t exist. Just hearing his name made me shudder, so my reaction was completely natural.

However, Luna seemed to interpret my response differently, as her eyes began to water.

“You’ve been doing nothing, and yet you’re still so tired…!”

The words “Don’t worry” slipped right back down my throat. It was true that I hadn’t done much lately, but hearing it said like that stung, just a little.

As I stared at her, caught off guard, Luna continued, seemingly oblivious to my feelings.

“That’s why you need to have the priest examine you.”

“No, I really don’t.”

“From how you keep refusing, I can see it clearly now.”

“See what?”

My voice naturally became trembling.

“You’re saying this because you don’t want to burden the priest, who’s been working tirelessly day and night recently. But you mustn’t hide it if you’re in pain!”

My face scrunched up in frustration.

The priest had indeed been busy, trying to ease my so-called suffering, but from my perspective, it was completely unnecessary and rather troublesome.

Despite my reluctance, Luna held my hands tightly, tears brimming in her eyes.

“I didn’t have such thoughts, and I’m not sick—”

“I’ll go fetch the priest right away!”

Luna suddenly bolted out of the room.

I raised my hand to my forehead in exasperation. “I was about to say I’m fine, but now she won’t even listen…”

It was clear that when the priest arrived, things would get loud and chaotic again.

“I shouldn’t be worrying about Laroche right now.”

My voice echoed quietly in the now-empty room.

Before long, loud noises came from outside, and the door burst open with a bang. Just as I had predicted.

“Miss Lindel! Are you alright?!”

At the forefront of the group was the priest, gasping for breath as he shouted. Still holding my head in frustration, I looked up at him.

His booming voice was so loud it hurt my ears.

“Oh, you’re here—”

“Is it your head?!”

My previously fine head started to throb in response to his words.

It wasn’t that at all, so I wished he would calm down.

However, the priest was clearly in a state of excitement, and it didn’t seem like anything would calm him down.

Not to mention, there was no one here to stop him. Feeling increasingly depressed, I let out a sigh, which only seemed to make him panic more.

“Miss Lindel! It’s alright! Don’t worry! I, Luke, will devote myself entirely to helping you, no matter what it takes!”

By tonight, I planned to ask Sionel to replace my attending priest. I couldn’t handle another day of this.