I’m in Trouble Because The Emperor Thinks My Time is Limited - Chapter 66

I had lost consciousness in Alita’s arms, and apparently, my heart had stopped.

When Alita picked me up to take me to Hasina and Melaine, Tumel and Laroche appeared. According to what I later heard, they had already been watching over me.

Unable to just stand by and watch my heart stop, the two dragons fed me a red powder—Estelle—to save me.

However, they didn’t explain anything to Alita, who was there with me.

As a result, Alita, faced with suspicious beings who suddenly appeared, tried to feed me something and take me away, fiercely resisted them. That was where the trouble began.

“Get away from Lindel!”

And in the chaos, Melaine got involved, which led to the situation right after I opened my eyes.

Piecing together both sides of the story, the first thing I felt was disbelief.

“Melaine might have had a reason, but why do you two hate dragons so much?”

The reason why Tumel and Laroche, who had intended to leave after subduing Alita, started acting out was Melaine.

The existence of a dragon in the imperial palace. They said they couldn’t just overlook it.

“When I saw your condition after a long time, it was worse, and there was a dragon beside you. It’s only natural to be suspicious.”

“Why does it matter if it was a dragon?”

“Dragons are evil beings. It’s obvious they would deceive and use you.”

“I didn’t do anything like that! Rather, it’s more likely you two were planning something!”

Melaine shouted angrily at Laroche’s words, and another fight nearly broke out.

I quickly ended the situation by giving both of them a light knock on the head.

I couldn’t allow the imperial palace to be further destroyed. Maintaining it was a matter of tax money, after all.

My blood pressure rose rapidly, making my neck stiff. Apparently, dragons had no sense of camaraderie whatsoever.

“How long have you been watching over Lindel?”

At that moment, Sionel, who was standing next to me protectively, spoke up. His cold blue eyes were intimidating even without him doing anything.

“Laroche arrived here today. I was planning to meet that child today regardless.”

“Then does that mean you were already near Lindel before then?”

“I first saw her when she left the imperial palace. Laroche had asked me, so I’ve been secretly following her since then.”

I was shocked. If he had seen me outside the imperial palace, that meant he had been hovering around me for the past few days.

“In that case, I would have noticed.”

Melaine’s face also hardened.

“Kid, deceiving someone like you, who just barely became a fledgling, is easy for me.”

“You bastard…!”

As Melaine grew agitated, Sionel asked again, restraining him.

“Why were you hovering around Lindel?”

His deeply sunken gaze landed on Laroche, who was standing quietly with her head bowed.

“And you, you seem to know Lindel already.”

At his words, I flinched visibly. Sionel must have figured it out by listening to my conversation with Laroche.

Without giving me a single glance, Sionel glared at the two dragons before him.

“Sionel, Laroche and I—”

“I’m not asking you, Lindel.”

“Sionel.”

“Answer me. Why did you approach Lindel?”

At Sionel’s insistence, Laroche finally opened her mouth, which had been tightly closed.

“I have no reason to explain to you.”

“Do you have a death wish?”

“The only person I need to apologize to and seek forgiveness from is Lindel. Not you.”

“Laroche.”

I felt confused by Laroche’s words.

The face of Laroche, who had always seemed immature, was now more mature than ever. But it wasn’t in a good way. Her face was filled with a desolate sadness—guilt, compassion, and self-loathing.

“Ah.”

Suddenly, I felt something hot rise up in my throat.

“Urgh—!”

“Lindel!”

Sionel quickly wrapped one arm around me as I bent over and vomited blood, calling my name urgently.

The metallic stench of blood stung my nose.

“Fetch the black priest! Now!”

I felt Sionel lift my body as he shouted towards the door.

I couldn’t exert any strength through my fingertips. I hadn’t used aura, nor had I felt any heat in my heart.

In fact, my heart was quieter now than it had ever been. So why was I suddenly like this?

It didn’t seem like the reason Alita had been able to detect my presence and why I had fainted with a nosebleed was simply that I hadn’t trained for a long time.

Even though my mind was clear, there was nothing I could do.

“B-but we gave her Estelle. Why, why isn’t it working?!”

I heard Laroche muttering then. Her voice, trembling in shock, was filled with fear.

Estelle.

Could it be a side effect?

Since I, a human, had consumed the dragon’s elixir, it could be that the side effects Laroche had warned about were now manifesting.

Laroche, despite knowing the side effects of Estel, seemed shocked by my current condition.

Was this more than she had expected?

“There’s no time to wait. I’ll teleport us straight to the priest. Hold onto Lindel tightly.”

With Melaine’s words, my body began to rise.

“Lindel!”

A desperate voice called my name until the very end.

“Imprison those two in the dungeon. I will interrogate them myself, so do not touch them until then.”

“As you command.”

A dark shadow fell from the ceiling to the floor. The emperor’s shadow bowed his head in response.

And with that, I was transported in front of Hasina.

***

“W-what do we do, Tumel?”

“…Calm down, Laroche.”

“L-Lindel, why… why didn’t the Estelle work?! Why!”

“Laroche.”

Watching Laroche cry out, her forehead pressed against the floor, Tumel’s face darkened deeply.

Tumel recalled her pale face, looking around in distress. She had been more worried about Laroche, who was crying, than she was about her own condition.

‘How cruel.’

Tumel swallowed those words, unsure of whom they were directed towards.

Soon after, he casually broke the magic tool that had been restraining his hands. He had never been someone who could be subdued by a human-made tool.

“W-what?!”

The emperor’s shadows seemed visibly flustered, but Tumel didn’t spare them a glance.

Holding Laroche, who was sobbing uncontrollably, Tumel muttered sadly, “I have no intention of running away, so don’t worry.”

Carrying his precious person in his arms, Tumel’s steps toward the prison felt heavy.

***

“What on earth happened here?”

Hasina, who had been diligently writing at her desk, dropped her pen in surprise when we suddenly appeared in her room.

The crumpled paper in her other hand was filled with unfamiliar numbers.

“Lady Lindel?”

Her voice trembled slightly as she noticed me in Sionel’s arms, covered in blood.

“Lindel—”

“Over here, now.”

Before Sionel could give an order, Hasina seemed to understand the situation and gestured towards her bed.

Rolling up her sleeves, Hasina approached me, her face now displaying the resolute expression characteristic of a cleric.

“H-Hasina.”

“Don’t speak.”

Her hands were skilled as she rolled my eyes back to check my pulse. Despite her tendency to act like a swindler, Hasina was indeed a priest.

Beyond her shoulders, I could see Sionel and Melaine still watching me.

Their stiff expressions and tightly closed lips were unchanged from earlier, but Sionel’s hands were trembling.

Perhaps it was because of the blood-stained clothes. I remembered the scene from my dream.

The dying me. Sionel stained with my blood. Though it wasn’t the same as the messy weeping in the dream, this moment felt eerily similar.

“There’s an unusual energy inside your body. Did something happen?”

“Estelle. She took the dragon’s elixir.”

“The dragon’s elixir? How did she even get that—”

Hasina’s gaze shifted towards Melaine. Not yet aware that his identity had been exposed, Melaine visibly flinched.

“It wasn’t him.”

However, Sionel refuted Hasina’s suspicion lightly.

“There were others. Her heart stopped for about half an hour, so they said they made her take Estelle because of that.”

“What exactly is the effect of Estelle?”

“It heals a dragon’s injuries. It works on any wound or poison. That’s why it’s called an elixir. After taking it, her heart started beating again, but she suddenly vomited blood and collapsed earlier.”

I found Sionel’s words strange. How did he know about Estelle?

Earlier, Tumel hadn’t explained Estelle in detail. He had only said that he fed it to me because my heart had stopped.

It was natural for Melaine to know about a dragon’s elixir, but Sionel’s knowledge of Estelle was odd.

Melaine seemed to feel the same, staring at Sionel with an incredulous expression.

“It’s unlikely that the elixir would fully affect Lindel.”

“…That makes sense. I’ll do what I can for now.”

With those final words, brilliant light poured from Hasina’s fingertips.

Healing power. A powerful force befitting her role as the saintess flowed from her hands into my body.

Immediately, breathing became much easier. Although I hadn’t felt any particular pain, the constant blood was troubling enough that Hasina’s healing was a huge relief. Even the numbness in my fingertips gradually subsided.

“The elixir is more impressive than I thought.”

Hasina muttered with a frown, “I can feel that the curse eating away at Lady Lindel’s body has stabilized considerably.”

At the sudden mention of a curse, I grimaced.

I glared at Hasina, silently demanding that she not joke about such things, but she shook her head.

“However, it’s actually poisonous to a human body. The excessive power touched parts of her unprotected by immunity, which seems to have caused internal chaos.”

“I knew it.”

Sionel clenched his fists and bowed his head. His trembling fists looked like he was barely holding back his anger.

‘What on earth does this mean?’

A curse, human domain—I couldn’t understand.

Especially the phrase “human domain” felt strange.

“What does that mean?”

Melaine seemed to share my confusion.

“What do you mean, human domain?”

“Melaine Crostan, that discussion can wait.”

“What do you mean by that?!”

Shaking off Sionel’s grip on his shoulder, Melaine grabbed his collar.

“Lindel seems to know nothing, but what exactly do you know?”

I tried to get up to intervene, but Hasina gently pushed me down. Her expression, usually playful, was unusually serious.

“Was the strangely weak dragon scent and the inability to use mana all because of this?”

Melaine’s trembling voice carried a hint of sobbing. His face, torn between confusion and sorrow, showed his emotions as anger.

“Is it because Lindel is a half-dragon?”