I’m in Trouble Because The Emperor Thinks My Time is Limited - Chapter 78

Behind my mother, who was holding me as a newborn and crying, stood my father.

“…Cordelia.”

Tears streaming down his wrinkled cheeks to the floor seemed even more pitiful than the sight of my mother.

Every time the scene changed, my father was with me. However, he remained unaware of my presence, thanks to the power of the magic tool. His regret-filled face betrayed his sorrow as he looked upon his younger self.

“Don’t do it! Please, don’t do it…”

Unlike the younger version who had walked away from me after I had fallen, the older father now knelt on both knees beside the young me.

“I’m sorry, my child. I’m so sorry.”

In a voice I had never heard before, he kept apologizing to me over and over again. Stroking the intangible vision of me that he could not touch, he cried endlessly.

I remained a step away, watching all these moments from afar.

“Gah!”

“This is the end.”

I murmured coldly as I looked down at Muros, who was crawling on the ground.

“So this is your true form.”

Unlike before, when she had abandoned her body and fled during a disadvantageous situation, Muros remained in front of me. It could have been an act, but it didn’t seem like it. Judging by her trembling limbs and constant attempts to escape, this must have been her true appearance.

“A mere half-blood dares—!”

Poisonous mist began to emanate from Muros’s fingertips. However, it could not pierce through my aura. I watched dispassionately as the mist dissipated futilely and noticed Muros’s fingertips turning black from the poison’s effect.

“It seems you’ve reached your limit.”

Although I had destroyed the magic tool, my father and I were still trapped in this unknown space. A black sphere seemed to enclose us entirely. To escape this place, it was clear that I had to deal with the sorceress in front of me. I did not hesitate. I gripped my sword tightly, summoning all my strength for one final blow.

“Ahin! Help me! Save me now, Ahin!”

At that moment, Muros screamed, looking up at the ceiling. Her terrified face called out desperately to someone.

I braced myself, expecting someone to appear, but there was no response.

Realizing something was amiss, Muros’s face twisted in fury as she screamed again.

“When Mikel finds out I was abandoned like this, he won’t let it slide! I’m Muros! Muros Sissi! Without me, you’ll never get what you want!”

I began to piece the situation together. Muros had not come here alone. It seemed she had companions, but judging by her reaction, she had been left behind.

“I can’t die like this! I won’t end this way!”

Her frenzied eyes darted around before locking onto something behind me. Instinctively, I realized what she was looking at.

“Die!”

Muros reached out her hand toward my father.

But.

“Ah, ahhh…!”

Her hand never reached him. I turned coldly, watching her collapse to the floor, and then turned my back on her.

Sympathy for the wicked is a luxury.

“Father.”

I approached my father, who was leaning against the wall. Having been unconscious for three days because of Muros, he looked more exhausted than ever.

“Are you all right?”

“…Is this a dream?”

His red-rimmed eyes were still filled with sorrow. From his perspective, encountering such strange phenomena must have felt like a dream. As I pondered how to explain the current situation, my father’s hand touched my cheek.

“My child.”

“……”

Hearing such a gentle voice for the first time, my own eyes grew moist.

Hadn’t he hated me? Wasn’t that why he had kept me at such a distance?

If he was going to cry for me this sorrowfully, why had he never called my name?

“Are you calling me so tenderly because you think this is a dream?”

“You resemble Cordelia.”

My father’s gaze lingered on my face as though seeing my mother within me. His expression was a mixture of joy and sorrow, his eyes filled with bittersweet emotion.

I had always seen only my father’s back. Never had I experienced such a long moment of eye contact with him. My chest tightened.

I had thought I was fine, but apparently, I still wanted to be loved.

“The older you get, the more you resemble her.”

“…Father.”

A single tear slid down my father’s cheek.

“For you to call me your father… this must indeed be a dream.”

Feeling tears threaten to spill, I bit my lip.

His trembling hand reached out to me, gently caressing my cheek as he spoke.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t even fulfill my role as your father.”

“Did you know, Father? That Mother was innocent?”

“I realized it far too late. Only after I lost her did I know that she had been telling the truth.”

Closing his eyes in pain, more tears fell from his lashes. Years of regret poured out along with them.

“Someone knew that Cordelia was a dragon. Rodin, that bastard, should never have been told.”

What my father told me next was shocking.

He had confided in a man named Rodin, a former friend, about my mother’s identity as a dragon. He had trusted him.

But Rodin was a greedy man. Knowing that a dragon’s heart was worth a fortune, he had set his sights on my mother’s heart.

Isabelle, the former Countess, had died in an accident, yet Rodin had falsely accused my mother of murder. Alone and vulnerable, my mother had been targeted by mercenaries hired by him.

However, they had underestimated the power of a dragon. Thinking they could defeat her with a mere band of mercenaries was sheer folly.

But that fight had ultimately become her undoing.

“People learned of the dragon’s appearance from that incident. Everyone became desperate to hunt it down. But Cordelia was worried about you.”

An unauthorized half-blood was considered a crime.

A half-blood between a dragon and a human, born outside the royal lineage, was seen as a crime simply for existing. My mother had to make a choice to protect me.

She chose to erase my mana.

In her most foolish decision, she made me live as an ordinary human.

“Cordelia’s body was weak. After giving birth, her health only deteriorated further due to the ongoing events. In such a state, she used so much of her strength to erase your mana, and then the humans attacked her when she was exhausted.”

“……”

“By the time I learned the truth, it was already too late. When I arrived, everyone was dead except for you, who was crying.”

My father’s voice trembled as he spoke, his hand shaking as he brushed his face in regret.

“You didn’t bury Mother in a grave to protect her body, did you?”

A pitiful sob escaped through the hands covering his face.

Humans are cruel.

My father had likely made that choice as a precaution, leaving behind an empty grave instead. Whenever he had time, he would always head to a particular bridge.

Overlooking the river flowing around the territory, he would gaze into the distance.

That must have been where he said his final farewell to my mother.

“I wanted to grant her freedom at the end. To let her return to the nature she loved.”

Only now did I understand the loneliness in my father’s back.

“Then why did you treat me that way? Why did you always push me away?”

“…I had to protect you.”

“Protect me?”

“People knew Cordelia was a dragon. If they learned that you were her daughter, they’d find out you were a half-blood. That’s why I had to raise you as a child born from a one-night mistake, not as Cordelia’s daughter.”

My father’s arms wrapped around me. For the first time, I felt his embrace—and it was surprisingly warm.

“I shouldn’t have done that. At the very least, I should have told you how much I loved you.”

I had always believed my father hated me. He had never said a kind word, never given me a warm hug.

“How much it must have hurt you. How scared you must have been, all alone.”

His gaze shook as he looked at me. I understood what he meant.

“When you didn’t come to find me after becoming like that, I realized how wrong I had been.”

“……”

“When I heard about you, I wanted to run to you immediately and beg for forgiveness. But I’d committed too many sins. I had no right to ask for your forgiveness.”

What I had long believed to be a misunderstanding might not have been one after all.

In a trembling voice, I asked, “On the day I went to the temple of Lute, you were there, weren’t you?”

The day my heart stopped for the first time.

On my way back to the palace, I thought I caught a glimpse of my father. He disappeared so quickly that I dismissed it as a mistake. But he had truly been there.

“I’m sorry, Lindel. I’m so sorry.”

My father, who must have waited anxiously at that place for news of his dying daughter.

I cried alongside him.

‘You didn’t hate me after all.’

I had found another reason to live.

Too much time had been lost, too much left undone; I couldn’t leave things like this.

I would survive.

“Father—huh?”

-Srrk.

As I called out to him, his body slumped to the side. I instinctively caught him, preventing him from falling, but I was shocked.

The father who had been holding me and crying had suddenly lost consciousness. Upon closer inspection, I realized he was merely asleep.

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice spoke above me.

“Wow—so that’s what happened?”

The innocent-sounding voice was that of a child.

I quickly looked up to see a platinum-haired boy smiling down at me. His vivid golden eyes, like molten gold, were fixed squarely on me.

“So Lindel didn’t know she was a half-blood?”

“…Who are you?”

The boy lightly descended from midair, landing nearby. His bright, cheerful smile made him look like any ordinary child, but I knew he couldn’t possibly be ‘normal.’

“I knew from the first time I saw you!”

I asked, directing my words toward his giggling face, “Are you Ahin?”

“Huh?”

The boy could very well be the Ahin Muros had screamed for in her final moments.

“Are you one of Muros’s allies?”

“Wow—”

Despite my wary tone, the boy’s reaction was strange.

“How did you figure that out?! Incredible! You’re amazing!”

He stomped his feet in excitement and pressed his hands to his face, grinning widely. The way his golden eyes sparkled as he looked at me was unsettling.

“You guessed my name just by looking at me. You’re incredible, Lindel!”

“……”

Realizing yet another odd character had appeared, I let out a sigh.