Limited Extra Time

The next morning, Carina missed her first family meal.

Since she thought she only had one year left, the things she didn’t want to do came to mind. She didn’t like the uncomfortable breakfast that she had to venture through anyway.

‘But no one is coming.’

No one came to visit until noon, and the door was still tightly closed.

She felt sad again. She hadn’t meant to say she was sick. All she meant was that she felt bloated and didn’t want to eat today. She didn’t expect it to be this quiet. Things that she’d been ignoring so far were now flooding in one by one.

Skipping breakfast, Carina sat at her desk with an apple in her mouth that she had asked her maid for.

Once she made up her mind to leave, a plan was drawn up. She had never prepared for a trip, but she had an airy thought that she would be able to go anywhere with an adequate amount of money. The most important thing was to prepare without being noticed and to go on the journey secretly. Carina set her preparation period for no more than a week.

In the meantime, she was thinking of finding out the necessary supplies, preparation, and carriage for the trip. Carina grabbed a pen and wrote down on the paper.

‘Let’s exchange the gold coins for change…’

Simple change of clothes, meat and water, and…

“Oh! I need to get the divorce papers.”

She expected that the man wouldn’t reject the annulment papers she offered.

[Documents of broken marriage]

She looked down at the words written on the paper.

Since childhood engagement or marriage was a decision of the family and parents, it can’t be helped. However, now that they were adults, they had the right to make decisions about marriage and breakup.

[Medicine.]

“I’ll have to visit the physician again.” She murmured in a small voice.

The most urgent thing for her was a medicine to use throughout her long journey.

Carina slowly wrote down what she needed in her notebook. After writing down ten things, she couldn’t think of anything more. Putting down the pen, she stopped writing for a long time. After blowing softly to dry the paper, she ripped the paper from the notebook and put it in her sleeves.

‘Because there is only one week to prepare, the medicine should be prepared in advance.’

Having decided where to go first, she got up from her seat. With a brightly colored, bear-faced purse full of pocket money given to her, she changed into an outside dress. She wondered for a while whether to call the maid, but in the end she didn’t. It may be because she had more work to do alone, but she was a little uncomfortable with the maid now.

She stood in front of the mirror for a moment and hummed at her form.

Her pale skin looked lifeless, and her lips were dry without a hint of color. No matter how many times she brushed her hair, it always looked hectic, perhaps because of the common dark brown hair that made an ugly impression.

Only her blue eyes proved she had the right to connect herself to Leopold’s bloodline. She thought her eyes were the prettiest part of herself. It was the only pretty thing in her body, but compared to other families, it was not enough to make her a striking beauty.

Beautiful parents. Older Brother Infrick, who had received numerous letters of confession since childhood. Even Abelia, who drove people around. Despite being sickly, she was active in the social world with lots of friends shared with her younger brother, Ferdon. They had always been at the center of everything.

In contrast, Carina was less talkative about her inconspicuous appearance. She was in a mere mundane eternity. In fact, if she was born in a regular house, she would have lived a decent life, made friends and been happy.

But the people around Carina had such a bright halo. Her presence became dimmer as people who knew how to shine on their own surrounded her.

Carina quietly walked out of the room. Her room, which existed at the back of the second floor, was a quiet place for maids to visit.

As soon as she stood in front of the central staircase, she saw a man coming up to the second floor. It was Nocturne, a green-haired man in a white gown. She didn’t go down the stairs and was waiting from above, so he raised his head as if he felt her gaze.

“You are Lady Carina.”

“It is you, Lady Carina.” can be possible too. ~matindi

“Yes. It’s been a while, Nocturne. Are you here for a job?”

“Oh, Lia’s no…”

He glanced at Carina and touched his lips. When Carina didn’t respond, Nocturne opened his mouth again.

“It’s because it’s the day I check-up on Lady Abelia’s health.”

His eyes, which were bent, were sad. He was a man with good personality and good speech skills. He was friendly and knew how to return the favor onto others.

She nodded her head, trying to shake off the feeling of losing her back.

“Yes, go in.”

She didn’t want to talk to him for long.

Funnily enough, he was the one Carina had in her heart when she let herself have a very, very brief sweet dream. Knowing that his gaze was always directed to Abelia, she criticized herself for the budding feelings in her heart. She heard that he had a younger sister who died early as a child. He was very sympathetic to Abelia, as if his sister and Abelia had quite a resemblance.

After a short thought, Carina brushed past him and tried to go down the stairs.

“You don’t look well. Are you okay?”

Carina nodded as she faced his dark green eyes.

‘Since when has he been interested?’

“It’s because I didn’t get any sleep.”

“You can take a check-up with Lady Abelia.”

“It’s all right.”

Since Carina was Abelia’s older sister, Nocturne would often show a decent favor to her, but that was all. It was only a thin favor that ended on his recommendation and her refusal.

“You seem to be going out.”

“I have something to do for a while. Noct…” “Oh! Sister!”

Suddenly she came out, briskly running and hanging onto Carina who was dangerously at the end of the stairs with her head hanging over. Carina hurriedly grabbed the railing to steady herself, while Nocturne quickly grabbed her waist. Carina’s eyes opened wide as Nocturne’s arm wrapped around her waist. Nocturne quickly released his hand as she looked at him with a confused expression.

“It’s dangerous to hang onto her like that.”

“Sorry, Nocturne. It’s nice to see you.”

Abelia, smiling playfully at Nocturne’s anxious voice, nodded.

“Sister, why didn’t you come this morning?”

Abelia laughed and asked Carina.

Carina looked down at Abelia, who buried her face into her neck, struggling not to smile at her stiff face.

Then, as usual, Carina affectionately stroked her sister’s back.

Abelia was obviously adorable. But funnily enough, she hated her at the same time. And the thing she was angry at and hated the most was Carina, herself, who thought that way.

“Sister, where are you going?”

“Yes, I have a place to go for a moment. By the way, Abelia, you have to be careful on the stairs.”

“Hehe, I was counting on you to catch me.”

Although she didn’t mean to put that responsibility on Carina, there would have been dire consequences if something had happened. Still, even Abelia, who grew up a lot now and wore plenty of clothes, did not want to be scolded.

Even so, it was only ever Carina who made the mistakes and suffered the damages. Sometimes she remembered that time, so Carina had to straighten her face by touching it several times.

“…I don’t believe that.”

Karina muttered in a low voice.

“Huh?”

Her body trembled at that moment.

As she looked up in a hurry, she saw Abelia, who was still smiling with an angelic face, and Nocturne, who had a strange expression behind her wondering if he had heard properly.

“No, I heard that Doctor Nocturne came for your health check-up. You need to go. That way you’ll get better soon.”

“Nocturne is a nag. And I feel much better! So I want to go play with my sister.”

The rippling blondes of Abelia fluttered at her fingertips. Carina did not inherit the beautifully wavy hair and lovely personality.

“No. Nocturne has not come here futility.”

“Don’t do it…”

‘You can live.’ Carina turned her head, suppressing the words she wanted to say.