Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 130

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

“Well, we can discuss that slowly another time. Let’s set it aside for now.”
“If it’s an adoption marriage, there’s nothing more to say. I refuse.”
“I didn’t spend ten years in prison without thinking. I came out having made peace with reality and compromise.”
“When someone speaks, I expect to be heard!”
Why am I surrounded by people who only push their own agendas? When someone speaks, listen! Communication requires a back-and-forth exchange of words! Simply calling me Mother, Your Majesty the Serpent King’s consort, or dear daughter doesn’t settle anything!
“Your Majesty Sera. There are only a few things I want. Remove the ban on my books, grant all imperial citizens equal rights to education. And I would be satisfied with just one position—Minister of Education.”
Looking at this person, it seemed short-term activism wouldn’t work on them. They’d come with a thirty-year plan, indoctrinating children from a young age to reshape society.
“I won’t just take without giving. I’ll provide Count Letem with the secret magical cultivation techniques passed down through our house for generations. Brandenburg seeks military forces to hold back the Dragon King of the North, yes? I could even supply half of the 72 Mages.”
The nobles seemed quite interested, and Zibenstein sat quietly at the conference table, listening intently. Then Sera Crowell, who had been silent until now, slammed her fist on the table with a bang.
“I! Said! I wouldn’t fight with Sister Cecilia!”
The round table shattered like the camouflage pattern of a Sunbird.
“You there. Bring a new table.”
When the Common Professor gestured with his chin, the attendants hurried over with a sturdy wooden table. It was a mysterious sight to behold. Why were the servants obeying the Professor’s commands?
“Now, now, please sit down, Lady Sera. I’m not doing this to curry favor with her. When you think about it, it’s all for the Imperial Court, you see?”
What a con artist’s line. Coming from someone wearing a monocle, the deceptiveness seemed to upgrade significantly. I didn’t know I was such a monocle discriminationist until today.
“…For the Imperial Court?”
And it actually worked on Sera.
Having swallowed the bait about serving the Imperial Court, Sera sat down quietly at the negotiation table where Count Letem and Brandenburg were seated, ready to listen.
She looked like an elderly grandmother and grandfather listening intently at a medicine vendor’s sales event.
“Think about it carefully. Traditionally, the Founding Ceremony should be conducted by the heir to the throne or His Majesty himself. But who entrusted Lady Sera with this event?”
“His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Exactly. His Majesty is asking for Her Highness Sera’s help.”
Bruno Siebenstein smiled harmlessly. He really did seem like a con artist.
“There has never been an heir to the throne with such significant power as Her Highness Cecilia. That’s why His Majesty finds himself in a difficult position.”
“Difficult?”
“The Crown Princess’s support base is solid. People are demanding he hand over the throne immediately—it’s quite the commotion.”
“But His Majesty is still in good health.”
“Exactly. It makes no sense.”
Bruno Siebenstein pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed his eyes, making sniffling sounds. He really was like a con artist.
“That’s why he’s asked for our help. To please stop Her Highness Cecilia’s rampage.”
“…Our help?”
“How do you think I escaped from prison? It required His Majesty’s permission.”
That made sense. If a political prisoner with radical ideology had escaped, there would have been chaos. But with the Emperor’s approval, Bruno could have reached this place.
But could this situation be interpreted as a request for help from the Emperor? Unless it was the Emperor’s scheme?
“Father is… asking for help…?”
“His Majesty simply doesn’t express it before his beloved daughter, but he must suffer greatly every day. To put it bluntly, if Her Highness Cecilia were to quietly eliminate His Majesty, the Crown Princess would easily become Empress.”
“How disrespectful!”
When Sera protested that Cecilia was a bastard but not entirely unreasonable, Duke Zibenstein bowed deeply and rubbed his palms together. He looked like a con artist.
“Of course, Your Highness the Crown Princess wouldn’t go to such extremes either. But there are always ‘what-ifs,’ and when one contemplates such possibilities, anxiety becomes inevitable.”
When anxiety takes hold, sleep eludes you at night, and without sleep comes suffering. Prolonged suffering breeds depression, and His Majesty the Emperor endures hellish days without end—or so the con artist would have you believe.
“However, His Majesty shows no sign of such distress.”
“Who would wish to appear weak before their beloved daughter!”
“Mm.”
Ah, this is a dangerous pattern. He berates and pressures, then makes me question myself—did I do wrong? It’s a common manipulation tactic designed to induce guilt and cloud judgment. Reina Letem pretends ignorance, Eugene wavers on the edge, so I have no choice but to intervene.
“If we unite our strength to oppose the Crown Princess’s faction, His Majesty will find some measure of relief. People need peaceful sleep, after all.”
“But—”
“This is all for the stability of the Imperial Court. If you, Sera, demonstrate your presence before His Majesty, the Crown Princess will exercise restraint and wait quietly until the time comes.”
He’s not asking me to fight outright—merely to issue a warning that recklessness could lead to conflict. After all, who desires Imperial peace more than Sera herself? As Bruno Siebenstein coaxed her with such reasoning, she found herself nodding in agreement.
Is that man truly a Duke, or just a con artist?
“To warn Cecilia away from the wrong path—that too is something I can do for the Imperial Court.”
“Precisely. We’re not actually fighting for the throne. Even the appearance of conflict yields considerable advantage. His Majesty gains peace of mind, and the Crown Princess gains the wisdom of her haste. A beautiful resolution, wouldn’t you say?”
“You make a fair point.”
At Sera’s agreement, Bruno grinned widely and asked the Common Professor to bring documents. He really was a con artist—he had everything prepared in advance.
“Then rather than sitting idle, shouldn’t we issue an official statement affirming today’s events? Once it’s known that you and I have joined hands, the Crown Princess will surely take fright.”
True enough—the events in the Plaza today would be photographed and published in the newspapers anyway. Would it be better to make an official statement clarifying our cooperative relationship? If left to gossip, the media would distort the facts beyond recognition.
“Just for a brief time—we’re only pretending to fight. Just a short while.”
“If it’s only temporary…”
Tempted by Bruno’s persuasive words, Sera picked up her fountain pen. I scanned the documents for irregularities when the door suddenly burst open, and Sunbird appeared, festooned with IV lines.
“Your Highness! Put that down! Don’t listen to him!”
Sunbird, who had collapsed backward the moment Sera thanked him in the Plaza, now stumbled in coughing violently. In the interim, something terrible had occurred—his skin was pallid and half his face was bruised. His stomach appeared catastrophically damaged; blood seeped through the handkerchief pressed against his coughing mouth.
“First, clarify exactly how long this ‘brief time’ entails!”
Damn it! Even knowing full well he was a con artist, I nearly fell for it!
At Sunbird’s impactful entrance—coughing blood from his stomach—Duke Zibenstein pressed his lips into a thin line and quietly withdrew the documents he’d offered. So it really was a fraudulent contract.
“Count Letem’s daughter, Reina Letem. Prince Eugene Brandenburg.”
As Sunbird called out each name, both of them flinched visibly.
Observing their expressions, the negotiating table presided over by Bruno Siebenstein, and the suspicious contracts, Sunbird swiftly deduced the entire situation and issued a low-voiced warning to them both.
“Duke Zibenstein’s proposal was surely enticing. But that’s precisely when you should have been cautious.”
Wow, how does he deduce everything so perfectly as if he’d been present the whole time? Genius truly earns its reputation, I thought admiringly—until Sunbird turned his attention to me.
“You as well, Evan. If you noticed something amiss, you should have spoken up.”
“My apologies. I was on the verge of succumbing to sophistry myself.”
Upon my honest admission, the man’s eyes narrowed to slits as he glared at Duke Zibenstein. Sunbird is terrifying when angry.
“Leave. Regardless of what people believe, we will declare that we do not align with Zibenstein.”
“My dear Sunbird, about that…”
After considerable deliberation, Sera spoke with grave solemnity. And Duke Zibenstein began to smile widely.
Sunbird’s arrival came too late. The con artist’s poisonous eloquence had already taken root in Sera’s mind.
“Perhaps standing in opposition to Cecilia serves not only Father but the Imperial Court itself.”
Bruno Siebenstein had orchestrated his strategy brilliantly. Disguising it as a succession dispute, his pretext of suppressing Cecilia’s faction and bringing peace of mind to the Emperor had struck Sera directly and taken hold.
“Cecilia has become far too presumptuous of late.”
The businesslike Empress, who appears at official functions merely to fill the void left by the Former Empress who burned to death, can scarcely draw a proper breath within the Imperial Palace under Cecilia’s pressure. Several concubines fled long ago under the pretense of illness, and not long before, even the Eldest Daughter of Neftis was led to the guillotine.
Both Sera and I know full well that the Eldest Daughter of Neftis remains alive and well, yet the fact that she pronounced a death sentence upon the heir of House Neftis itself was evidence that her arrogance pierces the heavens.
Now that it has been proven she can manipulate even a Duke’s heir as she wishes, all that remains is for her to bend the Imperial Court to her whims.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————