Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 167

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Ugh.”
Cecilia was enjoying the spectacle, but I couldn’t keep serving as her entertainment. Using my strengthened body, I hurled the Bachelor lightly to the ground. The man lay there, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared up at me—unable to accept that he’d lost in raw strength.
“You’ve lost.”
“No, please, just one more chance—!”
“Silence.”
Cecilia demanded quiet, and the Starving Child—pale as death and bearing an uncanny resemblance to young Seian—shuffled over with his message. Seeing him so drained of color made me want to torment him further. I wanted to give him something like cinnamon candy.
“Your… Your Majesty’s blade has gone missing from the bedchamber.”
An investigation by the Imperial Guard assigned to the Crown Princess Palace had confirmed it was a stolen item. This much fell within Cecilia’s expectations.
“Cecilia! Drop that! Cecilia! Where are you!”
But Sera finding her way here was unexpected.
Sera arrived at the Flower Garden dragging Imperial Guards who clung to me like ornaments, and she pointed an accusing finger at Cecilia.
“Did you kill His Majesty?”
At this blunt accusation delivered straight to the heart, Cecilia looked Sera up and down with interest. Then she made a statement that could only breed chaos.
“What if I did?”
“You cannot become Emperor! You must face judgment under the law!”
Cecilia’s face went cold—as if she’d expected Sera to threaten her death instead. Then she glanced at me and made a subtle gesture. That meant: dispose of this and come back. I’d grown so accustomed to her ways that I could read her signals perfectly now.
“Sera. If you wish to see Cecilia, you must submit a formal request for a visit.”
“Let go, Evan! I’m here as Cecilia’s family!”
“Hmm… perhaps that’s why Cecilia answered you at all?”
She must have favored Sera enough to engage in conversation; otherwise, the moment the commotion started, she would have ordered me to clean it up.
I hoisted Sera up and set out to carry her beyond the Crown Princess Palace. As I walked along the garden path leading outside the Palace, Sunbird waved from the gazebo ahead.
“You’ve gone to considerable trouble. Allow me to take her.”
“No. She’s still struggling, so I’ll hold her until she calms down.”
I walked alongside Sunbird with Sera slung over my shoulder, ranting about how she’d punch Cecilia in the face.
“Judging by how Sera is acting, it seems His Highness Cecilia didn’t deny it.”
“He said, ‘What if I did kill him? You scared?'”
Sunbird pressed his forehead as if troubled. From his demeanor, it was clear he didn’t believe Cecilia was the culprit.
“You don’t suspect Cecilia?”
“There would be no benefit to him in doing so.”
His thinking aligned with mine. Cecilia would seize the throne simply by waiting—there was no need to stir up trouble. If I had to assign a motive, the most credible would be curiosity about how Sera would react if the Emperor died.
But even that felt like an unnecessary complication. If Cecilia wanted to see Sera angry, it would be simpler to kill Sera’s mother—the woman who’s cultivated flower gardens in both her home and her head.
“If the physical evidence points to Cecilia as the culprit, then emotionally, we have no choice but to suspect Sera. Because in this situation, she stands to gain.”
“That’s precisely what troubles me.”
This incident had set the uncommitted factions in motion. With evidence of the Emperor’s death surfacing, the Emperor Faction backed Sera, insisting Cecilia was unacceptable even in death. Meanwhile, the Crown Princess Faction grew more unified, claiming Sera’s side had fabricated crude evidence to tarnish Cecilia.
The people who’d been arguing with words at the Main Palace would soon be grabbing each other by the hair.
“Cecilia suspects this was the work of someone from Sera’s faction.”
“Then she means me.”
“I didn’t say it that harshly. Still, Eugene doesn’t seem like the type to get his hands dirty like Reina or the scheming types, so by process of elimination, it has to be you or Zibenstein, right?”
“I’ll ask you directly then. Did you do it?”
“Evan! Even for you, I cannot tolerate such insulting remarks toward my Sunbird!”
Sera, who had been struggling, even bared her teeth. She was screaming so close to my ear that I thought my eardrums would burst.
“Well, then I’ll have no comment either.”
“Aten Polat!”
Sera finally shook me off and leaped to land beside Sunbird. She was poking him with vague complaints, but watching Sera gently tap him while Sunbird whined about the pain was so endearing that I couldn’t help but smile contentedly. The original work’s official couple really is the best. They’re a source of peace of mind. A healing spring at a save point.
“I’ll take my leave then.”
“Sure.”
Sunbird bowed his head in farewell, and I naturally returned the gesture with a slight bow.
I’m a mana master who underwent a complete transformation with half the Machine King’s power, so why am I bowing my head to Sunbird?

#Precautions when encountering回冰環. (^^) ←If you meet a character like this, don’t even look back—just run.

“Duke Neftis! Sir, please wake up at once!”
Bruno Siebenstein, who had been muttering “just five more minutes” like he was back in school, received a sharp smack on the rear from Grandfather Butler. Yesterday he’d whined about being exhausted from working so hard, but Grandfather Butler hadn’t even listened with half an ear.
“How much longer do you intend to keep the guest waiting! Did I teach you to be this way!”
Grandfather Butler only ever hates me. The middle-aged man pretended to cry while checking the clock. It was only 7 in the morning—who on earth was looking for him at this hour? Could it be that Evan had come to become his adopted daughter? That little brat definitely had the constitution of an elderly person with no morning sleepiness.
“Is it Evan? Did Evan come asking to be adopted?”
“It’s Aten Polat, sir.”
“Don’t know anyone like that.”
It was truly the first time he’d heard that name—who was that? From the fact that Grandfather Butler had come to wake him personally, it seemed like an important guest, but the name was completely unfamiliar to Bruno.
Grandfather Butler, who felt like ten thousand flames were about to burst from his chest at the sight of his young master’s vacant expression, instead struck the Duke’s head with his beloved stuffed animal and stated clearly:
“It’s Sera’s Sunbird, sir.”
“Oh, him! Sunbird! I know Sunbird!”
Watching the Duke send out hearts left and right, saying he should have just said so from the start, Grandfather Butler sighed. The young master had been perfectly fine before the war, which made it all the more tragic. War PTSD was truly terrifying. The young master from back then—composed, dependable, and fundamentally sound as a human being—would never be seen again. Thinking of this, Grandfather Butler felt tears welling up and wanted to beat the current Duke senseless. So he did.
“Why are you hitting me again!”
“I thought maybe something stuck inside would come out.”
“What are you taaaalking about~.”
Watching Bruno drag out his words in an irritating manner, Grandfather Butler bit his lower lip hard, then snatched away the blanket and shook it out. When he barked at Bruno to leave since he had cleaning to do, Bruno reluctantly carried his stuffed animal downstairs. Yawning widely as he entered the guest reception room, he found a pristine young man, immaculate from head to toe without a speck of dust, sitting with perfect posture and sipping tea.
“How irritating.”
“Have I done something deserving of insult?”
“Hmm, no. It’s not that.”
“But you have done something deserving of insult.”
Sunbird, striving to restrain his emotions, recalled the reason he had rushed to the Capital in such haste. Last night had been difficult, stopping Sera from recklessly going to find Cecilia in her anger. The man who had investigated the incident all night, confirmed that Sera had finally fallen asleep, and slipped away secretly had made considerable effort not to actually lose his temper.
But the moment he saw the very person who had caused him all this trouble approaching in a teddy bear onesie, clutching a patched-up dragon plushie in one hand and dragging bear-head slippers, his anger flared up.
“What on earth is that appearance!”
Since there’s nowhere else to elaborate, let me keep it brief: that patched-up dragon doll was something Common Professor had sewn together by hand. Bruno and I had shared bread for ten years.
“Hmph! Jealous because it’s cuter than me!”
“I’ve never been jealous!”
“Oh yes you have! You hear Princess Sera call you cute every single day, so you think you’re the cutest thing in the world! That’s why you’re sabotaging my sleep—to make me, who’s cuter than you, seem less cute!”
“I assumed you wouldn’t need morning sleep given your age, sir.”
“…I’m not even fifty yet?”
“Oh. My apologies.”
This bastard apologizes on purpose while subtly needling me. Bruno suppressed his laughter at the deft underwater footwork and handed his precious cherished doll to a servant. Staying in the same place as this sinister creature might get soot smudged all over the doll.
“Are you in the mood to talk now?”
“My mood’s completely ruined. Just state your business.”
“Why did you kill him?”
The blunt thrust of those words made Bruno freeze for a moment. And in that frozen instant, he cursed himself inwardly. At his age, bested in rhetoric by a green young thing. The skill with which he’d struck at his weakness was nearly an art form—it was enough to inspire admiration.
“Uuuuh♡ Bruno doesn’t really understand such scary things, you know♡”
“Please. I simply wish for Sera and myself to live safely and peacefully together.”
“You’ve got big dreams, kid.”
Setting aside the audacity of pinning the Emperor’s death on him, Sunbird’s dream of living peacefully while courting a leading imperial successor candidate was ambitious to a fault.
Even if Sera didn’t confront Cecilia, she was destined to be eliminated by Cecilia’s hand once she ascended the throne. The dead Emperor had done the same. The fact that the Emperor’s relatives barely numbered a dozen even when traced to the twelfth degree was because the dead Emperor had eradicated every rival and the seeds of every rival.
“Your dreams are equally grand, are they not?”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“Do you truly believe that killing the Emperor will bring about the world you envision?”
“Ha!”
What was this kid even saying? Bruno burst into laughter, yet he found some reassurance in the fact that his opponent was still, after all, just a child.

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