Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 176

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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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I settled White One onto my lap and stroked his back as I spoke. My efforts, my ambitions to develop Ilam, my steps toward attracting the Train Station—it would have taken seven days and seven nights to explain all those glorious moments.
After sending a gift to the exhausted author, I returned home from the Imperial Palace with my count’s title held high and proud. Count Letem had opposed my promotion to marquis so fiercely that for now I was granted the count’s rank, but the day I would rise above Letem was surely not far off.
I! Had! Grasped! Cecilia’s! String! So! Well!
“Evan!”
Now that I thought about it, today was the day my friend Eugene was visiting my home. I straightened my shoulders, lifted my chin proudly, and called out my friend’s name with noble grace. You’ve worked hard getting this far, soldier who knows nothing but fighting. As I welcomed Eugene with smug satisfaction, Margrave Brandenburg Eugene, who had brought a housewarming gift, contorted his face strangely.
“Evan… you seem kind of different?”
“What? You mean I’ve become more beautiful?”
“No, it’s just the atmosphere…”
If it was the atmosphere, it must be the refinement and elegance that came with my elevated status. I kept my chin held high toward the sky as I spoke. Eugene, looking bewildered, suddenly slapped me across the face.
“Aaaagh!”
It hurt far more than the force of the blow should have! Why is your hand so sharp! This hurts more than Sera’s slap, and she has superhuman strength! What is this?!
I felt my senses snap back into focus as I collapsed to the floor like a tragic heroine. Once the indignation of being suddenly struck faded, I realized something was wrong with my beautiful mansion.
“Huff! Why was I so happy about becoming a count and grasping Cecilia’s string?!”
“Evan, you really do get influenced by others easily…”
Perhaps it was because my heart was as pure as a blank slate, and my nature was one that bent but never broke. Like a tree with deep roots that doesn’t sway in the wind, even if I were snapped by a typhoon, I was confident I could survive by bending my body in whatever direction the wind blew.
“What was that slap just now? If there’s no reason, I’m going to be angry.”
“No, it’s just that many people panic during wartime. I kept slapping people to snap them out of it, and at some point I developed a skill for it.”
That’s quite effective. It really clears the mind. As I praised the efficacy of the slap, Eugene made an awkward face and looked at me with pity.
“Actually, you usually have to hit someone dozens of times before they listen, but I didn’t expect you to get it in one shot.”
You really do get influenced easily. Come to think of it, when Duke Zibenstein was trying to deceive you, you were subtly listening in. Eugene continued his worries while dredging up my embarrassing history.
“Don’t you think it’s better to come up with countermeasures now? Evan, you fall for psychological attacks and con artists’ smooth talk way too easily.”
“Ugh…”
Even if I came up with countermeasures, was there actually a way to defend against psychological attacks? When I asked this, Eugene also looked troubled. He’d brought it up, but he had no solution either.
“If my mental defense broke, does that mean I suffered something from Cecilia?”
“Cecilia’s retainers have excessive loyalty. Sera suspects it’s because of a skill.”
“So she sent you?”
Eugene nodded. Now that I thought about it, Sera had hugged me tightly at the Serpent King’s Tower and promised to definitely save me. Sera had kept her promise.
“But I still have favorable feelings toward Cecilia. Is the skill effect still lingering?”
“That’s just you having genuine favorable feelings toward Crown Princess Cecilia.”
“That can’t be!”
But she looks like Seian, so I can’t help but have favorable feelings! No matter how much people say she has a bad personality, who could dislike such a beautiful face!
At my passionate argument, Eugene slapped me once more.
“Aaaagh!”
“Not much different?”
“Damn it!”
Eugene laughed and casually placed the housewarming gift object somewhere, then extended his hand to me. Since he was offering his hand, I suppose I should take it, but where is he trying to take me? Why insist on holding hands? If you go around casually holding hands with women outside your family, your chick-like fiancée will scold you.
“Let’s go to the Braden Safe House. They said mobs will occupy this mansion.”
“Huh?”
I’d only received the house from Cecilia a week ago. This sudden? What on earth is happening in places I don’t know about?
“If you go, Sunbird will bury his head and beg for forgiveness, so forgive him if you can.”
“Is that something you could forgive?”
“No.”
At Eugene’s serious expression, I had a premonition that I wouldn’t be able to forgive Sunbird either. For now, I should at least hear what happened.

The Braden Safe House contained the Butler I’d seen at the Townhouse and several key executives. And in the room with its Northern Grand Duke-style fireplace, Sunbird and Sera were on their knees with their heads bowed on the soft bear fur-covered floor.
“I sincerely apologize, Evan! I’ve destroyed your social standing without a single word of consultation!”
“It’s my fault for not stopping him! Honestly, among the plans Sunbird presented, this one caused the least loss of life! If you’re going to hit someone, hit me!”
The couple was doing this in tandem, which meant they’d done something serious. I called Eugene and asked him to bring the finest chair in the Safe House.
Sitting in an ornate gold-trimmed velvet chair that looked fit for a throne in the Imperial Palace, I arrogantly crossed my legs, tapped my toes, and gave Sunbird permission to speak. Sunbird took a deep breath as if steeling himself and bowed his head.
“We discovered evidence in the Ilam Old City Hall that Evan Laef had connections with the Serpent King’s Tower since his days as Village Chief. We’ve distributed recordings and testimony to three major newspapers claiming that Evan Laef is currently the de facto Serpent King’s Consort. We plan to borrow mages and personnel from Zibenstein to incite and pressure the Crown Princess for colluding with the Demon Race across the nation.”
While I was being foolish with Cecilia, they’d committed quite a lot. If things proceed this way, Evan Laef will certainly be socially dead. Once it’s confirmed that the Crown Princess’s close aide is a puppet of the Demon Race, even she must be immediately executed and the Emperor must declare himself uninvolved.
But even if I cut ties with her, this will deal a heavy blow to Cecilia. Perhaps she’ll never recover. Having the Demon Race—the Empire’s greatest enemy—as a close aide is a grave oversight that would cast doubt on the Emperor’s qualifications, whether done knowingly or unknowingly.
This was logical. If Sunbird handled everything smoothly, I would be the only victim, and Cecilia would distance herself from the throne. One could even accuse her of killing her father to seize the throne quickly, not knowing whether her aide was a Demon Race puppet or simply incompetent.
Sunbird has no choice. It’s a strategist’s job to present options. But choosing among them is Sera’s role. Sera and I differed in our views on the crucial point.
Since Sera had already said to hit her if anyone should be hit, I rose from my chair and kicked her.
“Evan! Your Highness Sera!”
“Evan! No matter how angry you are!”
“I understand now. You don’t count demi-humans as people, Sera.”
Certainly, among humans, no one but Evan Laef would be victimized. But what about the demi-humans Evan Laef led? Ilam had worked to become a demi-human-friendly city, and the demi-humans had come to live there with the belief that it was safe.
But if we brought down Cecilia by lumping all demi-humans together as dangerous Demon Race and eliminated Evan Laef, it was obvious what would happen to the demi-humans who’d lost their leader.
They’d lose faith in humans again, scatter, and be slaughtered. After this incident, demi-humans would never again consider joining hands with humans.
“I’m sorry about that point. But if Cecilia’s authority crumbles, you can return to being Mitchell Neftis!”
“The Emperor is dead, and Cecilia, who induced the death sentence for Mitchell Neftis, will lose power. Then Your Highness Sera can correct the imperial decree, declaring that the execution was unjust. You can simply rule Ilam again as Mitchell Neftis!”
“You mean Ilam with the brutal Demon Race label stuck to it, where all the demi-humans have been driven out.”
Sunbird fell silent, knowing my words weren’t wrong. When I told them both to leave so I could see how the situation developed and think things through, Sera bowed deeply and spoke with sincerity.
“I’m sorry, Evan. You don’t have to forgive us.”
I knew Sunbird only cared for Sera. But now that I was in the position of sacrificing for Sera, I couldn’t help my irritation. I watched Sunbird and Sera leave the Safe House, then irritably kicked the chair, smashing it to pieces. The chair flew from my kick and nearly punched through the wall.
“Evan…”
As time passed and Eugene waited for me to calm down, he approached me. I thought he might offer some comfort, but the man showed me a look of shock.
“Were you the Neftis heiress?”
Right, I hadn’t told Eugene about this.
Eugene, who had been left out throughout our conversation and silently absorbed the shock that I was a Neftis, suddenly raised his hand and slapped my cheek just as hard as he’d been hurt.
“You deceived me! You all knew but left me out!”
“That’s not it. Seian doesn’t know either.”
“So everyone except His Highness Seian knows!”
Eugene, sulking that even a gorilla knew this fact but he didn’t, threw the keys at me and said to use the Safe House however I wanted, then left.
Anyway, I have no one on my side in this world, damn it. I hugged White One and muttered complaints to myself.

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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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