Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 184

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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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“Hmm, could this seed I need to harvest be related to immortality?”
“You certainly believe such absurd things easily.”
“It’s not absurd. As I said, I’ve been to the Underworld myself, and I can verify the truth by asking Gerth.”
“Gerth? You mean Gerth, the Serpent King?”
“That’s right.”
This old man must have lived quite a long time—he even knows the name of the Serpent King from before Hubert took over the position.
Apet nodded and closed her eyes slightly, muttering something about whether the young woman was connected to the Serpent King. Her expression suggested she’d grasped something.
“She probably won’t be too attached to that marriage alliance with the Crown Prince. That woman’s true purpose lies elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?”
“Contact with the King of the Demon Race.”
Now I understood why the old man brought up immortality first. Everything circles back to immortality in the end.
“Surely she’s not conspiring with the Demon King to assist in humanity’s destruction?”
“Try to understand—the child experienced war and developed a terrible fear of death.”
Isn’t it too extreme to immediately pivot toward immortality just because of a fear of dying? I wanted to ask if there weren’t deeper factors driving such a decision, but Bruno stood up, saying he’d go have a cigarette, and left.
When I asked why he looked so troubled, the old men all clicked their tongues and told me to leave him be.
“He was thrown into battle the moment he graduated from the Academy. He’s earned the right to be weary.”
“The Crowell Empire’s conquest wars ended largely due to Bruno’s achievements. They say he slaughtered a thousand soldiers defending a castle in a single night, all by himself.”
Down with the Crowell Empire! Huu! So that wasn’t an exaggeration after all. He really did kill a thousand and honestly wrote it into the ballad as killing a thousand.
The enemy nation, defending their castle while awaiting supplies, became terrified by what Bruno accomplished in one night and abandoned the war. The Empire had essentially already won, and the enemy was simply holding out stubbornly, but this incident prompted them to declare defeat.
Bruno had continuously urged surrender to minimize casualties, but the enemy refused to listen. Only after a thousand deaths did they finally raise the white flag. It seems he lost quite a lot in that moment, including his sanity. Until then he’d been a fairly sound young man, but his episodes of “aing-paing” convulsions began around that time.
“War is terrifying.”
“It’s a tragedy that should never occur.”
“The late Emperor started that war solely to strengthen imperial authority. He was truly despicable.”
Having thoroughly cursed the Emperor for dying at such a convenient time, Apet cleared her throat awkwardly when Bruno returned.
“Ahem, in any case, Sung King’s purpose is likely to identify who will become the King of the Demon Race.”
“If it’s Gerth, the Demon King, I can arrange a meeting for you.”
“No, no, that’s not it. He’s the King of Demi-humans, not the King of the Demon Race.”
Huh? The King of the Demon Race? So that’s not the Serpent King, Underworld King, Machine King, or Dragon King? When I asked that, Apet shook her head vigorously and said something I’d definitely heard before.
“The Myriad Demon King hasn’t been born yet—they’re still in the selection process. Once the selection is complete, they’ll appear.”
I’ve definitely heard that word “selection” before. The Department Head Professor and Gerth used to whisper about selection whenever they saw me. I had my suspicions, but I chose to ignore it. I had a strong premonition that if I faced it head-on, I’d get tangled up in something incredibly complicated.
“And the one closest to becoming that Myriad Demon King is none other than you!”
“What do you mean my daughter will become the Demon King! Is that a good thing! A blessing?!”
“Ah, I had a feeling it would come to this.”
Don’t accept this, you lunatics! I’m barely managing to survive as it is—how am I supposed to take responsibility for the Demon Race too! Have you all lost your minds!
I denied three times that I was material to become the Demon King, but Apet and Bruno refuted my denials.
“But my dear daughter, I heard something from a friend.”
“A friend? Did you even have friends?”
“Why would you say that! I have friends too. There’s Ilyong, you know—Ilyong.”
“Ah, you mean that dragon friend of yours.”
Apet nodded, relieved that even a non-human could have companions. She reached for a long-stemmed pipe and brought it to her lips, but when Bruno and my father ganged up on her—insisting she smoke outside since there was a child present—the old woman’s shoulders sagged in defeat. She stuffed the pipe into her inner pocket with a resigned sigh.
“Aw come on, I could fix her lungs before she even gets secondhand smoke damage.”
“I won’t have my beautiful daughter coughing from cigarette smoke.”
“Minors need protection. You beat people senseless and think fixing them afterward makes it all right?”
“You two are being overprotective.”
Apet, looking awkward, asked Bruno what Ilyong’s friend had said about me. Bruno recounted my entire history without a single embellishment, laying out the facts as they were.
“Well, you see, our adopted daughter here—”
“She is not your adopted daughter.”
“—defeated the Machine King in combat and seized half of his power.”
“Oh.”
“My beautiful daughter truly takes after her mother, growing stronger and stronger.”
“And I heard she fought the Serpent King to a draw and gained joint ownership of the Serpent King’s Tower.”
“Is that really true? Did a human actually accomplish such a thing?”
“Even your mother couldn’t do that. I’m so proud of you, daughter.”
I’d merely stated facts, yet hearing such open praise made me flush with embarrassment. As my father, Bruno, and Apet all lined up to shower me with compliments—how impressive, how commendable, how I’d become unmatched against humans—I felt a warm glow spread through me and couldn’t help but laugh.
That’s when a status window notification shattered the moment like a stone through glass.

The Twilight has been renewed. Failure to obtain the Dragon Hearts of the First Three Dragons (choose from Ilyong, Iyong, or Samryong) results in death. D-30.

“Bruno. I have a question.”
“Oh sweetie, my measurements are a secret, darling♡”
Heat surged through me in an instant. I threw a low kick at Bruno Siebenstein, and when the sharp edge of my shoe lodged into his ankle, he let out a yelp. Using the recoil, I twisted my body and drove my right elbow into his jaw. His upper and lower body twisted in opposite directions with a sickening crack, and when I drove my knee into his abdomen, he flew upward. As I brought my clasped hands down in a hammer strike across his back, he crashed into the floor.
Having landed a four-hit combo in mere seconds, I spoke again to Bruno, who was retching pathetically.
“Bruno Siebenstein. I have a question.”
“Please, let’s use our words. Didn’t your parents teach you not to hit people just because you’re upset with them?”
“My biological mother beat me constantly whenever she felt like it.”
“If you’re going to abuse a child, give her to me instead, you bastard!”
“I won’t. Besides, my daughter probably got over her anger the moment she saw her mother’s beautiful face.”
Half true, half false. Her beauty did cool my anger somewhat, but I was storing the rest away, planning my revenge for later. Honestly, if I weren’t so busy right now, I’d have hunted her down and beaten her myself. I’d probably be stronger anyway.
“What happens if a dragon loses their Dragon Heart?”
“They’d die, wouldn’t they?”
“Why?”
“Because the Demon Race are mana-based lifeforms. For magical beasts, the core of their power—the place where mana concentrates—becomes their vital point. For dragons, that’s the Dragon Heart.”
So a Dragon Heart is essentially a dragon’s inner core? Of course they’d die if it was separated from their body.
“Wait. The way you’re saying that… don’t tell me.”
“That’s right. I have a death deadline. One month to obtain it, or I die.”
When I stated this calmly, my father made a strangled sound and fell backward. Come to think of it, this was probably his first experience with my death deadlines. It must be shocking for him.
“No! Not Ilyong! Anyone but Ilyong, daughter! Without him, my life is only half-lived!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve grown fond of the Department Head Professor as well.”
“Sigh.”
Since I was told to choose one of the first three dragons, the remaining candidates were Samryong and Iyong. In other words, this amounted to slaying a single dragon-king-class dragon.
If that’s the case, my choice was already decided.
“I can’t touch Samryong, who hasn’t even recovered from the shock of Dekarucha’s dissolution. I’ll find Iyong and kill him.”
“Right, Samryong is… well, complicated.”
“Indeed. Samryong is pitiful.”
Ilyong had already suffered enough taking over the Dragon King’s position from Iyong, and now his beloved band had disbanded due to internal circumstances. If they forced him into a life-or-death duel with Ice Heart on top of all that, Samryong would surely lose his mind to despair.
“As for Iyong, I’ll contact Common and find out where he is.”
“I’m counting on you.”
“Now that I think about it, it’s a bit late to ask, but…”
Apet, who had remained silent until now, asked what Ilyong was, and more importantly, what Iyong and Samryong were. Even though the elder knew much, he didn’t know everything.
We explained Gerth’s remarkable naming sense and the tragedy of Ilyong, Iyong, and Samryong. The elder sighed and lamented the three dragons’ plight.
“That fellow seemed perfectly normal, but his naming sense is… how did that happen?”
Apet seemed shocked both by Gerth’s naming sense and by the fact that one of the first three dragons was serving as Department Head at the Academy. She clicked her tongue, suggesting that demons must have infiltrated the empire’s core as well. But as soon as the elder spoke, he seemed to realize the plausibility of it and furrowed his brow deeply.
“Wait, after the barrier preventing demons shattered the other day, it was never repaired because…?”
Now that I thought about it, ever since Samryong came to the Capital and shouted at Evan to give him Seian, the demon-defense barrier had remained broken. There was a reason why a barrier that a Dragon King could shatter at will was useless anyway, but… it was possible it hadn’t been repaired because someone had strongly advocated against it.
The most likely suspect that came to mind was Sunbird.

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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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