Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 240

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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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One stubborn fool and the stubborn fool she’d raised joined forces. The two women in their dresses roared about heading to the Imperial Palace, while the Department Head Professor cleared away the ruins of the Zibenstein Townhouse and rescued the students trapped beneath.
“What’s happened to Evan now?” Eugene asked the moment he regained consciousness.
The Department Head Professor shook his head grimly, delivering unwelcome news.
“She fell for Bruno’s manipulation completely.”
“Damn it!”
“I knew this was why we shouldn’t have let her go alone!”
While her friends fumed, I was already methodically identifying who needed to be involved. Certainly Bruno and I had to attend, and having Gerth present would make decision-making far easier.

◇ ◆ ◇

The group heading to the Imperial Palace grew larger than I’d anticipated. My friends insisted on coming because they wouldn’t feel safe otherwise, given my stubborn nature. When I tried to bring Gerth, a drunk Seian refused to be left behind and literally bit my arm to make his point.
Since I was arguing that I needed to take the nation with me, my younger sibling Rael came running with a deputy duke appointment certificate, insisting on witnessing this historic moment with their own eyes. Eleanor declined, worried she might misspeak before His Majesty, while Bruno enthusiastically began singing “The Endless Rain,” nostalgic for old times.
“Stepdaughter! Do you have an acoustic guitar at home? Torches?!”
“I am not your stepdaughter. House Neftis is capitalist swine—we have no protest supplies.”
“There’s got to be a guitar somewhere!”
“Rael. Hand over the guitar before this gets any louder.”
“Yes, Sister!”
Rael was delighted that Evan Mitchell hadn’t forgotten their name, and brought an old guitar from the instrument room to hand over.
As I tuned the strings and strummed roughly, a clear, resonant note rang out. Bruno took the guitar with practiced ease and cleared his throat.
“My friend, hold me tight—you’ve got a fiancée back home, don’t you?”
Bruno painted the horrors of war in a beautiful melody. Lyrics about opening your eyes and going home, about crowds cheering while fireworks burst overhead, about tears that couldn’t be held back—all woven together with a cheerful tune.
“Surely he’s not planning to march all the way to the Imperial Palace like this.”
True to my prediction, Bruno, lost in nostalgia, walked out into the street playing his acoustic guitar. The Dekarucha members’ fingers itched as they looked to me and Rael for instruments.
“Should I shake some maracas?”
“Evan, I can play a little violin if you have one.”
“What, another concert? Get me a melodeon!”
Better to distribute melodeons than have them blowing through wine bottles. With that thought, I gathered instruments from the room and handed them out. Bruno Siebenstein, our solo vocalist, had already reached the plaza before the Imperial Palace Main Gate.
Since the Neftis Orchestra had a small drum, Reina slung it across her body and beat it enthusiastically. Eugene played violin, Kanna shook maracas, and Seian blew the melodeon. I carried a spare guitar and strummed along, wondering if this was really the right thing to do.
A hastily assembled Town Musicians of Bremen? Marching to the Imperial Palace singing protest songs? With more than half of Dekarucha gathered here? What kind of upheaval would this cause?
From my perspective, it seemed likely to have quite unfortunate consequences, but my friends who’d come to stop me were blissfully happy just playing instruments. Of course they were—the great nobles, the royal family, and the Serpent King had no experience with protests, so they had no idea what they were about to set in motion.
My friends didn’t object, and I thought, why not? So we all gathered in the plaza and sang with Bruno. We sang of war’s brutality, we bellowed for the Crowell Empire’s downfall, we cried out the tears of laborers.
Then something extraordinary happened. From ten years ago, when war raged and workers’ rights were nonexistent—those middle-aged men and women who’d engaged in violent protests came pouring out from their homes and workplaces, carrying torches, bread paddles, and fire axes.
“Hey Bruno! Long time no see!”
“Oh! Comrade!”
“You called, so I brought people all the way from outside the capital!”
“Thank you, comrade!”
Damn it—this was planned from the start! I kept playing guitar while watching what Bruno was doing. Like some pied piper, the man led the masses to stand before the Imperial Palace Main Gate.
Even if Evan Mitchell lacked enthusiasm for founding a nation, the plan was to gather people and apply pressure. If the Emperor didn’t grant autonomous state status, all these commoners would become a mob. Bruno Siebenstein had waited for this day alone, pulling together connections from ten years past just to deliver this single message.
“Go forth, my dear daughter! Behind you stand ten million Demon Race and fifty million laborers!”
“Wow, am I going to die by Cecilia’s hand today?”
What good was strength? One imperial decree and I’d be a fugitive for life. Evan felt sweat gathering in the hands playing the guitar as she addressed the Palace Guard at the main gate.
“I’m Evan Mitchell. I’d like to meet with Emperor Cecilia.”
“You want us to let through someone who brought a mob?”
“I know you won’t believe me, but they have nothing to do with me.”
Here she was, strumming a guitar like some vanguard commander, and the guard called her out on it. Evan had nothing to say, so she just looked up at the sky. It seemed like rain was coming. Even though it wasn’t raining at all.
“Well… I’ll report that you’ve arrived to my superiors.”
The Palace Guard quickly reported to his superior, fearing he might face punishment if he turned Evan away, and that superior relayed the message to the Bachelor.

The Bachelor, who managed all of Emperor Cecilia’s schedule, thought this was exactly what he’d expected when he heard Evan had arrived. Today she’d married, and she’d need Cecilia to settle things with her adoptive mother and Duke Zibenstein.
The Bachelor didn’t appreciate how Evan treated the Emperor like some kind of administrative fast-track office, but since she was practically a founding merit holder, it was better to accommodate her. Who knew what she might protest about later.
Just as the Bachelor was about to tell her to wait a moment, he heard that crowds of torch-bearing people were gathering outside the Imperial Palace like clouds, and he hurried to find Emperor Cecilia.
“Your Majesty! That madwoman Evan is doing something insane again!”
“Isn’t that always the case?”
“But this time… the scale is quite large!”
The Bachelor escorted Cecilia to the open terrace doors facing the Imperial Palace Main Gate. Beyond the railing, torches undulated like waves, and those at the front were singing folk songs with tremendous musical skill and vocal prowess.
“Am I going to be deposed today?”
“Don’t say such frightening things!”
But those people didn’t seem to be coming to take the Emperor’s head, Cecilia laughed merrily.
“You should have killed that woman long ago! Please, today, give her a proper scolding!”
Whether the Bachelor’s frustration killed him or not, Cecilia laughed and decided to make time to meet Evan. She was supposed to have a meeting with the finance ministers from now on, but the moment she arrived at the conference hall, the ministers fell to their knees begging her to go meet Evan Mitchell first.
Fortunately finding time, Cecilia hurried to the Main Palace, and Evan’s group received entry permission. While waiting for Cecilia’s arrival, Evan played hopscotch on the black marble floor with chalk alongside young Seian and his companions, and the moment a maidservant announced Cecilia’s arrival, she did a handstand.
Unable to kneel, she simply went straight into a handstand, which was quite an unusual sight for both the Bachelor and Cecilia.
“What are you doing?”
“I want to apologize. I can’t kneel, so I’m doing a handstand instead.”
“Apologize?”
“For getting caught up with that madman Bruno and leading the people here.”
At the introduction of Bruno, Duke Zibenstein bowed respectfully, and Cecilia looked at both of them before offering a light opinion.
“If it was the other side who committed the rudeness, then the Duke should be the one to stand in punishment.”
“Ah… Your Majesty, my whole body is aching now.”
“Because this child is informal with me, you too are trying to defy me.”
At Cecilia’s cold words, Bruno immediately did a handstand. He’d forgotten what kind of person she was because of Evan. The man decided not to talk back.
“Sit.”
Cecilia offered seats only to Evan and Seian. Whether the other party was a Duke, a Duke’s proxy, or the Serpent King himself, Cecilia treated as human only those she deemed human in her eyes, and she sipped her tea elegantly with Evan before her.
“You’ve gathered people. Are you planning to go on a witch hunt?”
“No. If you’re willing, Cecilia, I’d like you to recognize Ilam as an autonomous state.”
“Hmm.”
This was a request she’d never anticipated. Cecilia had imagined a future where Evan would eventually become a Grand Duke, rule a duchy, and hold a coronation ceremony while pledging loyalty to her. But she hadn’t thought it would be today. Why was she rushing like this?
“Well, first of all, the man I married, Gerth, is the Serpent King. The Serpent King rules over the demi-humans and magical beasts.”
“I’m aware.”
“And the Bunny Land CEO I promised that technology agreement with? He’s the Machine King. One of the Four Demon Kings.”
“….”
“As for me, well, I’m actually the king of all demon-kind. I was elected by popular vote.”
“?”
Cecilia set down her teacup, tilting her head in confusion. She’d always prided herself on her comprehension and insight, yet Evan’s words made absolutely no sense to her.
“You’re not human.”
“Humans become demon-kind once they use mana. Actually, Bruno is demon-kind too, and so is she, and so is he.”
Her friends, suddenly exposed, descended upon Evan in protest. Meanwhile, Cecilia stood bewildered, experiencing something entirely unprecedented.

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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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