Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 268
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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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Gerth, stop making such ominous remarks with that grin on your face. I understand you had no choice given what you endured, but when I covered up the incident and fell from the top of the Tower, the way Gerth just stared at me without saying a word terrified me half to death.
I was barely considering whether to forgive myself for attempting to demonize humanity and disappear, when the Mitchell cover-up incident was exposed as well. Having been betrayed twice by the same person, Gerth boldly declared he would never forgive me in his lifetime.
“I want you to remain by my side for the rest of your life and atone for what you’ve done.”
“I’m prepared for that.”
I had no choice but to repay my attempt to abandon and flee by staying permanently at his side. I accepted Gerth’s demand and resolved to fulfill it perfectly from this moment forward.
◇ ◆ ◇
It was July seventh. Summer. My birthday. Our wedding day. The sky was clear and blue, the weather relatively cool, and for today alone, every floor of the Serpent King’s Tower was opened to the public. The massive tower stretching to the heavens was wrapped entirely in white lace—an absolutely breathtaking sight, like an enormous wedding cake. Hubert had apparently spent an entire week scaling the tower’s exterior walls to arrange these decorations. My son truly is remarkable.
“Village Chief!”
“Mayor!”
“Lord of Territory! We’ve arrived!”
With the wedding being held at the Serpent King’s Tower near Ilam, many people came from the surrounding regions. Those who had known me since my days as Village Chief, those who had seen me as Mayor, those I had worked with since becoming Lord of Territory. Harbor workers, horse racing track staff, Territorial Management Office officials, a pseudo-religious sect that worshipped me after my resurrection three days later—people of all ages and genders came, and the Serpent King’s Tower, far more spacious inside than it appeared from without, could accommodate them all.
“Evan Mitchell! I’ve come as Mecala’s representative!”
“If that’s General Gram from Grin, he passed by earlier, so go flirt with him.”
“Yay!”
Mekala used my wedding as an excuse to seduce General Gram. Now that a young man and woman had met, I hoped for good news. If they married and produced workers for Ilam generation after generation, that would be wonderful. I had high hopes indeed.
“What are you doing, little one? In my fifty years, I’ve never managed what you do multiple times.”
“Perhaps it’s because I’m abundant in femininity.”
“You tiny bell!”
The Sung King of Sungkuk Kingdom attended this wedding partly to witness the Serpent King’s Tower being relocated. With the Sung King present, Apet naturally accompanied her, and the Female Informant held Apet, nibbling and sucking on her while loudly declaring that next time she would surely succeed in her proposal.
“To succeed, eat plenty of pomegranate. Menopause will be coming soon anyway.”
“Do you want to die?!”
“I gave sound advice—why are you angry?”
“Do you really want to die?!”
“You children, play nicely together!”
Apet gave both the Sung King and me a sharp smack on the head, then launched into an enormous lecture. He said he would step aside because of the line of people waiting to see me, but he had already spent thirty minutes discussing human decorum, so I didn’t feel he was being particularly considerate to those waiting behind.
“E-e-Evan!”
“Wow….”
As the Sung King couple entered the Serpent King’s Tower, Kanna appeared leading the Hashashin unit. Among people dressed in dark clothes, Kanna, dressed like a mafia boss in a black suit and hat, approached silently with her mother and younger sibling flanking her like wings. All those people were walking, yet there was no sound whatsoever. Perhaps because they were all assassins.
“T-this! This time, r-really! Proper, wedding, gift!”
She had apparently been bothered all this time about only showing up in body at the old man’s and my wedding without bringing anything. Kanna thrust a dark envelope toward me, and when I opened it, a purple VVVIP card tumbled out.
“E-Evan, lifetime, free!”
It was a lifetime free-use voucher for Hashashin Corporation. While I doubted I would ever need to use an assassination center, what surprised me most was that Hashashin had become a corporation. I knew they had been paying taxes properly, but had they actually received formal corporate licensing? Is Cecilia in her right mind?
“Can you invest if you go to the stock market?”
“S-stock listing is, um….”
Indeed, if the world’s premier assassination enterprise went public and accepted investments, that would be quite, very strange. There would certainly be people who would abuse it.
“Well, I’m connected to the Adventurer’s Guild across the entire nation, so anytime!”
“That’s convenient. If I need anything, I’ll definitely seek you out.”
“Sure!”
While assassination held no interest for me, acquiring drugs or gathering information would prove incredibly useful through this connection. I recalled how Kanna had swiftly procured brainwashing drugs through the Adventurer’s Guild when I desperately needed them back then. Nostalgia washed over me as I exchanged a few more words with Kanna before ushering her into the Tower, recommending that the members of the Assassination Family take a tour. With the pamphlets Hubert had created in the lobby, they could navigate freely.
“Yay! Sister Evan Mitchell has arrived!”
“Go on in. Next.”
“Hey! Give me a welcome too!”
“After you fix your personality.”
As Reina Letem made a ruckus with her loud voice, Eugene Brandenburg appeared from nowhere and dragged the woman inside. Behind them, a tiny blonde child with hands no bigger than a palm pushed forward eagerly. She was as small and adorable as a chick.
“…?”
The unfamiliar woman who appeared with Eugene was as cute as a chick. Sensing some kind of connection, I hastily shouted to call the authorities.
“A, a thief!”
“Evan! Don’t say mean things to your sister!”
“N, no, it’s fine Eugene. I really am a thief.”
“Why is Freesia a thief!”
I’d said that about the Dragon Marquis Eugene, so why was the chick-like girl blushing? Bewildered and at a loss for words, the small child who appeared to be Eugene’s fiancée began introducing herself.
“But still! When a thirty-year-old with a divorce record marries a twenty-year-old, people usually call that stealing!”
“I know everything, sister!”
“That’s exactly what makes you a child! That part right there!”
So the dual-sword-wielding chick fiancée was actually in her thirties with a divorce on her record. No wonder Eugene hadn’t married during the King of Ten Thousand Demons era, even when he was on the verge of death in battle. He’d been waiting for her to grow up?
“Hey, you, that, taste, surely not.”
“N, no no no no no!”
I hadn’t even brought out the index of preferences, so why were you blushing too? Don’t tell me—you didn’t deliberately wait until your beloved sister got married and then conveniently dispose of the groom, did you?
“It was a coincidence! Really a coincidence! I’ve liked my sister since childhood! How was I supposed to know the groom would die in less than four days!”
“Ugh….”
“I’m really not! It’s unfair!”
Today I witnessed a dark side of Eugene. So that’s how it was…, with circumstances like that, he wouldn’t let his fiancée out of his sight even in death. I decided to accept everything about my friend and pushed him into the Tower. Eugene screamed indignantly.
“Yangdal aaaaaa!”
“The legendary ice seal.”
This bastard wasn’t even invited—why did he come all the way here in prison clothes? I locked Bruno in ice and greeted Butler Grandfather and Professor Ilyong. With roughly three thousand guests already inside, it seemed everyone who was coming had arrived.
Following Leri’s guidance, I changed into ceremonial attire and headed to the highest floor. It was the traditional wedding garment that demi-humans typically wore, and while not as ornate as human wedding dresses, it possessed a dignified and solemn quality. Rather than a wedding robe, it resembled the vestments of clergy—sharply tailored and wrapped so completely that no skin showed, giving off an impression of stoicism….
“I wonder if Gerth is wearing something similar?”
When I asked Leri if Gerth was also wrapped up like this, thinking it would subtly accentuate his physique in a way that would be absolutely devastating, the man silently gave me a thumbs up.
I’m thrilled. This is the best. We’re going to consummate today too. Truly the best.
“Leri! I’m very excited right now!”
“Calm down, darling. You’re really acting like a beast.”
How could I not be excited when Gerth was waiting for me upstairs in those wrapped clothes!
Soon an announcement echoed that those attending the wedding vows should head to the highest floor, and I arrived at the Boss’s Room on the highest level of the Serpent King’s Tower.
The Boss’s Room, filled with white, had the pseudo-religious sect members from earlier dressed in choir robes, singing an Evan hymn in some mysterious language that was neither Latin nor anything else. From the ceiling, something white and fluffy—neither snowflakes nor flower petals—rained down endlessly, disappearing without form the moment it touched the ground.
Guests gradually gathered, but due to some magic at work, their forms were barely visible. Only the path I was meant to walk glowed with a bluish light.
“….”
I was nervous. From the background music to the surrounding environment, everything felt more like a final boss battle than a wedding. That’s why I was nervous.
“Welcome, Evan. I’ve been waiting.”
This really isn’t a wedding—it’s a boss fight, isn’t it? I’m going to have to fight Gerth, aren’t I?!
Gerth stood solemnly at the end of the blue light, so I clenched my fists and made my entrance. Beast-like shrieks mixed with the choir’s harmonies. The beasts began singing along with the choir. It felt like a boss battle.
“I swear it. I will spend my entire life with you, Evan.”
Gerth extended his hand to me and asked if I would swear the same. Of course, I answered that I would.
“I will protect you for all my days and fight alongside you, Evan. If you do what is right, I will support you. If you do what is wrong, I will tell you it is wrong.”
“So you won’t unconditionally take my side?”
“Wrong is simply wrong.”
“I’ll support you no matter what you do, Gerth.”
“Thank you.”
So he’ll point out my mistakes to the very end. I can’t help it. That’s so like Gerth.
“I will love you for all my life, Evan. This is a promise that will never change.”
“I swear to love you, Gerth, for the rest of my days.”
We exchanged our vows solemnly and signed the marriage certificate. The guests were blurred and hard to see, but I could clearly hear the overwhelming applause.
When the choir in that strange foreign language changed their tune and the ceremony shifted toward the recessional, I finished all the rites and quietly poked Gerth’s thigh repeatedly, asking if we were going to mate right after we left. I was hopeful. How long had I been waiting for this day? Truth be told, I’d been anticipating mating ever since Gerth showed up at my house in formal wear on a typhoon day and said he wanted to date me with mating as the premise.
Nearly three years of waiting had come to an end. I had become an adult today. I could mate. Let’s do it. Let’s do it quickly. As I continued poking his thigh and demanding an answer, Gerth smiled brightly at me and said something unexpected.
“Evan. We will not mate today.”
“Why not?”
“You are still small, weak, and young.”
“I am large, strong, and an adult.”
“You are small, weak, and young.”
We weren’t getting through to each other. I shook off Gerth’s hand and created distance between us. As I wrapped frost magic around my right hand, the guests began murmuring and the choir continued with tense lyrics.
“Gerth! I want to mate today!”
“Evan! You are small and young!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I’ll make you submit by force!”
At the exact moment the orchestra’s bass drum thundered like a crack of lightning, I swung my fist. White powder falling softly from the sky mixed with my ice magic, creating a tempest.
The guests were thrown into panic and screams erupted. The choir stubbornly continued singing their strange, Latin-like song.
“Your heart is just running ahead because you’re still young, Evan! Wait until you’re older and reconsider!”
“How much longer do you expect me to wait?!”
“At the very least, shouldn’t you be older than Hubert?”
“If I have to wait a hundred years, I’ll be dead and ancient by then, you immortal bastard!”
Gerth received the full force of my magic and was sent flying through endless space before crashing into the floor. His upper garment was shredded to pieces, but not a single scratch marred his skin.
“Listen to your elders, Evan!”
Gerth kicked off the ground and moved at incredible speed, aiming for my temple. His foot was heading straight for my cheekbone, so I inhaled sharply and raised my arms to deploy magic. My layered ice barriers, stacked in triple thickness, shattered, and sharp pain shot through my arm. I was pushed back by the force of Gerth’s kick, but I managed to stop myself by crushing the floor with my other hand.
“Legendary Frost! Triple Blade Booster!”
An ice mixer with three blades made a terrifying sound as it tore through various parts of the Tower. The people had already evacuated, so I could no longer hear the choir’s singing or the guests’ screams.
No one tried to stop us, and no one interfered. I cast magic while Gerth fought with his bare fists, and we beat each other until our mana was completely depleted. When we both collapsed to the ground covered in blood, the Tower’s ceiling was blown wide open—just like the time we fought over real estate titles.
“I still have one more punch left in me, Gerth.”
“I can keep fighting too.”
“That’s rich.”
“Don’t pretend to be strong, Evan.”
But wait—weren’t we supposed to move today? When I brought up the issue of the Beast King’s Tower’s power source, Gerth laughed and said he’d completely forgotten. Since he was laughing, I laughed along with him.
“The Tower will complain again about the ceiling we destroyed.”
“Anything with form is destined to break eventually.”
Gerth spoke in riddles again. Before my worries could fade, I rolled my body forward and collapsed on top of him. The man looked flustered but didn’t pull away. It seemed I still had just a hair’s breadth of strength left. I felt victorious and smug about it.
“A vow-sealing kiss. You have to allow me this one.”
A person can endure abstinence, so let me have this much. When I pressed my lips to his, Gerth accepted it as if he had no choice. In the empty ruins, I kissed him for a long while, then squeezed out my last bit of strength and rolled to the side.
“Let’s move tomorrow instead.”
“Sounds good.”
Too exhausted to do more than turn my head slowly, I felt Gerth quietly take my hand. I gripped the hand of this long-lived lizard man firmly and smiled with satisfaction.
A refreshing breeze blew. Warm sunlight poured down. I felt certain that this breathlessly tender moment would stretch on forever—as long as I was with Gerth.
From the beginning until now, and continuing on.
I need Gerth so much that without him,
I would face great calamity,
I love him so very much.
– 【Time limit notifications flood the status window】 Main story complete.
Continued in the epilogue.
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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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