Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 271
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
“Because you created those venomous lizards.”
“But that’s exactly what I’m saying! Why are we responsible for the monster infinite reproduction incident?!”
“W-well, Evan, to be honest, I-I, I also, d-disagree with Reina on this….”
Evan, hoping to sense the vitality of his retainers, sent Reina and Kanna forward like hunting dogs before finally beginning his explanation. This matter had been entrusted to me by the Crownpolis branch director of the Adventurer’s Guild and Emperor Cecilia. There was also that petty promise from Cecilia—reducing my hundred-year sentence for lèse-majesté by one year—and the branch director’s investigation weighed so heavily on Evan’s conscience that he had come this far.
“The monsters that reproduced exponentially and spread across the world are four types in total: poison-attribute monsters, flame-attribute monsters, golems, and draconic species like earth dragons and wyverns.”
“Exactly! So why is it our fault?!”
“Among the poison and flame-attribute monsters, lizard forms are particularly abundant, I hear.”
“B-but, Evan, we really, j-just, one pair only.”
“The Puppet King confessed that golems he created as errand-runners escaped. We suspect the draconic species are the Department Head Professor’s doing.”
The attributes of the monsters spreading across the world matched the attributes of the Demon King of New Age’s custom-made monsters. How could this possibly be coincidence? The King of Ten Thousand Demons felt tremendous responsibility for this catastrophe and unleashed his hunting dogs.
“You are their mother. Find them and make them commit suicide together, or whatever.”
“Are you even human after saying that?”
When Reina protested that no mother would tell her children to go die, Evan pulled out his trump card as if waiting for this moment.
“My biological mother did exactly that.”
“You coward, you bastard!”
“W-we’re, s-sorry, Evan.”
Both Reina and Kanna fell silent at Evan Mitchell’s ice-cold retort. They thought it cowardly to play the mother card, but having never encountered a mother like that in all their lives, neither could utter a word of protest against Evan.
“Still, will we even find them by searching so recklessly?”
“You’re a mother, aren’t you? Use your maternal instinct to find your children. Motherhood is great.”
“You only invoke motherhood when it suits you, you bastard!”
Evan, who believed in the existence of motherhood less than anyone else, saying such things infuriated her, but Reina could not escape. Not only because she bore guilt for her crimes, but above all because she could never defeat Evan.
“Evan, th-there’s a trail.”
Maternal instinct did not activate, but Kanna’s tracking skills shone brilliantly. Having discovered grass trampled at regular intervals and claw marks that left deep indentations in the earth, Kanna confidently took the lead, declaring that once she had grasped this thread, the rest would follow swiftly.
“W-we’re almost there, I can smell it!”
What kind of smell was she talking about? Reina and Evan took deep breaths. Concentrating on the scent, they detected something faintly acrid. It smelled like what White One left behind after using the bathroom.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Humans! I’ll kill you!”
A bipedal flame lizard burst forth from the ground as if erupting. The three paid less attention to the monster’s sudden appearance than to something else entirely.
“Damn, those things can talk!”
“Remarkable. So they even possess the intelligence for ambush tactics.”
“S-so we really aren’t the culprits!”
There was no way something created by Reina could be that intelligent. Just as Kanna was about to make that argument, the gorilla—who understood curses directed at herself all too well—threw a punch. It wasn’t a direct hit, but even a glancing blow made her vision spin. True to form for a gorilla, her strength was brutally impressive.
“Gorilla!”
“Who are you calling a gorilla, you idiot!”
“You!”
Cutting through the battlefield where flames and water blades clashed, Evan seized both flame lizards and froze them solid. The fact that they could communicate meant threats would work too. The plan was to go to their habitat and extract information using these two’s lives as leverage.
“Stop playing around and let’s go.”
The King of Ten Thousand Demons bestowed ice wings upon his subordinates, and the two soared upward with a whoosh.
Evan flew into the air and discovered what appeared to be a monster settlement. And she found herself puzzled. The monsters were living at a considerably higher level of civilization than she had anticipated.
Brick houses were understandable enough. But tiled floors made of stone were genuinely strange. Well-maintained roads suggested they were trading with places connected by established routes of transportation.
Moreover, there was a fountain in what looked like a plaza. Installing that would absolutely require an aqueduct system. This wasn’t a possibility—it was a certainty. These monsters definitely possessed water infrastructure. The Crowell Empire itself had only secured aqueduct facilities a few decades ago, so this rate of development was impossible.
“Whoa whoa whoa! Evan! Evan, you’re here! I knew I’d run into you!”
So that’s the culprit. Evan concluded, observing the pink-haired, wide-eyed creature.
Evan approached Cha Cha, bringing the Flame King and Poison King with her. The small creature rode in some sort of ornate palanquin, leading a procession and being revered as if he were a divine being.
“Our tribe’s god, is this… human woman?”
“Evan! You’re going to spend a thousand years with me!”
“The god’s wife! The goddess has finally arrived!”
The bipedal fire lizardmen bowed toward Evan and threw flowers. Reina laughed so hard she rolled backward.
“Just the right age to enjoy rolling around.”
Evan calmly manipulated her wings, spinning Reina in circles. Reina shrieked and cursed at Evan.
The fire-attribute lizardmen moved busily, crying out that the goddess had appeared. The monsters carrying the palanquin toward the nest-like structure placed Cha Cha in the center of the nest and knelt before Evan.
“Consummate the union!”
“Consummate! The union!”
What on earth was happening? As Evan stared at Cha Cha with pure curiosity, the pink-haired creature’s face went pale and his eyes rolled about frantically.
“Stop dodging! Consummate! The union!”
“Stop dodging, please!”
“Hmm.”
So “dodging” meant that. Evan Laef grasped the situation well enough, but she was very curious to hear what excuse Cha Cha would come up with. As the King of Ten Thousand Demons, who wielded ice magic, hovered in the air and looked down at Cha Cha with utter disdain, tears welled up in the pink-haired creature’s eyes.
“Oh, it’s a misunderstanding, Evan! I can explain everything!”
“Explain yourself.”
“You only favor the Serpent King! That’s unfair, goddess!”
“Gerth is my husband. Of course I favor him. And I am not your goddess.”
Evan had denied many things up until now, but she never thought she’d have to deny being a goddess. The female informant waited for Cha Cha to explain the situation, but Cha Cha, offended from somewhere, abandoned all explanation and threw a tantrum.
“Love me too! Make me your husband!”
“I’m already overwhelmed with two.”
“Two or three, what’s the difference!”
“There’s a world of difference.”
Two times two is four. Two times three is six. There’s a world of difference. Evan explained this step by step, but Cha Cha covered his ears, pretending not to hear.
“Then replace the black-haired one with me!”
“That’s impossible. Gerth is already my husband.”
“Then replace the black-haired deadweight and take me!”
“Seian isn’t just my personal matter. That marriage determines the fate of the Empire and Ilam.”
“So what am I supposed to do, you idiot!”
Chahelantropsus Chadensis threw a fit with tremendous force.
Even Evan felt the urge to take him along, but if she incurred any more of Gerth’s displeasure, it would spell disaster. Coming here and meeting Gerth again—Gerth had never once betrayed her, but she had betrayed him multiple times.
Using him politically when opening the Horse Racing Track, attempting to return to the past without consulting him once, drooling over pomegranate tart when she’d said dessert was only lemon pie, and beyond that—hiding her grades and lying that she’d definitely graduate in her fourth year.
Evan’s sins were like an inexhaustible fountain, no matter how much she drew from it. Even when he said he wouldn’t forgive her, warning lights had already been flashing intensely. If she angered Gerth any further, no one knew what would happen. Because Gerth had lived his entire life without ever truly losing his temper. What would occur if such a person became genuinely angry? Nothing but destruction, surely.
If my life is ruined anyway, I want to mate with Gerth at least once before I die. Evan had resolved to spend the rest of his life begging Gerth for forgiveness until that happened.
“Perhaps we could simply live as we are.”
Cha Cha’s original wish to the Mother Goddess had come true. Why not just live peacefully underground with the people? Evan meant well, but to Cha Cha—who had crawled up to the Surface World out of sheer disgust for the underground dwellers—it sounded only like mockery.
The pink-haired man-child, now wailing, invoked his mother’s aid by gazing skyward.
“Mom! Give me what I ordered right now!”
What had he ordered? The moment Evan, Reina, and Kanna exchanged confused glances, a sensation of weightlessness washed over them. Reina and Evan recognized it immediately—this was the feeling of being warped.
“Whoa! What is this!”
“I-I can’t feel my weight!”
Kanna tried to say she felt no gravity at all. Noticing this, Evan gently pushed off the wall with his foot and enjoyed the sensation of floating. The rectangular chamber, forged from metal, contained no gravity whatsoever.
“A space where gravity has been artificially removed? Or perhaps…”
Surely this wasn’t space itself. As Evan entertained various theories, a status notification window suddenly appeared.
Welcome to the True Love’s Kiss Dungeon!
Dungeon Location: 1 km radius from Ursula’s main body
Exit Condition: Share a kiss imbued with true love.
Ursula’s Comment: Kiss! Kiss!
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————