Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 277

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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 really didn’t want to know, but the Village Chief insisted on telling me anyway. Still, can he really just say Gold Rozier’s name out loud like that?
Having spoken with a woman who once held wealth, honor, power—everything the world could offer—I turned my attention to the Village Chief. Since we’d come this far, I wanted to hear his story too. I’d always been curious why this man had been living at the Academy for the past ten years.
“Standing around talking isn’t ideal. Shall we head to my place?”
Does a cardboard box house have room for all of us? As I expressed my concern while observing the state of the surrounding structures, the Village Chief chuckled warmly and led us deeper into Starlight Village. Now that I thought about it, I’d only ever glimpsed the village from passing signs or caught fleeting glances from outside—this was my first time venturing this far inside.
“Wow….”
“W-whoa….”
“A house? No, at this scale, isn’t this a mansion?”
Deep within the village stood a structure of considerable size. It was far too grand to call merely a house, yet too peculiar to call a mansion—constructed entirely from cardboard boxes. As we entered this large dwelling complete with cardboard stables and storage warehouses, a cardboard living room came into view, along with a cardboard sofa.
“Have a seat, you must all be exhausted.”
“This is insane.”
“Wow, it’s so soft!”
If he was going to set up like this, wouldn’t it be better to gather materials like bricks and build a proper house? To my question, the Village Chief said I knew one thing but not the other, then explained the Academy’s policy.
“Starlight Village is an area we vagrant mages are illegally occupying. Naturally, the Academy regularly comes through to demolish everything.”
Ah, so that’s why they built cardboard houses—easy to assemble and disassemble. If they knew when the Academy would come to tear things down, they could simply dismantle everything, hide it away, and rebuild once the inspectors left.
These people are genuinely strategic homeless folk.
“Living here seems more comfortable than I’d expect, but what about bathing and toilets?”
“For that, the Combat Techniques Department Practice Room has excellent facilities!”
In other words, there was no proper solution. I couldn’t possibly live like this for however many more years I had to attend school. I pushed Reina and Kanna forward and told them what needed to be done.
“Kanna! Reina! Go summon Samryong right away!”
“Got it! Evan!”
“I’ll look into construction companies connected to the Count’s house!”
I could tolerate many things, but I absolutely could not accept having the outhouse located far away. I immediately sent out all the supplies and construction personnel with the excuse that we needed more cardboard boxes, then asked the Village Chief the question I’d been waiting to ask.
“So, why have you been trapped here for ten years?”
“Persistent one, aren’t you.”
The Village Chief stroked his chin as if he had a long beard, then revealed something unexpected to me.
“I’m actually not a mage.”
“But you’re a Magic Department student?”
“Yes, I’m a Magic Department student. But I have no magic skills.”
“….”
Wait, is this about that incident? I’d heard that about ten years ago, someone forged a skill certificate issued by the Adventurer’s Guild, which led to the addition of practical exams to the entrance tests?
“Did you forge it? Your magic skill certificate?”
The Village Chief nodded confidently.
“Isn’t that certificate auto-printed by the Priesthood communicating with the Mother Goddess? How is that forgeable?”
“I managed it.”
The Village Chief definitely couldn’t be let out of the Academy. If what he’d forged wasn’t a skill certificate but currency, the Crowell Empire’s monetary value would have collapsed entirely.
So the Academy Magic Department was harboring such a dangerous individual.
“Usually, wouldn’t you get caught during practical classes?”
“I wrote ‘Duplication Magic’ on the certificate. No one noticed until Common Professor showed up.”
“Wow….”
Duplication Magic and Forgery are in entirely different leagues of danger. Duplication merely creates two or three copies of something already existing, and due to mental and physical limitations, you can’t produce vast quantities. But Forgery? If you create a mechanism to stamp out whatever object you desire, you can produce infinite copies with just manpower alone. You can even fabricate things that don’t exist.
The Supply Officer and Construction Officer were considerable criminals too, but now I understand why they never became Village Chief. Because the Village Chief was the real deal. If this man ever left the Academy, the world’s economy would collapse.
“So the Village Chief can never leave school for the rest of his life?”
“Well, they say he can live with a supervisor attached and his skills sealed… Seems like school life is still entertaining for him, though?”
The world is vast, and there’s no limit to madmen. I reflected on my own criminal history and realized I’d been a frog in a well. I wasn’t particularly ashamed—instead, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. I wasn’t quite as much of garbage as all that. I was still recyclable. What you might call good garbage.
“Anyway, this place is quite pleasant to live in. Once you grow attached, it becomes home. And we’re the type to accept any criminal, so there shouldn’t be any discrimination.”
“What if I want to discriminate against you all?”
“Even for our Vagrant Mage Village, it’s hard to find a criminal worse than you.”
“Embezzlement of ten billion and aspirations for military dictatorship?”
“Even so, you’re not quite at the level of deserving five beheadings.”
This Village Chief was surprisingly well-informed about outside affairs. How did he know I nearly faced five beheadings?
“We have to keep our ears open, or we’re in serious trouble. The entire village would be demolished.”
Ah, so he’s well-versed in information within the school. I pondered for a moment, then casually extended my hand to the Village Chief.
“By any chance, could you also provide things like genealogies….”
“Kaa! That’s our specialty!”
The Village Chief grasped my hand. With that, our deal was sealed.
“From today onward, I am a resident of Starlight Village. Leave the procurement of goods for the school store to me.”
“I knew you’d be easy to talk to. I’ve had my eye on you since first year.”
We shook hands firmly, and Reina, Kanna, and I toured the house plot where we’d be living. Since I’d been stuck in a cramped dormitory room because of Reina, I wanted a more spacious residence.

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When Samryong, the master metalsmith, arrived at Starlight Village, the first thing he did was construct a sewage and water supply system. The vagrant mages wept with joy at the prospect of finally having toilets, and after temporarily dismantling the paper houses, they helped me dig into the earth and create a reservoir.
I could have drawn water from the lake, but it seemed most convenient to simply fill the reservoir each morning using my purification artifact. The water would be far cleaner that way.
We buried the water and sewage pipes underground, covering them with paper houses only when needed, and when we had to hide our presence, we simply disassembled them and covered everything with soil. Since we were already doing construction work, the idea of reinforcing the paper houses with steel frames and creating an assembly-type framework that could be folded and stored sparked praise for Samryong from all directions.
The Village Chief, observing how Samryong’s pride swelled with each compliment, announced that he would commission a stone statue in Samryong’s likeness as a token of gratitude. When the Village Chief promised to revere the magnificent form of Samryong and place daily offerings at an altar, Samryong’s shoulders became as broad as the Pacific, and his head tilted skyward with no intention of lowering it.
“Great Dragon! If only you would grace us humble humans by constructing a single wind power generator!”
“That’s easy enough!”
With a single word from the Village Chief, he extracted a power plant from Samryong. Starlight Village would now become a town that shone brilliantly even in the middle of the night.
“Since it has come to this! In honor of the Great Dragon’s achievements, we shall rename our village the Village of the Roaring Red Dragon!”
“Uooooooh!”
The vagrant mages erupted in cheers, and Samryong’s eyes sparkled. It wasn’t just any dragon—it was the Village of the Roaring Red Dragon. No one had ever acknowledged him as a red dragon before, yet here he was, having shaped some metal scraps, and now a village bore his name and a statue was being erected in his honor.
“Ahem, well then, seeing your sincerity, I shall make it a point to visit occasionally for maintenance.”
“Long live the Great Red Dragon!”
“Long live!”
Perhaps because they were a criminal organization, they certainly knew when to strike and when to retreat. I left the vagrant mages and Samryong to their festivities and went to assemble boxes. As I carefully assembled the walls and roof and constructed a bed frame, my room became quite comfortable.
“Um, um, Evan, the adjacent room, can, can I use it?”
But because it was a paper house, the soundproofing was absolutely terrible. Even with the door closed, I could hear Kanna’s voice clearly, so I granted her permission to use the adjacent room and assembled my desk. Aside from the occasional arm-thick centipede or snake infiltrating our hastily constructed paper house on the mountainside, it was a reasonably pleasant place to stay.

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After classes resumed, my mornings still began with the “May the Crowell Empire Collapse! Huu!” exercise routine. Being expelled from the dormitory was one thing, but if penalty points accumulated, I couldn’t use the school store or go outside freely—so accumulating penalty points was actually beneficial. I needed to meet Gerth on weekends, and if I told him I couldn’t leave the Academy, he would drag the Serpent King’s Tower right onto the Academy grounds.
“The Common Professor must! Open Lost Technology! Open it!”
The Academy had always been full of protests and posters, but starting this semester, I could see the Brandenburg Military swarming about and establishing camps in front of the Magic Department.
Now that humanity hadn’t quite collapsed and relations with the Demon Race had vaguely settled into peace, Eugene’s soldiers, no longer fighting the northern dragon, were staging protests to extract technology from the Seed Storage Facility.

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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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