Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 289

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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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As consciousness returned to Evan Laef, her eyes fell upon the childhood bedroom of Mitchell Neftis. It was the very room that Rael Neftis had painstakingly recreated after their former home collapsed. Without his peculiar obsession with his sister and his deranged memory, this room could never have existed.
Evan Mitchell forced her eyelids open and glimpsed the time counter in the corner of her vision—it now read 23 hours, meaning she had been unconscious for an hour. Regardless of how she’d spent that time, if she could simply lose consciousness to whittle away the remaining hours, she would gladly remain senseless for an entire day.
“Oh my, my beloved daughter, you’re awake? Are you conscious?”
Evan Mitchell bit her tongue hard at the sight of the domestic abuser whose eyes were swollen from prolonged weeping. Yet her body was far too resilient—biting her tongue drew no blood.
“You’ve bitten your tongue to shreds. Are you very hungry?”
“Is this what you wished for? Is this hell truly what you desired?”
Evan was certain it wasn’t. Whatever wish Iyongi had made, she was convinced it wasn’t for this tragedy.
“A home date, just you and your mother? I could do this for a lifetime!”
”
A primal scream tore from Evan’s throat—the sound of an evil spirit being exorcised.
”
In that same moment, her soul felt as though it were being lightened. It resembled the sensation of worldly attachments being washed away. The Mitchell portion of her consciousness, now perfectly fused and inseparable, seemed to fade into the distance.
“Hey! Don’t die! Keep your grip on reality!”
Evan cried out to the other part of herself—don’t die, don’t fade, hold on, survive this so we can see Gerth and Seian. We have a child now, and if the Mitchell part disappears before the epilogue, what then?!
Whether it was Evan’s encouragement or something else, the Mitchell portion of her consciousness resolved to persevere. She’d already been with Seian, so she had no regrets, but seeing their child was something she deeply anticipated. She had to survive for the child’s sake. If the child had two fathers, shouldn’t the mother also be complete? With so many years ahead of the child, she couldn’t leave them with only half a mother.
“I will succeed! I’ll complete the mission, go home, and live with both Gerth and Seian in my arms! If possible, I’d also like permission to build a life with Cha Cha!”
“Our daughter’s romantic life is quite complicated, isn’t it?”
Though she admitted her own life had been rather chaotic, she’d only ever looked at one man—her father. Iyong, speaking with cold practicality, tapped her own head, reminding herself this wasn’t the time for such thoughts. She needed to finish the Bruno-style mixed stew she’d learned from Ilyong.
“Just let it simmer and we’re done! I’ll bring it back, so sit quietly!”
With a cheerful laugh and a virtuous housewife’s smile, Iyongi retied her apron and descended the stairs. Evan felt nothing but unease. Mitchell’s stupidity had proven to be hereditary. Then where on earth did this ability to turn food into garbage come from?
Evan recalled her days working part-time jobs, boiling instant noodles. No matter how you made them, instant noodles were instant noodles. Without time to cook proper meals, she usually bought food from restaurants or convenience stores. In any case, she’d never had real cooking experience.
So where did this terrible cooking ability originate? Yuljeong had never cooked while working, and Mitchell, being a duke’s daughter, would never have set foot in a kitchen.
If the ability to turn ingredients into garbage was inherited from Iyongi, then the food she brought back probably wouldn’t be fit for human consumption either. Spending intimate time with Iyongi was already difficult to endure—she didn’t want to eat tasteless food on top of it.
She was considering whether to call the kitchen servants when a delicious aroma wafted through the air.
“Ta-da! I learned this from Ilyong to make for our daughter!”
On the silver tray Iyongi carried sat a perfectly prepared curry. A spicy aroma rose from it, suggesting she’d adjusted the spices to Evan Mitchell’s taste.
“I’m immune to poison.”
“Just as expected of my daughter! You possess remarkable skills!”
Though she’d meant she couldn’t be poisoned, Procula Neftis took the statement at face value and praised Evan as extraordinary, ladling the curry stew into a bowl. Evan picked up a spoon with grim determination and ate a spoonful of the ingredients.
“It’s… delicious.”
“Thank goodness! It was worth the effort for mother to learn!”
So all the food Evan had created up until now was entirely her own fault, with no contribution from Mitchell whatsoever. Come to think of it, when the Mitchell portion of her consciousness had briefly disappeared and the past changed, Gerth had said the food Evan made tasted terrible.
Evan was distressed. The ability to create food garbage wasn’t Mitchell’s fault. Being banned from the Serpent King’s Tower kitchen wasn’t Mitchell’s fault!
“Give me more.”
Even as these thoughts swirled, Evan scraped the bowl clean and asked for another serving. The curry stew that Bruno had developed tasted even better with the added spice, and it was easier to eat.
At Evan’s request for more, Iyongi quickly picked up the ladle and served another bowl, her nose twitching with emotion until tears finally spilled from her eyes.
“Oh my, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be crying on a day like this.”
The woman who had been wiping her eyes with her sleeve finally burst into tears as she watched Evan gulp down the stew. Evan, unable to fathom why this woman had suddenly broken down, held her spoon and asked what was wrong.
“I’m sorry, our daughter, eat so much, sob, actually, I never thought you’d really eat what I made.”
The woman wailed that Evan had even steeled herself to overturn the entire table if needed, then confessed her past wrongs against Evan.
“And yet, our daughter, you eat the food I made, sniff, so readily.”
“Rice bears no sin.”
“You have such a good appetite! I love our daughter!”
As the woman tried to embrace her, Evan calmly set down her rice spoon and grasped the woman’s arms and shoulders. With a gentle throw, Iyongi flew through the air and crashed into the wall with a thud.
“Don’t do that. It ruins my appetite.”
“Okay, I won’t! I love my daughter!”
As Evan emptied her bowl, she reflected quietly. Since Iyongi acted like an entirely different person, she was surprisingly easy to deal with.
If she simply didn’t think of the other party as Procula Neftis and instead treated her as a pitiful middle-aged woman who thought of Evan as her daughter, couldn’t she endure the next twenty-four hours?
The merged Mitchell consciousness still showed physiological resistance, but since Evan was half of this being anyway, the resistance was also halved.
“A cozy time together….”
How exactly did a mother and daughter spend cozy time together? This was something Mitchell didn’t know, Kanna didn’t know, Reina didn’t know, and Cecilia didn’t know. She couldn’t consult anyone about it. Only the time Evan had spent with Eleanor Mother in Ilam offered any hope.
“If it were with Eleanor Mother….”
Sometimes they’d go shopping at the market, drag Titi to the public bathhouse, and on nights when she didn’t want to sleep alone, they’d all sleep in Mother’s bed together. Evan recalled various memories and made a plan.
“There’s nothing to do at home anyway, let’s go shopping.”
“Oh my, shopping with my daughter! I’ve always wanted to try that!”
The two hastily prepared to go out and summoned the household carriage for an elegant outing. When two beauties with superlative beauty appeared on Boutique Street, the shop owners shrieked and competed to welcome the Neftis mother and daughter into their establishments.
They usually acted separately since they didn’t appear to get along, but today they were together for some reason. Those who mistakenly assumed a grand banquet would soon be held at House Neftis lined up to draw numbered tickets. Each wanted to ensure that once the first shop visit concluded, they would be the next to receive the distinguished guests.
“People seem unusually kind today.”
“Indeed.”
“Could it be because the most beautiful two-hundred-year-old and twenty-something in the world are together?”
“Though I dislike you, I must acknowledge that your face is flawlessly perfect.”
“Kyaa! My daughter complimented me!”
Evan, having decided to treat this person as someone who merely resembled Iyongi, remained composed, but others who knew the temperament of Duchess Neftis looked as though they’d seen a ghost. Yet they didn’t dare ask if she was one. They were professionals, after all.
“Oh, this blue diamond suits our daughter perfectly.”
“If you buy that, a month’s worth of the entire household’s dignity maintenance budget will be destroyed, and Father and Eleanor Mother will scream.”
“Daughter, just for today, couldn’t you call me Mother?”
“You might as well ask me to die.”
At Evan’s cold response, Iyongi’s spirits fell, but she rallied again and expertly selected jewels suited to her daughter. She had even diligently studied (been brainwashed) under the Mother Goddess for this day. If she tried her best, perhaps Evan Mitchell would call her Mother at least once. The woman harbored such hope.
“This would suit you.”
!
The earrings Evan had chosen were water-blue sapphires with serpent ornaments. The jewel, which the serpent held in its fangs, was cut in a trilliant style that matched Iyongi’s sharp personality.
“I’ll wear it every day, because our daughter chose it for me, I’ll wear it every day!”
“It’s heavy. It’ll stretch your earlobes.”
“It’s fine because I’m a dragon! My skin is tough!”

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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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