Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 29

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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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It was certainly a sweet proposition. Reina Letem’s punishment points for welding the door shut were already guaranteed. One demerit for causing a commotion on the first day, another for disrupting the practical magic class, and now a third. Just two more strikes and I’d never have to see her in the Dormitory again.
“Be good, Evan. Sit at your desk quickly.”
“Ugh!”
I had no choice. This was the last time. Besides, once Reina discovered just how thick-skulled I was, she’d run away first anyway. My history of abandoning mathematics was long and profound. Could she really handle someone who’d given up on everything starting from quadratic equations?
I obediently sat at the desk as Reina wished, then boldly declared I didn’t even understand elementary mathematics. Faced with a situation more dire than she’d imagined, Reina inhaled sharply, but she quickly adjusted her glasses, spread out an elementary school math workbook with a flourish, placed it before me, and cracked an imaginary whip with a snap-snap sound.

◇ ◆ ◇

“….”
“….”
And so.
“….”
“….”
Morning broke.
“….”
“I… I did it….”
That crazy, relentless Reina. She’d actually made me solve calculus with my own hands.
She was insane. No, was this even possible?
In a single night, she’d taken someone who couldn’t even solve quadratic equations and made me master trigonometric functions, differentiation, integration, and grasp the concept of vectors?
“What was she, some elite tutor in the Capital? Why… why does it all make sense?”
“I… an intellectual… am… not… stupid…!”
Reina, with dark circles hanging down to her jaw, finally succumbed to drowsiness and collapsed into sleep with a snore. There was no need for sleeping pills—she’d sleep the entire day as she was.
“….”
I had no choice. Since she’d done me a favor, I’d accept the punishment points together.
I laid Reina on the bed and used my Ice Throw skill to smash the door to pieces. As the sound of shattering ice echoed through the corridor, the Dormitory Manager appeared as usual, and when he asked why I’d destroyed the door, I brazenly explained that the girl sleeping over there had welded it shut.
Thus, Reina Letem’s punishment points became three, and Evan Laef’s became two. I washed my face, ate breakfast, and headed to the Academy mathematics exam hall.
First-years and second-years alike—all those who’d eaten the cafeteria food—were collapsed sleeping in the corridors, and the only ones who actually arrived at the exam hall were Kanna, myself, and a carnivorous male student who wouldn’t eat vegetables even if it killed him.
Ah, I’d overlooked something. If he’d dipped meat in sauce, the poison would’ve circulated somewhat. I wonder what method he used to enjoy his meat this morning.
“What? Are these the only students taking the exam?”
The professor who entered the exam hall looked around curiously and checked his watch. But since anything could happen in the Magic Department without raising an eyebrow, the professor simply distributed the exam papers, and I received mine first and reviewed the problems.
“….”
I…
“…”
I knew all of them….
“Sob, sniff.”
“Evan, why are you crying?”
“It’s nothing. Really, it’s nothing.”
Damn it. A teacher’s kindness is as vast as the heavens, damn it.
I clenched my teeth and recalled the formulas that Reina Letem had taught me, one by one.

In each function, a memory,
In each integral, affection,
In each limit, solitude,
In each integer, yearning,
In each problem, Reina Letem, Reina Letem.

Reina Letem showed me this problem. She warned me it had a trap, so I needed to be careful. And that one over there could be solved through brute force, so she said to show off if I had time left.
I kept my mouth shut and methodically solved problem after problem, then checked the clock. I’d finished all the math problems with about ten minutes remaining. It was a miracle. Reina Letem had created a miracle for me.
“Ten minutes left. Everyone check that you’ve written your names.”
I’d written my name and student number long ago. I submitted my perfectly completed exam to the professor and returned to my seat, collapsing onto the desk. Despite pulling an all-nighter and taking a sedative on top of that, I’d managed to hold on this long.
Having completed my mission, I fell into a deep sleep.

◇ ◆ ◇

While Imperial Crowell Academy was in the thick of midterm season, a modest ceremony was taking place at Beast King’s Tower. The remodeling project that had consumed over a month had finally come to completion.
“Serpent King, stand in the center! Yes, hold the scissors! Here we go!”
Gerth, flanked by executives on either side and holding a ribbon, smiled awkwardly at the camera. The modern technology of humans was truly remarkable.
His son Hubert had explained that by photographing with a camera and developing the film, one could obtain an image far more precise than a portrait.
Gerth decided to have it enlarged and hung on the top floor to show off to Evan Laef later. With that proposal accepted, Gerth cut the ribbon with scissors to the count of three, two, one, and received congratulations from the high-ranking beasts gathered there.
“There were quite a few complaints from the lower levels anyway. This worked out well.”
“Right. Everyone kept using the return function because they didn’t want to enter through that entrance.”
Even Hubert, who was particular about cleanliness, had complaints. Gerth decided to install a suggestion box for the lower-ranking beasts later and entered the main gate of Beast King’s Tower. Unlike before, it certainly didn’t smell, and the atmosphere wasn’t gloomy anymore.
“Whenever a corpse appears—whether beast or human—the tower automatically swallows it and transports it to the processing facility.”
“At the facility, we dry it thoroughly to remove moisture, let it age, and then use it as fertilizer for the fields.”
“How environmentally conscious.”
This year’s rice harvest will be bountiful. When Gerth made that remark while thinking of his picky son, the executives each added their own comments, unanimously praising that the Serpent King’s words were absolutely correct.
Hubert couldn’t digest wheat flour, so I’d had a hard time since he was young. Gerth reminisced about events from over a hundred years ago and grew sentimental.
I couldn’t feed an omnivore only meat every time. Gerth, who had crossed the continent searching for grains with nutritional value excluding wheat, eventually succeeded in finding rice seeds in the tropical rainforest at the southernmost tip of the continent and cultivating them.
Watching Hubert eat rice cooked from the first harvest with such delight—how moving it was. Gerth suppressed the welling emotion and received his son’s report.
“The garbage dump that we kept hidden by dimming the lights—I’ve completely cleaned and reorganized it, Father. I even planted birch trees and gave it a more Nordic aesthetic.”
Yes, lately everyone’s been saying Nordic this and Nordic that everywhere. Gerth patted the head of Hubert, whose tail was wagging in anticipation of praise, and continued listening to the explanation.
Hubert had declared he’d completely overhaul the place as a way to catch up on cleaning he’d been putting off, and he’d been incredibly enthusiastic about it—it seemed he’d made changes in many places. He’d made the traps as clean as possible in their aftermath, and filled one entire floor with powerful acid.
The design, the lighting, the meticulous arrangement—it was a transformation that seemed impossible for Beast King’s Tower.
Who would believe this was a tower-shaped dungeon teeming with beasts? It looked like nothing but a postmodern museum.
“Then I’ll send an invitation to Evan Laef and be on my way!”
Yes, go quickly and come back. The sun is still high in the sky, so you can bring him directly if you wish.
Gerth simply nodded without revealing his true feelings, but Hubert understood perfectly, shouted that he’d bring him if he could, and quickly slipped out of the tower.
I had been so absorbed in concentrating all my mental power and mana to adjust the tower according to Hubert’s design that I’d lost all sense of time. More than a month had passed—I hadn’t realized it.
Humans grew by leaps and bounds each day, and I worried that Evan Laef might have changed so much I wouldn’t recognize her. There was even a possibility she’d forgotten about me. Was a month long or short by human standards? I had no intuition for such things.
Long ago, the Dragon King had once wept bitterly when a human he’d been close to died in his sleep. For some reason, anxiety crept over me, and I found myself pacing in place when the tower’s return function suddenly activated.
“Father! Something terrible has happened! Father!”
What? Had Evan Laef died during this past month? Why did the human race perish so quickly?
My heart sank, and before I could say anything, Hubert came rushing over and thrust a massive bird at me.
The enormous sparrow-like creature was weeping profusely, trembling with fear, and wore something resembling a burlap sack as clothing.
“Evan Laef has enrolled in the Academy in the Capital and cannot return until after the break!”
“I see.”
I was startled. I’d thought her lifespan had ended. If it was time for school, there was no problem yet. When a human went to school, it meant she still had a long time before death.
“That’s why I told you! We should have abducted her earlier! Now that she’s gone to school, everything is finished!”
“Nothing is finished, Hubert.”
“Yes, it is! Everything is finished!”
I had to endure listening to my son’s tirade as if I were communicating with the cosmos itself. His words made sense individually, but I couldn’t find any logical connection between the preceding and following contexts.
I understood that Crowell Academy was among the most prestigious institutions on the Continent. I understood that Evan Laef, having enrolled there, was a talented individual. But I could never find the connection between the suddenly introduced CC, fire-playing, and a marriage ending.
“Now everything is finished! Father, everything is finished!”
“I am not finished.”
“But Evan Laef has eyes! Of course she’d prefer the fresher option!”
“Hubert. I am still fresh.”
“No, you’re not!”

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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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