Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 323

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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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“There’s nothing strange about that at all! Anyone among you who can manifest wings or has dragon characteristics—be honest and raise your hands!”
After I reassured the children and gave the signal, three younger sisters including the Starving Child who had manifested wings, and one younger brother raised their hands.
“Listen well! Duchess Neftis is a dragon! It’s perfectly normal for you to be half-human, half-dragon!”
“Wow!”
“That explains it! I always thought Mother possessed beauty that transcended humanity!”
“To think someone as ordinary as me harbors such a secret origin! I’m deeply moved!”
“She just doesn’t age much, and she’s beautiful!”
“But Father doesn’t age either? Is Father a dragon too?”
“No! Father just has a youthful appearance!”
“Wow!”
An even louder cheer filled the mansion. Though I suppose it’s more remarkable for an ordinary human to remain young and beautiful than for a dragon to do so.
“I’ll have Samryong or Professor Ilyong give special lectures to the half-dragons later.”
For now, let’s not delay and just play. Today’s star is Rael, so we should do whatever Rael wants to do. When I gave them the choice, my younger sibling glanced at another sibling and smiled softly.
“Let’s play baseball. Luan would like to show her skills to you as well, Sister.”
The sibling bonds among the Neftis children are truly radiant. Despite what their parents are like, they’ve all grown up wonderfully. My heart swelled so much that I wiped away tears I hadn’t even noticed falling, gathered the equipment, and headed to the garden.
The power difference was so enormous that I decided umpiring would be better. So I stood behind the catcher, but my younger siblings looked dissatisfied.
“We want to play with you, Sister!”
“It may be difficult, but could you join us?”
Hmm… if I turn off my superhuman skills and only use one hand and one foot, I might be able to play while holding back. Besides, baseball isn’t a sport where one person’s skill alone determines victory.
At my siblings’ request, I left the umpiring to the butler’s apprentice and took the field as the number one batter for Mitchell’s team. Luan was pitching for the opposing team, and though I swung the bat with a light heart, a ball that was anything but light whistled past me.
“Strike!”
A fork ball clocking around 150 kilometers per hour dropped almost vertically. The Neftis Children’s Baseball Team’s reputation for leading the nation to championship wasn’t unfounded.
“This is fun.”
Now that’s my younger sibling. I adjusted my grip on the bat. I may have said I’d keep my physical abilities at minimum and use only one hand and one foot, but I wouldn’t hold back anymore. I got serious, and when the second pitch came, I smacked it cleanly over the mansion’s fence. As I rounded third base at full speed, Luan’s face fell, but she didn’t lose her composure and struck out the next batter.
“Three outs! Change!”
The game continued, and after a fierce match, Mitchell’s team won 11 to 9. Luan Neftis, the pitcher for Rael’s team, removed her baseball cap to pay respects to her team and the field, then cried as if summer had ended.
“….”
I should have let them win.

◇ ◆ ◇

As summer ended in the youthful sense of the word, Luan busied herself running about preparing to inherit the title. I had assumed Rael would cling to his ducal position no matter how much he married into the Imperial Palace, but he yielded it to his younger sibling—quite a bold move. Apparently that’s created quite a workload.
From minor matters like updating genealogies and portraits, to making the rounds of relatives again and submitting formal reports to the Emperor—Luan and her siblings are working incredibly hard to complete the succession ceremony within my vacation period.
Even during the school term, if Luan’s succession ceremony were to occur, I’d make time to attend. There are plenty of ways to manage it. We could arrange our own break, or arrange our own break, and so forth.
“Sister! We’ve received word that the heir of House Letem will be visiting soon!”
“Why on earth?”
I was planted at the Neftis Townhouse during my vacation. Since it was my younger sibling’s last time living at the family home, I’d gotten permission from all three of my husbands and was contentedly sipping peach juice when a carriage belonging to an uninvited guest came racing toward us from afar.
From three thousand meters away, it was unmistakably the carriage of House Letem, and out stepped a gorilla with strikingly crimson hair, who came huffing and puffing while calling out my name.
“Yaaaagh! Evan! Evan Mitchell! Where are you! You’re dead, seriously!”
Huh? What’s gotten into Reina? We haven’t even been fighting lately, and there’s nothing particularly antagonistic between us. The only reason Gorilla Reina’s fury would be directed at me is the inferiority complex she’s nursing over my blissful life with three husbands.
“Legendary Orb!”
“…!”
Wait, when did this lunatic acquire a Legendary skill?! I jumped off the veranda in shock.
“Reina! Have you lost your mind!”
“Burn it all! Legendary Orb of Hellfire!”
“Yaaaagh! Legendary Frost!”
The crimson flames spreading from Reina gradually took on a blue tint, then shifted to violet. Is this madwoman insane? Just how high a temperature was that flame?
“Calm down! Calm yourself, Gorilla Reina!”
“Graaaagh!”
“I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’ll help! Absolutely, no matter what!”
“Uuuuugh! You damned bastard!”
With her hair standing on end as she vented her fury, Reina reduced a ten-meter radius around the Townhouse garden to complete ash before finally calming down. I’d poured nearly all my power into it, yet I couldn’t stop her flames. She’s truly a monster.
“Ugh, ugh, waaaah!”
What’s she crying about after doing all that? Reina walked out from the ash-covered ground and, apparently having truly lost her mind, pulled me into a tight embrace and began sobbing uncontrollably. She got angry the moment she saw me, then cried—has her mind broken? More importantly, don’t hug me outdoors like this; some of my fanbase will scream with delight.
“Waaaah! Because of you, I can’t even date men anymore!”
“Please don’t say things that some of my fanbase would enjoy!”
“Sister! If you’d informed me about the Heart of Flame and Jindo’s progress, couldn’t you have given me a heads-up!”
“It’s a misunderstanding!”
Now that I think about it, my own younger brother was part of that fanbase. I desperately explained to Rael that it wasn’t like that, then patted Reina’s back repeatedly until she let go.
“My ambition to date a hundred men, my long-held dream—it’s all ruined because of you!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ah, could it be….”
Sensing what Reina was crying about, Rael brought up a previous matter.
“Sister, you know how you provided that service to His Majesty the Emperor before.”
“Service?”
“Yes. You said you’d provide a service because His Majesty, being a control freak, might develop stress illness if he stepped back from state affairs under the pretext of pregnancy, and then you were imprisoned for sacrilege.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Pregnancy doesn’t just make your body heavy—there are significant hormonal changes, and who knows what aftereffects or complications might arise after childbirth. So I’m friends with Cecilia, and I had Cha Cha combine genes and send an egg. An infant who’ll resemble both Cecilia and Rael equally will be born soon—it’ll be incredibly beautiful.
Of course, since it’s a friend service, I’m prepared to help if Eugene or Kanna request it too. As for Reina… I’ll need to think about that carefully.
“That incident caused quite a stir in the Nobility Council.”
“Huh?”
“If we can produce an heir through the Egg anyway, then we can send a woman as Empress Consort.”
“Wh-what…?”
Now that I thought about it, that was indeed possible. There was no need for men and women to share a bed, and if two women mixed their genes, the offspring would invariably be female. In the succession struggle, possessing the female gender meant standing on advantageous ground compared to others.
“…Surely not?”
“It’s me, me! That damned Empress Consort candidate is me!”
“Oh….”
Count Letem had made a bold decision…. But then again, Reina, what was your mother asking you to do? Couldn’t you just refuse? At my words, Reina whimpered again, her eyes glistening with tears.
“If I don’t attend the formal meeting with His Majesty, he said he won’t give me the title of Count!”
You possess such tremendous power, yet you also seek to grasp authority in human society. Truly, you are the Flame King. Your greed rivals that of a Demon Lord.
“Why don’t you just go once? You can always get rejected and come back, right?”
“Hey! If it were me, of course I’d obviously become the favored Empress Consort!”
“Why are you so overflowing with confidence?”

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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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