Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 39

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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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#39

“Aaaahhhhh!”
“Ohhhhh!”
“A door! A dooooor!”
After spending one night in the Dungeon and wandering for another half day, we finally discovered a door at the end of a dead-end corridor. This had to be Dr. Bruno’s Research Laboratory.
As Eugene pushed open the heavy iron door and stepped inside, a meticulously preserved study came into view.
For a wizard’s research laboratory, it was remarkably… ordinary. Books were simply crammed onto shelves, and something half-written lay scattered across manuscript paper.
“There’s probably a warp device here to get us back outside.”
Unlike the entrance mechanism with all those bizarre buttons, the exit device was straightforward. There had to be some kind of handle.
“Evan. If you came into the Dungeon, you must be looking for something, right?”
Tch, this Third Princess always had sharp instincts. My true objective was simply to clear the Dungeon, but if I just left like this, it would contradict my initial excuse.
If I had discovered the Dungeon’s location for some purpose and entered it, then finding something I sought here would make my presence seem natural.
“Well…”
“There seems to be nothing but books here.”
Princess Sera pulled a book from the shelf. In that instant, the original story’s content flashed through my mind.
Right. In the beginning, the Third Princess had retrieved a book from Dr. Bruno’s Dungeon and read it, and that experience profoundly influenced her decision to renounce the throne.
Because of Princess Sera’s declaration renouncing her succession rights, the First Princess’s opposition faction had sided with Seian Crowell, leading to his disastrous political maneuvers. Perhaps that book held the root cause of everything that made Seian Crowell reach for a throne he could never claim.
“No! No! Nooooo!”
I forgot the pain in my palm and smacked the book from the Third Princess’s hands, sending it flying. Then I quickly retrieved it and checked its contents.
Certain words stood out: social contract, revolution, equality, sovereignty, commune, and so forth.
This is pure communist propaganda!
“Reina!”
“Huh?”
“Skill! Flame skill, now! Hurry!”
“Hey, hey! You said using skills was dangerous!”
“Do it now!”
“I don’t know what you mean?!”
As Reina cast her skill toward the bookshelf, there was a loud bang and the desk erupted in flames. Honestly, whether it was the desk or the bookshelf didn’t matter—in a place this dry, a single spark meant game over!
“Ahhhhhhh!”
I kicked the desk toward the bookshelf, willing to risk burns. As it slid and tumbled, the flames spread toward the shelves, consuming the books in their path.
“Let’s go! Quickly!”
“A switch! I found something like a switch!”
I covered my nose and mouth with my clothes and activated the warp device. In an instant, all the Club members and several partially burned books were transported to the surface. Seeing the incompletely incinerated books, I panicked and struck Reina’s back.
“Hey, flames! More flames, now!”
“What?! What’s wrong with you?!”
Yes, if Reina is unexpectedly sharp, she might understand. I kept the others away from the book and whispered directly into Reina’s ear.
“All power originates from the people.”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Yes, if you’re nobility, those words would terrify you too.
Reina rubbed her ears as if she’d heard something grotesque and chanted Skill Flame. Seeing her reaction, Eugene approached with confusion, and when Reina relayed the same words she’d heard from me, Eugene let out a scream this time.
“Aaaagh!”
Eugene clawed at the ground with my harpoon, then Reina buried the book she’d turned to ash and tamped down the soil firmly. The Royal Family and Sunbird found their dramatic reactions curious and asked what the book contained, but the two representatives of the upper class shook their heads, saying they’d rather die than tell, and praised me as a model of nobility.
“Evan Laef. You are truly an exemplar of the Nobility.”
“I am not nobility.”
“Well, mages generally follow the nobility path anyway. That’s why you came here to deal with it in advance, right?”
Hmm… let’s go with that. That would explain my reason for entering the Dungeon. I’m a mage from the Magic Department with promising prospects of graduating first or second in my class, and even if I don’t graduate first or second, any noble household would eagerly adopt a mage who’s graduated from the Academy.
No matter which way it goes, my entry into high society is guaranteed. The two, having anticipated this far ahead, began pitching their own households to each other as they inevitably entered noble society, and soon started bickering again.
“First of all…”
Let’s head to the Infirmary first.
I still had seeping wounds on my hands, the Third Princess’s right fist was swollen twice as much as her left, and Eugene’s thigh had stopped bleeding but was puffy and bruised. Let’s not fight and focus on survival first. Everyone agreed with my opinion, and Princess Sera immediately instructed the staff to bring her personal physician and exclusive healer as soon as we found the Infirmary.
Once the situation settled and I was sitting on a bed catching my breath, a notification sound that had been quiet for a while rang out, and a window appeared.

The development has changed very slightly. Granting 1,000 experience points.

Experience granted due to development change. Was there a skill worth leveling up with this? I thought about it and clicked my fingers together to open my status window to check if the time limit had disappeared.

Evan Laef
Status: Blessing of Ursh
Experience: 1,000
R) Beast Charisma Lv.1 – 1,000 until next level
N) Horsemanship Lv.10
N) Mining Lv.8 – 800 until next level
N) Cold Resistance Lv.3 – 300 until next level
N) Poison Tolerance Lv.5 – 100 until next level
N) Gathering Lv.1 – 100 until next level
N) Hunting Lv.1 – 100 until next level
L) Cutting Corners
EX) Jack of All Trades

Mitchell Neftis
Status: Blessing of Ursh
Experience: 1,602
R) Ice Throw Magic lv.3 – 3,000 until next level
R) Accuracy lv.1 – 1,000 until next level
R) Superhuman lv.1 – 1,000 until next level
UR) Fusion

Thank goodness. The Dungeon had been cleared—the time limit had vanished. But no matter how I thought about it, there was no skill that urgently needed leveling right now. I’d hold off on deciding where to invest my points for now.
Since continuing to think was exhausting, I decided to lie down on the bed and rest my eyes for a moment.

◇ ◆ ◇

A week passed after that. Thanks to the Imperial Court healer Sera had brought, the wounds on my hands healed quickly, but the burn scars remained. If it didn’t hurt, I wouldn’t have cared, but everyone except me seemed displeased about it, their expressions darkening.
Even Seian would use volunteer hours as an excuse to put me to work, but he’d grasp my palm and stare at it for a long while, his face contorting before he’d just leave.
Now that I had free access to the Academic Department, I wished he’d have me clean or do laundry without hesitation. Since I had nothing to do in my spare time anyway, I wandered around Seian to enter the Academic Department, when his voice caught my ear and I quickly looked up the hill. There stood a brilliantly constructed Glass Greenhouse. Perhaps it had been built with funds donated by the Imperial Court.
“Oh.”
A scene from the original story suddenly came to mind, so I hurried up the hill. Just as I expected, Sera and Seian were arguing, surrounding a student.
“This bastard was stealing Imperial assets, so I punished him. What’s wrong with that?”
“No, Seian! According to the newly revised law!”
“I already know that! The scope of the Royal Family is defined as within twelve degrees of kinship from His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Then!”
“The law exists, but the question is whether it has actual effect! Given my position as a first-degree relative of His Majesty and social ethics, someone like a great-great-grandchild’s descendant is essentially a stranger!”
“W-well, that’s true!”
Oh, in the original story he’d been thoroughly beaten down one-sidedly. But now he’s fighting on equal footing? I felt secretly proud that providing the revised legal document had been worthwhile, when Seian pointed at the student he’d called a thief and unleashed his usual temperament without restraint.
“And I don’t want to acknowledge that this bastard is my relative, and frankly, I just don’t like him! His face is ugly!”
“Being so openly twisted in temperament is rather refreshing!”
Seeing Seian doing wrong things so straightforwardly gave me some reassurance, or rather, made me admire that very straightforwardness. Anyway, that’s how it is. I nodded in agreement toward the Third Princess, who must be feeling the same emotions as me, when Sunbird noticed me and brightened.
“E-Evan! Please, could you stop these two?”
As I was led toward the two by Apet’s hand, Sera and Seian both demanded I judge which of them was right.
I examined Sera and Seian’s faces carefully, then scrutinized the student being called a thief piece by piece. He didn’t have the midnight-blue black hair that symbolized the Imperial Court, didn’t resemble Sera and Seian in the slightest, and frankly speaking, he looked like a toad. No matter how distant a twelfth-degree relative might be, if the difference was this stark, who knew what accident had occurred in between.
“Seian is blameless. The law is at fault.”
“Exactly!”
“Ugh! How infuriating!”
I wasn’t sure how valid my judgment was, but at least a decision had been made between the two, and that was fortunate. Moreover, Seian hugged me tightly, pleased that I could occasionally say something right, so I laughed with delight and gently touched Seian’s waist.
“You pervert!”

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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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