The Status Effect Count - Chapter 17

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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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Abnormal Status Count 017
“Me? How deeply in my heart do I cherish this Preneta…….”
“Preneta is currently under strict restrictions on outside access.”
Belentze repeated it like a parrot, her expression unmoved.
The nobleman who’d introduced himself as Dern flushed crimson across his cheeks.
“Maid Chief. Why must you be so sensitive?”
The attendant standing to Dern’s left twisted his mouth and blurted in. He had the look of a mouse.
At that, one of Belentze’s eyebrows twitched.
“Preneta is currently under strict restrictions on outside access. This is an order from Nadan Preneta, the master of Preneta—are you disregarding his command, Baron?”
“That’s not it!”
The mouse-like attendant cut in, blocking Baron Dern just as he was about to flare up.
“How can we trust that such an order truly came from the Count?”
What?
At the audacious question, Belentze raised one eyebrow again.
The attendant, cowed by her bearing, stretched both hands out and laughed obsequiously.
“Now then. Listen to me. Recently, in the Capital, there are suspicious rumors about Nadan Preneta.”
Though he lowered his posture, his words still dripped with insolence.
“The Count who guards the Capital has been shut away of late—it seems some grave matter must have befallen him, or so they say.”
“Rumors are merely rumors.”
“Yet you haven’t shown your face to the outside world of late, have you? The Count who once always appeared punctually has vanished—as a subject of the Empire, I confess my heart is deeply troubled.”
“That’s true.”
In that moment, Baron Dern gathered his expression and composed a grave countenance as he rejoined the conversation.
“All the servants fled, didn’t they? We hear such ominous rumors, and—oh, I worry so for Nadan, I really do…….”
Who’s ‘big brother’ to you.
Baron Dern, who looked to be over forty, sniffled and made a show of weeping.
“But—”
“We simply wish to see his face. Surely that’s not too much to ask?”
The mouse attendant smiled cunningly and licked his tongue.
“Or perhaps the Count has already…….”
“My master is safe!”
Belentze cut in sharply.
At that, the mouse attendant flung both arms wide in exaggerated gesture, as though he’d been waiting for exactly those words. It was pure theater.
“Of course he is! The Count is a hero among heroes! To suggest that Nadan Preneta fell ill and passed—what nonsense that would be!”
The way he spoke was exactly like—
‘If you won’t show him to us, we’ll go out and spread the word. The Count is dead, and you’re hiding it.’
—saying precisely that.
“Maid Chief. Let us see the Count. We shall wait however long necessary.”
“Yes. Please let us set eyes upon the hero’s vigorous form once more.”
Baron Dern and his attendant were perfectly synchronized.
Belentze studied them with a rigid expression.
This Baron Dern who had appeared so suddenly, claiming to be a branch of Preneta’s house, was deeply suspicious…….
But scattered among Dern’s companions were faces Belentze recognized.
Servants who had made a disturbance and fled only recently.
She could not fathom what purpose had brought them back.
‘Have they come to spy?’
She had discovered belatedly that servants acting under the orders of other nobles had been embedded within the manor.
They had dared to damage the Count’s reputation and steal secrets from within the household.
The Count had commanded her not to pursue them, but to leave them be…….
How was she to deal with these rats who had plundered the Count’s coffers to fatten their own bellies, and now crawled back seeking to dig through his possessions again?
Belentze’s brow furrowed deeply.
Those clustered about Dern laughed without a shred of caution.
Then.
“The master’s coming in.”
An indifferent voice echoed down the corridor.
The short-haired maid standing at the top of the stairs with a listless expression descended slowly into the lobby.
“If you’re that curious, come in and have a look for yourself.”
“…….”
“Though I can’t promise much in the way of hospitality.”
Perna, who had silenced the entire gathering in an instant, swept her eyes over Dern’s party with an expression of disdain, then turned sharply on her heel.
It was then that Baron Dern’s voice burst out behind her.
“How dare you be so insolent!”
“Since the master has given his permission, I shall attend to you at once.”
Belentze bowed quickly.
Baron Dern, having missed the moment to express his anger, cleared his throat with a cough and began fiddling with his mustache.
* * *
The Baron Dern’s entourage, now staying at the Preneta estate, soon showed their true colors.
‘Ugh, don’t you have something nicer to wear? I thought a Count’s household would have better taste!’
‘Tsk, is this really the food served in a Count’s home? Even our pigs wouldn’t touch it!’
‘Does the Count know about this treatment? Good heavens, Count—do you realize your own brother Dern is being treated this way!’
Though they’d claimed to have come visiting the Count, they never set foot in his chambers—only demanded fine fabrics, rare spirits, and delicacies. The requests were endless.
“You came to see the Count, right? So why haven’t you left the guest rooms at all?”
“Did you come here just to torment us?”
The servants grumbled, but there was scarcely time to complain. The bell rang out again.
Yet the problem wasn’t Baron Dern alone.
* * *
“What’s this!”
When a loud voice erupted from the storage room, Anne quickly pressed herself against the doorframe and poked her head inside.
It was a gaunt man and Jack.
The gaunt man acted as though he and Jack were well acquainted.
More than well acquainted, in fact.
“I told you that’s not how you use this! Hand it over! Really, for someone so useless, you’ve got….”
“G-Gai.”
The man whom Jack had called Gai snatched the Account Ledger from Jack’s hands and smacked Jack’s head with it.
Jack’s face flushed crimson as he hunched his shoulders.
It was Jack, who wore his stiffly pressed formal coat with such pride, who took such obvious pleasure in his title of apprentice butler.
But before Gai, Jack appeared to be nothing more than a very small child.
‘Who is that man?’
Anne frowned.
Now that she looked more closely, that fellow with the freckles and carrot-colored hair—she’d seen him somewhere before….
“P-please, you quit anyway….”
Ah.
She remembered.
‘That troublemaker!’
The attendant who used to slip away to the back courtyard to smoke in secret.
She could perfectly recall how he used to flirt shamelessly with any maid passing nearby.
Anne’s eyes widened. But wait—hadn’t he fled that day?
That day when thunder and lightning fell without warning. Gai was one of the servants who had run away that day too.
So why was he back at the estate?
“So? Because I quit, I’m not even your senior anymore, is that what you’re saying? Huh, Jack? You really think that?”
Gai waved his hand in a threatening manner.
Without thinking, Anne clenched her fists. Jack, terrified, stumbled backward.
“Just because I take it easy on you….”
Gai, a sneer curling his lips, advanced toward Jack with his fist raised. The moment Anne was about to step in,
“Don’t.”
Someone grabbed her urgently.
It was Peter.
Peter pulled Anne into a corner of the main house’s corridor and hid with her.
Anne whispered in frustration.
“Are you just going to leave it? He’s about to get hit!”
“Gai’s always been like that—picking on anybody for any reason is his daily pastime. If anyone actually steps in to stop him, things get much worse.”
“But still….”
Anne turned back with a worried expression. Peter shrugged.
“Taking a hit and having it be done with is better. You know that already, don’t you?”
True enough—no amount of reason can sway someone looking for a quarrel.
But what was puzzling
“Why is he even here?”
“Looks like that Baron brought some of the old staffers with him. They’ve been going around bullying other kids too.”
What?
“Why would they do something like that?”
Anne’s face showed disbelief.
A servant returning without permission was strange enough, but one stirring up trouble wherever he went? It made no sense—one bewildering thing after another.
Peter shrugged.
“How should I know? I figure the nobles have their schemes hidden from the likes of us. That’s just how they are.”
Well, such things happened. Ann found herself glancing toward the storehouse, uneasy.
Peter suddenly stepped into her line of sight.
“Don’t go poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. You’ll only end up hurt worse for it. You know that……”
Peter trailed off, his gaze lingering on her hair.
He was worried about her.
“If you spot anyone you know, slip upstairs right away. The Count’s on the second floor—nobody dares make a fuss up there.”
“I know. I know.”
Peter’s face remained creased with concern.
“Something tells me you’re going to stumble into trouble no matter what.”
“Tch—”
Well, I’m already knee-deep in it, aren’t I.

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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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