The Status Effect Count - Chapter 20

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Abnormal Count — Episode 020
“Inventory!”
Ann called out without hesitation.
The bright red phantom of the hot spring appeared once more at her fingertips.
“It’s not red this time?”
The massive phantom of the hot spring wasn’t red at all—it was green.
As she moved her finger this way and that, the green shifted to red, and that peculiar warning sound chimed again.
[!This location is not suitable for installation!]
[Installation possible]
[!This location is not suitable for installation!]
“Why does it keep flip-flopping like this?”
The spring just wouldn’t leave Ann’s fingertip.
Green appeared, then the moment she shifted slightly, it turned red and the warning sounded again.
It was incredibly frustrating and infuriating.
After several minutes of waving her hand around, Ann unconsciously flicked her finger dismissively.
And then—
Thump.
A massive object crashed to the ground.
“Eek!”
Ann squeezed her eyes shut and opened them to find the air before her thick with billowing dust.
Beyond it, the unmistakable sound of flowing water reached her ears.
[Installation complete!]
[You have installed an item in the field for the first time!]
[You receive the ‘Beginner’s Hot Spring Set’ as a reward.]
Finally!
Ann pressed both hands to her chest.
This hot spring would surely be the thing to solve the Count’s terminal condition.
Her intuition was telling her as much.
But as the pale dust before her eyes gradually settled, Ann’s expression began to distort.
The spring that lay before her eyes……
The thing that would solve the terminal condition……
The savior that would erase her debt……
“Ugh, what is that stench!”
Contrary to her hopes, the spring was covered entirely in mud and filth, buried under fallen leaves in a state of absolute squalor.
Judging by how long it hadn’t been used, moss had accumulated thickly on the stones around it as well.
If she bathed the Count in this spring, he’d catch diseases he didn’t even have before!
Ann pinched her nose and backed away.
“How did this happen? Am I really supposed to wash the Count in this place?”
Jaerong-i sat on a branch near the spring and tilted her head in confusion.
“Pip?”
“…Yes. What would you know about it, anyway.”
Ann let out a sigh.
Looking at the spring again, she felt a wave of helplessness wash over her.
Filthy, foul-smelling, utterly unsanitary.
“Well then, I’ll have to do what I do best.”
Ann rolled up her sleeves.
And she set about cleaning and clearing the spring with determination.
Sweeping away fallen leaves, scraping out mud, disposing of debris……
And then something miraculous happened. The spring began to clean itself.
Water surged from the center of the spring, pushing out the filth, and the trash Ann had set aside outside vanished as if by magic.
“All done!”
Moments later, Ann wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead with satisfaction.
As the spring pushed out impurities, Ann fished them out and set them beyond the spring’s edge. Then the debris would vanish in an instant. After scrubbing so thoroughly, even the moss-covered stones had become spotless.
“And the smell is lovely now.”
Ann murmured contentedly, when suddenly a notification panel flashed into view.
[Cleaning complete!]
[You have gained experience points!]
“Yes. Yes.”
[You have opened the <Fairy’s Wish Hot Spring>.]
The Hot Spring Area Effect is now active.
The hot spring effect does not stack with other effects.]
‘Fairy’s Wish Hot Spring?’
That must be the spring’s name.
“But it’s far too grand to be called a fairy’s spring.”
Connected by stone walls, the spring was a massive hot spring with a two-tiered structure.
Around the waterfall that poured forth endlessly warm water, the upper level appeared only as a shimmering afterimage, but climbing the hidden stairs revealed a chamber below no less spacious than it.
Divided into two levels, it seemed easily capable of accommodating at least twenty people at once.
“A fairy, a fairy…?”
Now that she thought about it, there was a small statue shaped like a baby beneath the waterfall.
It was a statue of a cherub with a bun hairstyle, sporting tiny butterfly wings on its back.
But Ann found something else more pressing than the spring’s name.
“An effect, then…”
So she would have to wash the Count here, after all.
“But how am I supposed to get the Count all the way out here?”
“Hm?”
“Why are you only asking now? I was too busy cleaning.”
The moment she’d glimpsed that filthy state, she’d been consumed with the thought of scrubbing him clean.
“If I asked him to step out for a moment, do you think he’d come here?”
The Count’s lukewarm expression flashed through her mind.
She couldn’t simply drag him along.
The Count was a head taller than Ann, and a war hero besides. She could hardly force him anywhere against his will.
Growl.
“…Well, let me eat something and think this through.”
Her stomach rumbled from all that scrubbing and wiping.
Ann quietly made her way back down the mountain.
* * *
The Mansion lay silent in the gathering darkness.
The unwanted visitors who’d roamed the corridors and the servants fleeing about were nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe I’ll sneak off to grab a snack?”
Ann held her candlestick aloft and walked slowly down the corridor.
She was nearly at the Lobby.
Rustle—
“Hm?”
Ann froze in place. Had she just heard something?
Tensing, she peered down the corridor. The sound seemed to come from the western branch of the great hallway that led from the Lobby.
‘There’s nothing down there.’
The western corridor, where the Library and Exhibition Hall stood, was rarely frequented.
Ann raised her candlestick toward the western passage, but saw nothing.
“Hello? Is anyone there?”
No answer came. The corridor remained silent. Had she imagined it?
Just as Ann was about to turn back, a soft thud echoed from somewhere.
“Oh!”
She swung her candlestick forward, and something jutted out at the far end of the corridor.
Something that hadn’t been visible a moment before.
An uneasy thought crossed her mind at once. A thief? An intruder?
Ann swallowed hard.
“Is someone there?”
Or perhaps a rat. Though it looked too large to be a rat.
Her mind sharpened in an instant. If it was a rat, she had to catch it before it spread throughout the entire Mansion.
Once vermin started multiplying, the Mansion would be in real trouble. Miss even one, and they’d swarm—chewing through fabric, bedding, everything in sight.
‘And the Count’s bedding is made of natural wool, no less!’
What was that worth? At least one gold coin.
Ann rummaged through her Inventory and pulled out a long stick.
Her faithful companion during laundry day—and now pressed into service to protect both life and the wool bedding.
“Come on now, be reasonable and…”
As she crept forward, a fluttering sound came.
It was a real rat. Ann scanned the dark floor, her attention fixed on not missing anything that might dart out.
Something suddenly burst from the end of the corridor.
No, wait—this size…
This isn’t a rat.
“Excuse me, is someone there?”
Before Ann could finish speaking, a figure rushed forward and seized her wrist with a rough grip. The sensation was deeply unpleasant.
“Kyaaaah!”
The figure yanked Ann up by her collar. It was a face Ann recognized.
“…Eccum?”
“Ann Maretta!”
Eccum smiled—more menacingly than Ann had ever seen before.
At the piercing shriek, servants who had been sleeping huddled together jolted awake and spilled into the corridors.
Lamps flickered to life in every direction.
“What’s happened?”
“What? What is it?”
The servants in their nightclothes gathered in the hallway, bewildered.
Belanche pushed through their midst.
“What’s going on? Ann Maretta. And…”
Her gaze shifted toward the other woman.
“…Eccum.”
Eccum seized Ann’s wrist and wrenched it upward.
“This girl was trying to curse the Mansion!”
What? Me?
* * *
Near dawn, the Reception Room of the Mansion blazed with light.
“Hmph. What in all this is supposed to mean.”
Dern grumbled.
Not only the servants roused from sleep, but Dern and his retinue arrived late to crowd into the Reception Room.
Three women sat upon the sofa placed in the center of the room.
Belanche, the head maid; Eccum; and a young servant girl.
Belanche spoke first.
“Let’s hear what happened.”
“I saw it myself. This child creeping about in the dead of night, doing something strange.”
Eager to seize the advantage, Eccum poured out her words.
Belanche turned to Ann and asked her directly.
“Is what she says true?”
“No! I wasn’t moving about, and I didn’t do anything strange…”
“Lies! Everyone here saw you wandering through the Mansion and getting caught by me!”
Eccum cut off Ann’s words harshly, but Belanche’s frown deepened as she checked the woman’s outburst.
“She is a servant of this Mansion. It is only natural that she should move about within it.”
“But—”
“But nothing. Weren’t you the one who left this place? Eccum.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————