The Status Effect Count - Chapter 24

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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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An Abnormal Count · Episode 024
The next morning.
“I didn’t believe a word of it. You know that, right?”
“I’m sorry. Really, Ann.”
Why was everyone acting like this?
Ann, who’d come down for breakfast, found herself surrounded by Peter and his friends pouring out excuses and apologies.
“I’m fine. It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing!”
“That woman, her eyes were completely wild, I tell you!”
Ann scratched her head.
Peter and the others clearly felt terrible about not standing up for her during yesterday’s commotion.
The other servants, too, subtly showed their regret to Ann.
But it had been only Ecaume who’d cornered her in that chaos.
She understood why the others hadn’t taken her side. She wasn’t upset about it!
Servants learned early which moments called for speaking up and which demanded silence.
“Out of the way!”
Just then Sonya burst from the Kitchen, thrusting a large basket into Ann’s hands.
The weight of it made Ann sway slightly.
“What is this?”
“Eat!”
Huh?
Peeking into the basket, Ann found it generously packed with sandwiches, apples, cookies, and milk.
But I only asked if there was something simple to eat for breakfast. Isn’t this a bit much?
Peter whispered quickly.
“Sonya worried about you the most. She was worried about you all night, I’m telling you.”
What?
Now that he mentioned it, the young cook’s cheeks looked hollow, and her eyes were dark with exhaustion.
The moment their eyes met, Sonya flared up.
“Without a shred of evidence, you’d treat me like that just because I have black hair—it’s too much!”
“Oh, but… Netherians do face prejudice, after all…”
“You said you weren’t Netherian!”
Why was she so angry?
Ann’s expression clouded with confusion.
Because the breakfast Sonya had prepared was so generous, they ended up sitting in that ‘hideout’ they shared and dividing it among themselves.
“Besides, that… the rumor’s incredibly old.”
“Right. Who actually believes that stuff nowadays?”
Didn’t you all jump when you first saw me?
“And how could someone as scatterbrained as her cast a Curse anyway?”
Isn’t that an insult to me?
“Don’t worry anymore. The Knights have returned.”
“They won’t be able to bother us again, right?”
Peter spoke with his mouth full of apple, a note of swagger in his voice.
Come to think of it, Peter was a Knight Trainee. He was always plugged into Estate gossip about the Knights.
The Knight Order that had arrived yesterday were the Count’s direct retainers—an elite unit that moved at his command.
The Knights who’d rushed here to deal with the Capital Estate’s troubles had swiftly reorganized the Estate.
The atmosphere had shifted entirely in a single day.
There was a sharp edge of tension now, which actually made it feel more like an aristocratic household?
It was a peaceful morning—the constant ringing of bells to the Kitchen had finally ceased.
Ann ventured a cautious question.
“Um, what happened to the Viscount and the head maid?”
“They’re locked in their rooms, I heard. The Knights are standing guard outside the door.”
People said there was crying sounds from inside the rooms. Some who’d tried to sneak away at dawn had been caught and confined.
“Serves them right. Who told them to cause such a scene?”
“We all suffered because of it.”
“You suffered the most of anyone, Ann.”
All her friends’ eyes turned back toward her.
Oh no, not this again.
“Ann, we’re really sor—”
“No!”
Ann hastily cut off her friends as their faces began to crumple with remorse.
Why not ask for help with that instead?
She’d been turning the Earl’s problem over in her mind all afternoon, searching for a solution.
“……If you really don’t mind, there’s something I wanted to ask…….”
Ann, who’d been scheming away, pulled her friends close and whispered.
They exchanged looks of bewilderment—what kind of request was this?—but nodded anyway. It wasn’t a difficult favor at all.
Phew.
Ann exhaled with relief.
Perfect. This was a brilliant move—the perfect excuse to invite the Earl to the hot spring.
Ann was grinning wickedly as she popped a sandwich into her mouth when—
“Ann Marita.”
Valence, standing at the far end of the corridor, called out to her.
The servants scrambled to their feet in alarm, but Valence waved them down with a hand.
“Ann, a moment?”
“Yes, of course!”
Ann hurried to compose herself and stood, then Sonya thrust a little bundle into her arms—cookies, by the look of it.
She wanted Ann to take these with her?
Though bewildered, Ann read the intensity in Sonya’s gaze and reluctantly hugged the bundle to her chest, then hurried toward the head maid at the end of the corridor.
What was this about? A scheduling issue?
“I was told not to come in until afternoon—”
“Yes. Your mistress mentioned it.”
Then what was this?
Ann stood up straight and looked up at the head maid.
“Is there something you need me to do, ma’am?”
Valence shook her head.
Then what?
As Ann puzzled it over, the head maid’s next words were utterly impossible for her to have anticipated.
“You may take today off.”
“I’m sorry?”
“No matter how short-staffed the Estate is, you can request a day of leave. It seems you didn’t know, so I’ve come to tell you. So today—”
“Oh, no, truly, I’m fine!”
Ann waved her hand quickly.
She’d planned to convert all her precious leave days into money.
Even half-days felt like a waste, but yesterday the Earl had been so adamant about keeping her away that she’d grudgingly shut her eyes and rested through the morning.
How much had that pained her!
“It’s nothing, really. Besides, I slept well, so I can come back to work in a bit.”
Valence gazed down at Ann in silence.
Strangely, her expression resembled the Earl’s somehow.
After a long pause, Valence finally spoke with difficulty.
“……This is all my fault.”
“Ma’am?”
“As the head of this Estate, I allowed you—innocent as you are—to be harmed. I’m sorry for letting such a thing happen.”
“What? I—”
Valence bowed her head to her.
What on earth was this?
“Please don’t! I’m all right, really.”
“You’re doing your duty, and I have a responsibility to treat you accordingly. In all that turmoil, I should have stood by you more than anyone.”
“…….”
This felt strange.
Ann’s chest tightened with an unfamiliar warmth.
Valence, who apologized multiple times over, increased not only her compensation but also added extra annual leave.
Though she insisted Ann take today off again, Ann stubbornly refused and came to work anyway.
The bundle of sweets she carried in her arms and the expensive salve she’d been burdened with felt unusually heavy.
A strange feeling.
Ann had done all manner of work since childhood. Errands, washing dishes, serving in inns.
There were good employers and bad ones.
But this—this feeling was unfamiliar to her.
As she reached the end of the corridor and her workplace, an unfamiliar figure stood waiting.
“Oh. Hello there, maid.”
Who was this?
A carefree-looking man grinned and waved at her.
The man with his hair carelessly tied back was someone Anne had never seen at the Estate.
‘Is he a knight?’
Yet he wore none of the Estate’s livery, and his bearing seemed rather that of a wastrel than a proper knight.
“You just thought I look like a wastrel, didn’t you?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t!”
Anne started and denied it hastily, and the man laughed freely.
How did he know? Was he reading her mind?
“And now you’re wondering if I can read minds, aren’t you?”
“Ah!”
Anne bolted from the room to escape the Mind Reader, and he followed her with a grin. She burst straight into the Count’s bedchamber and cried out his name loudly.
“My lord!”

At the shout, Nadan looked up.
The Count—who never left his bed before late afternoon—was sitting at his desk.
“Are you feeling well, sir?”
“……That’s what I should be asking you.”
He set down the stack of documents and let out a rueful smile.
Then he turned to the man who had followed Anne in and offered him a light reproach.
“Don’t overdo it, Hayden.”
“Haha, my apologies. Your reactions are simply amusing. The expressions on your—”
“Anne, prepare some tea for me.”
“Tea, sir?”
Tea? How strange. The Count always insisted on cold water.
Anne gestured toward the Mind Reader with her eyes and asked.
“Should I prepare Mind Read— that is, something for our guest as well?”
“What do you mean, ‘for me’—”
“Forget about him. Bring him cold water instead. Maybe it’ll help him regain some sense.”
“Excuse me, are you listening?”
“Yes, sir!”
Ignoring the bewildered protest, Anne hurried out with the tea service.
* * *
Once Anne had disappeared beyond the door, Hayden’s playful expression faded, and he turned serious.
“I’ve had the men who caused the commotion detained. We’ll be interrogating them shortly.”
……
“And as for the missing knights—”
Hayden dropped to one knee with a heavy thud.
“Punish me, my lord. The fault lies with me for failing to manage the knights properly.”
“That’s not your burden to bear. I was the one who raised Jeffer Roland to knighthood and appointed him captain of the Estate’s guard.”
Nadan grimaced.
Jeffer Roland—the youngest among the knights, beloved by both the Count and his men—had always been one of unwavering loyalty.
Who could have foreseen that the moment trouble arose, he would betray Nadan and vanish without a trace?
“I swear I will find him.”

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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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