The Status Effect Count - Chapter 30

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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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The Abnormal Count · Episode 030
“A sword?”
The moment Anne spoke, something burst from the undergrowth beside her.
Only the sharp whisper of wind cutting through air reached her ears.
“He just moved! Did you see?”
“No, I missed him. Damn it, the bastard’s fast. Where is he!”
Only Anne saw it—a man darting swiftly past the shouting hunters behind her.
In the snow-white forest, there was only one figure entirely black from head to foot.
As far as Anne knew, there was only one such person in this entire Empire.
The man in black hefted a Great Sword as tall as himself as if it weighed nothing.
Crack!
The man struck by Nadan’s blade fell without even a scream.
The man they had searched for so desperately—Nadan—vanished from that spot before the others’ eyes even found the corpse.
Blood erupted in all directions.
“It’s, it’s him!”
The hunters, having witnessed their comrade’s death up close, cried out in fear-stricken voices.
The fierce momentum with which they had torn through the forest to capture Nadan evaporated; the men stood frozen in place, paralyzed.
“Get your heads straight! He’s alone!”
One man, jolted back to his senses, drew his sword. The others nocked their arrows again, drawing the bowstrings taut as they braced themselves.
But.
Crack!
A choked cry.
Screams of agony rang out.
From the outer edge of the gathered group, men began to fall one by one.
As more and more collapsed under Nadan’s blade—so swift it was invisible, unable to mount a single counterattack—terror flooded back into the eyes of those still standing.
“Mo, monster……!”
When Nadan finally ceased, only two people remained alive in that place: Anne and Nadan.
Their eyes met.
Or did they?
Nadan approached Anne slowly.
As the bloodstained blade drew near her face, Anne’s eyes snapped shut without thinking.
…….
But Nadan passed her by, reaching instead for the Sword Scabbard lying on the ground. The edge of the scabbard passed cleanly through her body.
‘He doesn’t see me.’
No—more than that.
For the first time since arriving on Snowy Mountain, Anne saw Nadan up close, and he wore Black Clothing covering his entire frame.
Anne had never seen the Count she served dressed in such garments.
Though he kept to his Bedroom and dressed simply, the Count was still nobility.
He would never have worn clothes so tattered and torn, so damaged that mending seemed impossible.
‘But I’ve seen this before.’
Folded carefully in the deep corner of the wardrobe in the Count’s Bedroom.
A bundle of fabric that gave off a musty smell that seemed impossible to wash away no matter how many times it was cleaned.
Now Anne finally understood what that fabric truly was.
‘Then this place…….’
The man standing before her now had the same build as the Count she had always known, yet his face still bore the softness of a young boy.
The splash of blood across his youthful cheeks and jawline seemed incongruously beautiful.
Nadan wiped his blade with an indifferent expression. The blood splattered to the ground, reaching as far as Anne’s feet.
Still, she seemed invisible to him. He sheathed his sword and turned sharply in the opposite direction.
Without thinking, Anne followed after him.
Nadan’s world was one where blood and terror, death and life, swirled together in chaos.
Within that world, Nadan lived a life as barren and desolate as burnt wood or a dried well.
Do not stop.
Keep moving forward.
He had to survive, and to survive, he could not afford to pause for even a single moment.
He knew all too well that if he surrendered to resentment or rage, he would tumble into an endless abyss from which there was no return.
After walking endlessly in this way, he arrived at a place where he encountered people who utterly did not belong in his world.
Crown Prince Rwendalin laughed, shaking his hair that shone like gold and possessed such fine texture.
“The family name has quite the reputation. The estate is impressive too. I would have liked to give you a new name, all things considered—but why is the Emperor so stubborn about it?”
…….
“You don’t concern yourself with such things, do you? Well, if you move higher up, what meaning could a family name hold anyway? All the past glory will simply count as your accomplishment.”
The crown prince always dressed in ornately worked silver-plated armor.
He was among the Empire’s most formidable warriors, yet throughout the entire war, not a single blemish marred his polished metal.
“Hmph.”
The Grand General standing beside the crown prince looked at Nadan with unconcealed displeasure, his face tightening.
The Grand General’s own armor bore no scratches either, though his nostrils flared with barely suppressed irritation.
By contrast, the black clothing and cloak Nadan wore hung tattered, stained with dust and blood. He’d grown so accustomed to it he no longer noticed—though surely an unpleasant odor clung to him as well.
Had it not been for the crown prince’s presence, the Grand General would have stormed from the chamber. Better yet, he would have dragged Nadan out with him.
But since this was a hound chosen directly by his sovereign, he had no choice but to deliberately ignore the man’s shabby appearance.
Unlike the Grand General, Rwendalin paid no mind to such things. He clapped Nadan on the shoulder with a bright laugh.
“Hold on for about a year. Then I’ll raise you to the highest rank of nobility on the continent.”
……
“Why not show a little more joy? You’re no fun at all.”
The crown prince’s expression had turned petulant.
Nadan gazed quietly downward.
“I am content as I am, Your Highness.”
“Even though I offer you more?”
“I did not follow you in hopes of a lofty position.”
“Ha!”
The Grand General let out a scoffing laugh despite himself.
Rwendalin scratched his chin, his expression enigmatic.
He often regarded Nadan as though studying something he could not quite comprehend, and his face bore exactly that look now.
“……You always carry yourself as though free of all desire. Yet I offer you fair reward commensurate with your accomplishments.”
……
“Why is that? Do you have nothing you wish to possess? No longing that stirs your heart?”
……
“Soon much will be given to you. Does that not bring you joy? Surely you understand what it means to own something?”
He did not.
Nadan had never held anything in his hands.
Neither family nor home.
Rwendalin’s fingers traced across the desk. A great continental map spread across its surface bristled with countless pins.
“I intend to give you so very much. It is only proper recompense for those who serve me. Above all, I wish to see the look on your face when you behold what I have placed in your hands—that bewilderment.”
The crown prince’s expression had turned playful, yet beneath it burned a pure desire. The face of one who believes all the world belongs to him.
“That unchanging face of yours, that expression that finds nothing amusing no matter what—I do so want to see it become like mine……”
That would never come to pass.
Rwendalin, unaware of this truth, gazed down at Nadan’s expressionless face with evident delight.
In the Throne Room, the most splendid and grand hall in the Imperial Capital, the Emperor sat upon his throne with a look of utter ennui.
Master of the continent.
A man who possessed everything the Empire held.
Though his life force had long since waned, he concealed his withering beneath resplendent ceremony.
“I bestow upon the Hero who saved the Empire the castle of Preneta. Bearing the name of Preneta, once the Empire’s cherished friend and loyal minister, you shall henceforth labor for the Empire’s prosperity.”
‘Hero’
Nadan was a blade that had been honed so fine it could cleave anything, and the one who wielded him was the Crown Prince Rwendalin.
Therefore, the Hero had to be the crown prince.
Yet even though he had tasted all the world could offer, the Emperor still would not yield the highest seat in the Empire, forcing Rwendalin to step back one pace.
Instead, the title was passed to Nadan, the crown prince’s knight.
“……I accept your command.”
By simply bowing his head at the Emperor’s feet, Nadan had become nobility in a single breath.
Yet none of it felt as though it truly belonged to him.
It was as though he had been forced into ill-fitting clothes that someone else had left behind.
A warm garden in the heat of midday.
The woman seated across from Nadan smiled quietly and raised her teacup to her lips.
“Sir Nadan, there is something we have in common.”
“……I’m afraid I may have misheard you, my lady.”
The sunlight was so fierce that for a moment Nadan wondered if he had misunderstood her words.
But the woman spoke again, more clearly this time.
“I was saying that you and I share a certain resemblance.”
That could not be.
The woman before him, Saint Evangeline, seemed as though all the beauty of the world had been melted and molded into human form.
Saint Evangeline’s silvery hair caught the sunlight, glimmering with a soft radiance.

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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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