The Status Effect Count - Chapter 31

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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 Condition, Count — Episode 031
In those turbid, pale eyes lay a sorrow too profound to fathom.
Yet Evangeline, despite her fragile silhouette that seemed ready to shatter at any moment, possessed a spirit of extraordinary strength and nobility.
Evangeline’s true beauty lay in the warm hands that tended to the Empire’s wounded, scarred by endless war.
Was it not that very beauty and grace that made even the Crown Prince fall for her at first sight?
No wonder the Crown Prince had appointed Nadan—who had become the “Empire’s Hero”—as her personal guard.
Though it was far too emotional a decision for someone who, even after the war’s end, had been scheming for more efficient ways to deploy Nadan, everyone understood the Crown Prince’s will—for all who had encountered Evangeline even once loved her enough to gladly offer their lives.
Yet whenever Nadan found himself face to face with the Saint, something twisted in his stomach.
“I believe you may have misunderstood, my lady.”
“Have I?”
Her pale eyes trembled slightly. It was a sight both beautiful and pitiful, yet Nadan turned his gaze away.
Though no one resembled her, if forced to say, the Crown Prince came closer to her than Nadan ever could.
The Crown Prince with hair that gleamed like molten gold and the Saint with silver hair as cold as moonlight seemed to have been a perfect pair from the beginning.
“We are all people who depend on others to survive, are we not?”
Moreover, every time Nadan saw the Crown Prince and the Saint standing together, he felt as though he were gazing upon something infinitely distant—something he could never reach.
“We cannot live by ourselves, yet must endlessly search for reasons worth living for, and without even knowing what those reasons are, we are forced to prove ourselves again and again.”
This was why Nadan had never imagined hearing such sharp, thorny words from this woman.
Was the Saint not also saying that she did not live as she wished?
‘You? Standing in such a brilliant position?’
Evangeline looked at him gently, and for a moment he thought he glimpsed a subtle violet shimmer in her eyes.
Nadan exhaled sharply.
Again. That sensation of suffocation.
That nauseous feeling whenever he gazed into the Saint’s eyes.
He gasped for breath and barely managed to open his mouth. His mind reeled as his throat tightened unbearably.
“I—I never imagined you would say such things, Evangeline. You, Evangeline—”
“Me?”
“You are surely the most noble among us all, are you not?”
She laughed—a sorrowful, pitiful sound like a sigh.
“That is not for my own sake, is it?”
The Saint, her eyes gently folded, whispered.
“But the truth that I am being used by someone—that is mine alone. Just as yours is.”
……
“So we are not alike after all, are we?”
The Saint’s hair rippled in the breeze.
At that same moment, a violent sound—like something tearing apart—echoed in his ears.
The world blazed with light.
It was nothing like the world he had lived in until now.
Could this be what love feels like? Nadan dared to imagine.
* * *
Chirp~
A small green bird fluttered suddenly before her eyes.
‘What?’
Anne blinked slowly.
Darkness seemed to rush in all at once, and the beautiful garden she had been seeing vanished without a trace, replaced by a familiar landscape.
Fairy’s Spring.
‘What was I just experiencing?’
Until moments ago, Anne had been wandering through unfamiliar places.
First came the Snowy Mountain, where arrows fell like rain.
Then the inside of an old military tent.
Streets where people cheered.
The Palace, where sharp gazes fell like blades.
And then a garden where flower petals scattered like snow.
Those scenes had all been vivid, as if Anne had actually visited them herself.
The Anne who existed in those places seemed invisible to everyone, untouchable by anyone—yet……
“Did I. Just have a dream?”
Anne muttered blankly, pressing her hand against the ground. This time, her hand—not transparent—touched the rough stone floor.
“The Saint is the light of the Empire. I understand I am unworthy of her touch……”
In that moment, she heard the Count’s voice.
Anne’s head snapped up.
Right! A love story!
Glancing down, Evangeline saw that Nadan was still there, exactly as before.
As if no time had passed at all.
Yet what she had witnessed moments ago was something altogether different.
The image was vivid: a man withered and hollow, seeming ready to vanish from this world at any moment, blooming like a flower before someone—radiant and luminous.
‘That was the real him.’
It seemed Evangeline alone had traveled to that strange world.
Nadan’s confession continued.
“Yet whenever I stood before her, my heart would tremble in the strangest way. I could feel it so intensely—that my cursed body, kept barely alive, still possessed a beating heart.”
It wasn’t a love story he was telling, but something closer to a confession, almost a penance.
“Perhaps this curse is my punishment for harboring such unwarranted feelings.”
“…….”
In other words—he feared the gods had struck him down for daring to love a saint.
But Evangeline was no true fairy, and she could not fathom divine will.
When silence stretched long after he finished speaking, Nadan let out a weary laugh.
“I shouldn’t have said any of this.”
Evangeline felt a sudden pang of pity for him.
Perhaps it was from seeing his past—or what seemed to be his past—in that strange realm.
‘If you love someone, you love them!’
Why should one be punished simply for cherishing another’s heart?
He wasn’t loving someone forbidden, like in some cheap romance novel!
Besides, as a hero of the Continent, he was hardly beneath a saint in station.
And he was rich to boot!
Remembering the vast estates granted alongside his noble title by the Emperor, Evangeline clenched her fists.
‘You’re not lacking anything compared to her, Count!’
Evangeline—no, the fairy—let her indignation pour out.
“Gods punishing love? You must think the divine are petty fools!”
“……Fools?”
“Love is the most natural feeling in human hearts—it needs no justification! Though money does help!”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“Loving someone everyone adores is only natural! Act with pride! What do you have to be ashamed of? Even the Crown Prince, who has a betrothed, makes no secret of his love for the saint!”
Nadan drew a pained breath, clearly uncomfortable with someone speaking ill of his master.
Yet even Evangeline, ignorant of politics and rumor, knew this much.
Crown Prince Lewendalin had a betrothed from long ago.
It was a strategic match, as all noble betrothals were, yet there was a romantic tale—that before marching to war, the Crown Prince had left his betrothed a ring carved with a flower symbolizing her, a token of his love. For a time afterward, such Flower Rings had been fashionable among the nobility.
But when the Crown Prince returned from the battlefield and met Saint Evangeline, everything changed.
Now, everyone in the Capital knew that Crown Prince Lewendalin loved Saint Evangeline.
Evangeline felt a chill run through her.
‘What was his betrothed’s name again?’
The future Crown Princess—said to be the perfect model of a noble: virtuous, wise, and beautiful—had been utterly forgotten by everyone.
Evangeline pressed on without hesitation.
“In any case, you’re a hero! Haven’t you heard that heroes have many admirers? By my judgment, a face like yours could certainly court more than one woman.”
“……What—”
“Nobody asked for eternal love! I’m saying don’t be ashamed of your feelings! They belong to you alone, and no one has the right to judge them!”
“…….”
Nadan opened his mouth, then closed it again.
“You—I mean, Fairy, you truly speak the most bewildering words.”
Nadan clearly couldn’t make sense of what she was saying, yet the oppressive weight that had shadowed him seemed somehow lighter.
Evangeline smiled, watching a new plate appear above his head.
“And remember—don’t worry. I told you I would cure your curse, didn’t I? I stake the honor of the Fairy King on it!”
Around the plate, light burst forth like bright paper petals—pop!
[Quest Complete!]
[The Abnormal Condition of ‘Nadan Freneta’ has been cured.]
[The character’s abilities and stats return to normal.]
The explanation still made little sense to her.
But at last, that vicious Abnormal Condition vanished completely from above the Count’s head.
“……Thank you, Fairy.”
The Count’s pale blue eyes, which Evangeline had always seen frozen and rigid, now softened.
The glacial cruelty that had defined his gaze began to thaw.
As though spring had arrived in a single moment.
Evangeline caught her breath without thinking.
[Nadan Freneta’s Favorability Rating has increased.
Would you like to confirm?]
A message hovered before her eyes, but Evangeline had no mind to spare for it.
‘It was just a greeting. I wasn’t even talking to him—to the Fairy King.’
Evangeline pressed her hand against her chest without realizing it.

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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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