The Status Effect Count - Chapter 36

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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 036
“We fought like hell over this stuff.”
When mixed with weeds, the flowers fetched a poor price, but if she sorted them carefully, the profit was quite decent.
So every spring she was busy finding where the flowers grew best, staking her claim, and hiding the spots from others.
The memory of people who knew the flower’s value coming to blows over it drifted back to her.
Ann laughed sharply and quickly separated the weeds.
Before long, the borrowed sack was stuffed full of Spring’s Gold Dust.
“Phew. All done.”
Ann straightened her back.
She stowed the sack with the sorted flowers in her inventory, and shouldering the sack full of weeds herself, she returned to Hugo’s office with a satisfied expression.
“You’re telling me Ann did all this alone?”
Hugo gazed out the window in wonder.
The overgrown brush that had looked ready to burst forth with wild beasts moments ago was now neatly cleared.
“For now, I’ve only cleared away the weeds. If we plant some new flowers, the garden will look a bit more presentable. Does the Imperial Capital provide any supplies?”
“Ah, I’ll submit a request right away. But truly…… it’s been cleaned up in just half a day.”
“I’m rather quick with my hands.”
“What am I to do. I’m so indebted to you. I have nothing to give in return.”
The Royal Knights Order’s budget was always stretched thin.
The funds barely covered equipping the knights with necessities, leaving no thought for tidying the order’s buildings.
“Since distinguished guests rarely visit here, I thought it was fine to leave it neglected, but still…… it did weigh on my mind.”
“Don’t worry about it. I did it because I had nothing else to do here.”
She’d already received quite enough compensation.
Ann grinned shamelessly while hiding that fact.
Her smile only deepened Hugo’s gloom.
“Ah! Then…….”
Hugo, lost in thought, suddenly seemed to remember something and rummaged through a drawer in the corner of his office.
What he pulled out was a pair of thick gloves.
“They’re a gift I received. A craftsman of considerable skill made them. I think they’d be far more useful for Ann than for me.”
The snow-white gloves looked beautifully made at first glance, so finely crafted that Ann could never afford them on her wages.
Ann had been about to reach out eagerly when she hesitated.
[Sudden Quest!
Tidy the order’s garden! (Complete)
Reward: Hugo’s goodwill, Gardening Gloves (Horticulture +3)]
Huh?
When did this appear? Did I somehow miss it?
Bewildered as she was, Ann accepted the gloves from Hugo nonetheless.
* * *
The knights’ training ground.
Knights in uniforms little better than rags sprawled across the floor and groaned.
“Sometimes I can’t tell if I enlisted as a knight or as a wall repairman.”
“Obviously you came to work. Didn’t you know?”
The knights sighed in unison.
The Royal Knights Order’s duties went far beyond maintaining the capital’s security.
Inspections and escort duties, resolving citizens’ minor complaints, repairing walls and roads—all manner of maintenance work fell to them.
In short, they handled all the capital’s odd jobs.
“This is work we’re supposed to do anyway. It’s just that while the commander’s been away, we’ve been dragged around on all sorts of useless errands, so it’s been even busier.”
During Nadan’s absence, the Royal Knights Order had been run ragged as errand boys for high nobility.
As a result, all the order’s main duties had fallen behind, and now that Nadan had returned, it was time to get back to proper work.
“If only he’d exempt us from training…….”
“The commander would never do that.”
The knights, caught in a death-trap of training combined with grueling labor, were utterly miserable.
With the entire order mobilized for the capital’s road repairs, there was nowhere to run.
A young knight with a sharp upswept hairdo grumbled like a cur.
“It’s all because of those bastards.”
“Who, sir?”
“Huh?”
A round black shape suddenly popped into view against the blue sky.
The knights who jumped in fright sat up and only then made out who it was, letting out relieved sighs.
“Ann! You gave us quite a scare!”
“When did you arrive?”
“Just now. I brought lunch for everyone.”
This young maid, who smiled brightly even at the sight of the battered knights, had become the only comfort the order had known in recent days.
“Oh! I thought we’d missed lunch entirely.”
“Thank you so much. Really. There’s no one like you, Anne.”
“It was Rosanna from the kitchen who prepared it.”
“Then I’ll bow toward the kitchen and eat with gratitude to her.”
The knights made a show of bowing their heads with exaggerated solemnity toward the kitchen.
Anne laughed at the sight, delighted.
The knights, pleased that their performance had landed, lifted the corners of their mouths in genuine smiles.
The servants of the Imperial Capital, who saw this black-haired maid arrive with the count day after day, whispered among themselves.
‘There are two Netherlings!’
Everyone was taken aback to see not one but two Netherlings—creatures they’d believed to exist only once in the entire empire—wandering brazenly through the Imperial Capital.
‘Is this one also a blood-crazed monster like Count Nadan?’
‘She laughs so innocently, but surely she’s no different from the count?’
Yet the members of the Royal Knights Order paid no heed to such idle gossip.
They had all joined the Royal Knights Order out of admiration for Nadan Freneta.
For them, black hair was not a curse but an object of reverence.
The same radiance as the hero who had saved the empire.
The knights had no reason to treat Anne coldly.
Besides, they had grounds to counter those who disdained Netherlings.
‘Does anyone think our captain became so merciless just because of his hair color?’
‘That’s simply how he was made!’
Admiration and fear are separated by only a thread.
Those who had joined the order in admiration of the black-haired hero had experienced Count Freneta’s ruthlessness within days of enrollment.
Inhuman strength and steel stamina—their lord was a hero whom they dared not think of as anything remotely like themselves.
And so the knights nearly made a hasty generalization: perhaps all Netherlings were simply like this.
Had they not witnessed the black-haired maid who served him moving about with a bright, cheerful smile.
It was only after seeing Anne Marita that they truly understood.
‘This one person alone is strange.’
Such was their realization.
As a result, Anne had quickly made the acquaintance of all the Imperial Capital’s servants around the order without incident.
‘It’s odd—there’s no discrimination here, even though this is the heart of the capital.’
Anne, naturally unaware that the knights were subtly pressuring the servants on her behalf, held such naive thoughts, and whenever she had spare time, she’d volunteer to run errands for them.
Since she could hear so many interesting stories, she actually welcomed the errands the servants asked of her.
Anne asked with curious eyes.
“So who’s causing the trouble?”
“Ah, you’ve heard about it?”
“A little. Was it something I shouldn’t have overheard?”
“No, nothing like that.”
The knights exchanged glances.
The tactless youngest knight ventured to speak.
“The western lot, obviously.”
“The western lot? You mean the 1st Knights Order, whose commander is Lord Everett?”
The knights nodded in agreement.
The barracks of the 1st Knights Order, commanded by Lord Everett, and the 2nd Knights Order, commanded by Count Freneta, were stationed on opposite sides of the Imperial Capital—west and east.
“Now that I think of it, they wear such magnificent armor.”
Anne searched her memory.
The knights from the western fortress wore splendid Silver Plated Armor and blue cloaks that flowed long from their shoulders.
‘But the armor of the knights here is all worn down.’
Since they were all part of the same Royal Knights Order, their armor designs were identical at first glance, but up close, they couldn’t possibly be called the same.
One knight spoke with smoldering eyes.
“They just strut about in their new armor, showing off.”
“We’re working ourselves raw with repairs, yet the 1st Order never provides support—always making excuses about having no manpower.”
“Even though everyone knows they just loaf about all day!”
There was a disparity between the two orders.
One was drowning in excessive work while the other feigned ignorance—it was infuriating.
“And you should see how haughty they are! They pick faults with us over absolutely everything.”
At Anne’s simple remark, the grievances the knights had been holding back exploded.
“I mean, it’s not like we’re in a restricted area—why do they keep telling us to leave? Why come here in the first place? They act like they own the entire Imperial Capital!”
“Easy now. Easy.”

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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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