The Status Effect Count - Chapter 39

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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 Count 039
Anne gasped, belatedly clapping a hand over her mouth, but it was already too late.
“……Did you just hear something, Your Highness?”
The Crown Prince swept his sharp gaze across the garden.
‘If I’m discovered……!’
Fortunately, Princess Odette didn’t seem to have heard Anne’s voice.
“As Your Highness well knows, there are few who can enter this place…….”
“Shh.”
Rwendalin cut her off, his hand drifting slowly toward his hip.
The sharp argument he’d had with Odette mere moments ago seemed like childish play compared to what was unfolding now.
From her distant hiding place, Anne felt a crushing pressure bearing down on her, and her breath caught in her throat.
“Identify yourself. If you do not emerge, you will not escape death.”
‘Whether I come out or not, I’m dead either way!’
The sound of a blade being drawn sang out, chilling in its clarity.
Crown Prince Rwendalin possessed an acute sensitivity to the presence of those around him.
‘A rat has slipped into the Imperial Palace?’
Though he had never stood at the vanguard of a battlefield, his prowess rivaled that of heroes.
The assassins he had personally slain would have filled two carriages with room to spare.
It struck him as odd that, for all his skill, he hadn’t noticed another presence in this garden until now.
‘Either an exceptionally skilled intruder, or…….’
“Your Highness, please stop.”
“Princess, wait.”
His senses sharpened, probing the surroundings.
It could be someone with such a small, unremarkable presence that they were easily overlooked.
‘That would explain why I didn’t notice.’
At best, a servant who had lost their way; at worst, some small creature.
‘But they were listening to our conversation.’
Without hesitation, Rwendalin slashed his blade toward the bush overhead.
Something severed in half tumbled down with a heavy thud. Rwendalin kicked it with his boot.
Thump—
As the object rolled across the ground, Rwendalin’s expression shifted to bewilderment.
“……A swan?”
* * *
Moments earlier.
A new notification blazed before Anne’s eyes.
[Level Up!]
Something burst with a bright pop, and suddenly stars scattered across her vision.
[Your level has increased.]
[Try using a new Skill.]
‘……A Skill?’
There was no escape route in sight, the Crown Prince was drawing closer, and the panel floating before her eyes was now blocking her view. Perhaps it could help…….
‘No, wait!’
This strange panel had always helped her through every difficult situation until now.
‘Even if each of those dire circumstances was caused by the panel itself…….’
Right now, she had to trust it!
The panel split into three, hovering before her eyes.
This panel looked entirely different from any she’d seen before. Three identical square panels each bore a different illustration.
A broom, a magnifying glass, and a maid?
‘What is this?’
As Anne narrowed her eyes, the first panel swelled larger.
[Broom Sweep
⇒Master of the Clean.
With a single sweep of the broom, you can instantly make the floor spotless.]
What on earth is this?
Anne blinked rapidly.
She’d thought it would offer her something useful, but this description was strange. Make the floor spotless?
Why would she need that now?
Anne quickly glanced at the second panel.
[Keen Eye for Detail
⇒A fastidious maid who overlooks not even a speck of dust!
you’ll be able to project anything hidden and dirty.]
……This might actually be tempting.
So if cleaning finishes and you later find a stain lurking in some corner, that won’t happen anymore?
No, wait—that’s not what’s important right now!
Anne quickly glanced at the final tray.
[Virtue of a Maid
⇒A maid is one who exists beside you yet does not exist.
Your superiors cannot perceive you.]
……This is it!
Anne quickly pressed her finger against the tray.
[Skill acquired!]
[Skill activated]
A pure white light spread outward and faded, but nothing happened.
When she suddenly lifted her head, a sharp blade was already flying toward her.
“Eek!”
Anne screamed and rolled away on instinct. Warm sunlight fell across her tattered clothes.
And before her, the marble-carved head of a swan tumbled across the ground with a dull thud.
How could any blade cut through something like that in one stroke?
The cut surface was impossibly clean.
That could’ve been my neck.
Anne’s face drained of color.
“What—? I could’ve sworn I sensed something here…….”
“Hic.”
Even as Anne sat sprawled on her backside directly in front of the crown prince, he merely glanced around.
As the blade rose again, Anne gasped and pressed herself flat against the ground. A thick hedge was cleanly severed horizontally.
The lush flowering shrub was left with only bare branches.
“Are you planning to render my garden unusable?”
“My lady. Did nothing jump out at you just now?”
Odette’s cold gaze swept over Anne and passed through.
“I see nothing but my poor swan.”
It was the truth. Neither the crown prince nor the lady saw Anne at all.
Even when Anne stood up abruptly, their eyes never turned toward her.
[Virtue of a Maid
A maid is one who exists beside you yet does not exist. You are hidden from the sight of those whose rank exceeds yours.
Time remaining: 5:00]
Never in her life had Anne been so grateful for her lowly position.
At least within the Imperial Palace, no one’s rank exceeded hers!
But wait.
Five minutes?
This effect has a duration limit?
The moment that thought finished, the displayed time changed to 4:59.
Then I can’t stay here!
“It was definitely here.”
Rwendalin exhaled a short, frustrated sigh.
“I told you to post knights in the garden as well.”
“Why would I need knights in my own garden?
The two of them began bickering, eyes locked on each other.
As Anne carefully backed away from the garden, tense and alert, neither of them noticed her.
‘A remarkable power.’
But there was no time to waste. She had to get back before the duration ran out.
To the Office!
“Jaelong! Take me to the Office!”
[Current location → Earl’s Office: fastest route navigation initiated.]
Jaelong’s eyes widened as a yellow line was drawn beneath his tail once more.
[1. Move 80m forward, then pass through the Swan Garden entrance]
What?
I can just walk right through the entrance like this?
Anne called out to Jaelong in panic.
“Wait, wait—let’s go back!”
[The return route will take more than 30 minutes from the current optimal path.
Cancel the current path being applied?]
Jaelong flew far behind Anne to point out an alternative route.
A new golden thread reappeared, curving back toward the space between the crown prince and Odette.
“……Let’s just stick with the original way.”
Invisible or not, she didn’t have the nerve to pass through that gap again.
Anne squeezed her eyes shut.
‘Trust Jaelong! Trust the tray!’
Following the golden thread, she glimpsed a marble archway entrance. Standing on either side were two knights dressed in the uniform of the First Knight Order.
Just as the eastern knights had warned, they looked nothing like people one could reason with—their polished silver armor gleaming, their expressions rigid and stern.
‘They said all the First Knight Order members were born nobility.’
Anne pressed down hard on her racing heart and hurried past the corridor.
Suddenly, one of the knights looked up.
“……Did something just pass by?”
“What? What passed?”
“There was a breeze from this direction……”
“There’s nothing there. Sir, were you dozing off?”
The knight glanced around and scratched his head.
Something small and light seemed to have swept past, but the path connecting to the garden inside remained empty.
[2. Twenty meters to the right!]
“Gasp, gasp,—oh gods, I nearly got caught……!”
Once the knights were out of earshot, Anne released her held breath in a ragged exhale and continued running.
[3. Down one flight of stairs, then use the middle corridor]
Three minutes left!
During that time, no one would see her—she had to bolt out of this place before the window closed.
* * *
Bang!
“Good heavens.”
Hayden, who had been lounging on Hugo’s sofa, jolted from his seat at the thunderous crash of the study door bursting open.
Why was she gasping like that?
Anne, who had come running in such haste, looked unusually disheveled.
‘Did someone hurt her?’
Hayden’s brow furrowed.
Her maid’s dress was crumpled and hanging loose—by every measure, she looked as though she’d been rolling through the corridors.
Could it be the western lot……

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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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