I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 12

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

* * *
“Hey, Pipi? Let’s grab this on the way.”
“Oh, hello……?”
I accepted the sandwich Lizz held out to me at the door, confused by the greeting.
Every morning I’d been served lavish meals, but today there was only a simple sandwich and a single bottle of juice.
Though I had to admit, judging by the thick steak tucked inside, it didn’t look cheap.
“We’re not going to the Tower Master’s office?”
“Nope. Today he said to come somewhere else instead.”
That was unusual.
I tilted my head as I followed Lizz.
‘Did I catch heat for what happened yesterday?’
I’d been relieved I hadn’t gotten scolded then, but maybe he’d had second thoughts overnight.
‘If I’m going to cry and beg forgiveness, I’d better fill my stomach first.’
I wasn’t entirely sure which came first—repentance or absolution.
But getting scolded on an empty stomach just feels unfair.
I opened my mouth wide and devoured the sandwich with gusto.
I guzzled down the apple juice Lizz handed me too, glug-glug.
‘He doesn’t think this is all I like, does he?’
Apple juice kept showing up every day, which made me suspicious.
By the time I’d finished everything on the way there, we’d arrived at the Tower Master’s Laboratory.
As I stepped through the door, I spotted the Elders I’d met at the company dinner.
Unlike that evening, they wore robes that looked more like laboratory coats, which made the whole atmosphere feel heavier somehow.
Maybe it was because they all wore such serious expressions.
‘The Tower Master is…….’
I turned my head and saw him seated at the far end, arranging reagent bottles.
“I’ve brought Pipi……!”
Apparently the heavy atmosphere got to Lizz too—she gave my back a gentle push into the laboratory and vanished quickly.
“Ah, the little one’s here. Good, try this.”
The 3rd Elder, who’d asked me for a single hair strand last time, smiled broadly and extended his hand.
He seemed bent on lightening the mood.
But his effort fell flat—missing teeth made him laugh in a weird, hollow way, and the delicate eyeball-shaped candy he held in his palm just killed any goodwill.
“What kid these days would eat candy like that?”
“Oh, what do you mean ‘like that’! Do you know how well this sold thirty years ago?”
“You old fool, that baby didn’t even exist back then! Besides, you didn’t buy those thirty years ago and keep them, did you? That would be poison!”
The 2nd and 3rd Elders started bickering again while the 1st Elder sat across from them, shaking his head.
Despite my usual dignified demeanor, I felt a giggle bubbling up.
“Enough. Experimental Subject, come here.”
The truly dignified voice of the Tower Master stopped the commotion dead.
‘Is he in a bad mood? Or not?’
His tone alone was too difficult to parse.
I approached him with a solemn expression.
“……Do you need to use the restroom or something?”
“Huh? Oh, no!”
My carefully constructed ‘somehow guilty’ expression was useless.
I silently shook my head and quickly sat down in front of him.
“Today we’ll need to run a poison experiment. I have to verify whether you can neutralize toxins.”
“Really?”
“If you’re afraid, we can postpone it.”
“I’m not afraid at all.”
I laughed—heh-heh—and settled snugly into the chair.
It was an adorable pink chair clearly meant for me to sit in.
Then the Tower Master handed me a Grade 4 Poison first.
I shook the brown bottle, watching the liquid slosh around, when suddenly the Tower Master snatched it back.
“Huh?”
I tilted my head in confusion as the Tower Master picked up a gleaming cup. Then, as if he’d just remembered something, he casually poured the poison into the cup.
Next, he inserted a colorful striped straw into the cup and held it out to me.
“Is that how poison is served these days?” the 2nd Elder murmured doubtfully.
“I doubt it,” came the reply.

The 1st Elder stared at the Tower Master as though he’d lost his mind, shaking his head slowly.
“Children’s items should be chosen with varied colors to develop visual and cognitive abilities and provide emotional stimulation, or so I’ve read.”
The Tower Master answered with complete composure.
His tone was oddly stiff, the kind you’d hear in a specialized textbook.
‘Could he actually be reading parenting guides?’
I gazed down at the cup in front of me, which looked disturbingly like a poison cocktail—or poison juice.
“Take a sip first.”
He gave the order with an expression of clear reluctance.
“I could drink it all, couldn’t I?”
“Experimental Subject.”
“Yes, yes. Since I’m an Experimental Subject, I’ll just do as ordered.”
Hmph.
Grumbling, I took a sip of the poison.
A slightly sharp, acrid taste spread across my tongue.
“Blegh.”
The flavor was hardly pleasant, so I scrunched up my nose in disgust.
“Any pain?”
“Not at all.”
“Hmm… No sensation whatsoever?”
“No. It just feels like I took a sip of some drink.”
The Tower Master nodded and began writing in his notebook with a grave expression.
I was intensely curious about what he’d written, but he didn’t show me—instead, he immediately moved to the next step.
“Can you absorb the poison’s aura from the cup?”
“Um… the way I did before?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ve absorbed poison floating in the air before, but… no, let me try.”
Now that I thought about it, I did have the experience of drawing out the poisonous aura from inside the Small Duke’s body!
Though it had been unconscious, I tried to recall how I’d done it then, and gripped the cup firmly.
After all, this body’s grip wasn’t strong enough to shatter a glass, so let me just strain with effort.
Whoooosh!
The poisonous aura poured into my body all at once.
I squeezed until nothing remained and held out the cup.
Visually, there was no detectable change.
The Tower Master took it and stared at the cup with a serious gaze.
“…Hmm.”
Then he drained the liquid inside in a single gulp.
“Tower Master!”
I leaped up from my chair in shock.
The Tower Master then looked at me with composure, one eyebrow twitching slightly.
“This contains only distilled water. You absorbed all the poison’s aura.”
“That’s… but… I could have failed, couldn’t I?”
“You didn’t fail.”
But I could have failed!
And the Tower Master isn’t a Poison Immune Body, is he?
‘Olly said I was the only Poison Immune Body she’d ever seen.’
I stared suspiciously at the Tower Master’s clean face—so composed on the surface, yet so reckless in action.
“Drink this as well.”
Soon after, the Tower Master poured a new poison into the empty cup and handed it to me.
Grade 3.
I wanted to punish the Tower Master for his recklessness, and feeling oddly unsettled, I slyly snatched a reagent bottle labeled Grade 2 Poison and poured it generously into the cup.
‘There!’
Then I took a gulp.
“Pipi!”
The Tower Master then leaped from his seat just as I had moments before.
“What are you doing! Don’t carelessly mix toxic substances!”
“It’s a poison cocktail! And I’m completely fine?”
So, you were worried too, weren’t you?
‘Wait? Worried?’
Could it be that I’d just been worried about the Tower Master? Me, worrying about my employer?
As I stood there with my mouth slightly open, struck by this revelation, the Tower Master approached swiftly, opened my mouth to check inside, placed his hand on my forehead, and tilted my head this way and that.
“Are you still all right?”
The Tower Master asked, his expression grown distinctly uneasy.
I nodded firmly to show I was fine.
“And you, Tower Master?”
“Me? What—no, I’m telling you, that was really just water.”
Though it was unlike me to keep asking. I wasn’t usually one to repeat myself.
Asking again felt like doubting my own ability.
Every time someone had questioned my capability before, I’d punished them double. But this time, I couldn’t help myself.
I was afraid the Tower Master would collapse after consuming the poison.
‘This is strange.’
The realization brought a flush of embarrassment.
‘Is the Tower Master asking because he’s worried about me?’
Foolish. I shook my head vigorously and spoke with clenched fists.
“Grade 2 Poison is plenty. I could have jumped straight to Grade 1.”
Honestly, the classification system had five grades total, but the Grade 1 toxins—famous and supposedly incurable, sometimes called ungraded—seemed like I could test them immediately if needed.
But seeing the Tower Master’s cold expression, I couldn’t bring myself to suggest jumping straight to the ungraded poisons.
“I will determine the experimental protocol. You can’t call it an experiment if you mix poisons on a whim like you just did.”
“…Yes.”
So he wasn’t worried about me—he was angry about losing control of the experiment.
My spirits sank instantly, and I answered dejectedly.
As my deflated reply hung in the air, the Tower Master, who had been scribbling in his notebook, glanced up and looked at me thoughtfully.
“But that doesn’t mean you should lose your spirit or your autonomy. Children who lose their autonomy grow slowly, or so I’ve heard.”
The Tower Master finished jotting down his notes with a quick flourish and moved toward the reagent cabinet.
“Do you think you can continue the experiment?”
“Of course!”
Then came a small sigh from the direction of the reagent cabinet.
The Tower Master returned carrying a beautiful crystal vial filled with a colorless toxin.
There was no label on the reagent.
“Wait, that’s not—”
“Tower Master, are you sure it’s safe to use that?”
The Elders stared at the vial in the Tower Master’s hand, their faces flustered.
“Tower Master, that’s the poison that had a 100% fatality rate in the animal trials!”
The air in the laboratory froze in an instant.
Yet the Tower Master said nothing, simply raising the vial.
“Experimental Subject.”
Only his voice trembled slightly.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————