I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 14

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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 underground training began the next day.
After breakfast and exercise, following a light meal, we descended into the depths.
Normally the Tower Master delegated lighter duties and supervision to others, but he insisted on accompanying me personally to the underground.
“This way down will do.”
“There was something like this here?”
The shortcut the Tower Master showed me was a staircase hidden in a secret space behind his office.
I trailed after him down the narrow, dark steps.
Through a space twisted in ways I couldn’t begin to comprehend, it seemed the Tower Master had been slipping down to care for the young master in secret.
That was why no one had learned of the underground’s existence.
“Brrr, it’s cold.”
My fur stood on end in the chill air.
Shivering, I wrapped my tail around myself.
“Hmm, I’ll fix that.”
The Tower Master waved his hand at once, warming the air around us slightly.
“Is there a reason you don’t use Teleportation Magic and take the stairs instead?”
“Frequent use of Teleportation Magic strains the defensive barriers woven into the Magic Tower. But since you need to travel too, I should compress the space further.”
It seemed a rather complex process was involved.
Still, we descended while exchanging quiet conversation, and before long we had reached the underground.
The room where the boy lay was still dim and silent.
“He is Behemoth’s successor.”
The Tower Master dragged a chair beside the bed and spoke.
“His name is Casian. Of course, there may be little occasion to call him by name.”
Casian.
I turned the name over once more in my mind.
Now that the nameless boy had a name to be called by, something inside me shifted.
‘So his name is Casian.’
Knowing his name somehow made me unwilling to let him slip away like this.
I sat down with quiet resolve and reached out my hand.
“Will holding his hand work?”
“Hmm…… holding hands directly is rather awkward. Perhaps instead…….”
The Tower Master studied Casian’s body with a serious expression, as if selecting the right point.
But finding nothing suitable, he nodded with a dissatisfied look.
I gently reached out and took Casian’s hand.
The boy’s bloodless hand was warmer to the touch than it appeared.
‘Ouch.’
His nails were long and sharp. He’d had no chance to trim them while unconscious all this time.
Whether from his Beast-human Bloodline or not, they were unusually sharp—sharper than an animal’s claws.
The moment I grasped his hand, my palm scraped lightly and stung.
‘If he’d just been a beast, I could’ve pulled these out and used them as blades instead.’
I tightened my grip, imagining Casian’s reaction if he’d heard such a thought.
“Hngh—”
Though I possessed the power of Detoxification, I wasn’t yet skilled at it, and breath escaped between my teeth.
Still, thankfully the poison flowed from his fingertips into me.
The acrid aura rising from Casian’s body noticeably faded.
‘Oh, it’s working.’
If I just kept drawing it in like this, wouldn’t it be finished in one go?
Greed crept in as the thought took hold.
“Stop.”
The Tower Master grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.
“Huh? Why?”
There was still so much left!
My concentration shattered, and I shot him a look of protest.
“Ten minutes at a time. No more than that.”
“At this rate it might take over a month…….”
“Even if it takes a year, it doesn’t matter.”
He said it flatly.
“I make the decisions, remember?”
There it was again.
I pouted but couldn’t press the matter further.
Part of me burned to heal Casian quickly and earn that 1,000 Gold, but I couldn’t bear to disappoint the Tower Master.
The moment I released Casian’s hand, I felt my body grow slightly heavy.
It was like those times I’d hung upside down from the ceiling for too long—my limbs felt sluggish and thick.
A tiny shadow of the exhaustion that had laid me out for days after the Purification Device.
‘But that was then. This is only ten minutes.’
Drinking down enough poison to fill an entire tower was hardly the same as breathing in Casian’s toxins for a mere ten minutes.
For a job worth 1,000 Gold, this soreness was nothing—I could call it exercise.
I clenched and unclenched my fists to shake off the dull heaviness, and the Tower Master didn’t miss even that small motion.
He opened his notebook without a word and began to write.
“What do you write in that every time?”
“Research notes.”
As if anyone wouldn’t know that. He clearly wasn’t in the mood to elaborate.
‘I’m stealing a look at it next chance I get.’
I was intensely curious about how the Tower Master was observing me.
* * *
After that, the trips Underground became part of my routine entirely.
Hold Casian’s hand before the Tower Master, detoxify the poison bit by bit, and withdraw when the time comes.
Eventually the total detoxification time dropped even lower—just eight minutes, less than that first day’s ten.
The timeframe frustrated me, but the Tower Master wouldn’t budge.
Today, after finishing my Underground work, I’d come back up for lunch.
And when I walked through the Magic Tower for my usual stroll, I ran into the apprentices.
“Hello. What are you doing here?”
I drifted over casually and asked, and Ollie suddenly let out a shriek. “Aah!”
“P-Pipi?! You startled me!”
“Oh, it’s Pipi! You didn’t make a single sound—you’re ghosting around again today…….”
I’d only walked normally, yet they were making such a fuss.
‘Oh, wait. Normal people wouldn’t have learned the Stealth Technique, would they?’
I shrugged and waited long enough for them to catch their breath.
“Pipi……!”
Then the apprentices’ expressions shifted, and they looked at me with faces that seemed somehow wistful and pained. They scattered hurriedly in all directions, trying to slip away.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
If I were dull enough to miss that kind of gaze, I’d never survive as an assassin.
I blocked their path, arms crossed, meeting their sorrowful eyes.
“B-but…….”
Ollie’s face crumpled. She looked at me with an expression that said she couldn’t bear what she was seeing, then turned away.
“Idiot! You should’ve controlled your expression better!”
Lily smacked Ollie’s back and cried out.
As someone who didn’t understand the situation at all, I could only tilt my head in confusion.
“It’s just—we heard the Tower Master’s been conducting a very difficult experiment with you recently……”
“Eh……!”
Startled, I let out a small gasp.
‘Could they have found out about the Underground?’
My eyes went wide with tension, and Lily approached with a sad face, wrapped me in a tight embrace, and stroked my head.
“That’s what I thought! Your face has been getting paler and paler, and the Tower Master carries you out sometimes, or you look exhausted by the time the work is done!”
Lily patted my back over and over, her tone heavy with sympathy.
“It must be a really grueling experiment, right? You’re so young, and yet you’re suffering through it—the senior apprentices all said so.”
“Well, the Tower Master is ruthless.”
Even Killian seemed to have a firm misunderstanding of the Tower Master.
“Is it secret special training, or are you doing an actual painful experiment?”
Leo approached with concern in his voice but excitement in his tone, asking the question.
“Really! As if you’re not struggling enough already—why would there be special training!”
Lily pushed Leo’s cheek with her palm and stomped her right foot.
“It’s not like that.”
“Because Pipi is so kind, right? You can’t even tell the Tower Master to stop! The Tower Master is being too much!”
……Was the “Pipi” that Lily was talking about actually someone else, not me?
In any case, the firmly convinced apprentices showed no sign of believing my denial.
My ears drooped of their own accord in my discomfort.
I blinked blankly for a moment, then thought to myself, ‘What should I do……’
I didn’t like being misunderstood as if the Tower Master were putting me through hardship.
But I can’t reveal the Underground’s secrets to them.
I hate lying to such earnest apprentices.
“I, um—I’m busy, so I’ll go attend to my duties!”
In the end, for the first time before the apprentices, I had no choice but to turn my back and flee like a routed soldier.
‘If rumors are spreading through the Tower…….’
I had to finish this quickly.
If detoxifying Casian succeeded, I’d return to my normal duties, and the Tower’s rumors would die down too.
‘Besides, the walking hour is essentially my free time anyway.’
It’s only called a walk in name—in reality, I’m allowed to wander the Magic Tower freely during that time.
I steeled myself and slipped quietly down into the Underground.
‘If the Tower Master comes with me, it’ll definitely be done in eight minutes again…….’
It couldn’t be helped.
If I came here a little at a time to do extra detoxification work, the job would go faster, wouldn’t it?
Thinking such thoughts, I looked down at the suffering Casian.
Even so, thanks to the little detoxification I’d done earlier, his complexion was better than this morning.
“Then, let me free your hand…….”
I tried to pull out the hand that had become trapped beneath the boy’s face, perhaps from him thrashing about.
I brushed aside his white hair, which trembled slightly with each breath, grasped his hand, and pulled gently.
‘……Why won’t it come free?’
But trying to extract it without waking him, his hand wouldn’t come loose easily.
“Ugh…….”
From now on, I’d have to do proper grip strength training.
It was shameful that I couldn’t manage even one scrawny boy’s hand.
Thinking this way, I continued trying to pull it out gradually.
“Huh?!”
At some point, golden eyes—hazy but deliberate—had fixed themselves directly on me.
“……Caught you.”
Casian, reversing all my plans, gripped my hand tightly while gazing up at me.

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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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