I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 35

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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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“You’re saying you can eliminate it in one go?”
Cassian stared at the Tower Master with disbelief written plainly across his face.
Though the Tower Master was said to be a genius who knew everything about poison, it happened that he had never been able to fully resolve Cassian’s particular poison until now.
So it made sense that Cassian couldn’t believe a solution had suddenly emerged.
“The poison in you is originally two separate substances. Each one, existing alone, has no meaning as a poison. But when the two meet and combine, they become an Extreme Poison that has never existed in this world.”
It was a curious mechanism—poison only becoming poison when two substances met.
When I tilted my head in confusion, the Tower Master remarked that such poisons occasionally do exist in nature.
“That’s… that doesn’t make sense. Then why didn’t you know about this until now?”
The memory of those painful days flooded back, and Cassian’s eyes narrowed at the Tower Master with a tremor of anguish in his voice.
I’d seen long-suffering patients blame their healers before, more than once, so I understood Cassian’s bitterness.
‘Still, I don’t want him angry with the Tower Master.’
I turned away and shot Cassian a look.
“Didn’t you just hear? It’s an Extreme Poison that has never existed in this world. The Tower Master didn’t create this poison, so of course he couldn’t have known about it until now!”
I puffed out my cheeks as I spoke, and Cassian’s lips pouted sulkily.
“You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m on the side of whoever pays me.”
“…Watch yourself. I have a *lot* of spending money, you know?”
I snorted, and Cassian clenched his fists in frustration.
“Just wait—I’ll drown you in my wealth.”
If I’d been scared of someone threatening me like that, I never would have made it as an assassin.
I paid it no mind and turned my attention to the Tower Master, who was smiling with satisfaction that I’d taken his side.
“So all we need to do is separate the two components?”
The Tower Master nodded at my question.
“Yes. Once we undo that combination, your suffering will vanish.”
“…That’s actually possible?”
“It is. We’ll use this Antagonistic Poison to break the mechanism of their bonding, and then I—the Experimental Rat—will extract one of them and perform Detoxification. After that…”
“The remaining one will fall dormant again.”
“Exactly. If we can eliminate it, we’ll clean that one out entirely too, but even if we can’t, your suffering will end.”
It was remarkable that the poison component could remain in the body yet the person would be freed from poisoning altogether.
Listening to the Tower Master explain it made the process sound almost simple.
But the Tower Master didn’t stop there.
“However, I should be honest with you.”
His voice dropped slightly.
“The process of forcibly separating the combination may bring severe pain. It will be very difficult to endure.”
“Well, if I’m going to hurt anyway, I’d rather hurt for a worthwhile reason.”
Cassian spoke with confidence.
Yet his eyes flickered slightly, betraying his underlying worry.
“In any case, I’ll bring your body’s condition up and perform the procedure a few days from now.”
The Tower Master delivered this announcement and then gestured for us to leave.
* * *
Cassian seemed restless over the following days.
The longer the period of suffering from the poison had stretched on, the more it must have felt like a part of himself.
It was unbearably tedious, yet now that he was about to undergo treatment for complete recovery, his feelings were strangely mixed.
And then, at last, came the day of the final Detoxification.
I ate breakfast as I normally did.
The only difference from usual was that I skipped my morning exercises and rested fully to prepare myself thoroughly.
When the time for the poison experiment arrived, Cassian and I made our way to the Tower Master’s Laboratory.
The Tower Master’s Laboratory felt even colder than usual.
The work table where Medicine Bottles had been scattered was now cleared, and across its surface lay thick quilts alongside instruments and gems I’d never seen before, arranged with care.
The Tower Master picked up a single Medicine Bottle of unusually dark color and held it to the light to examine it.
It looked suspicious to anyone, truly resembling a toxic potion.
“Today, we’ll separate the poison in your body.”
The Tower Master seated us in chairs and explained calmly.
“According to the reagent test, one of the two components has absorbed too deeply into your system. It seems we won’t be able to remove it completely.”
“Then…”
Cassian turned to look at me anxiously, almost without thinking.
His eyes seemed to waver aimlessly, so I squeezed his hand firmly in an attempt to comfort him.
The Tower Master watched our clasped hands with displeasure for a moment, then looked away.
“Inactivating it and putting it into dormancy is the best we can do for now. We’ll need to research a way to eliminate it completely, step by step.”
‘…But then it’s not a complete cure, is it?’
I bit my lip.
To survive death’s threshold only to have embers still smoldering inside.
Yet the Tower Master seemed untroubled.
“Even if the poison awakens again due to external factors, I’ve already learned how to treat it. We can simply repeat the procedure a second time, a third time—as many as needed.”
He spoke as though it were nothing.
His tone was so arrogantly certain that it bordered on presumption, yet somehow it put my mind at ease.
Cassian, however, said nothing.
His mouth was clamped shut, his hands trembling faintly where they rested on his knees.
‘…He’s frightened.’
Of course he was. Even I, hardened by countless physical and pain endurance exercises, didn’t exactly relish agony.
It would’ve been strange if a nine-year-old weren’t terrified of severe suffering.
Besides, it wasn’t even as if every trace of poison would truly vanish.
I squeezed Cassian’s hand firmly.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right here with you!”
Cassian glanced up at me.
“What could you possibly…do?”
It was a cutting remark—the kind that said ‘what could a kid like you manage’—but he looked so dejected it was impossible to resent him for it.
“I’ll stay right beside you. I won’t go anywhere, won’t let go of your hand, and I’ll detoxify you the whole time. So you don’t need to be scared at all.”
This wouldn’t actually ease his pain, and fear doesn’t just vanish from reassurance alone.
I simply wanted this child to be less afraid.
And yet—whether my words truly helped or not, the subtle trembling in his hand gradually stilled.
“…Hmph.”
Cassian’s ear flushed pink as he clicked his tongue softly.
Once the situation was settled, the Tower Master laid Cassian down on the work table.
He checked his pulse, examined his eyes, measured the rhythm of his breathing.
Then, as the Tower Master murmured something low, cords lying nearby shimmered with light and bound Cassian’s limbs securely.
“…Huh?”
Cassian’s eyes went blank as he suddenly found himself restrained.
“If he thrashes in agony, it will endanger everyone. There’s no helping it.”
The Tower Master spoke coldly, then turned to me with instructions.
“Experimental Rat, hold his hand and begin Detoxification the moment I give the signal. Do not stop under any circumstances.”
“Yes.”
I gripped Cassian’s hand tightly with one of mine, waiting for the Tower Master’s cue.
The Tower Master uncapped a Medicine Bottle containing Antagonistic Poison and carefully poured a single drop into a shallow vessel.
The viscous, dark-crimson liquid pooled in the center of the dish.
“…Mm.”
When the Tower Master placed his hand over the vessel, the purple Mana I’d seen before leaked from his fingertips.
The Mana wrapped around the minute amount of poison in the dish like protective cloth.
Once the poison was wrapped in its purple coating, the Tower Master finally poured it into Cassian’s mouth.
“Wait…why are you using magic on poison?”
This was the first time I’d seen the Tower Master employ genuine magic related to poison, so I couldn’t help asking.
In truth, I thought that understanding the process might ease Cassian’s fear as he watched.
“This is one of the worst Extreme Poisons. It’s the combination that reacted most powerfully with N001—that is, the boy’s poison during the experiment.”
The Tower Master explained that if he simply poured this Extreme Poison straight down Cassian’s throat, it would dissolve everything from his tongue to his esophagus.
It needed to work internally, but he was protecting the surrounding organs with a magical barrier to prevent unnecessary damage.
‘Ah, well…’
I thought understanding would help. Apparently it didn’t.
Cassian’s face had turned ashen.
“What? I’ve used such Extreme Poison on the boy before. He was simply unconscious those times, that’s all.”
Now that the Tower Master had finally recognized the fear and kindly offered this explanation, Cassian’s complexion shifted from pale to a sickly, purplish gray.
And then—
“…Gghhhhh.”
Cassian’s body convulsed.
His fingers and toes twisted in every direction, contorted beyond what should’ve been possible.
“Nngh…ahhh…!”
From all the Detoxification work I’d done on Cassian’s body, I felt something shifting within my own senses.
Cassian’s eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. Sweat poured from his entire body like a waterfall, drenching his clothes.
“Y-Your Highness…?”
“It’s a normal response to pain. Keep your hand there and don’t let go.”
The Tower Master’s voice was unwavering.
I tightened my trembling hands.
The Tower Master administered the Extreme Poison in small increments, then fitted a gag into Cassian’s mouth and murmured an incantation.
Two distinctly different currents of energy became perceptible to me.
“Now—begin the Detoxification!”
I drew out the poison energy surging toward Cassian’s hands and began the extraction.
His groans grew louder by the moment.
Even gagged, bestial sounds escaped, and his body trembled like an aspen leaf.
Dark blood beaded at the corners of his nose and lips.
‘At this rate, I’m going to kill him……!’
Terror seized me. Cassian’s eyes—bloodshot and wild—beseeched me.
As though begging me to end this agony at once.
Not a plea to live, but a gaze that implored me to stop the pain.
‘What do I do…….’
Helpless, suspended between action and surrender, I let tears fall drop by drop.
My hands were losing their grip without my permission.
“Don’t you dare let go! If you stop now, he dies!”
The Tower Master’s voice cracked with fury—his first show of force.
Suddenly, my mind cleared.
And then.
Cassian, writhing in agony, seized my hand with crushing force.
‘I won’t die like this. If you don’t let go, neither will I.’
That is what his grip seemed to say.

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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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