I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - 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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I wiped away the tears streaming down my face and squeezed my eyes shut, my fists clenched.
If my heart wavered at Kasian’s suffering, I’d shut it out entirely and pour all my focus into the work.
I would concentrate only on drawing out as much Poison Qi from his body as I could.
How much time had passed?
The agonized moans grew sparser, and his ragged breathing steadied, when finally—
“……Done.”
The Tower Master exhaled the breath he’d been holding, long and measured.
“You can stop now.”
“Did it work? Is he all right?”
I asked, just to be sure.
The Tower Master let out a scoffing laugh, his face wearing its usual arrogance.
“I don’t fail.”
“Hehe, as expected—you really are a genius!”
“That’s a given. Stating the obvious only cheapens it.”
His words sounded almost like reproach, but the corners of his mouth curved upward in unmistakable satisfaction.
I laughed along with him.
As the Tower Master waved his hand, the bonds cinching Kasian loosened and fell away, and the gag dropped from his mouth.
His pallid, ashen face flushed with returning color, and his hands went limp.
Only the damp, sweat-soaked tangle of his hair and clothes testified to the agony he’d endured.
“……Ah.”
Kasian stared blankly at the ceiling, then slowly turned his head toward me.
“……You held on well.”
“I’m sorry?”
He smiled faintly and shaped the word with his lips—”hand”.
Only then did I realize we were still holding hands.
My fingers had gone rigid from gripping so long; they barely straightened at all.
“……Of course. I told you I wouldn’t let go.”
I answered curtly, though my nose had begun to sting.
‘We……I saved a life.’
In my past life, all I’d done was steal precious lives away.
The fact that I’d saved Kasian felt like proof of how much my existence had changed—and fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.
The Tower Master looked down at us both with an unreadable expression.
“……Experimental Subject. Let go of his hand and dry those tears.”
“Oh, right.”
I yanked my hand back in surprise, and angry red marks bloomed across my skin where he’d gripped so hard.
“Your hand……”
Kasian’s eyes widened in alarm as he looked at the marks, and he tried to sit up.
But having spent every scrap of his strength, he simply crumpled back onto the blanket like a broken doll.
“A cold compress should help.”
Just as the Tower Master said, my hand throbbed with heat.
Kasian stared at my hand with an unreadable, almost pained expression.
‘……Is he feeling guilty? But it’s fine……’
If anything, the marks only made me ache more deeply—a measure of what he’d suffered.
“……Hmm.”
The Tower Master wrapped a cool handkerchief around my hand, then paused in thought before hoisting Kasian up into his arms.
“Whoa—!”
Kasian looked up at him in shock.
“I’ve no desire to touch you either, but you won’t be walking anywhere like this. Rest for a bit, then wash up.”
I’d thought the Tower Master was coldness incarnate, but it seemed he had a measure of consideration in him after all.
I trotted alongside him, whispering softly.
“Hehe, that was really cool.”
The Tower Master glanced down at me with an odd look, then tossed out his words.
“Stating the obvious only cheapens it.”
* * *
After a good night’s sleep, Kasian awoke seemingly cured of everything.
His claim that he loved Swordsmanship training proved to be no exaggeration—the moment the poison vanished, he went racing through the Tower Corridor like nothing had ever been wrong.
It was hard to believe this was the same nine-year-old who’d been wasting away from a terminal illness.
“Pipi! Look, I don’t hurt anymore!”
“You really did get better. I’m so glad!”
I clapped my hands together.
Then, suddenly thinking of the Duchess, who had been so anxiously worried about her son, I spoke.
“You must have wanted to see your family. Now that you’re going back to the Duke’s Residence, you’ll be able to see them all you like.”
“What? You don’t mind parting with me at all?”
Kasian asked, his face scrunching up.
‘Meeting and parting—that’s just how things go.’
I had only mentioned that he’d be happy to see his family again. Why was he upset?
Unable to grasp the situation, I merely blinked, but Kasian placed his hands on his hips and declared confidently.
“I’m not going. I have something to do from now on.”
“……Did you decide to become a Poison Magic user?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
If there was something to do at the Poison Tower, was there anything besides wanting to become a mage……?
I had thought Kasian had chosen his path because he was impressed by the process of experiencing poison and then detoxifying it.
‘I was worried there’d be turmoil in the duchy, but it seems that’s not the case. That’s fortunate.’
As I nodded, Kasian asked with a displeased expression.
“Why aren’t you asking what I want to do? Don’t you care about me at all?”
“……Oh, yes……. What do you want to do?”
Why should I take an interest in Kasian……?
After the poison healed, Kasian had become even more difficult to deal with.
He was aggressively pursuing some vaguely bothersome line of questioning.
When I reluctantly asked, Kasian answered with a smug expression.
“From now on, I’m going to be good to you.”
“……Pardon?”
This was truly out of nowhere.
As I blinked, Kasian arrogantly lifted his chin.
“I’ve thought about it carefully, and you were the only one who never left my side when I was dying. So I need to repay you.”
“……That’s, um, quite alright…….”
I felt something prickly in my chest at Kasian’s words.
“Weren’t there other people there with you?”
“……Hmph. My friend visited me less and less after I fell ill.”
“Perhaps he had his reasons?”
“I’m not a fool.”
Kasian spoke flatly.
I felt both pity and embarrassment for Kasian, who believed he’d lost his friend because of the poison.
The truth was, my reason for caring for Kasian so diligently was…….
‘The Thousand Gold……!’
I had done it purely as work, not from any pure of heart.
But Kasian seemed already absorbed in his own thoughts and unwilling to listen to me.
“Is there anything you want? I can get you anything. I have plenty of money.”
“I’ve already been promised payment for the treatment…….”
At that, Kasian shrugged.
“That’s what my father will give. Between you and me…… we’re different.”
Then, thinking of something, he smiled slightly.
‘Us’, ‘us…….’ I left Kasian to his murmuring and paused to consider.
‘It’s not like he’s taking anything from me, so there’s no reason I can’t accept.’
Thinking back carefully, I had only been hired for detoxification, but looking over those days, I had practically served as a nanny to a small child.
I didn’t feel the slightest guilt about accepting a bonus for overperformance.
“Then……a Hair Ribbon would be nice. A Jeweled Hair Ribbon to tie my hair neatly—just one would do.”
Originally, I had planned to set aside some of the Thousand Gold to buy one.
If Kasian bought it for me, I could use the Thousand Gold elsewhere.
I was hoping he’d get me something cute, but Kasian scoffed.
“Just that? How boring.”
About a week later, my room was stacked with Jeweled Hair Ribbons of every color.
It wasn’t just Hair Ribbons.
Ribbons, pins, Necklaces, Bracelets……it was as though an entire jewelry box had been emptied into my room.
I had only wanted a single Hair Ribbon, the kind a somewhat wealthy young child might own…….
“There. You won’t say you want a Hair Ribbon again, will you? If you lose one, just tell me. I found out that Hair Ribbons are consumables.”
If I wore all these dangling from my hair, I’d look like a kidnapping target…….
Worse still, my wardrobe was completely full.
‘My socks…… I have nowhere to put them…….’
But when I tried to return it, Kasian wouldn’t hear of it.
He’d already told the merchant house that dealt with the Duchy, and canceling the transaction would damage his honor as a young nobleman.
In the end, I had to stuff the neatly folded socks into my wardrobe however I could manage.
After that, Kasian’s “generosity” never stopped.
With just a few letters, he’d order mountains of whatever bread or delicacies I’d mentioned, arranging delivery without hesitation.
“Pipi is my Benefactor, so everyone should treat her with respect.”
He subtly pressured the Four Swordsmen with remarks like “don’t be too casual with her,” and his boasting only made me more embarrassed.
The problem was that the Tower Master didn’t look kindly on any of it.
“……My lord.”
When he summoned us both to his office, the Tower Master’s voice turned cold.
“I see you’re burdening my Experimental Subject with unnecessary things. It’s interfering with the experiment schedule.”
“Unnecessary? I’m simply treating her well.”
“There’s research showing that giving a child too luxurious an environment hinders growth and development.”
“You want me to give her squalid things instead? With only these meager items, the reputation of the Serpens Marquessate must be weeping.”
Kasian didn’t back down, raising his chin defiantly.
Only then did I understand why Kasian had treated the Tower Master with such deference and respect.
The Tower Master was also a nobleman born from a marquessate.
“To begin with, you and Pipi are merely in an employer-employee relationship. But my bond with Pipi is different.”
“……Different?”
“We share a Fated Connection.”
The air in the study grew frigid in an instant.
‘……What in the world is he talking about?’
Did he think of me as a friend? A friend bound by Fated Connection……?
I blinked, utterly bewildered.
But the Tower Master’s expression grew increasingly harsh.
“……You’re quite deluded.”
The Tower Master let out a cold laugh. Then he yanked me over and positioned me at his side.
“If you two keep meeting, nothing good will come of it. Experimental Subject, from today your schedule doubles.”
“What?! Why me?!”
“I need to cut down your time spent with the young lord drastically.”
Here I was, completely in the dark, and my back was already being put to the grindstone!
* * *
That same day, at the Behemoth Duchy.
When news flew in from the Poison Tower, the Duchy was thrown into upheaval.

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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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