I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 42

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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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* * *
After returning to the Magic Tower, I found myself buried under an avalanche of gifts.
‘Wait, what? I was supposed to be the one giving presents……’
People who’d missed my absence pressed snacks they’d saved into my hands, and after receiving bread from me, they insisted on piling something else onto my plate in return.
“So this is the joy of sharing……?”
While I wandered the Magic Tower in a daze, contemplating this newfound wisdom, the Tower Master seemed unusually busy over the following days.
He hadn’t brushed aside the poison ambush during my return journey lightly.
When I handed out bread, I witnessed the senior mages fuming over how the elders had targeted me—a child—which meant the higher-ups already knew everything.
Thanks to this, the Tower’s internal barriers were reinforced, and all the researchers handling practical work seemed occupied investigating something or other.
‘The Magic Tower will be safe now.’
Watching the Tower Master tend so meticulously to these matters, I smiled softly.
If the safety of the Tower’s people was guaranteed, there could be nothing more precious than that.
In any case, I savored this rare moment of peace and returned to my usual daily routine.
But that peace lasted exactly one week before it shattered.
Bang, bang, bang!
Someone was hammering at the Magic Tower’s main gate as though to break it down, and I lifted my head mid-chew of bread.
“What? Why won’t this open? Open the door right now!”
It was a voice I knew far too well.
I hurried down from my Mushroom Chair and opened the door before the hinges gave way or knuckles bled—before matters came to a head.
Standing there was Cassian.
Behind him, a colt of a horse snorted wearily, while Cassian himself stood covered in dust and looking half out of his mind.
“The Magic Tower recently installed new security measures. You can’t enter unless you’re registered in advance,” I explained calmly, telling him that no amount of knocking would help.
Then I welcomed him warmly.
“Why have you come all of a sudden?”
We’d even said goodbye with swollen cheeks—a week seemed far too soon.
Besides, Cassian looked absolutely wretched right now.
‘From the Behemoth Duchy here would take quite a while by carriage, yet he rode here on horseback?’
His hair was completely disheveled, as though he’d galloped without stopping to rest.
“……Hey!”
Cassian approached me abruptly and tried to pull me into an embrace.
“Wait!”
“……What, what is it.”
“You’re far too dirty—keep your distance.”
I was wearing clothes I’d laundered yesterday and hung to dry in the sun until they were perfectly fluffy.
I could not allow Cassian to ruin this fluffiness.
“You…… didn’t you want to see me?!”
“It’s only been a week……”
I blinked, studying Cassian’s face.
Realizing my bewilderment, his face began to flush deeper and deeper.
“So why did you come suddenly?”
“That’s…… I-I had something to do at the Magic Tower!”
“What?”
“Are you going to keep poking and prying? My room is still there, obviously?”
“As far as I know, we haven’t changed the room yet.”
Hearing my answer, Cassian smiled with satisfaction.
“Good thing. I almost had to buy a house in front of the Magic Tower.”
A wave of envy and strange irritation suddenly surged through me.
Here I was, scrimping and saving to afford anything, and this was what it meant to be a rich young master……
“I need to wash up.”
“Why me?! I have mascot duties to attend to!”
“……Ugh. Then you stay right here.”
Cassian, who’d seized my wrist and begun dragging me upward, puffed out his cheeks and released me instead, then bolted up the stairs like the wind.
‘And what am I supposed to do about what you said……’
Snort.
The colt, whose eyes met mine, shook its head with brazen confidence.
“You look exactly like your owner……”
I led Cassian’s horse to the area where merchant caravans parked their carriages and settled it in the Stables.
Afterward, I sat back down to resume my duties as a mascot…… and ended up dozing off.
Before long, Cassian descended with a spring in his step, freshly washed and revitalized.
“If you’re dozing off, you could’ve just come up with me!”
“……I wasn’t dozing!”
I’d been reading a book, actually.
It was just that when Cassian appeared out of nowhere, my concentration shattered completely, leaving me staring blankly into space.
I sat atop the Mushroom Chair, regarding him with obvious displeasure from above.
“Come down a moment. Let me see you properly.”
“Why?”
“……Please.”
Cassian looked terribly urgent about it. His hands were trembling slightly, and…….
‘Like he was afraid of being separated from me.’
I was probably overthinking it.
Even as I thought that, knowing how difficult it must be for him to ask for anything, I climbed down.
The moment my feet touched the floor, Cassian pulled me into his arms with surprising force, drew a deep breath, and let his shoulders relax.
“……What are you doing?”
“No, I… Really, what is this.”
Cassian held me in his embrace, breathing heavily as if troubled by something, until my impatience finally made him let go.
* * *
Cassian had quite literally taken over his old room in the Magic Tower.
What’s more, he’d revealed to everyone—including the Four Swordsmen—that his true identity was the young duke of Behemoth Duchy.
It was no longer a secret that he’d received Detoxification treatment at the Magic Tower; the news had long since spread. Still…….
‘Here we go again.’
Naturally, the Tower Master was thoroughly displeased with this uninvited guest.
“……I send you away, and back you crawl.”
“We’re an Alliance now, so it should be fine, right?”
Cassian smiled and offered his reasoning.
He had a point—if he mistreated the heir of his own Alliance partner, it would only fuel doubts about the alliance’s sincerity.
“This isn’t your home or a playground, young duke.”
“If you throw me out, it doesn’t matter. I can just buy a house in front.”
The Tower Master sucked her teeth sharply, her expression shifting to one of resigned exasperation at the indulgences of the wealthy.
I stayed carefully neutral, observing from the sidelines while nibbling at bread.
Cassian showed no signs of leaving, and the Tower Master’s mood was visibly tanking.
“Test subject, today I have personal research to conduct, so we’ll skip the Poison Experiment. Use that time for Mascot duties instead.”
“Yes, understood!”
Since Cassian had completed his Detoxification course, I should’ve been returning to Poison Experiments—but strangely, the Tower Master had been avoiding assigning them to me lately.
‘And I can’t exactly ask her why she’s not giving me poison……’
Since she controlled every aspect of the experiments anyway, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Following the Tower Master’s orders, I headed down to the Lobby to assume Mascot duties.
“Oh, suddenly I’ve got free time!”
Liz, liberated from Lobby service, bounded upstairs with barely contained excitement, talking about heading to the Research Room.
When I returned to the Mushroom Chair, Cassian settled into the seat beside it—one usually reserved for Liz—and looked up at me with clear boredom.
“Pipi, I hate this chair.”
“Why?”
“It’s too high. It puts distance between us.”
“Isn’t this the appropriate distance?”
I shrugged and left him to his pouting, unbothered.
Cassian muttered something under his breath, then produced a book.
When he’d run away, he’d wisely gathered the essentials he’d need to study right away—and now, in the quiet Lobby, he seemed intent on reviewing them.
‘Probably trying to look good when he inevitably gets caught……’
I shook my head at his scheming, then retrieved my own book to finish where I’d left off yesterday.
‘……Hm?’
Suddenly, I heard the sound of knocking and looked up.
‘That’s strange. No one should be arriving now……’
Not another sudden intruder……
Even as I thought this, I made my way to the door to confirm who it was.
Using the voice amplifier the Tower Master had installed for me to screen visitors, I spoke toward the outside.
“Who is it?”
“I am the Lady of Behemoth Duchy. I’ve come on some business at the Magic Tower. Would it be possible to step inside?”
At those words, I spun around to look at Cassian.
His face had gone deathly pale. He shook his head frantically, silently pleading with me not to open the door.
‘But how am I supposed to refuse a duchess……’
I couldn’t do it. With a regretful heart, I gave a helpless shrug and opened the door.
A beautifully dressed noblewoman stepped through the threshold.
If not for her face, pale as if dusted with flour, no one would have guessed at her frailty—such was the commanding presence she carried in her expression and bearing.
The moment the noblewoman entered the Lobby, she spotted Cassian and her eyes went wide.
“Cassian Behemoth!”
“A-ah, Mother.”
Cassian made a strangled sound in his throat.
‘Oh no. You’re done for.’
I watched the mother-and-son reunion with something like mourning.
“I’ve been waiting in the estate until my neck nearly snapped! I thought you’d come running the moment the banquet ended, but not even a glimpse of you! What kind of ungrateful son behaves this way!”
“I-it’s not like that—!”
“You didn’t want to see your mother, is that it? Hmm?”
The Duchess brought down her Fan on Cassian’s back with a sharp smack.
“Now tell me—what’s the meaning of all this? Why has our son been so desperate to stay away from his mother? Let’s hear it. Cassian, why did you come back to the Magic Tower? Are you ill again?”
Cassian faltered under his mother’s interrogation.
Then, his face grew resolute, and he spoke with clear determination.
“I… I have to take responsibility for her. I need to stay by her side, Mother!”
“…What?”
“Pipi is my Fiancée!”
In that instant, the Duchess’s eyes went round as saucers.
And I…
“…Excuse me?!?”
Caught suddenly in a whirlwind, I turned to stone where I stood.

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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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