I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 44

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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 weeks of upheaval, the Magic Tower had finally found peace.
With Cassian around, the noise never truly ceased, but at least there were no major catastrophes.
Yet I still felt a creeping unease.
The cause was the Tower Master.
‘Something’s off.’
He’d always been taciturn, but lately he seemed sharper somehow, like an edge honed to a point.
Whenever we crossed paths, his brow furrowed deeper, and he’d barricade himself in the Laboratory, barely emerging at all.
“This is really strange.”
I complained to Liz.
“Hmm?”
Liz looked up from her notes on my training progress.
“The Tower Master. Ever since that one clash, he absolutely refuses to let anyone but himself handle my records.”
The result of his insistence was that he’d always managed my progress directly himself.
But now, for four days straight, he’d handed my entire schedule over to Liz!
I was just as frustrated by the sudden change.
“Well… I’m not sure…”
Caught between us, Liz laughed awkwardly.
“What’s been keeping him so busy lately? I hardly see him anymore!”
“Does it matter? It’s nice not having anyone breathing down my neck for once.”
Cassian, exercising beside me to rebuild his own strength, shrugged.
‘No. This is a crisis, plain and simple.’
The Tower Master was avoiding my poison experiments entirely.
He’d brought me here as an experimental subject, yet now he was postponing the very work he’d brought me for—it made no sense.
“That’s it. I need to confront him again.”
If this kept up, I was going on strike too!
“Wait, do you really have to…?”
Liz’s face twisted with discomfort as she tried to stop me. She definitely knew something.
“What is it?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you know that I don’t?”
I set down the metal training weight and stepped in front of her.
Folding my arms and staring her down, Liz visibly panicked and shook her head.
“No, no, that’s not it. Really.”
“Our trust is crumbling before my eyes…”
I pouted, speaking with wounded innocence, and Liz let out a distressed groan.
“But Pipi, I can’t spread the Master’s private affairs around.”
“Then I’ll just have to find out for myself.”
I glanced at the time—morning training was nearly finished.
“Consider it punishment for lying. End five minutes early.”
I needed to bathe and then investigate the Tower Master.
I turned to Cassian with a warning.
“Don’t follow me. You’ll be spotted, and I won’t be able to investigate.”
“Nooo…!”
“Pipi, you shouldn’t… shouldn’t do that to the young master…”
Liz, who’d recently learned that Cassian was actually the Behemoth Duke, cried out in alarm, but
I didn’t yield. I shook them off, bathed quickly, and set out on my reconnaissance.
‘Let’s start simple and natural.’
I headed to the Laboratory carrying a Nut Pouch, making sure to demonstrate that I was dutifully keeping to my schedule.
Tap, tap, tap.
I cracked the Laboratory door open and peeked my head in, only to find the Tower Master with dark circles even more pronounced than before.
“Tower Master, are you busy?”
“What?”
He didn’t even look at me, his eyes fixed on the towering stacks of documents covering his desk.
“You haven’t been doing experiments lately, but you’ll do one today, right? My condition’s been excellent recently—don’t you think it’s time we moved to the next phase…?”
Even as I spoke brightly, his gaze fell upon me with such intensity that my words faltered.
His eyes blazed with what looked like resentment, bloodshot from sleep deprivation compounded by frayed nerves—but I couldn’t fathom why.
“T-Tower Master?”
“Not necessary.”
“……Pardon?”
“There are no experiments for a while. Go on now.”
His voice cut like a blade. I flinched without understanding why, and my feet seemed welded to the floor.
‘Why is he looking at me like that?’
I’d thought we’d moved past the simple employer-and-experimental-subject dynamic—that we’d grown closer than that.
‘……Was I just imagining things?’
Caught off guard by the sting of it, my mouth hung open dumbly when the Tower Master suddenly half-rose from his seat, regret flickering across his face.
“……Goodbye, sir.”
Before he could say another word and wound me further, I bolted.
‘How embarrassing.’
It stung more than it should have.
Yet it didn’t feel like simple anger or dislike—more as though something was tormenting him.
‘Could I have misread him?’
The possibility of regret gnawed at me, so I made a decision: retreat now, advance again later.
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‘I can’t leave it like this.’
Given my former profession, trailing someone in silence was second nature.
My resolve was too tempered to crumble from one setback.
That evening, I spotted the elders heading toward the Tower Master’s laboratory and pressed myself into the doorframe to listen.
Of course, if it was truly confidential, I wouldn’t pry.
‘I’ll just ask casually when they come out.’
I was concealing myself from view when a careful voice drifted from inside.
“……Tower Master. Philian’s death anniversary is approaching soon.”
One of the elders ventured to speak.
‘Philian? Who’s that?’
“Perhaps this year you might consider resting at the Residence instead. This time of year always brings you such sorrow…….”
“……That’s enough.”
The Tower Master’s voice had grown hollow and low.
“Another year has already passed…….”
The brief silence that followed carried an indescribable weight.
I felt the mingling of deep, ancient sorrow and regret—and quietly withdrew, unable to listen further.
‘……It seems someone close to the Tower Master has passed away.’
I didn’t know who Philian was, but those words alone told me enough.
If he became sensitive enough to go on edge around the death anniversary, they must have been extraordinarily close.
After a moment’s consideration, I sought out Liz.
“……Liz?”
“Goodness, you startled me!”
I’d moved as quietly as I’d been hiding, and Liz gasped, dropping the documents she’d been holding.
I gathered them up hurriedly and apologized.
“I’m sorry for frightening you. I came to ask you something.”
“It’s all right…… Whew. What is it?”
Liz fanned herself to calm her racing heart, but her voice remained warm.
“I happened to hear a name—Philian. Could I ask who that is?”
“You really…….”
Liz realized I’d actually been eavesdropping on the Tower Master and let out a light sigh.
She gave me a gentle flick on the forehead and said softly,
“You shouldn’t do that to the Tower Master.”
“……I’ll go apologize. But who is he?”
Liz could tell I wouldn’t budge until I had my answer, so she shook her head with a wry smile.
“The Tower Master’s younger sibling. He used to be a researcher at the Magic Tower. This was before I arrived.”
Liz didn’t seem to know much about Philian either.
“His name is practically forbidden here at the Tower. The senior staff made me promise never to bring it up. They should have warned you about this time of year…….”
Liz gently rubbed the spot where she’d tapped my forehead and spoke softly.
“You feel like someone I’ve known for years, so I forgot to prepare you. I’m sorry.”
……So we’d grown that close already?
It was strange to feel happy at a moment like this, yet my chest swelled with warmth.
“I understand. I’ll go and apologize.”
“Ah, well…….”
I heard Liz say something uncertain behind me, but I was already heading back toward the Tower Master’s laboratory.
‘Has their conversation ended?’
The laboratory had fallen utterly silent, and the door stood ajar just enough to slip a finger through—as if someone had left in haste.
“Tower Master? Are you here?”
I knocked deliberately before entering, but the room was empty.
‘I’ll come back later, then.’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, something on the table caught my eye, and my gaze drifted toward it of its own accord.
A portrait frame, roughly the size of my own face, stood propped up on the surface.
‘I’ve never seen that before.’
I’d been to the Tower Master’s laboratory more than once or twice, yet that frame was new to me.
Inside it was a boy.
Dark hair, violet eyes—a soft, innocent impression about him.
There was something of the Tower Master in his features, yet far warmer, touched with a playfulness that the Tower Master had long since lost.
Beneath the portrait, a name was inscribed: Philian Serpentes.
‘Oh.’
This wasn’t the time for this.
Because he resembled the Tower Master as a child, I’d stared at the frame in a daze—but this was a memory he’d hidden away, something intimate and deeply private.
A portrait of Philian, who had once truly lived. The weight of it crashed down on me then—that I’d carelessly unearthed not just a memory, but the Tower Master’s most profound sorrow, his most private grief.
‘How could I not have realized sooner?’
Was it because of what I used to be? Or because, aside from my grandmother, I had no real family to mourn?
Whatever the reason, it was just an excuse. I should have turned back immediately.
“…You.”
Then a voice sounded from behind me, and I froze in place.
I turned slowly, and there stood the Tower Master in the doorway.
“…What are you doing here?”
‘I’m done for.’
I couldn’t pretend ignorance—I might be caught in a lie.
But I couldn’t feign knowledge either; I’d have to admit I’d recklessly invaded his private space.
“I… I was trying to apologize….”
In the end, I opened my mouth to offer the apology I’d come here to give, speaking honestly.
But the words came haltingly, as if rough sand had lodged itself in my throat.
“Did you look at that? Who told you you could look at it!”
His voice was low, suppressed, and sharp as a blade.

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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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