I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 63

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

* * *
The stench of rotting fish hit the tip of my nose like a wall.
“Ugh!”
It wouldn’t damage my health, but the smell alone was revolting.
I wrinkled my nose and set the Reagent Bottle down on the left pile.
“This one doesn’t match. The scent profile is different.”
“To me, they all smell the same…”
Bedel, standing beside me, muttered half to himself.
As a gull-type beastman, his sense of smell was naturally dull anyway, and besides, all these reagents were refined to begin with, so their scents were faint to start with.
So of course they would all seem identical to him, but to me—they were distinct.
“That’s exactly why I’m helping, isn’t it?”
I laughed and shrugged my shoulders lightly.
“But I’ve already smelled everything here…”
I glanced around. I’d already checked over thirty Reagent Bottles.
The task I was helping with was comparing the scent of the poison’s raw materials against the scent of the poison extracted from Cassian.
And now that I’d verified all the ones Bedel had temporarily brought from the Magic Tower, there was nothing left to do.
“We need to identify the materials before we can even think about refining an antidote or backtracking the source.”
The Tower Master gazed at a bottle set off to one side and let out a low sigh.
“We’ve hit the limit now. This being a temporary setup, there’s no help for it.”
We were using one of the rooms in the Duke’s Residence as a makeshift laboratory, but we couldn’t possibly match the vast quantities of poisons and materials stored in the Magic Tower.
I felt the same frustration he did.
I wanted to say, “This is the material that produces that early-spring scent!” and pair them together, but there simply wasn’t any raw material that gave off such a fragrance.
‘It’s difficult to give an answer without revealing the source.’
I was swallowing back a sigh when the Tower Master suddenly shook his head.
“No good. I need to return.”
“To where, sir?”
“To the Magic Tower. I have a matter to attend to in the Imperial Capital while I’m at it.”
“A matter?”
“…Nothing significant.”
The Tower Master cut the conversation short, his face showing he had some scheme he couldn’t yet reveal.
* * *
That evening, Claude was packing alone.
Once he’d decided to return to the Magic Tower, there was no reason to delay.
As he packed things one by one, Claude suddenly picked up the Notebook resting on one corner of the desk.
Inside were detailed records of his observations of Pipi.
He opened the early entries and read them, falling briefly into thought.
[Detoxification: 8 minutes—maximum 10 minutes.]
‘Yes, that was the baseline.’
These past months, there had been no time to allocate to serious reflection.
He’d been consumed entirely by the effort to identify the Duchess’s poison.
But now, circumstance had stripped away his purpose, and he found himself with the luxury of thinking about Pipi once more.
‘A child who could barely manage ten minutes of Detoxification spent the whole night doing it without any ill effects.’
How could such a thing have occurred?
The Tower Master was certain the child’s abilities were growing at an impossibly rapid rate.
Growth always had its reasons, but he could not fathom what could cause such a leap forward.
‘If this rapid growth is placing strain on the child’s body, what then?’
If he knew the cause, he would not be afraid, but ignorance made him afraid.
He could not help but take interest in every tiny change that befell Pipi, worrying endlessly.
‘There’s something there, of that I’m certain…’
The way Cassian—the only one to enter Beast Form—understood the child’s words. That too was a sign.
Pipi held a secret. Some secret, even from herself.
He was afraid that this secret might bring harm to the child.
And what of what the child had confessed to him?
‘I heard my own mother tell them to take me instead. I’m an orphan with no one to find me, so…’
The despair he’d felt then—as if all the blood in his body were draining away into the earth.
He felt powerless, resting his chin in his palm, tapping his fingers on the desk.
Pipi had been smiling as she spoke those words.
Speaking as though it were someone else’s tragedy, her tone light and unburdened…
‘But her tail was trembling.’
The Tower Master had observed Pipi from the closest vantage point and had come to understand the child’s habits quite well.
When Pipi grew melancholy, she would wrap her tail around herself.
She couldn’t do it now because she was cradling Cassian in her arms, but it was clear she wanted to embrace her tail out of anxiety. She simply hadn’t noticed it herself.
“How can I… make you happy?”
A child who lacked something.
At first, he had thought her merely cheerful and bright, but looking back now, he saw that wasn’t the truth.
Surely the barrenness of the child’s past life had made her unhappy.
The greater his desire to protect her, the more he regretted not having found her sooner.
‘If there is no one to find Pipi, then I shall create one.’
The Tower Master packed the Notebook into his bag along with a heavy Legal Code he had brought from his family home.
The Laws of Status. The requirements for noble Adoption Registration. Guardianship and inheritance.
After searching extensively, he found that noble Adoption Registration existed only in cases where a child of noble birth was registered to continue the lineage or for special circumstances.
With no precedent for adopting a commoner orphan into a noble house, the Legal Code offered no guidance no matter how thoroughly he searched.
‘There’s no choice but to return to the Imperial Capital and consult with lawyers there.’
He could not wound the child with uncertainty, so he resolved to prepare the procedures perfectly before asking her consent.
* * *
“We plan to depart for the Magic Tower the day after tomorrow.”
The following morning, as breakfast was ending, the Duchess gasped at the Tower Master’s announcement and covered her mouth.
“You’re leaving already? We haven’t even properly entertained Behemoth yet…….”
“That’s right. I came and worked the whole time, so why not stay a bit longer?”
The Duke likewise tried to dissuade him, his expression wistful.
“I’ve purged all the poison from the young master’s body. What remains now is for his Core to recover. In the meantime, I must return to the Magic Tower to analyze the poison.”
“That is… yes. It is important work…….”
Though Cassian would be more careful henceforth to avoid Poisoning, it remained vital to prepare an antidote.
More importantly, if the Tower Master could clarify how the poison damaged the body, he could then apply those findings to develop methods of Detoxification when it was refined.
‘And it matters for thwarting conspiracies against the throne too…….’
But I’m pretending not to hear that part.
“My, then Cassian, are you planning to go along this time too?”
The Duchess gazed at Cassian with eyes that had grown misty, her voice tinged with concern.
Until the Tower Master and I went to Serpens Territory, Cassian had naturally been scheduled to go to the Magic Tower.
But after seeing Cassian poisoned again, the Duchess seemed anxious about letting her son out of her sight for so long.
“Growl!”
Cassian lifted his front legs elegantly while still seated on the table.
Then his entire body suddenly began to tremble.
“Young Master?”
Startled, I reached over and nudged Cassian gently.
“Screeeee—!”
But instead of answering, Cassian let out a cry. And then…….
Bang!
“Goodness!”
The Nursemaid who had been assisting us beside Cassian jumped in alarm.
Smoke billowed up at that same instant, and the plate Cassian had been eating from crackled and fractured beneath him.
When the smoke cleared, a white-haired boy sat there, having flattened the plate entirely under his human form.
“……Huh? I…… I came back, I came back?!”
Cassian’s eyes went wide as he touched his face with his hands.
“Wow, wow!”
Had Cassian’s Core finally recovered?
I clapped my hands in delight.
“My, my goodness! Can it be……!”
The Duchess, equally astonished, rose halfway from her seat.
Cassian was about to say something with a grin when.
Poof.
“……Ow.”
With a wisp of smoke, the tiny Beast Form rolled backward.
I quickly caught Cassian to keep him from tumbling under the table.
“……Ha.”
And then, somehow, laughter bubbled up.
“Hey, hey! Did you see that? I was human! Don’t laugh!”
“That’s right. It was only three seconds, but.”
“Still counts though!”
Cassian thrashed his forelimbs, his face flushed scarlet.
He seemed intent on stamping the ground in protest, but his front legs were far too short for the gesture to carry any weight.
Meanwhile, the Duchess dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief, pressing gently at the corners.
“Thank goodness he’s coming back to himself…….”
“Recovery is proceeding smoothly. It shouldn’t be long before he’s fully free of the Beast Form.”
At the Tower Master’s words, the Duchess nodded repeatedly.
Then she glanced sideways at Cassian.
“Son, must you really go in that state? What an ungrateful, cold-hearted child.”
“Grr, grrr…….”(I, that is……)
Cassian hesitated, his eyes darting toward the Duchess with obvious wariness.
To everyone’s surprise, the Duke then came to Cassian’s defense, taking a sip of tea first.
“Enough, madam. Let it be.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The Duchess’s eyes widened as she turned to her husband, clearly puzzled that he wasn’t taking her side.
The truth was, since the poison had been completely neutralized, there was no real reason Cassian had to go to the Magic Tower at all.
“Didn’t we discuss this before?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
The two of them spoke as though some unspoken understanding had passed between them, entirely composed.
‘What are they talking about? What is it?’
Curiosity pricked at me, and I waited for them to continue, but unfortunately, that was all they said.
“Pipi, I need you to be patient if Cassian shadows you everywhere from now on.”
……Wait?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————