I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 7

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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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* * *
Standing before the treadmill, I tapped the toe of my shoe against the floor in quick rhythm.
‘I slept well, and today my body feels incredible.’
Somehow I felt twice as light as yesterday — as though I could run circles around my previous limits.
“I have to break my record today.”
I gazed at the clock mounted on the Magic Tower’s outer wall and steeled myself.
‘So that he’ll…’
Look at me again.
I caught myself picturing the Magic Tower Master’s face, though he wasn’t here.
Once my routine had settled into place, the busy Magic Tower Master had delegated part of his supervisory duties to Liz.
Since my days were monotonous anyway, nothing had gone amiss.
But after that — inexplicably — I’d felt a petty, wounded sting.
‘If my growth is too slow, then…’
I recalled that quiet gaze of his — neither indifferent nor cold.
I knew it shouldn’t matter who supervised me, and yet I wanted him to keep watching.
This irrational feeling was surely just wounded pride.
The very thought that he might be disappointed in my growth rate — when I was once the finest assassin — stung my ego more than anything!
‘…It must be something like that.’
So I had to become the best Experimental Subject.
Today I would run twice as hard as yesterday.
“Pipi, don’t push yourself too hard.”
Liz tried to stop me, but I was already climbing onto the treadmill, cranking up the speed.
The sensation of my feet driving off the ground, breath growing ragged — it felt exhilarating.
The wheel spun faster and faster, wind rushing past my ears.
‘Good — I need to keep this pace for twice as long.’
If I could run faster and sustain it longer —
Surely even the Magic Tower Master couldn’t deny my dramatic improvement in stamina and athletic performance.
“Pipi! You’re going too fast!”
“I can do this!”
I pumped my arms harder, gasping.
“Pipi!”
The moment I heard Liz’s anxious voice —
My shoelace suddenly came undone, and my foot slipped.
Bang!
My vision went white.
Sharp pain followed a fraction of a second later.
I lay sprawled on the ground, curled into a tight ball, unable to move. My head throbbed.
“Pipi! You’re bleeding—!”
I heard Liz cry out.
Moments later, someone dragged my body.
Before my vision cleared, a sharp, pungent smell flooded in — nothing like Liz’s soft, gentle scent. This was intense and acrid.
‘The Magic Tower Master.’
Of all moments, I had to let him see me fail like this.
I suppressed a feeling I couldn’t quite name — something between shame and anger — and lifted my head.
“I’m fine.”
I smiled reflexively as I spoke, but blood dripped down in front of my eyes.
“It doesn’t really hurt—”
“Be quiet.”
His voice was so low it seemed to bore through the basement itself. My scalp prickled.
The grip on my arm was also unusually firm, unlike his typical touch.
‘Why does he sound… angry?’
I was only fulfilling the contract faithfully, participating in the experiment as agreed.
While I was still processing my confusion, the Magic Tower Master inspected my forehead, knees, and exposed palms in turn.
His throat moved once, slowly.
“You’re bleeding.”
I naturally lowered my gaze as well.
My pants were torn at the kneecap, and my palms were scraped raw.
Ugh. Of all the places to get hurt — these will sting every time I wash.
“A wound like this will heal on its own.”
Still, it wasn’t a particularly deep wound.
Blood continued to trickle down my forehead, though.
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
He withdrew a small vial from inside his robe.
It was transparent liquid that shimmered as though filled with glittering fairy dust.
‘That’s not… Holy Water, is it?’
Surely not. It was far too expensive a healing potion to waste on a scratch this small.
The Magic Tower Master uncapped the bottle and sprinkled it over my forehead while I stood there in disbelief.
The wound stung for a moment, then the pain vanished in an instant.
I flinched and studied his expression carefully.
‘I always thought his face was expressionless…’
But looking at him now, I realized that until this moment, ‘expressionless’ had been the wrong word entirely.
What I saw now was a face so utterly drained of emotion it seemed bleached away.
“Um, it stings a little.”
Trying to lighten the mood, I let out a nervous laugh and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Bear it.”
But the answer that came back was curt and cold.
Yet beneath that tone ran a tremor, as if he were suppressing something.
“It’s just that Pipi was working so hard. Determined to break the record…”
Liz, sensing the tension, tried to ease it as well. But what came back was an answer edged with something like fury.
“Who gave that instruction?”
“I, I didn’t!”
Liz startled and shook her head hastily.
“I thought it would be good to grow faster, so I came up with it myself.”
At my words, the Magic Tower Master’s eyes flared with cold fire.
“When an Experimental Subject develops a will of its own and acts on it, the experiment inevitably falls apart.”
To the Magic Tower Master, I was just a lab rat.
I knew it perfectly well, and yet somehow it stung.
“Why do you have to put it that way?”
Forgetting about my injured palm, I clenched my fists and muttered.
“Applying myself seriously to the experiment is right there in the contract.”
My chest swelled with a feeling of hurt.
As I chose my words carefully, my cheeks puffed out on their own.
“If you need me to have no will, then hire an actual lab rat instead of a Demi-human. Or you could just supervise me directly and stop me.”
Unable to hold back any longer, I muttered it almost to myself, and the Magic Tower Master let out a long sigh before shaking his head.
“That wasn’t what I was trying to say.”
“I only wanted to be a perfect Experimental Subject.”
“But there’s something more important than perfection.”
I tilted my head at his words.
“Is it… efficiency? Though I suppose using Holy Water makes it the opposite of efficient.”
“That’s not it. Well.”
As if struggling to express something he held inside, the Magic Tower Master’s face grew troubled for a moment before he helped me to my feet.
“It seems I’d better keep watch over you myself.”
His gaze swept across my wound — a look that was part exasperation at a troublemaker, part something like sorrow.
“From now on, if you hear my voice, you stop immediately.”
The Magic Tower Master added coldly.
“One drop of Holy Water is worth ten times your weekly wages. Right now, I’m fixing you with my own funds specifically to preserve the Experimental Subject.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So if you injure yourself again, I’ll deduct it from your wages then.”
“Eek!”
Wait—does that mean he’s not charging me this time?
Relief washed over me at the thought, but the fear of ending up indebted for the Holy Water drew an involuntary shriek from my lips.
“So it would be wise not to create opportunities to get hurt.”
As soon as he finished applying the Holy Water, all my wounds vanished.
Only then did the darkness that had shadowed the Magic Tower Master’s face begin to lift.
* * *
During free time in the afternoon, I decided to wander through the Magic Tower.
I walked down the corridor, crunching on a Nut Bar the Magic Tower Master had given me as a snack.
“Pipi, where are you going?”
“Exploring!”
I greeted the apprentices I happened to run into along the way.
“A hamster demi-human? Your cheeks are so puffy.”
“I’m a dormouse demi-human, thank you very much!”
“Experimental Subject, would you like some of this too?”
I’d managed to scrounge up candy from the mages I’d met before.
As I headed toward the lower levels of the tower, I reached the first-floor lobby where I’d arrived on my first day.
Liz was sitting at the reception desk in one corner of the lobby.
‘She really does appear out of nowhere.’
On the Magic Tower Master’s orders, she supervised my training, conducted research, and in whatever spare time remained, she even handled reception duties in the lobby.
‘Is that what being the youngest always means?’
I was beginning to understand why Liz often wished the apprentices would shed their apprentice status sooner.
Since Liz looked tired and was dozing lightly, I decided to explore carefully without disturbing her.
‘…Hmm?’
An odd smell suddenly drifted from one direction.
It was a scent I’d caught once before, very faintly, but I couldn’t quite place it.
‘What was that smell?’
I sniffed the air and moved silently toward the source of the scent.
‘There’s a staircase going down here?’
Usually, due to space constraints, both upper and lower staircases are built in the same location.
But this staircase was somewhat narrow and hidden away in an entirely different direction.
The passage leading down to the basement was very quiet.
Unlike the bright upper level, sparse lighting made it rather dark.
‘Wow!’
For some reason, it truly felt like real exploration.
I grew a bit excited and unconsciously wagged my tail as I headed into the darkness ahead.
‘Hmm, is that…?’
In the distance, I could see a cloth-covered chest in front of a door.
Squinting at the cloth, I made out an emblem I’d seen before.
‘Behemoth?’
It was the coat of arms of House Behemoth.
Having worked as an assassin, I naturally had all the major noble houses’ emblems memorized—there was no way I could miss it.
‘Was the Magic Tower connected to House Behemoth somehow?’
I tilted my head in confusion.
Behemoth was a house of knights. I’d never heard they were on good terms with mages…
‘Though a ducal house could certainly provide patronage.’
If the chest contained donated goods, there was nothing particularly odd about it.
Of course, I had no explanation for why such a chest would be left outside the door…
What was truly strange, though,
was that the smell that had drawn me in was seeping faintly from inside the door.
‘I’m certain I’ve caught a similar scent somewhere before…’
As I was about to move closer, puzzled,
“Pipi, what are you doing down here?”
A sinister voice came from behind me.
“Oh, it’s you. So it was Liz.”
I’d already felt her approaching footsteps.
As they grew closer, I was debating whether to subdue her or play the innocent child.
But the moment I heard her voice, I knew it was Liz.
“I was just exploring the Magic Tower. There’s a strange smell coming from inside there.”
“That’s a restricted area. No one except the Master is allowed beyond the barrier in that room.”
At Liz’s words, I let my shoulders droop and nodded obediently.
My pleasant exploration time had come to an end.
“But the barrier seems a bit weak. The smell is leaking through.”
“I don’t sense anything at all…”
Liz hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“All right. I’ll report it. You go play somewhere else.”
She pushed me toward the stairs by my back.
I nodded and glanced back down once more.
It was still quiet, but it carried that intriguing sense of mystery—as if something unspoken was lurking there.
* * *
Meanwhile.
The Magic Tower Master sat quietly in his office, rolling a pen between his fingers.
He organized the day’s events in the Growth Log as if he were keeping a diary of a child’s development.
[-Physical endurance improving
-High aptitude for growth
-Injury sustained due to disobedience of control]
The pen tip halted.
He recalled the scarlet blood that had fallen from the child’s forehead earlier, weighing the words between “minor” and “severe”.
It had been a minor injury in truth, yet the moment had felt so grave that his heart had seized.
[-Injury sustained due to disobedience of control. Full recovery achieved with Holy Water.]
In the end, he finished the sentence without deciding on an adjective.
He stared at the blank space for a long moment, then quietly added a single line below.
[Must keep watch to prevent injury.]
No matter what.

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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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