I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 73

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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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‘Ah, so it was a Sleeping Potion.’
I’d never been exposed to one before, so now I knew.
Anything that actually worked on my body instead of poison was genuinely rare.
‘I could’ve tested this ages ago.’
The fact that holy water worked on me, that medicinal herbs took effect—it all meant I needed to stay vigilant about anything besides poison. I should have realized sooner.
Was this too a sign that my heart had gone soft?
The thought rankled a little, but there was one thing to be grateful for.
‘At least Cassian isn’t here.’
I’d had no intention of bringing him along in his current weakened state, but even if he’d somehow slipped out without my knowledge, a body so frail it could be laid low by a mere Sleeping Potion would’ve been useless as a protector.
‘……The Underground Basement.’
The flow of air, the faint humming sound, the distant drip of water—there was no mistaking it.
My heart lurched and my skin crawled for a moment, but I kept my eyes closed and continued gathering information without betraying myself.
‘This isn’t the Earth Prison.’
There’s no forgetting a place as horrible as that.
If I were dragged to the Earth Prison, I couldn’t guarantee I’d keep my mind intact—so at least this was a mercy.
‘A hard Simple Bed?’
From the way my wrists felt, the binding was loose and sloppy.
This kind of knot would come undone in moments.
Should I count it as luck that this child’s body made them careless?
‘I need to keep them thinking I’m helpless, so I can find my chance to escape.’
All I could do was play a bewildered six-year-old who’d been kidnapped for no reason, watching and waiting for an opening.
I shifted my body, opened my eyes, and deliberately looked around.
Stone walls came into view. Across from me sat Mari.
“Where is this place?”
“You’re awake.”
She closed the book she’d been reading and regarded me with a calm expression.
“Where’s Liz……?”
“Liz went home.”
“Why am I here? Did Liz really leave me behind and go alone?”
I widened my eyes and asked, the picture of confusion.
Mari scratched her cheek slightly and nodded.
“Yeah. Liz had something urgent to take care of. She’ll come pick you up later.”
‘That’s a half-hearted lie.’
Liz would never do such a thing.
She’d be standing pale outside the empty shop, searching everywhere for me.
My chest tightened at the thought, but looked at differently, it was almost hopeful. The Magic Tower would know I was missing.
‘I’ll try to escape on my own, but if it comes to it, they’ll come looking for me, won’t they?’
Under normal circumstances, I’d never think such a thing, but strangely enough, I found myself believing—without any real basis—that the Magic Tower’s people would try to find me.
“I don’t like Liz……. She left me here alone.”
I deliberately pouted my lip.
“But where is this place? Can’t you take me home, Mari?”
“That won’t work.”
“Is this your house?”
“……Well, something like that.”
Mari answered with a bored expression, as if she’d already grown tired of talking to me.
“It’s really dark here. There’s no windows or anything……. Can we go somewhere brighter? I’m hungry too.”
“Pipi, I need you to stay quiet and be good, okay? You’ll listen to your noona, right?”
Mari’s smile vanished and a chill rippled through her voice.
She was no longer Liz’s friend ‘Mari’—now she wore the face of the Guild’s Assassin, known as ‘Bedel’.
It was a discontinuity so sharp that even a clueless, innocent child couldn’t help but feel it.
I hesitated for a moment, then let tears well up in my eyes and made my lip tremble.
“……Mari, I’m scared.”
“Sorry about that.”
Bedel spoke in a voice that wasn’t sorry at all, and moved closer to me.
“I didn’t really want to do this either, but it’s a job.”
“W-what kind of job? Are you going to do something bad to me?”
At my words, Bedel tilted her head slightly and shrugged.
“Beats me, honestly. There’s someone who needs something from you, so I brought you here. Just wait a bit, alright?”
There was nothing left to squeeze out of her.
I made a sniffling sound and rubbed my eyes with my sleeve.
‘I need to stay calm.’
If there was someone higher up than Mari…
The moment I understood who she’d been working under, my chest tightened.
I hoped it wasn’t who I suspected.
Then, from upstairs, the faint creak of floorboards sounded.
It was the sound of something being dragged.
‘It sounds too light for an adult man….’
I shrank into a cowering posture, my mind racing.
I needed to create an opening, but it seemed impossible right now.
Mari wasn’t the type to release me carelessly, and I couldn’t even tell if the only door connected to the stairs was locked.
‘If I try something rash and fail….’
With a child’s body, I probably wouldn’t suffer anything truly horrible, but things just as bad could easily happen.
Click, squeeeak—
A lock opened and someone walked in.
“This the kid?”
A low, languid voice.
The moment I heard it, I stopped breathing.
My clasped hands trembled faintly.
It was the exact voice I’d heard a hundred times in my dreams.
“Yes. She’s a test subject belonging to the Tower Master.”
I let Mari’s words wash over me and slowly raised my head.
A woman with short black hair and eyes like a fox’s, dark and sly.
Her hair was slightly shorter than I remembered, and there was no scar around her eyes.
But there was no mistaking her.
She was my master.
‘Breathe.’
I commanded myself.
Otherwise I’d look suspicious.
‘Please, breathe. Like a frightened child.’
Fortunately, this required no acting—my body trembled on its own.
My master approached me slowly.
Since the floor was stone, not wood, her footsteps made no sound.
Soon she brought the chair Mari had been sitting on and settled into it before me.
“Hello?”
She lifted my bound hands without hesitation, then opened my palm and traced it slowly with her thumb.
‘She’s examining me.’
She seemed to be checking for calluses and signs of training.
My hands weren’t completely soft from lack of use, but no one would mistake them for the hands of someone trained in Assassination.
My master examined my hands, nodded, and set them down.
“W-who are you?”
My voice shook of its own accord.
“I want to go home. Please send me home….”
“Hmm.”
My master scrutinized me carefully with her eyes.
‘I should look away.’
A frightened child doesn’t meet the gaze of a terrifying adult.
I should hunch my shoulders, avoid her eyes, keep my gaze on the ground.
But….
‘I can’t tear my eyes away…!’
The terror of not knowing what might happen the moment she left my sight.
With my master, the rule was never to break eye contact.
She might stab me with a blade at any moment under the guise of training.
The old fear interfered with my act.
“Staring right back without a trace of fear?”
She murmured softly.
Should I look away now? Or cry? Scream?
A dozen thoughts flashed through my mind in an instant, when suddenly my master laughed.
“I like this one.”
It was the same thing she’d said the first time we met.
Every child who’d heard her speak those words—”I’ve taken a liking to you”—while wearing that smile had tasted hell.
Myself included.
I thought leaving the Earth Prison would mean the end of that hellish life, but the “master” I’d met was her.
If there’s a heaven above the heavens, then there’s a hell beneath the hells.
I stared at her with trembling eyes and bit my lip.
* * *
At that same moment, in the Magic Tower of Dox.
The sun had set, and even after the dinner hour had passed, Liz and Pipi had not returned from their outing.
“They said they’d be back before dark…….”
Bedel checked the window several times before finally grabbing a lamp and venturing out herself.
The General Store in the East Shopping District that Liz had mentioned was locked shut.
The sign was flipped to “Closed,” the curtains were drawn tight, and when she broke through the door, the shop inside was empty.
Judging by the way all the valuable goods had vanished while only the fixtures remained, it was obvious from the start that it had been bait.
“……It’s an emergency.”
The Magic Tower erupted into chaos.
Organize search parties, notify the City Guard, dispatch an urgent message to the Tower Master.
Countless measures were set in motion, but Bedel knew it would take at least two days before the Tower Master could return.
And Cassian, who had been sleeping in Pipi’s room unaware of the commotion, suddenly jerked his head upright.
“Caw……?”
Something deep inside his chest ached with a sharp, inexplicable pain.
It was the first time he’d ever felt pain without a wound.
‘……Pipi?’
Cassian sensed something, shifted into his human form, and bolted from the room.

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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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