I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 81

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

Thankfully, that strange pulsing faded quickly.
Back in my room, I pressed my hand against my chest repeatedly, but felt nothing again.
‘What was that? Can a heart skip like that?’
It did feel different from a normal heartbeat, but I couldn’t think of any other explanation.
‘There’s no way I have a second heart.’
I rubbed my chest and dismissed the thought.
I let out a nervous laugh — ha-ha-ha — but it died in my throat when the unease returned.
‘Never mind. Let me focus on this instead.’
I unfolded the Blueprint Collection on my desk.
And to cut to the chase, I hit a wall within thirty minutes.
The blueprints themselves were easy enough to read. The problem was the dense annotations crammed into every corner of the pages.
I could barely make out that it was something called a Barrier Technique.
For someone who knew absolutely nothing about magic, it was nothing but one question mark after another.
‘Now I understand why I couldn’t complete the task even though I had two months.’
Even if I’d memorized these blueprints, without knowing where magical barriers might appear, I couldn’t prepare a solution for them.
So I decided to set magic aside for now and approach it differently.
‘If I were an intruder, where would be the most vulnerable point on these blueprints?’
Where pipes pierce through the walls. The joints created during the expansion. The weakest point in the patrol routes.
‘Wow, that’s at least three infiltration routes right there.’
This place is wide open!
‘I need to fix this fast.’
Starting the next day, I went around asking questions everywhere.
Self-teaching those worm-like magic characters was clearly beyond my limits, so I decided to ask people about the theory instead.
The next morning, I sought out Liz first.
“Liz, do you have a book for learning this script?”
“Hm? This is Rune Script. Why do you need this?”
“Just curious. I’d like to read the same characters that the Tower Master and you can read.”
As I spoke, Liz pulled a Rune Script Primer from the shelf and stared directly at my face.
“…Pipi, didn’t you sleep last night? You’ve been yawning all morning.”
“I slept fine…”
I tilted my head and opened the primer.
And four days later, I surrendered.
Without foundational knowledge, I couldn’t memorize the characters.
So I switched tactics and decided to listen to the experts explain instead.
The timing worked out perfectly too. The entire Magic Tower was in the process of revamping its security system since the kidnapping incident.
“Hello!”
My first target was the Second Elder, who oversaw barrier management.
“Oh, it’s the lab rat.”
“What if, what if someone bad tried to break into the Magic Tower? What would we do?”
“Hmmph… our little lab rat worrying about such things. The incident really scared you, didn’t it?”
I’d thought he was a silly grandfather because he was always bickering with the Third Elder, but he turned out to be surprisingly sentimental.
“If you’re worried because you were scared, don’t be. When it comes to the barriers of this Magic Tower, they are the finest on the continent…”
Ugh, here comes that rambling old-folks speech!
“No, I’m not scared. I just want to know what barriers do.”
“And why are you curious about that?”
“We’re checking if the Magic Tower’s security is perfect.”
I’d meant to hear a quick explanation, but the Second Elder got excited and launched into a half-day’s worth of lecture.
I picked out what I needed, took notes, and moved on to the next target.
The second and third targets were much the same. They all pitied me, praised me as remarkable, then got excited and talked endlessly.
That was when I realized something.
‘Everyone at the Magic Tower… they’re all obsessed!’
Fundamentally, these people had become mages because they loved magic, so the moment a favorite subject came up, they wanted to talk about it endlessly.
I learned that the magic characters were properly called Rune Script, and I heard endless praise about how the meaning of the characters changed depending on the angles and strokes, and how the resulting formulas transformed into mathematically beautiful equations.
In conclusion, I didn’t gather much actually useful information.
The most useful thing was that two of the vulnerabilities I’d identified had already been sealed after the kidnapping incident. Bedel handled the work excellently.
“Ugh, my head hurts.”
From overusing my brain, I felt a throbbing headache and creeping drowsiness as I trudged down the corridor.
‘Let me rest for a bit.’
Even so, I brought the Rune Script Primer with me and headed out to the Back Courtyard.
I’d thought to rest and read in the warm sunlight.
“Hah!”
Kasian was diligently drilling the stance he’d learned before the illness.
I settled onto a bench with a clear view of him and opened the book.
‘Beork is… used in witchcraft to calm a troubled mind….’
I worked to absorb the meanings hidden within the Rune Script, committing them to memory.
The light was perfect, and the steady whisper of Kasian’s blade cutting through the air kept my mind calm and settled.
Up to that point, everything was fine.
“Hey! Pipi!”
I came to my senses to find Kasian practically in my face.
The book lay on the ground, face-down.
‘Did I fall asleep…?’
I’d noticed lately that I kept nodding off strangely, and it seemed I’d simply drifted under without warning.
“I thought you’d collapsed. Are you hurt somewhere?”
“The book was boring.”
This book bore the full burden of guilt.
* * *
As several more days passed, I’d accumulated a fair amount of information.
I’d memorized the layout of the entire Magic Tower and learned where the Barrier Axis was on each floor, which points were weak, and where the patrol routes had gaps.
At the Eastern Rear Section—the most vulnerable point—I’d set traps to immediately alert us if an intruder entered.
I’d asked Liz to apply Tracking Oil at positions anyone passing through would inevitably brush against.
‘There are moments when my assassin days prove useful.’
When I had a target to track, I’d coat their clothes or body with it—a special substance whose scent lasted at least ten days, even with washing.
So the trap was complete: reapply it every ten days as the scent faded.
If someone passed through that area in the interim, the scent would cling to them, and I could detect intrusion by the traces.
“Hmm, once the defensive map is finished, I’ll need to report it to the Tower Master.”
I ran my hand over the unfinished map sketched out on my desk. The thought that this was my contribution to earn my keep made me feel oddly satisfied.
Separate from that, one nagging concern left a corner of my heart feeling subtly uneasy.
‘It’s strange. Lately it’s like I’ve developed hypersomnia….’
Despite sleeping soundly at night, I found myself dozing off standing up more often than not.
I frowned and tilted my head.
‘If the same thing happens one more time….’
I’d put off mentioning it because I didn’t want to appear unprofessional in front of the Tower Master.
But if it occurred again, I’d need to be honest and tell her something seemed wrong with my body.
“Ugh, no real progress on that front either….”
The Rune Script was starting to feel familiar, but reading them still didn’t explain how the magical circles actually worked.
Frustrated, I swept the Primer and sketchbook aside and collapsed onto my desk.
‘Is this the kind of thing that requires magical talent to grasp?’
I was usually confident in learning things….
But apparently magic is different if only geniuses can master it.
I sighed.
That’s when it happened.
“Huh…?”
Suddenly, deep within my body, a thudding sound echoed like a drum being struck.
Thump—
‘What is this….’
Was this some kind of arrhythmia?
I sat up awkwardly, somewhat startled.
I rubbed at my chest frantically, but unlike before, it didn’t fade right away.
‘My body is burning….’
In an instant, heat surged through me—the world before my eyes seemed to ignite.
I pressed my forehead with an absurd worry that my eyeballs were cooking.
‘But my forehead is cool…?’
It didn’t seem to be a cold or the flu either.
Even as this was happening, the drumming sound in my ears grew louder and louder. My entire body vibrated like an instrument.
“I… I need to go to the Tower Master….”
I tried to move in panic, but my legs gave out and I slid down onto the floor.
‘If I collapse, this is bad.’
Drowsiness crept over me….
As the realization that moving was no longer an option passed through my mind, I simply let myself fall back onto the floor instead. It was safer than trying to move and hitting my head.
‘This isn’t just drowsiness.’
It felt as though my consciousness were being pulled into somewhere deep, warm, and irresistible.
Then my entire body went limp with a shudder, and I felt a lush tail wrapping around me.
‘My Transformation is breaking….’
That was my last thought.
My vision darkened, and consciousness cut out in an instant.
* * *
Pipi did not appear at breakfast in the Office.
When Claude opened the closed door and entered, what he found was a small Winter Dormouse, collapsed and curled beneath the desk.

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