I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 9

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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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* * *
The Tower Master’s face, visible through my blurred vision as exhaustion drained through me, looked just as worn as I felt.
“……Are you going to scold me?”
I don’t regret saving the people of the Magic Tower.
But it was true that I’d disobeyed the Tower Master’s orders not to enter, so I asked carefully, testing the waters—
“What?”
He wore a bewildered expression.
“You said this was a forbidden zone I wasn’t supposed to enter. I came in anyway, knowing that.”
Since the Tower Master’s face had twisted into something ominous, I figured I might as well take the blow head-on and spoke honestly.
At that, the Tower Master’s lips moved soundlessly for a moment.
“Do you want to be scolded?”
“N-no. No, I don’t.”
I shook my head obediently.
My head was growing strangely warm, and if the Tower Master started scolding me, I felt tears might spill out.
“……You’re running a fever. Your face is completely flushed.”
The Tower Master stared down at me with a forbidding expression, then pressed his hand to my forehead.
His face grew even more severe.
‘Why do I feel like I’m floating?’
I clung to the Tower Master as he strode swiftly toward the exit, my eyes blinking loosely in his arms.
‘My legs are dangling…….’
Focusing on the sensation of my swinging legs, I heard his heartbeat through the body pressed against mine, growing faster and faster.
‘Is he really angry?’
Pouting my lips sadly, I buried my head in his embrace and waited a moment as the sounds around me whooshed past.
It seemed people were trying to speak to him, but the Tower Master told them all “later” as he carried me swiftly along.
After a moment, something soft touched my back. It was my bed.
“You must have sat on that cold stone floor far too long. You’ve got a fever.”
He set me down, pulled the blanket up to my chin, and rambled on.
His face was terribly stern, but somehow I could see now that it wasn’t anger—just panic.
“Achoo!”
When I sneezed as my nose tickled, the Tower Master’s expressionless face cycled rapidly through pallor and white.
“This body is troublesome…….”
To catch a cold just from sitting on the floor for a while—
I gave a small sigh, feeling disgust at my weakened frame.
“You’re worried about the experiment, aren’t you? Even if I’m sick, I’ll definitely go to physical training tomorrow.”
“That’s not it…… Sigh.”
At my forced smile, the Tower Master’s face crumpled further.
“There won’t be any drop in efficiency!”
I just wished he wouldn’t look at me with such worry in his eyes.
I did something good—saved everyone—and the only reward I saw was the Tower Master’s furrowed brow, which stung a little.
I would’ve liked him to just say I’d done well.
Caught in that thought, my eyes grew heavy and closed before I knew it.
My fever climbed higher, my eyes burning, and without thinking, tears began to roll down my cheeks as I lay there with my eyes shut.
‘Don’t cry. You’ve held up this well so far! This pathetic display isn’t who you are…….’
But as my body weakened, had my heart truly reverted to that of a six-year-old, against my will?
“Just praise me…….”
Unfortunately, I have no memory of whether I received that praise afterward.
* * *
“Ugh.”
When I woke, every bone in my body ached.
My throat was raw, sharp and stinging as if scraped by a blade.
My memories of the past few days were scattered and hazy.
Liz had come to change my cold compress, and apprentices and other mages had visited to pay their respects, leaving flowers and snacks.
And the Tower Master came only in the quiet hours of dawn, when no one else was about, staring down at me, feeding me medicine, checking my forehead.
As I sifted through fragments of memory cut apart by sleep, a long sigh escaped.
Judging by how the sun fell through the window, it seemed to be afternoon…….
I sighed and washed thoroughly in the bathroom, then changed into clean clothes and came back out.
I wasn’t sure exactly how many days had passed, but thinking of how the Tower Master had overlooked my neglected duties, I felt I should throw myself on my knees and beg forgiveness at once.
‘All right. Let me go apologize immediately.’
From the snacks I’d been given as gifts, I selected the ones that looked especially delicious—the ones I’d wanted to eat every time I lay in bed watching them—and packed them into a basket.
She planned to offer it as an apology—and a bribe.
After wrapping a handkerchief around her neck for protection, she slipped from her room toward the Tower Master’s quarters. The air felt different from usual.
‘What…?’
There were no mages wandering the corridors needlessly.
The entire Magic Tower seemed wrapped in silence, so still it felt as though no one inhabited it at all.
As she passed the Laboratory, whose door hung open, she caught sight of someone inside who noticed her and broke into unbridled joy.
“…It’s Pipi! Pipi’s awake!”
His mouth moved silently in delight at her waking.
‘What is going on?’
The mage beside him, caught up in the same excitement, flailed his arms and accidentally spilled some reagent, then gasped in alarm.
Pipi tilted her head in bewilderment and bowed politely.
At that, the mages inside crept out and began dumping snacks into the basket she was carrying.
Mostly small packages—chocolates and candies of the sort they’d been carrying for their own consumption.
Not understanding why they were giving her these, she cocked her head. But they eagerly tossed snacks from their sleeves and pockets and vanished back inside.
After this happened a couple more times,
she was finally able to knock on the Tower Master’s door.
“Come in.”
She opened the door and peered carefully inside.
‘Dave?’
It was another mage she’d seen in the Laboratory recently—the one they said was Liz’s senior—standing before the Tower Master, trembling visibly.
Unmistakably, he was being scolded.
Pipi’s eyes darted around, then she promptly dropped to her knees.
She had to apologize far more sincerely than he was—that way, maybe she’d escape with less of a scolding.
“Pipi—!”
The moment she knelt in apology, the Tower Master sprang from his chair as if he’d teleported and rushed to her side.
“What are you doing?”
His face looked bewildered.
She pressed her hands together tightly and bowed her head.
“I promised to participate in the experiment, but I couldn’t because I was ill. I’m sorry.”
“But you were sick.”
“However, the contract doesn’t have a clause permitting illness as an excuse. Please don’t terminate my employment.”
At her words, the Tower Master lifted her up roughly and sat her on the sofa.
He dismissed Dave with a glance, then stared at her intently.
“Do I look like the sort of cold-blooded person who’d fire an employee for taking sick leave?”
“…Well, technically speaking, I’m a contract worker, aren’t I?”
She assessed the situation before answering, then quickly scurried to the door, retrieved the basket of snacks sitting there, and brought it back.
“These are an apology gift. I brought them as gifts, but since I haven’t received vacation time yet…”
At her words, the Tower Master’s face contorted again.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them. His expression seemed to say, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
“…I’m going to lose my mind.”
“…You’re not going to fire me?”
She asked cautiously, gauging his mood.
“You’re not going to demand a breach penalty either…?”
“I’m a wealthy man.”
“…Oh, yes. Congratulations…?”
“Which means I don’t need your pittance.”
The Tower Master exhaled long and hard.
That was truly a relief.
Coming here, she’d remembered the clause about ‘penalties for breach of good faith obligation,’ and the chill that had run down her spine was indescribable!
“What would you have done if I’d thrown you out?”
“Where else would a little thing like me find work? I’d either go back to the Orphanage or beg on the streets…”
Without the Magic Tower’s special circumstances, no one hired a six-year-old.
She fixed him with a glistening, pleading gaze: ‘You’re not really going to cast me out, are you?’
At her words, the Tower Master sighed again and shook his head.
“You don’t need these snacks. Eat them all yourself.”
Then he unwrapped one of the candies and popped it into her mouth.
She reflexively chewed and swallowed, then quickly grasped that there was no scolding to come, and let out a little laugh.
“I’m going to lose my mind. One person’s got a loose screw and takes things easy, another assumes I’m heartless…”
She understood the second remark was about her, but what was he referring to in the first?
She tilted her head and blinked.
At that, the Tower Master finally let slip a glimpse of his true thoughts.
“On the day you collapsed, I discovered that the mages of the Magic Tower had all grown slack, and nobody took swift action.”
Since I already knew the story, I simply nodded along with a show of attentiveness.
“The elders are ancient hermits who never leave the Laboratory anyway, so I won’t fault them for that. But from the regular mages down to the apprentices—not a single one of them was working with any real diligence.”
Only then could I be certain why the atmosphere in the Magic Tower had felt like walking on thin ice all day.
This man was furious and had been pecking away at everyone relentlessly.
Having heard from Liz why people had acted that way, I found it rather amusing.
“It makes no sense that the discipline of the Magic Tower would shift this much simply because I was absent or present.”
At the Tower Master’s words, I deliberated whether to speak up or stay silent…….
‘Well. I should earn my keep for the snacks I’ve been given.’
The Tower Master seemed unusually gracious today, so I decided to risk a little overstepping.
“It’s just… my thought, but…….”
“Hmm?”
“Isn’t it possible that you’re simply… squeezing too hard?”
At my words, the Tower Master raised his eyebrows as if hearing the most absurd thing in the world.
“So the others growing complacent is my fault?”
“Not exactly, but…… well, if you pull too hard on anything, it snaps, doesn’t it?”
“What do you mean?”
“You always keep things taut. Perfect and precise.”
At my words, the Tower Master nodded with an air of self-satisfaction.
“That’s only natural.”
“Working hard is natural, but sometimes people need room to breathe.”
In more than a fortnight of living in the Magic Tower, no one had ever mentioned anything about time off…….
‘It’s because the other mages only get a day or two of leave once every three months…….’
If work burrowed so deeply into daily life like this, wouldn’t it actually make people more prone to becoming slack?
To convey that thought as clearly as possible without misunderstanding, I explained it earnestly, using hand gestures and all.
Then the Tower Master fell silent for a moment before looking at me with an unreadable gaze.
“If I were to open up this… breathing room.”
“……Yes.”
“Then you wouldn’t entertain any strange notions either?”
What does he mean?
As I tilted my head in confusion, the Tower Master spoke.
“Those thoughts of yours—like worrying I might dismiss you out of nowhere, or that you’d have to run off to an orphanage or something.”
He’s misunderstood—I didn’t mean I’d go to an orphanage, but rather that I’d have nowhere left to go if I were cast out…….
I blinked, then decided to let it slide and simply nodded emphatically.
“Work efficiency will improve too.”
“Hmm. I see…….”
The Tower Master nodded gravely.
Whether he’d actually heed my words or not, I couldn’t say…….
* * *
And thanks to the ‘laboratory rat’s’ suggestion, a notice was posted throughout the Magic Tower announcing that from now on, there would be two Rest Days per month and one Company Dinner per month.
On the first-ever Company Dinner day at the Magic Tower.
I became nothing short of a hero to the entire place.
‘Strangely enough, this seems to be getting far more fanfare than actually saving someone’s life…….’
Oh well.
Good is good!

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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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