I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 90

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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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“……But I was abandoned in the forest, you know. Who abandons imperial blood in a forest?”
Of course, the more noble the bloodline, the more reasons there might be for a child not to survive birth……but still.
I stubbornly dug in my heels anyway.
‘I’ve never actually thought that being a commoner appeals to me.’
There wasn’t even a real reason I *shouldn’t* become imperial blood……
“Oh?”
Suddenly I grasped something, and a small exclamation escaped me. One of the reasons I didn’t want to become imperial blood was because I didn’t want to go to the Imperial Palace!
‘I like being at the Magic Tower.’
The Emperor was searching for me, and if I went there, it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to stay at the Magic Tower anymore.
So there was nothing I could do but think negatively.
“……An Imperial Guard Knight came to the Healing Magic Tower, you see.”
The Tower Master’s eyebrows moved ever so slightly.
“His Majesty is searching for a child who runs a high fever and expels poison.”
The Tower Master said nothing. The fingertips of his hand, resting on his knee, trembled slightly.
“Should I……go to the Imperial Palace?”
“Do you not wish to go?”
The Tower Master asked, as if testing me.
“Currently, His Majesty has no imperial heir. Moreover, there are no other blood relatives, so if Her Majesty the Empress cannot bear a successor, you may well become the next Emperor.”
At the Tower Master’s words, I jumped from the sofa in shock.
“Why——why would I have to do something so troublesome?!”
To be honest, I didn’t care much for the Emperor.
In my first life, I resented him because he hadn’t been able to save me whenever I faced injustice.
Why hadn’t he rooted out the assassins and spared us from such circumstances?
From early childhood, it was natural for the Empire’s people to grow up hearing the founding myths of the Basilisk Imperial House. I too had grown up hearing those tales from my grandmother, like a lullaby.
So I thought that a Basilisk—a phantasmal beast more powerful than any beast, one that brought all phantasmal beasts to their knees—should find it no trouble at all to save one insignificant hibernating mouse. And I resented him for it, unreasonably.
Actually, from some point on, I knew full well that I was simply resenting anyone I could find, just to endure it—but the emotion lingered like inertia.
After I felt the despair that the Imperial Family could never understand the lives of bottom-dwellers like us from the underground caverns, I even forgot that much.
“Most people possess the desire for power. To be Emperor is the highest station on this continent. Does it feel like a burden to you?”
“……If I become Emperor, I won’t be able to live in the Magic Tower anymore.”
I pouted my lip and muttered.
“Do you wish to continue living in the Magic Tower?”
“I’ve made friends here, and I have people I care about now. And I don’t think I’m the kind of person suited for a grand position like Emperor, where I’d have to care for everyone.”
At my words, the Tower Master nodded.
In truth, the Emperor hadn’t even directly told me to become his successor, yet here we were, seriously discussing what would happen if I went to the Imperial Palace.
‘Well, even if I don’t become successor, if I become imperial blood, I won’t be able to live in the Magic Tower anyway.’
I pulled the cushion beside me closer and rested my chin on it, sighing.
“If you truly have no regrets……”
Speaking thus, the Tower Master’s throat moved visibly as he swallowed.
“Pipi. If you were to become my daughter… if your registry were complete, you might be able to respond to the Imperial Palace to some degree.”
“Might they not cancel the registry and take me away……?”
“No eternal secrets exist, so one day your bloodline and abilities may be revealed. When that happens, I and my house might be able to help coordinate your affairs.”
The Tower Master’s ears had flushed slightly red.
This way of speaking felt as though he were coaxing me into adoption, trying to entice me.
“Of course, even if you don’t register, I will help you as much as I can……”
The Tower Master went on to clarify, rubbing his neck and cheek.
‘No, but he’s right.’
I wanted to live quietly without being discovered if possible, but the world keeps its own counsel.
If enemies came for me again like this, I wondered whether I could endure without using any power at all—and I had no confidence in my answer.
‘Accepting the Tower Master as……family?’
The Tower Master was a good person, and among those I had met, he was a rare sort of good adult.
So becoming family would be good fortune for me.
‘But……I have nothing to give the Tower Master.’
I couldn’t understand why the Tower Master wanted to adopt me.
In my life, I’d never experienced anything like good luck meant just for me……
‘Besides, I’m drawn to it.’
My chest tickled with an unfamiliar sensation when someone spoke of protecting me.
The Tower Master’s sincerity felt so overwhelming that I found myself biting my lip uncertainly, unsure what to do.
Pressing that flutter of hope down for a moment, I asked what had been on my mind.
“By the way, Tower Master……what happens to that woman?”
“I need to interrogate her. There’s far too much to ask about—the Guild, why she was targeted.”
“I see…….”
“Don’t worry. She won’t be able to show her face before you again.”
That wasn’t what I was worried about. The real problem was what my master had learned about me.
‘She must have noticed I’ve been trained.’
Which meant my past had just been given an expiration date.
‘If the Tower Master hears my story from my master’s mouth…….’
The trust we’d built together might crumble entirely.
I wouldn’t blame him—any reasonable person would find it suspicious: a six-year-old girl with poison-related abilities and advanced combat training.
‘……But you’d lie here, wouldn’t you?’
Thinking of my master, my hands tightened around the cushion I was holding.
I stared at the Tower Master’s face for a long moment, then squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
“Um……Tower Master.”
“Yes.”
“If you still mean what you said about adopting me after hearing my story, then I’ll sign the papers.”
The Tower Master’s eyes flickered briefly.
He straightened his back and looked directly at me.
“You overheard me in the alley. When I told that woman I wouldn’t live like you.”
“……Yes.”
“That woman was once my master.”
Once the words started, they poured out like a broken dam.
Only as I spoke did I realize how exhausted I’d been, carrying alone the memories of my life before the regression.
“Originally, I was taken by the Assassination Guild a few days after my sixth birthday.”
“……You didn’t run away after spotting them from a distance?”
“I was captured and locked in an underground cavern. They forced me to train as an assassin. I went on actual missions too.”
Too afraid to read his expression, I continued speaking.
“If I stop here, it sounds strange, doesn’t it? The timeline doesn’t add up.”
The Tower Master said nothing.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him and held the cushion tighter.
“I died once.”
The sound of the Tower Master’s knee striking the table came sharp and sudden.
“I lived as an assassin until I was sixteen. My final mission went wrong—I was stabbed by a comrade’s blade and died. When I opened my eyes, I’d returned ten years into the past.”
“…….”
“That mission was to infiltrate and destroy the Magic Tower……. But after I experienced genuine happiness here for the first time, I couldn’t bear to live that way anymore, so I betrayed the Guild and tried to protect the Tower instead. That’s how I died.”
“……Pipi.”
“I know it’s hard to believe. I don’t believe it either. That’s why I ran away from the Guild—came here.”
The more I spoke, the stranger it all sounded. I’d expected it to feel heavier, but the longer the conversation stretched, the lighter my body became.
And then came the last piece.
“So the child you’re thinking of adopting isn’t who you think I am. I’m not six years old, I’m not good, and my hands aren’t……clean.”
Laying it all bare, my voice wavered.
Was this even the right choice?
I’d decided to be honest rather than pass off what happened with my master as mere natural talent, but I couldn’t be sure if it was the right call.
All I felt now was emptiness, like something had drained from me completely.
“I don’t want to become your daughter through deception…….”
The Tower Master was silent for a long time. His silence was utterly unreadable.
Out of habit, I gauged the time it would take to reach the window and the door, huddling into myself.
There was no escape from this moment. Whatever answer came, I had to receive it here.
It felt like being graded on the life I’d lived before.
‘Kidnapped against my will. Pity points: ten. Diligently carried out assassinations. Human garbage points: fifty.’
Mentally scoring myself this way, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then.
The Tower Master rose from his seat without a word.
He walked toward me slowly.

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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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