I Became the Magic Tower Master's Experimental Mouse - Chapter 91

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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 stopped before me.
I couldn’t lift my head, staring only at the floor. But then I saw his knee bend into view.
The Tower Master knelt on one knee before me on the sofa, lowering his eyes to meet mine.
“Ah…….”
I jerked my head up in surprise, then startled again at the sight of his unwavering violet eyes.
Just looking at the Tower Master’s gaze, I felt I could understand what he was thinking.
“I believe you.”
“……Hic.”
I felt tears gathering and stiffened my shoulders against the sob rising in my throat.
“I believe your story.”
“But… how can you? There’s no evidence. Regression—it doesn’t even make sense, such an impossible thing…….”
“Why do you think it doesn’t make sense?”
The Tower Master spoke in an even tone, as though delivering a lecture.
“If magic is performing miracles through Mana, then we haven’t discovered all magic yet. The Regression that happened to you could be some form of magical phenomenon.”
“Ah…….”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
“Even if I grant that I don’t understand what happened… I told you I came to destroy the Magic Tower.”
Was I seeking forgiveness from the Tower Master for all my sins before the Regression, or was I simply being stubborn?
If the Tower Master believed in me, it should have been a good thing, yet I couldn’t seem to accept it kindly.
‘Really… does such fortune just come into my life like this……?’
In response to my question, the Tower Master rose to his feet.
“There’s an error in your statement.”
“……An error?”
“Even if I simply told you to believe me, you wouldn’t, would you? So let me address it.”
He regarded me with pity and drew out his points one by one.
“You said you were an Assassin. Was that a path you chose for yourself?”
“……No.”
“If you were kidnapped and forced to commit terrible acts, who bears primary responsibility—the kidnapper, or the person who became the perpetrator?”
“That’s…….”
If this weren’t my own affair, I would have said the kidnapper was primarily at fault.
But because it was my affair, I couldn’t simply say I wasn’t a bad person.
“It’s not as though everything you did simply ceases to exist—you yourself couldn’t think of it that way. But the entire life of a child who was kidnapped at six and raised that way cannot be reduced to guilt.”
I clenched my fists at the Tower Master’s words. The sharp pain of my nails digging into my palms helped me hold back the tears once more.
“You were a blade, wielded according to the will of the hand that gripped you. You even became a broken blade, abandoning your mission of your own accord.”
The Tower Master stroked my head very gently. Moisture seeped into my eyes and I tried to hold it back, but—
“You’ve suffered so much. How I wish I had met you from the beginning…….”
At only these words from the Tower Master could I hold back no longer, and tears fell drop by drop.
I hiccupped and spoke incoherently.
“B, but…… sniff, I was six years old, *sob*, but…… what you were trying to do with the Adoption, *whimper*…….”
“I was not trying to adopt a six-year-old girl.”
The Tower Master spoke plainly and wiped my face with a handkerchief.
“I was trying to adopt the child named Epiphany. How old that child is doesn’t matter.”
The Tower Master approached the desk and picked up an envelope, returning with it.
It was the envelope containing the documents I had been struggling over—the ones with the name field still blank.
“So my intention remains the same.”
He set the envelope down on the table.
“No, rather it’s not the same.”
Startled at my reaction, the Tower Master corrected himself.
“It’s become more certain.”
He looked directly at me and spoke.
I felt tears sliding down my cheeks and gazed up at him blankly.
“From today onward, you are my daughter.”
It was not a question.
More than when he had asked tentatively if I would become his daughter, this statement of a decided fact drew forth even more tears.
“……In the end, I couldn’t even protect the Magic Tower…….”
My voice cracked.
This was a final confirmation. Not an escape, but the opposite.
If his answer remained the same to even this objection, then truly there would be no reason left to run.
“Even so?”
“In the end, you protected the Magic Tower today, didn’t you.”
The Tower Master didn’t hesitate for even a moment.
“Of course, there’s no obligation for you to protect the Magic Tower… but regardless of that, you are my daughter.”
I nodded and pulled the documents from the envelope.
Adoption terms were written in neat handwriting, identical to what I’d seen before.
“By Imperial Law, it’s not yet a complete legal registration. But these documents will serve as evidence of our intent.”
I found the signature line with trembling eyes, below the documents.
[Parent: Claude Serpens]
[Child: _____________]
I accepted the pen the Tower Master offered me.
My palm was sweating, and the pen kept slipping, so I had to keep adjusting my grip.
Stroke by stroke, I pressed my name firmly onto the paper…….
[Child: Epiphany Serpens]
My newly given name finally appeared on the page.
The moment I finished, tears dropped down.
Seeing the wet smudge beside my signature, I jumped in alarm.
“Oh, oh no. It’s smeared—this doesn’t invalidate it, does it?!”
Watching me fret, the Tower Master finally smiled.
“It’s valid. So now you can’t use the excuse that the ink smudged to take it back.”
The Tower Master picked up the documents and waited for the ink and tears to dry.
I wiped my eyes with my hands, cleaning away the tears, and laughed a little.
“So… does that mean my time as an experimental subject is over? I kind of liked it…….”
“Want to keep both roles?”
The Tower Master asked with a serious face. The slight lift at the corners of his mouth told me he was pleased.
I burst from crying into laughter and laughed out loud.
“I’ll announce it tomorrow morning. The entire Tower will be quite noisy.”
“……Liz might cry saying it’s wonderful.”
“It’ll be loud.”
“Lilly and Ollie will probably want to hold a celebration, and so will the Elders.”
“What about Cassian.”
The Tower Master added in passing.
“He’ll be the loudest in the world.”
I imagined Cassian’s face, flushed bright red and shouting, and laughed a little more.
“Epiphany, I came hastily because of the incident, but I must meet with the nobility again. To adopt you without revealing your status, the law needs to be changed.”
The Tower Master spoke to me with an expression of mild regret.
‘Ah, is it because he wants to adopt me while I’m still a commoner?’
If my status were to be discovered—the fact that I might even be of royal blood—I couldn’t risk being taken away by the Emperor.
It was then that I realized the Tower Master had been meeting with the nobility for my sake.
I’d heard vaguely that it was for legal reasons, but I never imagined he’d wanted to change the law itself just to adopt me.
“So it will take a little more time to make an official public announcement outside the Tower. But I will absolutely change the law.”
I blinked rapidly and nodded.
Honestly, just this document and the thought that he cares for me is enough to make my chest swell with fullness.
But the Tower Master wouldn’t want me to stop him.
“Hold me.”
I opened my arms.
‘S-since we’re family now, it’s okay to be a little spoiled… right?’
I’d never done this with Grandmother.
Even through my young eyes, Grandmother was not my mother, and she herself wasn’t the particularly attentive or affectionate type.
As a child, I could only envy the neighbor’s children who nestled into their parents’ arms.
‘Now this person is my family.’
The Tower Master swept me up and held me tightly.
Like puppies seeking warmth, like koalas clinging to each other’s bodies, we stayed pressed together in silence.
Held in those warm arms, my entire body felt like it was melting.
‘My heart is melting.’
The sorrow, fear, and resentment I’d felt before the Regression dissolved and scattered into the void.
Today was the day everything I’d learned in my previous life was discarded.
I wasn’t abandoned despite failing to prove my usefulness, wasn’t cast out even though all my secrets were revealed, and there was someone willing to hold my tainted hands.
Now I had a place to anchor my heart.
A place I would cling to desperately whenever I lost my way, a place I wanted to protect when anyone attacked.
‘…There’s no difference from before.’
In the Tower Master’s warm embrace, I understood something anew.
We had been a family long before I signed the papers.
‘Grandmother, I have a family now.’
I sent the news silently into my heart.
With peace came a small yawn that escaped my lips.
One sheet of paper wouldn’t solve everything. I still had to change the law, still had to evade the Imperial Palace’s gaze.
But for today, it was enough that I had somewhere to return to.
Six months as the Tower Master’s lab rat.
And so I became the Tower Master’s daughter.

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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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