Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 43

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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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Chapter 43
Having weathered quite an emotional ordeal throughout the day, he heaved ragged breaths for some time before finally lowering the hand that shielded his face.
A few tears had escaped; his eyes were flushed and glistening.
“Brother, have you calmed down a bit?”
“I wasn’t crying.”
“I didn’t ask if you were.”
At that, Lucian’s lips pressed inward, robbed of any retort.
“How about… instead of ‘brother,’ you let me call you ‘oppa’?”
“Hm? I don’t mind, but doesn’t ‘brother’ sound more formal and respectful?”
“No, ‘oppa’ feels warmer, doesn’t it? You said yourself that casual speech feels more intimate, so let me call you that.”
Having said her piece, she turned away as if embarrassed, her cheeks flushed a rosy pink like ripened peaches.
How adorable.
It seemed that becoming family with this endearing Papiope household was not such a poor choice after all.
I was already growing fond of them.
I placed my hands on both his cheeks and gently turned his face toward mine, offering him a bright smile.
“Yes, Lucian oppa. I look forward to us getting along!”

✦ ✦ ✦
The next day.
With Duchess Papiope’s permission, I rode in a carriage alongside Lena, the maid, toward the Talent Cultivation Institute.
After the adoption ceremony, I had gone directly to the Papiope Town House with the Duchess…
and I regretted not having properly thanked the twin siblings and Elysion.
“Heroine!”
Upon hearing that I had arrived at the Talent Cultivation Institute in the Duke Papiope’s Household carriage, the twin siblings came rushing out.
Rosemary immediately swept me into her embrace and began pouring out words in rapid succession.
“We missed you so much! Are you doing well at the Duke’s Residence? I heard the eldest, Lucian, can be a bit prickly—you haven’t been mistreated, have you?”
“Mari, I’m glad to see you too, but could you slow down a little?”
“Yes, Heroine!”
Rosemary answered cheerfully, then caught sight of Lena beside me and gasped, quickly covering her mouth.
“Oh. Since you’re a noblewoman now, I shouldn’t call you ‘heroine’ anymore, should I?”
Finally, I could escape that title.
“I don’t mind, but others might have something to say about it.”
…For example, Lena?
Sure enough, she was watching Rosemary with visible displeasure.
She seemed to want to say something, but since I accepted it, she held her tongue.
“Then, would ‘Miss’ be alright? ‘Noblewoman’ feels too distant.”
Rosemary clasped her hands together pleadingly, looking not at me but at Lena, silently begging for permission.
Fortunately, Lena slowly nodded in approval.
“Miss is acceptable.”
“Phew.”
As Rosemary caught her breath, Raspi, who had been standing quietly beside her, opened his mouth as if he’d been waiting for this moment.
“Tania, how are things at Duke Papiope’s Mansion?”
“Good. More than good, actually—I’m living in complete luxury.”
A small smile bloomed across Raspi’s face.
“I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.”
“I won the championship because of you all, but I left without even thanking you properly. I’ve regretted that ever since.”
“No. I promised I would secure the championship for you, but I failed to do so.”
As if recalling the moment of his anticlimactic elimination at Elysion’s hands, Raspi’s expression had grown dark.
Though I couldn’t be certain, he seemed somewhat wounded in his pride.
“Tania, if I may ask—did you have any conversation with Elysion that day?”
“That day? You mean during the tournament?”
“Yes. I know it’s presumptuous to ask about private conversations, but I’m curious why Elysion took your side.”
“To be honest… I don’t know why Sion sided with me either.”
“Sion? Are you already on nickname terms with him?”
At his unexpectedly sharp reaction, I blinked rapidly in confusion.
“Oh? Um, well, he asked me to call him Sion, so I just did without thinking.”
Rosemary then nudged Raspi’s ribs with her elbow, giving him a pointed look.
“Brother, that’s embarrassing.”
“Ahaha…”
Unsure how to respond, I laughed awkwardly and answered his question about why Elysion had sided with me.
“Sion said I’d helped him before… but I honestly have no memory of it.”
“Help? You mean like how you saved us?”
“Yeah. I don’t even know what help I gave, but he said he was on my side from the moment we first met.”
“I see…”
Raspi furrowed his brow as if pondering something.
I shrugged and glanced around before asking.
“Oh, by the way, how is Elysion doing these days? I wanted to thank him too.”
“…You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Elysion withdrew from the Talent Cultivation Institute on the day of the adoption tournament.”
“What?”
It was shocking news.
Elysion, who should have been adopted into Duke Papiope’s Household at that point, had yielded the championship to me and withdrawn from the Talent Cultivation Institute?
I asked urgently.
“Where did he go after withdrawing?”
As far as I knew, Elysion, like me, was an orphan with no relatives to depend on.
What did it mean that he left the Talent Cultivation Institute and went somewhere?
Of course, since Elysion was an exceptional mage, he wouldn’t starve no matter where he went.
But the fact that he’d departed for somewhere unknown filled me with unease.
When I asked where Elysion had gone after withdrawing, Raspi seemed flustered and trailed off.
“I’m not entirely sure about that either….”
At that moment, Rosemary, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, suddenly raised her hand and exclaimed.
“The Magic Tower!”
“…The Magic Tower?”
“Yes. On the day the adoption tournament ended, I happened to overhear a conversation between the Talent Cultivation Institute director and Elysion.”
For a moment, I doubted my own ears.
…Mari, you did wash your hands, didn’t you?
Before I could even express skepticism about the source of her information stemming from her criminal activities, she continued speaking.
“Elysion said he was planning to go to the Magic Tower.”
“Ah…!”
If he had gone to the Magic Tower, his decision made considerably more sense to me.
He was someone who had swept through the Talent Cultivation Institute with overwhelming talent despite never having received formal magical training at the Magic Tower.
To put it in perspective….
The Magic Tower Master had coveted Elysion so intensely at that time.
He had even insisted to Duchess Papiope that since she had adopted three children, she should give Elysion to him.
But would Duchess Papiope have simply let that remark pass, given her temperament?
She naturally erupted, declaring that my child was not some commodity to be bought and sold.
Yet even after that, the Magic Tower Master never gave up on Elysion….
I recalled that because of this, there had been frequent tensions between the Magic Tower Master and Duchess Papiope.
Now that Elysion, whom he had so desperately wanted to adopt, had walked into the Magic Tower of his own accord.
He might very well be eyeing him as an adoptive son at this very moment.
Since the Magic Tower Master was of a similar temperament to Grandfather Declan, he would grumble and complain, yet treat Elysion better than anyone else.
Upon hearing that he had gone to the Magic Tower, my heart felt remarkably at ease.
If Duchess Papiope had adopted a third child and Elysion had become my legal sibling….
Ugh, I didn’t particularly want to imagine that.
It wasn’t that I disliked Elysion.
No, I could confidently say that I genuinely cared for him, as he was the only friend I truly acknowledged.
Yet…for some reason, imagining myself becoming his sibling didn’t sit quite right with me.
A suffocating feeling in one corner of my chest.
Perhaps it was because I wavered between friendship and love, caught in that subtle emotion between the two.
In any case.
I grasped Rosemary’s hand and shook it up and down to express my gratitude for providing the information.
“Now that I know where Elysion is, once I finish up the urgent matters, I should make a visit to the Magic Tower to see how he’s doing.”
Come to think of it, the Magic Tower Master had quite an eccentric personality.
Since Elysion had gone to the Magic Tower, it wouldn’t hurt to build favor with the Magic Tower Master.
It seemed like a good idea to bring something that could serve as a gift.
If there was something the Magic Tower Master desperately needed at this point in time….
It would surely be ‘that’.

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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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