My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 14

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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 14

About an hour ago, in the conference room where everyone had gathered.
Carlo was in a foul mood.
If pressed to describe it, irritable was closer to the mark.
His body was worn thin from overtime that had dragged on ever since the demon attack, and now, out of nowhere, an urgent meeting had been called first thing this morning.
“…What? Field work?”
And they wanted to conduct some kind of survey.
He glanced down at Rose, her sleep-drunk face startled in obvious shock, and muttered under his breath.
‘She’s completely lost her mind.’
If there was one thing Carlo had come to understand in this place, it was that the Magic Tower harbored more than its share of lunatics.
People who didn’t realize their own judgment had gone rotten, who threw themselves headlong into their convictions without thought—they were calamities waiting to happen.
And then there was that particular calamity, clinging to Rose’s side like a burr.
‘Elline Rose.’
Without quite meaning to, Carlo’s expression darkened.
“Insufferable.”
That small back of her head, gleaming gold like polished metal whenever it caught the light from the windows.
Her brilliant golden hair stirred something in him—the vague shadow of someone he’d rather not remember.
He carried an old wound, a kind of allergy to that particular shade of blonde.
Though, admittedly, that very aversion had led him into the first bargain that actually interested him.
“I’ll accompany Rose and return together!”
“That won’t do. I’m going with Carlo.”
“Are you two close?”
“We will be. Starting today.”
Ha.
A hollow laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
The way this situation was unfolding so smoothly under the team leader’s tacit approval grated on him.
It was all Rose, Rose, Rose—that name, incanted like a magic spell whenever anything needed doing. Rose Stein.
Carlo kept his gaze averted, watching their team leader in the back row, quietly sweating through his collar.
All because one Water Attribute Mage happened to be competent—how far would they push an innocent team member?
‘I could overturn the table.’
Or say I’d go along with them.
Even as Carlo told himself he had to stop this insane venture, he found his eyes drawn back to Rose.
“Or maybe… we won’t become close…?”
Then, suddenly, at her quiet, downcast murmur, everything he’d carefully ordered in his mind unraveled in a rush.
“You’re wrong.”
“….”
“We don’t need to become close. We already are.”
“Oh….”
Rose’s expression became uncertain.
Had he misspoken? Could his words have hurt her?
He’d known from the start that she was using him to prevent that blonde calamity from being assigned to this impossible mission.
But the moment he fell in with her scheme, seeing her eyes widen in surprise, his lips had twitched of their own accord.
‘She hadn’t thought it through after that.’
Carlo felt something turn sour inside him, and his brow twisted slightly.
His rational mind, which had been observing the situation coldly, had vanished somewhere, replaced in an instant by sentiment—and the absurdity of it made him smile, twisted and faint.
After that, what had he done?
“Surveying the Demon Realm is tantamount to territorial violation. Survey personnel cannot reasonably be treated differently from the demons that invade the Human Realm. This is my position.”
He’d resisted with everything he had.
Against a future where she might be hurt.
‘A mindless demon wouldn’t need a new home.’
In essence, demons were lifeforms driven by instinct, seeking to satisfy their destructive urges.
An invasion, then, was merely an invasion—it had no other objective worth considering.
Even being generous, the research project Elline Rose had proposed couldn’t possibly end at simply studying the survival instincts of demons.
Which meant the survey plan being discussed now was fundamentally flawed from the very premise.
Because the true cause had been something else all along.
“Why did you do that just now?”
“Do what?”
“Nothing, really. It’s just that you seemed to be crushing Elline’s spirits pretty hard.”
The meeting had concluded without reaching any real consensus, and Carlo was heading back to his lab to finish up his work.
Rose, walking naturally beside him, cast a sidelong glance upward, harboring a faint suspicion.
‘I wonder what ridiculous thing he’s imagining this time.’
Carlo could only release a long, heavy sigh at the sight of her.
There was much he wanted to say, but he had to choose his words with care.
‘She doesn’t even know what the Demon Realm is.’
How could she remain so translucent, so utterly clear….
‘No. She couldn’t be completely ignorant.’
Too much time had passed; the memory had simply faded to obscurity. Yet instinctively, she must still sense the danger.
‘That’s why she’s trying to stop Elline Rose from being dispatched.’
Aware that his expression had stiffened, he turned his gaze away, only to catch sight of Rose’s oddly sullen face.
She seemed absorbed in questions about who he favored, or perhaps the scope of a one-night, two-day expedition.
He found it a cute, charmingly simple way of thinking—entirely suited to her.
That she couldn’t fully savor the time they spent together because she was too busy worrying about what lay ahead was, in itself, enough. But still.
“…That in itself would be a problem.”
Now that he thought about it, there were plenty of counterarguments to make about the overnight issue.
He recalled the words left unsaid to the golden-haired disaster in the conference room, and his brow furrowed with frustration.
If he gave up the partner expedition with Rose, it was obvious who would take his place.
Elline Rose.
“I should have just said I’d go.”
After that, Carlo made a habit of setting a drink on Rose’s research desk, muttering to himself more than once.
It was a routine he’d maintained for nearly half a year now.
Rose, sensing Carlo’s mood growing ever more somber, ventured a careful question.
“…Did something happen at lunch?”
“Nothing serious.”
Carlo offered a faint smile, as if it were nothing.
A demon attack. A one-night, two-day expedition research.
And a fracture that had already begun long ago.
Not serious yet, but set to become so soon enough.
Back at his desk, Carlo picked up the research materials he’d been organizing and muttered flatly to himself.
Even knowing the cause of all this, he could only pretend ignorance—a burden far heavier than he’d anticipated.
If only one day you would understand my heart.
Just as you strive to protect someone, I too am trying my best to protect you.
“Though something did happen….”
He absently reached up and fingered the Hair Pin and Earring he kept in his shirt pocket.
The Weight Reduction Magic she’d asked him to cast on the pocket remained intact and whole.
It was he, not Lucas, who had met with her in Stein County.
“I had a chance to use something I treasured with someone who loved it. But I lost that chance right before my eyes.”
Still, there was time yet.
‘…I should reach out.’
An opportunity to summon her again, under the pretense of returning something her match had left behind.
* * *
Against Carlo’s objections, the Demon Realm expedition unexpectedly received approval from the Special Management Division.
It was only natural.
Among the countless branches in the Magic Tower, there was only one place equipped to conduct research related to the Demon Realm: the Special Management Division.
The Crown Prince’s direct department, capable of handling all manner of sensitive classified information.
‘Did Lucas pull strings?’
It was something I’d fully expected, but I found the development surprising in another respect.
‘In romance genres, don’t they usually push their best friend into the jaws of danger or something….’
If my assumption was right, Carlo would still have been the protagonist’s childhood friend.
Though much time had passed and my memory wasn’t exact, I vaguely recalled reading something about him in the original work.
The protagonist’s old friend. A handsome young mage with a name beginning with ‘C’, of noble descent from a family with generations of royal ties, possessing the fire attribute.
‘Honestly, I’m not sure about the handsome part.’
His unkempt bangs and horn-rimmed glasses had always kept me from getting a proper look at his face.
Still, given the similar circumstances, Carlo would surely be a significant character in “The Mage’s Love”.
Prominent enough to be a secondary protagonist.
‘But even so.’
An old friend volunteers to walk into hellfire, and instead of talking him out of it, I shove him forward without hesitation.

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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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