My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 25

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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 25

Having unexpectedly been trapped in the perilous Demon Realm for an entire hour before managing to escape, my reward leave had been extended.
But even so, it only amounted to nine days.
‘How stingy.’
Not that it came as a surprise. There were barely fifty Water-Attribute Mages in the Magic Tower, counting myself.
The Tower supposedly the mage’s paradise had all ninety-nine floors below the peak crammed with various departments, and yet here we were.
Precisely because I’d been cursed with this rare Water Attribute, work was piling up even now, which only made me sigh before I’d even begun my leave.
The vacation was too short for the effort I’d put in.
When I factored in the time I’d lost in the Demon Realm, that was two whole days gone.
In the end, what remained of my leave was a single week, which meant nothing had really changed.
“I’d made quite the wish list for a day like this.”
Eating dinner alone in that uncomfortable atmosphere and returning to my room, I found myself feeling genuinely wronged.
It was only seven in the evening; the sun that had been beating down was just beginning to tilt toward the horizon.
Summer nights viewed from the Stein Residence were so beautiful.
Suddenly, lying here alone felt like a terrible waste of time.
My body moved faster than my thoughts. I made my way downstairs to the guest room where Carlo would be.
Click.
Perhaps because I’d been thinking it all too cheerfully, my hand skipped the knock entirely and went straight for the doorknob.
Oh.
Creak.
Through the narrow gap that opened in an instant, I found myself facing Carlo in an awkward standoff.
“…!”
“….”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between us for a moment.
Scratching my cheek sheepishly, I spoke up.
“May I come in?”
“…One usually knocks first, does one not.”
“Knock-knock.”
“Really, now.”
“You seem to be in a good mood.”
Whether by hand or voice, I’d knocked either way.
Offering only the barest pretense of propriety, I shrugged at him.
“Is it all right if I sit here for a moment?”
I squeezed through the gap and made my way toward the chair opposite him where he sat on the bed.
Pulling a chair from beside the small table and settling into it without ceremony, Carlo’s red eyes regarded me with evident interest.
When had those eyes, which once seemed inscrutably unpleasant, begun to look like this?
Like jewels catching the light and glimmering, if I’m being honest.
“Mm.”
Unlike his penetrating gaze, I averted my eyes and blinked slowly.
In that brief moment, Carlo’s eyes crinkled as he smiled.
“What brings you here?”
“Nothing in particular. I was just curious about something.”
“That hardly seems like nothing.”
“Your words have been getting shorter lately.”
The moment I frowned slightly, Carlo laughed aloud for the first time.
“Perhaps. My nerves seem to have eased, I suppose.”
After being treated to a delicious meal, his normally pallid face had taken on a warm glow. It was unexpected.
That leisurely smile made me feel as though I’d somehow lost this exchange.
I drew my chair closer, narrowing the distance between us, and asked.
“Do you enjoy evening walks?”
“I do not.”
“…Is that so?”
I’d expected him to understand the question right away.
The answer was slightly unexpected, and without meaning to, my face showed the surprise.
Um, what should I ask him next.
Just as he fell silent, he spoke again.
“There is a way, actually.”
“…What?”
“I dislike taking walks alone.”
Carlo glanced out the window at the sky beginning to tinge yellow, then offered me his hand.
“If you would go with me, I’d be grateful.”
My unstudied suggestion transformed into a request the moment it left his lips.
I blinked blankly, hardly conscious of it at all.
…What?
As I tried to push my chair back from him, Carlo leaned forward with a smile and caught my wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Are you the same person I know?”
Why was he being like this—
“Haven’t we grown close?”
We had saved each other’s lives in dangerous situations, after all.
But this sort of awkward scene didn’t suit me at all.
I disliked finding myself caught up in anything, no matter what it was.
Especially not with someone who had begun to occupy my thoughts so much recently.
“You didn’t eat something wrong earlier, did you?”
“I ate the same thing Rose did.”
“Or maybe you took a hard hit from a Demon Beast?”
“Let’s just go for that walk.”
Carlo rose from the bed without releasing my hand.
As the gentle pull brought me toward him, he steadied my back with his hand for a moment, then gestured again toward the window behind us.
“Night is almost here.”
Eight o’clock sharp, as the sunset deepened.
He spoke as if giving voice to my own unspoken thoughts.
“I’ve heard the summer nights in Stein County are quite beautiful.”
* * *
Darkness did not arrive all at once.
Beneath the ambiguous twilight, an awkward silence fell between us.
We wandered the garden aimlessly until the weight of our parents’ gazes—felt from a distance—finally disappeared beyond the back of my head.
We began speaking in earnest only after the shadows of Mother and Father had completely vanished from the mansion’s tall windows that lit the stairs.
“They’ve both gone inside, haven’t they?”
“Your instincts are sharp.”
Carlo murmured this as I continued walking after asking him.
My behavior must have seemed curious to him.
Without observation spells or even Mirror Magic to survey distant places, I perceived the subtle shift in their presence instantly.
I laughed silently. I was practiced at this. I had once endured far more watchful scrutiny.
“It’s familiar to me. They’ve been watching over me since I was small.”
“…That must have felt suffocating.”
“Not at all. When I think of such attention as part of their love, it feels comforting.”
There was a time when I wished to receive even obsessive love from parents—to know what that felt like.
I had thought often enough, in my bitterness, that in my next life I would not be born as the eldest.
Was it loneliness that made me feel that way? Was it the twisted affection of a past life?
Looking back now, I was satisfied with Rose Stein’s life.
Here, my family was prosperous, and cherished people were always near.
At twenty, I made a resolution.
I would protect these precious things with my own hands.
“I don’t want you to misunderstand.”
“…”
“My parents are good people.”
Shadows deepened between the grass as dusk settled in.
The oppressive summer heat was fading, and a cool night was taking its place.
Walking along the corner path leading toward the side annex, I gazed up at the sky, which had turned a deep blue.
“Wasn’t it good we took this walk?”
“…”
“Stein County’s night sky has no Mana flowing through it, so the stars and moon are especially clear.”
The Delphinia Kingdom, being a place where Mages primarily dwelled, often had a hazy sky due to the dense Mana concentration in the atmosphere.
Stein County was one of the few untainted regions within the kingdom.
Many non-mages live here—those who either never underwent Mana Awakening or failed to achieve Mage Manifestation.
Every place had its trade-offs, though.
Regions where mages lived were relatively safe and convenient, but you had to surrender beautiful natural scenery; the territories of non-mages, meanwhile, were sometimes vulnerable to Demon Beast incursions and cut off from the conveniences of magical civilization.
“…Still, I hope this place, at least, doesn’t crumble.”
I’d never read any accounts of Stein County after its collapse, so I couldn’t say. Especially since it had already suffered a Demon Beast attack once before.
“For me, being a Water-Attribute Mage might be the job that suits me best.”
The one consoling fact was that I had the strength to maintain the protective magic in this place.
I exhaled a long breath without thinking and glanced up at the figure beside me.
Carlo walked in silence, matching his pace to mine.
“…Carlo?”
“…Yes.”
He nodded without expression.
He’d heard all my muttering so far, yet the cool indifference in his eyes—as though he hadn’t caught a word—suddenly felt strangely warm.
Walking alone through the Stein Residence with anyone other than Elinea was a first.
I turned my head away, stifling the laughter that threatened to spill out.
‘It’s good.’
Honestly, it was.
Regardless of how heavy our conversation grew, the kindness in the way he treated me.
But as long as I was nothing more than a character in a story, Carlo and I would likely remain parallel lines forever.
So it was easier to find courage that way.
“The Return Magic that failed earlier today.”
There was nothing to hope for between us, after all.
“How were you able to convert it to Teleportation Magic instead?”
……
“Teleportation Magic is something you absolutely cannot achieve with just a Fire Attribute alone.”
Not without at least two Attributes.

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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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