My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 34

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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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Episode 34

Bang. Boom.
Fireworks that I’d thought had ended suddenly exploded brilliantly across the calm sky.
Behind my head, I could feel the bright flash and faint warmth, but I just sat there blinking, dazed.
“Ah.”
I still hadn’t gotten up from the bench, remaining in place exactly as I was.
Carlo wouldn’t let go of my foot, so I stayed as I was, leaning against him.
Not long after, he swiftly extinguished both Mana Lanterns I’d lit on either side of me.
“…!”
“There’s something I wish to say.”
And then, without my quite realizing it, he slowly covered the fist I’d been gripping tightly with the back of his hand as he spoke.
As if wrapping the darkness itself—always composed, always the same.
“About dinner this evening.”
“….”
“I would like to have it with Rose.”
His words didn’t sound sweet.
They sounded chilling, like a declaration of war.
‘…Now, to me.’
It sounded like a line drawn in the sand.
* * *
By the time we’d finished watching the fireworks and come down, the Stein carriage was waiting at the entrance.
I hadn’t even sent word yet that I wanted to return to the Mansion.
It was strange—timing aligned by pure luck, perhaps.
“Haha, it’s been a while, Miss Rose!”
“David. It’s quite a distance—how did you get all the way out here?”
“Well, I’ll explain as we go, so come now—it’s getting chilly out!”
David spoke cheerfully as he handled the horses, bringing the large carriage to a stop before me.
At the sight of the unusually large roof I’d rarely seen before, my eyes widened.
‘What is this.’
This was a size my parents could barely decide whether to use at all. Besides, I’d ridden in one briefly as a child and hadn’t seen one since.
I couldn’t fathom why David had brought such a massive thing when there were carriages overflowing in the Mansion’s garage.
“How many people are riding in this….”
“Please get in first.”
“Yes? Yes.”
While I was marveling, Carlo approached and extended his arm as if to have me take it.
Then, with a light glance toward the coachman, he guided me smoothly into the carriage as he climbed aboard.
The Stables would be in the annex, quite far from the Mansion. I had no idea when Carlo had even made acquaintance with David.
As I gripped Carlo’s arm and squeezed my way up into the carriage, I soon caught both his hands around my arm and asked.
“When did you meet David?”
“Coming and going here and there.”
“You’ve been in Stein for how long, and you did it in half a day?”
“That is how it happened.”
Well, connections do usually begin in unexpected places.
“You took a walk with me in the evening, didn’t you?”
“Rose and I weren’t together until nightfall.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
“Last night’s cleaning may have made the stairs slippery. When you get out of the carriage, it would be best if you held my arm.”
“Well, yes. I’ll do that.”
I looked back and forth between him and David with an expression of continued bewilderment.
In any case, it seemed they’d met at night.
Or perhaps not. Since I’d slept sprawled out until broad daylight today, they could just as easily have bumped into each other by chance in the morning or afternoon.
‘…He doesn’t come across as reserved. Seems he’s not particularly shy after all.’
I nodded absently.
It was certainly possible.
Projecting bias born from within oneself onto another person—that was hardly a good habit.
I realized I needed to broaden my perspective on Carlo, which had grown fixed.
My parents might have mentioned the visit to Serenenti Village to him this morning and tipped off the coachman beforehand.
“By the way, who chose this carriage?”
I asked David.
My parents, or David himself?
David was a long-serving employee who had stayed in Stein for years, roughly the same generation as my parents.
If that were the case, the design of this large, ornate carriage—constructed in an almost antiquated style—made sense.
“Your taste really is old-fashioned.”
I’d muttered it carelessly, half to myself.
“…yes, ma’am.”
“…Sorry?”
In an instant, an awkward silence hung between us.
As Carlo’s already gloomy expression began to darken further, I scrambled to smooth things over.
“Ah, I see. So it’s quite tasteful, then.”
“….”
“I was joking. You know, I admire all Stein carriages. It just means they’re steeped in history and tradition. Right?”
Irony, paradox—something in that vein.
But Carlo said nothing.
The moment was filled only with the rattling clatter of the carriage and the whinnies of the horses.
“Hahaha! Nights like this in Stein are truly rare!”
Meanwhile, David, driving the carriage up front, glanced back at us and let out warm, steamy breaths in quick bursts.
“Thanks to such a romantic gentleman!”
“He’s my colleague, David. His name is Carlo.”
“Yes, thanks to such an outstanding colleague!”
To me, the atmosphere hardly felt romantic, but David continued.
“In any case, thanks to your colleague here, I’ve made another precious memory!”
He didn’t seem to notice how tense things were in the back seat, and he was quite animated, facing away from us.
More precisely, he was lost in old nostalgia.
“When I came out of the Mansion to fetch you two, I felt as though I’d stepped back into the days when the Master and Mistress were courting each other, all lovey-dovey! Heh-heh!”
“What? My parents?”
They’d had a love match?
Hearing this for the first time, I unconsciously lifted my head from where it had been leaning against the window.
Just then the carriage lurched over a bump, and I nearly hit my head on the frame.
If Carlo hadn’t reached out to brace his hand against the window.
“…Are you all right?”
“Yes, thank you. But—”
I spoke to David over the clattering noise, barely aware that I’d been held in Carlo’s arms for a moment.
“What do you mean my parents had a love match?”
“Yes, they did! They courted quite seriously in secret—you really didn’t know?”
If it was secret, of course I wouldn’t know.
“It happened before I was even born, so naturally I didn’t.”
So it wasn’t an elopement, but a marriage after a long courtship.
Struck by this revelation, I narrowed my eyes slightly.
I’d always heard that Mother had despised the Royal Court’s marriage proposals, so she’d grabbed the first person she could and married him—only to get lucky and fall in love.
Everything she’d told me was a lie.
From the start, she’d never given the Royal Court or the long betrothal a second thought; she’d deliberately and carefully planned to marry Father in secret, without their knowledge.
“So that’s why…”
I stole a glance up at Carlo, sitting close beside me.
‘That’s it.’
He’d been watching me ever since we were at the Base Camp.
Father might not have noticed, but Mother—she could very well be manufacturing an excuse to escape that tedious Royal Court again, if she could.
Hoping that Carlo and I would become close.
“…sigh.”
So that’s why everything had happened.
The guest room suddenly prepared in the Mansion, the two of us alone in Serenenti—none of it was coincidence.
I exhaled a conflicted breath.
‘How did she know?’
That I cared about Carlo.
I’d wanted to keep it secret if I could, but Mother’s eyes miss nothing.
Cold sweat began to bead on my skin as I swallowed hard.
“Are you all right? You don’t look well.”
“It’s nothing, just a headache. Maybe I’m getting motion sickness for the first time in twenty years.”
“We’re almost there.”
I’ll probably be fine.
Carlo patted my shoulder gently, muttering softly to himself.
Usually people don’t suffer motion sickness from birth, he said.
Though he spoke as though in jest, concern flickered across his face—he placed a small amount of Circulation Magic on my shoulder.
‘I was only joking.’
Fortunately, thanks to that, my mind felt considerably more at ease than before.
On the other hand, it was a remark that might have struck him as strange, given that he didn’t know my true age.
He’d be astonished if he ever found out.
…Though I would never tell him.

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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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