My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 5

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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 5

How so many had squeezed through that tiny aperture was beyond me.
Before I’d realized it, the number of demons that had breached the boundary was far greater than I’d anticipated.
“Screeeech!”
“Shrieeeek!”
Nine demons had crossed from the Demon Realm into the Human Realm.
All of them were low-rank demons of massive size, hovering somewhere between wild dogs and monsters.
The one mercy was that none of them bore insectoid features.
‘Because my stomach can’t handle that kind of fight.’
Just thinking about it made my insides roil, so I shook my head sharply to clear it.
Realizing escape wasn’t an option, I glanced down at my hands.
‘I’m not going down like this.’
My body, sensing the threat, had already begun weaving an offensive spell into my palms on instinct.
I immediately shifted the attribute to Freezing and called to mind forms that favored attack.
‘Awl. Trident. Hook.’
All shapes capable of piercing through the core of a demon in a single stroke.
The Principle of Magic works by manifesting forms and techniques born from the caster’s imagination.
The faster your mind works, the more magic bends to your advantage in desperate circumstances.
Facing monsters this savage and grotesque, I’d need every edge.
‘…My luck is absolutely rotten.’
I rotated my wrist lightly.
Water attribute wasn’t as effective in combat as fire, but long-range attacks were worth attempting.
Even without extensive combat experience, my years in the Security Department had honed my ability to think fast under pressure—that much I was confident in.
If I kept my nerves, this was a winnable fight.
I spoke to Carlo, who’d been quietly observing the demons beside me, keeping my tone as steady as I could manage.
“Can you conjure fire again?”
“Yes. Be careful when you strike.”
Sensing my intended attack, he began feeding the small flame in his palm larger and larger.
Moments later, a single gesture sent a fireball streaking through the gaps between the demons, carving a clean path.
‘Huh.’
The man who’d seemed like an arch-nemesis in the lab suddenly felt like a reliable ally.
Whoom.
Then my ice spears shot forward, piercing through the demons’ hearts in unison.
“Shriek!”
“Yelp!”
“Let’s move.”
Dealt with.
I was brushing off my hands and turning to leave when it happened.
Something writhed and convulsed.
“No.”
I stared, completely caught off guard.
“Hehehehe. Shriek!”
“They keep multiplying?”
“Shriek, screech!”
Their heads were splitting apart now, cackling as they did—Cerberus hounds.
Their numbers swelled from nine to eighteen in seconds.
‘…Are you serious.’
Damn it all. Send me home.
* * *
At the same moment, outside the Management Department in the Magic Tower.
“Sigh…”
Creak.
Eliné slowly released the doorknob her hand had been gripping.
She was on her way back from the Management Department, having received a summons from Lucas.
Once again today, she’d had it out with that stubborn crown prince and returned.
‘What is love, anyway.’
Eliné swallowed a sigh for the hundredth time.
That a single romance could unravel a person so completely — it seemed impossible.
‘I keep feeling sorry toward Roze. What do I do.’
What made it worse was that she was burdening a bride on the eve of her wedding — and the guilt gnawed at her.
Eliné had to break things off with Lucas.
House alliances existed in an entirely different realm from personal feeling.
Moreover, Roze’s house — the Stein Countess House — was counted among the kingdom’s finest lineages since its founding, a bastion of elite blood.
The Ross Baron House, with nothing but a hollow title to its name, stood in a different world entirely; they were as incompatible as water and oil.
But the real problem was this: Lucas still loved her, even though he had a fiancée waiting.
‘He transferred to a different department, and we said goodbye more than half a year ago.’
Yet nothing between them had changed.
They simply fought the same battles again and again — whether to finally part, whether to understand each other in this cold reality.
Was this lingering attachment, or was it love?
‘Am I garbage for even thinking like this.’
Eliné felt a restless ache bloom in her chest, followed by guilt.
“The truth is….”
I still love Lucas too.
“No, I can’t. I’m absolutely the worst!”
The last thread of reason she’d been clinging to finally snapped, and Eliné collapsed right where she stood.
It made no sense!
“It really doesn’t make sense,” she murmured.
A precious friendship had just lit up a warning signal.
When they were younger, Roze had bullied her whenever she could, though Eliné had disliked her only once or twice.
But that was six years ago, after “that day” — when Eliné had hardened her heart and resolved to change.
‘If he hadn’t saved her right then, Roze would have been badly hurt.’
After the fall that day, for reasons Eliné couldn’t fathom, the Roze Stein she’d known became a completely different person.
When Roze changed, Eliné’s life had shifted in a new direction alongside her. Looking back, that day was one of the few true turning points in her life.
Last autumn, she’d been able to enter the Magic Tower earlier than planned — and that was entirely thanks to her friend’s unstinting support and encouragement.
‘I thought I’d be thrown away like a worn-out toy once I’d outlived my usefulness.’
Eliné smiled awkwardly and bowed her head low. Everything changes. As time passes, the past becomes only the past.
What she knew for certain now was that she was already happy enough as things stood.
Eliné suddenly lifted her head.
‘Now I know — you’ve become so precious to me.’
No matter what the future held, she wanted to brush aside all these obstacles that had suddenly risen between her and her friend.
An emotion born less than a year ago wasn’t worth abandoning a friendship — the friendship between herself and Roze Stein — not when their bond was worth so much more.
She would let go of love. It was far too shallow to weigh against friendship with Roze.
Eliné lifted her face from her hands, her eyes blazing with resolve.
Just then, someone approached her.
“Oh. Eliné?”
“Good to see you, Katloi.”
“You don’t look well. Is something the matter?”
“I’m fine now. Thank you for asking.”
Katloi, from the Special Management Division on the same floor as the Management Department, offered his hand, but Eliné brushed off her knees and stood on her own.
She understood what that look in his eye meant.
Rather than choose her words carefully, Eliné simply offered an embarrassed smile.
“From what Lucas mentioned, the Security Department’s in an emergency right now. Are you all right?”
“Yes. Unfortunately.”
“It seems Roze went out to the field. Then there’s nothing to worry about.”
Katloi smiled brightly, unaware of the anguish Eliné felt knowing her friend was suffering in her place.
“There’s actually a saying in the Security Department — ‘Roda-death.'”
“Roda-death? What’s that?”
“It means ‘Without Roze, we all die.'”
Eliné tilted her head at Katloi’s words.
She knew Roze was the Security Department’s only Water Mage and their ace, but this was the first she’d heard of this.
“It’s a kind of nickname. Something that comes with fame.”
“Roze is that famous?”
“Yes. After all, I’m the Crown Prince’s childhood friend, so the word of how well she works has spread all the way to the Management Department.”
This was bad. She’d wanted to keep that to herself.
Eliné wore an expression like someone caught red-handed with a secret, then nodded.
“That’s right….”
She’d known it long before her awakening.
Roze’s Mana Spectrum was broader than anyone Eliné had ever encountered.
* * *
The battlefield, now drenched in demon blood.
The Cerberus—whose numbers multiplied each time its heart was pierced by icy cold—proved mercifully vulnerable to flame.
Yet there was no convenient way to burn the core lodged deep within its heart beneath the creature’s stubborn hide using Fire Magic alone.
To kill a demon, one had to destroy its core. Only by annihilating the mana within could it cease regenerating and finally perish.
I had no choice but to draw close to Carlo.
“Let’s combine our strength.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Physical contact.”

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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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