My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 55

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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 55

Due to Stein’s long refusal, the Crown Princess Palace in Delpinia had been sealed since the reign of the first king, or so the story went.
The kings of generations past had married into other noble houses across centuries, never once into Stein.
And in all that time, they had never appointed a single Crown Princess.
‘Is that why the treatment is like this?’
I found myself regretting, however briefly, my rejection of Lucas’s offer.
An old building that few people frequented could hardly be expected to be well-maintained.
“Even so, this is too much.”
When I stepped inside the Crown Princess Palace with the few ladies’ maids Stein had sent, the sight that greeted me was rather grim.
From the entrance, the unlubricated doors groaned on their hinges; stained windows gave way to rooms where the temperature remained inconsistent, a biting chill drifting through each corridor.
In short, it felt like a poorly done cleaning of a new home.
I even found myself wondering if His Majesty harbored a particular distaste for Stein.
I set down the small travel bag I’d brought and let my eyes wander across the space.
“At least the larger dust has been cleared away… and it’s been aired out reasonably well. The bedding and furniture are all new. A bit more thorough cleaning should do the trick.”
“Miss, but even so—this is unacceptable! You’re about to become the Crown Princess, a most precious person….”
“It’s alright. We never know what fate holds for us.”
Still, regardless of my own circumstances, I had to think of Elline’s future arrival at this place, which meant I’d need to put things in proper order.
My own bedroom, fortunately, appeared cleaner than the rest of the palace, suggesting someone had at least taken some care.
This much would suffice. By evening, additional staff would be stationed here from the Royal Palace anyway.
Ignoring the alarmed protests of the maids, I unpacked my travel bag in the bedroom and lay down on the bed.
The moment I did, accumulated exhaustion descended upon me all at once.
And then I’d barely blinked—
“…Huh?”
Where the window had shown bright sunlight, deep darkness now reigned.
I had no idea how long I’d slept, but just then, a soft knock sounded from beyond the door.
“Miss, the Crown Prince has arrived. Are you awake now?”
Knock, knock.
“…?”
“Rose.”
And from outside the window, three stories up.
I stared blankly between the window and the door before my eyes finally flew open wide.
“What?”
What on earth?
Suddenly Carlo was waiting at the left window while Lucas stood outside the right door—a situation I had not anticipated.
“I’ll let myself in if you don’t mind, miss?”
“What—”
As the door began to open, panic seized me and my body bolted toward the window instead, throwing it open first.
“Carlo!”
How had this man gotten up to the third floor at this hour, and by what means?
Before I could even ask, his expression turned grave as he hovered in the air before me.
“There’s something I need to tell you—”
Click.
At the same moment, the door handle turned.
“Hide, quickly!”
I threw myself beneath the window.
* * *
Plummeting below a window twice was not an experience I welcomed.
This time it was deliberate rather than accidental, yet the vertiginous sensation remained the same.
Perhaps because of that, in the moment my vision went white, familiar scenes flickered past my eyes.
“Student, you can’t step there!”
The day I’d lost my life on a temporary work site, trusting only in my sturdy physique to earn a little money.
“Come to your senses, Rose!”
“You’re not hurt, are you? You’ll recognize my face right away?”
“You are Rose, ‘Rose Stein’!”
Until the day I opened my eyes thinking I’d reached heaven, only to find myself cradled in the arms of some woman who looked like a bundle of cotton candy, beginning my new life.
‘Life is full of trials and tribulations.’
It’s truly dreadful and nauseating.
Barely regaining my senses after escaping that suffocating sense of weightlessness, I realized I’d stumbled into yet another misfortune—how that discouraged me.
I was too exhausted and worn down by this harsh life to simply rejoice at being alive.
No one seemed to welcome me with genuine warmth.
Elline, who had wept and wailed over my accident, was actually terrified that as Rose’s plaything, her usefulness might have run its course.
She hadn’t cried for concern about me.
Beyond worrying about losing a friend, the girl was simply afraid—in her young heart—of incurring her parents’ resentment.
I understand. I had never chosen to befriend Elline with pure intentions either.
I was simply lonely, that was all.
That I would have to carve out my own path in this place too, that there was no one to prevent my death—
I had always believed only that.
Why do the important things always come too late?
“Come here.”
“….”
“Stein.”
Someone had called me once.
In a voice as calm as if swallowing longing itself.
After such a long time had passed, the memory had grown fragmented, opaque and blurred—yet suddenly something struck at my mind like a hammer.
A body thrown into emptiness, ragged breathing, fourteen-year-old Elline, a body unharmed.
The sensation of being held in someone’s arms from the very beginning.
On that day six years ago when the accident happened, it wasn’t Elline who saved me.
“…Hah.”
In that instant, the breath I’d been holding back burst forth.
“Cough, cough…!”
Pulled from the past memory, I coughed in succession and gripped the ground—and someone slowly patted my back.
A man holding me in his embrace.
Who he was seemed obvious.
An uninvited intruder at the window of the Royal Palace’s third floor in the dead of night, where the reserve Crown Princess dwelt.
I wiped my mouth hastily with the handkerchief he offered, composing my breathing as much as I could before speaking.
“…We said hello this afternoon, didn’t we?”
You’d escorted me all the way to the Palace gates with perfect courtesy, even crossing paths with Lucas—so what wind had blown you here now?
I’d only just woken from sleep; if I’d had a moment to think, I would never have opened the window.
Never would I have wound up plummeting three stories below, my arms locked around Carlo’s neck like a couple of fools.
The moment my feet touched the grass-covered ground, the situation struck me as utterly absurd.
I extricated myself from Carlo’s embrace and hastily unwound my arms from around his neck.
Drawing back to face him directly, he glanced away from my gaze before answering.
“…I never said that would be the end of it.”
“Do you actually think this makes sense? A secret meeting in the middle of the night?”
“…It’s only nine o’clock.”
My companion seemed to operate outside the bounds of common sense, so I held my tongue.
‘This is ridiculous.’
How much must he care for me to do something like this?
Though I might have blamed Carlo and demanded answers, it was difficult to explain that I too was now sprawled on the ground because I’d followed him.
Fine. Let me admit it.
My true priority, instinctively, was him—not the Crown Prince.
‘Now that I’ve faced that, it only makes things worse.’
I exhaled the breath I’d been holding, then drew slow, measured breaths while calmly taking in the situation.
The bedroom window I’d fallen from—whether Carlo’s decision or not—was already firmly shut.
Lucas, that man—I still couldn’t fathom why he’d come looking for me at this hour.
But at least I could conceal the traces of Carlo’s visit, which was some small mercy.
I quickly rose and brushed away the dirt clinging to my clothes.
“I didn’t hold you on purpose as we fell.”
“I know.”
“What was your errand?”
“…I thought you seemed to be having a bad dream.”
“You were watching me?”
“I wasn’t. I simply stopped by on my way through.”
He might have business at the Royal Palace and drop in, but this place lay quite a distance from the main compound.
‘That’s rich. Who just happens to pass by the Crown Princess Palace?’

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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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