My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 60
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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 60
One day before, at Magic Tower Embryo.
After sending Rose off to the Royal Palace, Elline spent the entire day submerged in an indescribable loss and helplessness.
I’m tired of always being the one to visit Lucas’s office first.
‘I always went to him. Always me…!’
On the day when the union between Stein and Delpinia was finalized.
On the day I poured out my resentment to him—who offered no explanation—and said we should break things off….
Lucas had never once come directly to where Elline was.
Now that time had passed and a wedding ceremony with his betrothed was already being arranged, there was no hope left for her.
From today on, I must never seek you out.
Even if a moment of choice comes, from now on I must choose only friendship—truly and sincerely.
Elline respected her friend’s wishes.
She understood well enough the deep historical ties between Stein and Delpinia.
So it was difficult for someone like her, an individual, to wedge herself between house and house.
‘I don’t hate Rose.’
Even in that indescribable sadness, Elline held fast to this much certainty.
What she hated was only Lucas, who wore that ambiguous attitude. She had never truly felt jealousy toward Rose.
‘Because Rose….’
loved Carlo.
She’d only recently noticed this fact, but Rose was determined to push forward with her marriage to the Crown Prince.
So she had chosen to look away.
Though she never imagined the Crown Prince himself would suddenly appear and make an emergency marriage proposal to her.
Thud!
“Will you marry me, El?”
“…What are you doing?”
“Late as it is, a sincere apology. And a true confession, from the heart.”
An apology for what, and a true confession about what?
Elline stared at Lucas with eyes that could hardly believe what they were seeing.
He was on one knee, holding out a large Flower Bouquet before her—where it had come from, she had no idea.
Thanks to that, Elline, who had stepped into the lobby for a moment to handle urgent documents, ended up witnessing a sight she never thought she’d see in the dead of night.
At least it was past midnight, or else she would have been mortified in front of everyone.
“Be honest. Who put you up to this?”
“Ahem…. I can’t say.”
Lucas gave a small cough, his face half-hidden behind the Flower Bouquet.
Sometimes excessive honesty became poison to the other person.
“That’s what I thought.”
Elline let out a long sigh.
For a moment she thought she wanted to bring those pretty, colorful flowers down on his head.
“Lucas, are you in your right mind?”
“Of course I am. You know there’s only you for me, El.”
“What about the wedding? The moment tomorrow passes, you’ll be bound to the Stein family, and—!”
“Shh.”
With his usual irksome smile, Lucas placed his index finger to his lips.
“Sometimes, maintaining silence to the very end is the better course.”
“What are you talking about? You flirt!”
Elline could not hold back. She pushed him away and hurried on, her footsteps clattering down the corridor.
“Wait, darling!”
“Don’t follow me! And who calls whom ‘darling’?”
“Then I’ll call you wife! My wife!”
“I don’t want to be a second wife!!”
Lucas pursued her relentlessly, begging her to hear him out.
“Why now, of all times?!”
How much time had there been to explain and set things straight before this!
Elline ran with all her might.
It was a cruel chase through the dead of night.
* * *
“So you’ve done nothing but chase each other, and the whole night passed without a proper conversation?”
“Yeah. It just ended up that way somehow.”
At my words, Elline brushed her ear awkwardly with her fingertips.
As she spoke, she seemed to feel a rush of embarrassment rising from somewhere deep within, her complexion turning pale.
The tea had long since gone cold from the length of our talk, and the sun was beginning to set.
Feeling the breeze, which had grown slightly colder than during the day, she rose from her seat with visible discomfort.
Then she bowed to me with formal courtesy.
“I’m sorry. I truly am. I’ve committed a grave discourtesy, Rose.”
“…What’s wrong with you?”
“I feel like I should apologize. Right now I’m so embarrassed… I want to find a hole somewhere and crawl into it.”
The ex-lover I’d yielded to a dear friend had been returned to me—rejected.
Through an utterly graceless, thoughtless, and rudely abrupt method.
Elline’s apology had nothing to do with the sudden marriage proposal itself.
Rather, she simply couldn’t bear the sight of herself for having loved such a man.
And it seemed she was apologizing because that love hadn’t yet ended, leaving her tormented.
I quietly rose from my seat and stood before her, matching her posture.
“How’s your condition today?”
“…Poor. Very poor.”
Looking closer, beneath her cheerful voice, the skin under her eyes was devoid of color, darkened.
I let out a slow sigh at my late realization.
She hadn’t slept properly. Because she’d been excited.
‘…Has the plot shifted?’
It was unexpected.
The male lead was supposed to confess to the female lead during tomorrow’s wedding ceremony, yet he’d proposed to her a full day early.
I’d awakened Lucas’s feelings and returned the flower bouquet to him, but I never anticipated the two of them would change at this pace.
Lucas was someone who feared his own father, the King, and was swayed by him—an irresolute man.
Since the current King was pushing forward the union with Stein in accordance with his predecessor’s wishes, of course Lucas could never dream of defiance.
Had he faced no particular variable, Lucas would have grown into an avoidant type, paralyzed by doubt.
One who brainwashed his true heart into something false, filled only with hesitation when it came time to make a decision.
‘Even thinking about it disgusts me.’
That’s why I hated Lucas.
We usually call people like that contemptible.
So I’d returned the flower bouquet to Elline, thinking it might help—suggesting he make a genuine apology.
And now it’s come back to me as the Butterfly Effect.
‘Goodness.’
This will drive me mad. I really should have just given that flower bouquet a satisfying smack yesterday and been done with it.
Well, if there’s any saving grace…
‘The conversation thread still hasn’t properly connected.’
My head ached for a moment and I pressed my palm to my forehead, but I spoke to Elline again, calmly and firmly.
“Tomorrow’s wedding ceremony will proceed as scheduled without any changes. Keep that in mind.”
“Mm. Yes, of course…”
“Once the ceremony itself starts properly, do as you wish after that.”
“Okay… wait, what?”
“Follow your heart.”
Elline couldn’t respond to me immediately, merely opening and closing her lips silently where she stood.
It seemed she’d understood my meaning correctly without misinterpreting it.
If the male lead had stepped out of line, then the female lead would have to make her move during tomorrow’s wedding ceremony.
Muttering this to myself, I rang the table bell to signal the end of tea time.
Then I drew a pocket watch from my breast pocket.
“Evening’s coming soon.”
Click.
“I’ll see you to the end of the corridor. I have another engagement before dinner.”
If I recall correctly, there was a final Bride Lessons session before the evening meal.
The lessons had all been so similar I’d gotten them confused.
The last one was probably about learning how to process the wedding march itself.
‘How tedious.’
I murmured the words to myself and quietly closed the pocket watch’s cover.
I often activated the Mana Watch to check the time, but my body felt fatigued from the earlier exertion.
The Double Protection Magic that Carlo had placed on me was of quite an advanced caliber.
He must have sensed early on what was about to unfold in the Main Palace.
‘Surely the one whose Mana I felt before wasn’t Carlo.’
I narrowed my eyes and shook my head lightly. It couldn’t be.
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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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