My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 79

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 79

The moment Rose summoned a colossal waterfall within the Royal Palace using Water Magic.
“I’ll give you ten seconds. Step aside.”
“…No.”
Carlo’s refusal brought the matter to a close.
He hadn’t meant to be cold to Rose from the start.
He’d had a plan to approach her gradually over time, to speak with her at his own pace.
The way he’d been pretending not to see, turning a blind eye all this while.
“…Carlo?”
But this time was different.
He had to seize Rose with desperate urgency.
Her magical power, trained on an innocent person, had nearly caused something catastrophic.
“Sigh….”
He hoped he’d misread the situation.
Carlo impulse-driven, blocked her path and carefully lowered the wrist he’d seized so hastily.
Yet his words came out less gently than his actions. He was angry enough for his head to ache.
Looking at the gatekeeper, who trembled with the fear of death itself, Rose’s face was unmistakably gleeful.
‘…Only for a moment, but she nearly lost herself to that magical power.’
Carlo understood well what that expression meant.
What tragedy it would summon in the near future, what pitiful end awaited.
It was, by any account, an ominous sign.
In a single century, dozens, hundreds of High-Rank Mages met their end — unable to accept their inborn magical capacity, they either suffered a Magical Rampage or succumbed to death.
The vessel shatters. Humanity is lost.
A mage who could not fully control her power, drunk on its strength, was no different from a Magical Beast of the abyss, stripped of all but instinct.
A rational human and an unknown creature of magic.
Rose currently stood upon that threshold.
So Carlo raised his voice.
“A worthless fake heirloom, a paltry Shackle Magic, and outright denial of entry—don’t you think this is a trap?”
He had nearly lost the most precious being in the world he inhabited.
“Don’t you understand?”
“….”
“I knew everything all along.”
…But he hadn’t wanted it to come to this—trading words with her like this.
As silence fell between them after Carlo’s few final words, the situation shifted abruptly.
“…!”
The magical aura within the palace suddenly converged around Rose, and everything changed in an instant.
“Cough—.”
Rose suddenly coughed blood and collapsed, and the tower’s Level 3 Alert sounded.
Carlo pulled her into his arms without hesitation and poured all his stabilizing Mana into her.
‘Please.’
Not yet.
Not here, not like this….
If a Magical Rampage were to occur within the palace where the king’s Dark Magic lingered, Rose’s condition would be dire.
‘If it happens, her Noble Blood Ability could awaken.’
It might break free from its ancient seal in response to the vast magical power she possessed.
And if the king’s ability to threaten Rose expanded as a result, he would no longer be some worthless human waiting for death in Carlo’s eyes—he would become something far more dangerous.
Carlo hid his trembling fingertips and gazed at his wife, who blinked blankly as if she’d already surrendered to resignation, offering a sincere apology.
“…You were right. There’s no such thing as a secret that lasts forever in this world.”
I was wrong.
“Closing my eyes to it for a moment wouldn’t make you ordinary—that much was clear from the start.”
I was wrong in my thinking.
‘I should have revealed my true self to you first….’
I should have been honest.
‘If I had, our hearts wouldn’t have become so misaligned as they are now.’
Carlo gently wiped away the blood trickling from Rose’s lips as she continued to cough.
After a long moment, he simply reached up and gently brushed back the hair of the woman who struggled to lift her head and look at him.
Because he was sorry. Because it all felt like his fault.
“There’s an experimental medication at the Delphinidd Mansion that can stabilize Mana,” he said.
“….”
“Let’s return to the mansion, Rose.”
Once there, he had resolved to finally tell her everything.
The beginning and end of what they had both endured.
And the new beginning that had emerged from where they stood now.
But things didn’t unfold as planned.
Today, more than usual, his carefully laid arrangements had come undone.
Carlo had intended to arrive at the Delphinidd Mansion with Rose and help restore her Magical Power.
Instead, at Rose’s suggestion, they had ended up before the Laboratory rather than the mansion.
As he approached the entrance, he caught sight of someone emerging from within, passing the security office.
Carlo watched the receding figure, growing distant on the opposite side, and found himself studying it. There was something familiar about the silhouette and gait.
From the fleeting glimpse of that back, it looked like Elline.
‘Leaving early, are we.’
It had been less than an hour since the Level 3 Alert had sounded for Magical Beast activity.
And already she had time to spare.
He knew that Elline Ros had been holed up in the Laboratory for the past few days, pursuing her own research, but this didn’t strike him as a particularly reassuring sight.
When the season changed, perhaps he’d arrange a transfer to another department.
She clung to Rose’s side like tar anyway, always causing trouble with her persistence.
‘This might serve as good leverage.’
A simple discharge would only grieve his wife, so this degree of intervention seemed appropriately measured.
The quiet muttering habit dissolved almost at once, and his expression hardened into its usual coldness.
Arriving at the Tower—the place where he had worked for a straight year—the familiar instincts of his profession rose unbidden.
As always, the work awaiting him was clearly defined.
‘Determine the Magical Beast intrusion pattern and scale of damage, assess the defensive barriers that need repair, and….’
Yet if something had shifted in this mechanical chain of thought, it was the knowledge that he had to finish as quickly as possible and return to the mansion where Rose waited.
Time was pressing.
Click.
Carlo released the door handle swiftly and moved toward the experimental table where several staff members had gathered.
Within moments, he came to an abrupt halt, struck by sudden bewilderment.
“Aahhh—.”
“…?”
His gaze dropped at the dull thud of something catching his foot.
There, cocooned in a Sleeping Bag, lay Elline—fast asleep.
She was just beginning to wake, letting out a wide yawn before giving Carlo a small, sleepy wave.
“Oh? Carlo?”
“…Elline.”
“Good morning. Or wait—I fell asleep in the morning, so is it evening now?”
“Didn’t you leave a moment ago?”
“Me? No, I didn’t.”
She yawned again, her speech slurred and drowsy.
“Yesterday, or maybe the day before—I’ve been here all night without setting foot outside the Laboratory once.”
“….”
“I swear, at this rate I’ll end up like my teammates say—a bound spirit haunting this place. I haven’t seen the morning in days, and my sleep schedule’s completely reversed. I really need to fix my rhythm….”
Carlo’s stare was so piercing, so relentlessly silent, that Elline found it deeply unsettling.
Taken aback, she stopped mid-yawn and hurriedly rose from the Sleeping Bag.
Just as her words suggested, her eyes were barely open, still heavy with sleep, and her hair at the back of her head was thoroughly disheveled, standing on end.
To any observer, she looked as though she’d woken only minutes ago.
It seemed impossible that such a person could have ventured out and returned in immaculate condition within the span of mere seconds.
‘Then… who was that.’
Who was that woman?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————