My Husband Is Not the Magic Tower Master - Chapter 86

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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 86

Elline could scarcely believe what her own eyes showed her.
A mage’s inherent element wasn’t something one could simply change at will—so how was a fire mage able to wield a different attribute?
“…How is this even possible?”
“Could you keep it a secret for me?”
“What? What are you saying?”
“Right now, I’m asking the person I love most—asking you from the heart.”
He’d already found the Crown Prince’s burden too heavy to bear, and he’d sent his lover away. The last thing he wanted was to become even more of a target.
He turned to the bewildered Elline and winked at her playfully.
“It was my secret and mine alone, until now.”
It was absurd.
In their childhood, Elline had sometimes overheard her friend Rose muttering to herself out of habit.
Things like: the lamp beneath the lamp casts no light.
At first, she hadn’t understood what Rose meant and had pestered her with questions countless times.
They had mage-light burning everywhere—what era were they living in that someone would bother using an old oil lamp?
Each time, Rose would laugh and explain it was merely wordplay.
It was something she’d say whenever she felt foolish about herself.
“…The lamp beneath the lamp was dark, after all.”
My life became so bright the moment I met you—I thought I’d never need those words again.
Now, at last, Elline felt she could understand her.
And even more—this current feeling of betrayal that had washed over the hollowness.
“So what you’re telling me is…”
Elline drew a steady breath, keeping her voice as calm as possible, and fixed her eyes on the man kneeling before her.
“You deceived me?”
“No, no—Elline. I would never do that intentionally.”
“Then did you deceive the world?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that’s entirely wrong…”
Lucas started to fire back, but the sharp gaze directed at him from above made him immediately shrink back.
“Our sweet fiancée is angry, angry indeed.”
It was a fair assessment.
During his courtship with Elline, Lucas had only revealed his status as Crown Prince after the secret had already been exposed to others.
Elline was more innocent than he’d given her credit for, and unexpectedly blind to anything but love and loyalty.
Of course—not to him, but to her dearest friend, Rose Stein, whom she’d called her closest companion for life.
Why else would she have kicked him to the curb without hesitation, all because she didn’t want to interfere with the union of House Stein and the royal family?
As Lucas reflected on their shared past, a wave of wounded pride overtook him, and he grumbled aloud.
“Honestly, this is blatant discrimination. If I told you that Rose Stein has been living as an ordinary person like me this whole time but is actually a Grand Mage—you’d soften your heart and forgive me, wouldn’t you?”
“That’s different.”
Elline shook her head firmly.
“What? It’s different?”
When an answer opposite to what he’d expected came forth, Lucas asked in confusion.
“How is Rose Stein any different from me?”
“Because I already knew.”
“…You what?”
“She seemed like she wanted to live an ordinary life, so I just pretended not to notice. But I knew all along.”
How could she not know, after all?
“I’m her closest friend.”
Best friends share even their souls, Elline thought dryly, folding her arms across her chest.
“So… are you saying Rose Stein is a water-attribute Grand Mage?”
“Yes.”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know for certain. It could have been since birth.”
“Goodness, such an enormous secret…”
The way he trailed off suggested Lucas had believed his own hidden truth to be the most remarkable thing of all.
While he fumbled for words, clearly taken aback, Elline showed no surprise whatsoever—she merely performed indifference.
She explained what she knew of Rose Stein in the calmest tone he’d heard from her in some time, as if she’d come to understand this long ago.
“Rose manifested her magical power far earlier than I did. It just took a long time to awaken her because she wasn’t aware of it herself.”
The delayed magic manifestation was probably rooted in that fall when she was fourteen.
Elline had been Rose’s friend since then.
Her true friend.
“Come on, get up for a moment. The floor’s filthy with demon beast corpses!”
Elline helped Lucas, who lay sprawled on the ground, and slowly raised him to his feet.
What she felt was shock and betrayal—not an impulse to tell him to grovel on the floor like this.
He was her beloved, the man she’d promised to marry, after all.
He was Rose’s darling, and the precious bond Rose herself had painstakingly reforged with the royal family, even breaking an engagement to do it.
Once Rose and Carlo married and began their quiet, happy newlywed life, Elline had thought everything would proceed smoothly.
‘The Magic Tower is still overrun with demon beasts, and even if my investigation of the Demonic Realm’s currents hasn’t yielded any great results yet…’
In recent days, Elline had experienced the happiest time of her life.
She’d reconciled safely with her former lover, and before Rose’s wedding, she’d even received a proposal from the man she adored.
They hadn’t set a date, but Elline wanted to marry Lucas someday too.
But if he was a Grand Mage of wind, everything changed.
“Lucas is… a Grand Mage, then?”
“Yeah. Caught red-handed.”
Lucas smiled sheepishly.
Of course, he hadn’t released his magical power by choice.
It was to protect Elline.
When the demon beasts attacked, winged creatures hurled debris from the broken building at her as she reached the 100th Floor.
She’d nearly been crushed beneath the heavy stones and metal fragments.
Lucas, who’d come alone to quietly resolve the situation, instinctively threw himself at her and saved her.
It was the first time the power of the Grand Mage—which had always felt like a curse—became something glorious.
“Do you hate me? For trying to hide such a heavy secret to the very end?”
“A little. They say eternal secrets don’t exist in this world, but you tried to hide it as if you’d carry it to your grave, so…”
If only he’d shown flaws like Rose and occasionally vented his frustrations with her, but Lucas’s ability to deceive was flawless.
A wind mage could relatively easily mimic fire magic and its manifestations, since wind attributes were stronger at deception and disguise.
Wind magic was naturally suited to tricks and illusions.
“How did you fool everyone else? If you pretended to have a fire attribute from the moment your magic manifested, that would’ve been more than seven years.”
“It wasn’t hard. If anything, it was easy.”
He shrugged at her words as if it were nothing.
“I fooled the strongest mage in the magical world—our teacher—so what would I have to fear?”
“Your teacher, you mean―”
“The Tower Master. Miss Rose Stein’s husband.”
“What?!”
Elline’s eyes widened in shock.
She wasn’t particularly surprised, but it was unexpected.
“…Isn’t the age difference quite large? Our Rose said she prefers at most a four-year gap.”
“Ha. Our teacher is also a fire Grand Mage, so this is rough.”
They finished restoring the entire damaged 100th Floor and hurried down to the lower levels.
Their bickering paused while they cleaned up the mess left by the demon beasts, which only meant the lovers’ quarrel was just beginning.
“Still, trying to hide it until the end was really upsetting. How am I supposed to trust you and marry you like this?”
“What, weren’t you saying just a while ago that I’m a kingdom prince and that bothers you? If the royal family is burdensome, wouldn’t a Grand Mage fiancé feel even heavier and more unwelcome?”
“That’s not the point at all. If you’d been honest from the start, I might have accepted it after struggling through my doubts!”
As their voices grew louder, the elevator doors slid open.
At the same moment, Lucas’s voice trembled with sorrow.
“I couldn’t shed the Crown Prince status, but… I wanted to be just an ordinary prince beside you!”
Ding. 88th Floor.
“Not this dazzling wind Grand Mage!”
The doors opened, and suddenly silence fell.
Regrettably, it was after they’d met the unsettling gaze of crimson eyes through the gap in the doors.
“Ah.”
Lucas went rigid as stone.
“Grand Mage… what?”
“Ha. We weren’t trying to eavesdrop, but we’re sorry. A familiar voice came through, so we thought we’d check―”
Rose smiled sweetly while barely restraining Carlo, who looked ready to pounce.
“By the way, what did you just say?”

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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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