On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 11

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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 11
Before I could even grasp what was happening, I glanced out the window, terrified someone might see Cade and me sharing the carriage.
Fortunately, there were enough ornate carriages around that ours didn’t stand out.
In the meantime, Cade watched me with the intensity of someone studying a curiosity.
That persistent gaze made silence unbearable.
“You didn’t haul me in here for nothing. What’s this about?”
“You said you had no connections to the Imperial Family, yet here you are at the Third Princess’s birthday gala.”
“That’s because—”
Even I had to admit it looked suspicious. I opened my mouth and closed it again, only to feel a sudden wave of injustice. “And you? Did the Third Princess invite you personally? Besides, who shows up to her birthday gala looking like…that.”
I gestured at the civil servant uniform visible beneath my coat, then trailed off as I recalled exactly how Cade had looked in the ballroom.
As my eyes swept across his impeccable appearance, he shrugged with utter shamelessness.
“Forget it. Don’t say another word.”
“You put me in this carriage to talk, and now you want me to stop? Go on. Tell me more.”
“Tell you what?”
“Anything.”
At that single word—anything—my mouth went dry. There was so much I wanted to ask.
‘Why did you hide that you’re a wizard?’
‘How could you leave so coldly?’
‘Did you ever really feel anything for me?’
But I had my pride. There was no way I’d ask him—the man who’d rejected me and vanished—any of these things.
The more I thought about it, the more indignant I felt, so I asked petulantly instead.
“How much did you sell the ring for?”
“….”
Cade’s eyes shifted sideways. He adjusted his posture.
“…Not that ancient history.”
“Hmph.”
So he was stung by it. As much as I hated to relive it, that parting had been petty and cruel.
I glared at him coldly, then drew back the curtain from the window.
We were near the wharf, and beyond the darkening sky, the night sea stretched endlessly before us.
Melgote bordered the sea, and the Magic Tower stood in the part of the city closest to it.
In the distance, I could faintly see a great swell of water rising and falling.
It looked like a Crystal Whale surfacing and then submerging again.
“….”
Watching the sea made my chest tighten. I clenched my fists.
At that moment, the curtain I hadn’t touched suddenly swished shut on its own.
Cade had closed it with magic.
“The wind is sharp along this stretch—we’re right beside the sea.”
“Melgote’s northern wind can be brutal.”
I replied automatically, and something felt strange about it.
‘Did he remember that I don’t like the sea? Did he care enough to do that?’
But he’d treated the ring he’d given me as ancient history.
When I really thought about it, Cade had done nothing but confuse me since we’d met again.
He was coldly indifferent, yet he came all the way to the inn to return my badge.
He questioned whether I was truly a civil servant until the very end, yet he caught me when I almost fell at the gala.
‘Why is he like this? Flip-flopping? Does he feel guilty?’
I was sitting in that awkward silence, mind racing, when it happened.
Bang!
The carriage lurched violently and came to a sudden stop.
“Ah—!”
My body lifted from the seat and pitched forward, crashing directly into Cade’s chest.
Familiar yet strange.
The clean scent of fabric was recognizable, but mixed with it were winter air, the smell of the sea, and a faint copper tinge—all unfamiliar.
His mana, which I couldn’t sense before I gained the Attunement Ability, now felt almost alien.
All those complex sensations wove together and enveloped me.
“….”
“….”
Silence filled the carriage.
I knew I should either pull myself up or say something—anything—but my mind went completely blank.
Then came an awkward apology from the driver’s seat.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry! A magical beast jumped out!”
“…!”
The moment I heard that, clarity returned, and I felt the firm outline of his body through the robe with sudden, vivid intensity.
I jerked back in shock, pushing against his chest with both hands as I scrambled away.
“Wait, if you move like that, you’ll hurt yourself.”
“I’m, I’m fine!”
Cade cradled my head as I nearly collided with the ceiling, then slowly settled me into the seat across from him.
I complied with his gentle guidance, but my cheeks burned and my heart hammered against my ribs from the sudden shock.
As I fanned my hot face, something struck me.
The thudding wasn’t just my heart.
“…!”
I hurriedly poked my head out the window and saw magical beasts scattering in all directions.
“Cade. The beasts—they’re terrified.”
I pointed toward where they’d fled: a stretch of sea beyond the wharf.
On the dark water, a black silhouette moved like a phantom, sleek and terrible.
I was squinting, trying to make out its shape, when Cade suddenly pulled me back inside.
“I didn’t get to see what—”
I started to protest, but his expression was grave enough to silence me.
He closed the window quietly, then instructed the driver.
“Take the back route to the inn’s rear entrance. Wait a few minutes, then head the opposite direction from the Magic Tower—go far around. If anyone asks, tell them no one but a civil servant rode in this carriage.”
“Yes, understood.”
The driver didn’t question the order and obeyed immediately, but I didn’t understand any of this.
“Why are we running? Shouldn’t we confirm whether that thing is a monster beast?”
Cade seized my hand without permission.
“That’s worse than a monster beast.”
The next moment, the world twisted. My feet found no purchase.
That vertiginous, unsettling sensation I’d experienced not long ago.
‘Wait, could this be—’
Before I could place the feeling, Cade had already pulled me out of the carriage in an instant.
***
That sensation of missing a step on the stairs—it was dizzying even the second time.
“Don’t fight it. Just sit.”
I lowered myself, following the hand guiding me downward, and opened my eyes that had been squeezed shut.
My vision spun and blurred; I couldn’t focus, and my eyes kept straining.
Suddenly everything went dark as something warm—his hand—covered my eyes.
“Keep them closed. Don’t try to force yourself to see.”
“You could have warned me about the Teleportation.”
“I’ve never explained it or used it before.”
I grumbled a bit despite his reasonable answer, but decided to trust the expert.
“How are you fine? Aren’t you dizzy?”
“Did you see the driver get carriage sick?”
“…That’s fair.”
As we exchanged this trivial banter, a sudden, vivid déjà vu washed over me.
A quiet hillside on a late night.
Cade standing beside me, his large hand covering my eyes, saying he had something to show me.
Flower petals dancing in the wind, shimmering like fairy wings.
Petals you’d rarely see in such a cold region, swirling through the night air with an ethereal beauty.
And there we were, Cade and I, in the middle of that magnificent sight.
“Wow! This is beautiful, Cade. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Do you like it?”
“How did you do that? Did you cast a spell?”
“Magic? No.”
He’d answered lightly, with a smile, and now that smile bloomed like a flower in my memory.
…Now I understood.
“Vivian? Why are you smiling?”
I pulled his hand away and opened my eyes.
The water-blue of his irises came into focus, and I stared at them.
“Those shimmering petals. They were magic, weren’t they?”
“….”
Cade met my gaze, then stood up and rubbed the back of his neck.
I couldn’t read him, but that reaction? I understood it perfectly.
“You’re not denying it.”
“Why keep bringing up the past?”
“Because it’s all over now.”
He took several steps toward the window, then paused. He seemed to be turning back to face me, but the moonlight and exterior lamps behind him left his face in shadow.
Cade must have cast magic countless times while we were together.
And yet I’d never noticed it once.
Even in those moments when I felt closest to him, a dark shadow of secrets had hung between us.
It wasn’t that he was so different from the Cade I’d known…
‘I never really knew him at all.’
Even though I couldn’t see, I felt his gaze meeting mine exactly. I looked away.
Then the familiar space came properly into view.
‘Now that I think about it…’
Cade had brought me to my room at the inn.
If he’d meant to bring me here, he could have just let me take the carriage. Or come to my room in the first place instead of calling me out to a carriage.
‘Does this have something to do with me saying it was trespassing?’
As if he’d suddenly cared what I thought.
From this point on, I couldn’t guess his intentions at all, so I asked what had been on my mind since before.
“What was that thing by the wharf that you ran away from? And you’re the Tower Master.”

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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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