On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 14

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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 14
“You defended me while cursing at me. Are we really that close now?”
“I only learned your name today. Why do you keep suspecting me?”
A question some wizard had asked while I waited in the lobby came back to me.
“Did you perhaps suffer any psychological torture when you were dragged to the office last time?”
“……Does the Magic Tower do things like that?”
“Never mind then.”
I couldn’t figure out why he’d say such a thing. Did Cade distrust not just civil servants but fellow wizards too, and go around badgering them?
‘I really wish I could return to the Imperial Capital quickly. This would be better in every way.’
I spread out the documents I’d carefully selected and brought since last night across the desk in neat rows.
At that, Cade, who had been standing with his arms crossed and his mouth shut, tilted his head slightly to one side.
“I thought you’d given up on getting a seal. You acted like you’d come every day, but then you didn’t show your face at all.”
“I had circumstances that made it necessary.”
When I tapped the desk as if to invite him to look over the documents, Cade sat down in the chair with obvious reluctance.
It seemed the tight muscles in his face had loosened slightly, as if the misunderstanding about Ben had been cleared up.
“All you have to do is affix the seal to just one document. No matter which one you choose from these, the Magic Tower won’t lose anything.”
I spoke confidently, but as he began reading through the key sentences of the Official Documents line by line, tension rose in my chest.
「The Magic Tower shall donate 1 million gilders monthly to the Melgote Orphanage.」
「Joint training exercises with the Coast Guard shall be conducted twice monthly.」
「Reports shall be filed whenever Monster Beast suppression operations are conducted for the empire’s safety.」
「Additional Magic Tower bases shall be constructed in the western and southern regions of the continent, with all management delegated to the Magic Tower.」
‘What do you think? Doesn’t this deserve the seal?’
I waited with bright eyes for him to produce the seal, but Cade once again gathered all the documents together and flipped them over.
“I read them out of respect for your sincerity, but I have no intention of affixing the seal.”
“……You don’t want this either?”
Unable to believe it, I picked one of the flipped documents and offered it again.
“Regardless of anything else, wouldn’t additional bases be a good thing for the Magic Tower?”
“Give up.”
……
The documents slipped from my hands. The Official Documents I’d painstakingly selected felt like nothing more than useless scraps of paper.
The despair I felt then was no different from when I’d thought he was emptying the Magic Tower because of me.
There seemed to be an invisible wall standing firmly between him and me—a sense of futility pressed down on me.
‘Surely not.’
There was something I’d suspected ever since I first came to the Magic Tower.
A suspicion I’d always brushed aside, telling myself he wouldn’t treat me so coldly.
“Cade. Is it possible that you’re just refusing because it happens to be me bringing you these documents?”
“That’s not it.”
He denied it immediately with a sigh, but I couldn’t believe him.
“Then what exactly is the problem?”
“You wouldn’t understand, but those documents aren’t as simple as they appear…….”
Cade trailed off mid-sentence, then suddenly stood up and cast a sharp gaze toward the window.
After that, he hurled some kind of magic outward and then violently swatted the curtains closed.
Before I could even ask what he was doing, he spoke curtly.
“You came at a bad time.”
I was speechless at this absurd remark. Now he was just saying anything.
“Are you really going to blame the date?”
“Meeting you outside the Magic Tower is no good either. We shouldn’t have met again in the first place.”
……
The moment I heard those words, my chest throbbed with pain.
I hadn’t come to Melgote because I wanted to. I hadn’t deliberately sought Cade out.
‘Still, we weren’t like rivals or enemies. Even if I dislike you, you probably felt nothing for me.’
When we met at the banquet hall, when we rode in the same carriage—the atmosphere wasn’t choking with discomfort, was it?
“I know well enough that you’re tired of me. I remember that you abandoned me because of that too.”
“Vivian.”
“Regardless, this is work. It’s an official duty. No matter how much of a rogue you are, you should be able to separate public and private matters.”
“That thing about being tired of you…….”
“Is that a no? Then tell me. If the reason you rejected me wasn’t that you were tired of me, then what in the world is it? Explain it to me.”
Even as I pressed him with a trembling voice, Cade avoided my gaze without saying anything.
A hot surge of emotion welled up inside me. I snatched the remaining documents from the desk and crumpled them tightly in my grip.
“Don’t worry—meeting you at the banquet hall was just chance. From now on, we won’t see each other unless it’s official business.”
I turned around without even saying goodbye. I didn’t hear him calling after me.
Even though we were separated, it seemed I’d been somewhat glad to see Cade after so long, for my heart ached in one corner.
‘If he’s refusing just because it’s me bringing the documents, then I need a different strategy.’
I tried to cool my head by deliberately thinking of this moment as an extension of official duty.
Just as I was collecting my emotions and reaching for the doorknob to the office—
Knock, knock. I heard the sound right before my face.
“Sir, Tower Master. There’s one more civil servant who’s arrived…….”
It was the voice of Ben, the aide.
Wait—what did I just hear? Another civil servant? I hadn’t heard anything about that.
Bewildered, I glanced back at Cade, and he looked equally surprised.
“Come in.”
At his words, I stepped aside by the door.
And the moment I saw who entered the office with Ben, my heart sank.
“No, you—why are you……?”
As I flinched and took a step back, a man in a neat civil servant’s uniform smiled gently.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Tower Master. I’m Aster, a Mainland Magical Beast Ecosystem Inspector sent from the Imperial Government.”
While I stood frozen, Cade surveyed Aster with a suspicious gaze.
“There’s no need to send two civil servants.”
“Before we discuss that, first, I’d like to apologize on behalf of our side.”
“There’s more than one thing I could demand an apology for.”
Aster’s eyebrows twitched at Cade’s lukewarm response, and then he suddenly looked at me.
A sinister premonition tightened my heart.
‘Please. Don’t say that word. Even if others don’t know, not in front of Cade……!’
My desperate wish was ruthlessly ignored.
“I had no idea our side’s nepotistic appointment would show up without even proper attire to meet the Tower Master.”
As Cade’s puzzled gaze shifted to me, my head spun and I squeezed my eyes shut.
“……Nepotistic appointment?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. It just slipped out. But you didn’t know?”
It seemed Aster had no intention of stopping, for he began to continue with a slight smile.
I urgently grabbed his arm and whispered.
“Aster. Stop.”
“What am I stopping? You seem curious, so I’m just trying to inform you.”
Aster’s voice, tinged with amusement, was chilling in a different way from the rogue Tower Master.
Despite his model-student appearance and gentlemanly manner of speech, to me he was no different from a devil.
“Do we really need to go this far? This is Melgote. This is the Magic Tower, not the Monster Ecosystem Bureau.”
“What’s wrong with that? I came here to work. Surely you’re not here to harass me because my promotion was cancelled thanks to your nepotistic appointment?”
The way he replied in such a loud voice for everyone to hear drained the blood from my body.
“There’s no need to cause a fuss here.”
“Vivian. Look around you. Right now, the only one being chaotic and disruptive here is you.”
……
I couldn’t respond to his patronizing tone.
I was already completely exposed in front of Cade. I’d spoken loudly about separating public and private matters, but my public credentials had already failed before even being distinguished from my private ones.
Shame rose to my head so intensely that I felt I might faint. I actually wanted to faint.
I clenched my trembling hands and averted my gaze, unable to meet Cade’s eyes.
“Don’t you plan to answer my question?”
There was displeasure in Cade’s tone.
Aster finally rifled through his bag and approached the Tower Master. He showed signs of nervousness but didn’t seem particularly frightened.
“It’s been some time since the dispatch was sent from the Imperial Capital, yet we’ve heard nothing whatsoever. Worried that our nepotistic appointment might be causing trouble for you, Tower Master, I was assigned as an additional emergency inspector.”
I was bewildered as to why Aster wasn’t afraid of the Tower Master.
I’d definitely heard him worry about being dispatched to the Magic Tower.
“Ow!”
Aster suddenly cried out as he was pulling an Official Document from his bag. In an instant, the paper he held burst into flames.
!
I too gasped in surprise at the searing heat I felt at my fingertips, shaking my hands. The documents I’d been holding were already burning brightly.

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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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