On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 16

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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 16
The next day.
When I arrived at the entrance of the Melgote Marine Observatory, I couldn’t bring myself to step into the office, so I walked as slowly as possible.
Not that my unsettled mind had settled any.
‘I didn’t sleep at all last night either.’
My eyes felt gritty, and my temples throbbed dully.
I’d been given time off but couldn’t rest. I felt cheated, though yesterday I wasn’t in any state of mind to relax.
‘What does he really think of me?’
I couldn’t bear to face Cade.
I hadn’t wronged him, but showing myself in that state felt shameful and wounded my pride.
I’d once sworn that if I ever saw Cade again, I’d flaunt how well I was doing without him.
‘It’s all ruined.’
And now how am I supposed to go back to the Magic Tower?
‘Especially right after I snapped at Cade for no reason, to let him see me like that…….’
Even I thought it was ridiculous and pathetic.
‘Why did Aster have to show up at that moment?’
I’d always carried an unsettling sense of debt toward Aster.
I disliked the way he was excluded as a ‘parachute hire,’ disliked how people gossiped about me because of him, but if I could, I wanted him to be promoted.
That he hadn’t been promoted was, according to him, because of me.
‘But yesterday was too much. Deliberately humiliating me when we’re not even at the Imperial Government.’
Direct criticism to my face would have been better. Not that I had any right to ask for that.
Lost in gloomy thoughts, I somehow found myself at the office door.
‘Now that Aster’s been added to the territorial staff here, I have no idea how suffocating it’ll be.’
My chest felt tight until I took a deep breath and finally opened the office door.
But contrary to my expectations, the office was lively and warm.
The moment I opened the door, laughter and pleasant voices greeted me. The atmosphere was so different from what I’d experienced before that it felt almost alien.
‘These people knew how to smile?’
Bewildered, I quietly stepped inside, and Yukel the civil servant clapped his hands together with the first genuine smile I’d ever seen from him.
“I’m going to introduce the staff member who’ll be assisting with observatory operations for the next week. He’s a Monster Empath from the Imperial Government who volunteered—Aster.”
“Everyone, it’s such a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Aster. I’ve heard so much from my cousin about how dependable and wonderful her colleagues are that I couldn’t wait to get to Melgote. I’ll do my best for the next week and ask for your guidance.”
Aster gently patted the civil servant’s arm, then bowed with a straightforward, likable face. The staff members responded with applause and bright smiles.
The scene was so different from my first day of work that I thought I’d walked into the wrong office.
I awkwardly glanced around and clapped silently.
The civil servant had introduced the visiting staff member directly and the employees welcomed him with laughter. Never mind that.
But what exactly did Aster just say?
‘Cousin?’
That kind of familiar address had been avoided even among close colleagues in the civil service. It was something I’d heard endlessly during basic training right after joining.
‘Though Aster is personable, he’s not usually tactless.’
While I was still confused, the usually cold staff member next to me suddenly grinned and spoke.
“We’ve heard a lot from Civil Servant Yukel about his cousin. He said your abilities manifested at such a young age, yet you adapted to them so quickly?”
“Ha. I think adapting was easier precisely because it manifested so young.”
As the warm exchange continued, a word caught my ear.
‘Cousin?’
Stunned by this unexpected fact, I studied Yukel’s and the civil servant’s faces carefully. They didn’t look especially alike, but sitting next to each other, the resemblance became subtly apparent.
I snapped to attention and barely swallowed the laughter that threatened to burst out.
How had word of me reached all the way to Melgote, so far from the Imperial Capital? And it turned out…….
‘Aster was Civil Servant Yukel’s cousin all along.’
When he heard I’d been dispatched to Melgote, he must have told Yukel about me in advance.
Now I finally understood the civil servant’s unusually cold attitude toward me.
‘It was excessive for simple territorial protectiveness.’
Aster, now exchanging pleasantries with the staff, looked like a team member who’d already perfectly integrated into the Marine Observatory.
Once work began and I quietly took my seat, I felt oddly out of place and uncomfortable, as if I were sitting in someone else’s chair.
「Melgote Marine Observatory Dispatch and Magic Tower Cooperation Progress Report」
I had nothing to write for the document that needed to be finished by this morning and sent to the Imperial Capital.
‘How can I possibly write that the Tower Master has no intention of stamping it because I dated him before?’
Staring blankly at the words “Magic Tower,” my thoughts drifted to Cade.
‘That Wizard Robe really did suit him well.’
Far better than a civil servant’s uniform. The way he carried himself among other wizards felt natural.
Perhaps the top of the Magic Tower was a better place for him than the seat next to mine.
‘Cade has found his place. But I still don’t know where mine is.’
One thing was certain: this place suited Aster far more than it suited me.
‘If I transfer to a different department, maybe that’ll feel more like my place…….’
I stared at the empty “Department” field at the top of the report for a long time.
***
That afternoon.
Aster’s arrival didn’t reduce my workload.
“Inspector Vivian. Are you done?”
“Yes. Here it is.”
The civil servant, who seemed ready to criticize unless I had an urgent outside task, changed slightly after seeing my field reports a few times.
Not that he’d become kind or lost his territorial attitude.
“Do this area as well by today. We’ll need it for tomorrow morning’s meeting, so prepare the materials too.”
He assigned an enormous amount of work.
But he wasn’t making up tasks or dumping his own work on me.
The observatory simply had a lot of work and too few people.
That’s probably why the director approved Aster’s request to volunteer in Melgote without hesitation.
Melgote was the coldest region of the empire with unpredictable weather.
It was far from the Imperial Capital, sea monsters appeared frequently, and there was even a tower master with a reputation for being reckless, so it wasn’t popular at all.
I’d heard that civil servants dispatched to Melgote either quit quickly or used connections to transfer to offices in other regions.
‘My predecessor probably left the same way.’
While organizing materials with that thought, a familiar piece of chocolate in a familiar wrapper suddenly appeared on my desk.
“The observatory work isn’t easy, is it? Why do you insist on such hard work? I keep telling you to find an easier way to live.”
It was Aster, of course.
‘Here we go again.’
He had a habit of humiliating me in front of people and then later privately giving me expensive snacks as though soothing and coaxing me.
At first I thought he was doing it out of spite then guilt, but after it happened several times, I honestly didn’t know what his intention was anymore.
“There’s no choice when there’s a shortage of people. But it’s manageable. You’re already adjusting, after all…….”
“Well, yeah.”
Aster had manifested his Monster Empathy early and became a Magical Beast Ecology Inspector the moment he turned eighteen.
After eight years as a civil servant, his desk work was certainly superior to mine.
“I wanted to warn you first, in case you get shocked like yesterday.”
“About what?”
Unease crept in. “Yesterday” surely meant he was talking about the Magic Tower.
“But first, I have something to ask.”
Aster glanced around and lowered his voice.
“The Magic Tower is right on the water, yeah? Can you see Crystal Whales well from there?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“Just curious. When am I ever going to see a Crystal Whale? Unlike someone else, I’m stuck on land.”
I muttered something about them being visible, feeling a flush of embarrassment.
He leaned forward with an eager expression, peppering me with questions.
“Does the Magic Tower show a lot of interest in Crystal Whales? Is there any magic that lets you detect only Crystal Whales? Have you communed with any since coming here? If you’ve written any reports, I’d love to see them.”
I tried to answer as briefly as possible, but his barrage of questions continued relentlessly until I finally grabbed the chocolate and shoved it back into his arms.
“Stop. If you want to see a Crystal Whale so badly, give the chocolate to Civil Servant Yukel instead and ask him to send you on a maritime assignment.”
At that, Aster pretended to scold me, laughing.
“You’re sensitive. I was just curious. You need to work on that sharp tongue of yours. I don’t like that kind of temperament.”
“Why should I adjust my personality to suit you?”
I felt oddly irritated and glared at him, but he ignored it and continued.
“Anyway, what I wanted to warn you about is this: why don’t I meet the Tower Master alone today?”
“What?”
“You know how quickly I get along with people, right? Who knows? Maybe I’ll become friendly with him and manage to get the Official Seal.”
Aster seemed confident.
If Cade really was refusing to stamp a perfectly legitimate Official Document just because the one delivering it was me, then maybe it would be better for Aster to go alone.
But…….
‘I don’t want to leave it to him. I’m the one who’s going to get that seal. One way or another.’
I spoke flatly, as if it were nothing.
“If your goal is promotion, let me be the one to get the seal. It’ll be better for you too, like I said.”
“Even if the Tower Master lets you go unharmed, how would he let you go when you barely visit the Magic Tower anyway?”
“You’re experiencing it yourself right now. How much work is there at the observatory……?”
I was in the middle of countering his absurd argument
when something made me jump to my feet before I even realized it.
A startled Aster sighed, his expression turning dejected.
“Vivian? Is it really something to get angry about, me visiting the Magic Tower?”
…….
I said nothing, just stared at the entrance.
Then, sensing that I was reacting to something, Aster fixed his gaze on the door as well.
The next instant, Simona burst through the door with a grin.
“An Attuner is needed, and look—there are two of you right here?”

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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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