On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 3
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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 3
I snatched the official document and the bag away from him.
“I did come here to work, but I also have a mountain of questions for you.”
Lost in thought, he stared intently at me as if telling me to go ahead and speak.
“Where did you bring me?”
“My office.”
It was also surprising that this junkyard was an office.
“If this is your office… are you really the Tower Master? You didn’t just set up some random person to tease the civil servants from the Magic Tower, did you?”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“Since when were you a wizard?”
“From the very beginning.”
“That makes no sense. You were a library splitter.”
“I never was. I just pretended to be.”
I stared wide-eyed, doubting my ears. We met at the library and became lovers, so what was he talking about?
“We dated for two years and you hid your job? No, that’s not the end of it, is it? You lied about your name, too? Kei?”
“Let’s just say that was a nickname. It’s not much different from Cade. More importantly, answer me now.”
“…….”
“You really seemed to know nothing about me. You’re saying this is all a coincidence?”
Kei… no, Cade was distracted by something else even while I was huffing and questioning him. Or maybe he found my words insignificant and annoying.
“Do you think I’ll believe you’re a Crystal Whale Ecological Investigator? Out of all people, you, who used to detest the Crystal Whale?”
I didn’t know when he had taken it, but he held up my civil servant identification card.
I flinched at the clear four letters, ‘Crystal Whale’. The giant fin that used to approach by cutting through the rough waves flickered before my eyes.
When a person is born with mana, they are called a wizard, and when an animal is born with mana, they are called a magical beast.
Among them, the existence known to be the largest and most mysterious was the whale-type magical beast with crystals growing on its back, the Crystal Whale.
For me, it was an existence that I could not harbor any affection for… that kind of existence.
I shook my head to shake off the afterimage of the Crystal Whale and snatched the identification card from his hand.
“I still can’t believe it either, but isn’t making a living all like that?”
“Are you close to the imperial family?”
“……?”
What kind of question was this again? How could an imperial civil servant consider the imperial family as close?
“I haven’t been able to understand what you’ve been talking about for a while now.”
“Is there anyone in the Imperial Palace who would know what kind of relationship we had? I mean a decision-maker who would know I’m the Tower Master and give you money to send you here.”
“……Are you interrogating me right now?”
Muttering blankly in shock, I suddenly realized that Cade had been treating me with a high-handed attitude the entire time, and I felt a surge of anger.
Having been dumped unilaterally, I wasn’t foolish enough to expect him to ask how I had been doing.
I didn’t expect us to share a conversation while laughing harmoniously either.
But isn’t a reunion that pressures and corners a person like this too much?
“Nobody knows such a thing! Would I be crazy enough to go around telling people that my ex-boyfriend got tired of me and left?! I have pride too!”
“That’s…….”
“You seem to see me right now as some civil servant imposter or some clumsy person who came to gloss over work using past connections. I’m already a first-year civil servant, and just as you said, I came because I didn’t want to work with the Crystal Whale!”
As I shot back without rest, Cade’s momentum seemed to soften a bit. I didn’t know if he believed my words, though.
I walked over to the cluttered desk, smoothed out the crumpled official document nicely, and put it down with a thud.
“I can’t believe you’re the Tower Master either, but as long as I have the seal, it doesn’t matter. Hurry up and stamp the seal here.”
“Do you know how much of a piece of trash… how bad this official document you brought is?”
“Would I have come without knowing it’s a trashy official document? Just do it on the one page that is the least trashy.”
The contents that the Imperial Government demanded from the Magic Tower did look like trash even to me.
「To: The Tower Master
From: Imperial Fortress Administration Bureau
……
Subject: Agreement on Request for Cooperation for Imperial Palace Security
1. This official document was written to request the consent of the Magic Tower.
……
1) The Imperial Palace may appoint a wizard of the Magic Tower as an Imperial Knight.
2) The Magic Tower has an obligation to subjugate the sea monsters outside Melgote, and if a loss occurs to the Coast Guard due to failure to fulfill the obligation, it shall bear all responsibility for it.
……」
It was filled with contents that were entirely disadvantageous to the Magic Tower, but every time they refused to sign, the Imperial Government repeatedly sent another agreement added to it.
‘Honestly, even I wouldn’t be able to agree to these kinds of contents.’
However, among these official documents, there were some that were at least decent.
I just needed to get a seal on one of them.
‘Then I can transfer departments.’
It must be painful for Cade too, facing his broken-up ex-girlfriend at the Magic Tower, which was his workplace and home.
With an expressionless face, he stroked the back of his neck and read one key sentence of the official document I had spread out.
「The master of the Magic Tower cooperates with the Grand Duke of Melgote to maintain the public order of Melgote.」
“It’s reasonable, right? You just need to stamp the seal.”
“I can’t.”
At Cade’s firm answer, I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.
“You said you’re the Tower Master. It’s the land where the Magic Tower is located, so can’t you protect it a little?”
“That’s something we’re already doing even without lowering it down through an official document.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Everything.”
As if he had nothing more to say, Cade flipped the official document over and pushed it toward me.
“Every time you act like this, a new official document is added. That’s annoying for you too. Isn’t this level fine?”
“……Go back.”
I kept trying to persuade him to stamp the seal, and Cade would only shake his head.
If he hated this official document, he would obviously hate the other official documents even more. Because they contained contents that deserved it.
My hair wasn’t burning, but my inside was burning with frustration.
‘Could it be that it’s a fine official document, but he refused just because I’m the one who brought it? ……No way, right?’
We didn’t break up badly enough for him to act so pettily, did we? It was an excessive thought.
Just as I was about to try to persuade him once more while holding the official document.
Snap!
A stone flew into the office.
Surprised, I looked back at where the stone flew from and saw the window wide open.
I definitely heard the sound of something breaking.
In that moment of wonder, magic circles woven like lace briefly appeared outside the window and then vanished from sight.
Without missing it, I caught a glimpse of a crack in a corner as if the glass window had broken.
With an anxious mind, I took a step closer to Cade.
“Cade? Is that perhaps……”
“The barrier isn’t intact right now, so strange things come in occasionally.”
“Didn’t someone throw it in rather than it coming in?”
“As you know, the Magic Tower has a lot of enemies.”
Watching him walk toward the window, I flinched and grabbed him.
“Something is approaching. You said the barrier isn’t intact. It might be dangerous if you go close to the window.”
“……?”
He looked at me with a doubtful expression, but eventually stood close to the window.
“Cade! I’m serious!”
“When have I ever not believed your words?”
“Then why……”
Before the question could even end, it turned pitch black outside the window.
They were bat-type magical beasts with sharp horns and long tails.
Thud! Thud!
Screeech!
The sound of fluttering wings and high-frequency noise echoed gloomily.
Even though they were blocked by the barrier and couldn’t enter, they slammed their entire bodies against the open window.
“……!”
Anger.
Longing.
Attachment.
Fear.
The emotions of the magical beasts pierced like arrows, making heat rise to my head and my heart beat fast.
Holding my chest to regain my composure, I took a deep breath.
It wasn’t a serious situation. It just came across heavily because I had been letting my guard down too much; I had already done this job for a year.
‘There must be a reason why the magical beasts are angry. What is it for?’
While I was examining the state of the magical beasts and the inside of the office, Cade suddenly tried to wave his hand toward the magical beasts.
A light similar to when he dropped a fireball over my head floated near his hand.
“W-What are you doing, wait a minute!”
I hastily pushed Cade away and blocked the front of the window.
He stared blankly while keeping his hand raised as if he could launch a magic attack at any moment.
“You couldn’t even move because you were scared.”
“It’s not that I’m scared.”
“What do you mean after trembling like that?”
Rather than a detailed explanation, I chose to point at the stone that had fallen on the floor.
“I think what’s smeared on that stone is the blood of a magical beast. A cub’s blood. They think that stone is the cub of the pack.”
Cade seemed to listen to my words silently, then caused a flame to rise in his palm.
“Cade!”
“Nothing will change just because of that.”
“There’s no need to kill them.”
“Who knows what the excited magical beasts will do and where.”
Reflecting the flames, his eyes burned dangerously.
Just what on earth made you turn out like that?
An eye-light and atmosphere I had never seen before pierced a corner of my heart coldly. It was the magical beasts he was trying to attack, but it felt exactly as if I was the one being hunted.
For the first time, I felt a chill from him, and I swallowed hard.
Then, Cade frowned and withdrew the flames.
“If you don’t want to see an ugly sight, you should leave now.”
Suppressing my desire to avoid his eyes, I opened my mouth.
“There won’t be any ugly sight. Because I’m going to make it that way.”
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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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