On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 63

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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 63
“You emptied the Magic Tower?”
“Yes.”
……
……
After an awkward silence, I turned to leave without protest.
Part of me wanted to press him on whether he was really absent from his office, but I found the prospect of facing him as uncomfortable as he seemed to find facing me.
Since it involved Magical Beasts, I wanted to resolve things quickly, but relocating a settlement wouldn’t be finished in a day or two, so I decided to return tomorrow.
‘So he’s too embarrassed to face me after spouting nonsense and running off like that.’
It seemed better to give Cade a day to collect himself if we were to handle official business efficiently between us.
It beat having him fussing over me constantly, doing favors I didn’t ask for.
But the next day.
“The Tower Master is far too busy.”
And the day after that.
“The Tower Master isn’t here.”
I could only meet with Ben, shaking his head apologetically each time.
He’d looked unwell when we left the forest, so I’d wondered if something was wrong with him. But after days of the same excuse, I finally understood what was happening.
‘Is this bastard avoiding me?’
The absurdity of it made me laugh despite myself.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t keep doing this.”
I pushed past Ben, who was blocking the way, and yanked open the office door.
“Wait, please! Investigator!”
“Tower Master! About that coniferous forest from before—”
I was about to demand we go to the forest immediately, but the office held only Tris, bouncing around excitedly.
Papers fluttered down as if someone had abandoned their work and vanished—and Tris was snatching at them mid-air.
When my eyes turned to Ben, he cleared his throat awkwardly and gathered the scattered documents back onto the desk.
“Ahem. The Tower Master has been quite busy these days.”
“I have work too!”
Screech!
Without thinking, I bristled—then flinched at Tris’s startled reaction and sighed.
What good would raising my voice do when Cade wasn’t even here?
‘I don’t need to work with the Tower Master specifically. I should be able to enter the Magic Tower’s coniferous forest with just the Assistant’s permission.’
I swallowed my irritation and asked Ben.
“I have something I need to do. Would it be all right if I visited the Magic Tower’s coniferous forest?”
“What? How were you planning to get there?”
“I’d take a carriage to the entrance, then walk from there. To get out of the forest before dark, I need to leave right now.”
“You’re going to walk? Is it really necessary to go?”
His surprised reaction made me suspicious. I narrowed my eyes.
“Did the Tower Master tell you not to help me?”
“Of course not! It’s just that walking in there will be difficult. There’s no real path to speak of.”
Now that he mentioned it, Cade had said the same thing that day—that the forest had no path.
“What if I borrowed Tris for the journey? I assume I’d need the Tower Master’s permission for that?”
“That’s not something I can approve on my own…….”
I checked the time, then held out my hand to Ben after a moment’s consideration.
“Then would you, as the Assistant, help me in place of the busy Tower Master?”
***
Ben, who had taken my hand almost reluctantly, turned out to be surprisingly cooperative.
“Fortunately, the Magical Beasts don’t seem to have settled in completely.”
Finding the rodent-type Magical Beasts that were burrowing beneath tree stumps to build their homes was quick work.
They’d almost stripped the roots bare or exposed them so seedlings couldn’t sprout.
Ben watched in silence as I called all the Magical Beasts up from the ground, then asked.
“Should we relocate these Magical Beasts to their original habitat?”
“Even if we use Magic to move them, they’ll come right back here. They’ve eaten plenty of nuts in this spot, so they’ll think it’s fertile ground.”
“Then what do we do?”
“This way.”
I called over some carnivorous Magical Beasts moving through the area and guided them to pass through here, continuing on their original path.
Compared to the simultaneous Empathy I’d shared with the Magical Beasts working on the Harbor reconstruction, this was child’s play.
As expected, the rodent-type Magical Beasts caught the scent of the sharp-toothed creatures and bolted from the forest in panic.
They would now believe this forest was unsafe and wouldn’t set foot here again for some time.
‘Though if they want to settle here again later, I won’t be able to interfere then.’
Watching the tiny Magical Beasts fade into the distance like specks, my anger flared up again.
‘How simple was that……!’
It was infuriating that I’d only just solved a problem that could have been resolved ages ago.
And especially because that ‘someone’ was the one who’d asked for my help in the first place.
“Is there anything else that needs doing?”
“Just cover up the roots the small ones dug out and we can head back.”
As I spoke, Ben—who’d been pushing the disturbed soil back toward the roots—carefully opened his mouth.
“Um, Investigator. Would it be terribly rude if I asked you something?”
“Go ahead. Though if it’s truly overstepping, I might not answer.”
“Did you already know the Tower Master?”
“……Why are you asking that?”
The unexpected question made me glance around nervously. It was a question I didn’t want anyone else hearing.
“It’s just that I’ve never seen the Tower Master avoid anyone like this before.”
“So you’re admitting he’s avoiding me?”
Haha……
This was my first time seeing Cade do something like this too.
What happened that day didn’t seem like the sort of thing worth avoiding me so obviously over.
“The Tower Master and I have no relationship beyond professional matters. It seems he finds me lacking in ability for the tasks he’s assigned me.”
“That’s strange to hear. You two seemed to be getting along.”
“Not at all.”
“Ah, yes…….”
Ben scratched his head as he continued muttering softly.
“I was wondering if, since you’re someone he met outside the Magic Tower, you might know what he was doing outside all these years.”
“Is what he did outside the tower that important?”
“Quite a bit, actually. Before becoming just another wizard here, he left the tower empty for a little over two years.”
“I already know that.”
“Whatever happened during that time, he came back capable of acting as a person in a way he wasn’t before.”
The phrase “acting as a person” made me tilt my head unconsciously.
Wasn’t that saying he wasn’t capable of it before?
“What was he like before?”
“There was no wizard quite like him. And I mean that in the worst way possible. Even on a human level…….”
“Was he cruel?”
Ben shook his head and spoke as if recalling something unpleasant.
“Cruel is the wrong word. It was more like—something was broken in him. He didn’t get along with the other wizards.”
Broken……
“Are you in your right mind? You’ve always been like this. You don’t make sense and you’re strange! Something’s clearly broken about you!”
The memory of those words I’d spoken to Cade not long after we met came back to me.
When I first met him, he’d been quite awkward at human interaction.
He didn’t seem to want to be among people.
As we spent that uncomfortable time getting to know each other, he became not just adept at dealing with me, but smooth—even shameless about it.
Though he remained wary of others, with me he’d become a relaxed, brazenly confident lover.
Thinking about it, the change had been remarkably fast.
But the cause of him “acting as a person” was clear, wasn’t it? I didn’t understand why Ben was even questioning it.
“His fiancée must have shaped him into a real person.”
“Well, that’s our assumption too, but all we know for certain is that he had a fiancée. There are aspects of the timeline that concern us.”
“I don’t know the details, but it seems he left the tower to be near his fiancée.”
I noticed my tone becoming curt, and Ben cleared his throat awkwardly, as if he’d realized it.
“Ahem. Well. I’ve certainly said too much to you. So you two first met here at the tower, then?”
“……Yes.”
It pained my conscience to lie to Ben, who’d been helpful to me in various ways at the tower, but I had no choice.
Separate from our agreement to keep Cade’s and my relationship secret, I wanted to deny—more than ever—that I was connected to him by any bond whatsoever.
The matter of the forest was settled that way.
Even among the cool breeze and the fresh forest scent, I realized something new: I could still feel bitter.

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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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