On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 66

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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 66
“……Vivian? How did you—ah, Tris.”
Cade waved his hand, and the barrier dissolved.
“I didn’t realize you’d gotten in because of this.”
My hypothesis that Teleportation couldn’t be used inside the Mirror Library held true—he hadn’t fled.
But that wasn’t the problem right now.
“What are those books? What are you doing here?”
I stepped forward to demand an explanation about the suspicious tomes, then froze in shock.
“Black Magic Texts? All of them?”
Not just the books scattered at his feet, but the entire shelf and the volume in his hands.
Cade was surrounded by Black Magic Texts.
Only then did I understand the queasy feeling I’d had since arriving.
I gasped and covered my mouth.
“Don’t tell me you’re a Black Magic Practitioner?”
Under imperial law, merely attempting Black Magic was punishable by death.
Naturally, Black Magic Texts were classified as Forbidden Books. Even the Tower Master would face serious consequences if found buried in such contraband.
“A practitioner?”
Cade redrew the barrier etched with Magic Circles around the shelf, then muttered through gritted teeth.
“If you searched the world for the person who hates Black Magic most, you’d find me.”
The look on his face suggested something far deeper than mere study—it was genuine fury.
“Then what is all this? You look like you’re begging to be reported. Could you even defend yourself if I turned you in?”
He simply sealed his lips, offering no real answer.
I couldn’t just walk away from such a sight.
“Cade. Before I report this, stop evading and answer me honestly.”
He seemed to recognize the sincerity in my warning.
Cade exhaled, brushed back his hair, and replied with visible reluctance.
“……I’m only trying to find a way to track the traces of Black Magic users.”
“What? What do you mean? Black Magic users have already been gone from this world for—”
“Vivian. Leave now. Tris will take you.”
He cut off my words and gestured to Tris.
Tris swelled its massive body and lowered itself, presenting its back to me.
As I stood gaping, unsure whether to rage or protest, Cade lifted me without permission and set me on Tris’s back.
“Cade!”
“Like you said, I’m broken. I have no confidence in persuading or making you understand.”
It sounded like an excuse for every day he’d turned away and fled from me.
His resigned words made my chest tighten as I asked.
“……Is that all?”
“…….”
It seemed that was all.
I stared at him numbly, then reminded him of why I’d come in the first place.
“Prepare the documents I requested quickly—through Ben or Rana. You can even have Tris deliver them.”
“Is there anything else you want?”
“……The Wizards at the Magic Tower have some strange misunderstandings about you. Either clear them up or stay inconspicuous enough that nothing looks suspicious.”
Cade listened silently, then suddenly rushed me toward the exit.
“Don’t stay here long. It’s not good for you. Tris. Now.”
[Squeeee…….]
Tris obeyed its master’s command and bolted swiftly from the Black Magic section.
“Wait, please—!”
I wanted to stop them, but there was nothing I could do from atop someone else’s Familiar, racing toward the exit of the Mirror Library.
‘……So that’s it. Just ‘go.”
As if he wouldn’t even beg me to forget what I’d seen—wasn’t that the situation I faced?
Whatever I did seemed not to matter to him at all. I didn’t even feel as though I’d discovered his weakness.
‘He really doesn’t care. Whether I accuse him of being a Black Magic Practitioner or not.’
I sat numbly on the Magical Beast’s back and buried my face in its soft fur.
***
The next day, I sat with my chin in my palm, releasing nothing but heavy sighs.
‘Should I report him?’
The thought would come, only to fade when I recalled Cade surrounded by those Black Magic Texts.
It hadn’t seemed like pretense—he truly despised Black Magic.
That only deepened my confusion, and his anger made no sense to me.
‘Black Magic has been gone for so long.’
Recalling when I’d tamed my Familiar, he’d seemed afraid of having even accidentally touched Black Magic.
‘Could he have sensed something suspicious?’
Since I’d never experienced Black Magic myself, I couldn’t know what it felt like.
From books alone, I only knew it vaguely as something unpleasant and horrifying.
‘That can’t be it, right? Black Magic, of all things…….’
Even as I told myself it made no sense, the sincerity in his eyes and expression left me confused.
Then a letter arrived.
The letter from Simona was an invitation to tea with the Grand Duke of Melgote, and she asked if I’d like to go together.
Since I’d accompanied her to a meal at the Grand Duke’s Mansion before, it seemed she now wanted to bring me along as her companion again.
‘The atmosphere felt oddly uncomfortable, different from what I’d heard…….’
The Grand Duke’s aura had been unsettling, but perhaps that was simply because she’d only recently crushed those Monster Beasts.
Since I’d found life at the Magic Tower increasingly inconvenient lately, I decided to accept Simona’s invitation.
The moment I stepped into the Grand Duke’s Mansion, nausea rose in my throat.
‘This can’t be right. It’s worse than before. This doesn’t feel like the Beasts at all.’
I tried to appear calm, but couldn’t suppress the churning in my stomach and pressed a handkerchief to my mouth.
Even breathing the air inside the mansion felt repugnant.
‘Am I the only one sensing this? Why is this happening?’
Simona, walking casually through the mansion, only belatedly noticed my condition.
“Vivian? Are you unwell?”
The maid guiding us to the Reception Room also stopped and turned back with concern.
I waved a hand dismissively.
“Oh, I’ve had a cough since earlier. I suppose I haven’t adjusted to Melgote’s climate yet.”
It would be difficult to leave alone after accepting an invitation from the Imperial Family.
I followed the two of them toward the Reception Room, observing the birdcages scattered throughout the corridor.
Inside each cage, small winged Magical Beasts huddled together, dozing.
While some people did keep rare Magical Beasts as ornaments, I’d never seen so many housed in a single mansion before.
Simona seemed charmed by this and chatted amiably with the maid.
“The Grand Duke must be very fond of Magical Beasts. I noticed it before, but there are quite a lot here.”
“The Grand Duke has long taken in Magical Beasts that have lost their way and cares for them with great devotion.”
“How wonderful. She truly is as compassionate and admirable as they say. It must be such an honor to serve her.”
“We are grateful for your kind words.”
The maid smiled warmly and bowed her head.
But “cares for them with great devotion” sounded wrong.
‘……Then why are the Beasts in this state?’
I glanced down at the carpet-covered floor.
The Magical Beasts’ unnatural emotions roiled beneath my feet.
Something was definitely happening in the mansion’s basement.
The distress signals of their anguish kept clawing at my ankles, impossible to ignore.
I pressed the handkerchief to my mouth and coughed artificially.
“I’m terribly sorry, but I think I should visit the Powder Room first. Please go ahead, senior. I’ll catch up to the Reception Room shortly.”
“Vivian, you……. You came all this way despite feeling ill because I asked you to?”
Simona’s response—apologetic yet touched—made me feel a pang of guilt.
‘I’ll send her a gift when I’m back in the Imperial Capital.’
I followed the maid’s directions, turned a corner twice, and headed for the Powder Room.
I deliberately spoke to a passing maid, greeted her, and entered the Powder Room with obvious purpose.
After waiting a few minutes, I slipped back out when the corridor was empty and moved quietly.
‘There must be a way down to the basement.’
On my first visit to the Grand Duke’s Mansion, the Magical Beasts’ emotions had felt precarious, like standing on thin ice—isolated and fragile.
Sharp with fear and terror.
But today felt different.
The emotions I sensed were drained and languid, but that couldn’t be called a comfortable state.
Because beneath that stupor lay an undeniable undertone of dread.
It was a strange and yet familiar feeling all at once.
I knew exactly when Magical Beasts emitted emotions like this.

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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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