On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 77

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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 77
Until now, whenever mana was charged into the crystal, the 2nd Princess had shown strain, but she had never coughed blood before.
Emilyn, startled by the sight, shoved the dark wizard back and retreated.
“You bastard! How dare you treat Her Highness so—!”
“Now, now. Did I not make this clear? Artificial mana charging inevitably brings pain with each repetition. This is simply the consequence.”
The dark wizard stepped back without resistance, raising both hands to show his innocence, and chuckled softly.
“Emilyn. I’m fine.”
The 2nd Princess wiped away the black blood at her lips with a handkerchief, then gathered mana in the palm of her hand.
“The mana is flowing in. I can feel it.”
The mana didn’t feel as smooth as usual, but it seemed manageable as long as she avoided delicate spellwork.
Yet all of this was a risk she need never have taken—if not for the Tower Master.
The sense of defeat she had been suppressing erupted violently the moment she returned to her quarters.
The magical beasts and servants trembled in fear, while the mana bleeding out alongside her fury made the glass windows rattle uneasily.
‘What am I to do? I must do something before that reckless fool makes a rash move—!’
It was then that Choyun, the Eastern Continent mercenary she had sent to direct the attack on the Central Barrier, returned alone.
Choyun’s left arm was streaming blood—he had been wounded by the wizards.
The 2nd Princess, her mood already soured, craved good news. Anything that might grant her even a moment’s peace.
“Speak.”
“The Central Barrier has been corrected. The misaligned medium has returned to its proper place, and the barrier that had gone dark is now fully activated again.”
Yet Choyun delivered news far more shocking than what she had hoped to hear.
“What? That’s impossible. The medium’s owner is dead. Are you saying it was replaced?”
“You know well the sight of an Eastern Continent native. Nothing has changed. These eyes saw it clearly.”
Though not what she desired, the 2nd Princess found herself briefly freed from the helplessness that had bound her.
The news was too bewildering, too absurd to process.
“Are you saying the Tower Master used Necromancy?”
“What I saw was a living person. Someone Your Highness knows.”
Choyun withdrew a paper from his sleeve and presented it to the 2nd Princess.
It was an Appearance Record she had given him—a document describing the civil servant dispatched to Melgote to steal official documents.
“Vivian Solling? This one was merely a civil servant who wandered in and out of the Magic Tower.”
“Precisely so.”
“What in the name of—”
As the 2nd Princess furrowed her brow and pressed for more, an unexpected light kindled in her eyes.
“Ha! This insolent fool—!”
The civil servant who had roamed freely through the Magic Tower had seemed interesting enough, though she had dismissed it as mere whimsy on the Tower Master’s part.
But what if it wasn’t?
Now she was beginning to see how the pieces fit together.
Her anger-clouded mind cleared rapidly.
The thought that crisis could be turned to opportunity sent exhilaration coursing through her.
‘If the Tower Master holds my secret, then I need only seize the Tower Master’s heart.’
The 2nd Princess smiled with elegant grace and assigned Choyun handmaidens for his recovery.
“Choyun. I will provide you with quarters. Rest and recuperate for now. There is a task I have for you.”
Certainty that she would gain far more than she had lost amplified her exhilaration.
***
For days now, I was the only one fretting over whether the 2nd Princess would storm the Magic Tower with her forces.
Cade, by contrast, seemed to be waiting for it.
Whatever instructions he had given the wizards, the atmosphere of the Magic Tower had grown as sharp as it had been near the Central Barrier stones.
‘This is making me nervous. What if something catastrophic happens?’
Unlike other wizards, Cade seemed the type who would charge at the 2nd Princess without a plan if she showed up at the Tower.
‘Could the other wizards even stop him? Would they even try?’
Yet despite my worries, three days had now passed without any sign of movement from the 2nd Princess’s quarters.
When I asked Simona if she knew anything about what was happening there, she reported nothing noteworthy.
I hadn’t expected the 2nd Princess to do nothing, though I couldn’t predict her reaction either.
It only made me more anxious that there was nothing I could immediately do to expose the 2nd Princess’s secrets.
‘Enough time has passed for her to notice the Crystal Whale is gone from the storage. Does she think it escaped on its own, not that someone freed it?’
While I gnawed at my fingernails in this unwelcome lull, Rana knocked on my door.
“Inspector! You’ve received a letter!”
“Finally!”
I brightened for the first time in days and checked the sender immediately.
‘It’s from the Director!’
It was the reply I had been desperately awaiting.
“Thank you, Rana.”
I tore open the letter eagerly and read through it, then suddenly threw both arms up in the air and cried out.
“Yes!”
Four days ago, after boasting to Cade that I would demonstrate the importance of procedure, I had written out a lengthy letter to the Director and sent it by express mail.
‘If I’d known I’d be this anxious, I wouldn’t have spoken so confidently.’
The letter I sent reported discovery of a large whaling fleet of Crystal Whales and requested Emergency Authority, citing the severity of the poaching problem.
For a first-year civil servant, it was a rather audacious request.
Emergency Authority—provisional first-level review authority for urgent official documents.
This was the authority that would let me, while serving in Melgote, draft and submit official documents at my own discretion without having to ask the 2nd Princess or the Tower Master.
Of course, I could have proceeded without paperwork on my own initiative.
But that would risk disciplinary action ranging from an incident report to a salary cut, depending on the severity of the matter.
In this situation, however, I absolutely needed this Emergency Authority.
‘With this authority, I can create high-level official documents—the kind that would require the Tower Master’s Seal.’
This was the first step in my plan.
I opened the Magical Artifact that had been enclosed with the letter, my excitement mounting.
The artifact—resembling a hybrid of a Magic Scroll and a document envelope—had the ability to convert ordinary paper into official documents.
Only paper processed through this artifact could be recognized as a legitimate official document, making it an object no one else dared touch.
‘I’m sorry, Director.’
I still hadn’t told the Director that I could leave Melgote.
If new civil servant reinforcements could have been sent to Melgote, the Director would never have granted me Emergency Authority and this artifact.
I retrieved the premium-grade paper I’d asked Ben to prepare in advance and fed it into the artifact.
A white light flickered softly, and when I withdrew the paper, official document formatting had been clearly impressed upon it.
I carefully filled in the blanks and transcribed the content I had previously written in my notebook.
Only after checking multiple times for typos and accuracy did I write my name beside the first reviewer’s signature line.
‘Now it’s an official document that magic itself cannot alter.’
I never imagined my first official document would be used for this purpose.
Knowing I was crossing into something far larger than I’d anticipated, my heart began to race.
I clutched the official document carefully and rushed straight to the office.
***
“There. Affix your seal here.”
“…?”
Cade examined the document I had placed on his desk with suspicion.
「…requesting that the Magic Tower officially investigate and surveil the illegal poaching of Crystal Whales.」
Then, with a look of disbelief, he asked:
“…Vivian Solling forging official documents?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a proper official document, so stamp it.”
I didn’t hide my satisfaction and pointed to where he needed to place the seal, with a slight lift to my lips.
The Director is someone who responded with considerable anger to the Crystal Whale poaching problem I described in my letter.
As a former Crystal Whale investigator, he surely harbors affection for the creatures and cannot condone—or will not condone—any connection between illegal whaling operations and the 2nd Princess.
So the Director will approve this document and certainly forward it up the chain. And if handled correctly, it’s an opportunity for him to achieve something significant as head of the Magical Beast Ecological Investigation Bureau.
But the crucial part comes after that.
“If this document passes all the way to the Imperial Palace, then the Imperial Government isn’t aligned with the 2nd Princess. But if it’s rejected, well—that tells us something worth suspecting.”
Cade’s eyebrows rose slightly at my words.
“Is this what you meant by ‘procedure’?”
“Yes. This is what procedure is.”
Cade let out an appreciative whistle, then drew a golden seal from thin air.
It was a seal ornately carved with intricate magical circles.

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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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