On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 84

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 84
The day Vivian Solling left Melgote.
Cade watched through the office window as she climbed into the carriage.
He’d expected her to slip away quietly without a word, but he hadn’t anticipated her fleeing so early in the morning.
‘She could have worn something more comfortable.’
He pressed his forehead against the cold glass and let out a soft laugh.
Despite how exhausting the long journey must be, she’d stubbornly dressed in her uniform before boarding—so very Vivian.
The road stretched beneath a dull, murky sky that felt desolate.
Though Melgote rarely saw bright sunlight, he hoped the Melgote she remembered would be warmer, more radiant than this.
During her stay, the Magic Tower had been more unsettled and yet more intimate than ever before.
Much had happened, but he was genuinely glad—grateful, even—to have found his way back to her, however briefly.
Still watching the carriage recede, Cade opened the window and snapped his fingers.
‘It feels wrong to let her go without a proper farewell.’
A Magic Circle gleamed white near his hand before vanishing, and soft flower petals began pouring down from the sky.
Riding the wind, they swirled and drifted, settling around the carriage as if on cue.
It was the same sight he’d once shown her while hiding the fact that it was Magic.
Just as he’d expected, the carriage’s small window opened a moment later, and Vivian’s face peeked out.
Cade covered his mouth with his hand and stifled a quiet laugh.
Though she was too far away to see clearly now, he could vividly imagine her expression and eyes as she marveled at the cascade of petals.
‘Take care of yourself, Vivian.’
Once Vivian reached the Imperial Capital, he would begin the real pressure on the Grand Duke of Melgote.
He couldn’t fathom why his heart felt this light before such an important task.
Cade drew the curtains and stepped away from the window, moving to stand before the mirror.
A man who’d treated her terribly stared back at him.
Saying goodbye to her had been something he had no right to do.
Perhaps even his initial approach—hiding his terrible past and his identity as a Wizard—was something he should never have done.
He knew he’d made her confused while she stayed in the Magic Tower.
He’d meant to distance her coldly, to drive her away from Melgote, but whenever he was near her, those resolves would melt away like snow.
One moment telling her to leave the Magic Tower immediately, the next insisting she stay, then claiming he had no intention of ever seeing her again…….
He traced the back of her hand with his fingertips—the spot where he’d pressed his lips—and felt the familiar warmth still lingering there.
It was he who’d pushed Vivian away and left her side.
But if this matter ends well. If he can completely rid himself of the Grand Duke of Melgote in any form.
‘Then I could return to Vivian’s side, couldn’t I?’
The image of himself standing naturally beside her.
Just the thought made his chest ache.
When he recalled himself with Vivian, he’d always felt like a true human being.
Not a sacrifice for the Black Mages or a peripheral figure drifting through the Magic Tower, but a person standing rooted on this continent.
Vivian had always made him feel that way.
Leaving her was akin to tearing out his own heart and walking away.
And if he could only return to her side, he was determined to transform himself from someone who’d lived without any semblance of a plan.
‘Whatever kind of relationship I have with Vivian will come after I finish this properly.’
Cade immediately assembled Ben and carefully selected Wizards he could fully trust to form the Crystal Whale Acquisition Investigation Team.
With the Tower Master finally preoccupied by something worth his attention, the circumstances of the other Wizards naturally improved.
Still, an odd atmosphere hung among them.
“Why does the Tower Master have the Investigator’s ring?”
“If he brought the Investigator through the Central Barrier, then the Tower Master must have known the ring’s owner wasn’t his fiancée.”
“They seemed to have just met. Or was that not the case?”
Ever since witnessing Vivian adjusting the mechanism of the Central Barrier, they’d only heard Ben warn them not to gossip, leaving them unable to piece together the full story.
The Wizards had pressed Ben for an explanation, but Ben himself had heard nothing from Cade.
He could only speculate based on Cade’s behavior toward Vivian over time.
‘She said they were nothing to each other.’
Ben glanced at Cade, who was absorbed in his paperwork, and swallowed a sigh.
There was a part of him that wanted to press Cade and get a straight answer.
But Cade was throwing himself into work that would elevate the Magic Tower’s status—something he hadn’t done in a very long time—and Ben didn’t want to break his concentration.
In the end, Ben could only shake his head at the expectant, bright-eyed Wizards and signal them to be quiet.
Though the Wizards were disappointed, their silence allowed Cade to stay at his desk, exactly as Ben wanted.
As the Tower Master sat at his desk doing work befitting his station, his mind suddenly turned to the former Tower Master, Serazade.
At the fingertips of former Tower Master Serazade’s corpse, there had been a very faint, tiny stain.
It should have disappeared earlier, hidden from everyone’s notice, yet like a Dying Message, Serazade had clung to that trace with all his remaining strength even in death.
The dark smudge that only Cade had sensed vanished quickly as if nothing had happened, but he recognized it for what it was: Traces of Black Magic.
Serazade had been struck down by someone’s Black Magic.
Cade was certain of it. Serazade was not the sort of person who would succumb to ordinary Magic.
But if word spread that Traces of Black Magic had been found on the corpse, Serazade would immediately be branded as a remnant Black Mage faction.
The Imperial Government would never miss an opportunity to tarnish the Magic Tower’s authority.
Not knowing what battle Serazade had fought alone, Cade had never intended to return to the Magic Tower.
Without Serazade’s obituary and his Will, he would never have come back at all.
‘……And then I wouldn’t have had to part with Vivian.’
The bloodline of the Guyana Imperial Family carried weak Magic.
The Imperial Family member with the strongest Mana was granted the title of Grand Duke of Melgote, but even their power was too feeble to ever become a Wizard of the Magic Tower.
So it made sense they had high expectations for the 2nd Princess, who suddenly manifested powerful Mana.
Even setting aside political reasons, it would have been difficult to send someone with such potential to be a foreign prince’s wife.
The 2nd Princess herself wanted to become Tower Master. But perhaps her ambition exceeded what was wise.
‘According to Ben, she came and went from the Magic Tower constantly, begging to be named the next Tower Master.’
Her demands had bordered on blackmail, and she’d gone so far as to bribe elder Wizards of Serazade’s caliber, he’d heard.
Yet despite all that, Serazade had named Cade as his successor in his Will.
‘I still don’t know why he gave me this position.’
The moment the 2nd Princess learned who the next Tower Master was, she’d launched an investigation into his background and eventually discovered that he’d left the Magic Tower to settle down with a lover.
This was during the period when the Wizards guarding Serazade’s Will were being systematically murdered.
Before her discovery could spread, Cade had created a fake fiancée and been forced to abandon Vivian.
The memory made his insides twist and his teeth grind.
‘Vivian…….’
The former Tower Master was a man burdened with too much to protect.
In a contest of pure magical skill, he would have been undefeated against anyone.
But now that Serazade was gone, Cade had decided to become selfish—to protect only Vivian. The Magic Tower and the Imperial Government held no more interest for him.
‘Would she be disappointed if she knew I was like this? If I’d turned my back on the Magic Tower then, I wouldn’t have had to abandon her. Then I wouldn’t have had to hurt her.’
She wouldn’t have had to receive a farewell notice, or discover his corpse, or bear the shock and betrayal of learning she’d been his substitute.
Every time he closed his eyes, Vivian’s wounded expression burned so vividly into his chest that he branded it deeper still.
“…….”
He felt far more worthless than he’d ever steeled himself to be.
‘So please, Vivian. Be confused until we meet again. Don’t forget me cleanly.’
Muttering a promise to himself that this time he’d truly stay by her side and give his absolute best, he flipped through the papers.
In that instant, sensing something, Cade’s hand froze.
“……We have a visitor.”
At the same moment, Ben, who’d been organizing documents beside him, vanished via Teleportation and reappeared.
Having checked the lobby in an instant, he spoke with a grave expression.
“The 2nd Princess has arrived.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————