On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 89

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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 89
Tris seemed so pleased with the jerky that he gave me an imploring look, as if asking me to do something about it.
The expression was so endearing I wanted to laugh, but the atmosphere didn’t allow for it.
“Tris helped me a lot even when I was in Melgote. Don’t mind that he’s Cade’s magical beast—please treat him kindly.”
“……Well, that’s true enough. What fault could such a small creature have?”
Yani didn’t seem to dislike Tris so much as she was reading my mood, for she placed the jerky in the beast’s mouth.
Tris’s tail wagged gently once more.
Yani watched the jerky disappear into the magical beast’s white snout with a soft sigh, then turned to me with the expression of someone with much to say.
“Young lady. Did that scoundrel Cade keep you in Melgote for very long?”
I shook my head at Yani’s words.
“It wasn’t like that—there were circumstances.”
I didn’t know about any of this……. I should have thrown myself down in front of the carriage and told you not to go to Melgote!”
At Tali’s dramatic outcry, Jack, who had been rubbing his forehead, suddenly opened his eyes wide as if he’d realized something.
“Then—then you mean to say you must prepare that odious man’s engagement ceremony?!”
“So that’s how things have turned out? This is absurd!”
Oliver, the coachman, bristled indignantly as well. Tali and Yani’s reactions were no different.
Knowing this would happen, I’d wanted to avoid the subject of Cade as much as possible.
“When ordered from above, you do it.”
I answered as nonchalantly as I could manage, but these were people who had known me a long time, and they seemed to see through to my discomfort easily enough.
That they fell silent and said no more was their way of respecting my choice—or what amounted to my lack of one.
I felt a corner of my anxious heart warming slightly in that quiet kindness.
***
The next day, a welcome visitor arrived at the office.
“Welcome, Simona.”
“What? No surprise at my sudden visit?”
My senior’s face fell in an instant, deflated by her failed attempt to startle me.
“You have connections with the 3rd Princess, so I predicted you’d come to the Imperial Capital before the engagement ceremony.”
“Ugh. No fun when you’re clever.”
I chuckled and led Simona to the break room.
“How is Melgote? And the Harbor?”
“After you left for the Imperial Capital, civil servants came to overhaul the Harbor, and it was finished quickly.”
“That’s good!”
“Don’t you want to know about the Observatory? How disappointing.”
“You and Yukel are at the Observatory—what would I worry about?”
At my answer, Simona narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down appraisingly.
“Hmm. Vivian Solling. You’ve got some skill. You deserve the connections that come with knowing Simona Hart.”
It was a cryptic remark, but knowing Simona’s nature, it was clearly high praise.
I confirmed we were alone in the break room and lowered my voice to ask.
“By the way, senior—how is the Magic Tower?”
“Don’t even mention it. The wizards at the Magic Tower are so busy that even when the Observatory requests personnel, it takes days for them to arrive.”
“Why are they so busy?”
“They’ve been clearing out all the Monster Caves that had been quiet for years. I saw them soaking wet in the cold seawater.”
The countless sea caves beneath the reefs were suspected to be the creatures’ habitats.
Everyone believed the monsters emerged from those caves.
Before I witnessed the sea turtle transform into a monster beast in the Grand Duke’s secret storage, I’d believed the same.
But even if monsters didn’t originate in the caves themselves, clearing them was dangerous work.
Some caves held monsters that could swarm the coast at any moment in large numbers.
Especially at high tide, some of the reefs become completely submerged underwater, so they have to go deep into the cold seawater itself.
‘I heard they deliberately avoid searching for Monster Caves during high tide……’
Suddenly, the words of the mercenary Choyun, who had shown up at the mansion uninvited, came to mind.
“You seem to have become quite close with the wizards lately. Do you know? The wizards are frequently assigned to dangerous territory these days. Difficult terrain where anything could happen to them.”
“…….”
“If you just return the object, the assignments would likely decrease. How about it?”
So that’s what he meant by difficult terrain assignments.
Choyun had spoken as though the wizards taking on dangerous tasks wasn’t the Magic Tower’s will.
Could the monsters in the caves be provoked, forcing the wizards to handle it, creating a catastrophic situation? Or else……
“Senior. Is the Magic Tower taking the initiative to clear the Monster Caves?”
“It’s the Grand Duke’s orders. The Grand Duke sent an official document to the Observatory. She said not to launch any ships until the Monster Caves are cleared—it’s too dangerous.”
“…….”
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about what my senior had said.
Cade wasn’t the type to meekly follow the Grand Duke’s commands, and the timing of this now seemed even more suspicious.
‘If the Grand Duke sent a mercenary all the way to Solling, she must have gone to the Magic Tower herself—so what’s going on?’
For Cade to treat it as if it never happened after getting engaged on such favorable terms to a princess was impossible.
I needed to know what he was thinking so I could avoid getting in his way, and the uncertainty was frustrating.
“Why are they poking around in the caves when the Magic Tower just finished monster subjugation not long ago?”
“The Tower Master’s engagement ceremony is coming up soon, so they probably want the monsters to stay quiet from now until after the wedding.”
Simona answered casually and then smiled with a meaningful edge.
“And I have shocking news for you.”
“When you say it like that, I get anxious.”
“You mean excited?”
Simona, shaping a flower beneath her face with both hands in a playful gesture, continued with an expectant expression.
“I came to the Imperial Capital in the Grand Duke’s carriage. Isn’t that amazing?”
“……With the Grand Duke herself?”
“What, you think I rode in the Grand Duke’s carriage alone? She promised to take me back to Melgote after the engagement ceremony ends.”
The knowing answer made my head spin.
The Grand Duke of Melgote is here in the Imperial Capital right now.
With her brother’s engagement ceremony coming up, I should have realized the Grand Duke would naturally come to the Imperial Capital.
‘What happens if I run into her inside the Imperial Palace? Can Tris block her magic too?’
She wouldn’t casually cast magic and attack at first meeting, but the Grand Duke was in a position where she could manufacture any excuse and use it as grounds to detain me.
As someone who sent a mercenary to my home to frighten me, she might be waiting to make her move.
‘I’m still alive partly because of Tris, but also because she hasn’t found out where the evidence of Black Magic is hidden.’
I had hidden the evidence of Black Magic where no one could find it.
Since even Cade didn’t know where it was, as long as it stayed hidden, they wouldn’t dare eliminate me outright.
Even as I tried to comfort myself this way, Simona smiled brightly and delivered another shock.
“And you know how the Grand Duke invited me to dinner with the 2nd Princess?”
“It seems you’ve become quite close.”
“Don’t be jealous. You’re coming too.”
“……What?”
I lifted my head, desperately hoping I had misheard.
My senior continued with a satisfied expression.
“You invited me to dinner with the Grand Duke when I was in Melgote. So this time, I’m inviting you. We should help each other out when we have such valuable connections.”
“Ah, no. I appreciate the offer, but the Grand Duke must be tired from the long carriage ride, so it would be better to keep the dinner party small.”
“No. The Grand Duke has already agreed.”
“Ah.”
“Then I’ll see you at the Rose Palace this evening!”
“Wait. Senior……!”
Before I could catch her, Simona pushed back from her seat and hurried out, saying she’d head to the Rose Palace.
My vision darkened as I grabbed my head.
‘Sit down in the same space as the Grand Duke and share a meal? How is that any different from walking straight into a Monster Cave?’
I stared at the empty seat where Simona had been, wondering if there was any way to escape.
But come to think of it—was Simona going to be alright?
Because I invited her to dinner at the Grand Duke’s estate, Simona now had a connection to Black Magic that she never should have made.
‘I can’t exactly tell the Grand Duke that she became a wizard through Black Magic.’
No matter how eager Simona was to grow close to people of power, she would recoil in horror at Black Magic.
It was too dangerous for Simona to grow closer to the Grand Duke without knowing anything.
‘I can’t let my senior go to that kind of gathering alone.’
As I racked my brain, I suddenly understood.

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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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