On Official Duty with My Tower Master Ex-Boyfriend - Chapter 94

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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 94
I returned to the Magical Beast Survey Bureau, grabbed my bag, and climbed into the carriage at once.
The Second Palace where Cade was staying would be off-limits to visitors outside the Imperial Family and a few high-ranking officials in two hours’ time, so I had to hurry.
Between the engagement ceremony preparations, the sudden meal with the 2nd Princess and 3rd Princess, the exhaustion was considerable.
My eyes were tired even now, and I stroked Tris while rubbing the corners of them.
‘As if I didn’t have enough on my plate already—now I have to think about Dark Magic too.’
The place I’d been dispatched to was none other than Melgote, where the Magic Tower and the Grand Duke’s Residence stood, so I found myself being dragged around the office constantly, people eager to chat under the pretense of needing clarifications on my report.
But I couldn’t simply return to the residence with tiredness as an excuse—the engagement ceremony was in three days.
Before the ceremony began, there was something I absolutely needed to ask Cade.
‘Cade must have sent that signal because he has something important to tell me too.’
Absently, I tapped out the signal he’d sent me via that small sphere of light, mimicking it with my fingertips.
“Cade? What was glinting like that outside the window? What are you doing?”
“Hi, Vivian. Can I come up?”
“Come up quietly. But what was that glinting lamp just now?”
“A way to catch your attention at this late hour.”
“Really, you’re impossible!”
It was the ticklish signal Cade had used to summon me at an odd hour in the past.
Lost in the memory, I continued to tap out the signal unconsciously.
Thud!
Suddenly the carriage lurched violently, and I heard the horses whinny.
The carriage had come to a complete stop inside the Imperial Palace grounds—an extraordinarily rare occurrence.
‘What’s happening?’
Bewildered by the strangeness of it all, I reached for the curtain.
Or rather, I tried to.
Before my hand could even touch the curtain, the carriage door suddenly burst open, and an entirely unwelcome face appeared.
“Meeting again, Miss. The moon is quite bright tonight—care to admire it?”
“You…!”
I tried to back away in shock, but Choyun grabbed me with a rough hand and dragged me out of the carriage.
“Aaah!”
Thrown unceremoniously onto bare ground, I looked up at the empty sky and cried out in outrage.
“Bright moon, my foot…!”
Dark clouds hung so thick overhead that rain seemed imminent.
Growl!
Tris, claws slashing through the net Choyun had thrown at some point, bounded out of the carriage moments too late.
“Tris!”
The white beast positioned herself in front of me, her mane bristling with fury.
Choyun laughed mockingly and pulled something from his robes, hurling it down.
“That wretched Crimson Pouch!”
I couldn’t help but cry out upon seeing the pouch fall before Tris.
“Wretched is rather harsh language, don’t you think? My father made it with his own hands.”
“Then why do you throw it around everywhere!”
I snapped at him angrily, and Choyun shrugged before hurling a dagger at the pouch.
Splash!
Watching the pouch rupture with a sickening sound, I grew even more bewildered.
‘Your father made it himself, and you treat it like that?’
Spices with no particular scent poured from the torn pouch and dispersed into the air. At this, Choyun grinned wickedly.
A sense of foreboding washed over me as I reached for the dirt on the ground.
Tris, who had been guarding me, suddenly stiffened, then her tail drooped and she stumbled.
Whimper…?
“Tris? Wake up! Tris!”
I caught the magical beast as she collapsed before me and shook her desperately.
Tris was breathing, but lay limp and unable to move.
“No, this can’t be!”
I scooped Tris into my arms and tried to run, anywhere would do.
“Guards! There’s an intruder! An intruder in the Imperial Palace—ugh…!”
A dull blow to the back of my neck filled my vision with darkness.
***
At the same moment, the Second Palace.
Though not terribly late, the palace was remarkably quiet.
The guard stationed at the entrance let out a long, drawn-out yawn as boredom got the better of him. “Isn’t it a bit too quiet? It’s not even time for bed yet.”
His senior officer chuckled dismissively at the complaint.
“Naive, aren’t you? Your first time hosting a wizard?”
“Well, I suppose…”
“Wizards are as cunning as they come—they’ve probably cast Soundproofing Magic and are deep in conversation.”
The junior guard looked startled. “Pardon? But I heard the Second Palace blocks many types of magic?”
“Teleportation and offensive spells don’t work here, sure. But Soundproofing Magic gets through just fine. The guest might well be royalty, so we have to maintain some discretion.”
“Ah, I see your point.”
The junior guard scratched his head and glanced at the entrance of the palace.
The faint light that shone as if refusing entry hadn’t changed since the guest had gone inside.
‘Since palace gossip sells like hotcakes these days, the value’s dropped to nothing. And I was hoping to pick something up to sell.’ He clicked his tongue bitterly.
The ambitious plan of the junior guard, who’d been hoping to overhear something from the Tower Master worth passing on to an informant, came to nothing.
And sure enough, inside the palace an intense conversation was well underway.
“Are you out of your mind? Do you mean what you’re saying?”
Ben, Cade’s advisor, was shouting with a face flushed red and blue.
“I can accept that damnable bracelet, fine—you could destroy it any time. But what? The Red Oath? Is that even something you’d call a plan?”
“There’s no other way. They’re going to bind me with an Oath Curse at the engagement ceremony.”
“…!”
At Cade’s quiet words, Ben’s face went deathly pale.
“The Emperor permits this? Not even at the actual wedding ceremony, but at a mere engagement?”
“The 2nd Princess is anxious. The more anxious she gets, the more she’ll push to secure the Emperor’s approval.”
Cade gestured for Ben to sit, speaking matter-of-factly, but Ben couldn’t calm himself and paced the room.
The Red Oath was an offensive spell designed by the wizards of the Magic Tower after centuries of research.
It wasn’t yet perfectly refined, but the calculations behind the incantation suggested its destructive power was immense.
Though formally classified as offensive magic, every wizard involved in its development called it death magic.
It demanded the caster to burn away so much magical power that their own life force drained alongside the target’s.
Ben’s mouth went dry. Cade intended to kill the 2nd Princess on the day of the engagement ceremony.
“You know as well as I do that the Red Oath is incomplete. You don’t have to stake your own life just to kill her.”
“Breaking the Oath Curse means death either way.”
Ben felt his mind spin at the resolute answer.
Ever since the 2nd Princess had placed that shackle-like bracelet on the Tower Master, the Magic Tower had been shrouded in a heavy, oppressive atmosphere.
Though Cade didn’t show it, the other wizards had begun to sense that the Tower was in crisis.
He’d started methodically organizing his study and carefully reinforcing the Tower’s barriers and magic circles—as if he might leave at any moment.
Even Rana, the Magic Tower’s most vibrant presence, had grown withdrawn, dampening everyone else’s spirits as well.
Cade had left the Tower abruptly once before, but the circumstances were vastly different now. He was now, in every sense, the Tower Master who protected it.
When he first became Tower Master, the resistance from the other wizards had been fierce.
Serazade, the previous Tower Master, must have anticipated this, which was why he’d appointed Ben—someone well-liked among the wizards and with common ground with Cade—as his advisor.
Ben had immediately begun using formal speech and visibly supported Cade before the other wizards the moment the new Tower Master returned.
He never imagined his role as advisor would end with watching the Tower Master himself lay down his life.
Whether he understood Ben’s burning worry or not, Cade finally spoke.
“No matter how much I think about it, as long as Vivian is exposed, there’s no other way. The 2nd Princess is receiving help from a Black Mage, so ordinary magic won’t be enough to kill her.”
“That investigator—what exactly is she…!”
Ben’s voice rose before he sighed.
“Why don’t you just have the investigator kidnapped and hidden somewhere?”
“Vivian would never quietly stay hidden. The 2nd Princess would confess faster.”
Cade shrugged as he replied matter-of-factly.
Even if Vivian were to hide quietly, the 2nd Princess would inevitably find her in the end. There was no choice but to deal with her.
“Either way, now you know why I called you here.”
“I don’t like it.”
“If I die, the next Tower Master will be you.”
“I said I don’t like it. You’re a selfish bastard.”
“The evidence of the 2nd Princess’s secret is split between Vivian and me. When I die, it will automatically transfer to you.”
“…”
Finding his words falling on deaf ears, Ben, thoroughly angered, gave Cade a cold glare before turning to leave.
Left alone, Cade repeated the magic circle of the Red Oath over and over in his mind as he gazed out at the murky sky.
No moon was visible that night.

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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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