The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 10

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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 10
Too late.

The moment she realized there was no escape, the sharp shards of glass raining down above her head came into crystalline focus—as if time itself had slowed to a crawl.

Or so it felt.

She stepped back instinctively from the center of the falling debris, but the shower of fragments was too wide, too relentless to evade entirely.
At best, she’d escape with only minor cuts; serious injury seemed inevitable.

“Ahhh!”

At the terrified screams of the worshippers, Cecilia’s hands flew to her head on pure instinct.

In that instant, white light erupted from her palms.

Crash!

The violent clang of glass shards striking the floor rang out mere inches from her.

But as seconds passed, no searing pain split her skull. No warm wetness trickled down.

‘Huh?’

She opened her eyes—which had been squeezed shut—and found the crowd standing rigid, transfixed.
Below her feet lay the glass shards in a perfect circle, now reduced to powder, to dust.

‘…Why is it the glass that’s pulverized, and not my skull?’

She lowered her hands sheepishly, and fragments scattered like rain from the backs of her hands.

Then, from within the frozen crowd, someone cried out.

“Miraculous! A true miracle! The Divine has shown mercy upon our Saint!”

That cry was a signal—a spark.

The worshippers who had witnessed the miracle clasped their hands in reverence, marveling at the Saint’s majesty.

“Such radiant, luminous Divine Power!”
“Truly, only the Saint could wield such a thing!”

…What?

Her racing heart now pounded for an entirely different reason.

‘That’s Divine Power?’

The Divine Power the Pope and the priests used—it healed people. But this…
Cecilia gazed down at her hands, still faintly luminous, with profound unease.

‘They said the foundation of Divine Power is Purifying Power. So this was… physical purification.’

The fact that her Divine Power took a different form, that her bare hands had become a weapon capable of grinding even solid glass to dust—that wasn’t truly the problem.
The real problem was…

‘So how do I turn this off?’

Please tell me she didn’t have to spend the rest of her life with glowing hands.

As her mind grew dizzy at the thought of a future spent with hands that glowed of their own accord, the Pope forgot all dignity and rushed toward her.
He was so startled that his face had gone as pale as the ceremonial robes he wore.

“Oh, blessed one. Are you unharmed? Is there any injury——”
“I’m fine——”

Before her reply could finish, the Pope seized her shoulders and poured his Divine Power into her. A vast, luminous aura far greater than what had emanated from her own hands enveloped her entire body.

It felt as though she were wrapped in warm bedding dried in the sun.

Cecilia, who had been savoring the tranquility for a moment, shook her head slightly.

“Your Holiness, I am unharmed. As you can see, I haven’t been injured at all.”

Even if there had been a scratch, the Divine Power he had just unleashed would have erased all trace of it.
Only after carefully examining her with his eyes did he finally withdraw his hands.

“……So it would seem. I’m truly relieved.”

The Pope exhaled a long breath of relief, his laugh hollow and weary.

“Still, to be safe, let us go to the Healing Room.”
“I really am perfectly well——”

Cecilia’s words trailed off, her assent far from wholehearted.

She truly had not been injured in the slightest, but more than that, she could not stop thinking of the one who had shouted to her just before the glass shards fell.

“You’re worrying me.”

The Pope gently drew her shoulder into his embrace.
Behind him, worshippers and priests continued to murmur restlessly. Further back, she could see knights from the noble houses rushing toward them, having noticed the accident.
Finding no way out, Cecilia reluctantly nodded.
“Then I’ll accept your kindness for a moment.”

As she turned to follow the Pope, in those brief seconds she scanned the crowd quickly.

But the man in the robes had vanished without a trace.

* * *
She was led, almost without resistance, to a small room furnished with a couple of simple cots, a raw wooden table, and a long sofa.

‘I thought there would be more patients, given it’s called a Healing Room……’

Noticing her unspoken question, the Pope explained that this was a space for nobles who came to the Temple seeking healing and blessings.

He prepared warm tea and refreshments, setting them down with his own hands before speaking.

“You must have been quite frightened?”

Frightened was hardly the word.

Glass shards raining down from a clear sky like a sudden bolt of lightning. They were called shards, but they were the size of an entire window pane.

In the moment, she had been too startled and confused to truly feel it, but her skull had nearly been split in two.

Instead of speaking the truth, Cecilia offered an awkward smile.

“I was startled, certainly, but I’m fine. There’s no injury to speak of.”

The Pope in front of her was worrying far too much, and more importantly, someone else who had entered the room with him had been shedding tears ever since.

“Sob—I, I thought the Saint had suffered a serious injury…!”

It was Sena, who had been at the Pope’s side from the very beginning. Which meant she had witnessed the accident unfold.

The accident that had happened before her eyes must have been quite shocking—the shy child who hadn’t dared approach before now sat pressed against her side, clumsily pouring Divine Power over her again and again.

All of it directly onto her head.

‘S-so bright!’
The light was so intense that her eyes didn’t just sting—tears began streaming down her face reflexively.
“Sena, I’m fine, so please stop now……”
“B-but that glass was so huge when it fell on you!”
“Sena? I wasn’t hurt, I’m telling you?”
“Sob—!”
“Please……stop!”

As her vision grew increasingly dazzled, she finally grabbed the child’s hand firmly. Instantly, the glow dimmed as if by magic.

‘That was close—I nearly went blind.’

“Look, do I seem injured anywhere?”
“But there are tears on your face……”
‘That’s your fault.’
While Cecilia swallowed the truth deliberately, Sena’s gaze flitted across her body here and there.
“……You seem to be all right.”
The child hung her damp eyes downcast, then squeezed back at the hand holding hers. With just that gesture, she seemed to recover her composure as if by magic.
It was when Cecilia, having barely preserved her eyesight, extended her free left hand to brush away the hair clinging to the child’s cheek.
Bang!
One commotion brings another, they say—the door opened without so much as a knock.
The figure who appeared was none other than her brother, Nox. He had clearly rushed over, breathing heavily as he came straight toward her.

“Cecilia, I heard your head split open!”

His large hands suddenly cupped both her cheeks. He must have been quite alarmed—his hands were terribly cold and damp.
‘So he does worry, after all, even if it’s just his sister.’

“My head didn’t crack open, so don’t worry……”
“Even if it’s a useless place to you, it would be a disaster if you lost it!”

Nox muttered seriously as he inspected her perfectly intact head thoroughly.
What did she even expect from this man?

A sudden urge to remove one of his useless parts surged up in her. Cecilia grabbed his wrist and pulled his hands away, then spoke gently.

‘Don’t worry.’

“Please just get out.”
“Cecilia, that sounded like your true feelings slipping out again.”

This time, of course, it was intentional.

But Nox didn’t flinch at the curse—instead, his eyes glimmered with ominous delight.

“You really said that to your big brother?”
“Yes.”

‘Wait—big brothers?’

By the time she grasped the subtle misunderstanding, she had already given her consent.

Nox turned around with a grin.

“Miguel. Cecilia says you should clear out too?”

Cecilia shifted her gaze to the knight behind him—the one lingering uncertainly at the threshold, whose shoulders suddenly tensed.

“……My apologies.”

‘What is wrong with him now?’

His silver hair hung so limply that anyone seeing him would have sworn he was the one who’d shattered the glass window.

Nox caught the flustered Cecilia’s eye and sighed heavily, as if he’d been waiting for this moment.

“Honestly, I bring him here barely having talked him down from blaming himself for failing to escort you properly, and now he’s getting tongue-lashed like this. If I’d known he’d be reprimanded so harshly, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
“What? No, that’s not—”
“Poor Miguel. With our merciless Saint’s words, I suppose he’d better leave posthaste.”

She snapped her mouth shut, too exasperated to speak. Part of her wanted nothing more than to plant a fist named mercy squarely on that insufferable mouth, but she had the Pope present—and Sena as well.

‘I can’t shatter the boy’s spirit.’

Cecilia barely swallowed the crude retort rising to her throat and called to the knight.
Of course, she pointedly ignored the tiresome Nox.

“Sir Miguel.”
“……Yes.”
“Unless you shattered the glass window yourself, I don’t believe you bear any responsibility for this incident. Please come closer.”

After all, his only duty was to escort her to meet the Pope. There was no reason for him to blame himself for failing to shield her from the accident.

Yet the hesitant knight only stepped forward when the Pope gave a subtle nod.

“Thank you for your forgiveness.”

Miguel bowed to her with formal courtesy, as if he’d received some tremendous grace.

‘There’s nothing to forgive in the first place…’

A beautiful man’s dejected expression was pleasant to see, but separately from that, her heart remained unsettled.

First the Pope, then Sena—now it was the Holy Knight’s turn to be pacified?
As she barely swallowed a weary sigh, the Pope, who had been benevolently observing their exchange, finally spoke.

“Sir Miguel. Have you tidied up the commotion outside?”
“Yes. I’ve sent all the worshippers away for now.”
“Well done.”
“And during the cleanup, I found something suspected to be the cause of the incident.”
“Is that so?”
The Pope asked with evident surprise.
“It is this.”
Miguel suddenly extended what he’d been holding in his grip.

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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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