The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 21

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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 21
“The truth is, I wanted to commemorate coming to the Festival together.”
“Ah, I see…….”
It was not fear at discovering that peculiar robe, following the sweat-soaked handkerchief, but rather tears that blurred her vision.
If she’d known she could be this happy simply by attending a Festival, she should have come out ages ago.
‘So he didn’t even have anyone to enjoy the Festival with.’
Perhaps in the Capital, he’d been shunned because of wicked rumors.
With a face like that, people would flock to him like moths to flame, regardless of whether he was a Tower Master or anything else.
It was definitely that robe causing the problem.
“That won’t do!”
“Pardon? Did I, did I perhaps displease you after all? Was it revolting? Did you want to, to kill me?”
“No? That’s not it at all……!”
Cecilia, watching him with concern, made her decision right then.
She would buy him a proper keepsake.
Even if not the white flower she’d planned, a keepsake could still earn his favor.
“Forget that trash—I’ll buy you something worth actually commemorating!”
“This is more than enough for me…….”
Cecilia cleanly ignored his barely audible protest.
As she swept her gaze along the row of makeshift stalls, she spotted a vendor’s stand glittering with goods not far ahead.
Drawing closer, she saw it was a shop selling handcrafted items set with gemstones.
“Welcome! You two must be lovers?”
The merchant greeted them warmly, making a fortunate assumption.
‘I should buy from here.’
It absolutely was not because she was pleased with the woman’s misunderstanding.
Since Cecilia neither denied nor confirmed, the merchant seemed to have decided they were indeed lovers.
She began rattling off items she’d recommend to couples.
“If you don’t have anything particular in mind, this brooch would be perfect! These are gems made by splitting a single raw stone, so if lovers wear them together, you’ll stay side by side until your hair turns white!”
The merchant held out a bird-shaped brooch, with a gem set in the bird’s eye—though it bore obvious signs of crude workmanship.
“If this doesn’t suit you, there are rings here, and bracelets too!”
The merchant quickly introduced other wares at his lukewarm response, but they were all counterfeits hardly deserving the name of gemstone.
‘If they’d at least used low-quality genuine gems, I might have considered it.’
Everything she’d been wearing was so expensive that giving him something like this felt entirely wrong.
Besides, the prices were inflated.
‘This place won’t do.’
Though the merchant kept sweet-talking her—offering discounts, saying how well-matched they looked together, how solid the young man appeared—Cecilia pressed on with determination.
She’d wavered slightly at the compliment that they were well-matched, it was true…….
‘Still, this is the first gift I’m giving to Lien—I should choose something better.’
With firm resolve, Cecilia turned her attention toward the stall across from them.
The merchant’s primary customers were children; they gathered around her waist, nestled close together.
A warm-faced merchant pulled a soft puppy doll from a shelf and handed it to a child.
“Here you are! Be kind to your new feathered friend.”
“Thank you so much!”
The children each clutched their little figurines close and walked away with delighted expressions.
‘A doll.’
It ranked among the worst gift options, certainly, but what appealed to her was that its cumbersome nature would mean whoever received it would frequently recall the giver.
Cecilia confidently stepped before the merchant after the children and quickly scanned the wares.
“I’ll take that one.”
What captured her heart was a large black rabbit doll sitting in the far corner of the stall.
Its eyes were purple, which reminded her of someone, and she loved it at once.
“You mean this black doll?”
“Yes, that rabbit doll.”
“Well, it is a doll that hasn’t been selling, I’m afraid……but to be honest, it’s not a color children usually prefer. Wouldn’t one of these be better for a gift?”
The merchant, apparently one with a conscience, recommended the white puppy dolls displayed in the center.
They looked soft and fluffy, as pleasant to touch as Charles was.
But Cecilia shook her head firmly.
“It’s fine. I’m giving it to someone, not children.”
“……Pardon?”
The merchant’s gaze fixed on the burly man beside her at a glance.
The merchant looked back and forth between the rabbit doll and Lien several times, then hesitantly handed the doll to him.
“Be, be kind to your new feathered friend…….”
“……Yes.”
When a voice lower than an ordinary man’s returned, the merchant convulsed in shock.
Whether or not she knew she’d just delivered an enormous shock and terror to someone, Cecilia gazed contentedly at Lien, who clutched the enormous doll to his chest.
A beautiful man and a doll—it was a sight beyond her expectations.
Of course, that was merely her personal impression.
With a large man in a pitch-black robe holding the doll, people’s gazes kept flickering toward them.
‘Was it too selfish a gift?’
Lien hadn’t spoken a single word since receiving it.
It had been a gift for him—she should have at least asked his opinion.
Cecilia, briefly reproaching herself, drew close to him.
She was about to comfort him by offering to buy him a different souvenir right then and there.
But the moment she glimpsed his face hidden beneath the robe, Cecilia sealed her lips shut.
Long eyelashes fluttered gently, and fine lines had etched themselves across his smooth, porcelain-like bridge of nose. His violet eyes—the same shade as the doll’s—had deepened in color, and his red lips trembled softly.
“……I’m delighted.”
Those four words were all he offered, yet his eyes, his lips, his very breath held an indescribable joy.
It was far more fierce and vast than she had anticipated……
Cecilia found herself bewildered rather than satisfied.
Perhaps it was because Lien looked exactly like a child receiving a gift for the first time.
Suppressing the urge to dash back to the vendor’s stall and sweep up all the dolls to hand to him, Cecilia feigned composure as she spoke.
“It’s so you won’t be lonely when I’m gone—a new friend. So you have to visit him often and hold him close.”
“……When you’re gone?”
Lien, who had been nodding obediently to her charming request, asked blankly.
Now that she thought about it, she still hadn’t told him about being summoned to the temple soon—or being enlisted, rather.
“Did you see the article about me agreeing to help with the Charity Festival ceremony?”
“Yes. I read it a few days ago.”
“So I won’t be able to see you for a while. I’ll need to stay at the temple for about ten days for ceremony preparations and such. During that time, I probably won’t be able to hold lessons either.”
“……I see.”
He blinked his large eyes and murmured listlessly.
She’d thought the brief parting would be disappointing only to her, but it seemed he too found the sudden news disconcerting.
After all, he’d come here alone to a remote place with neither friends nor family—how lonely it must be to lose his only acquaintance.
Cecilia sighed softly, then a good idea occurred to her.
“The Charity Festival is one thing, but I’ve heard the ceremony itself at the Grand Temple is worth seeing. If you’re willing, come watch it.”
“Yes, I’ll certainly come to meet you.”
She’d invited him to watch the ceremony, yet he, his eyes crinkling pleasantly, had answered that he would come to meet her.
Her heart sank with the weight of that direct hit.
It was when her breath grew shallow, flustered by the dizzying sensation.
“Ugh!”
At an unexpected shout from not far away, both their gazes turned toward a single point.
A man stumbling toward them from across the plaza appeared to have been lightly bumped by a group of children darting about excitedly.
The ungainly man had collapsed on the plaza floor and began groaning.
And he kept glancing not at the children who’d hit him, but at Cecilia.
“Ugh, I’m done for…….”
‘An adult colliding with children weighing less than half what he does shouldn’t be making sounds like that.’
The children who’d fled in surprise at their own hidden strength, the man who kept casting his gaze in this direction, and Lien, who stood motionless and merely looked down at the man.
In the end, she from the Eastern Lands of Propriety reluctantly approached the man.
“Are you all right?”
“Oof, my back—or rather, my leg seems to be broken…….”
“What?”
‘If his leg were broken, he should be screaming, not speaking like this.’
Cecilia swallowed the apt retort that had nearly escaped her throat.
Up close, the man’s appearance was strikingly haggard.
His eyes were darkly shadowed as if he’d gone a whole week without sleep, and his tied-up red hair was dull and lifeless.
Combined with wrinkled clothes and worn shoes, he looked perfectly like a derelict.
“Can you stand?”
“No, I’m sorry, but could you help me to my carriage? I got separated from my attendant in the crowd, and I have a chronic condition…….”
“Oh dear.”
To lose his balance from a bump with children—his neat features were quite pitiful.
Only then did a faint surge of sympathy rise in Cecilia, and she extended her hand to him.
“Go on, take my hand and get up.”
But just before her hand reached his, a large hand suddenly interjected and rather roughly pulled the man to his feet.
“I’ll assist this gentleman.”
Lien, who had been keeping his distance as though wary of strangers, grasped the man’s arm without hesitation.
“Your carriage—is it nearby?”
“Yes? Yes. It’s just around the corner.”
“In that case, I’ll bring it here quickly. Would you mind waiting a moment?”
“Of course. Take your time.”
The moment she gave her reluctant permission, Lien dragged the man away and vanished.
Cecilia watched the two figures disappear into the distance, her gaze lingering after them.
“Mages really can’t tell a lie to save their lives, can they?”

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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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