The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 3

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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 3
Cecilia gazed silently at the woman’s form shimmering across the water’s surface.
Lush golden hair and amber eyes—an aura that transcended mere beauty and touched upon something sacred.
As the eldest daughter of House Weberdine, the Empire’s most noble house of holy grace, Cecilia Weberdine was the very embodiment of what the Empire called a “Saint”—her appearance and status one and the same.
The restrictions on her outings, her confinement to the Duchy far removed from the capital, the careful handling as though she were delicate glass—all of it stemmed from this singular truth.
Yet no matter how saintly her exterior appeared, the soul within was, regrettably, that of a twenty-first century Korean woman who had witnessed every manner of depravity.
Cecilia swept back her golden hair, rippling through the water, and shook her head with resolve.
“Melanie, you don’t understand. The true terror dwells within me.”
“Pardon?”
‘I’m lucky I haven’t kidnapped that man yet.’
She swallowed the words she could never speak aloud. It was unfair to worry Melanie like this, but she had resolved to grow closer to this “stranger”—much closer.
Intimate. Deep. Personal.
* * *
The next day.
Melanie had fussed and voiced her concerns until bedtime, so Cecilia was meant to rest quietly in her room—except she wasn’t.
The moment Melanie stepped away, Cecilia seized the opportunity and cast off her indoor clothes.
She slipped out of the room with the cat tucked under her arm—the creature that had apparently noticed the temporary Butler’s absence and decided to follow her everywhere.
Thanks to her fluffy companion, retracing her memories and reaching the garden wall proved remarkably simple.
The problem, however, was—
‘What excuse am I going to use to slip into the neighbor’s yard?’
Her deliberation didn’t last long.
The small troublemaker suddenly raked its claws across her hand as if it had never been held still for a moment.
“Ow!”
Startled, she released her grip, and the cat landed nimbly on the ground below. Then, as if to prove its independence, it slipped through the dog hole with casual grace.
‘Well, I suppose there’s nothing for it.’
She had to fetch it before the creature destroyed another neighbor’s flower bed.
Cecilia sighed in defeat and followed the cat through the hole once more.
The delicate paw prints leading from the opening simply vanished into the grass.
Cecilia crossed the verdant lawn just as she had the day before.
Beyond the tall, dense hedge of Japanese holly lay the Western Garden.
‘Please don’t let the cat have trampled the flowers again.’
Seized by belated worry, Cecilia quickened her pace.
And what greeted her at the end was not yesterday’s ruined garden, but a flower bed overflowing with white daisies.
The blossoms swayed freely with the breeze, their movement reminiscent of ocean foam dancing across the water.
In the midst of this fresh spring fragrance, Lien stood—impossibly, like a scene from a painting.
Except for the dark, ill-fitting Robe that draped his entire form, utterly at odds with the pastoral scene.
‘Shouldn’t he be standing here in picture-perfect elegance, looking like he belongs in a painting? Isn’t that the cliché that makes the heroine fall for him all over again?’
As she stared in conflicted silence at this flaw in an otherwise perfect composition, he noticed her too and started toward her with long strides.
“Weberdine!”
In his arms, nestled against his chest, was a white furry bundle—the cat.
“I’m so sorry. The cat escaped again. It seems to have taken a liking to this garden. It hasn’t destroyed anything here, has it?”
“Not at all!”
At her worried inquiry, he shook his head urgently.
Relief flooded Cecilia’s face, brightening it at once.
“Thank goodness. I was worried it might cause another incident like yesterday. By the way, the garden looks even more beautiful than it did a day ago. It’s like magic!”
Cecilia clapped her hands together in genuine praise—though beneath it ran an undercurrent of calculation, a deliberate attempt to close the distance between them.
As though she’d uttered criticism instead, Lien flinched and lowered his gaze.
“Th-thank you.”
‘Hmm, that doesn’t seem like embarrassment, does it?’
The Robe made it impossible to read his expression.
Cecilia clicked her tongue silently in frustration.
Suddenly, Lien bent down and plucked several daisies, offering them to her.
“Here. I thought you might like daisies…”
Cecilia stared down at the unexpected gift in bewilderment.
She did prefer simple wildflowers that bloomed naturally in the wild to ornate, cultivated flowers.
But what surprised her more than the accuracy of his read on her taste was that he had given her flowers at all.
‘Wait—is this a confession?’
As she studied the flowers seriously, his hand began to tremble slightly.
“If you don’t like them…”
Snapping back to her senses just in time, Cecilia quickly accepted the bouquet.
“No, not at all. I like it very much—tremendously, absolutely, immensely!”
She seized the fresh stem and cried out with delight.
The sincerity in her voice seemed genuine enough that the corners of her mouth, just barely visible beneath the robe, curved into a smile.
It must be a smile as beautiful as the flower itself.
But that cursed scrap of fabric obscured her face, and there was nothing to be done about it.
‘Should I just pretend not to notice and pull it away?’
She was seriously contemplating how to remove that veil when, in an instant, the warmth drained from his expression.
“Your hand.”
“Pardon?”
“You’ve injured your hand!”
Cecilia glanced down at her own hand for the first time.
The scratches from the cat’s claws were more vivid and pronounced than she’d expected.
“Ah, he has quite the strong personality, that one.”
She touched the cat’s nose lightly as it yawned, unaware of its transgression, and answered without concern.
It stung somewhat, but it was hardly a serious wound—just a surface scratch.
Yet Lien seemed more alarmed than she was. He bit his lip and seized her hand abruptly.
The hand covering the wound felt warmer than an ordinary person’s touch.
“Lien?”
At the unfamiliar sensation, she called his name, and Lien withdrew his hand as if struck.
“I—I’m terribly sorry. I was just so startled that—”
Believing he’d committed a grave breach, he ushered her to a wooden bench near the garden.
“Please wait here just a moment. I’ll fetch medicine.”
“A scratch this small hardly warrants treatment. Lien!”
But before she could finish, he hurried away.
Cecilia watched his retreating figure absently before lowering her gaze to her hand.
Whether it was her imagination or not, there was hardly any pain at all.
‘Perhaps because it’s such a minor wound?’
Just as she was losing any sense of need for treatment, Lien reappeared with startling speed.
He dumped a small glass bottle containing liquid and bandages at her feet before crouching down rather carelessly.
“Allow me a moment.”
He hesitated slightly before grasping her fingertip and uncorking the bottle filled with pink liquid, pouring its contents directly onto the wound.
The same warmth she’d felt before returned, and then the wound sealed itself without a trace.
“Is this… a Potion?”
In the Other World, there were ordinary medicines compounded by apothecaries, but there also existed Holy Water and Potions that guaranteed immediate effect.
The former was typically produced by priests, the latter by mages, and both were extraordinarily expensive.
In other words, this wasn’t medicine meant to be wasted on a mere surface scratch.
“The Residence has no Healer, so… I apologize.”
Interpreting her astonished question as reproach, his broad shoulders sagged.
Seeing him so discouraged after having healed her, Cecilia deliberately flexed her hand to demonstrate its recovery.
“Look—thanks to you, it doesn’t hurt at all now.”
“Still…”
“Come now, don’t sit on the ground. Come sit here beside me.”
She pulled him up by the wrist and drew him onto the bench beside her.
With the warm cat settled on her lap, Cecilia’s fingers traced through the delicate wildflower as she asked.
“Do you tend the garden yourself? Are you the gardener?”
She asked partly out of curiosity whether she should address him in that capacity.
After a long pause, he nodded slowly.
“Master!”
A large man in a fitted formal suit came rushing from the direction of the Residence.
From a distance, she’d have mistaken him for a knight, so imposing was his frame—though he was the Butler.
The Butler held several small bottles of what seemed to be medicine, but upon noticing the visitor beside his master, he came to an abrupt halt.
“…Where have you been? Ha, ha.”
Then, with a rather awkward motion, he began to back away.
Only once the Butler had disappeared beyond the building did Cecilia turn to gaze directly up at the man beside her.
Lien had gone rigid with tension, his breathing shallow.
‘With this much clumsiness, feigning ignorance is hardly an option.’
“You’re quite the liar, aren’t you? Master?”
“It’s not like that.”
He leaned forward urgently and spoke in haste.
In his panic, he moved so suddenly that the cat sprang from his lap in alarm, and the hem of her robe tilted back slightly.
“I—I never intended to deceive you, or to mislead the House Weberdine, I swear it—!”
“No, no, calm yourself. I’m not angry.”
Cecilia raised both hands at once, gesturing for him to settle.
The violet eyes she’d only just met wandered like those of a child caught in wrongdoing.
“But……”
“Truly. Do I look angry to you?”
“……No.”
She’d already guessed long ago that he wasn’t a gardener.
A mere gardener with a face like that?
In a Romance Fantasy world where appearance mirrors power, such a thing was impossible.
‘He must have had his reasons for hiding his identity — reasons beyond just a single lie.’
Yet he looked as though he’d shouldered the world’s entire burden of guilt over that one falsehood.
As Cecilia watched the man who still didn’t know what to do with himself, a sudden bright idea struck her.

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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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