The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 39

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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 39
“By the way, thank you for saving me, even if it took a while.”
“Not at all. If you hadn’t climbed out on your own strength, I wouldn’t have had the chance to help at all. I swore I would protect you, and yet…… I’m so sorry.”
With his head bowed low, his fine silver hair fell down in a cascade.
‘I didn’t expect an apology to follow a word of thanks.’
Cecilia, flustered, found herself staring at the unfailingly courteous man’s bowed head.
Truth be told, falling into a lake hardly qualified one to be called a Saint.
Yet his manner remained unwaveringly genteel and kind.
As if he had never harbored even a shred of doubt.
“I understand this incident has made it difficult to trust me, but I swear that during this journey, you will not face a single threat while I am with you.”
Cecilia studied the man’s unwavering gaze and firmly set mouth for a long moment.
Within them dwelled only steadfast faith and tender consideration.
If a Knight could care for a Saint in such a way……
‘Wouldn’t it be alright to trust him?’
Besides, Miguel was the one who had saved her.
In the end, the fence of caution she had built around her heart began to lower of its own accord.
“All right.”
Unless the culprit was identified, she could not place her complete faith in Miguel, but at least she could trust the solemn promise he had offered.
“I’ll trust you.”
Cecilia answered lightly, affecting a brightness she didn’t quite feel.
Miguel, unaware of how precious the word “trust” was that she had just uttered, curved his lips gently upward.
“Yes, I will do my utmost to live up to your faith in me.”
Delighted, he sprang to his feet with sudden vigor, and just as quickly found some small errand to attend to.
“Then let me fetch something light to fill your stomach first.”
“What? No, please——!”
‘I didn’t mean for him to wait on me.’
But by the time she thought to stop him, he had already put some distance between them.
‘Well, forget it. I’ll just rest.’
She couldn’t afford to fall ill on the first day, so she decided to focus on recovering her strength.
Cecilia let her head rest against the rough bark of the tree trunk and drew in a deep breath.
She inhaled and exhaled the crisp air several times over.
Then, suddenly, she felt a presence nearby.
‘He was quick.’
Assuming it was Miguel returning at such speed, Cecilia opened her eyes.
In that instant, a warm hand touched her forehead.
Smack!
Without thinking, Cecilia knocked the hand away.
The owner of that warmth was Lien, who had been hovering nearby all along.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was startled…….”
“I, I saw that you were perspiring and only meant to wipe your brow…….”
Sure enough, a white Handkerchief was clutched in Lien’s hand.
“I, I apologize for frightening you.”
His voice trembled with such poignancy as he gripped the Handkerchief tighter.
‘Did I respond too harshly?’
The thought that her attitude might have wounded the gentle man’s heart stirred something like guilt within her.
Cecilia, wincing slightly, shook her head.
“No, I think I just overreacted because I was tired.”
“Are you very tired? Ah, so that’s why you needed support earlier.”
Muttering absently, he suddenly dropped to his knees before her.
“If you haven’t fully recovered your strength, I, I can help you too. No—I can help you better than anyone.”
Lien’s large shadow fell over her like an eclipse. From him emanated the scent of warm sunlight and fresh grass.
As her breath grew shallow.
“Better than that Knight.”
He added the words in a voice turned hoarse and gravelly.
Beneath the shadow of his robe, his violet eyes, darkened in that dimness, seemed tinged with something amiss—though surely that was just her imagination.
She tried to shift her body back, but Lien blocked her forward path and the tree blocked her back; she was trapped.
The moment her back pressed firmly against the tree trunk, Lien extended his hand toward her with the slow, careful movements of a trainer calming a wild animal.
His straight, pale hand brushed through her hair and touched her ear. As she flinched, her shoulders drawing up, he spoke softly.
“I will cast a spell to help ease your dizziness.”
Contrary to her tension, his manner was filled only with concern, unchanged from his usual self—and at this, Cecilia finally let her shoulders drop.
“I’m all right.”
Thanks to the Divine Power she’d received from Miguel, her condition had improved considerably.
Besides, to use magic in a place where so many eyes were watching—wasn’t it as good as announcing that her teacher was actually a mage?
Cecilia lowered her voice and spoke gravely.
“If you use magic here, people might figure out who I really am.”
“That won’t happen.”
Despite her concern, he answered with utter confidence and cast the magic anyway.
It wasn’t mere bluster—the Knights quickly realized that the man approaching the Saint was her teacher, personally introduced by the Duke himself, and lost interest just as fast.
“See?”
He posed the question softly, his fingers brushing past her ear before lingering on her lobe.
At the subtle touch, her body stiffened of its own accord.
Dizziness was related to the vestibular system in the inner ear, so applying magic directly to the ear made sense, but—
‘Isn’t this taking too long?’
The strange, warm current that had felt like a gentle breeze dispersed long ago, yet he didn’t withdraw his hand.
Instead, it drifted slowly from her ear to her round cheek—the motion equally a grasp, equally a caress.
The sensation was so vivid where smooth warmth met skin. Those violet eyes that lingered so intently, that beautiful face drawn impossibly near—everything bound her in place.
Leaving no room to refuse him, no room to doubt.
At this rate, her dizziness wouldn’t improve; it would only worsen.
Ultimately, deciding that if she couldn’t overcome this, she’d have to escape it, Cecilia placed her hand against his chest. She meant to push him away. But she found herself rigid, powerless to exert even the slightest force.
Thump-thump.
His heart thundered beneath her palm, its beating laid bare and undeniable.
‘A heartbeat can’t be feigned, can it?’
If his feelings for her weren’t false. If those eyes, blind with devotion as though only she existed in all the world, were truth. If this touch, so desperate it would shatter if they drew apart even slightly, was sincere. If even this frantic heartbeat spoke only honesty. Then—
‘But trusting Lien completely…’
Her thoughts scattered like spilled ink, chaos bleeding through.
He, who had been watching her graceless turmoil all along, overlaid his hand upon hers where it rested against his chest.
“Cecilia.”
“Yes? Yes?”
“Do you remember what you told me beneath the Ancient Great Tree?”
His voice dropped low, intimate as a whisper.
It was an unexpected turn in conversation. Or rather—she’d suspected all along that he would bring it up someday.
But not now.
[Lien.]
[Yes.]
[I think I like you. No—I do like you.]
Cecilia recalled that summer day, vivid and flawless in every detail.
And suddenly the persistent chirp of the grass insects came alive, and the whisper of wind through leaves, and—unmistakably audible to her ears alone—the beating of a heart.
As though she’d stepped back into that very moment.
But it couldn’t be the same. It couldn’t.
When she remembered the terror and agony of ice-cold water rushing into her nose and mouth, the horror of sinking into lightless depths, her mind went cold and the churning desire within her faded to nothing.
“…I’m not sure. So much has happened since then.”
“You said we’d talk again once the Charity Event ended and we returned to the Manor.”
‘Of course.’
That’s why he’d suddenly brought up that day—it had to be.
“That was—”
As long as she couldn’t be certain of his innocence, her plan to confess again in the Daisy Flower Field had long since crumbled to dust.
Should she change the subject? Or offer some pitiful excuse, claim she’d only meant she liked him as a person?
As she wrestled with the thought, she spotted Miguel returning in the distance.
Cecilia jerked her hand free from his damp grip and shot to her feet.
“Miguel’s back! He went to get my snacks, so I really should—I should go now.”
“Ah—”
His large hand fell to the ground with heartbreaking finality. The wildflower smile that had bloomed across his face faded, and his beautiful lips pressed thin with distress.
Even as she walked past him and away, she felt his gaze clinging to her, following her every step.
But Cecilia didn’t look back. She pressed forward with quiet resolve.
Until the distance between them grew so far his eyes could no longer reach her.
Onward.

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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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