The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 44

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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 44
Lien still looked fragile as glass, as though a single tap would shatter him into pieces.
Anxious fingers clenched into fists, chest rising and falling in deep, labored breaths, jaw tight and cheeks rigid with tension. And that gaze of his—the way he was trying to read something in her face, or perhaps trying desperately not to read it at all.
She couldn’t understand why he was so agitated, or why his heart seemed as unsettled as someone caught in an affair—she couldn’t fathom it at all.
Or rather, she refused to try.
But her composure, as always, was far from perfect, and Lien could do nothing but continue in that vein.
“Your hand’s turned red.”
He murmured it suddenly, his gaze blank as he stared down at her hand, which he’d been gripping like a lifeline.
Her delicate skin had flushed a deep crimson from where he’d been rubbing it repeatedly.
“It’s because you were doing this.”
The burning sensation that came belatedly was hardly the point. The real problem was the cause, and she said it with a hint of reproof—but he, as though he’d been waiting for those very words, stepped forward at once.
“It’s my responsibility, so I’ll treat it for you.”
“No, there’s no need to—”
Confusion swept through her like a tidal wave.
Lien bowed his head over her hand like a puppy, pressed his soft lips down upon it, and gently licked the reddened skin.
“Lien!”
Startled, Cecilia glanced frantically around.
Fortunately, there were no servants passing by. Even if there had been, his Robe would have hidden the sight—they’d only see him examining her hand closely.
‘This is still rather…’
It had been the same at the festival, and she knew this was his method of healing. But surely going forward it would be better in every way if he simply used a Potion instead?
That was what she meant to argue.
But what escaped Cecilia’s lips was not any sentence at all, only a short, breathless gasp.
His treatment apparently wasn’t finished, for his lips trailed past her hand and gradually descended to her fingers.
“Cecilia?”
The moment her gaze dropped at the slightly faltering pronunciation, her mind went white.
Between lips redder than roses, her own straight finger pressed firmly against the soft tongue within.
What undid her was the innocent, painterly face that looked up at her despite it all.
At something so audaciously brazen, her heart plummeted.
Considering that her fingers weren’t even injured to begin with, wasn’t this really rather improper?
Feeling as though she were committing something terribly wrong, she yanked her hand away.
“The—the fingers weren’t injured at all!”
“Disinfection must reach to the fingertips.”
For all the world like a man usually composed of half-embarrassment, he answered without a trace of hesitation, and his eye corners curved in a soft smile. It was the same smile as always, yet somehow it looked almost seductive.
Now heat rose not only where his lips had touched, but across her entire face.
‘As if I have time for such seduction.’
She wanted to box her own ears, but composure proved elusive.
Only after a long while, once the heat had finally faded, did Cecilia manage to steady herself.
His strange behavior must have been from the shock of the scene he’d witnessed earlier.
If that were the case, clearing up the misunderstanding should settle it.
With hands that had grown agitated for a different reason now tucked carefully behind her back, Cecilia began to explain the situation gently, as though soothing a child.
“Lien. Is this why you’re acting this way—because I asked Lord Miguel to be my partner?”
“…….”
“You know it would be difficult for us to enter together, given that you’re the Tower Master and I’m a Saint. That’s the only reason I asked Lord Miguel for his help.”
She shuddered to imagine what an uproar it would cause—the Tower Master and a Saint entering side by side.
Seeing genuine distress in Cecilia’s expression, Lien finally began to slouch his shoulders as usual, hesitating.
“Is it only because I’m the Tower Master that it won’t work……?”
“Of course.”
“Then if I stopped being the Tower Master…….”
“Lien!”
At such nonsense, she couldn’t help but cry out sharply, and he clamped his mouth shut like a petulant child.
Then he exhaled a thin sigh.
True to his nature as an intellectual the Academy and Magic Tower took pride in, he had finally recovered his reason and understood.
Though reason and emotion were apparently two different things—he’d become unnecessarily sullen.
“I understand. I’m not worthy enough to stand beside you, Lady Cecilia……. So I respect your decision.”
“Lien.”
“I’m sorry for being stubborn. The truth is, that’s why I came to find you.”
“What? What do you mean…….”
“I came to tell you it would be difficult for me to attend the banquet with you.”
“Wait, just a moment. If you couldn’t go with me anyway, then why were you so angry just now?”
Cecilia stared at him sharply, utterly baffled.
He dodged her piercing gaze and made excuses in a voice grown small.
“I just kept thinking that Knight would cling to you like a leech, and before I knew it….”
That was what exasperated her most.
“And you didn’t even ask permission before bringing your lips close to hers.”
“That was just a greeting filled with respect!”
“I wish it had been nothing more than that.”
“Don’t imagine things.”
“…Yes.”
She wanted nothing more than to land a blow on his head, but his pitiful expression was so achingly beautiful that it drove her to distraction.
In the end, she couldn’t bring herself to raise her clenched fist, and instead ran her hand roughly through her hair.
“Enough. The banquet matter ends here. Don’t bring it up again later. And don’t behave that way again either.”
“…I’ll do my best to manage it.”
Cecilia studied the man who accepted her words so readily.
The dark, turbulent things that had swirled around him had gradually dissolved into clarity.
Somewhere along the way, Lien had returned to being the man he was before—the one who trembled as he offered wildflowers, who hid bashfully beneath his Robe, who smiled with simple joy whenever their eyes met.
She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and posed a belated question.
“But you truly can’t come to the Banquet Hall at all?”
Even as she doubted him, she found herself curious—foolishly so—about how he would look in Banquet Attire. In a hall filled with nobles, surely he would shed that drab Robe and show some elegance.
But Lien shook his head immediately, offering no room for hope.
“It seems I’ll have difficulty attending. My schedule has become quite full, likely from having been away from my duties for too long.”
“…Then there’s nothing to be done.”
“I’ll make sure to find someone else to assist you at the Banquet Hall, so please don’t worry.”
He took her disappointment for mere concern and offered her that comfort instead.
‘I thought I might at least see him from a distance.’
Had she been relying on him as a stand-in Chaperone all along without even realizing it? Or had she wanted to glimpse some clue—guilt or innocence—through him when standing before the royal family?
Before she could swallow the bitter smile that rose at either prospect, he spoke again.
“Miss Cecilia.”
As if there were something more he needed to say, Lien called her name and opened and closed his mouth several times. After much hesitation, his words finally came.
“There’s something I must tell you before the banquet.”
“What is it?”
“That is… I am the Tower Master of the Magic Tower.”
“Yes, I know.”
For something that had taken him so long to bring up, it was a surprisingly old revelation.
A suspicious Tower Master who had moved into the house next door one day. That was Lien, wasn’t it?
“And I am Lien, but I am not Lien.”
“I’m sorry?”
This was even more bewildering.
‘Is he talking about an alias?’
But hadn’t it already been revealed that Lien was really Asilien?
As she regarded him with confusion, his face grew progressively pale.
“I am, I am… that is….”
“That is?”
He was so agitated that his entire body trembled like aspen leaves, and his breathing quickened.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
Lien swallowed the words that had gathered on his lips and said nothing.
In that instant, something gripped her—a baseless sense of dread. Whatever he had hidden from her was surely one of his many secrets, and it was something she absolutely needed to know.
Cecilia had just begun to furrow her brow when—
“Miss! Are you here?”
Melanie’s voice called out from not far away.
“The seamstress has brought your Dress, and you need to try it on!”
Though Melanie searched for her desperately and called out urgently, Cecilia deliberately didn’t answer.
This wasn’t the first time someone had interjected at a crucial moment and derailed the conversation.
This talk with him mattered far more than some Dress.
But when she turned back, Lien had already vanished without a trace.

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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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