The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 55

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 55
An ominous heat and violent gust of wind suddenly engulfed her.
Beep—
Through the ringing in her ears, Cecilia barely managed to lift her head from where it had been driven into the ground.
And the landscape that filled her vision was……
Utterly horrific.
The man who’d detonated the bomb left no body behind. Only a charred mass remained as a trace.
The area around him was even worse.
A person screaming while clutching a dangling arm, someone spitting blood from taking the shockwave head-on, another sprawled unconscious on the ground.
She’d thought it would be dangerous, that an attack might come. No—she’d been certain.
Yet she’d remained composed because she believed their target was only her. After all, in every incident so far, no one else had been harmed. They’d gone to great lengths to disguise it as mere “accident” rather than a murder attempt.
This time too, she’d thought they would isolate her alone or attack only her.
So if things came to the worst, she’d planned to leave the knights and lure the enemies away by herself. She wouldn’t be easily injured. The supplies she’d prepared were for exactly such a moment.
But to think they’d self-detonate without distinction between allies and enemies, that they’d do this……
“Ugh!”
Miguel, who had shielded her with his entire body, let out a groan of pain as he pushed himself up.
Cecilia, who’d been pinned beneath him, quickly examined him in alarm.
His back, where his clothes had burned away completely, was charred bright red—too agonizing even to touch, let alone bear to look at.
“What—what do I do…… How do I……”
‘It’s all my fault.’
Look at what that baseless arrogance had wrought. Innocent people were hurt. Some might die now. Or perhaps they already had.
Her hands trembled violently. She struggled to force her legs, which kept going weak, to stand.
‘I have to heal them right now.’
‘How?’
Cecilia clenched her shimmering hands in despair.
Her Divine Power could not protect others. It could not heal. It only sustained her own body.
Had she perhaps secretly thought it didn’t matter if these knights were injured? That I would be safe in any case?
A repugnant assumption. Yet she had no grounds to refute it.
Cecilia, who’d cursed herself, belatedly remembered the supplies she’d brought along.
She turned out the small cloth bag she’d been carrying. What spilled from it were all manner of Holy Water and Recovery Potions.
She was hastily trying to remove the stoppers when rough hands hoisted her to her feet.
“Saintess! Come to your senses and flee at once.”
“Miguel! Wait, wait just a moment. I brought Recovery Potions and Holy Water. They should help with wounds. So……”
“This is not the time for that. If the Reinforcement Forces hear that signal, they will very likely come here.”
“Which is why we need to heal the knights quickly before those bastards find this place!”
“No. I will treat them. With the Holy Water you brought and my Divine Power, I don’t think anyone will die.”
Only then did Cecilia look directly at Miguel’s face.
His pale cheeks were smudged with ash, his usually neat hair hung in disarray, and above all, his expression had lost all composure—he looked desperately anxious.
“But while I heal them, I cannot protect you as well.”
Miguel gripped her shoulders with painful force.
“Draw upon your Divine Power and do not release it for a single moment.”
“……Are you telling me to run away alone right now? To abandon everyone I hurt?”
“Saintess. Listen well. We are Holy Knights. So if you alone can be kept safe, we can gladly offer up our hands, our feet—even our very lives.”
“……”
“That means in reverse that if we lose you, then even if we save our lives or annihilate the enemy, we are defeated.”
She thought she could not understand Miguel’s words at all.
She’d relied on the knights’ loyalty and drawn them into this dangerous affair, yet she had not tried to deeply comprehend, could not comprehend those words that placed loyalty above their own lives.
What was a being capable of dying willingly for another? What made an unconfirmed Saintess so important? If a Saintess must use Holy Knights as expendable tools, then was she truly a Saintess anymore?
But there was no time for her to understand Miguel and his knights. The situation was urgent, and his decision was rational.
She was nothing but a useless burden in this moment. Better to leave this place and lure the Reinforcement Forces toward herself.
Having only just decided, Cecilia nodded heavily, with great effort.
“Please, stay safe.”
“I will.”
Cecilia roughly wiped away the tears that had pooled in her eyes. She put strength into her trembling legs. She straightened her body.
“Please—I’m ordering you. Come back alive no matter what.”
Having spoken her command with cold clarity, Cecilia turned and began to run.
Drawing her Holy Power to its maximum, leaving as clear a trail as possible.
Unless the Reinforcement Forces were idiots who couldn’t sense Holy Power, they would surely pursue her.
‘It will be far from the safe escape Miguel wanted.’
At least she had to buy time before Miguel could finish healing the other knights.
‘I need to get as far away from them as possible—but which direction?’
She’d confirmed that the West was safe, but that was where information had been leaked to the Emperor and Dilanshe. Moreover, if she encountered the knights sent westward, there was a risk of entangling the wounded knights in danger again rather than reuniting with them.
And the North was the most treacherous part of this Hunting Ground. If she faced a bear alone, a single gesture would leave her limbs severed.
That left only the East.
Having decided, Cecilia bolted eastward.
Unlike the South, where trees were sparsely planted and the terrain was gentle, the farther east she ran, the denser the forest became.
Between her ragged breathing, the cries of beasts echoed through the trees at intervals.
How much longer did she run?
Her breath came up to her throat, and her legs grew heavier with each step.
Just as her exhausted body began to sway unsteadily, she came to an abrupt halt.
It was neither physical limitation nor fatigue that stopped her.
A sharp, metallic crack and screams—the same sounds as before—rang out from very close by.
‘Did I go the wrong way?’
Cecilia hurriedly checked her Compass.
She had indeed been traveling east, and the environment here was slightly different from the southern forest.
So why…?
Creeping forward cautiously, Cecilia finally saw the cause.
In a space nearly laid to waste, large-framed knights lay scattered about, bleeding profusely, and beside them—outnumbering them many times over—were suspicious figures in black masks, equally fallen.
The former were immediately recognizable.
They were the Princess’s knights.
‘Did the enemy misjudge their location?’
Perhaps they had reached the East ahead of her and encountered the Princess’s group.
But the fallen assassins wore no white masks like those who had attacked her. And they had been targeting the Princess—her face exposed.
‘Are these assassins sent by the Prince?’
A bitter succession struggle, Cecilia concluded rationally, her brow darkening.
She had known dangers lurked everywhere, but she hadn’t imagined someone else was also fighting for their life.
And the situation didn’t look favorable for them at all.
Three enemies remained, yet only one knight was still wielding a blade. Even he seemed to be reaching his limit—new wounds were opening across his body.
At this rate, the Princess would fall. She would lose her life.
And that was none of Cecilia’s concern.
‘I’ve got my own problems. Who am I supposed to help?’
She had neither the ability to help nor any reason to.
For all she knew, this person might have had a hand in her own predicament.
She turned to leave, but a desperate voice rang out from behind her.
“Ugh! Your Highness! You must flee!”
The knight barely hanging on cried out again.
“Your Highness!”
Holy One, save yourself!
“Please, you must escape! I cannot hold much longer….”
Come to your senses and flee at once.
The knight’s voice rang in her ears like a distant bell.
But his pleas did not reach the one they were meant for.
The Princess, crouched not far from the knight, seemed to be in a strange state.
Clutching her chest as though she were hyperventilating, she gasped for breath, unable to move even an inch.
Then one of the assassins rolled to the side, seizing an opening in the knight’s guard.
“No!”
Despite the knight’s desperate cry, the assassin lunged straight for the Princess.
A blade flashed as it was raised above the Princess’s head.
Bang!
A gunshot erupted from the barrel in Cecilia’s hand.
She hadn’t wanted to be some kind of humanitarian savior, or a protagonist burdened by circumstance.
But something about their desperation reminded her of herself and her knights.
If she turned away and ran, she knew she’d be haunted by this scene for the rest of her life.
‘Besides, if the Princess was the one who sent assassins after me, she wouldn’t be helpless like this now.’
Splurt!
The sound of flesh tearing was duller than she’d expected. The bullet meant for the head had pierced through the shoulder below.
Rather than relief that Miguel’s special training hadn’t been wasted, the shock of having actually shot a person struck her far more deeply.
As she stared blankly at the still-smoking gun barrel, the assassin’s crazed eyes suddenly turned toward Cecilia, hidden behind the tree.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————