The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 61

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

Chapter 61
“……Oh, hello there?”
She opened her eyes wide, clearly not expecting to encounter anyone, and soon offered an embarrassed smile.
She was so beautiful, so unchanged from the way he had longed for her, that he nearly wept.
He fought desperately to suppress the urge to seize her hands and arms, to pull her close, to hold her until he couldn’t breathe.
“I’m not suspicious—I live next door. A cat took my bracelet and carried it over this way.”
“I see.”
His voice still trembled slightly, but mercifully it came out steady and natural.
Then she smiled at him as if performing a miracle, extending her hand first and speaking his name with gentle warmth.
“Lien.”
Every time she called him by that tender voice, he knew he had made the right choice—risking exposure by claiming his true nickname rather than inventing a false name.
He was grateful to hear his name from her tongue, from her lips. He harbored not a moment of regret.
With each touch of Cecilia, each moment she showed him kindness, spoke with him, drew closer—his happiness became almost unbearable.
Did she know how desperately he had longed for moments like this?
Probably never. She would never know how he had loved her, loved her still, and what terrible things he had done because of it.
If only he could save Cecilia. If only he could be loved by her. Or rather, if he could receive even a scrap of her sympathy or attention, like alms to a beggar.
He could do anything.
……Even if it meant deceiving and lying to her.
Even amid those sweet days, he would sometimes imagine her reaction when she learned his true name.
Eyes filled with nothing but contempt, a sharp hand pushing him away, a cold face that made no effort to hide hatred and disgust.
The mere thought of it made him breathless, his eyes burning red.
‘It can’t be.’
I told myself I would be satisfied watching from afar. I only wanted to exchange words as a strange neighbor. I only wanted to hover near you, to protect you. But you found me. You extended your hand. You called my name. You made me believe I was someone special to you. And so you made it impossible for me to abandon my desires or give you up.
So all my actions are justified, I told myself they had to be this way.
He made excuses, shifting blame entirely onto her. He continued to lie. He hid himself.
Even as he dimly sensed that this friction would eventually crack and become an irreversible problem.
And his anxieties extended far beyond that.
The group intent on harming her—even as he worked to crush and eliminate them, they crawled from the shadows like cockroaches, endless and unstoppable.
She had too many enemies. At times, he harbored the desire to confine her to the very pinnacle of the Magic Tower, where no one could venture save himself.
Of course, if he did such a thing, he would surely bite through his own tongue and die.
As if cursed fate were truly real, despite his constant vigilance at her side, she had been threatened multiple times.
As though death alone was her appointed ending.
Each time danger approached her, his heart plummeted, and reason evaporated in an instant.
This time—this time alone, he could not fail.
Unaware that blood dripped from his lips where he had bitten them, he devised a desperate measure.
He gifted her a necklace layered with Protection Magic, and though reluctant, he used Asilience’s magic to penetrate even the Temple’s sanctum to watch over her.
Yet when that small body sank into the frigid lake, when he was forced to watch helplessly, unable to do anything—
He threw himself into the water without another thought.
The lake, brimming with Divine Power, seemed to accept him as an impurity—mage that he was, not a mere mortal.
Pressure bore down on him as if weighted with anchors, his entire body seared with numbness. Even his considerable magic proved useless.
Beyond the roiling bubbles, watching her sink deeper with horrified helplessness, all he could manage was to forcibly activate the necklace, which the water’s power had hindered.
He watched her body finally rise, watched her be saved by the Holy Knight, only then did he emerge onto the shore.
Dripping, he waded toward her through the gathering crowd.
Among the press of people, he caught sight of her, breathing harshly.
Relief flooded through him—relief that she was safe. And beneath it, a base jealousy and despair toward the one who had saved her.
His gaze darkened, saturated with murky emotion.
He thought about severing the hand resting on her shoulder. He thought about gouging out those blue eyes that gazed at her so tenderly.
You took her from me, yet you won’t even be able to protect her in the end.
The words he muttered dissolved into air, reaching no one.
* * *
It was some time later that he learned Cecilia was going to the Monastery.
‘After an accident like that, she’s going to the provinces?’
The woman he loved was fearless beyond measure, which meant he alone was consumed with terror.
Restless, he paced his chamber dozens of times before kindling the fireplace.
“Hilten.”
A red-haired man emerged from the dancing crimson flames before him.
“Bring me everything you have on those madmen.”
“Chetwind has only just located their hideout, but…… it’s far larger than we anticipated. You’re not planning to storm it alone, are you?”
“When is the gathering? The more of them assembled, the better.”

I can handle it all at once.
He muttered the words darkly.
If her path lay through a bed of thorns, he would simply walk ahead and pluck every last one away.
Shortly after arriving at the Monastery, he redoubled his pursuit. The headquarters of ‘those people’ turned out to be, audaciously enough, beneath the mansion of some count within the Monastery itself.
One of the most deeply rooted families, more sympathetic to the Temple than to the throne.
He could easily deduce that there were no shortage of powerful figures involved. The moment he’d set surveillance on them, hadn’t they sent assassins to his door?
A faction with information networks rivaling the Master of the Magic Tower himself, its true scale unknowable.
Cloaked and masked, they swarmed together like insects.
“She who impersonates the Daughter of God deserves nothing but death!”
“We must find the true one, and with all haste!”
The eyes of fanatics who believed the death of the Holy Maiden was righteous work for Soltis gleamed in the darkness.
“All things for Soltis, that divine one!”
Mad voices pitched at a fever, their slurs and schemes pouring down upon her without mercy.
“Death to the counterfeit!”
Standing amid the filth of their words, he twisted the neck of the man beside him.
“Gah—! Ack!”
The screaming voice cut off abruptly.
“What—what is this?”
“If you crave death so badly, I’ll gladly oblige you.”
Their gathering soon filled with horrible screams and nauseating stench.
Yet the insects’ counterattack was not entirely futile; he bore many wounds from it.
After erasing every trace of the creatures’ corpses from the world, he finally felt the vast depths of his magical power running dry.
He’d seen plenty of careless mages who failed to control their strength and collapsed from overexertion. Soon enough, he would lie suffering in the same way.
Standing vacant amid the ruins, he turned his feet toward the place where he needed to go.
Not the Magic Tower, nor Dilansche’s Residence.
The only place he ever wanted to return to was always at her side.
Scraping together his remaining power to reach the front of her residence, his exhausted body began to cry out in agony.
Each breath felt like swallowing a blade, his throat shredded and burning. His entire body trembled in a cold that felt like drowning in ice water, unbearable.
And yet.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”
The moment he saw her face.
“What happened to you? Did you fight? You didn’t get beaten, did you?”
Her concerned voice drew an involuntary smile from his lips.
Her small hand reached out without hesitation, her fingers tracing his cheek. With each touch of her warmth, he felt an overwhelming urge to cling to her.
Please, don’t come to hate me. Don’t avoid me, don’t push me away.
I’ll endure any selfish desire. Please, even if only a little, care for me.
[I think I like you. No—I do like you.]
Of course he had not forgotten her confession beneath the Great Old Tree.
How shocking it had been. How surprised he’d felt. How happy. His heart had raced so wildly he thought he might die.
How could he possibly forget.

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