The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master - Chapter 66

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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 66
If things were already this fraught before they’d even left, she could only imagine what the journey itself would bring.
“I’m going home. You’re staying here with all the quarreling.”
‘Mother’s going home. You’re staying.’
She spoke with the firmness of a mother abandoning a stubborn child, then climbed into the carriage alone.
The three left behind shot each other looks of clear displeasure before turning sharply away, scattering to their separate places.
Miguel on horseback with the knights at the front, the princess returning to her ornate carriage, and Lien boarding the baggage carriage at the very rear of the procession.
Only once the disobedient children had finished their preparations did the carriage lurch into motion.
Beyond the carriage window, the Town House and Leto, who had come to see them off, gradually receded into the distance.
Cecilia watched them go with satisfaction. She felt not a trace of regret.
‘Finally, I’m going home.’
It was amusing—and yet not at all amusing—that having stayed in Weberdine somewhat longer than she’d expected, she now felt like she was returning home.
Only when the Estate had dwindled to a mere speck, barely visible anymore, did Cecilia finally tear her gaze away and draw the carriage curtains closed.
Then she exhaled a long, pent-up sigh.
“Don’t you think I deserve a moment to collect myself?”
A large presence had pressed flush against her back, wrapping her waist firmly with solid arms.
“Lien, are you listening?”
“…I won’t get in your way.”
‘This position alone is already in the way.’
She almost snapped that at him, but stopped herself.
In truth, when he’d boarded the empty baggage carriage without complaint, Cecilia had already seen through his intentions.
It would have been child’s play for him to slip into her carriage with magic after departure.
‘And honestly, I’m getting used to this obsession of his.’
Ever since that day their lips had met, he clung to her side like a man who would die if they were parted.
Like a colt with no bridle, he couldn’t master his own emotions and was forever latching onto her at the most inopportune moments—nearly discovered by Miguel and the other knights more than once.
‘They might’ve already found out.’
The way Miguel, who believed Lien to be merely her teacher, had been recently fixing an especially keen eye on him suggested as much.
In any case, the problem wasn’t just that Lien wouldn’t listen to reason, as troublesome as he was—the real problem was that she herself couldn’t push him away.
Today too, unable to refuse him in the end, Cecilia leaned her weight into his broad embrace. Delighted by her surrender, his arms tightened around her.
Lien, holding her in an almost suffocating grip, buried his face in the nape of her neck and drew in a long, deep breath.
A long one. And another.
“Don’t go sneaking around smelling me like that.”
“…Yes.”
He flinched at the cold reprimand, lifting his face slowly. When she tapped his forearm—which held her like shackles—he grew even more dejected, reluctantly loosening his hold.
Yet he kept himself no more than a handspan away, which infuriated her.
‘How has he even managed to contain himself until now?’
Lien had always been poor at hiding his emotions, but since she’d allowed him at her side, it had only grown worse. He couldn’t conceal the slightest trace of affection—he simply leaked it away through these transparent gestures.
Cecilia regarded the man who couldn’t tear his eyes from her for even a moment.
His features never seemed to tire her no matter how long she looked, nor his skin so pale it seemed transparent, nor the blush that rose on his cheeks, nor those obsidian purple eyes.
‘Purple eyes.’
A sudden memory surfaced—a painting she’d seen in the Archive Room.
A doll-like boy with scarlet eyes, standing beside the princess.
‘Why is he changing his eye color?’
Come to think of it, Dilanthe’s second son, whom she’d encountered at the banquet, also had crimson eyes.
If so, it couldn’t be a permanent transformation.
Lost in thought, Cecilia’s lips twitched. His identity was already thoroughly exposed anyway—why not just ask him directly?
That’s certainly what she’d intended.
But what tumbled from her mouth was somewhat unexpected.
“You’ve been lying to me about something else.”
His smile froze in an instant. His face drained of color until he was nearly ghastly, and he stammered out a question.
“What… what are you referring to…?”
He could barely breathe properly.
He seemed to be recalling Cecilia from days before—coldly condemning, cutting.
Faced with his pathetic expression, Cecilia responded brusquely.
“You said you had no betrothed chosen by your family, remember?”
“…Yes?”
“The princess. Aren’t you involved with Dilanthe’s second son?”
“Oh.”
He chewed his lip hard, his large eyes blinking.
It seemed he felt a moment of relief, realizing this wasn’t a serious accusation.
But Cecilia’s gaze remained sharp as ever. Looking back, she realized she’d heard the rumors about the Imperial Princess and Dilanthe’s second son more than once.
‘They were together at the banquet, and at the hunting tournament he even won her favor. There’s no way they’re nothing to each other.’
Besides, judging by the Princess’s manner, they clearly had a personal connection.
Cecilia’s mood suddenly darkened, and she drew back slightly. Lien, his expression turning grave, rushed to defend himself.
“We are not betrothed!”
“So what—there were marriage discussions, but we never actually went through with it?”
“There were never any such discussions!”
Lien thrust out both hands, insisting on his innocence. He went on to explain desperately how he’d made a bargain with the Emperor using her safety as collateral, how he’d attended the banquet and tournament as payment, how as a child he’d occasionally accompanied his father to the Imperial Palace and thus merely knew her by face.
“So I’ve never kissed another woman, never held her hand! She grabbed my arm of her own accord once, but that’s all! You can touch me yourself, verify it however you wish.”
Growing impatient at her wordless response, he pulled Cecilia’s hand and pressed it against his chest.
She felt the solid warmth beneath her fingertips and drew back instinctively.
But Lien slid her hand further down, letting her feel the firm ridges of his abdomen.
“Below that too…….”
“I’m not touching anything more.”
“……Yes.”
He answered miserably before finally releasing her hand.
Cecilia clenched the hand that still held the vivid sensation of his skin.
“But I really am clean. Before my memory returned, there was no need to be careful, but after that I took great pains to ensure you wouldn’t find me distasteful.”
He blinked his large eyes and spoke with utter sincerity.
His unconventional ethics left her speechless, but…….
‘Now I’m even finding things like this endearing of him.’
Blaming it all on that handsome face of his, she leaned toward him.
When she brushed her lips lightly against his cheek, a faint mark of rouge smeared across his skin.
Caught off guard by the sudden contact, he froze like a wax figure.
Cecilia laughed with delight at her own audacity.
With only a kiss mark on him, he looked every bit the dissolute man.
‘Yet in reality he panics over a single kiss like this.’
His ears and cheeks would turn crimson, shame blooming across his features. Cecilia waited eagerly for his response.
But his reaction was entirely unexpected.
His eyes—dark and sunken like that distant day, focus blurred—fixed upon her.
He seemed to apologize, to offer some helpless excuse, perhaps even to mutter something like a curse. Murmuring something brief, he cupped her cheek in his large hand and pressed his lips to hers again.
This kiss was hungrier, far more blatant than before. His relentless pressure tilted her head back, and with each movement they deepened, meshing further into that heated space.
After a long, lingering kiss that descended from indulgence into something almost predatory, their lips finally parted.
At a distance where their breaths mingled, she called his name like a cry.
“Lien.”
“……Yes.”
His ragged voice, rough and muffled, was achingly beautiful to her ears.
Cecilia, still catching her breath, ran her tongue across her wet lips.
“There is, after all, still quite a distance to the next gate, and right now it’s just us two here. So…….”
…….”
“Why don’t we do something important?”
Cecilia’s lips curved upward smoothly as she traced the kiss mark that had spread across his mouth with her fingertip, her tone deliberately suggestive.
For a moment his breathing grew shallow, his eyes narrowing. She could sense it—he looked like a starved predator desperate to devour her whole.
Cecilia placed her hand on his heaving chest and leaned closer.
“So now shall we…….”

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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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