“Have you become close enough to defend him while insulting me?”
“I only learned his name today. Why do you keep suspecting things?”
A question one of the mages had asked while she was waiting in the lobby came to mind.
“By any chance, when you were dragged into the office last time, did they subject you to some kind of mental torture?”
“...Does the Magic Tower do things like that?”
“If not, then never mind.”
At the time, she had wondered why he would say something like that.
Maybe Cade harassed not only government officials but even his fellow mages because he trusted no one.
It would be better for everyone if I returned to the Imperial Palace as soon as possible.
Vivian neatly spread the documents she had carefully selected since the previous night across the desk.
Seeing this, Cade, who had been standing with his arms crossed and his mouth shut, tilted his head slightly.
“I thought you'd given up on getting the seal. You acted like you'd come every day, then suddenly disappeared.”
“There were circumstances.”
When she tapped the desk as if telling him to choose, Cade reluctantly sat down.
Perhaps the misunderstanding regarding Ben had been resolved. The stiffness in his face seemed slightly less severe.
“You only need to stamp one of them. No matter which one you pick, the Magic Tower won't lose anything.”
She spoke confidently, but as he began reading through the key points of each document, tension gradually filled her chest.
"Donate one million gil to Melgot Orphanage every month."
"Conduct two days of joint training with the Coastal Guard every month."
"Submit a report whenever a monster-subjugation operation is carried out for the Empire's safety."
"Construct additional Magic Tower branches in the western and southern regions of the continent and entrust all management to the Magic Tower."
Come on. These should be acceptable, right?
Her eyes sparkled with anticipation as she waited for him to take out his seal.
Instead, Cade gathered all the documents together and flipped them over.
“I read them because I appreciate the effort you put in, but I have no intention of stamping any of them.”
“...You don't like these either?”
Unable to believe it, she picked one of the overturned documents and pushed it back toward him.
“Forget the others. Isn't getting additional branches a good thing for the Magic Tower?”
“Just give up.”
“...”
The document slipped from her fingers.
The official papers she had spent so much time carefully selecting suddenly felt like nothing more than useless sheets of paper.
The despair was almost as great as when she had thought he was leaving the Magic Tower because of her.
It felt as though an invisible wall stood firmly between them.
Wait...
There was something she had suspected ever since her first visit to the Magic Tower.
A suspicion she always dismissed because she couldn't believe he would be that petty.
“Cade. Could it be... that you're refusing simply because I'm the one who brought these perfectly valid documents?”
“That's not it.”
He immediately denied it with a sigh, but she couldn't believe him.
“Then what exactly is the problem?”
“You wouldn't understand. Those documents aren't all there is to it...”
Cade trailed off, then suddenly stood up and shot a sharp glance toward the window.
He cast some unknown spell outside and then forcefully drew the curtains shut.
Before she could even ask what he was doing, he spoke stiffly.
“You came at a bad time.”
The ridiculous excuse left her speechless.
Now he was just saying anything.
“What, now you're blaming the date?”
“It's not good for us to be seen together outside the Magic Tower. We shouldn't have met again in the first place.”
“...”
The moment she heard those words, a dull ache spread through her chest.
She hadn't come to Melgot because she wanted to.
She hadn't deliberately searched for Cade either.
Still, we weren't enemies, were we? Even if I disliked you, you didn't seem to feel strongly about me.
When they met at the banquet, when they rode in the same carriage, the atmosphere hadn't been unbearably awkward.
“You know very well that you're tired of me. I remember that's why you left.”
“Vivian.”
“Even so, this is work. Official business. No matter how much of a troublemaker you are, you should separate your personal and professional affairs.”
“The part about being tired of you...”
“Not true? Then explain it. If you didn't break up with me because you were tired of me, then tell me what the reason was.”
Even as she pressed him with a trembling voice, Cade ultimately looked away without answering.
A hot surge of emotion rose inside her.
She snatched up the remaining documents on the desk and crumpled them tightly in her fist.
“Don't worry about meeting at the banquet. That was just a coincidence. From now on, unless it's work-related, we won't meet outside the Magic Tower.”
Without even saying goodbye, she turned around.
No voice called out to stop her.
Even though they were ex-lovers, the fact that she had been a little happy to see him again after so long made her chest sting.
If he's rejecting everything simply because I'm the one bringing the documents, I'll need a different strategy.
She tried to calm herself by thinking of this as merely an extension of work.
As she steadied her emotions and grabbed the office doorknob—
Knock. Knock.
A knock sounded right in front of her.
“Lord Tower Master, another government official has arrived...”
It was Ben, the aide.
What did he just say? Another government official?
She had heard nothing about such a thing.
Startled, she glanced back at Cade.
Judging by his expression, he didn't know either.
“Send them in.”
At his words, Vivian stepped aside from the door.
Then she saw the person entering the office with Ben.
Her heart dropped.
“W-Why are you...?”
As she involuntarily stepped backward, the man dressed neatly in an official uniform smiled gently.
“It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Tower Master. I'm Aster from the Imperial Palace. A terrestrial monster ecology investigator.”
While Vivian stood frozen, Cade looked Aster up and down suspiciously.
“There was no need to send two officials.”
“Before we discuss anything, I'd like to apologize on behalf of our side.”
“There are too many things to apologize for.”
Aster's eyebrow twitched at Cade's indifferent response.
Then, unexpectedly, he looked at Vivian.
A sense of foreboding tightened her chest.
Please. Don't say that word. Anyone but Cade—just not in front of him...!
Her desperate wish was mercilessly ignored.
“I never imagined that our ‘parachute hire’ would come to meet the Lord Tower Master without even wearing a proper uniform.”
When Cade's puzzled gaze shifted toward her, her mind reeled and she squeezed her eyes shut.
“...Parachute hire?”
“Oh, my apologies. The term just slipped out. Though... I suppose you didn't know?”
Apparently having no intention of stopping there, Aster smiled faintly and continued.
Vivian quickly grabbed his arm and whispered urgently.
“Aster. Stop.”
“Stop what? He seems curious, so I'm simply explaining.”
Aster's amused tone was chilling in a completely different way from the unruly Tower Master.
Despite his model-student appearance and gentlemanly manner of speaking, he was no different from a devil in Vivian's eyes.
“Do you really have to do this? This is Melgot. Not the Monster Ecology Bureau, and not the Imperial Palace.”
“So what? I'm here to work too. What, did you think I came all the way here to torment you because my promotion was canceled after you got in through connections?”
His loud voice carried clearly enough for everyone to hear.
Vivian felt the blood drain from her body.
“There's no need to make a scene here.”
“Vivian, look around. The only person causing a commotion right now is you.”
“...”
She couldn't even argue with his lecturing tone.
Everything had already been exposed in front of Cade.
She had loudly preached about separating work from personal matters, but her professional credibility had collapsed before it even had a chance to stand on its own.
The humiliation made her head burn.
She felt as though she might faint.
In fact, she wished she would.
Clenching her trembling hands, she lowered her gaze, unable to meet Cade's eyes.
“Are you not planning to answer my question?”
There was irritation in Cade's voice.
Only then did Aster rummage through his bag and approach the Tower Master.
Though he appeared tense, he didn't seem particularly frightened.
“I was dispatched because it's been quite some time since the Palace sent someone here, and yet we've received no reports. I became concerned that our parachute hire might be causing trouble for the Lord Tower Master.”
Vivian was confused.
Why wasn't Aster afraid of the Tower Master?
She clearly remembered him worrying about the possibility of being assigned to the Magic Tower.
“AAAH!”
Suddenly, Aster screamed while pulling documents from his bag.
The papers had burst into flames.
“...!”
Vivian also felt a sudden heat at her fingertips and instinctively shook her hand.
The documents she had been holding were burning fiercely as well.