If I Were the Tower Master

Rien was a mage. That was no mere guess—it was a certainty.

Cecilia calmly retraced the events of the past. The pain from her wound vanishing the moment his hand touched it. The garden filled with daisies overnight.

The latter might have been possible if several people had worked together planting the flowers, but this wasn't the season when flower merchants visited the region.

And finally, that sense of dissonance she'd felt at the temple. When he called her name, for a fleeting instant, time itself seemed to slow.

No—it wasn't an illusion. Time had definitely slowed.

None of it made sense unless he was a mage.

Cecilia recalled the rest of their lesson as well.

"And the remaining one among the prominent magical houses?"

"The Chetwinds, who have produced Tower Masters for generations. The Magic Tower is an institution unrelated to politics, so one could say it's vaguely neutral."

According to his explanation, not every mage belonged to the emperor's faction. But it was common knowledge that most mages did not get along well with the Temple.

They believed in science that could be proven rather than a god whose existence could not, and pursued knowledge in search of infinite possibilities.

In that sense, their ideology was rather similar to that of a woman who had come from twenty-first-century Korea.

So the fact that Rien was hiding his identity as a mage from the Weberdins—a holy family—and from her, who was called the Saintess, wasn't really a major problem. At least, that was how she saw it.

But there was a separate issue she simply could not overlook.

"No—you're the Tower Master, aren't you?"

The problem was that he was a nerd hiding his power... no, the Tower Master.

Magic that could manipulate time itself. And the name of the Tower Master written in the newspaper.

Asilien Chetwind

Using part of his name as an alias. It was the kind of scheme that would only work on the female protagonists of novels who completely lost all common sense when it came to romance.

Normally, the moment a true identity was revealed came long after the first meeting—at least fifty chapters into a novel, if one were to put it that way.

But this man, who was not skilled at lying, had left far too many clues for Cecilia to simply look the other way.

At the question that pinpointed the truth, Rien clenched his fist tightly. Like someone driven to the edge of a cliff, he wandered for a moment before miserably closing his eyelids.

"...If I were that Tower Master, would you abandon me?"

Did he even realize that this answer just now was as good as confessing his identity?

"Can I take that as a yes?"

"...I'm sorry."

She had never owned him in the first place. Cecilia gazed at him with a peculiar look as he fretted over the possibility of being abandoned.

"I never intended to deceive you—no, I did intend to deceive you, but I never meant to make a fool of you, Lady Cecilia."

In truth, when she first realized his identity, Cecilia hadn't been particularly surprised.

A man that handsome couldn't possibly be a mere supporting character, so she had already guessed he might be a prince temporarily hiding his power and identity amid a power struggle, a grand duke concealing his status to break a curse, or a Tower Master who pretended to be naive while hiding some sinister purpose.

But the fact that he was the Tower Master among those options was a bit unexpected.

The Tower Master was a figure of such renown that even she, only three months into this other world, had heard the rumors.

And not good ones.

The previous Tower Masters may not have been particularly charitable, but they had been individuals suited to the Magic Tower's purpose of pursuing scholarship.

This generation's Tower Master, however, was trailed by terrifying scandals: that he had beheaded his master, the previous Tower Master, and usurped the position as a patricidal villain; that he was trash who had sunk into gambling, drugs, and women; that he was a monster who went around killing innocent people.

That's why I guessed Rien's identity leaned more toward a hidden illegitimate child of the imperial family.

She had predicted that his gloominess and low self-esteem must have stemmed from some secret of birth, an unfortunate past, something of that sort.

And yet the nerd next door was that Tower Master.

"I'm truly, truly sorry."

Cecilia coldly stared down at the man who looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.

In any case, a dark mastermind who hid his true nature as a romantic partner was disqualified. Weren't black-curtain characters the type whose default was confinement and obsession?

Obsessive men were fine when reading about them, but to a modern person from the twenty-first century, they were no different from criminals.

She absolutely did not want to experience human rights violations like being locked in a cage or having both her legs broken.

Shuddering at the mere thought, Cecilia asked coolly,

"Are you a villainous mastermind, by any chance?"

"...What?"

"Like, you plan to rebel if things go south, or kill your subordinates when you're in a bad mood, or think this world is beneath your feet and it'd be fine if it all went to ruin... Is that it?"

"What?! D-do people like that even exist?"

That's you, though.

When she stared at him pointedly with that meaning, Rien's face went deathly pale. In his desperation, he shook both his head and hands vigorously at once.

"I-I know the rumors about me aren't good, and it's true my personality wasn't great as a child, but I'm not like that now! Please believe me!"

But he was hiding far too much for her to simply nod along. He also lied frequently.

Unable to let go of her suspicion and wariness, Cecilia continued with questions that felt like an interrogation.

"What would you do if the person you liked liked someone else?"

"...Do you have someone you like?"

What? Was this a confession right now?

She was momentarily flustered, but his eyes remained purely innocent.

Is this some ploy to lower my guard?

But she wouldn't be fooled anymore. Unfazed even by the assault of his ridiculously handsome face, Cecilia replied firmly.

"It's a hypothetical."

"I... think I would ask to simply be allowed to stay by their side."

Not confinement?

The unexpected answer left her speechless.

Is this really the infamous Tower Master?

Cecilia barely managed to hold onto her crumbling wariness and pressed him once more.

"And if even that was refused?"

"Then..."

Suddenly the man bit his lip hard.

I knew it—confinement!

"...I think I would cry."

As if the mere thought upset him, his purple eyes, resembling wisteria blossoms, grew moist.

Hmm. Pass.

Cecilia stared intently at the man who held his breath, waiting for the verdict.

Truth and lies were difficult to distinguish. Even so, Cecilia decided to believe in the actions and emotions he had shown so far, and even his answers just now.

It wasn't because his words sank into her heart with a depth different from usual, nor because those anxious eyes were as beautiful as magnolias. And it most certainly wasn't because that teary face and pitiful answer perfectly matched her tastes.

...Anyway, it wasn't.

Cecilia deliberately softened the stern expression she had been maintaining and asked, almost like a sigh.

"I'll believe that Rien is different from the rumors. But I'd like you to explain why you tried to deceive me."

That was a matter directly connected to trust. No matter how obvious the lies were, if he constantly put them in his mouth, a day would come when she would be truly and deeply disappointed.

She urged an answer with silence. Like someone whose throat was being choked, he labored to breathe before finally parting his lips.

"Because Lady Cecilia is a Weberdin and the Saintess, I thought you would hate me if I told you I was someone who used magic."

"Was that also why you tried to pass yourself off as a gardener?"

"...Yes."

He anxiously clasped his hands together. Cecilia quietly looked down at the backs of his hands, where the veins stood out. He must have been gripping them quite hard; the overlapping parts were rapidly turning pale.

Suddenly, she thought that the real 'Cecilia Weberdin' might well have done just that.

She would likely have been suspicious of a mage from the capital—especially one who was the Tower Master—harbored hostility, and ultimately kept him at a distance.

Just like the head of the Weberdin family, who had openly displayed his hatred.

"So you hid your identity from my father as well."

That was a realization that struck her in the moment.

If he had known Rien was the Tower Master—or even just that he was a mage—Marquis Weberdin would never have permitted him to be brought in as Cecilia's tutor.

"Then when you said you were a professor..."

"I never lied about my career! It's just that, well, rather than the history major I wrote on my resume... I majored in theoretical magic."

Right. With the skill to rise to the position of Tower Master at such a young age, the title of academy professor wouldn't be a lie either.

But the problem wasn't the titles or career he possessed.

Why a man of such high standing was hiding his identity here. That was the problem.

"What is the reason the Tower Master who even served as an academy professor has come all the way to Weberdin? And of all places, right next door to the Weberdin estate?"

His hunched shoulders heaved greatly. The man who had desperately continued his excuses fell silent this time, unable to answer easily.

But the confession was not yet over. The sinner once more hung his head low and offered the belated truth.

"That is..."