Chapter 11
▷ I Seriously Didn’t Mean To, Okay?
A small bump formed on the crown of Eki’s head.
“I didn’t mean to…”
“Silence.”
Fortunately, Cassius quickly summoned a new outer robe and changed. Of course, during that time, Eki had to wait for him outside the lab.
Once they had tidied up, the two of them sat far apart, maintaining silence. In the end, unable to hold back any longer, Eki was the one to open her mouth first.
“This can’t go on. Even after drinking the neutralizer, it’s completely useless!”
“That’s impossible. My potions are perfect.”
Cassius bit down on the stem of his pipe and sank into thought for a moment. Soon, he added,
“Perhaps… this is already the neutralized state.”
“What? Are you serious?” Eki asked back, baffled.
“…Yes.”
That couldn’t be. She had just seen Cassius’s bare a*s, and this was supposed to be neutralized?
“Anyway, now that you’ve taken the neutralizer, the luck potion’s effect will wear off in about a month.”
“A month?! In the meantime, every time I get near you, I’ll be tearing clothes or touching you or something! Are you sure you’re okay with that, Master?”
Cassius’s shoulders twitched faintly.
He still hadn’t spared Eki a single glance, only puffing on his pipe with stiff motions. As smoke drifted up in thick clouds, a vein bulged on Eki’s smooth forehead.
“And you even saw under my skirt.”
“I didn’t mean to do that!”
“Neither did I, you know? No, in my case, it was completely unintentional! You said yourself the effect of my luck potion is to throw me at you! So why did you end up seeing my underwear?!”
Now that she thought about it, it was strange.
If this kind of disgraceful situation was supposed to count as good fortune, then shouldn’t she be the one feasting her eyes on Cassius, not the other way around? So why had he accidentally flipped her dress during a magic mishap?
“Be honest. That wasn’t an accident, was it?”
“Eki!”
“You didn’t mess up the spell, did you? You did it on purpose!”
“Eki Provanet!”
Cassius’s face flared crimson. Folding his arms and crossing his legs tightly, he glared back at Eki, who was staring him down, and spoke in a low, weighty voice.
“Watch your mouth. What possible gain would I have from… from seeing that…”
“How should I know? You’re the one who used the spell.”
“I told you it was a mistake.”
“And I made mistakes too, so why am I the only one getting hit?”
“Then you can hit me too.”
And with that, those impossibly beautiful green eyes lit up like poison.
When Cassius’s eyes flashed, Eki flinched and hunched her shoulders.
‘Seriously…’
How could she possibly hit her master? She could talk back all she wanted, but raising a hand against him was unthinkable. Maybe after working together for thirty years or so she’d be able to hit him?
“…This won’t do.”
For now, she decided to let the skirt incident slide. There was something more important.
“We’ve got a mountain of magic circles to create together. What happens if every time we touch, this chaos breaks out?”
Cassius’s face went pale. He compulsively scooted further away from Eki. But there was only so much distance one could put between themselves when seated on facing sofas.
“The Association gave us a deadline we have to meet. We have to resume work starting tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“So I’m saying… how about this?”
Eki took a deep breath and made a cautious suggestion.
“Until the effect of this ultra-strong luck potion wears off, let’s agree to overlook everything that happens between us.”
“…What?”
“You know this too, Master. I’m not doing this because I harbor some wicked intent, right? You said it yourself, the potion is reacting strongly to my minor desires. But are you really going to hit me every single time I slip up?!”
Eki bowed her head low, showing the crown of her head. The spot Cassius had smacked earlier with a conjured pot still throbbed and was swollen.
“As long as you’re okay with it, let’s not react to every little mistake. Let’s just… compromise.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes!”
Truthfully, Eki had another reason for making this proposal.
‘What if I accidentally grope him again and he tries to fire me?’
What she feared most was losing her archmage master and her job. The embarrassing incidents with Cassius were uncomfortable and mortifying, but she absolutely did not want to be kicked out of the Thousand Dog Tower. If everything would return to normal in a month anyway, couldn’t she endure until then?
‘It’s not like I’m doing this on purpose…’
Cassius’s expression twisted at her words, his emotions clearly conflicted. As she said, they had to get back to making magic circles and potions starting tomorrow. If work were delayed over something as small as this—well, it wasn’t really a small matter, but still—it would be troublesome.
Then, Eki suggested,
“…How about we put it in writing? Like a contract.”
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