Master, I Swear I Didn’t Mean To! - Chapter 3

❖ ❖ ❖

“Eki.”

It was last night. Normally, she would have already finished work and returned to her dormitory, since living in this wretched backwoods meant lodging in the tower itself. But instead, Eki was still in the laboratory with Cassius, blankly drawing out magic circles.

“Eki. Can’t you hear me?”

“Uh-huh, yes……”

“That’s enough for now, go get some sleep.”

“No. How are you going to manage all this alone, Master…”

“Seeing the drool hanging from your lips puts me in a foul mood, I can’t draw the formulas like this. Go sleep.”

Eki shot Cursius a frosty glare. Then, primly tapping the corner of her mouth, she tidied up her workbench.

“I’ve finished thirty top-grade healing magic circles and two hundred mid-grade enhancement potions. What’s left are the matured luck potion circles…”

“I know that.”

“You always forget, Master. Listen properly when I explain.”

To match Cassius’s eccentric temper, Eki too had undergone her own evolution. After seven years of living with him in the tower, bickering and tussling day after day, this level of backtalk was nothing new.

Cassius’s thick brows shot upward, but Eki paid him no mind as she listed the types of circles ordered by the Mage Association. Then, leaving the laboratory, she added,

“Don’t stay up all night. You’ll ruin your health.”

“Needless worry.”

“Good night then. I’ll come in the morning.”

Cassius didn’t spare her a glance, only carving circles into the air. At his dazzling speed and precision, Eki clicked her tongue in awe, then headed off to her room.

‘I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in a week.’

Around this season, the Gailard Mage Association always placed orders for all sorts of potions and circles. With only two people working in the Thousand Dog Tower, she had always asked them to reduce the volume, but once again, this year’s overtime bomb had exploded.

‘Master has no intention of taking another apprentice, and the Association has no intention of lowering the orders.’

Caught between the two whales, it was poor little shrimp Eki whose back was breaking. Still, she thought of the overtime pay Cassius would hand over and smiled brightly. If she imagined the gold, overtime was nothing.

By morning, Eki returned straight to the lab. Unlike her, who had gotten a decent rest, Cassius looked haggard, as if he had stayed awake through the night, eyes fixed on parchment.

“Ah, you’re here.”

He immediately lifted his hand from the parchment and jerked his chin at her.

“Sort it.”

“Yesyes.”

Eki pulled a wooden box from under the desk and carefully gathered up the parchments Cassius handed over.

He collapsed onto a sofa at the side of the lab, pressing his fingers against the furrow between his brows. A long-stemmed pipe, decorated with silver fittings, materialized between his fingers. Whenever fatigue piled up, Cassius would smoke from it.

She had once hinted that smoking indoors was against the law in most countries, but he had only replied that it wasn’t tobacco inside, but herbs.

‘Herbs or whatever, it’s just an eyesore.’

But when Cassius held the pipe between his lips, he was so sexy she could almost drool. Reclining on the sofa, his loose robe slipping down his shoulders as he exhaled smoke… Oh, what a sight to behold.

Eki stole glances at him, secretly giving him a score.

‘Today’s Cassius, 120 points.’

For reference, his all-time highest was 260 points. That had been the time when, while extracting mana stones from a slime, he was doused in slime ooze and his white clothes clung to his skin, revealing the body beneath.

‘That was to die for.’

Grinning wickedly, Eki finished packing away the parchments.

“Master, where’s the luck potion?”

“…Potion?”

“The ultra-strong luck potion. I told you, once it finishes maturing we’ve got to embed it into a circle.”

Magic potions were generally produced by the sequence of maturing, then enchantment. The ultra-strong luck potion Eki spoke of was no exception.

“Ah.”

As if only just remembering, Cassius flicked his finger. In response, a stoppered vial from the high shelf wobbled and floated down.

“The process is mostly done.”

“Master, you should’ve left the stopper closed. It’ll spill.”

“It won’t.”

“You’re exhausted right now. Didn’t you tell me once that using magic while sleepy greatly raises the chance of malfunction…”

“Stop nagging.”

Just then, as Cassius furrowed his brow, unbelievably, his magic faltered. The vial, which had been bobbing in the air, dropped in an instant.

Eki’s eyes flew wide, and even Cassius flinched, startled, turning his head. He leapt to his feet, but Eki, shrieking, was faster as she lunged forward.

“Nooo! My hard labor!!”