The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master [Novel] Chapter 4

“Then instead of forgiving you, will you do me one favor?”

“A favor…”

“Before that, I have a few questions.”

With a small ahem, Cecilia cleared her throat and finally asked the questions that had been nagging her since last night.

“Are you unmarried?”

“…Pardon?”

He looked so bewildered, as though doubting his own ears.

But when Cecilia offered no correction and simply pressed him for an answer with her eyes, he nodded in a hurry.

“Yes, yes!”

“Then do you happen to have a secret lover your parents disapprove of?”

“What? No!”

“An arranged fiancée between families, perhaps?”

“N-not at all.”

“A childhood friend you’ve kept in your heart all this time?”

“I don’t, but…”

Oh. He passes.

“Um, may I ask why you’re asking all this…?”

“Just curious.”

Having finally finished her questions, Cecilia nodded in satisfaction.

No matter how urgent things were, she couldn’t very well covet what belonged to someone else.

With her mind considerably more at ease, Cecilia laid bare her desire without hesitation.

“What I’d like to ask is that while you’re here, my lord—”

“Rien is fine.”

“Right. Rien, while you’re on the estate, I was hoping you’d spend time with me like this every now and then. I never attended the Academy, so I don’t have a single friend.”

I was a grad student back in my world, and here I haven’t even finished primary school.

More than being left without a single friend, it was her drastically shortened academic credentials that made the anger flare up again — but the moment she saw his dumbfounded face, the irritation vanished like a lie.

“Are you really… sure that would be all right?”

“Of course.”

Fortunately, the favor that would serve as the groundwork for Plan D seemed to have been received quite positively.

Cecilia responded enthusiastically to his hesitation and quickly added:

“Oh, and Rien, you can call me by my name too.”

“…Lady Cecilia.”

She’d expected him to be at least a little flustered by the somewhat premature suggestion. Instead, he looked even more moved than before.

As if building a connection with someone — calling someone by name — was something entirely new to him.

Wait, does this man… not have any friends?

With that timid personality, it was entirely possible he’d been overshadowed among the capital’s haughty nobles, never able to hold his own.

She cast him a pitying look.

Whether he realized he’d just earned her sympathy or not, Rien murmured Cecilia one more time, savoring the name, and quietly lifted the corners of his mouth.

Just as she’d expected — a smile as beautiful as a daisy.

The morning in this other world was clear as ever.

Unlike those past days when she’d dragged herself out of bed, chewing over the failure of one plan after another, Cecilia rose with a light heart.

All thanks to Plan D, which was sailing along smoothly.

We’ve become something like friends, at least. The weather’s nice today — maybe I should suggest a picnic?

If she threw in the excuse of thanking him for treating her hand, it would be hard for him to refuse.

Having finished a quick touch-up, Cecilia scooped up the ball of fur from under the bed.

“Charles, you’re coming with me today too, right?”

For the record, the name “Charles” had been borrowed from a scientist she admired.

Charles seemed to possess an intellect as evolved as his namesake’s, because he answered with a short mya~ as if he understood every word.

“All right, let’s stop by the kitchen first, and then—”

“You’re going next door again, aren’t you?”

“Aagh, you scared me!”

An ominous voice cut in from nowhere.

Cecilia whipped around in surprise.

Melanie, who had been standing behind the half-open door like a ghost, gave a brief bow and strode forward.

“My lady, I’ve told you before — getting close to a man whose background we know nothing about is dangerous!”

“Rien isn’t dangerous.”

“Good heavens, you’ve already exchanged names? Really, you never used to be like this.”

“Well, the fever…”

Stung, Cecilia let her words trail off.

[My lady, you’ve been a little strange lately…]

[The thing is… ever since the illness, my memory’s been a bit hazy.]

When Melanie, who had watched over Cecilia more closely than anyone, had noticed something off and asked, that was the excuse Cecilia had given.

[What? Then forget all this — we need to call a priest right away!]

[No! I don’t want to worry Father any more than I already have. My memory will come back in time. Okay?]

The desperate plea must have worked, because Melanie couldn’t bring herself to refuse the request to keep the secret.

Still, she seemed utterly unable to adjust to the 180-degree change in her mistress’s behavior.

Unable to hide her worry and distress, Melanie soon shook her head.

“Either way, you can’t go today.”

“…Why?”

At those thunderbolt words, Cecilia’s hands went slack and she dropped Charles onto the bed with a thud.

“The young master returned this morning. The Marquis has ordered you to attend luncheon, so you need to start getting ready now.”

“…The young master?”

There was only one person Melanie would call young master.

None other than Cecilia’s only older brother and heir to House Weberdin — Nox Weberdin.

In other words, Cecilia’s big brother.

Cecilia’s expression crumpled, though for an entirely different reason than before.

An older brother.

The language patch — a basic passive of transmigration — had mercifully been installed, but memories had not.

What’s more, when she’d first transmigrated, Nox had happened to be away in the capital, so she had never once met him.

Put simply: she had absolutely no idea how to act around her own brother to seem like the real Cecilia.

It doesn’t seem like they’re on bad terms, at least.

Cecilia pulled out the letter she’d shoved to the bottom of her desk drawer.

Her sole point of contact with him was a single letter sent from the capital.

<I heard you were really sick, so I’m sending a painkiller that’s been popular in the capital lately.>

She’d been told that Cecilia had been seriously ill just before the transmigration.

The fact that he’d gone to the trouble of sending a letter and a gift even from far away meant he must care about his younger sister quite a bit.

You know the type — a staple of romance fantasy. The doting older brother, handsome and accomplished, who adores his little sister.

The enclosed painkiller, however, had tasted absolutely atrocious, as if every vile medicinal ingredient in existence had been mixed into it.

The harrowing flavor, impossible to forget, made Cecilia shudder.

At any rate, the news might not be as bad as she’d feared.

He could become an ally, like Melanie.

Of course, that was premised on him not finding out she wasn’t really Cecilia.

“At this rate we’ll be late! Hurry, let’s get you changed.”

Checking the time, Melanie promptly rolled up both sleeves.

In the end, wrestled out of her comfortable dress and into a formal gown, Cecilia headed for the dining room, trailing her long skirt behind her.

She hadn’t even had time to settle the unease churning between worry and anticipation.

The moment she reached the entrance, she found herself face-to-face with him.

“CiCi!”

A man with features so noble he looked like a divine creation beloved by the gods of myth curved his verdant eyes gently and waved.

His golden hair, warm as spring sunlight, glittered so brightly she felt she could have spotted him from a hundred miles away.

Cecilia gave him a quick once-over and offered a careful greeting.

“Hello… Brother.”

Having lived her entire previous life as a certified eldest daughter, the title felt deeply unnatural.

Cecilia hid her goosebump-covered arms and fashioned a sweet smile.

That should be close enough to the normal Cecilia, right?

Contrary to her expectations, however, the man’s handsome face hardened into something grave.

Closing the distance in a single stride of his long legs, Nox seized both her cheeks and lifted her face.

“You — don’t tell me you’re still sick?”

His expression was so fraught with concern that Cecilia reflexively waved both hands.

“No! Thanks to your concern, Brother, I’ve made a full recovery.”

“But…”

He trailed off, and the crease between his brows showed no sign of smoothing.

So he really is a hopeless sister fanatic.

A sibling who doted on his younger sister to that extent.

Wasn’t that supposed to be an even more mythical creature than a unicorn?

[Hey! Emergency! Get to my room, now!]

[Quit lying and get lost. You’re just gonna ask me to turn off the lights again.]

[I’m telling you it’s an emergency!]

[Ugh, what!]

[Close the window for me.]

[I sincerely hope you drop dead.]

She recalled her exchanges with her actual younger sibling without difficulty.

Now that’s reality.

Just as the “transmigrated-into-a-book” theory was gaining even more credibility—

“No matter how I look at it, your head still isn’t right.”

“What?”

She snapped her head up at the low murmur from right beside her.

What was that — did I mishear?

She could have sworn he’d even clicked his tongue…

“Sorry, CiCi. It’s all my fault.”

“…What?”

“I’ve been diligently praying to the gods to take away that hopeless head of yours. But I never wanted you to get this strange.”

“…”

“Oh — could the medicine I sent have gone bad?”

“…The medicine you sent with the letter?”

“Yeah. I did pick the most foul-tasting one on purpose, but it wasn’t supposed to be poison.”

What the — give me back my romance-fantasy older brother.

Cecilia stared up at him with the hollow devastation of a raccoon who’d just lost its cotton candy.

Nox, still wearing that sweet smile, had her head clamped between his hands and was inspecting it from every angle.

“Um, Brother? My head hurts…”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“So if you could please let go of my head…”

“Sure. Let me find the wound first.”

“I told you I’m all better.”

“No. Between that skin-crawling title and the way you’re talking — there’s no way you’re in your right mind.”

The way he tilted his head was quite beautiful, but through her newly disillusioned eyes, it no longer registered.

All warmth extinguished, Cecilia twisted her trembling lips into a snarl.

“Get your hands off me, you lunatic.”