The Nerd Next Door Turned Out To Be The Magic Tower Master [Novel] Chapter 18

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

He waved his hand dismissively, mumbling his way out of the question, but she hadn’t asked because she failed to hear him. It was purely because what he’d said was so bewildering.

‘Nothing, my foot. I heard every word.’

Unfortunately for him, she was not the kind of novel heroine who couldn’t make out someone muttering right in front of her face.

‘…Well. I suppose it means Plan D is progressing nicely.’

Cecilia resolved to pretend she knew nothing whatsoever about her prospective lover’s fetishes.

So the way Rien glanced around nervously before tucking the handkerchief back against his chest, the way he smiled with his face flushed pink in obvious satisfaction — she saw none of it.

Whether or not he sensed her valiant effort, Rien returned to his usual composure and turned toward the door.

“I’ll go fetch something to drink, then.”

“Sure.”

The moment his broad back vanished from sight, Cecilia dropped onto the sofa with a thud.

As a rule, an electronic device that had lost its portable charger needed to stay in power-saving mode.

Without even lifting her head, she rolled her eyes around to check the time.

The practice must have run longer than she thought — it was already well past lunch.

‘Was I extra tired because I’m hungry?’

Having identified why her body had been unsteady, Cecilia suddenly remembered the basket she’d left on a corner of the desk.

‘Come to think of it, Melanie packed me a snack.’

Melanie, who’d been fretting over her mistress growing more exhausted by the day, had insisted she at least not skip meals and pressed the food on her.

The rattan basket should contain a tempting egg sandwich and a strawberry smoothie.

‘It’s a nice day — maybe I’ll ask him to have lunch together in the garden.’

Gathering up her depleted motivation and the basket, Cecilia dragged herself out of the room.

‘Is Rien in the kitchen?’

She couldn’t remember where the kitchen was, but it was probably somewhere on the first floor. With that guess, she set off in a straight line.

Only her footsteps echoed through the silent corridor, clop after clop.

She would have liked to ask someone for directions, but just like when she’d first barged into the manor, there wasn’t a servant in sight.

Instead, brooms swept on their own throughout the house, and rags squeaked as they wiped the windows by themselves.

‘It’s like a haunted house.’

After his identity was revealed, he’d stopped hiding the magic inscribed throughout the manor.

The first time she saw a feather duster defying gravity and bobbing through the air, the shock was immense. She’d almost felt compelled to send Newton a letter of condolence.

Turning her eyes from the now-familiar sight, Cecilia looked around.

If her memory was right, rounding the corner should lead to the lobby connected to the entrance hall — but she was still in the middle of a corridor.

‘Wasn’t it a right turn?’

Perhaps because she’d always moved around with Rien guiding her. She’d suddenly become lost.

The one consolation was that the corridor looked familiar.

‘I think this is somewhere he showed me when he gave me the tour on the first day.’

If she recalled correctly, that room with the dark wooden door was supposed to be his bedroom.

Rien’s bedroom.

A flicker of indecent curiosity stirred, but she possessed at least enough common sense to know one shouldn’t invade someone’s private space without permission.

Her brief internal struggle resolved, Cecilia forced herself to walk on like someone who’d noticed absolutely nothing.

But she didn’t get far before stopping dead in her tracks.

Right next to the bedroom, a blatantly suspicious room had appeared.

A narrow door that looked barely half the size of the bedroom door. And a strange inscription at handle height that resembled a magic circle.

Moreover, the squiggling characters inside the inscription were moving as though drifting on water.

‘Some kind of secret room?’

Cecilia, having finally thrown common sense out the window, was just placing her hand on the door handle when—

A large hand settled over the back of hers.

“It would be best not to enter this room. It hasn’t been tidied.”

She traced her gaze up along the black fingerless glove that just barely covered her hand.

Rien stood behind her like a wall, having approached without a sound.

Guilty as a child caught misbehaving, Cecilia’s heart lurched, and she casually released the handle.

“I’m sorry. The inscription was so interesting, I was just looking at it and then…”

She apologized with a deliberately sulky expression. As expected, Rien looked thoroughly flustered and shook his head in a hurry.

“Oh, no — it’s just that this is something like a storage room, and I’d be embarrassed to show it…”

‘Do people normally lock up a room that’s just storage? With magic, no less?’

Just before he caught her, she’d tried turning the handle. It hadn’t budged.

There was no visible keyhole, so it must be locked by magic.

But everyone had a space where they hid the things they wanted to keep secret.

She thought of the diary stashed in the bottom desk drawer back home, the self-penned poems from her black-dragon-raising days, and the ever-growing collection of 19+ novels she’d bought one by one.

‘Fine. Dropping the subject immediately.’

She didn’t want to kill Rien with shame.

“Still, I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“Not at all! Anywhere in the manor is fine except here. Oh — would you like to see the bedroom right next door?”

The bedroom.

The battle between reason and instinct was extremely brief.

A mere five seconds had passed since she’d said she’d be careful. Cecilia accepted his offer without hesitation.

“If you don’t mind.”

He was volunteering to show her his most intimate space — there was no reason to refuse.

“Of course I don’t mind. I’m just a little embarrassed because there’s not much to see.”

Toddling after him, Cecilia realized his words were no false modesty.

Inside the spacious room, a single large bed sat alone like a sailboat adrift on the open sea.

“Wow, you really… weren’t kidding.”

A sound escaped her — half admiration, half lament.

The only interior decoration was a set of heavy blackout curtains that didn’t match the room at all.

“The room feels so empty. Why not fill it with some furniture at least?”

“Well, the truth is I rarely sleep in the bedroom.”

“What? Then where do you sleep?”

“Usually on the sofa in the room we use for lessons, or the cot I have set up in the laboratory.”

“The laboratory?”

‘I feel like I just heard a word that triggers trauma.’

When Cecilia repeated it with a grimace, Rien’s eyes lit up.

“Yes. It’s in the basement — shall I show you?”

“No. That’s one place I’d rather not tour.”

Cecilia shook her head, very fast and very firm.

Because the memory had surfaced: sleeping in snatches under a thin blanket on a hastily cleared lab bench in the corner, running experiments on a two-hour cycle.

Just recalling it triggered a reflex urge to go home.

Twice as exhausted now, Cecilia left the bedroom without a backward glance.

“I’ve seen everything, so I’ll head home for today.”

The plan to have lunch together had just been vetoed.

Judging by the way he lived, she should be donating supplies rather than sharing a meal.

“Here — it’s a sandwich and juice. You eat it, Rien.”

“Pardon?”

Caught off guard, Rien accepted the basket and blinked his large eyes.

“…You prepared this for me?”

That wasn’t exactly true, but Cecilia gave an approximate nod.

It was a gift for him now either way, so the meaning was the same.

“It’s so precious I’m not sure I could bring myself to eat it.”

“Don’t let it go to waste. Eat it.”

“Yes!”

Rien cradled the basket against himself with one arm as if he’d been given some priceless treasure.

His reaction was even more delighted than she’d anticipated, and she felt the faintest prick of guilt.

Ahem. Cecilia cleared her throat softly and spoke.

“Well, I’m off.”

“I’ll escort you to the estate.”

The offer was hardly necessary when they were next-door neighbors.

But Rien always walked her to the Weberdin front gate whenever lessons were held at his manor.

“Sure.”

Cecilia placed her hand on his arm with practiced ease.

Thanks to the master of the house, she reached the entrance without getting lost again.

She was about to step out of the manor when something occurred to her, and she let out an “Ah!” of realization.

“Oh — the past few days, guests have been coming and going constantly because of the Relief Festival and that other celebration. The front gate will be hectic, so it’ll be better to go around to the back entrance.”

“I did notice more bustle than usual near the estate — so that was why.”

The commotion had been enough to wake her every morning, so Rien must have noticed too.

“It’s the biggest event held in Weberdin, so it’s always like this around now. The festival itself is supposed to be enormous… Have you ever been to something like it, Rien?”

“Yes. But it was so long ago I can barely remember.”

In that instant, a good idea she’d shelved for the moment flashed through her mind.

“Which is why — if you’re free tomorrow, would you like to go to the festival with me?”