chapter 16
“You’re the one bullying me right now!”
Mage Tower Master Magia shouted, hiding her finger—clearly marked with bite marks—behind her back.
“You brat, you’re a human! Not a cat!”
“I’m gonna tell Grandma!”
“She’s not listening to a word I say!”
Just then, Deter arrived with drinks and guided Magia to the annex.
Nibelia and Aref followed closely behind, each holding a glass.
“Ahh,” Nibelia let out a satisfied sound after taking a sip of the sweet drink.
Aref glanced at her, then quietly took a sip as well, imitating her with a soft, “Ahh.”
“Tower Master.”
“What now…?”
They had only just arrived at the mansion, but Magia was already exhausted.
“Why did you come to Nini’s house?”
“I didn’t come to see you. I came for work.”
“The Tower Master works too? Nini works too!”
Nibelia ran ahead of Magia and handed her glass to Deter.
Meanwhile, Aref, left behind, had to endure Magia’s strange gaze alone.
“……”
Feeling intimidated for no reason, Aref avoided her eyes and quickly ran over to Nibelia.
Only then did Magia avert her gaze, looking like she’d made a mistake.
When Nibelia returned, she asked:
“Nini doesn’t have debt anymore, right? Paid it off by working?”
“What? You had debt?”
“1.28 million Uba.”
“…What on earth have you been doing?”
When they reached the annex, they ran into Ardorez, who was just heading to the reception room.
The moment Magia saw him, she thrust out her bitten finger and growled:
“Holy Knight! Don’t you have anything to say after seeing my finger?”
“The bone seems to have healed well?”
“Your granddaughter bit me! I was assaulted!”
“Did you point your finger at my granddaughter? Then you deserved it.”
“Scold her, you idiot!”
“Grandpa’s not an idiot! He’s a boss!”
Nibelia jumped in.
“To me, someone who’s lived over 200 years, everyone looks like an idiot.”
“The person calling others an idiot is the real idiot!”
“Nope. Everyone’s an idiot except the Tower Master!”
The argument between a 200-year-old tower master and a four-year-old who used to be a cat in her past life was utterly ridiculous.
“Anyway, good timing. You should all listen too.”
Ardorez shot Magia a disdainful look and brought the children into the reception room.
“First, my business.”
After sitting down, Magia lightly flicked her finger.
Suddenly, a round hole opened in midair, and a heavy pouch dropped out with a loud thud.
Aref quickly looked up in disbelief, but the hole vanished in an instant.
“Surprised?”
Magia smirked smugly.
“This is what magic—”
“Money!”
“…Ha. This cat really gets on my nerves.”
Inside the pouch were coins—no ordinary coins, but gold coins made of pure gold.
Nibelia couldn’t take her eyes off them.
In her two years of repeated failures, she had learned one important fact: gold coins were the most valuable currency.
“Tower Master.”
“What?”
“This… it’s Nini’s, right?”
“Why do you say that like it’s obvious…?”
Magia flicked Nibelia’s forehead lightly, telling her to wake up.
The money was the monthly rent Magia had to pay Ardorez for the building and land.
“This month’s rent, Holy Knight.”
“You didn’t skim anything off, did you?”
“Your granddaughter just proved who she takes after. Just like you—a former holy knight who’s as greedy as a thug.”
“What’s a thug?”
Rubbing her forehead, Nibelia asked.
“Someone like your grandfather.”
“Then that’s cool, right?”
“They say even a hedgehog thinks its own baby is cute… but this is the opposite.”
Ardorez used a scale he had prepared to measure the weight and volume of the gold coins—a magical tool Magia had made long ago.
“Grandpa.”
Nibelia, now beside him, asked:
“What’s rent?”
“It’s money people who can’t afford to buy a house pay to live in someone else’s house.”
“The Tower Master doesn’t have a house? At that age, still no house?”
“That’s right. Even at 200 years old, no house.”
Grandfather and granddaughter worked together to needle the Tower Master.
Magia suppressed her boiling anger.
‘Damn landlord…!’
If not for the rent, she would’ve smacked them both already!
The great Mage Tower—an ivory tower of knowledge and a cornerstone of the empire’s technological progress—was currently living on rent.
And the landlord? None other than Ardorez, the former marquis of the Deiamor family.
Every month, the tower paid him a massive sum.
‘I shouldn’t have drunk that day…!’
Forty years ago—
Near the end of the Crepatna War to eradicate monsters—
Magia had celebrated, drunk, and completely lost her senses.
In her drunken stupor, she made a fatal blunder:
“If the Saintess and the Holy Knight—hic!—fall in love and get married, then this great Tower Master will gift them the Mage Tower building and land—blegh!”
Everyone dismissed it as drunken nonsense.
But angered by being ignored, Magia sealed it with an unbreakable magical oath on the spot.
And after the war ended—
Saintess Muniel and Holy Knight Ardorez received the tower and land as a wedding gift.
While everyone else cheered, Magia openly wept tears of blood.
It was the most humiliating moment of her 200-year life.
“Tower Master.”
As Magia trembled at the memory, Nibelia tapped her knee.
“Cat…”
Was she trying to comfort her?
The warmth of the child’s touch made her eyes sting.
“Move. Nini wants to lie down.”
“……”
Sulking like a child, Magia stood up. Nibelia promptly sprawled across the sofa.
“You got the rent, right? I’m leaving now.”
“Before that, I have a request.”
“If it’s not about lowering the rent, I won’t listen.”
“If you agree, I’ll consider it.”
“…Well, since I came all this way, I should at least have some tea.”
Magia sat back down, ignoring that she had just sat on Nibelia’s legs.
Ardorez said:
“Can Nini and Aref attend the Mage Tower’s affiliated kindergarten?”
* * *
“Are you out of your mind? Have you really gone senile now?”
“The Mage Tower kindergarten is for the children of tower mages! Why bring in outsiders?!”
“And not just any outsiders—the granddaughter of that stingy Holy Knight who collects rent like a bloodsucker?!”
“I swear, I regret not stopping you when you got drunk back then!”
The elders of the Mage Tower exploded in outrage.
It was already bad enough they’d been paying rent for 40 years—rent they never should’ve owed!
Now they were being asked to take in children from the Deiamor family too?
The elders shouted furiously.
But Magia alone remained calm—eerily so.
As if she had reached enlightenment.
She spoke softly:
“If we take the children… we don’t have to pay rent.”
The elders immediately changed their tone.
“Why didn’t you bring them sooner?!”
“Even if the kindergarten is for mages’ children, how could we discriminate against outsiders?!”
“That would be unacceptable!”
“Tower Master, what are you doing? You should be buying snacks for the children out of your own pocket!”
Though irritated by their sudden change, Magia held back—she was, after all, the one at fault.
‘Still… will that one behave?’
After dismissing the elders, she recalled her conversation with Ardorez.
“You can’t keep living like a house cat forever.”
“You need to learn rules and social norms by interacting with peers…”
“Of course, we do have a company kindergarten my daughter-in-law made, but if we send her there, she’ll cause trouble looking for her mother.”
‘So he’s not just spoiling her…’
Though tempted by the offer to waive rent, Magia began to worry.
‘Can a kindergarten really handle that girl?’
She was especially worried about Nibelia.
‘The wolf is fine.’
He had been gentle even 40 years ago.
‘I should’ve at least given him candy when I saw him.’
Even now, though his face looked fierce, his personality was calm and quiet.
‘The real problem is that arrogant cat who used to boss him around.’
What if she caused chaos in the kindergarten too?
With that thought, Magia stepped onto the platform.
‘Or… will she cry? She’s shy around strangers…’
I should check later.
Ding. The elevator reached the top floor.
As the doors slid open, Magia stepped out—
—and stopped.
“……”
“……”
Nibelia, who had been wandering around the lab, also froze.
They stared at each other in silence for a long moment.
Magia spoke first:
“…Cat, what are you doing here?”
“…Nothing.”
“Why aren’t you at the kindergarten?”
“……”
Nibelia avoided her gaze like a guilty cat.
The hand she had been reaching out withdrew.
“Nini is just… uh… just here…”
“……”
Magia looked at the desk Nibelia had been eyeing.
On it lay a black metallic object, placed on a brass tray—something that had been brought in for analysis a few months ago.
