I Will Not Fall For the Villain’s Flirtations - Chapter 62

I was startled by the person who approached without a sound and looked to my side, where Keene responded with a smile. I didn’t know when he had arrived, but he casually sat next to me and brushed the dirt off my hair.

“The characters represent ancient words for months. In the past, they used numbers to denote the months.”

“Ah.”

In the current Holy Kingdom, they name the months after saints, but ancient people used numbers from 1 to 12.

And that was the same on Earth in my previous life. Perhaps the author referenced Arabic numerals when conceptualizing the ancient times?

“Since interpreting them as months or seasons was incorrect, it seems reasonable to view them as numbers.”

“…How do you know what was incorrect?”

Even though you just got here?

The answer came quickly. Keene exchanged unknown hand signals with the bound spy. His boldness made it clear that he had no intention of hiding it from me.

I let out a baffled laugh, and he looked back at me with a mischievous grin.

“Cut me some slack. I haven’t been very productive because I’ve been chasing after Du.”

“That’s your problem…”

But before I could finish speaking, the bound spy suddenly unleashed her holy power. I had heard that Mullion had sealed her magic, so unless he was also a spy, Keene must have done something.

“You rascal! What trickery is this?!”

As expected, Mullion, upon discovering this, stood up in a fury, almost breathing fire. He quickly cast a binding spell to capture the spy, but the woman deftly dodged his attack.

She knew how to use her small frame efficiently. Her flexibility was reminiscent of a rhythmic gymnast from my previous life. She moved swiftly within the small cave, dodging all the priests’ attacks, and soon disappeared behind a wall.

“Damn! How cunning.”

Mullion, clearly more frustrated than usual, clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Peidos tried to console him as he lamented losing the spy.

“There’s only one way to the relic. She’ll return, so don’t worry too much.”

“They move under the orders of the Magic Tower Master. We must be prepared for whatever cunning plan that devious master has concocted.”

Come to think of it, if he worked as the chief mage in the Magic Tower, he must have seen the Tower Master?

The description of him as cunning piqued my curiosity. I don’t recall many descriptions of him in the novel, so what kind of person is he?

“I heard that the Tower Master conducted human experiments on prisoners. Is that true?”

…What?

The horrifying story exceeded my expectations, causing my eyebrows to furrow. The knight Ali, sitting next to Pine, who asked with an expectant look, chimed in.

“Oh, I heard that too. But I heard it wasn’t prisoners, but women who followed him around.”

“Women followed him around? That old man?”

“What are you talking about? He’s young. He hasn’t been in the tower that long. But I heard it caused quite a stir when he took the position.”

“Really? That’s surprising. But why would he do that to women who liked him…”

“Who knows? How could we understand the thoughts of such a cruel person?”

Regardless of who the test subjects were, the story was undoubtedly horrifying, but there was an undeniable allure, like junk food.

Such rumors are always the most interesting. Pretending not to be interested, I subtly eavesdropped on their conversation when Keene suddenly whispered firmly to me.

“You don’t need to listen, Du. It’s all nonsense.”

“Really?”

Come to think of it, this person must have seen the Tower Master up close. As a high-ranking mage entrusted with a major mission like stealing relics, he must have.

Does he know more than Mullion? As I looked at him with newfound curiosity, the red-haired priest who had been listening to the story spoke up.

“I don’t know about human experiments, but I heard from a friend who left the Magic Tower to become a royal mage in Patria that he’s quite popular. Before becoming the Tower Master, he was in the combat division, and even the lab rats with no combat experience wanted to follow him to the war zone.”

“Wow, why is that? Is he really handsome? Or does he have some fatal charm?”

Curious like Pine, I glanced at Keene, who smiled and asked me.

“Curious?”

“…A little?”

“I could tell you if you come to the tower.”

The breath whispering in my ear was particularly ticklish. Shivering my shoulders and brushing off my ear, I glared at him lightly, and Keene looked at me with a gaze as if he was seeing a sulking cat and laughed.

Unbelievable. Come to the tower? I’d be crazy to go there again.

He’s always flirting whenever there’s a chance. Pushing away the annoying person, I fixed my gaze back on the red-haired priest. Despite his quiet tone, he had the full attention of the entire expedition.

“My friend never saw the Tower Master in person either. You need a high rank to meet him. Anyway, they forcibly placed him in a high-ranking position to keep him in the tower…”

Contrary to his scholarly appearance, the priest had excellent rhetoric, utilizing even pauses for dramatic effect. When everyone was looking at him with curious eyes, he let out a rough breath and spoke as if in disbelief.

“He used that opportunity to recruit key figures in the tower. He laid the groundwork for becoming the Tower Master then. Truly a capable person, but it’s unfortunate that someone like him controls the Magic Tower.”

“It’s a disaster for the Holy Kingdom.”

It felt fresh since it was new information for everyone. In my previous life, I focused on the main characters when reading the original work, so I hardly remembered anything about the Tower Master.

Just as I was about to ask Keene if it was all true, Rancho, sitting across from me, grinned slyly and called out to me.

“Hey Duna, what if the Magic Tower Master is incredibly handsome? Want to meet him?”

“…Are you crazy?”

Is he trying to get me exiled?

Even normally, he bombarded me with useless questions like, “Would you endure extreme pain with ineffective medicine or take effective but disgusting medicine?” and now he was at it again.

“Why not? He’s like a statue. You can’t help but admire his face. At that level, it’s worth considering.”

“….”

I instinctively checked Peidos’ reaction. As the highest-ranking member of the expedition and a devout priest, he seemed like the person who would dislike such jokes the most.

The Magic Tower Master is undeniably the main enemy of the Holy Kingdom, so it’s impossible not to care.

However, unexpectedly, Peidos observed quietly without showing much displeasure. Since the topic of the Magic Tower Master came up, he had become unusually silent and his face was somewhat dark. Or perhaps, it seemed pale.

I shifted my gaze from him back to Rancho. With a scowl, I gave him a look that said I wanted to hit him with a fan.

“Are you really a priest? Of all the jokes to make…”

In my anger, I almost asked, ‘Are you sympathetic to the Magic Tower? Surely your ideology isn’t aligned with them?’ but I held back. If I had said that, even Rancho wouldn’t have been able to maintain his playful expression.

The Magic Tower Master was famous for being an atheist. Ever since he rose to power, their relations with the Holy Kingdom had been strained, and anyone who sympathized with him would inevitably face ideological scrutiny.

In the Holy Kingdom, ideological scrutiny was no light matter. If suspected of holding beliefs contrary to the faith, one could be interrogated, and in the worst case, it could affect their entire family. In Rancho’s case, being an only child who lost his parents early, that wouldn’t happen, but still.

“Besides, regardless of his background, he’s a psycho who conducts human experiments on people who like him. Would you meet such a person, Rancho?”

“Hey, that guy is crazy, but do you really think he did that? There are so many mages in the Magic Tower; if he had, they would’ve ousted him long ago. It’s probably just a rumor spread by some jealous loser.”

“I don’t like that he has many women either. What good is being handsome if he’s just going to cheat?”

“He has no women.”

“No wom… What?”

Startled by the sudden interruption, I unconsciously repeated the words and then stopped. Keene, who had unexpectedly interjected, was calmly looking at me, seemingly confident in the artifact’s power.