* * *
The source of the rumors… it probably had something to do with Siwoo.
He came along again this time, after all.
I figured I needed to have a proper conversation with him soon.
Whether he regained his powers or got eliminated by Ateol, neither was particularly ideal for me.
“Yuri.”
“…Huh?”
Snapped out of my thoughts, I looked up.
Ateol held a finger to his lips.
“Someone’s outside.”
Leaving me in the tub, Ateol threw on a robe and stepped out.
I couldn’t hear any loud noise, only faint murmurs.
Among those hushed voices, a familiar tone caught my ear.
‘Siwoo.’
He’d gotten dragged along again, it seemed.
Ateol still wanted to observe how Siwoo would act in unstable situations — and if things got dicey, he was prepared to… swiftly deal with him.
Ateol’s voice, just barely audible, was cold.
Siwoo, clearly flustered, said something, and the sound of him practically fleeing followed.
Thud.
The door slammed shut.
A little later, Ateol returned to the bathroom.
“It was Siwoo. Apparently, there’s a hidden passage connected to this room from his.”
My expression immediately twisted in irritation.
Even if this was a minor city’s government residence, the security was atrocious.
No one had mentioned such a passage, and there had been no sign of it on the floor plan we received.
Serta must not have known either.
If he had, guards would’ve been stationed by now.
But Siwoo entering so thoughtlessly, just because he found the passage… that was just like him.
If he’d made the wrong move, he could’ve been accused of attempted regicide.
“What about Siwoo?”
“I sent him back for now.”
I looked at Ateol for a moment, surprised.
This was a perfect excuse for him to get rid of Siwoo — yet he hadn’t taken it.
Perhaps he read the meaning in my gaze, because he leaned in and kissed me lightly as he said:
“You didn’t seem to want that.”
“…You make it sound like you won’t do anything I don’t want.”
“Why assume I wouldn’t?”
“Because it doesn’t seem like you would.”
I was sorry, but I didn’t exactly have high trust in Ateol.
He simply shrugged and sank back into the water.
When I tried to subtly shift away, he pulled me into his arms.
“The moment I saw him standing there, I did consider killing him.”
“…”
“But I held back.”
So what… does he want a pat on the back or something?
Ateol tilted his head like he was waiting for praise.
“Just so you know, killing him would’ve been the logical, rational thing to do.”
“…How is that rational?”
“If I claimed I thought he was an assassin and killed him immediately, who would dare blame me? He might as well have come asking to be killed.”
Now that he said it, he wasn’t entirely wrong.
There was a secret passage no one knew about, and Siwoo had entered my room through it — while Ateol and I were in the bath together, no less.
Even if Siwoo were the Grand Duke himself rather than just his representative, he wouldn’t have had a defense.
Claiming ignorance of the passage’s destination wouldn’t help — even if it were true.
If Siwoo had died at Ateol’s hands here, all my worries would be solved.
But still, my thoughts hadn’t changed.
Even if he was just a character from a book, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him and take his place.
It went against my conscience — against my morals.
He was just a paper man, sure — but he was alive and moving in front of me.
Come to think of it, what happened to the “fake Tower Lord” who’d taken Yuri’s place before I possessed him?
Did they just disappear naturally when the story changed because of me?
Like a deleted word on a page.
Although… words are characters, too.
“Yuri.”
A sudden hand gripped my thigh underwater, and I startled, lifting my head.
Ateol was staring at me intently.
Just as I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, his lips met mine in a deep kiss.
With a soft smack, he pulled back, smiling.
“I’ll continue serving you.”
“…I said I don’t need it, get out!”
“No need to be shy. I’m happy to serve you, after all.”
“I said I don’t… ah, ah!”
In the end, the bath took quite a while.
Around the large public well, a crowd had gathered — all of them curious to see how the Tower Lord would handle the terrifying monster that had made the well its nest.
As always, everything that happened in this world seemed either absurdly easy or impossibly hard.
This time, it was the easy kind.
I spread a web wide around the well before me.
Like watercolor spreading on paper, the web quickly fanned out and thickened.
Soon enough, something suspicious was caught in it.
A large, squishy, sponge-like mass.
It had swollen like a rice cake soaked in water for too long.
I brushed the web lightly over its surface — and I could almost feel the soggy, jelly-like texture through the threads.
It didn’t react — maybe it wasn’t sensitive to touch.
So I tightened the web all at once and nearly sliced its body in half.
The cut flesh tried to reattach itself the moment the web passed, but it seemed to have felt pain.
It writhed violently, as if screaming, and chased after the thread I reeled in.
Its speed was terrifying.
Rushing through the passage below the well, it shot upward — bursting out of the water before me.
Screams erupted from all directions as panic spread through the crowd.
The monster that emerged from the well was massive.
I immediately poured all my mana into an attack.
Crackling lightning wrapped around the monster’s body.
Judging by its composition, it looked highly conductive—this would definitely hurt.
As expected, the monster began convulsing violently from the electric shock.
It would’ve been over, if not for the interruption.
“……!”
Startled, I pulled my mana back at once.
The moment the condensed magic returned from the monster’s massive body all at once, a jolt shot through my head and dizziness hit me.
I barely managed to keep from collapsing in embarrassment, but the backlash from suddenly reclaiming my magic was severe.
My stamina took a huge hit—8 points gone in an instant.
Now left with only 4 stamina, I stood on shaky legs and looked ahead.
Someone was caught in the monster’s hand. Siwoo.
‘Why is he there?’
I was beyond shocked—I was baffled.
Siwoo had jumped right in front of the monster the very moment I used my magic.
The monster, cornered and desperate, snatched him up the instant it saw him.
* * *
