Because the Magic Tower was such a closed-off place, nothing about the Tower Lord’s private life was known to the public.
“My wife died giving birth to her, so she’s my only family. It’s been a long ti since she went missing.”
The Tower Lord looked to be at least sixty, even at a glance.
That ant his daughter would now be middle-aged.
I replied sullenly.
“My dad’s been gone for fifteen years...”
“What?”
The Tower Lord widened his eyes in shock.
“Whoa! Disappearing with a child left behind—your father really takes the cake!”
Clicking his tongue, he continued.
“Of course, my daughter’s no better.”
“Is that so?”
“My daughter was born in the Tower and spent her whole life here. She was pampered and protected... then one day, out of nowhere, she just left for the harsh outside world without any preparation. She must have caused a huge incident.”
That sob story didn’t really land for soone like who’d been living in that harsh world for 23 years.
Still, I cautiously asked,
“Really? Couldn’t it be that your middle-aged baby was kidnapped or sothing...?”
He’d clearly said she was pampered and protected.
Why would the Tower Lord’s beloved only daughter, who was raised with care, recklessly run off and cause trouble?
If it were , I’d have clung to the Tower, never gone outside, and lived like a princess forever.
“Beats .”
The Tower Lord let out a deep sigh and said,
“One night, she stabbed with a knife...”
Huh? Patricide?
“Took my blood...”
Organ harvesting?
“Emptied my wallet...”
Theft?
“And bolted right out of the house.”
Runaway?
“That was at twenty years old. The last ti I saw my daughter.”
Good grief.
So even a pampered adult can be that hopeless.
“What do you think, huh? She’s even worse than your dad, right?”
“No. Compared to that, my dad’s practically a living answer sheet.”
I clearly drew the line at the Tower Lord’s words.
He let out a long groan and added,
“Anyway, the fact that I still haven’t found her makes think she got tangled up in sothing dangerous. Maybe so group will demand ransom out of nowhere, and I can’t even guess what kind of ss she got into.”
One thing was clear.
The Tower Lord had absolutely failed at raising a child.
“My daughter had a lot of flaws, but I treated her well, you know? I loved her, cherished her.”
The Tower Lord slumped his shoulders and muttered,
“So why... why did this happen? I didn’t mind that she was a little slow. Everything was fine...”
The Tower Lord’s gloomy face overlapped with my dad’s gloomy face in my mind.
[You know, I really did treat your mom well. I told her everything was okay... So why did she leave us?]
I knew the answer.
[Because Mom didn’t love you.]
My answer left Dad visibly hurt.
But even as I said it, little got hurt too.
Because... I was one of the people Mom didn’t love.
‘If Mom had loved ... she wouldn’t have left behind just debt and run away.’
A daughter who wasn’t loved by her mother and ruined her father’s life.
That was .
Thinking about it... maybe I didn’t deserve to be happy.
Just one thing—if I could at least restore Dad’s life, maybe I could face my own life with a bit of pride.
While I stayed silent, the Tower Lord muttered again.
“The problem is... the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) more I try to find her, the worse I feel. I think she must’ve caused sothing really huge. I have to cover it up sohow, quickly...”
So in the end, he was saying he couldn’t do his job properly because of family problems.
That fact hadn’t changed.
It was because the Tower Lord had neglected the Scroll Managent Departnt that things turned out like this.
‘Still, he made a minister. Thanks to that, I got to cancel Operation Cinderella.’
I decided to generously forgive the Tower Lord.
To be honest, even if I didn’t, there wasn’t much I could do anyway.
“Yeah... my incompetence will co back to haunt as karma soday...”
The Tower Lord groaned in pain, shook his head, and looked in the eye again.
“Anyway, about you, Minister.”
He hadn’t held an official inauguration yet, but it seed he had decided to start calling Minister now.
“The Empress said you created a very unusual and new scroll, didn’t she?”
“Ah, yes.”
I scratched my ear and said,
“It’s a scroll I tried developing back when I was little. My dad wanted to see the stars... The principle works like this.”
I picked up a piece of scroll parchnt that had been lying around on the forr minister’s desk.
And I started scribbling the scroll.
This one wasn’t in any books because I made it myself.
As I explained the principle and how it worked, the Tower Lord’s face stiffened.
“I thought... since the Empress said it was sothing she hadn’t seen before, it was just so obscure, uncommon scroll—but this is pure original creation?”
“Ah, yes.”
“You seriously made this? On your own? Just from books? At... what, eight years old? With no mages around?”
“Ah, yes.”
The Tower Lord blinked slowly. Then murmured in a low voice,
“Let’s say, being very generous, you made 160 scrolls in one night.”
“166, actually.”
“Sure, why not. Sotis a genius like that appears once every ten years. Even casting 170 at once is... fine.”
“172, actually.”
“Right. That happens. A genius like that pops up once every twenty years.”
The Tower Lord bit his lower lip as he stared at my scroll.
“But this kind of thing... hmm, really... really rare.”
“Ah, yes.”
“...Aren’t you even curious what’s so rare about it?”
While I tilted my head, the Tower Lord furrowed his brows.
“Creating a new scroll... People outside the Tower don’t get it, but this is sothing only adults can do. Usually only after spending five years in the Tower refining their pure mana!”
“Ah, yes.”
“But you said you made it at eight years old! Without ever coming to the Tower! You’re not lying, are you? Even you must think that’s weird!”
I shrugged like I didn’t care.
“Weird or not, it made a minister.”
“What?”
“Namia Roafi, Minister of the Scroll Departnt. That’s all that matters to .”
When I called myself “minister,” the Tower Lord let out a deep sigh.
Then he furrowed his brows and asked,
“...How old are you again?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Tell more about your parents.”
I hesitated for a mont, then began the parent talk again.
A lot of people were asking about my parents today.
I had just told the Empress the sa thing earlier...
When I finished, the Tower Lord studied my face carefully.
“Born in southern Arbin, twenty-three years old... And you’ve never known your mother? Not even her na?”
“No. Dad said she probably used a fake na. He said she kept mixing up her own na...”
“Have you ever heard what she looked like?”
“Ah, Dad once ntioned that all three of us had blue eyes.”
Blue eyes were the most common in the Empire.
So it wasn’t much of a distinguishing feature.
“And he said she was incredibly beautiful. But what made her even more charming was that she didn’t seem to realize it.”
When he said that, Dad had looked really shy.
Watching him like that, I made a vow from childhood.
Never, ever, ever fall for looks.
If you fall for looks, you’ll end up like Dad.
‘That’s how I managed to keep my head when Kiaros proposed!’
Honestly, just looking at that face was enough to feel full...
But even then, I was able to rationally and firmly turn him down.
“Hmm.”
The Tower Lord furrowed his brows and stared at .
It felt like he was dissecting my face, piece by piece.
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