WEERR 23🍒

Chapter 23

Trisha stood behind the door and began to rationalize to herself.

Even if I get kicked out of the internship, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve already accomplished my initial goal.

It was a shame that getting the Tower’s help to return to her original body would become more difficult, but still—
better to get the scolding over with quickly. The sooner she burst out and cleared up the misunderstanding, the better chance she had of lessening the Tower Master’s anger over the sudden accusation of human experimentation.

Just as she gathered her courage to rush out and face everyone, Trisha glanced back at Resi standing behind her.

“Go home now.”

Might as well get his home address while she was at it.

Trisha opened her mouth again to continue, but Resi was faster.

“I don’t want to.”

“What? Why not?”

His answer was firm—shockingly so. She hadn’t expected that kind of tone from him now of all times.

“You said I could stay with you.”

When on earth did he interpret that as stay with me forever?

If you stay with me now, the only future waiting for us is getting scolded together and punished together.

Trisha looked at him, dumbfounded.

Then again, his only offense was sneaking into the Tower. That wasn’t too bad. The Tower’s underground area had limited access, yes—but it wasn’t officially forbidden.

They’d probably just give him a lecture and let him go.

Of course, the Tower Master is going to explode because of me…

Still, if she could get a private audience with him, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

“Tower Master! If you continue to ignore us like this, we won’t stay civil! We know all about your crimes!”

While Trisha was thinking, Ranife’s voice outside grew sharper. The Tower Master must have been keeping silent.

Ah, that old man must be furious…

Deciding there was no point in arguing with Resi, Trisha resolved to rush out and explain everything as quickly as possible.

If Resi wanted to stay, fine—she’d just drag him along.

“Alright, fine. If you really want to come with me. I’m opening the door, okay?”

“Wait, Trisha.”

“Hm?”

As she turned her head questioningly, something brushed against her lips and quickly withdrew.

Startled by the sudden closeness, Trisha’s eyes widened.

“I couldn’t tell earlier because it was dark. What’s this blood at your mouth?”

“Oh…”

Resi lifted the finger that had touched her lips and showed her.

A faint smear of drying red stained his skin.

It must have been from the small strain she’d put on herself earlier when activating the teleportation scroll to his house.

I must’ve wiped it carelessly and missed a spot.

Trisha shrugged it off and ran her hand over his to wipe it away.

If she’d had a handkerchief, she would’ve used that—but she wasn’t exactly the type of delicate noble girl who carried such things around.

“Next time I’ll have to add an iron supplement effect to the spell…”

“Iron?”

“Nothing. Don’t mind it. Let’s go.”

As Trisha tilted her head, Resi gave her a bright, innocent smile.

Without hesitating any longer, Trisha pushed open the wooden door.

“Tower—!”

Outside the now-wide-open Tower entrance stood three knights in imperial uniforms.

Ranife, leading the group, started to shout at the Tower Master again—then froze as her eyes met Trisha’s emerging from the underground passage.

“You!”

Ranife rushed toward her, completely forgetting the decorum she’d shown earlier when she’d refused to enter the Tower.

“Are you alright? Why are you here again? Dr. Allen was so worried when you disappeared!”

Dr. Allen?

Ah…

So that was the name of that sharp-eyed imperial physician. The nurse had mentioned it before, too.

Before Trisha could answer, Ranife fired off another barrage of questions.

“This is the staircase to the Tower’s underground, isn’t it? Don’t tell me you were experimented on down there? And you, boy! Were you a test subject too?”

Her hands flew all over Trisha as she frantically checked for injuries.

Trisha gently placed her own hand over Ranife’s, which rested on her shoulder.

Ranife, ever the righteous knight, had clearly misunderstood everything.

She’d have to clear up this misunderstanding first.

“It’s not like that…”

“Don’t call me ‘Ranife’ like we’re equals.”

“…Ma’am.”

Why did Asha’s voice telling her not to speak so informally suddenly echo in her head?

The awkward correction made Ranife’s face harden.

I heard this child wasn’t well-versed in etiquette, but no one said she looked this scared. Don’t tell me… did that Tower Master treat her so harshly she became timid overnight? That bastard!

Trisha could practically see what Ranife was thinking written all over her face.

“Really, it’s not like that. The Tower Master has treated me well.”

“You don’t need to cover for him, dear. That old man won’t be able to harm you anymore.”

I said it’s not like that!

Ranife refused to listen to her explanations any further.

While the Tower’s mages gathered, confused by the commotion, Ranife and her two knights stood their ground at the Tower entrance, loudly demanding the Tower Master come down.

In the end, it took an entire day for the misunderstanding to be cleared up after the Tower Master finally came down.

Both Trisha, the supposed victim, and the Tower Master vehemently denied the accusations—but Ranife, driven by some kind of righteous zeal, refused to believe the Tower’s word.

She even hired an external mage to perform a full examination to determine whether Trisha had been subjected to human experimentation.

Of course, the results came back completely clean.

The suspicious marks on Trisha’s knee turned out to be nothing more than an unfortunately placed, harmless scratch.

The whole incident finally came to an end.

Later, Dr. Allen came by to offer a stiff apology to the Tower Master—but that wasn’t the important part.

The important thing was that Trisha didn’t get fired from her internship.

I was sure he’d tell me never to show my face here again…

But instead, nothing of the sort happened. Word hadn’t even reached the Binz estate.

Maybe they’d kept things quiet on purpose.

Normally, the Tower Master would have dragged her in to scold her at the top of his lungs—but this time, he didn’t even glance her way.

Honestly, his silence is even scarier.

Uneasy, Trisha went to work at the Tower anyway. It was a long day, though only her second day on the job.

“Our intern’s here?”

“Hey, thanks to our intern, we got to witness quite the spectacle yesterday.”

Despite the uproar she’d caused, none of the Tower mages seemed particularly angry with her.

Well—she did get a scolding, of course.

First, for wandering all over the Tower when she’d been told not to.

Second, for entering the restricted underground area without permission—and with an outsider, no less.

They were valid reasons, so Trisha sat quietly and accepted Jose’s lecture… though she only half-listened.

Still, she wasn’t punished nearly as harshly as she’d feared. Everyone knew the misunderstanding had originated from the palace physician and the knights, not her.

So the Tower mages directed their annoyance at Dr. Allen and at Ranife—who’d burst in, knights in tow, and shouted at the Tower Master—rather than at the young intern.

Honestly, if the Tower Master had yelled at me like usual, they’d probably be tearing into me right now.

Because the person who’d suffered the most, the Tower Master, remained silent, everyone else seemed to follow his lead and let it go.

“Excuse me… but what happened to the boy who was with me yesterday?”

Trisha asked as soon as she arrived. After they’d come up from the basement, the Tower Master’s aide, Bessier, had taken Resi away.

“He entered the Tower’s restricted area as an outsider, so we just need to make sure he didn’t see any classified material before we release him.”

Classified material… oh, they must mean the fake Trisha.

“Oh, that kid?”

“He was something else, that one.”

But the mages’ expressions were odd.

A twinge of unease crept up her spine.

What did he say?

She remembered frantically signaling to Resi earlier—pretend you saw nothing!—but who knew if he’d understood.

As Trisha fretted, one of the mages pointed behind her.

“Ah, there he is.”

Trisha quickly turned her head.