The next day, Phoebe's behavior became strange.
She greeted with a lively face as before, but she was lingering around Reed like an anxious puppy.
Glancing up and occasionally pursing her lips, she made Reed have no choice but to open his mouth first.
"What's the matter?"
"Oh? Ah, well... How's your research going?"
She asked with an uneasy voice and awkward greeting.
Reed pretended not to notice her condition and nodded.
"Good."
"Isn't it too hard for you to do it alone?"
It was hard.
It was unavoidable.
Even though he took breaks while constantly replenishing his Mana, after about 8 hours, he felt drained and lost all his desires.
"It's bearable."
"Should I help you?"
"You focus on the tower work. That's helping me."
"I'll assign some assistant mages to you. It's going to be a dangerous experiment..."
"No, it's not that dangerous right now."
"Then at least let me..."
The conversation went back to the starting point.
What should this situation be called?
It felt like a large dog sneaking up into bed and sticking to him all of a sudden.
The fact that she was worried made him feel good, but she was so tenacious that it was extremely annoying.
'She must have seen the blood and sweat.'
He couldn't help but understand why she was worrying like this.
She must have seen the blood and sweat-streaked clothes in the lab, and though she didn't think it was Mana exhaustion, she might have thought it was fatigue.
So, she wanted to lend a hand, and her concern for him was as tall as a chimney.
How adorable was this subordinate?
He even thought it was a bit excessive, but this was enough to make him laugh.
"Don't worry. There will definitely be times when I'll need your help later, so do it then. And..."
"Yes, tell me."
"Since I'll be sweating a lot in the future, order a few sportswear made of durable materials."
"I understand. Is there anything else you want me to do?"
Her face seemed to say 'Please let me do anything.'
It seemed like saying there was no need for anything else would sound like a cruel breakup.
Reed thought carefully.
"Close your eyes for a moment."
Phoebe obediently closed her eyes.
For some reason, her lips were pouting out.
Reed wasn't interested in the cherry-like lips.
He brought both gloved hands to her cheeks.
Then, with his thumb and index finger, he stretched them out.
"Ugh..."
'It doesn't stretch as much as I thought.'
It looked like a bean powder-covered rice cake, so he thought it would stretch a lot.
"What's the meaning of this?"
Phoebe asked with a muffled tone if there was any effect.
'There is a slight healing effect, though.'
"It's just a personal question."
Reed let go of the stretched cheek.
Phoebe held her pinched cheeks and asked him.
"Has the problem been solved?"
"It's solved. Thank you."
Phoebe smiled, her eyes glistening.
She didn't know what the problem was, but she was happy to know that she had helped.
Reed began to immerse himself in his research again today.
* * *
Two days later, in the morning.
As Phoebe tidied up the clothes, she said,
"How's the status of the ley line Mana?"
"The concentration is below 10%, and there are areas that have exceeded 12% from the 12th day, but it was just an intermittent crustal movement that occurred during the dispatch."
"What about the monster's movement?"
"Recently, a group of goblins tried to attack the residential area, but they were promptly reported to the kingdom and sent an army. They succeeded in early suppression."
"As expected, our Tower Master! You're perfect."
This was the situation where they were practising the conversations to be exchanged in the Tower Master's conference in advance.
It wasn't a usual thing, but maybe Phoebe suggested it first because she thought the other Tower Masters would act sensitively after missing a Tower Master's conference once.
"Shouldn't we start moving soon?"
"Wait a minute!"
"It's not necessary to worry about such minor things as clothing..."
"Is it not!? It's definitely going to stretch! Like a cheese made out of goat milk!"
Isn't it Phoebe, not the Tower Masters, who is more sensitive?
Since Reed had seen how Phoebe was tormented by the Tower Masters, he couldn't tell her to stop.
"It's enough to say 'No problem' in the documents. They probably won't like it since I missed without permission."
"Don't worry about it."
Having said that, Reed spent 30 minutes checking with Phoebe before she let him go.
"Tower Master, fighting!"
With both hands raised in cheers, Reed climbed into the sky carriage.
"Let's get started."
"Yes."
The sky carriage started and began to lift into the air.
Although the carriage looked like a sled without a horse and seemed to rock smoothly while riding the air currents, it didn't feel like anything once actually riding it.
"It's not a big deal."
While riding in a luxurious carriage, he smoothly travelled through the air without any shaking.
He looked down for a few moments before he got a little bored, and Reed took out an object stored in his storage magic.
The object was a Magnesium Ingot.
Type: Material Item
An ingot made from the byproduct of a Salamander eating iron.
The ingot was the result of 428 trials and errors, which led to the creation of a perfect Magnesium Ingot.
Reed's work over the past three days had been merely to create this ingot.
'It's a bit vague to call it an achievement...'
However, just by creating one ingot, the progress of his research had significantly increased.
[Research Progress: 20%]
It had been three days, and it had reached 20%. That was enough to say that it was proceeding in some way.
'No one would be interested in that, though.'
Since Magic Engineering was despised, the outcome or prospects themselves would not be of interest.
The main focus of this Tower Masters' Conference would undoubtedly be Rosaria.
'I told Leto to spread the rumor that I adopted a dumb child.'
There wasn't a single person who believed that rumor.
What was even better was that the disbelief left room for uncertainty.
In the world of magicians, uncertainty is something that causes a sort of mental disorder.
So, they would question Reed to make sure they found the truth before this mental disorder killed them.
'I'm looking forward to it. Already...'
Although Reed wanted to be noticed, the main purpose was still for Rosaria.
Nothing had changed in that respect.