"What...?" I looked at him tiling my head a little hoping I heard him wrong.

"I want you to finish your last year of studies under me" Marquess Zaven said once again repeating himself once again.

"Can I reject the offer?" I asked with an awkward smile.

"No," he said with a bright smile as his words stabbed me right at my heart. Ouch that hurts.

"Why not? Sir Reamann you do understand taking me as a student will lead to huge misunderstanding to the people outside the tower. Through generations only the Reamanns been the head of the magic tower suddenly taking me as a student will lead to huge problems!" I rambled while throwing my hands in various directions and tried my best explaining the situation he will put me and himself in if I end up as his student.

Though being selected by the head of the tower is a great honour, the last thing I needed was to attract attention. And forget the attention, how can I be the student of the man I simp for!

"Well, yes rumours like that will spread but you are not strong enough to be the next head of the tower." and once again the Marquess' words hit me with his words once again. And this was strike two.

"You don't have to be this blunt, words hurt you know." I sighed as I closed my eyes. My mind was oddly clear, the marquess doesn't want me as a student for no reason and is ready to take on those annoying nobles. He must have a really good motive.

"You have a reason right?" I asked with my eyes glued to the floor. The temperature of the room dropped as the room filled with a dark aura. Or it was just my sadness. The mana flowing around the room wasn't much but I could still sense it. It was destructive energy around it.

"Can you feel it?" Marquess Zaven asked as I looked up at him. He wasn't smiling anymore. His cherry behaviour was gone, he looked serious. No, he was serious. And I would still simp for the serious marquess. The kind and harmless facade he pulls up in front of everyone is gone. He played with a weirdly shaped black stone between his fingers. The mana that was flowing around the room was leaking out of the stone.

"This stone is leaking mana. To be more clear, it was experimented with dark magic. The practice of dark magic is banned and knowing that someone is practising dark magic in my tower without me knowing, is a problem that I must get rid of." The smirk on his face sent chills down my spine. He was even scaring me, but I liked it, tell me I am going crazy. He held the stone on his fist until it crumbled into dust.

"Lucky it wasn't fully complete, if it was complete it would have been a serious problem." the dark mana which was in the room disappeared.

"Yet your motives are not clear Sir," I spoke in a firm voice. "What do you need from me?"

"As expected, Lady Evanora is not all about beauty." a small chuckle left his lips as I waited for him to continue.

"Lady Evanora Esmeray," he said looking straight into my eye, making me freeze on stop. "In this tower after me, you are the strongest magician. With me as your teacher I promise to make you stronger. All I need is your assistance to save the tower and people who are dear to us."

"But aren't you the strongest magician? Why do you need me?" I blurted out.

"I am currently the strongest magician but my heart is under a seal." he said as I looked at him weirdly.

"When I was a kid, the late emperor put a seal on me which only allowed me to use half of my magic. An emperor's seal can be taken off only by the emperor. And denying the emperor's order will be considered as an act of treason so we had no choice but to obey. So if I try to go after a dark magician on my own things might get dangerous." The Marquess smiled at me.

No matter how weird and confusing his words were. What I sensed a few minutes ago is a serious problem. Though I don't remember anything about dark magic in the book, it didn't matter as the problem showed up now. I can't back out knowing if I fall into the crossfire of this dark magic, I will end up dead. And that's the only thing I don't want.

"Can't you ask the crown Prince or the second Prince to do it? The emperor is dead." I asked.

"Well, like I said. To take off the seal the crown Prince needs to become the emperor first. After he gets crowned as the emperor under the eyes of the gods, he can take the seal off." he explained as I frowned. Why was all this important information never given in the book! Stupid novel.

"But when did the dark magician come to the tower? Isn't the tower protected by protection barriers? And why come to the tower aside from all those shabby places where they won't be found?" I asked all the questions at once.

"Lady Evanora must love asking questions." Marquess sighed with a frustrated and tired smile.

"It's probably when I joined the war with the crown Prince. I was away for 5 years. Back then my father was the head of the tower, of course he was getting old and eventually the barrier weakend for them to find a way to get into the tower." he said. "Of course until we find the culprits we can't suspect anyone or let the word about dark magic get out."

"Oh and the tower of magic is where all magicians practice magic, it's hard to pick out magic traces here. And the tower of magic has all magic ingredients, supplies, tools and books from all over the world. No place is better than the tower to practise magic. So it's better than all the shabby places." Marquess Reamann said with a teasing smile dancing on his lips.

"So will you be my student?" he said, extending his hand towards me.

Sighing, I said, "I don't think there is a reason for me to say no." A bright smile found its way to his face once again. After a few more awkward silences and words exchanged, the Marquess spoke again.

"We should leave before someone assumes us to be making out and spreading an annoying rumour." Marquess said as he walked towards the door of the hall worryless while my face heated up.

"You can't go around carelessly saying stuff like that!" I hissed.

"Not my fault, you just have a big list of admirers, who probably have a wilder imagination than the magicians outside." the Marquess said as I can't help but sulk.

"You are just making me hate myself." I sighed as he let out an airy chuckle.

...

Soon after our one on one conversation, my classes with the marquess started. As soon as the marquess realised i don't know anything, I mean don't remember anything about magic, the head magician of the tower started the hellish course, which almost killed me.

In three weeks, he made me finish the basic, the intermediate, and advanced level of magic. And those three week, I didn't get a chance to go back home. Barely alive on energy potions, I finished all these hellish courses.

After the advance level was done, the marquess gave me a week break to rest and to get back in shape. The next courses will be, teleportation, potions, theory of magic and mana, ancient history of magic, etc, etc.

As I was told to practise magic every day of my break if I didn't want to go through the hellish course once again, I obediently obeyed and listened to every single word before I could finally go back home and rest.

And finally, I was back home.