"That's all he said?"

"Yes," I said with a serious expression, my elbows on the table, my face leaning against my hands as I laced my fingers together.

"I told you to take a few days off, and you come back after causing trouble." Marquess Zaven sighed.

"It's not my fault! I thought healing him would be a good idea." I said.

"First of all, you are not a professional healer." Marquess Zaven glared at me. "There could have been an accident."

"And dealing with someone from a royal family is a serious deal." Marquess Zaven said. "It can't be taken lightly."

I sighed.

"What do you think he meant by a 'reward'?" I asked as I looked up at Marquess Zaven, he looked worse then he was last night when I left him, but regardless he was signing papers and going through multiple books at once.

"Well once he said he would reward a baron and he erased their whole existence." I gasped and stared at Marquess Zaven just brushed it off as if it's nothing. "And when he was a kid, he said he would reward his nanny and then got her fired."

"Oh good god-" I sighed as I leaned against the chair looking as dead as I was feeling.

My life from survival mood turned into all routes that lead to doom.

"Well, since he didn't kill you at sight he probably won't kill you" Marquess Zaven said.

My face lit up with a little bit of hope.

"But we never know, he might be planning worse or got more sadistic then i remember." Marquess Zaven said as I groaned and put my head on the table.

"Stop scaring me." I cried as I buried my face on the table, wishing the floor would split open and swallow me.

"Don't fret too much over it, just avoid him for a while and maybe he will forget about you." Marquess said.

"I hope he does." I sighed.

"With that being said, since you have to avoid him." something twinked on the Marquess' eyes. "Getting back to work is the best way to get busy and avoid people."

"Get a life Marquess Zaven!" I cried as he just laughed while signing more papers.

"Now now," he said. "We need to get as much word done as possible before the festival so we can be free."

"Yes master." I groaned, even though I know the Marquess plans to work even during the festival. Rest doesn't belong in that man's vocabulary.

***

"According to the reports," I stood in front of Marquess Zaven's desk in his office as I read from the documents I was holding. "The current number of high level magicians are down to 13, including you and I."

"Mage of Arcane: Lady Evane, Sage of East: Sir Firath are both in the medical and healing section." I read out loud.

"Chief of wind: the eldest son of Lord Jarasmey, The emissaries: the second son of Lord Jarasmey and The twilight maker: the youngest son of Lord Jarasmey." I hummed as I raised an eyebrow at the document I read. "All three of them are in the royal army, royal court and royal navy respectively."

"Quite impressive to see all three sons of Jarasmey in such a high post in the tower." I commented to which Marquess Zaven nodded.

"Then we have, Vale of ocean: Lord Martle." I read. "And The sword dancer: Dame Castra."

"Dawn Marchant: Lady Samara" I said.

"The teleportation specialist?" Marquess Zaven titled his head to which I nodded. Lady Samara is so great in teleportation, she improved teleportation ruins and created them in every town centre and capitol.

"That's ten, who else is left?" Marquess asked as I flipped through my documents.

"Oh, Grand master of veil: Lord Calenneth, according to data here he is currently in the borders doing a wider search of black magic." I read from the page, before I flipped all the pages back and placed the document in front of the Marquess.

"Thank you for accumulating the documents." Marquess smiled. "I will send a word to Dame Castra, Lady Samara and the young Lord Jarasmey regarding the dark magic issue."

I nodded and took a step back, up until now it was only me, Marquess Zaven and Lord Calenneth who were involved in the dark magic issue with a few other junior magicians but now it seems like we need more people looking into it.

I let Marquess be with his duties as I walked out of his office and strolled through the hallways of the tower. I didn't have much to do, mostly small missions here and there, like a fire here, a skeleton there.

I weaved through the crowd of mages as I walked out of the tower, and teleported myself to the Esmeray Duchy. The guard opened the giant oak doors of the manor and welcomed in. The maids and butlers passing by bowed which was acknowledged with a nod as I walked up the grand stairs to the second floor.

As I was about to enter my study, I was greeted by Josep who bowed to me and pulled out a red envelope, with a golden ribbon around it and a dark purple seal from the inner pocket of his coat. This is a letter from the royal family.

I sighed as I took the letter and thanked Josep before I entered my study. I undid my cloak from the tower and threw it at the nearest sofa and walked to the chair behind my desk.

It's the seventh letter of this week. I opened the drawer of my desk and pulled out the stack of letters neatly binded by a black ribbon. I untied the ribbon and added the new letter on top of the unopened stack of letters and tied the ribbon back in place and shoved it inside my drawer again.

Letters from the royal family should be answered immediately after arrival and there I have 7 letters stacked, each from each day of this week. The fact that I still have my head on top of my neck is a miracle.

His highness, the crown Prince has been sending letters ever since I have gone MIA on him at Asterin's garden. The letters either contain my death date and place or the way he plans to get me killed. I don't expect anything in between.

But I've had too much on my plate ever since then. The work from the tower and then being present home with Kaven and Orion. And then the letters and the looming suspicious riddle of the owner of the Black sun.

I already asked Marquess Zaven to look into it but we didn't manage to find anything much. And in the end we got more busy with our search of black magic and its elimination.

A maid knocks and comes in, scaring the crap out of me before she calls me down for dinner. Kaven made it a routine to have me present at dinner everyday. He made it his obligation to summon me with the duchy mages from whichever corner of earth I am on, just to have been present at dinner.

Hence, to save everyone from trouble I just return home before dinner.

Kaven and Orion know I am getting letters from the royal family. Kaven wanted to feed them to the fire like father would usually do but I brushed it off saying it's just the Queen who wants a magic hair brush and a mirror that I don't have time for.

I ended up getting changed into something more comfortable then my evening gown and joined Kaven and Orion.

Conversation flowed with the amazing smell and taste of food. Kaven and Orion filled me in about their day and I did the same about our research on the tower and omitting all the parts about letters and the royal family.

It was cosy just being here with them.

"You wouldn't believe how horrible the room smelled after the potion exploded." I groaned as I took another bite of my food.

"How do you all even keep up with all that magic?" Orion shook his head to which I laughed, until Kaven spoke.

"I heard some news from father" Kaven said as the room fell silent as both mine and Orion's attention turned to him for him to continue.

Kaven smiled.

"Father is returning with grandfather in two days" Kaven said to which I smiled and leaned back on my chair.

It felt like everything was out of order ever since father left the duchy, hearing the news he is returning sends a soothing feeling inside.

"That's good news." I said softly with a smile.