Chapter 136

Chapter 136

"The next Lord of the Ivory Tower."

Simon's eyes shook.

His arms unknowingly gave way, and Sereneon Simon's backcame down to the ground like going down a slide.

'Did she just say she's giving me the Ivory Tower?'

Puzzled, Simon looked back at her. She was smiling brightly.

"You heard me right~"

Simon wiped his brow. Interested in the position or not, it was still too much of a shock.

As though putting books that had fallen on the floor back into a bookshelf, he calmly organized his thoughts and regained his composure.

"That's impossible."

Concluded Simon.

"Even if you're the official successor of the Ivory Tower, you have no right to hand over the position of the Lord of the Ivory Tower to someone who's nothing but a stranger."

"Then how about this?"

She raised a long, white finger.

"Marriage to the successor of the Ivory Tower."

"?"

"It's embarrassing, but the truth is, because of the Ivory Towers long history, it's a very old-fashioned and patriarchal organization. There have only been two female Ivory Tower Lords. According to the Tower's laws, the 'Tower Owner' actually means the most outstanding male magician in the Tower. So"

She softly cleared her throat and then said with an unusually red face,

"After the marriage takes place, I'll make my position Tower Empress and back off. Then the person I would worship, the Lord of the Ivory Tower, would naturally become you."

""

Simon feigned a laugh.

"Don't be ridiculous. If that happens, the Lord of the Ivory Tower is nothing but a title and without real power: a puppet. The power would belong to the Empress, who has stepped on the path of the legitimate successor."

"Hey!"

She said in a slightly cold voice.

"What I just said was a very romantic dash, but that's how you're seeing it, huh?"

"Huh?"

"Hmph, whatever."

She turned away and pouted.

'???'

It was confusing for Simon.

She was making a recruitment offer, so he just refuted the validity and realism of the offer, but to think that the person who made the offer got offended first?

'Gosh, it's difficult to do something so outside of my comfort zone.'

Irritation was building up inside Serene, too.

'Do I have to go this far to win a person's heart? With just a few feathers, everyone would crawl like a dog and lick my shoe.'

Serene clenched her fist.

'Above all, if I went this far, shouldn't he realize that the core of this proposal isn't the seat of the Lord of the Ivory tower, but me? He really can't read the mood, saying hed just be a puppet.'

Her knuckles had gone white at this point as countless thoughts raced through her mind.

'What greater merit is there than being able to have me?'

'Why do I have to put so much effort into this person?'

'Ah, the more I think about it, the more infuriating it is.'

Then, amidst the countless thoughts, Simon strode forward.

Grab.

He reached out and put his hands on her shoulders.

Still slightly angry, she glared at Simon as if asking what he was doing.

"Stretching. The assistant teacher over there is watching us."

"Ah."

Serene also glanced at what the other students were doing and put both hands on Simon's shoulders.

The two of them broke apart simultaneously and backed away, keeping the hands on the shoulders but bowing down ninety degrees.

"Breath in!"

When the command was given, the two gripped each other's shoulders and maintained their posture. The aching muscles all across their backs and shoulders felt much calmer. They repeated it several times.

"Next pose!"

This time, it was a stretch done while sitting down.

Each pair would sit with their legs apart as much as possible with their feet touching, and then one person held the other's hands and pulled them in.

'Ah, crap.'

Serene looked down at her school uniform.

She didn't like Combat Dark Magic classes as they require you to use your body, so she would always skip it, pretend to be doing it, or erase the memories of the assistant with a feather. So, as usual, she was wearing her school uniform, putting herself into a slightly awkward problem.

"Hold on."

Simon took off the light jacket he was wearing over his workout clothes. Then, he came over and wrapped it around her waist.

"Wouldn't it be okay with this? If it's still uncomfortable for you, then"

"Thank you. Let me give it a try."

The two sat across from each other, spread their legs apart with their feet touching, and held hands.

"I'll pull first."

It was a kind of special technique used to flip a dire situation or finish a battle.

"Now! Let's start right away!"

The assistant teachers guided the students. You could understand why they made the students pair up on this. As one person turned their back and prepared for a 'jet-black eruption, the other activated a 'discharge' magic circle behind them.

Normally, completion means the channeller also discharging by themselves, but since they were still in the early stages, the first thing to do was increasing the circulation.

"Can I go first?"

"Do as you like."

Simon turned around. He took a deep breath and activated his core.

It was a pattern that he had repeated hundreds of times while fighting various enemies. Jet-black circulated through his body.

It was really good the way it was. Perfectly balanced.

To think that he had to raise this threefold. Simon was afraid that if he failed he could even disrupt the jet-black operation that had been working so well. But

'I cannot be satisfied with just this.'

Simon mustered up his courage. First, he doubled the jet-black distribution of the core.

"Kugh!"

A groan escaped his lips without his notice. He only doubled the production, yet his whole body was already rejecting it.

"I'll discharge it~"

Simon felt Serene's palm touching his back.

After a while, the jet-black came out into the discharge circle. Simon, after gasping for breath and regaining his composure, immediately jumped up to three times.

"Kuuugh!"

Simon couldn't even hold out for five seconds and collapsed. But it looked like he wasnt alone; most of the other students were sitting or lying down.

"Hmm."

Serene folded her arms.

"By the look of it, it must be hard until you tame the jet-black. We have no choice but to practice ignorantly over and over again."

Simon nodded and stood up.

"Would you like to give it a try?"

"I'm fine. I wouldn't use this kind of skill even if I learned it. And apart from that"

Her voice trailed off after glancing at Meilyn, but she turned her head back and said,

"You want to give it another try? This time, try doing it my way."

"Your way?"

"Yeah!"

She took a step back. Then, she reached down and shyly grabbed the hem of her skirt before bouncing in place.

"?!"

Many feathers began to fall from her white skin. In an instant, feathers piled up under her feet.

"Don't tell me you're planning to use powers on me, are you?"

"Fufu."

She laughed it off and plucked a feather from the ground. She then began putting feathers on herself one at a time, taking each of them off with a shake of a head.

"Is this it? Or this one?"

The shade of jet-black in each of the feathers subtly changed.

"Ah, this is it."

As she gestured into the air, the feathers that fell on the ground shifted their colors to the same one as the one she held and stuck to Serene's body.

After attaching about twenty feathers like that, she snapped her fingers. The remaining feathers on the ground turned into a magic circle.

"Wait a second, what are you trying to?!"

"Shut up."

She put a feather on Simon's body. The moment Simon got startled and tried to flinch away

'Huh?'

He felt at ease. The tension melted away, and his muscles relaxed. He could hear the wind blowing, the trees rustling, and the grass swaying.

"It's a sedative. The professor is watching with her eyes peeled. Do you think I'm stupid enough to try to do something to you in front of her?"

""

She was right.

As Simon pondered, she put a hand on her hip and said,

"I won't do anything bad, so turn around like you did before."

After mulling it over for a moment, Simon turned around with a stiffened face.

"Hyah!"

She suddenly came close to Simon as though hugging him from behind. Simon, still affected by the calming sedative, became very tense and his face turned red.

"Serene!"

"Please keep your eyes focussed on whats in front of you."

At her words, Simon looked around.

'Wait.'

Time slowed down, and he couldn't see anything else around him. It was similar to the imagery that Bahil used before.

"You could do it in this state, right?"

Her voice sounded like the lyrics of a song.

"Try it. I'll help you."