Once the blushing Lin backs off, I shapeshift back to human form and sit at the table. It still takes her several minutes to calm down and retake her seat at the table. Luckily, she is flustered and doesn't notice that her dress is askew, or me staring at her.

Lin says "You body seems very similar to a drake, is that why you were interested in the egg?"

"No. I was interested in the egg because I can help it hatch. I am a friend to some drakes, so it is only right that I rescue the egg."

Lin says "You can really hatch it? Wait, you are friends with drakes?!?"

"Yes I can, but it will take quite some time. Yes, I have made friends with a few drakes."

Lin says "Now I want to go with you even more!!"

"Go with me?! What are you talking about?!"

Lin says "I want to learn magic from you, but you will be leaving after the auction, right? That means that I will have to leave with you!"

"I will be leaving, yes. However, I do not use spells, I cannot teach you magic!"

Lin says "I will let you in on a secret, I am the strongest mage in this kingdom! There is nothing more I can learn here, I have already gone beyond the limits of magic as we know it. Besides, I absolutely hate this city!"

"While I can understand your desire to get out of this city, surely you could do that at any time?"

Lin says "Of course I could. But do you have any idea how much danger I would be in traveling alone? I can defend myself, but only when I have mana. Once my mana runs out, I will not have a good ending!"

"I guess that is true. Don't you know any disguise magic or something like that?"

Lina says "I do, but it doesn't work against people who know my mana signature. Which includes almost every top mage in the kingdom. Either I need a strong protector, or I need to get far enough away that they can't easily follow. With you, I get both options at once! Besides, there is no one else that can help me go further with magic!"

"I am not a human, having a human following me would be problematic!"

Lin says "So teach me to shapeshift! I don't mind being another race! Take me as your disciple, I will even pay you! Or if you won't take me as a disciple, take me as your wife!"

When Lin says that all I can do is stare at her with a dumbfounded look on my face. It is apparently really amusing because Lin instantly starts giggling at me. I know I should instantly reject her, but I can't help but be slightly tempted by the offer.

"Give me your hand, let me scan you."

Lin says "You don't need to scan me, I will just tell you my measurements!"

"I am not after your measurements! I want to check your mana and your potential."

Lin says "You can do that?!"

At my nod Lin stops playing around and offers me her hand with a strange smile on her face. I do my best to ignore her smile and gently run my mana through her body. I check her physical health and fitness, then I thoroughly scan her mana pool.

Lin says "That felt good! Can you do it again?!"

"Stop playing around! Are you really only twenty-six? You are quite strong! You even have more mana than I do! It is too bad that it is full of impurities. You have not reached your maximum potential, but your foundation is really weak! As it stands you will not be able to go much further!"

Lin says "Wait! How did you know my age?! What do you mean impurities? My foundation is weak? Can it be fixed?"

"Can you look inside yourself and view your mana pool?"

Lin says "Um, I don't know, I've never tried."

"Then you have a lot to learn. You will basically have to forget everything you know and start over from scratch! Can you stand to do that?"

Lin says "Yes! Absolutely! I will do whatever it takes! Do you think I would offer to be your wife if I wasn't serious?!"

"To be honest, I didn't think you were really serious about that. After all, you are famous for having rejected basically every man in the kingdom! Besides, I am not even a human!"

Lin says "You can shapeshift into a human, that's good enough. Besides, your real form is fuzzy! The reason I rejected all those men is because they weren't interesting. You, on the other hand, are super interesting! So no, I wasn't joking, I really will be your wife if that's what you want!"

"No! No, that's not what I want!"

Lin smiles and says "Are you sure? Your eyes are telling a different story!"

"Stop teasing me or I will absolutely leave you here!"

Lin says "Does that mean you will take me with you?"

"To be honest, I am considering it. You are nice and you have a lot of potential. Besides, I am curious if a human can learn a different kind of magic. However, I am not accepting you as a disciple just yet, that will depend on if you can learn my kind of magic."

Lin kneels and says "I will do my best, master!"

Her kneeling down suddenly gives me an awesome view and my mind goes blank for a few seconds. The goddesses are obviously better looking, but they basically cheat. Lin's beauty is more enticing because she is a mortal, she has an aura that the goddesses don't.

That same aura is probably why the goddesses find me interesting as well. There were tons of stories in mythology about gods falling for humans. It might be for similar reasons, and that is one reason I keep my distance from the goddesses.

Lin on the other hand is completely different and if she keeps pushing I will be in trouble. My best bet is going to be to keep her so busy that she doesn't think about other things. If I can keep things strictly to a teacher and student level that would be for the best.

"Alright, it is getting late. For now I am going to teach you the basics of meditation. Practice it for tonight, then tomorrow after the auction we will leave."

Lin says "Alright! By the way, do you want some money? I know you aren't taking me as a disciple yet, but you are taking me with you. Besides, I have tons of money and I am making even more off of the auction."

"Yes, I guess I am taking you with me. This is going to cause all sorts of problems. I still have several million coins to spend, but I have no idea if anything interesting will show up in the auction."

Lin says "I'm not sure what you might find interesting, but the auction tomorrow is going to have a lot of interesting items. I will transfer some money to your paddle directly. Use it to have some fun, I really don't need it, so don't worry about it."

"Alright, fine."

After that I spend about an hour teaching her basic meditation and then I leave. It is late, I don't see anyone at all on my way back to the manor, but I forgot that Henrietta said she would wait up for me. What's worse is when I walk in I find both Henrietta and Seraph waiting.