"You're leaving, Brother Ning?" Reever asked in surprise. It was just yesterday they had gone to the feast, just yesterday Ning had taken him to the desert.
It was just yesterday that Ning had helped them find out the truth about Lisa's eldest brother.
"I… I expected to be on the road constantly looking at the world, however, because you two were in trouble, I decided to stick around. Now that you have nothing to worry, about… I will leave," Ning said.
"Where will you go?" Lisa asked curiously.
"You know what? I don't know. I think I will stick around in the capital for a while more as I still have classes in the Tower, but… I might end up dropping out as well since I've learned what I wanted to," Ning said.
"I see," Reever said. "We would love if you would stay for much longer, but leaving is what you desire then we won't stop you."
Lisa walked forward and bowed towards Ning. "Thank you for everything you've done for us so far," she said.
Reever followed her as well and bowed. "Thank you, Brother Ning," he said.
Ning felt a little emotional seeing that. "Alright, take care. I will come to meet you once in a while, although I don't know how many years later that will be."
"Also, you can contact me through those rings if anything ever comes up. Goodbye," Ning said and walked out.
He didn't have anything more to do, so he went to old man Tim and let him know he was leaving.
Then, he left the palace.
'Should I go back to the hotel?' he wondered. He decided to think about it later as now was time for his classes.
He walked over to the tower and went up the floor to his classroom. Inside, he found most of the students already there.
'Right, they stay in the dorms, so they can easily come to the class whenever they want,' Ning thought.
He looked to the side of the class and saw the seat where Rachel usually sat was empty.
Ning internally chuckled and sat down on his bench. About 2 minutes before it was time for the classes to start, Rachel finally walked in.
The moment she did, her body stiffened as she saw Ning in the class. Ning waved towards her.
Rachel had planned to sit elsewhere, but seeing him a wave, she felt that if she were to go sit anywhere else, she would be in danger of being targeted after class.
So, while feeling afraid, while shivering, she went up to her original seat next to Ning and sat down.
"Good Morning," Ning said with a smile.
Rachel felt the skin on the back of her neck stand up when he spoke. "Go-Good M-Morning," she tried to stop her fear show up in her voice, but she wasn't able to.
"I've been wanting to speak to you about something," Ning said.
"W-wh-what is it?" she asked.
"Well, exactly this," Ning said. "Stop being scared so much. Do you think I'm here to hurt people?"
"I-I'm not scared," Rachel tried to act strong, but her shakiness gave it away.
"So… you can steal people's Aether by touching them, huh?" Ning asked.
"Wh-wh-what? N-no, no. I don't know what you're talking about. I can do no such thing," She cried out.
"You don't have to lie. I know what you can do. Honestly, I'm a little jealous of what you can do. No wonder you got a scholarship with how great your ability with Aether is," Ning said.
Rachel got a little scared at having been figured out. She didn't expect Ning to know what her secret ability was, so she was frightened beyond belief.
"Wh-what are you going to do? Kill me and steal my skill?" she asked.
"What?" Ning looked at her with a weird face. "Why would I kill you? Your skill can't be stolen either. You seem needlessly suspicious of me."
"You are a strong man acting like a student. Of course, you have something suspicious to do here," Rachel said.
Just then, the teacher walked into the class. Ning turned around and stopped talking with Rachel to focus on the class, but the Teacher didn't say anything. Instead, she looked at Ning.
"Ning, come with me," she said.
'Hmm, what's going on?' Ning thought. He stood up and walked to the front of the class before following the teacher Sherry out of the room.
She walked in front of him, a full head shorter than him, and went to an elevator.
After she entered, Ning followed into the elevator and waited for it to start moving.
Before he knew it, the elevator started going upwards, and it showed no sign of stopping.
After going up what felt like 20 floors, the elevator finally stopped, and Ning walked out of it.
"Follow me," Sherry said, and Ning nodded before following her to a room.
There were a few people in the room, including one person he knew, the Vice president of the tower.
As soon as he walked into the room, the doors behind were shut as two bulky men, obviously trained in the ways of Aether stood guard.
'That doesn't seem suspicious at all,' Ning thought. Ning looked around the room and saw at least 7 different people, not including the 2 guards behind him.
The room was situated very high in the tower and was filled with different types of pictures, hung on the wall. One of which, he recognized to be of the goddess that the Aether users seemed to believe in.
"May I ask why I have been brought here?" Ning asked.
The woman in her 50s wore a purple, scholarly robe like everyone in the room, but for some reason, she stood out the most in the group.
"So you must be Ning Ruogong, huh?" the old woman asked.
"Yes, that is me," Ning said. "And you are?"
"I am Merilyn Champers.. I am the president of the Xandria branch of the Aether tower."
