The room had 9 people in total, not including Ning. 2 of them seemed to be guards, 4 of them were male teachers, and the rest were 3 female teachers.
Of them, the principal started speaking to Ning.
"We brought you here to have a little talk," Merilyn, the president said to Ning.
Ning looked around in suspicion and decided to act a little scared.
"9 people of high Aether Rank. Forgive me if I have trouble believing you, president Merilyn," Ning said. He took a slightly defensive stance against them.
"Oh please, you don't have to worry at all. These people are here just to witness the conversation we will be having," the Principal said.
"Very well, what are we talking about?" Ning asked.
Merilyn smiled and showed him the wooden chair in front of him, beckoning him to sit before they proceeded.
Ning pulled back the chair from the table and sat on it, while the rest of the people, aside from the vice president who sat next to him and the president who sat opposite him, kept standing.
"First of all, is it true that you are an Aether Emperor?" the president asked him directly.
Ning was a little surprised that they asked the question. 'Do they have a connection to the palace?' he wondered.
"Yes, I am," Ning said. "May I know how you came to learn that?"
"I think it's better if we keep that information to ourselves. The person did ask to be kept anonymous," the president said with a smile.
'The person? Is it Rachel?' he wondered. 'Did that girl forget that I'm stronger than an Emperor?'
"So you were that strong when you came to join us, huh?" the President said. "You nearly fooled us into thinking you were a beginner."
"I don't know what you mean by that, president," Ning said. "While I may have a high rank, I'm still a beginner in using Aether. I still have a long way to go."
"While it may be understandable that you still have a long way to go, do you really think we will believe that you are a beginner?" the president asked.
Ning smiled at the president. "I don't care what you believe. Do you think your belief will change the truth?" he asked.
"So you insist that you are a beginner huh? Well, I will believe that then, for now," the President said before bringing out something from her storage.
Ning looked at what it was and recognized the old scroll. That was the same one he had given to the vice president to see how he would react at the time.
The vice president had told him that he didn't know about absorption skills and that he would practice it on his own for a while. Ning had let him take it under the condition that he release its info to the world.
"Changing topic now, may I ask where you came to obtain this from?" the president asked.
"That's a technique that's been passed down my family for a long time," Ning said.
"Do you happen to know the origin of this scroll?" the president asked curiously.
"No," Ning said. "I only know that it has been passed down our family for many generations."
"I see," the president said and brought out a thick book from her storage bag and slammed it on the table before her.
"The vice president came to me a few days ago, showing us that he got something amazing from you. When I went to check it, I realized that I had read about it before," the president said.
"Oh, you read about it before?" Ning asked curiously.
"Yes, here," the president flipped the book and turned it to a page that read about an absorption skill that existed in the past that was stolen by someone, and since then it had been lost.
"Look at it, the marking is the same as well," the president said. "I believe that this scroll was stolen by an ancestor of yours very many years ago and that in fact, it actually belongs to us."
Ning was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that they actually forged a document to 'prove' that the scroll actually belonged to them. He had actually never seen this much of a farce anywhere else.
"Is that really so?" he acted surprised. "Are you trying to say that my ancestors were thieves?"
"No, of course not," the president quickly tried to keep the situation from exploding. "We don't know how the scroll went on to get lost. It could be? that your ancestor just happened to find it someday."
"What I am saying is that this scroll belongs to the tower," she said.
"How am I to know that this document hasn't been forged and that the scroll of yours you say to have been missing is a fake one?" Ning asked.
The president smiled. She seemed to have been ready for this line of questioning. "That scroll is not the only piece of information about our tower that is recorded in this book."
"You can read everything about the history of the tower and judge for yourself if it is true or not," she said.
'So they prepared well for this, huh?' Ning thought and picked up the book.
He touched the page that held the information about the scroll. It certainly looked legit, but he knew it was fake.
He looked back at the president once before turning back towards the book. 'I see, an Invoker Aether Emperor. She must be quite talented to create something so intricate,' he thought.
He continued flipping the book to the earlier pages and realized that most of this information was actually true. The president was using truth to further legitimize her lies.
Finally, Ning flipped it to the very first page of the book and read to himself what was written on it.
When he did, his eyes suddenly went wide.
It read "The Aether Tower was first established in the Serian Empire, founded by the brother and sister duo, Famir and Mavenna."
