The few people next to Merilyn tried to get physical after hearing Ning's words, but Merilyn stopped them.
She turned around and looked at the man whose turn was supposed to be next and asked, "Do you mind if we slip in here?"
The man shook his head before he even understand what the words coming out of Merilyn's mouth meant.
"Thank you," Merilyn said and then turned to the other people behind the man and asked, "do anyone of you have any problems with us slipping into this line?"
Not a single voice of opposition could be heard from the people behind her.
Ning smirked in response seeing how well respected these actual frauds were.
"Very well. Since there are 6 of you, give me 12 gols and go that way," Ning said while keeping the smirk on his face.
"We are not here to buy your scroll," Merilyn said.
"Oh my, is that true? I'm so surprised," Ning said. He crossed his fingers behind his head and put his feet on the table before slanting back on the chair.
"So, how may I help you with? And please don't give me the 'you are a fraud' bullshit. I will beat the crap out of you guys as well," Ning threatened them.
"You…" the vice president got angry. He couldn't believe that this was the same person he gave a scholarship to just a few weeks ago.
"No, we are not here for that," Merilyn said. "We are here to make a truce with you."
"Oh," Ning said as his right eyebrow moved up. "Go on, I'm listening."
Merilyn looked around and in a quiet voice said, "what will it take you to stop this nonsense?"
"WHATEVER DO YOU MEAN BY THIS NONSENSE?" Ning spoke in as loud a voice as he could. "Talk normally so everyone can hear you."
Merilyn's eyes narrowed in slight anger. "Fine," she said. "What will it take you to stop this farce?"
Ning smiled again. "How could you not know that after I have told you so many times? Share your techniques with the common masses and I will stop doing this, for Xandria only. I will still go to the other country and make them all do the same thing."
Merilyn didn't speak, however, Ning could feel her start to tap into her Aether.
"Be careful. You don't want to do something so stupid in front of the crowd right?" Ning said, his smile the most irritating thing on him.
"Alright, what do you want out of this then? Money? Power? Status?" she asked.
"I just want what my disciples created to go back to being what they envisioned it to be. If that can't happen, it's better to not have it at all," Ning said.
"What? Disciple? What are you talking about?" Merilyn asked.
"Forget about it," Ning said. "Tell me, what do you have to offer me, aside from threats, to stop me from selling these techniques?"
Merilyn thought for a moment and tried to come up with something he could want, but she couldn't think of anything at the moment.
That was when the vice president walked forward and said, "I have been meaning to retire for a few years now. You can have my position if you want."
"Sorry to break it to you but a mere vice president's position is of no interest to me," Ning said. "Even the president's position is the bare minimum since that way I can at least start the reformation process of the tower in Xandria."
"What I really want to do is own the Aether Tower itself. That way I can put it back onto its correct track and reclaim the honor my disciples left it with," Ning said.
"Hah! Own the Aether tower? You are really looking down on the tower, aren't you? Just because the tower is an academic place, you forgot that it is also the strongest military force in the entire world," Merilyn said.
"I know," Ning said. "But there is not a single thing your military can do if you have to fight the whole world itself, can it?"
"The scrolls have already spread, thousands of them. Are you sure you can track them down and destroy every single one of them? What about the people that made more copies of it in secret? What about the ones that already learned it? Knowledge of it is sure to spread to the other cities and soon the other nations too. Are you sure your 'Strongest' army can stop it?" Ning asked.
Suddenly, he felt Aether move towards him. He could probably stop the aether from entering his body with his own Aether, but he didn't. Something then grew in his mind. He didn't feel any pain, or rather he felt nothing at all. However, he could tell that there were parts of his body that were losing function.
"If you won't accept our suggestion, then you can try and fight us. You will see how sorely you have underestimated the tower to make an enemy out of it," Merilyn said and turned around to leave. There was nothing further to talk about for her since the person could no longer talk.
"Have a good day then, Miss Merilyn. I pray that you have a good time trying to explain to people why such techniques had been hidden all this time," he said.
"What?" she looked around in shock. 'How is he speaking right now?' she thought.
"Hmm, is something wrong?" Ning asked when she turned around.
"N-nothing," she said.
"Good then," Ning said. Just then, he gagged a little and spit out a small sharp metal piece out of his mouth.
He tossed the metal onto Merilyn, who moved away and let it drop on the floor. She could hear some sizzling on the ground as the metal melted onto the ground itself.
"Also," Ning continued as his face suddenly turned cold, giving the illusion of temperature dropping around them.. "Pull such a trick again and I will make you understand what they mean by the sweet release of death."
