Chapter 288: Just Barely

"Why is the new Principal searching for me?" Grey asked.

"I… I don't know." The Instructor hesitated before replying. 

"Hmm, looks like you're still not ready to speak. Void, fix him one more time." Grey said nonchalantly.

He was not so kind-hearted or free to play games with the Instructor, if the Instructor had no plans of speaking, he'd just kill him and get Void to bring another one. 

Void was more than happy to give him more beatings. Unfortunately, the Instructor had no plans of cooperating with him, because he quickly agreed to say what he knew.

'*Sigh* Such a shame.' Void shook his head after Grey told him to leave the Instructor alone.

"What do you know?" Grey asked as he came closer to the Instructor. 

"Water, please…" The Instructor begged as soon as he noticed Grey was coming close to him. 

Grey looked at the stream behind him, but still gave him the water he created with his water element.

Ptui!!

The Instructor spat out the water as soon as it got into his mouth. 

There's a difference between normal water, and water made by an Elementalist. The water made by an Elementalist had a sour and metallic taste that didn't taste good for drinking. Although, in extreme times, some Elementalists have been known to drink it, but it rarely happens.

"Speak," Grey said, not caring about the Instructor's reaction. He had already tagged most of the Instructors as an enemy, and guessing that this one was one of the new ones, he had almost zero sympathies for him.

"But… but…" The Instructor wanted to speak of the running water he was hearing, but remembering how Void beat him up, he shut his mouth.

"I don't know about anything, I don't even know who you…" He paused midway, thinking why someone he didn't know would kidnap him.

Initially, he didn't know who he was speaking to, but hearing the mention of the word 'New Principal', he was able to figure out who he was talking to. 

"It's you!" The Instructor yelled in shock. Never in this world would he expect that the young man they were searching for would kidnap him. 

"Instructor, my patience is very slim," Grey said slowly. 

"This has nothing to do with me, I'm only following orders." The Instructor begged. 

"I guess you're not needed." Grey stood up from his seat, planning to let Void kill him. 

"Wait…" The Instructor called out, "All I know is that you have something the Emperor wants."

"The Emperor? So, you mean this has nothing to do with my Teacher?" Grey sat down, not too surprised about being the one they were looking for. What truly shocked him was that he had something the Emperor wanted. 

He didn't recall ever meeting the Emperor, nor did his Teacher leave anything important with him that others would covet, except for his teachings, that is.

"Yes, yes, the Emperor. He ordered that you should be captured, alive." The Instructor nodded continuously.

"And?"

"Nothing, that's all I know."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I swear on my life, I don't know anything else." 

"Void,"

"Wait, wait, he also didn't want us to make this known to the public, and… and he only asked about you after the trial land closed."

"Anything else you want me to know?"

"No, that's all I know."

Grey looked at the Instructor for a while, he couldn't say he fully believed him, but he felt worried about the involvement of the Emperor. 

'Hmm, the Emperor. How does a mere Instructor know that the Emperor is the one who wants me?' He asked himself.

It's totally impractical for someone who is only in the Origin Plane to know about this. 

'Void, bring in another Instructor.' Grey said, he wanted to confirm something. 

'Yes!' Void exclaimed happily. 

'Alive, please.'

'Wasn't this one alive?'

'Just barely.'

'Fine.'

Void went out again, and this time, it took him only thirty minutes to come back with an Instructor. Fortunately,  this one was able to see clearly. Grey asked him the same question he asked the previous one who was currently unconscious on another chair, and he got a different answer. This one apparently only knew that the new Principal wanted him, and nothing else.

Grey woke up the unconscious Instructor, and after asking again, he found out the Instructor eavesdropped on the higher-ups during one of their meetings. 

He currently had two possibilities in his head, first, the Principal was only searching for him because of his Teacher. Second, the Principal was searching for him because the Emperor ordered it. And to be honest, he believed the first possibility more than the second one. 

What could he possibly bring out of the trial land that the Emperor would want? It was when he was thinking about this he recalled something. 

'The Great Essence Liquid.' thought Grey. 

That was the only thing he could think of that would make even an Emperor search for him, and from how the Emperor wanted to hide it from the public, it's like he wasn't the only one who knew about it. There's also the chance that he was overthinking, and maybe the Emperor wanted him for a different reason entirely. But whatever it was, he didn't want to find out, especially given how they were searching for him like a criminal, and what the Instructor said.

After what happened in the Capital the last time, going there wasn't part of his agenda. 

"Void, take care of them," Grey stood up and walked in the direction of his shack. Well, almost a shack. 

The shack had been destroyed from different explosions, and after using the earth element to make a shack multiple times, he gave up and just stayed in his roofless wooden shack. It wasn't so bad after he got used to it.

Before he got in, he could already hear the screams of the Instructors, but it quickly came to an end. There was no way he was going to let the Instructors leave, doing that would mean putting himself in danger, that wasn't something he would deliberately do.