Chapter 245: 245
Seeing the person standing in the hallway, Michelle frowned a bit. It was the same woman who had blocked her way in the apothecary. "How can I help you?"
The woman scoffed when she saw the state Michelle was in. "Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, walking around like that?"
"No..." Michelle leaned against the doorframe, knowing it would take a while until the woman got lost. "Why did you come to find me?" she asked.
"What have you been up to these few days?" the woman suddenly went serious.
Michelle knew she wasn’t really being serious. She was just putting on a show because people were nearby.
But Michelle wouldn’t change the way she acted just because there were eyes around. "Since I’ve encountered you, My Lady, at the apothecary, I’ve been in the forest. I’ve just returned today."
The woman felt that things were going according to her plan. "And what were you doing there? Do you know something about the frequent explosions? The teachers were concerned about them."
Michelle narrowed her eyes. "Does that mean they assigned you to investigate it?" She tapped her head on the doorframe. She was extremely bored.
"That’s not something an outsider like you should be concerned about!" the woman snapped. She didn’t want to answer since she wasn’t actually tasked with anything by the teachers. But she wanted the gathered crowd to think that she was.
That way, she could make it seem that Michelle was hiding something from the teachers by not helping with the investigation.
Unfortunately for her, Michelle saw right through her, so naturally, she wouldn’t play along with it. "I was making poison by the area of the lake. I heard the explosions, but I didn’t have the time or energy to investigate them. I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything about it."
"And how can I believe that?" The woman refused to believe she couldn’t paint Michelle in a bad light.
Michelle found it too bothersome to answer. She felt like just slamming the door shut and going to take her bath.
But before she could turn aggressive, a voice came from the crowd. "Lady Elena, did you encounter this man by the apothecary on a Wednesday three weeks ago?"
Turning her gaze there, Michelle saw the disciple that had seen her and Alexander by the lake. And he had seen her take poison every day even after Alexander left.
"Yes!" The woman, Lady Elena Serith, nodded. Quite a few people knew she went to the apothecary that day, so it would bring her no good to deny it. "What about it?"
"Well..." the disciple spoke. "Then I can testify for him." He pointed at Michelle, disguised as Michael Grayson. "That day, I encountered him by the lake, and he was indeed tampering with poison."
The disciple could say that he saw Michelle with Alexander, but he had already spoken about it with his teacher.
His teacher then brought it up to Mavreth, and he said it wasn’t anything to worry about. After learning that, the disciple decided to put the matter to rest.
Also, it made him realize that Michelle wasn’t just a random person allowed to stay in the sect.
He was someone under the protection of the sect leader. Someone whose matters were personally taken care of by him.
Hearing the disciple speak, Elena Serith was furious. So Michelle had an alibi.
But that didn’t mean she would leave the matter to rest. "That doesn’t mean he was making poison the whole time!" she exclaimed. "It only proves he was in the forest when the explosions started. And that just makes him more suspicious."
"Haa-" Michelle sighed. She didn’t feel like dealing with the drama anymore. "My beautiful Lady, how do I prove that I was indeed making poison the whole time?" she asked. She just wanted to get it over with.
Elena Serith stared down at Michelle, not liking how she was leaning against the doorframe. Except for how dirty she was, she looked like an ordinary teenage boy who had just started growing properly.
Of course, that was because of the disguise mask. The identity of Michael Grayson was supposed to be that of a boy between eleven and fifteen.
"Give me the poison you made! I’ll have it analyzed." That was an order.
But Michelle had no plans of following it. Her poison wouldn’t go into someone else’s hands unless she was going to use it.
And Michelle was sure Elena had no plans of analyzing it. She would take it away and leave for a while. Then, after a few days, she would come in with the results that someone like Michelle couldn’t possibly make the poison, or similar crap.
Michelle wouldn’t let her precious poison be used like that.
So it was time to finally claw off Elena’s mask.
"My beautiful Lady!" Michelle stood up straight. "I won’t give you my poison! That’s only for my use." She spoke coldly, her tone leaving no room for argument. "If you were really told by the teachers to investigate the explosions in the forest, you wouldn’t be wasting your time here at my door, but instead looking through the forest to find the epicenter of the explosions."
She continued: "But fine, if you insist that I must prove myself innocent, bring me proof that you were assigned to the investigation. It would be for the best if you brought a teacher here."
With that, she slammed the door shut.
But her voice still came from inside. "Just so you know, in two hours, I’m leaving again! You will have trouble finding me if I go into the forest, so bring the teacher before then!"
Elena and the crowd were shocked. Up until just a moment ago, Michelle was just a lazy young boy, barely willing to defend himself. But within a split second, his demeanor completely changed, and no one dared to argue with him.
"Just you wait!" Elena shouted through the door and turned to storm off.
Though the teachers didn’t order her to investigate the explosions, if she pleaded with them, they would definitely allow it. Then, if she asked one of them to come with her to confront a troublesome outsider, they would definitely come.
Or so she thought.
In her room, Michelle went to wash herself, watching how the water that touched her ended up with a disgusting black layer atop the surface while some particles slowly flowed down to the bottom of the tub.
Michelle quickly got out of the tub, dried herself off, and put on clean clothes. As for the clothes she used while making the poison, she didn’t have a way to wash them, especially since charcoal and ash were troublesome to wash away, so she just burned them.
After changing, Michelle felt the urge to instantly go to the forest, but since she had said she would stay for two hours, she had to wait it out.
Not really because she was serious when she said it, but if she didn’t keep her word, it would come back to haunt her when she returned from the forest again. So waiting was the only option she had left.
She wanted to see whether Elena would be able to bring a teacher. And if she brought one, how would he react once he saw her?
How much did Mavreth tell the teacher about his disciple? Michelle couldn’t help but be curious.
When the two-hour deadline was approaching, Michelle sat up on her bed. With the last few seconds, she stepped toward the door.
Swinging them open, she was about to activate her Shadow Spirit Steps when Elena showed up. "Wait, outsider!" she rushed over, dragging along a middle-aged man. He had quite the dark face.
"Yes, My beautiful Lady?" Michelle tilted her head a bit.
"This is Teacher Coph. You said you wanted proof. So now show me the poison you made." Elena had a triumphant smile.
Michelle glanced at Teacher Coph and nodded a bit. Reaching into her spatial ring, she took out a porcelain bottle.
But it wasn’t one with the poison she had made. It was the porcelain bottle Mavreth had given her.
The reason she pulled out that one was simple.
Every single one of Mavreth’s bottles had a mark on the lid.
When Teacher Coph saw it, his eyes widened. As Elena reached for the bottle, his hand flew out and he grabbed her wrist. "Student Serith, you should put this to rest!" he said seriously.
Then, he turned to Michelle. "Young Grayson, you can continue what you were doing!"
"Thank you, teacher!" Michelle smiled and turned to leave.
The surrounding students were shocked by two things.
First was that Teacher Coph, who was a well-known poison maniac, gave up the chance to see a poison.
And the second was that when leaving, Michelle didn’t bow her head. That was what all disciples did when passing by a teacher. But Teacher Coph clearly didn’t mind it.
That showed Michelle was someone on a completely different level.
With a lazy smile, Michelle returned to the forest. It was time to check the old tree properly.