Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 49: The truth doesn’t matter (Cascading Collapse - Part 4)

Chapter 49: The truth doesn’t matter (Cascading Collapse - Part 4)

This situation was quickly getting out of hand.

First, Julius managed to steer the entire thing into a situation that greatly favored him. And in doing so, he left Theo with no other choice but to retaliate.

But how could Theo do so, when it was Julius’ words against his?

As a quasi-star teacher, Julius’ words held nigh infinitely higher weight than anything Theo, the trash, would say. And since Theo was the trash of the trash, then the only way in which he could reduce a proud and powerful student into a reported sobbing mess was through some unscrupulous means!

That’s why, the easiest way to change the situation around was to... deny what everyone considered the truth about him.

In doing so, Theo rendered the point of him being unable to toss the girl in question invalid. And that was merely one of the several benefits to the story Theo came up with.

But as if luck would have it, right as Theo was about to finish up the retcon of his official backstory from someone tossed aside by his noble family to... whoever his leading questions would make him out to be in the eyes of the crowd, not only did something in the hall change, but also that damned kid just had to make his appearance now!

’Is this world just that keen on screwing me up, or was it all arranged too?’

For all of it to be a part of Julius’ plan made pretty little sense, given how he simply couldn’t expect Theo to switch the narrative the way he did. On the other hand, though... What if it was just one of the contingency measures? An ace in the sleeve for Julius as much as the nanite poisoning was for Theo?

Then, there was still the question of that strange anomaly that was so faint Theo barely could feel it, and yet somehow managed to put his hive on the highest of alerts!

’Is there, mayhaps, a lot more to this whole situation than anyone would expect?’ Theo thought, taking a moment to consider the one option he didn’t really give much thought to before.

What if this wasn’t JUST a trial aimed for Julius to damn Theo and use this whole event as a stepping-stone to becoming a star-teacher?

’Is it my lore as a reincarnator kicking in to make me stumble into some ancient secrets?’

As Theo struggled to make sense out of the situation, the reality beyond just his thoughts continued to evolve.

"You are here, great..." Julius muttered, too distracted by what Theo implied before to actually pay much mind to the student behind the report that brought this whole trial to existence to begin with. "And since you are here already, how about we..."

"He doesn’t matter," snapping out of his thoughts, Theo spoke out just loud enough to stop both Julius and the newly-arrived student from commenting on the matter. "He did while we still played pretend, but now?" Theo shook his head.

In the end, riding with the story he conceived was much better than folding back into his earlier desire to just resolve the situation with his actual innocence as a core.

Now that he posed the crucial questions, was there really any point in going back to trying to prove his innocence?

Theo shook his head, dismissing such a naive thought.

"What do you mean, he doesn’t matter?!" Still shocked by Theo’s earlier statements, Julius happily latched on to what he said just now to regain some of his bearings. "So now that he’s here, you no longer wish to keep your claims of innocence?! How self-serving! How convenient!"

To a degree, Theo couldn’t fault Julius for trying to throw his very own words back in his face.

But the way Theo did it before and the way Julius did it now?

Those two cases couldn’t be further apart, and one merely needed to observe the reactions of the crowd to grow aware of it.

Before, when Theo clapped back, the audience gave him looks of understanding, some even did give looks of sympathy while there were quite a few who smirked, amused by the well-aimed riposte.

But now?

With Theo’s questions still stuck to the back of everyone’s mind as they tried to find their own answer to it, hardly anyone cared about Julius’ retort.

After all, he was currently the only one stuck back in the former narration, narration he himself happily dismantled when it no longer served him, only to now go back to it as soon as he judged it to give him better odds at winning?

"Yes, it’s extremely self-serving for you to ever talk about that report. And on that point, I do have some bad news for you," Theo locked his arms over his chest. "It’s not going to work. You’ve forced me to speak up, and it’s up to you now to bear the consequences of forcing the headmaster to deal with the fallout."

Theo shrugged his shoulders before glancing over to the empty throne at the head of the tribune, the only seat that remained unoccupied even when all those elite, star-teachers had to sort-of squeeze together to fit in the tribune.

’Now that I think about it...’

This extremely faint weird feeling he got, the hive’s warning... They clearly pointed Theo’s attention over to that very chair. And he would have to be really borderline stupid not to figure out who that chair’s owner could be.

"What consequences are you even talking about?!" Julius raised his voice, thrown off his track by the sheer confidence and fatalism in Theo’s voice. "You are just trying to turn everyone’s attention away..."

Snap.

With a small smirk appearing in the very far-off corner of Theo’s mouth as his eyes locked on the seemingly empty throne, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, only for Julius’ voice to abruptly cut away.

At first, his face twisted in surprise, as he suddenly found it challenging to produce a voice of any kind. Then, as he breathed out... his expression changed to that of panic when breathing in only served to rapidly explode his desire to breathe out!

"How do you even plan to become a star-teacher if you cannot see something so obvious?" Theo asked, making perfect use of the sudden silence created by Julius suddenly choking on his own breath. "Now that I’ve brought everyone’s attention to just how much of a nonsense my story is, it’s only a matter of time before some smart gal or guy will figure out the truth. And once the news about it spreads, who do you think will have to deal with the fallout of exposing the inner politics of my house to the public?"

For a moment, Theo stared as Julius started to claw at his throat, each breath he made only making his desire to breathe out all the greater while refusing to relieve his need for air.

It was as if his lungs suddenly stopped working altogether, no longer capable of anything beyond the natural reaction to the build-up of carbon oxide within, no longer capable of actually absorbing oxygen.

The truth of the matter was rather simple — Theo simply stirred his nanites into action, using the hive to direct the ones Julius unknowingly breathed in to stop any of the oxygen from actually reaching the insides of his lungs while allowing the carbon dioxide to freely pass.

In this way, while the man couldn’t catch a breath at all, every breath he attempted to take only fed more of the carbon dioxide directly into his lungs, making the sensation of drowning in one’s own breath all the worse.

Seconds later, Julius fell down to his knees, his eyes bulging out as he continued to tear at his throat with his nails, now just a step away from actually tearing his throat open.

Snap.

As suddenly as the attack came, the whole thing came to a proper stop, allowing the man to finally take a desperate breath, mere moments before his asphyxiation would result in a loss of consciousness.

And all of that happened while the people in the tribunes just watched in silence, most of them now nervously bringing their hands up to their own throats.

"On that note, I really had no other choice but to take things this way," Theo suddenly exclaimed while shrugging his shoulders with his eyes locked in on the seemingly empty chair. "So I really hope you won’t hold it against me, vice-principal," he stated, sending another shock through the tribunes as the witnesses all turned their heads towards the empty chair at the same time.

"Wait, the vice-principal?"

"He was here all along?!"

"Since when?!"

Hearing the murmurs rising in the crowd, Theo couldn’t help but smile a bit before adding,

"With everyone here as my witness, I tried my best to stop this farce of a trial before it got to this point!"