Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 50: To save ourselves from the consequences of my teacher’s passions (Cascading Collapse - Part 5 - Intermission 1)

Chapter 50: To save ourselves from the consequences of my teacher’s passions (Cascading Collapse - Part 5 - Intermission 1)

"You are just trying to turn everyone’s attention away..."

Snap.

Lukas’s eyes widened as something in the air... changed.

It wasn’t like anything he had ever felt before.

No mana in the air moved, but more like... the air itself stirred for but a shadow of a second?

Lukas was never given the chance to ponder any deeper over the issue, not when his teacher suddenly moved, his hands shooting for his throat as his face filled with confusion.

A confusion that soon turned into panic as his fingers started to claw at the man’s very throat, making it seem as if he was... struggling to breathe?

"How do you even plan to become a star-teacher if you cannot see something so obvious?"

Lukas’s eyes dove slightly to the side, where the academy’s infamous teacher now stood above Julius, looking down upon the squirming man with the look of complete disregard mixed with just some slight amusement as he watched him struggle for 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 spread..."

The infamous teacher’s eyes lit up.

"...who do you think will have to deal with the fallout of exposing the inner-politics of my house to the public?"

Lukas’s mind stirred.

He didn’t know much about the man, not much beyond what he managed to reason in the short few moments that he saw him in the hall ever since he carelessly intruded upon the hearing.

Sure, he knew some rumors... but who in the world had the time to ever bother with those? When it came to rumors, Lukas only ever heard as much as everyone else, never wasting time to dig any deeper than the surface level.

But right now?

With that infamous teacher looming over Julius with the kind of a face Lukas would expect his master to make while dealing with some bandits on the road... All of a sudden, what little Lukas supposedly knew about the man no longer seemed to apply to reality.

It felt a lot more in line with the one glimpse Lukas caught of his bare-chested version when he leisurely tossed Tesh out of his room only to send her crashing from wall to wall a few times before finally crash-landing on the floor!

The man then shook his head, paying little to no mind to how Julius now fell down to his knees, his fingers now leaving bloody marks on the man’s very own throat as if he wanted to claw it open to overcome whatever it was that held his breath away from him.

Snap!

The air stirred again in the faintest of ways. And right away, Lukas’s teacher finally managed to catch a breath, desperately gasping for the air, unable to even lift his head up.

"On that note, I really had no other choice but to take things this way," teacher Theo continued to speak, minding not his opponent down on the floor. "So, I really hope you won’t hold it against me, vice-principal," he spoke, only to drive everyone’s attention right in the direction he was looking... to the headmaster’s chair.

There were only a few people with enough authority to take this seat, so few—in fact—Lukas could count them on the fingers of just one of his hands and then still have the majority of that hand’s fingers left to account for!

And as the crowd erupted in shouts of surprise as more and more of the teachers looked towards the headmaster’s throne...

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

For a moment, the silence filled the room.

And in that one moment, all Lukas could do was to clench his hands and hold his breath.

’I knew I didn’t expect things to go this way but...’ Lukas gulped down his saliva as his thoughts returned to just a few minutes earlier. ’But it would really be for the best if you got your ass here post-haste, Tesh!’

//\ //\ //Twenty minutes earlier\ //\ //\

"I’m Lukas Buhia, of the Dreydarh faction," Lukas bowed his head to the young student as soon as he saw him coming in. "It is my pleasure to meet with you."

Nate, the communications officer of the Peroxian faction, smiled before returning the slight bow.

"Nate Anae, of the Peroxia faction," he muttered before taking the seat at the table Lukas occupied, "and it is my pleasure."

While this vocal greeting was one part of the deal, both young men passed on small notes through the top of the table, pushing them for the other to inspect.

Given just how many people lived, learned, and taught at this academy, it would be unreasonable to assume every important member of a faction would be aware of every important member of every other faction.

That’s why, over the course of the years, even something as seemingly mundane as the two connecting officers coming into contact had its own routine carved out, with each side passing its credentials, most important achievements, and both ideological and pragmatical standing over the most burning issues.

’Oh?’ Nate’s eyes twitched when he saw several lines of Lukas’s covert introduction. ’They are supporting the reform to the justice system?’ he thought, raising his eyes and locking them on Lukas’s face in momentary surprise.

The reform in question was one of the more popular agendas within the academy, one suggesting pulling the whole judiciary system out of the usual rule of might so that everyone could operate within the frames of clearly defined rules.

It was a notion that kept getting more and more momentum ever since its conception, and while it already rose to the rank of a huge issue... just as steadily as it grew, it continued to lack the crucial, critical mass in its support for its proponents to have such a notion pass.

’They sided with that naive dreamer?’ Lukas raised his eyebrow at one part of Nate’s written introduction in particular, taken aback by their faction’s direct affiliation with the one supreme student that refused to participate in faction-level political games.

A preference that didn’t transfer automatically to those aligned with him, but a preference that most of his followers and supporters ended up adopting.

How could they play politics, after all, when their greatest source of strength refused to actively participate in it?

In the end, though, this was all but a short introduction. A necessary step to get one’s bearings before the actual meeting would start and the ongoing problems would be discussed.

A step that finally came to be when Nate put Lukas’s paper away, safely stashing it in one of his pockets, before bringing his hands together and cupping them only to then rest his chin down on the bridge made out of his hands.

"What would be the purpose of your visit, then?" Nate asked, his eyes drilling into Lukas’s face.

"Sir Nate, I’ve come to bargain," Lukas stated outright, holding nothing back. "Right now, my teacher, lured by the prospect of impressing a beauty, punishing someone he deems an offender, and climbing up the social ladder to the star-teacher level..."

Lukas started, only to catch Nate’s inquisitive stare and stop as soon as he began.

He then pressed his lips together before shaking his head.

"No, that’s not it," he muttered before closing his eyes... and then opening them up again right as his head stopped, his eyes now firmly locked on Nate’s face.

"I’ve brought a report to my teacher that led him down the wrong path, one he swore off the day he decided to support the judiciary reform. And right now, it is because of my naive thinking and your lady’s stupid decisions that we might be responsible for bringing trouble over the head of someone neither of us should be messing with."

Lukas refused to delude himself.

On one hand, why would he care if some teacher at the academy would end up slapped with the consequences of Lukas’s teacher going over the line?

Regretfully, when it came to this person in particular, the very reasons that made him such an easy target were also the reasons why he should be, at all times, left alone.

"And as bad as it might sound, right now?" Lukas shook his head before biting down on his lower lip. He then zeroed in his eyes on Nate’s face again. "Right now, it’s only your lady’s testimony that can save all of us from that infamous man’s wrath... or whatever retribution we will face from his family once they learn we’ve sort of screwed him up."