Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 53: What do you see? (Cascading Collapse - Part 8)

Chapter 53: What do you see? (Cascading Collapse - Part 8)

"Do tell, when looking at me, what do you see?"

Normally, a question like this would lead Theo to take a good look at the other party while abusing the heck out of his hive to enhance the level at which he could try to read their expression.

Were they worried? Scared? Curious? Excited?

All of those things, normally hidden beneath the layer of the mask that every person developed for themselves, hidden in stuff one wouldn’t normally look out for, would be of great help for Theo to understand the true meaning of this question.

That was the important part, something Theo was quite used to investigating to know what sort of a question the other party expected, hoped for, or feared.

Were they scared of Theo’s potential that he somehow showed off? Maybe they were curious as to exactly how their new masking spell worked, and Theo just happened to be in the perfect position to elaborate on it? Who could tell, it could even be some sort of a test, either to see what exactly Theo could see... or something even simpler, a test to see whether or not he would admit to the struggle he was facing right now.

But right now, all of those things went through the window, given how Theo could only steal a glance at the headmaster before turning his eyes away—and have the man turn into something else entirely by the time he dared to sneak another look!

"Hmm?" Upon witnessing Theo’s hesitation, surprisingly, the smile only grew on the headmaster’s face, perfectly fitting on his youthful face right now only to turn into one hell of a worrying sight as he morphed into the fat personification of an ugly bastard tag from the times when people still would touch themselves to drawn pictures.

’He’s curious for now, but if I keep stretching the time it takes for me to answer...’

Theo didn’t need to finish that thought to figure out the consequences of doing so. And so, with his back pressed against the wall—both in a direct and indirect way—he had no other choice but to take a gamble.

This time, however, as opposed to his last gamble from when he called out the anomalous presence to be the vice-principal, his guess wasn’t based on logical reasoning, a series of hints he noticed throughout the encounter now giving him some sort of guidance towards the correct answer.

No.

This time, Theo simply followed his guts.

"I mean no disrespect, honorable headmaster, but..." Theo feigned uneasiness, which proved to be rather insanely easy given how this whole situation would make even the most important teacher in the whole of the academy quite unsettled.

And for someone like Theo with barely some basic cultivation and just a few tricks up his sleeve, to be merely uneasy in an encounter like this was already something to be praised for rather than ashamed of!

"Out with it, man," the headmaster chuckled, now assuming the form of an old, hunchbacked lady with a star-basket hanging off her arm under the weight of all sorts of herbs she carried in it. "Stalling for more time won’t do you any good... Nor harm, for that matter. I’m just curious, so just give it to me straight."

"Sir, while I mean no disrespect... You do appear to me like a young child..."

In the end, Theo went with the easiest possible answer—the very first apparition of the man that he witnessed.

Was there some sort of rule to how many times would the man’s looks change depending on the observer themselves? Or maybe choosing the very first set of visuals he was presented with only meant that Theo’s talents amounted to nothing beyond the bare minimum?

No matter how hard Theo scoured through his past-self memories, he couldn’t find a single clue that would help him fix a better, potentially more plausible answer.

The headmaster, however...

He decided he would have none of that, dismissing Theo’s claim first with a sigh before following it up with a chuckle.

"So you’ve breached through the third layer of the mask, huh?" Instead, the headmaster commented as if Theo’s answer, while as obviously fake as the man’s reaction made it out to be, still gave him the kind of information he was looking for. "Not bad, kid, seriously," the headmaster then shook his head, "not bad!"

Something weird, unfamiliar stirred up deep down at the pit of Theo’s stomach.

It was a weird, extremely foreign feeling, something he could tell both his current and his past selves were extremely starved for, only to never get the luxury of satisfying this hidden craving.

"Either way, to straight-out lie to the headmaster..." the man then smiled, morphing right back to the very first apparition he used when coalescing into existence from the particles of light. "Not only you have potential, but also the balls to back it off, huh?"

The headmaster stated, only to cross his legs and lean back in his chair, shifting slightly to the side only to rest the side of his chin against the fist propped up from the elbow he rested against the armchair of his throne.

"Which is all the more curious when we compare who you clearly are with what the rumors make you to be," the headmaster then added, the sparks of joy in his eyes indicating he was having the time of his freaking life. "How do you suggest I wrap my head around it, kid?"

All of a sudden, the man vanished from his throne only to magically appear right before Theo’s eyes, his small, childish body floating a few feet in the air to bring his eyes up to match the level of Theo’s confused stare.

’Okay, can this guy get any more weirder?’ Theo instinctively thought as he attempted to back up a step... Only to realize his feet were perfectly frozen on the floor.

That was only his first thought, though. And before the headmaster could speak again to throw Theo’s mind at yet another topic, the young man finally connected the small dots, the small hints hidden within the man’s entire disposition.

"Since you know the rumors about me and already seen enough to realize they had only very little to do with the truth about me," for the third time, Theo decided to gamble a bit, "then just why the hell did you allow this farce of a trial to continue?!"