Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 55: Unplanned testimonies

Chapter 55: Unplanned testimonies

Headmaster’s sound-blocking barrier had no physical manifestation. It just... was.

That is, it continued to exist as this weird sense of blur separating everything on the inside from all of those on the outside... until it didn’t.

There was no cinematic collapsing of it, just the fading of the cause that brought forth the desired effect.

"Welcome, everyone," the headmaster boomed as he sat back down on his throne, finally stuck in the very last apparition Theo saw him as.

Or, judging by the apparition’s nature, saw her as.

"I apologize for the slight delay, but as you all must be keenly aware, this is a rather extraordinary day, one that warrants extraordinary measures."

Upon sitting down, the headmaster - headmistress? - pulled one of her long legs over the other, while magically making sure for her long, elegant and perfectly modest skirt to keep all the necessary parts hidden away, regardless of what angle one would look at her from.

"Julius," the headmistress wasted no time before turning her attention to the cause behind this whole event, "do you have any tangible proof of what you are accusing a fellow teacher?" she asked, only to morph right back into the apparition of the adolescent boy as he leaned his head over his right shoulder, "or is this whole trial just an avenue for you to exhibit your political strength?"

Theo raised his eyebrows a bit.

As confusing and unclear as his conversation with the other party was within that silence zone they themselves established, in the end it was rather clear that the academy’s top-dog was more likely to be with rather than against Theo’s case.

But to see him go on a direct offensive right away, only sparing a second or two to greet everyone before cutting to the chase?

That kind of haste was way outside of Theo’s realm of expectations.

"Honorable headmaster!" Julius, rather than answering the man’s question, opted to just fall down to his knees and lower his head as he greeted the man. "There was more than enough circumstantial evidence for me to..."

"So, you don’t have any, noted," the headmaster cut Julius right off, not giving him the platform to keep spouting his sophistries. "Now, dear observers," the headmaster turned its youthful, childishly naive face over to the crowd gathered on the tribunes, "do any of you have some information that could affect my ruling over this case?"

The headmaster cast a sweeping glare throughout the tribunes.

And as expected, not a single person dared to raise even the slightest issue when faced with the uncannily fuming stare coming from such a young, pure pair of eyes.

A result that, quite surprisingly, wasn’t to the headmaster’s satisfaction.

"I’m not here to threaten you. I just don’t want anyone to say that I’m here to push the scales of justice in favor of whichever party I stand to benefit more from. So, if you have anything to add, then by all means," the headmaster nodded his head forward, as if to encourage people to step out and speak up, "just make sure to keep it concise. You’ve all wasted more than enough time lazing away in here."

Once again, the silence filled the room. This time, however, it wasn’t due to the headmaster casting some sort of a spell, technique, array or maybe even something that Theo didn’t even know the general name of.

This time, the silence was the result of the headmaster forcing quite the choice upon the crowd.

Side with Theo, and effectively turn your back on the factions involved in the organization of this whole mess. Side with Julius, however, and they would be putting themselves on a silver platter for the headmaster to devour.

After all, the tribunes were filled with elite, quasi-star and star teachers! And without some basic smarts and sense for self-preservation, not even the greatest genius could reach that level easily.

And so, stuck between a rock and a hard place, most... Most of those prideful teachers decided to just lower their heads and avoid the headmaster’s stare, opting to either delay their fate or pretend to be no more but passive observers to it all.

"Honorable headmaster, if I may..."

Right as Theo thought the silence couldn’t stretch any longer, one of the teachers called out from the tribune, even going as far as to raise his hand up like some sort of a student.

"By all means," the headmaster’s face relaxed, the fierce spark of wrath calming down in his eyes a considerable bit as he sat back in his chair, "go on."

Rather than speaking up right away, the brave teacher took his sweet time pushing through his colleagues, only stopping once he reached the edge of the tribune, revealing his face and thus identity to everyone in the room, the headmaster, Theo and even Celeste included.

’Him?’

Theo’s eyebrows moved up a bit as his brain rushed to process the news.

"I’m coming to speak on teacher Theo’s behalf," Mark announced, instantly stirring up the audience on the tribunes with just those few words. "Contrary to what the rumors say about him, he proved to have greater insight in the realm of magical engineering than most of the experts I’m dealing with," he stated before casting a quick glance in Theo’s way before quickly turning his eyes back to the headmaster.

Still, with the amount of attention his words brought right upon him, Frank quickly ended up lowering his face while a blush of stage-fright got to his cheeks.

"If teacher Theo is the trash everyone says he is, then," tensing up all over, teacher Frank looked up and locked his eyes on the headmaster with a look of determination that couldn’t fit any less on his meek persona. "Then, what does that say about all of us?"

Frank allowed the sound of this question to ring out in everyone’s ears, patiently waiting until everyone properly digested his words.

"I can’t blame others for it, when I myself am guilty of trusting the rumors. But while to err is human and a common bread for a magic engineer," the moment Frank’s words entered the realm of his expertise, his voice reinforced upon itself, growing steady and confident, "but not to improve upon one’s mistakes, is the definition of a fool."

With those words, Frank skittishly nodded his head in a slight bow before quickly retreating back into the rear of the tribune.

"I’m coming to speak on teacher Theo’s behalf!"

Once again, the same words filled the room, spoken with the same, determined voice as before. The strange part, though, was the direction this voice reached Theo’s ears from.

’Wait, wasn’t she...’

Celeste gave Theo no time to ponder over whose side she was on. She just waltzed ahead before reaching the very middle of the room where she commanded everyone’s undivided attention.

While she normally gave off the vibes of the more low-key, competent yet humble teacher focused on her job rather than the ugly, political side of it, right now, not even the headmaster or Theo himself could turn their eyes away from her.

"It is true that I’ve lost my dinner to this man once," Celeste started by confirming what Theo already admitted to before. And while his first reaction was to reconsider whether she came out to speak for or against him, upon second thought, her words did him no harm.

Instead, they only added up to the validity of all the other claims he made before, by proving that what could be confirmed through other, valid sources... went exactly as Theo described!

"But it is also true that, when caught off-guard by a rowdy student of mine, his off-handed answer to my question went against everything that I’ve learned on the very topic I teach."

Once again, as if to play with Theo’s feelings on the matter, Celeste’s words made it seem as if she was out to bury him rather than to help him out.

"The interesting thing is, though, no matter how hard I tried to later disprove his answer..." Celeste shook her head, before raising her eyes and casting a sweeping glance over the tribunes, "no matter how hard I tried, what he off-handedly said back then makes more sense than any of the explanations provided by the experts of the past."

At this point, Celeste pursed her lips and turned her head over her shoulder, giving Theo a long, inquisitive stare before ultimately sighing out and turning back to the headmaster and the crowd.

"I won’t claim to have figured him out. I can’t even claim to fully understand that one answer he gave when inquired while deep in his own thoughts," Celeste continued only to then relax and shrug her shoulder. "While I have yet to properly figure him out, though, it is quite clear that those vile rumors are backed by nothing more but common ignorance of his ability and character!"