Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 58: Secret for a secret

Chapter 58: Secret for a secret

"That’s when I slipped, falling through the unlocked doors and into teacher Theo’s room instead."

Theo took a shallow breath before slowly sighing it out.

It was already a nice surprise to hear the girl actually say the truth rather than trying to pin the blame for some imaginary events on him in a petty revenge.

But just like with everything else in the world, where there was a benefit, there was also its cost. And in this case in particular, it was allowing her to talk in more detail about what followed that became the cost of having her give a proper testimony.

’I guess the cat’s going to be out of the bag about my ability to cultivate now,’ Theo thought, only for a wry smile to then decorate his lips. ’But with the show I gave them all myself, is that really something I should still be concerned about?’

On one hand, Theo revealed his strength to everyone back some time ago, when he happily went ahead to physically pressure Julius.

But to have all of those teachers now learn from Tesh’s testimony that he was actually perfectly able to cultivate?

That meant nothing less but inviting them all to properly test his strength. And once it happened and Theo ran out of tricks to fool everyone, it would be only a matter of—a very short—time before people would realize the story he told didn’t stick at all.

But as if the world was to prove to Theo his predictions and calculations of how things would go simply didn’t work in this world, Tesh opted out of following the path he laid out for her in his brain by now.

"And that’s the end of my testimony."

Rather than going into the details of what happened over the very event that started this whole mess, Tesh finished up her story right before that point.

For a moment, the hall remained silent, as people took their time to process all that she said.

But this moment passed rather quickly.

"Honorable Headmaster," one of the teachers in the tribunes stood up, bowing to the armadillo on the throne before casting a sweeping glance through the crowd, "respectable teachers," he added with a slight nod before finally turning his attention to the girl standing in the middle of the open space of the hall.

"You’ve told us how you need to start the story earlier, so we’ve all agreed and patiently listened. But why is it that you stop your testimony right as we are about to learn what happened?" the teacher asked, only to then calmly sit back down as a wave of supporting murmurs spread out throughout the crowd.

Curious how she would navigate through it, Theo pinned his eyes on the girl.

"Up until the very moment when the honorable headmaster," Tesh bowed to the cockatoo on the throne while mentioning the person, "opened up the doors, I have yet to be summoned by the person that stood the most to benefit from my testimony. And I can only see one potential reason for why I had to get here on my own volition rather than because of an academic summon."

Tesh shook her shoulder.

"I believe it’s because even after I’ve annoyed him so much, teacher Theo still took my position into consideration, hoping not to reveal my identity when knowing just how important that secret was to me." Tesh shook her head. "So, with all due respect, it’s only reasonable for me to give back this favor and keep whatever I saw, by my own fault, in teacher Theo’s room as it was always supposed to be—as a secret."

A perfectly reasonable thought.

One that ignored Theo’s worry of Tesh giving a fake testimony, but beyond that point, a logical and clean deduction.

But one that, unknowingly to the girl, came with a massive flaw that even made Julius’ face brighten up as soon as he noticed it.

"And how do you think he was out to protect your secret..." he asked in a low voice, only to then raise his desperation-filled face of someone who just found a ray of hope in what was already decided to be their massive loss, "when it was me, in the middle of this very trial, that had to enlighten him about the very existence of someone like a phantom thief?!"

Tesh froze for a second, before twisting her head just enough to cast a quick, shy glance at Theo behind her. A glance that barely reached his calm, unbothered face before the girl turned her head back.

She remained silent for just a little bit longer, taking a short breath while allowing her shoulders to first rise only to then drop down.

"By all means, what I saw back in teacher Theo’s room made it quite clear to me that the rumors about him have nothing to do with truth," she said before shrugging her shoulders. "So what is there for me to believe anything you say about him, when it’s those very rumors that prompted you, respectable teacher, to try to bring this humiliation of a trial upon teacher Theo without as much as trying to verify what happened with the very victim of the alleged crime?"

The crowd stirred again as whispers started to spread throughout the tribune.

"It’s all a set-up..." Julius muttered, his eyes growing wider and wider by the moment as his momentary ray of hope only served to further bury his chances of turning the situation around. "It’s all a set-up! A vile scheme!" he suddenly shouted, pointing his finger first at Theo and then at Tesh. "They’ve all orchestrated it to make use of my sense of justice to make me look like a fool!"

’In your head, that is,’ Theo rolled his eyes.

He was perplexed and slightly annoyed... but not surprised.

After so many twists and turns, he was already on the verge of losing his mind. If he were to find himself on the losing end of this whole mess after all of this, though?

’I can’t say for sure I would fare any better than he’s doing now,’ he thought.

"I believe that tells us all that we need to know about what really happened," the headmaster, now but a broom sitting upright on its throne, spoke. "And unless there’s anything else anyone would like to add, it is high time for me to pass on a verdict."