Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 66: Responsibility

Chapter 66: Responsibility

Ever since that bogus trial came to an end, Celeste found it hard to be the version of herself that she always imagined herself to be.

Gone was the nigh-perfect, diligent, and dutiful teacher putting it all on the line for her students while caring not for the politics or the socialization with the other teachers.

What had to be an overwhelmingly harsh and unjust ordeal for the supposedly weakest colleague of hers in the entire academy turned out to be nothing short of a wake-up call for her.

’Can I really live my life free from all that happens around me?’

Because of her role and indirect involvement in the whole case, she ended up—not through a fault of her own—as a judiciary responsible for bringing Theo up to trial and then making sure he wouldn’t try to escape the judgment once it would be passed.

A job she had no other choice but to accept once requested, lest she wanted to take a huge hit to the reputation and social status she diligently worked hard to raise.

As if to spite all of her efforts to stay away from the world of politics, it was Julius’ political schemes that forced this unpleasant task on her... Only for it to turn into nothing less than a series of surprises.

First surprise, the accusations themselves, putting Theo in a much less favorable light than the already negative rumors floating all about him.

Second surprise, his reaction to the whole thing, or rather, lack thereof.

Thirdly, as all-encompassing as it could be, would be the whole of the trial, with all its twists and turns all the way to its unpredictably ultimate solution.

As a bystander only involved in the whole case through the angle of Julius apparently crushing on her and him learning over her lost dinner being the tipping point that made him fire the whole scheme off, she could watch with more or less an unbiased eye how the reality changed between the trial’s opening and ending.

Before it started, Julius was at the top, lacking nothing but just that very last push that could take him over the line separating quasi-star from full-star teachers, allowing him to join the ranks of the academy’s absolute elite.

Theo, on the other hand, was the lowest of the low, only now starting to make small waves that led to people allowing themselves very first doubts about the validity of all the rumors about him.

After the trial, however?

With all but his rank as a quasi-star now stripped, Julius effectively became an exile that was still locked on the academy grounds, now teetering on the line of keeping himself somewhat afloat through the missions.

Even without any of his assets or the passive income that he worked hard to get, he was still quite the reputable and strong teacher, easily capable of fulfilling the missions on the harder end.

This, however, just as Theo pointed out back during the trial, was only a mirage, an illusion created by the academy to make it seem as if it offered everyone a fair chance.

Which it did, just that... while the system of missions worked exactly as intended, it failed to account for the changes that happened to the economy of the world and the situation within the academy itself.

The reward for high-stakes missions, once easily sufficient to pay for a month’s worth of living expenses, now was barely enough to pay for a week of lodging with breakfasts and dinners included.

Which didn’t sound all that bad, until one factored for how missions like those could easily last for upwards of weeks if not months even for an expert to complete!

That left Julius at the beginning of an extremely unforgiving path, one he couldn’t escape until he decided to just call it quits or somehow managed to regain some students willing to pay the steep price of not only joining his class, but also fronting the expense of opening one to begin with.

Theo, on the other hand, left the whole trial situation as a rich man... Only to then throw the better half of all his newly obtained assets into a dumpster fire, openly selling it silver if not bronze coins on a gold coin of value, interested only in quickly turning the assets into actual money.

Not even the academic credit that most of his assets could easily be traded for, but simple, raw money that was worth as much within the academy grounds as it was worth outside of it.

That, all in all, was a clear giveaway of his intentions.

’He’s done with this place,’ Celeste thought, walking down the corridor as she sought to distance herself from her usual study spot at the main library, choosing to visit one of the smaller branches.

There was hardly any deeper meaning behind her choice, save for how this was the very branch where she first read a manual about cultivation, one that sparked her interest in the very arts she held quite a lot of pride in today.

Yet, what she didn’t expect from that small, unpopular branch... was to find Theo standing right by the ground-floor bookshelf, reading through the very book that inspired her all those years ago while...

"Huh, Theo?" Genuinely taken off guard, Celeste jumped a little, the pitch of her voice rising to quite cute levels. "I didn’t expect you to..." she started, only to then finally lock in on just what was weirdly unsettling about the image of that surprising teacher she was just stuck thinking about. "Wait, what’s with that sweaty look of yours? Are you okay?"

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that something was wrong with Theo.

No, not after he disregarded so many star teachers of the academy, effectively earning himself a roster of enemies. And while most of them were bound to be too busy with their own lives to give a damn... who was there to say there weren’t any who liked to hold a grudge and were more than willing to act on it?

Theo, however, merely threw Celeste a glance only for his lips to twist in a momentary annoyed grimace. He then quickly averted his eyes, wiping his expression back to its clean, perfectly focused state he was sporting before noticing her.

"I’ve ended up with two students, didn’t I?" he asked in a tired voice that only fit the sickly, sweaty look on his face, "whether I like it or not, whether I’m healthy or not, whether it means reading through a bunch of nonsense or not," he shook the book in his hand, "it is on me to make sure I’m ready to take responsibility for them, isn’t it?"