Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 67: Bunch of nonsense

Chapter 67: Bunch of nonsense

"It is on me to make sure I’m ready to take responsibility for them, isn’t it?"

Theo forced a small, knowing smile on his face, doing his best to somehow make himself easy to sympathize with for a purpose that ran in perfect counter to what one would normally hope for by acting the way he did.

Right now, Theo was reaching beyond his limit.

He had already reached his limits by pushing himself to do everything all at once, all in a bid to save some time. From analyzing the structure of the books, having the nanites translate that into the content of the books the hive could understand, having the text integrated and meshed with the rest of the knowledge base of this world, and then slowly building a network of mental hyperlinks to properly integrate all of this newly gained knowledge into Theo’s common sense...

Focused on so many different things at once, Theo could barely afford enough of his attention to actually turn the pages of the book he was reading—or, to be more precise, pretending to read.

After consuming a few lofty excerpts from it and seeing them for what they were, just some wordy sophistries, he quickly came to dismiss the content of this book, limiting the attention it took away to the absolute minimum necessary to keep the reading act up.

Up until now, Theo had reached the limits of just how much he could split his focus. But by having to now talk with Celeste, he breached past those limits, stepping into the territory of doing more than he could long-term manage.

Which is why, cutting this conversation short was, for the moment, Theo’s greatest goal and concern.

"I would normally agree..." Celeste reluctantly admitted, her eyes revealing a sudden burst of hesitation while she continued to glance between Theo’s face... and the book in his hand.

’Wait, don’t tell me...’

For a moment, Theo’s focus wavered, the new question of a potential connection between the woman and the book in Theo’s hands pushing him even further beyond his current processing limits.

At that point, Theo had no other choice but to put one of the several tasks he was trying to maintain at the same time on a hiatus, even if it meant taking a bit longer to properly process all that he was rapidly learning about.

With his nanites already making him appear sickly sweaty, Theo couldn’t really risk pushing beyond the limits of what heat his body could naturally disperse for long, not without taking the unreasonably increased risk of pushing his flesh into quite the dangerous territory.

"I overheard you claiming this book to be just a bunch of nonsense," Celeste admitted with a sigh while raising her hand to point at the book in Theo’s hand. "Would you care to elaborate what makes you think so?"

Normally, anyone asking a question like that would be an open invitation to a verbal fight, a challenge Theo neither had the desire nor obligation to accept.

But as he looked into the woman’s face...

Theo could tell she didn’t mean it as a challenge.

Or rather, it wasn’t a challenge aimed at him, but one most likely aimed at her own views, her own beliefs.

’Rather than trying to make me swallow my words about the book, she’s curious to see my perspective?’

That was a rather... unexpected development. One that was too reasonable to fit the generally unreasonable vibe of this world, of this setting.

’Isn’t she supposed to act high and mighty like some sort of a young master only to start a chain of events that would have me keep fighting through the endlessly rising ranks of her allies and then family?’

That’s how Theo expected things to go.

If he accepted the challenge and proved his mutter from earlier right, the entire thing would escalate into a conflict. Then, he would either have to publicly humble himself to put an end to it, or defeat Celeste... Only to then be forced to fight whoever she considered her master. Then, the master of her master. Then, the elder of the lineage she came from. A grand elder, patriarch of her clan...

And then keep going, raising the rank of every next opponent in line until the deity of this world would grow sick and tired of milking this encounter out of every last drop of juice it could offer!

Still, there was something deep at the bottom of Celeste’s eyes that... somehow sweetened the deal just enough for Theo to take a leap of faith and give himself enough leeway to, even if only for a moment, be honest.

’After all, what’s the worst that could happen?’ Theo thought to himself as he took in a fresh breath, ’I know I’m setting a flag by as much as thinking that, but again, why should I care when I’m going to quit this academy anyway?’

"This book honestly consists of not much beyond its author getting all high on his ability to use smart-sounding words and piecing them together in a way that makes his sentences appear to have some deeper sense," Theo revealed his honest thoughts about the book, opting to take full advantage of the focus he ended up saving by putting the integration of the knowledge he continued to gain throughout the encounter for later.

"It’s supposedly a beginner’s guide and yet it offers no explanation to any of the terms it uses, no explanation of the very basics, hardly any insights to the true nature of cultivation or mana handling..." Theo listed out his biggest gripes with the book while shaking his head. "In my eyes, it serves more to confuse anyone who would want to practice according to its teachings than offering them a proper path to follow."

At this point, Theo shrugged his shoulders.

"And what good is a beginner’s guide if all it does is muddy the waters for the beginners even more?" Theo asked, closing the book in his hand and using the small noise of doing so to snap Celeste out of the daze she suddenly fell into. "I know the stuff here might seem obvious and simple for someone at your level, but isn’t it our job to make things simpler to those following in our footsteps? That’s why I believe this book is a bunch of nonsense," Theo stated before tiredly shrugging his shoulders, "not because it doesn’t have any truths concealed behind its high and lofty language, but because it fails at the only task it was ever supposed to fulfill—explaining in simple terms what the newbies want to know."