Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 84: The best kind of leverage

Chapter 84: The best kind of leverage

"Who goes there!"

A pair of two middle-aged men stood at the gate leading up to the mansion, keeping the premises clear from trespassers.

Which made it a weird encounter between Theo, their new employer whom they saw for the very first time, and the two servants Julius hired for the security of his place.

After all, while an attempt on Julius’s life would be unlikely, as Tesh’s case proved, the academy wasn’t exactly a... safe place. And some of the students could be pretty daring—once again, as proved by Tesh.

"Star-teacher Celeste," Celeste spoke out in a heartbeat, hurrying her step a little to put Theo in the shadow of her big persona. "I’m here to inspect the premises."

The two guards exchanged stares before, against Celeste’s best efforts, turning their eyes to Theo.

"And he is...?"

The other guard spoke up, casually reaffirming his grasp over his spear as he took a step forward.

Theo merely smiled, too busy with sorting the ideas in his head into an optimal timeline to bother with those servants.

Who were they to stop him, after all?

"I’m the new owner," Theo barked...

Only to just keep on going, walking right through the two men with the utmost, unshakable confidence.

And after a moment of confusion... They didn’t stop him, nor Celeste from following after Theo, with his two disciples in tow.

"You didn’t even hesitate..." Celeste remarked as she caught roughly one-third deep into the mansion’s outer courtyard.

"What’s there to hesitate for?" Theo clapped right back, giving Celeste the same look she offered when freaking out about his lack of common sense earlier on. "This is my place. There’s a star-teacher witness by my side. All I want is to get my disciples to rest in safety."

Theo shrugged his shoulders.

"What grounds would those two have to stop me?"

For a moment, he stared right into Tesh’s face.

Then, without further ado, he resumed his march through the open courtyard akin to what once could be found in the old towns of an old continent—a huge, bricked-up plaza with an array of trees granting the open space some relief from the day’s sun.

Only to, at the end of his silent, peaceful stroll, reach the main building of the compound.

It had the form of the eastern fort-manors, serving both as the palace and a castle designed against the more modern kinds of warfare.

With walls hardly a challenge anymore, the building itself was constructed on a square basis with protruding battlements on each of its corners and the middle of each straight side of it.

In this way, anyone attempting to reach the walls would always find themselves in a crossfire from several different angles, making it a much harder structure to overcome than one’s typical castle.

The entire thing was built like a bunker... while somehow maintaining the decorum of a noble’s mansion.

In a manner befitting noble accommodation, its doors opened before Theo could even approach.

"Young master Theo," an older maid stood behind the doors, bowing. "We welcome you to the outer palace," she announced with her head still bowed down before stepping off to the side only to point her hand towards the manor’s insides.

"Young miss Celeste," the maid raised her head only to then bow it down before casting a curious glance at the two kids floating in the air.

A look she didn’t comment any further upon.

Stepping into the building, Theo could instantly appreciate its interior design as much as he did its exterior.

Every hallway, every room, every corridor or even the inner courtyard... All of them were designed to keep this place a fortress, with the rich interior only serving to disguise that fact.

And unless this just happened to be the period’s preferred architectural fashion... just what prompted Julius to get himself a bunker of a house like that?

A location at some distance from the rest of the academy, built to last a prolonged siege... only for most of its usefulness to be lost in the realm permeated with magic practice of all kinds, a gathering of the nation’s youth with the goal of shaping them into responsible, capable adults.

’Well, whatever the reason, it’s all the better for me,’ Theo thought, redesigning the whole place in his mind to best serve his planned purpose.

One that wasn’t too dissimilar to what he already did, even before the whole trial thingy.

"Don’t you think the academy lacks some sort of a..." Theo hung his voice down as they followed the maid in, only to soon realize this place was choke-full of boxes, packing bags and all sorts of huge developmental activity.

’Oh right, it wasn’t all that long since the verdict, so it would be unreasonable to ask him to move out that soon,’ Theo thought, his mind ready to register this exact detail as something to be omitted.

But...

There just was something unsettling in this picture-perfect image of compliance with the headmaster’s decree.

For someone given the comfort of getting his bearings before fully dealing with the aftermath of his actions, didn’t Julius make too much of a scene out of complying with the rulings?

’Wait...’

Before the maid could even lead them to the main hall, Theo stopped.

He then cast a long, sweeping glance across the main hall.

His expression didn’t change nor did his stare linger on anything in particular.

But he still refused to move.

’So that’s how it is, huh?’

Theo’s stare hardened only for his face to relax as he smiled back at the elderly maid.

"Can you go set those two down somewhere comfortable?" Theo turned to Celeste with a request and a weirdly relaxed, almost cheerful expression.

"But..."

Celeste’s eyes jumped between the maid, the main hall they were heading for and then the two disciples that she still kept up in the air.

She then clenched her hands a little, only for her stare to linger over to the corner of the main corridor of the manor.

Ready to serve and defend, the mansion servants stood at attention, awaiting their orders all over the place.

"And just to remind you all," Theo suddenly announced in a hefty, loud voice bordering the level of a shout. "As of the trial’s end, Julius lost all of his assets. What I want you all to ask yourselves is," Theo smiled, "what is he going to pay you with when the entirety of his fortune now belongs to me?"