Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 85: The audacity!

Chapter 85: The audacity!

"What is he going to pay you with when the entirety of his fortune now belongs to me?"

Theo allowed his question to linger in the air for a moment, waiting for the servants of the manor to properly take it in.

Because after taking a look around, it became painfully clear that Julius had absolutely no plans of leaving this place!

After all, what could he be so busy packing, when everything in the mansion belonged to Theo anyway?

’If only you didn’t try to make such a big show out of it, I wouldn’t even notice...’

Theo resisted the desire to shake his head and limited himself to just rolling his eyes. He then gave the head maid a knowing look... only for her to merely back off, a look of poorly concealed fear on her face, not knowing what to take Theo’s look for.

"Are you going to lead me to where Julius is now?"

Finally, the maid snapped out of it, putting her fear aside and restoring a calm, composed look to her face.

"Of course," she bowed her head, "please, follow me, young master."

Without further ado, the maid moved down the main hall. Theo, on the other hand, spared but a moment to take a quick look at Celeste before nodding his head at her and then following after the maid.

With his two disciples in Celeste’s care, he didn’t need to worry about them all that much. And, frankly speaking, he would much rather deal with that eyesore of a Julius without her to watch every move he made in the process of doing so.

Thankfully, Celeste opted not to make the situation even more complicated, letting Theo go deeper into the manor while she herself sought help from one of the staff to find an appropriate place to get Tesh and Lukas to rest.

A moment later, Theo finally entered what was supposed to be the building’s main hall... only to realize that even there, in the supposedly most impressive room of the whole place, the militarized standards applied as well.

As such, rather than one huge throne hall with an elevated spot at its end and a dancing slash court floor before it, the main hall turned out to be just another long, straight corridor with sets of doors evenly spaced on both of its sides.

The head maid didn’t turn to any of the side doors, leading Theo all the way over to the end of the corridor and the final door on it.

"Master Julius, we are coming in," the head maid stood by the doors before announcing out loud and only then putting her hand down on the door’s handle. Still, rather than pushing them open right away, she waited several seconds and only then made her way in, only to step aside and open a path for Theo.

"Teacher Theo," Julius, sitting behind a simple desk overflowing with papers, raised his tired eyes to Theo. Then, as if satisfied with just confirming his presence, Julius turned his eyes straight back to the papers he was dealing with. "To what do I owe the honors of the visit?"

For but a moment, Theo looked down on the man, calculating his options, the risks to each of them and potential benefits.

In the end, though, most of the risks could be ignored while the pay-offs of different scenarios varied only by the degree to which Theo was willing to compromise.

Funnily enough, if Julius showed the grace of a defeated man, he wouldn’t actually mind offering him a helping hand. Extending an olive branch was easiest when one held leverage over the other, after all, and doing so would allow Theo to avoid Julius’ stupid attempts at revenge down the line.

But seeing how everything was arranged here or even hearing the very specific way Julius greeted him?

’Well, if you want to play games, then I’m happy to oblige.’

Theo took a breath before shaking his head.

"First thing first, I’m not here to visit you. I’m here because I severely underestimated you, even after all that you did back in the tribunal tower," Theo stated, crossing his arms over his chest while raising his chin and looking down on the man’s face along the bridge of his own nose. "Even after all that happened, I foolishly believed you wouldn’t have the audacity to act so shameless!"

Julius’s face contorted, his eyes twisting in confusion.

"What could you mean, teacher Theo?" he asked with a pleading look on his face. "I’ve passed over all of my belongings already, didn’t I?" he started to raise his voice, even going as far as to stand up from his seat and lean over the desk. "You are taking it too far now, by coming to bully me here, back in my own damned home!"

Once again, Theo offered nothing but the silent treatment to the man. And while nowhere near as long as when wielded by a woman, just the few moments of silence from Theo were enough to put a wrench into Julius’s plans.

His bullshit could only work if Theo willingly gulped it all down, after all!

"What are you doing, just standing here?! If you are here to brag, then just get the fuck out of my home!" Finally, Julius snapped, lacking the wit to withstand the prolonging silence.

"While I never really cared too much before, I did check with the headmaster," he stated, unveiling his hands from his chest and spreading them out, only to then shrug his shoulders. "This house was included in the list of things that I’m the owner of now. And even if it wasn’t included," Theo leaned his head over to the side, "now that I own all that you did, you don’t have the means to cover its upkeep and maintenance costs anyway, do you?"

At this point, Theo couldn’t help but smile.

As weird, childish and naive as it might be, dealing with self-important pricks like Julius was simply too much fun for Theo to just gloss over!

"You see," Theo continued, "if you came to me, apologized for misunderstanding and asked for a week to move out, I would likely just wave my hand and tell you to stay in this place, the tribunal verdict or not. But after what you did...?"

Theo looked back to the doors of Julius’s office, as if to point at the messy state of the mansion he saw as he walked in.

He then turned his eyes back to Julius before locking his arms over his chest again.

"The things that you tried to show off, the things that you said..." Theo slowly shook his head. "They are not going to work. Instead, since you tried so hard to cheat me out of what I’ve won in a trial with odds stacked against me, there’s only one mercy I’m willing to offer you."

Julius squinted his eyes while tightening his hands into fists.

"And what could that be, oh, the mysteriously generous sir?" Julius’s voice took on a clear mocking tone.

"Initially, I planned to help you get your personal items. But seeing how you are still trying to play me?"

Theo shook his head... and then, with a snap of his fingers, he unleashed his power, both his mana and his nanites.

In a flash, the flow of the magic itself turned into a set of simple, repetitive runes arranged in a very special shape... only for the rest of Theo’s mana to flow through the complex sigil and explode outwards, striking Julius straight in the chest.

On its own, Theo’s attack carried pretty much no weight. But the moment it connected, Theo merely yanked the control sigil of his spell, slamming Julius up against the ceiling.

Next, Theo jerked the sigil to the side, scraping Julius off the ceiling only to slam him into the room’s wall.

"To think that steering it would be so difficult, heh," Theo chuckled, happily mocking the man back while tossing him all over the place and always, by the lack of necessary fortune, failed to properly aim the toss to throw Julius out of the room’s window!

"I’ve seen all the bags and boxes you prepared to make people believe you are about to move out," Theo suddenly announced, all the while tossing Julius from wall to the wall to the ceiling and then to the floor before repeating the whole process again, giving the man not a single moment to think.

"So, since all of that stuff is mine anyway, the only mercy I’m willing to offer is to help you remove yourself from my premises!" Theo shouted right as he finally took on a proper aim, throwing Julius directly through the room’s window and into the inner courtyard...

Before yanking him up and away, only caring about removing the pest from anywhere near the mansion. As for where Julius would fall down and whether or not he could even survive such a fall?

To put it simply, there was a limit to how many different matters Theo could care about.

And the possible health state of someone as obnoxious as Julius simply didn’t qualify to the list of things Theo would spare some of his mind to, becoming just a distant piece of a background he could somewhat recall if asked about in the future.

A choice that could potentially come to haunt him in the future, in the scenario where Julius somehow survived and then sought backers to help him get back at Theo.

But just like with most of the stuff related to the academy, Theo couldn’t care less.

After all, in the time those people would take to prepare a proper revenge, Theo would likely have long since outgrown the whole of the academy and ventured out into the world to seek more knowledge and challenges!