Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher-Chapter 40: All the evil needs to flourish (Collapse - Part 2)

The rumors of Theo’s arrest would only take fewteen minutes at most to penetrate the gossipy circles within the teacher’s dormitory.

Within an hour, everyone currently present in the building would have heard the news. In a day, the rumors would spread all throughout the academy, most likely deviated into extremely overexaggerated form from every retelling of it changing it just a little bit.

For now, however, as Theo and Celeste walked down the street towards the very center of the academy’s compound, no one appeared to pay them much mind.

Be it the students, teachers or staff, regardless of their rank, everyone was simply too busy to give a single damn about just another two members of the crowd.

It was one of the very few courtesies that the nature of the academy offered to all those locked within its walls. With the competition for everything only ever growing more and more fierce as more time passed, only those at the very top and those at the very bottom ever had the time to bother with meaningless chatter, especially smack-dab in the middle of the day.

If anything, it was Theo’s and Celeste’s silence that could be considered weird, given how one was about to face false charges while the other was clearly confused about...

What Celeste was confused about exactly, Theo couldn’t really tell.

’Most likely, by everything?’

The corner of Theo’s lips twitched a little.

While not really all that bothered with Celeste’s thoughts, there wasn’t much else for him to think about, not when he already figured out everything he needed for the coming tribunal.

Was it going to be even remotely fair and justice-based rather than but a political tool for those at the top to stomp on those at the bottom of the hierarchy?

Then he had more than half a dozen different ways to demolish any case presented against him.

If it turned out to be all but a political power-play, one that would go way too far for Theo to tolerate?

Then he would show this world just why the invention of nanites put a definitive end to human conflict on the same level that atomic weaponry brought an effective end to wars between nuke-holding sides.

And if it would turn out to be something else?

Then Theo still had a lot of means at the ready to fight off this situation.

In other words... what was there for him to be concerned about?

The fact that Theo showed no fear, anxiety or even the most remote stress only served to amplify Celeste’s confusion. And by the time they were about to reach the inner ring of the academy facilities, sparks of curiosity already started to fire up in her eyes.

"Okay, I give up," Celeste broke only a few moments after her curiosity started to take over. "Did you do it?"

Theo didn’t even stop, merely turning his head around to glance at the woman before rolling his eyes and looking ahead again.

"If only you had such doubts before trying to arrest me..." he muttered, shaking his head just the tiny bit necessary enough to convey the gesture to the woman behind.

"That’s... one thing, and my question is something else. Following an order by the academy has nothing to do with what I think about it," she countered while crossing her arms over her chest in an expression of defiance.

"So you were just following orders, huh?" Theo rolled his eyes again, this time slightly more annoyed.

In the many days, weeks and months of nothing but boredom, he filled it up with the study of all kinds of materials.

And history, so to speak, as one of the few subjects related directly to old humanity and then properly researched was one of the prime elements with which he filled his time with. That, however, besides a great yet also fatalistic understanding of the doom-oriented nature of every civilization, gave Theo enough context to see those words for what they really were.

An attempt to shed responsibility by those who were supposed to be the first to stop the injustice from happening.

"All that evil needs to flourish is for good men to just... do nothing," Theo then added before Celeste could try to counter him again. "And you, could you really say you did nothing? And would that still be the case if not for me protesting the things you tried to impose on me anyway?"

With those words on his lips, Theo shook his head again before sealing his mouth and then refusing to answer or even acknowledge any of Celeste’s later attempts to strike a conversation or ask a question.

It was in this tense and not-so-slightly uncomfortable manner that the two of them finally arrived at their destination, the tribunal tower of the academy.

On its own and without proper context, the building appeared to be just another spire in the sea of towers of all sorts and kinds that made up nearly half of all the architecture within the academy’s walls. To a degree, the tribunal tower was one of the least impressive buildings in the academy, raising only four stories up to the sky and only big enough to house a single, moderately-sized hall on each of the floors.

But for a judiciary building in an academy where most of the law could be referenced back to the rule of the strong, there was really no need for building a huge, majestic judgment hall, not when actual judgments in this place were but an annoying duty to those involved rather than one of the main means through which the local ruler enforced and showcased his authority.

"I’m going to ask this one last time," even now, right as the two of them stopped at the doorstep of the tribunal’s tower, Celeste continued to press Theo for answers. "Did you do it or not? And while not supreme, my words do carry a considerable weight," she claimed, only to reach with her hand out and point at the doors, "enough weight to potentially sway..."

"Why did we even come here, then?" Theo leaned his head off to the side, giving his fellow teacher an exhausted and borderline annoyed look. "If all that was needed was my confession of innocence, would you drag me all the way over here?" he asked, shaking his head before Celeste could even answer. "And didn’t you say yourself that when given a mission, it’s not up to your own morals or judgment whether you will follow it or not?"

Wasting no more time on this fickle woman, Theo rolled his eyes for the last time before grabbing the door’s handle and then pushing them open as he stepped inside.

"I’ve wasted enough time just to get here. So stop wasting even more of my precious time and let’s get this farce over with."