"Tesh, hold on!"
All those that just happened to be in the right place at the right time got to witness quite the peculiar scene.
It was one thing for anyone to see Nate, a golden-plaque student, run in the hall and thus break several of the strict rules set by the students themselves.
But that still was nothing when compared to Tesh's extremely hurried step, one that was right between the fastest possible walk and an outright run.
"One second!" Nate called, as he desperately attempted to catch up with the girl. "Please, wait up!"
Looking at it from the side, the scene was quickly turning quite hilarious, all the more when taking into account the golden and platinum ranks of the two students involved.
"What?!"
Annoyed by her cousin's constant bothering, Tesh stopped and turned around while resting her hands down on her waist and looking at him with eyes full of hostility.
"No matter how much you ask, I'm not going to stop!"
Some students who chanced upon the scene hurriedly started to leave, reasoning it was best to stay as far away from trouble as possible, lest they wanted to get involved in a scene already involving an academy's elite and genius.
Others, however, merely moved out of sight, ready to step in at a moment's notice if the ongoing situation were to develop in a way they could take advantage of.
Such was life in the academy where might made right and where even the most remote argument could easily turn into an opportunity for some to grow their ranking.
"I'm not going to!" Finally catching up, Nate cried out before leaning down, resting his hands down on his knees as he breathed heavily.
Despite being an academy's elite, his stamina still had limits!
Tesh, however, quite easily challenged those, with Nate only catching up because the girl allowed him to.
"What the hell do you want so damn much, then?!" she asked as she turned around and continued in the same direction as before, this time only as fast as she knew her cousin could follow.
"Don't go to his place," Nate wasted no words, instantly proving his earlier statement to be untrue.
"Didn't you…?!" By the time the first half of Tesh's question left her mouth, her face already twisted in anger as she sped up down the hall, navigating through the academy's labyrinth of passageways and corridors up to where she found Theo, the infamous teacher, resided.
"He's not there!"
Before Tesh could get ahead again, Nate screamed out.
"Huh?"
By now, all the people hidden around were perking their eyes, infinitely curious just who could be behind agitating one of the academy's ice princesses so much.
"I've seen him going down the hall to where THAT guy is about to have his lessons!"
Once again, wasting no time, Nate reported. "That's why I was trying to stop you, but by now," Nate looked out of one of the many windows in the corridor, locking his eyes on the massive clock stuck to the side of the academy's biggest tower.
"Yeah, the lesson starts in a minute, and you have your own lesson in an hour!" Nate pointed out, trying to use clear logic and reason while negotiating with his cousin.
As someone who knew her since pretty much forever, he knew better than to try to appeal to her emotions when they reached such an agitated state.
"Your best bet is to just try to find him after the lessons rather than…"
"No," Tesh shook her head before speeding up along again. "I'm not waiting any longer than I absolutely have to," she stated before slowing down just a little bit and looking over her shoulder at her cousin. "I'm going to wait for him at his door. This way, he won't be able to avoid me."
Hearing this, Nate could only press his lips into a thin line, struggling not to let his despair appear on his face.
'And what if you are wrong? What if he really is the trash everyone believes him to be?' he cried out in his soul while clenching his hands into fists, 'what then? And what will you do with the rumors once people learn you waited for him at his doorstep?!'
//\//\//\//\//\
"Everyone, please welcome Sir Theo, the big guest for today's lesson!"
Right off the bat, the second lesson Theo came to attend proved to be conducted by someone who had him in much smaller regard than Celeste or even those students from her class that tried to mess with him.
Yet, for the big smile that appeared on the lesson professor's face, the rest of the class turned rather awkward.
'Right, this here is a crafting class, not one of those pride-based fighting classes…'
Even if most of the classes in the academy were focused on growing one's personal strength, there was a sizeable crafts department teaching young students the arts they might find useful in the future.
The general crafting lab was one of the prime examples of this department and the premier choice for all those who came to the academy to learn a proper trade.
When it came to the subject's teacher, Mister Frank was known to have extreme pride in his job, one warranted by the teacher's score that put him at the very top of the ranks on the crafting side of the academy.
Even though he had little achievement when it came to his personal strength or heroic exploits, he had more than earned his title as the father of craftsmen by being in charge of the class commonly known to produce world-class magic engineers.
It was this status as someone at the very top of his own, small world that was likely the reason behind Mister Frank's open hostility towards Theo.
After all, not only was he the biggest and the worst trash in the whole academy… he just had to belong to the alchemy circle which belonged to the same department as the magic engineering!
'In his eyes, I'm but a pest living off the fame he works hard to establish,' Theo thought, using his understanding of the other man to build up a resistance against his provocations.
A resistance that soon proved to be crucial for Theo to survive through the lesson, as Mister Frank soon made him into the target of a jab, provocation, or outright insult at the end of nearly every sentence he spoke.
"That's what makes magic engineering so special… as opposed to some other subjects that are merely relics of the past!"
"Don't let your judgment be clouded by your emotions. Engineering is all about precise measurement and calculation from which we derive the results. Leave the emotional approach to those stuck in the past while you focus on what brings proper results yourselves!"
"That's correct! I can already tell you are going to be one hell of an engineer!" he would praise a student, only to then steal a glance at Theo's face and for his lips to form a small smirk, "and I'm damn sure you are going to get your hands on a really good, well-paying job in the future!"
Those poorly concealed attacks soon grew so common and slightly repetitive, the students in the class started to show signs of growing discomfort.
'How are they going to focus if the air is already so thick with discomfort and anxiety?' Theo commented in his thoughts, knowing full well that any attempt at clapping back at the man would only escalate the situation even further, likely leading to his expedited expulsion.
'Even if I'm already planning to leave this academy, I still have quite a lot of things left to do before leaving. So,' Theo slightly lowered his eyelids as his lips curled up a tiny little bit, 'provoke me all you wish, but it's not going to work.'
Soon, the air grew so tense even the teacher himself noticed, finally pulling on the reins and switching his focus over to the lesson proper.
Which also prompted Theo to start paying attention, for the lesson's topic turned out to be surprisingly interesting.
"This device draws the energy through those six circuits attached to the main corpus, only for each of them to feed into the resistors over there," Frank explained, first pointing at a cable-like structure glued to the sides of the cylindrical corpus before moving his hand to point at the crown of what looked like something between a lightbulb and a small, translucent crystal.
"It's thanks to this design that we managed to permanently light up the academy streets and start the planning process for expanding the reach of this device to the city proper itself!" Frank revealed with a big, proud smile on his face, now falling too deep into the rabbit hole of his own passion to still care about Theo.
And if only Theo remained silent, he could likely enjoy this interesting lesson without any added attention, free from any further provocation or insult.
And yet, when faced with the object Frank showcased, Theo failed to bite his tongue and ended up raising his head instead.
"Yes?" Still in his trance, Frank automatically looked towards the raised hand, already beaming from ear to ear at the prospect of elaborating about the topic even further.
It was only when he realized who the hand belonged to that Frank's face turned sour...
Only to then freeze when Theo actually voiced a proper question.
"Those… resistors at the top, for how long would they remain lit once the signal, no… once the power would be cut?"
Frank's eyebrows moved slightly up, only for his eyes to turn over to the device the use of which he was explaining.
"That…" he muttered under his nose, taking his time rubbing his chin as he scoured his mind for an answer. "A second? Half of a second?"
With the answer now out, it was Theo's turn to rub his chin as he considered his option.
"Then…" he said in a careful tone while slowly raising his hands towards the object displayed on Frank's lectern. "Would it be possible to connect all of those crystals in a series and power them all up with just a single circuit?" Theo suggested, recalling a similar solution often used in the design of neon signs back in the pre-nanite era on Earth.
"Now that you mentioned it…" Frank turned his head, now fully focused on the device on his lectern, the look in his eyes distant, making it clear he was now off to the realm of his own creativity, testing out his own interpretation of Theo's suggestion. "Wait, that's actually quite smart!"