"That's one weird place to go to eat your breakfast at," Theo commented with a hint of amusement in his voice when the first thing he saw coming out of his room was Celeste with a platter of food that appeared to be roughly between a third and a fourth of her body's size.
'Then again, I'm not foolish enough to comment on a woman's diet or food cravings!' he thought, all happy over how he managed to avoid such a massive trap.
For right now, Theo had no time to waste on some useless drama and bickering that a poorly aimed comment about that food would likely cause.
No, with the huge bottle of the now finished drink that stank as awfully as it tasted great, there was one very specific person that he had to visit.
The academy's very own vice-principal in charge of administrative affairs.
A man who could turn half the night's worth of labor, most of Theo's spare nanites, and then the better half of the expensive herbs from Theo's stash into a pouch weighty enough to make the whole process worth it.
'First, though,' Theo smiled under his nose for but a fraction of a second, 'I need to get to his office,' he thought as he held an internal giggle, fully aware this part of the process would be the easiest with just how mind-numbingly bad his bottle stank. 'The hard part comes next.'
And soon enough, upon finding his way to the very bottom of the academy's central tower erected right in the middle of its main plaza, Theo came to put his theories into practical use.
"What the hell is that smell?!"
A young-looking clerk sitting behind the reception desk screamed out while slamming his hands against his face in a desperate bid to deform his nose to the point it could no longer detect any aromas.
Judging from the ever-growing grimace on his face, though, all his efforts proved futile as Theo approached the man with a wide yet perfectly empty smile on his face while cradling the slightly unsealed bottle in his arms.
"I'm here to talk with the vice-principal," he announced in a cold, stern voice, staring the clerk at the reception desk down like he was some sort of golem in a dungeon obstructing Theo's way to the treasure room.
This allegory extended so far, Theo nearly cracked a smile.
"Do you have an appointment?" Grimacing so much his face looked as if it was about to tear itself into pieces, the receptionist asked.
He couldn't just let any random teacher that appeared go and get an audience with someone as busy as the vice-principal, after all!
"Do you wish to ever use your nose again?" Rather than answering the question, Theo asked one of his own while lifting the cap on his bottle just a little bit further.
The intensity of the stench coming out of it exploded in an instant, easily reaching the levels where that smell alone was enough to make both the receptionist and Theo start tearing up.
Contrary to what one would expect, though, rather than folding in the face of Theo's open threat, the look in the receptionist's eyes hardened instead.
"Are you trying to threaten me to approve of your visit?" he asked, slowly mincing his words out of his mouth as if trying to time each of them with a small exhale to prevent the further torture of inhaling this pungent, repulsive smell.
"Threaten you?" Theo smiled a little through the tears caused by the smell. "By no means!" he exclaimed before fixing the position of the bottle in his arms as he took a step back and looked around the reception floor, only to quickly fix his eyes on a nearby set of chairs. "I just thought that it would be in everyone's best interest if I were to leave this place sooner rather than later," he added as he moved over and sat down on the chair he spotted while making sure to point the now open neck of his huge flask in the direction of the receptionist's desk.
"Tsk…"
Since Theo's words and actions didn't fully exhaust the list of requirements necessary to classify them as a threat, the receptionist couldn't freely interpret them as such. And since Theo never openly threatened him, he had no authority to call for the academy's enforcers to deal with Theo in a manner they deemed fit.
"Sigh…"
With a long, exhausted breath escaping from the receptionist's mouth, he shook his head before picking up a crystal from one of the drawers hidden on the inner side of his huge desk.
"The best I can do is announce you. If the vice-principal refuses to meet you, though…"
"Then I shall leave and bother you no longer," Theo nodded his head, fully aware of the procedures within the building.
Studying the memories of his former self regarding those was how he passed the time early in the morning when adding the final touches necessary to transform all of the precious herbs he used to make the brew into the stinky nightmare it was right now, after all!
"I do have the right to request a message to be passed through, though," Theo then added, right as the receptionist was about to clench his hand over the dimly shining stone. "Don't I?"
If the receptionist's stare could kill, Theo would fall dead here and there.
But just like he couldn't call for reinforcements a moment ago, he couldn't really refuse what was Theo's lawful right.
"What's your message, then?" the man asked, resignation filling his voice as he reached out for his pen, dipped it into a small bottle of ink before bringing it over a fresh sheet of paper, ready to diligently note the message down in order not to get even a single character of it wrong.
"Oh, it's quite simple," Theo smiled with the look of total and absolute innocence on his face. "Tell him what follows," he requested, only for his face to suddenly grow still, his eyes empty, devoid of any sort of emotion. "If you have the guts to scheme to get me fired, are you going to take the coward's way out and refuse to meet me face to face?"