As we left the café and began walking along the institute's marble pathways, my mind resembled a battlefield. On one side was Marcus's rare smile; the plan had worked, at least superficially. But on the other side were every moment he struggled, Vipsania's merciless comment, and Luna's masterful interventions. Did I push too hard? I thought. I had put him to a test and nearly tortured him. Maybe this method was wrong. While wrestling with these thoughts, I remembered the lie I had told in the library.
I quickly pulled out my data pad and wrote a message to the chat group with Gaius and Cassius: "Emergency. Luna asked about both of you today, I said you were at football tryouts. Don't make me a liar. I owe you dessert."
The response came instantly. From Cassius: "Don't worry, Professor. Your strategic lies are safe with us. We won't forget about the dessert debt though." I relaxed a bit with this small victory.
When I looked up, I saw the group walking a few steps ahead of me. Marcus and Luna were side by side. They were laughing at something Luna was telling them. Marcus's shoulders were straighter than usual. He still can't see, I thought to myself. He's not even aware of how Luna is drawing him into her web. But this closeness, this constant exposure, will eventually open his eyes too. It has to.
"Hey, Mr. Professor!"
Vipsania's voice cut through my thoughts like a knife. She had fallen behind and was looking at me. "Why aren't you walking with us? Are you too superior to look down on us?"
"Sorry, I was lost in thought," I said, approaching her. "Of course I'm not superior." This was an attack and the best defense was an unexpected counterattack. I put what I hoped was my most sincere smile on my face. "Is that your natural hair color?"
Vipsania was stunned for a moment. "Yes, why?"
"Just... it has a very nice tone. Eye-catching."
This simple, calculated compliment hit the target dead center. The harsh expression on her face softened for a moment. With a victorious air, she brought her hands to her chest. "Not just my hair, everywhere on my body is natural," she said with a suggestive emphasis.
I'm aware of that, I thought to myself. I wish you wouldn't shove it in my face so much. I quickly turned my gaze elsewhere. This movement made her laugh.
Just then, at the other end of the courtyard, I saw Ella coming down the library steps. A wave of instant joy rose within me.
"Ella!" I called out.
My voice must have come out louder than I expected, because Ella jerked her head up in surprise. With that momentary panic, the stack of books she was holding lost balance and scattered across the marble floor.
Without thinking for even a moment, I ran toward her. "I'm sorry, are you okay? Did I scare you too much?" I said, starting to gather the books scattered on the ground.
"N-no, I'm fine," she said, also bending down to the ground. "I was just lost in thought."
After gathering the books, we stood up at the same time. Her face was flushed with worry. At that moment, I noticed a strand of hair on the right side had fallen in front of her eye. With an instinctive movement, I reached out and slowly tucked that strand behind her ear. When the tip of my fingers briefly touched her temple, we both froze.
"Ella! Sweetie, are you okay?"
Luna's voice shattered that magical moment like glass. The whole group had come over to us. Luna immediately linked arms with Ella without wasting time, with an artificial sweetness in her manner. "Why weren't you with us? You're so sweet, we'd love to see you among us."
Ella looked at me, not knowing what to say. "What... what didn't I come to?"
Luna's eyes turned to me. She shot a poisonous arrow hidden behind an innocent smile. "Octa, why didn't you invite your friend too? Don't you want her to be friends with us?" Then she turned to Ella again. "We were studying for Flavia's class. Come early next week too, okay? I'll definitely be waiting for you."
My world had collapsed. This was it. She had crashed my two separate worlds, my two separate strategies into each other. All the effort I had put into keeping Ella out of this business had been demolished with Luna's single move. What am I going to do now? How can I throw Ella into that snake pit? But if I refuse, Luna will use this as proof that I'm excluding Ella. Possibilities were warring in my mind.
Before I could find an answer, Ella stepped forward to save the situation.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, turning to Luna. "I thought Octavian was just going to meet with Marcus. That's why I didn't want to disturb you. If I had known, I would have come."
I knew she was telling this innocent lie to protect me. Luna smiled with the satisfaction of achieving her goal. "No problem, sweetie. We'll make up for it next week," she said, turning to the group. "Come on, let's go, we'll be late."
As the group moved away, I turned around and looked one last time at the reflections in the glass door of the campus building before leaving. And at that moment I saw it. Luna, without letting the others know, was looking at me through her reflection. On her face was the cold, triumphant grin of a chess player who had achieved checkmate.
I had lost.
[Same Moment - Department Entrance -Luna's Perspective]
Octavian Corvus. I had figured him out from the moment I first saw him. His intelligence shone like a lantern; undeniable and quite useful. Being close to a brain like his when exams were approaching was a strategic move that made life easier. But right next to his intelligence was that annoying side that repelled me: that amateur attitude of calculating everything, weighing every step.
The fake manipulation games he set up were so transparent that they seemed comical to someone like me who knew these waters like the back of my hand. He wasn't even aware of how I had drawn a simple pawn like Marcus to my side with a few protective sentences and a smile. While he thought he was playing chess, I could see the entire board.
But what really bothered me wasn't his intelligence or his amateurish games. It was that girl. Ella.
Watching the stupid change on Octavian's face the moment he saw her was irritating. There it was again, that expression. You know, that "pure" and "unrequited" interest they talk about in fairy tales. How ridiculous. Look at this idiot running in panic just because the girl dropped her books. Bending down and collecting those worthless pieces of paper... He even fixed her hair. These actions were a display of weakness. It was a declaration of a castle made of fragile glass.
That's when I made my decision. Since that "purity" was so valuable, he should also see how easily it could be broken.
I approached them, adopting my sweetest voice. My words were like carefully chosen poisonous needles, one by one. "Octa, why didn't you invite your friend too?" This simple question was dynamite thrown at the foundation of that naive trust. Watching the panic on Octavian's face and Ella's confusion was priceless. I had drawn him into his own game. Now he would either lie to protect his friend or admit that he had excluded her. In either case, I had leaked a bit of doubt into that clean relationship.
As the group moved away, I looked at my reflection in the building's glass door. I knew Octavian was watching from behind. I couldn't control the grin that appeared on my face. This was just a small move. But even the strongest castles could be brought down by water seeping through the smallest crack. I had just opened that crack with my own hands. And this delighted me incredibly.
[Same Moment - Department Entrance ]
While the image of Luna's triumphant grin remained like a scar in my mind, I turned to Ella standing beside me. What would I say? How would I explain? All the algorithms in my mind had crashed, all my strategies had evaporated. There was only emptiness.
"Octavian," Ella's soft voice said. "Will you come with me?"
I looked up. I didn't even ask where. I just nodded. She led me to the small back garden between ivy-covered walls that no one really visited. My eyes caught the screen of my phone. There were seven minutes until class.
"First of all," I said, struggling to find words. "I'm sorry. I didn't invite you to that group."
"I know."
"But this wasn't because I didn't want to... I mean, this doesn't mean I don't want you." How inadequate my sentences were. "It's just... I can't tell you the reason. And to be honest, I don't want you to come next week either."
A momentary expression of hurt appeared on Ella's face. I immediately added, "But when you lied there to protect me, I can't tell you not to come now. I apologize again for not being able to explain the real reason to you. But if you knew... if you saw that side of me, you could never see me the same way again. And I don't want that."
This was one of the most honest confessions I had ever made in my life. I wasn't expecting an answer, maybe I was just expecting her to turn around and leave. But she didn't do that. Instead, she took a step closer and without hesitation took my hand. When her fingers interlocked with mine, warmth spread through me.
"It doesn't matter, Octavian," she said, her voice soothing. "I think you're doing this for me. And as you told me; whenever you want to tell me, I'll listen then. I won't judge."
At that moment, I felt as if tons of weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The tension I had been accumulating inside me for days melted away with that simple touch and understanding words. "Thank you," I whispered.
And then, without thinking, without planning, with a completely instinctive movement, I hugged her. My head rested on her shoulder for a moment. She also wrapped her arms around me. For the first time in the world, I had completely lowered my guard next to someone.
But this feeling lasted only a few seconds. The alarm bells in my mind started ringing. What was I doing? I pulled back, panicked. "I'm sorry. I... I couldn't control myself, sorry."
Ella smiled. There was neither mockery nor strangeness in that smile; just pure compassion. "It doesn't matter, Octavian. Come on, let's go to our class."
I nodded. We walked toward the building side by side without saying a word. I could feel my cheeks burning. Who saw us? What will they think? As another wave of panic crashed over me, we opened the classroom door.
There were only three minutes left until class. My eyes immediately scanned the classroom. Marcus was no longer in our usual seat; he had moved to the row where Luna and her group sat. He was laughing with them.
Just then, two noisy bodies burst in behind us.
"There they are!" Gaius said cheerfully. Cassius was with him too. "The football tryouts destroyed us, we deserve dessert. Octavian's treating at the exit!"
Cassius winked at Ella. "And Ella, you're coming too."
Ella looked at me in surprise. "Really? Me too?"
The tension on my face momentarily disappeared with her innocent question. I smiled. "I'll treat you whenever you want."
Gaius came over and hugged me with his massive arms at this answer. "There's my rich and generous friend!"
I pushed him away. "I didn't say that for you, you idiot!"
A small storm of laughter erupted in the classroom. For those few seconds, everything was normal. We were just friends joking around.
But then the door opened. With Professor Flavia entering, all sounds, all laughter immediately stopped. As if an invisible button had been pressed, everyone jumped to their feet in military posture. The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. Playtime was over.
Professor Flavia's steel-gray eyes wandered over the class that had stood up in military order. The silence was so thick that you could hear someone's breath. "Sit down," she said, her voice coming out sharp and clear like a command.
The lesson began with its usual merciless pace. Flavia projected a complex topographic map and scenario onto the board. "An infantry unit trapped in mountainous terrain. Logistics lines are weak, the enemy is pressing from three directions. Traditional defense lines mean suicide. What do you do?"
Most of the students in the class were mistaken in thinking this was a military strategy lesson. This was Flavia's ruthless teaching method. The scenario wasn't a war story; it was a complex data set. Geographic data (map), resource constraints (logistics), threat vectors (enemy), and most importantly, the trap itself: an obvious reference to last week's topic. This wasn't a knowledge test; this was a data literacy test. It was a trap designed to hunt those who applied memorized formulas without seeing the whole picture.
There was silence in the classroom. This scenario was an obvious reference to last week's "flexible resistance" topic. The question itself was bait. Flavia first turned to Marcus. "What's your idea, Marcus?"
Marcus, confident about the topic he had studied last night, said, "We apply the principles of flexible resistance, Professor. We divide the units into small, mobile groups, draw the enemy into the depths of the terrain and wage a war of attrition."
No expression appeared on Flavia's face. "Portia-Clara, do you agree?"
"Yes, Professor," the girl said confidently. "As Marcus said, the key word is fluidity. We use the enemy's strength against them."
A dangerous smile appeared on Flavia's lips. She pressed a single key on the screen and a section of the map flashed red. "You forgot to read the entire scenario," she said, her voice filled with a mocking tone. "In the area I marked, there's a civilian settlement that couldn't be evacuated from the war zone. Your fluid 'flexible resistance' plan means drawing the enemy directly onto those civilians. I knew there were parrots in my class, but I didn't expect them to fall so easily into the trap of their own memorization."
Marcus and Portia-Clara's faces turned white as chalk.
Flavia's eyes locked directly on me, the invisible trainer of that herd. "Let's bring the designer who started this new memorization trend to the stage then. Octavian Corvus, to the board."
This time there wasn't panic inside me, but rather determination. I stood up calmly and walked toward the podium. If this was a war, this time I would fight with my own weapons. As I passed by her, I whispered in a voice only she could hear.
"I studied again and I know the subject, Professor. But this time, as you said, I won't go by memorization, but by my own way."
A faint expression of surprise crossed Flavia's face. I could hear whispers from the class. Everyone was wondering what we were talking about.
I took the pen in my hand. I didn't use anything I had memorized. Instead, I adapted the basic programming logic my uncle had taught me to strategy. I approached the problem not as a military problem, but as a data optimization problem. "Civilians are an unchangeable constant," I murmured. "Then we must change the rest of the equation."
I assigned soldiers as expendable variables and drew a dynamic algorithm focused on gaining the longest time with the least casualties. My solution used civilians like a fortress, sacrificing part of the unit to protect them, while making a shock raid on the enemy's weakest flank with the rest to open an escape corridor. My solution was elegant but ruthless.
When my time was up, I took a step back. As Flavia examined the unusual schemes and formulas on the screen, a real smile appeared on her face for the first time.
"You're insistent on keeping your own way and guard," she said, her voice this time not mocking but full of appreciation. "But I'm glad you don't want to be a copy of someone, Corvus." She raised her hand and hit my shoulder hard. This was a congratulation in her language. "Sit down."
The rest of the lesson was spent analyzing the ruthless but effective strategy I had presented. When the tense lesson ended, I took a deep breath.
As I gathered my things and headed for the exit, Professor Flavia appeared beside me. "Corvus," she said, synchronizing her steps with mine. "I wanted you to come to my office after class today, but there's a plumbing issue in my room. Come Friday afternoon, we'll discuss this new approach of yours."
"Yes, Professor," I said in surprise. She gave a brief nod and changed direction toward the faculty lounge.
While I was still pondering what this unexpected postponement meant, Luna and her group blocked my path. Their faces were sour. Vipsania threw out, "You'll teach us those new methods of yours on Wednesday, too, right, genius boy?"
Luna immediately grabbed her arm. "Of course he'll teach," she said, then turned to Ella and hugged her. "Don't forget to bring this cute thing too." Her eyes found Cassius and Gaius. "You guys should quit football and come too." She turned to Marcus, "Are you coming?" she asked, but added without waiting for an answer. "We're going to eat today," taking Marcus with her and walking away.
We went to the dessert shop as promised. When I briefly told them what had happened, Cassius and Gaius laughed heartily. Ella, on the other hand, wasn't very interested in what was happening and was happily eating the strawberry cake in front of her. When Gaius saw that I had also ordered her coffee, he couldn't resist.
"Why don't you treat me like this?" he asked with fake jealousy.
"Because you're not this cute," I replied without thinking.
The moment the sentence left my mouth, I froze. Ella had also lifted her head from her cake, looking at me with flushed cheeks. I wanted to sink into the ground from embarrassment. The laughter that erupted at the table echoed throughout the shop.
The rest of that day passed with the peace of this sweet embarrassment and a small victory won. But when I got home, plans and evaluations swarmed back into my mind.
When I lay down on my bed, I was staring at the ceiling. I was defeated today but the war isn't over, I thought. Luna was a problem, Flavia was too. But tomorrow's battle wasn't with them. Tomorrow's battle was with that mind-reading devil, Professor Aurex Cassimar.
I pulled my lesson notes in front of me with my head full of thoughts. That night, while my brain calculated the strategies for the next day, I worked until fatigue took over my body. And finally, I fell asleep with the maps of the battlefield clearly open in my mind.