Free Web NovelNatasha finished speaking.
The classroom remained very quiet.
Professor Vasily stared at her for a few seconds.
Then the corner of his mouth twitched.
It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't that cold expression from before either.
"Very good."
He nodded,
"It seems Student Petrova is quite familiar with the textbook content, including the footnotes that most people ignore."
"You're just not very good at focusing in class."
He put the pointer back on the lectern.
"I won't pursue it this time, but if I catch you spacing out again next time, it won't be this simple."
"Sit down."
"Yes, Professor. Thank you, Professor."
Natasha sat down.
The chair made another scraping sound.
Her heart was still beating a bit fast.
A light poke came from beside her.
Natasha turned her head.
Sitting to her right was a girl named Anna, also a Commoner Scholarship Students and a freshman this year like her.
Brown hair tied in a ponytail, some freckles on her face, large eyes, she was currently looking at Natasha with a worried expression.
"Are you okay?"
Anna asked in a lowered voice,
"You haven't seemed quite right this week, and your complexion isn't great either."
Natasha shook her head.
"I'm fine."
"Really?"
"Really."
Anna didn't look like she believed it, but she didn't press further.
She just poked Natasha's arm again, gave her a look that said "I know you're lying but I won't call you out," and then turned her attention back to the lectern.
Natasha also turned her gaze back to the blackboard.
Professor Vasily was explaining the technical details of the Spinal Probe.
Material of the metal probe, transformation mechanism of neural signals, safety protocols during connection.
Natasha knew all of this.
She could even recite every paragraph of the original text from the textbook.
But her brain couldn't take any of it in right now.
She was thinking about other things.
Many, many other things.
She thought of her hometown.
That village that had been razed to the ground.
Wooden houses, wheat fields, the sound of church bells.
And those killed in the "bandit suppression operation."
Her parents.
Her neighbors.
Those faces she knew and those she didn't.
She thought of the young man who fell in the alley that evening.
She didn't know him.
She had just followed her brother's instructions, setting up the scene next to his body, forging evidence, and then searching for and taking the file folder from him.
She hadn't even looked at his face.
She only remembered his hand was very cold.
Cold as ice.
She thought of her roommate.
Pavela von Schwartz.
That silver-haired, very small, frail-looking noble miss.
They hadn't even met many times.
On the train, in the dormitory, in the hallway.
The words they'd spoken together probably didn't exceed a hundred sentences.
But Natasha didn't know why she always thought of Pavela.
Thinking of that calm, slightly curious look in her eyes when she looked at her on the train.
Thinking of her movements when she helped straighten her collar in the dormitory.
Thinking of the tone of her voice.
Natasha didn't understand why she cared about this.
She shouldn't care.
Pavela was a noble.
A member of the Schwartz Family.
The kind of person she was supposed to be standing against.
But she just cared.
She wondered how Pavela would see her if she knew what she had done.
Would she think she was a murderer?
Would she think she was a cold-blooded animal who would do anything to achieve her goals?
Or would she understand?
Natasha didn't know.
She didn't know why she was thinking about these things either.
She joined Fire of Freedom to save more of her Usar compatriots from dying.
To end the war sooner.
To prevent more villages from becoming a second or third version of her hometown.
But that night's operation—
Her brother hadn't hidden the purpose of the operation from her.
He had said it very clearly.
Kill the Security Bureau informant, frame the Army General Staff, create a rift between the pro-war and pro-peace factions, and weaken the pro-peace faction's power.
Objectively, this would prolong the war.
It would cause more people to die.
But her brother said this was for "the war to end all wars."
To make the cost so great that no one could bear it, so great that no one would dare to start a war again.
Natasha hadn't objected then.
She followed the instructions.
But now—
It wasn't exactly now; she had started to doubt even then.
Could the war really be stopped because of this?
How many more people would eventually die?
If her compatriots knew what she had done, would they understand her?
Or would they think she had betrayed them?
Natasha's fingers twisted together under the desk.
Her nails dug into her palm. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
It hurt a little.
"—That's all for today."
Professor Vasily's voice pulled her back to reality.
"Before class ends, I have one more announcement for everyone."
He picked up a document from the lectern.
"Dr. Yana Lovelace, the inventor of Spinal Probe technology, has recently arrived in Eisenburg."
"She will be coming to the Royal Knights Academy for an academic lecture soon."
"The specific time and location will be announced later. Interested students may attend."
"Alright, class dismissed."
The sound of chairs moving, books closing, and students talking {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} filled the classroom.
But Natasha noticed something strange.
The students around her—especially the Imperial nobles.
They all seemed to have troubled expressions.
As if they had heard some news they didn't really want to hear.
Natasha turned to look at Anna.
"What's wrong with them?"
Anna was packing her books. Hearing Natasha's question, she looked up, her face also showing that subtle expression.
"You don't know?"
"Don't know what?"
"Dr. Lovelace's reputation..." frёeωebɳovel.com
Anna lowered her voice,
"You really don't know?"
Natasha shook her head.
Anna looked around to make sure no one was listening, then leaned in a bit closer.
"Dr. Lovelace is indeed a genius, no one can deny that."
"But she's also... how should I put it..."
Anna thought about her wording,
"A very, very, very special person."
