Author's Preface
After a shower and new clothing, Noir took a metro ride two kilometers away to [Frydor University]. It was 10 pm right now as he sat in a classroom that taught constitutional law. The professor was yet to come, and Noir's eyes wandered to the edge of a seat, where she was meant to be. She wasn't there, and she couldn't be here for quite a while. Decades in Noir's calendar.
He chatted with a person to his right, a girl named Lucy with a smile. Another person joined in from the right, speaking something about a football game, only to be stopped mid-enthusiasm by the professor who had walked in. The professor was a man with a strong mustache and a receding hairline who was extremely traditional in the way he taught. He held no books, but only a hand in his pocket. Without wasting a second, he grabbed a piece of chalk, which was placed on top of his desk, and walked towards the blackboard.
As silence prevailed over the room, the loud tick of the chalk broke through. The professor drew a perfect circle and then drew a few lines inside. Next, using the same chalk, which was shortened a millimeter perhaps, he drew another circle and drew a few lines inside it as well. Thus, he completed the outline of planet [Varlan] , one of the names it was called by. There were various masses of land on it, four extremely large ones, a medium-sized one, and many small ones.
The professor said, "As usual, I will teach you all to the best of my ability. All I need is your undivided attention. Today we will start with the fourth chapter: Federalism."
He wrote it above the circles, his handwriting a Book Antiqua-like style. Professor Iloha had once said, "Handwriting is teaching."
Currently, as soon as he finished writing those letters, he stated, "In exactly 15 seconds, I will start. And just like usual, I expect no interruptions."
Many of the students opened their laptops, while a few opened their notebooks, different in sizes, but most were bulky. Noir opened his own as well, medium in size, placing a black-inked pen on top of it.
Exactly as he stated, in 15 seconds, the professor started, "Fundamentals are always important, especially in respect to the structural complexities of our nation. We will start with the fundamentals."
The professor pointed out the 4 largest landmasses, starting from the one at the bottom left.
" [Irst.] "
His finger moved straight upwards.
" [Rusfa.] "
Next, he pointed towards the upper-right corner of the circle.
" [Eleanor.] "
On the upper side of the other circle.
" [Khirsone.] "
The professor looked back at the students. "Most of you would clearly know what I am getting at, but for those who don't, each of these continents has its own land and culture. Why this matters to us is..."
The professor tapped an island, the medium-sized landmass, at the center of the first circle with the chalk twice.
"Because Svardia is a nation formed by immigrants from each of these continents and the local tribalsβthe prostivs. As we all know, our continent [Seafarer] follows this pattern of immigration. I would like to talk about it as an educator, but our time is limited, and..." Then he smiled. "I refuse to believe that any of you young, outstanding bunch would be interested in basic history & geography."
A few in the class chuckled, and the professor continued, "As anyone can imagine, these circumstances of ours have led to a variety of complications in our continent as a whole, and please do remember that our nation is the largest on [Varlan] , 12.4 million square kilometers, divided into 22 sub-states, 11 states, and 5 sectors. Anyone with a decent amount of intelligence, even without prior knowledge, can tell the factors these sectors are divided upon. This division, unlike most nations, creates extra levels of complexity for us, and it is not just tougher; it is extremely butcherous. Back when I was 14, I used to read my father's hefty books. He was a lawyer, as some of you may know. I had thought back then that law is easy, no problem, mate; I am young with an intelligence unparalleled. Well, it turned out that my father was a criminal lawyer."
The class laughed. Noir did as well.
The professor continued, "We have central law, sector law, state law, and sub-state law, each of which is a book of their own. Hefty, good to stay in shape, and there is another advantage: it leads to our nation's lawyers being the best of the best. Read anything law-related from any other nations; it's child's play for us."
The professor's gaze turned intense as he said with passion, "Yes, you may have studied criminal law, international law, etc., but like I have always said, and always will, constitutional law is the soul of our nation. If any of you were to join the ministry of education, please... quote me in a textbook."
The classroom laughed again, but still no one passed a comment.
The professor then paused and said, in a solemn voice, "This is both a curse and a boonβa boon for us and a curse for the unity of our lovely nation. Such division does adapt to the needs of the people, but we all see the literal division that it creates. Teribble, truly teribble." He shook his head. "The ruling party is trying to sort out this issue, but we all know where it always goes."
Noir's gaze flickered to the empty seat again before he focused again.
"Fortunately, our forefathers were wise. The center has power over the sectors; otherwise, we might have had 5 Svardias." His hands moved in various motions as he continued, "Many of you must have heard... seen cases of corruption, where criminals had to bear lesser punishment if they were from a particular ethnicity living in their favored sector or even a state. Scary, isn't it? The thought that a person, your fellow countrymen, could hold more power than you just because of a specific ethnicity is frightening."
Noir's left toe curled upwards as his right foot tapped the floor. His grip over his pen tightened, and his jaw slightly clenched.
"It creates a sense of division among us. Some of you, my dear students, are from other sectors, here only because it is the best university..."
The students around had a smile on their faces, anticipating what was to come.
"Doom scrolling is quite common nowadays, after all," said the professor casually.
The classroom roared in laughter. And between this laughter sat Noir alone, thinking silently.
Rubbish...
"What's wrong?" he heard from his left.
When Noir's gaze shifted to his left, he saw Lucy, drawing closer to him.
"Nothing. I believe we must focus on the lecture," muttered Noir, with a smile.
Lucy nodded and turned back ahead.
"Well, let me assure you that... that! Cannot be the case." The professor continued, "Criminal law, first of all, is centralized; for those of you who were attentive in Professor Surokhas's class, this may be a well-known fact! So the biases of a state or sector do not matter. And as I have said, the center has power over the states & sectors; this further reduces the chances of susceptibility to corruption. And most of all, a controversial fact: as corruption is taken extremely seriously, the penalty for it is death. Therefore, which person would want to put it all at risk?"
Right... of course, the blind will speak.
Noir held in a chuckle.
The professor scanned the classroom and muttered, "Good, you all understand. This penalty is barbaric and condemned by other nations, but our country holds the lowest corruption rate. Yes, of course the proof for corruption needs to be strong, but it is a fact that our nation is the most just nation. And maybe a fiery youth amongst you might object. What about the standards of measuring corruption? Can the data not be falsified?" After a pause, the professor continued, "Remember, other nations can too."
An alarm rang out from the professor's pocket, who turned it off in the next few seconds. "Well, gentlemen and... woman, obviously, some of you get offended nowadays... Now that you all are deeply engrossed, let's start with the actual lecture."
He wrote on the board a topic name as he spoke: "Today's topic, in particular, will be federal versus unitary power."
The professor smiled at the class. "This is an enjoyable one. I lost a lot of hair back then."
Noir sighed, throwing away his biases, focusing on the matter at hand, and then his grip on the pen tightened, ready for some action.
Noir walked out of [Class 1207] with a certain anhelo. Lucy had asked him if he wanted to hang out until the next lecture; he had politely rejected. His destination was the library, one in the law department; every department had one. Although Noir was not sure about the exact number, he knew that there were more than a dozen. The campus was humongous, with nature-accompanied, polished buildings; it occupied an area of 80 square kilometers, from what Noir had read in the entry guidebook around 4 years ago. Although he had later learned that this was excluding the entirety of the research land.
It is grade 3, after all...
Sunlight peeked out of the windows; it was getting hotter every day. Noir, to be fair, disliked the heat but didn't mind the sun. He walked towards the window, peeking outside, and there he saw luscious green, tall trees accompanied by fountains of different designs and a sprawling campus with men and women walking on polished white lines. It smelled clean and fresh, and he took a breath in, as if to fill his lungs with this scent. His second favorite scent, of course.
If only I could traverse it all with her. A snack under the fountain as she leans against my shoulder would have been sublime.
He shifted his thoughts as he walked ahead in the posh hallway. It contained cream, the color of sandalwood, and white walls painted with the latest technology, causing them to never dull. Then came the staircase; he walked up to the second floor, then the third, and there to his right stood a glass door with a board with a white background and golden letters: [The First Library]
Walking to a wall beside the glass door, Noir removed a card from his pocket and placed it on a scanner with a red glow. From the color, he remembered the movie, his hands brushing against her face gently; her hands were soft back then, but the surface ahead was adamant. A beep sounded in his ears, and another portion of the scanner activated. He placed his thumb, which usually caressed her own, on this portion while holding the card in his left hand. A beep sounded, and a message popped up on a screen beside the scanner telling him to complete the final procedure. He stood in front of the glass door now and placed his card on a scanner embedded into it.
Beep, Beep, Beep!
The door opened, separating from the middle, with a timer of 30 seconds, and as Noir was not one to waste any time... mostly, he entered the door without wasting more than the bare minimum seconds. The door closed behind without much sound, and Noir wondered about the reason for such security. Just like always, he never found one. Lightly touching a sore part on his chest, he took a few steps ahead.
Immediately the temperature changed.
Now as he moved, he observed his surroundings. On both of his sides was a glass pane reaching up to the ceiling, a classy lining of wood separating them from each other. A plaque stood, attached to the pane, made of marble, with the words [International Law] on one and [Seating area A] on the other, engraved with dark gold. To his left, a few meters away were rows and columns of wooden bookshelves, archaic in look, with sufficient space to walk in between, and to his right, around 20 meters away, were dozens of wooden tables and chairs with a similar aesthetic to the bookshelves. Both of them were full of life, with students his age either sitting or buzzing around, in total silence. The floor was white, but every tile contained light golden patches at random places. Noir stared at the gold for a second longer than he normally would. The ceiling stood around 5 meters away, all white, with square-shaped LED lights embedded in it at equal distances and a few cameras here and there, ready for a scuffle.
To map the library in its entirety, there was an app, but Noir didn't need it all. After taking in the atmosphere, lonely due to the desires of its residents, he walked ahead to a particular section, which he judged to be around a half a kilometer away. It was a section that hardly anyone entered.
The library had been silent before, but as he neared the end of the glass panes, the volume ramped up. It was like he suddenly came to a mini-bazaar from a monastery; the experience was always surreal. When he passed the panes, to his right was a cafe; to his left was a coffee shop, all filled with people. Couples sat on the seats, jolly and all. He too had sat down with her in both of these places under the pretext of being project partners. It had been a spicy experience for them but not for the world. It would have been a wonderful place to dine at right now, but there was nobody to give him any company. At least the company he needed.
Something inside ached for a second, like a cyanide seed missing from an apple. Noir's right hand traveled to his pocket, slipping his phone from it. He checked for a message; his silent hope was silently crushed. He sighed and walked ahead, and then again came the glass panes.
Step-step-step!
This pattern repeated itself wherever he went; well, there were no cafes anymore, only joined glass panes in a row.
Step-step-step!
People walked past him, and he walked past people. Most knew who he was, greeting him; others who knew didn't care enough. Soon, he reached the final pairs of glass panes, which were the smallest in size among their brothers. To his right stood [Seating Area 14] , and to his left lay [General Knowledge/Fiction/Science], although the fiction selections were being expanded under the persistent complaints of the Frydor Novel Elite Club.
The door to the left was open, just like the others. Noir stepped in, greeting a man who he recognized.
A few librarians existed in this space, behind a desk, but they were needed only when a person wanted something but didn't really know what they wanted and the machine was a bit too stupid for their needs or they wanted a human touch. Although, in most cases, single males were the ones who wanted the touch the most. The guy behind... was not one such lonely individual.
Smiling and nodding at one of the librarians he knew, Noir walked towards a touchpad and then flashed his card to the screen. The machine asked various questions, trying to filter out his needs, and he answered them with ease. Soon, after multiple beeps and taps, he knew his destination. With the help of it, he walked to a bookshelf, tall and brown. He searched for the books that he wanted, his pupils flickering left to right. When he found them, he noted their codes on his phone, written on a piece of paper stuck to the wood they sat upon. It turned out that there were multiple copies of each of these books; there was no contention. He typed the code into another machine and placed his card against a scanner attached to it.
A few minutes later, he held four books in his hands; all of them were held with a singular purposeβto help him find a way to his desired future.