A deathly silence fell over the classroom once more.
Everyone was stunned by the sheer amount of information Vice Dean Ferrus Manus had revealed.
The triumphant smile on Valerius's face froze completely. As though someone had punched him square in the face, he gaped, unable to utter a single word. The aristocratic wisdom he took such pride in seemed pitiful and absurd before the vice dean's "data," delivered like absolute truth. He had thought he had found Eli's fatal weakness, only to slam headfirst into an iron wall built from "Imperial bureaucracy."
Eli, meanwhile, let out a long breath, an expression of dawning understanding spreading across his face. He finally understood why those tattered parchments he had copied sometimes contradicted themselves, and why their data was so fragmented. They had merely been insignificant "excerpts" and "public summaries" from enormous classified reports, safe for lowly scribes like him to read.
"As for Cadet Eli's plan..." Vice Dean Ferrus Manus paid no further attention to the petrified Valerius and turned to the holographic star map. "Crude and reckless though it may be, simulations run by my tactical logic core put its probability of success at seventy-three point four percent."
He extended a metallic finger and lightly tapped the air.
"Based on the data and facts, Cadet Eli receives full marks for this tactical simulation. Everyone else receives zero. Class dismissed."
With that, he turned and left the classroom, his steps as precise as a metronome, leaving behind a roomful of elite cadets with their jaws on the floor.
Eli still stood there rather dazed. He simply thought that Vice Dean Ferrus Manus was a good man who listened to reason.
Valerius clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, his handsome face contorted by overwhelming humiliation. He