22 The Harder You Fight, The Guiltier You Are

She looked like an addict, thought like a scientist, and somehow she gave looked like someone who could trample on even his self-assurance. If she tried. If she had met him under different circumstances, he would have tried his best to lure her to his side.

It was not like him to be so thoroughly entertained by one person. That was why he had picked up multiple people to make contracts with and screw over. He had dealt with the worst people on the planet: thieves, racists, government officials who needed to be taken down a notch. But there had been something wrong with them that he just then figured out when he listened to her fight tooth and nail: bad people or criminals or psychopaths… they were too unimportant or stupid to garner much of his attention. It took a few minutes before he could sigh and wave them off.

Instead, Anna Dunn was a sharp woman. Obviously, she had not said anything he didn't privately agree with, but in class, he had to pretend to be a virtuous and stuck-up man. At least for this course.

What made it better was how she taunted him, "Sir, you mentioned—" and she would quote him word for word and deconstruct them. She never took notes but she imitated his words done to the way his voice dipped during the commas.

He realized belatedly that she was playing with him. Just as he had asked. It was like the splinter that one got while brushing their hand on a wooden railing. Not big enough to cause much discomfort but it was ever-present. Every time his finger touched something, he could feel the bump of it.

He couldn't quite see the splinter or take it out.

He constantly thought about her. Days after the second lecture, he found himself unable to bear it. He did the most disgraceful thing that an immortal could do. He searched her name online.

Her name was as common as he had thought. Several social media sites and hours and hours of scrolling later, he finally found her inconspicuous account. She had a few friends, mostly those from her department at university and she posted rarely.

Her profile was private but he could see generic posts dating back to when she should have been thirteen or so. The statuses were those a normal girl of that age would make. There were no pictures really. Just one of her at university. Other than that, the background was a badly drawn picture in Paint and some photos of skies, rocks, and the like.

Nothing to note.

With that, he realized that he knew nothing about her.

Nothing at all.

So, he set out to aggravate her further. It was the only way he could remain sane without visiting her and going through her apartment.

"We will do something different from usual," Ladislas said as he walked into class and set down his things. There was a movement to his right and he glanced towards it to find Lewis trying to sneak into class once again.

He felt indignation at this slimy creature and send him a withering glare. Lewis shrank as he walked back out of the room.

Lewis ducked and took his seat beside Marie. He leaned forward and saw Anna looking at Ladislas with determination. She looked positively transfixed on him. He felt displeasure, which Marie caught quickly.

"Did you do something to unnerve Professor Forester?" she whispered to the guy beside her.

Lewis looked at her and shook his head. "I have been in his other classes. He knows I am late at times… It wasn't an issue before. Don't know why he is singling me out this time." He shrugged.

Marie instinctively turned to Anna with a look of contemplation. "Heh…" It couldn't be.

"If you are done catching up, can we begin class?" Ladislas snipped, his eyes straight at Lewis. There was a snicker from the crowd of students in front of him, making Ladislas want to sigh. What was it about humans wanting to enjoy the misery of others? That too in such a small capacity?

The least they could do is go Rambo with their vengeance.

He knew there was rivalry brewing in the class with students vying to outdo one another. It was what every bath did. Everyone wanted to top. And they didn't like it when others spoke up more than them.

Ladislas scoffed. 'Be like Anna. She doesn't bother with anyone. Except for her Professor. She is trying to outdo a professor.' She was, unintentionally, trying to outsmart an immortal… an old immortal.

Ignoring Anna, Ladislas switched on his laptop and pulled the projector screen down to present a 'fake' scenario about the government looking into the personal information of the citizens. "Our discussion today will be based on government and private surveillance," he spoke. "A part of our lessons is to understand the two kinds of state apparatus and the panopticon structure theorized by Foucault and architecturally designed by Jeremy Bentham." He paused. "With the world rife with whistle-blowers admitting to the government carefully watching our every step, to social media companies selling private information. There is also the case of unprotected cameras being hacked into and people being watched without their explicit consent by other private citizens."

"This lecture will be used to openly debate what kind of ethical and moral stance you take. Your aim is to win this argument." He gestured to the writing on his slide. "By the end of the class, I will tell you my thoughts on what is ethical and what is moral in this case."

"Like a mock debate?" someone asked.

Ladislas nodded. "Think about it as a meeting between philosophers and government officials trying to clean their hands off wrong-doing." The harder you fight, the guiltier you look.

Then, he waited.

"Sir?" the sweet voice came. There it was!