The last class of the day came to an end.
The classroom returned to its usual noise.
Chairs moving.
Backpacks being closed.
Conversations about afternoon plans.
After several hours of tension, everything seemed to return to normal.
Adrian slowly closed his notebook.
The feeling was still strange.
A private university.
An influential surname.
People who knew him.
People who expected things from him.
And he knew almost nothing.
He needed to understand the real situation.
His family.
His resources.
His relationships.
The actual position Adrian Valmont held.
Not the image everyone else had of him.
The reality.
Because in the end, most problems had a simple solution.
Resources.
And if something couldn't be solved with money...
then there probably wasn't enough money yet.
A fairly logical conclusion.
He stood up and grabbed his backpack.
Leo immediately reacted.
"Boss, are we leaving?"
Adrian nodded.
"Yes."
He took a step.
And then it happened.
An arm wrapped around his.
Adrian froze completely.
"Huh?"
A cheerful voice came from beside him.
"'Huh?'"
The young woman looked at him with exaggerated offense.
"Is that really all you're going to say to me?"
Adrian lowered his gaze to the arm holding his.
Then he looked at the girl.
He didn't know her.
Or rather...
His body seemed to know her.
But he didn't.
"Wait..."
The young woman blinked.
"Wait?"
She smiled.
"Adrian, don't tell me you're thinking about ignoring me again."
Again.
That word had appeared several times that day.
Adrian felt a slight pressure in his chest.
He needed an answer.
But he had none.
The girl let out an exaggerated sigh.
"You're really terrible."
She moved a little closer.
"After being neighbors for so many years, is that how you greet me?"
Neighbors.
Before he could ask anything, a fragment appeared in his mind.
Sara.
Her name.
Nothing else.
An incomplete image.
A familiar feeling.
Like a word written on a page that someone had torn away.
Sara smiled when she noticed his silence.
But this time, she didn't seem annoyed.
She seemed amused.
Because throughout the entire day, she had witnessed something impossible.
Adrian hadn't looked at Astrid.
Not even once.
He hadn't tried to get her attention.
He hadn't reacted when Oliver approached.
He hadn't acted like the boy who had spent years chasing someone who never returned his feelings.
And Sara wasn't about to let this opportunity slip away.
"Come on."
She gently pulled his arm.
"Take me home."
Adrian looked at her in confusion.
"Home?"
Sara raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, Adrian."
Then she smiled mischievously.
"Or are you going to tell me you've forgotten where I live too?"
Silence.
One second too long.
Sara let out a small laugh.
"You're really strange today."
Adrian looked away.
If you only knew...
Leo watched the scene with an expression impossible to read.
Marco and Bruno did the same.
Because they knew Sara.
And they knew something Adrian didn't yet:
Adrian never allowed her to get this close when Astrid was around.
But now...
For the first time in a long while...
Adrian seemed to be looking at someone else.
Sara smiled as they walked.
And decided to enjoy every second of it.
At that same moment, Oliver stood up from his seat.
This time, he didn't look at Adrian.
He looked at Astrid.
"Astrid..."
His voice was firmer than before.
"About what we covered in class today... I didn't fully understand the last part. Could you explain it to me later?"
The murmur in the classroom faded.
Not because anything extraordinary had happened.
But because everyone was waiting for something to happen.
The students' eyes turned toward Adrian.
It was automatic.
For years, that had always been the reaction.
Oliver approached.
Astrid responded.
Adrian intervened.
Always the same.
A single word.
A provocation.
A display of power.
But this time...
Nothing.
Adrian was already packing his things.
He didn't even seem to have heard.
Astrid noticed.
And that confused her more than any scene he could have caused.
Because she knew exactly what Adrian was like whenever something involving her happened.
This indifference didn't fit.
"I... can help you with that," she finally replied. "But only for a moment."
Oliver nodded.
"Thank you."
Adrian left the classroom.
And that was when Leo spoke.
"Boss."
Adrian continued walking.
"Yes?"
Leo hesitated.
"Are we really just going to leave it like this?"
Adrian frowned slightly.
"Leave what?"
Leo pointed behind them.
"Oliver."
Adrian remained silent for several seconds.
That name kept appearing far too often.
"Explain something to me, Leo."
The young man straightened.
"What exactly happened between us and him?"
The question caught him off guard.
"Between us?"
"Yes."
Leo opened his mouth.
But no answer came immediately.
Adrian noticed.
Interesting.
Everyone seemed to know a story that he didn't.
"That's exactly the problem," Adrian continued. "I don't have enough information."
Leo lowered his gaze.
"But he attacked us."
"And you were three against one."
Silence.
Marco and Bruno looked away.
Adrian sighed.
"I'm not going to make decisions based on an incomplete version of events."
Leo seemed unsure how to respond.
The Adrian from yesterday would never have said something like that.
"Then..."
"From now on, nobody approaches Oliver."
The three of them looked up.
"No provocations. No looking for trouble. No acting on your own."
"But, Boss..."
Adrian looked at him.
It wasn't a threatening gaze.
It was the gaze of someone tired.
"If someone has a problem with me, then I need to know why first."
He continued walking.
"Until then, Oliver isn't an enemy."
A pause.
"He's an unknown variable."
Leo remained silent.
As he walked, Adrian organized his thoughts coldly.
First: home.
Second: resources.
Third: decide.
Nothing else mattered.
At least, that was what he kept telling himself.
The problem was that there was an unexpected variable beside him.
Sara.
She was still holding his arm with a natural ease that confused him.
Too much familiarity.
Too much closeness.
To her, it seemed completely normal.
To Adrian, it was another situation without context.
Since when do we do this?
He had absolutely no idea.
And asking would be dangerous.
Because every question revealed something he didn't know.
Bruno exchanged a quick glance with the other two before finally speaking.
"Boss..."
Adrian turned his head slightly.
"Yes?"
"You're acting strange."
A brief silence followed.
Adrian looked forward again.
"No."
A pause.
"I'm thinking."
That answer was enough.
The three of them fell silent.
Apparently, even they knew when not to push further.
When they exited the building, the car was already waiting.
A black Porsche Panamera Turbo S.
The driver opened the rear door.
Adrian got inside.
Sara followed afterward with complete naturalness, as though this had always been the way things were.
Another piece of information he would have to investigate.
During the drive, Adrian watched the city through the window.
The world was different.
Not just because of the money.
Because of the scale.
People with power didn't live the same way as everyone else.
They created separate spaces.
Distant ones.
Designed to remind everyone of one thing:
They belonged to another level.
The vehicle left the main avenues and entered a quieter area.
Wide streets.
Carefully arranged trees.
It wasn't an exclusive neighborhood.
It was a place where everything seemed unnaturally silent.
The streets were spotless.
The trees were all exactly the same height.
Not a single car was parked along the sidewalks.
The Porsche slowed down.
A wrought-iron gate slowly began to open.
No one came out to check who was arriving.
No one asked for identification.
The gates simply...
opened.
Adrian swallowed.
Did they already know we were coming?
The car passed through the entrance.
A stone pathway stretched for several hundred meters.
On both sides stood enormous oak trees, so old that their branches almost formed a ceiling above the road.
At the end of the path, the residence appeared.
Adrian stopped blinking.
It wasn't the kind of mansion that appeared in movies, filled with golden columns and exaggerated fountains.
It was worse.
Much worse.
It looked like a house that had existed longer than the country itself.
Pale stone walls.
Towering windows.
Vines climbing part of the facade without hiding it.
An ancient clock dominated one of the side towers.
Nothing screamed wealth.
Everything conveyed history.
How many generations have lived here?
A chill ran through him.
Suddenly, he understood something.
That house hadn't been built for Adrian Valmont.
Adrian Valmont had been born for that house.
And he...
He was an intruder.
The car stopped in front of the main entrance.
Two employees stood waiting beside the door.
They didn't look surprised.
They didn't smile.
They simply waited for the young master to step out.
Adrian placed his hand on the handle.
For the first time since waking up in this world, he hesitated.
How does someone behave when they've lived here their entire life?
He didn't know.
And that thought frightened him more than waking up in another body.
The moment he crossed the threshold, a woman's voice broke the silence.
"Adrian!"
A woman hurried down the staircase, completely forgetting the elegance expected inside such a grand residence.
Before he could react, she had already embraced him.
Tightly.
As if she needed to confirm that he was truly there.
Adrian remained frozen for a moment.
He couldn't remember the last time someone had welcomed him like that.
Finally, he raised his arms and returned the hug awkwardly.
"How was your day? Did you eat properly? Did anyone bother you?" she asked, pulling back slightly to examine him from head to toe.
My mother...
The thought appeared alongside a fleeting memory.
Only one word.
Elena Valmont.
Nothing else.
"Everything's fine... Mom," Adrian answered cautiously.
The woman smiled when she heard him say it.
Then another voice joined the conversation.
"Good afternoon, Mom."
Adrian turned his head.
Sara had just entered behind him.
With complete familiarity, she stepped forward and received another hug.
"How was your day, sweetheart?" Elena asked while fixing a strand of her hair.
"Very good."
Sara smiled with the confidence of someone who had repeated that scene hundreds of times.
Adrian watched silently.
She calls her Mom too?
It didn't seem like a joke.
Nobody was surprised.
Not the driver.
Not the employees.
Not Elena herself.
It was as normal as breathing.
Another question was added to the list.
Who is Sara really to this family?
After dinner, Adrian locked himself in his room.
For the next few hours, he gathered everything he had managed to discover.
His previous life hadn't been bad.
He had lived comfortably.
Without major worries.
He had even enjoyed small luxuries that many people would never have the chance to experience.
But this...
This was an entirely different scale.
It wasn't an improvement.
It was a complete break from his former reality.
A small smile appeared on his face.
Barely noticeable.
Almost involuntary.
Not because he was excited.
But because the situation was so absurd that it was difficult to react any other way.
From the enormous window of his room, the city stretched beneath the night sky.
Valenheim.
One of the most important financial capitals on the continent.
An ancient, elegant, and brutally competitive city.
A place where businessmen, politicians, and families with fortunes capable of reshaping entire industries lived side by side.
There were many important surnames.
Too many.
But only four families possessed enough influence to move the city's most important pieces.
And among them...
There was a difference.
One family that didn't need to compete.
Because everyone else already knew their position.
The Valmonts.
It wasn't simply wealth.
It was political influence.
Shares in strategic companies.
Control over media outlets.
Relationships built across generations.
A surname that opened doors before it was even spoken.
Adrian remained silent before the glass.
Everything was beginning to make sense.
His appearance.
His position.
The way people reacted to him.
The confidence with which they spoke about him.
And also...
The number of problems he seemed to have accumulated.
A powerful family.
A promising future.
An arrogant personality.
Conflicts with other students.
A rivalry with a lower-ranked student.
A girl who constantly rejected him.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Too many coincidences.
Too many familiar elements.
Finally, he let out a small laugh.
"It can't be..."
He looked at his reflection in the glass.
"Did I really end up in this role?"
A pause.
The answer seemed painfully obvious.
"I'm the villain of a novel."
The amount of information he had received throughout the day was exhausting.
Family.
University.
Relationships.
Problems.
Everyone seemed to have a history with him.
And he was the only one who knew none of it.
A soft knock interrupted the silence.
Before he could respond, the door opened.
Adrian looked up.
It was Sara.
But something had changed.
She was no longer wearing her uniform.
She wore a cotton shirt and shorts that looked like they belonged to another era.
The clothes were tight around the shoulders and the sleeves were too short, as if they had stopped fitting her years ago.
He stared at her for a few seconds.
"What happened to your clothes?"
Sara looked down and absentmindedly tugged at one of the sleeves.
Then she let out a small laugh.
"That's exactly what I'm wondering."
She entered the room with the ease of someone who knew the place by heart and opened a side closet.
Inside were only empty hangers.
She stared at them for several seconds.
"This used to be full."
Adrian frowned.
"Full of what?"
She turned her head.
"My clothes."
The silence grew heavy.
"Your clothes?"
Sara nodded.
"I also had some things in the drawers."
She opened them one by one.
Empty.
She closed them slowly.
"Looks like someone decided to clean everything out."
A faint chill ran through Adrian.
"Who?"
Sara looked at him with a mixture of surprise and resignation.
"You."
There was no accusation in her voice.
Only a statement of fact.
Adrian remained motionless.
He didn't remember doing any of that.
But someone had.
And that someone had his face.
Sara closed the closet and smiled softly.
"Don't make that face."
"What face?"
"The face of someone who just realized he did something he isn't proud of."
Adrian looked away.
He didn't know what to say.
Sara didn't insist.
She walked to the bed and placed a small bag on top of it.
"I'll stay here tonight."
Adrian looked up.
"Here?"
"Yes."
She said it with absolute naturalness.
As if there was no other possibility.
Adrian took a deep breath.
"You should go back home."
Sara looked at him, confused.
"Excuse me?"
"It's late. Your parents must be worried."
She stared at him for a few seconds.
Then she let out a small laugh.
"Worried?"
"Of course."
Sara actually laughed this time.
"Adrian... my parents have spent years accepting that I spend more time here than at my own house."
He frowned.
"Even so, you should go back."
"If I show up now, do you know what will happen?"
Adrian shook his head.
"My mother will ask why I decided to sleep at my house instead of yours."
He blinked.
Sara continued naturally.
"And my father will probably say again that a future Mrs. Valmont should get used to living here."
Silence filled the room.
Adrian felt something in his understanding of the world break once again.
"Future... Mrs. Valmont?"
Sara tilted her head slightly.
"Did you forget that too?"
She didn't sound annoyed.
Only confused.
"Our families have been talking about that since we were children."
Adrian didn't respond.
Sara continued, as though she were explaining something completely ordinary.
"The Roche and Valmont families have worked together for generations. Everyone assumes that once you finish university, we'll get married."
She smiled with a hint of irony.
"My parents say it's the perfect marriage for both families."
She paused briefly.
"Although I suspect the real reason is that they don't want to miss the opportunity to become related to the Valmont heir."
Adrian remained still.
Every sentence was another piece of the puzzle.
He hadn't simply woken up in the body of a wealthy young man.
He was the heir of one of the most powerful families in the city.
And this girl...
She wasn't here only because she liked him.
She had spent her entire life being prepared to become his wife.
Sara noticed his silence and smiled mischievously.
"Although, to be honest..."
She stepped a little closer.
"Lately, my parents don't ask me when we're getting married anymore."
Adrian raised his gaze.
"Then what do they ask?"
"Now they only ask when I'm planning to give them a Valmont grandchild."
...
Adrian froze completely.
Sara burst into laughter when she saw his expression.
"Relax. I was just joking."
A pause.
"Well... more or less."
He hesitated for a few seconds.
"There are guest rooms."
Sara looked at him without understanding.
"Guest rooms...?"
"I think that would be more appropriate."
Silence settled between them again.
Sara studied his face for several seconds.
She was searching for something.
A smile.
A joke.
Any sign that he was pretending.
She found nothing.
Slowly, she lowered her gaze.
"I understand..."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
She picked up the bag she had just placed on the bed.
"Then I'll sleep there."
She walked toward the door.
Before leaving, she stopped for a moment.
Without turning around, she said with a faint smile:
"Good night, Adrian."
The door closed softly.
Adrian remained sitting there, staring at the empty closet.