Merlг­. Sapere Aude | 2026 |

The friction of a working-class student entering the "elite" world of academia.

How we carry the influence of our teachers into our own lives. MerlГ­. Sapere Aude

Pol scribbles the words into his notebook, the ink bleeding through the cheap paper. He thinks about the "Peripatetics" and the walks through the high school hallways that felt like marathons of the mind. Here, the halls are wider, the statues are colder, and the stakes feel impossibly heavy. The friction of a working-class student entering the

The lecture hall smells of old paper and the sharp, clinical scent of floor wax. Pol sits in the back row, his leg bouncing—a nervous tic he hasn't managed to shake since high school. He stares at the empty chair at the front. It isn't the same chair, and this isn't the same room, but the ghost of Merlí Bergeron lingers in the way the sunlight hits the dust motes. He thinks about the "Peripatetics" and the walks