## Chapter 222 – The Fight Beneath the Surface (5)
Was it because the academy’s de facto owner had come out for a stroll?
Around Lady Charlotte, who was taking a walk in the flower garden, employees were seen greeting her.
In the midst of all this, Charlotte, who unfortunately made eye contact with my nemesis, the caretaker, was pointing at my flower and asking him a question.
“Barton, what is this flower?”
I think I’ve heard a similar version of that story before.
I already felt a chill down my spine.
“Hmm… I’m not sure…
I’ve heard it’s from Chao Xing.
But it doesn’t seem to be an eyesore, so I’ve left it alone for now.
If it bothers you, I can take care of it neatly…”
‘Why are you licking the pruning shears with your tongue…!!’
The caretaker was looking at the flower with eyes that seemed to be counting the number of drums to be thrown into the sea today with a sashimi knife in hand, and the large flower was trembling without me even realizing it.
Ah… maybe there are about 40 drums.
That’s where I’m going…
The shocking fact that I had already been discovered and was being judged on whether or not I would be uprooted was complicating my mood.
To say that he would take care of the flower neatly, how could he say such a gruesome thing so lightly?
‘Even carnivorous plants have the right to live!!
Academy, wake up!!
Nature will reject you!!’
But fortunately, or perhaps not.
Charlotte, after hearing the caretaker’s words, waved her hand as if to say it was okay.
Did that mean she liked my flower to some extent?
“This is a flower bed my father left behind…
Take care of it so it can grow well.
While we’re on the subject, I’ll weed it a bit.”
Seeing the caretaker flustered by Charlotte’s words made me feel a little better, but there was something more important.
“…You’ll do it yourself?
If you leave it to me, I’ll make sure you’re satisfied…”
“It’s okay, just get me some tools.”
‘Ugh…!! What kind of noble does farm work…!!’
Charlotte was going to take a look at the flower bed herself.
But who in this academy could stop the owner of the academy from doing so?
The girl, slowly gathering her skirt and sleeves, jumped over the low fence of the flower bed and walked forward, looking around inside the flower bed.
And when she found something, she grabbed it tightly with her hand, which was wearing white gloves from the beginning, and pulled it out.
“There are a lot of weeds…
It’s hard to see because they’re hidden by the flowers…
But I have to keep an eye on them and pull them out.”
I was about to experience cognitive dissonance at the sight of the girl saying things that would make any farmer blush.
“Ah, geez… here…”
“Thank you, Barton.”
Charlotte, who had already received a hoe-like farming tool from the caretaker who was politely handing it over from the outside, silently accepted it and began to stir up the flower bed in earnest.
If there was anything strange, it was that she accurately distinguished between flowers and weeds, and pulled out only the weeds like a ghost.
As Charlotte piled up the weeds she had pulled out in a corner of the flower bed like a thicket, I felt only a sense of desolation, as if I were looking at a mountain of corpses of comrades sacrificed to a huge monster.
‘No… I should like pulling weeds…
My values are getting weird…’
But at that moment, a voice began to attract attention.
“Oh my, aren’t you Lady Polignac?
I was wondering where you were, but you were here?”
A woman dressed in a way that clearly showed she had spent a lot of money.
More serious than that, however, was that, regardless of the money she had spent, she was showing off a suggestive figure that was reminiscent of the phrase ‘daddy’s little girl’.
‘Am I seeing things…?
Why is she even wearing clothes if she’s going to be like that…?’
Is that what high-class tackiness is like?
I don’t know much about luxury goods, but if Aurora or Ranier saw it, they would definitely gape, and it was a level of luxury goods that many women would want to have and envy.
She was wearing such expensive things all over her body, but because of her bizarrely flashy fashion, her extravagance was even more emphasized.
But even so, looking at her body, I could see that she had definitely honed her weapons as a woman to the point where I was reminded of Laura from before.
However, if Laura’s body was a natural beauty, the difference was that this woman’s body clearly showed that she had worked hard to make her body intentionally.
Unfortunately, the well-trained, smooth muscles and refreshing flesh in various parts of her body felt like they were rotting because they had met the wrong clothes, and the woman’s first impression was extremely serious.
“What brings you here, Laratina?
I thought I told you that your proposal was rejected.”
“I think I told you that the rejection was a rejection…?
I think there was some misunderstanding…”
Charlotte, who had straightened her back after pulling out weeds, was glaring at the woman with narrowed eyes, her green eyes darkening.
“Our business can’t end like this, can it?
For our bright future…
You should approach it more carefully…?”
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The social world was as deep and dark on the inside as it was bright and festive on the outside.
The reason why many nobles try to raise their descendants as quickly as possible and pass on the family events to them is the same.
The reason why people who have spent nearly 10 years in the social world are called monsters, and those who have spent more than 20 years are called old hags, is the same.
It was not easy to survive in the social world to that extent, and even high-ranking families who started with a great advantage in the social world from the family’s point of view often felt disillusioned with the power struggles there and ran away.
Charlotte’s ancestors were also among those types of people.
Influence in the social world was, in a sense, a lifeline to protect the academy and free it from power struggles with other nobles.
“You should be ashamed, Laratina.
This place is a place of learning.
Your proposal is no different from tarnishing the face of Polignac, let alone the academy.
The academy… in alliance with a brothel…
I can never allow such a thing…!!”
Although the academy received support from the royal family, what was the reason why the academy was able to grow so much?
“I’m curious to know whose head that rotten idea came from?
Or… are you using someone as your backing, so Polignac looks ridiculous to you…?”
It was the unwavering efforts of the Marquis of Polignac and the support of the graduates who recognized the efforts of the current marquises.
In particular, maintaining connections with those graduate nobles in the social world was of great significance.
If they found nobles who were on the same page, or nobles who would support them, they could use the gathered power to drive out those who were trying to entangle the academy in their interests.
But when you think about it, most of them were elders of their families, who had officially succeeded to the position of head of the family, and were able to set at least a minimum code of conduct and principles and act accordingly.
Therefore, it was safe to say that they had the ability to maintain neutrality without being swept away by the atmosphere or situation, even when they went to the social world.
That’s why, up to her grandfather’s generation, they used to show their faces in the social world, but the problem was her father, the former head of the family.
Polignac had not even set foot in the social world since her father’s generation, who was mentally weak.
In particular, as the times gradually changed, graduates also began to place more importance on personal success than on a sense of belonging or pride as academy graduates.
In any case, that meant that the connections with various nobles that had been maintained up to her grandfather’s generation were beginning to be severed.
‘I managed to get the workshop construction done somehow…
This year’s operating expenses are in danger…’
Even her father didn’t have many connections, so how much more would Charlotte, who hadn’t properly taken over as head of the family from such a father, be?
Becoming the head of the family meant becoming an adult of a family.
But the only people she could rely on right now were a few butlers who used to assist in helping with the work.
Her mother, who died giving birth to her, and her father, who died suddenly of illness despite being young.
‘You created this problem…
What am I supposed to do in this situation…’
For that reason, the only person left by Charlotte’s side was her grandmother, who seemed to have little time left to follow her grandfather.
Her grandmother, who had problems with her daily life and even showed signs of dementia, was in a position where she could not provide any help with family matters, at least.
In the end, all Charlotte could do was to manage the academy as frugally as possible with the remaining resources.
Charlotte suppressed her habit of biting her lip as if it were a habit, and glared at Laratina with narrowed eyes.
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