## Chapter 233 – Mademoiselle (2)
Anne barely conquered the stairs of the 5th floor and arrived at her destination.
There, already gathered, were about half a dozen women, each dressed in flamboyant and suggestive attire.
And in front of these women, sitting on a chair with her legs crossed, was a striking and unique woman who immediately captured Anne’s attention.
Perhaps lacking the practical combat skills of the Swordmanship Department’s upperclassmen, she possessed a healthy, muscular physique that seemed perfectly sculpted through rigorous training.
Yet, as if only certain parts of her body had been allowed to gain weight, she boasted a beautiful figure where voluptuousness and a slender waist coexisted.
And adorning this perfectly maintained body were various unique and elaborate accessories.
“I need you all to do some work.”
Anne and her supervisor couldn’t help but respond skeptically to the woman’s words.
“Me…? I’m still… not even capable of handling my own affairs…”
“My opinion as her supervisor is the same.
While the others are slowly becoming useful in real situations…
Anna still lacks the qualifications.”
Anne’s supervisor, who had been waiting beside her, handed the woman some documents that he had apparently prepared after observing Anne.
Anne herself could only lower her head in resignation at the sight of the documents, which clearly highlighted her inadequacies.
Considering Mademoiselle’s reputation, there was a need to mobilize more qualified personnel.
However, the woman merely glanced over the documents and tossed them onto a nearby table, then began to glare at the supervisor with a small sigh.
“Making her capable of doing her part is your job, isn’t it?
And besides, none of that matters right now anyway.”
At the woman’s firm words, the supervisor cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
His uncharacteristically awkward demeanor seemed to amuse the other women, including Anne, who tried to suppress their laughter.
“As some of you may know, I’m your employer, Laratina.
In simpler terms… I’m your boss, okay?”
But as soon as the woman began to speak, the atmosphere quickly quieted down, and all eyes were focused on her.
“I’ve gathered you here because I have instructions for you, so listen carefully.
All of you here are students of Saint Francina Academy.
Whether it’s because you need tuition money or funds to maintain your lifestyle,
you’ve all come to work at our establishment for various reasons.
Is there anyone here who can say that’s not the case?”
Only then did some of the gathered women begin to murmur and look at each other.
Judging by the fact that they didn’t seem to recognize each other, it seemed that there were no acquaintances or students from the same department among them.
Perhaps Laratina had done a thorough background check, as the faces of the women who hadn’t revealed their reasons for working or their identities turned pale.
Anne was no exception.
“There’s no need to worry unnecessarily.
What I’m about to offer you is a business proposition.
You’re all doing this because you need money, right?
So I’m just giving you an opportunity to earn it, okay?
And while you’re at it, I’m just thinking of making some money myself.”
Laratina held the weaknesses that could determine the lives of half a dozen women in her hands, yet her expression remained unchanged.
“Your workplace will no longer be here, but somewhere else.
In other words, you won’t even have to come to work here anymore.”
She reassured the anxious women with a calm tone, as if trying to put them at ease, and then finally began to get to the point.
“Work at the academy, okay?”
“At the academy…? Has the academy permitted such a thing…?”
At Laratina’s shocking words, one of the female students raised her hand and asked a question. Laratina replied to her in a nonchalant tone.
“Nope? Not yet, anyway?”
To have them work as prostitutes within the academy without the academy’s permission.
Even if it was said that they could work once they received the academy’s permission, wasn’t it just a way to exploit the loopholes in the academy’s rules by using women who could naturally enter Saint Francina Academy using their student status?
In the first place, even just having a romantic relationship could cause misunderstandings and violate the academy’s rules, yet Laratina was talking about engaging in the ultimate form of impropriety, and even having students sell their bodies to each other.
The female students’ agitation only grew more intense.
“If… if we do that, we could be expelled for violating the code of conduct…!!”
“This kind of work is…
a secret from my family…!!
That’s why I came all the way here…!!
If word gets out at the academy, I’ll be…!!”
“The academy will eventually permit it anyway.
This is just a temporary business in the pre-stage.
And if you don’t go to the academy, no one will know, right?
Why would you be so naive?”
“Th-that’s…!!”
The female students’ expressions turned tearful at her words, which were practically a threat.
Amidst all of this, Anne slowly raised her hand.
“Then… could you tell us…
at least roughly how we’ll be working…?”
“Well, I like the ones with guts better.
Do you think I’d just throw you in there without any thought?”
At her question, a subtle smile finally appeared on Laratina’s lips.
“My instructions aren’t anything special.
When you go to the academy, just act as you normally would.
And then you’ll find customers who will buy you.
Customers with such excellent character that they wouldn’t reveal your precious secrets…
Then your worries will be solved, right?”
Perhaps it was similar to how some commoner female students treated noble male students as their source of income.
However, those female students usually thought of their relationship with those noble male students as something serious, so the female students listening to Laratina’s words couldn’t help but realize that it was fundamentally different from the prostitution they were about to engage in.
“Once the academy officially permits it someday…
our brothel will officially advance into the academy.
From then on, customers will have to sign an oath not to reveal your secrets.
Then your secrets will be thoroughly protected, just as you expect, okay?
But now is the time to discover potential customers and pioneer the market.
It’s a grace period for customers to experience the service firsthand.
Such a new beginning always carries risks.”
Laratina lightly crossed her arms and switched the leg she had crossed, then scanned the female students with eyes that still held a smile.
Her eerie appearance reminded them of a predator, and for a while, the female students couldn’t even move their lips at Laratina’s continued words.
“I’ll give you one last chance, so if you want to back out, do it now, okay?
But I hate girls without spirit the most.
If you want to succeed, you have to bear the risks that come with it.
That’s the basic virtue of a successful woman, okay?”
“How can we do that…!!
It doesn’t make any sense…!!
If we mess up… we’ll be done for…!!”
“Use your womanly intuition, okay?
That’s what it’s there for, okay?
Unsuccessful women who can’t do that…
are already used up and worn out…
and end up in the brothels of the industrial district’s underclass, right?
Have you never thought that could be your future?”
At Laratina’s mention of the famous brothels in the back alleys, the female student who had been talking back to her closed her mouth.
A place where only the lowest of the low went.
A story about women who sold their bodies until they were too old to do anything else, and then continued to sell their bodies to equally low-class men for meager amounts of money, barely managing to survive.
It was a famous story that anyone who set foot in the back alleys would have heard at least once.
Especially because of how cruel the lives of the women who lived there were.
“You, you’re a student in the Medical Department, right?
I heard that the top students in the Medical Department are all from Chao Xing?
With such mediocre skills, how successful do you think you’ll be in this world after graduating from the academy?
At best, you’ll be a town doctor who’s been pushed out of the capital, right?
But even then, there are several academy-trained doctors in every town…
Have you thought about the competition that will arise with the established doctors?
You’re probably still a greenhorn who doesn’t know the terrors of ‘adults’, so not yet, huh?”
“Th-that’s…”
“But you’ll probably be able to pay off your student loan shark debts, right?
And you’re probably in the Fusion Magic Department?
If you don’t discover something significant, you’ll become a researcher who just throws away money, right?
There’s always a shortage of researchers who can enter the Royal Magic Research Institute without worrying about research funds.
It’s the only hope for commoner students, but in the end, only those with the highest academic achievements can go there, right?
So what can you do without capital after graduating?
You’ll be lucky if you can survive by taking on small outsourcing jobs…
You might even have to leave for a foreign country to find a job?”
The female students’ gazes became somber as Laratina began to talk about their futures, one by one, and eventually turned to the ground.
“If you’re confident in your lives, I have nothing more to say.
But commoners like us have to know how to seize opportunities when they come.
If you don’t, your lives will continue to stay here, okay?
Just as a low-class life, barely surviving by selling that mediocre body of yours.”
Nobles who were just born into good families.
The lives of commoners who had to feel deprived by them, even though they struggled and worked hard.
They had chosen to go to the academy in order to live well and overcome the differences in status, but the reality was that not many of them succeeded.
In the end, whether or not they had the power of a family to support them, and the connections they had built in the name of noble society.
It was inevitable that those countless factors would have a significant impact on the difficulty of their lives after graduating from the academy.
“If there’s anyone who doesn’t want to do it, you don’t have to say anything.
Just leave quickly and go back to work.
I don’t want to waste time because I don’t have much time left before my next appointment.”
But despite her dismissal, not a single person left their seat.
The girls each had a tearful expression, or were seething with anger, or sometimes seemed to be not even thinking at all.
Seeing the girls who seemed to have finally chosen their path, a faint smile began to appear on Laratina’s lips.
And after hearing a rough explanation, they were finally able to leave Laratina’s office.
As the women began to return to their respective workplaces in Mademoiselle, Anne watched their retreating figures for a moment before starting to move to return to her original room.
“Hey? Do you go to the academy too?”
At that moment, Anne stopped in her tracks at the words of a girl who suddenly spoke to her.
“You’re…”
Her expression seemed a little dazed, but if you looked closely, she had a clear smile on her pretty face, and her makeup was neat and well-suited to her.
In particular, her expression, which seemed to be devoid of any thoughts even in front of Laratina’s grand speech earlier, had left a bit of an impression on Anne.
As if she herself thought it was absurd that she had called out to Anne, she gently raised her hands and waved them, then clung to Anne’s arm and linked arms with her.
“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself, have I?
You’re in the Swordmanship Department, right?
I think I’ve seen you before?
I’m in the Fusion Magic Department.”
The moment the girl mentioned her department, Anne’s eyes narrowed at the thought that she might be trying to pull something.
“So… what…?”
Rather, Anne could only reply to her words with a dumbfounded expression at the girl’s statement, which even revealed her department name.
Was she just naive and thoughtless, or was even this a carefully calculated action?
An average person would have thought of that first, but for Anne, who was still awkward in her relationships, thinking beyond that was a luxury.
Relying only on a faint sense of rejection at the instinctive level, Anne slowly walked past her and began to walk forward.
“Just…? Can we be friends?
We’ll be seeing each other occasionally at the academy anyway, right?
So let’s think of it as helping each other… how about being friends?”
“D-do as you please… I’m going now…”
Anne, who felt inexplicably awkward at her continued clinging, quickly moved her feet.
The girl’s dark brown hair, which began to sway softly with her steps as she chased after her and began to chatter, was a sight to behold.
“Hehe… what’s your name?
I’m… ‘Laura’… okay…?
Ah…!! Wait a minute~ let’s go together~”
