Ⅶ
Before eight o'clock, St. Joan's Girls' Academy was already teeming with people.
It wasn't just students and their parents. Some middle-class people who had heard the news had joined in too-by making donations.
The smaller donations were five or ten sol.
The larger ones were thirty or fifty sol.
Normally timid and cowardly, they, too, were showing their "courage" at this critical moment.
Courage couldn't be measured in money.
But the medical bills that came with courage required money.
Anna understood that very well.
So she had Lady Dingle, the headmistress of St. Joan's Girls' Academy, do more than merely cooperate-after speaking with her "boss," Cassandra, the woman had become very cooperative.
Not only had she stepped forward to collect donations, but she was sincere about it, too.
What a professional!
Standing behind the woman, Anna marveled silently.
As the Academy's security guard, she had a duty to protect its headmistress at a time like this, so there was nothing out of place about her standing there.
She watched every donor arrive.
She watched Lady Dingle offer her heartfelt thanks each time.
Once again, she couldn't help marveling inwardly at the woman's ability to Bluff her way into people's hearts.
Dressed in a plain black robe, she wore a kindly expression, her eyes filled with an elder's tender affection.
No one who met her gaze would ever imagine what she had done in the past.
At least Ailier, who was keeping records beside her, and the four students helping nearby-Renee, Donna, Jo Lily, and Junis-could never have known that their respected headmistress had once been a pimp.
And had caused at least two female students to die in "accidents."
"Thank you for your generosity."
After accepting another donation and offering her thanks, Lady Dingle temporarily handed the donation box