Eina followed the teachers instructions, sitting down at one of the spare tables. She kept her head down, but she could still feel the gazes of the girls around her, both malicious and curious. When she had looked at them before, she could see that they were all around the same age, which probably meant classes here were divided. She didn't expect an ancient brothel to have such a complete learning system.
The stern woman walked over to the front of the room and continued where she had just left off, not caring if the new addition could keep up or not.
Luckily the first lessons were only literacy teaching. She knew this wasn't a language she was familiar with, but she seemed to understand it written and verbally?
'Could it be the child herself knew how to read?' Eina thought.
She didn't seem to have any other idea as to why such a thing could happen. However it left her with far greater convenience.
Seeing the other girls busy copying the individual characters of the alphabet, she had time to see her new classmates.
Looking around the room, there were more than twenty girls sitting behind their small tables. Some were obviously malnourished, tanned and they were obviously having trouble using the brush to write.
Others were soft and delicate, with skin too pale, as if they didn't see the sun often. Clearly these girls were kidnapped from well off families, but they also seemed to have some trouble writing, although they were obviously aware of how the brush was supposed to be held.
She however guessed that those girls were imitating what they had seen, because her body seemed to know the exact etiquette of how to write.
It wasn't until she was about to start writing that she saw a girl in the corner different from the rest. This girl was too calm. Even if the rest of the girls pretended that the situation didn't affect them, they'd still show some small traces of panic, peeking around to see if they were still safe. Subtle movements that showed their uneasiness. But that girl was different. She was obviously experienced in writing, her posture remained standard, her brush constantly moving. However it was her eyes that made Eina feel a little interest. Eyes that seemed to see through the world, unaffected by the situation, as if everything was in her control.
If her eyes as a killer were never meant to be found on a child, then that girls eyes shouldn't be found on a person. They were lifeless, like a beautiful doll.
She knew this girl would be a terrifying existence if she could grow up safely, but seeing the teacher moving around the classroom, she took back her appreciative gaze and began to copy the characters.
However as soon as she turned her head, the lifeless eyes of the girl looked directly at her for a period of time, before moving away.
Eina who was copying the characters thought with interest, 'What a perceptive girl'.
Perhaps because the girls were new to the brothel, the teacher didn't intend to push them too hard. After they copied down the characters a few times each, she said that the class was over for the day. There were two servant girls that the teacher told to take the girls down to eat, and wash up.
Eina was about to get up when the stern woman pointed at her and the perceptive girl and said, "You two, come with me".
Eina kept her timid look, but the other girl just walked with a deadpan expression. The two together showed what it meant to be complete opposites.
They followed the teacher all the way to an elegant courtyard not far from the large, many storied brothel in the distance.
The moment Eina walked in, she felt a chill run through her. Not because it suddenly got colder, but because vigilant gazes had been cast upon the group the moment they entered the yard. She tried to listen tentatively, not daring to look around. And she heard something. Long, drawn out breaths coming from multiple places around the courtyard. She had already guessed that since she could inhabit another person's body in a different world, that her common sense could be affected, but just how different is this world that she's in?
She felt that every single one of the people those gazes belonged to, were stronger than her at this moment. Although she was significantly weaker than her prime, but even then, she may not have been able to take two of them at once.
'This world can't be generalised. The strength level has obviously surpassed Earth' she thought worriedly.
Her distracted thoughts stopped the moment they reached the entrance of the house. The teacher stood respectfully and asked the maid by the door to report an audience with the madam.
The maid bowed and went in without a word, but it didn't take long before the maid came back and gestured for them to enter.
The teacher came in with Eina and the other girl behind, the two servant girls waited outside with the maids.
When they reached a thin transparent curtain that divided the front of the house from the bedroom, the teacher stopped and bowed before respectfully saying "Madam".
A sonorous and seductive voice appeared from behind the curtain, "What is it, Rin?"
The teacher named Rin, spoke without haste, "I believe I've found two candidates for the youngest batch".
The voice appeared again, "Oh? Let me see them".
Just as she spoke, a rough and calloused hand pulled aside the curtain. The man was covered in scars, with a sheathed sword pinned to his back. One could tell that he was a handsome man, but the scars added a fierceness to him that diluted the original handsomeness.
The voice came from next to the bed, "Come on, let me see the little ones".
Eina maintained her timid look, passing by the scarred man and raising her head to look at the owner of the voice. She was slightly surprised. The woman was incredibly beautiful. But she didn't seem to look like the madam of a brothel. Instead she had an elegant and bookish temperament. Her expression was kind and peaceful, and with her beauty, she seemed like someone you'd easily put your trust in. However Eina knows that a woman who can continue the kidnapping of girls, will never be as kind as she appears.