Chapter 735 Christina's Dilemma
At eleven o'clock in the evening, Leipzig was still brightly lit.
In the city center of Leipzig, in a manor on Bronze Avenue, guests are gradually leaving.
A middle-aged man with sparse black hair, but still neatly combed back and styled to the point of almost glowing, was holding up a glass of red wine, smiling and nodding as he bid farewell to his guests.
At this moment, a girl in a yellow dress who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old and had long curly light golden hair suddenly stepped forward and bowed, "My Lord Earl!"
"Um?"
The middle-aged man smiled gently, his tone almost kind: "What's wrong, our party star? Are you having fun, Christina?"
"I'm very happy, Earl Dawn! Thank you very much for inviting me to your party..."
The girl had a bright and innocent smile on her face. "So I thought about it...does what you said before still count?"
"Which one?"
Earl Dawn just smiled and said, "I don't remember it very clearly."
"that is--"
Christina looked a little anxious.
She paused, lowered her voice and said, "You were very optimistic about me and wanted to hire me as your secretary..."
"Ah, that's a real pity, Miss Weber."
Lord Dawn smiled. "But I've already found the secretary. Like you, she's from Hircine University. But she's a doctor. You've probably heard of her name, Miss Zoe Ravens."
"H-I see... She's actually interested in this...?"
Christina Weber obviously knew the name and showed a bit of fear and unwillingness. It was obvious that she didn't dare to compete with the girl named Zoe.
...Is this the last time I attend a banquet of this level?
Christina bit her lip subconsciously.
As an alchemist, if you can't get funding, there is basically no possibility of going further.
It's funny to say that alchemy, from its earliest days, was the art of turning stone into gold, and later on, it could easily bring wealth and status to great alchemists. But learning alchemy, on the other hand, required a lot of money...
Her parents were just ordinary company employees, and it was already difficult for them to support her college education. They even took out loans to pay for more than half of her tuition. The price of extraordinary materials was beyond their reach... but if she just graduated like this, she wouldn't be able to find a lucrative job!
——The dress she wore to the banquet was borrowed from her senior schoolmate who came from an aristocratic family!
Although there are scholarships in college... However, that is too far away for Christina. Just trying to keep herself from failing the courses and keep up with the learning process to become a transcendent, she is already sweating profusely.
She was practically a genius in high school and had many admirers - but at Hirsing University, those around her were either true geniuses or extraordinary people who had been exposed to alchemy at a very young age.
Among her classmates alone, there were more than a dozen alchemists at the third energy level, and there were also extraordinary people who had been promoted to the fourth energy level in the next class. Some people had set up alchemy workshops with their skills; there was even a senior who had created his own company two years ago with the many alchemy patents he had obtained during college!
It is said that the number of his employees now is close to one hundred, and he himself has even joined the third alchemy team - that is one of the alchemy teams personally controlled by Count Leipzig!
Christina couldn't understand what these geniuses were discussing. Just having to maintain a fake smile and an expression of curiosity and sudden enlightenment was enough to make her feel miserable.
——And now, she is due to graduate in a month.
Hirsing University is a six-year program, and graduates are automatically awarded a master's degree.
If you continue like this, forget about becoming a big shot or making a lot of money...
She couldn't even pay off her student loans, and might even have trouble graduating—graduation from Hirsing University required at least the second level, and she had already failed her first promotion ceremony six times in a row!
...She didn't want to go to the White Dove Opera House and wear such ridiculous clothes to make people laugh.
After all, there were several students who admired her and were also frequent visitors to Baige. She couldn't afford to lose face.
If she couldn't pay back the money, she would probably have to sell the house and leave Leipzig in disgrace. But now Xing Ti had no money anywhere, and Leipzig was the most promising place...at least her parents could still find work.
And she was already considered lucky - she had a junior from another place who had just enrolled in the school. Because she spent too much at the White Dove Opera House... It was said that she went to the VIP room on her birthday and pretended to be very skilled in playing cards with other nobles in it.
But she had never played cards before, so she was no match for the veterans. She easily lost a sum she could never repay. She also refused to work at the White Pigeon Opera House to repay the debt. After all, Hirsing University was quite close to the White Pigeon Opera House, and many students would come there to play when they didn't have classes...
...So, now she has gone to the Spirit Tower to work as a "secondary teaching assistant" who has no official position but earns several times more than a formal teaching assistant.
Judging from the generous salary offered by the Spiritual Tower for assistant teachers and the huge shortage of positions, I'm afraid their "assistant teachers" are being consumed quite quickly...
Fortunately, Christina was born with a good appearance and received a relatively good education when she was a child.
She was noticed by the Earl during her ballet performance at school.
Earl Dawn claimed that his recent secretary had to go back to her hometown for something, and wanted to recruit her to be an intern secretary for a period of time, and offered her a generous price that she could hardly refuse -
In just one month, not only could she pay off her student loan, but the remaining money could at least support her advancement to the third level!
Christina is certainly no fool.
After all, Helsing University was the best university in Leipzig and among the top three on the entire planet. The fact that she had been able to gain admission on her own merit was a testament to her ability.
This was clearly an invitation for her to be his lover - perhaps not even a lover, but at best just a fresh plaything.
This was a bit too exciting for the conservative and proud Christina.
She is now 24 years old and has never even been in a relationship... After all, before going to college, her peers were too childish for her; and after going to college, she has been working hard to pursue her studies and has no time to participate in various social activities.
She hesitated for a moment, but still risked angering Earl Dawn and rejected his invitation.
Fortunately, the Earl had a good character and did not get angry even after being rejected. Instead, he invited her to a party at his home.
At this banquet, Christina met important figures that she had never seen in her life.
There were more than a dozen nobles above the rank of Viscount alone, all crammed into tiny Leipzig, complaining that the Count of Leipzig wouldn't give them more land while discussing the future of Star Antimony, widespread unemployment, the damned goblins, inflated prices, and investments worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins with merchants she had never heard of.
She also saw the senior she had admired when she first entered the school, who was now following closely behind a beautiful but evil lady. Several of her teachers were also invited to the banquet and were surprised to see her, which made her very proud. Several handsome and well-dressed men and women also invited her to dance and praised her beauty in various ways.
However, no one invited her to play with him like the Earl did.
Christina had even decided that if anyone invited her, she would definitely accept. It didn't matter if they were a noble, a merchant, an alchemist, a demonologist... even a stinking necromancer, she would be willing to play with them.
...Perhaps from that time on, she had regretted her original decision.
And now, Earl Dawn's words made her even more embarrassed.
Senior Zoe, of course she knew her.
She was the dream girl of many of her male classmates back then, and now, before she's even thirty, she's already reached the fourth energy level and been invited to become a director of the Royal Alchemy Association. And yet, someone like her has become Earl Dawn's "secretary"... so what was her former reserve all about? Was it foolishness?
But just when Christina wanted to bow and say goodbye to the earl, Earl Dawn changed the subject: "But——"
"—you say?"
Christina's eyes lit up and she couldn't wait to continue.
(End of this chapter)
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