"Why didn't you go to the professors or any other adults?" Anna sniffled, wiping at her eyes with a sleeve, though no tears had fallen.
She was truly heartbroken.
"Because it would have been useless," Lu Li answered for Michelle.
Coming from a more modern world, he understood the chasm between classes and the generation gap far better than the locals.
Lu Li lowered his head slightly, his eyes hidden in the shadow of his hair and lashes, making it impossible to guess his thoughts.
"My pleas were drowned in condemnation," Michelle said softly.
A cold, unsettling aura radiated from her in waves. Above her head, a halo of pure darkness was silently taking shape.
She was becoming a vengeful spirit.
Perhaps this was the mont to stop her, but Lu Li did nothing.
He remained in his chair, listening in silence.
Michelle had never imagined how cruel people could be, and the students spreading the rumors never realized the ugliness of their own actions.
History has proven ti and again that even the most absurd lie, when repeated often enough, begins to take on a certain truth of its own.
n from the outside world began to approach Michelle, inviting her to taverns, balls, and private strolls.
Michelle, of course, refused them all.
But that didn't save her from fresh gossip. On the contrary, the spurned n, filled with malice, began to spread even more outrageous rumors.
They claid, for instance, that Michelle, in imitation of Belfast's notorious socialite Baroness Joseph, had invited a dozen dancers to her ho and caroused with them until dawn.
There were so who tried to stand up for Michelle.
A few students offered her sympathy, and one in particular surrounded her with such care that Michelle, who felt like it was her against the world, clung to him like a life raft.
"His na was Adam, an apprentice at a carriage workshop near the academy. And when Adam showed interest in Michelle, she returned his affection."
The black halo above the girl's head grew denser.
Anyone who looked at it was overco with pessimism, despondency, and despair, as if this embodint of emotion, this clot of darkness, was awakening the foulest, murkiest feelings within their soul.
"A classic example of the suspension bridge effect," Lu Li remarked.
When a person crosses a shaky bridge, their heart begins to race. If they happen to et soone of the opposite sex at that mont, they subconsciously mistake their anxiety for attraction to that person.
Michelle was afraid to tell her parents about the bullying, and just as afraid to tell them about her new relationship.
For the first ti in a long while, she felt a sense of relief; soone else was finally sharing the burden of her suffering. And though Adam was a few years older and otherwise unremarkable, Michelle grew deeply attached to him.
She hoped they would overco every hardship together, and one evening, he invited her to his ho.
Although Michelle felt things were moving too quickly, she didn't want to lose the support she had found and decided to trust the man she loved.
That evening, Adam was very insistent. Michelle gave in to him in many ways, but at the last mont, she stopped him.
Adam was not satisfied, and not wanting to disappoint her beloved, Michelle decided to stay the night.
It was the first ti in her life she hadn't slept at ho.
She felt she was no longer alone.
But a few days later, her world ca crashing down.
As Michelle was walking to her afternoon classes, she saw her own undergarnts pinned to the notice board at the entrance of the Polis Aristocratic Academy. Standing beside it was the one person she had trusted more than anyone besides her parents, loudly recounting to all what had happened between them that night.
She couldn't believe her eyes.
She couldn't believe it was Adam.
Adam confessed he did it for the vanity of it, to show off in front of the other students. He was just an apprentice, and his future was likely limited to being a stableman. But every one of those students was destined for a prominent position in Belfast.
Of course, the shillings he was offered for the salacious details also helped persuade him.
Perhaps the academy knew it wasn't true, that Michelle wasn't the girl the rumors described. But no one wanted to believe it, least of all the incensed students.
In the end, Michelle was expelled from the Polis Aristocratic Academy.
But the story didn't end there. The festival of cruelty continued.
Soon, the truth about Michelle's father ca out. He wasn't a city official or an aristocrat, but a common water carrier. The students didn't admit the rumors had been false; they simply gave Michelle a new reason for ridicule, mocking her for pretending her father was soone else.
Even though it was the students themselves who had given her the title of aristocrat.
To spare her parents any more trouble, three days ago, on a rainy night, a hopeless Michelle hanged herself in her ho, ending her life at seventeen.
It had all started with her sense of justice and soone else's envy.
Michelle's life wasn't supposed to end like this. She should have graduated from the academy with honors and found a good job. Perhaps she would have beco a lawyer or a police officer, since she loved helping people. She would have worked hard, made many friends, and t the person she would spend the rest of her life with.
This man would have been special, with the most extraordinarily beautiful eyes. He would be just and compassionate, never bullying the weak nor hiding his own flaws. They would have had a happy family, a wedding on a Belfast beach, and they would have bought a house with a view of the sea and lived a long life together.
If the world hadn't ended by then, she would have wanted to die before her husband, because she was so tender and sensitive, and she wouldn't have wanted to endure his death.
All of this existed in the dreams of that beautiful, kind, and just girl.
But it all ended at seventeen.
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