– Girls' Dormitory
On the following morning, the place was calm, with only the occasional barking of stray dogs breaking the silence.
The alarm rang suddenly, and Beatrice jolted awake, a trace of annoyance on her face.
She looked at the clock—it read 5:30 a.m. Rising from her bed with steady steps, she headed toward the shared bathroom for the female students. As she had done every morning for the past five days, she was the first to wake.
She showered in hot water, brushed her teeth, and dressed in a white short-sleeved blouse and loose dark blue trousers. Returning to her room, she closed the door behind her and stood before the mirror, combing her short black hair.
To everyone, Beatrice seemed like an almost perfect girl: polite, kind, well-educated, and intelligent. From a young age, she had always been in the spotlight of admirers.
She had spent her childhood under the care of loving parents; her father worked as a nurse, and her mother was a schoolteacher. They surrounded her with warmth and affection—until the day everything suddenly collapsed.
Her parents died in a car accident on their way to visit a relative. It was said the car was completely destroyed, and their faces were barely recognizable due to the severity of the crash. Beatrice was at school when the news reached her, and upon hearing it, she collapsed to the ground, unable to stand… struck with shock, she became an orphan before even reaching the age of eight.
Her relatives refused to take her in, so her uncle sent her to a girls' orphanage, where she lived until she turned eighteen. After that, she rented a small apartment for a year before being accepted into a scholarship program, which took her from Rosebeld to Valdrel.
Beatrice returned to her desk, made herself a cup of warm tea, and quietly reviewed her lessons.
When the alarm announced that it was 7:30 a.m., she took a deep breath and left the dormitory, determined to find a part-time job at a café.