Lady Sofia was at the abandoned plot of land that they had bought from the World Government, looking upon the old, moss-covered building that it had. She had her hands on her hips and a smile on her face.
She was pretty proud. After risking her life over at the Forgotten Jungle to make cash and eventually set up her little sap-harvesting business, to then buy this place here, it was a huge relief to finally be able to get into the sort of business that wasn’t life-threatening.
Sofia was going to make a school. It was going to be called “Phoenix Academy”.
She knew that a lot of people became pirates because it was just the best way to take their life from then on - they didn’t have a choice but to pillage and steal, because they didn’t have the skills to do anything else. This academy would give them an option to escape that lifestyle by getting the education that they need to get a proper job. Normally, schools were for children, but this would be a special one, for young; and not-so-young adults. To make them “reborn” as better people, as per the Phoenix mascot.
And who would hire them? Sofia herself, and expand her businesses. And thus, her empire of peace would grow even larger.
At least, that was the plan for now. She would also of course be open to other pirates in other situations - for example those that want to leave the “race” of becoming King and want to settle down and return to society. She could provide them with the necessary courses and help to get up to date, as well as a job to get going.
Then, of course, was the problem of the World Government probably not looking at this whole operation with the best eyes.
(And the problem of her probably mentally monologing for way too long in front of this place, but she was alone anyways, so she didn’t care for now.)
However, she had a plan for that too. It was impossible for her to know who was a pirate and not among the hundreds and thousands which had a bounty on their head - it’s just impractical. And there could be even those that don’t even have bounty, yet are considered to be pirates all the same. She would just run it like any other establishment which gives a blind eye to them, and do business as usual. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to accept any of the super famous criminals, like the ones that appear in the News Coo, but those are so few and far between that it wasn’t really much of a concern. It was much more likely that they wouldn’t want to join her academy anyway.
And that was another important point. She wouldn’t force anyone to join the school - like any normal school, really. Like that, they couldn’t blame her for “taking people away” from other pirates crews or something, just in case those crews got pissed about their members leaving to go study, because it would be entirely a choice of that person to come do that.
Despite that, she knew that she was still likely to get into problems with pirate crews, because that sort of thing always happened eventually when you dealt with them, but she has had worse, she believed. Like two massive dinos over at the Forgotten Jungle.
Then, she felt something touch her on the back of her waist, and she jolted up in the air a bit with a meep, to then turn around and see who it was.
“Boo.” Anna said, looking up to the towering girl, their eyes meeting as the latter turned around.
“You scared me!” she pouted.
“You were just like, staring at the building. I was a bit worried to be honest!” the Marine admitted. “Do you do that a lot?”
Quite a bit more than she was willing to admit actually.
“Just a small habit I guess.” she chuckled and looked to a side.
“Yeah.” Anna replied. She could see through her in that.
“Anyways, why are you here?” the noble asked.
“I’m set up to guard you, remember? I’ve got to follow you around. It’s my job.”
“It’s the weekend though. The store I normally work at isn’t open or anything. So...You sort of don’t have to come around. You got assigned to help me out with the business, that’s all.”
“Yeah but to be honest: I’m bored.” Anna chuckled. “So consider this working extra unpaid hours. Or something, I don’t care. What are you up to here? Going to do something with this place finally?”
Sofia nodded.
“Going to make that school, remember?”
“Aaaah. Yeah.” Anna replied. “That thing. How’s it going?”
“Well, I still got to start with the real work for it. First I got to get old building renovated, then get teachers for different classes. Then, celebrate a big opening party to make sure that everyone knows that we exist. Maybe even set up a big advertisement over at the docks - a lot of people go there. It could be a good place to set up a large sign or something.
“I’ve seen signs for the theme park there, though.” the midget replied. “You know, most people come here for just that. And the tourist attractions. This really isn’t the sort of city that you’d think is a good place to study. A lot of distractions.”
Sofia rose a finger. “It’s actually ideal for a very
different reason than that.” she mentioned. “It’s true that that place would be a distraction, but the reason why its there is the same reason why we’re going to set up this school at the same place.”
She rose the finger higher. “
Audience!” she declared.
“This place has
loads of traffic.” she mentioned. “Anyone has to come by here if they want to get into the New World - and the people who want to do that are mostly pirates, our target market.”
“Oh, I see.” Anna then replied and crossed her arms and nodded. “I see now. Quite clever.”
“I guess so, I think it’s mostly just lucky coincidence.” she chuckled. “Sabaody was just the closest island to Marie Jois when I was set to start my adventure for this. I’m glad that it had this sort of opportunity for me and my dream. I guess it’s destiny, huh? Heh.”
The Marine shrugged. “Anyways, you should get started with that. It sounds boring and tedious.”
“...Yeah.” Sofia replied. “It most likely will be for a while.”
----*---
Renovating this whole place had been indeed very boring and tedious - luckily, she had hired a crew of people to do it for her so that she didn’t need to endure that herself. And while they were nearly done with that, she had set up a small interview office inside of the rooms in the lower floor, and was interviewing people to become teachers.
In the past days, she had placed advertisements in the local newspapers, as well as signs wherever she could, to recruit teachers. And she had a gotten a queue of people for the fruits of her efforts. A whole seven people, for the eight positions she had planned to fill in the academy.
She was the fifth one of them now, and they were sitting across her. The past four had all been accepted, but she didn’t want to reveal that she was accepting everyone pretty indiscriminately because she needed the positions to be filled - once the academy got up and going and more fame, she could get more and better people, she assumed. She had to keep the illusion that they were carefully hand-selected to keep the morale high.
“So, what’s your experience with the position?” she eventually asked. They were in the middle of the interview, and man in front of him so far had seemed to be pretty stoic and professional.”
“I’ve teached at Sabaody High for three years.” he admitted. “And I’ve done some private tutoring on the side for about four.”
“I see. Very nice.” Sofia replied and pretended to note some things down onto a clipboard. “And, what motivates you to be a teacher?”
“I like cute schoolgirls.” he stated.
Sofia continued to smile.
“Ah, I see you’ve got passion.” she noted, trying to give him some sort of excuse. She also assumed that it was this sort of attitude that likely got him off the previous job.
“There won’t be many here, right? Because it’s a school for adults.” he then asked.
“...That’s likely to be true, yeah.” Sofia replied.
“No problem. I just wanted to know. I just want a job.” he then stated, with his deadpan face.
“Ah, enthusiasm. Very good. Those are excellent perks of yours, I’ll be sure to consider them.” the noble then said, and scribbled into her clipboard some more. Then, she started to look through her papers and pretended to read parts of them.
“Mr. Dashi.” she eventually said.
“Yes?”
“I think you’re such a good fit for us, that I have to offer you the job right here and now. How about it?”
“R-really? I’m flattered. I didn’t know I did so well.”
“But indeed you did. Now, if you could just sign right here….” she replied, sliding a paper and a pen over to him. “...And we’re all settled.”
“Of course, of course.” Dashi mentioned, and signed it.
“Excellent. Thank you for your time here then, Dashi. I look forwards to starting with you next week!”
The man then did a short bow. “That was a bit quick, but alright! I’ll take it! Thank you, Miss Sofia!”
“No problem, no problem.” she chuckled.
She was worried about how she was filling this school with completely offbeat teachers, but she understood that a school with
no teachers at all would just be worse. At least she could try to mention that this school had a special “charm” to it, or something. After all, adults weren’t the same as children, maybe they liked their quirks. Hopefully.
---*---
A few days later, once the renovations were done, it was time to set up an inauguration party. The teachers had been invited as well, and while she was putting up signs to announce it, she had even gotten a pair of interested students. She couldn’t tell if they were pirates though, but they were definitely not any of the famous ones. Maybe they were just civilians who wanted to give themselves a better life. Or actually pirates. She couldn’t tell, and it was probably for the better. She wanted her school to be a way for pirates to be able to get education covertly, and it was likely that if she couldn’t tell who was a pirate and who not, neither would any meddling government official.
She had also, of course, invited Anna over to come to the party. Sofia had also arranged with the Saboady Marine Station to extend Anna’s duties with her, so that she could be the one to supervise this operation. Of course, they didn’t know yet that they were in cahoots to dodge whatever obstacle the World Government might’ve put to stop their goal, but so far it seemed like that they haven’t needed to dodge anything. Pretty much everything so far that they have done had been legal, so there was really no need to be sneaky. Being open and honest with everything so far had been working out fine. It was just that being all clean and such had more than once gotten them nearly killed, like the time with the dinosaurs.
---*---
It was a few hours before the big inauguration party began - and it had involved even more money, much to Sofia’s dismay. She was at one of the desks inside the school, doing numbers.
Anna popped in from the door and strolled over to her.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “The party’s about to begin. Why aren’t you out there? C’mon. It’s time to have fun, right?”
“Why are parties so
expensive.” she chuckled, and tapped the butt of her pen against the paper. “I bought everything in a bit of a hurry, but even so, the prices are just, ugh.”
“Maybe it’s because they thought it was some kind of touristic party.” Anna mentioned. “Partying is what a lot of visitors come here to do. It’s big business.”
“I should’ve gotten it all from the supermarket, and not some ‘Party Organizers’. I feel scammed.”
“I feel you.” Anna replied. “But, you know, there’s a way to make it better.”
“Really?” Sofia asked.
“Yeah. And it’s to get goddamn out there and do your best. Talk to the people, let them know what this place is great and how great they can make
themselves with your classes. That’s what its all about, right? C’mon. Don’t go sulking over the stuff that has already passed. Focus on what you can do from here on.”
Yeah, but sheer optimism like that wasn’t going to pay the invoices, Sofia thought to herself.
“Thank you for the encouragement.” the noble replied. “I’m just a bit nervous, I guess. My first time doing this, you know?”
“Hey, there’s always a first time for anyone doing anything.” Anna chuckled as she shrugged. “Besides, it’s just a party. How hard can you mess up
that? Plus, I’m here with you. If you screw up too hard, I’ll cover you.”
Sofia smiled warmly. “Thank you.”
“Now, are you coming?” the Marine said, walking back to the door to get out. “It’s soon going to be showtime.”
“Just let me have a bit more time here.” she replied. “I’d like to finish sorting out a few things and I’ll be right down with you guys soon.”
“Well, OK.” the loli replied with some disappointment. “But if you’re not coming soon, I’m coming for you! And you better be coming then!”
“Yes. No worries.” Sofia chuckled back at her.
“Alright. Take care then.” the other replied, and waved their hand, before slipping out.
Sofia looked back at the numbers, and sighed.
---*---
The party started to slowly come to life as the front courtyard, which had tables with food and drinks, started to fill up with people.
Sofia was darting between people, greeting them and asking them about their interest in the school, always trying to keep a happy, pleasant tone about it all despite she was very stressed due to the pressure of running this whole thing smoothly. The tables had to always have food, she had to make sure that there weren’t any unnecessary hecklers around and if there were, to get rid of them. She had to scout if there was anyone particularly important, like an interested sponsor, and quickly assess how she could make the most of opportunities with them. There was a lot that she had to juggle in her mind at once.
However, on a positive note, it seemed that that the party was very popular, and it was starting to get slightly too crowded. From what she could gather by asking around, it seemed that a large portion of people here were just curious. A school for adults, here on Sabaody? Completely unheard of until now. A few others had deeper interest in the place, and had been already started asking about how they could sign up and when classes would be, along the fees for each class. Of course, Sofia had already given them the papers for that; the sooner she could assure clientele and seal the deal with them, the better.
Anna seemed to have been blending in just fine, making idle talk with a few people, telling anecdotes about herself and Sofia, as well as mentioning how she was she security of this place and whatnot, proudly.
During the later part of the party, Sofia had gotten mentioned by the other teachers that there was a certain man at the party that could be very helpful, a certain business magnate Fishman: Roy Monto. He was pretty well-known to be a very wealthy investor. However, she had her doubts.
“If he’s that good of a businessman, wouldn’t it be possible that I just get
played by him somehow?” she asked. “Like, he takes over this school without me even noticing!”
One of the teachers shrugged. “I mean, you could give it a shot, no? Wouldn’t hurt for us to have more money for the school, right?”
Sofia wanted to mention that she was mostly concerned about her own profits - getting an investor meant that she would have to share them, something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. However, of course, she knew that the teachers themselves were more concerned with their own jobs, and maintaining them. And if that meant getting in Roy, they would support it most likely. Just like her, and just like anyone, they were in for her their own well-being.
The noble then smiled. “Maybe. I just don’t want someone who doesn’t do anything and just tosses money to be involved, yeah? It would feel weird. Like, what work have they done to deserve the profits?” she replied.
She knew that this argument was more of a moral one, and she herself didn’t believe in it. But it was one that could persuade her staff.
“Yeah, I get what you mean.” one of the teachers eventually mentioned. “They need to understand us.”
“Oh, I see. Right.” another said, and nodded. It was working. Sofia would let them be and let them rationalize what she said, so that they would build up their own opinion on the matter and sustain this opinion on their own, instead of her needing to butt in and talk for them, would she need to for some future moment.
---*---
Eventually, the party started to die down, and Sofia managed to get three classrooms of people filled by going around and having people signed up right there, like if she was some sort of salesman. The classes themselves were pretty small for now, and cheap - she was actually going to be
losing money these first couple of weeks, but it was for hitting the ground running with this. She needed all of the initial inertia for this that she could get.
The tables were empty of food and drink, the guests having gobbled it all up already. There were also a few leftover people that were just standing and chatting, and the sun had started to set, painting the sky a bright orange.
She approached those last stragglers and asked them to leave, because it was late, which they complied to and just stood in front of the school instead.
Exhausted after this long day, Sofia locked herself into the school, and went into one of classrooms, and sat in one of the desks, to then sit in it and lay her head on it, as she hugged the table with her arms, and soon, she was fast asleep; and she dreamt about how she would have to keep on advertising this place even after the party, imagining herself flying around spitting pamphlets to everyone.
In a week, the classes would officially begin.
[WC: 3127]
[EXIT]
NEWS
