Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume5 Chapter3 2

Outsider. Part 2.

"Ah, Yumi-chan?"

After school.

Would you call it habit? After finishing cleaning duties, Yumi realized her legs had absent-mindedly carried her to the Rose Mansion.

"Are you alone?"

Rei-sama seemed to have come straight from class, as she grinned in her school coat while holding her bag.

"Long time no see. Speaking of which, I have something I wanted to give you. … Hold on, -hmm."

She tried to sort through her bag, but she seemed to have decided that scouring through her bag while standing was difficult, so she said, "Well, let's go in for a bit," took Yumi's hand and went inside.

"Uh, umm."

It was bad enough that Yumi had come by the Rose Mansion, wasn't it really bad if she actually went in?

But Rei-sama bounced up the stairs without any care, and breaking free and escaping wasn't an option. So Yumi resigned herself to following Rei-sama upstairs. As long as Sachiko-sama isn't here, she thought.

"Ooh, first!"

When they entered the room, Rei-sama turned on the lights after that gleeful exclamation.

"I'll prepare the teakettle."

Out of habit, Yumi dashed to the electric pot.

"Don't worry about it."

"Okay."

She tossed the old water from the pot, rinsed it, and filled it with new water. Then when she plugged the cord into the electric socket, it began making a dull, "I'm boiling the water now" sound. After that, she rinsed the dish rag, drained it, and wiped the table. She wanted to mop the floor, too, but she was afraid of the dust rising and decided against it.

"Well, I'll be going now, then."

When her cleaning habit came to an halt, she suddenly realized, "Why am I here?" and wanted to get away.

"Hold on. Thanks for doing all these chores, but that doesn't mean you have to go as soon as you're done, you know?"

"Umm, but, aren't you all going to have a meeting now?"

Because Rei-sama has club activities today. But she came straight to the Rose Mansion, so there must be something planned today.

"Well, we are."

Rei-sama laughed as she pulled out the seat next to her and beckoned for Yumi to sit.

"But I said I had something I wanted to give Yumi-chan, didn't I?"

"Oh."

She'd completely forgotten. That's right, that's why she came to the Rose Mansion.

"Here."

Rei-sama took something out of her bag and placed it in front of Yumi. It was a book, like a thin magazine.

"This…?"

"I was thinking of handing it to you when I ran into you, so it was in my bag the whole time. A cookbook for pastries. There're a lot of recipes for handmade chocolate, and the directions are really clear, so it should come in handy. The recipe for Rei-san's specialty chocolate truffles is pasted somewhere inside, too."

"But, Rei-sama, won't you need this, too?"

"Don't worry. The important bits… well mostly just the ingredients, I jotted them down. And I have a bunch of other books like this, anyways. Or do you not need it anymore?"

"Nonsense."

"OK. Then, let's keep it a secret from Sachiko and surprise her. How about this?"

Rei-sama was lively, because it was her field of expertise. Her handsome looks got in the way of this image, but she was always caring to begin with. After all, she'd been able to get along with that Yoshino-san for this long.

While they were leafing through the chocolate pastries book, filled with color photos, the door suddenly opened behind them.

"Sa-Sachiko-sama…"

They'd been so absorbed they didn't notice the footsteps on the stairs, so the two of them hurriedly stood up and quickly hid the book under their bags.

"- Why are you so surprised?"

"No, nothing. At all."

Since she'd gotten up anyways, and the electric pot had finished boiling the water, Yumi poured tea for the two second-years.

"Yumi, how about yours?"

Sachiko-sama coldly asked.

"Ah, I'm about to leave."

"Do you have something to do?"

"… Yes, kind of."

Because she couldn't answer "well it's uncomfortable staying here." Truth be told, she didn't mind if she stayed until Minako-sama or Shimako-san arrived, but Sachiko-sama seemed to be in ill spirits today. If she milled about and displeased her any further, it would be horrible, she thought. When Sachiko-sama was this stressed, you had to exercise extreme caution. You wouldn't guess it from how she usually conducts herself, but she did have a tendency to enter full hysteria.

"Then quit milling about and go."

Ouch, pretty harsh.

"Sachiko, stop acting like that. I pulled Yumi-chan in here."

"Rei?"

Sachiko-sama raised her head a bit, looked Yumi and Rei-sama, then said, "I see," and sipped her tea.

What do you have to do, or why did Rei-sama pull Yumi in, she didn't ask anything. It would be troublesome if she had persistently asked her, too, but it was just as awkward when she didn't ask anything at all.

"Well, excuse me."

When she headed toward the door after a quick bow, Rei-sama said, "Wait, Yumi-chan," and stopped her.

"Sorry, could you stop by the chrysanthemum class and hand this to Yoshino?"

"Yes?"

She was handed that book. The title was hidden because it was flipped, but it was still an audacious way to have gone about things. To Yoshino, she said, as she winked out of Sachiko-sama's view.

(… Which means she's letting me borrow it.)

Instead of "thank you very much," Yumi answered, "Alright," and left the room. Sachiko-sama wasn't interested at all by what Rei-sama would give Yoshino-san, and just sat still, elegantly sipping her tea.

Right as Yumi went down the stairs and went to open the door, it was opened from the other side, and she bumped into Shimako-san, who'd stormed into the building.

"Sorry."

Luckily, the only damage caused was that what they were holding fell to the ground.

"I was trying to come here as soon as I could after cleaning duty, but a number of things delayed me-"

While she was explaining why she was in such a hurry, Shimako-san began picking up the scattered documents. Yumi also helped.

"Oh, this-"

Noticing an unfamiliar book among the scattered documents, Shimako-san said, "Oh."

"Yumi-san's? So you're making chocolate for Valentine's Day after all?"

"… Mm. I don't know. Well, I borrowed it from Rei-sama, in any case, but I'm just looking through it, for now." "I see."

Placing the documents under her arm, Shimako-san flipped through it.

"Come to think of it, I do recall everyone talking about this in the classroom."

After a quick smile, Shimako-san closed the book and held it out. As she received it, Yumi thought, she's probably not going to give Rosa Gigantea chocolate.

"If I knew Yumi-san would be here, I wouldn't have had to hurry so much, after all."

Farewell, said Shimako-san as she went up the stairs.

(Oh, that's right.)

When she left the Rose Mansion and entered the courtyard, Yumi finally realized.

The two "outsider" first-years had not gone to the Rose Mansion in quite some time. Which made Shimako-san in charge of most of the chores. Not that the upperclassmen were forcing the job onto her, but she must have felt it awkward to have the upperclassmen clean the room and pour her tea. So Shimako-san, despite being encumbered as it was with class and committee obligations, was doing her best.

When onee-sama and sister end up being separated for one reason or another, other people are hit by unexpected repercussions, Yumi thought.

She couldn't just become absorbed in her own problems.

She tried to reflect on her actions.

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