Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume3 Chapter1 1

The semester exam and the paperback. Part 1.

She had a feeling something like that was coming.

It didn't take long after the start of the semester exams, she thought. But it's a "now that I think about it" sort of thing, so that might be wrong.

At the time, she didn't give it much thought, particularly given that it was semester exam time, so she simply wondered, "What is it?" and quickly switched her mind back to a different channel. After all, for an "Academically Average" student, the scope of the Japanese history exam, or memorization strategies for the periodic table were far more important information than the hushed whispers of classmates.

Of course, her goal was "Surpass Average-ness!" but if she slipped, she could fall under it. Being in the middle was tough.

(Rosa Chinensis en bouton having bad grades would be horrible…)

First-year peach-class attendance number 35, Fukuzawa Yumi quietly sighed heavily.

The student council of the Lillian Girls' Academy High School, the Yamayurikai staff, was filled with students with extraordinary academic marks. Since Yumi was already holding a complex about her appearance amongst these students, adding academics to the list of things she worried about was painful.

As long as you attend classes regularly all the time, there's no need to cram. That was once said by her onee-sama, Ogasawara Sachiko-sama, who she bonded with during autumn, but Yumi ignored that and during the break period between exams, scanned through the reference book like an express train.

People who end up at the top of the chart academically without putting much effort simply were built differently up there. Commoners needed to study with regularity. Unless she caught up a bit to Yoshino-san and Shimako-san, her onee-sama would look bad, too.

"-Rosa Gigantea…"

(Rosa Gigantea?)

Despite that situation, Yumi still reacted to her classmates' voices.

Rosa Gigantea obviously meant THAT Rosa Gigantea.

(Rosa Gigantea, with the very non-Japanese face and stone-statuesque figure, a middle-aged man inside with an obsession with hugging, and still popular among underclassmen anyways?)

Of course, no one else was called Rosa Gigantea, anyways.

Well, she was always being talked about, so Yumi heard that name said aloud all the time. Then why'd she respond to this one? Well, it wasn't accompanied by pink heart marks, but had a more secretive tone. And that tone matched perfectly with the hushed whispers floating around.

(What's going on?)

When she looked up toward the voices, she saw Katsura-san and a number of other students whispering to one another.

Speaking of Katsura-san, she was similar to Yumi, being the type to dive into reference books before exams to cram, but for whatever reason she was expending all her effort into gossip. Curiosity, rather than the exam in front of her. Well, that wasn't too far off of her, either.

However.

(I don't know.)

Katsura-san's subject seemed to be based on the book she was holding. Yumi could tell that much, at least, by looking at them.

(…..)

Yumi placed the mechanical pencil she was holding on her textbook, and tilted her head. How does Rosa Gigantea come up when talking about a book?

(Maybe she borrowed the book from Rosa Gigantea.)

However that was more believable if it were Shimako-san, being Rosa Gigantea's little sister. But she hardly had any contact with Katsura-san, so that was unlikely.

Or maybe the book had been left behind. And the name inside the cover was Rosa Gigantea's.

(That might work.)

And because few people call her by name, she wanted to confirm the name with her classmates.

(But.)

Then you would ask Shimako-san, first. Plus, they'd been whispering for a few days.

When she glanced at Shimako-san's seat, she found her elegantly leafing through her text book, like she was gazing at a magazine. Maybe she didn't hear the "Rosa Gigantea" earlier.

(- but this isn't the time for this!)

She hurriedly looked back at the textbook, but her piqued curiosity was like lint in a drying machine – you couldn't get rid of it that easily. This personality of hers was why she was probably destined never to be able to get out of being average. Even Shimako-san, who easily took first or second in academics in the class, was completely focused on her textbook. At this rate, rather than catch up, Yumi felt like the gap was simply widening.

Maybe I should just give up on Japanese history, she mused, but she imagined the angry face of her onee-sama and threw that thought away.

It would be so much easier if she had a more suitable onee-sama for this kind of situation-. Katsura-san and others were still in a clump talking to each other.

Incidentally, Oda Nobunaga's sister, whose face was on the textbook page she was opened to, looked a bit like Sachiko-sama.

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