Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter2 1

Rosa Canina? Part 1.

The next morning, Yumi went to school earlier than usual and went to the library.

The Lillian Girls' Academy middle school and high school library reading rooms opened at seven thirty. The students that were in charge of looking after the library didn't arrive until later, so as to not burden the supervising teacher too much, borrowing and returning books wasn't allowed until eight, but it was a good system for students that wanted to do pre-class research or finish studying. –Of course, Yumi'd never taken advantage of this before.

"Umm, a book of roses, a book of roses…"

There was no Rosa Canina in her plant encyclopedia at home. Not just Rosa Canina, but there was no Rosa Chinensis, Rosa Foetida or Rosa Gigantea, either, so it was quite useless. Even though nine species for breeding and seven species for gardening, for a total of sixteen, species of roses were in it. Finally realizing that there were many types of roses, she decided to look it up in the library. She'd already concluded that because it was called Rosa Canina, that it must be a rose.

Seven fifty. When she went straight to the library and then into the reading room, one of the three catalogue computers was luckily open.

The search requested you to choose between author, title or keyword, and then prompted you to enter the name or words. Yumi, of course, chose keyword and entered "rose."

    Please wait.
    Searching...

(How long will it take?)

-But it immediately finished.

"Eek."

Showing restraint in the quiet library, Yumi covered her mouth.

(Eek…)

She casually entered "rose," and found her screen flooded with entries. There were so many hits the list kept going.

(What, what should I do?)

It was like yanking on the roll of toilet paper, and then finding the roll kept spinning and spinning.

Spin spin spin spin.

When will it end? Probably until you could see the earth-colored wick in the middle. Then what do you do with the enormous amount of toilet paper in your hands?

(Ummm.)

How worrisome. Well, it wasn't actually toilet paper, so she didn't have to worry about being overwhelmed by the white sheets all over the floor.

    4712 entries.

After the message showed up on the computer, she hit back.

(Phew.)

Saved. The computer's toilet paper had an automatic re-wind.

(However.)

If she went through each of the 4712 entries, the day would be long over. And she'd only been up for a couple hours since waking up, too.

The list was ordered by name, rather than relevance or price of the book. So the first one on the list was a novel titled, "Ahh, my beloved, you remind me of a rose."

(Time to go further down the list.)

Bringing her mouse cursor to the scrollbar, she dragged the list down to where titles began with "rose." She wondered if there were books in the library that actually were about roses, but she found out that the system catalogued books from the university library and the elementary and kindergarten libraries, too, so if needed, they could move the books around. A useful system.

But even such a useful system was useless if the user computer illiterate, like pearls before swine, or praying into a horse's ear… wait, that might be wrong. Anyways, her search was apparently bad, because "rose" ended up with all sorts of things, like "rose-like blood-splatter," so it was dreadful indeed. She wished it would at least divide things into categories.

"Umm, excuse me-"

As Yumi frantically tried to search, someone suddenly touched her shoulders from behind.

"Ah, yes?"

At first, she thought she was being cautioned for using the computer so long.

"I'm sorry, I'll be done in a moment."

But that was wrong. Because no one was at the other two computers anymore.

"Indeed. I think you should be done now, though, Fukuzawa Yumi-san."

That person smiled. Yumi didn't recognize her. From her ambiance, she felt like an upperclassman. Her first impression was, "She looks cool." Maybe it was because of her short, straight hair, or maybe it was her looks. She looked cool, but on top of that, she was also pretty.

"Uh, umm-"

The other computers were open, so why did she need to leave? Yumi became confused. Then, she reached past Yumi and told the computer to conclude the search.

"You should finish research during lunch break or afterschool, I think. At least, if you don't want to be late."

"Eh!?"

She looked at her watch. Eight twenty-one. Wow. The early bell had already rung, and the morning prayer would be broadcast soon.

"Thank you very much. I completely forgot."

"You're welcome. I'm part of the library committee, so it's part of my job. … Now, let's hurry."

She had also seemingly come straight to the library after coming to school, as she picked up her bag and coat and left the library with Yumi.

"Yumi-san, were you looking up roses?"

"Yes."

Yumi nodded, walking quickly.

She wondered how she knew, for a moment, but remembered she had finished the search for her. Of course she'd caught a glimpse of the screen.

"My encyclopedia at home doesn't have them listed. Even Rosa Chinensis."

"There're a lot of modified species of roses. Though, shouldn't it have Rosa Chinensis? It's a major species, as many roses nowadays used it as a root."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

She probably didn't mean it that way, but Yumi felt a bit down when she giggled. The sister of Rosa Chinensis en bouton was learning about the rose Rosa Chinensis from someone else. She walked through the entrance, disparaging herself. However, the library committee student was well-versed about roses-.

"Umm, do you know of the rose Rosa Canina?"

Maybe, she thought, and she asked after placing her shoes in the shoe boxes.

"Rosa Canina?"

After repeating the question, she immediately replied.

"Yes, I do."

It was an unexpectedly quick turn-about. After searching so hard, she couldn't find the answer, but now she found it in a simple place.

"It's a rose, after all?"

"Yes."

"What sort of flower is it?"

When she shot questions in quick sequence, she was countered, "What sort do you think it is?"

"What sort…"

In truth, she'd never even stopped to imagine it. But she was an underclassman who was being taught. Plus, she didn't have much time left. The number of students in the hallway had dwindled, and even those students were jogging.

"If I were to come up with an image off the top of my head… a black rose."

There was already a red, white, and yellow rose. And if, as Rei-sama said, Rosa Canina was a Lillian student and challenging the traditional red, white and yellow boutons, then she must have a strong personality. So, black. Plus, from a personal viewpoint, she was more of a villain, so it was definitely black.

"Correct."

She narrowed her eyes and answered.

"Rosa Canina is a black rose."

Just then, the late bell began ringing.

"Ah, that's not good. Thank you very much, gokigenyou."

Yumi bowed slightly and began running. The cool girl calmly walked to the second-year classrooms.

"Let's meet again, Fukuzawa Yumi-san."

After she whispered thus.

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