Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume6 Chapter5 8

The Crimson Card. Part 8.

"Ah"

That person burst into the greenhouse.

I turned around, surprised.

"Gokigenyou. I'm sorry, I seem to have startled you."

"Not at all."

The surprise wasn't that someone had burst into the greenhouse. It was that the person was Fukuzawa Yumi. Why is she here? Having shut myself away in the dark recesses of my mind, for a moment I didn't understand what was happening. But when I saw the map she was holding, it all came back to me.

"Yumi-san, are you here to look for the card?"

"Yeah. You too?"

She probably doesn't know who I am. And she definitely doesn't know that I already have Sachiko-san's card.

Because of this, she's able to smile so openly. Quite normally, like a happy little girl.

"I got here just before you came in, but do you really think it's in here?"

I wanted to see if I could trick her into saying something.

I thought this was a place that nobody would search.

Since Yumi had taken so long to come here, it probably meant she hadn't known about the greenhouse beforehand.

In that case, there was no need for me to be worried. If Sachiko-san had let it slip, then she was just as guilty as I was.

I felt strangely at ease. My own crime was unchanged. But if the people around me were sinners as well, I wouldn't be alone in holding these feelings of guilt.

"Well – "

Yumi-san walked further into the greenhouse. What could she be thinking? Hurriedly she approached that spot where the ground had been dug up and refilled.

"I knew it."

She called out as she arrived there.

The place where the floorboards had been torn up and a flowerbed was growing from the dirt.

"What is it, Yumi-san?"

I followed her over and asked.

"I think it's probably here."

Yumi-san suddenly plunged both of her hands into the soil and started digging a hole.

"Umm, Yumi-san."

I called out to her numerous times, but she couldn't hear me as she kept frantically digging. Eagerly, with her bare hands.

I thought she looked just like a dog. But I couldn't smile at that. I knew that I could never dig so enthusiastically, no matter what the cause.

I had no doubt now that Yumi-san had figured out this location on her own. Her eyes were full of the pure thrill of the hunt. Completely different to me.

"If you want to, you can help out."

Yumi-san offered, without resting her hands.

"If we find it, we can hand it in together."

(Huh....?)

I couldn't believe my ears.

I knew it wasn't going to happen, but suppose for argument's sake that the card did appear – there's no doubt that it would belong to Yumi-san. Why would she offer half of the credit to someone who just happened to be present? There are limits to how generous you can be.

Despite this, I kept the card she expected to find hidden. While I was contemplating whether or not I should return it, I had wrapped it up in the map and was holding it under my arm.

I held the trowel over Yumi-san's shoulder and offered it to her. It was breaking my heart to watch someone so gallant. The longer I allowed her to continue digging without finding anything, the dirtier I felt.

"But I don't think you're going to find it there."

I squeezed the words out.

"Huh?"

Instantly, Yumi-san blinked her eyes and opened her mouth, flabbergasted. Then she looked at me with an expression that said 'Why do you think that?'

"Because I was the one that dug up the ground and filled it back in."

"Huh!?"

I'd said too much, and now I had to explain myself to her.

"I'm sorry I took so long to tell you. Actually, I dug up the ground right here just before you arrived."

"No way …"

Yumi-san looked from the pile of dirt she had excavated, to the hole she had dug, and then to the trowel before letting out a sigh. It looked as though she had believed what I said.

Relieved, I inquired:

"Hey. Why did you think it was here, Yumi-san?"

"Why do you ask?"

"When you entered the greenhouse, you came straight here, right? So I thought you must have had some reason for doing that."

I had to know, no matter what. If she hadn't been told about it beforehand, what possible reason could she have for searching in this particular spot.

Other than Yumi-san, not a single person had come here.

"Ahh, that's because."

Yumi-san pointed at the small, leafy plant that was growing next to where the card had been buried and spoke.

"This rose is called Rosa Chinensis."

The rose title that seemed like a part of Sachiko-san.

"… I see."

I'd lost. Completely and utterly.

Today was the first time that I'd been inside this greenhouse. This was the first I'd heard that Rosa Chinensis was growing in the school.

At any rate, there was no way I would have been able to find the card by myself.

"Then, why were you digging here?"

Unexpectedly, it was Yumi-san that had caught me out with a pointed question.

"That's because … The color of the dirt was slightly different, so I thought there might be something there."

"Really!?"

Upon hearing that, Yumi-san once more took up the trowel and started to dig. Confident that the card was buried here somewhere, she was going to dig an even deeper hole.

I thought I had no choice left but to tell her the truth. If it hadn't been for me, Yumi-san would have definitely been the rightful winner of the game and owner of the crimson card.

But I didn't have the courage.

With her back to me, I thought to offer her the card many times, but in the end I couldn't go through with it.

Why did it have to come to this, with me lacking the strength of will to be honest with her.

It was only after she'd dug down about 20cm that Yumi-san finally gave up.

Looking at my watch, it was just after 4:35pm. No matter how you looked at it, it was already too late. The rule was that you had to bring the card to the Rose Mansion within the time limit to be recognized as the winner.

Instead of confessing my sins I helped Yumi-san fill in the hole.

From there we washed our hands at the tap inside the greenhouse and stepped out of the greenhouse together.

The announcement that the game had finished was being broadcast, but I couldn't go to the courtyard with Yumi-san.

"Yumi-san, please go on ahead of me."

Until now I had only been vaguely aware of the students searching around outside, but they started to appear in dribs and drabs as they walked towards the school buildings.

"Well, I'll take my leave then."

"Gokigenyou."

As I watched Yumi-san walk away, I undid the ribbon in my hair. I understood, just a little bit.

Yumi-san had something that I didn't.

And Sachiko-san definitely had an eye for people.