Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter3 2

Umbrella Maker's Wife. Part 2

Rosa Foetida was walking.

Staggering alone down the path beside the oval.

It wasn't obvious whether she was just arriving at school or heading home. But she was wearing her school coat and carrying her bag, so it was probably one or the other.

Fourth period was just about to end, so there was no way to tell based on that.

The teacher's whistle blew, signaling an end to the first-year peach group's PE class.

"Thank-you teacher."

The heads adorned with peach colored headbands bowed down, then came back up again. Then they turned towards the school buildings and headed back at a brisk pace.

Although the calendar said it was spring, PE classes at the beginning of March were still austere. Particularly on days like today, when they went long distance running outside.

"I'm going on ahead."

Yumi split off from the rest of her class and ran in the opposite direction.

"Ah, Yumi-san. Where are you going?"

"I've got some things to take care of."

Yumi answered Katsura-san's question without turning around. Probably shocked to see her still running so hard, after the marathon they'd just finished. But Yumi was worried, so she had to do it.

"Rosa Foetida."

After calling out to her, it took about two seconds for her head to raise.

"… Yumi-chan."

"Gokigenyou."

What had she been looking at? Yumi lowered her gaze to where Rosa Foetida had been looking.

The grass on the gently sloping ground that surrounded the oval was curled in on itself due to the cold, and there weren't yet any lively insects or similar.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Huh … ?"

"There's nothing I can do, and it's eating at me."

Nothing she can do. Running out of steam at a place like this was bad. At the very least, she should decide whether she was going to class or going home.

"Oh, is this the path you usually take to school?"

"No, it's over there."

Rosa Foetida pointed north expressionlessly. For reference, they were on the oval's western side.

"You're lost then?"

"Something like that."

Yumi didn't know how Rosa Foetida had arrived at that point, but it was unthinkable that a third-year could get lost within the school.

"So then, you're not heading towards school?"

It looked as though Rosa Foetida would continue to wander aimlessly around the area forever if she was left alone.

"I guess."

Her words and behaviors all gave off a feeling of ennui.

"Even if you're going home, it would be quicker to cut across the school and go out through the back gate. Come on, let's go."

Yumi used a bit of force as she pulled Rosa Foetida along. Her body had taken a break from exercising, and the wind sliced through her 100% cotton sweatshirt, chilling her to the bone.

"Hahhh."

As she walked, Rosa Foetida tucked her hair back behind her ears and let out a huge sigh.

"Umm."

At any rate, it was Rosa Foetida that had brought about this feeling. Indeed – Yumi remembered when there had been a similar sensation.

"If there's something wrong with your body, we can go to the school nurse."

"No, it's not a problem with my body – ah."

Rosa Foetida suddenly smiled.

"Yumi-chan, you just remembered what happened with my wisdom teeth, right?"

"Yeah."

That had been during the Yellow Rose Revolution.

"That takes me back. Back then there were suspicions that I was pregnant, it was pretty funny though."

It may not have been that funny at the time, but at the very least it meant they probably wouldn't say that about Rosa Foetida now.

"Sorry for making you worry about me. Let's head to class."

They walked in the entrance and separated to change into their indoor shoes. Yumi peeked into the third-years area and saw Rosa Foetida in her indoor shoes, staring off into space.

"Rosa Foetida?"

"When you think about it, continuing on to university isn't the only path."

In the time it had taken to change from her outdoor shoes into her indoor shoes, it looked as though another thought had highjacked her brain.

Like a scratched CD, the conversation had skipped forward.

"Hah."

For the time being, Yumi offered a non-committal response. At times like this, the only thing she could do was assume the role of the listener.

The wisdom-tooth related suspicions about her pregnancy had been funny, they were going to class, but university wasn't the only path … it was all incoherent.

"If not university, then … a job?"

"Ah, there's that option too."

Rosa Foetida nodded slightly, as if she'd only just considered it. Which meant there was something else.

"So the answer is?"

Yumi asked, and the answer came quietly, as though she was speaking to herself.

"I want to get married."

"Huh!?"

Yumi jumped about a foot off the ground.

"But, y-you don't have a partner. That's what you told me before, Rosa Foetida."

After she said this, Yumi thought, "Oh no." Because the faces of the gentlemen pictured in the photographs in her pocket had bubbled up into her mind.

"I may have said that."

Rosa Foetida said as she closed her shoe box.

Yumi almost blurted out, "What now? Do you have a favorite among the guys you're going out with every night?"

"But anyway, marriage, huh."

"Ahh, I want to be the wife of a ronin umbrella maker."

"…"

This was hopeless. Rosa Foetida had a faraway look in her eyes all of a sudden.

Even though they both seemed to be talking in Japanese, they weren't conversing with each other.

Completely baffled, Yumi decided that for the time being she would escort Rosa Foetida to the third-year chrysanthemum classroom. There she would pass the baton to Rosa Foetida's classmates. If Rosa Foetida went home in this state, she might end up in a traffic accident, or worse.

After that she'd head back to the locker room, change clothes, return to her classroom to pick up her lunch, then on to the Rose Mansion.

It was a somewhat dizzying lunch break.