Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume4 Chapter5 1
A modest secret. Part 1.[edit]
Saturday.
After fourth period, the first-years and second-years used homeroom to cast their ballots.
There were two election management committee members in each class. After confirming that every ballot was collected, and every absent student was taken account of, the ballots and the attendance sheet was placed in specific envelope and taken to the counting room.
The counting room was occupied by the election management committee from the beginning of the year, and was about half the size of a classroom. This room was always fluctuating in what it was used for and by whom, as at times it was the headquarters for the school festival executive committee, while other times becoming the headquarters for the athletics festival executive committee, and other times even used for the culture club's exhibit room. Incidentally it was next to the lecturers' room.
The ballots were counted that day, in the witness of teachers.
The counting was done using a primitive method. A person would read the vote out, and another person would mark it down using a 10^40 system. Still, they had plenty of workers, so even with a second run to confirm numbers, it was finished quickly. After students finished cleaning and ate lunch, the votes would already be tallied.
The election management committee gave themselves a bit of a buffer for delays and said they would announce results at two in the afternoon. So they'd agreed to eat lunch at the Rose Mansion and standby there until the results, but Yumi was so restless she could only eat half of her mother's lunch.
Yoshino-san and Rei-sama also seemed to be nervous, as they routinely sighed as they slowly ate lunch.
Of course, when listing off other people, you get to Sachiko-sama who was completely relaxed. By the time Yumi finished cleaning duty and got to the Rose Mansion, Sachiko-sama had finished her lunch and was sipping tea. "Sorry, I ate already." The big shots are really different, Yumi thought, and as she admired her, the time became one fourty, and without anyone needing to say anything, everyone stood up, ready to leave.
And despite these circumstances, Shimako-san didn't come to the Rose Mansion, because she had a regular meeting for the environmental consolidation committee. She said she should be done by two, so Yumi assumed she would go directly to the announcement.
She also didn't see the Roses anywhere. Yoshino-san said Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida stopped by before Yumi came, but they returned home, saying, "I have a good idea what the results will be."
But, even if you had a good idea, wouldn't you normally stay around to confirm your suspicions? Of course, "normally" wasn't something that applied to the Roses.
And no one knew where Rosa Gigantea was. Even on the day of the speech presentations, she'd skipped morning classes, so no one knew if she was even at school today. Plus, she didn't seem to care about the results anyways.
Many people had already gathered around the bulletin board in front of the sanctuary. Yumi thought the results would be posted in front of the counting room, but she understood why it would be presented here. If this many students gathered in the hallway, there would be big "don't push" wave of panic. That's how crowded it was. The middle school and high school acceptance announcements were also posted here, but it was nowhere near as crowded for those.
Everyone simply waited for the election management committee to arrive. Did it need to be said that there was no obligation to look at the results? Nevertheless, all of these students had remained of their own volition.
"Sachiko-sama, Rei-sama, please."
When they noticed the two candidates, the students parted like Moses and the Red Sea, leading the protagonists to the board.
"Here, the sœur, too."
"Oh."
Yumi and Yoshino-san were also pushed forward.
Shimako-san was already there, and she forced a smile. What a pity. Yumi was sure Shimako-san just wanted to take a secret peek at the results. But because they were giving her a better view out of courtesy, she couldn't turn them down. In the end, everyone other than the candidates themselves were more excited. And Yumi felt like that was the sort of thing that would never change.
Speaking of everyone else being excited-.
"Where's Rosa Canina?"
Her supporters had already shown up, but Shizuka-sama was nowhere to be found.
"I wonder where she went, the results are about to be posted."
The library girl sighed, "Sometimes she just goes off somewhere on her own." Just then, the election management committee chairman and vice-chairman arrived with a rolled-up poster.
The results were about to be announced.
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