Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume19 Chapter4.5 Epilogue (section)

===Cherry Blossom Folk Tales - Epilogue===

"'Cherry Blossom Folk Tales'? What's this? When is this from?"

Asked Katori-sensei as she lifted the cover with its pink-tinted cherry blossom print.

"It's from this year. Whether you go to a cafe or not, this is interesting."

Answered Yamamura-sensei.

It was lunch, in the Lillian Girls' Academy Staff Room.

Yotsuya-sensei, who had been sitting in the seat behind, came up next to them and laughed.

"The stories were written in about four to five weeks, right? For them to come up with such skillful stories, in such a short time...."

"It's as if they were preparing for the Olympics once every leap year. But why?"

While sitting in his chair, Yamamura-sensei began madly spinning his chair towards a spot two meters up from the floor, where there was a file cabinet with piles of books. He stuck his hand inside. Each of the books were of various length and thickness, but each piled volume had a pink outer cover. He pulled out the one at the very top of the pile, and whispered "Ah, so the last one really was four years ago."

"This was a pile of work from every hard-working former Cherry Blossom class student and current Cherry Blossom class students. I believe these all original works made by the students themselves."

Yotsuya-sensei shook her shoulders happily.

"Ah, of course."

"How about Katori-sensei's time?"

Yamamura-sensei turned towards Katori-sensei and asked. Both of Katori-sensei and Yotsura-sensei had been former Lillian Academy students. He didn't mean to create any strife between them as friends, but, as a male teacher, Yamamura-sensei had no point of reference in this conversation.

"I wonder how it would have felt. There was no Cherry Blossom Class back then, so I have no memories of anything like this."

"Actually, it's the same for me."

Both of the former Lillian students whispered "Darn it" to themselves. It seemed as if, inside, both of them were jealous of Cherry Blossom Class.

"Really now, why is there only a second-year Cherry Blossom Class? Does someone know the answer to this?"

Yamamura-sensei asked.

"Isn't it because the door is made from the wood of a Cherry Blossom tree?"

Said Katori-sensei. But if one were to go along with her theory, then a class with a door made of cedar would be Cedar Class. If the door was made of cypress, it would be Cypress Class, but there was no Cypress Class.

"Isn't it because something had happened during the War?"

"You mean the saying, 'The students would hid underneath the cherry blossom trees during the air raids, so they would not get hit by stray bullets.' ? But the war never was that violent, so weren't the students simply evacuated?"

Even though Yotsuya-sensei did not know the real answer, she laughed. While she was laughing, another teacher came over and asked, "What happened? Huh? Huh?"

"I've also heard a rumor saying that one of the school festivals had a play dealing with cherry blossoms and that was the reason for the class name. But wasn't that the Washington Story?" Said Atsumi-sensei.

"You mean, the Tale of Fujiwara Noyoriyuji?" Corrected Sakamoto-sensei.

"The spirit who lived in that classroom was a house god called Cherry Blossom."
Explained Hoshina-sensei.

"I had heard that the words 'Cherry Blossom Class' had been written on the class's nameplate by accident ..." Explained Kurata-sensei.

And so raged back and forth the argument, until it finally drew to a close.

It seemed as if no teacher in the Staff Room knew the actual reason for the name.

My my.

Yamamura-sensei placed this year's "Cherry Blossom Folk Tales" on the highest position on the shelf.

The tradition continues, and the number of folk tales continues to grow.

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