Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume22 Chapter5.5 (section)

===Part 5.===

The seemingly endless path eventually stopped. The looming gate in front of their eyes brought them back into reality.

Sachiko got off the bike and opened the door. Rei pedaled the bike forward one step at a time.

Sachiko and Rei once again met where the gate separated the outside world from the inside.

Rei pushed her body against the bike and began pedaling again when Sachiko called out from behind "Rei".

"What?"

Rei suddenly turned to look back. Sachiko's breath froze white in the air as she panted.

"I'll be going to LillianU."

"Hm."

"I was thinking of going to some other school, learning economics, and helping out my father and my grandfather with the family business but then I realized that I have a lot of time yet. I want to take it slow, and stay in Lillian for a little while longer."

"I see."

"I want to stay in the same Lillian as Yumi."

"I know."

"That's all."

When Sachiko finished, she looked relieved.

So Rei then happily waved back to Sachiko and began once more riding onward.

She started pedaling faster. The lampposts illuminated small chunks of the road in front of her.

So.

Sachiko was staying.

Rei had suspected for a while, but hearing it from Sachiko's own mouth made the decision hit home.

So.

In Yumi's Lillian.

Rei's chest suddenly tightened, and she felt a heat within her.

This was Sachiko's decision. What Sachiko had thought about, and worried about. A decision she had come to on her own. Rei could do nothing but wish her the best.

At the crossing, Rei stopped her bike one more time. The road she had been biking on was narrow. The road she would bike onto was a wide one, one meant for cars.

As Rei looked down from the top of the hill, the road she was about to turn own shined outward like the Milky Way.

Rei then biked onward, onto the new wide road, not even once looking back.