Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume24 Chapter6 4 (section)

===<noinclude>Beneath the Mask. </noinclude>Part 4===

The results were expected to be announced at 2pm.

Even if they waited at the bulletin board in front of the auditorium, it wouldn't make the results come any quicker, so they decided to eat their lunch in the Rose Mansion and wait, for now.

"I suppose I am a bit worried, after all."

Sachiko-sama sighed, pushing her side dishes around with her chopsticks. She seemed to have lost her appetite, just like last year, even though it wasn't her election. 

"Really? I'm starving. Itadakima~su."

Yumi opened her lunchbox and started eating immediately. Ooh, today's lunch was victory cutlets. Her mom was superstitious.

Crunch crunch, munch munch.

Everyone else had their lunchboxes open, but for some reason only the sound of Yumi eating echoed around the room.

"…"

"What is it?"

Noticing everyone's gaze she looked to her onee-sama. Although in truth her mouth was stuffed full of food, so it was closer to "Wha hi hi?" than "What is it?"

Sachiko-sama seemed amazed as she asked:

"When did you become so bold?"

"Bold?"

"Yes. It's incredible."

"… That doesn't sound like a compliment though."

"It is. And some admiration too."

Sachiko-sama picked up a large piece of her lunch and popped it into her mouth, simply because she didn't want to lose.

Then the Yellow Rose and White Rose soeurs joined in too, and the Roes Mansion was transformed into a "Hearty Eating Party."

She hadn't become bold.

She'd simply done what she had to do. And she'd realized that, at this point, whether she sat around worrying or not, it wasn't going to change the results.