Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume26 Chapter3 1

Ahh, Tea Party. Part 1

After school.

As arranged, both the organizers and the participants in the Valentine's Day event gathered in the courtyard once they'd finished cleaning.

Since the Lillian Kawaraban had repeatedly carried the message that anyone not present at 3:40pm would be disqualified, most of the participants had been thinking about likely hiding spots as they cleaned and then made their way to the courtyard by 3:30pm – ten minutes early – and waited.

Yumi and the other hosts were to stay in the parlor on the second-floor of the Rose Mansion until just before the start.

"Hoho."

Yoshino-san kept peeking out the window from behind the curtain as she spoke.

"I'd have hated it if there weren't as many participants as last year, when it was Sachiko-sama and Rei-chan hiding their cards, but there's quite a lot of people out there."

There were three other people in the room but none of them were by a window. Yoshino-san was the only one peeking outside. If they'd all gathered around to take a look, they would undoubtedly have been spotted by the students waiting out in the courtyard, and that would have been quite embarrassing. At any rate, if they were spotted, they couldn't very well go out on a balcony and elegantly address them like Marie Antoinette.

"Oh, there's Sachiko-sama. Yumi-san's fans are slowly creeping over towards her. I wonder what they're planning. I guess they'll probably follow her around, like what happened with us last year. In that case, I hope they're brave."

Then, without a moment's delay, Noriko-chan interjected.

"'You girls, stop following me!' Like that?"

"Oh, that's good!"

Yoshino-san heartily applauded this unexpected imitation. Shimako-san played the part of the onee-sama, chiding her petite sœur with a "Noriko."

Yumi remained seated, fixed to her chair.

"Hey, it hasn't even started yet, you don't have to sit there so nervous."

Yoshino-san joked, looking back over her shoulder.

"Well, I suppose."

But even so, what else should she do? There was no point having a strategy meeting this late in the game, and the newspaper club was handling all the setup and behind-the-scenes work, so there wasn't anything for the hosts to do.

"Oh, right. There might be some students that won't want to track dirt into the Rose Mansion, so we should —"

Hitting upon this idea, Yumi stood up, but Noriko-chan interrupted her.

"Put some damp rags out? I left three of them by the Rose Mansion entrance earlier."

"Ah … I see."

So she sat down.

"We could check on the first floor storeroom, since we won't be able to go down there once it starts."

"But we just gave it a quick tidy-up at lunch-time."

Shimako-san smiled as she straightened the notice board hanging on the wall.

"And you were the one that said we should let our visitors see the Rose Mansion as it usually is, and not dress it up just for them, Yumi-san."

"That's true."

In the end, it looked like all she could do was sit and wait for the event to start.

On that topic, Mami-san had repeatedly told them not to get in the newspaper club's way and be a nuisance. Yumi in particular had been cautioned to watch what she said both before and during the event, so she wouldn't let slip a hint. She'd been labeled as someone requiring extra attention because she usually let everything she thought show on her face.

"Oh, there's a surprise."

With five minutes left until the beginning of the event, Yoshino-san called out, still keeping watch over the courtyard.

"Touko-chan's arrived."

Naturally, the other three were all surprised when they heard this too.

"Touko's…."

Apparently even her classmate, Noriko-chan, hadn't known. Or, more likely, when they'd spoke in the morning, Touko hadn't given a concrete answer and instead left her with the impression that she wouldn't participate.

"Yumi-san."

Shimako-san patted her on the shoulder. As though to say, "Isn't that great?"

"Yeah."

Yumi smiled back at her.

Perhaps this was Touko-chan's attempt to meet her half way. But even if it wasn't, the fact that Touko-chan had decided to participate in the treasure hunt was enough to please Yumi.

On Saturday, they'd left the school building together and then parted ways at the statue of Maria-sama. Yumi still had no idea why Touko-chan had attacked her with such venom back then.

She thought that it was probably a misunderstanding, although she had spent some time wondering whether she had done something to offend Touko-chan and just been too thick-headed to notice.

If it was a misunderstanding, then it should be cleared up. If she'd caused offense, then she should apologize. But she couldn't do that until she knew the cause. Saying, "I'm sorry but I don't know why," would just make Touko-chan even angrier.

So Yumi had decided to leave Touko-chan alone for a little while. Just until Touko-chan was willing to meet and talk with her.

Yumi didn't think that anything unrecoverable would happen by leaving her alone, since Touko-chan had Noriko-chan as her friend. Touko-chan would be okay as long as she had Noriko-chan.

Yumi still didn't know why Touko-chan had been so angry, but it had to be something serious to warrant that level of emotion.

If only Touko-chan hadn't reacted by slamming her heart shut. She was still coming to school as usual. And today, she'd been composed enough to participate in the event.

"Yumi-san, want to see?"

Yoshino-san offered up her place by the window, but Yumi declined and remained seated.

It was good to know that Touko-chan was there. It was good just to know that Touko-chan was there.

"Our three stars and Noriko-chan, don't you think it's about time you made an appearance in the courtyard?"

Mami-san called out to them up the stairway.

"An appearance, huh."

It made them sound like princesses. The four girls exchanged glances and laughed.

Then the four princesses fired themselves up by standing in a huddle, layering their hands one atop the other, and shouting "Let's do it!" before descending the squeaky staircase.