Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume28 Chapter8 4

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Interesting.

No, scratch that, profoundly intriguing.

Numerous mysteries had arisen from just a short period of observation.

The more mysteries people presented, the more she wanted to get to know them.

What kind of a person were they really? What were they hiding, beneath the surface?

It would be a shame if all of this information were revealed immediately. So, even though the library attendant probably knew that girl's name, she didn't ask.

Eriko placed a high value on discretion. She didn't want that girl to find out that she was interested in her through some third party. Nor did she want some meddlesome friend of hers to impertinently create a complete profile of that girl.

She was convinced that one day, perhaps far in the future, she would come to know everything about that girl. That slow, natural progression was how she wanted to get to know her.

So, when Eriko returned the notebook to her onee-sama, Rosa Foetida, all she said was that there was a first-year she was interested in, and that her onee-sama would get a chance to see this girl soon. Her onee-sama asked for the girl's name and class, but Eriko merely smiled and dodged the questions. After all, there was no way she could respond since she didn't know the answer.

The next time Eriko saw that boyish looking first-year, she was running again.

School had finished for the day and Eriko was walking away from the school buildings, following her usual route home, when she saw a student running towards her with incredible speed. The reason Eriko didn't realize it was that girl right away was probably because she wasn't wearing her school uniform. It was just as they passed each other, when Eriko focused on the figure and not the clothing, that she realized it was her.

Even without the face-guard, the distinctive uniform she was wearing obviously belonged to the school's kendo club. Nonetheless, she'd left in such a hurry that she hadn't had time to remove the chest or groin protectors. The intense look of distress on her face didn't seem to be caused entirely by the strain of sprinting flat-out while carrying such a heavy load.

(I wonder what happened.)

After she ran past, Eriko turned to follow her progress and try and figure out where she was going. But all she could determine was that that girl wasn't heading towards the classrooms. Chasing after someone and spying on them was contrary to her policy, so she let the matter drop.

Eriko walked on, past the greenhouse and was nearing the martial arts building when a student wearing a middle-school uniform emerged from inside.

"Thanks for your help."

The teacher in charge of the kendo club called out and the middle-school student responded by quickly bowing then turning and running back towards the school too. There was no evidence to prove this, but Eriko surmised that this middle-school student had come here bearing some news which had caused that boyish looking girl to interrupt her club activities and run off somewhere.

Except there was no need to refer to her by the lengthy designation of "that boyish looking girl" any longer. Eriko had spotted her name, clearly written on her groin protector.

That girl's surname was Hasekura.