Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume23 Chapter6 2

A Chill Breeze. Part 2

After dinner, Sayako-oba-sama led them in the tea ceremony and they ate the majuu buns and chocolates and lollies that Yumi had brought, then after that they all helped to tidy up.

Washing the dishes, vacuuming the floor, wiping the tables. It wasn't all that different to what they did in the Rose Mansion, but the change of location made it feel somewhat special.

The excitement they felt as they worked was probably due to this being an overnight trip. Usually, no matter how much fun they had together as friends, when evening came they had to return to their own homes.

But tonight they could stay up talking for as long as they liked. If they were feeling drowsy, they could sleep. If they were feeling awake, they could stay up all the way through to daybreak if they wanted.

Such fun.

Such happiness.

And yet.

Why was it that the moment she thought about happiness, a chill breeze seemed to blow through her heart?

Her feelings of fun and happiness weren't fake. They were one hundred per-cent genuine.

"It's in a different room to your other feelings, right?"

Yoshino-san said.

"Huh!?"

Yumi asked, startled.

"Did I just say something!?"

"Yeah. Something about how you were having fun and feeling happy, but there was a cold wind blowing."

Noriko-chan answered.

"… That's not good."

She'd been talking to herself even though there were two other people beside her.

The three boutons were heading to the bath. That said, it's not like they were all going to a public bathhouse together.

Setting aside Sayako-oba-sama, the girls were using the three separate baths in two shifts. Coming up with groups was troublesome, so in times like these they usually just split into groups based on the Rose colors. Then, in accordance with Lillian's tradition, the older girls were given preference. Thus, the second shift of Yoshino-san, Yumi and Noriko-chan were walking together. It was about time that their onee-samas should be getting out of the bath.

With the kimono off and her body released, Yumi was feeling looser – and apparently her mouth was feeling looser as well.

"And? What about this room for my feelings?"

After Yumi recited the words she'd heard some time earlier, Yoshino-san started to explain.

"Well, for example, even if your "Onee-sama room" and "Friends room" are full to bursting, if there's another room that's empty you might still feel like something's missing."

"Another room?"

"The petit soeur room."

"I don't have that room."

She'd never had a petit soeur. There shouldn't be a petit soeur room. If the room had been there before, then she should have felt that breeze blowing the whole year, since she didn't have a petit soeur.

"Not yet."

Yoshino-san smiled.

"But you've been renovating for Touko-chan. Recently."

"Oh."

"That's how it is. Right, Shimako-san?"

"Huh? Shimako-san?"

Yumi looked around, wondering where Shimako-san was, just as Shimako-san emerged from the guest room and called out to her petit soeur, saying, "Sorry for making you wait, Noriko."

"That's how it is? … How what is?"

Shimako-san asked, as she held onto the towel wrapped around her wet hair. Just like she'd said earlier, her sleeping clothes were pajamas and not a yukata.

"I want to ask you about how you felt when you made Noriko-chan your petit soeur. Did it decrease how much you liked us, your friends?"

Shimako-san answered, "Not one bit," to Yoshino-san's question.

"Then, all your feelings for your onee-sama, were they redirected towards Noriko-chan?"

"It wasn't like that at all. It had nothing to do with the Yamayurikai members or my onee-sama – my thoughts and feelings for them didn't change from before to after I met Noriko-chan."

After she'd said this, Shimako-san mumbled, "Ah, I see."

"That's what you were saying, right Yoshino-san? In that case, yes, that's how it is. The house they were living in stayed as it was. But the number of people had increased, so it was like the rooms in the house increased accordingly."

"So a renovation?"

"Something like that."

Yoshino-san nodded, satisfied.

"So even though Yumi-san's built a room, she doesn't have a petit soeur to occupy it, so there's a cold breeze blowing through her heart right now. It's only natural. So don't worry about why it's happening. That's not a good thing to do. Put all your effort into getting ready."

Yumi looked on in admiration while Shimako-san also inhaled audibly.

"That was a good speech, Yoshino-san."

"It's because I'm currently doing some renovations of my own."

"I see."

When Spring came, Yoshino-san was planning on making Arima Nana-chan, who was two years her junior, her petit soeur. That may have been why she could understand Yumi's feelings.

A person's heart as a house?

Thinking about it like that made it easy to understand.

It really hit home when she was climbing into the bath that Sachiko-sama had used.

That her onee-sama's room and her friends' rooms were, indeed, so full to bursting that nothing more could fit in.