Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter2 2

Rabbit and Cat and Wolf. Part 2

The following day Rosa Foetida, Torii Eriko-sama, showed up at school.

(Which means she came to school from her relative's house … )

Like Yoshino-san, Yumi had a "that's suspicious" look on her face as she thought this.

That probably meant it wasn't something that she couldn't get out of. Seeing Rosa Foetida walking down the corridor towards her, it was hard to believe that she'd spent the night somewhere other than her house since she looked the same as usual.

Her schoolbag looked light, as though it didn't have any textbooks in it, let alone the standard overnight kit of toothbrush, towel and face cream.

"Yumi-chan."

Rosa Foetida approached, waving innocently.

"Rosa Foetida, gokigenyou."

"Gokigenyou. It's been a while. I've seen Yoshino-chan flitting around every so often, but – "

(Huh!?)

As Rosa Foetida ran her hand through her hair with a faraway look in her eyes, Yumi couldn't overlook what she'd spotted on her chest.

(Her tie – !)

Rosa Foetida's tie, famed for being the most beautiful sailor collar tie in the entire school, looked disheveled today.

"Huh? What?"

Seeing Yumi lost for words and instinctively pointing, Rosa Foetida laughed and said, "Ah, this?"

"It got creased in a strange place when it was ironed. To hide that, I had to shift the knot over."

"Ahh, the crease – "

After agreeing with this, the obvious follow-up question was, "Who ironed it?"

"Rosa Foetida, where did you come from today?"

"Where did I come from?"

As she said this, Rosa Foetida made a pose like a karate practitioner taking a blow. It was probably surprise. An easily understandable reaction.

"Actually, yesterday, I called your house. They told me you were out … "

"Ahh – "

Rosa Foetida nodded haltingly, comprehension dawning. Apparently she'd planned to remain silent if Yumi hadn't known she'd spent the night away from home.

"You stayed overnight at a relative's house, right?"

"A relative? Ah, a relative … right, yeah, that's it."

So inarticulate. It was like this was the first time she'd heard that the place she stayed last night was a "relative's house," and her response was seeking to confirm that.

"Yeah. There was some business that had to be attended to. I was helping out at a relative's house."

Rosa Foetida offered as an explanation, as though to compensate for her earlier words.

"Did you have trouble sleeping? Your eyes look red."

"I did. It's a tough life when you're working. At least I can escape to school during the day. If I go to the library, I'll probably doze off though."

"Escape during the day? So you're going back tonight?"

"Pretty much … Ah, right. You rang my house, didn't you Yumi-chan? What did you want to talk to me about?"

" – Nothing."

Yumi shook her head.

"I just wanted to ask when you were going to be back at school."

"Really? Well, my exams are finished, so I'll be here most days. Although I'll probably show up late and leave early."

"Is that so?"

Yumi put her hand in her skirt pocket just to check, but in the end she couldn't hand those photographs over.

Rosa Foetida was obviously lying.

At the very least, she hadn't spent last night at a relative's house.

Yumi had merely caught a glimpse of it. The slip of paper attached to her collar was unquestionably from a cleaning service. Sadly, the 20-20 vision of which she was so proud had no problem resolving the symbols written there.

OO Hotel.

The logo of a famous hotel in the metropolitan area was proudly displayed.

Rosa Foetida was most definitely the enigmatic Rosa Foetida from the photographs.