Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter4 2

Golden Rose Uproar. Part 2

Outside the educational guidance room, Tsukiyama Minako had turned into a ninja.

"President. About the current situation."

A voice called to her from behind.

"It's brilliant. No, it's even better than that."

She answered without turning around, her ear against the wall even though she couldn't hear anything inside. There was always a shortcut to finding out anything. With that in mind, she'd half expected her ninja-like hearing to work. Of course, she knew that the room was soundproof.

"Even better?"

"Four men involved in the matter have shown up. I wonder if they were called as witnesses."

Minako explained, still maintaining her ninja persona.

She'd first caught sight of the rumored group of men when they adjourned from the staff room to the educational guidance room. As soon as she caught a glimpse of them, Minako instinctively raised her fist to the heavens. They were all there, like they'd just stepped out of the pages of her short story. – It was perfect.

"Four men, you mean A, B, C and D, right?"

"Probably not D."

Right. The sole flaw was that there was one man who hadn't been described in the story. But he could always make an appearance as another customer of Eriko's, or rather Eniko's, in the sequel to "The Golden Rose."

"Why wouldn't D be there?"

The voice asked, right beside her ear.

"You know."

That was as far as Minako got in her explanation before she felt a chill run down her spine. Unnoticed, she had been surrounded by an uncomfortable atmosphere.

"That's … "

Timidly, she turned around.

"That's because D's someone you made up for your story, right Minako-san?"

"Ulp."

It was enough to make her scream. Lying in wait, right next to her, was Rosa Chinensis. Minako's extreme focus had backfired, as she hadn't been able to tell that the voice didn't belong to a club member.

"How do you intend to make amends for this disturbance?"

"Make amends, what ever do you mean? Please, don't look so angry, Rosa Chinensis. I simply – "

As she made her excuses, Minako searched for a way out, but she'd already been completely surrounded by the Rose families. There was nothing more she could do.

"You simply published a short story, is that what you were going to say? Surely you can't believe that that's the end of it?"

"That's all there is."

"In your story, "The Golden Rose," the protagonist has a part-time job at a date club, right?"

"Ah, … yeah."

"Although I suppose it is of minimal concern to your so-called school newspaper, I applaud your decision not to depict it as an 18+ venture."

"Ah, I thought self-restraint was warranted for the time being."

In truth, that was how Minako had initially written it, but she hadn't wanted to open up another avenue for Rosa Foetida to complain, so she'd abandoned it. The way she wrote a short story with all those restrictions, it was like she was a professional writer. It had been a bit exciting.

"But."

Rosa Chinensis caught her eye before continuing.

"You may think that all you've done is provide your readers with a humorous story, but you should realize that the end result of your misleading representation would be a grave insult to the honor of a certain individual."

"Uh."

Thump.

"The date club clearly had sexual overtones. Nor can you claim to be unaware that students have dropped out of school immediately after being called to the educational guidance room."

The quickening thump of Minako's heartbeat wasn't because Rosa Chinensis had grabbed her shoulder. It was because she was only now realizing how scandalous an act she had committed.

Certainly, she'd written the humorous story to enliven the "Lillian Kawaraban." But that didn't mean that Rosa Foetida wouldn't resent it. Especially if it caused her to drop out of school.

"What should I do?"

All the strength had left her body. Just as it looked as though she was about to fall to her knees, Rosa Gigantea propped her up, saying, "Get it together."

"Announce to the entire school that Torii Eriko is completely unrelated to "The Golden Rose," and, if necessary, publicly apologize to those concerned."

Minako received the harsh pronouncement of Rosa Chinensis.

"But, if all of it is fiction … "

Say Minako testified that it was all fiction, but the school kept investigating and, little by little, it came out that something like what she'd written in the short story had taken place –

"It's fiction. If not, there's a crucial mistake with your data."

"A mistake with my data?"

Those words were unforgivable. Minako was about to argue, but Rosa Chinensis snapped her fingers.

"Perfect. Let's go inside."

All present entered the educational guidance room.

Naturally, they knocked first.