Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume37 Chapter1
After school, on the last day of her first semester final exams, Fukuzawa Yumi had finished her cleaning duty and was making her way to the Rose Mansion when her eyes were suddenly caught by something in the shadow of the courtyard bushes. It was—
Its size was a bit large to be a cat that had taken up residence in the school. If it were a human, then they weren't wearing a dark uniform, so they weren't a student. Well, it was obvious who it was when she caught a glimpse of that familiar lavender summer sweater.
"Teacher?" Yumi called out as she approached her.
"Ah, you found me."
Yumi paused. "Was I 'it' in a game of hide-and-seek?" As she'd thought, it was the third year Pine class homeroom teacher, Katori Maki-sensei.
"It? Heheheh."
Seeing how she wasn't denying it, apparently her teacher was counting Yumi as "it." In other words, it looked like Katori-sensei was playing a solitary game of hide-and-seek, with around forty students as "it."
"Are you feeling ill, perhaps?"
Yumi thought she should ask because she may have been hiding in the shade of the bushes because she was playing hide-and-seek, but it looked as though she was crouched down because she couldn't stand up. Lavender didn't blend in all that well with the green leaves, after all.
"It's more of an affliction than an illness."
"An affliction?"
Yumi had no idea what she meant.
"Haa." Katori-sensei took a throat lozenge from her pocket and popped it into her mouth, perhaps to calm herself down. Then she spoke as though she was making an excuse, "I haven't been able to quit these lately."
Well, it wasn't like she was smoking at school. But that went without saying, of course. After a little while she exhaled deeply, letting out a stream of fresh-scented breath. The pair looked up into the sky, like they were chasing after it.
It was just after twelve. The sun was hiding behind a cloud, but the sky spread out like a typical toddler's crayon drawing. Sky-blue crayon on white.
"Although candy's fine too."
Yumi straightened up a bit then made a suggestion to Katori-sensei. "Why don't we take a little break over there."
She pointed to a place behind them.
Over there was the Rose Mansion.
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