“Uh, let me see.” After a pause, I clapped my hands together. “That’s it! I wanted to know more about Lady Sakura. Based on what Sara just told us, it sounds like she’s really into trying new things, right?”
“Yes, that’s quite right. She’s capable of developing an interest in anything new and unusual. Occasionally, it can even get her into a spot of trouble.”
“Got it. So she should adapt to this school and its exclusive contract system pretty easily.”
“Indeed. In fact, it would be accurate to say that she chose the school based on that.”
“She did?”
“You all seem numb to it by now, but the idea of students dressed as maids is rather unusual in itself, is it not?” Smiling, Sara shrugged her shoulders.
“Haha, that’s true.”
No matter how widespread domestic service had become as a profession, there was still something pretty unique about a school where maids and mistresses studied in the same environment.
“So you’ll become Lady Sakura’s Seraph when she gets here, right?” As Kirara spoke, she crammed a bite-size donut into her mouth.
“Most likely, yes.”
“Shame. That’ll be one less thing I can lord over you.”
“Interesting. Is there anything else on the list other than your Seraph contract?” Sara threw this out there with an earnest expression.
Kirara snarled back at her, exasperated. “You don’t know when to quit, do you?”
Sensing that the atmosphere was getting heated again, I frantically tried to calm them down. “Come on!”
Those two really were like oil and water, although I couldn’t have said which was one and which was the other.
“I’m joking,” Sara replied with a smirk.
Now that was unexpected. Did Sara really make a joke? That’s very unusual for her. If she was comfortable doing that, though, maybe the ice was well and truly broken.
Happy about this, I moved a little closer to Sara and said, “If she knows about how the school works, does that mean she also knows about the salons?”
“Good question. I suspect she might not, since they’re not officially run by the school itself.”
“That’ll be something new for her to discover when she gets here, then. I think she’ll be getting some invitations to join salons, so I wonder which one she’ll choose. Or maybe she’s the type of person to set up her own instead.”
“That could very well be. Knowing my mistress’s character, I can imagine she’d find the thought of founding her own salon to be most thrilling. However, she might wish to experience membership of an existing one first.”
In which case, maybe she’d actually enjoy having the salons fight over her.
“So, let’s say hypothetically that Lady Kagura invited her to join the Sky Salon—”
“Hold it, Misaki!” Kirara grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “You don’t seriously think Lady Kagura will ask Lady Sakura to join, do you?”
Even though she was whispering right in my ear, I was sure everyone else could still hear her.
“I’m just saying it’s possible. If she does, though, that means we can hang out with Sara after school.”
“Blegh!” My suggestion, intended as a pleasant one, was clearly repellent to Kirara. “I don’t want to deal with Sara constantly complaining about everything I’m doing wrong after class too!”
“I don’t complain, I merely state the truth. The fact that you take it so personally is another point where you have much to learn.”
“Ugh, there you go complaining again!” Kirara started gnashing her teeth.
“Putting my own opinions aside, the Sky Salon is a fine place indeed. I find it likely that Lady Sakura would be taken with it.”
“Really? In that case, even if Lady Kagura doesn’t invite her, maybe I should ask Lady Himeko to bring her in to take a look.” I turned to Kirara. “You wouldn’t mind that, would you?”
She reluctantly shook her head. “If Lady Himeko brought her, I wouldn’t be in any position to object.”
This is working out pretty well. If I can lay the groundwork, there’s a good chance Lady Sakura will join the Sky Salon. Are we cheating by getting in there early? It’s not exactly a level playing field. Maybe we shouldn’t be taking advantage of that.
“You know, the truth is that there might be other salons looking to recruit Lady Sakura too.”
Instead of thinking too deeply about what to do, I just went ahead and said it. The Sky Salon itself was probably enough of a selling point, so there wasn’t much point in worrying about it.
“Is that so?” Sara asked.
“Yeah. Well, it’s not certain or anything, so I couldn’t name names; it was just Lady Himeko’s prediction. She wanted me to make sure you knew there might be other salons gunning for her.”
“Thank you. That’s something to look forward to. I believe Lady Sakura will enjoy it even more as a surprise, so I’ll keep it a secret as well.”
“Yeah, maybe that’s for the best. It’s not like we can try to sell her on the different salons when she’s not even here yet.”
With an enthralled expression, Karen put her hands on her cheeks and said, “Listening to all this, I can’t wait to meet Lady Sakura. She must be something special if you’re so devoted to her, Sara. I bet she’s gorgeous too.”
“I hope we’ll get to meet her,” Akira added, similarly deep in thought about the upcoming arrival.
“I’d be delighted to show off my wonderful mistress to you all, so I’ll ask her if she’d throw a tea party. Not only is she sweet and lovely, but she’s small enough to fit in my arms.”
Next to me, Kirara stifled a gasp. Then she murmured, “I think I have an idea of one other salon that’ll want to recruit Lady Sakura.”
Without even a word out of me, it sounded like she’d already thought of Lady Asuka, Mei, and the Paradise Palace.