She’d presumably had Sara on her mind a lot since Lady Kagura decided she was planning to ask Lady Sakura to join. This must have been the only way she’d figured out that she could accept the situation—by being top dog.
“My goodness. Well, should that come to pass, I shall simply ask Misaki to teach me everything instead.”
“Too bad for you,” Kirara shot back. “Lady Kagura’s the head of the salon, and I’m her Seraph. It’d obviously be my job to show you the ropes. Sure, Misaki may be Lady Himeko’s Seraph, but without my mistress’s permission, she can’t do anything in the salon that goes against my mistress’s wishes.”
“I could ask her other two Seraphs, in that case.”
She must mean the Kokonoe twins. I don’t know, though.
“Wrong again. They wouldn’t want to lower themselves to dealing with such a trivial task. They’d tell me to handle it for sure.”
Yup. That’s exactly how it would go.
Sara gritted her teeth. For the first time, she looked like she might be regretting that this looked like a very real possibility.
“Oh no, I’ve got you there, haven’t I? Now I really hope you join—and the sooner, the better! If you do, I’ll give you an education you’ll never forget. Ohohohoho!”
Laughing in a boisterous yet refined manner, Kirara returned to her seat. When did she get so much like the Kokonoe sisters?
“Misaki, if it does come to that, could I please ask you to quietly teach me all the different bits and bobs in as speedy a manner as you can muster?”
Her tone was quite insistent. With a strained smile, I gave a noncommittal reply. “Let’s see. Maybe it won’t come to that.”
It didn’t look like the discord between those two would be ending anytime soon.
✤
When I got into the bath, the day’s stresses and strains started to melt away.
Since getting those notebooks from the Kokonoe sisters, my brain had been working overtime. Having a moment to fully relax was indescribably lovely.
I dearly wished I could forget all about my work as a maid, but of course that was too much to ask for. I had to report to Himeko about what I’d learned. Once we’d finished scrubbing each other’s bodies, she sank into the tub to soak, and I did the same.
“Lady Rosalie seems really determined to get Lady Sakura, don’t you think?”
As we faced each other in the spacious bathtub, our legs brushed, sending a thrill through me. Her naked body was exceptionally appealing even to me, a fellow girl, and it was right there in front of my face. I didn’t quite know where to look.
“Did something happen?”
While asking this, she poked my feet with her toes. I retaliated as I recalled what Sara had said.
“She approached Sara and invited her to have tea. The weird part is how she knows about the connection between Sara and Lady Sakura in the first place.”
“That is quite strange. Nothing about Sara was included in Sakura’s student profile, so she shouldn’t have known they were connected. Not through any normal channels.”
“Yeah. Sara didn’t tell her about it herself, and I didn’t either. How does she know? She must have a really intricate intelligence network or something.”
“That’s possible. I can think of one way she might have found out, though. Sort of.”
“There is?”
“It’s true that Sakura’s profile says nothing about Sara and vice versa. But if you got a chance to look at both profiles in detail, it would jump out that they’re both from Britain. Then you might figure out that they have a connection.”
“Right, yeah.”
“Normal students don’t get to see that information for obvious reasons. The only ones who can are the teaching staff and a few students in particular.”
“Like you and Lady Angelica.” I couldn’t think of any other students who’d be in a position to look at all that personal data.
“Exactly. Both of us are allowed. There is one other person too, though.”
“Is this what you were about to mention in the Sky Salon the other day?”
“Yes.”
In the end, the Kokonoe sisters had barged in, so the topic had been dropped.
“Well? Who is it?”
Himeko fell silent for a few moments. After steeling her resolve, she told me, “It’s Shion Tsukuyomi—the girl who’s like a sister to me. She could get hold of any information she wanted.”
“Really? How?”
“The Tsukuyomi family is involved with the school’s administration. She doesn’t have direct access, but if she wanted to, she’d find a way to get her hands on it.”
“Still, that doesn’t explain why she’d want to tell Lady Rosalie about any of this.”
“Exactly. I just can’t wrap my head around it. That’s probably why it hasn’t occurred to Lady Angelica as a possible explanation.”
Both of us fell quiet. Lady Shion’s name was one I definitely hadn’t expected to hear. I wondered why she’d do something like this, but I knew it was pointless to wonder if even Himeko had no idea.
I was the one to break the silence. “Well, you don’t have proof the leak came from Lady Shion, right?”
“No, it’s just a guess on my part.”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“I’m sure she would just feign ignorance. If she’s using Rosalie to her own ends rather than acting herself, I don’t think she’ll show her cards until the results come to fruition.”
“Oh. Fair enough.” Lady Shion sure was an enigmatic person.
“By the way,” Himeko asked, “is Sara going to take Rosalie up on her offer? Will she go for tea with her?”
“No. She came to Kirara and me for advice, and after we all discussed it, she decided not to go.”
“That might be for the best. Her going could have gained us some information, but she might have ended up caught in a trap somehow.”
Then she said, “Come here,” and pulled me toward her. Waves rippled across the water’s surface, with Himeko’s breasts swaying along with them. I rested against her and she embraced me from behind, holding me tightly. It seemed like she was nervous, so to reassure her, I grasped her arms firmly in return.