The next day, I headed to the Sky Salon to meet Himeko, while Matsuri went to her part-time job again. Before we left, she told me in an upbeat tone that she was going to do everything she could for now, and that involved working hard at her part-time job so she didn’t besmirch Lady Saeko’s name. There were still glimmers of sadness in her eyes, but she wasn’t in a state of despair, which was a huge relief.
I picked up the pace, trying to reach the Sky Salon as quickly as I could. I rode the antique elevator all the way up, but sadly, it looked like Himeko wasn’t there yet. I ran through her plans in my mind. She didn’t have any meetings today, so I figured she’d be there soon.
Unless she just stays in bed forever because there’s no one to wake her up. Hmm, it would have been kind of a lengthy round trip, but maybe I should have gone to Himeko’s room first.
There was nothing I could do about it now, anyway. If she wasn’t here, I’d just have to take care of some cleaning and other odd jobs in the meantime. Someone had to do it, given that there were no other Sky Salon Seraphs still on campus other than me, Matsuri, and Sara. Matsuri probably wouldn’t be able to come back here until this problem was solved, and Sara had only just joined, so she’d probably be more focused on serving Lady Sakura specifically for now—not to mention that they hadn’t been able to do their tour around the campus yesterday. They’d probably do that first before coming to the salon.
That left only me to take care of everything. I worked as efficiently as I could to get everything ready before Himeko arrived. All I really had to do was clean up a bit and water the plants. The inventory had all been taken care of before the start of vacation, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
Oh yeah, I’d better take out the trash too. That was a surprisingly hefty task because the collection point was some distance away. Apparently, there had been one right behind this building before the new one had been constructed, but then they’d moved it closer to that. For burnable waste, it wasn’t too big a deal, but if we had a lot of cans and bottles to dispose of, carrying them all that way was kind of a pain.
The garbage collector was due to come the following morning, so if I didn’t take it out now, there was a risk of having to keep it here all the way until the end of vacation. We didn’t have too much right now, but there were some fallen leaves and all the trash from Lady Sakura’s welcome party, so it was better to take it out sooner rather than later. For now, it was still an amount I could handle on my own.
I decided that if I took the trash out first, then did the cleaning and plant-watering after I got back, I’d reduce the chance of missing Himeko’s arrival. Still, time was of the essence. I hoisted up two bags of trash and got back into the elevator.
Outside, it felt like the sun’s rays had gotten even more intense. It had only been a few minutes, but the air temperature was rising rapidly. I was pretty happy with my decision to take out the trash first; if I’d left it another thirty minutes, I’d have been sweating buckets.
On my way to the rear of the new school building, I walked past a number of students getting things ready for their club activities. Lady Kagura’s business plan seemed to fit with this school; Amanotsuka Academy was more of a sports powerhouse than I’d have expected going in. Lady Minako’s volleyball team was top of the list, but the school put up plenty of competition when it came to tennis, badminton, fencing, equestrian sports, and more.
This was Lady Minako’s last summer here, so she was probably training hard. I don’t know anything about the tournament schedule, but when this business with Matsuri is over, I’ll have to take some refreshments to the team and watch them practice. Maybe Himeko would want to come with me.
Musing over all that, I carried my bags over to the collection point. There was a ton of trash piled up there; apparently, a lot of other salons had taken their trash out just before the start of vacation. I added mine, then wiped the sweat from my brow. I was about to start heading back to the Sky Salon when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Something leaping around.
It wasn’t small enough to be a bird. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was human—at least, it seemed that way.
Very odd. I thought back to what I’d seen the day before. I was pretty sure I’d seen Lady Angelica then, but I didn’t have any definitive proof. I still had none, but that shadowy figure definitely looked like her. Lady Angelica was a vampire, so she would be able to leap between the trees like that. After all, I’d seen her float down from the sky right in front of me. How could I think it was anyone else?
What’s she doing, though? She was beyond the gardens, among the dense wooded area. If she was doing some kind of patrol of the campus, she was surely moving way too fast. How would she explain it if anyone saw her?
Just as I was getting really intrigued, another figure appeared. This one was following after Lady Angelica—only it wasn’t leaping, but running along the ground. However, even from this distance I could tell it was still moving faster than should have been possible.
Ridiculous an idea as this was, it almost looked like they were playing tag. But Lady Angelica would never play a kids’ game like that, right? Maybe it’s some kind of training. Even that felt a bit like something she’d be past the point of needing anymore.
Man, I really want to know what’s going on. I’d been able to turn a blind eye yesterday, but this was getting too much.