(1)

Dropping her glance onto her clipped stack of copies, Rosa Cinensis Ogasawara Sachiko(小笠原祥子)-sama cooly said.

"I am not going."
"Pardon?"
"I said, I am not going. By the way, would you please do something about your unattentive replies?"

Even if you tell me to do something about it... And I cannot take back now what I have blurted out of my lips-- Fukuzawa Yumi (福沢祐巳), who had finally got accustomed after three months of bearing the rather heavy title of Rosa Cinensis en Bouton, thought to herself.

The Rose Mansion (Bara no Yakata, 薔薇の館) had nothing like air-conditioners to refresh one's mind, so all the windows were opened. As a result, cicadas' dry cries attacked from all around like TV broadcasts.

The rainy season had finally ended, and it had turned remarkably hot.
The season was already mid summer.
Sachiko-sama's beautiful forehead was also slightly moistened by sweat drops like freshwater pearls.

Leaving that aside.

For the moment, what Yumi had to do was to ask to repeat onee-sama's unbelievable words that reached her ears just now. I am not going. This line could not be neglected.

"But, onee-sama, your promise..."
Yumi reached out her body and pressed on with her words, and Sachiko-sama lifted her head off the printouts and gave a sigh.
"In no case am I trying to break my promise. However, Yumi, your pose is as if you are going to jump on me."

"...Why shouldn't I?"
Yumi mumbled with her slightly pouted lips. She knew full well that she was really like a racing horse behind the starting line, with her heart anxiously crying aloud being quicker, quicker.

The gate was the final tests. Only if they are over, Yumi convinced herself as she drilled on her studies with all her strength, reached the final day today unscathed, and had her spirits all hyped up. It was just natural to dash with all her power like a boar, towards something right in front of her that she had been waiting for so long. -- Though the analogy somehow turned from a horse into a boar.

"I have been waiting for so long... Amusement park"
Exactly.