Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 21 Prologue

"Good day."

"Good day."

The crisp morning greeting echoes clearly through the blue sky. Today too, the maidens who gather in Maria-sama's garden with angelic and pure smiles will pa.s.s under the tall gate. They possess both innocent minds and bodies, wrapped in a deep-colored uniform. In order that the pleats in their skirts have not been tossed into disarray, and their white sailor-collars have not been blown back, walking slowly with grace is the way here. Of course, there are no students who would shame themselves by running so as to make it in the nick of time.

This is Lillian Private Academy for Girls.

Originally established in the thirty-fourth year of the Meiji era, it is said this school was for daughters of n.o.blemen and still exists for young women in the traditional Catholic system.

In downtown Tokyo, amid Musas.h.i.+no, a district where a lot of greenery can still be found, watched by G.o.d from infancy through college, this integrated elevator school is able to nurture a garden of maidens.

The name of the era has changed three times, but even on this day in the Heisei era, after eighteen years of a pure culture that a sheltered upbringing allows these women, they who seem to have been kept in a box are ready to be s.h.i.+pped out. Such a structure yet remains in this precious academy.

Mille-Feuille (A French layered pastry)

Without going into too much detail, the mille-feuille is a well-known pie composed of thin layers of cream or jam or fruit.

If you stab it squarely with a fork, it's crispy and collapses like a building. It is meant to be shocking, but after you softly knock it down, it's still all right to eat.

By the way, in its original language the name of the pie is spelled m i l l e f e u i l l e. When you p.r.o.nounce it, it's all right in j.a.panese to say "mirufuuyu." But the closest p.r.o.nunciation to the French for mille-feuille by far is "mirufeeyu". When written, the meaning conveyed is "a thousand women".

However, in this instance... far from a thousand people, these are just the stories of the young ladies of three cla.s.ses.