Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 14 Prologue

"Gokigenyou."

"Gokigenyou."

The clear morning greeting travels through the serene, blue sky.

Today, once again, the maidens that gather in the Virgin Mary's garden smile purely to one another as they pa.s.s under the tall gateway.

Wrapping their innocent bodies and souls is a deep-colored school uniform.

Walking slowly so as to not disturb the pleats in their skirts, so as to not toss their white sailor scarves into disarray... such is the standard of modesty here. Running here because one is in danger of missing cla.s.s, for instance, is too undignified a sight for students to wish upon themselves.

Lillian Private Academy for Women.

Founded in Meiji 34, this academy was originally intended for the young women of n.o.bility, and is now a Catholic academy of prestigious tradition. Placed in downtown Tokyo, where you can still see traces of Musas.h.i.+ Field's greenery, it is protected by G.o.d, a garden where maidens can receive tutelage from preschool to university.

Time pa.s.ses, and even now, in Heisei, three era-names past Meiji, it is a valuable academy, where nurtured ladies raised in greenhouses are s.h.i.+pped out in carefully packaged boxes after 18 years of schooling - an arrangement that continues to survive.

Autumn has a somewhat "lonely" or "melancholic" image, perhaps because it sees off the lively summer.

But when all is said and done, that's just its image. For high-school girls taking part in its various events, the reality is that they don't have much spare time to sigh at the pa.s.sing seasons, or shed tears with the falling leaves.

Obviously, they'll feel the heat and the cold as long as they live, but there's all sorts of other things happening besides the seasons or the weather.

Most of those things are like a small breeze that quickly blows past.