Free PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 2 by Shinobu Wakamiya

drawing near.
    She hadn’t thought the topic of Master Blue Rose running around the school would expand this far.
    It had begun with Mia’s fantasy.
    “I’ve been thinking! Might not Master Blue Rose be secretly fighting against suspicious persons who are attempting to infiltrate the academy?! Wouldn’t that suit him?! Master Blue Rose doesn’t make close friends because he is kind and does not want to involve them in his battle. If so, he might have been running around the school in pursuit of a villain he hadn’t quite managed to defeat… Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
    It was a childish bit of make-believe, and quite like Mia.
    She’d fully expected the other girls to simply giggle and let it pass without comment. However, after Mia, another girl spoke up.
    She seemed a bit embarrassed, as if she were confessing an unrequited love.
    “I-in that case, I’ve also imagined something. There was a report that Master Blue Rose had a coughing fit while practicing with his sword in the grove, alone… Last month, wasn’t it? It gave me an idea. Suppose Master Blue Rose is afflicted with an incurable disease and is suffering? And then, every night in the dormitory, ‘the other’ nurses him tenderly.”
    At once, delighted cries of “Ooooooooh!” went up.
    “That is first-rate.”
    “I think the contrast with his strength of will is exquisite.”
    “Yes, it’s too, too wonderful.”
    “L-listen, my dear, about that incurable illness—”
    “A secret known only to Master Blue Rose and ‘the other,’ of course.”
    “Of course it is!”
    “Of course it is!”
    “Of course it is!”
    The girls squealed and giggled noisily.
    Their excitement was so great that requests for more tea came one after another.
    Then another girl spoke, enthusiastically:
    “Would you listen to my story, then, too?”
    …And a third fantasy began.
    This game was both sweet and dangerous: Unlike real reports, they would never run out of material. When the third tale ended, a fourth girl began to speak.
    After her came a fifth, then a sixth, and a seventh… Once they had begun, some girls regaled them with several fantasies. Josephine listened. On the surface, she was smiling calmly.
    “…And then, you see. I’ve thought of a different development for that yawn which we spoke of earlier. It’s possible that Master Blue Rose really doesn’t sleep at night. You see, although there is no way for us to know, a secret banquet is held in the boys’ dormitory every night, and Master Blue Rose presides over it as king of the night—”
    How many stories had there been? She’d lost track of where in the series this girl, the one who’d stood up from the sofa and was telling her tale in clear accents, belonged.
    Then, finally, the girl noticed that, although she was smiling gently, Josephine had been silent the whole time. Matilda, seated in the corner, was silent as well, but this was usual for her, and no one paid any attention to it.
    “Y-yes, that’s right.”
    The girl gracefully resumed her seat on the sofa and stretched out a hand toward Josephine.
    “I’d love to hear your story next, Josephine-sama.”
    At that, as if they’d just remembered, the girls’ eyes turned to Josephine, and voice after expectant voice spoke: “That’s right.” “Yes.” “Please do, Josephine-sama.”
My!
Josephine put a hand to her lips, smiling coolly.
    “But we’ve spent so much time already… Would anyone mind if we moved on to the main topic at this point?”
    At her words, all the girls’ expressions changed:
We forgot!
    ………To be honest, I’d like to relate my Master Blue Rose fantasies, too! I’d like to… But!
    Gracefully, without letting these fierce emotions show on the surface, Josephine looked around the circle of members.
    Then—austerely, elegantly—she began to speak.
    “The time has come to reveal the full content of Project Coronation to you.”
    “…Project Coronation?” The girls echoed her words,