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

puzzled.
    “Yes,” Josephine said, smiling proudly.
    “It is a project I myself and Matilda over there have been carrying out for Master Blue Rose’s sake. I trust you’re all aware of the vote that was held—secretly, yet on a grand scale—among the girls last month? ‘Sparkle! The First Ranking of Boys Most Suited to be Prefect.’ The boy who triumphed over the current prefects for the glorious first-place spot was our Master Blue Rose.”
    It was true. Although it didn’t show publically, Master Blue Rose was quite popular, not only with the Blue Rose Club, but with the entire female student population of Lutwidge Academy.
    A startling number of girls secretly carried photographs of Master Blue Rose in their student pocketbooks and notebooks.
    His popularity with the older students, girls in the fifth and sixth years, was particularly great. Unlike the male students, to the female students, even the shadow he carried as a member of the House of Nightray was no more than a spice that enhanced his fascination.
    “As you see, then, this dream belongs, not only to the Blue Rose Club, but to the entire female student body. Prefect is a glorious position granted only to students chosen by this academy. We will do away with Gerald, a prefect unfit for the position, and install our own Master Blue Rose—”
    Just as Josephine said those words.
    At the phrase “do away with,” the girls gave anxious cries of “My…,” and immediately afterward—
    BAM!
The door to the common room flew open as if someone had kicked their way through it.
Elliot Nightray
    A SHORT WHILE EARLIER.
    Having entrusted their escape from the girls’ dorm to Leo, Elliot left the room with him. With Leo in the lead, they made their way down the corridor, carefully and swiftly. When they heard girls’ voices or footsteps approaching, they took cover until they’d passed. They really were skating on thin ice.
    They suffered alarm after alarm.
    What the heck are we doing…?
    They weren’t in any position to laugh at the situation, but Elliot was finding it funnier and funnier.
    He and Leo might as well be playing undercover agents.
    Just as they arrived in front of a certain door, Leo murmured, “Not good.”
    Elliot laid a hand on Leo’s shoulder, making him turn around, and mouthed,
What’s wrong?
    Pointing at the door, Leo whispered, “This is a common room. There’s a secret passageway entrance in here, or there should be, but…” He sounded noncommittal. It didn’t take Elliot long to notice, too. There were voices beyond the door. Bright, lively voices, flying back and forth. It sounded as if they were having a wonderful time.
    The common room was located at a distance from the private rooms where students slept. Students without business here weren’t likely to pass by.
    But even so, they didn’t have time to simply wait for the room’s occupants to go elsewhere.
    “There’s nothing for it. Leo, let’s think of some other way.”
    In response to Elliot’s words, Leo said, “Uh-huh…,” but he didn’t move away from the door.
    The longer they stayed in the corridor, the greater the possibility they’d be discovered.
    Elliot decided that the best plan was to go back to that unused room one more time and see if they could get the mechanism for the secret passage to work. He tugged at Leo’s arm, trying to get him to retrace their steps. Just as he did so, from inside the common room, he heard a certain phrase.
    Almost involuntarily, Elliot spoke the words himself.
    “……‘Master Blue Rose’—?”
    What was that supposed to be? he wondered. Who was it? The girl’s voice that came to them faintly from the common room sounded rapturous.
    “Do you recall that, last month, there was a report that Master Blue Rose had yawned during class? Well, you see… Master Blue Rose is a silver-haired vampire who slips into the girls’ dormitory every night and drinks blood from one of us, and so during the day—”
    The