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A Train Moving Away From Summer – Part 03

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Translator: Kell

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Miss Lafitte was leaving through St. Marguerite Academy’s grand, scrollworked gate adorned with golden ornaments, dragging her huge suitcase.

The cream-colored ribbon on her hair swayed in the cool summer breeze.

She looked over her shoulder regretfully. Sophie, her fiery-red hair fluttering in the wind, was watching her anxiously the whole time.

Miss Lafitte let out a heavy sigh.

“I finished it already,” she mumbled with both sorrow and frustration. She tossed the empty bag of cookies away, frowned grimly, and began pondering. “I’m hungry.”

Miss Lafitte had started down the long village road to the station, when she suddenly stopped. “Let’s rethink this,” she murmured gravely. “I bet there are still cookies in that girl’s room. And I’m hungry…”

She turned abruptly and started walking back to the academy, dragging her large suitcase behind her.

The sun was setting, and a cool summer night was approaching. An impatient moon had begun showing its pale and round face in the sky.

The darkness of the night was slowly reigning over the vast campus of St. Marguerite Academy, the light from the moon casting dark shadows all over.

Once back in the academy, the girl placed her luggage on a gazebo in the garden. For a while she was silent, arms crossed in thought, and then she stood up with a nod.

The evening garden was devoid of people and filled with an eerie silence. Water trickling the fountain was starting to sound like an ominous murmur. Grass crunched under small leather shoes.

Soon the girl arrived in front of the staff dormitory building where Sophie’s room was located. She recalled from which window she saw Sophie waving her hand. Right now the light was on inside the room, and she could see what looked like Sophie’s silhouette.

“Okay, let’s do this!”

Miss Lafitte pulled out an item from her luggage and carried it in her arms. After patting her pleated skirt, she started climbing the large tree outside the staff dormitory.

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Meanwhile, Sophie was in her room, shoulders sagged dejectedly.

The simple but well-organized room was neat and lovely, decorated with pretty little jars containing small flowers picked from the fields. As she fed the shaggy puppy sitting on the floor, Sophie thought about the immaculate young lady who left it behind.

“I hope Miss Lafitte does fine. She’s so frail. Can she really survive in a ruthless society?” She sighed. “If she was a sharp and clever girl like me, she’d be fine. But she’s so slow.”

“You’re worried too, aren’t you?” she asked the dog, who was lapping up milk.

The sun was already setting outside, and the pale moon was shining through the window. Sophie dreaded this time of the day the most, the strange period in the evening when it felt like things that were not-of-this-world would come out.

Then, as if responding to Sophie’s thoughts, a faint, peculiar sound, like metal grinding against metal, came from somewhere.

Sophie lifted her head and listened carefully.

Creak.

The sound was growing louder and louder.

“What’s that?”

It sounded like it was coming from outside the window. Curious, Sophie half-rose to her feet, when she heard another sound, or what sounded like a voice.

“Papan…”

“What?”

Sophie jumped to her feet and looked around the room.

There was no one inside. The puppy kept drinking its milk.

Sophie opened the door and peered down the hallway. It was empty.

When she returned to her room, she heard the voice again.

“Papan… Papan…”

Sophie shuddered.

The faint, female voice was familiar.

“Papan, come home. Please come home from the war. Papan…”

It’s Miss Lafitte’s voice!

Horrified, Sophie checked the hallway again. No one was there. She turned to the window.

She could still hear the metallic noise, mixed in with the sound of a girl crying.

Sophie dashed to the window and opened it wide. Pale moonlight poured into her small room. Dreadful, eerie, night light. Tangled old branches seemed like black skeletons. She looked around. Her room was on the third floor of the dormitory; Miss Lafitte shouldn’t be outside. But the voice made her call for the girl’s name anyway.

“Miss Lafitte?” Her voice was shaky.

There was no reply.

“Miss Lafitte. What’s wrong? Are you calling for me?”

Still nothing. Sophie suddenly felt a stab in her.

“Who’s there?!” she cried.

There was no answer. Worried, Sophie bolted out of the room and ran down the corridor, the stairs, and out the dormitory.

“Miss Lafitte!” she called from the entrance.

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When Sophie returned to her room, wondering why she didn’t see anyone, she sensed something off.

Something had changed.

But she didn’t pass anyone from the time she left until she returned, so no one should have been inside.

Sophie petted the puppy, sat down in the chair, and opened the drawer to have a cookie as she calmed down.

But the bag of cookies was gone!

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“Yum! I’ve never had such delicious cookies. I just can’t stop eating. Oh, no. I’ve already finished them all.”

Meanwhile, in a small gazebo in the garden.

Miss Lafitte was enjoying the cookies she had taken from Sophie’s room. She munched and munched until she ran out, then gave her belly a pat.

“I’m so full.”

For a while she just sat there vacantly.

Her unquestionably immaculate and refined features gradually paled. As she sat there like a bronze statue, Miss Lafitte turned white as a sheet.

She gasped, bolting to her feet. “I was too focused on getting the cookies.” She stirred awkwardly. “Did I perhaps commit a bit of theft?”

She cupped her cheeks, blinking repeatedly. “Oh, no. What do I do?” She stamped her feet several times.

“What have I done? What would my father say if he was still alive? It’s only been an hour or so since I said I was going to lead a life I can be proud of. A lady shouldn’t be stealing things.” She reflected on what she did for a while.

Then suddenly, her eyes lit up. “Right. Sophie told me earlier how to confess when you’ve done something wrong. I think you write your confession in a letter and hide it somewhere where no one can find it. All right.”

Miss Lafitte took out a white paper from her luggage and started writing a letter. She wrote ‘To Sophie’ in small letters on the envelope. After puzzling it over, she shoved the letter into a small hole in the leg of a table in the gazebo.

“Phew.”

She crawled out from under the table, looking exhausted, as though she just finished an arduous task.

“That should do it.”

Miss Lafitte nodded to herself and began repacking her stuff. Pulling her suitcase, she left the gazebo.

She headed for the main gate again, alone in the night.

This time, it was really goodbye to St. Marguerite Academy. Miss Lafitte squinted at the gate’s scrollworked iron fence and gold ornaments, then cast her large eyes down, sullenly twirling her finger around her brown hair adorned with a cream-colored ribbon.

She looked back once, gazing wistfully at the school’s majestic campus as it fell into the black velvet darkness of the night.

Her small lips parted. “Goodbye, St. Marguerite Academy. My beloved school.”

A cold wind blew.

“Goodbye, friends. Goodbye, nice teachers. Goodbye, my puppy.”

Her shoulder-length brown hair fluttered in the breeze.

“And goodbye, lovely maid who showed my utmost kindness at the very end.”

Miss Lafitte sniffled.

“Goodbye, everyone!” she shouted.

She then fixed her round glasses, which were starting to slip off, and walked grandly down the village road.

Soft sobs, quivering shoulders, along with a large suitcase, moved further and further away from the main gate of the academy.

Soon Miss Lafitte’s small figure disappeared into the village, swallowed up by the night.

The wind, a little cold for summer, whistled past.

All that remained was quiet…

…and the sublime campus of the secretive academy, unchanged for the last few centuries.

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Summer break at St. Marguerite Academy, where hot wind blew.

In the large kitchen of the boys’ dormitory, Victorique and Kazuya were both perched on round chairs in a very similar pose, with their heads cocked to the left, looking up at the red-haired dorm mother—Sophie—who was reading from a letter of confession in front of the oven.

Sophie’s freckled, white cheeks were turning red from rage. When she finished reading the letter, she lifted her face, flaming red as her hair, and groaned.

Victorique and Kazuya exchanged glances, wondering what was up with her.

The sweet, savory smell of chocolate cake leaked out of the oven.

Suddenly a woman’s jolly footsteps came from somewhere. Someone was coming, prancing down the corridor, occasionally sounding like she stepped on her own foot.

“So-So-Sophie!” They barged into the kitchen, calling out the red-haired dorm mother’s name in a singsong voice. “Can I borrow some money? I’ve already spent all my salary! I want to buy a new blouse in Saubreme… Hmm? Kujou, Victorique?!”

It was their homeroom teacher, Ms. Cecile. She quickly fixed her big round glasses. “I-I didn’t say anything.”

“So you know the dorm mother?” Kazuya asked.

Ms. Cecile nodded as she fumbled with her glasses. “That’s right. Sophie has been working here at the academy since my student days. We’ve always been good friends. Right, Sophie?”

Kazuya turned towards the dorm mother. Victorique had her eyes fixed on her the whole time.

Clutching the letter, the dorm mother was shaking her fist. Ms. Cecile studied her curiously, and when she noticed the letter, her eyes widened.

“Thank you for the letter,” the dorm mother said. “After six years, I finally received it, Cecile. No, Miss Lafitte. Or should I call you Cecile the Thief?!”

“Wh-What?! H-How could you say that in front of students? This is inexcusable!”

“Inexcusable? That’s my line!”

The dorm mother tossed the letter aside, lifted the hem of her bright-red dress with both hands, revealing her long, fine legs, and lunged at Ms. Cecile.

“What are you so angry about?” Ms. Cecile cried, running around the table. “And could you save it for later? My students are watching! My dignity!”

“Dignity, my foot! You brazen thief! ‘Did I perhaps commit a bit of theft?’ No, that was clear, plain burglary! Lead a life you can be proud of? You sure got me! Hey, get back here!”

“I’ll borrow money later!”

The dorm mother stamped her feet. “I’m not lending you a cent! I mean it!”

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