The Maid and the Princess
“Welcome home, Master.”
“I’m back, Siana.”
I had just returned from the library to my home—the estate of the Count Rodwell family—when Siana, a fifteen-year-old girl with shimmering silver hair so pale it was nearly white, flowing behind her maid uniform, came to greet me.
Siana had come into my life after my family decided I’d need an assistant once I began attending the noble academy. We posted a notice on the town bulletin board seeking a maid, and not even thirty minutes had passed before she appeared at the estate’s front door, declaring her desire to work here. She’s unusually enthusiastic when it comes to maid work.
Apparently, she has no prior experience as a maid, but Siana is incredibly knowledgeable about the role—and performs it with remarkable competence.
Whether it’s something I’ve asked of her or something I haven’t even thought to ask, if it’s likely to cause me trouble, she handles it flawlessly every time.
“Master, was it the library again today?”
“Yeah. I figured since I’ll be starting at the noble academy soon, there are things I should study ahead of time. Even if not, as the firstborn son of a count, I have a duty to understand how to govern our territory properly.”
“That’s just like you, Master! I’ll admit, I was worried you might’ve been off chasing girls or something, but it looks like I had nothing to fear.”
“I’ve never done anything like that… Why would you even think that? Besides, you’ve been working so hard yourself—I wish you’d take more time to rest.”
“N-No…! Someone like me, I’ve only been meddling in the country’s policies a little…”
The country…?
Her comment caught me off guard for a second, but after spending just over a month with Siana, I’ve learned how to read between the lines of her little slip-ups.
“By ‘the country,’ do you mean… the mansion’s garden?”
“Eh? I-I mean, yes…! Exactly! I’ve just been tending to the garden a bit. Compared to you, Master, it’s nothing at all…!”
Siana is good at practically everything, but it’s moments like these—when she slips up in the most amusing ways—that I find especially charming.
And for some reason I still can’t quite explain, she holds me in such high regard that it makes me feel I have to live up to her expectations. Realizing that again, I opened my mouth to speak.
“Tending the garden is impressive in its own right. I might’ve been born a noble, and it’s my duty to study how to help our territory prosper, but the real growth comes from people like you—our citizens—who actually do the work that makes that prosperity possible.”
“What a noble sentiment…! As I thought, Master, you aren’t someone who should stop at being a lord. You’re fit to be a king!”
“A king…? Come on, I’m barely managing what’s in front of me. That kind of role is far too much for me.”
“No! I truly believe that one day, you will become a king!”
I can tell that Siana genuinely respects me, but sometimes she makes these grand, over-the-top declarations—and I honestly don’t know how to respond.
I don’t know much about Siana’s background, but it’s possible she’s not very familiar with how the world works.
“Even if I had what it takes, someone like me—who wasn’t born into royalty—would need to be formally acknowledged by the current king or one of the royal princesses, and then get engaged to one of the princesses to even be considered for the throne… There’s just no way any of them would want to marry someone like me.”
“Th-That’s not true at all! I’m sure at least one of them must want to be engaged to you, Master!”
“There’s no way. Maybe if I were from a duke’s family, but I’m just a count. No one from the royal family would be interested in someone like me.”
“…Master, I’m stepping out for a bit!”
“W-Wait, Siana!?”
I tried to ask her why she was suddenly heading out, but before I could, Siana bolted from the mansion.
Siana’s Side
“——Ojou-sama, where are you planning to go?”
A tall girl in a black hood approached Siana, who had just stepped out of the estate, and spoke to her calmly.
“I’m going back to the castle. I’m going to ask Father to approve my engagement to Lux-kun.”
“You always get reckless when it comes to matters of engagement. This is no different.”
“You never know unless you try.”
“You’ve tried one hundred and twenty-nine times already, Ojou-sama. Each attempt has ended in failure.”
“So what? If it takes a thousand tries to get his approval, I’ll keep asking until I reach that number.”
“Ojou-sama, please—listen——”
The moment the mansion door opened, the tall girl in the black hood vanished without a trace from in front of Siana.
Turning her gaze toward the door, Siana saw Lux appear and call out to her.
“Siana…? You rushed out earlier—did something happen?”
“M-Master…! N-No, it’s nothing at all!”
“You sure?”
Seeing that Lux hadn’t noticed anything unusual, Siana smiled faintly and stepped back into the mansion… At that moment, Siana made a decision: not as Princess Felisiana, Third Princess of the Realm, but as a maid in the service of Lux of House Rodwell—this was how she would move forward with him.