Chapter 1

Today was another tiring day.

Diana, who was tapping her leg, yawned. She was thinking about lying down for a second when a sound entered her ears.

She buried her head under a pillow at the persistent harassment of the ringing. Shaking her head and covering her ears, suddenly Diana came to her senses.

It was the ‘Miss is Looking For You’ bell.

“Why are you this late?!”

Diana ran in a hurry, and as soon as she opened the door, something flew at her. It was a piece of sample fabric that hit her face and fell.

“I- I apologize.”

Covering her face, Diana lowered her head and apologized.

“Go to the Lily of The Valley Boutique and tell them to change it to the fourth fabric, then come back here.”

“Yes.”

“Right now. Immediately.”

The surprised Diana raised her head.

“Right…now?”

Through the window behind the Miss, the sunset was seen. The sun was still there, but it was clear that it would be night soon.

“B-but, Miss. The Lily of The Valley Boutique is in the neighboring city…”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

Diana bit her lips. The girl who was yelling at her was Baron Bordeaux’s little girl.

The Bordeaux territory was on a small plot of land in the countryside. It wasn’t the biggest, but it was comfortable to live on. It was located next to Aachen, the largest city in the central region, where the Lily of The Valley Boutique was.

Diana was the youngest maid in Baron Bordeaux’s Mansion, and at the start, Diana wasn’t a maid at all.

Diana’s mother worked as a tutor for Baron Bordeaux. She didn’t know who her father was because from the moment Diana was born, it was only her mother who was with her. But, that fact was not to be regretted.

Until her mother died in a sudden accident when she was seven.

“Um… Miss, if I go early tomorrow in the morning….”

“No, go right now. Immediately.”

Diana was about to cry.

“Shouldn’t you go and fix the order now so that I can see it fixed when I wake up tomorrow?”

Another maid, who was combing the Miss’ hair, giggled. Whispering so that Diana couldn’t hear her words.

“Oh my, Miss, please take a look at her face. She looks so scared– ”

“What’s so difficult about it that you look like you’re about to cry? Don’t you know that everybody can see? Stop being so embarrassing.”

Lily of The Valley was a boutique located in Central Aachen. Even if it was simply in the next-door town center, it still took a couple of hours by carriage. Even if the trip went well, it would be well into the night when she came back.

The lack of sun wasn’t the only problem. If she stayed out too late, there might not be any carriages that would take her back to the Bordeaux territory. If something went wrong, she had to walk all night long.

“…Yes.”

But, Diana couldn’t disobey the Miss’ words.

Sadly, her unfortunate hunch was correct.

By the time she had finished her business in the boutique, the sun had already set. There wasn’t even one carriage that went to the Bordeaux territory. In the dark night, Diana walked alone on the spooky path, relying on the moonlight to see.

‘I-it’s scary.’

She wiped away the tears around her eyes and hurried her steps. She cried, but no one helped her.

Dina clasped the pendant on her chest. The pendant, which had a small but detailed portrait on it, was her mother’s only relic. The feeling of the metal gave her a sense of relief.

The Miss, Atticia Bordeaux, didn’t torment her at the start.

When her mother was alive, Diana was actually Miss Atticia’s playmate. She had clear memories of romping around and studying with her.

But, when Diana was seven years old, her mother died. So, Baron Bordeaux took in the young girl. Diana quickly got over the shock of losing her mother. No, she actually had no choice but to quickly get over it.

A child that’s difficult to deal with.

If she was like that, she would’ve long been sent to the orphanage, and to Diana, that was terrifying. There were a lot of bad rumors about the orphanage. Moreover, she didn’t want to leave the place where the memories of her and her mother were.

The Bordeaux Mansion was Diana’s world.

In order to not be seen as a troublesome child, Diana soon began to help the maids. And just like that, Diana stayed in the ambiguous position of Atticia’s friend and maid.

Diana, who was just a skinny little girl, grew up to be a pretty girl.

Her hair, which used to be a murky gray, became a shiny silver, and her dull brown eyes became a bright and vivid scarlet. With this, the way people looked at Diana slowly changed.

Then one day, during Atticia’s eleventh birthday party, Atticia’s fiance visited the Baron Bordeaux family.

Atticia, who was beautifully groomed, waited for her fiance’s escort, but his gaze did not fall on her at all. Instead, he stared at Diana.

[What is that maid’s name?]

Leaving his fiance behind.

From that day on, Atticia’s torment started.

A series of dull hitting sounds came from the corner of the dark street.

The black shadows gathered together and looked like nothing but a lump, but as Diana got closer, she heard a little bit of coarse swearing. Somehow she felt like she shouldn’t have gone any closer.

But, this was the only road that led back to the mansion.

Just as Diana halted her steps because she felt she couldn’t go any further, a voice rang out.

“Hold onto this jerk. I’m going to look around. If this person gets helped right now, I think I’ll lose my mind…”

One of the men turned around dusting his clothes.

“What…?”

Their eyes met.

The moment she faced the eyes of the people in the moonlight, her whole body stiffened.

“There’s someone here. Ted, what did you do? Weren’t you on the lookout?”

The man spoke in a sour way and began to approach her.

“You there, do you know who you’re looking at right now?”

“No… I-I….”

It was time for Diana to keep her mouth shut.

“It’s better not to have witnesses anyway. Let’s finish this quickly.”

What the man said gave her goosebumps. As Diana instinctively backed away, the men began to surround her. The man called Ted strongly grabbed Diana’s shoulder.

She has always missed her mother, but at this moment she was all she could think about

‘Mom!’

Suddenly, like a blade of a sword, a strong wind blew.

“Ack! What is this!?”

The man hung his face down because he couldn’t open his eyes, his grip becoming loose. Diana quickly shook off his hand.

“Oh! Oh!”

She heard something breaking from the hands of the man who she had just escaped from, but she ignored it.

As she ran, her shining pendant lost its light and fell to the ground.

“That bitch is running away!”

“Catch her!”

Diana ran frantically.

‘Run away, I must run away!’

The footsteps of the men echoed, chasing after her.

‘But, where to?’

She had to run for a while if she headed to the village. So, Diana jumped towards the bushes. She ran stamping into the forest. She wanted to get away even just a little bit, but that was just her hoping. Diana, who was about to be caught, shouted.

“P-please save me! Please sa—!”

As she was running away frantically, she got caught in a tree root and tumbled down.

Without missing a beat, the man grabbed Diana’s wrist.

It was this time when she seriously thought she was going to die.

“…What is this?”

It was someone’s voice that was supposed to be impossible to hear in the forest. The man’s movement stopped.

“What are you!?”

The shaggy bearded man shouted threateningly.

“Would you even know if I said it?”

“What? That nerd-like person—”

“Hey. Hey. Just leave and go where you’re supposed to go! But don’t think because I let you off, I’m saving you.”

The other man stopped the man who wanted to fight right away and spat.

“I also want it to be like that, but I hate having dragonflies going wild.”

“Don’t regret it.”

The men made eye contact with each other. The moment the man approached his opponent—

“Kyaak!”

She could hear the sound of a person falling down along with a scream.

“W-what? What’s the matter!?”

“Aaack! T-this bastard is a so-sorcerer!”

“Why is a sorcerer here?!”

The man who was holding Diana was flustered and let her go. As Diana hurriedly tried to raise herself up, another tearful scream shook the forest.

She didn’t know what in the world was going on.

“Save, s-save— kyaaaaak!”

The unpleasant smell of iron made her nauseous. While bowing her head down, Diana covered her mouth.

At some point, the unending screams and groans ceased.

With a rustle, someone came up to her. Diana, who couldn’t even think of running away, trembled.

“Are you okay?”

“….”

In the forest, the moonlight was hidden by clouds. There was almost nothing to be seen. Only the figure of a tall man covered in robes. She couldn’t even see his face.

Diana tried to get up. However, her trembling body didn’t move as she wanted.

“You can’t get up? Do you want me to help you?”

“Heup!”

The man reached out his hand to her. For a moment, Diana was taken aback as if she had been burned by a match. The man took his hand away in surprise.

“That… no, excuse me, save me….”

“Hey!”

“Please save me. Save, save….”

Diana, who collapsed to the ground, begged wildly. She couldn’t think of what to say. Instead, she burst into tears.

“So, you were completely terrified.”

“Hic, Hicc. P-please save me.”

“Why would I kill you? Where’s your house?”

The man reached his hand out again.

The moon, which had disappeared under the clouds, poutingly appeared. Even in the dark, a clear light penetrated through the trees. The moonlight shone on Diana’s face.

“Because it will be hard to go back alone, I’ll take you ba—”

For a moment, the man stopped his words. Then in a completely dumb voice, he spoke,

“… Philippa?”