Chapter 3: A Maid Appears

Hisaka Sayaka arrived at my doorstep three days after I moved into the Kiyomiya Family’s Old Manor.

The timing of starting high school and moving into a new house had left me completely swamped. Physically and mentally, I was running on fumes. I’d figured transferring from the middle school section, just a five-minute walk away, would be simple enough, but high school life came with a surprising number of new rules and routines. On top of that, it was the first time I’d ever moved. I’d only packed the essentials—study materials, clothes, daily necessities—but that still somehow filled twenty cardboard boxes. And even though I was the one who packed them, I honestly had no clue what was in most of them anymore.

To make matters worse, the moving company had simply dumped all twenty boxes in the manor’s entrance lobby before mercilessly taking their leave. I wasn’t expecting them to unpack everything, but they could have at least carried the boxes up to the second floor. In the end, I managed to haul the ones with my clothes and school supplies into the living room before I got fed up and quit. Three days later, I’d discovered that living solely in the living room was surprisingly comfortable, and my motivation to unpack had vanished.

That evening, just as I was thinking about braving the sudden downpour to grab dinner from a convenience store, and of course, that’s when the worst possible thing happened.

Ding-dong.

A sound I’d never heard before echoed through the house. It took me a moment to realize it was the doorbell.

When I opened the heavy front door, standing there was──

“Hisaka…?”

“Good evening, Kiyomiya Keiji-kun.”

It was the top student who had transferred to our school last year and immediately shot past our academy’s best and brightest to claim the top spot. Not only that, but she possessed an exceptional, almost surreal beauty and an outstanding figure. It was Hisaka Sayaka, who could, without any exaggeration, be called the most famous person in our entire school.

She stood under the rain, holding an umbrella in one hand and dragging an old, worn-out suitcase with the other, a thin long coat draped over her frame. The sight was so out of place that for a second, I wondered if I was seeing a ghost.

“I apologize for the sudden visit. My name is Hisaka Sayaka.”

“I-I know,” I managed to say. There probably wasn’t a single student at Sōshūkan Academy who didn’t know her. We were in the same class last year; there was no way I’d forget.

After her introduction, she simply stood there, staring at me with an unreadable expression.

“…Do you want to come in? It’s a mess, though.”

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

With a polite bow, Sayaka stepped inside, showing no particular wariness. Since the other rooms were still covered in a layer of dust, I had no choice but to lead her to the living room.

We sat down together on the sofa, an awkward silence hanging between us.

“My mother’s name is Hisaka Tsukasa,” she began abruptly.

“Huh? Oh, is that so?”

“Please, look at this.”

Wondering where this was going, I watched as Sayaka turned her smartphone screen toward me.

“Is this… this manor? And this man is…”

The photo had been taken in front of the very same entrance I still wasn’t used to seeing. In it stood a man who looked to be in his late twenties and a young woman dressed in a maid’s uniform. I recognized the man—or rather, I knew him all too well.

“The man is Kiyomiya Takatsugu-san. Your father, correct?”

“No doubt about it. I suppose it makes sense he would have visited the old manor before.”

“The maid standing next to him is Hisaka Tsukasa.”

“Huh, so that’s your mother, Hisaka. She’s beautiful, though you don’t really look alike──wait, what!?” I blurted out my thoughts on her mother’s appearance before I could stop myself. Why are my father and Hisaka Sayaka’s mother in a photo together? And in front of this manor, of all places?

“It seems my mother used to work as a maid here at the Kiyomiya family manor,” she explained calmly.

“A maid? Your mother worked here?”

“And just the other day, that same mother of mine suddenly disappeared.”

“What!?”

That’s too much information! I can’t process all of this at once!

“She disappeared? You mean she’s missing?”

“When I returned home, there was a note on the table. It said something to the effect of, ‘Please do not look for me.’”

“So she really is missing!”

“She is, indeed, missing.”

“W-why are you so calm about this? Isn’t this a huge deal?”

“Well, my mother was always an elusive person. It wasn’t unusual for her to be gone for two or three days at a time. This time, however, it seems she does not intend to return.”

“That makes it even more of an emergency! W-what are you going to do?” Why am I the one getting worked up about this?

“I always had a feeling my mother might leave one day. Perhaps she felt that since I was starting high school, I was no longer a child.”

“High schoolers are still not adults…” Legally speaking, we still needed guardians. I couldn’t really judge someone else’s parents, but that sounded incredibly irresponsible.

“I am now all alone in the world. As I was worrying about what to do, I remembered this photograph.”

“I can’t keep up! Hold on a second!” I interrupted, raising a hand to stop her. “All alone? What about your father?”

“I have never met him.”

“…That’s rough.” I didn’t have a mother either, but I wasn’t completely alone.

“Is your mother really never coming back?”

“Who can say? Since I do not know the reason for her departure, the reason for her return is also a mystery.”

“Her being a mystery doesn’t help anything… hmm.” A beautiful classmate suddenly showing up at my door to tell me she’s all alone with nowhere to go… this put me in a seriously tough spot.

“But you had a place to live until now, right? What happened to your home?”

“My mother and I had a small but happy apartment. However, it appears she had been behind on the rent for quite some time, and we were evicted.”

“Was it really ‘small but happy’?” The words slipped out, prompted by her deadpan delivery.

“In any case,” I pressed on, “I understand that you have nowhere to go, but why come here?”

“When my mother showed me this photograph, she told me, ‘If anything should happen to me, go to the old manor.’”

“How cryptic. The way she phrased that… it sounds less like she went missing and more like…” She might have been abducted? No, no, this is getting way too serious for me to handle.

“Please do not worry. I do not believe she was involved in any crime. However, the chances of her returning are likely quite low.”

“You have grounds for both of those conclusions, right?”

“Well, she is my mother, after all. And my intellect is quite sharp, you know.”

“That’s true,” I had to admit. Hisaka Sayaka was an honor student, always calm and composed. If she was this certain about her own mother, I had no reason to doubt her, but──

“I understand that your mother worked at this manor. I also heard this place was abandoned for about ten years, which means someone must have lived here before that.”

“So it would not be strange for you to be unaware of my mother’s connection to this place, Kiyomiya-kun.”

“That makes sense. But as you can see, I’m living in this ridiculously large manor all by myself. So, if you don’t mind, could you please leave?”

“No. While my situation was dire, it seems my luck has not completely run out. To think that you are living here all alone, Kiyomiya-kun… this makes my request much simpler.”

“Huh? Request?”

Hisaka Sayaka gave a single, silent nod and rose from the sofa. Then, without a word, she shed the long coat she was still wearing──

 

“Starting today, I wish to devote myself to serving you.”

 

Beneath the coat, she was wearing a black, above-the-knee dress with a crisp white apron.

A maid outfit.

A beautiful classmate, in a maid outfit, was standing in the middle of my living room. The scene was utterly surreal.

“A m-maid…!? I don’t have a hobby of ordering delivery maids!”

“I am not a delivery. Though, if I were one, there would be no returns.”

“Is this some kind of delivery scam!?”

“‘Scam’ is such a harsh word. I simply wish to work at the manor where my mother once served as a maid.”

“Work, you say… Even if your mother worked here, there’s no reason for you, her daughter, to do the same, is there?”

“I am fine with pocket money for my wages. Please provide me with some.”

“Don’t call it ‘pocket money.’ That just sounds suspicious.”

“As long as I have food, clothing, and shelter, I will not complain. I have my uniform, the attic or basement would be a fine room, and I am perfectly content with your leftovers, Kiyomiya-kun.”

“I can’t treat a classmate like a slave!”

 

“I am a maid, not a slave. However, if you insist, I am willing to be a slave you purchase outright.”

“So maids are a subscription service?” If I’m paying a monthly salary, that’s kind of like a subscription, isn’t it?

“I simply wish to take care of you in exchange for living here. It is a business arrangement. My maid service is a business.”

“………”

Alright, I get it. My brain is completely overloaded.

“Let’s put this on hold for now.”

“On hold…?”

“It’s raining, and it’s already late,” I said, pushing all the complications aside to focus on the immediate problem. “You can stay the night.”

I was already exhausted; I couldn’t deal with any more of this right now.

“Thank you very much. First, I will clean this living room. Then I will prepare a bedroom for you on the second floor.”

“Eh, you don’t have to do that── ugh.”

Hisaka Sayaka bent down and began gathering the school blazer and shirt I’d left scattered on the floor. As she did, her short skirt rode up, revealing a flash of her white thighs. It wasn’t short enough to reveal anything more, but still──

“H-hey, be a little more careful, would you?”

“Do not worry, I will handle them with care. I will wash them and ensure the shirt is properly ironed.”

“………”

She seemed completely oblivious to how exposed she was. It was true that I was failing at living on my own, but I had never once considered hiring a maid. And now this beautiful maid, who becomes completely unguarded the moment she focuses on her work, was in my house.

This is an ideal maid──no, wait, this is way too much for a teenage boy to handle!

“I would like you to decide whether to hire me after you have seen my work. For now, I am simply staying here.”

“…Did I say you could stay here?” I only meant for one night, but she seemed to have taken my words with a very generous interpretation. Just having a female classmate stay over for a single night was a huge deal on its own.

 

And that is how my new life with Hisaka Sayaka began.

Yes, we are just living together. I am simply offering a place to stay for a classmate who has nowhere else to go.

We are not a couple, and Hisaka Sayaka is most certainly not my maid──

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