After rushing through the alleys, Harron stopped in front of an old house, which had a warped red door that was slanted.
With trembling hands, they knocked on the door.
Bang, bang.
"Ria! Ria!"
Amidst the tense shouts, Harron felt as though their insides had been set on fire.
Their hands continued to shake as they rummaged through their pockets for the front door's key, but the door squeaked open.
Through the tears in their eyes, Harron saw their little sister's face as the door was opened.
"Uh…"
"Ria!"
Harron swung the door all of a sudden and stepped quickly into the house.
They collapsed to the floor while holding their scrawny younger sister in their embrace, letting out a huge sigh of relief.
This was a sunless house where the sun's rays did not reach even when it was high up in the sky.
"W-Why are you… Did something happen?"
Confused by the sudden situation, Ria patted Harron on the shoulder and asked her older sibling.
After Harron confirmed that their sister was unscathed, they felt all the tension in their body being released.
Then, behind that relief was worry and anger.
"You! What's this! You made this, right?!"
Harron stopped hugging Ria and lowered her, then they opened their hand.
The entire time they ran back here, there was something in their closed fist.
A crude, shoddy doll with white hair.
"Urk."
The moment she saw the doll, Ria trembled like a child who had been caught doing something wrong.
With her wide, round eyes shaking, she tried to gauge Harron's temper.
This alone was enough of an answer.
Tears welled up.
Harron felt their throat clench up with a burning sensation. At this, they gulped dryly and suppressed their emotions.
"I, I told you not to do that anymore! And what if you get sick… Besides that, you know that this is a dangerous alley, right? What if you get into trouble while you're out alone!"
As Harron tried to hold back their tears, their voice grew even louder in volume. As Harron's scolding continued, tears also began to well up in the child's wide eyes.
"I'm… I'm sorry… Still, still, Big Sister's friend was the one who bought it!"
The child murmured this like an excuse.
Harron's head grew colder and colder.
"Friend?"
Harron blinked at the unfamiliar word.
She had no friends. Friends were a luxury, so she never had any or ever tried to befriend any in the first place.
But still, what friend?
"Ah, right! Big Sister's friend even brought some food and came over to visit! Over there!"
Ria expressed the unfairness she felt through her cries of indignation, then she suddenly raised one hand and pointed towards somewhere.
However, Harron couldn't turn her head to see where her younger sister was looking.
Her head was frozen in place.
It felt like even the sweat running down her spine was going to become drops of ice.
Her eyelashes began to tremble. Her closed jaw was also quivering.
Slowly, Harron's head turned. Towards the direction Ria was pointing at.
Her movements were so stiff that it seemed like her neck was that of a broken doll's.
With a shaky gaze, the figures in the dark began to come into view.
There were two.
One sitting, the other standing.
The former was a woman, and the latter was a man.
Her heart started beating like crazy. To the point that she felt so suffocated by the pounding of her chest.
"…Y…You…"
Prompted by the question so tinged with fear, the woman raised her hand.
And what's in her hand was a fan that was gently waved in the air.
"Hello, Harron."
Harron's back straightened as she heard the relaxed greeting.
Once again, that sensation.
That terrifying sensation that felt as if an enormous beast was licking Harron's back while she was right in front of its wide-open mouth.
"I-It can't be."
While Harron was unable to say anything and could only gulp dryly, the woman's voice cut through the air again.
"But instead of Harron, should I call you Diana?"
An eerie gentleness stained with venom.
Diana came to a realization.
She had touched something that she shouldn't have touched.
A black swamp, a black mire.
Even if you realize later and try to get out, the more you struggle, the deeper you'd fall.
The hand holding onto Ria tightened.
"Ria, can you go out for a minute? Big Sis just has to talk to her friend for a little bit."
Diana tried to suppress the tremor in her voice as she said this.
She didn't want Ria to worry about anything.
However, contrary to Diana's wishes, the anxiety she was feeling could hardly be hidden.
Emotions that could not be easily hidden were easily read by the one next to you.
The child's eyes soon got wet.
"Big Sister…"
"It's alright. I'm not angry. Don't go anywhere dangerous and just stay by the door. Count to 100 five times over, okay?"
Facing Ria, who was calling her anxiously, Diana had a broad smile on her face.
To the extent that the corner of her lips were so stiff.
"What do you say? You can wait, right?"
Hearing the lively tone in Diana's voice as she asked again, Ria nodded.
The child was unsteady on her feet as she walked towards the door.
Diana turned her head to watch Ria's back until the end.
Her sister might turn around any time, so Diana had to keep the curve on her lips intact.
Ka-chak.
It was only after the door closed behind the child that the lips drawn up into an arch finally fell down.
Outside the door, the child's voice could be heard faintly as she counted, 'One… Two…'
Certainly, this reminded Diana about the countdown she had heard just a while ago.
Before the number even reached ten, Diana got on her knees.
And begged.
"Please spare me."
The resolute voice and countenance that was once there could no longer be seen.
"You're quick on the uptake, aren't you."
"I apologize profusely. Please spare me."
Rosetta's words of admiration were followed by the same pleas.
Diana repeatedly said those same two phrases, as though all she knew to say were 'I apologize' and 'Please spare me'.
Watching this from beneath the veil was a cold gaze.
"Someone might misunderstand that I'm here to kill you, hm? I'm the one who almost died though."
The same was true of the voice that flowed through those red lips.
Diana shuddered as she shook her head quickly.
"…I didn't mean to kill you, ma'am. It's just, I received a commissioned request to ambush and hurt you a little…"
"And didn't you ambush and hurt me?"
Diana clenched her teeth together as she was cut off mid-sentence.
The woman wasn't wrong, so Diana had no excuse. When the other person involved pointed out her crimes this way, it felt so heavy and terrifying.
Still, Diana couldn't stop begging for her life.
"Forty-one… Forty-two…"
Even at this moment, the small voice leaked through the cracks of the door.
Previously on her knees, Diana bent down entirely flat on the floor.
Thud! A loud bang echoed from the floor.
Rosetta smiled faintly as she felt Cassion flinch.
It's like she was watching a horror movie with a kid beside her.
"If you spare my life, you can cut off my arms and legs. If you're not satisfied with that, you can come and kill me later. But right now… Please let me live. If I die, my younger sister will die, too."
"…You have quite the cruel image of me inside your head. One arm, one leg. And then you're asking me to take your life?"
"No… No, ma'am. That's not what I meant…"
"Don't worry. I'm not very partial to killing anyone. If I do that, then it would just fuel some horrible nightmares. I'm only here to offer you a proposition."
The humming voice was indifferent.
Truly, as though she had no intention to kill Diana.
With her tearful eyes blinking back, Diana asked.
"Pro…position?"
"Mmh. In a way, you could call it a threat though."
As Rosetta said this with a lilting tone, she slowly reached behind her head.
Then, with the slightest movement of her hand, the veil covering her face slid down.
Diana's gaze chased down the veil that felt like a petal.
Slowly going down along the length of Rosetta's body, Diana looked up at the exposed face at the same time the veil touched the ground.
"…Huk."
She gasped out, yet this breath got stuck in her throat.
Within those eyelids that were curved into crescent moons, glimmering golden irises were revealed.
That color was known to everyone in the whole empire.
'Valentine… Duchy…?'
Similarly, it was also a known fact that this household was a bloodline that not any criminal should dare cross.
'What have I done… Who did I just attack.'
"Diana."
Completely pale with shock, Diana's mind was filled with only that noble household's name until her own name was called,
"You, Diana, how about you become my maid?"
Followed by words that Diana would have never been able to expect.
* * *
"Maid?"
"Yes, my maid."
'Just what is happening here.'
Even after one question and one answer had gotten exchanged, Diana couldn't easily comprehend what kind of situation she was in exactly.
It's only natural to think this way, considering how strangely this all was.
Diana had been commissioned to ambush the ducal princess.
But then, that ducal princess was now giving Diana a job offer as her maid.
Just what kind of turn of events was this?
In the ensuing silence, her suspicions remained unanswered, yet this just made her shrink even more.
However, she couldn't stay silent forever.
"I… There are many things that I don't know, I can't even read well. I am not good enough to dare work as a maid for a lady of noble birth. I don't understand why someone like me is getting an offer for a position such as this."
'A maid in a ducal household.'
It sounded as sweet as honey.
Even so, the world was not always so sweet in the end.
Just thinking about the guild master who pretended to be nice and gladly gave her money, it was difficult not to think cynically.
"To someone who loves secrets, it's not such a disadvantage for you to be a little unpracticed when it comes to reading."
"..."
"I need you. You're nimble and quick on your feet, your hands are fast, too. You've got quick wits about you, and besides that, you're fiercely loyal."
"I have never in my life followed anyone's will. That's quite a leap of judgment, ma'am."
Diana called Rosetta's unwarranted conviction as 'a leap', but it really wasn't.
In the original work, this was already a proven fact.