At first, Clara wanted to take her time to convey her feelings to her maid. In fact, she had already dropped some subtle and not-so-subtle hints to Rina that she had romantic feelings for her. Unfortunately, they hadn't come across yet. Still, Clara was nonetheless satisfied with the way things were and how their relationship was progressing. But the sudden appearance of the girl sleeping in Rina's room, Marianne, made Clara impatient.

Rina had told her that the brunette wanted to serve her. Of course, she still hadn't decided whether to accept Marianne or not and had put off that decision until the next morning. But if Marianne were to join Rina in serving her, her and Rina's time together alone would be limited from then on. In the worst case, Marianne might even get between them for whatever reason. In fact, Clara found this scenario highly plausible.

So she wanted Rina to notice her even more than before. Fortunately, Rina was already very fond of her. After all, the way her maid behaved around her was more than obvious.

But it was still not enough for Clara. She wanted more. That's why she chose a more direct approach, hence her question. “What do you think about romantic relationships between girls?” Clara wanted her maid to know that she wanted them both to be more than just mistress and servant. Much, much more.

Unfortunately, this question only made Rina more insecure. After all, she had never expected and would never expect anyone to see her as a target of romantic affection. True, she knew that her mistress was fond of her. But in Rina's mind, it was only as mistress and servant, or at most as friends.

So when she heard that question, she was afraid that she had shown her not-so-pure feelings by the way she had acted before. She feared, that Clara had found out about those feelings and now wanted to probe around them.

Would she be hated if she answered that question the wrong way?

Not wanting to find it out, Rina did, what would normally be considered rude, and asked a question in return. “What do you think about them? Romantic relationships between girls.” Luckily, Clara was still hugging her from behind, so she couldn't see her current facial expression.

On the other hand, Clara didn't mind at all, that her maid had returned her question. “I welcome them.”

“... Eh?” It took Rina a few seconds to register the words.

Clara tightened her embrace a bit and buried her face in the red hair in front of her that she loved. “That sounded wrong... Let me correct myself... When I marry... I...” Clara suddenly felt how hard it was for her to continue. That was why it bothered her now that Rina had returned her question. “It's unfair of you to leave my question unanswered, don't you think so?”

“I-I'm sorry.”

“Nope, apology not accepted! If you want me to forgive you, then answer this honestly... Do you think you can fall in love with girls?”

Naturally, Rina was afraid of how her mistress would react if she answered honestly. Would she be let go? Would she be avoided or even hated by her mistress? No, Rina was sure that they were already past that point.

What Rina was truly afraid of, was that her mistress would be more cautious in her presence in the future. Rina feared that Clara would tone down her skin-ship. Even though she had always complained, when Clara became touchy-feely, inwardly she liked it. After all, who wouldn't want to be in close contact with their crush?

Therefore, Rina racked her brain to come up with an answer as ambiguous as possible. And after half a minute, she found a solution, sort of, hopefully. “Do you remember when we first met?”

At first, Clara wasn't sure which moment her maid was referring to. After all, the first time she saw her, was when Rina was happily strolling through the streets of the capital. Fortunately, she soon realised, that the girl in her arms probably meant the time in the run-down house. Thinking back and realising that it had been a really close call back then, Clara replied with a cold voice. “Yes... you mean when those lowlifes were about to... What about that?”

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“Yes... I realised it back then... that... with a man is impossible for me.” Having said that, Rina felt how Clara's arms around her tighten even further, but luckily not to an uncomfortable degree. “Does it answer your question?”

Unfortunately for Rina, the world was a cruel place and Clara was relentless. “Nope~. Can you fall in love with only girls? Yes or no?”

Seeing no escape anymore Rina nodded weakly. But that was not her only response. In her previous life, out of fear of being shunned, she had preemptively distanced herself from others, before they could leave a scar in her heart. Even though, she had been determined not to repeat her past mistakes, old habits die hard and she did it again. So, with a trembling voice, she said, “That's why, Clara, it's best if you don't hug me like this anymore, or I'll get the wrong ideas.”

After all, it hurt a lot less, when one was the cause of bad happenings than when one wasn't. Because in those cases, one still had themselves to blame. But when bad incidents happened beyond one's control, who should one blame?

When Clara saw Rina nod, she was about to jump up in happiness. But what she heard afterwards, caused her to stop. At first, Rina's addition sounded like Clara only had to push a little further until her maid finally fell. But Clara felt that the nuance of those words was not what it seemed to be.

Over the past years, Clara had always thought that Rina was a bit of an oddity. Her maid was an incredibly cute girl, who was also intelligent, hard-working, strong, and talented in many ways. On top of that, she was a highly efficient maid, who did everything with her, Clara, in mind. From Clara's point of view, Rina was the perfect partner for her.

But on the other hand, nothing Rina had ever done, was for herself. It seemed to Clara, that her maid had no wishes, goals, ambitions, or whatsoever. And this worried Clara. In her eyes, it showed how twisted, inconsistent, and contradictory Rina was. Unfortunately, Clara hadn't been mature enough to come up with a solution to heal her maid yet and still wasn't. The only thing she could think of was to continue her approaches and show, that she, too, would do anything to see her crush find happiness. So for now, all she could do was to tighten her arms around the now slightly trembling girl and say in a calm voice. “I, too, can only fall in love with girls.”

“...” Rina's trembling eased a little, and instead she flinched at the words.

“So, Rina... I, someone who can only love girls, am currently hugging you, another girl...”

“...” The shaking stopped and her maid just lay there motionless.

“... so do you think, you need to distance yourself from me for whatever reason?” Clara opened her hold and turned the girl in her arms around, to see that Rina was bright red and had teary eyes. Seeing her in that state, Clara felt like she had just been shot by Cupid's arrow. Still, she managed to put her untimely and impure thoughts aside and carry on. “D-do you want to quit being my maid knowing my preferences?”

Rina shook her head.

“R-really? A-are you not afraid I might give you d-dirty orders?” Clara gently stroked her maid's hair to hide her own embarrassment.

Again, Rina shook her head to convey that she wasn't afraid of getting such orders.

“Then there is no need for me to stop my skin-ship with my beloved maid because of her preferences, right?”

This time, Rina nodded, albeit weakly.

“Then it's all good~.” After saying this, she took the red-haired girl in another hug, this time from the front. This resulted in her burying her maid's face in her definitely-not-twelve-year-old-like bosom.

And so, they lay there for minutes, until Clara realised, what she was actually doing, or had been doing for the whole night, hugging her maid and all. 'S-stupid Clara!? What are you doing? Weren't you supposed to keep it down until Rina came of age? I should have held back on the wine...'

As if Rina could read her mistress's thoughts, she freed herself from Clara's soft bosom by looking up.

“S-sorry Rina, w-was it uncomfortable?”

“N-no,” Rina said, avoiding eye contact.

“I see.” Clara exhaled, visibly relieved.

“...”

“...”

After a few more minutes, Rina broke the silence. “Clara?”

“Yes?”

“Y-you know, these actions of yours...”

“What actions?” Clara tilted her head, not understanding what her maid meant.

“These hugs and skin-ship, or whatever you called them.”

“Y-yeah?” Not liking the direction of Rina's wording, Clara felt a cold sweat slowly forming on her back. Especially, when her maid suddenly grinned at her mischievously, without a trace of the earlier insecurity and anxiety.

“Are these hugs with dirty thoughts in your mind?”