The following day, Rina got up at the usual time and went to do her chores as usual. What was not usual, was the time Rina woke up her mistress. And it was not just because they were talking late into the night.

Because of her training, her position as a noblewoman's personal maid and guard, and because she had lived alone during her childhood, Rina had a rather light sleep. That way, she could always wake up and react immediately if danger approached her or Clara.

One might say that this could result in Rina not being able to fully rest her mind, which might be true, but she had been keeping up this lifestyle for several years now and she hadn't experienced any drawbacks yet. In fact, it was the opposite. It seemed that her body was able to regain its full energy even with her light and short sleep.

Nonetheless, because of the way she slept, Rina knew that the blonde had hardly any rest last night. Clara had tossed and turned, sat up, and lay down again throughout the night. It was only about an hour before Rina got up to go to work, that Clara finally managed to enter the dream world.

Therefore, Rina decided to let her beloved mistress sleep longer and even skip breakfast.

It was already almost midday when Rina finally woke up Clara. After all, as a personal maid, it was her duty to keep her mistress healthy. So while allowing Clara to skip breakfast was barely acceptable, letting her skip lunch was not.

“Good morning, Rina... *yawn*,” Clara said as she yawned and stretched. She knew it was unbecoming for a young noble lady to do this, especially when her crush was in front of her. But since she had already shown Rina this appearance, she didn't mind. And Rina wasn't someone who would mind it either.

“Good morning, Clara... by the way, it's already noon.”

At first, Clara was somewhat surprised by her maid's statement. But after looking around and realising that she couldn't see the sun when she looked out of the window because it was directly above the ceiling, she just shrugged.

So, after kicking her maid out of the room, changing her clothes, and calling Rina back in, she spoke up. “So... are we going to proceed?” She asked this because she had realised that there was no way, they could keep the relationship the same after what they had told each other last night. Not only had she confessed to her maid, it seemed her feelings were even reciprocated. So, despite what she had said last night, she now wanted to take their relationship to the next level.

Unfortunately for Clara, Rina completely misunderstood the question. “Well... it's almost time for lunch. My suggestion would be to speak to Lord Eric about the Duke and Marianne. You know... whether or not your family would officially join the Duke's faction as proteges of his army... and...”

“And?” Clara repeated Rina's last word as if to show that it was exactly what she had meant. She had deemed it to be too embarrassing for her to take back her words from before going to sleep last night. So she decided to keep her thoughts about wanting to become lovers with Rina to herself... for now.

“And it would be nice if you really accepted Marianne as a maid in the mansion.”

“... Fine... but my personal maid will still be you, okay?”

At Clara's agreement, Rina smiled a flower that had just spent a whole day basking in the sun. “Yes! Of course! I wouldn't want to hand over this position either!” After saying that, she noticed Clara blushing slightly, so Rina also realised what she had just blurted out and turned red as well. “N-Now let's go to Lord Eric's office first. I will fetch Marianne and follow you shortly afterwards,” she additionally stammered, as if to deflect the situation.

“A-alright.” Seeing no problem in escaping the embarrassing situation either, Clara agreed.

***

What followed sounded more eventful than it actually was. Rina and Clara told Eric about the Duke's offer, for the Dragonherz to become one of the Lumiéres' protege. Since Rina hadn't told Eric about anything else, such as why the Duke had suddenly offered his protection in the first place, she had expected Eric to be suspicious. As an accomplished nobleman and politician, he would naturally know that nothing came for free, especially not from the Lumiéres. So, Rina was surprised when Eric simply acknowledged her report and even accepted the Duke's offer. It was obvious to her, that Arland had probably spoken to Eric about this before.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Following that, Rina signed her contract to become Clara's permanent maid. As her mistress had already mentioned, it was explained to her that this position came with a great deal of authority, overshadowed only by the Dragonherz themselves and Arland, Eric's personal, permanent aide. Additionally, Rina's and Clara's test was called off for some reason.

Lastly, Marianne was employed as Clara's maid without any problems. The reason for this was that Clara, the person Marianne wanted to serve, didn't voice any complaints. After all, her red-haired maid had literally begged her to accept Marianne. And she was not one to deny Rina's wish.

So, from that day on, the duo, consisting of Clara and Rina, became a trio, consisting of Clara, Rina, and Marianne, very much to the young lady's dismay.

And like that, the days passed. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. Three years, to be exact.

***

It was a quiet, sunny day. Clara and Rina were sitting together at a table on one of the many verandas of the Dragonherz mansion, having afternoon tea and snacks. Three years had passed since Clara's Social Debut. Things had calmed down significantly since then. As a result, the two of them could afford to relax, sit down, have a cup of tea, and talk to each other once in a while.

“How was your training with that traitor today?”

Rina looked at her mistress, who had asked her this question after taking a sip from her cup. Clara was now fifteen years old. But since her face had already radiated a mature flair years ago, it hadn't changed much in Rina's eyes. Clara still wore her hair like drills, copying Lauren's hairstyle. The only thing that had changed, was her height, as she was now over 160 centimetres tall.

On the other hand, Rina, now twelve, was still a head smaller than her mistress. Fortunately, or unfortunately (?), she had already come to terms with the fact that she would probably have an underdeveloped body for the rest of her life. Especially her chest department was lacking in contrast to her mistress's, even though they shared the same food.

To make matters worse, Rina had once complained to Clara about her own lack of chest growth. However, for some reason, the blonde had misinterpreted the comment. Clara had somehow concluded that Rina liked girls with big breasts, which was why she would always wear dresses with low-cut necklines when they were together.

Naturally, Rina wasn't stupid and understood exactly, what Clara was hinting at. After all, she knew about Clara's feelings for her. However, it only irritated Rina more, as she was shown the difference in the quality of their body frames day after day.

Rina shook her head to put those thoughts out of her mind and turned her attention to the blonde. “Clara, we may be alone right now, but still, please refrain from saying things that might expose him.” Since the day of Clara's Social Debut, Clara had been openly hostile towards Arland. Even though Rina could more or less guess why, she still hoped that Clara would hold it back a little.

“Fine, fine... So... how was your training with him?”

At that question, Rina smiled and gave her mistress a V-sign for victory with her hand. “I won.” For almost two years now, Rina's sword training with Arland, her sword master, had consisted of one-on-one matches. In all of them, Rina had always emerged victorious. Crushingly so.

When Clara heard that, she wanted to congratulate her maid and insult Arland, as she always did. After all, she was still incredibly mad at him for leaking her maid's information to the Duke. This time, however, she was interrupted by a knock at the door of the room that led to the veranda.

So, Rina got up, walked into the room, and opened the door.

The one who had just knocked at the door was a girl about 150 centimetres tall with brown, waist-length, open hair. Like Rina, she also was also wearing a maid uniform.

“Marianne? Is something wrong?” Rina asked.

Marianne had been working here since Clara's Social Debut. Clara had made it clear back then, that she didn't want to be disturbed when she was alone with Rina. So Rina knew something was wrong when Marianne interrupted them in their free time.

“Mistress, you have a visitor.”

For some reason unknown to Rina, Marianne had insisted on continuing to call Rina 'Mistress', while addressing Clara, the actual mistress, as 'Lady Clara'. Even after the blonde had glared at and even chastised the brunette for this in the past, Marianne had still refused to change her ways, until Clara had eventually given up on the matter.

“Hmm? Who is it?”

At Rina's words, Marianne stepped aside and revealed a small figure behind her, holding her index finger.

When the small figure, a child with short, blonde hair, saw Rina, the figure beamed like sunshine. “Wina~~” The child squealed, let go of Marianne's finger, and trotted towards the red-haired girl with unsteady steps.

Seeing this, Rina crouched down and opened her arms. When the child finally arrived, she closed her arms and picked it up.

“Wina~~” It smiled happily, after wrapping its arms around her neck.

Rina then stood up with the child in her arms and stroked the child on the back.

'Clara's little brother is as cute as always~.'