Chapter 3: The Maid Appears

Three days after settling into the Kiyomiya family’s old manor, Hisaka Sayaka burst into my life like a sudden storm.

The transition to high school had coincided with the move, leaving me drained in both body and mind. I’d assumed high school would be a mere five-minute walk from middle school, a simple extension of what I knew. But the new routines and expectations piled on, each one a lesson in itself.

And then it happened, my first-ever move—

I’d packed only the essentials: study materials, clothes, a few necessities. Yet somehow, those necessities filled twenty cardboard boxes. I couldn’t even recall what I’d stuffed into them, despite being the one who’d taped them shut.

To top it off, the moving company had unceremoniously dumped all twenty boxes in the manor’s entrance lobby and vanished without a second thought. I wasn’t expecting them to unpack or organize, but would it have been so hard to at least carry them up to the second floor?

For the time being, I dragged the boxes containing clothes and school supplies to the living room. But exhaustion won out, and I abandoned the rest. Three days later, I’d grown oddly comfortable living out of the living room, letting the chaos of unpacked boxes fade into the background.

Evening had settled in, and a light rain began to fall, its soft patter filling the air. I was just about to head to the convenience store for dinner, cursing the inconvenient timing, when a sharp ring-ring pierced the quiet—a sound I hadn’t heard before. The doorbell.

I opened the front door, and there she stood.

“Hisaka…?”

“Hello, Kiyomiya Keiji-kun.”

Hisaka Sayaka. The transfer student who’d arrived in our third year of middle school. The prodigy who’d outshone every honor student to claim the top spot in our grade, her brilliance casting a shadow over the rest of us.

Not to mention, she possessed a breathtaking beauty and an impeccable figure that turned heads wherever she went.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her the most famous person at Sōshūkan Academy—Hisaka Sayaka stood before me.

In one hand, she held an umbrella, while the other pulled a worn-out suitcase. A thin, long coat draped over her frame, lending her an almost ethereal presence. For a fleeting moment, the scene felt so surreal it was as if a ghost had materialized before my eyes.

“Sorry for dropping by so suddenly, I’m Hisaka Sayaka.”

“Y-Yeah, I know,” I stammered, caught off guard.

There probably wasn’t a single soul at Sōshūkan Academy who didn’t know her. We’d been in the same class during our third year of middle school, so her face and name were etched into my memory.

After introducing herself, Sayaka fell silent, her gaze fixed on me with an intensity that made the air feel heavier.

“…Wanna come in? It’s a bit of a mess, though.”

“Thank you for having me,” she replied, bowing her head slightly before stepping into the manor without a trace of hesitation.

The other rooms hadn’t been touched in ages, still coated in dust, so I had no choice but to lead her to the living room. We settled onto the sofa, the silence between us stretching just long enough to feel awkward.

Then, without warning, she spoke. “My mother’s name is Hisaka Tsukasa.”

“Huh? Oh, is that so?” I wondered, unsure where this was going.

“Look at this.”

Sayaka extended her smartphone toward me, her expression unreadable. On the screen—

“Is this… the manor?” I muttered, my eyes locked on the image. “And this guy…”

The photo displayed on Sayaka’s smartphone captured the entrance of the Kiyomiya Family Old Manor—a place I was still getting used to calling home. In it stood a man, likely in his late twenties or early thirties, alongside a young woman dressed in a maid outfit. The man’s face struck a chord, painfully familiar.

“That’s Kiyomiya Takatsugu-san, isn’t it? Your father, right?”

“No mistake there,” I admitted, nodding slowly. “Makes sense Dad would’ve been at the old manor at some point.”

“And the maid beside him,” she continued, “that’s Hisaka Tsukasa.”

“Huh, so that’s your mom?” I blurted, caught off guard by her beauty. “She’s stunning, but you don’t really look—wait, what!?”

The realization hit me like a freight train. Why were my father and Hisaka Sayaka’s mother in a photo together? At the entrance of this very manor, no less? My thoughts spiraled, struggling to connect the dots.

“Apparently, my mother worked as a maid here at the Kiyomiya Family Old Manor,” Sayaka explained.

“A maid? Your mom, here?” I echoed, still reeling.

“And recently,” she added, her expression unchanging, “she vanished without a trace.”

“What!?” I nearly choked on the word.

It was too much to process at once. My brain scrambled to keep up. Disappearing out of nowhere—that was straight-up going missing, wasn’t it?

“When I got home, there was a note,” Sayaka said, her tone almost casual. “It said something like, ‘Don’t look for me.’”

“That’s textbook going missing!” I exclaimed, my voice rising.

“It really was,” she agreed, unfazed.

“Why are you so calm about this?” I demanded, my pulse racing. “This is a huge deal!”

“My mother’s always been elusive,” she replied, her gaze steady. “It wasn’t unusual for her to disappear for a day or two. But this time… it feels like she has no intention of coming back.”

“That makes it an even bigger emergency! W-What are you going to do?”

How was Hisaka Sayaka, the one directly affected, so composed while I was the one losing it?

“I had a feeling my mom might pull something like this someday,” Sayaka said, her voice steady, almost resigned. “Maybe she figured that since I’m in high school now, I’m not a kid anymore.”

“High schoolers aren’t adults yet…” I muttered, frowning. Legally, she still needed a guardian at this age. I didn’t want to judge someone else’s parent, but wasn’t this a bit too reckless?

“So, I’m all alone in this world now,” she continued, her tone eerily calm. “I was wondering what to do when I remembered this photo.”

“Hold on a second!” I interjected, my head spinning from the barrage of revelations. “I can’t keep up with these plot twists!”

Sayaka blinked at me, unperturbed, as I tried to catch my breath. “All alone? What about your dad?”

“I’ve never met him,” she replied simply.

“…That’s rough,” I said, my voice softening. I didn’t have a mom myself, but I wasn’t completely alone. The weight of her words settled heavily between us.

“Is your mom really not coming back?” I asked, grasping for some clarity.

“Who knows?” Sayaka shrugged, her expression unreadable. “Since I don’t know why she left, whether she’ll return is shrouded in mystery.”

“Being shrouded in mystery isn’t helpful,” I groaned. A beautiful classmate shows up out of nowhere, claiming she’s all alone with nowhere to go—what was I supposed to do?

“Even so,” I pressed, “you had a place you were living at before, right? What happened to that?”

“My mom and I lived in a small but fun apartment, just the two of us,” she said, a faint smile touching her lips. “But apparently, she hadn’t paid rent in forever, and we got evicted.”

“Was it really that fun, that small place?” I quipped, unable to resist a snarky jab at her nonchalant delivery. Sayaka’s gaze didn’t waver.

“Anyway, I get that you have nowhere to go, but why come here?”

“When my mom showed me that photo,” she explained, “she told me, ‘If anything ever happens to me, go to the old manor.’”

“Talk about cryptic. That makes it sound less like she went missing and more like…”

Like there was a chance she’d been kidnapped for some reason? The thought sent a chill down my spine. This was getting way too big for me to handle.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think she got caught up in some crime,” Sayaka said, her voice steady and reassuring. “But the chances of her coming back are probably slim.”

“You’ve got some basis for both of those claims, right?”

“It’s my mom, after all. I may not look it, but I’ve got a sharp mind.”

“Right, yeah,” I muttered, unable to argue. Hisaka Sayaka was an honor student, always calm and collected. If she was this certain about her own mother, who am I to doubt her? Still, something about it nagged at me.

“I get that your mom worked at this old manor,” I said, trying to piece things together. “I heard this place was abandoned for about ten years, so it makes sense that someone lived here before that.”

“It’s not strange that you wouldn’t know about my mom, Kiyomiya-kun,” she agreed, her tone matter-of-fact.

“Exactly. That said, as you can see, I’m the only one living in this ridiculously huge manor. So, could you maybe… leave?”

“No, the situation may be the worst, but it’s not that bad,” she countered smoothly. “You living alone in this huge manor? That actually makes it easier to ask.”

“Huh? Ask what?” I blinked, caught off guard.

Sayaka nodded silently, then rose from the sofa with a graceful motion. In one fluid gesture, she shed the long coat she’d been wearing—

“Starting today, I want to serve you.”

Beneath the coat, she wore a black knee-length dress adorned with a crisp white apron—a maid outfit. My stunning classmate stood in my living room, dressed as a maid. The sight was so surreal it felt like a fever dream.

“A-a maid!?” I stammered, my voice cracking. “Look, I don’t have some weird hobby of ordering maids for delivery!”

“This isn’t delivery,” she said, her expression unwavering. “Once I’m here, there’s no returning me.”

“What, like a scam package!?”

“A scam? That’s harsh, I just want to work at the manor where my mom used to be a maid.”

“Work here?” I echoed, incredulous. “Even if your mom worked at this manor, Hisaka, that doesn’t mean you have to, right?”

“I’m fine with pocket money as my salary,” she said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “But, you know, pocket money would be nice.”

“Don’t call it pocket money! It sounds shady or something!” I protested.

“As long as I have food, clothes, and a place to stay, I won’t complain,” she continued, undeterred. “I’ve got my maid outfit, a room in the attic or basement will do, and I’m fine with your leftovers, Kiyomiya-kun.”

“You think I could treat a classmate like some kind of slave!?” I exclaimed, my voice rising in disbelief.

“Not a slave—a maid,” Sayaka corrected. “But if you insist, I suppose I could be a one-time-purchase slave.”

“What, is a maid like a subscription service now?” I shot back, half-joking. If I’m paying a monthly salary, isn’t that basically a subscription?

“I just want to take care of you in exchange for living here,” she said as if she was proposing a perfectly reasonable deal. “It’s a business deal. A business maid.”

“…” I stared at her. Okay, my brain has officially hit capacity overload

“Alright, let’s put this on hold for now.”

“On hold… really?”

“It’s raining, and it’s already night. You can stay over,” I clarified, shoving the chaos to the back of my mind. I was already exhausted—how was I supposed to keep up with this mess?

“Thank you,” she replied smoothly. “I’ll start by tidying up this living room. And I’ll get the second-floor bedroom ready for use.”

“Wait, you don’t have to—ugh!” I protested, but it was too late.

Hisaka Sayaka bent down, scooping up the uniform blazer and shirt I’d left carelessly strewn across the floor. Her above-the-knee skirt shifted, revealing a glimpse of her pale thighs. It wasn’t short enough to show anything scandalous, but—

“H-Hey, be a little careful, okay?” I mumbled, my face heating up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle them gently,” she assured, completely unfazed. “I’ll wash them, and I’ll make sure to iron the shirt properly.”

“…” I gaped at her, dumbfounded. Hisaka Sayaka didn’t seem to realize how carelessly she was exposing herself.

Sure, I could barely manage living on my own, but hiring a maid? That had never even crossed my mind. And this gorgeous maid, so focused on her work that she let her guard down? It was almost too perfect—no, way too stimulating for a teenage guy like me.

“I want you to see how I work before you decide whether to hire me. For now, I’m just a freeloader.”

“…Did I ever say anything about letting you freeload?” I muttered, exasperated. I’d only meant for her to stay one night, but she was blowing this way out of proportion. A classmate staying over, even for a single night, was already a huge deal.

And that’s how my cohabitation with Hisaka Sayaka began.

Yeah, cohabitation—purely out of kindness, letting a classmate with nowhere to go stay for a bit. It wasn’t living together, and of course, Hisaka Sayaka wasn’t a maid—