Prologue: The One Being Protected Was You
Serena looked up at her master's silver eyes — the woman straddling her, gazing down.
Her master was blind.
And yet she was looking Serena straight in the eyes.
After ten years together, meeting someone's gaze even without sight was a simple enough feat.
They glittered.
Serena thought her master's silver eyes sparkled like stars.
From afar they glittered beautifully… but in truth, they were the brilliant light of stars as hot as the sun.
So hot…
A low, husky voice called her name.
"Serena."
"…Yes."
"You know what? You can't run away anymore."
Restraints were locked around Serena's ankles. Their weight was tremendous — three times heavier than ordinary iron, perhaps. As heavy as the feelings her master poured into them.
You can't break them with strength, can you? And magic… of course you can't use that either.
Serena laughed awkwardly.
"Ahaha… looks like that's how it is."
She had been the mastermind behind the curtain, toying with the world through every scheme and deception imaginable. And now she herself had been caught in a scheme her master had woven.
Truly — like maid, like master.
Her master's hand seized her chin. Serena turned her head slightly.
"Um… isn't this a bit early for us…? Lady Lumina, you're still young…"
At those words, her master's expression crumpled.
"I'm twenty now. It's been three years since my coming-of-age ceremony. How long are you going to keep seeing me as a ten-year-old little lady?"
"…I know. Lady Lumina, you've grown so much I have to look up at you now. But to me, you'll always feel like a child I need to protect."
Her master made a face of pure exasperation.
"That again. You said I was still too young to touch — that I was someone who needed protecting."
"Did I…?"
Her master crooked one corner of her mouth.
"Shall I tell you something? When I was young, the one being protected wasn't me — it was you."
"Wh-what?!"
Her master leaned in and whispered sweetly against Serena's ear.
"That mysterious law you always talked about… the 'anyone who touches a child gets shackled' law. The one being protected by it wasn't me — it was you."
"?"
Serena blinked, turning the words over for a moment, then understood them a beat too late and burst out laughing.
So that's how it was…?
Ahaha… how on earth did things end up like this?
I just became a maid while looking for a way to avoid an arranged marriage.
If I have any sin, it's that I fed this child with my own hands, dressed her, bathed her, put her to bed…
In other words, the only crime I committed was raising her.
As a hand stroked her ear and hair, Serena squeezed her eyes shut and, in an escape from reality, cast her mind back to ten years ago.
To the time she first met her.