The blue light that drew back the curtain of night seeped through the translucent window paper.

Diana looked down at her milky white skin that shone softly and let out a small laugh.

‘Even when awake, you’re like an angel, but you’re even more so when you’re asleep.’

As Diana stroked the child’s soft cheek with her thumb, the child smacked their lips.

And they unfurled the fist that was held near their lips, gripping Diana’s clothes so tightly that it wrinkled.

Even while wandering in a dream, Lu seemed afraid that the mother they had barely found would leave.

“Don’t worry. Mommy’s here.”

When she comforted the child in place of their real mother, the grip that had given strength loosened.

Feeling the soft touch down their back, the child entrusted their body to a deep slumber without a single fuss.

Diana was ruminating on the fragments of old and bruised memories from the dream she had all night, probably from over a decade ago, while holding Lu in her arms.

In the dream, Diana’s arms and legs were so short that she had to grunt for a while to get down from the tall bed. But there was no one to help her.

The child brushed her shaggy hair behind her ears and secretly peeked at the maids passing through the crack of the door.

〈I want to talk to them…….〉

But she couldn’t. Young Diana was sensitive and quick-witted.

So she was well aware that the maids were reluctant to clean her room, and that it was because of her.

They ignored Diana, who didn’t even have a single jewel to gently coax away.

〈She’s a child even her parents have turned their backs on. She’s not even my own child that I birthed in pain, so how could I possibly become attached to her?〉

〈But you’re lucky. You only have to clean. Do you know how pitiful the person in charge of the young lady’s bath is? They have to touch that disgusting hair every day……. Ugh…… I’m so scared that I might die if there’s a new personnel appointment. What if they assign that job to me?〉

〈If it were me, I’d quit right away. Is this the only place to work? The work is hard enough, there should at least be the joy of feeding and clothing her. Who would want to serve a young lady who’s like a log, no, a corpse.〉

Diana sometimes wished her ears would go deaf.

She hated and resented her own existence that everyone avoided. And she was piercingly lonely. Even though she didn’t know how to name the emotion of loneliness.

Diana closed the door and wandered around the room like a puppy, talking to herself.

〈They’ll hate it if I talk to them. My eyes are like a snake’s! My voice is, is eerie! So I have to pretend to be furniture or wallpaper! That way I can see them for a long, long time.〉

She liked the maid who cleaned her room for about half an hour a day.

It wasn’t originally like that, but recently it was.

The young maid who had started working not long ago did not despise her or look at her like a bug.

The color of her hair was the savory grain tea color that Diana liked, and the color of her eyes was the same as the green chair, the only bright color in her room.

She was a fierce person who often fought with the maids, but she was kind only to Diana.

Sometimes she would put a storybook in her hand, and when their eyes met, she would smile.

People insulted her, saying, ‘The nerve of a fallen noble!’, but Diana didn’t really understand the meaning, so she just called her the pretty maid.

She often stood up to maids who were more experienced and older than her, yelling so loudly that the corridor echoed.

When a fight broke out, Diana would press her ear against the wall and focus on the voices. That day, too, the pretty maid was in the middle of a fight, outnumbered.

Even though she was far behind in numbers, she showed no sign of being intimidated at all, and to Diana, she looked as cool as a hero from a storybook.

〈How dare a mere maid curse a noble?〉

〈A mere maid? Are you talking to me right now?〉

〈Then who else is here besides you?〉

〈Ha, she still thinks she’s a noble? Why? You think you should take her side because a fellow noble is being cursed at? Angela Dinever. You’re a maid now. Not the young lady of a viscount family anymore!〉

〈I know that too? Who told me to treat her well? Why are the maids in this house so slow on the uptake?〉

〈Wh-what? Slow on the uptake? You still haven’t come to your senses? You’re looking down on me even though I’m speaking nicely?〉

〈Oh my? If you want to teach me with your body, why don’t you try it? You think anyone would be scared.〉

After that, a high-pitched scream that she heard for the first time completely tore through the corridor.

Yaaaa! The sound of fists flying, the sound of a vase in the corridor falling and glass shattering, and the sound of male servants running to stop them.

Not long after that incident, Diana got her own personal maid.

〈I will serve you with all my heart!〉

Her name was Angela Dinever. She was the pioneer who first introduced the emotion of love into Diana’s empty world.

She thought as she hugged the young life burrowing into her arms even tighter.

‘If it weren’t for Angela, I wouldn’t be who I am today either. Maybe I’m in a position where I have to return the love I received unconditionally.’

After Angela set foot in Diana’s life, she became a person who could not imagine the days when she was not loved. And that was a right that any child in the world should naturally enjoy.

‘Compassion may be a disease if it is a disease. But I can’t ignore you. You, who are so pitiful…….’

There was no way to turn back now. Lu was caught, and Diana saved Lu.

The two were nothing short of a community of fate that had boarded the same boat by chance.

The next morning, Lu woke up from a deep sleep, opening his mouth wide like a baby bird.

Diana’s lips naturally curled up at the cute mumbling that was still sleepy even after stretching.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah! Mommy!”

Lu opened his eyes wide and sought Diana’s embrace.

And soon, he kicked the blanket that had become warm with his baby body heat and tightly hugged Diana’s waist.

“I slept well because Mommy was next to me, I love Mommy.”

As he rubbed his soft hair against the silk dress, Lu’s hair stood up fluffy from static electricity.

After whining enough to his satisfaction, the child slightly lifted his face buried in her stomach, smiling brightly.

As soon as the straight eyes that looked just like Raoul’s saw Diana’s face, they melted away.

He had a face that looked so much like Raoul’s childhood days that one would believe it if told they were really father and son.

Diana sat Lu upright and smiled back at him.

“Lu, you must be hungry.”

“Hungry……?”

At the same time Lu stroked his round belly, a cute and pitiful growling sound echoed.

Diana laughed, hoo hoo hoo, and lightly rubbed her cheek against the child’s cheek.

“Mommy will go get food, so wait here for a little bit.”

“……Alone?”

“Yeah. I’ll be right back. I want to take Lu too, but there are many bad people outside, so Mommy has to go alone. Lu, you wait here safely.”

“Bad people? Mommy in danger?”

Startled, Lu soon growled, watching all around.

“Grrrrr! Bad people! Come out!”

Diana laughed, pssh, like deflating, finding the growling sound that didn’t match the cute way of speaking rather funny.

‘Are you trying to protect me? Oh my…… How precious.’

But Diana was not so weak that Lu had to protect her. Although her frame was slender and she had no strength, she had quite a bit of guts.

‘I’ve even fought a water snake the size of a lake, though I couldn’t win?’

Diana stretched her arm out to Lu, who was still like a puppy, and said.

“Hoo hoo, you’re trying to protect Mommy? Thank you. But Lu, you know the castle wall you saw yesterday? Inside that wall, Mommy is very strong. So you don’t have to worry, Lu.”

It was a story about power, but Lu, thinking of physical strength, touched Diana’s arm doubtfully.

“Oh, Mommy, you’ve gotten weaker?”

“No. I’ve been building my strength while I wasn’t meeting Lu.”

“……Really?”

“Really.”

“Strange……. Mommy’s nails are short! Teeth are blunt too……. Mommy pick fruits and Lu catch fish!”

“We used to live like that before? Picking fruits and catching fish?”

“Yeah! Did Mommy forget……?”

“Oh, no? I remember.”

Diana soothed Lu, whose eyes were turning red as if about to cry, pretending to be his real mother. And she praised the taste of fruits and fish she didn’t even know.

“It was delicious, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah! It’s yummy when we eat together!”

“I’m happy that strong Lu catches fish for me, but today Mommy will feed you something much more delicious. So just wait here for a little bit. Okay?”

“Okay…….”

Diana came out after putting anxious Lu to sleep.

She tried to leisurely enter the main gate, pretending to be taking a morning walk, but the problem was that she was in her sleepwear.

She had no choice but to take advantage of the moment when there were no sentries, climb a tree and jump onto the terrace.

After landing with an unusually loud noise compared to usual and rubbing her aching knees, she felt an unknown hostility from somewhere.

Diana slowly lifted her gaze with a sense of unease, hoping it wasn’t the case.

She immediately recognized who it was just by looking at the tip of their feet, and she bit her lip and broke out in a cold sweat.

“You’re busy from the morning. Where on earth are you coming back from?”

The person looking down at Diana with a very benevolent smile was none other than Angela.