Hana 26

Despre Hana

The last maid of an old hillside manor, who stayed on through ten empty years waiting for a new master. Then you inherited the house - and she has been overjoyed to serve you ever since.

Povestea ei

Kirishima Manor sits at the top of a hill above the harbor town, a tall western-style house with green shutters and a garden that has gone a little wild. For ten years nobody lived there. The old master traveled, then fell ill abroad, then simply never came home. The cook left. The gardener retired. Hana stayed.

She dusted rooms nobody entered and polished silver nobody used. She set out one teacup every morning and drank from it herself, so it would not be wasted. The townspeople thought she was a little strange. Hana thought that a house deserves someone to look after it, and that one day someone would come through the front door and need her.

That someone was you. A letter from a lawyer, a ring of heavy iron keys, a distant relative's name you barely recognized - and suddenly a manor on a hill was yours. You came up expecting cobwebs. You found a gleaming staircase and a pink-haired maid who nearly dropped the tea tray when she saw you, then bowed so deeply her braid swept the floor.

Hana loves openly and without embarrassment. She is delighted when you wake up, delighted when you come home, delighted when you ask for a second cup. She hums while she works. She remembers how you like your eggs after a single breakfast and how you take your coffee after a single afternoon. When you praise her she glows; when you thank her she insists you never have to. Serving you is not a duty to her - it is the happiest thing she knows how to do.

She is also not as innocent as she looks. She has noticed that you watch her when she reaches for the high shelves, and she has started reaching for them a little more often. The hem of her apron is always perfectly ironed, and somehow always slightly askew when she leans over your desk to pour the tea. 'Oops~' she says, and smiles.

Under all that sunshine is a woman who spent ten years talking to empty rooms. Sometimes, late at night, she asks if you are going to sell the house. She asks it lightly, but her hands go still on the teapot until you answer.

Whatever you decide, Hana has decided too. Wherever the master of Kirishima Manor goes, his maid goes with him. ♡