Alisa clenched her fists. She felt herself shrinking, smaller and smaller.

“Yeah, I know why I cried. It’s because of you.”

“……I’ll apologize again for drawing my blade without warning.”

Alisa shook her head.

“It’s not because of that.”

“Then what?”

Rather than answer, Alisa hopped down off the bed.

“Wait here for a moment. I’m going to go cry by myself.”

“What? What are you doing?”

Alisa moved quickly and crawled under the desk hidden beneath the curtain. She could hear the boy’s bewildered voice from outside, but she buried her face in her arms and held firm.

Shaking off the emotion in a second round of tears was easier than the first. She wept quietly and let the anguish out.

I’m thirteen. I’m not a maid. I wash my clothes carefully and comb my hair every day. I’ve really been trying my hardest to become a daughter my mother wouldn’t be ashamed of, whenever she comes back.

Alisa cried without a sound, tears falling one by one. She wiped away what had overflowed from everything she’d been pressing down inside herself. Pulling herself together after a cry was something she knew how to do.

Crawling out from under the desk with reddened eyes, she came face to face with the boy.

“Done?”

“Yes.”

The boy tilted his head and pointed under the desk.

“If you want to cry more, go back in. I’ll go far away and pretend I don’t notice.”

“No, I’m all right now. I won’t cry anymore.”

“Why?”

“I’ve come to an agreement with myself. I’m going to be a proper host until my guest leaves.”

Alisa said it with a look of firm resolve. The boy narrowed his eyes and gave a small smile.

“Is that so? Then let me hear your name first, so I know what to call you. The thirteen-year-old who is neither a maid nor an orphan?”

Alisa and the boy sat side by side on the bed and began to introduce themselves. Following the long-standing tradition of Westroben, the host went first — which meant Alisa.

Alisa introduced herself with her full name, middle name included, and haltingly added what she could remember of her family’s history. The boy nodded, saying that now that he thought about it, there had been someone among his mother’s distant relatives with the surname Ludendorff.

“Alisa. Now it’s my turn. My name is Eden Reuben Roben. I am fifteen years old this year.”

The boy said. Alisa waited for him to continue, but that was the end of his introduction. He seemed to be firmly convinced that his name alone explained everything.

Alisa, who had caught none of what he expected, tilted her head and responded a beat late.

“……Oh, I see.”

“Did you not hear me? Eden Reuben Roben.”

“I see! What a wonderful name!”

Alisa exclaimed in the manner of someone clearly doing it on command. The boy looked at her clapping her hands and a look of suspicion crossed his face.

“……Do you not know who I am?”

“Eden Reuben Roben?”

“I am the prince born of Queen Calisa, and Duke Reuben, Crown Prince of the Roben Empire. Do you know of me?”

Alisa blinked several times. The boy looked at her face and sighed.

“I don’t need an answer to know. Something utterly absurd seems to have happened.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Alisa and the boy sat across from each other and had a serious conversation.

The boy couldn’t believe his country estate had become this dusty, crumbling wreck, and Alisa was stunned to learn that the boy was from several hundred years ago.

He laid out the situation with a composed manner.

“So the year is 1905, and I am a person from long ago. In the time between, my estate passed through various hands and became the property of the Ludendorff family.”

“That’s right. How did you end up here, Prince?”

“……I’m not sure. I was lost in thought while the rain came through the window, and I must have fallen asleep at some point. When I woke up, I was here.”

“I see…… Yes, I understand everything now!”

Alisa nodded vigorously up and down.

It had taken a full hour to get to this point in the conversation. Alisa, who had explained everything with her whole body — arms and legs and all — clapped her hands together. The boy, who had been sitting quietly, caught the mood and clapped along awkwardly.

The two hesitant children were just exchanging glances when a loud rumble came from the boy’s stomach.

Grrrumble. Eden quickly clutched his own stomach. Then he straightened up stiffly, as though the sound hadn’t come from him at all. But Alisa had already heard it.

“Are you hungry?”

“No. Not particularly……”

Grrrrrumble. Before he could finish, his stomach let out a sound like the sky was falling.

“Did you not eat dinner?”

“There were circumstances.”

Alisa nodded and grabbed the boy’s hand. She was on her feet before the startled boy could say a word.

“Then let’s go to the kitchen!”

“What?”

“I’ll steal something good for you!”

“Steal……”

“Come on!”

She never would have dared to raid the kitchen on her own, but a precious guest had arrived, and a host had to provide hospitality. Even if no one else acknowledged it, Alisa was the owner of this house.

“Mary moved the ladder earlier, but with the rain she’ll have put it back. If she leaves it lying flat, the water leaking from the window makes it go moldy.”

“The window leaks?”

“It hasn’t been repaired in a long time.”

The two children crept down from the attic and descended the stairs. Alisa led the way with the lantern, and the boy followed behind, looking around with curious eyes.

“Come on!”

“Right.”

“Oh, wait, you have to walk on your toes! We’ll be in serious trouble if we’re caught!”

“Who can’t we be caught by?”

“Mary and Hannah! They’re Great-Aunt’s maids.”

“Servants? But you said you weren’t a maid. Why do you have to hide from them? If you’re being treated unfairly, it would be better to say something directly rather than stay quiet.”

“Prince. Things in this world are not as simple as words.”

Alisa said this and shook her head. She even let out a sigh, like a little old woman, and the boy following behind stifled a laugh.

Alisa turned to look at him with a puzzled expression, and the boy said:

“A long time ago, there was someone who looked after me who spoke exactly like you.”

“Who?”

“My nanny.”

“Really? My nanny quit years ago, so I barely remember her.”

“……Same here.”

“She quit?”

“Something like that.”

Quit is quit — what does “something like that” mean? Alisa grumbled to herself and carefully scanned her surroundings.

The two-person unit under Alisa’s command had just reached the first floor. This was the most dangerous stretch of the mission.

The target: the crispy baguette Mary would have baked that evening. They had to navigate around Mary and Hannah, who might still be awake, and retrieve the target without being seen.

“Listen carefully. You have to go through the back door to get to the kitchen building in the rear yard, but the back door is right next to Hannah’s room. So we have to go very, very quietly.”

“More than we already are?”

“Not even a sound of breathing!”

“Short of being dead, how is anyone supposed to make no sound at all……”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

The boy paused and looked down at his hollow stomach.

“……I’ll try.”

He nodded with great seriousness.

The two quietly steeled themselves and started moving again. Rising onto their toes, they drew in a breath — haaah — and began to tiptoe past Hannah’s door.

That was when a plump mouse appeared in front of Alisa.

“Eek…… hff!”

Alisa barely managed to swallow the shriek that nearly burst out of her.

The problem came next. The mouse, of all places, began to circle around the boy’s shoes. The boy squeezed his eyes shut, his face draining of color. Alisa’s face went just as white.

The boy was a prince. He had surely faced his share of hardships and trials, but none of them had involved living alongside mice, remaining unrattled at the sight of one, or becoming a master mouse hunter.

Alisa prayed desperately inside.

‘Just pass by, please just pass by, if you poke him now he’s going to scream!’

But the heartless mouse went ahead and nudged the tip of the boy’s foot.

“Aaagh!”

Alisa clamped her hand firmly over the boy’s mouth, but it was too late. Click — the sound of Hannah’s door opening. Hannah came stumbling out, furious and half-awake.

“Wh, who’s there!”

Alisa barely managed to drag the boy behind the wall and hold her breath. Thud, thud, thud — Hannah’s angry footsteps grew closer.

The boy fidgeted and whispered:

“I’m sorry. What should I do?”

“What do you mean what, just stay still!”

Alisa pressed down on the boy’s shoulders to keep him in place. But a brilliant solution wasn’t going to come to her any more than it would to him.

The mouse was still wandering around nearby, and Alisa spotted it just as Hannah took a few more steps toward the two children. The mouse seemed to have completely lost interest in either of them.