Something small and black scurried at my feet.
A rat. They didn't frighten me, but I still recoiled despite myself.
I lost my footing and slipped.
There was a rather impressively long staircase in the mansion's entrance hall. And I was standing right at the top of it.
The end results would not be good at all if I were to fall down them.
I automatically tried to grab at the railing, but my fingertips only met air.
My head spinning, I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impending pain.
But then I realized someone had grabbed me from behind.

"...are you all right?"

The voice came from close by.
My eyelids fluttered open to see black eyes gazing at me.
Looking down at me silently, intellectual features.
Androgynous; I couldn't tell whether this was a man or a woman.
This was one of the residents of this isolated mansion. Slender arms held me up.

"Good; you don't seem hurt."

I blushed at the worried statement.
Our faces were far too close. That straight black hair was almost brushing against my face.
Fighting down my wildly-beating heart, I almost jumped back in my haste to get away.
Murmuring a thank-you, the back of my neck bright red as I cast my eyes downwards, I half-ran down the stairs.
Bright red all the way down to my neck, I murmured a "thank you" and dashed down the stairs, avoiding their eyes the whole time.
The wall clock's erratic chime rang out in the hush of the midafternoon.

After the maid was gone, Sera Kaoru―the dark-haired person who had saved her―wondered if, perhaps, she was shy.

A child in black stood silently, having watched the scene unfold from the floor above.
He wore a wry, yet understanding smile.

And yet seemed to have his eyes half-closed.