Prolude

Ichinose POV

    I was hiking with my mom and sister, the scenery was beautiful. We were about 2 miles into our hike when my sister who was a bit ahead of us stopped and had a look of shock on her face, then seconds later she broke out into a sprint.

    My mother and I followed her and we soon saw what had happened. There was a boy, he looked famished and on the brink of death. My mother gave him the water that we had with us.

    After talking to him for a bit we found that he had walked for what he guessed was about 40 kilometers in search of food or water, but he could not find any. He lived somewhere in the mountain nearby, but he lost his family, and his home burned down.

    We took leaned on my mother’s shoulder as we took him to the car and drove him to a hospital. While we drove to the hospital I tried to get more details about the situation from him, but he always dodged the questions about who he was or where he came from. The only thing he was willing to tell me was his name, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

    We took him into the emergency room and they brought him in for examination. He was malnourished and dehydrated, he also had a cut on his lower abdomen which got infected, but that was fairly easy to deal with.

    A little while later a social worker came, they heard from the doctor that Ayanokoji-kun claimed to have no living relatives and the social worker investigated to find out this was true. She asked us some questions regarding his mental state and how we found him. Something unexpected happened though.

    My mom said that she wanted to help the boy, and expressed her desire to take him in. As he would have likely gone to an orphanage anyways, the social worker agreed that it would be good for him and left to get paperwork for it.

    At first, my little sister was just as confused as I was, though we soon got really excited. We decided to visit his room with this news and when we did we found what looked like a completely different person. He had color back in his face, he was cleaned up, and he was wearing something other than the completely white clothes we found him in, and I also discover something new after seeing this, Ayanokoji-kun is really handsome.

“Wow! You look a lot better!” said my mom

“Thank you very much for all you have done for me,” he said as he bowed

“There is no need for that, you are family now” my mom replied, this piqued his curiosity at first, though he soon understood what she meant.

“I’m sorry ma’am, I don't wish to be a burden any longer”

    Ayanokoji-kun got up, took his own IV out, and began to leave. We were all in shock that he turned down our offer and also confused how he even had the strength to stand after all that happened.

“Wait! Please stay with us, you won’t be a burden!”

“Then change your offer, I don't have the ability to care for others as family, though I will stay with you, not as a family but as a butler.”

    My mother agreed to what he had said and he went back to the bed and put the IV back in. That is how I met Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and how he became my butler. 6 months have passed since that day, and now we are going to Advanced Nurturing High School together. In the time since I have met him not one of my questions about who he is had been answered, and I even have more questions, however, even if I understand nothing about him, I am so glad that we met, and we spend every second of our lived together.