My name is Miyu. I have been working for the Mizushima family, especially for Lady Akame, since I was fourteen years old. She was ten at the time.

From the very first day, I was afraid of her — her cold stares, her rigid posture, almost inhuman. She inspired silence, discipline, fear.

Like all the maids in the manor, I feared her anger. I had heard so many stories about her — muffled whispers echoing through the corridors, dark legends claiming that even a single mistake could make her slit our throats.

I didn’t know if any of it was true, but I didn’t want to find out.

So I kept my eyes lowered, carried out every task carefully, asked no questions, and disappeared as soon as my presence became unnecessary.

And yet… over the past few weeks, something had changed.

Her once impenetrable face seemed to have softened. I was discovering aspects of her personality she had never shown before. Her attitude toward me wasn’t exactly friendly, but it had become far less frightening.

It had all started some time ago.

Lady Akame often returned home late in the evenings. Rumors circulated that she used her powers to torture innocent people. But the oldest cooks — those who had watched her grow up — begged me to ignore such nonsense.

“She trains, far from here. Since she was little. She carries more than someone her age ever should.”

Their words resonated with me, but they weren’t enough to dispel my worry.

One night, she didn’t come home.

I left a light on in her room, just in case. I waited in the entryway for a good part of the night, but exhaustion eventually forced me to go to bed.

The next morning, I went upstairs, determined to see whether she had returned and to invite her to breakfast.

But as I approached her door, I heard voices coming from inside.

Hers… and another. A soft, unfamiliar voice.

I sensed a burst of anger from my mistress. Instinctively, I knocked before opening the door.

She stood there, alone in the middle of her room. Her gaze was sharp, her shoulders tense.

There was no one else.

Had I imagined that voice?

She told me she had had a nightmare. I didn’t believe her, but I didn’t dare press further. So, in silence, I resumed my place, faithful to my role.

From that day on, the change became more noticeable.

I sometimes heard her whispering into the void, or lashing out toward a corner of the room, as if someone invisible stood there.

At times, I wondered if she was losing her mind.

They said the power of darkness corrupted the soul… drove it to madness.

Then came that night.

She was nowhere to be found. Her meal tray remained untouched.

Worried, I searched every room of the mansion until Satoshi asked whether I had thought to check the roof.

The roof… she never went up there.

And yet, I went.

And that was where I saw her. A beauty hidden within the darkness.

First, there were voices — the same ones as before.

Then darkness. It spread across the ground like a familiar, shadowed sea.

I didn’t dare move.

But through the shadows, two figures emerged. Lady Akame… and another woman.

A luminous presence, almost unreal — as if born from another world.

They spoke softly, with that strange intimacy that binds souls more tightly than words ever could.

On my mistress’s face, I saw something rare.

A deep, fragile emotion.

Then, suddenly, she swayed… and collapsed against her.

The other woman caught her without hesitation, with a natural gentleness — as if she had always existed for that very purpose.

She took her pulse with infinite tenderness, whispered a few words in her ear, then lifted her into her arms as one would lift a treasure.

I hid immediately, my heart pounding in my temples.

I followed them discreetly.

The young woman laid her carefully in her bed, sat beside her, and watched over her in silence.

It was then that I understood.

She could only be an angel.

Yes. She was an angel !