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Elise had a problem.It wasn’t anything to do with her army of ponies, lavish mansion, fine clothing, incredible three-course-meals or her doting, ridiculously rich father of course.Actually, the problem was to do with one of her maids.On strict orders of her father, all maids serving Elise were to wear cat ears and cute uniforms so she could imagine them as much rarer and more exotic than they really were. It frustrated her that she couldn’t have real catgirls serving her, but they were too hard to come by nowadays outside of their detainment camp from the war. But there was one maid in particular who stood out.“Coffee? What sort of a name is that?” Elise had asked angrily upon first meeting the wretched girl. She looked as if she had been through a war, with soaking long dark hair, injuries on her exposed skin and mud all over her face. Immediately the blonde duchess despised her. “A-actually ma’am, it’s Charcoal-nya~” The girl mumbled. The noble’s piercing green eyes met her blue ones in a glare sharper than knives.“That’s even worse! And don’t speak back to your mistress. If this wasn’t your first day, I’d give you sixty lashings on the spot for such misconduct.” An audible gasp bubbled out of the girl’s mouth, and the look of terror on her face was priceless.And the instant Elise saw it, she was smitten.From that day onwards, she was always trying to catch a glimpse of the strange girl, who she had named Miyu after deciding that neither of her original names were worthy enough to be addressed in her court (she liked to play princess when daddy wasn’t home), yet just glimpses were never enough.As time went by, the noble started having Miyu deliberately stationed near her at all times so she could talk to her while she worked. In the beginning, ‘talking’ was just Elise barking orders at Miyu and laughing at her juvenile mistakes, but eventually it became deeper and more meaningful. The blonde discovered that Miyu had an older brother and a younger sister, neither of which were related to her by blood. She loved them a lot, almost as much as she loved cats. She also liked to drink coffee, eat ice cream and dust. Her brother had been executed by the corrupt government in her former country for engaging in a relationship with the future President. He was killed too.Her sister was murdered in the midst of a fight between humans and catgirls in the Great Catgirl War. She was gunned down trying to protect her faction’s leader, a weak catgirl named Lucy with incredible diplomatic skills but very poor fighting skills.And she was the only one left.Elise got closer and closer to Miyu, finding new strange secrets about her more and more until eventually no ordinary things were left to find and it was all the darkness of Miyu’s heart. This was when Elise discovered the worst secret of Miyu’s.They were lying together under the silver canopy of Elise’s outdoor bedroom (located in a tiny outbuilding ((the size of a small house)) amongst the gorgeous flowers of her twelve acre gardens) when the blonde decided to finally ask about the maid’s ears.“You’ve been wearing those ears since you arrived at the manor. Won’t you take them off for a little while?” Moving to touch the silky black fur (much better quality than most of the other maids’), Elise was shocked as Miyu flinched and leaned away from her. The maid was very well-groomed now that she was living in the manor full time, but there were still so many hints of that tiny girl in a war-torn country, desperate to escape from the savagery of the catgirls and the violence of the humans.“I can’t Ma’am.” She replied, remaining respectful despite her closeness to her mistress. Miyu’s brother had always told her to be careful around other people. Even if they claimed to trust her, they could be lying. She had learnt that the hard way when she watched him die before her very eyes for trusting the wrong person. People told her that it wasn’t even the other person’s fault; that they had both been betrayed. Either way, it had certainly told her that trusting people was the worst thing a catgirl could do. Even the leader of the catgirl rebellion, the brilliant and oddly diabolical Martine, had taught her armies that as they prepared to fight the next waves of gun-wielding humans. “Why not?” Miyu struggled not to smile at the cuteness of her mistress’ pout. She really didn’t want to give in to her latest crush. Already she had revealed too much, and she was terrified as to what this foolish trust would do to her. Trust killed her family and ruined her life- what was she doing now?“B-because... Ma’am. I can’t.” She had gone too far. The dark-haired maid had talked herself into a corner as usual, and now she couldn’t make any excuses. At least her hair was long enough to obscure the area of ears would have been had she been human. “Why. Not?” Elise’s beautiful green was slowly tainted with red as her impatience turned to anger, and Miyu was compelled to tell the truth as much as it would confirm her death.Maybe dying here wouldn’t be so bad.“Because I’m stupid, ma’am. I’m stupid, and I’m worthless, and I came to the wrong place at the wrong time in the hopes of having any chance of retaining my life. But I suppose I always knew that it was time to join my siblings.” With a sigh of bleak resignation, Miyu raised her hair to reveal the absence of human ears- to show Elise that her glossy black cat ears were, in fact, completely real.Elise gasped, eyes widening comically at the realisation.Then, just as Miyu expected to be hit, her mistress squealed with delight.“Oh my goodness, you’re a real catgirl? I’ve wanted to meet one all my life! Can I pet your ears?” And suddenly Miyu wasn’t looking at her foul-tempered, melodramatic mistress, but a small girl excited by the simplest of things. Slowly, with the faintest glimmer of hope for her life gradually blossoming inside her, she nodded her head.Releasing another squeal, Elise started to stroke the black fur on her ears with an expression of pure joy lighting up her usually angry features.Miyu smiled.Then the worry returned.“M-ma’am...” She started, worry turning to panic.“Mm?” Elise mumbled almost sleepily, tracing her hand down Miyu’s locks until it was resting lazily on the pristine white bedsheets. “Aren’t you going to turn me in?” At that, Elise shot up, her eyes wide once more. This time, instead of shock all Miyu saw was hurt.“Of course not! You’re my best maid! And besides, I love catgirls. My family kept a lot of refugees here during the War. Most of them died before I was born, and the rest were moved on to other places so we wouldn’t get caught with them. That’s why I’ve never met one. I wouldn’t turn you in like that, Miyu.” The sincerity of the noble’s words struck a chord with the catgirl. She really meant what she was saying... a faint blush rose to her cheeks in response.“Ma’am...” she repeated, all other words lost to her as Elise’s sank in.“Perhaps I should refer to you by your true name. Charcoal, right?” Laughing softly, Miyu decided that she didn’t want Elise to call her that. That was her old name, from the time in which she hated humanity for being so vile. But now, going against everything she had once stood for for a stupid crush which set her heart alight with pure, golden hope...“Coffee, actually.” Elise looked mildly offended (possibly at herself for getting the name ‘wrong’, maybe not), but didn’t say anything.Instead, she performed the one action she could to make this catgirl know that she trusted her completely and wouldn’t do a thing to harm her ever. She pulled Coffee’s face to hers and pressed their lips together.