is a Japanese light novel series written by Tsukasa Kōzuki, with accompanying illustrations by Munyū. The series includes 13 novels released between September 2006 and March 2012, published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. A manga adaptation by the illustrator group Nekoyashiki-Nekomaru was serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Moeoh magazine between the June 2008 and December 2008 issues. A drama CD based on the novels was released in September 2009. A 12-episode anime adaptation produced by Xebec and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired in Japan between January and March 2010. The anime has been licensed by Media Blasters for release in North America.
Plot
Akiharu Hino lost his parents at a young age and his uncle's family adopted him. He decides to enter a boarding school, Hakureiryō Academy, because he no longer wants to burden his relatives. He decides to take the admission exam and succeeds in entering the House Management Department, where the school trains servants for high society. He wants to become a butler, but his delinquent appearance frightens the female students, who make up the majority students. Being unable to get along with his classmates, Akiharu meets his childhood friend Tomomi Saikyō, a girl with a two-faced character who traumatized him many times when they were kids. Another girl named Selnia Iori Flameheart chases after him because of his looks and calls him suspicious. Still, Akiharu starts finding his feet at the school and his relationships with the girls improves.
Characters
Servant-ed class
The main protagonist of the story, he is considered to be a delinquent because of his red eyes and rough appearance (accented by a scar bisecting his left eyebrow). In contrast to his appearance, he has a caring personality, but he is dense in regard to girls and matters of the heart. Because of everyone's less than friendly perception of him, he is often falsely accused of perverted acts. He was tormented by his childhood friend Tomomi when they were younger. Now reacquainted, Tomomi is often behind the schemes leading to these misunderstandings.
He is well aware of Tomomi's convincing manipulative nature and devilish personality but is resigned to dealing with her pranks because she knows him so well that she is effectively blackmailing him into keeping quiet about her. On the brighter side, she tells him she will help him through to graduation, perhaps because she subconsciously cares for him or, more likely, simply because she enjoys having fun at school just being around him.
Akiharu's roommate and fellow servant-ed student. Kaoru is actually a cross-dressing girl (because of a strict father, who told her to graduate from Hakureiryō as a man). She has many fans in the upper-ed section and is easily mistaken to be a boy. She is rather cold to Akiharu at first, but slowly opens up to him. She is always worried her gender will be exposed, especially with sharing a room with Akiharu. She is simultaneously relieved and rather upset when Akiharu sees her naked from the waist up and shows no reaction. She has unconsciously developed feelings for Akiharu, something she realized when responding to a love letter from another female student. She holds a black belt in an unspecified martial art and is implied to be the daughter of a dojo, as shown in a flashback.
A clumsy maid at the academy who causes Akiharu much trouble. She has an older sister, Saori, in upper-ed. She used to be in upper-ed herself, but because of her family falling on hard times, she was forced to transfer to servant-ed. She is very inept at the tasks typically required of a maid and usually ends up making a mess of things.
A member of the academy's servant-ed class and one of the few boys in the entire school. He is an outright pervert who admits he only came to Hakureiryō because the girls who go to this school are either beautiful maids-in-training or high class ladies from prominent families. His perversion almost always causes him to sexually harass women and therefore invoke the wrath of Mikan.
A member of the academy's servant-ed class and one of the few boys in the entire school. He is rather a darling of the ladies in the servant-ed class.