“Welcome back, Master.”
“Thanks, Al.”
“You’re welcome.”
Kent petted Al’s head as he came down to the first floor and spoke to him.
“Has anything changed while I was upstairs?”
“Well, if anything’s changed…”
“Keeeent!”
A voice filled with hatred echoed from behind Kent.
“I’m being patient too, so what are you doing during work hours?”
“Yes!”
The owner of the voice was Marie. From her tone, she seemed quite angry. Kent turned around, breaking out in a cold sweat.
“I’m not stopping you from doing such things with Elnet, but it is technically working hours. I’ll be deducting pay for the time you took off for breaks.”
“…Yes.”
Kent had so many breaks deducted from his salary.
“Al!”
Kent called out to Al, intending to ask for an explanation, but he had vanished.
(I’ve been escaped from)
Al had sensed danger and fled.
“Well then, good work today. I’m looking forward to tomorrow as well.”
“Good work.”
After that, the busy evening hours began, and closing time arrived in the blink of an eye. The sales calculations were finished, and the day’s work was done.
“Alright Emily, I’m leaving the rest to you.”
“Yes, it’s in my hands.”
Entrusting the shop to Emily, Kent and his companions headed home. That night, Marie, driven by a competitive spirit, was very proactive, and Kent found it difficult to get any sleep.
Several days passed, and it was the last Saturday of the year. It was decided that Marie’s Bakery would have a big cleaning day.
“Thank you for coming today, even though it’s our day off.”
This wasn’t a regular business day, but a cleaning day, so the meeting time was set later. The participants this time were Kent, Marie, Josette, Emily, and Al – five people in total. Others couldn’t make it due to their own commitments.
“Let’s focus on the areas that don’t get cleaned regularly. Josette, you’ll handle the kitchen. Emily, the dining and sales spaces. Al, the exterior. I’ll take the workshop. Kent, please help out wherever you think you’re needed.”
Marie assigned tasks and roles to everyone, and they began cleaning.
“Al, is there anything I can help with?”
“Not at the moment, Master. Please go help the others.”
Kent went outside to the area he predicted would be the most labor-intensive. There, Al had summoned several vines, equipped them with cleaning tools, and was skillfully polishing the walls, even in hard-to-reach places.
“Al, it’s good you’re cleaning the solar panels, but be careful not to scratch them.”
“Understood, Roger that.”
Two vines clung to the solar panels on the roof, diligently cleaning them. The electricity required for Marie’s Bakery was generated here. Cleaning removed accumulated dirt, increasing power generation efficiency. However, scratching the panels could reduce output and potentially cause malfunctions. Since cleaning required caution, Kent had informed Al of this. Other vines also extended to the walls and glass, with cleaning operations proceeding concurrently.
“I’ll leave the rest to you then.”
Kent judged that Al didn’t need his help and entered the shop.
“Emily doesn’t seem to need help either.”
For Emily, the shop-attached fairy, cleaning the inside of the shop was something she did regularly, so it posed no problem. Not wanting to interfere with her efficient work, Kent headed for the kitchen.
“Marie, is there anything I can help with?”
“Hmm, could you clean the oven?”
“Got it.”
Kent prepared the cleaning tools and got to work. He performed daily cleaning, but dirt and debris had accumulated in areas like the top of the oven and the gap between it and the floor. He brought over a stepladder and began cleaning the top. The oven at Marie’s Bakery was a large commercial model, about as tall as Kent. Therefore, without something to stand on, he couldn’t reach the back. Kent worked carefully to maintain his balance.
“Alright, now for the bottom.”
After finishing the top, he scraped out the debris accumulated in the gap at the bottom.
“Ah.”
“Kent, is something wrong?”
“N-nothing at all.”
Since it wasn’t a business day, Marie was wearing comfortable clothes instead of her shop uniform. Unlike her usual long skirt, this one was only knee-length. As Kent bent down to clean the area under the oven, he found himself looking up into Marie’s skirt while she was cleaning the ventilation fan from a step stool. He involuntarily made a sound, but somehow managed to cover it up without Marie noticing.
(She’s wearing black today.)
Though he’d managed to cover it up, the image of Marie’s black panties was firmly imprinted in Kent’s mind.
“This dirt here is proving stubborn.”
After finishing the oven, Kent moved on to clean other equipment used for bread production. After a while, Marie began cleaning the workbench in the center of the workshop. As Marie wiped the surface of the table with a cloth, Kent’s gaze involuntarily drifted to one spot.
*Plump*
*Plump*
With every movement of the cloth, Marie’s large, ample chest swayed.
“Hmm?”
“Hah!”
Marie noticed his gaze and looked towards Kent, who quickly averted his eyes.
“There we go.”
*Plump*
“And up.”
*Plump*
Kent found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the rhythmically swaying curves.
“Kent, stop staring and get back to work.”
“Sorry.”
Marie, noticing Kent’s gaze, admonished him.
“I suppose it can’t be helped. Kent, come here.”
“Huh? Yes.”
Called by Marie, Kent moved closer to her.
“There we go.”
“Eh?”
Marie suddenly unbuttoned her top and revealed her ample cleavage.
“Kent, put your face in.”
“Like this?”
“Yes. Here I go.”
“Whoa, so soft.”
Marie pressed her large breasts against Kent’s face and cupped them with her hands a few times.
“This… this is that famous thing from the RPG!”
“Rachel said that if I have large breasts, you’d be happy, so even though it’s a little embarrassing, I decided to try it,” Marie said playfully.
“I certainly enjoyed that.”
“Really? I’m glad then. That’ll be 50G.”
“Huh?”
It turned out that Rachel’s plan included charging money. Kent paid Marie 50G.
“Alright, alright, break time’s over. Let’s get back to cleaning.”
“Understood.”
Marie and Kent, sharing a warm, fuzzy feeling, resumed their cleaning.
“Kent, Marie, I’ve prepared lunch for you. I took the liberty of using the shop’s ingredients, but I hope it’s alright.”
Josette had prepared lunch. Using the shop’s ingredients, it was a simple meal, but its colorful appearance and balanced composition were very appetizing.
“Yes, it’s perfectly fine. We allow employees to use shop ingredients anytime,” Marie said.
At Marie’s Bakery, employees were generally allowed to eat shop ingredients during their breaks as a form of employee welfare. However, to keep track of inventory, they were required to record the ingredients used in a notebook. Looking at the notebook again, Kent noticed variations. Rachel and Caro tended to use a lot of sweets, Elnet primarily used meat, Josette used small amounts of many different items, and Patty, perhaps out of hesitation, had very few entries. Al and Emily generally didn’t eat, so Kent, Marie, and Josette decided to eat lunch together.
“Josette, this is delicious.”
“Thank you. Although, I mostly just heated it up in the microwave, so it wasn’t much trouble. Oh, and that reminds me, I’ll be making dinner tonight.”
“Huh?”
Kent and Marie exclaimed in surprise at Josette’s statement.
“I finally got permission from Father to stay overnight after asking him several times. So, I’ll be staying at Kent’s house tonight. Is that okay with you?”
“I don’t mind, but Marie?”
“Huh? You’re asking me? I’m living at Kent’s place as a guest, so I’ll follow Kent’s decision.”
Marie’s house was on the second floor of the workshop, but somehow she had ended up crashing at Kent’s and was living with him. They had been living together for quite some time, so Kent asked the question with a family-like feeling, but Marie seemed to understand the situation.
“Alright. In that case, Josette, you can stay tonight.”
“Naturally.”
Josette said it as if it were obvious, but her expression was clearly delighted. Honestly, she had been anticipating the possibility of being refused, given the suddenness of the request.
“Well then, Kent, you helped me this morning, so could you take care of the kitchen this afternoon?”
“Understood.”
After lunch, as per Marie’s instructions, Kent decided to clean the kitchen with Josette in the afternoon.
