“Older brother, it’s morning. If you don’t get up quickly, I’ll kiss you!”
The next morning, a voice whispered in Kent’s ear as he slept. Kent was pulled back to reality from the dream world by the familiar voice.
“Rachel, good morning. Thank you for waking me up.”
“Good morning, Older brother. If you’d slept a little longer, I would have woken you with a morning kiss, but that’s a shame.”
It was Rachel who came to wake Kent. When Kent opened his eyes, her face was close to his. Rachel’s face had no striking features and was average, but each facial part was arranged in a delicate balance, which was one of her great attractions.
“There’s no reason why I can’t be awake.”
“Yes, yes. I understand. It’s Older brother’s wish. Here’s your good morning kiss. Mwah!”
As Kent lamented waking up so soon, Rachel, sensing his feelings, lightly kissed him with a relieved expression.
“Pouty face!”
As Kent and Rachel shared a morning moment with their lips touching, a protesting voice rose from beside them.
“Huh, Marie, you were awake?”
“I was awake, is there something?”
“Hahaha, good morning, Marie. If you’re both awake, my mission is complete. So, I’ll be going now.”
“Ah, Rachel, don’t run away!”
Marie, who should have been sleeping next to them, had her eyes open, and she pouted her cheeks in a cute expression, protesting. However, opposite to her cute face, a jealous and overwhelming presence overwhelmed Rachel, who immediately retreated from the room without resistance.
“Rachel-chan beat me to it. Sniffle, sniffle.”
“But, Marie, you usually don’t wake up so early. What’s the matter this morning?”
“I can bake bread after a long time! I’m so excited that I woke up early.”
“I see.”
Marie was usually still sleeping at this time, and whoever woke up first would wake her. But today, she was so excited about baking bread that she woke up early like a child before a field trip.
“R-rather, please give me a good morning kiss too.”
“Understood. Mwah.”
“Ehehe, I got a good morning kiss from Kent-san.”
As Kent and Marie’s lips met, and seeing Marie’s delighted face, Kent couldn’t help but feel another emotion well up inside him.
“Marie-san!”
“Ah, Kent-san!”
Kent had been intimate with Marie last night as well, so they were both naked. Kent embraced Marie, feeling the warmth and softness of her body.
“What will you do, Kent-san?”
“That’s decided…”
Kent and Marie became aroused and began to move closer, about to take things further.
“Kent, and Mom, we don’t have much time, so don’t get lost in your own little world and flirt! Wake up quickly!”
” “Sorry.” ”
At that moment, the room door opened, and Catherine entered, raising her voice and telling them to wake up. Kent and Marie were in the middle of a passionate moment but snapped back to reality. Complying with her words, they began to get ready to get up.
“Rachel, will you be alright without being at Store No. 2?”
“Sniffle, sniffle, gulp, gulp. Actually, it would be better to be at Store No. 2, but today is the記念 day of the reopening of Store No. 1. As an employee, I think I have to show my face at least for this day.”
“I see.”
It was breakfast time, and while Rachel was eating with them as a matter of course, Kent, worried about Store No. 2, asked her. She explained that she would be working at Store No. 1 only for today.
“Older brother, I haven’t heard anything from the school since then, but when does it reopen?”
“Hmm, I wonder. I don’t know if you ask me.”
“That’s true. It’s already the end of February. March is still not directly relevant to us, but since there’s a big event like the graduation ceremony, I hope the schedule doesn’t get messed up. Ah, speaking of which, Prince and Sophie are third-years, so it’s not entirely unrelated.”
Rachel talked about the school being closed since the incident in the duchy. Among her remarks, she brought up the approaching graduation ceremony.
“Right, the graduation ceremony. Time flies. Marie, do you have any memories of your graduation ceremony?”
“Eh? Me? I had a lot of difficult times back then, so all I remember is how painful it was to listen to the Headmaster’s long speech at the graduation ceremony.”
When Kent asked Marie, who had already graduated from school, if she had any memorable stories about the graduation ceremony, she glanced at Catherine and spoke of her memories from that time with a wry smile.
“Hmm?”
Catherine, noticing Marie’s gaze, looked at Marie with a puzzled expression, wondering why she was talking while looking at her.
“Never mind that, we need to start preparing the shop. Yes, yes, everyone finish your meals quickly, and let’s head to the shop.”
“That’s right. I got so caught up in the conversation.”
At Marie’s urging, Kent and his companions quickened their eating pace, finished their meal, and headed to the shop immediately.
“Good morning. It looks like everyone is here.”
When Kent and his companions finished eating and moved to the shop, Elnet, Josette, Caro, and Patty were already there. Including Emily, who was already at the shop, all the employees of Store No. 1 except Hanako were present.
“Alright, let’s start with the opening preparations. There are still some damaged areas, so please be careful not to get injured while you work.”
Marie’s gaze shifted to the broken windows, and she warned them to be careful of injuries. For now, the shop had been repaired to a usable state, but due to the explosion, some windowpanes remained broken, and the holes in the floor, walls, and ceiling were temporarily patched with boards. Also, because it was a fire-attribute explosion, various places were blackened with soot. As a precaution, everyone tried cleaning together, but they couldn’t completely remove the dirt.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had to draw water like this.”
The first task Kent took on was drawing water. Until then, water had been pumped up from the well located behind the store using an electric pump, and then plumbing for tap water was attached to easily use water in the shop. However, having lost the source of power, the electric pump could no longer be used. Now, the pump had been removed and replaced with the manual method using a pulley, which had been used previously. Kent pulled the rope attached to the pulley, lifting the bucket of water tied to its end.
“I’ll transfer this to a bucket and carry it into the shop.”
Kent transferred the water drawn from the well into a bucket and carried it to the workshop.
“Thank you, Kent-san. For the time being, please make about three more trips.”
“Roger!”
Kent poured the water he had painstakingly carried into a barrel set up in the workshop to store it. However, Marie told him it wasn’t enough, so he went back to the well with the empty bucket.
“It was something we did without thinking until we installed the pump, but doing it again now, it’s quite a difficult task.”
Kent once again pulled the rope attached to the well and drew up water. Before renovating the shop, this was an ordinary task, but once you’ve experienced convenience, doing the same task again reminded Kent firsthand of how hard drawing water was.
“Hmph, hmph, hmph.”
“Yes, yes, that’s the way.”
When Kent finished drawing water and returned to the workshop, Elnet was trying her hand at making bread dough. Emily was next to her, guiding her work.
“Good job, you two. Elnet, is the bread dough coming out well?”
“Hmph, this is quite a difficult, hmph, task, hmph.”
Kent had transferred the water from the bucket to the barrel and then spoke to Elnet. She replied without stopping her work.
“Before, hmph, I just had to throw the ingredients into the machine, but hmph, it’s this much work when done by hand. Hmph, Emily, how’s this?”
“Well, we could knead it a bit more.”
“R-right, understood. Hmph.”
For making bread dough, they had previously used machines powered by electricity to knead the dough, but since it could no longer be used, they had to do it by hand. This required strength, so Elnet volunteered for the task, but it was her first time doing it. Since it would be a daily necessity from now on, Elnet was receiving detailed instructions from Emily on how to knead it, and she seemed to be struggling with the amount of force required as she worked.
“Don’t want to disturb you, so I’ll go back to drawing water.”
“Ah, Kent, hang in there.”
“Master, fight on!”
Kent thought he would be disturbing them if he talked too much, so he decided to go back to drawing water.
