Kent’s Boosting Measures

“Kent-san, was it all right not to tell Rachel-chan about that?”

“It’s fine. I have to teach my little sister that you can’t make money the easy way.”

After leaving the shop, Kent and Marie talked during the short time before they reached home.

“Mother, Kent-san, welcome back. Dinner is ready.”

“I’m home, Catherine. Thank you as always.”

When they returned home, Catherine, wearing an apron, greeted them. In the kitchen, Al was making dinner. Recently, the combination of Catherine and Al had often been making dinner. After Al started helping, the black objects Catherine had served until now stopped appearing, and normal dishes started being lined up. Today as well, dishes using vegetables harvested from the backyard were lined up as the main dishes. Since the taste was not bad, in a sense, Kent felt lonely when the black objects did not appear on the dining table.

“We’ve had a lot of meat dishes lately, so vegetable dishes are a big help.”

Marie seemed to have been concerned about the flesh around her stomach lately, as her meals had improved and the amount she ate had increased. As far as Kent could see, her ideal proportions had not changed, and she had such a beautiful body that he could not believe she had one child.

“Marie-san, I don’t think you’ve gotten fat.”

“It’s hard in all sorts of ways to maintain the kind of figure Kent-san likes. If I let my guard down, flesh gets added on right away.”

“Huh? Did we ever talk about my preferred figure?”

“Oh my, how awful. My mouth slipped without thinking.”

Marie made an expression as if she had messed up. Kent had never even told his little sister about his ideal body type, and of course, he had never told Marie, who had that exact body type, either.

“Who did you hear that from?”

“Um, actually, I heard it from Emily. She said the body type she takes when she makes herself visible is matched to the one Kent-san considers ideal. That alone didn’t surprise me, but apparently, since my figure happened to fit that exactly, she copied my figure as it was to save magic power.”

“So that’s how it was.”

Marie, having given up, confessed. Kent had recognized Emily as a fairy, so he had not paid attention to her figure. Now that it had been mentioned, it was certainly the body type Kent preferred.

It seemed that making oneself visible consumed a fair amount of something called magic power. The amount of magic power consumed seemed to differ depending on the size taken when becoming visible. Because of that, Al made herself visible in the form of a child, and Mike in the form of a cat. It seemed that the size they could make visible also differed depending on the amount of magic power they possessed. Thinking back on it, Emily had maintained her current form even before the shop opened. Thinking about it now, maintaining herself at that size must have consumed a considerable amount of magic power.

“Hey, Al.”

“Yes, what is it?”

Since he could not get an answer even by thinking about it himself, he decided to ask the fairy herself.

“How different is it in terms of magic power when you make yourself visible on your own and when you copy another person’s body type to make yourself visible?”

“Let me see… In my case, if it is a copy, even though this body type would normally be my limit, I can become about as large as Marie-sama.”

Al’s body suddenly grew larger.

“Like this, Master.”

Al stood beside Marie and showed him.

“It really is the same body build.”

After Kent finished checking, Al returned to her original form. Kent had another question that came to mind, but there was no point in talking about it here, so he decided to ask Emily herself directly about the rest.

“That’s nice. I’ll do my best to get a figure Kent-san likes too.”

Catherine, who had been listening beside them, seemed to have decided on a new goal.

“Unfortunately… Catherine’s chest seems to take after your father’s bloodline…”

“My aunts and older female cousins on my father’s side are… Ahh!”

After Al told her that, Catherine raised a loud voice. Then she dejectedly dropped her shoulders.

“Marie-san, what does that mean?”

Kent asked Marie the reason.

“It feels strange for me to say this, but all the women in my late husband’s family line have rather small chests.”

“Ah, so that’s what it means.”

After hearing that, Kent understood. After that, they ate dinner, took baths, and went to sleep. Since they had talked about chests today, Kent became restless, and at night he and Marie got more excited than usual.

The next day, a little fatigue from last night showed, but since his remedial lessons were finished, Kent would be working full-time starting today. First, he began by waking Marie, who was sleeping happily beside him while drooling.

“Yes, then please pay attention. Starting today, Kent-san will be working full-time. However, starting next week, Kent-san and Caro-chan will be absent during the summer vacation period. I think that will be quite a drop in manpower, but let’s all do our best.”

Recently, in order to communicate with the second shop, everyone had started gathering for a morning meeting before the first shop opened. However, Laura, who lived at the second shop, was not in this place. Marie had decided that it would be too much to ask her to come all the way just for the morning meeting.

“Then, does the second shop have any announcements?”

“No, there are none.”

Marie asked Rachel. Rachel had lost her energy over the past few days, and today, she looked especially terrible.

“Hey, are you all right?”

“…Huh? Did you say something?”

Kent spoke to Rachel out of concern, but she seemed absentminded.

“You were the one who said you wanted to run the shop, right? Marie-san entrusted an important shop to you, so what are you going to do with that kind of attitude?”

“But what am I supposed to do? The sales keep going down day by day, I have to pay Caro back too, and the more I think about it, the more my head gets completely full.”

The words Kent said to put spirit into her seemed to rub Rachel the wrong way, and she raised her voice.

“Um, if it’s repayment to me, any time is fine…”

Caro said that apologetically. The preparation costs for the shop were in the form of Caro lending them to Rachel. Marie’s bakery was strictly in the position of lending the property and signboard to Rachel, who had said she wanted to create a new shop. Ultimately, it would be best if the second shop could operate on an independent profit-and-loss basis, but for now, it was being operated with the two shops combined, and if the second shop produced profits, they would go toward repayment to Caro. However, at present, the expenses were higher than the income, and three days had passed since opening. When everything was totaled, it was in the red.

“Um, opening time is also approaching, so today’s morning meeting ends here. Then everyone, take your positions. We’re opening the shop.”

After saying that, Marie opened the shop. When she unlocked the door, the waiting customers flooded into the shop all at once.

“Then, I’m going.”

The opening time of the second shop was set considerably later than that of the first shop. Because of that, Rachel helped at the first shop until before the second shop opened. To be precise, this was when she procured bread and other items for the second shop.

Around the time the peak of customer traffic had passed, Rachel walked dejectedly toward the second shop while carrying a large load.

“Now then, since Rachel-chan has also gone to the second shop, we will have a short meeting.”

Leaving the shop interior to the fairy duo of Emily and Al, Marie, Kent, Caro, Catherine, Josette, Elnette, and Patty gathered in the room at the back of the workshop where the original firewood oven had been placed. In order not to lower Emily’s work efficiency as she moved at a speed beyond human limits, Kent chose this room, which was away from the flow of movement. As expected, with this many people gathered, it felt a little cramped.

“Then let’s start with the report. Elnette, Josette-san, how were the reactions to that matter?”

Kent decided to ask Elnette and Josette, who had been off due to family circumstances since the day the second shop opened, about the results of what he had asked them to do.