The Waste Problem

After finishing breakfast and getting ready, I went with Caro to the bakery across from my part-time job.

“Good morning, Caro-chan.”

“Mornin’! Big brother, Caro big sis!”

“Good morning, Marie-san, Catherine-chan.”

Before I knew it, Marie had hugged me and pressed her chest against my arm, purring in a sultry voice.

“Good morning, darling. I was lonely all by myself last night.”

“Marie-san, what are you doing this early? Ugh—now my clothes are covered in flour.”

Her voice was seductive, but she’d come out in the middle of work, so the visual impact was… debatable. Since she’d hugged me while wearing clothes coated in baking flour, my uniform ended up dusted white.

“Boo. I was lonely last night. I slept all alone, all lonely.”

“Mom, you slept with me last night, didn’t you?”

“Huh? Did I?”

Watching their morning routine in full swing, Caro suddenly burst out laughing.

“Pff—what was that? That totally hit my weird funny bone.”

Then I, Marie, and Catherine all started laughing along with her.

“Ah—right, Kent-san. There’s something that’s been bothering me. Will you hear me out?”

Marie snapped into work mode and spoke to me.

“What is it? Something wrong?”

“I want you to take a look at this.”

With that, Marie led me behind the shop. Worried, Caro and Catherine followed us.

“Actually, the trash from making bread has been piling up, and I don’t know what to do with it. Up until now, we just burned everything to dispose of it, but the containers that held tuna and things like that won’t burn.”

Where Marie pointed, there was a heap of empty cans and all sorts of other trash piled up haphazardly.

“Yeah, you can’t burn empty cans. And this and this—if you burn them, they release harmful gases, so you can’t burn those either.”

“Huh? Really? I thought they burned kind of weird, but they were harmful?”

Marie said that, startled by what I told her.

“Kent-san, if we don’t do something, we’re going to overflow with trash sooner or later.”

Caro said worriedly too.

“Big brother… is our house gonna be full of garbage?”

Catherine looked anxious as well.

“I’ll go back home for a moment.”

“Huh? O-okay.”

After telling Marie that, I went back to the house.

“Umm… right, there was that icon I’d been wondering about…”

I took out the ordering tablet and selected the trash-can icon in the corner of the home screen.

It was the exact same method as regular municipal trash collection… I backed out, bought the designated bags, and returned to the shop.

“I’m back. So, please put the trash in these bags. Then I’m going to set up a collection box—where should I place it?”

“Then put it around here.”

I operated the device at the spot Marie indicated and installed the collection box. A large box suddenly appeared, and everyone was shocked.

“Then put the bagged trash into this box. It should be collected by tomorrow and be gone.”

“How does this even work…?”

Marie looked the box over with fascination. It had a slightly unusual shape, so it must have seemed rare. For me, it was just a normal trash collection box with a lid—something I’d seen all the time in my old world—so it didn’t feel strange at all.

With the garbage problem solved, the four of us returned to our stations and started getting ready to open. There was already a long line before opening again today. It looked like it was going to be busy.

Caro and I finished our morning work and went to school. Morning classes ended, and it became lunch break. When I went to our usual spot behind the school building, Caro, Rachel, and Josette were already waiting.

“Kent-san, good work.”

Caro spoke as if she were praising me, and I almost thought, We all took the same classes, so we’re probably equally tired.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Alright, let’s eat lunch.”

I took out our usual failed bread experiments, and the four of us started eating however we liked.

“Um, for drinks—coffee or tea, which do you want?”

“Big brother, you have coffee? I want some, I want some.”

“Then I shall have this ‘coffee’ as well.”

“Then I’ll have tea. Kent-san, please handle theirs.”

Caro started preparing her tea herself. With warm tea and black coffee already in two stainless-steel mugs, she poured them into paper cups.

“Milk and sugar… Akane, you took everything in, right? How about you, Josette-san?”

“I’ll take everything in too, please.”

“Big brother, you remembered.”

I prepared their coffee and then made my own as well.

“Waaah, I missed this. Coffee.”

Rachel drank happily.

“Mm… it feels a bit bitter, but it smells nice.”

Josette sipped the coffee cautiously. Caro, used to tea, drank without a second thought. After lunch, we all just sat there blankly, drinking, with no real conversation.

“Oh—there was something I wanted to ask Akane.”

“What is it, Big brother?”

Even though it still felt strange that the game’s heroine was my little sister, the way we addressed each other had settled into what it always was. It was fine right now since we were with people who knew the situation, but I reminded myself to be careful when others were around.

“What are you going to do about the three romance targets from here?”

“Honestly, I’m already feeling totally unmotivated… Stat-wise, I think I could still clear all their routes, but the game and real life feel different now. And the person who was supposed to be my rival is like this…”

As Rachel said that, she glanced at Josette, who was smirking while clinging to one of my arms, and Caro, who was smirking while clinging to my other arm. I didn’t even sense a trace of “villainess” or “entourage” from those two anymore.

“Speaking of an entourage… sorry to say it like that, but there was one more tall girl, right?”

Rachel said it, and I remembered too.

“Ah, yeah, there was. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her lately…”

If I recalled right, she was tall, with purple hair tied back… I’d almost forgotten she existed.

“Caro-san.”

“Yes, Kent-san?”

I spoke to Caro as she clung to my arm.

“There was that tall girl who used to be with you a lot, with her hair tied back. Remember?”

“Um… you mean Prim? Could it be you prefer tall, slender girls over small girls like me?”

“What did you say? Then we’ll have to sink that girl into the sea, won’t we.”

Caro sounded crushed, and Josette started saying something dangerous.

“That’s not what I meant. Akane and I were just talking about how we haven’t seen her lately, but you weren’t listening.”

They both looked like their minds had wandered off to another world and they hadn’t heard a word.

“Oh, that’s what you meant. Sorry for panicking. Prim… yeah, I don’t think I’ve run into her lately either.”

“She’s the daughter of a merchant house, so perhaps there was some benefit to staying close to me. Now that you mention it, I don’t recall seeing her recently either. If you’re curious, she should be in the first-year classes—why not go check on her?”

It seemed neither Caro nor Josette had seen Prim lately. I was a little curious, but since I had no connection to her beyond that, I decided to switch gears and move on.