Antiperspirant Spray

The date changed, and it became Monday.

As usual, I woke up early with everyone else to prepare for opening the shop. When I entered, Emily and Rachel were already cleaning.

“Good morning, Master, everyone.”

“Morning, big brother. Marie-san, Caro-san, Catherine-chan.”

We exchanged greetings, took our positions, and each started our preparations. Just having one extra person made the morning work much easier. Ever since the renovation, prep time had shortened, so we could wake up a little later than before—but mornings were still early.

When opening time arrived, customers flooded in. The people who came at this hour bought bread for breakfast or lunch before heading to work. Unpackaged bread didn’t keep well; bread bought the day before would harden and lose its flavor. Because of that, it was common sense to buy bread the same day. However, at Marie’s bakery, we wrapped each loaf in plastic bags before selling them, so the softness could be maintained for about a day without issue. From a business standpoint, we wanted customers to eat it the same day, so we didn’t advertise that fact. Customers continued to follow their old habits and came every morning to buy bread.

Once the morning rush ended, we started baking bread for delivery to the school. The quantity was substantial, so aside from keeping the shop attended, almost everyone pitched in. Still, thanks to the increased manpower, once we finished baking the delivery quota, we had a little breathing room before it was time for us to head to school. Having time to rest was honestly a relief.

“Then we’re off to school.”

“Take care.”

Seeing us off, Marie, Catherine, and Emily waved as Caro, Rachel, and I headed to school.

“Sorry. I kind of interrupted you two walking to school together.”

“It’s fine. We’re going the same way anyway.”

“Rachel-san, you don’t need to worry about it.”

Rachel apologized apologetically. We arrived at school and headed to our respective classrooms.

Summer was approaching, and the temperature had been steadily rising. Compared to the last few days, today was a bit hotter. The classroom was thick with heat, and a pretty harsh smell hung in the air. Among commoners, except for a few, there wasn’t a widespread habit of bathing, so body odor tended to be strong.

(This is rough… and it’s only going to get worse as it gets hotter.)

I thought that to myself, but since it was an individual issue, there wasn’t much one person could do about it.

“Kent-kun, you smell kind of nice.”

“Huh?”

I was startled by the sudden comment. Usually, only Josette talked to me in class, but this time it was a girl sitting next to me. She was average-sized, but ever since switching to summer uniforms, glimpses of her chest showed through gaps in her clothes, and I’d admittedly been enjoying the view.

“Well, I do bathe every day, so maybe that’s why?”

“So you have a bath at home? That’s nice. I asked my parents to install one too, but they said we don’t need it… In summer, body odor really bothers me.”

It seemed girls were concerned about body odor too. In this world, men had more say than women, and unless a father approved, installing a bath wasn’t possible. That made it a high hurdle for commoner families. Apparently, my father had liked baths, so our house had always had one.

“Do I smell that bad? Want to take a sniff?”

She leaned closer—and a powerful odor assaulted my nose. Seeing my reaction, she spoke sadly.

“So it does smell, huh…”

“Just… a bit.”

Honestly, it was enough to make me feel sick, but I softened it out of sympathy.

“Wait here a moment.”

Having someone with that smell right next to me was unbearable, so I stepped away, ordered an antiperspirant spray through my device, and returned.

“Sorry. Could you raise your arm a little?”

“Like this?”

She did as told, and I sprayed the antiperspirant.

“Ah! It’s cold!”

She jumped back in surprise.

“It’s fine. This should help reduce the smell.”

“Really? Then… please.”

She hesitantly raised her other arm, and I sprayed that side too.

“How is it?”

“It smells a lot better now.”

“Really? Thank you, Kent-kun.”

Seeing this, other girls started lining up, asking me to spray them too. If it helped clean the air in the classroom, I figured why not, and sprayed everyone who asked.

The classroom filled with a sweet fragrance from the deodorized girls, and the boys were clearly shaken by it. Interestingly, none of the boys asked for the spray themselves. As a result, the stronger odor from the boys remained, and the classroom air didn’t fully improve.

At lunch break, the usual four of us—Josette, Caro, Rachel, and me—gathered behind the school building.

“Kent-san, what was that thing you were spraying on some students this morning?”

Josette asked, having been curious all day.

“Uh… the antiperspirant spray?”

“That must be it.”

“Big brother, you brought antiperspirant spray to school?”

“This one.”

I pulled it out of my bag where I’d kept it with my lunch.

“Wow, big brother, you’ve got good stuff. Let me borrow it.”

Rachel snatched it and sprayed herself.

“This cool feeling brings back memories. I used this all the time at summer conventions.”

“Oh my, you really do smell nice now.”

“That makes it sound like I smelled bad before.”

Rachel snapped back at Josette, pretending to be annoyed. I thought how unimaginable this scene would have been not long ago. In the end, Josette and Caro tried the spray too, checking its effectiveness on each other.

Lunch break ended, and afternoon classes began. As usual, the lessons were low-level, and I started to get bored. I glanced at the girl next to me and saw she was sleepy, nodding off. Occasionally, when the tip of her chest peeked through her clothes, my attention drifted there more than to the lesson. She must have been extremely sleepy—when she nodded off hard, she bonked her head on the desk with a loud thud. The rest of the class looked equally drowsy and didn’t seem to notice, but she woke up from the pain. Our eyes met, and she realized I’d been looking. She quickly covered her chest with both hands, her face turning red.

(Crap. She noticed.)

My heart raced, but even after class ended, she didn’t bring it up. After that, the three of us—Caro, Rachel, and I—went home and went back to our usual bakery work.

A few days passed, and it became Friday. As Marie’s bakery reached closing time and we were finishing up the final cleanup, that’s when it happened.