New Employee

Rachel, Kent, and Caro entered the shop and began the cleanup work.

Each of them cleared away the scattered items.

The collected items were gathered and piled up in one spot.

“By the way, I understand why I’m along, but why did you bring Caro-san?”

Kent wasn’t particularly interested, but the thought occurred to him, so he asked Rachel.

“Eh? Because… well, you see?”

Rachel’s words were somehow unclear.

(I can’t exactly say it’s because I wanted to be with the person I like.)

“Eh? What was that?”

Kent couldn’t hear Rachel’s voice as she mumbled in a small whisper, so he asked again.

“Geez, it doesn’t matter. More importantly, let’s finish cleaning up quickly, okay?”

Saying so, Rachel forcefully cut off the conversation and returned to work.

When he looked toward Caro, she was looking this way with a smile.

“Does Caro-san know something?”

“I have a general idea, but you shouldn’t pry into a maiden’s secrets.”

Caro replied in that way and returned to the cleanup work.

Mike watched the three of them work while remaining seated.

The cleanup work inside the shop finished just as it was starting to get dark outside.

“We’ve finished cleaning for now, but what should we do with this trash?”

“Can’t we install those trash collection boxes that make things disappear on their own like the ones at the shop?”

Kent was thinking about how to dispose of the trash when Rachel made a suggestion.

The trash collection box was a convenient item where things would be gone by the next day if you put them in with a designated trash bag or a collection sticker attached.

If this could be installed, the trash problem would be solved.

“I wonder? Wait a moment.”

Saying so, Kent operated his terminal and performed a search.

“There is an entry for it, but where should we install it?”

“Umm…”

In the end, they decided to install the trash collection box behind the shop.

After the installation, they purchased designated trash bags and collection stickers, then tossed the trash into the collection box.

“It’s all cleaned up. Big Brother, Caro, thank you.”

The work finished as it became dark outside, and Rachel thanked them.

“Well then, shall we head back to the shop? What will you do, Caro?”

Rachel asked Caro.

“Let’s see. Since my house is closer to this location, I’ll head straight home.”

“Is that so? Then, Big Brother, please walk Caro home.”

“No, Akane is coming too. I can’t exactly let you go back alone.”

Kent spoke, judging that it was dangerous to let his younger sister walk the night roads alone.

“Ehh, won’t I be in the way of you two? Besides, at my old part-time job, I used to finish at this time and go home alone, you know?”

“I don’t know about your previous workplace. I’m worried, so we’re going home together. Got it?”

“Okaay.”

Rachel replied with a slightly happy expression.

“You two really get along well, don’t you?”

Caro spoke while smiling, as if she found their exchange amusing.

However, her complexion suddenly changed.

“What’s wrong, Caro-san?”

Kent noticed Caro’s abnormality and asked.

“Umm… it’s faint, but I can smell something. Something is here.”

Saying so, she turned toward the back.

It was dark inside the shop because the sun had set, and each of the three held a flashlight in their hands.

The place Caro was shining her light toward was the area with the stairs leading to the staff rooms on the second floor.

“Come to think of it, we haven’t gone beyond that door yet, but what’s there?”

Rachel asked Kent anxiously.

“When you open this door, there’s a staircase that allows you to go to the upper floor. Up there are rooms for live-in employees.”

“I see. Mike, do you know what’s there?”

“ZZZZzzzz…”

Before they knew it, Mike had curled up and was asleep.

Come to think of it, Kent had no memory of hearing his voice at all for a little while now.

“He’s sleeping. Should I wake him up?”

Kent spoke with an exasperated look.

“He’s finally asleep, so let’s just leave him be.”

Rachel said that, and they decided to leave him alone.

Mike had said he had no combat capabilities at all.

Because of that, she seemed to have judged him as being out of the fight this time.

“Well then, Big Brother, go check things out.”

Saying so, he was handed the broom Rachel had been using for cleaning.

“Ehh?”

“Big Brother, you’re a man, right? You have to show off your good side to Caro.”

“I guess I have no choice.”

Rachel spoke to Kent, who was not feeling up to it.

“So Caro-san, what kind of smell is it?”

First, he decided to get information about the opponent from Caro.

“Umm… this smell is probably a woman. It doesn’t seem like a ghost or a monster or anything like that. But it’s quite stinky; it feels like someone hasn’t taken a bath for a long time.”

“I see, a woman… well, let’s go check it out.”

Saying so, Kent climbed the stairs while being careful not to make any footsteps.

“Come to think of it, there were a lot of rooms here. What should I do…”

“Well, you see…”

“Uwah!!!”

An answer came back to the words he had intended to mutter to himself, and Kent let out a voice of surprise.

“Shhh, keep it down.”

The person who had called out from behind was Caro.

She made a gesture to be quiet by putting her index finger to her lips.

Rachel was also following behind her.

“Kent-san, it’s this room.”

The room Caro pointed to was the room where, when visiting with Marie previously, they had discovered what appeared to be a letter addressed to the family of an employee who worked there.

“Well then, I’m opening it, okay?”

Kent opened the door gently while being careful not to make a sound.

The moment he opened it, a powerful stench emitted from the room like a vagrant who hadn’t bathed for many days, and the three of them grimaced.

“Ugh, I can’t stand this.”

“Pfft.”

Kent and Rachel uttered the same words at the same time.

Whether that hit her funny bone or not, Caro was desperately holding back an outburst of laughter.

“Umm, she’s sleeping.”

A young woman was lying on the bed, breathing in her sleep.

Her appearance was such that her hair was disheveled and messy, the clothes she had cast off were tattered and dirty, and a strange odor was coming from them.

Since the woman was covered by a duvet, only her face was visible, but she looked dreadfully dirty.

“Big Brother, what should we do?”

“For now, I’d like to just let her sleep, but we have to head home too, and we need to ask about the circumstances, so I feel bad for her, but we have to wake her up.”

Kent made that judgment and decided to wake the woman sleeping on the bed.

“Excuse me, please wake up.”

“Nn… yaawn. Nn? Kyaa! Who are you people!?”

Her eyes opened, and once she confirmed the figures of Kent and the others, she jumped up from the bed.

“Ah.”

“Kyaa!”

Since her clothes had been cast off and scattered, he had an idea of what to expect, but she was in a state where she wasn’t wearing anything.

Her moderately sized breasts were exposed; the woman hurriedly hid her chest, but her lower half was in full view.

“Kyat!”

She hurriedly hid her lower half with both hands, but then her chest became fully visible, and when she tried to hide that, her lower half became fully visible.

After repeating those movements for a while, she realized she should just wrap herself in the duvet, picked it up, wrapped it around her body, and became quiet.

“Big Brother, you know what to do, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, wait a moment.”

Kent once left the room and, from his terminal, took out a replacement T-shirt, jersey pants, and a set of women’s underwear in a size estimated from the body shape he had seen earlier.

“Here, well then, I’ll be outside the room for a while, so call out when you’re finished.”

“Thanks, Big Brother.”

Handing them to Rachel, Kent decided to wait outside the room for a bit.

“Kent-san, it’s okay now.”

Called by Caro, Kent entered the room.

The woman from before had changed into the clothes Kent had prepared.

However, since she had only changed her clothes, her disheveled hair, dirty face, and the smell remained as they were.

“So, why were you in this room?”

Rachel asked before the calmed-down woman.

“Yes, I originally worked at this shop. But the owner’s misconduct was discovered, and everyone, including the employees, was detained and put on trial. Most of them were found to be involved and became subjects of punishment, but a few people, including myself, were found innocent and released.”

She began to speak about the events up until now.

“I was released as innocent, but the shop was already gone, and the others relied on nearby relatives and went to their respective places, but since I came from the countryside, I had no one else to rely on. When I was released, I had no money on hand and had no choice but to wander the city, but after a few days passed, I suddenly remembered that we had hidden a key to open the back door without the owner’s knowledge just in case something happened among the employees. And I used that to enter here. When the shop existed, this room was the room given to me, and although the shop was completely neglected, I felt relieved that my room had been left as it was, and with the fatigue from my wandering life, I ended up falling asleep just like that.”

“That was rough. I had experience with a wandering life too, so I feel like I understand the loneliness of having no one to rely on.”

After hearing the woman’s story, Caro, who had a similar experience for a few days, spoke.

“Umm, you’re the person who used to do the customer service for the shop, right?”

Rachel asked the woman.

“Yes, I mainly performed customer service duties at the storefront. I remembered. You’re the people who came to buy bread with Josette-sama, the Duke’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“Could it be, you’re the person who attended to us back then?”

“Yes.”

She spoke as if she had remembered Kent and the others.

There was no impression of the beautiful older sister who had handled the work accurately back then; her hair was disheveled and her grimy face left no trace of her appearance at that time.

“If you don’t have a place to work, won’t you work at my shop?”

“I don’t know what kind of shop it is, but if there’s a place where I can work, I don’t mind even if it’s odd jobs, so please.”

She seemed surprised to be told that suddenly by Rachel, but in order not to miss this chance, she gave a prompt reply.

“Then it’s settled. I’m Rachel, this is Caro, and next to her is Big Broth… no, it’s Kent.”

“My name is Laura. I look forward to working with you from now on.”

In this way, although the shop itself hadn’t been completed, the first employee of Rachel’s shop was decided.