When the rain stopped, Nanami returned from Sakurasou.
With Ryuunosuke—the genius who developed spiritually aware AI—and Misaki, who single-handedly created an entire animation, plus Sorata's viewer-participation concept plan, the game they were working on was indeed quite fun and highly motivating for Nanami as a voice actress.
The only downside was that she also had to perform on stage and guide the audience, which was a bit embarrassing for her.
Carrying the groceries she had just bought, Nanami walked into the still-wet courtyard.
As she passed the row of shrubs and reached the open area in front of the house, she looked up and saw Akira lounging on a deck chair on the second-floor balcony, leisurely exhaling smoke.
The word "lounging" was appropriate because Akira had indeed set up a reclining chair on the balcony.
It was something he had specially requested during the previous round of furniture shopping for all the rooms.
Nanami had been slightly opposed to it.
Her reasoning was that Akira already lived like a total slacker, and with a deck chair, he might just rot away completely.
But as a maid, she couldn't oppose a reasonable request from her employer, so she only complained silently in her heart and ended up buying the most comfortable one.
And now, the scene before her perfectly matched the "complete slacker" image she'd imagined.
But seeing the relaxed and peaceful aura radiating from Akira, her lips involuntarily curved into a smile.
She waved and called out, "Ogiwara-san, I'm back."
Hearing her, Akira turned his head and raised a hand with a smile. "Welcome back. Tired today?"
"Not at all! It was just some training and rehearsals. I still had plenty of rest time."
Nanami didn't rush inside and instead looked up from below.
She noticed Akira's half-damp hair. "Why did you take a shower at this hour?"
Akira smiled and replied, "Had nothing to do, so I washed the cat. Got my clothes wet in the process, so I figured I might as well shower too."
This made Nanami feel a little guilty, like she'd been neglecting her duties.
"Ugh… I do remember to bathe the cats once a month. It's about time to bathe Kuro and Shiro, but you should've let me handle it."
"It's fine. I had nothing better to do anyway. Hurry inside, though. It's a bit chilly after the rain."
"You're the one who shouldn't be standing around after a shower. What if you catch a cold…"
Still muttering complaints, Nanami walked inside.
After changing her shoes and entering the living room, the first thing she saw was Kuro, who still had damp fur.
For some reason, Nanami felt like Kuro's big round black eyes were filled with a sense of grievance.
She grabbed the blanket that had always been on the sofa, then patted Kuro's fur to check—still slightly damp, but not so much that the cat would get cold indoors.
With that, she took the blanket upstairs and went to Akira's balcony.
She gently draped the blanket over the seemingly unconcerned Akira and mumbled a few more complaints before turning to leave.
On her way out, she also stopped by Utaha's room to check if it needed tidying up later.
To her surprise, Utaha hadn't left. She was curled up lazily in the covers, looking drowsy and half-asleep.
"Staying the night again, Kasumigaoka-san… Hm? You bathed the cat too?"
Although Utaha's hair wasn't wet, as Nanami got closer, she caught a faint scent of body wash and found it a little odd.
Utaha lazily extended one hand from under the covers and waved as a greeting.
With eyes half-closed, she said, "Yeah, I got wet while washing the cat, so I figured I'd take a bath too."
Nanami froze in place for a moment, blinking slowly before finally asking, "Did you and Ogiwara-san… bathe together?"
Utaha shook her head against the pillow, cat-like.
"I just wanted to try bathing the cat myself. Turns out it was kind of troublesome, so I let Ogiwara-san finish it."
Hearing that answer, Nanami let out a sigh of relief and quickly imagined what probably happened—Utaha tried bathing the notoriously feisty Kuro but failed, so she called Akira for help.
Both ended up getting wet from Kuro's tantrum, and then… each went to shower separately.
Sounded kind of funny, though also kind of chaotic.
Nanami sighed again and said, "Give me the wet clothes then."
"Ogiwara-san already tossed them in the washing machine."
"Alright, got it."
With another sigh, Nanami left the room.
As soon as she was gone, the drowsiness on Utaha's face vanished completely.
She bit her nail with a sour expression and muttered, "Hmph, so this is what cheating men are like…"
In truth, there weren't many lies in the story they had agreed on—just a reordering of some events and a few omitted details.
The real sequence was: Akira first carried her into the bathtub. While she soaked, he brought Kuro into the bathroom.
She had indeed tried bathing the cat out of curiosity, which angered Kuro.
Akira then took over and finished the job, and afterward, they soaked in the tub together for a while.
Then they splashed a bit of water onto two sets of pajamas and tossed them into the washing machine.
It wasn't until Akira was wetting the clothes and rehearsing their cover story that she realized why he had suddenly decided to bathe the cat—and understood just how cunning a man could be when cheating.
She'd always known Akira was smart, but at that moment, she felt like he'd reached a level of cleverness that made him a stranger to her.
With a complex mix of excitement, dark amusement, contemptuous smirks, and a hint of fear—like the palette of emotions all swirled together—Utaha lazily curled up under the covers playing with her phone, and even drifted off for a short nap.
Until Nanami called her downstairs for dinner.
Standing up and stretching, she felt much better.
Though her legs were still sore, and having just soaked in the bath, she was a little wobbly as she walked.
After some more stretching, Utaha finally went downstairs.
Nanami wasn't wearing her maid uniform today—another part of Akira's "perfect cheating plan."
Whenever Nanami wore the uniform, she seemed too sharp, like she gained some strange sixth sense that made it impossible to hide anything from her.
She was busy carrying dishes from the kitchen and didn't show any suspicion before dinner. But afterward, when they returned to their rooms, she finally noticed something.
"Kasumigaoka-san, are you feeling unwell? You seem to be walking a little… floaty?"
Recalling the excuse Akira had prepared for her in advance, Utaha replied without missing a beat, "It's nothing. I just laid down for too long today and got a little numb."
Nanami nodded thoughtfully.
"Come to think of it, Hayasaka-san was the same way during summer break. Even during holidays, you still shouldn't rest too much, okay?"
Hayasaka-san… summer break?
It sounded innocent enough. Utaha only knew she was Nanami's maid mentor—but she couldn't help glancing at Akira, sensing somehow that this had something to do with him.
And just that one glance made Akira realize—women's intuition was truly unreasonable.
___
Read 20 Advanced Chapters on p@ tr eon (.) com/HalflingFics
Also, please point out my mistakes in the comment, thank you!
Don't forget to leave a review too~ Actually, please leave one.
Check out the other translations too
___