Chapter 51: First Day of Live-in Job

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Translator: Soafp

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Starting today, we’re going to help out a watermelon farmer.

There was a large warehouse on the grounds of Uncle Tomiyasu’s house. That’s where we’d be bringing the watermelons.

And today, we were going to harvest the watermelons we’d be taking there, but…

After gathering in front of the warehouse, Sakura stretched in the morning sun and called out energetically.

“Man, this is gonna be fun! Let’s pull those watermelons out like crazy!”

“Wait, ‘pull them out’? Watermelons aren’t buried in the ground.”

“Since they’re fruit, I wonder if they grow on trees?”

Shinonome and Nakina immediately shot back with exasperated looks.

Incidentally, Nakina, watermelons don’t grow on trees either…

Everyone, myself included, had already changed into work clothes. We were wearing the rubber boots and work gloves we’d been provided, along with the hats we’d brought to protect ourselves from the sun.

The girls were casually chatting among themselves while waiting for Uncle Tomiyasu to drive us to the fields.

It was certainly nice to see them having fun, but did they actually understand what kind of work we were going to be doing?

“Sorry to keep you waiting! All right, let’s head to the fields.”

Uncle Tomiyasu called out to us, and we climbed into the car.

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“My arms are dead!”

Shinonome’s scream echoed across the vast watermelon field stretching as far as the eye could see.

Well, I’d figured this would happen. Especially with someone as small as Shinonome.

“H-Hatsukade, I think my arms are about to fall off!”

She complained to me with tears in her eyes, but the assembly line wouldn’t wait for us.

I stopped the wheelbarrow and then loaded the watermelons scattered across the field into it. Shinonome was also diligently putting watermelons into my wheelbarrow, but she looked like she was really struggling.

Of course she was. A large watermelon could easily weigh close to ten kilograms.

“I’m gonna drop it…”

“Be careful. They won’t be sellable if you damage them.”

Even as we were doing this, Uncle Tomiyasu continued making his way through the field at the front of the group.

He was checking which watermelons were ready to be harvested and, if they were suitable, cutting them from the vines with scissors.

Our job was to collect those watermelons and load them onto the bed of the small truck.

I turned around to look at the Nagina-Sakura pair.

They were using a different wheelbarrow. Between the heat and the sunlight, sweat was streaming down their necks.

Shinonome started complaining again.

“No one told me it would be this hard!”

“I told you beforehand that it was manual labor.”

It was tough work, but the daily pay was high because of that.

If we’re getting paid for it, we couldn’t afford to complain like spoiled brats.

That said, I’d forgotten that Shinonome wasn’t good at physical activities. I should probably take it a little easier on her.

“I’ll carry the bigger ones whenever I can, so you handle the smaller ones.”

“Eh? O-Okay…”

Maybe she’d gotten distracted by our conversation, because the weight of the watermelon she was carrying pulled her off balance.

I gently supported her shoulder.

“…You okay?”

“I’m, I’m fine…”

For some reason, her face was red.

Maybe the heat was getting to her.

Then, for some reason, Nakina and Sakura were looking at us while gritting their teeth.

“That’s not fair! Only Shi-chan gets to do it!”

“Ugh, but today is Shi-chan’s attack duty.”

What the hell were those two doing?

And more importantly, so that mysterious duty really did exist.

Apparently, Shinonome was going to be the one dealing with me today.

When I took my hand off her shoulder, Shinonome turned her face away with a huff. Her ears were red.

I hoped things wouldn’t get weird…

With that thought in mind, I returned to work.

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The harvesting took more than half a day, and after that, we spent the rest of our time at the warehouse packing the watermelons into shipping boxes and doing other tasks. Before we knew it, our first day of work was over.

Perhaps because they weren’t used to this kind of work, the girls were completely exhausted.

After we all had dinner and took our baths, we spent some time lazing around until it got dark outside.

I was alone in my room, reading a book, when someone knocked on the door.

“Are you in there, Hatsukade?”

It was Shinonome’s voice.

When I opened the door, all three girls were standing there.

“What’s up?”

Nakina then opened her mouth with a suspiciously fake smile.

“Umm, it’s a hot summer night, isn’t it?”

“…Eh?”

“S-So, I was thinking it’d be nice to have some ice cream.”

Sakura nodded repeatedly and enthusiastically.

“Yeah, exactly! So we were thinking you could go buy some at the convenience store.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Shi-chan’s coming with you, so you won’t be alone, okay?”

I looked down at Shinonome. Even though she’d just gotten out of the bath, she was wearing a full face of makeup.

Well, the makeup itself wasn’t a problem. Nakina always wore makeup too, since she wasn’t confident about her bare face.

The problem was the way all three of them were acting as if they were obviously plotting something.

Could this be what they called the “Hatsukade-kun Attack Duty”?

Were they planning to take turns working together to try something on me?

In other words, was I going to have to deal with this every single day?

“Hatsukade, come with me.”

Shinonome invited me with an unusually determined look in her eyes.

It felt like prying into their scheme in detail would be rather tactless.

Besides, I didn’t mind going out with Shinonome.

“Sure. I’ll get ready, so wait for me.”

When I closed the door, I could faintly hear their voices from the other side.

“You’re going to promise to tell us exactly how far you got, okay?!”

“I-I know!”

Maybe I really should have turned them down.