A few days later, the Shinomiya estate.
"Is the Young Lady going out?" As the head maid of the estate, Hayasaka Ai watched with some surprise as Shinomiya Kaguya changed into casual clothes for going out.
In her impression, although her family's young lady wasn't exactly a shut-in, she was the type who wouldn't proactively go out unless it was necessary.
"Fujiwara, that idiot, has been grounded by her family." Because she didn't usually wear these casual clothes, Shinomiya Kaguya moved her body with a bit of discomfort and said: "I was 'entrusted' by her-this is my life's request! Therefore, I have to go deliver something for her."
"As the second daughter of the Fujiwara family, the weight of her life is only equal to a courier?"
"Considering that it's being personally delivered by me, this weight is actually quite extraordinary."
"Value-added? Like the perilla leaf on top of a luxury seafood rice bowl."
"Why use such a cheap example? At least say it's the gold foil in a Michelin restaurant!"
"But to help Miss Fujiwara so enthusiastically, the Young Lady truly sees her as an important friend after all." Hayasaka Ai said expressionlessly.
"No, I just feel that if I don't help with this, she will definitely become extremely annoying later on." Kaguya shook her head.
"I think she'll be extremely annoying even if you help her."
"...True."
Shinomiya Kaguya began to sincerely reflect on whether she had met the wrong person.
"Are we giving up?" Hayasaka Ai tried to make a final struggle for her own pitiful rest time.
"Since I've agreed to it, I must do it, otherwise it will bring shame to the Shinomiya name." Considering that during the Sobu High school festival, when she encountered a supernatural abnormality, the other party had desperately run to bring reinforcements and ultimately rescued her, Shinomiya Kaguya had no intention of backing out.
Though strictly speaking, the reason she attended the Sobu High school festival in the first place was because she was dragged there by that fellow...
"Fine..." Hayasaka Ai gave up the struggle and sighed resignedly: "I'll go notify the driver for the Young Lady."
"Wait a moment, Hayasaka."
Shinomiya Kaguya called out to Hayasaka Ai. For some reason, she didn't want others to know of that person's existence: "I'll go by myself, Hayasaka, you don't need to follow."
"Then let me ask..." Hayasaka Ai's brow furrowed imperceptibly, realizing that things didn't seem simple: "Where does the Young Lady want to go?"
"Just, over toward Shimokitazawa..."
Shinomiya Kaguya said vaguely.
"That area is quite large. Do you know how far the Shinomiya estate is from there?" Hayasaka Ai asked: "No, I should say, how long do you think it would take to walk from here to where you mentioned?"
"..."
"To take a step back..." the blonde maid sister followed up closely: "Do you know how to hail a taxi by yourself?"
"Don't look down on me, I still know how to hail a taxi. As long as I do this, it'll be fine, right? Like this!"
As Shinomiya Kaguya spoke, she stuck out her fist and raised her thumb, making a 'thumbs up' gesture.
"Well, although it's not technically wrong, this method is so antique that it's probably on par with a middle-aged national language teacher in her thirties."
"Hayasaka, your national language must be terrible, right? I completely don't understand what your metaphor means!"
"Simply put, if you want to hail a taxi now, you just need to use the corresponding app on your phone."
"App?"
"...Speaking of which, the Young Lady is still using a flip phone." Hayasaka Ai rolled her eyes and spoke in a helpless tone.
"Road runner! A phone only needs to be able to make calls and send emails! Everything else is heresy!"
Shinomiya Kaguya let out a roar of frustration.
Different from what Asakura had initially predicted, for the first few days after the Rabbit House opened, there were almost no customers. The business volume was so dismal it was nearly a case of no sales at all-after all, he still had to pay wages to the staff.
After worrying over this dismal state for two days, it was only through the owner of 'Tamaya', a famous old-brand rice cake shop on the Toyoma Shopping District, that he learned the reason.
"Your flyers don't even have the opening hours printed on them." The other party said.
As a side note, when he first learned the Rabbit House was a dessert shop, this middle-aged man with some stubborn traditional attributes had looked quite unfavorably at the Rabbit House's sign. Because he, who was traditional, didn't like Western-style sweets. In this era, compared to rice cake shops, Wagashi was already quite declining; eight out of ten 'dessert shops' on the street sold cake, and the other two sold pearl milk tea...
But after tasting the free rabbit dango, this person's attitude underwent a 180-degree turn. He gave the dango a very high evaluation and even hinted at using the mochi produced by their 'Tamaya' as the dango skin to make it taste even better or something like that.
In short, after realizing the major loophole in his promotional strategy, Asakura immediately rushed out a batch of new flyers and had Momoka distribute them directly at the entrance of the Rabbit House-mostly distributed by him, while Momoka was responsible for playing the guitar to attract passersby's attention.
With the promotion slightly corrected, business immediately picked up as the surrounding residents learned the Rabbit House had opened.
Not to mention the sales of the rabbit dango were so explosive that Asakura had to ask Momoka to come in for part-time work during her spare time in advance.
It was also lucky that the current Momoka liked to run out with friends to sing karaoke after school in the past and therefore hadn't joined any clubs, so she had plenty of time to come work. Otherwise, finding another part-time worker on short notice would have been a bit troublesome.
As for Momoka, after working for two days, she directly exclaimed: Asakura's original promise of letting her eat the leftover rabbit dango after closing was a complete empty check! Most of the time, the daily limit of rabbit dango was sold out long before closing time. She couldn't eat them, couldn't eat them at all!
Japanese people seem naturally unable to resist the term 'limited'. They have a nameless craze for limited things-although the rabbit dango were indeed very delicious, they were much better than those 'limited small snacks' that were popular online just for the gimmick.
Fortunately, after the initial craze, customers more or less noticed that although the Rabbit House's sweets (especially the rabbit dango) were very delicious, the drinks were exceptionally bad. Whether it was black tea or coffee, even if the raw materials were decent, they lacked a person who knew how to brew them; the final product couldn't even be called mediocre.
So in these few days, almost all customers chose to buy sweets at the Rabbit House and take them away to other cafes or just go home to eat, saving the sweets from being ruined by the 'sewage' brewed by Momoka (or Asakura).
This also led to a nameless sense of desolation in the Rabbit House, which clearly had good business, as almost no one was sitting in the booths.
It was under these circumstances that Asakura waited for the person Fujiwara Chika had mentioned in his own shop.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting."
Shinomiya Kaguya walked gracefully into the shop, her face carrying its usual coldness and elegance as she walked straight toward the booth where Asakura was located.
The blonde girl dressed in a maid outfit also followed closely behind her, from time to time quietly sizing up Asakura in the booth with a somewhat inexplicably scrutinizing gaze.
It seemed this Young Lady of the Shinomiya family hadn't been able to rely on her own strength to hail a taxi and had ultimately borrowed the power of her personal maid. And precisely because of this, she naturally couldn't refuse the other party's request to come along.