Want to make Saotome-san take a leave
「You can make Tamagozake at home ∼」
「Yes, it’s very simple to make with a microwave oven」
「How did you make it?」
「First you scramble the eggs, then you add sugar and honey to it……」
Mio-san is gulping down the tamagozake while listening to me with great interest.
「Gochisousama∼. So this is how tamagozake tastes」
「I will teach you how to make it once you get better. Let’s make it together!」
「Make it!!」
「Now, it is time for your medicine.」
Mio-san’s face stiffened.
But that’s okay, because we have Okusuri Nom***ane at hand. With this magical product brought by Tsuchiya there is no such thing as an unpalatable medicine.
「This feeling when you take it out, is simply too good」
「Grape flavoured?」
「Yes, it’s grape」
On TV they squeeze out the jelly in a small bowl, add the medicine, then cover it all up with more jelly and then feed it using a spoon. But doing so leads to the usage of one entire cylinder’s worth of jelly. It should be fine to directly use the spoon. (TL: To those interested in the TV version)
「Say Ahhhh」
「Aaaa—」
…… I wonder if this is how it feels to raise a chicklet at home.
「There, you did a good job. Now all that is left is for you is to sleep tight in order to recover」
「Un, then….」
「Don’t worry, I am not going back. I will be in the living room till you sleep」
She is probably thinking about the overtime pay. After all this person is someone who worries over such things.
「…. Thanks」
「Oyasuminasai」
「Oyasumi……」
I switch off the bedroom lights, go to the living room and plop myself down in the couch
「……Yes, yes …. That is so …..Oh, I see…..」
「…….Got it. Now, if you look here…..」
I can hear Mio-san’s voice.
It seems she is speaking to someone over the phone. Struggling to open my eyes I notice the morning sun, shining its light through the curtain gaps.
「Nnn….. Did I end up falling asleep……?」
Seems like I myself fell asleep on the couch after putting Mio-san to sleep. This couch looks really expensive and true to its appearance, I neither feel any joint aches nor do I have a stiff neck. Ah, this feels great!
As I tried to get up, I noticed a pink blanket wrapped over me.
「I wonder if Mio-san wrapped it over me」
「…….Yes, to the left. So the budget…..」
I couldn’t see her as she was in the sofa’s blindspot but I could hear her speaking over the phone in the living room. It is evident that she has already recovered from her fever.
If you just look at this aspect of her being busy with a phone call right after the day she was sick, she appears to be a standard workaholic. Well, if you think about it that part too is just like her.
Then I guess it’s also time for me to be doing my job.
「Now, will I make it in time if I start making the coffee. I should make one for myself in order to stay awake」
「Got it. Aa, Sada-san, could you please bring last year’s accounting files back with you? The one with the budget estimates for the project that you pulled in」
……Eh?
Something feels off.
The instructions that she is giving out seem to be clear and concise but it gives off the feeling that she is sitting in her office desk and not at home.
「Sorry to keep you waiting. Yes, then let’s do a preliminary calculation at this place. The yen compared to last year has appreciated by 3 points against the dollar affecting the exchange rate, therefore…」
「Mio-sannnnn??!!!」
I stood up to have a look at Mio-san who was hidden in the blindspot. It was at this moment that my brain resigned itself to accept reality.
「Umm, Sada-san did I do something wrong….?」
Mio-san who is wearing nothing but her underwear and a blouse, is holding a slipper to her ear with one hand, furiously stirring the natto with the other hand and giving out orders to Fuu-chan.1
In front of this highly ambiguous situation, I was petrified.
「Fuuuuu——Haaaaaaa——」
Take deep breaths.
「Let’s first analyse the situation」
Directing all the oxygen available to my brain2, I observed every nook and cranny of the house.
My thoughts started accelerating and picked up all the necessary information required from the chaotic room.
■ Blanket
Mio-san used it to cover me. She was worried that I might wake up and did it with care. Pink coloured, Tarepanda pattern.
■Disordered Kitchen
Traces of the kitchen being used.
「Mio-san who woke up, went to the kitchen to make something without waking me up」
■ Dassai
Has been used.
The famous sake from Yamaguchi prefecture that Tsuchiya brought with him. Something that I am not allowed to drink.
■Sugar
Has been used.
Your typical premium quality sugar.
■Honey
Has been used.
100% lotus flower nectar.
■Soymilk
Has been used.
Still cold. Should not be more than 15 minutes since she took it out of the fridge.
■Smell
Nothing specific other than the smell of natto wafting around.
「Looking at the leftover seasoning in the kitchen, it matches with the ingredients required for making Tamagozake. But it’s strange that the distinct smell of heated sake is not present」3
■Scattered Pajamas
Pajamas from Mio-san’s spring and autumn collection. The top and bottom have been thrown away separately. Gingham check.
■Slipper [Right]
Forsaken in the bedroom. The left one is currently being used by Mio-san for a phone call. Bear patterned.
■Unworn Skirt
Traces of being abandoned after she considered wearing it.
■Two Packs of Natto
Part of the four pack strip. Left unattended on top of the table
The trial ends here. All that is left is to try and recreate the scene from the past.
「Yosh, What transpired should be…..」
―――Approximately 15 minutes before―――
「It’s already morning. I still feel a bit feverish but,….. Un, I should be able to go to work」
Mio-san who just woke up, leaves the bedroom and finds me sleeping in the living room.
「Looks like Matsutomo-san slept over yesterday. Let’s not disturb him」
She puts a blanket over me, then goes to the kitchen.
「I want to eat something. I didn’t even get to have dinner yesterday…… That’s right, let’s try to make the tamagozake that Matsutomo-san made yesterday. It’s not good to drink alcohol before going to work, but it should be fine since the tamagosake from yesterday didn’t really taste like or had the effects of alcohol」
Mio-san doesn’t know.
The fact that I made sure to reduce the alcohol content even if it took quite a while to prepare.
「What else, add sugar, honey and ensure to stir well…..」
After gathering the ingredients Mio-san starts to cook.
On top of being inexperienced, the fever confused her and the recipe she remembered ended up incomplete. She forgot to heat the sake up using the microwave, she usually wouldn’t make such a mistake.
「Something feels wrong…. Well, I can’t expect to make something good like Matsutomo-san right from the start」
Please recognise it, Mio-san. Quite a few things are amiss.
「Gulp, gulp. Fuah. Just as I thought, I should make sure to properly learn this time. It tastes too much like alcohol, not delicious at all….」
That’s because it is alcohol. You have just mixed raw eggs, sake and sugar.
「Let’s get to work, work. Though yesterday was a big turning point, I still have a lot left to do.」
『Dassai』is 16% alcohol, it is obvious that you will get drunk when you one shot it.
「Pick out the clothes∼, I must go to the awfice—」
As the alcohol starts to kick in, Mio-san staggers to the bedroom.
She throws away her pajamas on her way to the bedroom. Mio-san then, from the closet, picks out a blouse and skirt to wear.
「Ahh! That’s right, I have to call the customer—」
She reached for her smartphone that was near the bed…… I mean the slipper [left] that was underneath it.
「Hello. Good morning, Saotome here. Yes, thank you for yesterday. As soon as I reach the company I will look at the mail and….. wait a second, amn’t I already in the company?」
Forget to wear the skirt and continue the call with the slipper in that state. And with that we arrive at the present where Mio-san in her bewilderment mistook home for office.
「……Hence, you have in front of you a working Mio-san wearing nothing but her underwear and blouse. Got it, got it.」
I do understand what happened, but how did it end up this way?
「Particularly that natto, why was it over there. Anyways, I have to put an end to this.」
Getting closer to Mio-san you can see that her eyes are filled with tears, listening to her subordinate Fuu-chan.
「Mio-san, Mio-san」
「Matsutomo-san, no one is talking with me」
Damn, she has already regressed to a kid from all the stress.
「Fuu-chan can’t talk in the first place. Please pull yourself together.」
「Aa-chan talked to me…. I can’t take it anymore. I am going to return home already.」
「This is your home. There, let go of the natto」
「That’s a lie, this is awfice. Abacus, return my abacus to me…..」4
「Do the multinational 5 companies nowadays even use abaci……?」
How the hell did the natto end up becoming an abacus in her hands!!
She probably took it along with the intention of using it at the client’s meeting. What to do now, she has already used all four packets.
「Ueeee……I can’t do my work without it…. The company will collapse…..!」
「Yosh, I am at my wit’s end」
Now that it has come to this, there’s no other way. It’s time to enlist someone else’s help. After all, two heads are better than one.
I take my phone and open the recent call log.
“Tring tring”
『Yes, Tsuchiya speaking』
「It’s me, Matsutomo. Is it okay to talk now?」
『Yes, what might you require?』
On the other side of the phone Tsuchiya is full-on business mode.
Looks like he already reached the office and most likely has a certain wig-head standing next to him.
「Really sorry for calling you in the midst of work, but I require your wisdom to tide through this crisis. Have you ever used an abacus?」
『…….Eh? No, I mean yes, I have experience doing such a thing during my school』
「That will do. Let’s put that know-how to use. What do you do to stop a woman who is convinced that natto is abacus and uses it with the intent of saving her company?」
『Whaat??』
After a few exchanges, at the end of the strategy meeting, Tsuchiya’s idea was to make Mio-san eat some ice to turn her back to normal.
As she couldn’t possibly go to office while having a fever and being drunk on top of that, she has to take a leave. I think it should be fine as she is taking leave only because of inexplicable circumstances and because she is sick.
Probably…
Author’s note: It’s already 5 am by the time I post this out.
With this the nursing arc is now complete. Next is the 「Night Duel」arc. The pitiable junior who keeps popping out intermittently will make an appearance. Tsuchiya will also be making an appearance.
Yoroshikuonegaiitashimasu
Thanks for new chapter. Hope you’re doing well
Thanks for the chapter !!
[Night Duel] arc hehehehe can’t wait for next arc