After being comforted, Tohru's smile became brighter and more genuine.
Hayashi could tell—this was a smile free of burdens and pressure.
A real smile.
Humming happily, Tohru drove the car back home.
After turning into the alley and parking—
Hayashi got out to open the gate, while Tohru followed behind carrying all the shopping bags in one go. Once the gate was open, they entered together.
"Welcome home~!" Tohru said cheerily as she began putting the groceries away.
Hayashi could see she was bursting with energy.
He grabbed his unfinished lemon tea, lay down in the backyard recliner, and pulled out his phone to scroll through videos of girls from the residential districts.
Meanwhile, Tohru didn't even take a break—she kept looking for things to do.
After finishing cleaning the first floor—
She went upstairs to tidy the bedrooms.
Sweeping the floors, mopping, dusting the chairs, organizing things—
Tohru got more and more into her cleaning.
Eventually, she stopped in front of Hayashi's room, looked at it, and grinned.
"I'm coming in~"
She entered Hayashi's room and dove straight onto the bed, rolling around wrapped in his blanket.
After rolling back and forth a few times, she sat up and began fluffing and folding the blanket.
"Hehe~ Time to tidy up~"
Once she was done, she looked at the wardrobe—and her eyes sparkled.
"Clothes need washing too, right?"
She opened it, took the clothes out, sniffed them, and thought about how to clean them.
After a moment of consideration, she smirked mischievously and began licking the clothes.
"Bara bara bara~!"
After a few licks, the clothes were as clean as new, even giving off a faint fresh scent.
This wasn't just magic—it was thanks to the cleaning properties of dragon saliva, which even came with a built-in fragrance.
Tohru could even adjust it to have powerful corrosive properties if she wanted!
So next—
"Hehe~"
Grinning, Tohru licked every piece of clothing in the wardrobe, cleaning them all to perfection!
Meanwhile, down in the yard—
Hayashi was still lounging, scrolling through his phone.
But hearing the noise, he suddenly realized: Tohru had gone upstairs.
"Tohru, what are you doing up there?"
Whoosh~
A second-floor window opened, and Tohru leaned out halfway.
"Cleaning the second floor and the bedrooms!"
Hayashi thought about it, then replied, "Alright. Just remember to take a break."
"Hi~~~"
Hayashi turned his head and continued scrolling through his phone.
But as he scrolled, a sudden thought popped into his mind—Tohru's method of cleaning clothes.
That is… by mouth…
"No… no way…"
It wasn't that Hayashi found it gross—he just thought it was completely unnecessary. They had a washer-dryer combo at home!
"Tohru!"
"Hmm?" Tohru poked her head out of the second-floor window again.
Hayashi looked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"How did you clean the clothes?"
"..." Tohru fell silent.
"..." So did Hayashi.
"Ehe~ How did Hayashi-san find out?" Tohru bashfully knocked her own head.
"Next time, use the washing machine, got it?!"
"Yessir~ I understand now!"
After getting scolded, Tohru made up her mind—next time she'd clean the clothes with her mouth first… then also use the washing machine.
Yep, she was a genius!
Once she finished cleaning the second floor—
Tohru thought for a moment, then pulled out the phone Hayashi had assigned to every bedroom—now hers. She dialed an unfamiliar number.
"Fafnir? Yeah, I came to Earth. I'm a head maid now~ Mm-hmm, I've got a home. It's a really, really good restaurant. Why am I calling? Just wanted to ask you something. You've been on Earth a while already."
"Kill them all? Wait, I haven't even asked my question yet."
"Kill them all again?! No! This is Hayashi-san's restaurant. I can't just go killing people."
Before she could finish, the other side hung up.
Overall, the answer she got was "Kill. Kill them all." No matter the question, the answer was the same.
Just kill.
Why? Because the person she called was an evil dragon—one who loathes humans from other worlds.
But ever since coming to Earth, that same dragon got hooked on Earth culture… and turned into a chuunibyou + tsundere + shut-in kind of guy.
So Tohru's attempt to ask for advice? Doomed to fail from the start.
She looked at the phone, sighed, and stuffed it back into her cleavage.
"Fafnir's useless. I might as well look it up online."
Wandering around with nothing else to do, Tohru eventually got bored again.
She walked over to the second-floor window and looked down at Hayashi lounging in the courtyard.
Then headed downstairs to find him.
"Hayashi-san, I don't think I have anything left to do."
"???" Hayashi was mid-sip of lemon tea and looked confused. "What are you, a workhorse? Tohru, if you've done enough, then just relax. A good life is meant to be enjoyed."
"What's a workhorse?" Tohru tilted her head. "Something to eat?"
"Workhorse is a figure of speech. It means a person who works nonstop like cattle, with no freedom or time to rest." Hayashi explained.
"Ohh~" Tohru understood now.
So she mimicked Hayashi—went to the bar to pour herself a glass of lemon tea (no ice), then walked back out to the courtyard, lay down on a recliner like him, pulled out her phone from her chest, and began to relax.
Hayashi saw her take the phone from her cleavage and raised an eyebrow.
Then gave her a thumbs up in admiration. Holding his now room-temp lemon tea, he casually spun his hand, and a few perfectly shaped ice cubes formed mid-air and dropped into his glass.
"Woah~" Tohru looked over in awe. She pushed her own cup toward him. "Tohru wants some too."
Hayashi snapped his fingers.
Snap~
A few dragon-shaped ice cubes formed in the air and dropped into her lemon tea.
"Woah~" Tohru brought her cup close, eyes sparkling.
Looking at the floating little dragon-shaped cubes—versions of herself—she was mesmerized.
She took a few sips but wasn't satisfied. Then picked up one of the dragon-shaped ice cubes and popped it into her mouth to suck on.
Hayashi chuckled and went back to his phone.
Just like that—
The two lounged and played around in the courtyard from midday all the way to sunset.
Until it was time to open the restaurant.
Tohru looked at the time, full of anticipation. "Hayashi-san, it's almost time to open!"
"Yep." Hayashi nodded.
"Let's gooo!" Tohru pumped herself up.
But before they could open the door—
Familiar figures began appearing at the alley entrance—red hair, purple hair… quite a few of them.
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Advanced chapters in pat/reon.com/KyokaSuigetsu