Side Chapter—Bunny Maids

Having finished producing Core 629 for the Dungeon Battle, Keima and the others returned to Goren. Everything returned to normal without any particularly notable problems.

“Y’know, I thought some real shit would have gone down from us not being here to do our jobs, but looks like everything’s been just hunky-dory.”

“Mhm. Same.”

Both Ichika and Niku slid back into their jobs in the inn without any issues whatsoever, with neither of their absences having contributed to any catastrophic failures. That was thanks, in part, to Keima stealthily using his {Teleport} to visit the dungeon, and proactively setting their shifts to resume once the Dungeon Battle ended.

“Didn’t really feel like I was home until I started working as a waitress, y’know?” Ichika said.

“I agree. We were doing similar work, but actually moving myself makes all the difference,” Niku replied.

“Moving those rabbits sure was hella fun, though. Think we could bring some over and make them our store pets or something?”

“I do think a store pet would increase our sales...” Niku said thoughtfully. If only she would remember that Keima didn’t really care about how much money the inn made regardless.

Suddenly, a customer entered the cafeteria. The small talk would have to wait. Niku, with very experienced movements, hopped over to the customer and looked up at him with an intense stare.

“U-Uhhh, Kuro? Is something wrong?”

“Mm?” Niku tilted her head, as if to ask him to feed her a carrot. And that was how Ichika realized what was going on.

“Kuro, Kuro, no! That’s not what we do here!”

“Oh! S-Sorry.”

Niku had been controlling the rabbits in the [Rabbit Paradise] by widening the monitor to fill her line of sight, then using the controller while moving her own body in turn. It hadn’t been actual possession, but it was as close to full dive immersion as you could get without actually doing the diving, and through weeks of that, the mere act of begging had become instinctual for her.

Niku bobbed her head hurriedly in apology. Her face was as expressionless as ever, but Ichika had trained her to beg, and every ounce of her body radiated cuteness. Really, her expressionlessness gave her the cuteness of a pet, since you couldn’t read animals’ faces.

“H-Hey, don’t worry about it! It’s no problem at all. Actually, let me add a purin onto my order! Hahaha! I think I’ll just give it to you, Kuro!”

“Um, th-thank you?” Niku said.

“...He gave me a purin for some reason.”

“Y’know, Niku, I guess you’re already our store pet, huh? Dang. I never thought about it, but acting like a rabbit’s actually a legit strat.”

Ichika resolved to try it out herself. And luckily enough, it wasn’t long before the next customer came walking in. Ichika slid up to him.

“.........”

“Er, hey there, Ichika. Good to see you back... Is something up?”

“.........” Ichika leaned forward and looked up at him with wide eyes, her head tilted. But the customer didn’t see any of that, because his eyes were drawn to her boobs like a black hole.

...Indeed. When Ichika bent forward, the exposed top of her cosplay maid outfit left her cleavage in full view. So really, nobody could blame the man for staring. Ichika’s boobs were so magnificent and impossible to miss that it would be more rude not to stare at them. The only man who didn’t stare at her cleavage was a certain anonymous foot fetishist.

“.........”

“U-Uh?”

“Tch, can’t you take a hint?”

“Oh, wait, do you want me to slide my food ticket into your cleavage?”

“Say WHAT?” (<- Fucking pissed)

“F-Forget I said anything...” The customer accepted her righteous anger and held out his food ticket. Ichika took it and served him his food before returning to Niku.

“I get it, I get it. Cuteness is justice. Cows go home. I know.”

“I think that was just the customer’s tastes.”

“Nah, I’m like, just doomed to being sexy. I’m not built for cuteness attacks like you are, girl. That’s all it is!”

It wasn’t that she was unattractive. Rather, she just had so much overwhelming attack power that her cuteness was overwhelmed by her two other outstanding attributes. With her shameful defeat justified, Ichika gave Niku a big grin.

“Anyway, let’s just do our jobs normally. Try not to mess that up a second time, alright?”

“...Ngh. Sorry.”

Indeed. Ichika wasn’t just being a sore loser there. She had turned it into a joke and tried it out herself so that Niku’s careless mistake would be perceived as them joking around, rather than being a clear connection to Core 629’s dungeon to a careful and well-informed observer. Once again, Niku was impressed by how competent Ichika was with following up on mistakes and fixing them.

“You can repay me with fried food or somethin’ later.”

“...You could just ask Master to give you some, couldn’t you?”

“He’d make me cough up some coppers, girl, and I’m already fresh outta that sweet metal.”

“Hm...? Oh.” After a second of thought, Niku vaguely remembered that Keima had mentioned making Ichika pay for Catalog food since otherwise she would just keep eating forever. That hadn’t really been relevant to her before now.

“Sigh, guess I’m gonna have to beg Master for some allowance again.”

Incidentally, Keima giving Ichika an allowance when asked was completely fair since all he was doing was giving her the money she herself wasted on the slots. He never had to manipulate the odds on the slots when she played, either. All her money just vanished into them on its own.

“Allowance?”

“You bet. Heh, ’cause I’m a real beauty, y’know? When I bend over and puff up my chest like this, well, you know what happens next.”

“He just sticks it in like this?”

“Eeep! Er, no, he just hands some money over.”

That made sense. Keima was right to just give Ichika her own money back in a loop, Niku thought while pulling her fingers out of Ichika’s cleavage.

“Girl, I bet he’d give you tons of money if you begged a little.”

“I don’t need any money right now, so it’s fine. (Read: I don’t really want anything, and if I did he would just give it to me if I asked.)”

“You sure? Feels kinda bad to be the only one he gives money to. Like he’s showing me favoritism or something, y’know?”

So she said, but in truth it mattered so little she forgot it within literal seconds.