Book 4: Chapter 4: Patch 1.0: Settling In
Book 4: Chapter 4: Patch 1.0: Settling In
While Ryouta is busy with unpacking all of their belongings and trying to put things in places where they make the bare minimum amount of sense required, not even daring to try sorting the rest of the girls’ items, the girls go out on a shopping trip.
After all, in order to make the food that their boyfriend has requested, they have to actually have food in the house.
An autotaxi gets called and drives over, ferries the girls over to the nearest supermarket, and their quest begins.
It is their first real-life quest together.
Objectives: find and place all of the required ingredients for Ryouta’s dream dinner in their cart, acquire their personal favorite snacks and drinks, and buy anything else that either looks yummy or interesting to them.
At first, Cassandra assumes that Serra wants to push the cart, but what Serra actually wants to do is stand on the back of it while Cassandra pushes it.
Cassandra gives in without thinking much about just how childish and silly they look. While Serra stands on the bar underneath the cart, Cassandra has her arms wrapped around her to push the cart. Serra even gets to rest her head back against Cassandra’s chest to use her breasts as pillows as she gets pushed around.
Of course, when Serra does that, Cassandra realizes just how embarrassing this might be. Yet, she doesn’t stop what they are doing. She allows Serra to continue this embarrassing feat.
It’s the middle of the day anyway! Who is going to be shopping at the store in the middle of the day, in a more suburban area, in this heat, on a weekday?
The answer is many people.
Mostly middle-aged women and the elderly.
Cassandra and Serra feel the judging stares of those twice to thrice their age as soon as they enter the store. Alice is even keeping a little bit of distance between herself and them just so that those stares do not get directed at her as well.
Unfortunately for the wheelchair-bound princess, just the fact that she’s in a wheelchair in the modern age is enough to warrant confused and judging stares. It would not normally be a problem for her. However, she knows that these are all people she might be seeing on a frequent basis now. They surely all live in this area and she doesn’t want them to have a bad opinion of her!
“Wh-what do we do now?” Alice asks Cassandra.
“What are you talking about?” Cassandra asks her, trying to ignore the curious stares of those around them.
“I – I mean… I have never been shopping before.”
“Seriously?”
Alice nods her head. “My servants always did that for me and, in the apartment, you or Ryouta did it. I – I only know how to shop online.”
“You seriously don’t know how to shop in a market?”
Alice nods her head even more sadly than before.
“You were seriously spoiled, weren’t you?” Cassandra asks.
“Is – is that not already obvious?” Alice asks while tapping her index fingers together.
“I know, but… don’t worry about it. All we have to do is go around, look at the hanging signs at the top of the aisles to see what’s where, find what we need, and then put it in our cart. Simple enough, right?”
“I shall try my best!” Alice declares, her fists clenched and a confident look in her eyes now that has replaced the embarrassment from just moments ago.
Cassandra finds it hard to believe that somebody so close to her own age could have never gone shopping before but, then again, she doubts that she’d know what to do if she had to go live Alice’s old life in her stead. Even just getting to live off of Alice’s wealth and having her own house is out of her comfort zone! She could not possibly begin to imagine what it would be like to live a life if utter comfort and ease where everything is provided for her. Even now, when she could be living that sort of life, she wants to try and contribute herself so that she does not feel like she is doing nothing all of the time.
Unless it comes to unpacking all of those boxes back at their new house.
Nobody wants to do that.
Well, except for Ryouta now who has recently opened up a box of Cassandra’s clothes. Mainly her underwear.
He only knows that this is hers because he’s caught glimpses of her wearing one of the bras in the box before, but he has never seen all of these other bras and certainly not any of the panties.
Cassandra gets a feeling in her gut telling her that something is wrong while Ryouta feels like he is playing a dangerous – a very dangerous game as he lifts up one of her bras to examine it.
“These cups are pretty big… I wonder,” he says, setting the bra down on top of his head and treating one of the cups as a hat. Then he picks up one of the pairs of panties to stretch and feel just how soft it is.
If he was a degenerate from one of his hentai, he’d probably be sniffing them.
And he would be lying if he tries to say that the thought has not crossed his mind.
Then there is the possibility of jacking off with them.
This truly is a dangerous situation.
Before he can give in to any of his carnal desires, he places the panties and bra back in the box and sets the whole thing aside so that Cassandra can deal with those herself later.
“What’s wrong?” Alice asks Cassandra.
“I don’t know… I just have this really weird feeling,” Cassandra answers. “Maybe it’s just all these people staring at us making me feel so violated.”
“Perhaps – ah! There!” Alice exclaims, excitedly pointing at a nearby shelf that has the seasoning Cassandra told her to look out for. “I found it!”
Cassandra can’t help but internally fangirl a bit at just how cute and proud Alice looks for finding some seasoning.
The sight really makes Cassandra want to have her own kids already. If her girlfriend is this cute, then how cute will her actual kids be?
“Got it. Next, we need… does he like garlic?” Cassandra asks.
“Garlic? Hmm. I do not believe that I ever hear of him stating a preference either for nor against it,” Alice says. “Cassandra? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just…”
Ryouta is placing one of Cassandra’s bras on himself over his clothes just to try and see what it must be like wearing a bra. The curiosity was too much for him to handle, and now he finds himself stuffing her other clothes into the bra’s cups to properly fill them out.
“Wait, does this make me a crossdresser?” Ryouta asks himself. “Nah… I’m just curious. I swear – wait, Saya is going to know about all of this. She’s going to give me so much shit later.” He sighs and starts undoing the mess he has made with Cassandra’s clothes.
“Perhaps you should visit a doctor?” Alice asks.
“No, I’m fine. I hate going to the doctor anyways. I just can’t shake this feeling that he’s doing something weird back at the house,” Cassandra says.
“Then let us challenge ourselves to quickly acquire the rest of the required items! I am sure that he would like us to hurry home and provide him with company as well.”
Ryouta flops onto the couch and lets out a heavy sigh. “So many boxes… but it’s so peaceful and quiet. Maybe I’ll be able to take a quick nap before they’re back,” he says, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
“Yeah, I don’t know if he knows how to live without us anymore,” Cassandra says. “He’s been spoiled ever since you came over.”
Serra slinks out from between the cart and Cassandra to grab one of the items they’re looking for that the other two girls missed. She’s got a pretty smug smile on her face for catching an item that they both just walked and wheeled past.
Not wanting to leave their boyfriend alone for any longer, each of the girls having their own reason behind it as well as several shared reasons, they make quick work of the supermarket and fill their cart with everything they came for and more.
Once done, they go up to the checkouts where a robotic arm scans the cart and gives them their total. Alice pulls out her card to pay for everything after Cassandra tells her that’s what comes next.
The robotic arm gets to work automatically sorting and bagging everything as soon as it’s all paid for.
It takes less than a minute for the arm to masterfully bag their items and send them on their way.
“Thank god this store has one of those. The closest place to my old apartment still used people to bag things and they took forever,” Cassandra says.
“They have people performing such a mundane job?” Alice asks. “What is the point of that?”
“Because they were one of those anti-automation places. I guess you get tax breaks for hiring more people instead of relying on just machines, too.”
“I see! I feel that I have learned quite a bit today.”
Cassandra keeps forgetting that what is common sense to her is apparently unknown knowledge to Alice.
The shopping trip is over and the girls return home with the same autotaxi that they arrived in.
Opening the door to the house, they are met with the sight of Ryouta sleeping on the couch with Cassandra’s bras and panties all over the room.
They have no idea how he managed to get her underwear everywhere – looking as if he threw a party and they were the decorations, but now they know why Cassandra felt so off during their shopping trip.
Cassandra, with a face burning red, can’t even think about how to get revenge for how embarrassed she is.