It was evident that Shiina Mahiru had passed Asakura's assessment with a very high score—this was clearly understood from the fact that even after Momoka added a lethal amount of sugar and coffee creamer, that cup of coffee still remained within the realm of being "drinkable."

"Great, this way we don't have to worry about the drinks at Rabbit House, at least during the summer break." Asakura breathed a sigh of relief and said to Shiina Mahiru: "I'll leave the bar counter to you for now."

The girl nodded obediently, her honey-colored eyes filled with joy and gratitude toward Asakura.

"What about me?"

Feeling as if she had been forgotten by the two of them, Kawaragi Momoka pointed at her own nose and asked.

"I wish you happiness," Asakura said, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Hey!" Kawaragi Momoka, feeling looked down upon, was somewhat exasperated.

"Just kidding. As the manager, you just need to stay in the employee lounge and slack off, occasionally sneaking a sundae on the company's dime."

"Is that something a proper manager would do!"

"I remember the manager of Wagnaria seemed to do exactly that."

"Stepping back for a moment, can that person really be considered a 'proper' manager..."

"Doesn't seem like it."

If memory served, that manager at Wagnaria used to be a delinquent and thus had some connections in the underworld. Thanks to that, it seemed the local thugs in the area didn't quite dare to go to Wagnaria.

Maybe that was the real reason that fellow could become a manager?

Of course, the things Asakura said were just jokes. After all, even without being at the bar, Rabbit House still had plenty of work to do, such as the cash register.

If anything, after being liberated from behind the bar, Kawaragi Momoka had more time to play her guitar outside the shop to attract new customers—to make up for the foot traffic she had previously driven away...

After letting Shiina Mahiru familiarize herself with the operating procedures in the shop, Asakura suddenly realized he had become the redundant person in the store.

So, after having the House-elf restock the refrigerated display case, he left Rabbit House.

"It's still early, should I go back and catch up on some sleep?"

Walking along the sun-drenched street, Asakura murmured a bit listlessly: "Or maybe I could go find Eriri and ask how the costume designs are coming along..."

It wasn't until then that Asakura suddenly realized something: "Wait, do I even have Eriri's contact info?"

Previously, Eriri seemed to have intended to exchange contact information, but at the time, he was seemingly obsessed with teasing her and forgot to exchange it.

"Mistakes made while being too young."

Asakura rubbed his chin. While it wasn't as if there were no other ways to find Eriri, it felt a bit troublesome. It would be better to honestly exchange contact information with her the next time they met.

Just as Asakura was holding the back of his head with both hands, gazing at the sky and wondering where he should go next, he suddenly felt an unusual sensation beneath his feet.

He looked down and found he had stepped on a kraft paper bag.

"Eh?"

Picking up the bag, it was printed with the words "Fujimi Bunko."

Judging by the thickness of the contents inside the paper bag, it should be something like manuscript paper. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Did that editor lose this?"

Asakura muttered in a low voice.

However, considering such a large paper bag, it would be quite troublesome to lose it unintentionally. It was also possible that they had received an unwanted manuscript and thus "accidentally" threw it away.

Thinking about it that way, it didn't seem right to send it directly to the Fujimi bookstore either.

As expected, it would be better to just hand it over to the police.

Just as he was looking around, intending to see if there was a police station or a patrol officer nearby, a weak voice sounded behind him.

"Tha-that... excuse me," the voice sounded a bit soft and sweet; she must be a fairly cute, sweet-type girl: "That bag in your hand... is my property."

Asakura turned around and saw that the speaker was a somewhat gloomy-looking young girl.

She didn't seem to be wearing much makeup, but even so, her bare face looked quite beautiful—not the cute type like Eriri, but rather closer to the level of someone like Haruno who could be called "beautiful" in the literal sense.

Not only that, even though she was hunched over and her posture looked timid and shrinking, Asakura could still perceive that her figure was quite outstanding. At the very least, in the entire Literature Club, almost no one except Yanami could compare to her.

Even if you factored in height, the usually chest-out and head-high Yanami currently couldn't compare to this girl in front of him who was slightly slouched; it was evident the height difference between the two was quite significant.

It was just that the long bangs covering half her face, along with that Sadako-style long black hair, made the girl's aura seem quite melancholic. Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, her rating probably wouldn't be as high as the sunny and cheerful type like Yanami.

"Although I want to give it back to you directly, I suppose I should first confirm that this is indeed yours?" Asakura raised the kraft paper bag in his hand.

"In-inside is a manuscript."

The girl said in a low voice.

"I could have guessed that even without opening it," Asakura shook his head. "Otherwise, could it be toilet paper?"

"...Ma-maybe that's not wrong either," the girl muttered somewhat dejectedly.

"Ah?"

"No-nothing." Perhaps because Asakura's tone sounded a bit intimidating to her, she hurriedly shook her head and spoke.

"Tell me in more detail, what's inside?"

Asakura said: "If there are documents or things like that inside, there should be the name of the signatory as well. You can just tell me that."

The girl struggled for a long time before whispering: "...Kasumi."

"What?" Asakura raised an eyebrow.

"The manuscript is a light novel, the pen name... is Kasumi."

The girl said timidly in a low voice.

"Wait a moment."

Asakura opened the kraft paper bag and took out the manuscript papers, finding that they were indeed covered in text.

It seemed they were indeed light novel manuscripts...

But then again, Fujimi Bunko didn't seem famous for publishing manga, so it wasn't exactly hard to guess.

Asakura flipped through a few more pages and found that there was indeed a page with the author's signature, and the signature was exactly "Kasumi," just as the girl had said.

From the looks of it, there was no problem—this kraft paper bag was indeed what this girl had lost.

So Asakura reorganized the manuscript papers inside, stuffed them back into the bag, sealed the bag, and handed it back to the girl: "Here, hold onto it and don't lose it again."

"...Actually, it wouldn't have mattered if I lost it, I just didn't want my handwriting and name to be exposed," the girl muttered again in an extremely low voice.

Asakura discovered that this person's inner thoughts were surprisingly numerous; she wasn't as dull as she appeared.