Kazu wakes without the sun in his eyes for the first time since he has been in this world. Anna shifts next to him. He looks at her and runs his hand through her hair. As she begins to wake up Kazu sings quietly to her. "Good morning beautiful, how was your night? Mine was wonderful with you by my side, and when I open my eyes and see your sweet face. It's a good mornin' beautiful day."
Anna kisses him, and says with a smirk, "Good morning handsome, welcome to tomorrow. That was a beautiful song, did you make it up?"
"No," Kazu answers, "It's a song I heard many years ago, and seeing you laying there, the song popped into my head, and I had to sing it to you.
Anna kisses him again and gets out of bed, completely forgetting how she's dressed.
Kazu sees her from the back in all her glory, and another song comes to mind, and he begins to rap it. "I like big buts and I cannot lie, you other brother can't deny…" His rapping is interrupted by a pillow hitting his face, followed by her tackling him.
Kazu rolled them both over so he is now on top, "Oh, so you want to play rough, I can play that game too." He holds her hands with one of his hands and starts nibbling on her neck and tickling her with his free hand.
Anna, now laughing hysterically, pleads with Kazu, "Stop, you are gonna make me tinkle." He stops his tickle offensive, kisses her then lets her up.
As she is hurrying to the bathroom, Kazu says, "Definitely a beautiful day."
A short time later Anna calls for Kazu, "Can I get you to fill the tub, I want to bathe?"
"Absolutely, be right there." He says as he begins moving to the bathroom. A few moments later he has finished filling the tub.
Anna immediately slides into the water, As Kazu starts to leave. Anna calls out, "You need a bath too, after yesterday, you should just join me." Kazu drops his shorts and heads for the tub. This action invokes this world's version of a "Wolf Whistle" from Anna. Kazu smiles at her then steps into the tub.
A few minutes later they hear Felina call out, "Hello, Are you two styll yn here?"
Kazu answers, "We are in the bath, how can we help you?"
Felina and Felix walk into the bathroom, Felina says, "Prefect, we were wantyng to take a bath. Can we joyn you?"
Anna giggles, and replies, "Family bath time it is I guess, get your little tushies in here."
Anna moves next to Kazu as the twins get ready to enter the bath. Seconds later they are undressed, and step into the tub.
Felina sits on Anna's lap and asks, "Can you wash my back today?"
Anna replies, "Yep, I can do that. Stand up and we'll get started." Felina stands up and Anna begins washing her back. After a minute she hands the soap to Felina so she can do the rest on her own. When she is done washing she sits back down, this time on Kazu's lap.
"Felix, it's your turn." Anna instructs.
Anna is handed the soap and begins washing Felix's back, handing him the soap when she finishes her part.
After he is done Anna asks, "Who's next, you or me Kazu?"
"Kazu's fyrst." Felina says as she moves to the opposite side of the tub.
He stands and moves to the center of the tub, and Anna starts soaping his back. Finishing her part, she hands the soap to Kazu. He finishes washing and switches places with Anna. Kazu begins washing her back.
A mischievous smile creeps onto Kazu's face, as he runs the soap around her back with one hand, he is gently caressing her back with his other hand. Gently sliding his hand all the way down her back till he reaches her thighs, then traces his path back up and starts all over again. When he finishes washing her back, he hands her the soap. She then sits down in Kazu's lap and begins washing the rest of herself.
She then turns to him and whispers, "This is for teasing me you cad." As she washes herself, she makes sure to move as slowly, and yet as much as possible on his lap.
After 5 minutes of her washing, Kazu jokingly says, "Wow, I did not notice you were this dirty, do I need to get another bar of soap. Wait, let me sniff you, I'll make sure you are not stinky." Kazu starts making exaggerated sniffing noises.
Anna reaches into the water and pulls the drain plug. As she gets off of Kazu she whispers, "how come I can never embarrass you, but you can do it to me."
Kazu laughs and replies, "because I hide it better."
Kazu gets up as the tub empties, he hears water splashing on the ground outside. "Sounds like I'll need to do some wastewater piping too. A water purification system would be good too, I'd hate to contaminate the groundwater, or a river." Kazu says to himself.
Everyone dries off then heads to their rooms and they all dress for the day. The twins come out of their rooms wearing the same worn out clothes they had on the previous days.
Kazu claps to get everyone's attention, "So here's the plan for today. Anna, I need you to take the twins to town to get them some new clothes, a week's worth should be good for now. If you need some clothes, get yourself some too. Any clothing used for hunting lodge quests need to be leather or have metal armor on it. If you two want to learn to be hunters, you will need an outfit for that too. If you can find socks, we all will need those."
Anna asks, "What are socks?"
Kazu replies, "Well if you do not know what they are, then I guess they won't have any. We'll make our own. As for what I'm going to do today. I am going to try to find the material I'll need to add water to the house. I doubt they have 3cm metal pipes, so I'll probably have to make them myself. I'll need a lot of wood. Once we are all done for the day, we will meet back here, and finally get to work on figuring out gear enchanting. Speaking of gear, go by the weapons shop, and get my prepaid special ordered knives, and any weapons you all may need."
Kazu hands Anna 10 silver coins, 10 bronze coins and 20 copper, enough money to buy what they need several times over. Kazu then searches the house for Lina, finally finding her as she heads from the servants bathroom to her room in just a towel.
"Lina, quick question. I need to find cut wood planks, long posts, and a blacksmith that can make tools and parts, know anyone?"
Lina stops and turns towards Kazu. "Sorry sir, it is best to ask Rask, our handyman, for that info,"
Kazu replies, "Do you know where Rask is?"
"Should be in the tool shed or fixing something around the property." Lina says.
"Thank you Lina, I'll go find Rask. Also, you do not need to hide your ears around me." Kazu says as he turns to leave.
Lina reaches up and feels her ears sticking out from under her bonnet. She blushes.
Wandering around the property, he finally found Rask repairing an exterior door behind the house.
"Hello Rask, I'm the new owner of the house and property." Kazu says.
Rask stands and turns around to meet the new boss. She stops for a moment talking in the view of the huge man standing in front of her. Rask is a muscular female dwarf 1.24 meters tall with white hair, and green eyes.
"Greetings sir, nice to meet you. How can I help you today?" Rask asks.
"I am planning to add water taps to each bathroom, and the kitchen. I need to build a water tower out of wood, and I need metal pipes." Kazu answers.
"Half of what you said I have no clue about, but I know someone to get wood planks from, and a really good tool blacksmith. Will that work?" Rask asks
"Perfect." Kazu says, "Do you mind introducing me to them?"
"Let me finish up here and I'll be free." she says.
8 minutes later Kazu and Rask head off to find wood and steel. They walk just north of town to a logging camp. There she introduced Kazu to the foreman. He ordered 4 posts 6m x 25cm x 25cm, and 70 planks 2m x 3cm x 20 cm, and 16 more planks 3m x 10 cm x 20 cm. The foreman informed Kazu that it will take 2 days to get everything ready for him. Kazu paid for the lumber, paying less than he figured it would be.
They moved on to the blacksmith just inside the town's north gate. Kazu ordered nails, and washers. The washers ended up being a special order item, since they have never made any. He spent a good half hour describing a pipe to them, and what it's good for. After he finished, the blacksmith said it would take him 2 months minimum to make 50 pipes. Kazu then decides to have them deliver 100 KG of steel and 200 KG of copper to his house. He also ordered a hammer, some L brackets and banding strips. The blacksmith agreed to deliver the same day as the lumber. Kazu paid for the stuff he ordered, and they were off to their next destination.
They find a leather shop to get some leather to make gaskets. He picks up 100 KG total of different thicknesses of leather and some leather cutting, sewing and shaping tools
Now finished with their shopping, Kazu and Rask headed back to the house.
Halfway to the house four bandits jumped into the road in front of them. The ugliest one yells out, "Hand over your money, and we'll let you live."
Kazu and Rask laugh at the same time. They look at each other and Rask asks, "Which one do you want?"
Kazu says, "I'll take those three, you can have him."
Rask complains, "How about I take those three, you can take him?"
As they are discussing who they want, the bandits decide to attack. Rask punches the closest to her in the chest and he flies 6 meters, and lands gasping for air. "Hey we were not finished deciding on who beats who, you are so impatient." Rask retorts.
The one closest to Kazu tries a flying kick at him, and gets grabbed out of the air by his ankle, swung around like a baseball bat and flung into the other 2 attackers knocking all three out.
Rask walks up to Kazu, "Fine you can take those three. I'm going to go to town and get the guards. Be back shortly."
Kazu, getting bored while waiting, starts trying magic on a piece of metal he found on the road. After a few minutes he was able to cold melt it. A few more minutes after that he figured out how to reshape it. Since it was just a piece of iron, he melted it then added a copper coin to the mix. He then shaped the molten metal alloy into 2 rings that should fit Anna and Felina. When he was done, he had two corrosive resistant, stronger than steel rings with a rose gold appearance.
Shortly after he finished making the rings, Rask and four guards with a wagon arrived. They took Kazu's account of the attack, then the guards loaded the bandits into the wagon, and took them away to their awaiting cell.
Rask and Kazu continue their walk back home. Just outside of the property Kazu asks "What do you currently get paid per month?"
She answered, "1 bronze and 8 copper."
Kazu states, "Well, if you want to continue working for me, we are going to have to adjust that amount a bit."
Rask looking a bit disappointed replies, "I like it here… what pay amount are you thinking?"
Kazu looking pensive says, "Well I already adjusted Lina's pay, and I feel I need to do the same for you." Rask starts to say something, but Kazu raises a hand, in a 'just a moment' gesture, and she stops. "I think from the work I saw you do on the door earlier, your knowledge of the local tradesmen, your ability to defend the house when I am not home, I am going to pay you 3 bronze a month. How does that sound?"
Rask jumps over a meter in the air, wraps her arms around Kazu's neck and kisses him… "Thank you sir you won't…. " Realizing she just kissed her boss on the lips, she drops back down to the road. "I am so sorry sir, I got carried away, and I did not…"
Kazu interrupts her, "Rask, If I ever get mad that an attractive woman kissed me… wait that'll never happen." He squats down to her level, lifts her chin to look in her eyes, then says. "Rask, I am not upset about you kissing me or offended or any other negative thing you might think of. It was nice, sweet and spontaneous. So we're good?"
Rask asks, "So you are not mad that a lowly handyman dwarf kissed you?"
Kazu, confused, asked, "What does any of that have to do with getting mad? What part of that should I be mad about? That you are working as a handyman, or that you are a dwarf?"
Rask answers, "Well both usually… if you can afford the house and servants, besides most humans see non-humans as inferior races…"
Kazu interrupts again, "Well you don't have to worry about that from me. Heck, I have basically adopted twin felisnekos, and to me they are family, even after just 2 days. They are just adorable, you need to meet them… I digress… you get the point. Right?"
Rask asks, "So you won't get mad if I ever hug or kiss you again?
Kasu replies, "Anna might, but I won't. I might be a little upset if you never want to again. Now how about we get home so we can eat. Oh, and I expect you to join us for dinner when you can."
Rask replies, "Yes sir." and they continue their walk home.
Once they arrive Lina notifies them that dinner will be served in 10 minutes. So they head into the dining room where the others are already gathered. Kazu introduces everyone to Rask, and shortly after Lina brings in everyone's food. Once everyone is served she sits across from Rask and begins eating. Everyone talks about their day, the twins tell Kazu about the clothes they got, and the stuff they got at the weaponsmith's. Kazu tells about his and Rask's day, including the bandit attack. Rask added some details from her perspective.
After dinner everyone starts to go to their rooms and Kazu asks Rask and Lina to stay. "I just wanted to ask a few questions. My group upstairs has been relying on me to fill their bath each morning, what do you two do for water?
Lina answers, "We go to the well and bring buckets to fill the tub. It takes several hours, so usually we just use a bucket and a rag to rinse off. I was coming back from rinsing off when we met up earlier."
Kazu asks, "Do you take baths in cold water, or do you have a way to heat it?"
Rask answers this time, "It's cold, I do not know how to use magic and Lina is good with nature and earth magic."
"I understand," Kazu replies, "Well if you need it until I finish adding indoor plumbing, I can fill your tubs for you with warm water when you want to bathe. I even have some soap I'll give you."
The women look at him excitedly, Lina asks, "Can you do it now?"
Kazu smiles, "Of course ladies, let's get you a nice warm bath."
Kazu follows the women to their bathing room, and fills the tub with slightly warmer water than he usually uses. The women are so excited to have a hot bath that they start getting ready before Kazu finishes filling the tub. Kazu reaches into his bag and pulls out a bar of soap, and hands it to Lina standing in her underwear, he looks at Rask as he says bye to them, and she is wearing much less than Lina.
As he closes the door behind him, he hears the distinct sound of someone jumping into the tub, and Lina complaining about all the hot water Rask splashed out.
Kazu heads upstairs to his room, Anna is already in his bed, and from the looks of her bare shoulder she is dressed as she was the night before. Kazu undresses on his side of the bed, matching the same amount of clothes he suspects Anna is wearing, then climbs into bed. He lays in his normal position, on his back with his arm outstretched so Anna can lay on his chest and shoulder area.
Anna immediately slides over to cuddle, laying her head on his shoulder and her leg across his hips eliciting a slight chuckle. She leans to his ear and says, "feels like someone forgot something."
Kazu slides his hand down her side and stops just as he finds her butt, "Seems like I'm not the only one. "Goodnight beautiful." he says, then gives her butt a light squeeze.
Anna blushes and says, "Goodnight Kazu." then kisses him.
A few minutes later they are both asleep.