"In that case, welcome aboard."
Raven extended his hand to Saya, who shyly shook it firmly.
Saya then glanced at Yuka's maid attire and asked Raven with some hesitation, "But... will I have to wear that too?"
"Ahem, don't get the wrong idea. This is a legitimate Café. Yuka is just wearing that for fun. You won't have to wear it for formal work," Raven quickly clarified.
Just then, Yuka's plaintive voice drifted from across the room: "Master, dinner is ready. I've also run the bath. Would you like me to wash with you?"
"Yuka! What are you talking about?!" Raven jumped. He couldn't believe she would deliberately embarrass him at this moment! Now he was completely unable to clear his name.
"Haha... she's just a big joker," Raven laughed awkwardly.
Seeing Raven's flustered look, Saya couldn't help but chuckle, finding him a bit endearing. She had sensed a slight hostility from Yuka since she arrived, and that hostility clearly stemmed from Raven. She knew Yuka was being deliberately provocative. This actually made her feel more at ease. For an employee to joke like that with her boss suggested Raven was generally a good person to work for.
Raven sighed in relief when he saw that Saya hadn't been scared off. He hadn't expected the little rascal, Yuka, to develop such petty schemes so quickly, trying to scare Saya away through such means. He couldn't let this kind of jealous behavior go unchecked. If she was like this now, how bad would she be later? He had to make Yuka understand the seriousness of the issue.
Disappointed that her scheme hadn't worked, Yuka felt a pang of regret. Of course, having done what she did, she couldn't meet Raven's eyes, so she quickly fled back upstairs to change. It was almost afternoon, the busiest time for the café. She changed out of the maid outfit and into a set of normal clothes.
Seeing Raven ignore her all afternoon, Yuka constantly tried to apologize with puppy-dog eyes and cute antics.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Raven..." Yuka was genuinely regretting her actions. If Raven ended up disliking her because of it, she would have only herself to blame.
While Saya Kimura was upstairs organizing her room, Yuka, wearing a short skirt, deliberately bent over in front of Raven downstairs.
"Why don't you spank me a couple of times to get it out of your system?" Yuka whispered. She didn't think Raven would actually hit her.
But he did.
Smack! Smack!
Two loud sounds rang out.
Yuka's eyes widened. Her face instantly turned bright red.
"Alright, don't let it happen again, you hear? You can't do things like that," Raven said, the corners of his mouth betraying a slight smile. Having achieved his goal of punishing Yuka, he no longer kept a straight face. He even muttered quietly, "She really is quite... bouncy."
After being spanked twice, Yuka felt heat rushing through her entire body. But more than that, she felt a sense of relief. Raven was willing to "punish" her like this, which meant he still cared about her.
"Wait, Mr. Raven, what did you say was 'bouncy'?" Yuka's hearing was excellent. Though she knew he was referring to her backside, she cheekily asked him anyway.
"Ahem, aren't you done yet?" Raven noticed Saya about to come downstairs and shot Yuka a look, telling her to settle down.
"Mr. Raven, I've organized the room. Thank you so much for taking me in," Saya said, her gratitude toward Raven sincere. He had even given her a place to live.
"Don't worry about it. While I can't pay you a lot, providing free food and accommodation is no problem," Raven told her not to be concerned.
His motive for taking in Saya Kimura was twofold: he wanted a new employee to ease Yuka's workload, and he felt she was a character whose unfortunate death in the original story was a shame. He hoped to change her fate.
Of course, once he earned Saya's full trust, he could also conveniently make use of the Delta Driver. The Delta Driver was indeed the strongest of the three Drivers in terms of base combat power. Although it lacked the exclusive reinforcement items of Faiz, if the user had a strong enough will to fight and fully utilized its power, its combat strength would be enough to defeat even the powerful Kitazaki of the Lucky Clover.
It was only because subsequent users lacked the mental fortitude—not even matching a young girl like Saya—that the strongest of the belts was left unused and gathering dust.
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