In the courtyard of 46 Sea Breeze Street, sunlight filtered through the gaps in the garden fence, falling across a pair of furry cat ears.
Amid the splashing from the wooden washbasin, those cat ears occasionally turned backward, catching every movement in the yard.
"Heave-ho~"
Tata crouched before the wooden basin, vigorously scrubbing the clothes in her hands.
She lifted the white undershirt, already washed twice, squinted into the bright morning sunlight, and inspected it carefully.
"Clean now, meow?"
After confirming that no black mud stains remained, she wrung out the undershirt and hung it on the clothesline in the yard.
Just as she picked up the last outer garment and reached for her apron pocket, she froze.
"Huh? Tata counted them. How could there be one clothespin missing?"
"Woof! Stupid cat, isn't it on your nose?"
Bruce barked from the lawn some distance away.
Tata glared at the stinky dog lying on the ground, then awkwardly raised a hand and removed the wooden clothespin clipped to her nose to block out the foul smell.
She had been very troubled lately.
The source of her worries certainly wasn't that last night, in the middle of the night, the stench wafting off several people returning home had smoked her right out of a beautiful dream.
Well, that really was quite a headache too.
The smell was only one part of it.
More importantly, before the Mistress returned, she had to wash this pile of clothes that could knock a goblin unconscious until they were spotless, mop the black footprints on the floor over and over until they shone, shove that dog into a bathtub and scrub him fiercely, and finally air out the entire house.
She had to prove to that silver-haired demon that Tata was very valuable!
So she wouldn't