>You knock on the door, somewhat nervous. It's not your first time coming here, but under the circumstances you can't help but be anxious.
>She answers, Shiori Novella, your landlord. She's made a special arrangement with you this month since you were short on rent.
>She welcomes you inside, gesturing for you to leave your coat and shoes at the door.
>You follow her to the kitchen where she gives you your mission briefing. She's going to be busy in a half hour for a few hours, for that time you should look after her cats, clean up after her and make the house look nice.
>But whatever you do, you must not enter her office. That's the most important thing. Her office is out of bounds. Oh and try to be as quiet as possible.
>She notices you're holding a small container, it isn't much but you've prepared her something for dinner. She did mention she doesn't eat often.
>She thanks you profusely, grabbing the meal, inspecting the contents of beef stew. She's overjoyed as she puts the entire thing in the air fryer and goes to switch it on.
>Panicked you stop her, saying that while the container is microwave safe, you're not sure it's appropriate to put it in the air fryer.
>She hums happily as she puts the meal in the microwave and sets the timer. One of her cats have come to see her so she picks it up, waving his paw at you, she tells you to watch out for this one. His name is Pepper.
>Looking at her phone, concern comes over her face. Retrieving the now warm microwaved meal she thanks you and says she's going to be busy on a work conference, so just clean away.
>She leaves you alone in the kitchen with Pepper who hisses at you before running out of the room.
>You decide to start on that air fryer you saw earlier. Cleaning the basket you see a charred substance that isn't food. Inspecting it closer it's Styrofoam? That's strange.
>It's garbage day tomorrow so you decide to look through her fridge, throw out any food that may have expired. What you see shocks you. Milk, two weeks past the date. A handful of nuts in a plastic bag, a single egg and a carrot? It's broken haphazardly into pieces. You don't understand.
>Deciding it may be better to leave the things as they are you move to another room. There's not much to do, so you decide to check on the cats. You find the other one she mentioned, Salt was it? He circles in between your legs affectionately as you bend down to pat him.
>Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see Pepper. He's looking straight at you, making sure you know he's there and without delay once he knows he has your attention he starts defecating.
>You rush to the kitchen and grab the cleaning products and a pair of gloves. The cat shat on the carpet so you should deal with it quickly or else it'll leave a stain. As you feel the gooey warmness between your fingers, you can see Pepper a small distance away from you. Almost smiling. He hates you, you know he does.
>Finishing up you don't have much else to do, every now and then you hear sounds of screaming coming from upstairs, sometimes loud expletives follow. You don't know exactly what your landlord does for a living, but it's concerning nonetheless.
>After an hour and a half you get a text message, it's from your landlord. 'You can leave now, good job today. You did great.' She didn't even come down to inspect and is already assuring you that you've done a good job? Sounds dubious, but the quicker you can get out the better. It's already late.
>You text her back, telling her you'll lock the door on the way out. She thanks you again and mentions that the stew was delicious. She wouldn't mind that for dinner again.
>You sigh as you close the locked door behind you, it was only the first day and you have to do this all month? Though it wasn't hard work, it was mentally taxing. You feel as though you'll age 20 years before you're done.
