Sonja looked around like she was a small child in a candy store. There were so many things to see, so many to do! She turned to Shara then showed her the cute top that she had found. “Do you think this will suit me?”

Shara nodded, then pressed her glasses back before she offered her a warm smile. “Yes, I’m sure it will.”

The Valkyrie unleashed an overly feminine giggle then held up the sleeveless button-up shirt. She smiled while she bit her lower lip a little.

“Try this skirt with it, oh and these heels,” said Shara.

A scene of almost disturbing normality, the ladies were taking a moment out of their search for Scott to visit Archers. Their goal? Find Sonja some clothes. It was no bother to borrow clothes from Shara or Scott’s clothing, but it was not the same thing as owning her own attire.

So far, their search for the missing dragon had shown nothing. It had not helped that Shara and Ashton had needed to spend a lot of traversal time in the dream world in order to reach Branwen.

Since Scott was nowhere to be found, but clearly alive, they decided to attend to a few important matters before they began the search anew. It also provided a needed break from the stress and concerns the girls had in regards to that fact.

The mild-mannered girl offered a few items to Sonja, and the happy valkyrie took them with a grin. “I love the clothes here!” Most of the clothing in her home world was fanciful but they were also made of thicker materials or did not have such interesting designs. Truly high-end shops might have thin garments of high quality, but the items spawned from that sort of shop were well outside of her grasp before now.

While Sonja changed her wardrobe, Shara continued to seek out interesting garments for her to purchase. “Maybe she should get a few accessories...? What am I saying, of course she should!”

Shara had a certain fetish for clothing. The outfit that someone wore was something of a clue in regards to their inner life. She wanted to help Sonja find her place in this world. She had already decided that she liked her the moment that they had met.

She had not thought that she would get the chance to spend time alone with Sonja in this way for a while, but with Scott missing they had grown closer. Earlier that day she had seen Sonja milling around in front of Scott’s house. The valkyrie seemed lost, like she did not know what to do with herself.

Shara had readily offered to take Sonja shopping for clothes, after she recalled that Scott originally wanted to take her to do such once he had the money needed. It scored points with the valkyrie, and also allowed her to further determine Sonja’s fitness for her ultimate goal.

The ninja superhero goddess, or whatever she was today, looked through various clothing items and considered the current situation. She spoke her thoughts quietly, “Project sexy harem is well under way, but we need more...”

“We have the easy to talk to childhood friend who grew up to be really hot, and who has an interesting secret life, and who coincidentally is also now the girl next door.” She pointed at herself shamelessly.

She tilted herself to the side. “We also have the first girl, or rather the girl he first met on his Isekai portal fantasy adventure.”

Shara thought about Sonja’s nature. She was sweet, tough, and sexy without really trying. It took her a moment to try and classify her personality. “Good, vulnerable but tough... great first girl material. If this were an anime series, she would probably be popular to the extent that many people would think excessively naughty things about her. Excellent.”

“We need a sporty girl, a tsundere girl, a team mom...Hmm... don’t want to have too many people involved or it will be difficult to sustain.” Shara continued to plot out the elements necessary for Scott to have a successful harem love life, regardless of whether he even wanted such a thing.

Briefly she wondered if she should ask him about that, but she quickly discarded the idea as silly. When did the harem protagonist ever have any say in the matter? That would be silly.

Thankfully, she and Sonja fulfilled a lot of traditional harem roles so there was no need to have a dozen people involved. “Two or three more, maybe. Hmm, but what kind of people... I ask, knowing full well that there is another…”

“Oh, hi!” exclaimed an upwardly inflected voice.

Shara made an effort to blink, as though she had been surprised by the new arrival even though she had seen Ashton coming from a good distance. “Hi, boss.”

Ashton smiled. It was a vain attempt, really. They had decided that when she came back to work today, that they would try to act professional at work. It was a largely pointless endeavor, but it was still worth a try. The team members were already far too interested in the social life of their boss as things stood. “I didn’t think I’d see you here on your day off, Shara.”

Shara nodded to her and offered a warm smile. It was almost as though she had not flat-out told Ashton that they would be there today looking for clothes. “I’m helping a friend pick out clothes.”

“Right, good. Got to get those sales up.” Ashton smiled once more then turned to the side and hefted her clipboard. She sighed softly then shook her head.

Shara quirked an eyebrow then took a good look at… the boss. She began to make notations on a mental checklist, though such an addition was unnecessary given the fact that she had long since wanted to add Ashton to the list of sexy harem cast members, then she cheerfully replied. “Yes! We should strive for excellence.”

Ashton laughed a little then flopped her hand out in a lazy wave. “Yes! Let’s do that.”

They chatted amiably for a moment, and Ashton’s mood seemed to lighten considerably. Shara slowly steered the conversation toward Scott a moment later.

“Yeah, I hope he’s alright. It isn’t like him to miss work like this,” Ashton frowned. In all honesty, the store had been far more stressful since he had missed work. Also, in all honesty she was just trying to throw off anyone who might overhear the conversation. She had literally slept at his house many times of late.

“He’s a hard worker?” asked Shara casually.

“Oh, he’s the best. The day just goes by so much better when he’s here,” said Ashton, a genuine smile on her face. Shara was about to comment about that, but Sonja exited the changing stall.

The Valkyrie twirled easily on her high heels then cocked her hip to the side. “So, what do you think?”

Shara clapped her hands together once then nodded. “That looks great! Scott might have a heart attack.”

“Scott?” asked Ashton. She blinked then made a big production out of looking back and forth between Shara and Sonja.

“You think so? You did say to buy what I wanted, and Master would pay you back, but...” The outfit was about one hundred twenty of those dollar things in total. It seemed extravagant.

“Master?” Ashton’s eyes widened considerably, and she hugged her clipboard tightly. Had she just heard that right? Goodness, this was clearly the first time that she had ever heard such a thing. Certainly, this was an entirely new thing to her, and she showed that surprise publicly.

Shara tried to restrain herself, but a short laugh did escape her lips. “Yeah, that’s her pet name for him.”

“By Scott do you mean, my- The Scott who works here?” asked Ashton in a rush. Strangely, she became a little too invested in their roleplaying session.

“Yes, he is the very same,” said Shara. She had not missed her supposed boss’ slip of the tongue. It sounded a great deal like she had wanted to call him my Scott. Sexy harem cast member list updated…