"Boss, are you worried something will happen if Kanna attends school in the human world?"
Tohru saw through Yuto's difficulty.
Yuto smiled bitterly and nodded.
"Mm... I think it'll be fine. Kanna probably won't run into any trouble."
The dragon girl held her chin and spoke very seriously.
Yuto sighed inwardly.
He was not worried about Kanna running into trouble.
He was worried about other people running into trouble!
"Tohru, you're mistaken."
Lucoa smiled helplessly as she pointed out Tohru's mistake.
For a moment, the dragon girl looked adorably confused.
"Mm? Nani?"
"What Kamisaka-kun is worried about is actually the exact opposite of what you're worried about."
Yuto looked toward Lucoa.
At that moment, he felt grateful that at least Lucoa was present and could understand what he meant.
"That's right. What I'm worried about is actually..."
Yuto explained his concerns.
After hearing him out, Kanna fell silent for a brief moment. Then she raised her head and looked at him.
"Don't worry, Kamisaka! I'm not a dragon who gets angry easily like Tohru-sama. I'll control myself properly!" Kanna spoke very seriously.
Yuto could indeed feel her determination, but Tohru, who stood to the side, immediately became dissatisfied.
"What do you mean I get angry easily?! My personality is clearly very good too!"
The dragon girl waved both hands, looking exactly like an angry crab.
Yuto's attention was not on Tohru. He simply looked at the adorable Kanna in front of him.
He could not help sighing softly.
Then, a helpless smile appeared on his lips.
"Well, I did promise you before. I don't have the habit of going back on my word."
Yuto's words carried a trace of helplessness and fondness.
As he spoke, he reached out and patted the little loli's head.
Compared to Shouko and Sakura, the top of Kanna's head seemed to have a strangely smooth texture.
Perhaps it was because her true form was a dragon.
The moment Kanna heard Yuto's words, her eyes lit up.
Those bright pupils instantly gained a sparkle like tiny stars.
They really did gain little star-like lights. It was not a metaphor.
Perhaps this was Kanna's way of expressing joy.
"However, we have to make things clear first. Kanna, you can't casually expose yourself."
"Mm!"
Faced with Yuto's reminder, Kanna agreed extremely readily.
"Of course, if someone bullies you, then that's a different matter."
Yuto smiled and patted Kanna's head again.
After agreeing to help Kanna, Yuto began preparing food for Kanna and Lucoa.
There was no helping it.
The moment Kanna entered, she had clung to Yuto, so the cooking had to be handled now.
Naturally, Fafnir had also arrived.
It was just that the moment he entered, he very naturally put on a VR headset!
Then he casually started playing online with Rimuru.
Judging from the way he acted, he had absolutely no intention of ordering food. ╮(╯▽╰)╭
And so, while the kitchen prepared grilled meat for Kanna and Lucoa, all kinds of laughter and chatter continued sounding from the front hall.
As time passed, several more regular customers arrived.
Asuna happily entered with several new headsets, which instantly excited Ainz.
He had been looking forward to a game headset for a long time!
Iskandar and Lord El-Melloi II also arrived one after another.
The moment the two entered, they sat beside Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
After all, they shared the most common topics with them.
Along with Iskandar's hearty, unrestrained laughter, Gilgamesh's face would occasionally show traces of irritation, but fortunately, Enkidu was there to soothe things over.
After Yuto finished making all the dishes, he stood behind the front counter and chatted with everyone.
For a time, the atmosphere inside the restaurant became lively, like a noisy little banquet.
Even Erina and Hisako left the kitchen and began chatting with Asuna, Lucoa, and the others.
It was not until a new customer arrived that the atmosphere weakened slightly.
The first thing everyone noticed was that dazzling red hair.
It was a color like fresh blood.
Exceptionally vivid, and yet carrying an inexplicable sense of danger.
The girl standing at the entrance had both an excellent appearance and an excellent figure.
She was like a seductive devil.
One only needed to look at her to be drawn in.
As for Yuto, he greeted her with the same gentle smile as always.
"Welcome."
When his words fell, the girl's expression showed a bit of thought and curiosity.
...
Rias was a Devil.
So when she saw the mysterious door appear in front of her, what surfaced in her heart was not fear, but curiosity.
As a Devil, she would not find such a trick strange. However, a faint anger at being offended still rose within her.
She was the younger sister of the current Maou of the Underworld, and as the daughter of a noble royal family, her status was extremely high.
A spell like this, resembling a portal that had appeared out of thin air, was undoubtedly a provocation.
If she were human, perhaps she would have felt fear in that moment.
But Devils did not!
Rias wanted to see who had the courage to toy with her.
So she walked straight to the door and pushed it open without hesitation.
Yet when the door opened, the scene before her was completely different from what she had imagined.
She had thought there might be endless traps waiting behind it, or perhaps a group of people lying in ambush.
She had already prepared herself mentally for every possible danger.
But...
She had not expected this.
Behind the door was a small restaurant.
Warm yellow light filled the room, carrying a gentle heat that made the space feel strangely peaceful.
Lively and unusual guests sat in front of the counter, eating, drinking, and chatting among themselves.
The restaurant walls were decorated with various flowers and plants, and with Rias's eyesight, she could immediately see the mysterious power contained within them.
It was a kind of power she had never encountered before.
Moreover, as her gaze swept across the guests one by one, ripples stirred in her heart.
Aside from a small number of humans, nearly everyone else contained power capable of contending with her, or even crushing her outright.
Among all the customers seated by the counter, she felt the weakest were probably those beautiful human girls and that bald man.
She only swept her gaze over them once, yet she had already made her judgment in her heart.
Withdrawing her gaze from the counter, she looked straight at the person standing behind it.
He was the most unusual human boy she had ever seen.
Rias could tell that he was human.
However, the complex and subtle aura wrapped around him stirred the lake of her heart.
There was the scent of divine power, the scent of nature, and several other auras she could not understand, all of them entwined around the young man.
He was very attractive.
In every sense of the word.
"Welcome."
When he said those words to Rias with a gentle smile, a clear stream of information, almost like sudden enlightenment, poured into her mind.
In an instant, she learned many things.
...
Yuto watched the red-haired girl walk from the entrance to the counter and sit down.
He smiled lightly and nodded to her.
The girl was truly beautiful.
Even Yuto, who had seen many beautiful girls by now, felt a faint sense of admiration in his heart.
Whether in terms of appearance or figure, she was outstanding.
But if that were all, it would not have been enough to make Yuto feel slightly startled.
After all, there were already far too many girls with both excellent looks and figures in the restaurant.
What made Yuto look at her differently was the invisible aura she carried.
Hidden within her faint nobility was a rather dangerous allure, the kind that made people unconsciously want to approach her, only to realize too late that they had already been wrapped in an unknown danger.
The more dangerous something was, the more curiosity it stirred.
A rose with thorns?
No.
As Yuto looked at the girl, the word that inexplicably surfaced in his mind was—Devil.
"What would you like to eat? As long as it's something I know how to make, I can make it for you. Of course, if you don't want to eat anything, that's fine too."
Yuto smiled as he spoke.
Rias thought for a moment, then tilted her head slightly and saw the grilled meat in front of Iskandar.
The main reason Iskandar ordered grilled meat was to have something to casually eat while drinking.
For Iskandar, drinking was still the more important part.
"Could I have a small serving of pan-seared steak and a simple soup? The steak medium rare, please."
A graceful curve appeared at the corner of Rias's mouth as she spoke softly to Yuto.
She already carried an intoxicating charm, and that slight smile made her look even more captivating.
Yuto nodded.
"Of course. Please wait a moment."
After saying that, Yuto prepared to enter the kitchen.
At that moment, however, he noticed that Erina, who had been sitting and chatting, was also preparing to stand.
The reason for her action was not difficult to guess.
After all, at this moment, she was an employee of the restaurant.
With Yuto busy working, Erina's personality would never allow her to sit around and rest while he handled everything himself.
Hisako followed closely behind her.
As Erina's constant little attendant, Hisako would naturally go wherever Erina went.
"It's only one person's order. I can handle it alone." Yuto spoke up and stopped Erina.
It was only Rias by herself, so he was more than enough.
If more people came in to help, they would only get in the way.
After hearing Yuto's words, Erina nodded slightly and returned to her previously relaxed sitting posture.
Hisako naturally did the same.
Rias watched this scene as well, though she was simply observing.
Yuto then walked into the kitchen.
Standing in front of the chopping board, he tightened the apron strings around his waist and began moving.
He opened the freezer and took out a fine piece of beef rib.
Steaks had different names depending on which part of the cow the meat came from.
Rias wanted hers medium-rare.
In that case, a ribeye steak made from the rib section was the most suitable choice.
This cut came from near the end of the ribs
Since that part of the cow's body did not move much, the meat was exceptionally soft and tender, placing it among the finest choices.
A ribeye steak made from this section was second only to filet mignon.
The word "filet" referred to the tenderest part along the cow's loin, a cut that combined softness with a certain delicate springiness.
Naturally, Yuto had prepared that cut too.
But Rias had asked for medium-rare.
Medium-rare was not the best doneness for filet.
It suited ribeye better.
As for the so-called ribeye and filet, in foreign languages, they were essentially terms referring to different parts of the cow.
Yuto picked up his knife and sliced into the piece of beef rib.
The beef was still somewhat firm from being frozen, but that did not affect Yuto's handling of it.
After all, Yuto was not an ordinary person either.
With a little force, he cut off a palm-sized piece of meat, about five to six millimeters thick, then placed the remaining meat back into the freezer.
He laid the small piece of beef flat on a porcelain plate and put it into the microwave.
This step was only for defrosting.
Low-temperature microwaving could effectively thaw the beef while preserving as much of its original flavor as possible.
After only a dozen seconds, Yuto took the palm-sized piece of meat back out.
By now, the meat on the plate had softened, and its surface was covered in moisture.
He pulled off a few sheets of kitchen paper and absorbed the water from the beef's surface before sprinkling it with sea salt and crushed black pepper.
For pan-searing steak, sea salt was better.
It was not expensive either.
Yuto directly used his hands to rub the salt and black pepper evenly across the meat.
After that, he wiped his hands, took a little thyme, crushed it between his fingers, and scattered it over the surface.
Thyme was actually just a type of wild pepper herb, though its name sounded a little more refined.
Then he drizzled olive oil over both sides of the meat.
Olive oil had a clearer and purer sheen because it went through several more refining steps.
After adding the oil, he continued pressing, rubbing, and kneading the meat.
It looked almost as if he were giving the beef some kind of spa treatment.
In truth, it was to help the flavor penetrate better.
Next, he set it aside for a while.
In other words, marinating.
After finishing those steps, Yuto washed his hands.
Now he had to make the soup.
Since it was being paired with steak, a Western-style soup was naturally more suitable.
Yuto did not know many Western soups.
That was because, when he had studied and researched them before, he had come to one conclusion—compared with Asian soups, Western soups really could not be called especially refined.
They were too simple and formulaic, and their range of flavor changes could not compare with Asian soups.
So when Yuto was learning them, he felt there was no need to spend too much time on Western soups.
He had only learned a few classic ones.
Cream of corn soup.
That was the dish he planned to make.
Relatively speaking, it was truly simple.
He melted butter in a pan, poured in flour, and stir-fried them together. Then he added milk, stirring continuously as he poured it in.
Once the milk in the pan turned into a thick, creamy mixture, he lowered the heat and let it simmer for a while.
At this point, Yuto prepared some corn kernels and used a blender to turn them into a paste.
Then he poured the corn paste into the pan and continued simmering everything over low heat.
The steps were only that much.
Extremely simple.
Yuto also cut a little carrot into tiny cubes and tossed them in, which could enrich the texture slightly.
While the soup simmered, Yuto shifted his attention back to the beef.
It was about time to sear it.
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