Yuto cooked the steaks quietly in the kitchen.
The night before, Rias had ordered a rare steak. By the usual thinking, steak ought to go with red wine.
But look at it another way: when you ate beef skewers at a night stall, beer was the best match.
At heart, how different were steak and beef skewers, really?
The gap between them had only been drawn up as a class line by people with their own motives.
While Yuto cooked, Rias lifted her cup at the counter and took a small sip.
Her lovely eyes flickered. Maybe it was the weight of her thoughts, maybe it was the new taste of the drink, or maybe both.
The elegant smile from earlier was gone, but a trace of ease had settled on her face.
Only here, in this restaurant where no one knew her, could she relax even a little.
The door slid open.
Asuna had come a little late tonight.
When Yuto glanced back from the kitchen, he caught the happy smile on her face.
He couldn't step out just then—steak needed a constant eye on the heat—so he only greeted her first.
"Asuna, if there's something you'd like to eat, just say so. I can make it while I'm at it." Yuto smiled faintly.
"Ah, then I'll have a vegetable salad." The girl answered brightly and sat down beside Rias.
Her chestnut hair swayed, and under the light it looked as if it had shaken loose a scattering of glow.
The real reason Asuna had come tonight wasn't the food.
If it had been about eating, she'd have come much earlier.
She'd come to invite Yuto to a banquet her family was holding in a few days.
That banquet was her birthday celebration—though it carried another purpose as well.
SAO was the Yuuki Group's most important product right now, and her father had brought a number of investors on board for it.
The banquet was mainly a chance for Shouzou Yuuki to build closer ties with those investors.
On top of that, he wanted to invite Shinomiya Kaguya, and after thinking it over he'd decided to leave that task to his daughter.
Compared to himself, he felt Asuna stood a better chance of getting Kaguya to come.
When her father asked her, Asuna had suggested inviting Yuto to the banquet too.
She wanted him there.
As for why—that was a girl's secret.
Her father agreed to the request at once.
The truth was, he was extremely curious about Yuto himself, because he badly wanted to know what sort of relationship Yuto had with Shinomiya Kaguya.
With the Shinomiya family in the middle of such a large internal upheaval, any information at all was worth having.
"All right, leave it to me." Yuto answered with a smile and went on with the steaks.
Sitting beside Rias, Asuna was curious about the girl next to her.
It was a normal enough curiosity—Rias was, after all, an extremely mysterious girl.
As a devil, Rias's senses were many times sharper than a human's, and even Asuna's small, quiet glances didn't escape her.
She set her cup down with slender fingers, and a faint smile returned to her lips.
Her whole presence turned elegant and composed once more.
She tilted her head slightly toward Asuna.
"Hello."
The sudden greeting startled Asuna, who'd been sneaking looks at her.
But Asuna had been through every kind of etiquette training herself, and in no time she recovered.
"Hello."
With that first exchange, the two girls slowly fell into conversation.
The two girls who's both well versed in manners talking together made for a pleasant sight.
It only paused when Yuto came out carrying Rias and Akeno's steaks.
"Thank you, Boss." Rias and Akeno both thanked him.
Yuto waved a hand.
His eyes passed over the two of them and settled on Asuna. "I'll make your salad now. Just a little longer."
As his gaze crossed Rias, he noticed her glass.
It was already empty.
"It's fine, I'm not in a hurry. There's also something I'd like to talk to you about later." Asuna looked at him, a small smile curving at the corner of her mouth.
Yuto chuckled softly.
Just as he turned to go, Rias called out to him.
"Boss, could I trouble you for another cup? Might I use one of the larger ones?"
Rias was looking at the big cup Gilgamesh drank from.
One of those held four or five times what an ordinary cup did.
Yuto hesitated.
But in the end he nodded.
He was worried the devil girl might get drunk—yet she was a devil, after all.
Maybe he couldn't judge her by a human's measure.
It was like the old saying: one person's constitution simply couldn't be compared to another's.
By the same logic, the drinking tolerance of a devil and a human probably couldn't be compared either.
He poured her a large cup and set it in front of her.
Rias smiled and nodded, then took the handle and began to drink. Yuto glanced at her once, then went back to the kitchen to make Asuna's salad.
Beside Rias, Akeno watched her helplessly.
She knew why Rias was drinking like this tonight.
It was nothing more than drowning her worries in the cup.
All the frustration and trouble Rias had gathered over time was buried deep in her heart, with nowhere to speak of it, nowhere to let it out.
Because Rias was the younger sister of a Maou.
She was the daughter of the Gremory family. She had to mind her manners every moment of every day, and her seemingly ordinary life was watched by a great many people.
Only here, in this restaurant where no one knew her, could Rias finally let go a little.
Rias's pain, her worries, her fears—Akeno knew them all.
And it was exactly because she knew that she didn't stop her. Even though she knew very well that Rias couldn't hold her drink, she didn't want to stop her tonight.
She had no power to change Rias's fate, and even a few comforting words would be useless.
She had watched Rias carry her burdens alone for so long.
It was about time she let her be free and let it out a little—even if only through something as small as a drink.
...
Yuto came out carrying Asuna's salad.
Seeing her chatting with Rias, he smiled.
"So you two getting close now?" He set the salad down in front of Asuna and asked with a smile.
Asuna answered with a bright, happy smile, and Rias, beside her, smiled gently and nodded at him as well.
Compared to earlier, there was a faint drunken flush on Rias's fair face now.
It stood apart from her flame-red hair, and it gave her a slightly fragile look—which, somehow, made her more tempting than before.
Seeing her like that, Yuto felt a small jolt inside.
He'd assumed that, as a devil, she could probably hold her drink well. Now it seemed he'd thought too much of it.
"Gremory-san really is very elegant."
"Not at all. You're just as elegant yourself, Yuuki-san, so please don't tease me."
The two girls traded compliments, faint smiles on both their faces.
Yuto let out a soft, helpless breath, then turned to Asuna.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
At the question, Asuna took a small breath. "My birthday banquet is in a few days, and I'd like to invite you..."
There was a faint tremble in her voice, almost as if she were afraid he'd refuse.
Before she knew it, her expression had gone tense.
A flicker of conflict crossed Yuto's face.
It wasn't that he disliked banquets.
The one in Gensokyo before, or Whitebeard's pirate banquet tomorrow night—those were fine.
What made him hesitate was Asuna's position.
She was the daughter of the Yuuki family, and as a rule, a banquet thrown by someone of that standing tended to be the troublesome kind.
It wasn't hard to picture.
Representatives from all sorts of companies and groups would be there, and with them would come every kind of tiresome, hollow socializing.
A banquet like that wasn't really a banquet anymore.
It was closer to another form of business.
And that kind of business was something Yuto found deeply tedious.
He was, after all, a man with no great ambitions, and standing in a room full of major financial players would only make him uncomfortable.
But—
"Can you...?" The girl lifted her head and looked at him, silent and torn as he was.
Her eyes even seemed to shimmer, as if she might cry if he didn't agree.
Yuto sighed.
He'd just have to think of it as a favor for a friend.
"All right. I'll go."
The instant he agreed, Asuna's eyes shifted and the pitiful look vanished, replaced by the smile of someone who'd gotten exactly what she wanted.
How could Yuto not see that she'd been putting on an act?
He gave her a mock-annoyed look, but the girl didn't so much as flinch.
Instead she beamed, looking thoroughly pleased with herself, as if his agreement were some kind of treasure!
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