Kanna obediently headed upstairs to bed, though she looked miserable the entire way.
Being told she could not keep a Totoro had clearly broken her little heart.
Yuto could only smile helplessly.
Had it been an ordinary cat or dog, he might have agreed.
The Totoros were different, however.
Both the giant one and the smaller ones were guests of the restaurant, and the little Totoros were clearly attached to their larger companion.
They were not pets he could simply decide to keep.
Kanna might have been disappointed, but there was nothing he could do.
Once she had gone upstairs, Yuto turned to Tohru and handed her the seed.
The dragon girl accepted it with a puzzled expression and stared blankly at him.
"I remember there are still a few empty flowerpots in the backyard. Plant this in one of them."
"Oh! Leave it to me!"
The moment Tohru was given a job, her face lit up.
She spun around and hurried toward the backyard, her tail swaying enthusiastically behind her.
The movement stirred up a gust of wind that sent Erina's and Hisako's hair fluttering.
Yuto smiled faintly.
Tohru might struggle with delicate work, but in almost every other situation, she was extremely reliable.
A short while later, she returned carrying a flowerpot and looked at him with bright, expectant eyes.
"Boss, where should I put it?"
"Mm... Place it outside the entrance."
"Okay!"
Yuto had already been thinking about decorating the front of the restaurant, so the flowerpot could stay outside for now.
In a few days, he could buy more plants and fill the area with flowers.
Tohru carried the pot outside and placed it beside the entrance.
She had already buried the seed, and nothing unusual could be seen on the surface, though she had packed the soil down rather firmly.
"Did you water it?"
Yuto's voice came from behind her.
An embarrassed look appeared on Tohru's face.
She had forgotten about it!
"I'll do it now."
She called back toward the restaurant before tracing one finger through the air. A thin stream of water formed at her fingertip and flowed into the pot.
Although Tohru specialized in fire magic, she could still use basic water spells.
They were nothing advanced, but they were more than enough for watering a plant.
The water slowly soaked into the earth, spreading deeper until it reached the seed.
The instant the moisture touched it, the seed gave off a brief flash, like a tiny lamp flickering to life.
Because it was buried beneath the soil, no one saw it—not even Tohru.
"That should do it..."
She was just beginning to stand when something shifted inside the flowerpot.
Puff—
Crack—
A green shoot pushed through the soil.
The tender sprout was bright and clear, with a smooth sheen that made it resemble polished jade.
Curiosity immediately filled Tohru's eyes.
She turned toward the restaurant and called out, "Boss, come look!"
Yuto heard her and stepped outside through the small gate beside the counter. Erina and Hisako followed out of curiosity.
By the time they reached the entrance, surprise had appeared on all three of their faces.
The sprout had already grown nearly half a meter tall, and it was still rising rapidly.
Its entire body was a deep, vivid green, smooth and translucent enough to seem almost luminous.
Delicate branches and leaves unfolded naturally in every direction, while curling vines wrapped themselves around the restaurant's doorframe without any help.
They continued climbing until the plant stood more than two meters tall.
It even wound itself around the restaurant sign, carefully avoiding the name instead of covering it.
Several branches stretched toward the opposite wall of the alley and formed something resembling a natural archway.
Calling it a flower or an ordinary plant no longer seemed right.
To Yuto, it had already become a tree.
Its leaves were small but incredibly dense, overlapping in layer after layer like rippling waves.
The branches above gradually spread into a broad canopy, creating an impressive roof of intertwined leaves and limbs.
At first, Yuto worried it might keep growing.
If it became too large, he might have no choice but to cut it back.
Almost as though it sensed his concern, the tree stopped growing once it reached a little over two meters.
Yuto quietly let out the breath he had been holding and placed one hand against the trunk.
Instead of the rough bark found on ordinary trees, its surface was remarkably smooth.
Then something even more surprising happened.
The tree began to glow.
It was not reflected light or an illusion.
Every leaf shimmered with a soft yellow-green glow, like countless fireflies dancing beside a pond on a summer night.
Each individual light was faint, but together they beautifully illuminated the entire entrance.
The gentle glow brought an immediate sense of comfort, and its warm yellow-green color naturally reminded him of summer.
Yuto drew in a slow breath and felt both his body and mind relax.
"It looks like I won't need to buy any flowers after all."
He smiled softly.
His plan to decorate the restaurant entrance had just become unnecessary.
With a tree like this, anything else would only get in the way.
"It's so beautiful..."
Erina and Hisako stared at it in admiration.
What girl could resist a glowing tree like this?
Tohru circled it from every angle, her eyes filled with amazement and disbelief.
"I couldn't sense anything special from it at all, but it turned out to be such an incredible seed!"
Before planting it, she had sensed nothing unusual. To her, it had seemed completely ordinary.
Reality had clearly proven otherwise.
"Totoro gave us an amazing gift."
Yuto smiled and lightly patted the trunk.
He had never imagined that such a tiny seed would grow into something so strange and beautiful.
At that moment, a rough but curious voice sounded behind them.
"Oh? What kind of tree is this? Did you plant it today, Boss?"
Everyone turned around.
The speaker was Iskandar.
A broad, cheerful grin covered his rugged face, making it obvious that he was in an excellent mood.
El-Melloi II stood beside him with a much calmer expression.
Before leaving the restaurant the previous night, El-Melloi II had asked Yuto for permission to bring Iskandar into his world.
Yuto had agreed, which was why the two had arrived together today.
"As for what kind of tree it is... I don't know either. A customer gave me the seed. I never expected it to grow into something like this."
Yuto smiled as he walked back into the restaurant.
Now that customers had arrived, he needed to focus on serving them.
Erina and Hisako followed him inside, leaving Tohru beside the glowing tree.
She continued poking and examining it like a curious child, looking both silly and strangely adorable.
Iskandar and El-Melloi II took seats at the counter.
Iskandar immediately ordered alcohol. He was in a wonderful mood, and apparently that made him even more eager to drink.
El-Melloi II ordered a glass as well.
After pouring their drinks, Yuto asked what they had experienced that day.
The idea of Iskandar, a Heroic Spirit, returning to the modern world naturally made him curious.
The moment he asked, however, El-Melloi II's expression became helpless and irritated. He even shot Iskandar a glare.
Clearly, the King of Conquerors had not given him a moment of peace.
"Ahahaha! Today was another wonderfully fulfilling day for the King of Conquerors!"
Iskandar planted his hands on his hips and spoke with obvious pride and satisfaction.
El-Melloi II looked thoroughly resentful.
"Yes, yes. All the chaos you caused certainly made my day incredibly 'fulfilling.'"
Yuto listened while El-Melloi II poured out all his frustration.
First, Iskandar had caused a commotion among the women.
Then he had caused another one at the Clock Tower.
By the end of the story, Yuto almost felt sorry for El-Melloi II.
Due to certain preferences among British women, Iskandar happened to be exactly the kind of man many of them found attractive.
Perhaps it was his powerful build, but while he and El-Melloi II were walking through the city, women had gathered around him from every direction.
Of course, Iskandar was still Iskandar.
As a king, he believed it was only natural to generously accept everyone.
So he immediately announced that he would welcome all of them.
The women went wild.
El-Melloi II developed a headache.
Later, once the two reached the Clock Tower, it would have been stranger if Iskandar's personality had not caused even more trouble.
And so El-Melloi II spent the entire day dealing with one disaster after another.
He was utterly exhausted.
Iskandar, meanwhile, still seemed to have endless energy.
That only irritated him more.
"As a king, it is only natural that women are drawn to me. Besides, everything that happened at the Clock Tower was trivial. Waver, you still lack maturity! Were such minor problems truly enough to exhaust you?"
"How disappointing."
Iskandar crossed his arms and shook his head.
El-Melloi II's face darkened even further.
He no longer wanted to argue.
He had already spent the entire day doing exactly that, and it had accomplished nothing.
Instead, he turned toward Yuto.
There was something else he wanted to discuss.
"Boss, has Illya visited today?"
Yuto shook his head.
"Is something wrong?"
"Nothing urgent. Rider and I concluded during our previous meeting that Illya came from my world, so I investigated her background after returning."
"Her family is the Einzbern family, who fought against me during the Holy Grail War. It appears someone from that family takes part in every generation. During my war, their representative was Illya's mother."
"This time, Illya herself is participating. However, she cannot come from the same point in the timeline as I do. In my world, the Fifth Holy Grail War has already ended, and detailed information about it was sealed by unknown members of the upper ranks."
"Illya, on the other hand, is one of its participants, and she has the Servant Berserker beside her. That means she must have come from an earlier point in my world's history."
"Once I connected everything, the entire situation became almost unbelievable."
"People from the same world but different points in time have met inside this restaurant. What sort of effect could that have on the world itself?"
A smile appeared on El-Melloi II's face.
A capable magus needed a sharp and endless curiosity. Without it, a person was not suited to studying magecraft.
Magecraft itself had been born from humanity's desire to explore the unknown.
The deeper and more difficult a mystery became, the more strongly it drew in a true magus.
El-Melloi II was no exception.
Two timelines had crossed inside the restaurant.
The butterfly effect, temporal paradoxes, the grandfather paradox—countless theories and possibilities filled his mind, leaving him visibly excited.
"Ahhh... Just listening to that is making me sleepy."
Iskandar casually dug inside one ear while his subject continued speaking.
El-Melloi II's expression stiffened.
The excitement vanished from his face, replaced by his usual tired composure.
"Hmph."
He snorted at Iskandar and stopped talking.
Yuto smiled at their exchange.
Although he had remained silent throughout El-Melloi II's explanation, he had also found the subject fascinating.
Everyone possessed some degree of curiosity.
At that moment, the restaurant door opened.
The King of Heroes had arrived at a strangely perfect time.
Only Enkidu accompanied him today, Siduri was nowhere to be seen.
"Kamisaka, prepare food for this king at once! I have spent the entire day dealing with official matters, and I am starving."
Just like during his previous visit, the King of Heroes had arrived extremely hungry!