Saitama left the diner in silence.
Watching his retreating figure walk out into the rain, Yuto felt an inexplicable pang of sadness.
For a brief moment, the bald hero looked like a lonely helpless old man carrying the weight of the world on his sagging shoulders.
Yuto sighed quietly before turning his gaze back to Ainz, who was currently sitting at the counter looking utterly confused.
"Ainz... you hurt Saitama," Yuto said gently.
Hearing this, Ainz became even more bewildered.
'Hadn't I done everything correctly just now? I paid for my friend's meal! Isn't that what friends do when they finally get a good job?'
"Ah... don't you understand it yet?" Yuto sighed again, feeling a bit helpless.
Upon hearing this, Ainz forced himself to calm down and think carefully.
Ainz wasn't a foolish person.
After tracing back through their history of clipping coupons and splitting cheap bowls of udon to the exact yen, it finally clicked.
Ainz let out a deep, rattling sigh.
The twin red glows in his eye sockets dimmed considerably, looking almost mournful.
"I just thought that... now that I finally have the ability, I should look after Saitama a bit. I truly had no other intentions..."
Although his skeletal chest was entirely hollow, it didn't stop him from feeling a heavy aching distress.
"I understand where you were coming from, Ainz. But you're going to have to explain that to Saitama yourself," Yuto said, reaching over the counter to pat his friend's massive skeletal shoulder.
'Ouch... the bone structure is a bit prickly.'
"I understand! Tomorrow, I will explain everything clearly to Saitama!"
A fierce, determined red glow blazed back to life in Ainz's eyes.
He would make things right!
Even though he was now the incredibly wealthy ruler of Nazarick, in his heart, he was still a core, founding member of the Poverty Alliance!
He stood shoulder to shoulder with Saitama, and that sincere bond of friendship would never change!
Sitting nearby, Rimuru was completely lost.
The slime tilted slightly, having absolutely no idea what kind of tragic soap opera he had just witnessed.
"Kamisaka, I should be going as well," Ainz said, standing up with another silent, heavy sigh.
It seemed the misunderstanding with Saitama had genuinely wounded the Overlord's spirit.
He had originally planned to stay and chat with Rimuru all night, but now, he just wanted to go home and think about how to apologize.
"Leaving already?" A cartoonish question mark practically materialized above Rimuru's gelatinous body.
He and Ainz had been having such a fantastic conversation!
After all, both of them were modern humans from Japan who had tragically died and been reincarnated as non-human monsters in a fantasy world.
Their similarities were striking: both had territories, both were rulers, and both were desperately trying to fake their way through leadership!
They had so much to talk about!
Rimuru had fully intended to chat until sunrise and Ainz leaving so early made him feel genuinely sad.
"Ah... Rimuru. Let's talk again tomorrow," Ainz said, his deep voice unexpectedly warm and gentle.
Hearing that, the small wave of sadness in Rimuru's heart instantly vanished.
Right, there was always tomorrow! Why was he feeling sad?
"Kamisaka! If it is possible, you must come visit my world sometime. Please, allow me to properly host you!" Ainz extended another earnest invitation before heading for the door.
Before his transmigration, Ainz had very few friends.
His entire social circle consisted of the other forty members of his guild, plus Saitama, Utaha, and Yuto from the restaurant.
Now that he was trapped in another world, he could no longer contact his guildmates.
The only friends he had left in the entire multiverse were the people sitting in this little restaurant.
Because of that, he cherished them more than anything—which was exactly why hurting Saitama's feelings had crushed him so deeply.
As for Yuto, Ainz desperately wanted to repay him for all those bowls of discount udon.
He wasn't stupid, he knew perfectly well that a massive ingredient-heavy bowl of handmade udon cost far more than a mere five hundred yen to make.
Yuto had practically been giving the food away just to take care of him and Saitama.
Now that Ainz had an entire tomb filled with endless treasure, it was only natural to want to treat Yuto like royalty in return.
"Alright. I'll definitely come visit when the time is right," Yuto smiled, completely understanding the sentiment behind the offer.
After exchanging a warm farewell, Ainz stepped out of the shop and vanished into the night.
Only Rimuru remained at the counter.
The blue slime rolled his body a couple of times and let out a soft sigh.
After Ainz left, the restaurant suddenly felt a bit empty and boring.
"Rimuru, would you like anything else to eat?" Yuto asked, breaking the silence with a smile.
"Well... I guess I'll have six more servings of fried chicken then!" Rimuru declared, deciding to fill the emptiness in his heart with an absurd amount of calories.
After all, he was a slime—eating as much as he wanted without gaining weight was his greatest perk!
Yuto chuckled. "Alright, coming right up."
Sometimes he felt that Rimuru was exactly like an energetic little kid.
Perhaps the slime's round, bouncy physical form was starting to influence his actual personality?
Yuto wasn't sure, but he didn't mind.
He went into the kitchen to prep the chicken.
Fried chicken was simple, fast, and the perfect late-night comfort food.
"A-woo!"
Rimuru literally swallowed all six servings of fried chicken in a single massive gulp, completely absorbing the meat and leaving the plates sparkling clean.
Then, with a soft plop, he spat out a solid chunk of gold.
It landed heavily on the wooden counter.
"See you tomorrow, Boss!" Rimuru cheered, happily bouncing down from his seat. T
he gold chunk was his payment for the evening.
"Rimuru, wait, you don't have to—"
Yuto tried to stop him, but the slime had already slipped through the door and bounced out into the alley.
Seeing this, Yuto could only sigh helplessly and pick up the heavy piece of gold.
He had wanted to stop Rimuru because the gold and potions the slime had given him last night was already incredibly valuable.
There was absolutely no need to pay for a few pieces of fried chicken with solid gold!
But Rimuru had insisted.
Yuto was certain the slime had heard him call out, but purposely chose to ignore him just so he wouldn't have to take the money back.
"Honestly, these people," Yuto murmured fondly.
He placed the gold chunk into the ornate box Rimuru had given him the night before.
Inside, the glowing healing potions and the pile of gold coins were neatly arranged.
It was essentially his otherworldly transaction ledger.
He and Rimuru had agreed on a delivery time for tomorrow, after closing the shop tonight, Yuto planned to go out and buy the crop seeds and industrial blueprints Rimuru had requested for his goblin village.
The restaurant was unusually quiet now as Yuto sat quietly behind the counter.
This kind of peaceful, empty scene was basically an everyday occurrence back when he had first opened the restaurant.
He used to sit here alone for hours, quietly waiting for a single customer to stumble in.
But slowly, bit by bit, his regulars had increased.
Now, the small restaurant was actually starting to feel a bit cramped.
When Ainz and his massive shoulder pauldrons had entered earlier, there were nine people packed inside.
The restaurant only had thirteen seats in total!
And that was only because tonight's customers were all roughly normal-sized.
If a few of his more... unusual patrons had shown up—like that terrifying, white-bearded giant who kept insisting Yuto become his son—the restaurant would have been overflow.
'Perhaps it's time to seriously consider expanding,' Yuto thought to himself.
...
It was 4:45 AM.
The restaurant had been empty for nearly three hours.
But that didn't mean Yuto was idle, on the contrary, he was incredibly busy.
He had set up a massive, industrial-sized pot on the main stove.
Inside, a huge batch of century egg and lean pork congee was simmering away. Small, thick bubbles broke the surface in a slow, rhythmic succession.
The slightly translucent, yellowish-black century eggs floated and sank in the creamy broth, while the finely minced pork belly had turned a pale, tender white.
The ginger strips Yuto had cut were long but impossibly thin, drifting along the bursting bubbles like delicate golden threads.
Yuto occasionally stirred the massive pot gently with a long wooden ladle to prevent the thick rice from sticking to the bottom and burning.
Satisfied with the consistency, he turned the heat down to a low simmer and moved to the adjacent stove.
He had pulled out his heavy pot of master stock. Master stock is not a one-time broth; it is a living ingredient that can be stored and reused for a long time.
The longer it's kept and replenished, the richer and more fragrant it becomes.
Some famous, generation-old restaurants often boast about their master stock being decades old.
If a shop has a master stock that's fifty years old, that is true, undeniable culinary heritage.
Yuto began adding fresh ingredients to the dark, rich liquid.
Conservatively, he dropped in dozens of pounds of various meats, spices, and aromatics.
He checked the deep, complex color of the stock, gave it a stir, and placed the heavy wooden lid back on top.
It wasn't quite time yet, the flavors needed to meld.
He walked out of the kitchen, leaned back against the wall, and sat quietly, waiting.
He wasn't making massive quantities of congee and braised meat on a whim, and he certainly wasn't planning to sell it.
His purpose for cooking all this food was to give it away to everyone on Ichinosuke Street.
When he had stepped outside to face the Hosen gang earlier that night, he never in a million years expected everyone in the red-light district to come out and support him.
Getting into street fights was a losing proposition in modern society, especially since the Hosen thugs were all minors protected by special juvenile laws.
For adults, fighting with those delinquents was incredibly legally dangerous.
But even knowing the risks, every single person on Ichinosuke Street—from the club managers to the hostesses to the bouncers—had grabbed a weapon and stood up for him in the pouring rain.
At that moment, Yuto's heart had felt incredibly warm.
Without him even realizing it, an entire community of people had decided they had his back.
He had immediately started thinking about how to repay them.
Considering what he did best... cooking was really his only option. After much thought, a warm, comforting congee seemed the most appropriate for people coming off a long, cold night shift.
So, he decided to cook a massive pot to feed the entire street.
Even if it ended up not being quite enough for every single person, it was the sincere gesture that mattered.
He also made a large extra batch of braised dishes to hand out alongside the bowls.
Although the sheer volume of food seemed expensive, the actual ingredient cost was quite low—altogether, it was only a few tens of thousands of yen.
It mostly just required time and effort.
And since he had no customers in the early morning hours, it was the perfect opportunity to get it done.
The congee would be perfectly thickened in about half an hour.
Because of the massive volume, the cooking time was much longer than an ordinary household pot.
The braised dishes, however, would need at least another hour or more to fully absorb the master stock.
There was no rush, he had plenty of time to wait.
As the rich aromas filled the empty diner, Yuto's thoughts drifted back to expanding the restaurant.
Sitting alone in the quiet, it was the perfect time to brainstorm.
If it were simply a matter of buying more physical space, there would be no problem at all.
There were four or five other narrow storefronts in this particular alley, mostly selling things like cheap flowers or trinkets.
But their business was usually abysmal.
Because Yuto's diner was tucked away in this specific cognitively hidden alley, ordinary foot traffic almost never wandered down here.
Therefore, the daily business strategy for those neighboring shops was simply to close early to save on electricity.
Yuto was certain that if he approached the owners with a fair price, they would eagerly agree to sell or transfer their leases to him.
After all, no one enjoys running a failing business, they would likely be thrilled that he was willing to take the dead space off their hands.
But acquiring the space was only half the problem.
Once the shop expanded, it would be far too large for Yuto to handle alone.
He would need to hire prep cooks to help in the kitchen, and he would definitely need to hire a few servers to manage the floor.
Hiring staff wouldn't be an issue for a normal restaurant.
But this was where the unique nature of the Kamisaka Shop became a massive headache.
Because of the dimensional door and the cognitive magic, if Yuto wanted to hire someone, he could only choose from among the people who could actually enter the restaurant.
Selecting chefs and servers from his current roster of customers... that was not going to be easy.
Yuto aggressively rubbed his hair, feeling a migraine coming on just thinking about it.
'Should I hire Ainz to wait tables? Have Rimuru wash dishes? Oh god, what if Yuuka decided she wanted to be the hostess?'
He shook his head.
For now, there was no need to overthink it. He could take things one step at a time. He could start by just buying the adjacent shop and knocking down the wall to connect it to the current dining room.
That way, he could still manage the floor on his own for a little while longer.
Once suitable, non-terrifying candidates appeared among his new customers, he could consider hiring help and expanding further.
Buying the space was feasible.
The real issue was the renovation workforce.
If he hired an ordinary human construction crew, it would take weeks, and they would be thoroughly confused by the spatial anomalies of the diner.
Yuto genuinely considered asking his supernatural customers for help.
Ainz could probably summon undead builders and Rimuru had experience constructing an entire goblin city.
If possible, he even wanted to ask Yuuka to help decorate the new expansion.
He still wasn't entirely sure what specific kind of youkai she was, but judging by her terrifying aura and her ability to conjure flawless sunflowers out of thin air, she was clearly a spirit deeply aligned with nature.
Since she controlled plant life... having her weave beautiful, living vines along the walls or cultivate indoor flowerbeds shouldn't be a problem for her, right?
But then he remembered her usual attitude.
Yuto grew a bit worried.
'Would she actually agree to a request like that, or would she just turn me into fertilizer for asking?'
As Yuto sat quietly pondering his potential doom, a petite silhouette appeared outside the frosted glass of the front door.
Rustle, rustle...
The shop door slowly slid open.
Yuto's attention immediately shifted from his expansion plans to the new arrival.
It wasn't one of his regulars, it was a completely new face.
'Lately, the number of new walk-ins seems to be increasing,' he noted, his thoughts wandering briefly before his customer-service instincts kicked in.
"Welcome," he said warmly, standing up and smiling at the girl standing in the doorway.
She was incredibly petite, standing barely five feet tall, but she had an exceptionally well-proportioned, mature figure.
She was wearing a striking blue-and-white outfit that added a touch of vibrant brightness to the dim, rainy morning.
A signature blue ribbon was tied snugly under her rather big chest.
Yuto couldn't help but marvel quietly to himself.
'Did this girl grow up drinking nothing but papaya milk?'
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