In the simple-minded dragon girl's head, the savory meat-heavy rice bowl she had eaten last night was the pinnacle of human cuisine.
Why order anything else when perfection already existed?
Yuto chuckled softly, shaking his head in fond resignation.
He should have guessed. "Alright. Wait just a moment."
He stepped into the kitchen and pulled out a massive mixing bowl.
He scooped out a mountain of steamed white rice—easily enough for four massive portions, perhaps even a bit more.
He then rapidly sliced up a thick block of premium pork and gathered the necessary vegetables and sauces.
It would be much faster to cook all four servings in one giant batch rather than individually.
Out in the dining room, Tohru sat eagerly on her stool.
Without her noticing, her magical concealment slipped just a fraction.
A thick, somewhat plump green dragon tail popped into existence, swaying happily back and forth behind her.
Sitting a few seats away, Rimuru noticed the massive scaly appendage.
An intense, curious urge bubbled up inside the slime.
'I really want to touch it...'
But the very second the thought crossed his mind, Tohru's head snapped around.
She locked eyes with the slime, her golden pupils narrowing into vertical reptilian slits.
She stared at him coldly and mercilessly, radiating the chilling aura of an apex predator!
Rimuru couldn't help but shiver violently.
"Take back that dangerous thought right now, squishy," Tohru warned in a low, deadly whisper.
She raised her hand and slowly clenched her fist.
The sharp, terrifying sound of popping knuckles echoed loudly in the quiet room.
"Yes, ma'am! I'm so sorry!" Rimuru squeaked, instantly terrified.
Seeing the slime cower, Tohru smiled triumphantly.
But her victory was short-lived.
"Tohru. Remember to stay calm with the customers," Yuto's voice drifted from the kitchen, carrying a heavy hint of exasperation.
Hearing her boss reprimand her, Tohru immediately shot her hand straight up into the air like an eager schoolchild.
"Okay, Boss!" she replied with a loud, cheerful laugh.
"Hmph... childish lizard," Ainz muttered under his breath, shaking his skull.
The moment the whisper left his teeth, Tohru fixed her predatory gaze on him.
She simply smiled at the Overlord—a wide, terrifyingly serene smile.
For Ainz, the silent psychotic grinning was infinitely more unsettling than a direct threat!
After a tense, silent stare-down, Ainz huffed awkwardly and turned away to chat with the traumatized slime instead.
Tohru huffed softly, turning her attention back to the kitchen. While she waited for her food, she remained in a state of hyperactive self-amusement.
She swayed left and right on her stool, unable to sit still, her thick green tail wagging incessantly behind her like a cheerful puppy waiting for a treat.
A few minutes later, Yuto walked out carrying a massive oversized ceramic bowl.
It was the heavy-duty mixing bowl he normally used for bulk food prep; it was the only thing large enough to hold four combined servings of the meat rice.
A small mountain of glossy, sauce-covered pork slices buried the steaming rice, releasing an incredibly rich, savory aroma.
As Yuto set the literal bucket of food down, Tohru expressed her anticipation in the most straightforward, primal way possible.
She drooled.
Even trapped in a cute human form, she was still a ravenous dragon at heart!
Yuto handed her a large serving spoon.
Tohru's eyes sparkled like stars. "Thank you, Boss! Woohoo!"
She cheered loudly and immediately buried her face in the bowl.
Gripping the oversized spoon like a shovel, she began to eat.
It was not the calm, elegant dining experience expected of a pretty young woman. It was a ferocious, terrifying display of sheer gluttony.
In just a few seconds, half the mountain of rice was completely gone.
Yuto stood behind the counter, momentarily at a loss for words.
He had definitely overthought things.
Why did he ever assume a mythical dragon would eat at a normal human pace?
Watching her shovel food into her mouth at the speed of light, Yuto inexplicably felt less like a boss managing an employee, and more like a man who had just adopted a very large, very hungry stray dog.
In less than three minutes, Tohru scraped the bottom of the massive bowl clean.
She happily clapped her hands together and bowed deeply to Yuto.
"It was absolutely delicious! Thank you so much!"
"Are you actually full?" Yuto asked, genuinely curious.
Tohru smiled adorably, patting her flat stomach. "Yes! I am full!"
Yuto nodded and took the empty mixing bowl back to the sink.
But deep down, he had his doubts.
'Can a massive dragon really be filled up by just four human servings of rice?'
After quickly washing the cookware, he stepped back out to the counter.
Although he had hired Tohru on a whim to clear her debt, he still knew absolutely nothing about her true identity or background in her own world.
"Tohru, what exactly do you do in your world?" Yuto asked, leaning against the counter with a faint smile.
"Me? Well, you could say I am a fierce warrior... or you could say I am a princess!" Tohru answered proudly, planting her hands on her hips.
Yuto blinked, slightly taken aback.
'A warrior? A princess?'
An inexplicable feeling of dread washed over him.
'Perhaps hiring her wasn't my brightest idea...'
"The Princess of the Chaos Faction..." Yuto sighed helplessly, rubbing his temples after Tohru cheerfully explained the geopolitical landscape of her world.
He had actually just hired royalty to bus tables!
And not just any royalty—she was the daughter of the Emperor of Demise, the highest-ranking and most catastrophically dangerous being in her entire dimension.
"Tohru, are you absolutely sure you are okay with being my employee?" Yuto asked.
He genuinely felt this could spark an inter-dimensional diplomatic incident.
But Tohru just shook her head dismissively.
"It's totally fine! No one will even notice I'm gone during the night!" She gave him a thumbs-up, brimming with absolute confidence.
Seeing her so sure of herself, Yuto decided to just roll with it.
He would deal with the consequences later if they arose.
"Then... if you are a princess, why didn't you have any money to pay your bill last night?" Rimuru asked from the side, tilting his body in confusion.
The moment the question left the slime, Tohru glared fiercely at him.
Rimuru instantly shrank back.
But feeling Yuto's equally curious gaze on her, Tohru's fierce facade crumbled.
She awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck and confessed the embarrassing truth.
"Well... last night, before I came here, I disappeared from my world for a really long time without telling anyone. When I finally went back, my father was furious. As punishment for worrying him, he confiscated my entire hoard and cut off my allowance!" Tohru explained with an awkward bashful smile.
She fidgeted with her fingers, looking exactly like a grounded teenager.
Yuto stared at her.
'Didn't you literally just say no one would notice you missing at night?!'
"Ah! D-don't worry, Boss! Last night was just a very special, specific case! Usually, Father ignores me entirely!" Tohru waved her hands frantically, trying to reassure him.
Her panicked explanation only made Yuto want to retort even more, but he swallowed his sarcasm.
"Alright," Yuto agreed reluctantly.
Regardless of her terrifying lineage, Tohru was his employee now.
As her boss, he had to choose to trust her.
Besides, even if the Emperor of Demise showed up looking for his daughter, Yuto would just have to deal with it then.
He firmly believed things would work out in the end.
"Mhm! Mhm! Leave it all to me! Don't worry about a thing!" Tohru nodded enthusiastically, putting on an overly confident expression to reassure him.
Looking at the eager adorable dragon girl, Yuto smiled softly.
The lingering unease in his chest gradually settled.
"But I must admit, I'm highly curious about something," Ainz's deep, rumbling voice interrupted the warm moment.
"As the Princess of the Chaos Faction—a force fundamentally opposed to humanity—why are you acting so friendly toward Kamisaka? What exactly are your true intentions here?"
The red orbs in Ainz's skull flared dangerously.
Having heard Tohru's casual admission that her faction regularly slaughtered humans, the Overlord was suddenly on high alert.
He regarded Yuto as a precious friend and a benefactor.
He would not allow a chaotic dragon to scheme against or harm the chef!
"You damn undead! You really should just be reduced to ashes under my dragon fire!" Tohru roared.
Her cheerful demeanor vanished instantly.
She bared her fangs, and her right hand morphed back into a massive, razor-sharp green claw.
She lunged, fully intending to smash the Overlord's skull into dust.
Ainz reacted with terrifying speed. Countless rings of glowing magical formations flared to life around his skeletal body, rapidly stacking high-tier defensive buffs in preparation for a physical strike.
"Tohru! Ainz!" Yuto shouted.
He slammed his open palm hard against the wooden counter.
The sharp smack echoed like a gunshot in the tense room.
The murderous tension between the dragon and the skeleton instantly evaporated.
Yuto looked at them both, his expression dead serious. "No fighting in the restaurant. If it happens again, I will permanently ban the offender from entering. Do I make myself clear?"
His words were calm, but they carried an undeniable, heavy authority.
Within the magical boundaries of the restaurant, his strict warnings seemed to impose a physical binding restraint on the powerful patrons.
"My deepest apologies, Kamisaka," Ainz immediately bowed his head, dropping his magical shields.
Tohru, on the other hand, shrank back.
Her claw morphed back into a human hand. She lowered her head, suddenly feeling far too ashamed to look Yuto in the eye.
Yuto sighed inwardly.
He didn't care about Ainz's paranoid accusations. Or rather, he had never once worried about Tohru betraying him.
Although he wasn't physically strong compared to his monstrous guests, the restaurant's magic granted him a unique intuition.
He could inherently sense whether someone entering his domain harbored malice toward him.
When he first met Tohru last night, she had been haughty, arrogant, and highly condescending toward humans.
But beneath that prickly exterior, Yuto hadn't sensed a single drop of actual malice directed at him.
Coupled with her fierce determination to honor her debt today, Yuto felt entirely confident that Tohru was a dragon he could trust.
That was exactly why he had offered her the job.
"Tohru, don't worry about what Ainz said. It's fine," Yuto said, his voice softening as he tried to comfort the ashamed dragon.
Tohru's shoulders trembled slightly.
She looked up, her golden eyes wide with disbelief. "Boss... you really don't mind what I am?"
"I don't. I trust my own judgment," Yuto smiled warmly.
His simple, absolute faith instantly banished the anxiety and tension from Tohru's eyes, replacing it with overwhelming, explosive joy.
"The Boss really is completely different from other humans!" Tohru cheered.
She lunged forward over the counter and wrapped Yuto in a massive, crushing bear hug, laughing happily.
"T-Tohru..." Yuto wheezed, weakly patting her arm. "I... can't... breathe..."
Even though Yuto's physical body had been magically enhanced twice, his ribs groaned under the sheer pressure of a joyful dragon's embrace.
His vision began to blur around the edges.
"Ah! I'm sorry!" Tohru gasped, quickly letting him go and jumping back.
Yuto gripped the counter, taking several deep, desperate breaths to force oxygen back into his lungs.
'A dragon's hug is a lethal weapon,' he thought dizzily.
"Actually... the very first time I met you, I couldn't feel any malice or greed from you at all," Tohru explained softly, wanting to clear the air entirely.
"You gave me a feeling completely different from any human I have ever encountered." She looked at him, her golden eyes filled with deep, genuine affection.
Yuto caught his breath, his eyebrow twitching slightly.
"Then why were you acting so arrogant and dismissive last night?"
Tohru puffed her cheeks out in a slight pout.
"Well, it was our first meeting! I am a powerful dragon, and dragons have our pride to uphold!" she answered, her tone laced with a hint of defensive coquettishness.
Yuto couldn't help but mentally review Tohru's actions over the past twenty-four hours.
Getting stuck in a door, begging for food, crying over a debt, drooling into a bowl...
'Where exactly is this legendary dragon pride you speak of?'
"And besides..." Tohru's tone suddenly shifted.
She leaned over the counter, her eyes practically sparkling with unrestrained adoration.
"The Boss cooking is just too amazing! I really, really don't want to leave!"
Yuto deadpanned.
He suddenly understood perfectly.
'So thats the real reason! All that stuff about me being different from other humans was probably just made up to sound cool, wasn't it?!'
Although Yuto complained in his head, he looked at the beaming powerful dragon girl and wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.
If he called her out on it, he'd probably risk getting crushed by another hug!
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