Time passed, and it wasn't until around two in the morning that more customers entered the restaurant.
Hestia and Sakura arrived alongside three new guests.
Judging from the newcomers' clothing, they looked like otherworldly warriors.
The one in front was a woman with long red hair.
Her eyes were narrowed in a smile, although she was beautiful, her demeanor carried a rough, nonchalant air.
Following beside her were two beautiful women.
The shorter of the two had blonde hair and a calm expression that bordered on cool indifference.
Her aura was cold and distant, giving the impression she was difficult to approach.
The taller woman possessed long elven ears.
Her green hair resembled Enkidu's, and her appearance carried an androgynous beauty that revealed a noble air.
None of these three were ordinary.
Yuto could sense they were exceptional. Beside them, Hestia glared at the red-haired woman as if she were looking at a mortal enemy.
"Welcome," Yuto said.
The three unfamiliar guests responded in their own ways.
"Yaa~ So this is the place Hestia has been secretly coming to. It really is a strange place~" The red-haired woman had an odd accent.
It sounded like a woman imitating a rough man's manner of speech.
The blonde woman looked around the room, her gaze sweeping over everyone inside before settling on Yuto.
The green-haired elf nodded in greeting.
"Hello," Although she carried a noble air, she seemed approachable.
"Hmph!" Hestia marched to the counter in dissatisfaction and sat down
Sakura, her young face carrying both exasperation and amusement, sat beside her goddess sister.
After living with Hestia for so long, Sakura's maturity had increased at an incredible speed.
Much of the time, Sakura seemed more like the older sister.
"Hestia, aren't you going to introduce them?"
Yuto's words made Hestia puff up her cheeks.
The young goddess was angry!
"I refuse!"
She rejected his suggestion with firm determination, her cute appearance made it hard to hold back a smile.
Sakura looked a bit embarrassed.
"Hahahaha, it's fine. I can introduce myself. I'm Loki, and these two are members of my Familia—Ais and Riveria."
Hearing Loki's name, Yuto froze for a moment.
The name Loki was famous.
It was just... this Loki was a.. woman?
"Yaa~ I didn't expect a poor bitch like Hestia to get such an opportunity like this! It's unbelievable." Loki sat at the counter, resting her head on one hand as she teased the shorter goddess.
The remark made Hestia bristle.
"Hmph! Sorry about that. A poor unlucky thing like you can just keep envying me. I'm lucky, and there's nothing anyone can do about it." Hestia snorted, switching to a tone of smug satisfaction.
Irritated veins throbbed on Loki's forehead.
The grudge between her and Hestia hadn't started yesterday.
They were used to mocking each other.
"Hahaha, maybe fate pitied you because you didn't have a single member in your Familia," Loki fired back, refusing to be outdone.
"Hah?! What would a flat, barren thing like you know?! If I weren't so strict when choosing Familia members, the number of children under me would have surpassed yours long ago!"
Her Familia was a subject Hestia hated bringing up.
Since Loki opened by mocking that sore spot, Hestia lost her temper.
"Barren" was a word used to describe a certain part of Loki's body.
Compared to Hestia's fullness in that area, Loki was a flat road. Whether human or goddess, that sort of insult was an easy way to anger someone.
"You cow monster! Aside from that one advantage, what else do you even have?!" Loki could no longer hold back.
The corner of Hestia's mouth lifted.
"Sorry, but having this one advantage is enough. Hohoho. Loki, are you jealous? Tsk, how sad. You're over a billion years old, yet you're still that flat~"
Through her daily arguments with Loki, Hestia had learned how to provoke her to the maximum. She had also become shameless.
There was no helping it.
If she wanted to win an argument against Loki, she had to throw away her shame.
"Waaaahhh!!! You cow monster! I'm going to grab and crush them today!" Agitated and furious, Loki tried to charge toward Hestia, only to be held back by Ais and Riveria.
"Goddess, please calm down," Ais said.
"Loki, compose yourself," Riveria added.
Within the Loki Familia, Ais and Riveria held unique positions.
Once the two spoke, Loki snorted and sat back down.
Watching the scene, Yuto gave a helpless laugh.
Loki had come to the restaurant after discovering Hestia's movements. Driven by curiosity, she had tailed Hestia here.
Although Yuto had been hesitant about Loki's gender at first, he let the issue go.
The Loki in his memories was an image he had gotten from books.
Perhaps the real Loki was a goddess.
Once he reasoned it out, he stopped feeling confused.
Tonight, Loki and the other two hadn't come to eat. They had already eaten their fill and were here out of pure curiosity.
After a while, Loki and Hestia settled down.
Loki's attention shifted to the other people in the restaurant.
Her gaze swept over Erina, Hisako, Tohru, and finally Yuto.
Through the process, her expression filled with satisfaction and delight.
She liked them far too much. Cute girls—she loved them!
Erina and the others felt a chill run through them.
The feeling made them avoid Loki's gaze. Tohru, who harbored a lingering fear of gods, grew nervous.
"Stop it Loki-san, please restrain your gaze. My employees are getting nervous."
Yuto noticed everyone's reactions.
Although he liked to slack off on occasion, when it came to protecting his employees, he proved reliable.
"Hehehe, sorry, sorry. Yaa~ I got drawn in by all these cute girls. Hahahaha~" Loki scratched her head, laughing awkwardly.
Her behavior made Yuto sigh in his heart.
As expected, she was another unreliable goddess!
Thanks to Hestia and the others, his mental image of deities had become distorted.
"Goddess, please don't say that. Even if it is the truth, wait until we return to the Familia before saying it. Don't say it here." Ais advised Loki in a flat voice.
Her expression remained calm, like a quiet block of ice.
That cool demeanor made her beauty seem proud and dignified.
A person like her was the type others chased after.
"Sigh."
Riveria merely let out a quiet sigh.
From the look of it, she had long since grown used to Loki talking like this.
"Mm, Ais-tan is right. I understand." Loki accepted Ais's advice with a completely serious expression.
For a moment, Yuto had no idea what to say.
He had gotten used to Hestia being unreliable, but... Why did it feel like the goddess in front of him had her own share of problems?
"Well, since I've already said it out loud, let's just leave it at that." Loki's expression returned to how it had been before.
"So then, cute young ladies, would any of you be willing to sign a contract with me and become members of my Familia?"
Loki asked Erina and the others with a bold, carefree tone.
The answer she received was a unanimous rejection.
After all, the way Loki had looked at them earlier had honestly made them feel uneasy.
"Ehhh... What a shame," Loki sounded helpless.
However, her gaze soon shifted toward Yuto. "Then what about you, little chef?"
Although Loki had a special fondness for cute girls, she could also accept a beautiful young man like Yuto.
"I'll pass." Yuto smiled and waved his hand, refusing her invitation.
This made her sigh again, but her disappointed expression only lasted an instant before she cheerfully started chatting with the others in the restaurant.
Through his conversation with her, Yuto learned about Ais and Riveria's identities.
Riveria was clearly the kind of elf spoken of in legends.
Her image was not far from the elves Yuto had imagined: an elegant figure, a beautiful face, and a graceful presence. As expected of an elf.
Although Ais looked human, her identity was special as well.
She was a half-spirit.
Her face was flawless in the same way an elf's would be, but she did not possess the obvious physical traits associated with them.
Although she seemed cold and distant, according to Loki, the girl was simply not good at expressing her emotions.
"Speaking of which, Tohru, you're a dragon, aren't you?" Loki suddenly changed the topic, her gaze turning toward Tohru.
The dragon maid's expression immediately stiffened.
After spending so many years fighting gods, she had developed an instinctive physical reaction to a deity's gaze.
"Mm." She nodded quietly.
"Ehhh~ I never thought there would be such a cute girl among dragons," Loki sounded impressed.
She had lived for more than a billion years, so she had seen plenty of dragons.
However, this was her first time seeing a dragon girl as cute and slightly airheaded as Tohru.
"I never thought I would meet a legendary dragon here."
Although Riveria suspected something about Tohru's identity from the start, she had not been able to make a firm judgment at the time.
Now that she had heard her own goddess say it, she found it difficult to keep her heart calm.
No matter what world one was in, dragons were never creatures to be taken lightly.
Even as an elf, Riveria held an attitude of respectful distance toward dragons.
When she was young, her elders had warned her about how powerful they were.
The secret texts of the elves recorded countless horrors related to dragons. Now that she knew Tohru's identity, she secretly tried sensing her strength.
The slightest contact was enough to startle her.
Those secret texts had not been lying!
Even Ais, whose face was usually cold and expressionless, could not help glancing sideways at Tohru.
"Hehehe." Facing the amazed gazes of Riveria and Ais, Tohru felt embarrassed and pleased.
"Ah, if Tohru joined my Familia, then Freya's Familia wouldn't even be worth mentioning! Hahahaha!" Loki began to let her imagination wander.
Although her Familia and Freya's were considered the strongest in Orario, the city's strongest adventurer belonged to Freya's side.
That had always left Loki indignant.
If a dragon could join her Familia, then the title of Orario's strongest adventurer would definitely change hands!
"Stop dreaming! You can keep imagining it if you want."
Taking a jab at Loki had become something Hestia did almost instinctively.
"Tch. What right does someone as weak as you have to say that to me?"
"Hmph! So what if I'm weak? I have Sakura beside me, and that's enough. Don't think I don't know you've been trying to steal Sakura away from me. I'm telling you now, you're not taking her!" Hestia's presence became unexpectedly sharp.
For once, the goddess actually had a bit of dignity.
It truly was not easy!
"There's no helping it. Sakura is just so cute! Cute girls are treasures!" Loki's statement edged dangerously close to pervert territory.
Sitting beside Hestia, Sakura could only wear a helpless expression.
"Although I'm very grateful that Loki-onee-san likes me, I won't leave Hestia-onee-san." Sakura said this to Loki with a small smile.
That made Hestia delighted and encouraged.
"How enviable." Loki spread her hands.
"Hmph, of course!" Hestia proudly raised her head.
"Speaking of which, the Denatus is coming up soon."
The moment Loki said that, Hestia's expression turned awkward.
Yuto, who was listening from the side, became curious.
He had never heard Hestia mention anything about a Denatus before.
"Ah... um, well..." Hestia seemed a little flustered.
She scratched her head, and even Sakura, who was beside her, had no idea what had happened.
"What is a Denatus?" Sakura asked.
"It's just a gathering of the gods held once every three months. Everyone uses it to brag about their Familias, and while they're at it, they laugh at certain gods. For example... tsk, tsk..." Loki smiled with mischief.
The person she was referring to was clear.
Hestia, who had always been alone, had long been one of the gods most often teased during the Denatus.
This time would probably be no exception.
After all, even now, she only had a single member in her Familia.
"Hmph! I'm used to it anyway, so whatever! Say what you want!" Hestia decided to give up resisting. She had been mocked for such a long time.
What difference would one more time make?
"Hestia-onee-san..." Sakura held Hestia's hand, a trace of heartache in the little girl's eyes.
"You don't need to worry at all, Sakura!" Hestia reassured Sakura as though she did not care in the slightest.
That "silly older sister" side of hers made Yuto smile despite himself.
"Ah, what a waste. Sakura clearly has so much talent, yet you're letting it go unused," Loki sounded like she hated seeing a precious thing squandered.
The reason she wanted to win Sakura over was not only because Sakura was cute.
More importantly, she had seen Sakura's tremendous potential. Inside that small body was the potential to become a great mage.
If Sakura were in her Familia, Loki guaranteed Sakura's future achievements would surpass Riveria's and make her the new strongest mage in Orario.
How could she possibly know that Sakura's real identity was the daughter of a magecraft family from another world?
Loki had assumed Hestia had stumbled across Sakura through absurdly good luck.
The moment Hestia heard Loki's words, her expression changed.
"Impossible. I will never put Sakura in danger. Sakura only needs to stay by my side like this!"
To Hestia, Sakura was not merely a member of her Familia.
She was family. Their meeting back then had already decided the bond between them.
She would never send Sakura into the dangerous Dungeon!
"Sigh, what a pity. You might have been able to use Sakura to completely turn things around at the Denatus."
"I'm not trading Sakura's safety for that!" Hestia's tone was firm.
Seeing this, Loki stopped pressing the matter, though she still felt regretful.
Beside Hestia, Sakura blinked lightly.
At this moment, the little girl's heart was far from calm.
"All right, then you'd better keep a close eye on Sakura. Not every god is as easy to talk to as I am. If they discover Sakura..."
Loki only said half of it.
But the meaning behind her words was obvious.
The Familia system, which the gods had initially created for entertainment, had become a platform for competition.
For their own pride and interests, every deity sought powerful and promising children.
A child like Sakura, who had immense potential, was practically a walking piece of meat in the eyes of certain envious gods.