"Speaking of which, if you are going to invite someone, shouldn't you show basic manners? Having a door suddenly appear in a young lady's bedroom is not polite."
Perhaps because she knew this place and Yuto did not pose any danger, the girl's posture relaxed.
As she spoke, pride slipped into her tone.
Her eyes looked straight at him, the light within them was like gemstones!
"If that is the case, then I should apologize. However, the act of inviting customers here is not something I initiate myself. It happens randomly, so I hope you can understand."
The appearance of new customers had nothing to do with Yuto himself.
For now, it seemed the restaurant was connecting to other worlds and drawing guests in. Perhaps one day Yuto would gain that ability as well.
The girl stared at Yuto for a while, only then did she let out a helpless sigh.
She accepted his explanation.
"If you don't plan to eat, would you like a glass of water?" Yuto asked.
"If possible, I'd like a cup of milk tea."
The request made things difficult. "Sorry, the restaurant doesn't have milk tea."
"Then anything is fine."
Following the girl's response, Yuto poured her a cup of coffee.
He felt coffee seemed more fitting for a young lady of her type.
While he was at it, he added rock sugar. If she liked milk tea, she likely preferred sweet drinks.
After Yuto served the coffee, the girl lifted the cup with refined posture and took a light sip.
A trace of satisfaction appeared on her face.
"Excellent coffee."
That left Yuto confused.
It was the cheapest instant coffee. He had thought a young lady like her might reject it, yet she praised it instead.
Could it be that she had never drunk good coffee before? That was impossible!
From the look of her, she was a young lady from a prominent family.
She could not be poor enough to be unable to afford coffee.
'It was probably because she was well-mannered.' Yuto thought this to himself.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Tohsaka Rin, the heir of the Tohsaka family, a prestigious magecraft lineage." Rin placed the cup down and spoke calmly, her voice carrying a touch of nobility and pride.
It seemed the title of "the prestigious magecraft family, Tohsaka" gave her great pride.
However, Yuto's attention was not focused on that.
He could not help thinking of Sakura. Sakura's surname was Tohsaka as well.
She, too, was the daughter of a magecraft family...
Yuto gave the girl a meaningful look.
That made Rin feel strange.
"Boss! I'm back!"
Tohru returned, the cheerful dragon girl waved energetically at Yuto, her tail swaying behind her.
Rin froze.
'A tail?'
"D-d-d-dra... dragon???"
After hearing Tohru's true identity, the girl lost the elegance she had been maintaining.
That elegance had lasted barely three minutes!
"Mm-hmm! (^▽^)!" Tohru nodded happily.
That shocked Rin even more.
"T-this... this..." The elegant young lady was stammering now!
Yuto smiled faintly.
Naturally, he could understand the girl's reaction, so he had no intention of laughing at her.
Rin's pale throat moved. Even though the girl had accepted the fact in her mind, that did not mean the shock in her heart would instantly settle down.
The restaurant corrected a guest's understanding, it did not forcibly alter their emotions.
"Is it that strange?" Tohru looked at Rin curiously.
The adorable dragon girl stared straight at the flustered young lady.
After learning Tohru's true identity, even Tohru's gaze alone was enough to make Rin nervous.
After all, this was a dragon.
In Rin's world, dragons were Phantasmal Beasts that had disappeared from the modern era for a thousand years.
They were legendary Phantasmal Species.
Terrifying life-forms standing at the peak of the biological hierarchy. Powerful beings said to possess enough strength to destroy an entire city.
All those titles and legends were used to describe dragons. No one doubted the truth of those stories.
After all, even the mystic codes left behind in the modern world, made from only parts of a dragon's body, were enough to shake the magecraft world.
As for the terror of a complete dragon, magi had never once doubted it.
And now, that legendary creature stood right in front of the girl. It would have been a lie to say she was not nervous.
"Of course it's strange! You're actually a dragon! A dragon!!!"
After shouting twice as though venting her feelings, Rin calmed down.
What replaced her shock was delight and curiosity. As a girl who considered herself a magus, Rin naturally possessed the instincts of one.
An endless craving for mystery and the unknown.
A dragon, extinct for a thousand years, had appeared before her. The moment she regained her senses, her nature as a magus awakened.
Her gaze unconsciously changed.
The dragon girl, who had originally looked friendly, frowned.
Tohru gave a quiet snort.
A small amount of pressure was released, aimed specifically at Rin.
"That look in your eyes reminds me of a lot of unpleasant things." The dragon girl's voice turned cold.
In her world, a large part of the reason humans went to war with dragons was because they coveted dragons' bodies.
Dragon blood, dragon bones, dragon scales, dragon fangs... To humans, all of them were precious magical materials.
The gaze born from Rin's magus instincts reminded Tohru of the way humans had looked at her in the past.
If she had not promised Yuto that she would not lose control easily, Rin would already have been crushed by now!
The magical energy inside the girl's body was, in Tohru's eyes, something she could shatter with one claw.
Under Tohru's pressure, Rin snapped back to herself.
A layer of cold sweat had broken out across her back and forehead. At that moment, she finally understood why those old texts described dragons the way they did.
This truly was a creature beyond human power.
In that instant, she had felt like floating duckweed on the surface of the sea. If the ocean wished it, it could overturn her with the slightest movement.
"I'm sorry. Please forgive my rudeness!" Rin hurriedly lowered her head to Tohru in apology.
What had just happened was the habitual gaze of a magus's way of thinking, an unconscious reaction.
Fortunately, Tohru's personality had improved since staying by Yuto's side.
She merely snorted. "Hmph. You're just a human, but if there's a next time, I'll kill you, okay?"
When Tohru said the latter half, she was smiling sweetly, which made her look oddly mischievous.
That made Yuto puzzled.
When had his employee learned to be this sly? And from whom?
After saying that, Tohru walked off to the side and stopped paying attention to Rin.
Instead, that made the girl relax.
If Tohru had kept pressing the matter, then Rin would truly have been nervous.
"Relax. Tohru is actually a very good person. Once you spend more time with her, you'll understand," Yuto smiled faintly as he comforted Rin.
Unfortunately, that comfort did not seem effective.
Just from the girl's expression, it was obvious she did not believe him.
But that was normal.
After all, she had just been threatened with death. Who would relax just because of one sentence?
After taking two deep breaths, Rin returned to her earlier elegance and calm. Although her hands were still trembling, she was much better than before.
In addition, the proud, noble air she had carried earlier was gone.
"I never thought I would encounter a dragon here. If other magi found out, they would probably lose their minds from envy."
Although the girl said that, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
Meeting a dragon was an extraordinary thing.
The problem was, she had angered the dragon almost as soon as she met her.
That made Rin secretly blame herself.
"If you come to the restaurant a little earlier next time, you might also meet youkai and gods," Yuto smiled calmly.
That shocked Rin even more.
Just what kind of place had she come to...?
At that moment, she thought of her earlier attitude.
When she looked back on those proud words now, it felt as though she had slapped herself in the face over and over.
A prestigious magecraft lineage.
That identity, which had been a source of pride for her, had now become a source of embarrassment!
"I'm sorry..." The girl's quiet apology made Yuto pause. "I shouldn't have acted that way earlier."
After hearing what Rin said next, Yuto understood. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."
He waved his hand indifferently. He was not petty enough to get angry over such a small thing.
That would be far too narrow-minded, and besides, the girl had not really done anything to offend him.
She had simply been proud of her family background.
The only thing she had truly done wrong was look at Tohru with that gaze.
In the past, if Tohru had acted that way toward a guest, Yuto would certainly have stopped her.
But just now, he had not stopped her. Because he had not liked the way Rin looked at Tohru either.
"Thank you." Because of Yuto's words, the girl's expression recovered.
A little light returned to her face.
"Tohsaka-san, could you tell me about your family? I'm interested in the prestigious magecraft family you mentioned," Yuto took the initiative to ask Rin with a smile.
Ever since he heard Rin introduce herself, a certain guess had been lingering in his mind.
Now, he wanted to confirm it.
"If it's only a simple introduction to the family history, then that's fine. But there are some things... that aren't convenient to talk about."
For magi, the information of their families was always secret to outsiders.
Things like the type of magecraft a family practiced were absolute secrets. Rin did not know what kind of knowledge Yuto wanted to obtain.
She had already made a compromise.
If Yuto tried to force her to reveal anything deeper, then she could only...
"Of course. Just the history is enough," Yuto smiled.
His answer made Rin relax.
After several dozen minutes of explanation, Rin grew thirsty and drank some water.
The coffee from earlier had long since been finished.
Yuto had only listened to about seventy or eighty percent of what she said, because those details were not what he was truly interested in.
His claim that he was "interested in a prestigious magecraft family" had only been a cover.
"Tohsaka-san, from what you said, does that mean a magecraft family can only have one person per generation inherit the so-called Magic Circuits?" Yuto asked calmly.
"Yes. That is the custom of the magecraft world," Rin nodded.
"Then what if there are two children?" Yuto asked again.
"Either one is given to another family, or... dealt with. In any case, one of them will inevitably be abandoned."
When Rin mentioned this, a trace of sorrow flashed through her eyes.
The girl's expression became unnatural for a moment.
Yuto fell into thought.
"That sounds rather cruel," he said calmly.
"But Magic Circuits can only be passed down to one person. It is both the tragedy of magecraft families and the reason those families can become stronger." Rin sounded helpless and slightly downcast.
There seemed to be some painful past hidden beneath her words.
"If it were your choice, Tohsaka-san, would you give your own child to someone else or abandon them completely?" After a brief silence, Yuto asked.
"No! I wouldn't! Even if the other one became ordinary because of it, I would still keep her by my side!" Rin answered extremely quickly, and her words were firm and decisive.
There was also a trace of anger and loss in her voice.
It was faintly trembling.
The corner of Yuto's mouth lifted.
He sighed softly with emotion. "It seems Tohsaka-san is rather different from the magi you described."
Rin gave a faint bitter smile, and a trace of weakness flashed through her eyes.
She said nothing more, only let out a sigh.
That sigh was full of bitterness and helplessness.