"Boss, the bill." El-Melloi II said it calmly, drawing a leather wallet from his coat pocket.
Iskandar watched him with a faint smile.
A light drunken flush covered his broad, rugged face—though since his natural color was already ruddy, it was hard to notice.
"The total's 26,600 yen. Just give me 25,000." After counting up what Iskandar had drunk, Yuto smiled calmly.
The restaurant's ordinary beer only ran about 150 yen.
The mead was a good deal more, and with the huge cups Iskandar used, each serving came close to two thousand.
El-Melloi II paid without fuss.
At the same time, Iskandar swallowed the last mouthful in his cup, already set to say his goodbyes.
But what El-Melloi II said next made him freeze.
"Boss, may I bring Rider back to my world?"
As he spoke, a rare ripple crossed his usually calm, severe face.
He looked awkward, embarrassed—almost like a child making an unreasonable request of his parents.
His unease was painfully plain.
Yuto calmly picked up the cup Iskandar had been drinking from.
He didn't answer right away, and the longer he stayed quiet, the more the tension in El-Melloi II built.
The truth was, El-Melloi II had wanted to bring Iskandar to his world for a very long time.
It was the same feeling a successful person had when they wanted to show their achievements to their parents.
Ten years.
Ten years spent clawing his way forward, fighting just to survive and keep moving.
He'd achieved things most people could never dream of.
He was one of the Lords of the Clock Tower now, a famous name throughout the world of magecraft, a teacher respected by countless students.
Waver Velvet had truly and completely grown up.
He wanted Iskandar to see all of it with his own eyes.
But just as someone coming home might lose their nerve at the very doorstep, things that felt simple in the imagination often turned impossibly hard in front of the person who mattered most.
He'd held the words back for a long time, never sure how to bring it up.
Tonight, he'd finally found the courage.
Before Yuto could answer, Iskandar burst out laughing.
His smile was as open and carefree as ever.
He raised a huge hand and clapped El-Melloi II on the shoulder several times, the corners of his mouth lifting with plain joy and satisfaction.
He'd never expected Waver to say something like this!
Truthfully, bored as he often got inside the Throne of Heroes, he'd never once considered going to Waver's world, because he knew Waver's position now was a complicated one.
If he went, wouldn't he only cause trouble for him?
This was no longer the Holy Grail War.
During a war, there was no need to worry about such things—as a king, of course he would stand beside his subject.
But a subject's everyday life wasn't something a king should casually intrude on.
A subject had a life of his own, and a proper king shouldn't recklessly disturb it.
Besides, what lay between him and Waver couldn't be captured by the plain words king and subject.
They had met and come to know each other through a miraculous war.
It was an extraordinary bond.
Beyond all else, the two of them were close friends who leaned on one another—and between friends, you couldn't simply act as you pleased without thinking of the other.
That was why Iskandar had never thought about visiting Waver's world.
Coming to the restaurant each night, drinking his fill, trading a few words with old enemies and friends—that was already wonderful enough.
Though if he could go on conquering things too, so much the better.
Waver's words tonight moved the king.
"Of course you can. You'll just need to sign a travel form." Under El-Melloi II's tight, focused stare, Yuto finally answered.
The reply visibly loosened something in both of them.
Yuto took out the small booklet of travel forms, and El-Melloi II and Iskandar each filled in what was needed.
Once it was settled, the two stood up together, thanked Yuto, and left.
Even as they walked off, Iskandar's laughter didn't stop—bold and unrestrained, like an eagle wheeling freely across the sky.
Next to him, El-Melloi II was far more reserved.
He tried to keep his face calm, but the smile under it refused to go away, and what he showed on the surface was a trace of feigned annoyance.
"Don't go causing trouble once we get there!"
"Ahahaha! Don't worry, don't worry. I've got it."
Their voices vanished the moment they stepped through the door.
Yuto smiled, shook his head, and headed into the kitchen.
He still had cups and dishes to wash.
By now, aside from Tohru and the other staff, the only customers left were the three gamers.
Counting the hours, Ainz and the others had been playing for nearly five.
And through all of it, they hadn't made a sound.
...
For the rest of the night, Yuto talked with Erina and Hisako about the differences and strengths of different cuisines.
Tohru sat nearby and listened.
The airheaded dragon girl didn't understand a word of it, but that didn't stop her from keeping herself entertained by hugging her own tail.
She even went into the kitchen and cooked another dish for Yuto.
He turned it down just as fast as before, for the same reason as always.
He didn't eat tail meat!
It wasn't until sometime after four in the morning that another customer arrived.
He was a man whose every movement carried the air of a gentleman.
His face had clear Western features, all strong, sculpted lines, and the body beneath his suspenders was broad and powerful, the muscles impossible to miss.
The moment Yuto saw him, a strange sense of familiarity came over him.
He seemed to have seen this man somewhere before.
Yuto quietly fixed a serving of mashed potatoes in the kitchen.
The customer had only ordered a simple bowl of mashed potatoes.
Next to his enormous, muscular frame, it hardly seemed enough to fill him—but it was very late, and something too greasy wouldn't sit well at this hour.
As he mashed the potatoes, Yuto kept thinking.
Jonathan Joestar.
That was the man's name.
From the moment he came in to the moment he sat down and introduced himself, every part of him had been thoroughly gentlemanly.
But the name itself meant nothing to Yuto, and neither the man's manners nor his bearing reminded him of anyone he knew.
He was certain he'd never met him before.
So where was this strange familiarity coming from?
He drizzled a little sauce over the potatoes and carried the dish out.
Jonathan sat calmly at the counter, his huge frame making him look almost like a brown bear.
Beneath the quiet was a startling amount of power, waiting to break loose.
He was hard to overlook.
Yuto had never taken him for an ordinary man.
Then again, very few of the customers who came here ever were.
He set the mashed potatoes down in front of him.
Tap.
The bottom of the bowl made a faint, crisp sound against the counter.
Jonathan looked up, a small smile still on his lips.
"Thank you, Boss." He gave a slight nod.
Yuto smiled and shook his head. "It's what I'm here for. There's no need to thank me."
Jonathan began to eat.
His calm expression shifted the instant he tasted the first bite—a brief flash of amazement, and then he kept eating.
Yuto, meanwhile, was still trying to place him and finally it came to him.
Jonathan Joestar's face looked exactly like Jotaro's evil spirit.
No—"looked like" wasn't enough anymore.
They were practically the same person!
The only difference was that the evil spirit's expression never changed; it always wore that same calm, empty look.
It was almost like a machine version of Jonathan Joestar.
The thought caught Yuto off guard.
Could there be some connection between Jonathan and the spirit behind Jotaro?
Did he know Jotaro?
His curiosity got the better of him. "Mr. Joestar."
Jonathan stopped eating and raised his head, looking at him with mild confusion.
"Mr. Joestar, do you know a man named Jotaro Kujo?"
The question made Jonathan pause.
A thoughtful look entered his eyes, and in the brief silence he seemed to weigh a number of possibilities.
In the end, he shook his head.
Yuto was a little startled.
If he doesn't know him...
He fell quiet for a moment.
Then Jonathan asked, curious, "Who is this Mr. Kujo? And why did you ask whether I know him?"
His tone was gentle and curious, exactly like the perfect gentleman out of a novel—and it wasn't an act.
His manners came sincerely from the heart, and a warmth like sunlight seemed to surround him naturally.
A person's face reflected their heart, and their nature shaped the air they carried.
This wasn't a presence any hypocrite or cruel man could ever manage.
For that reason, Yuto treated him with real respect.
He'd met so many customers by now.
How many of them could honestly be called gentlemen? Even the goddesses behaved like... well, that.
Meeting a true gentleman like Jonathan naturally made Yuto glad.
No properly raised person could dislike a man like him.
At the question, Yuto smiled softly. "He was a customer who came in a little before you. In a way, he seems to have some connection to you."
He briefly explained what had happened with Jotaro and the evil spirit.
When Jonathan heard the spirit looked exactly like him, his brows drew together.
After a short silence, he sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Boss, but I truly don't know anyone named Jotaro Kujo. Perhaps it's only a coincidence. The world is vast, so I suppose it isn't impossible for two people to share a similar face."
Jonathan smiled gently.
Yuto could only sigh to himself.
This wasn't something you could explain away with similar faces.
That evil spirit and Jonathan—their appearances were completely identical.
That was the conclusion he'd reached after watching Jonathan more closely.
"Maybe it would be best if you met Jotaro one day. You could talk with him then. Something unexpected might come of it."
"I'd have no objection. After hearing you explain it, I'm looking forward to meeting him myself." Jonathan spoke warmly.
His personality was the complete opposite of Jotaro's.
One was a gentle, graceful gentleman; the other a short-tempered delinquent who bristled at the smallest thing.
In all honesty, Yuto couldn't imagine what connection two people so opposite could possibly share.
And yet his instincts kept insisting there was one somewhere.
When the two of them finally met, maybe the meaning behind it would come clear.
After that, Yuto went on chatting easily with Jonathan.
He was a gentle, warmhearted man, and over the course of their talk Yuto learned a fair amount about him.
He learned that Jonathan had a lover.
He learned that Jonathan had recently come through an extremely difficult ordeal.
Jonathan said he planned to hold his wedding within the next three months, and then a honeymoon.
Yuto offered him sincere congratulations.
Then Jonathan invited him to the wedding out of nowhere!
That left Yuto stunned.
Inviting a man he'd met for the first time only tonight to his wedding—how should he even put it?
Pure?
Or maybe naive?
Yuto looked into Jonathan's eyes.
They were calm, sincere, full of warmth.
He clearly wasn't joking!
The seriousness of it made Yuto smile inwardly.
"Mr. Joestar, I'm very grateful for the invitation, but we only met tonight..." Yuto said helplessly.
"That's true. It usually takes time for people to come to know and trust one another." Jonathan didn't back down.
"But I'm willing to trust you, Boss. It may sound hard to believe, but the moment I saw you, I was certain you were a man of kindness and noble character. My instincts and my heart would never lie to me. A man like that is someone I, Jonathan Joestar, would be honored to call a friend!"
He said it with complete sincerity.
Jonathan practiced Hamon, which made his sense of another person's presence remarkably sharp.
He could tell the good and the evil in a living being.
Yuto stared blankly after hearing him.
Was he... really that impressive?
They talked a while longer, and then the restaurant door slid open.
Yuto turned toward the newcomer, and a pleased look crossed his face.
Of all the customers who'd come to the restaurant, there were only a few he'd truly worried about.
That didn't mean he ignored the rest—he always did his best to treat everyone the same.
But every customer's circumstances were different.
When Reiko first came in, she'd just fought with the people who bullied and shut her out, her clothes covered in dirt and footprints.
Seeing her so lonely and miserable made it easy to feel for her.
It was the same after Chito and Yuuri first visited.
Yuto couldn't help wanting to protect the two of them. Compare to the restaurant's other customers, their situation was surely the harshest of all.
They wandered a completely abandoned world, searching for anyone else who might still be alive—the kind of thing that should only exist in fiction.
Yet it had come before Yuto as cruel reality.
When unbearable hardship sat beside such fragile innocence, when the brutality of the world collided with a simple, childlike nature, few people could stay unmoved.
"Yo, Boss! We're still alive!"
"Yuuri! Don't say it like that!"
As Chito scolded her, Yuto looked at the girls and smiled.
He was truly glad to see them again.
He quietly gave thanks in his heart.