Not long afterward, the restaurant door slid open.
Yuto glanced toward the entrance and immediately felt a headache coming on.
Freya had actually shown up.
And judging by the situation... Hestia had been the one who brought her.
The petite goddess stood off to one side with her cheeks puffed out, visibly annoyed, while Loki lingered nearby wearing the broad grin of someone who had come for no reason other than to watch a disaster unfold.
The three goddesses somehow managed to embody three completely different moods at once.
"My dear Kamisaka-kun, I told you I wouldn't give up."
Freya smiled warmly as she walked toward Yuto.
"I came to see you."
Every part of her expression, from the shape of her eyes to the curve of her lips, radiated unmistakable affection.
Yuto stood behind the counter and looked at her with an unusually grave expression.
"I already made myself perfectly clear earlier today. I'm not joining your Familia."
"That's fine." Freya did not slow down in the slightest. "You don't have to join my Familia."
She continued approaching him with complete confidence.
"I can come to your side instead. You don't have to come to mine."
Her smile deepened.
"As long as we're together, that's enough."
Freya reached toward him.
Before her hand could make contact, Hestia suddenly grabbed her from behind and yanked her backward.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing, you shameless goddess?!"
The tiny goddess practically bristled like an angry tabby cat.
Freya gave a soft snort.
"Can't you see I'm trying to get closer to my other half?"
The sheer boldness of the statement would have been astonishing coming from almost anyone else.
Coming from Freya...it was entirely in her character.
Among the gods of Orario, more than a few goddesses privately referred to Freya as a "slut."
Part of that reputation came from the natural charm she had possessed since birth, but the rest came from the fact that her actual romantic life had never exactly been restrained.
"Enough."
Yuto raised one hand before the two goddesses could escalate any further.
"No fighting in the restaurant. If either of you keeps this up, I'll ask you to leave."
Even he sounded helpless.
"Hmph!"
Hestia snorted and dropped into a seat, cheeks still puffed out with irritation. Sakura quietly began comforting her from beside her.
"If that is Kamisaka-kun's command, then of course I'll obey."
Freya gracefully bent at the waist before taking a seat of her own.
One thing had to be admitted.
Compared with Hestia, she was considerably more mature.
There was a reason she was called the Goddess of Beauty.
Loki also took a seat with a cheerful grin.
She had no other purpose for being here, she was simply enjoying the show.
"What would you like to eat?" Yuto asked as usual.
Freya rested her chin lightly against one hand and looked at him with a radiant smile.
"If Kamisaka-kun makes it for me, I'll happily eat anything."
The way she said it was undeniably seductive.
Yuto, however, refused to take the bait.
"Okay. Got it."
He nodded as though she had given him a perfectly ordinary order, then turned toward Hestia and Loki.
Hestia was still visibly furious, but that did not stop her from ordering a rice bowl.
Loki asked for a cold side dish, something fried, and a bottle of shochu.
After all...
What was the point of watching drama without alcohol?
Once Yuto disappeared into the kitchen, Hestia and Freya immediately resumed their argument.
"If all those male gods who've been obsessing over you for years saw you acting like this, they'd probably lose their minds."
"Hmph. What do they have to do with me?"
"Don't you think what you're doing is embarrassing?!"
"Embarrassing?"
Freya laughed softly.
"You're wrong."
Her expression became almost dreamy.
"If a flower refuses to reach toward the sun shining directly in front of it, then no matter how beautifully it blooms, it will eventually wither."
She looked toward the kitchen.
"Do you understand?"
"To me, Kamisaka-kun is the only sun in my world right now."
Her smile grew brighter.
"I will never feel ashamed for chasing that burning light. If anything, I feel fulfilled."
"The act of pursuing him is the only thing making my life meaningful right now."
Hestia nearly exploded.
"Yuto is absolutely never going to accept you!"
"And how would you know whether he will or won't?" Freya replied without the slightest hesitation. "There's always a chance."
"Uwaaah! Shameless, shameless, shameless!"
Freya looked at her with open superiority.
"What a childish little girl."
She genuinely saw nothing embarrassing about her pursuit of Yuto.
In fact, she considered it something worthy of pride.
Freya was willing to pay almost any price if it meant obtaining the soul she desired.
In a sense...
She had taken being a simp to the absolute extreme.
If the countless male gods who had spent years desperately pursuing Freya could see their beloved Goddess of Beauty obsessively chasing after Yuto like this...
They would probably lose their minds on the spot.
Nearby, Iskandar had already finished telling Ainz and Rimuru everything that had happened between Freya and Yuto earlier that day.
The two listened with endless admiration.
As expected of Yuto.
As expected of the Boss!
When it came to attracting women...they were perfectly willing to declare Yuto the strongest!
Before long, Saitama joined the whispered conversation as well.
"Yuto's definitely going to get torn apart one day."
"Mm-hmm. I think so too."
"If Yuuka were here right now, she'd probably already be fighting Freya."
"Definitely. Didn't that happen with Esdeath last time?"
"Yuto's future looks dangerous..."
Ainz sighed.
"But damn, I'm still jealous... Curse you!"
"Exactly!" Rimuru agreed immediately. "Curse you!"
Saitama looked at the two of them.
"You guys probably don't need to be jealous, though. I mean... you don't exactly have the equipment any—"
"Saitama! Shut up!"
"Yeah! Will it kill you to stop talking?!"
The three continued whispering among themselves.
The moment Yuto came back out of the kitchen, however...all three instantly sat upright.
Their expressions became unbelievably serious.
Yuto frowned slightly as he looked at them.
These three...
Had they collectively lost their minds?
He genuinely could not understand what they were doing.
...
While Hestia ate, Yuto casually asked what had happened after the War Game ended.
The moment the subject came up, Hestia immediately perked up.
After today's victory, none of the gods dared mock or look down on her anymore.
The way they treated her had changed completely.
There was actual respect in their eyes now.
And perhaps even a little fear.
Quite a few gods had even approached Hestia on their own initiative afterward, trying to curry favor with her.
For someone who had spent so long occupying the very bottom of the gods' social pecking order...
The experience had been unbelievably satisfying.
For the first time, Hestia understood what it felt like to have the other gods treat her seriously.
"Don't let it go to your head."
Yuto smiled as he warned her.
"Put too much air into a balloon and eventually it bursts."
Once someone became too full of themselves...
Disaster usually was not far behind.
"You're still all show and no substance."
Freya spoke casually from nearby, her voice carrying obvious mockery.
"You only won because you borrowed someone else's strength. I'm not sure what there is to celebrate."
She tilted her head.
"Should I call it luck?"
Freya smiled.
"Well, I suppose that would make sense. If you weren't so lucky, how would you ever have gotten to know Kamisaka-kun in the first place?"
Hestia immediately bristled.
Then, just as quickly, her anger cooled.
Because beneath Freya's mockery...
There was an uncomfortable amount of truth.
Hestia really had gotten a little carried away.
Today's victory was only an illusion of strength.
Without Yuto and everyone else helping her, there was absolutely no chance she could have won that War Game.
If she wanted to stand proudly in front of the other gods in the future...
She still needed to become stronger on her own.
"Hmph! Luck is part of strength too!"
Hestia glared at Freya.
"And I met Yuto before you did! Can you say the same?"
Her smugness immediately returned.
"You couldn't even come to this restaurant without relying on me!"
That struck Freya exactly where it hurt.
A vein twitched several times on her forehead.
Seeing another argument about to explode, Yuto immediately stepped in and stopped them before things got worse.
Loki sat nearby with a delighted smile.
Her entire expression practically screamed that she was enjoying every second.
Naturally...she had absolutely no intention of helping.
"Boss, can you pass the helmets to Ainz and me?"
Rimuru suddenly raised a hand toward Yuto.
Or rather, since Rimuru was currently a slime, "raising a hand" meant bulging part of his body upward.
Yuto turned toward him and Ainz.
"You're not going to keep waiting for Fafnir?"
Earlier, the two had specifically said that they wanted to wait until Fafnir arrived so they could start playing together.
"Yeah, we've already been waiting more than three hours," Rimuru replied. "We're done waiting."
"Perhaps something suddenly came up and Fafnir can't make it tonight," Ainz added. "If he arrives later, he can simply find us in the game."
Yuto nodded and handed over their gaming helmets.
The two immediately carried them to a table farther away and sat down.
Yuto exchanged a glance with Saitama.
Then both of them smiled helplessly.
What else was there to say?
The day Ainz and Rimuru suddenly stopped playing games...
That would be something genuinely worth being shocked about.
...
As the night continued, Saitama eventually left.
Hestia and the others also began departing one after another.
Hestia actually wanted to stay a little longer, but she absolutely refused to sit there and keep watching Freya cling to Yuto.
It was infuriating.
So when Hestia finally decided to leave...
She forcibly dragged Freya away with her.
Otherwise, Freya apparently intended to stay all night.
Iskandar and Professor El-Melloi II remained for much longer.
They were waiting for Gilgamesh.
But even after midnight came and went...the King of Heroes never appeared.
It seemed he would not be visiting tonight.
Eventually, Iskandar and El-Melloi II said goodbye to Yuto and left as well.
Unlike the carefree King of Conquerors, El-Melloi II still had classes to teach every day.
He needed at least some sleep.
After they left, the restaurant gradually settled into a gentle silence.
Farther away, Ainz and Rimuru sat motionless beneath their gaming helmets, so still that they almost looked comatose.
Closer to the counter, Tohru and Lucoa chatted quietly as usual.
Neither of them spoke very loudly.
Other than that...
There was almost no sound inside the restaurant.
The only notable noise came from the kitchen.
The kettle Yuto had left heating on the stove had begun to whistle softly as the water inside reached a rolling boil.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Cloudlike steam poured steadily from the spout.
Occasionally, tiny droplets of scalding water escaped with it and struck the edge of the stove.
Hiss.
The droplets vanished into steam almost immediately.
Time continued passing quietly.
A few more customers came and went, but every one of them was a familiar regular who had only stopped by for something to eat.
Nothing particularly important happened.
And before Yuto realized it...
It was already past three in the morning.