The morning passed in a gentle rhythm. Rebecca was humming in the kitchen, practicing her knife cuts with the seriousness of someone holding a lifelong dream in her hands. The restaurant had only been open for three days, yet locals already stopped by for breakfast porridge, evening tea, or simply to look at the warm wooden interior that Rebecca had insisted on polishing herself.
Lencar stayed mostly behind the counter, quietly managing supplies, cooking when Rebecca needed help, and watching the people who visited. His eyes never stopped analyzing—mana signatures, vibrations of unfamiliar spells, patterns of movement. Rebecca only saw a calm, helpful young man. She had no idea the person wiping tables was also designing new rune theories in an underground base miles away.
He was adjusting the shelves when the door's bell chimed.
The room didn't just brighten—it shifted.
Two familiar presences entered at once.
Asta, loud and energetic as if the world ran on his heartbeat alone, pushed into the restaurant with both hands behind his head.
Yuno followed behind him, calm, composed, his gaze sweeping the environment with a quiet alertness that came naturally to someone carrying the hopes of an entire village.
Behind them came two groups of people wearing Black Bull and Golden Dawn robes.
Rebecca froze mid-chop.
"Are those—?" she whispered.
Lencar gave a small nod. "Yes. They're from different squads. You'll be fine."
She wasn't fine. She panicked so hard she nearly dropped the plate.
Asta was already shouting from the doorway.
"LENCAAAAR! YOU OPENED A RESTAURANT AND DIDN'T TELL US?!"
Yuno elbowed him lightly. "We're telling him right now."
The squad members entered in a scattered line. Luck was already sniffing the air like a predator hunting prey.
"I smell something delicious."
Magna thumped Asta's shoulder. "Hey, peasant buddies stick together! You didn't say your friend could cook like this!"
Charmy nearly tackled Lencar without warning. "WHERE'S THE FOOD?!"
Rebecca bowed nervously. "W-Welcome… what would you like to eat?"
Noelle peeked in from the door, trying not to look impressed. Mimosa offered Rebecca a warm smile, instantly calming her. Klaus adjusted his glasses and muttered something about "interesting hidden talents in small villages."
Yuno approached the counter first.
"It looks good," he said softly. "I'm glad you opened this place."
Lencar felt the hint of genuine warmth. Yuno didn't express much, but when he did, it held weight.
Asta put both palms on the counter. "Give me the biggest meal you've got! I'll pay with… uh—Yuno, lend me some money!"
"No," Yuno answered instantly.
The restaurant filled with noise, clashing personalities, and clattering plates. Rebecca moved faster than she ever had in her life, covering tables, serving tea, smiling through her anxiety. And yet, as the minutes passed, she found her rhythm.
The locals peeked inside too—astonished that famous magic knights were eating at her place.
Meanwhile, beneath the surface of every smile and every plate of stew, Lencar's mind worked.
Observing mana signatures.
Identifying compatibility between spells and innate attributes.
Watching Asta's anti-magic distort the room.
Comparing Yuno's wind resonance with the golden script of his grimoire.
He disguised it all under calm eyes and thoughtful silence.
Only Mars, receiving a message through the communication mark far away, would understand the deeper significance of today. Because Lencar had asked him one strange thing before this: to keep an ear out for shifts in mana density across Clover.
Lencar wasn't scouting for enemies.
He was scouting for patterns.
For proof that his theory about "Layered Mana Pressure" was correct.
As the restaurant filled with laughter, food, fights over seats, and Charmy nearly exploding from happiness, Lencar caught their reactions carefully. Especially Asta and Yuno, the two people who represented opposite extremes of mana theory—absolute zero and absolute affinity.
Rebecca came up to the counter, breathless but glowing.
"They really like the food…"
"They do," Lencar said. "You should be proud."
Her smile softened into something genuine and grateful.
But only he knew that this restaurant, this peaceful space, this warm wooden room—
—was also his laboratory.
A place to observe mana behavior in a natural environment.
A place to gather data without suspicion.
A place between peace and ambition.
A place to hide brilliance behind ordinary things.
Tonight, after everyone left, after the door closed and Rebecca went home humming, he would descend into the underground base.
Where Dominante and Mariella were already analyzing his notes.
Where a new theory about mana convergence was beginning to take shape.
And all of it began here—
With a restaurant filled with noisy friends and a quiet man taking mental notes behind a warm smile.