London Clock Tower
At this hour, most of the Clock Tower's occupants were already resting.
However, Lord El-Melloi II remained awake, dressed with meticulous formality.
A wine-red coat concealed a black dress shirt, a crimson scarf draped around his neck, and his leather shoes had been replaced with a brand-new pair.
Dressed so elaborately, he looked as if he were about to meet some important figure.
He checked himself in the mirror again, searching for any lingering imperfections.
After several inspections, he let out a long sigh.
Clenching his fist, he murmured something under his breath before stepping out of the room...
..
After Utaha left, the trio immersed themselves in their light novels.
While she was still there, they had been too preoccupied watching the lively banter between her and Yuto.
Yuto sat behind the bar, chatting with Reiko.
Meanwhile, the oven in the kitchen roasted the meat on its own.
Not far away, the dragon group was also in high spirits.
A somewhat reckless figure pulled open the restaurant door and burst inside.
"Hestia!" Yuto exclaimed in surprise.
The young goddess's face was etched with anxiety and sorrow.
She scanned the room, taking in everyone present. Finding that the figure she was looking for wasn't there, she turned to Yuto.
"Kamisaka, Kamisaka! Has Sakura been here yet?!"
The goddess rushed to his side.
Already prone to tears, her eyes were now brimming with them. One wrong answer, and she'd likely burst into a weeping storm right there!
"Not yet, Hestia. Don't panic. You're a goddess, after all," Yuto said with a hint of exasperation.
The goddess sniffled, giving him a pitiful look. "I just want to see Sakura."
Though she often struck Yuto as useless and ditzy, from a divine perspective, she was a goddess who cared deeply for her familia.
Sakura's actions the previous night had moved Hestia, which explained her current anxiety.
"Just wait a little longer. Sakura said last night she'd be back today. Want me to make you something to eat? It's on the house this time."
Wanting to comfort her, Yuto decided to make her a dish free of charge.
If this had been yesterday or the day before, she would have been overjoyed.
Today, however, she showed no excitement. Her expression remained tense. She was still concerned about Sakura...
"Ugh... no thanks. I can't eat anything without seeing Sakura," Hestia groaned, slumping over the bar counter.
A gloomy aura emanated from her.
Yuto sighed in resignation.
"Did you prepare a gift for Sakura?" he asked, unable to resist his curiosity.
This had been his suggestion to her the previous night.
Hestia's eyes brightened slightly at his words.
She straightened up, sighing with a mix of sadness and resignation.
"I did."
She produced a small pendant. The silver-colored, unknown metal had been forged into an intricate, openwork chain.
At its center hung a teardrop-shaped sapphire of deep azure blue.
Held in her hand, the pendant radiated an aura of mystery and wonder, like some legendary treasure from mythology.
"Wow... it's beautiful," Yuto murmured, recognizing the gift's value.
He couldn't help but marvel at it.
Hearing his exclamation, a hint of pride lit up Hestia's sullen face.
"Hmph! Of course it is! I begged Hephaestus for ages to forge it for me! Waaah! I gave her all my money!" Hestia beamed with pride as she explained the pendant's origins, but her voice broke into tears when she mentioned the cost.
Yuto sighed, rubbing his temples wearily.
'Hephaestus... is she a goddess too?' The thought flashed through his mind.
"Hestia, didn't I say yesterday that a small gift would be fine? Isn't this too extravagant?" Yuto asked, sighing.
A pendant crafted by the gods themselves—just hearing that made it sound precious.
Hestia's expression stiffened at his words.
She stopped crying, her demeanor shifting to something more serious. "No, Kamisaka, no gift can ever compare to Sakura... Waaah! I miss Sakura so much!"
The goddess's seriousness lasted only three seconds before she reverted to her childlike temperament!
"Don't cry. If Sakura sees you like this when she arrives, she might lose faith in your Familia."
As Yuto comforted Hestia, he couldn't help but think of Ainz and Rimuru standing nearby.
'Thank goodness their subordinates aren't here,' he thought. 'They'd be heartbroken to see Ainz and Rimuru in such a state right now.'
"Ah! Kamisaka, you're right! I need to stay calm. I'll wait patiently for Sakura to arrive, then give her a big hug!" The goddess was already envisioning the reunion.
Yuto sighed, then smiled wryly. "Then take your time waiting. No need to rush."
He comforted Hestia, who had calmed down.
In response to his reassurance, she merely gave a faint nod.
Say what you will, the goddess was a master at changing her expression..
Clatter—
Just as Hestia had composed herself, the restaurant door was pulled open again.
A wine-red coat, a black shirt and trousers, and a red scarf.
It was Lord El-Melloi II.
"El-Melloi-san, hello. Would you like something to eat?" Yuto asked with a gentle smile.
"Please call me El-Melloi II, Boss. I won't be eating. Just a cup of coffee will do." El-Melloi II's expression was calm, but his words carried a natural, sharp intensity.
As always, all he ordered was a single cup of coffee.
His arrival drew the gazes of both Rimuru and Ainz.
Their eyes held a mixture of different emotions.
Yuto brewed him a cup of coffee.
He had once looked down on instant coffee, but after tasting the offerings at those cafés today, he could now proudly praise it. 'It's fast, tastes decent, and most importantly, it's cheap.'
"Lord El-Melloi II, your coffee." Yuto placed the cup on the counter.
"Thank you." El-Melloi II murmured his thanks before carrying his coffee to the table in the furthest corner of the restaurant.
It was empty.
As he passed Hestia, his gaze flickered with a strange expression for a moment before returning to calm.
The empty table finally had someone sitting at it.
"Boss, is that guy waiting for the King of Conqueror's?" Rimuru whispered to Yuto.
Yuto chuckled softly.
"Who knows?" he replied, his voice equally low.
...
"Still haven't made any human friends?" Yuto sighed as he looked at the carefree girl before him.
Reiko smiled brightly.
She shook her head, her eyes showing no trace of sadness. "It can't be helped. Yokai always show up around me. Even friends I've just made end up leaving because of them. I'm used to it."
Reiko propped her chin on one hand, her tone calm as she spoke.
Yuto listened and nodded resignedly. Sometimes, that's just how things are.
"But it doesn't really matter. You're human right, Boss?" Reiko smiled carefree as she looked at him.
Yuto nodded, a little surprised.
"Then it's fine. You're my friend, Boss. Thinking of it that way, it doesn't matter at all." Reiko smiled openly, her grin as bright and dazzling as the midday sun.
"You're right," Yuto said, his own lips curving into a slight smile, genuinely happy at her words.
"Still... even though I'm used to yokai, dealing with them can be such a pain sometimes," Reiko said with a sigh, but her eyes were gentle, and the corners of her mouth were still turned up.
The girl took out a notebook.
Yuto had heard Reiko mention it before.
It was called the Book of Friends, and it contained the names of yokai she had defeated.
Possessing their names meant she could command them.
He had only heard the girl talk about it before, but this was the first time he had actually seen it.
"Those guys... they all think I want to be their master. What a bunch of hopeless idiots." Reiko gently flipped through the book, the corners of her mouth lifting into a warm smile.
"Are there really this many yokai?" Yuto murmured, struck by the sheer number of names in the book.
"I don't know when it got so full. Even I find it a little unbelievable," Reiko said with a carefree laugh, scratching her head as pure joy shone in her expression.
"So many of these yokai are lonely, just like me. Honestly, they feel lonely but don't even know how to make friends. What idiots... They just need to put themselves out there a little. They're all yokai feared by humans, but they're surprisingly timid themselves."
Reiko grumbled with a hint of exasperation, while Yuto listened quietly beside her.
He had a strange feeling.
The girl wasn't just talking about the yokai, she was also talking about herself.
"Ahhh~ I'm sleepy. I'm heading back to bed." After rambling on for a bit, Reiko yawned and turned to Yuto.
Yuto smiled as he watched her.
Reiko took some coins from her pocket, handed them to him, and then stood up.
"Goodbye, Bo~ss~"
Even a mature girl like her occasionally revealed her childish side.
Yuto accepted Reiko's payment as a gentle sigh of relief escaping him inwardly. When he first met Reiko, even though she was always smiling, he could still sense the deep, hidden sorrow within her.
Now, that faint sadness had finally begun to fade.
The thought brought a small, genuine joy to his heart!
He cleared Reiko's plate and returned to the back kitchen.
He glanced toward the corner, where Lord El-Melloi II sat still.
His face was as expressionless as a wooden doll's. His silent presence filled the surrounding area with a desolate atmosphere.
Yuto let out a soft breath through his nose.
Shaking his head slightly, he turned his gaze to Ainz and Rimuru. What he saw brought a spark of amusement to his eyes.
The light novel the two were reading was the very same one he had been reading: I Became a King in Another World.
'Tsk.' Yuto was dying to know what these two, who had actually been transported to other worlds, thought of the book.
"So, what do you think of that light novel?" Yuto interrupted Ainz and Rimuru, who were engrossed in their reading.
"Hiss... I'm a little envious." — Ainz
"Sigh... I'm a little envious too." — Rimuru
Yuto's expression turned slightly odd.
What could these two possibly be envious of? Isn't this just a smut novel disguised with an isekai setting?
'Could it be that you two...'
The more Yuto thought about it, the more shocked he became.
"Kamisaka, why are you looking at us so strangely?" Ainz asked, puzzled.
Rimuru also turned to look at Yuto.
"It's nothing. I'm just curious what you're envious of," Yuto said with a smile.
Ainz had a feeling Yuto wasn't telling the truth, but he had no proof.
"I'm envious that the protagonist gets all sorts of elite subordinates right after being transported, so he can just be a good-for-nothing! Damn it! I want to be a good-for-nothing too!!!"
As Rimuru spoke, he became distraught, his body going limp as if all his dreams had been shattered.
Yuto couldn't help but chuckle at Rimuru's words.
To be a good-for-nothing who just eats and waits to die... That kind of dream is strangely appealing!
Yuto smiled and turned to Ainz. "Ainz, what are you so envious of?"
"Sigh... I wish I had a normal human body too..."
Ainz's reply brought a flood of thoughts to Yuto's mind.
He recalled the strange things Ainz had mentioned before—massages and all that other weird stuff... His gaze toward Ainz turned peculiar.
"And then use that normal human body to do things you can't do now?" Yuto asked, staring at him.
"Well, that's part of it. After all, this current form is still quite inconvenient in many ways," Ainz sighed helplessly.
Yuto raised an eyebrow and pressed further, "You actually want to be like the protagonist of this book and go around fucking everywhere, don't you?"
"Huh???"
"I knew it—you were thinking about that kind of thing the whole time arent you?."
"??? No, I wasn't!!!!"
"Really? I don't believe you."
"I really wasn't!!!"
After Ainz's frantic explanation, not only did Yuto remain unconvinced, but even Rimuru and Saitama's gazes turned strange.
Ainz's jawbone hung open.
He had no idea how to explain himself now!