In front of the market, Tohru stood beside him with her head lowered, looking embarrassed.
Next to her stood Yuto, his hair a little messy. He ran a hand through it, letting out a helpless sigh.
"Tohru, why did you speed up?"
"Uh! W-well... because what you said just now made me so happy~"
Faced with her trying to act cute, Yuto could only sigh again. "Next time, let's just take the bike. I'll ride with you."
"Huh?!"
"No more 'huh.' It's decided."
"Okay..."
Looking at Tohru's lowered head and disappointed expression, Yuto felt helpless.
'So being a dragon rider isn't actually as easy as it sounds...'
"Remove the perception-blocking spell from you and me, but keep it on the magic backpack."
Tohru waved her hand, removing the spell from both of them. The backpack in Yuto's hand was still glowing with the green light of the spell.
"Here, take this," he handed it to her.
The dragon maid tilted her head, then put it on.
Honestly, even though the backpack looked plain, it somehow looked cute on her.
Seeing her carrying it, Yuto couldn't help praising himself inside.
As expected, he really had chosen the right person when he picked Tohru to work at the restaurant~!
'Excellent judgment me. Truly an excellent judgment!'
"Come on, let's go buy groceries."
"Boss, didn't you already make a deal with that place called Totsuki?"
"That's for rarer ingredients. For normal ones, we can just buy them ourselves. Besides, walking around the market and picking ingredients every day is part of the fun."
"Oh, I see."
The two talked as they walked.
The whole time, Tohru kept asking questions like a curious child, and Yuto answered them one by one.
Along the way, they bought a lot of things, all of which went into the magic backpack on Tohru's back.
Because of the spell, nobody thought it looked strange.
At Grandma's stall, the older woman also asked who Tohru was.
After Yuto told her the maid was his new employee, Grandma's face stayed serious the whole time, it looked like she was worried about something.
Before they left, she persistently told Yuto again and again that he should talk more with Megumi.
Yuto could only nod in agreement before finally leaving.
"That human feels kind of strange," Tohru said very seriously after they left the stall.
Yuto's eyebrows moved a little.
"Grandma?"
"Yeah!"
"What's strange about her?"
"Hmm... it feels like that human is eyeing you in a weird way. The look in her eyes was suspicious!"
"Don't overthink it. We're going home."
"Oh..."
Tohru stopped talking.
She just walked beside Yuto, looking cheerful again with her little backpack on.
...
Back at the market, Grandma's face looked serious.
The moment she saw Tohru, she felt like her granddaughter was at a disadvantage.
This wouldn't do!
She had to hurry her granddaughter along! If she didn't move fast, Yuto would be taken away!
...
Yuto and Tohru didn't come back the way they went.
Being a dragon rider looked cool, but he decided to pass on that for now, so the two took the bus back to Ichinosuke Street.
After they returned to the restaurant, Yuto took the backpack off Tohru, went into the kitchen, and put all the food into the freezer.
Before this, he had sometimes felt the freezer was a little too small, but he had never strongly wanted to replace it.
But after Goku ate almost everything in the restaurant last night, he felt it was finally time to make it bigger.
As for how to do that, Yuto had already formed a rough idea from thinking about the magic backpack.
The backpack looked small on the outside but actually had extra space inside, so Yuto wondered if the freezer could be changed the same way—if it could be turned into a space freezer.
The name was plain, but the idea was clear: he wanted the inside of the freezer to become its own separate space too.
Right now, every time he opened the freezer, he had to bend down and search around inside.
If he increased the space too much, finding anything would get annoying.
What Yuto really wanted was the kind of upright cold storage room you could actually walk into.
That kind of thing—and then adding space expansion on top of it—would be incredibly convenient.
"Tohru, can you do something like that?" He explained the idea to his dragon employee, hoping her magic might help.
Tohru thought quietly for a while, then shook her head.
"If you want to do exactly what you described, you'd need a dragon who's really skilled at space magic. Hehe... I'm a fire dragon, so I don't really know much about that," she sounded embarrassed, feeling bad that she couldn't help.
"I see..." Yuto thought for a moment.
"Actually, your idea isn't that hard to do. I can't use space magic myself, but I've seen other dragons do it before. If all you want is the effect you described, then simple space layering would be enough," Tohru added.
Layering a huge space down into something smaller was kind of like compressing files on a computer.
Most magic storage items worked using space layering, and adding a fixed effect on top of that became a storage item.
Yuto felt like he already had an answer.
Just like the last time he changed the restaurant around, maybe this time he could ask one of his customers.
He remembered that Ainz was a great magic caster, maybe he could do something like that.
"If you want, Boss, I can go bring over some dragons who know space magic!" Tohru really wanted to do something for him.
Seeing how eager she was made Yuto feel touched.
He made up his mind: one day, he was definitely giving Tohru an award for best employee!
"No need for now. If I need that later, I'll tell you."
He didn't reject her kindness too directly, making Tohru very happy.
Being able to help Yuto was what made her happiest.
The food they bought filled the freezer up again.
After checking it, Yuto took out his phone and called Totsuki's ingredient supply center.
Now they had enough ordinary ingredients again; what they still needed were some high-end special ingredients.
That was exactly what Totsuki's supply system was for.
Since he could use it now, Yuto felt like it was finally time for the restaurant to start using the really good stuff.
He knew how to make plenty of top-level dishes, which needed rare ingredients—and not just rare, but of extremely high quality, or the dishes would never reach their full taste.
You couldn't find things like that at a normal market, which was why he had never thought seriously about it before.
But now that he had a reliable supply source, his hands were itching.
Cooking a big, high-end dish felt very different from everyday cooking.
The moment the people at Totsuki heard his name, they became much more respectful.
It seemed clear that Senzaemon had already said something to them.
After arranging for delivery that afternoon, Yuto ended the call.
"Boss, I didn't really understand what you were talking about just now," Tohru asked curiously.
Yuto smiled at her. "Tohru, do you want to try some really unusual food?"
Instead of answering directly, he asked her another question.
The moment food came up, Tohru's eyes lit up. She nodded hard, her excitement obvious.
"Better than meat-stuffed rice?"
"Of course." That answer made her even more excited.
Buzz—
At that moment, Yuto's phone vibrated. He looked down and opened a message from Hayasaka.
[Ai Hayasaka: We are deeply sorry, Boss. It is shameful that someone under the Shinomiya Group handled things so badly that you had to point it out to us. Please rest assured, that manager will be dealt with right away.]
Even through the phone, Yuto could almost picture her bowing while apologizing.
He typed a reply.
[Kamisaka Yuto: Thank you. If you don't mind, please come by the restaurant tonight. I'll prepare a full dinner for you.]
Hayasaka had been sincere, so Yuto felt he should be polite in return.
After all, he was the one who had asked for help, her sincerity was not something he should take advantage of.
[Ai Hayasaka: Thank you, Boss. Lady Kaguya and I will come to the restaurant on time tonight.]
After exchanging a few more messages, Yuto closed the chat.
Letting out a small breath, he felt much better now than he had a little while ago.
...
Inside the Shinomiya family's private luxury car, Kaguya was sitting next to her maid, quietly watching Hayasaka's every move.
Ever since she found out Hayasaka and Yuto had become friends, she had been paying very close attention to her maid's texting!
"Kaguya-sama, what are you looking at?" Hayasaka lightly brushed some hair behind her ear.
A strand of golden hair rested there, making her look especially beautiful.
People had once ranked the most attractive little gestures girls made, and brushing hair back like that was always near the top.
If a girl was even a little pretty, that one movement could easily steal a young boy's heart without him even noticing, perhaps because that tiny moment looked so charming.
Hayasaka was already cool and beautiful to begin with, so that small gesture only made her more attractive.
Too bad for her, the one watching her making that move was another girl!