Yuto had no idea what "111" was supposed to mean.
So he sent back a simple "?".
And after that... Kaguya went silent again.
Yuto could only stare at his phone in confusion.
...
At long last, class was over.
With her usual blend of elegance and speed, Kaguya packed up her schoolbag and walked straight out of the classroom.
Her presence was so overwhelming that no one dared compete with her for the doorway.
The whole class waited until she was gone before finally relaxing into the usual after-school chaos.
She hurried downstairs, changed her shoes at the lockers, and made straight for the school gate.
A luxury car was already waiting there.
Click.
The door opened first. Inside sat Hayasaka, waiting as always.
"Kaguya-sama," she greeted her with her usual respectful calm, but instead of the usual reply, Kaguya thrust her phone right in front of her face.
Hayasaka blinked.
"Hurry up and reply Kamisaka-kun back for me," Kaguya was visibly flustered, her face faintly red with urgency.
Hayasaka looked surprised for a moment, then took the phone.
She opened the messages, read what was there, and let out a quiet sigh.
"Kaguya-sama, get in the car first."
Only then did Kaguya realize she was still standing outside.
She hurried into the back seat, shut the door, and after a quick word to the driver, the car pulled away.
Hayasaka sat down beside her. "So what would you like me to send?"
"Ask Kamisaka-kun what he needed from me."
The words had barely left her mouth before Kaguya's expression changed. "No, wait! We can't ask that first!"
Hayasaka quietly deleted the text she had just typed.
"Then what should I send first?" she asked patiently.
"Tell him I was busy just now, so I couldn't reply right away. Yes, that first. Explain that first." Kaguya nodded to herself, and Hayasaka started typing again.
Just as she was about to send it, Kaguya stopped her once more. "Wait. Should I explain what I was doing? Yes, add that I was in a meeting earlier."
Hayasaka nodded and typed some more.
And just when she was about to press send again, Kaguya opened her mouth for the third time.
This time even Hayasaka looked a little worn out. "Kaguya-sama, I think this is enough. If we keep taking this long, the Boss may start thinking you're avoiding him on purpose, and that's why you're replying so late."
Kaguya froze. "Really?! Then all right, send it. Quickly."
At last, she gave her approval, and Hayasaka pressed send.
A moment later, the phone showed that the message had gone through successfully.
Kaguya let out a breath of relief, leaned back against the seat, and wiped the faint sweat from her forehead.
But almost immediately, she started staring at the phone again. "Hayasaka, why hasn't Kamisaka-kun replied yet?"
Hayasaka hesitated. "Well... it could be signal trouble. Or the Boss could just be busy. Give it a little time."
Kaguya folded her arms and kept staring at the screen.
She waited for a reply.
And waited.
And when nothing came, the anxiety inside her started building all over again.
...
"Oh, you're already at the entrance to the street? Got it. I'll come meet you." Yuto hung up the phone.
The ingredients he had ordered that morning from Totsuki's food supply department had arrived.
Since ordinary people could never find his restaurant on their own, he had to go meet them at the entrance to Ichinosuke Street, just like last time.
As he put his phone away, he noticed Kaguya's message.
After a moment's thought, he decided he would reply later.
"Tohru, come help me carry things," he called out, and the dragon maid happily bounced after him.
With Ainz, Rimuru, and Utaha all still at the restaurant, there was nothing to worry about.
But when the two of them reached the street entrance, Yuto's expression shifted in surprise.
"How are you two the ones here?"
Standing beside the delivery truck were two beautiful girls: Erina and Hisako.
Both were dressed neatly, wore faint smiles, and in the evening light they looked almost unreal in their beauty.
Yuto had never expected Senzaemon to send Erina to his restaurant as an assistant chef.
It wasn't that he doubted her skill, that had nothing to do with it.
The situation itself was simply surprising.
Given her status, if she were going anywhere for practical training, it ought to be one of the most famous hotels or restaurants in the country.
Why come here? And more than that, she had actually agreed to it.
She no longer carried herself with that same sharp arrogance she used to show so openly—at least not as often—but even so, Yuto had not imagined she would go this far.
Still, if she herself had no objections, then neither did he.
As for the reasons behind it, he couldn't be bothered to dig into them, they weren't important to him.
No matter what, she was still a skilled chef he could rely on.
And apparently, it was a buy-one-get-one deal, because Hisako had come along too.
That alone would make life in the kitchen much, much easier.
"Didn't Nakiri-san say he'd send someone during summer vacation?" Yuto asked as they walked.
"Why are you here now?"
That was the one thing he was genuinely curious about. When he had spoken to Senzaemon before, summer break had definitely been the plan, and this was very much not summer break.
"That's for ordinary students," Erina said. "For members of the Elite Ten, the rules are different. Training placements at restaurants like this are entirely up to us. We control our own schedule."
She walked beside him as she spoke, her golden hair shining in the slanting afternoon light like threads of fine gold.
Hisako followed quietly at her side, calm and composed as always.
The secretary girl had the same still grace as a lotus flower floating on quiet water.
"I see." Yuto nodded.
He knew what the Elite Ten were; after knowing Senzaemon this long, he had learned plenty about Totsuki.
He also knew very well that the girl walking beside him was one of them.
Once he understood the reason, he stopped wondering about it.
Whether Erina came early or late didn't really matter to the restaurant.
Then, suddenly, Yuto thought of the guest who had appeared in the middle of the night—Goku.
If that man really came back with several others who could eat as much as he did... then Erina and Hisako had arrived at exactly the right time.
"Boss, are we having fish tonight?" Tohru asked as she walked alongside him carrying a ridiculous amount of equipment.
Strapped across her back was a sealed case more than two meters long, with various smaller boxes hanging from it.
In one hand, she was casually carrying a hotel-style stove.
Altogether, the load probably weighed enough that it would take seven or eight grown men to move it.
If anyone had seen her like that, it would have caused a huge scene, so Yuto had made her use her perception-blocking magic.
To ordinary passersby, everything looked perfectly normal.
Even so, the fact remained: she was carrying all that weight one-handed as casually as if she were holding a balloon.
The boxes were sealed, but Tohru was a dragon.
Her sense of smell was far sharper than any human's, so she could tell what was inside at once.
"Yeah," Yuto turned to her with a smile. "Do you like fish, Tohru?"
Still holding the stove in one hand, the dragon maid nodded enthusiastically.
"If you make it, I'll like it!" Her voice was light and cheerful.
Yuto chuckled, then glanced sideways at Erina.
She was staring at Tohru in obvious shock.
Knowing that Tohru was a dragon and actually getting used to it were clearly two very different things.
"I didn't expect you to bring your own stove," he said, sounding half amused and half resigned.
Erina straightened proudly, a confident little smile appearing on her lips.
"Of course. Your kitchen stove is too small, and I don't like sharing cramped space while I work. It's simply a personal preference."
Yuto laughed softly. "And it never occurred to you that there might not be enough room?"
That caught her completely off guard.
The self-satisfied expression vanished at once, and a light blush immediately rose to her cheeks—the unmistakable blush of someone realizing a mistake too late.
But it lasted only a moment.
A flash of sharpness returned to her eyes almost at once.
"I'm sure you can figure something out." She knew enough about the restaurant to push that problem neatly onto him.
Yuto drew in a slow breath, then let it out.
She wasn't wrong.
He did, in fact, have a solution.
"So even though I'm supposed to be the one being helped here, I still have to deal with extra trouble like this," he said with a resigned sigh.
The golden-haired heiress instantly bristled. "Don't make it sound like I'm some sort of burden!"
Yuto didn't answer; he just smiled.
By the time they reached the restaurant, the ordinary sliding door was obviously too narrow to fit the hotel stove through, so he opened the other entrance instead.
Tohru carried the stove inside and set it down carefully, though the wooden floor still let out a strained creak beneath the weight.
When the place had been remodeled before, Yuuka had transformed all the flooring into wood.
Now, with the heavy stove resting on it, the floorboards complained softly.
Yuto stepped inside, with Erina and Hisako following behind him.
The people already in the restaurant looked puzzled.
Ainz and Rimuru exchanged a glance—or at least something close to one.
Since neither of them actually had eyes, the sight of them "looking" at each other always felt slightly strange.
Utaha, who had been sitting at the counter playing on her phone, looked up and blinked.
"Kamisaka-kun... what exactly is going on here?"
Yuto smiled and said, half-jokingly, "From now on, Erina and Hisako are part of my staff too."
Neither of the girls seemed offended by that description.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't wrong.
After Yuto gave the others a brief explanation, they all nodded in understanding.
Rimuru, however, pointed at the hotel stove and asked, "Then what's that thing?"
It wasn't surprising he didn't recognize it, a professional kitchen stove looked very different from the kind people used at home.
"That's a stove," Yuto said. "And actually, this is where I need your help. Both of you."
Ainz and Rimuru still looked confused, but they nodded anyway.
...
After some remodeling, the kitchen was transformed completely.
Originally, its size had only really suited the counter seating.
Even after the restaurant had been expanded once before, the kitchen itself had never changed, and it had already started to feel a little cramped back then.
Now, however, the kitchen was stretched to two and a half times its former length.
The width stayed the same, but the length increased dramatically.
That meant the kitchen now ran far enough to face the four tables in the main dining area, which made bringing dishes out much simpler too.
Erina's hotel stove was installed in the expanded space without much trouble.
Strictly speaking, properly installing a professional stove like that ought to have been a complex task, but after Ainz and Rimuru worked their magic on it, the thing was fully usable.
The kitchen now had enough space for another four or five people without any problem.
Adding Yuto, Erina, and Hisako meant there was now room for eight or nine workers if needed.
Tohru's main role was still carrying dishes in the front of house, so she didn't really count as kitchen staff.
Even with the extension, the restaurant as a whole didn't feel cramped; if anything, it felt more polished and a little more intimate.
It worked.
Yuto was genuinely pleased.
Erina had regained her composure by now, though her eyes still held traces of surprise and excitement.
Hisako, naturally, mirrored her mistress, though she stayed far calmer.
As a secretary, it would have been disgraceful for her to look even more flustered than the person she served.
As for the fish Tohru had brought back, Yuto put them into the space bag for the time being.
One reason was simple: fish of that quality had to be stored properly and kept still.
The varieties he had specifically requested from Totsuki were all expensive, highly prized species, and they needed careful handling.
The second reason was even simpler: there wasn't any room left in the freezer.
There was still some time before the restaurant opened for the evening, so there was no rush yet.
He had said he wanted to make a grand meal, but the dish he had in mind didn't actually need that much advance preparation.
He took out his phone since he still hadn't replied to Kaguya's message.
[Kaguya: Sorry, Kamisaka-kun. I was in a meeting earlier, so I couldn't reply. The meeting has only just ended. What is it you needed my help with?]
Yuto nodded faintly.
Just as he had thought. Kaguya really had been in a meeting!