- Silas -
While I went in to prepare their bento's Naruto played around with Rimuru who was using different forms to play with him. Saitama and Ainz just watched everything on the side.
As I was cooking, several other people came in.
Touma was the first followed by Cid and then Kisuke-san.
Zeref was next and he was followed by a red haired woman in a witch's costume.
The man came directly to me and bowed, apologising for the events of that day.
I let out a sigh.
He was actually trying to help me and he did so by implanting whatever it was that he did in my body so that my body could produce Demonic Power and survive.
"You don't need to apologise. If anything I should be the one apologising. You saved my life that day and I….was extremely rude to you. I am sorry for that. Please have a seat. Let me treat you both today."
They sat down and I quickly made something for the two of them and severed them.
It was probably the first time that I had seen someone cry after eating a meal….literally.
The red haired woman with Zeref was actually shedding tears as she ate the food in front of her.
I brought some more food for her since she looked like she hadn't eaten in years.
Meanwhile, Touma was meeting with Rimuru and Ainz.
He had known the two so he recognised them after they introduced themselves.
Cid was with him, listening to their talks.
Next to come in was Tohru.
She hadn't come yesterday, maybe scared or embarrassed about that day's incident.
"Umm b-boss. About that day. It's….I didn't know that you didn't know….I…."
I let out a sigh.
"It's fine. I was just taken by surprise at the information and overreacted. You don't need to feel sorry. Just that from the next time if you see or find something odd, make sure you inform me in private about it." I rubbed her hair and her tail swung, her face brightening at my words. Seriously, this girl was adorable.
"Anyways, get ready and get to work. There are customers waiting for their orders to be taken. I will go and prepare the orders."
"Yes Boss!"
She saluted before looking over my shoulder and staring.
I followed her gaze and found that she was looking at the red haired woman who also seemed to have stopped eating and stared at us.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Huh? No. I just didn't think there were any more dragons in the Restaurant."
"Dragons?"
"Yes. Her. The red haired woman is a dragon." She pointed towards Zeref's companion.
"....oh. And?"
"Eh, nothing. You just told me to tell you anything I found in private."
"....alright. Anything else?"
She came near my ear and whispered. "By the way boss, that blue haired girl is a slime or at least smells like one and that undead sitting with him. They look suspicious. Do you want me to take care of them?" She conjured a flame on her hand.
"No no no no. They are my friends. Don't mind them. In fact, those two were humans before and became like this later on. They are regulars of our Restaurant." I quickly explained to the trigger happy Dragon girl before she went throwing firebreaths everywhere.
"Oh. It's fine then. I just thought they looked suspicious."
….
I looked at the two….they did look suspicious.
At this time Sakura also returned from her shopping and paused at Ainz's form.
I was about to explain to her before she was surprised but she didn't even react to him and walked towards me.
"Are there new guests, Silas-san?"
"Ah…." I looked at her open-mouthed.
Really….just that? Nothing else?
Not even a yelp?
There is a literally walking talking skeleton lord eating cake on the table for fuck's sake.
Even I was more surprised than that when I first saw his skeleton face and that was after he explained everything in advance.
"Well….technically they are old customers. They are Mikami and Suzuki. It's a long story. I will tell you later. Anyways I think you have already seen them."
Meanwhile Rimuru and Ainz watched me talking to her but didn't say anything.
"Oh! I….am sorry, I didn't recognise them."
"No no, don't mind it. None of us did." I waved it off. "I even had to ask some security questions to verify." And I call myself a good friend of theirs.
She looked at the two of them and bowed politely and the two awkwardly waved back. She then turned towards me. "I will go and change quickly."
"Alright."
She walked back upstairs and as soon as she was gone, I fell a tug on my side and was pulled to Rimuru's table.
"Is this a thread?"
"Steel thread."
"And you spit it out? I thought you turned into a slime not, I don't know….spiderman!" I pointed, looking at the thread.
Steel threads.
Damn.
"Don't try to divert the topic Silas. Now out with it, what going on? Are you….living with a girl? Also, who is that waitress with the horns and tail? Saitama told us she was a dragon. Are you living with two cute girls while we two were stuck with different worlds? Hell I even got a Great Sage Skill because I was single for almost forty years. I thought we had a pact dammit."
"What pact? Why don't I know of this pact?" I asked, confused. "Also, Tohru is the same dragon you guys were there when we removed that sword from her back. She wanted to pay Naruto and me back for that day and is working as a waitress here." I explained.
"That….that dragon became this cute girl?"
"You are a slime and you can become….this….are you a girl or a boy?" I asked, realising I didn't know that.
"Not the point!" He quickly waved off the topic. "What about Sakura-chan?"
"She….things happened." My face darkened as I remembered the incident. "Her adopted family was….let's say unlikable and leave it at that."
The two noticed my look and became quiet.
"Were they hurting her?" Rimuru asked and I noticed the red in Ainz's eye becoming brighter.
"Hurting is not a good enough word for what they were doing." I explained the situation to them briefly.
"Is that Zouken guy alive?" Ainz asked, casually but I had known Suzuki enough to know that he was pissed.
Even the usually emotionless Saitama was sombre.
He didn't know about any of this as he wasn't here when Sakura was treated.
"No."
"Tch. Lucky bastard. I would have given him to one of the floor guardians to play with and then made him a Death Knight to protect Sakura-chan for the rest of his life." He clicked his….tongue? And said.
And although the rest of us didn't understand any of his words, we understood his sentiment.
….
A few moments of silence prevailed over the table and Rimuru was now feeling a bit awkward and broke the silence.
"Still, Silas is now living with two extremely cute girls. Ainz, say something."
"Well…." The skeleton suddenly fidgeted and all three of us zoned in on him. "I….also have female members, especially the guardian overseer Albedo….and well…."
….
Son of a bitch.
We suddenly realised that this guy was living with cute maids and hot girls all around.
Saitama was uninterested as usual but Rimuru looked at both of us with hung jaws, as if questioning reality.
"Why! Silas I can understand but Ainz….you don't even have a…."
"Hey!"
The guy banged his head on the table in depression as both Ainz and I looked at each other. It was quite hard to make out the expressions on Ainz's face but he was looking partway between smug and offended.
In a sense, it was understandable.
While he was understanding all wrong, I was still living with Sakura and Ainz had….well whatever he said but Rimuru on the other hand had just lost someone close in his world.
I couldn't see his look so I decided to drop in a bit of good news. "If it's any consolation, Shizuka-san comes over sometimes and she even asked about you….thrice."
Suddenly all his depression flew out of the window and he looked up at me, inches away from my face. "Really!"
….
….
….
….
Weren't you depressed just now?
But I realised that he had successfully diverted everyone's mind from our grim moods just now.
I talked to them for a while before I had to leave to cook.
"Alright, you guys talk. I will go and prepare the orders." I got up, leaving the three to have fun.
Just as I was about to walk inside, the door to the Restaurant opened again.
This time however the guests were unexpected.
Tobio and two blonde girls came rushing inside their….NotPokemon behind them.
All of them paused looking at Ainz and Rimuru, especially Ainz and then the girl in the lead shouted.
The bird with her got in front of her protectively but didn't attack or even try, probably too intimidated.
Ainz did look like a character straight out of a B Grade Horror movie so it was understandable and so I barely stopped myself from facepalming.
Was this going to be a regular thing?
"Ohh, is this the Pokemon guy?" Rimuru jumped from his seat, looking at the dog and the bird carefully.
Tobio limped to the front first, "Please let us stay here. Those monsters… they are…" he huffed but I saw that the sprain on his leg was worse now.
He didn't get to stay much as we heard a loud thud on the wall of the Restaurant. There was no damage to the restaurant but the sound of the nearby houses being attacked was easy for us to understand.
Do these bastards not care about the life and death of the neighbours at all?
I looked outside the window to see over a dozen of those monsters trying to break in. The other customers looked outside too.
"What exactly are those?" Touma asked.
"Those are Pokemon alright." Rimuru commented.
"They are… our classmates. Some people kidnapped them and bound monsters in them and now they are like this. Those people are after us because of our Sacred Gears."
"Your what?" Rimuru asked while a question mark formed on his head.
Literally. I mean his body literally changed to form a question mark on his head.
"Our Sacred Gears. This is mine, called Gryphon." The blonde girl informed us while the other girl strangely took a seat and started to look through the menu without a care in the world.
"They are not Pokemon?!"
"What?! No!"
"See, I told you so." I shrugged my shoulders.
"You didn't tell us about what they were."
"I didn't know what exactly they were but hey, I did tell you they were not pokemon."
Our argument was interrupted by someone's voice.
"Oh, are these the things who attacked you that day?" Kisuke-san looked outside and asked. I nodded before turning towards Tobio and his friends who looked exhausted.
"You all stay here. I will check and check it out." I told them and headed towards the door, one hand, reaching for my knife.
A hand fell on my shoulder and stopped me.
"Silas. There are too many of them. Let me." Ainz stood up, his bony frame towering over us as his voice took on a royal tone. He was in full on roleplaying mode right now.
Rimuru changed into his own blue haired human form. "I'll help too."
Zeref stood up and walked ahead too. "Let me also help out a bit to make up for the inconvenience I caused earlier."
"I'll help out too. I'm a Hero after all." Saitama stood up. "I just need to get my hero costume first."
Cid was looking afraid. "Silas-san….I….I'll will leave and maybe see if someone can help." He said before running out.
"Tch what a sissy." Tohru clicked her tongue looking at Cid's back. "Well don't worry boss. These types of things are my specialty. I will be done in a jiffy."
"Don't be so hard on him….he is just starting Magic School so it was understandable if he was perturbed by the monsters. He even offered to find help so you shouldn't be angry. Just make sure you don't hurt the kids." I ordered, remembering what Tobio had told me.
"Please. Our friends. They don't want this. They are just being controlled. It's the people after them." Tobio pleaded to the ones walking out too and I noticed that there were some older people behind the entire group.
"Did these people….kidnap Sae-chan?" I asked and he nodded, making me narrow my eyes.
These bastards were kidnapping people from this area. What if they kidnapped someone from my Restaurant or someone close to me?
I needed to take care of them.
Sakura came down at this time, looking around confused. "Sakura-chan, can you see that they get some rest? I will take care of the things outside."
"You take care and get healed, kid. We will solve this mess." Rimuru laughed before applying some of the blue potion on his leg and I watched in awe as it was healed instantly.
That potion worked so well.