We spent some time chatting idly over sukiyaki. This time, Alice wasn't inhaling her food; she seemed to be taking it slow... wait, what was that?
"Alice, where the heck did you get that pot?"
"Hmm? Oh, don't worry about me. I didn't want to keep you busy, Kaito-san, so I cooked up a separate pot for my own portion."
"I-I see... Wait, you're done already?!"
It turned out that, besides the sukiyaki we were eating, she had prepared an entire pot for herself and was finishing it off as if it were a small side dish. Even so, she still reached over to snag a few bites of the sukiyaki I'd made every now and then.
In any case, it was a nice, relaxed atmosphere.
"...Nice try, Kuro-san. I'm not letting you sneak those in when I'm not looking."
"Augh! My Baby Castella!"
"Please stop trying to shove Baby Castella into everything."
"But Baby Castella has infinite possibilities! If you merge sukiyaki and Baby Castella, you get Sukiyaki Baby Castella! It's genius!"
"They won't 'merge.' You'll just be eating sukiyaki with a side of soggy sponge cake."
Alice stopped Kuro, who was attempting her usual culinary terrorism. Perhaps Kuro was learning, as she had tried to sneak them in without a word this time, but Alice blocked her as if she had anticipated the move—which was only to be expected of her.
"Oh, that's right. Kaito-kun, here. Open wide!"
"Huh? Oh, thanks..."
"Kuro-san... what are you doing out of nowhere?"
Since Kuro offered the meat as if it were the most natural thing in the world, I thanked her reflexively and ate it. Come to think of it, I recalled Shiro-san doing the exact same thing during our beach barbecue. Despite their differences, maybe they were alike in some ways.
"I just thought I should do it at least once. Do you want to try, Shaltier?"
"N-No, I'm not really... I mean, maybe if we were alone or something..."
"Shaltier’s usually so bold, but she’s surprisingly weak against this kind of stuff, huh?"
"True. I don't feel even a shred of her usual brazenness right now."
"...Actually, I'd like to hear more about that 'usual' reputation in detail... Let's, let's just change the subject."
Determining that continuing this line of conversation was disadvantageous, she conspicuously diverted the topic. Seriously, she was way too bad at handling this sort of thing.
"...Speaking of recent events, Isis-san's place has gotten quite lively lately, hasn't it?"
"Ah, that's true. Her subordinates are steadily increasing, and Isis looks like she's having fun too."
"There are five of them now. Plus Vul as a pet."
Just as Alice said, Isis-san's household had become quite bustling all at once. She had gained five subordinates—Iris-san, Polaris-san, Sirius-san, Rasal-san, and Spica-san—and even a pet named Vul.
Isis-san talked about them so happily every time we met that just listening to her made me feel happy as well.
"But a lot of strange ones have gathered there, haven't they?"
"Exactly that. Well, excluding Iris, since I'm the cause of that... think about it. A Witch who broke her Species Limit without even being a Special Individual, an Insectoid Swordsman wielding a Magic Sword I made as a joke long ago, the Necromancer of the Black Forest, a Blue Crystal Flower Spirit that shouldn't even exist... even a Ten-tails Mystic Silver that maintains its ego. Honestly, it's like she’s being influenced by her boyfriend. There are way too many 'unprecedented' cases over there."
"Ahaha, it might actually be your influence, Kaito-kun. Your place is full of unique ones too—Anima, Bell-chan, Rin-chan, Nebula-chan..."
"I can't exactly argue with that."
Now that she mentioned it, my household was also full of beings with unusual backgrounds. Anima had reincarnated from a Black Bear; Bell-chan was a Special Individual Behemoth; Rin-chan was a White Dragon undergoing a unique evolution; and Nebula-chan was a Spirit of the World Tree who was far from ordinary... Yeah. There were quite a few with strange histories.
"I bet your family's going to keep growing too, Kaito-kun~"
"Stop saying such terrifying things! Though, I don't think any more weird ones will show up. I mean, Kaito-san has already interacted with almost every famous person in this world..."
"That's true... with the famous people 'in this world,' at least..."
"Seriously, please stop saying such unlucky things. My stomach is going to die..."
I certainly agreed with Alice on that. Dealing with any more special existences would be an ordeal, and I'd really like to avoid it if possible.
Well, even so, it wasn't as if anything related to other worlds was likely to happen, so I figured I was safe...
Serious-senpai: "But they're already here... The Ultimate God who once reigned over the peaks of countless worlds..."
???: "Oh, that's a nasty flag if I've ever seen one."