A Stay-at-home Dad’s Restaurant In An Alternate World

Sargeras’ words put a smile on the nervous waitress’s face again. Yabemiya’s tension was gone. She suddenly felt even a demon looked less frightening if he was a customer. She nodded. “Welcome.”

Her smile surprised him. It was such an innocent smile, like fresh morning dew on the top of a mountain, softening his lava heart.

Such a beautiful smile! he thought. Just the sight of her smile was enough to chase away his gloom. He smiled back, put down his iron chair, and seated himself at the table by the door. She should be a waitress. He managed a smile. “I’d like five roujiamos,” he said, trying to lower his voice.

Yabemiya nodded, smiling. “Okay, please wait a moment.” She strode towards the kitchen. Now that all the orders had been taken, she started serving food.

“Good morning, Big Bald Head,” Amy said to Sargeras like an old friend. He might look frightening, but Amy found him mild.

“Good morning,” Sargeras said quickly. Although Amy might be the last person he wanted to mess with, he liked her, especially when she tricked Krassu. He had laughed his butt off when she burned his beard. Watching the old man sitting with her, he wanted to laugh again.

Mag only needed to focus on cooking in the kitchen now. Yabemiya was serving roujiamos and fried rice to the customers quickly. She raised the efficiency by one-third at least.

“System, can I get a bigger oven?” Mag asked, watching the bai ji bread in the oven. They needed to be cooked for about 10 minutes.

“You have no right to upgrade the kitchenware now,” answered the system.

“Then give me another of the same size,” Mag said directly.

“You have to upgrade to lv2 first,” said the system.

Mag raised an eyebrow. “System, have you ever heard the story of Zhou Bapi ¹ ? You’re just like him.”

“Sorry, your comparison doesn’t apply here. I never crew like a cock in the middle of the night,” the system said seriously. “But I recommend you extend your opening hours to earn more money.”

“You’re a Zhou Bapi, after all. You don’t crow like a cock, but you want to extend my working time,” Mag said with contempt. “System, I’ll never extend opening hours. I like my current life. I’m pretty wealthy. Making money is hard work. I will not spend 50,000 gold coins on a lot of useless stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever want to upgrade.”

The system remained silent for a long time. “You’ll benefit a lot from the upgrading,” it said hesitantly. “You’ll gain the right to buy the kitchenware you have now and middle-sized kitchenware; you’ll be able to add a protection system to the restaurant; you’ll get a chance to change the restaurant for free. And we have some surprises in store for you.”

“Amy has incredible magic talent. I’m ordinary, and I’d like to stay that way. I’m not interested in your protection system,” Mag said airily.

The system’s silence was even longer than the one before. After Mag cooked two plates of Yangzhou fried rice, it said at last, “Small-sized oven, 15 gold coins each. Maximum purchase quantity: one!”

Mag frowned. “Make it a little cheaper?” he asked with a twist of his mouth.

The system said solemnly, “The oven is very reliable. The bai ji bread made by it—”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t want to hear it,” Mag interrupted, shaking his head. Then he added, “I’ll buy one, then. But give it to me tonight.”

Although looking calm on the outside, Mag was pretty happy within. Depreciating its commodities to turn the tables on it works every time.

Being an ordinary dad was all well and good, but he dreamed of being able to protect his daughter one day.

A line of words appeared in Mag’s head. “15 gold coins has been deducted. Manufacturing the oven. Remarks: deliver it tonight.” Then the system fell silent.

Mag continued cooking, feeling great.

Mag prepared 16 more loaves of bai ji bread for breakfast now that he had a waitress, but they sold out again before 9 am. Yabemiya had indeed increased the efficiency.

At nine o’clock, Mag walked out of the kitchen. Yabemiya was about to take a customer’s order. He signaled her to stop, and walked over to the customer with a smile. “I’m sorry, Sir. Our opening time is over, and roujiamos are sold out. Please come back later.”

“I see…” the customer said disappointedly. He had heard about the rules, so he left without a word.

“Boss, is this…” Yabemiya said hesitantly, watching the customer leave. She didn’t understand.

“We follow the opening hours here. It’s a rule I made when I started this business,” he explained, smiling, and walked to the door to turn over the sign.

Yabemiya nodded, thoughtful. It’s understandable since this restaurant is different. Her smile returned.

“You did a pretty good job for your first day, and only made two mistakes. Keep up the good work,” Mag said to Yabemiya.

The young waitress nodded, her face red, her eyes shining with joy. “Thank you, Boss. I will.”

For the first time, she knew she could do something right and that she was not useless.

Mag nodded, smiling. Yabemiya was skinny yet energetic. She was doing four jobs all by herself—greeting customers, taking orders, serving food, clearing tables. She had made two small mistakes, but she had defused the embarrassment with her earnest smiles.

She did a much better job than Mag had expected. She was really talented.

“Yes. Sister Miya is amazing. We made much more this morning,” Amy said as she sat behind the counter, counting coins, her eyes shining with excitement. Money was her number two priority next to good food.

“Come on. Let me show you how to work this dishwasher and then you can clean the restaurant.” Mag walked into the kitchen with Yabemiya and showed her how to use it.

The dishwasher was very user-friendly. Although Yabemiya found this dish-washing iron box very magical, she learned how to work it in a short while. Actually, she found many things in this restaurant strange, except pots and pans.

“Amy, let’s buy some milk for Ugly Duckling,” Mag said, and then left with his daughter. He had more leisure time now. It was another benefit of having a waitress.