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

Mag nodded in contentment. No answer could be more reassuring right now. She had no idea what marriage was, so he was happy that she was relying on him.

When she grew up, if some punk wanted to get anywhere near her, he would teach him a lesson. It was his responsibility. But right now, it was too early for him to think about his son-in-law.

Now Mag felt so much relieved. He didn’t know how to raise a kid, so he had to deal with the problems when they arose.

“One other thing. Call me dad instead of father. You can call me father in formal settings. Normally, just call me dad,” Mag said after he thought for a moment.

To Amy, Mag was the most important reliance—her only reliance. He would weather any storm for her, so she addressed him formally to show her respect. However, there was a touch of distance in that address.

He had long since felt that way, only Amy had been a little abasing herself, so he hadn’t brought that up to trouble her more until now.

Now she was pretty confident for her age, so he took this opportunity and brought it up.

Actually, Mag preferred Amy to call him papa, but people didn’t say the word “papa” in this world. He didn’t want to inconvenience Amy, and had to settle for “dad”.

“Dad?” Amy gazed at Mag, a little confused. She had been looking at her father as the most incredible man who could do anything, so she addressed him “Father”. She hoped her father would love her and protect her forever.

Now it seemed her father didn’t like her calling him “Father”. Dad does seem more intimate. Amy wrestled with herself for a while. Then she looked at Mag and nodded. “Okay, Father.”

“It’s all right. You’ll get used to it later.” Mag smiled and stroked Amy’s hair. Obviously, it was impossible for her to adapt to the change right away, but the change was going to occur slowly yet surely. He wanted to be more intimate with his little girl and become somebody she could completely trust and rely on.

“The music box is ready. It took four minutes and thirty seconds,” the system said. “It’s in the second compartment in the counter right now. I offer a free packaging service. Do you need it?”

“Of course,” Mag answered without thinking. Unwrapping the package was a lot of fun, and a good gift could be made better by a decent package.

More importantly, it was free! This stingy system was giving a service for free! That was a first.

“Amy, if you remember my words, I’ll give you a gift,” Mag said, smiling.

Amy’s eyes brightened. “Is it a singing little man?”

Mag nodded. “Yes.” It was not a living man, but it was definitely unique in this world.

She said happily, “Amy will remember it all, Fath—” She realized what she had just said and stopped suddenly.

“Meow…” Ugly Duckling had been padding around the chair while they were speaking. It crouched on the floor and looked up at them, wounded by them ignoring it.

Amy hopped down from Mag’s lap and crouched to lift the kitten up. “Be good, Ugly Duckling. Father will give us a singing little man,” she said, stroking its head.

“Meow, meow!” The little kitten really enjoyed Amy’s stroking. It stared at Mag curiously as if it, too, was interested in the toy.

After the system said the packaging was finished, Mag rose to walk towards the counter. There, in the second compartment stood a gift box wrapped in purple paper, with a big bow on the outside. It was very girlish. He liked it.

Amy and her kitten looked at Mag with excitement, wondering what the singing little man would look like.

Mag took the box out. It was fairly heavy. He turned to show it to Amy.

“Wow, it’s very pretty. Father, the singing little man is inside the box?” Amy asked as she walked over to her father, her eyes shining.

“Open it and you’ll see. It’s my gift for you,” Mag said with a smile. He put the box on the counter and didn’t mind that she addressed him “Father” again in excitement.

“Thank you, Dad!” Amy climbed up the long-legged chair and put her cat gently on the counter. She stared at the gift box for a while and looked up at Mag. “Dad, this box is so beautiful, I don’t want to break it.”

Mag smiled. He had never thought that Amy would be in a predicament because of this pretty gift box. He stroked her head. “It is beautiful, but it’s just a box for containing the singing little man. It’s waiting to become your friend.”

Amy’s look became determined instantly. “It must be very frightened. Okay, I’ll save it right now!” Then she said to the box apologetically, “Sorry, little box, I have to tear you open to save the singing little man.”

Under Mag’s guidance, Amy removed the packaging paper and lifted the cover carefully. Finally, she saw the music box.

The base was made of solid wood, brown and classic, with two beautiful Chinese redbuds carved on it. On top of the base was a hemispherical glass cover, in the middle of which stood a blonde elf about 10 centimeters tall. She had long eyelashes and vivid eyes and seemed lifelike. Every string on the violin was distinguishable. A layer of small white balls was lying on the ground to simulate snow. It was exquisite and totally worth 5,000 copper coins.

“Wow, such a beautiful little elf!” Her blue eyes went wide and were shining in excitement.

“Meow, meow…” Ugly Duckling crawled closer and tilted its head to one side to look at the elf, its eyes filled with curiosity. It raised a paw and attempted to touch it, but then caught sight of Amy and stopped, looking cute and amusing.

Amy watched for a while. “But, Father, can she really sing?” she asked as she turned to look at Mag.