Juliet stood at the front desk of the restaurant, daybreak just arrived and customers would soon arrive for breakfast. It was customary for Juliet to be at morning and personally greet the customers. Customer Service was something that she learned from Natalie when they were still at the Empire of Dawn.
Customers are always right and they are the gods of any business, without them, business won't thrive and the economy will grind to a halt. Juliet thought in her mind as she suffused the best smile that she could.
Juliet inherited most of her mother's traits so even when she's still a child, one could already anticipate the future beauty that she would become in the next several years. Due to that, Juliet sometimes suffered harassment from the noble customers, but after suffering a round of beatings and scoldings from the fierce Juliet, the nobles didn't dare to return.
"Oh, Juliet? You're early as always..." A masculine voice echoed and Juliet excitedly turned towards the source of the voice, where she found a young man whose appearance looked to be at his late teenage years.
"Zieve? Why are you always coming in late when you're the Head Chef. Without you, how else could we prepare our meals..." Juliet puffed her cheeks and scolded.
Being scolded by a young girl made the young man scratch his head in awkwardness. Despite the fact that their age was several years apart, he still has the same disciple position as the young girl, Juliet.
Zieve was previously someone that spent his days selling street foods at the streets of the Outer Disciples Region. However, the Duterte General Merchandises that didn't want any other competitors decisively crushed his livelihood.
When Juliet recruited him at first, he felt quite doubtful thinking that the young girl may be a schemer that only recruited him for the sake of his grievances to the Duterte General Merchandises. But when he saw the innocent lights within the young girl's eyes, he laughed to himself and accepted her offer.
Zieve lacked talent and passion for cultivation but his cooking skills were top-notch. If not for the fact that he frequently showed up late, he would've been a perfect employee.
"Didn't I teach you the recipe of our meals? You still haven't perfected it?" Zieve teased and Juliet glared at him, "Shut up! Let's just start prepping..." She turned around and ignored him amidst the former's laughter.
"Here, your treasured knife." Juliet handed over the knife that Zieve personally received from his father when he cooked his first meal, due to his care, the knife still looked as pristine as that time.
"Thanks..." Upon receiving the knife, Zieve's expression went solemn and his eyes darted around for ingredients. Taking a dry ingredient, Zieve placed it on the chopping board and with swift movements that looked like a mirage, sliced them in perfect symmetrical shapes in two breaths.
"Amazing...You're really the best man to choose for prepping..." Juliet smiled and did the same movements, albeit slower. The time difference was merely six breaths.
The two of them worked in harmony. Despite the short time that they spent together, they found that they were each other's kindred spirits when it comes to cooking.
Soon, numerous colorful ingredients surrounded the table as Zieve wiped his sweat with a towel that he received from Juliet. Passing her a bottle of water, Zieve suddenly remembered something, but it was too late. Juliet was already chugging the water bottle where he just drank from.
A crimson sheen flashed through his cheeks, "Ermm, don't you realize that I just drank from that water bottle..."
Juliet casually turned towards him and said, "Yep, what's wrong? Are you bothered that i used your personal water bottle? Sorry about that, I forgot mine and since you handed it to me..." Zieve waved his hands in a panic, "N-no, It's nothing, forget about it..."
Juliet stared at him with narrowed eyes, "Why are you acting so weird? Prepare yourself, customers will be coming in soon." Juliet walked towards the entrance of the restaurant and stood still like an obedient waitress.
The first time Zieve saw her actions, he warned her saying that the job of waitresses was something that an owner shouldn't do since waitresses frequently suffer from harassment. However, the young girl insisted that she should greet the customers with warm smiles so that they would walk out with smiles and return joyful.
Zieve could only scratch his head regarding her logic. In any case, once someone dared to harass her, Lightning would rumble and that poor bastard would be left lying on the ground.
Several minutes later, the dozens or so employees of Juliet arrived in droves and greeted her with smiles. Changing into their pinkish uniform that reeked with innocence and a logo of her surname at the center. These beautiful young women exuded the refreshing charm of spring which attracted customers.
"Boss, we're all green and ready to go!" A young woman whose age looked to be at her early teenage years gestured at Juliet. The latter smiled in return and personally greeted her employees with a wide smile.
"Uggghhh..." A female employee couldn't take it and succumbed to Juliet's cuteness as she turned around and replayed the scene where Juliet personally shook hands with her.
The entire crew was lively and having a young girl as the boss completed the recipe for this weird set-up as everyone of them took their post and prepared to receive customers.
One hour.
Two hours.
Several hours went by but no customers arrived. Every crew frowned in confusion and Juliet's expression looked dark, opening the entrance of the restaurant, cold winter air blasted her body as she saw that most of their frequent customers were at the Duterte General Merchandises, lining up for their meal.
"Juliet, what's going on? I've been waiting for several hours already but no orders are co-" Zieve's figure froze when he saw the darkened expressions of the employees. Following their line of sight, Zieve saw the same scene that they witnessed as his expression turned as dark as a kettle's bottom.
"Damn it so those bastards are finally moving? After crushing most of their competitors, their finally moving against us?" Zieve mumbled in dismay as Juliet closed the door with an indifferent expression on her face.
Seeing her indifference, Zieve said, "Juliet, are you not bothered by this? Those bastards are blatantly stealing customers from us!"
"Shh!" Juliet gestured and Zieve along with the other employees turned silent as three of their frequent customers walked past their restaurant.
"Man, I kinda wanna eat at the Juliet's Dreamy House, the food is cheap and delicious, not only that but the crew greets us with polite smiles. It makes me feel like I'm the Emperor or something..."
"Are you retarded? Though their price is low, we're cultivators, staining ourselves with the food of mortals will stagnate our cultivation..." The young man beside him scolded and he replied with a wry smile and a sidelong glance at Juliet's Dreamy House.
"Really, they deceived us good, to think that they're making us pay with Spirit Stones for foods that are meant for mortals. If not for the fact that their owner, Juliet's identity is so mysterious, I bet they would've been crushed by now..."
The three friends shook their heads and lined up before the entrance of the Duterte General Merchandises amidst the coldness of winter.
"Here's a complementary tea from us while you're waiting sir..." Waitresses from the Duterte General Merchandises even offered hot drinks as if to spite the crew of Juliet's Dreamy House, blatantly displaying that they're so-called customer service wouldn't lose out to them.
Zieve shook his head and approached Juliet with a somber smile on his face, "As I thought, it's really impossible for us to beat the members of the Imperial Clan. Maybe, it would be better for us to change our type of business or else those bastards may go overboard and cause direct trouble for us..."
The employeers behind him looked sorrowful and indignant, it was quite hard to find a job that you thoroughly liked, and now that you found it, anyone would be unwilling to see themselves lose their dream jobs.
Stretching his hand on Juliet's shoulders, Zieve was about to say something when he saw a defiant smile on the young girl's face. A smile that defied even the will of the Emperor himself.
"So they're trying to fight with us using the scheme of rumors? Such methods are too basic, Mama and I encountered those kinds of things dozens of times and all of our competitors lost their jobs..." Juliet proudly declare and each and everyone of her employees were dumbfounded as Zieve weakly said.
"Don't tell me..."
"You're planning on going against the imperial Clan?!"
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