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

“Oh…”

The two demons suddenly understood. This food competition was already a few dozen years old. It was a monthly event, and people living here were more than familiar with it. Today was the first day of the competition.

“Okay,” they said. They were glad they didn’t get banned. They each took a ballot and sat back down at their table.

“Mag signed up for the competition,” a man said.

“I want him to win, but if he won, this place would become even more popular, and we would have to wait longer in line,” said a second voice.

“Yeah. It would be terrible if he told us he had sold out after we waited a long time.”

Sally was standing at the table, watching as the two demons sat straight with pens in their hands like students.

The five dishes and their prices had already been written beautifully on each ballot. Customers needed only tick the dishes they had ordered. The rankings were based on four elements: overall impression, taste, environment, service. They could grade on a scale from one star to five stars, with one star being not at all satisfied, and five stars being extremely satisfied. They could even leave comments in the comment section.

“Overall impression: five stars; taste: five stars; environment: five stars; service…” The two demons looked up at Sally and raised their voices. “Five stars!”

After they wrote “The food here is really very good.” in the comment section, they put down their pens and smiled at Sally. “Will this be enough?”

Sally nodded. “Yes.”

“Then we can leave now?”

“Sure.”

The two demons were much relieved. They strode towards the door and didn’t allow themselves to relax until they were outside.

“That waitress is scary!” said the hideous-looking demon.

“It’s your own damn fault. Let’s go find some quests to do,” his friend said.

“Her service isn’t worth five stars.”

“Go ahead and change it to three or two if you want.”

The other demon looked back at the restaurant. “Do you take me for a fool?”

Sally cleared the table, and then used her water magic to clean it. The customers nearby were left dumbfounded.

Even waitresses are so powerful nowadays? they wondered.

“Study harder, or you won’t even find a job as a waiter!” a father warned his son.

The little boy nodded obediently. “Yes, Father!” He was more determined to become a model student now.

Sally’s eyes swept around the room, and all the customers quickly dropped their gazes to their food.

Why do I get the feeling that they are afraid of me? Sally wondered. I’m still not kind enough? Normally, she rarely spoke to men, but today she was trying really hard to be friendly to them.

Yabemiya smiled encouragingly at her and gave her a thumbs-up as she walked past her with two bowls of braised chicken.

Sally smiled back and felt confident suddenly. She quickened her pace and put the dishes in the dishwasher. She had already learned how to use this magical machine.

Actually, she had offered to wash the dishes with her magic, but Mag didn’t want her to use too much of her magic power.

“You’re doing a great job. Keep up the good work,” Mag said to Sally with a smile. I won’t force her to smile as long as she doesn’t make the customers feel uncomfortable.

Sally nodded. “Thank you, Boss.” She worked faster. When she heard someone calling out for the check, she walked out quickly.

With Sally working here, Yabemiya didn’t have to rush around anymore; she was able to give everyone a warm morning smile. Sally, on the other hand, made them feel cool; they filled out the ballots as she asked.

“Five stars for all the dishes but sweet tofu pudding. It’s totally disgusting!” a customer said, and gave the sweet tofu pudding one star.

“Oh yeah? I’ll give the savory tofu pudding one star!” said a second voice.

“You can do whatever you like, but we’ll win in the end!”

“No, we will win!”

Sally stood uncertain, not knowing what to do. Mag had told them about the competition, and she was afraid that their doing so might result in him losing.

“Let them do whatever they want,” Mag whispered to her. He was smiling on the outside, but on the inside, he was cursing these morons.

Thankfully, the mission was having one dish in the top 30. Roujiamo was the most commonly ordered in his restaurant, and he was confident it could make the top 30.

Sally nodded, relieved, and went back to her work.

…

“We’re finally here—Chaos City. I heard it’s the safest city. Do you think they will follow us here, Lulu? Also, I heard there’s a lot of good food here!” a brown-haired girl in her early 20s asked as she had her arm around a man’s waist at the entrance of the Aden Square.