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

“Am I hiring?” Mobai dusted himself off, and looked up at Lulu, who was twice his height. He sized Lulu up carefully before shaking his head, and replying, “You look like you’re cut out for it, but if you’re too clumsy, then you won’t succeed in this role. Besides, I’ve never taken an apprentice or hired any employees before.”

Xixi pinched Lulu in the waist to shut him up before taking over the conversation. She took a glance at the ruined forge, and said, “Boss, he’s only clumsy with his words, but he’s actually really smart. He’s a really quick learner, and if you take him in as your apprentice, he’ll be able to help you out a lot. You’ll be able to craft more weapons and earn even more money with him around. If you don’t believe me, you can get Lulu to help you clean up the forge. He’s a really snappy worker.”

“Well…” A contemplative expression appeared on Mobai’s face upon hearing that. He looked at Lulu, then at Xixi, and finally nodded as he said, “Alright, then I’ll give him a chance. But I make no guarantees about whether I’ll hire him or not. My business is not very profitable, and I can’t afford to have lazy workers.”

“Thank you, Boss. Lulu will be sure to satisfy you.” An elated smile appeared on Xixi’s face. She clenched her fist, and encouraged, “Go, Lulu, you’re the best! I’m sure you’ll succeed in the role.”

“I’ll do my best,” Lulu replied with a smile of his own. Xixi was working at the magic potion shop, so he couldn’t just sit around and expect her to feed him. If he could get a job at the neighboring forge, that would be perfect.

Mag had only just emerged from the restaurant, and was quite happy to see that. It appeared that the dryads were really intending on living in Chaos City permanently.

It was a good thing. At the very least, Amy had two more playmates.

“Alright, clean up everything here. Just do what they tell you to do,” Mobai instructed. He then turned round, and strode directly toward Mag.

“Alright,” Lulu replied before making his way toward the wreckage. Even though he hadn’t fully recovered, cleaning up some debris wasn’t an issue for him. Meanwhile, Xixi returned to the magic potion shop, and began her first day of work there.

Mobai approached Mag, and asked, “Mag, your business is going really well. Ever thought about expanding?”

“Hmm?” Mag had only come out for some fresh air, and he faltered upon hearing that. He had indeed thought about expanding the restaurant. After all, with his current customer base, 64 seats simply weren’t enough. He didn’t want to compress his customers’ dining space, so the only viable option was to expand.

However, Mag didn’t have any control over the restaurant’s expansion. After all, the restaurant had been built by the system, so it was naturally responsible for expansion as well.

With the system’s crappy personality, there was most likely no way it would agree to an expansion until he could upgrade the restaurant.

Furthermore, his biggest headache wasn’t the system. Instead, it was the location of his restaurant, which was situated in the northwestern corner of the Aden Square. A little further to the west would take one to the Bastie Prison, so if he were to expand westward, he would be toppling the walls of the prison to open his restaurant there, which was clearly not a viable option. However, Mobai’s forge was situated directly to the east.

Mobai’s forge had been running for several decades, so he definitely wouldn’t be willing to give it up for the restaurant’s expansion. However, it was a bit peculiar that he would take the initiative to ask about an expansion.

“So this is what I’m thinking. Back in the day, I actually purchased all four of those shops together. I was planning to expand the forge if business was good, but over four decades have passed since then, and I haven’t even gotten around to it.” Mobai smiled as he pointed to the shop near Urien’s, and said, “I apologize for what happened this morning, and I thank you for the inspiration that you have provided me with. As such, I plan on reconstructing my forge next to the magic potion shop. If you would like to expand, I can sell these three shops to you for the market price.”

“You sure are a rich man, Mobai.” Mag was a little surprised. The shops next to the forge had always been empty, but he never thought that the reason behind it was that they belonged to Mobai. He then asked internally, “System, can we expand the restaurant?

“The restaurant’s level is too low, so expansion cannot be facilitated. Please upgrade the restaurant as soon as possible in order to unlock more rights.”

“I see…” Mag wasn’t really surprised by that response. However, the system’s reply at least indicated that expansion would become available following the upgrades of the restaurant. In that case, they would be able to house more customers at a time. As mentioned before, they had the prison to their left, so they could expand only to the right; as such, the three shops that Mobai was offering to him were very important.

After all, the Aden Square had been constructed according to the city lord castle’s plans. Expanding into the square was illegal, and his restaurant would most likely get torn down the next day, so he couldn’t afford to take such a risk.

“I don’t have enough money and staff at the moment, so I won’t be able to expand the restaurant for now. However, I certainly have thought about it, and I would be very grateful if you could reserve those three shops for me for a while,” Mag replied with a smile. He really didn’t have the money to purchase those three shops yet, and besides, he didn’t have the power to expand his restaurant anyway.

“No problem. Just tell me when you want them. I’ll get people to build an empty construction on the three sites so it can fool the inspectors. They’ve been in disuse for several decades already, so I’m not in a hurry to let go of them.” Mobai nodded with a smile. After conversing with Mag for a while longer, he returned to the wreckage of his forge, and began to discuss constructing a new forge with the dwarven craftsmen.

What a friendly city. A faint smile lingered on Mag’s face as he looked at the busy dwarves. If the restaurant expanded to take over the three neighboring shops, it would be able to seat about 300 customers at once. His cooking efficiency would also increase over time, so there was a lot more profit to be made for the restaurant.

“System, is your God of Cookery upgrade wheel ready yet? It’s been five days,” Mag asked internally.

“Six of the options on the wheel have been decided. Seeing as you’ve completed all of the system missions, you have the right to choose the seventh option. You can choose a recipe for any dish as well,” the system replied.