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

Is the food from that restaurant really that good? It’s hard to believe, but Uncle Robert is renowned for his honesty… Vivian thought to herself as she eavesdropped on the conversation. She had heard from the servants that her father was back, so she came to have a lunch with him. Upon hearing a conversation taking place in the room, she decided to eavesdrop for a bit. She loved doing these types of things, and it didn’t matter if she got caught anyway.

Mamy Restaurant… Mamy… Eh? Isn’t that the restaurant that Luna mentioned before? I think she said that the food there was really great, and it’s run by the parent of one of her students. Vivian’s eyes suddenly lit up as she recalled why the restaurant’s name sounded so familiar. Luna had definitely mentioned it to her last time.

Should I go to try out their food? But father says I’m not allowed to go out in the next few days… But if their food really is as delicious as Uncle Robert says, then it would be a shame not to go and taste it… A conflicted expression appeared on Vivian’s face.

“Vivian, come in and have some food if you haven’t eaten yet. We’ve discussed everything, so there’s nothing left for you to eavesdrop on.” Michael’s voice was tinged with a hint of resignation.

“Ah… I’ve already eaten. I’ll leave you and Uncle Robert to your work. Please continue, I was only passing by…” A panicked expression appeared on Vivian’s face, and she immediately hurried away.

“What a naughty little girl.” Michael shook his head with a doting smile on his face.

Robert looked out the window, and a smile also appeared on his face. He then turned to Michael, and hesitated momentarily before asking, “City Lord, is the young mistress still suffering from her illness?”

“She is, and it seems to be getting worse and worse. She can only sleep at night after using fire magic to warm her up.” The smile on Michael’s face receded as he shook his head.

“The young mistress is such a kind girl; she’ll definitely be fine.” Robert’s expression also soured a little upon hearing that. Back when he was working at the city lord’s castle, the little girl would often ask him to play with her. She was a very interesting girl.

“I hope so.” Michael nodded. He looked at Robert in silence for a while before continuing, “Robert, I know what’s going on now. You reported the issues within the Catering Association on a few occasions to me in the past as well, but back when the Food Association was taken in by the city lord’s castle, I promised Warren some things, one of which was not to interfere with his work. However, Warren also promised me that he wouldn’t use the association to benefit himself, so I’ll do some investigating on this matter. If Warren really has dabbled in corruption, and he’s using the Catering Association as a tool, then I definitely won’t allow him to keep going down this path.”

“But, City Lord, that restaurant really does have a lot of potential. If President Warren continues to target that restaurant even after removing it from the rankings, then there’s a very good chance that it’ll be forced to close down. Similar things have happened in the past, so…” Robert said in an urgent voice.

“Robert, the dwarves of the Issen Castle and their neighboring orcs are planning on holding a meeting in Chaos City to discuss the issue of the border soon. The forest trolls and goblins are fighting over an iron mine again. The forest trolls say that the goblins have encroached upon their territory with their excavations, while the goblins say the mine is on their side of the border. The demons have also recently found a way to access dragon island by traveling through the dark sea, and the inhabitants of dragon island are discussing whether they should fill the dark sea… As such, I really am very busy, so no matter how exceptional that restaurant is, I won’t be able to visit it anytime soon. I’ll chase up the matters regarding the Catering Association. You can go back after you have some food.” Michael put down his empty bowl before departing.

Robert looked on as the door slowly closed, and he fell into silence. He also departed after finishing the food in his bowl.

Having worked at the city lord’s castle for more than a decade, he could understand just how much time and energy the city lord had to expend to take care of daily affairs. Even though those events weren’t taking place in Chaos City, a trend where all scuffles between races and species on the Norland Continent were reported to Chaos City had developed over the years. If the two sides didn’t want a full-blown war to erupt, then they would ask Chaos City to mediate.

Chaos City was like a neutral city that mediated all battles, and held a special status on the Norland Continent.

To Robert, Mamy Restaurant was a restaurant that was worthy of attention, but for the city lord, he had already gone above and beyond just to listen to him talk so much about the Catering Association.

No matter how delicious the food served by a restaurant was, it was still not a place that was noteworthy to the city lord.

…

After a while of fruitless pondering, Mag chose to give up temporarily. He asked internally, “System, if I can’t complete the food competition mission due to some circumstances beyond my control, but I already reached number 21 on the rankings board yesterday, does that count as mission being completed?”

“Please do not twist the content of the mission. The mission stipulates that one dish must be in the top 30 of the food competition rankings on the final day. If the restaurant is removed from the rankings board, then you fail the mission,” the system said in a nonnegotiable voice.

“Alright, I’m just going to go grill my fish, then.” Mag pursed his lips. The system refused to make any exceptions, so he would probably be unable to complete that mission. He washed his hands before making his way over to the fish tank.

“Boss, is the new dish today going to be made from that really beautiful fish?” Yabemiya stood at the entrance to the kitchen with a curious expression.

“Yes. This is the rainbow fish.” Mag nodded with a smile. That name had been assigned to the fish by Amy in the morning, and Mag felt like it was better and less of a mouthful than iridescent scale grass carp.

“The fish is so beautiful; it must be very delicious.” Yabemiya was looking forward to sampling the new dish.

“Rainbow fish? That’s such a beautiful name.” Sally was also standing at the entrance to the kitchen, and she looked at the fish that were happily swimming in their tank with a hint of sympathy in her eyes. She really didn’t want to see such pretty fish being slaughtered and cooked.

“By the way, how’s your spice tolerance?” Mag turned to look at the two of them.

“I love spicy food! Even if it’s super spicy!” Yabemiya raised a hand.

“I usually don’t eat any spicy food.” Sally shook her head. Elves were one with nature, and very rarely ate meat or foods with intense flavors.

“Alright, I’ll cook a medium spice grilled fish today. The mildly spicy version will be a little too bland.” Mag nodded with a smile. Those who didn’t often eat spicy food simply had never tasted any good spicy food. Mag was confident that he could make Sally fall in love with his spicy grilled fish.

“Boss, let me help you kill the fish. I’m really good at…” Yabemiya rolled up her sleeves and walked into the kitchen, but her words came to an abrupt halt as an incredulous expression appeared on her face.

A rainbow fish was plucked out of the fish tank, and then quickly killed and cleaned. A series of intricate incisions was made on the body of the fish in a series of almost artistic movements. Killing a fish was supposed to be a mundane task, but Mag made it look very graceful and pleasing to the eye.

“So cool…” Yabemiya sighed with amazement.