Chapter 75

Chapter 75: Rift Restaurant Staff Hiring, the Wolf-Eyed Customer

The number of guilds that had arrived on the Fourth Floor grew to five.

Two more guilds had joined.

A Russian guild and a European allied party had arrived.

As a result, the restaurant was bustling every day.

The revenue that had been 3.5 billion won surpassed a cumulative eight billion after two more weeks.

Adding the magic stones earned from monster hunting and the money in my bank account brought the total close to ten billion won.

An amount I never could have dreamed of earning before.

With the increased foot traffic, I extended restaurant hours from 10 AM to 3 PM.

I also began accepting time-slot and meal reservations by guild and party.

'Doing this alone is becoming difficult.'

I wished I had staff.

Ria helped, but only from ten to one.

And one person was not enough.

The only reason the restaurant was running at all was because the knight squad and the S-Rank trio took turns assisting.

'If I lowered the food quality and reduced the number of plates, turnover would be faster, but I refuse to do that.'

As a chef, compromising on food quality was non-negotiable.

'Then should I temporarily hire them?'

Specifically Kim Myeong-hun, Jeong Ye-rim, and Joel.

Among hunters I was close to, they were the most trustworthy friends outside the S-Rank trio.

'That's what I'll do.'

After finishing the day's service, I went out to the countryside house and contacted them.

***

Several days later.

Ria and I came out of the Rift and took a walk around the countryside house.

"Well, well, if it isn't our village's superstar couple."

Mr. Jeong, a neighbor who had been out in front of his house, beamed when he saw us passing by.

He had also attended our reception.

"Hello, sir."

"Hello."

"So, you're newlyweds—are you getting along sweetly without any fights?"

At his question, Ria and I looked at each other.

Then we grinned.

"Of course. We're doing wonderfully. Ria, have we ever fought?"

"Hmm, I don't think even once, going all the way back to when we were dating."

Mutual consideration was our foundation, so there had never been cause to fight.

And that would probably remain true going forward.

There might be times when we disagreed, but I doubted we would ever hurt each other's feelings in a quarrel.

"Is that so? Good to hear you get along. Seon-u's always had a good temperament, even as a kid. Anyway, glad to hear you're doing well. Let's catch up again."

"Yes, sir. Take care."

"Take care."

While strolling through the village—

My phone rang.

It was Kim Myeong-hun.

I answered.

"Hello."

—Hyungnim, I've arrived at the village parking lot where the reception was held.

"Got it, I'll head over."

I hung up and headed to the parking lot with Ria.

When we arrived, our three friends were waiting by a car.

"Seon-u hyungnim!"

"Seon-u oppa!"

"Hyungnim."

The three greeted me with great enthusiasm.

They then greeted Ria as well.

"Hello, hyungsu-nim!"

"Hello, samonim!"

"Hello, hyungsu-nim!"

Ria and I greeted them in return.

I looked at the small black car and asked,

"Did you guys drive here in this?"

Kim Myeong-hun answered.

"Yes! We hunted hard, paid off the weapon debt, and even managed to buy a used compact."

"Nice. Congratulations. Have there been any dangerous situations while hunting?"

At that, Jeong Ye-rim sighed.

"Of course there were. We came close to dying multiple times. I'm still having nightmares about being killed by monsters."

"I'm sorry to hear that...... It must have been rough."

"And then out of nowhere, oppa contacts us. Thank you for giving us a job where we can earn money safely while recovering mentally."

"Don't thank me—I'm the one who's grateful."

I planned to hire all three of them for the time being.

Monthly salary: 17 million won per person.

Five days a week, eight hours a day.

I took the three of them to the countryside house.

First, I served a simple meal I had prepared at home.

The menu was omurice and hamburg steak.

"I missed meals cooked by you, hyungnim."

"Same, oppa. I really missed it."

"I envy hyungsu-nim. Getting to eat hyungnim's cooking every day."

At that, Ria nodded.

"That's right. Thanks to Seon-u, I enjoy gourmet food every day."

I shook my head at that.

"No, you should be envying me. Having a wife this beautiful."

All three nodded vigorously.

"That's true."

"Agreed."

I then cut the omelettes with a knife.

They split in half and spread open elegantly to either side, draping over the hamburg steak and omurice beneath.

Jeong Ye-rim was visibly impressed.

"Wow, a perfect omelette. Those are so hard to make. The whole tap-tap, TAP thing is really tricky."

"Tap-tap-tap" referred to the sound of striking the pan handle when making an omelette.

With "tap-tap," you gently struck the handle to prepare the omelette for flipping.

With "TAP," a harder strike cleanly flipped the omelette.

For beginners, developing the feel for it took an extremely long time.

"It is tough. Although there's someone who mastered it in just two days."

"What? Two days......? They say it takes months to get the hang of it. Who did it in two days?"

I glanced to my side with a smile.

Ria was right beside me.

"Samonim?"

"That's right. My wife learns everything fast and has incredible dexterity."

"Wow......"

I had been surprised too.

Among Western cuisine dishes, the omelette was one of the more technically demanding.

During the practical exam for the Western cuisine certification, if an omelette was assigned as the task, people reportedly abandoned the exam and went home in droves.

That was how much practice and failure it took to develop the technique.

And Ria had mastered it perfectly in just six attempts.

Flawless shape, flawless doneness.

"It's a talent that makes even me jealous."

Ria denied it.

"Please. I can't hold a candle to you, Seon-u. You don't even need to tap the handle or flip the omelette—you just gently roll it with a spatula and shape it perfectly."

"Well, I've made thousands of them."

During my externship from culinary school in the United States, I had been assigned to the omelette station at a hotel for a while.

The chef there had praised my shaping skills and had me make nothing but omelettes for the entire two-month externship.

Setting that aside, I poured demiglace sauce over the cut omelette blanket.

They then tasted the hamburg omurice.

"Delicious......! The omelette is so silky."

"Even better than what I had at a famous restaurant in Japan!"

"The hamburg steak is a work of art."

The three ate with gusto.

Ria and I enjoyed the meal as well.

Hamburg omurice was also today's lunch menu.

Fifty-five reservations had already come in.

After the meal—

"All right, shall we head to work?"

"I can't believe I'm about to set foot on the Fourth Floor, which they say hardly anyone can reach......! I'll work hard!"

"The Fourth Floor......! A bit scary but exciting."

"I'm ready."

I opened a Gate portal leading to the restaurant interior.

Ria went in first.

The three hesitated for a moment before following her through.

"As expected, transporting four people at once takes a real toll."

My heart raced from the rapid mana consumption.

But it was within tolerable limits.

I stepped into the portal as well.

***

Lunch service preparations began.

I cooked.

Ria taught the three newcomers their duties as front-of-house staff.

How to lay table mats and set knives, forks, or spoons in advance.

How to refill napkin dispensers and fold napkins decoratively.

How to pour water from a pitcher into a guest's glass with elegance.

She went over every basic detail with care.

'Having Ria here is reassuring.'

Today, the three learned from Ria.

Starting tomorrow, instead of all three working at once, they would rotate in pairs.

I fried rice for the omurice and stored each batch immediately in Acresia.

The rice was prepped in advance, while the hamburg steaks and omelettes would be cooked to order.

Ten o'clock arrived, and customers came in.

The first to arrive was the Frost Flower Guild, which had reserved the ten o'clock slot.

Han Se-a entered first by herself.

"Huh......?"

She was taken aback at the sight of the three new faces.

"Who are they......?"

"They're former party members of mine."

"Ah, but how did they get here......?"

"Well......"

"As I thought—you can transport not just yourself but multiple people in and out of the Rift. I suspected as much when I saw the Sword Saint and his group here."

"Haha......"

There was no denying it.

Well, it was something everyone would find out sooner or later.

"That's an incredible ability."

"I suppose so."

The rest of the Frost Flower Guild members filed in, cutting the conversation short.

I began cooking in earnest.

I seared the pre-made hamburg steaks in a pan.

In another pan, I crafted omelettes.

Fifty seconds was all it took to make one omelette.

I drizzled avocado oil into a pan heated over high flame, poured in the pre-mixed egg wash, and stirred rapidly.

Then, using a silicone spatula, I gently nudged the mixture toward the edge of the pan.

Using the curve of the pan's rim, I shaped it into a rugby-ball form.

'At a high level of mastery, there's no need to toss and flip.'

This method produced an omelette that was not only flawless on the visible side, but also perfectly smooth and evenly cooked on the underside.

Through delicate, gentle control—gradually rolling it along the pan's edge—I completed a flawless, unblemished rugby-ball-shaped omelette.

I then shaped fried rice made with a tomato-based sauce and diced vegetables onto a plate.

On top of that, a perfectly seared hamburg steak, and then the omelette.

"Ria, could you do the cutting performance?"

"Got it."

Ria served the finished omurice.

She presented it first to Han Se-a, the earliest customer, and then personally cut the omelette down the center with a knife.

The omelette spread open beautifully to both sides.

Then she draped sauce over the omelette blanket.

'The cut depends on who does it.'

A poor cut meant the omelette would not spread open cleanly when sliced.

It had to be a swift, consistent cut at precisely the right depth, dead center.

Watching, Han Se-a and the guild members parted their lips in admiration and gave small rounds of applause.

"When I've ordered this at restaurants, it never opened this cleanly."

"As expected, even omurice at Chef An's restaurant is on another level."

I quickly moved on to the next reservation's orders.

Ria handed serving duties over to the newcomers and stood beside me to grill hamburg steaks.

Just like that, ten servings of omurice were finished in a flash.

Shortly after, the next guild with a reservation entered, and I began cooking twelve more servings.

Kim Myeong-hun spoke as he cleared plates from a finished table.

"It's quite busy."

"It is. But the busier the front of house gets, the calmer and slower you need to move."

"Understood."

The three newcomers were working their first day, yet they handled things without mistakes and did reasonably well.

There were certainly areas to polish, of course.

Just then, the restaurant door opened and two people walked in.

Jeong Ye-rim greeted the white-haired newcomers.

"W-welcome...... Do you have a reservation......?"

Ye-rim was visibly flustered at the sight of the two.

Understandably so—they were clearly not ordinary people at a glance.

'One of them is not even human.'

It was none other than the dragon Ashley.

The person beside her—a figure with white hair slicked back—was someone I had never seen before.

'A man...... or a woman?'

The intense features made it hard to tell.

A sharp, fierce impression, like a wild wolf.

That being raised a hand toward Ria and me.

"Male human, female human. It's been a while."

A voice that sounded somehow familiar.

And there was only one being who addressed Ria and me as "male human" and "female human."

Could it be......

"Fenrir......?"