Kit spent his two days out of the game cleaning his house and making meals for Kat. In between he researched town planning and recipes ideas. The two days out of the game went by too fast, before he knew it, he was getting ready to log back in.
Kit materialised in his bedroom. He had a quick look around for Snowball, he missed the little guy. He was disappointed he wasn’t waiting for him, he had wanted some cuddles. Kit walked out of his bedroom into the kitchen, his footsteps echoed as he walked. The boarding house was eerily quiet.
As Kit was about to leave to go to his restaurant. He heard movements heading towards the kitchen. Kit turned his head towards the sound to see who it was. Mars came into his vision as he entered the lounge. Kit smiled at the sight of his friend. “Hey Mars. Did you have a fun weekend?”
He had missed him while he was at home with his sister. He had gotten used to seeing him every day now. He really felt Mars was like family, he gave him a sense of security like his sister did.
“Hello Kit. It wasn’t bad. You?”
“Yeah, I had a good time with my sister. What are your plans for today?”
“I’ll go find Grandpa. I think the monster run shouldn’t be too far away now. I’ll see if there is anything I can help with the preparation work.”
“I wish I could come too. I should head to the restaurant first to see if we hired any new staff while I was away.”
Kit and Mars caught up as they headed out the door, they parted ways when they got to the main road of Spartan Fire.
Kit hurried over to his restaurant, he wanted to see if any problems had arisen while he was away. He entered the back door to see Cupcake, Crackers and a new person standing in the kitchen. “Bree don’t worry Kit be back soon, then he can teach ya the recipes.”
Kit cleared his throat to announce his presence. “Morning everyone.” Kit smiled, he had missed his restaurant while he was in the real world. It was amazing that this fake world felt so real to him. If his sister was here, he would never want to leave.
“Boss.” Cupcake nodded in greeting.
Crackers flashed a bright smile at him. “Kit, welcome back.”
Kit walked over to the new face in the room and held out his hand. “Hello I’m Kit.” The new employee was a middle aged lady. She responded to Kit by offering him a big smile she then placed her hand in his and shook it.
“Hello chef Kit, I’m Bree. Thank you for giving me a chance to work here.” A soft gravelly voice left the woman’s mouth. She was very beautiful even though her age was visible on her face with laughter lines around her eyes. They crinkled as she smiled. Kit had a feeling she was a naturally happy person.
Snickers sauntered in as they were doing introductions. “Damn it, Kit. I hate that you have to leave for so long all the time. It is very unfair that you get all these days off and I haven’t had a single one since we opened. I’m taking two days off now that you’re back. “
Even though he was being scolded, he smiled at the sight of the small green haired girl. He had even missed Snickers while he was gone.
“Hello Snickers. Of course, you can have time off, this is my fault for not organising anything for you. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s good that you know how to apologise. I see you have met Bree, come and meet the others.” Snickers didn’t wait for him to reply, she was already heading into the dining area.
Kit turned back to his new employee. “Bree we can talk properly soon. I’ll go meet the other new employees first.” Kit hurried after the annoyed Snickers.
When he entered the dining area Snickers was standing next to two young men that looked very similar to one another, the only way Kit could tell them apart was the colour of their eyes. Kit guessed they must be brothers or twins.
They both had long brown hair tied in a ponytail and almond shaped eyes that twinkled in extreme delight at the sight of him.
Kit felt uncomfortable at the intensity of the stares thrown his way.
“Kit this is Cadbury and Dove. They are the new floor staff.”
“Hello, are you brothers?” Kit couldn’t hold in his curiosity at the pair.
“Yes, we’re twins.” The sibling with the green eyes spoke. “I’m Cadbury.”
Then the other twin with blue eyes spoke. “I’m Dove. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kit. We heard about your restaurant from our uncle. He attended the free sampling night and said it was the best fun he’d had in a long time.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
A shudder passed over Kit as he automatically remembered the raging headache he had after that night. “It’s nice to met you both and welcome. I hope you both enjoy working here.”
“Great now that’s settled. I’ll have a quick chat with you Kit, then I will be going.” Snickers grabbed his hand and dragged him out the back door.
They sat on the two wooden barrels that were left outside from their last talk. Snickers handed Kit a piece of paper. “That’s the restaurant taking for the last two weeks. I forgot to give you last weeks earnings before you went on your holiday, so I just combined them.”
Kit looked at the piece of paper in his hand.
3,080 x Red blooming Purple tail turtle soup – 25 bronze crowns.
1,400 x Black spotted velvet frogs legs – 35 bronze crowns.
3,584 x Apelop salad – 15 bronze crowns.
3,640 x Wallowing blue poison – 40 bronze crowns.
5,894 x Red velvet lake pasta – 50 bronze crowns.
10,360 x Sweet Meadow beer – 5 bronze crowns.
9,408 x Spartan Fire rum – 5 bronze crowns.
25,980 x Lucky sticky candy apples – 1 silver crown.
Total Sales: 26 gold, 629 silver and 600 bronze crowns.
Total restaurant funds: 110 gold, 465 silver and 936 bronze crowns.
Kit sucked in a breath at the total sales for the two weeks. For a small restaurant he was doing very well. Unfortunately, it would be no where near enough for him to sustain playing the game for a living.
He had a strong feeling he couldn’t achieve his dream of the restaurant supplementing his real life expenses until it at least reached a three star level.
This thought didn’t dampen his good mood at seeing his restaurant doing so well in its early stages. He already knew that earning money in game to convert to real money wouldn’t be easy. If it was, no one would work in the real world.
Kit decided that starting tomorrow he would have to get back into the morning training with Grandpa to raise his level. He was starting his fourth week of real time in the game this week, that only left him two more months of real time to get his level to 100 and find the treasure up the mountain.
Kit started to feel the urgency to raise his swordsman level once again. Hopefully the monster run would give him a good boost to his swordsman level when he participated.
“The restaurant is doing quite well Kit. If we keep this up, when the upgrade to the restaurant happens, we should be able to attract even more customers.”
“I think so too Snickers. By the way, were there many people that applied for the jobs?” Kit was curious if they had as many turn up as last time.
“Oh yes there was lots more this time. Although some were very rude during the interview questions.” Snickers huffed and flicked her green hair.
Kit held back a laugh. If it was anything like last time, he could understand why some people were upset with the small elf. “At least you could filter out the rude ones Snickers.”
“Yes and a few of the rude ones had good auras too. It was a shame about their attitudes. Speaking of auras, I need to bring up the twins.”
“What about them?”
“Well, their auras were a bit special. Their colours swung from an intense gold to a brilliant red.”
Kit frowned. “What does that mean Snickers?”
“To put it simply, they are either going to betray us or be the most loyal employees we have.” Snickers avoided eye contact after talking.
“What! Why did you hire them then? That makes no sense Snickers, if they betray the restaurant, it could be devastating for us.” Kit wanted to go and fire them right away. He wasn’t willing to take a gamble on his restaurant for two people he didn’t know.
Kit started to get up and was stopped by Snickers grabbing his hand. “Wait Kit. I’ve got this feeling that they don’t want to betray us. I feel like they are being forced. If we can figure this out, they will be an advantage to the restaurant, I promise.”
Snickers looked at him with pleading eyes.
“Why do you want them so much?” Kit felt he should at least listen to Snickers reasons before he made a decision to keep the twins.
“It’s hard to describe why. I just get a feeling sometimes about people. Like when I first met you, I knew you would be a great person to work with. Why do you think I joined you so easily?”
Kit was shocked by Snickers answer. He had thought she had joined him because of the bet she had made with Leonard. Was that not really the case? Kit became confused. He looked at Snickers earnest expression.
Although she was eccentric at times, she had never done anything to harm him or the restaurant. They were really a team when it came to the business. “Ok Snickers, if you think that they will become a benefit to us then they can stay. But we will need to keep an eye on them and find out the reason why they might betray us.”
“Thank you for trusting me, Kit.” A huge grin broke out over her face.
“Snickers we are family, of course I trust you.” Snickers really had wormed her way into a place inside his heart. Even though she was older than him by a lot, he felt like she was a little sister.
“Good! Now that’s settled, I’m going to go and enjoy my days off. Have fun Kitty, and don’t destroy the restaurant while I’m gone.”
Kit waved goodbye then went back inside his restaurant to see his new employees.
Bree was standing in the kitchen watching Crackers and Cupcake bustling in the kitchen. “How many days have you been working here now Bree.” Kit decided to find out how much she needed to learn before Crackers or Cupcake could take a day off.
“Three days chef Kit.”
“That’s great! Have you got the hang of all the meals yet?” He was hoping she had mastered them all already.
Bree blinked confused eyes at him. “No, I haven’t started to learn the recipes yet.”
“Oh do you need to sign the contract. I apologise, I thought Snickers would have already done that.”
Bree started to look more confused at his words. “No, I already signed the contract right after I was hired.”
Now it was Kit’s turn to frown. Was she a brand new chef? Why had she not started to learn the recipes yet.
Crackers came over and cleared her throat. “Kit we be waitin’ for ya to come back before she be learning the recipes.”
“I see. Next time Crackers, you and Cupcake can teach the new employees if I’m not here.”
“Ok.” Crackers flashed her teeth at him in a wide grin.
“Let’s get started then Bree.”
Kit spent the next couple of hours teaching Bree. When she had made all the recipes successfully Kit left the three of them in the kitchen, then headed out into the dining area to observe the twins.