Chapitre 3: Chapter 3: Idle Caretaking
It would have been a peaceful morning where I wake up to be welcomed by the warm and cozy rays of one of the two suns that Tierra orbits around. Instead, while having the sun shining on the couch, I wake up with an awful stomachache. I wonder if it's from the pork that Hawthorne Ball fed me with yesterday. Don't get the wrong idea; the pork is in excellent if not superior condition. The thing is that she gave me pieces of raw pork because she thought that, like other predators out there, I'm a carnivore that eats raw meat. As much as I wanted to decline, I was starving, so I took it anyway. Plus, I was curious about its taste and how would my insides handle it since I'm not human anymore. As you can tell by my pain, it was a dumb mistake. Ugh, I feel terribly nauseous…. And the guilty regret of pulling that stunt yesterday makes it even worse.
I run to the restaurant, head to the door to the women's bathroom, and push it open. I enter the bathroom and into one of the stalls. As I'm vomiting, the bathroom door opens and someone enters the room. Is the restaurant open already? I think. I must've woken up later than I thought. "Maolong~ Where are you?" a voice ponders. It turns out, it's Hawthorne Ball who enters the bathroom. She talks in her usual cheery voice, "Oh, there you are, Maolong~ What are doing in − huh? Were you barfing? I didn't know you were sick. Why didn't you tell me?" I wipe the residual bile off my mouth, flush the toilet, and explain the reason for my nausea through charades. Hawthorne tries to interpret what I'm saying. "So, I was … chopping food? No? I was making a meal and … I gave some to you? Oh, no, wait! You're trying to say that you got sick because of the food I gave you? Why would you get sick from me doing that…? Because … the food was … not cooked?" I nod in response. She inquires, "So, you're saying that you got sick because the pork I gave you was raw? Why didn't you tell me that sooner? I could've cooked it for you."
I point at myself, then use hand gestures to imitate talking, and I cross my arms to form an X.
"Because you can't talk?"
Correct again, Hawthorne; I give her a thumbs-up to tell her that.
"If you can understand what I'm saying, why is it that you can't talk?"
I shrug with a baffled look.
"C'mon," she says as she pick me up, "it's probably a good idea to tell the others." She carries me out of the bathroom the same way someone picks up a cat correctly and explains Samson about it.
Once again, he and the other Food Souls try to process everything what she said about me. I'm starting to feel rather sheepish about this. "I'm starting to think this isn't an ordinary creature we found," Black Tea utters. "It has hardly been two days, and already Maolong has shown very strange behaviors. Almost as if it's sapient like a human." (Well, duh.) She's another Food Soul that Samson has, and one of the strongest a player could get, and the only time she's summoned is when the player summons the first few Food Souls during the tutorial of the game. She has this graceful and majestic appearance, she wears this dress that has a faded dark pink color with blue and white features, which includes a skirt and a square neckline. Along with the dress, she has matching high-heel shoes and a hat with a light purple ribbon tied around it. The dress and shoes are seriously modified for combat and mobility, which makes her legs visible and makes capable of moving in her shoes without getting hurt. She has two short belts strapped around her right thigh, and one strapped around her waist, which holsters her two elegant pistols. Her face is smooth and somewhat austere yet soft at the same time, not unlike what you'd expect from the face of a marble statue (or possibly an angel), her eyes match the color of actual black tea, and her hair is of a black (or probably a very, very dark gray) color. There's a steampunk style to her design.
"Yes," Milk adds, "and unlike most carnivorous creatures, it got nauseous from eating that raw pork." Samson replies, "And what's even weirder is that it used the women's bathroom to vomit rather than anywhere in the restaurant." "Could the dragon be a girl…?" Rice asks with the look of wonder on her face. I nod with a small smile.
"Now that that's out of the way," Samson says, "we can try to figure out what to do with her, but first, we still need to train you guys to become more skilled and experienced with cooking and finding ingredients." Tom Yum enters the kitchen. "Hey, Master Attendant. I just received this letter from Olivia." He gives it to Samson. It has a red wax seal on it with what looks like the logo of the Chef's Guild. Samson opens and reads it. Black Tea asks, "What is it, Master Attendant?" He responds, "It says that a benefit for new attendants is that they get an optional chance of directly summoning two Food Souls. It looks like we have twenty days to accomplish a series of tasks in order to get them. I have twenty-four hours to respond before the chance is missed."
"Are you going to do it?"Tom asked.
"If it keeps us safe from Fallen Angels, why not? We should also open up the restaurant. You guys know what to do; I'll monitor you guys shortly. In the meantime, don't do anything crazy this time. Black Tea and Tom, you two help Hawthorne and Sandwich. Milk, you and Crepe keep an eye on Maolong and sure she doesn't do anything crazy either." You got it, chief. I'm looking forward to this.
We open the restaurant right away. I get taken to the living room to be supervised by Milk and Crepe. Samson goes upstairs with the letter, so I'm sure he's going to write a response to the Chef's Guild. I'm not sure what is going on the kitchen, but I'm sure that things are going alright based on how generic and chill the patrons sound. Milk explains to Crepe what she learned about me, which Crepe seems intrigued about. Crepe, much like everyone else, is surprised and confused about this. It takes her several minutes to fully process everything she heard. She asks, "Let me get this straight: Tom Yum found a creature that turns out to be a dragon who acts so strange it's as if she has the mind of a human?" Yep, she heard that right. Milk replied, "Yes, that is correct." I nod along with what she said.
Crepe is a Rare-rank Strength Soul who thinks highly of herself. She wears a dress that has different shades of beige, with the front having a pale pink color with a frilly skirt; along with the dress, she wears stockings that have a yellow and white striped pattern that stretch up to her thighs, and she has brown shoes with red soles. Due to the aesthetically pleasing coloring and the design of her outfit, the entirety of the whole thing is indeed reminiscent of actual sweet crepes. Crepe has white skin, hair that has a faded orange color, and yellow eyes. She wields a fan, which she uses as a weapon and to cover her smile.
My stomach suddenly growls. It aches a bit from eating so little lately. Of course, Crepe and Milk noticed my hunger despite my attempt to muffle it. Crepe asked, "Hey, Maolong, are you hungry?" "Yes," I nod. Crepe tells me, "Hang on, I'll be right back." She goes to the restaurant. Ten minutes later, she comes back with a plate of grilled pork belly, which she places it to the floor so I can have it. Despite the lack of utensils, I eat it quickly and happily. After I finish, my tail flicks as I give them a toothy smile and a thumbs-up. That's what I call an unforgettable dish, I thought, definitely scrumptious. The pork was fatty and lean. It was soft and easy to tear into pieces, making it easy to chew and swallow it. That hint of salt is noticed by my palate, which enhances the texture and flavor of the pork. The Food Souls look at me, unsure how to respond to my smile. Crepe asks, "Is she … smiling…?" My smile turns awkward. Milk answers, "It seems like it." Crepe takes the dish back to the kitchen with a shrug and comes back.
Nothing much happens for the rest of the day, but Samson does come back downstairs. Out of curiosity, I open the door and follow him. Milk and Crepe try to catch me, but with little success. While being careful not to disturb the customers' peace, I rush through the parts of the dining area where they'll least likely notice me. Still by the time I got to the kitchen, there are already some murmurs from the patrons that sound like questions. A pirate asks Hawthorne (who is giving a plate of smoked salmon to them), "Hey, what is that creature at the kitchen door?" She answers bluntly, "She's a dragon. Though, we're trying to figure out what to do with her." Ignoring what the customers are saying, I enter the kitchen. Master Attendant is at the back door with an unknown person who is entering the place. The person appears to be a somewhat tomboyish elf with a lightly tanned skin tone. She has purple eyes, orange hair with a yellow highlight at one of her bangs, a bandage over her nose, and is about the height of Samson. (Maybe two inches taller.) The elf is wearing a white shirt with a black vest, each of her wrist has a wristband that matches the color of her clothes, she's wearing blue pants with two navy lines stretching down her legs, and she has the kind of light brown boots with laces. The elf asked, "Hello, are you the Master Attendant of this place?" Samson answered, "Yes." She continued, "I'm Akira, and I'm going to be monitoring your progress on your first month as an Attendant to give you the chance to earn two Food Souls. Let's start off with signing this contract in order to participate in this event." She gives him a contract, which includes the logo of the Chef's Guild.
Although it's hard to see from where I'm standing, since I'm the size of an adult cat, it looks Samson is writing his name on the contract. Since it's those New Player Benefits, it would be nice to do it again after many months. Plus, it'll help Samson to have someone with experience. Milk picks me up and takes me back to the characters' residence. She says, "I know you're curious, but you shouldn't be here." Damn, looks like I'm going to need to convince these guys that I can help. Somehow. I hear a commotion going on in the restaurant. Milk checks the dining area Black Tea is confronting them along with Hawthorne. The customer, a robber, it seems, asks, "What kind of half-assed dish is this? I'm not paying for that shit!" Hawthorne is standing by Black Tea, seemingly nervous and afraid. Black Tea replies, "We work hard on making a living and trying to make our customers satisfied. This is the best we've got. If you're not happy, leave." Samson asked, "Hey, is everything alright? What seems to be problem?" Akira answered in an alarmed tone, "Oh, great, we got a Dine-and-Dash customer. I was hoping they wouldn't show up until much later in the future." Samson, who is new at this exclaims, "What do I do, then?!"
"Kick them out! They could be a Fallen Angel!"
I'm not sure what does the robber say to Black Tea next and what she said in return because I'm paying attention to what Samson and Akira are saying, but it looks like the conflict has escalated very quickly. The robber transforms into a Bulimia and the other customers run out of the restaurant screaming in terror (and some were quick enough to leave some of their money behind to pay for the bills they haven't received yet). Milk puts me down and orders me in the same monotone voice as ever, "Stay hidden." I nod and hide behind one of the tables as I watch Tom and Crepe get into the front of the house.
Not to be confused with the eating disorder that we Americans seem to have, Bulimia is a type of Fallen Angel from the game. Bulimia is not as powerful as an Uke Mochi, but she is still a threat to the average person. There are different types of Fallen Angels, which are: Normal, Evolved, and Enhanced, but I'm not getting into that much detail yet. In the case of Bulimia, she's an Evolved-type of Fallen Angel that has an obsession with eating, hence the name. Usually, Bulimia only care about are recipes they can make from humans, but I guess this one is a bit picky. The Bulimia has grey hair with a few bangs that cover part of her face. She has very dull and seemingly dead crimson eyes, pale skin, and a few stitches around her wrists, forearms, and one around her neck. She wears a grey and faded red dress that I don't want to know what is it made out of. I admit, though, her dark grey leather boots with laces that are the kind with a bit of heel and stretch up to the knees are pretty cool. I wonder if I can get a pair like that somewhere. Oh, wait, I'm a dragon now. Dammit…. Anyways, the last thing to say about her is that Bulimia has a frilly headband on her head, and she carries a platter full of raw organs and what I hope aren't human entrails. (I think I saw an eye in there. I shudder quietly at this.)
Black Tea fires with her two pistols, emitting loud bangs. The bullets miss and ricochet off the floor and the wall. Tom delivers a blow to Bulimia's diaphragm, which she dodges and throws whatever the hell was on her platter to Crepe. She doesn't dodge on time and takes some damage to her health. Still, with her fan, she conjures a magical tornado that somehow avoids the tables and chairs while being powerful enough to damage the Fallen Angel. Tom punches Bulimia in the face immediately after the tornado dissipates. Milk heals Crepe as the Fallen consumes a handful of human remains from her platter. ¡Hijueputa!, the smell from that thing! Whatever is in that platter is making me gag! I think I'm going to get sick again…! No, I'll hold it back and swallow it this time. I'm not making a mess here! Black Tea performs a minimized version of her linked skill (named Super Flower Blossoms), which she fires her two guns at Bulimia, and the bullets burst into a large flower, dealing critical damage to the Fallen Angel. Tom deals the final blow, his energy skill Swing Kick, which he jumps, bicycle kicks the Bulimia like Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat, and does a backflip that kicks the Fallen in her face mid-air, getting her knocked back to the floor. As she is knocked back, she stumbles onto a chair, upends a table, and falls to the floor. She doesn't seem to be breathing anymore. The Fallen Angel dissipates into nothingness. I've seen their sprites (those animated chibi versions of the characters) in action, and it's pretty badass. Seeing it in person was slightly anticlimactic, but that's probably a good thing because we wouldn't want the restaurant to be more trashed than it already is. (Still, I'm very impressed Tom could break the laws of physics exactly like Liu Kang. A rather amusing coincidence, come to think of it.)
I'm still surprised that I can pick up that sickening smell from earlier, but it's likely others have noticed it too. As for the restaurant, there is a small bullet hole in the wall and one on the floor, but everything else is surprisingly in a great condition. The chairs and tables are intact, the windows are fine, the wall can easily be repaired. The only casualties here are the plates that fell to the floor, which resulted in some scraps of food scattered here and there. Welp, let's start cleaning. Akira, asks, "Don't you have an arena where you fight customers like that Bulimia?" Samson answers, "Arena? No one told me that this was going to happen."
"As a Cooking Attendant, you should know that when you operate a restaurant, there is a chance of having a Fallen Angel in the place. But since you're so new at this, it looks like you have a lot more to learn than I expected. Plus, you have a few Food Souls that tend to be a bit unpredictable for someone inexperienced."
"Not to mention, I have a dining area to clean up, and a lot of plates to pay for…."
Maybe we can raise some money to build one of those arenas that Akira mentioned. But, this is probably not the best time to bring it up, and the last time I had an idea like that resulted in a recipe for disaster. (And I'm not talking about the Barenaked Ladies song.)
We spend the next half hour cleaning up the place, picking up any scraps that might be there, and sweeping away any dishes that broke during the fight. As I'm picking up scraps that are much harder to notice, Akira asks, "Is that a dragon? What's it doing here?" Hawthorne replies, "Yeah, and it's a weird story. Isn't she cute, though?~"
"'She'?"
"Like I said, it's a weird story."
I nod and continue cleaning.
"Okay…?"
By the time those thirty minutes pass, Samson reopens Glorywest Grill. I volunteer to wash the dishes again as Samson teaches Sandwich and Crepe a few recipes he knows while helping the former with the parts of cooking that he struggles with the most (especially considering yesterday). Tom, Milk, and Hawthorne serve the customers as waiters, and Black Tea helps me take care of the dishes and other items that need washing. Meanwhile, Akira holds her clipboard and has been keeping track of our progress. Surprisingly, there hasn't been any Dine-and-Dash customers since this morning. By the time we reach closing hours, we have earned about two thousand gold and fifty tips. (Sadly, I don't know how much is that in American dollars, so I won't be able to make a comparison to get an idea of how much is that.) After getting everything done for the night, Akira leaves, and we all head to sleep.
The next day is quite normal. This time, Sandwich is keeping an eye on me. Milk, Hawthorne, and Black Tea go out to restock on ingredients. Tom and Samson are doing the dishes, and the rest are either cooking the food or serving it to the customers. Since it's going to be a long while, I decide to take advantage of it to learn how to play card games with him. Idle, I watch him play what I think is solitaire. I watch as he shuffles his deck of cards. I never really understood how that game works, even though I've seen my mom play that game on her old computer for years. I suppose I could try to "wing" it, eh?~
Ba-dum! Tsss!
Yeah, I guess that's the only option of what I can do right now. Maybe we could play Go Fish or Poker. It never hurts to ask.
I pick up a card, a jack of hearts. I think about where to place it, but I'm not sure. "It goes over here," Sandwich says, pointing at two cards that go from a king of diamonds to a queen of spades. I put it over there. He asks, "Do you know how to play Klondike?" I shake my head. "Not exactly." He puts his cards together into a deck and shuffles them. He began, "Klondike solitaire is a popular card game where only one player is required, and it's with a single deck of cards. What you do in this is you attempt to sort them by suit –"
"'Suit'? What do you mean by that?"
"Huh? What is a suit?"
I nod.
"Well, aside from the outfit that you probably know or don't know, a suit is one of the four classes into which a common deck of cards is divided. So like, spade, cloves, d'you get it now?"
I nod.
"Now, with this deck, you sort these cards by suit and in order into four piles of cards. Let's start out."
He teaches me how to play the most traditional version of Klondike, which is where I draw by three cards. I learn somewhat quickly after three rounds of the game. Before I know it, I get immersed into the game, with Sandwich helping me out and giving me pointers on coming up with strategies for different versions of Klondike. Yeah, we get stuck a few times, but I reckon that's normal. We also take a break every fifteen minutes, which keeps the mind from getting bored, I assume.
I notice while playing that there is a clock hanging from one of the walls. I think two hours have gone by. Tom opens the door and tells Sandwich, "Hey, Master Attendant asked me to switch places with you." He replies, "I'm about to start a game, but sure." He heads to the restaurant while Tom starts keeping an eye on me. I wonder what sort of progress have the others made.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Danny_RPG
Danny_RPG This was an interesting chapter to work on, and yeah, Akira is an OC for this story. I should probably draw her someday.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone