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

“What? That’s impossible!”

After hearing the restaurant employee’s report, Ike was in complete disbelief, and his loud yell startled many of the customers in the rotisserie.

“You’re telling me that people are lining up to buy his roast meat?”

The employee nodded uneasily as he replied, “Yes. He’s only selling one cube per customer, but there are still many customers wanting to buy his roast meat, and those who have already tasted his beef are begging him for more.”

All of the chefs in the kitchen became rather nervous upon hearing this. They were placing the honor of Cary’s Rotisserie on this bet; if they couldn’t even beat a roadside stall, what right did they have to call themselves the number one rotisserie of Rodu?

Ike contemplated the situation momentarily before shaking his head with a confident look. “Don’t worry, the customers aren’t idiots; they’ll know that they’ve fallen for a trap soon. How can roast beef cooked by a roadside chef be worth one silver coin per cube? We’re the largest rotisserie in Rodu, so there’s no way that he’ll be able to compete with us.”

All of the chefs’ eyes lit up upon hearing this. Ike was right; how could one man compare to an entire kitchen of chefs when it came to a contest of most customers served?

…

Word of Mag’s roast meat soon spread throughout the entire Renhe Food Street, attracting many customers to the scene.

However, the restriction of one cube per person was an extremely torturous one for all of the customers.

Some customers were still trying to convince the owner of the stall to change his policy, but most of the customers had already given up. However, none of them strayed far from the stall, and there were even some who were advertising Mag’s roast meat in his stead.

They weren’t doing this because they had been touched by Mag’s food and were trying to spread this joy to the rest of the food street; they were instead simply trying to derive a twisted sense of pleasure from watching others suffer due to Mag’s one cube per person policy.

They had already fallen into this trap, so they could only cheer themselves up by luring more people into the trap with them.

In the face of the countless requests for extra cubes of beef, Mag’s response remained firm and consistent, not making any exceptions for anyone.

Sinclair wasn’t planning to try and persuade Mag anymore. Instead, he was beginning to support Mag’s policy. He had initially been worried that Mag’s cold and aloof attitude would result in a loss of customers, but looking at the massive line gathered in front of the stall, it was quite apparent that his concerns were completely unwarranted. In fact, Mag’s policy was only working to bring more customers to the stall with the limited amount of beef they had.

The feeling of dominating the food street was an extremely exhilarating one, and even Sinclair was getting swept up by the occasion, though he wasn’t the one cooking.

Meanwhile, the employee from Cary’s Rotisserie was completely dumbstruck. He was drawing one line after another with his feather quill in his hand, and he was barely able to believe his own eyes. His hand was throbbing slightly from drawing so many lines, but there were still relentless waves of customers flocking to the stall.

We’re not going to lose, are we? Even the rotisserie employee was losing confidence.

The middle-aged man in lavish robes disembarked from his horse-drawn carriage and looked on with a curious expression. “What’s that stall selling? Why does it have such a long line of customers?”

“I’ll go have a look, Duke,” a man who appeared to be a butler replied before quickly making his way over to Mag’s stall. After a while, he squeezed his way out of the crowd again and smoothed out his slightly disheveled clothes as he respectfully informed, “Duke, that stall is selling roast beef, and they’re selling it in cubes. One cube costs one silver coin, and each person is only allowed to purchase a single cube.”

“He’s selling beef in cubes and each person can only have one? I’ve never heard of anything like that before!” A bewildered look appeared on the man’s face. He looked at the massive crowd gathered around the roast meat stall, and smiled as he said, “Judging from how eager these customers are, the roast beef here must be very delicious. Why don’t we go and have a taste, Ken?”

“Duke, someone of your status shouldn’t be eating at a roadside stall…” began the butler who was being referred to as Ken with a reluctant expression.

“I don’t care where I eat, all I care about is that I want to eat roast beef today. The roast beef from Cary’s Rotisserie isn’t bad, but perhaps this roadside stall will give me a pleasant surprise.” The duke walked straight into the crowd despite Ken’s objections.

“Duke…” Ken and another guard with a saber strapped to his waist walked on either side of the man, trying to disperse the crowd in order to create a path for the duke.

“We’re here to eat, so we’re normal customers, just like everyone else.” The duke shook his head to stop his butler before joining the end of the line.

The customers nearby were all quite surprised to see this duke in lavish robes. Nobles normally wouldn’t ever stoop as low as to dine at roadside stalls with commoners, as that was seen by them to be a personal insult. However, this duke appeared to be quite amicable, and didn’t possess the snobbish demeanor that most nobles exhibited.

This aroma really is quite alluring. The duke’s eyes lit up with anticipation as he inhaled the aroma wafting through the air.

The line slowly progressed forward, and the praise coming from all of the customers who had already tasted the beef made everyone else in the line even more eager to sink their teeth into Mag’s roast meat.

Finally, it was the duke’s turn, and he smiled as he said, “Boss, please get me a cube of beef.”

“Sure.” Mag quickly stabbed a toothpick into a cube of beef on the roasting rack before handing it to the duke.

The employee from Cary’s Rotisserie scribbled another line onto the paper in a mechanical manner. However, after catching sight of this customer, his eyes widened as he exclaimed, “Duke Abraham?!”

“We pay our respects to Duke Abraham.”

All of the customers nearby were alerted to this man’s identity upon hearing the employee’s cry of surprise, and they hurriedly extended respectful salutes to this Duke Abraham.

“Even Duke Abraham is coming to this streetside stall for roast beef; could it be that the owner is actually a renowned chef?”

“Duke Abraham is a very important man. If he wants to eat more than one cube of beef, surely there’s no way that Boss Mag can refuse him.”

“You’re right! This is a duke, after all. If the owner turns him down, he probably won’t live past today!”

“Does that mean we’ll also all get a chance to have a second cube of beef?”

All of the customers were discussing quietly among themselves with excitement etched on their faces.

The employee standing at the entrance of Cary’s Rotisserie hurriedly ran into the restaurant to report this news.

So it’s Duke Abraham. Mag looked up with a slightly surprised expression upon hearing this. Mag had some recollection of this duke from Alex’s memories.

Duke Abraham smiled at everyone before opening his mouth to take a bite out of his cube of roast beef.