Every bubbling, every change in aroma, every crackling, and every change in texture didn't escape Ludwig's senses. His body moved without stopping, his mind didn't even have to think about what he should do next as his sense painted him a vivid picture of what he needed to do.
Once he returned to the pot of simmering brownish viscous liquid, he dipped a wooden spoon in his hand and scooped some of it. After blowing it a few times and taking a closer sniff on it, he put the liquid into his mouth. Rich and heavy taste caressed his tongue, bits of onion, potato, and carrot giving it more texture.
Ludwig nodded his head with a satisfied mood, even without any beef in it, the curry was still delicious. With a flick of wrist, he froze the time around the curry pot, preserving it in its current condition. Turning on his heels, he looked at the kitchen once again. No ingredients were seen on the countertop—everything was already placed in the cabinet where the time didn't flow.
Judging the kitchen was clean enough for him to open his restaurant, he let his senses tell him what happened around the restaurant. The floor all over the dining area was squeaky clean, at least that was the case for the reachable and cleanable area. The tables and seats were also ready, his senses couldn't spot any dust on them. The same case could be said for the window. Though, one window that was placed in his kitchen was still not cleaned yet. Something he needed to tell his employees later.
Ludwig walked towards his usual seat at that moment. Even though he already knew what was going on in his restaurant and could just open the restaurant without notifying his employees, he still clapped his hands to get their attention. After all, to make employees work better and pour all their heart into the restaurant was to include them in many things regarding the restaurant. At least that was what he read in the book.
"Is everything ready?" Ludwig opened his mouth as soon as he saw his five employees gathered in front of him.
"Yessir." The five answered in unison, of course one of them said her answer with too much energy.
"Good. Since this is your first day working here, I'll explain what every single one of you needs to do during the operational hours. First, the dining area team. You need to take the order from the customer. For now, just inform the customer about our menu. I'll make more copies of the menu soon. You also need to serve the food the kitchen team cooks and bring back any dirty dishes once you are sure the customer is done with them. And don't forget, you should explain about the restaurant's power to any newcomer. Don't worry too much, it's easy to spot any newcomer.
"For the Kitchen Team, for now I just need anyone who is in the kitchen team to assist me on giving the food I cook to the server, cleaning the kitchen, and cleaning any dirty dishes the serving team brought back to the kitchen. If I see anyone with talent in cooking, I'll teach you some of my techniques in hope you can help me in preparing and cooking process.
"Who will go to the Kitchen Team and The Dining team will be rotated everyday. There will be 4 of you in the dining area and only 1 of you in the kitchen with me. Understood?"
"Yessir." The five answered.
"Good." Ludwig nodded with a smile. "Now for the break. You should take a 1 hour break before the sun goes down. You guys can decide who goes first and who goes later. Preferably it will only take two turns. Understood?"
"Yessir."
"Now, for today's placement," Ludwig started. To be honest, he had picked a name ever since he brought them back to the restaurant. After all, the guy was the most restless of them all when his friends decided they would start working today. "Bilo, you'll work with me in the kitchen."
The guy visibly flinched when his name came out of Ludwig's mouth, but soon he relaxed and nodded his head quite comically;. "Y-yes, sir! T-thank you!"
Ludwig couldn't help but to chuckle after hearing his answer. It seemed like he was really nervous about working with people. He was not the only one who smiled, the other young demons were also smiling after hearing his words. A proof that they knew about the reason behind his restlessness.
"Okay, I'll open the restaurant now." Ludwig said before willing the system to open the restaurant. "It's open now. Until any customer walks in, you are free to do anything. But starting tomorrow, I'll serve lunch for you guys around noon."
Ludwig went back to the kitchen. But just before he summoned the ingredients to him with his mana, he stopped. He shifted his gaze to the side and saw Bilo walking closer to him. "Get me the vegetables mix as well as all the seafood bowls from the second cabinet from the end as well as the red sauce inside."
At the same time, he summoned six small steel pots from the utensils cabinet to him. He hovered them into the stove and put each one of them in front of a fire run. WIth his mana, he brought the runes alive, pre-heating the pots. At that moment, Ludwig looked back because his senses told them Bilo was there with all the ingredients he told him to get.
"You don't need to hold them like that." Ludwig chuckled. "Just leave them on the countertop."
"S-sorry sir." Bilo stammered before taking a few steps back.
"I'm not angry." Ludwig answered. But right after, he focused on cooking again. He moved towards the big pot beside the curry pot and dispersed the mana around it. After opening the lid, he hovered the small pots on top of the stoves towards him before scooping the broth from the big pots and moving them into the smaller pots.
After all of them were filled with the broth, he returned it back to the stove. The small pots sizzled, the broth bubbled before long. Ludwig reached towards the countertop, fingers cradling a metal bowl full of red sauce made from gochugaru, gochujang, soy sauce, minced garlic, sugar, and a splash of rice wine. He took some of the sauce and dunked it into the small pots. The broth instantly changed, streaks of red spread around before it became completely crimson. But that was not the only change that happened, the aroma changed too, it was sharper and spicier now.
It's the vegetables turn for the fiery bath now. Onion, zucchini, and Napa cabbage slid into the broth, splasing around the crimson broth. They softened slowly, surrendering their sweetness into the spicy base.
After giving the broth in each pot a few stir, Ludwig reached for the bowls full of clams and lowered a few clams into the pots. The lid clinged shut, trapping the heat inside. Once he lifted it a few minutes later, the shells were already open. Shrimp followed, pink and curling in the heat, then squid and fish, their flesh turning opaque in moments.
"Bring me 6 bowls." Ludwig told Bilo before he stirred the broth. He stirred carefully, just enough to prevent any flesh breaking or sticking into the pots. A spoonful of the broth told him what he needed to know. It's spicy and hot. But it's not too spicy so anyone with no spice tolerance could still eat it—a compromise he needed to take.
Once he deemed it ready, he moved all the contents inside the small pots into the 6 bowls Bilo brought into the countertop. After giving each of the bowls a dash of green onion, Bilo transported it into the bar counter where the other four demons were sitting. Of course he also plates some kimchi for them, after all, it's the best pairing ever.
"If any of you need rice, just scoop some from the rice pot." Ludwig said before digging into the food. The five demons followed suit, spoons and forks clattering with the bowls. Their eyes opened wide, some of them even stopped eating altogether. But Ludwig didn't even give them any glance. Not because he couldn't symphatize with them, but to give them space.
The fact that they were living with Selena only meant they had no parents. Either they were killed in war or they got killed when they ran away. So, they must've lived a hard life until now. From bloodshed in the Demon Realm to the relative safety of the demon community in that forest. However, the demon village where they lived with Selena was nothing but a poor village. So it was only natural for them to be surprised by the food he served.
Since Ludwig was someone who was never good with his words, he hoped his cooking could tell them this: They can forget about everything as long as they are here and just focus on their work.
The lunch stretched into another hour since all the young demons were fighting with their emotions while eating the food. Once every single one of them was done, Ludwig opened his mouth. "How's the food?"
The young demons wer quiet after hearing his question. But then, one particular demon with black hair broke the silence. "It's so delicious! I can eat them everyday!" Her tone was light, Ludwig could tell that she was genuinely saying that.
"Is that so? I'm glad." Ludwig chuckled. "But you can't eat it everyday."
"Whhhyyyy?" The demon, Valerie whined.
"Because I'll cook different food everyday. Heck, your dinner tonight wouldn't be the same."
"Really? WIll it be as delicious?" She asked again.
"Of course. If any of you said it's not good, I will not sell it." Ludwig laughed.
Valerie nodded her head, her expression bright. After her, the other demons also told Ludwig about how they found the food. It's a hit, everyone said they enjoyed it. After nodding and teasing them, Ludwig told Bilo to bring the dirty dishes to the kitchen and clean every single one of it.
He then perched on his usual seat, thick books opened in front of him. But just after reading a few pages, Ludwig sighed. No, not because he couldn't comprehend the book, rather, it was because of his employees. They were all standing, probably thinking guests could come anytime soon. "Guys, while we are this free, you should rest. If you don't use this kind of time to rest, you guys won't last until closing."
Hearing his words, the young demons looked at him. Then, "But sir… What if a customer suddenly walked in?"
"It's fine." Ludwig waved his hands. "Most of the customers will start entering the restaurant by the evening. So we still have a few hours."
The young demon from earlier spoke again. "If no customers entered in the afternoon like this, we don't even need to rest for an hour before the sunset then."
"Vilera." Ludwig called her. "There will be days when we are full from the afternoon. So it will be better if any of you are used to the break schedule."
"B-but…"
"It's fine. Resting here and resting in the living quarters is different, you know. You can even lie down there."
"U-understood." Vilera nodded, but he could still see that she was reluctant.
But Ludwig just shrugged. He already knew her character by now. She was someone who had a big sense of responsibility. So convincing her would be a pain. Therefore, he would just let her do anything she wanted. Of course, not resting was not an option. He ran a legitimate business here, not a black company.
Time passed, the clouds and sky outside the restaurant started to have a tint of crimson on them. As if to prove his words were correct to the employees, the system chose to buzz at that moment.
A group of customers who hadn't visited the restaurant for the past weeks had finally returned.