Chapter 52

'Huh?! What did he just say? Mother?? Who???'

The dark blue hair customer was confused by the red hair boy's words. He tries to deduct his words from what he knows about the people in this city.

It was not the owner of this restaurant because she never had a child before her husband died. And he never heard that she has any relationship with another man. Then the dark blue hair customer remember what the adventurer beside he told him before.

'He said that this red hair boy come to this city with her mother... And something about the misfortune to those who mess with both of them...!!! Could it be?!'

He feels surprised by the conclusion that appears in his mind. To distract himself from such a conclusion, he decides to answer the red hair boy in front of him.

"Alright, I will try it. I was afraid of hot food so I didn't dare to eat it because it was still hot." The dark blue hair customer makes some excuse to lie to the red hair boy.

"Oh, so you have a cat tongue." The red hair boy muttered in a small voice.

But the dark blue hair customer was able to hear it and frown.

'Huh did he make fun of me?! What did he mean by 'cat tongue'?'

Although he has a lot of questions in his mind, he decided to spoon his meal and try it like the bred hair boy suggest to him. As he spoons it into his mouth, he could taste a delicious taste that he had never tasted before.

The smooth and tasty creamy taste seems to spread in his mouth with the herb aroma. The aroma of the herb makes him unable to stop from taking another bite as he took another spoonful into his mouth. There is also a weird chewy texture in this food that he tastes for the first time.

His eyes widened because of how surprised he was and said. "Mm!! This is really delicious! It is even more delicious than the food from the capital city's most famous restaurant. And what is this?"

The dark blue hair customer looked at the dish with a curious look. He uses the spoon to see the content of the dish and saw grey things inside the dish.

"Hmm? What is this? Is this some new monster meat?" The dark blue hair customer mutter.

"Is this your first time eating a mushroom dish? This dish's name is mushroom gratin. What did I tell you, my mom's cooking is the best. It tastes delicious, right?" The red hair boy shows a faint smile on his cold face and he said in a proud tone.

"Hmm?! Did you say mushrooms?! Isn't it a poisonous plant? Is this safe for consumption?" The dark blue hair customer asks as he glares at the red hair boy.

"Of course, it was safe for consumption. If it was poisonous or dangerous, I won't be able to stand in front of you right now. I have eating it for more than five years. Besides it was quite good for your body and if you are good at cooking, it will taste delicious." The red hair boy explains.

"How do you know about it?" The dark blue hair customer asks with suspicion in his gaze.

"I was told by somebody else. I don't know where is that person right now but that person was someone that helped both of us to able to survive when we almost die from hunger." The red hair boy told him while not telling everything.

'This new customer is a suspicious person. He might be someone that works for the nobles in the West or maybe even someone who works as an information-gathering agency worker. Or someone that was ordered by the Duke to inspect the Labyrinth City. I hope he will stop talking to me.'

But the red hair boy's wish didn't come true as the dark blue hair customer asked another question.

"So are you currently taking an apprenticeship in this restaurant because your mother works here?"

"No, I'm helping in this restaurant because my mom is working here. I still need to wait for one year to be able to start an apprenticeship. Can't you see that I was nine years old right now?" The red hair boy said while spreading his hands widely as if trying to show him his height.

"Is your father a dwarf race?" The dark hair customer asks with a wry smile.

"Why do you think so?" The red hair boy said with a displeased tone.

"You look more like a six-year-old boy. If you are a girl, I might believe it." He answers with a joking tone but he feels pity when he thinks about what the boy said before.

'He is still so young but he had a lot of hardships. I hope he will be able to find his happiness.'

"Why does no one ever believe me? I just grow slower than the other boy." The red hair boy grumbles and the other customers started to laugh at him.

"Sorry boy, I also thought that you are a girl if you started wearing a dress." A big-body adventurer said while laughing from a different table.

"Well, it was the proof that I got my mom's beautiful appearance and I believe that I will grow to be the most handsome man in the Labyrinth City." The red hair boy proudly said.

"Hahaha..." The customers are laughing at his confident words.

"Ludger, what are you doing!" The brown hair woman comes out with a tray of the other customer orders and scolds the red hair boy, Ludger.

"Oh no! I-I'm not lazing around because I want to, Mom. I..." Ludger answers panicky and suddenly stops talking after looking at his mother's face.

"I didn't scold you because you are lazing around but because you start to talk nonsense again. Why do you keep acting like this lately?" Ludger's mother asked with a tired face.

"Didn't I have told you before that I am trying to be a sunshine boy type and become this restaurant mascot? Isn't it a good thing to be able to make all of the guests feel happy?" Ludger said with a proud tone.

"You seem to get braver lately." Ludger's mom asked with a beautiful smile.

Most men in the restaurant were stunned by her smile. But different from most of the men inside the restaurant that mesmerized by Ludger's mom's beauty, Ludger's body started to shiver. He knows that his mother is currently angry.

"I'm so sorry, Mom. I'll never do it again." Ludger bows his head and apologizes.

"Hahaha, Our Ludger seems to be unable to defeat our true poster girl, Mrs. Katarina. I just wonder what happened to cause our guests to laugh happily like this." The restaurant owner, Mrs Caron who has a light green hair and eyes comes out from the kitchen to look at what happened.

"We will also welcome her as our party member if she ever wants to be an adventurer." One of the adventurers suddenly said with a joking tone.

"Right, she will surely become a great adventurer because she was able to defeat little Ludger easily." Another adventurer said while nodding his head.

"I have said that I will decline your kind invitation because I like to work for the owner." Ludger's mom, Katarina declines politely.

"Hey, hey, you adventurers! Don't you dare to take away our poster girl and most precious employee from me or I won't let you eat at this restaurant again." The owner, Mrs. Caron said while acting as if she was angry with the adventurers.

"Oh no, I was just joking. I won't be able to live happily if I can't get into this restaurant again." One of the adventurers acts to beg the owner.

"Wow, it seems that the women in this restaurant are the strongest in this city!" One of the commoner customers said in a loud voice.

"Ahahaha, you are right! They were able to defeat the famous adventurers easily." Another customer laughed and add.

All of the guests laughed and the happy and peaceful situation continue in this restaurant, Red Dawn. The dark blue hair customer feels strange because of the peaceful situation in this restaurant. It was unusual for the hot-tempered adventurers to be able to joke with commoners without causing any arguments or fights because of their different viewpoints.

Everyone who arrives at this restaurant for the first time will feel similar to the dark blue hair customer. In most inns or restaurants the strong usually bully the weak. But no one dares to cause any trouble in Red Dawn. That is why it will always give a peaceful atmosphere. It was the usual situation in this restaurant after the mother and child pair started to work around a month ago.

Both of them arrived at this town around a month ago after they follow a merchant's group that heading to this city as they worked as cooks and make some earnings. But an accident happened as suddenly a group of monsters attack the group when they almost arrived at the city.

At that time, the adventurers that accept the merchant group's request have a hard time fighting against the monsters group. And when the leader of the monsters, a medium-ranked monster comes out, they feel despair. But someone suddenly come out and helped them by defeating the medium-ranked monster.

They couldn't believe what happened at that time because the one who helped them was a little boy who was able to use two different attributes of magic without any chanting. The story was only known by the adventurers because the boy is the one who exchanges the leader monster's corpse in the adventurer guild.

Most of the famous adventurers in this city become interested in the boy and look for him but later they find him working in the Red Dawn restaurant. There are also some merchants and magicians that come into this restaurant to find him. They try to recruit him but he never accepts. So they decided to get to his good side and make some appeals.