Chapter 56

The customers start to come into the Red Dawn restaurant.

"Welcome to 'Red Dawn'! How many people will be dining today?" Ludger greets the customers politely with fluent words.

It was as if he had often done it before. Actually, he never worked as a waitress before but he has some knowledge about it. But for the other people, it was something unusual for them.

"W-What?! Hey boy, are you working here?" The male customer asks as he is surprised by Ludger's sudden greeting.

"We are coming together so of course it was for two people." The female customer that coming with the male customer said while looking curiously at Ludger.

"Then I will take you to your seats." Ludger guides them to a table for two.

"Hey, little boy, do you take an apprenticeship in this restaurant?" The female customer asked with a curious tone.

"I'm currently helping the owner and my mom because I still need to wait for one year for taking my apprenticeship," Ludger answered in a polite manner.

"Woah! I hope I'll also have a child as smart as you in the future." The female customer said with a smile.

"Thank you for your praise, kind and beautiful lady. I hope you will be able to have a wonderful family. So would you like to order our special menus? It will be good for keeping your health in a perfect condition for your future." Ludger asked to stop the woman from asking more questions about himself.

"Hmm? Did the current owner make something new?" The male customer asked with a surprised tone.

"Yes, you only need to decide the type of meat for your meals. There are five different meat and different prices for different meats. The cheapest was chicken meat, the next one was fish, then beef and pork and the last one was monster meat. If you buy it as a set menu with the drink, there will be some discount." Ludger said.

Caron and Katarina are surprised by Ludger's words. He never told them about it but they promised to the boy to wait for him and only listen and see how he handles the customers first. Both of them feel strange with the boy who acts as if he had done it a lot before.

Even Katarina feels that she needs to ask her child after they finish everything today. That child is really her only dear child. But sometimes she often feels that her child often acts unusual or as if someone who had lived longer than her.

She never try to pry about her child's secret before. But after having a journey for around half a year together, she becomes unable to stop her curiosity. But she still decided to wait until they were done with everything first.

Ludger comes to the kitchen and tells them about the customer's orders and tells Caron about the pricing for their new menu. Katarina decided to not bother both of them and took out the dishes for the customers. When she went out, some new customers also started to come in for dinner.

She followed her child's example and asked the similar questions to the customers. Some male customers are speechless and unable to answer her until a few seconds later.

Most male customers are mesmerized by her beautiful appearance and good manner which makes them feel that they were becoming a noble. But it didn't happen for too long because other new customers are coming.

Katarina recognizes the person who leads a group of people. That person come arrived and greeted her politely with his trademark smile.

"Hello, Mam. I heard that you are working here with your son so I brought some of my acquaintances here." It was the merchant that come into this city with them this morning.

The merchant that travelling together with both of them seems to like her child and often discusses something in secret with ominous smiles on their faces. She was worried that her child will do something bad later but as she observed them, she feel sorry for the merchant. It was because it was the opposite of what she was thinking.

She knows that most people who know about her child's talents will always say that he was a genius. But she often feels her child also often acts unusual or more precisely strange and sometimes acts like an old person. But it didn't make other people avoid her child but they mostly act the opposite and try to get close with her child.

Ludger finished his discussion with Caron and went out of the kitchen to help his mother. As he went out, the merchant quickly greet him.

"Master Ludger, rather than working in this restaurant, how about working together in my shop? You can decide on the new products and I will promise to share half of the profits if you agree." The merchant said while rubbing his hands and smiling suspiciously.

"I'm sorry, Mr Hugo. I still have not decided on it. Besides I still need one more year to be able to get any jobs. Ah! Right now I just helping my mom with her new job because I am worried about her health. I'm not working here." Ludger quickly refuses Hugo's offers politely and reminds him.

He know that Caron will pay him for his job but he didn't want to work here because he is interested in the scenery in this wide world. The thing he had read or heard before was mostly different from what he saw directly. His curiosity keeps making him want to fulfil his curiosity but he also wants to have his freedom that he was never able to have before.

Although Hugo stops asking him to take an apprenticeship as a merchant, he felt that the boy will run away if he keeps asking him about it. He decided to try what the boy trying to do in this restaurant. He feels that the boy must be planning something when he chooses to work in this old restaurant that almost got shut down.

But Hugo's guess is wrong because Ludger only helps the restaurant owner. After all, he feels sympathetic to Caron's misfortunes. Although later he started to get motivated because of Caron's offers and he want to taste the taste that he missed so much. The types of equipment and ingredients that he saw were enough for his experiments.

Besides he still needs to wait for a few things in this city. It was something that he try to do as he feels it was important for him to do it. But right now he needs to carefully decide his future as he has too many options. He feels strange because he was not troubled by not having any opportunity or option but because he has too much of it.

As Ludger and his mother were busy with the merchant and his group orders. Another group of people come into the restaurant.

It was a group of people with muscular bodies. They recognized the two people that wave their hands when they saw them. It was the two men that helped them with purchasing the monster's corpses before.

"Hey, boy. What a coincidence that we meet again here." The old man appraiser said with a smile on his face.

It was a lie that he makes to hide his intentions. And Ludger also doesn't believe in his words.

"Rights, what a strange coincidence for two people from a different guild that I just met earlier today to find me in this restaurant. So do you want to eat something?" Ludger agree and said with a {fake) surprise tone and smile at the old man.

"Hahaha, what a strange coincidence." The guild worker that he met this afternoon said and act like he trying to hide something.

"Hmm, what a smart-looking boy! Hey, boy do you want to join our adventurer guild? I think that you will be able to get famous quickly and might be able to become a Special Grade adventurer Are you interested in our Guild apprenticeship? You are also able to earn more money than working here." A dandy middle age man with lake-blue hair and leaf-green eyes.

From his outfits, he looks more like an adventurer than a guild worker. But from how he interacts with the guild workers, Ludger thought that he might be a retired adventurer that currently working in the guild. But later he will be surprised when he heard of his real identity.

But right now, he acts as if he talks with the other customers and answers him.

"I am still underage so I can't apply for any apprenticeship. I didn't work here but I'm helping my mom with her new job. I am still thinking carefully about my future and have not decided on the job that I will take for my apprenticeship. But I think I started to have some good ideas. But I can't tell it to anyone else except for my mom." Ludger said with a grin.

Everyone who had an interest in Ludger feels that the boy is trying to trick them and he might suck them dry if they are not careful when interacting with this boy.

"So, do you want to order something?" Ludger asked.

The adventurer guild workers are looking at the boy while wandering at the boy's unusual reactions. They have met a lot of children before but none of them ever acted like this boy in front of them. The same goes for the merchants from the merchant guild but they are mostly started to look at the boy as if he was some treasure.

The customers continue to come and they get busier and only after around four hours of working, finally, they could close the restaurant and end their work for today.