Volume 2, 1: There is much to do even on the regular holiday

Volume 2, Chapter 1: There is much to do even on the regular holiday

Today, there were only three people inside Café Omusubi, which was usually bursting with customers.

It was only natural, as today was the regular holiday.

The three sat at a table, taking small bites of the various foods lined up in front of them and discussing with serious expressions.

“Then this should be good for the daily lunches this week?”

The raven haired woman who asked the other two people was Risa Kurokawa Claude. Although she used to be called Kurokawa Risa, around a year and a half ago she suddenly came to another world. Under strange circumstances she came to manage this café.

Her shallow contours typical of the Japanese and wide black eyes caused her to look younger than she actually was in this world. As a woman, she was happy about this, but the people around her often worried, “Can a girl this young really manage a store?!” As such, she had complicated feelings about her looks as the café and store owner.

The man nodding next to her was Zeke Brown. He usually took care of cooking. An ex-knight, he was tall and muscular despite his slender body. He was quite handsome with silver hair and blue eyes.

However, his face rarely showed any real expression. Even now, his face remained blank as he nodded in agreement. To that end, he often came off as cold, but he was really a passionate man, both chivalrous and kind. It might be hard to imagine given his cool exterior, but he was also passionate about sweets. He fell in love with Risa’s desserts, and quit the chivalric knight order to work at the café.

“I think it’s good.”

Sitting across from the two and agreeing with Risa in a bright voice was Helena Chester. The girl with her orange hair fashioned in a bob cut was a waitress at the café.

She began to hate Café Omusubi, thinking it was at fault for the drop in sales at her family bakery. She attempted to raise a smell scandal, but was captured and began working at the café to make up for it. Although she had a bit of trouble due to the pranks she pulled on the café, she worked very hard to become an irreplaceable member of the café’s staff.

Café Omusubi was run on the backs of these three people.

One year after Café Omusubi opened business.

Until recently, the café only rested on the weekly regular holiday for the people. However, business boomed to the point that three employees could not keep up with it.

Now, to make sure the food and waiting quality would not dip, the café had its own regular holiday for a total of two closed days every week.

There were complaints from customers that the shop had already been hard to visit even before the new schedule. However, they would be putting the cart before the horse if the employees forced themselves, causing food and waiting quality to drop.

While it was also possible to hire more employees, the applicants consisted of people who wanted to steal Café Omusubi’s recipes, fans who just wanted to work at a famous shop, people who just wanted to get closer to the handsome Zeke…people who only had impure motives. There was also no room or space to train and onboard new hires.

Unable to watch the busy trio, Risa’s friend, Angelica would also help out sometimes. While she was a huge help, she also had her work at Silas’s Magical Tool Store next door as the store’s poster girl.

After deliberating for a long time, Risa finally decided as the store owner to add a business holiday. On the business holiday, everyone would rest. Then they would gather at the store on the regular holiday to discuss the next week’s menu or develop new items for the menu.

Today, the three people picked at the prototypes on the table while discussing.

“Does the amount seem okay?”

“Could we make more of this cake? There were a lot of customers who ordered it after it sold out, so I had to recommend other cakes to them…”

“I see! Then we’ll make more of this and make less of the others.”

Risa looked at the sales for the day as well as the wasted food items while deciding the new stock. Next to her, Zeke looked at the list and nodded in agreement.

By the time they finished their meeting, the food for tasting had gone cold. They finished all of it for lunch and began to prepare for business the next day.

Helena replenished the consumables like paper napkins and takeaway bags, then bustled about cleaning places she usually didn’t clean, from the storage on the second floor to the storefront. Risa and Zeke prepared for the menu tomorrow and made food that could be placed in the takeaway shelves.

In the café usually humming with noise during business hours, only the sounds of the three people resounded in its walls that day.