After I gave Professor Golmind the documents of The Rats's illegal activities I had secured, we returned to the restaurant to rest and let him handle everything.
And, for some reason, we brought ten more children. When I asked Tizmilly who they were, she answered that they were children like Carole and Timmy. Some of them were children of people who were trapped to The Rats's ridiculously high interest debt, while some were straightforwardly abducted by them.
We took care of them in the restaurant until The Rats's trial was over. They were punished for their crimes and reduced to slaves. An ironical end, for a criminal organization who used to scamming people into slavery.
The Dungeon City bulletin highlighted the news on the first page of this week newspaper, so we could follow the process of the trial even when chilling at home.
Three days later, Professor Golmind visited our home to report what happened during the process of the trial. We already knew what happened from the newspaper, but Tizmilly and me listened to his report politely; after all, he had truly helped us this time.
By the way, Professor Golmind was not just a random professor in the Academy. He was a well-known named character from the game. Fangirls called him The Unwinged Angel because of his angel-like heart. From the start to the end, he would always at the protagonist, Ahlia's side. And he even powerful, with his Magic, Fiery Heart.
"The City Lord had agreed to gave you children of the victims 2 Gold coins each as a compensation money. The children can claims it at the City Hall."
His words brought joy to us.
We had been thinking of a way to help these poor children, but as expected, I didn't have that much money to help everyone. Not to mention that I also needed money for the opening of the restaurant and hiring two more maids later.
With this, the children could live on their own without worries. Maybe we would visit them from time to time, but that's it.
Without wasting any more time, we immediately accompanied Carole and the children claim their compensation money with Professor Golmind.
"The City Lord and the Academy had been having a hard time dealing with the population decrease phenomenon happening around the outer area of the City. Your intervention was timely arrived, Theo, Tizmilly."
On the way back after we claimed the compensation money, Professor Golmind suddenly praised us. I could only scratched my cheek to hid my embarrassment.
"I am not sure how that ended that spectacularly, but it's just a coincidence." I replied with a shrug.
Tizmilly nodded after me, clearly agreed with my words.
Professor Golmind was our Homeroom Teacher when we were still second-graded students. Tizmilly knew that Professor Golmind well, and how rare he praised someone, so she must be surprised after receiving his praise. To be honest, I was also surprised.
Only after I recalled that The Rats was an organization that had something to do with The Abyssal New Gate that I thought that his praise did not came out of nowhere. It was indeed a big deal.
Once we returned to the restaurant, Professor Golmind immediately wanted to go back to the Academy. We invited him to visit the place after we opened it later and gave him a box of cookies cooked by my mother before we see him off.
After that, we spent the day helping Carole and the children finding a place to stay, since they obviously couldn't stay in our restaurant forever.
Then, after everything was settled, what left was the main problem.
Where do we could find the other two maids?
Getting Carole alone needed us to destroy a Criminal organization, so if I could, I'd prefer a more relaxed recruitment.
Even now, the sight of Tratbone's sliced flesh was still haunted me. I needed some days off from battle.
...
"Hm..."
"Hm..."
""Hmmm....""
When Tizmilly and me were clutching our heads, trying to think of a way to fill the recruit two more employees, the restaurant door opened when Carole entered the building.
She saw Tizmilly and me sitting around a round table right beside the window, and tilted her head.
"What's the matter?" She asked us. She noticed our stressed faces.
We exchanged glances before I opened my mouth to explain.
"You couldn't find girls who wanted to work at our place?" Carole repeated my words.
"Yup," I replied with a nod.
Tizmilly sighed before joining the conversation.
"We had circled the city and asked every girl Mister Roost found suitable for our place, but no one accepted our offer."
What's troublesome about this world was how underdeveloped some of its civilization aspects were when compared to other aspects. They could create a floating city, flying ships, and guns, but still hadn't found the idea of centralizing the workers who were hoping to find a job in one place, although they had already centralized people's requests at the Dungeon Posts.
We had already decorated the restaurant and stocked the freezer room full of supplies, but we lacked employees to start the business. What a situation!
While we were troubled over the problem, Carole suddenly made a shocking statement in front of us.
"I have friends who wanted to work here, though?"
...
Carole told Tizmilly and me that she had just met her friends the day before while she was cleaning her new house with Timmy, who finally able to walk after he consumed a Healing Potion. They were girls from Carole's mother's hometown.
While her father was apparently a native of the Dungeon City, her mother came to this city from a village further west of the Dungeon City. If I am not mistaken, the village should be inside the Fazarr Empire—the Empire from which the Crown Prince who dumbed Tizmilly came.
They hang out around the Dungeon City to catch up with each other. One of the girls stated strongly to become independent and successful in this city filled with opportunities and invited the other girls to help each other in the process. At that time, Carole told them that she was now the employee of our yet-to-be-opened restaurant.
They were shocked by what she said and complained that she should introduce them to us if the place was still hiring.
And since we were indeed in need of maids, Tizmilly and I immediately instructed Carole to get her friends to our place. We would interview them, and if they qualified to become our maids, we would officially hired them.
"Then I'll get them to the restaurant. Wait for me here at noon."
With a resigned face because we immediately pushed her out of the restaurant after she had just entered it, Carole left the place to start looking for her friends.
After her figure was no longer visible from the front of the restaurant, I did a high-five with Tizmilly.
"Finally, we get the girls!"
"It is so fortunate that we hired Miss Carole!"
Then, just before the lunch time, we brought my mother to the restaurant.
On the wide first floor, we arranged the tables and the chairs so that they suited our need. Four chairs were arranged behind the tables for us interviewers, while ten chairs were lined 5 meters away from the tables in one line to accommodate our potential maids.
By the time Carole entered the building with her friends, we were already all sitting on our respective chairs. By the way, the fourth chair was for Timmy.
"Eh... What are you guys doing?"
Ignoring Carole's surprised gasp, I looked at the sight girls who were following Carole. I stood up to welcome them.
"Welcome to our place, young ladies. As our maid, also your friend, Carole, may have said to you, that we are currently seeking fresh talent to become maids of our restaurant. The empty spots are only two left, so only two of you who will become our maids. But don't worry and just let out your identities, 'cause we needed unique characters for our place."
My words put an invisible pressure on the girls. They looked at each other uneasily. They realized, that they weren't comrades here; they were rivals racing for two ultimate spots!
'Hehehe, nice, that's right, girls. Let the sparks burn!'
""...""
I felt flat gazes coming from Tizmilly and Timmy, but I dismissed it as my imagination.
"Please, sit on the chairs we had prepared for you. And Carole, bring the girls some drinks so that they can relax while we explain about the restaurant to them."
With nervous steps, they obeyed my words and sat on the chairs.
"O-okay..."
Don't know what to do other than following my words, Carole fled the room and entered the kitchen to get the drinks.
I smiled toward the girls and sat back down on my chair. After a slow sip of tea to moisten my throat, I looked at them again.
"How's your feeling, good?" I asked them.
Their answers were varied.
"Y-yes." Some look hesitant.
"I am feeling amazing, sir!" Some were full of energy.
"I am okay." While some looked cold.
'They're interesting. If only I could hire all of them...'
While lamenting the reality a little, I started the interview with an introduction.
"Good to hear that. My name is Theo Roost. I am the founder this restaurant."
I signaled Tizmilly and others to introduce themselves after me.
"I am Theo's Mother, Calary Roost. For now, I am the main chef of the restaurant. I could see that you all have potential to become cute maids, but as expected, little Tiz here is still the best!"
"Wh-what are you talking about, Mistress Roost!? E-ehem. It's a pleasure to meet you all now, at this time. My name is Tizmilly... Just Tizmilly. I am the secondary chef and also the collaborator of the restaurant."
"Uh... N-nice to meet you. I am... Sis's little brother."
The interviewers were a mismatched group of people, but we would still start the interview.
Here, we would find the maids for our restaurant!
...
"Here, the juice."
"Ah, t-thank you, Carole."
We let Carole gave the girls their share of lemon juice and sipped it to ease their minds before we continue.
Like a proper maid, Carole was now wearing her custom-made maid uniform.
The skirt was long, featuring laced long sleeves and an embroidered apron. Whenever I saw her, I always saw an image of a graceful, slightly arrogant lady, like a typical villainess, with her curly, long blonde hair and all. Her actual personality was not suitable for that role, but if she used her experience from the time when she was still running around scamming people, she could show people what an arrogant, but charming, noble lady looked like. And after my mother polished her later, her skill would surely taken a new step to perfection.
It would be better if Tizmilly could fill that role, but she wouldn't be able to fully take that position after the holiday ended later. The third year of our Academy life was waiting, so Tizmilly's era was still far away from our reach.
We waited until the girls finished drinking their juices.
Tizmilly was the one who would explain the restaurant to them. After she made sure that the girls' attention was on her, she started.
She goes from the reason why we started this restaurant, to the main theme we were aiming for.
"... We may look ridiculous with the use of maids that are clearly different from barmaids or waiters, but it does a favor for our goal to create a place where people can eat and enjoy their time without the shadow of the caste system looming over them. The maid pays huge role here. You may serve the customer, but not with the loyalty and obedience usually shown by others. You will hit them with a raw ego, blindly, no matter who they are!"
The girls' reactions were as expected. They ere shocked, even Carole was surprised. Now that I think of it, we hadn't really explained everything to Carole, huh? Well, she'd hear everything here, so that's okay.
Seeing that Tizmilly had finished her explanation, I took back the lead.
"Alright. We'll end the briefing here. Now that you have gained some understanding about what kind of place our restaurant will become, let's start the actual interview."
I raised my hand, then pointed out a girl who looked the most well-mannered, with her short, bobbed black hair.
"You there, introduce yourself."
She flinched after I pointed at her. She took a big breath of air before she opened her lips.
"Good day, Mr. Roost, Mrs. Roost, Ms. Tizmilly, and Mr... Timmy. My name is Yona, 17 years old. I came to Dungeon City with a hope to raise my name and... G-gain wealth enough for myself to retire early!"
'Hmm... Mature personality with little motivation to gain fame. She wanted to raise her name, but clearly not in a way that an average teenager usually aims for. And she's polite.'
I noted that down on the mini whiteboard I have beside me, before looking back at the girl.
"I heard you are interested in becoming our maids after you heard Carole's story. However, I wanted to know, what is your actual motivation?"
She fidgeted with her fingers a little before Yona opened her lips to answer me.
"It's because if I work at a restaurant where I knew someone, I will face less risk compared to aimlessly trying to get a job in the wide city outside, where I don't have an idea how thing works. And indeed, after I saw the place myself, the restaurant looked calm, well-decorated, and cozy, like a family. I thought it Will be fun to work at this place."
'Well said. She have briliant lips. She has potential.'
Since Yona had mentioned everything that I wanted to hear from her before I could ask her for that, I immediately shifted to the next girl.
I pointed out a girl whose word nervous was written boldly on her whole body. Compared to others, her appearance couldn't be called beautiful, with a thin figure, double-braided brown hair, and a freckled face.
"How about you?"
She trembled under my gaze. She looked like she was about to pass out when she opened her lips to answer me.
"G-good day! I-I-I am... Sirry! 16 years old! I came to Dungeon City to make money... Uh, wealth... I mean!"
I waved my hands to calm her.
"Okay, okay, don't push yourself too hard, Sirry."
Although she still looked pale, Sirry responded to me with a nod.
'Immature. Lacked education and confidence.'
I noted the information I got.
Needless to say, Tizmilly and other interviewers also had their own whiteboards. Just like me, they also wrote down what they understood about our applicants onto their boards.
"Is there a specific reason why you are interested in our restaurant?" I asked her again.
She widened her eyes and started trembling even more violently. She must not had expected to be confronted with a different question here. Hehe, but you should adapt swiftly, girl!
"A-ah... I am, I-I always like to see the maids working at Mister Habajj's, a rich merchant living at our village, back then. They're beautiful, and cool, and amazing, like a group of super girls!"
'Not too bright, but... She understood the point. And her nerves eased when she was talking about what she likes, that's a raw material for a must-protect type of maid!'
I glanced at my side, and like me, my mother's eyes were shining when she was looking at Sirry.
We continued the interview like that.
"A beautiful day today for us fated people! My name is T-R-E-V-I-N-A! Currently at my 18s! I came to this city to grab one or two husbands back to my village! Maids work around people, so I'll be able to know a lot of handsome guys while working! A perfect job for me, don't you think?"
'Confidence level went out of the roof. Interesting, but... Hmm...'
"My name's Gerena. 15 years old. I loves book. I had read all of the books in the village, so I ran away from the village to find more books. Work gives me money, money buys new book, so I'll work."
'Veered motivation, but her cold expression is interesting.'
"I am Wendy. 18 years old. People in the village always wanted me to marry their sons. They are getting forceful lately, so I fled to this city. Hopefully, people will not try to force me to marriage if I worked here, together with Carole. Mister Roost, you will not force me like them, right?
'Those sure are big. I kinda get why they wanted their sons to marry her. But I won't force anyone, okay? I am not that kind of man.'
"Mister Roost is not that kind of man!"
'See? Even our Miss Villainess thought the same.'
"I don't think talking about marriage here will do something, though..." Timmy also added.
We continued to interview them one by one.
By the time we ended the interview and moved to another room to discuss who we should hire, I found a shocking truth.
They were all unique and had the potential to become great maids!
What kind of village was Carole coming from?
Unfortunately, since we were still in the early phase of development, we couldn't hire all of them and could only take two out of eight as planned before.
And since we should choose safer options during development to avoid risk, but also had to chose those who were bordering common standard to maintain our uniqueness, in the end, the ones we took were...
Sirry, and Gerena.