Chapter 123

Chapter 123. A Restaurant Like This Exists?! (2)

The long-awaited day of filming finally arrived.

“Hello! I’m the chief director of A Restaurant Like This Exists?! We spoke over the phone.”

The man in charge of filming had a friendly, easygoing face.

Victoria greeted him with a bright smile.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Victoria Frankenstein, owner of Restaurant Shelley.”

The director quickly looked her up and down, then grinned slyly.

“Wow. You’re incredibly beautiful.”

“Oh my, you have good eyes. I hear that a lot.”

Victoria clearly liked the compliment.

Nova then awkwardly stepped forward beside her.

“Uh... I’m Nova Hanson, one of the waitresses. Nice to meet you.”

Nova was currently wearing a waitress uniform Victoria had made by altering her clothes.

The uniform had a short skirt reaching over her knees with a little frill added to it, and somehow it suited Nova’s serious atmosphere surprisingly well.

Sure enough, the director looked impressed.

“Even the waitress is beautiful. Does this restaurant only hire pretty women?”

“Beautiful women naturally attract other beautiful women.”

Victoria replied shamelessly.

The director glanced around.

“By the way, where’s the chef who’ll be cooking today?”

“I bet the chef is beautiful too.”

Victoria quickly stepped in.

“Our chef is very shy.”

“They’re too nervous to appear on television.”

“Oh? That’s a shame.”

“Don’t worry!”

Victoria smiled confidently.

“Our chef’s skills are first-rate. Even if they don’t appear on camera, they’ll still make wonderful food.”

The director laughed heartily.

“Hahaha. Then I’ll trust you today, boss.”

The two seemed to get along almost too well.

While they were chatting, a dark shadow suddenly fell over the area.

[Are you fools the fleshbags who came to film Restaurant Shelley today?]

It was Robert.

He stared down at them with glowing eyes, looking downright ominous.

The director flinched.

“W-What is that?”

Victoria hurriedly explained.

“This is Robert, our restaurant’s waiter!”

“He’s a golem!”

[Behold the vanguard of the glorious machine civilization!]

Robert deliberately boomed the words in a loud mechanical voice.

Nova leaned toward Victoria and whispered,

“I told you we should keep Robert hidden.”

Victoria gave an excuse.

“If we leave only him out, he’ll sulk about being excluded and probably go berserk later.”

“Robert secretly loves attention.”

“Why would a golem care about attention?”

Nova found the idea ridiculous.

The director, however, seemed to like Robert.

“That’s a fun concept.”

“I bet the customers enjoy it.”

Apparently, he assumed Robert’s words and behavior were just part of the restaurant’s gimmick.

Victoria hugged Robert proudly.

“Right? He’s our restaurant mascot.”

[Spread the greatness of me to the world!]

Robert shouted excitedly.

The director carefully looked over Victoria and Robert, then snapped his fingers.

“Great!”

“The concept is clear, the staff are full of personality, and the interior looks excellent.”

“Let’s start filming right away.”

“Hehehe. Make sure you film us beautifully.”

Victoria seemed delighted by the whole situation.

Nova watched from beside her and muttered to herself with growing unease.

“Nothing’s going to happen... right?”

“All right! We’re rolling!”

At the director’s signal, the lights and cameras all turned toward the center of the restaurant.

Victoria and the program’s host were seated there.

The host looked directly into the camera and smoothly began the broadcast.

“Hello! I’m Yoo Nayeon, host of A Restaurant Like This Exists?!, the show that searches for unusual restaurants all across the country.”

“Today, we’ve come to Restaurant Shelley, a hidden gem tucked away in an alley downtown.”

Nova stood off to one side, watching anxiously.

She had already heard roughly what today’s segment would be about.

They would invite someone with a problem into the restaurant, talk through their concerns, then give them a special menu prepared just for them as comfort.

Add a few heartwarming shots and the segment would be finished.

In a way, it was an incredibly ordinary format.

“Right beside me is Victoria Frankenstein, the owner of Restaurant Shelley.”

“Could you introduce yourself?”

Nayeon subtly gave her a cue.

Victoria, who had been waiting, cleared her throat a few times before smiling at the camera.

“Hello!”

“I’m Victoria Frankenstein, owner of Restaurant Shelley!”

“Nice to meet you!”

The opening was more natural than expected.

The host continued calmly.

“Boss, judging by your name, it sounds like you came from overseas.”

“How did you end up opening a restaurant in Korea?”

“This place originally belonged to my mother.”

Victoria explained.

“She used it as one of her workshops.”

The camera slowly panned around the restaurant as she spoke.

“My mother had workshops all around the world.”

“After she passed away, I wanted to transform this place into something new.”

“And then I suddenly got the idea to make it into a wonderful restaurant.”

“I also heard that the restaurant’s name comes from your mother’s name.”

“That’s right.”

“My mother’s maiden name was Mary Shelley.”

“It’s a restaurant rather than a workshop now, but I still wanted to carry on her will somehow.”

The host smiled lightly.

“You speak very fondly of her.”

“Were you close with your mother?”

“Close with my mother...”

Victoria’s expression suddenly stiffened.

A complicated mixture of emotions flashed across her face.

But only for a moment.

She soon recovered her smile and answered brightly,

“We had a perfectly ordinary mother-and-daughter relationship.”

“Just what you’d imagine.”

Nova, watching from afar, muttered in surprise,

“She’s better at this than I expected.”

She had worried Victoria might stumble over her words, lose control, or blurt out something strange.

Instead, Victoria was handling the broadcast smoothly.

She was so surprisingly competent that Nova’s earlier concerns almost felt foolish.

“Then shall we talk about what makes Restaurant Shelley special?”

The host moved on to the prepared topic.

“I heard customers can order special menus designed to solve their worries.”

Victoria answered immediately, as though she had been waiting for the question.

“That’s right!”

“Many people have come to Restaurant Shelley carrying all kinds of worries.”

“And every time, we’ve helped solve those worries with special menus.”

“Our management philosophy is love and peace, after all.”

“I’m curious how you actually solve those problems.”

“So shall we meet the first guest who came to Restaurant Shelley today?”

The host gestured lightly.

A middle-aged woman with permed hair awkwardly stepped in front of the camera.

She was the first guest prepared by the broadcasting station.

“Hello.”

“I’m a housewife in my forties raising a child going through puberty.”

The woman bowed awkwardly.

Then she began sharing her worries frankly.

“Maybe it’s because my child is going through puberty, but they barely answer me anymore.”

“If I ask who they met or what they did, they just act indifferent.”

“When they were little, they used to follow me everywhere like glue.”

“I don’t know why they’ve changed so much.”

The host responded sympathetically.

“Living with a child going through puberty is definitely difficult.”

“Tell me about it.”

The woman sighed.

“They even shouted at me last time.”

Victoria’s eyes widened.

“They shouted at you?”

“At their mother?”

“And that wasn’t all.”

The woman continued.

“They even acted like they were going to punch me.”

“I guess their mother doesn’t scare them anymore.”

She let out a deep sigh.

“Even if they’re going through puberty, how can they treat the mother who gave birth to them and raised them like that...?”

Victoria’s face began turning red with anger.

She did not say anything, but it was obvious she was furious.

The host quickly changed the subject.

“Then shall we see the special menu Restaurant Shelley prepared?”

Victoria immediately regained her composure and raised her voice brightly.

“We can’t just stand by and watch something like this happen in a Confucian country!”

“There’s a perfect menu for this situation.”

“I call it...”

“Mommy Hand Touch Pie!”

She lightly signaled toward the kitchen.

Yukgap, who had been waiting, quickly handed the prepared food to Nova.

“Here. Take this out.”

It was a round pie.

Steam rose gently from it as though it had just come out of the oven.

Nova glanced at it.

“What is this?”

“Just an ordinary chicken-breast pie.”

“I made it so that woman can eat something and feel better.”

There did not seem to be anything strange about it.

Nova carried the prepared pie in front of the cameras without much thought.

“Your special menu is ready.”

The moment the food appeared, both the host and the middle-aged woman showed interest.

“Wow, it smells amazing!”

“It really does!”

“And it looks delicious!”

Victoria proudly explained,

“This is a pie our restaurant chef made with chicken breast.”

“It has a mild, clean flavor.”

Then, all of a sudden, she pulled a mysterious vial from her pocket.

“Of course...”

“Before you eat it, we need to add the topping!”

The bottle sparkled beneath the studio lights.

Sensing something was wrong, the host cautiously called out,

“Um... boss?”

“Mwahahahahaha!”

Victoria had already lost all restraint.

“Just eat this, and your child’s attitude will change by one hundred and eighty degrees!”

With a sinister laugh, she poured the mysterious liquid all over the chicken-breast pie.

One glance was enough to tell that it was definitely not an ordinary substance.