Chapter IV: Taste of the Tour

"Did you get all that?"

The mauve-haired girl named Dorotea asked with a proud grin plastered on her face with her breasts jiggling as she turned her body to face Sylvia who had a sour look on her face.

"They're big." she muttered bitterly while gazing down at Dorotea's chest before regretfully poking her own.

"Why is the difference so big?"

"Hello? Sylvia?" Dorotea waved her petite hands in front of Sylvia's face and snapped her out of the trance that she has put herself in.

"Oh, sorry. Can you repeat the things you said."

An exasperated sigh escaped Dorotea's lips as she glared at Sylvia who sheepishly averted her gaze towards the machine sitting on top of the receptionist's table. It wasn't anything that she had normally seen. Instead of a monitor and keyboard, it was entirely made out of an iPad that was connected to the metallic drawers attached underneath the table.

"The machine is pretty simple, you just repeat the order and it'll automatically record the price." Dorotea began her explanation once again and booted up the machine after taking out a hundred axia from her pockets.

"One mocha cappuccino and one blueberry muffin coming right up!" she said in a cherry voice and the machine in front of her automatically lit up a bright green.

"Wow, that's... Pretty efficient."

"I know right? It's so easy that I don't have to even do a thing!" Dorotea chuckled and placed the blue piece of paper in front of the machine and it was automatically sucked into the small opening under it.

"And once you give it the money, it'll do the math and then—"

As if on cue, the small opening that could have only fitted bills opened and spat out a 50 axia bill with a few copper and silver coins.

"Cha-ching! You get your change." Dorotea giggled as she pocketed the cash and immediately skipped past the star-stricken Sylvia who was still shocked on how the machine worked.

"Come on, let's go to the kitchen now."

"Oh, uh, sure..."

Sylvia trailed off and tore her eyes away from the machine and followed Dorotea while trying her best not to curse the gods out loud for being unfair to her. She focused her attention to Salvatore who simply smiled and waved at her when he caught her gaze and went back to cleaning the tables with a white napkin.

"Oh, don't worry, you don't need to learn anything about cleaning. It's just the basics."

"That's a relief then." Sylvia heaved a sigh of relief and entered through the metallic door that she had come out of earlier. Her thoughts wandered towards the previous talk that she had with Salvatore.

"Mhmm, I guess you can start learning everything."

"Everything?"

"Yeah, shifts here aren't permanent" Salvatore heaved a sigh before looking apologetic towards Sylvia. "You can either be charged with cleaning, handling the desk, serving or cooking."

' No wonder the pay is big ' she thought to herself. She had expected she was only going to serve yet she found herself trying to grasp several jobs all at once.

"Piero! Is my order done!" Dorotea's high-pitched voice echoed in the hallway as she opened the door to the kitchen where the man with the mohawk was standing.

"I should have known it was you that ordered it!" the man bawled his hands into fists as he glared at Dorotea who only frowned at him.

"Hey now, that's not an attitude you should be showing you the recruit. You might scare her."

"New recruit? She?" Piero mumbled and pointed at Sylvia who couldn't help but take a step back from fear.

"Yes, yes now stop glaring. You're actually scaring her."

"Sorry. Here, I just finished baking Dorotea's cupcake, how about you taste it?" he mumbled as and offered to sweet much to Dorotea's dismay.

"Hey! I was the one that ordered that!"

"Shut up, you're scaring the recruit."

"Don't steal my line! And it's a muffin not a cupcake!"

"SAME SHIT!"

Piero's dark-brown eyes squinted at Dorotea whose hazel eyes shook from the anger she was currently feeling towards the leisurely man.

"Oh wow, this taste good actually..."

Both of them turned towards Sylvia who had already eaten half of the pastry in a single bite causing her to blush and cover her mouth with her hands.

"Sorry, it just smelled good, and I couldn't help myself"

"That's a relief, looks like Dante didn't switch the sugar and salt this time."

"Hmm? Why?"

"Let's just say... It wasn't a very fun day." Dorotea mumbled and visibly shivered as Piero muttered an amen beneath his breath.

"Can't you just tell them apart by the taste?" Sylvia asked while rubbing her hands together to remove the leftover crumbs that clung on them.

"Oh, can't."

"Why? It's easy though?"

"Well, for some. But thing is, I can't taste anything"

"... Pardon?"

"Oh, he lost his sense of taste in an accident" Dorotea and Piero told Sylvia casually that she began to think there wasn't anything wrong but quickly shook her head.

"Isn't he the main chef!?"

"Yeah?"

"How can he cook without tasting things!?" Sylvia shouted with an exasperated voice as she took the small cup filled with coffee and downed it in one gulp.

"AND STILL MAKE IT DELICIOUS??"

"Uh... That was my cup."

"Oh, I just cook but I follow a very strict set of recipes." Piero answered Sylvia's question while ignoring Dorotea's complaint.

"Recipes?"

"Yeah, the boss actually made them all and we just follow them step by step." Dorotea sighed and finished Piero's explanation before handing Sylvia a pocket notebook.

"Oh, just so you know. If you steal his recipes, then you're dead."

"Eep!"