26 Employees

[A few days earlier, Kira POV]

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" I say, looking down at the exhausted Jean lying on the couch. "You have been living here for free, so the most you could do was repay me like this, plus wouldn't you say it was at least a bit fun?"

"Well, it doesn't hurt to do some physical exercise every once in a while." She says after catching her breath.

Getting up in a sitting position, she looks at her reflection in the window as her face turns into a frown. "Damnit, look what you did to me. It's going to take forever to wash all this white stuff out of my hair."

At least she doesn't seem to mind the sorry state of her clothes.

The door to the kitchen opens from behind the counter, and another girl with bright orange hair looking just as dirty as Jean walks out carrying some cold bottles of water.

Taking one of the bottles, Jean opens and all but downs it in one go. "Ahhh, thanks, Kiara, I really needed that."

Giving her a smile, Kiara gives one of the water bottles to me, which I quickly drink. "So now that the walls are up, how exactly are we supposed to make a roof? I've never done construction before, so this is all new to me."

Oh, right, the girls and I were busy expanding the cafe for a new feature I have been thinking about adding for quite a while now - a dungeon simulation.

We tore down one of the walls and built new ones to make the cafe nearly three times as big as it was before. Starting on the same day I sent the others to the Remnant, we spent about two days building up the walls, and today we painted the walls white.

During the first day, it was just me and Jean working with Kiara spectating and joking about wanting to help us but being unable to due to being a bird.

I oh so helpfully suggested that Jean could buy her a skill for 1500 CC to let her transform into a human, that promptly shut Kiara up but unfortunately for her, it was too late as Jean had bought the skill without hesitation, and Kiara was put to work just like Jean.

"Oh, the roof is quite easy," Snapping my fingers, a roof in the same style as the previous part of the cafe appears over the newly constructed walls.

Seeing the roof just materializing out of nowhere, the two girls have their eyes practically bulging out of their heads as they drop their water bottles.

After getting over their immediate shock, they both turn to me, and Jean asks, "Couldn't you have just done that before, why did we spend so long working on this?"

Well, of course, I could have, that's how I built the cafe in the first place.

"It was more fun this way?" I shrug

Before they can protest further, the front entrance opens, and four familiar figures enter.

Choosing to stay quiet for now, the three of us look as the new guests go through a minor existential crisis before Loki starts laughing loudly. "Looks like the world is a lot bigger than we thought, huh."

"Hmm… yeah," Hephaestus says, no longer wearing her eyepatch. "How did we get here though, last I remember, I was just going my forge."

Getting over her own crisis quickly, Hestia is back to normal, nodding along, "Same question, I was going home from wor- I mean going home from my walk around Orario and suddenly ended up here." She looks flustered at almost revealing the fact that she has been working as a goddess.

In the back, Freya says nothing, stuck in her own thoughts and not paying attention to what is happening around her.

Snapping my fingers once again to clean the three of us up, something that the girls seem to appreciate, I welcome the new visitors. "Welcome to the cafe, sorry we were in the middle of work before. Can I get you all something?"

Waving away my apology Loki takes the lead in the conversation, something Hestia and Hephaestus happily let her do. "Don't worry about it. We are just guests here, so no need to worry about us."

Pulling out the business card I distributed to them before and presenting it to me, she continues, "You said something about getting rid of the shackles of our divinities? Could you tell us more about it? You probably already know, but gods… in our world get strongly influenced by their divinities."

She sounded very hesitant, calling herself and the others of her world gods, probably afraid to offend me.

"Ah, don't worry about it. You are all gods in your own right." I make a store menu open in front of all of them. "I could give you all a piece of equipment like a ring or a necklace that removes the effect your divinity has on you."

Hearing me, they all get excited, but Loki asks, "And what would that cost us? I doubt it would be cheaper than 100 CC."

"Each one costs 1000 CC, but I will make you a deal," I say, and they pay close attention. "You can get the divinity restricting equipment now, but you will have to work here until you pay off your debt."

Hestia looks ready to accept right away, but Hephaestus covers her mouth to keep her quiet.

"What exactly would we be doing and for how long?" Loki asks. She looks unaffected by the offer but honestly would probably accept any conditions in order to get her hands on the equipment. Well, I won't rip them off too hard.

"Well, to start with, you would all work here for three years." I point to Loki first, the tip of my finger just centimeters from her nose. "You first, Loki, do you know how to cook?"

Not expecting the question, Loki looks stumped. "Uh…no?"

"Well, that's to be expected, I guess. No worries though, you get a freebie cooking mastery skill to make you the best chef in the universe while working here. You will be the cook."

She looks pleased by the job she got, accepting it readily.

"Next, Hestia." I now turn to her. "You will be the waitress, so you have many tasks such as cleaning the cafe as well as delivering food to those who ordered."

"I will do my best." She says, giving me a salute.

"Ah, what about me?" Freya asks, speaking up for the first time.

"You? Uh...I guess I need someone to wash the dishes."

Hearing this, she looks devastated and unwilling. Hesitantly she asks, "Is there nothing else?"

"Sorry, I can't think of anything right now." I give her an apologetic smile, but really this was always the plan. I never liked her in the first place, she was kind of a bitch.

Hearing me tell Freya that there isn't anything else, Hephaestus speaks up. "So, is there any job you have to offer me?"

"Actually, yes, I would like you to open up a smithy here so others could commission work for you by paying CC. I will even increase your blacksmithing skills."

She nods, "That's fine. Will I work in my own smithy, or will you make me one here?"

Hearing this question, the ones to react are Jean and Kiara, who have stayed quiet ever since the four entered.

"Wait, no…" Jean says, looking at my back with a pleading look.

"We will build you a smithy here that is identical to the one you have back in your own world," I tell Hephaestus before turning to the two girls with a smile, pointing at a wall behind them. "Grab the sledgehammer. We have another wall to knock down."

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Notes: Some may have missed the update before, but the upload frequency for this fanfic is dropping from daily to 2 or 3 chapters a week for several reasons.

1.) To write something of acceptable quality (by my standards, which ain't high), I feel like I need to take more time for chapters instead of rushing them.

2) This semester at university, I have more classes that require more homework, so I have less time in general for writing.

3) I'm working on another fanfic idea that would be a lot easier to write for me (I'm hoping) since it's going to be mostly first person. I have like 20 google docs pages of planning and ideas written out and the first chapter already written but I won't publish until I have more of a backlog to snuff out any problems I notice ahead of time.