Descent of the Demon Master

ers of his pizzeria.
As such, he knew that his duty was to be as polite as possible to them.

“Mister Owner, can you take your chef ’s hat off for us just this once?”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head.
“I ’m sorry, but I can ’t do that.
I have to go back to the kitchen, you see.”

“Eii~, you can wear a bandana instead, you know? That chef ’s hat is cramping up your looks, you see.
Well, you ’re still good-looking regardless, though!”

“But, my hat—”

“…Will be changed to a bandana from tomorrow onward!” Ju Yeong-Gi abruptly cut Kang Jin-Ho off, thereby ruthlessly crushing his friend ’s opinion on the matter.
He even ignored Kang Jin-Ho ’s sharp glare.

The customers clapped their hands in delight at Ju Yeong-Gi ’s prompt response.
“And, and! Can the owner give us his autograph?”

“Autograph?” Kang Jin-Ho awkwardly smiled again.
“My apologies, but I have never signed an autograph before, so…”

“Oh…”

Just before the girls ’ disappointment could be fully expressed, Ju Yeong-Gi grabbed the scruff of Kang Jin-Ho ’s neck and yanked him back.
Then, he addressed the girls while giving them a smooth grin.
“We can always design a new autograph right away.
Any customer ordering a large pizza for takeaway will receive our owner ’s personal autograph as well!”

Kang Jin-Ho hurriedly cried out, “N-no, stop it!”

“We want to order takeaways!”

A victorious smile formed on Ju Yeong-Gi ’s face as he watched the girls nodding their heads in determination.
He just sold three large pizzas to three young ladies.
Such a stunning sales result would be unimaginable in other pizza franchises!

The corners of Ju Yeong-Gi ’s lips curled up suspiciously.
“Fufufufu…
We ’ll be rich in no time!”

Kang Jin-Ho groaned when his friend ’s grin threatened to shoot past his ears.

’

’It ’s good to see the business picking up, but… ’

At this rate, Kang Jin-Ho feared that he would be squeezed dry to death.
All these customers suddenly barging into the pizzeria didn ’t care about his pizza—they only wanted to see him.

When he tried to humor the customers by taking photos, some began hassling him about how wonderful the show was and which episode he would show up in again.
Heck, several customers even requested him to recite the line from his scene in the show, too.

’…I ’m sorry, everyone.
But…
that line was dubbed. ’

Despite his personality, Kang Jin-Ho still had the minimum level of wits about him.
He knew that carelessly opening his mouth now would only shatter the dreamy illusions these customers were swimming in.
So, he did his very best to politely decline all those requests.

The lunch hour came and went, and soon, it was dinner time—but the deluge of customers did not let up.
There were so many customers that Ju Yeong-Gi and Park Yu-Min madly rushing around the dining area to clean and reset the tables couldn ’t keep up with the demand, causing the queue to build up even more.
Of course, Kang Jin-Ho did his part by madly baking pizzas at a breakneck pace!

Without his scarcely-believable speed, the trio wouldn ’t have been able to deal with half of the customers today.

“Kehehe…! If we keep this up until midnight… How much revenue would we rake by the end of today?” Ju Yeong-Gi fell deep into an ocean of happy imagination, but the world wasn ’t that kind to dreamers.

Kang Jin-Ho quietly called out to his friend.
“Listen, Yeong-Gi.”

“Yeah? What ’s up?”

“We don ’t have enough dough.”

“…Huh? What are you talking about?” Ju Yeong-Gi jumped up in alarm.
They still have a long queue of customers waiting outside, so how could they run out of pizzas to sell?! “C-can ’t you prepare more dough?”

“No.
I need the dough to settle and mature first.
We don ’t have enough time.”

“But, d-do you really need to settle and mature the dough first?”

“Without that step, I can ’t use the dough.”

“Urgh…” Ju Yeong-Gi ’s expression cramped up to resemble a crying man, but he quickly resolved himself and stared at Park Yu-Min next to him.
“We don ’t have a choice now.
Yu-Min, let ’s resort to the final trick in our book!”

“Eh? The…
final trick?”

“…Call another pizzeria and have them deliver their pizzas to us!”

“That ’s enough, you idiot!”

***

No matter how much tears of blood Ju Yeong-Gi shed, it was still impossible to bake pizzas without dough.
When the waiting customers were told about how there would be no more pizzas for today after the pizzeria had run out of ingredients, some looked genuinely disappointed, while some others voiced their irritation.

Since individually pacifying every single person was impossible, Kang Jin-Ho decided that taking a group photo with them was the way to go.
Only then did the waiting crowd finally disperse.

Creaaak…

Kang Jin-Ho stepped back inside the pizzeria and plopped down on the nearest chair.

“That…
was a baptism of fire.
And I ’m ashes now…”

’

While muttering that to no one in particular, Kang Jin-Ho involuntarily shuddered.

’I ’d rather be in intense training instead of this! ’

Intense training would exhaust one ’s body, while today ’s event utterly drained one ’s mind instead.
It felt like he had taken at least over a hundred and fifty photos today.

“We can ’t have the same thing repeat itself tomorrow! Get the dough! Yes, we gotta prepare enough dough for tomorrow! Toppings, too!” Ju Yeong-Gi roared in anger, evidently still annoyed about being unable to sell more pizzas.
If only he had studied with such passion in high school, enrolling in a top university wouldn ’t have been a far-fetched dream for him.

“Jin-Ho, that was really tough for just three of us.
I don ’t think us three won ’t cut it anymore.”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head.
“We don ’t know when the influx of customers will go away again, so we can ’t hire part-timers.”

“Mm…
What should we do?” Park Yu-Min sighed and seriously started to ponder a way forward.

However, Ju Yeong-Gi responded triumphantly, “You ’re worried about some silly things, Yu-Min.
Aren ’t the kids at the orphanage in the middle of a school vacation?”

“Yeah.
Their semester ended not too long ago.”

“Then, get some of them to come here to work part-time.
And pay them daily wages, too.
Let them figure out the schedules among themselves, and they’ll come to work here on their own.”

“Oh…” Park Yu-Min was taken aback, his jaw slightly falling.

Ju Yeong-Gi cocked his brow.
“What is it now?”

“You know, you sometimes surprise me with how sensible you are.”

“Sometimes?!” Ju Yeong-Gi ’s face reddened in anger.
“How dare you subhumans speak of me this way when I took you under my wings and looked after you?! Sometimes?! Without me, you two would not even be able to pass off as human beings!”

“…Yes, yes.
Sure thing.”

“In any case! We gotta roll our sleeves up and do this properly come tomorrow! I don ’t know anything about a TV show or whatever, but I do know it ’s time to make hay while the sun still shines!”

Just as Ju Yeong-Gi clenched his fists with his eyes burning in the flames of determination, Kang Jin-Ho ’s phone suddenly went off.

Kang Jin-Ho promptly answered, “Hello?”

– Good evening, Mister Jin-Ho.
Do you have some free time this evening?

The caller was Jo Gyu-Min.
Kang Jin-Ho nodded slightly.
“Originally, I didn ’t, but now, I do have enough time on my hands.
Did something happen?”

– We need to meet and talk, Mister Jin-Ho.
Your items have arrived, you see?

“My…
items?” Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head.

What items was Jo Gyu-Min talking about?

1.
noodles in black bean sauce ☜

2.
’Squid ’ is a common Korean slang term for an ugly person.
In essence, she ’s saying Kang Jin-Ho makes anyone standing next to him look ugly.
☜