The shopping district gets really busy in the noon time, especially today. This is because today is Saturday, the day everyone gets out for shopping. Every government establishment here have a half day on Saturday followed by Sunday being holiday. Because of this most people as soon as they finish work on Saturday 12pm, they go out to shop so they can relax in their homes on Sunday. The female district had many females coming and going, and among them carrying their shopping were men, their husband or possibly their fiancé.
Most of the men came here as soon as their work finished at 12 with their wives, this caused them to be dead tired, going around shops looking at the same things.
Suddenly all the men could smell a mouth-watering fragrance, slowly followed by their wives. Even though their female partners were reluctant to leave their shopping, they understood that their male partners were tired and needed something to eat. So, they slowly followed the fragrance to its source, to find an unusual shop in the middle of female district called 'Luxury Meals'.
Many entered the shop, with so many rules and regulation, although apprehensive about the warning of the price. What greeted them when they entered was a beautiful restaurant that made them feel like they are floating in the water. It soothed their tired mind. They came forward to find a board saying 'Discounted Price of Meals'. Although the discounted price for all 3 meals came to a total of 7 silver, many of them didn't want to spend as 7 silver for the low class is like £700, for the middle class its like £70.
But few of them came forward to see the original menu to be shocked at the original price. Many of the women wanted to leave as soon as they say the original price but their partner held them in saying 'Lets just give it a try', 'If the food is not worth it we will ask for a refund', 'I will treat you', 'We will just buy 1 item from the menu and share it' etc. Many of the men were hungry and tired and they just didn't want to walk for another 30 minutes to reach the food district and buy from there when they could just buy from here.
Worried that they might lose more of their shopping time many women gave in to their partners rant. Soon some of them came up to order, the young teen in front of them just smiled as he took orders from each of them while he assigned a table and chair number for each order. Soon after 10 partners came up and all the tables and chairs were occupied the teen shouted "All tables and chairs are full. Please wait for all the people sat down to finish their meal before making more order."
He left after saying that. Not wanting to wait for that long many people that were standing wanted to just leave, when their partners started feeling annoyed. But not even few seconds passed everyone were enchanted by the smell coming from behind the desk. It reminded them of the most delicious food they ever tasted. It was like they could almost taste what was being cooked by the smell. Slowly people started coming close to the desk to smell the aroma even more, including the people sat down.
After about 5 minutes the teen came out of kitchen pushing a trolley filled with plates, for each couple. A situation similar to what happened in the morning came again. All the people followed the people with food to their table, and watched as they ate the food, while imagining it was them eating it. What followed was a variety of expression for each table, as each of them ordered either the salad or soup and rarely some of them the steak.
Soon finishing what they were eating many of them stood up to make another order. Many of them were sharing the meal with their partner, so none of them felt like they had enough and left them feeling unsatisfied. As soon as they came up to order more the boy shouted, "The people who have already made the order please go back and come after other people have finished making their order." Soon many of them regretted not ordering 1 meal for each of them before.
The crowd who were surrounding the other table awoke from their trance and started queuing to make order. Many of them seeing the expression and the smell emitted by the meals, ordered all 3 meals for each person not willing to share it with their partners. That was the day many middle-class couples lost all their savings.
Seeing a queue form outside of the shop, formed by people who wanted second serving, many passer-by to joined them after hearing the review from them. Along with that many of them were able to smell the delicious mixed aroma of the soup, salad and steak coming from the restaurant. After the second batch finished their meal they too joined the ever-growing queue to get seconds. Soon after the first batch finished their second serving, and as they were thinking whether to order for takeaway, as they were bloated from eating too much, the teen at the desk shouted to them "No takeaway unless you bring in your own ingredients or have a membership. And no wasting food, if you waste food you will be blacklisted."
Hearing the teen giving them order many wanted to ask how to get the membership. But as soon as they heard the price of the membership they wanted to beat the kid up. Seeing their enraged face, the boy calmly said "You want to beat me up, go ahead. But don't blame me for what happens when you get blacklisted from the shop and get charged for assaulting a royal prince of the emperor."
Hearing he was a prince many of the enraged couples and people in the queue were shocked. Soon the people in the queue started murmuring and passed the news till the back of the queue that the teen in the shop is a royal prince.
Many of the enraged couple ran quickly from the shop not wanting to anger and royal prince and face the consequence.
Many hours passed as the queue kept growing and growing till it reached one end of female district. Half of the queue was filled with people going for second serving, while the other half was filled with couples who wanted to taste the delicious food described by the people in the queue, and adding onto the fact the smell from the restaurant, and telling them the original price and the discount going on many didn't even want to leave the queue. Many people even came from other district informed and urged by their friends or neighbours that have visited the restaurant to visit it.
But alas soon it reached 8pm. This was the general time where all shops were closed in the market district as the owner wanted to go home early to enjoy their weekend. Many in the queue despaired not being able to eat anything. As they were about to go back home dejected the people in the queue in front suddenly started cheering. Asking what it was they were informed the prince informed them that he was going to serve all of them till the queue is finished even if the chef has to cook till next day. Coupled with the fact it was Sunday tomorrow, many got the motivation to wait in the queue no matter how long.
All that were planning to return stayed in the queue wanting to taste the food that they might never again taste in their life. Seeing the commotion and people still waiting in the queue many patrolling police officers were drawn to the people. One of them asked "What the hell are you guys doing here at 11 pm? Shouldn't you be going home to get some sleep?" Hearing about the ridiculous description of the food in the restaurant many officers were shocked. The patrolling officers tried to persuade them to go home, but suddenly they were reminded by someone in the crowd that the restaurant was run by a royal prince. Knowing it was run by a prince, they left place. They never want to anger a prince especially if it's a prince of the emperor. They planned to inform their superior when their shift is over about the strange queue caused by the prince.
The ever-growing queue and second eaters lasted until 8am in the morning. Many owners who left last night were shocked when they came back in the morning to find out the restaurant was still running and had a queue till morning. Many of them joined the last batch of queue to taste the food. Alas they could only eat one serving as many of them had breakfast at their home before coming.
Often times people came for third or even fourth serving. When the joined the long queue by the time they reached the restaurant they felt they could eat again. Many people only left after emptying all their savings they had. The refreshing taste of food kept many people coming back till they emptied their pockets, causing them to even put sleep aside for eating.
After 8am the queue was finally gone. Ez smiled as he walked out of the shop carrying a board. He took out the board saying, 'Opening discount for the first day' out and replaced it by the board in his hand saying, 'Opening Discount over, prices back to normal'.
I could have closed the shop early and went back to bed early, but that meant losing that many potential customers. No, they shouldn't be called customers but free advertisement. I am sure the patrolling officers must have alerted their superiors of the unusual queue. Coupled with the fact that the spies keeping eye on me by the emperor and other nobles -that wanted to see what a soulless that enter the competition could do with his new restaurant- must have reported back to their masters of the unusual queue. I don't even have to wait that long most likely in the next 24 hours the whole capital will be informed of a restaurant, that made people lose sleep to queue.
I don't even have to worry about the small-time thugs and people that want to disrupt my business, as they all are scared by the title of Royal Prince, alas for them they don't know that I am a poor prince without any backing. Even the other noble faction, not supported by the emperor by now must have been alerted about my attempted assassination, and my mysterious backer, by their informants in the emperors faction. Soon I won't even have to worry about thugs sent by nobles to close down the business, as they will be afraid of who the mysterious noble supporting me will be. No lower nobles don't want to piss me off to find out that they pissed off one of the commandment nobles.
For a while, until I develop my virus, my protection will be the so-called mysterious noble who is supporting me.