Juliet stared at the ceiling, indulged in her deep thoughts.
Zieve sat beside her with the same expression.
The frowns on their foreheads and the sweat that drenched their clothes indicated the exertion that their thoughts did to them.
On Zieve's right hand was a feather quill pen with the tip dipped in ink.
A table stood before the two. On the table was a canvas paper that mysteriously shone in the darkness.
"How about we keep it simple? I think that simplicity is the best when making a logo." Zieve mumbled and Juliet turned towards him and said, "If we did that, we would be accused as being lazy and slacking. Our logo should be unique, stylish yet simple at the sametime..."
Zieve mulled over Juliet's words before lifting his right hand and drawing on the canvas paper in a breakneck speed. Despite his swift movements, his drawing on the canvas looked delicate and quality remained constant.
"How about this?" Zieve completed the logo and Juliet stared at it with a frown.
"The house signifies the restaurant and the vines that surrounds it indicates how strong our foundation is and paired with the opened book at the top which means boundless knowledge, it's a good and all-around logo that covers all bases..." Zieve explained but Juliet's frown didn't disappear.
"It definitely looks stylish, simple and practical but it doesn't look unique enough. Anyone can think of this logo if they had a brain..." Juliet replied and Zieve almost choked as his expression reddened in shame.
The logo that he thought of using all of his brain power was judged by Juliet as something that anyone could easily make as long as they had the brain. Though it damaged his pride, Zieve knew that his logo definitely lacked something.
And that was normal since not everyone in this world can create something that could become a masterpiece in a whim. Art required enlightenment, inspiration and determination. And he lacked the first two.
Kneading his aching temples, Zieve crushed the canvas paper into a ball and flicked it off the table. On the ground laid dozens of crumpled canvas paper as he sighed in his heart and stared at Juliet.
"Now we're back on square one..." Zieve rolled another canvas paper and the two thought once again.
Several minutes later, Juliet took the feather quill on the table and dripped it with ink as she stood before the canvas paper. Lifting it above the paper, Juliet started her drawing.
Her movements looked amateurish and slow yet the lines that she defined on the canvas paper looked refined and pleasing to the eyes.
Zieve gulped a mouthful of saliva. Ever since Juliet transformed from a little girl to a young woman. She underwent a qualitative change. Her demeanor that reeked of innocence now blossomed with hot-bloodedness and determination.
As an inexperienced young man, Zieve's body couldn't help but react as he shyly turned his head to the side, 'Zieve, what the fuck? Juliet is your little sister, you know?! Look at how old she is!' He internally scolded himself.
Juliet continued her movements and despite the fact that she knew nothing about calligraphy and drawings. Her supreme hand and eye coordination enabled her to create the ideal logo that she had in her mind.
And the magnificience of that logo displayed itself before their eyes as Zieve's expression turned from embarrassment into complete shock at Juliet's accomplishments.
"Juliet..."
"Yeah..."
The two smiled at each other albeit the other felt somewhat bitter that a ten-years old young woman could defeat him regarding designs. However, when he remembered Juliet's monstrous parents, his indignance faded as he thought.
"Being defeated by a monster like her... I can't even feel shame..." Zieve shook his head and cleared his thoughts. His countenance brightened when he laid his eyes on the masterpiece of an art that unfolded before him.
"This is definitely it! There's nothing more suitable as our logo than this!" Zieve praised and carried the canvas paper as slowly as he could to dry out the ink. Tomorrow, they would imprint this logo on their ceramic cups and bowls as their official trademark.
The next morning, the duo were hard at work again.
Zieve hired some disciples that had nothing to do to manage the flow of customers while he observed the dozens of cauldrons and the customers.
"Wait a minute, there's something going on here, why do we keep having couples as customers? Is this something related with what Grace said to me yesterday?" Zieve saw that the lined up customers were in pairs of male and female, their expressions were glazed and he could see the desire that twinkled within their eyes.
"Those eyes, they're clearly expecting some action but shouldn't they go to the Entertainment Block instead of eating some plain old Garlic Soup? There's nothing in the soup apart from garlic and some Spiritual Vegetable garnishes..."
Zieve knitted his eyebrows and swept his gaze over the simmering cauldrons. Leaving his post, he walked towards the lined-up customers and intervened at their conversations.
"Excuse me, fellow disciple. Seeing that the two of you are a couple. May I know the reason why you came here instead of the Entertainment Block?" He randomly approached a couple and asked.
His question embarrassed the two and the female disciple hid behind her partner. The male disciple, on the other hand revealed a smirk on his face and said with a lecherous expression.
"Brother, don't you know that ever since the Dreamy House sold these Garlic Soups it became a sensation among couples due to the fact that it could enhance our performance in you know..." The disciple winked at the inexperienced Zieve mulled over his words.
"Performance in what?" The disciple's words were too ambiguous for someone like Zieve as he thought of numerous factors that included performing something in top-notch condition.
"Brother, I didn't expect that you would be inexperienced when it comes to those when you look quite fine..." The disciple lightly laughed and whispered words into Zieve's ears that made him tremble in shock and embarrassment.
Returning back to his post, Juliet asked in concern, "Zieve, what happened to you? Your face looks red all over..."
Zieve darted his gaze at her and hurriedly shook his hands in denial, "N-n-nothing..." He disappeared towards his post as Juliet stared at his disappearing back with a frown on her face.
Back at his post, Zieve took every ingredient that was part of the Garlic Soup's recipe and stared at it with shining lights within his eyes. The disciples that he hired stared with curiosity at his strange actions.
"What the hell did happen to Boss Zieve?" A fat disciple asked, his expression uncertain.
"I don't know, but he's looking at the vegetables as if he's looking at a lover..." Another disciple replied and the fat disciple interjected, "Wait, what do you mean as a lover? Are you saying that Zieve is into vegetables instead of humans?!"
The second disciple froze and thought about Zieve's attitude. Zieve was someone that prioritized his job higher than relationships and they never saw him with a member of the opposite sex. Though they were convinced that he didn't swing at the other side, they weren't completely sure about his orientation.
"That could be a possibility..." They stared at Zieve once again and the scene that they saw horrified them.
Zieve's eyes looked terrifying as he slowly took a rainbow cucumber and digged at it horizontally. Lifting the cucumber, he stared at the hole that he made with an ambiguous expression on his face.
"What the actual fuck..." The two disciples swore and fiercely darted their eyes away.
"We saw nothing, we heard nothing and we felt nothing... Let's forget everything, okay?"
The two nodded their heads and continued their work.
Zieve observed the insides of the cucumber and found nothing that could increase someone's performance when it comes to those things. Frowning, he placed it back on the table and walked towards the disciples with a slight smirk on his face.
The two disciples that discussed with each other earlier felt terrified upon witnessing the approach of the aberrant called Zieve. Placing their ladles on the table, they stood shivering and faced Zieve with a crooked smile on their faces. Afraid that Zieve may have noticed their probing earlier.
"What's wrong with you two? Both of you looks like you saw a ghost in broad daylight..." Zieve's smirk turned into a cheerful smile as he handed over a flask filled with liquor towards the two.
"Drink that and be energized, we're working hard here so we deserve something like that at the least, right?" The disciples caught the flask and stared at each other before nodding their heads. Taking turns on drinking, their expressions reddened and their eyes gleamed with energy.
Bringing them closer to him, Zieve whispered in their ears.
"Can the two of you tell me more about the hidden effects of the garnishings that we add on our Garlic Soup?" Zieve looked awkward as he asked. It was shameful to ask a layman about ingredients when he was supposed to be the most knowledgeable when it comes to it as a Head Chef.
Unfortunately, Zieve never considered the effects of the ingredients and as long as they tasted good and complemented each other well. He would add it to the dishes and weave them together like how a spider weaved their webs.
"Though I could do that, there's a wide range of effects that our garnishes and ingredients has for the body. Take the Garlic for example, according to the Longinus Pharmaceutical Company, it possesses qualities that could prevent sickness and warms the body up... What specific effect are you looking for anyway?" The disciple with a slender frame asked and Zieve lightly smiled for a moment before saying.
"Something that could improve one's carnal performance..."
"Pffft!"
The fat disciple that was in the middle of drinking from the flask, splashed everything out of his mouth as the two of them stared at Zieve in horror. Remembering the lascivious eyes that he had when staring at the cucumber made them shiver in fear once again.
"S-s-Senior...We don't know anything about that!" The fat disciple leaped in the air and made a magnificient kowtow, he even knocked his forehead on the ground, afraid that Zieve may find any faults in his pleading.
"S-s-Senior... We can give you all the cucumber that you need so please let us go!" The slender-framed disciple trembled like a leaf and his countenance looked pale, rolling on the ground, he made the same gesture as the fat man as the two of them pleaded for their lives and their backdoor.
Zieve stood still like a statue as he observed them with a confused expression on his face.
"What the hell is going on?"