Chapter 296 Tears Of Happiness

Zodiac's Fast-Food Restaurant, 16th Street Branch Unit, Sakura City.

It was just another normal day at the Zodiac's restaurant.

The place was full of customers, and the employees worked hard to serve everyone.

The Zodiac was a fast-food chain of restaurants famous worldwide.

It was founded in the S.A. a century ago, and since then, the restaurant was able to open branches all over the country, and outside the country too.

Most countries had a Zodiac branch in their territory.

So, it was safe to say that this was a successful company, but that was only for the top brass of the company.

For the people who worked in the restaurants, it was low payment job, after all, it was a fast-food restaurant.

And fast-food restaurants were well known for paying the minimum wage established by the law.

Just like in Theo's last life, there were no specific requirements for someone to work in this kind of establishment.

Everything was done to maximize the profit of the top brass.

But that was only for the attendants and cooks who worked at the restaurant, the manager of the restaurant was able to earn a bigger wage.

Even though it was still not much money, it was better than the others who worked at the store.

Amano Rio was in her office making the reports of last week's profits.

She was the manager of this branch unit on 16th Street, which meant that she was the boss of everyone working in the restaurant.

And she took her very seriously as she knew that she was lucky to land such a good job just after she graduated from the public community college.

Even though the salary was not as good as other managers earned elsewhere, for Rio, the wage she earned was enough to pay her bills and help her parents.

After her parents sold all their properties and valuable things, they were able to pay off their debt.

But they still were unemployed, so the two of them started selling fruits and vegetables in the city market.

They did this to support their daughter who was, at the time, studying in the community college.

They would do anything for Rio as they already blamed themselves for ruining their daughter's dream of being an animator.

If they did not go bankrupt, their daughter would still be studying for her dream job.

Rio was their only child, so they did not mind working all day in the market to support her.

And Rio knew all the effort her parents put on to support her as she studied.

She never blamed them for the destruction of her dreams, she understood that everything that happened was beyond her parent's scope.

She was a practical person, and even though she was sad that she was not able to realize her dream, she still lived happily with her parents.

She managed to graduate from community college and she was even able to get the position of head manager of a fast-food restaurant.

Now, she was the person with the largest income in their house.

She could perfectly support them by herself, and even though she asked her parents to stop working at the market, they refused.

They refused to spend a single cent that Rio made with her work.

They reasoned that they already ruined her dreams, so they would not accept being supported by their daughter.

Plus, they liked working at the market and earning their own money.

But with Rio's persistence, they accepted her help to pay for the food they ate during the month.

Aside from that, Rio had the rest of her salary all for herself.

But differently from other people her age, Rio did not spend that extra money.

She kept it all in her bank account, that was because she was saving money to buy a better apartment for her and her parents.

After her parents' bankruptcy, they had to move to a very bad apartment.

It was old and located in a bad neighborhood, but at least was cheap.

Like all cities, Sakura City also had poorer neighborhoods.

Although the police were always patrolling the area, crimes were more probable to happen in neighborhoods like these.

Plus, they lived on the border of the city, far from everything.

They had to leave at least 2 hours early to be able to arrive on time for work.

Rio wanted an apartment closer to the city center, and in a nicer neighborhood.

That's why she was saving all the money she could.

Rio worked through the whole morning that Saturday.

Profit reports, ingredients orders, employee evaluations, and so on.

These were some of the things that Rio, as the manager, had to do.

12:02 PM.

Rio looked at the clock and sighed.

'I should eat something before I start with these reports again.' She thought as she stood up from her seat.

She was about to head out of her office when she felt her cellphone vibrating in her jeans pocket.

Rio picked it up to see who was the caller, and she saw a name that brought a smile to her lips.

"Hey, girl!" Rio answered the phone with a lively voice.

"Hey!" Ryoko's voice came through the phone.

"What's up? Do you need something from me?" Rio asked with a playful voice.

"How come? Can't I just want to talk with my friend?" Ryoko replied with a playful voice too.

"Well, I know you are super busy with the studio you are working for. So, if you are calling me, it means you have something important to say to me." Rio giggled.

Rio knew that Ryoko was the Head Director of an Animation Studio, and she was so proud of her friend.

After all the humiliation she had to go through, she rose through it even stronger!

But Rio had to admit she was a little jealous of Ryoko, she was able to realize her dreams.

But it was only a sliver of jealously, Rio was indeed ecstatic for Ryoko's success.

"Busted!" Ryoko laughed.

Rio also laughed as she heard that.

"So, what's up?" Rio asked with a curious voice.

The last time Ryoko called her was offering a job in the animation studio she worked for, at first, Rio was ecstatic.

She finally would be able to work with animation!

But when she heard that she would have to move to Elffire City, all the excitement died off.

She could not leave Sakura City, she had to take care of her parents.

So, it was with great difficulty and full of regret that Rio refused Ryoko's offer.

But she did not dwell too much on it, she believed that her time would come someday.

"I have another job offer for you, but this time you won't need to come to Elffire City for it." Ryoko started.

Rio perked her ears and her eyes shone when she heard that.

Her heart could not help but beat faster as she waited for Ryoko's next words.

That little hope she had deep in her mind flourished.

Would her dreams become true?

"We will open a branch studio in Sakura City responsible for dealing with the voice actors and recording their voice tracks. So, we will need someone to be the manager of this studio. Someone knowledgeable in business management and animation. I recommended your name to my boss, and he accepted." Ryoko explained.

Rio could not believe what she was hearing as she froze in place.

"Rio, would you like to work as the Head Manager of our Tkyo Animation Branch Studio in Sakura City?" Ryoko asked with an excited voice.

Those words said by Ryoko were able to breach all the defenses in Rio's mind.

All the disappointment and sadness she felt for not realizing her dreams came out.

Tears could not help but fall down from her eyes.

Tears of happiness.

"Yes!" Rio replied with a brilliant smile as tears continued to stream down her cheeks.