The Archmage’s Restaurant, an adventurous and magical webtoon with a passion for food, follows the quirky (and delicious!) missions that Ellesion, an extremely talented and powerful archmage, undertakes through the business of his restaurant. Previously, in The Archmage’s Restaurant, El befriends Rayne and Knoll, the butcher, and officially makes them his meat supplier. A Black Dragon elder informs El and Lurine, his dragon companion, that she needed a lair by the next year. Since she’d have to leave El’s side otherwise, the archmage decides to make Lurine a lair of her own. Let’s further explore The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 7-12!
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 7: Master El, the Wise One
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 7 begins as Dieran, the young noble boy whose palace El had secretly teleported to, starts to panic over the people at his door. El advises him to assert his authority over them, and when he isn’t able to, Lurine uses his voice to shout at them to leave him alone. Having no other choice, they listen to Dieran (or Lurine as Dieran).
Once they leave, Dieran turns to El and explains his story. His mother had died giving birth, and since his father had remarried shortly, he spent most of his childhood with his strict stepmother. He’d enjoyed spending time with her, but after his father’s death, she’d become distant. All the servants started taking advantage of the young orphan, and soon Dieran became completely disregarded.
Dieran asks El to teach him ‘his ways’ and how to be a good lord, like his father. El hesitantly gives him leadership advice. Then he takes his leave, hoping the young noble wouldn’t misinterpret his words about taking responsibility.
Of course, he does just that. “A good lord is someone who strives to make food this delicious available to everyone!” he exclaims, completely reinterpreting El’s statement. Later, El and Lurine discuss the hefty sum Dieran had given them. El explains that he plans to gift the boy a guardian spirit to repay the money; he never took advantage of his customers.
Love Thy Elf
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Greyk, a large line forms outside a popular apothecary. Since it was run by an elf, Elena, the clinic was frequently visited. However, one fine day, Elena confides in Rayne- one of her only friends- that she was thinking of returning to her homeland. She’d become unhappy living as a specimen to gawk at. No one considered her extraordinary healing abilities, and simply fawned over her elf-ness. Rayne tells her to find a reason to stay and asks her to visit El’s restaurant.
In the morning, Knoll finds El digging Lurine’s cave hole. He introduces the archmage to his nephew, Nellin, who’d come to visit. Knoll informs him about Elena’s visit to his restaurant and grumbles about her demand to the male population. Commenting about elven pride, El opens the door to his restaurant, and a shocking sight.
Elena bows on the floor in front of Lurine, begging for forgiveness (the irony). High and mighty, Lurine states that she’d only allow her to live if she became her servant. Ellesion watches in horror and shouts, “What do you think you’re doing to our customer?!”, concluding Chapter 7.
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 8: The ABCs of Customer Service
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 8 begins as Lurine lies upside down on a table. Elena walks in, asking if she’d arrived at El’s restaurant. Right off the bat, Lurine compliments Elena’s beauty. But when Elena reciprocates the sentiment by calling her ‘beautiful’ and ‘much younger’, Lurine furiously flares up. Her purple aura lashes out as she reprimands the elf for calling her young (that’s odd, normally people are flattered). That’s when El had walked in and yelled at her for mistreating a customer.
After a slight tussle, El invites Knoll and Nellin inside the restaurant. Elena sits in shock, staring at the Black Dragon girl who is holding her head in pain (El must’ve learned a few moves from Rayne). She’d always heard terrible stories about the all-powerful dragons and the cities they’d decimated in rage. Elena couldn’t comprehend why this young dragon would let a human yell at her about something as mundane as customer satisfaction (don’t let El hear you talk about customers that way).
After El orders Lurine to go dig her cave, he turns his attention to the baffled elf. He realizes that she now fears him and his companion, and grumpily thinks about the terrible review she might give them. Nevertheless, she asks him for a vegetarian meal. El, without missing a beat, hurriedly runs off to make the best veggie recipe he can think of. That’s right, folks, it’s pasta time.
After a mouth-watering montage of expert cooking, El presents the vibrant dish to Elena. He walks away for a minute to serve ube belly (pork belly) to Knoll and Nellin. When he looks back at the elf, he sees her hungrily wolfing down spaghetti like a starving man.
Blood Isn’t Always Thicker Than Water
Elena stands up with an exclamation of joy and praises El’s pasta to no end. Gladly, El thinks about the revised review she could give them (four stars- not five, because of a certain not-young dragon).
Meanwhile, Knoll and Nellin begin arguing. Knoll furiously bangs the table when Nellin angrily confesses that he knows his mother isn’t related to him by blood.
At the same time, Nellin’s mother worriedly looks for her son. Carrying a basket of his lunch, she asks the villagers about his whereabouts. In the end, she concludes that he must’ve gone to work his shift in the mines and decides to bring him his food. She steps towards the caverns and disappears into the mine entrance.
Back in El’s restaurant, Knoll and Nellin continue fighting. Feeling slighted and deceived- for the past twenty years, he hadn’t known the truth about his mother- he begins yelling about the injustice. While Elena and El very conspicuously listen on to the heated conversation, Knoll explains the hardships his mother had endured to raise him. He tells him to be grateful that she’d treated him like a true son. However, Nellin tears up and explains that he’d already lashed out at his mother in confusion. Instead of calling her mother, he’d called her ‘madam’. Before Knoll can effectively harm the child, Rayne rushes in. Chapter 7 concludes as she informs them that the mine had collapsed, trapping Nellin’s mother inside.
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 9: Matters of the Heart
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 9 begins as Rayne regretfully explains that Nellin’s mother, May, must’ve walked into the mine in search of her son. Before anyone can stop him, Nellin dashes out the door. The group unanimously agrees to follow him, and Elena volunteers to accompany them. She’d be able to heal any injured people at the mine site.
At the mine, two men stop Nellin before he can run into the rubble. However, El convinces them to let him and Elena, two capable wielders of magic, assist the trapped workers.
Walking side by side through the dark mine shaft, El shields the elf from falling debris with a magic shield. He asks Elena why she’d chosen to help save the trapped workers, despite the way elves are treated. They reach a crossroads before she can answer. He summons spirits and sends them through both the tunnels to find survivors. Slowly, El and Elena work together to heal and rescue the mine workers (sending them out on floating magic stretchers- much to the rescue workers’ shock).
Before they almost give up, Elena finds Nellin’s mother sprawled on the rocky floor and quickly performs advanced magic to fix her complex injuries. Once everyone was safely outside, the group gathered around the temporary recovery shelter near the mines. Nellin’s bandaged mother lies asleep on a bed. El gives Elena credit for her incredible healing abilities and quick decisiveness that had saved his mother’s life. The elf tiredly explains that though May had been gravely injured, she’d recover in no time. Nellin’s mother would be fine.
A Reason to Stay
Kneeling beside his mother’s bed, Nellin woefully remembers his rude words from the morning and begins trembling with fear. When May wakes up, he begins loudly sobbing and apologizing. Elena watches the mother and son duo reconcile and shed tears of relief and happiness. She turns to El and explains that she did want to leave her clinic and return home, as per his suspicions. Since Rayne had advised her to find reasons to stay, she’d followed them to the mines. Human lives, although brief, are lived with utmost passion, emotion, and love. To be part of that ephemeral fire (and dine at El’s restaurant), she realizes, is something she has lived for. Sincerely, she says, “I love how honest humans are with their emotions.” And then with that dramatic revelation, Elena exhaustedly collapses into El.
Meanwhile, Lurine miserably digs her cave, grumbling about El’s rudeness. She keeps toiling away at the earth until a spray of clear water hits her in the face. Staring at a small groundwater spring, she wonders at the min-fountain, concluding Chapter 9.
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 10: Spa Day
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 10 begins as El, with his hands on his head, realizes Lurine was serious about accidentally finding groundwater, then further digging to find its source and completely drenching herself in the process.
El examines the situation and uses his eighth-tier magic to create a huge shield to support the cavern ceiling. The hot green fire he produces accidentally re-triggers Lurine’s groundwater spring, which erupts into a miniature geyser. Without thinking, Lurine rushes into the fountain for a quick shower. And before El can stop her, the hot water scalds her completely.
After rescuing Lurine and setting her safely away, El creates a small magic bubble around the fountain and lets the water pool. Effectively, he creates a hot spring cool enough to treat like a Jacuzzi. El tosses Lurine into the heated pool and gets inside himself. They relax in what is a hot tub as El tells his dragon friend about his mine mission. Lurine flares up with jealousy (not even slightly concealed, still, El doesn’t seem to understand) at the mention of Elena. He mixes up hot cocoa to lift her spirits instead.
He tackles Lurine’s pride and anti-social behaviour instead. Using the labourious process of making cocoa powder as an example, El tells her that everyone relies on someone (it’s a complicated metaphor). He says, “No matter how strong a dragon is, they can’t live alone.” Lurine doesn’t agree quite yet, and El is forced to be patient with his advice.
Bull Fighters
Meanwhile, in a battle, Ment commands his troop of soldiers against the enemy. His beloved protege, Miltein, strays too far towards the cliff and momentarily distracts him. A man swings at Ment from behind and catches him off guard. After an intense fight, Ment stabs him in the chest. However, the tenacious man doesn’t let up and grabs the old man before plummeting off the slope. Miltein yells after him in horror.
Later, El closes his restaurant. Explaining to Lurine that he wants to stabilize their milk supply, El shows her the new cattle pasture he’d built. He decides to catch berineric (picture humongous four-horned yaks) by the river, concluding Chapter 10.
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 11: A Helping Hand
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 11 begins as El requests Lurine to teleport them downstream. Although she can’t teleport to places she’s never been, she gives it a shot anyway. She succeeds in getting them to the right location- but not the right altitude. She accidentally teleports them twenty feet above the ground. In a flash, El finds himself hurtling towards the ground with a dragon that refuses to use her wings. Just perfect. Thankfully, he shields them from the impact with a spell just in time.
In the evening, Knoll, Elena, and Dieran sit outside El’s restaurant in a near-unconscious state. Each one of them had been waiting since lunch for their meals. Finally, El and Lurine return with ample berineric to domesticate in their pasture. They walk back to the restaurant and find three half-dead people sitting outside. Hurriedly, he makes meals for all of them.
While the three guests eat, El tells them of his intention to interview and hire a workhand. Knoll has the idea to help out their favourite chef and let him, Elena, and Dieran handle the interviews. Flyers and posters are put up across town. Between Knoll’s eye for capability, Elena’s judgment of character, and Dieran’s insight about interest, they make a very picky team. Soon, they blow through the entire group of aspirants until no one is left. Exasperated, El is about to politely let them off the job when one last person walks in, Miltein. She asks if she can have the job, concluding Chapter 11.
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 12: Pizza for Two
The Archmage’s Restaurant Chapter 12 begins as Miltein confesses that Ment had gotten badly wounded after his fall. Subsequently, he’d decided to retire from mercenary work. Lurine butts in and bluntly asks why she’d decided to give up her promising mercenary future if Ment had been injured. Blushing, Miltein explains that she wants to find Ment a new job and work alongside him. The group noticed Miltein’s visibly flustered expression and discussed her thirteen-year age gap with him. Both Elena and Lurine agree that age never matters, and then Miltein ends the conversation before it progresses further.
She explains how Ment had taught her every mercenary move she knew. He’d taught her everything, even bookkeeping. She wanted to work on the farm first, and this time around, teach Ment about the job. Moved by the story, El agrees to hire her.
In the next few days, El monitors Miltein as she struggles with the labour. It turns out that even under a spell, Berenice was not easy to look after. She breaks down in frustration after a few days. She’d considered the farm job as an easy one. However, she hadn’t been able to execute a single task well. Wallowing in the berineric pen, some of the gentle giants begin to nuzzle against her.
Later, she brings the impressed El a bucketful of fresh milk. El gets straight to work. He decides to make pizza for Ment and curdles the milk into stringy mozzarella cheese. He tells Miltein to admit her feelings to him and says, “If it’s from the heart, it always works.” Chapter 12 concludes as the group rings Ment’s doorbell and Miltein, with butterflies fluttering in her stomach, gets ready to confess.
