Tenth Meal - Barbeque skewers (Part 4)

The night passed and the new day came.

Finally, it was time for the festival.

The restaurant still operated like normal during the day and the festival was set for four in the afternoon Earth time.

For many of these worlds, there was a time difference between them and Earth.

There were worlds where it was morning while it was night on Earth. There were worlds where it was night at the same time as Earth. There were also worlds where it was the middle of the night when it was the afternoon on Earth.

Luckily, the festival was set to last eight hours, so there was plenty of time for everyone to come to the festival.

But there were people that were so excited that they came at the beginning regardless of what time it was in their world.

When they arrived, they were greeted with a face full of smoke, but they didn't mind.

After all, that face full of smoke was filled with flavour, flavour that came from the meat currently being grilled on the grill.

The tables that were normally in the restaurant had all been removed and in their place were several large grills that had skewers of meat currently cooking. At each grill was a sign that indicated what kind of meat was currently being grilled on it.

Out of consideration for the people who couldn't eat certain types of meat, there were many different kinds of skewers that were offered at this festival.

Also out of consideration of the people who couldn't read, there were drawings that were also drawn on each of the signs for them…However, the drawing actually made it harder for them to make out what was actually being offered.

After all, it was hard for them to understand when it came to drawings like these…

Some people couldn't even help questioning them.

"Who made these drawings? I can't understand them at all."

"Is this supposed to be a chicken? Why does it look like the antlers of a deer?"

"This is a cow? Isn't this supposed to be some kind of eight legged spider?"

Those were just some of the criticisms that rang out through the restaurant when people saw the drawings for the first time, but these criticisms were quickly silenced. After all, the one that drew these drawings was…Yami.

The moment that they found out about this, they immediately wanted to apologize.

It was just too bad for them that Yami was already standing behind them cracking her knuckles.

She didn't beat them up so badly that they wouldn't be able to enjoy the festival anymore, but she definitely didn't hold back too much either. There was still healing magic that she could use to heal some of the wounds she caused.

But it was just too bad that the customers came in waves and there was always someone that didn't know who drew these drawings.

So in the end, it was just an endless cycle of ignorant people getting beaten.

Still, all of that didn't put a damper on the mood of the festival as everyone filled their plates with different skewers.

Each skewer had a different taste to it and not just because they were made with different kinds of meat. Even the skewers that had the same kind of meat had different tastes because there was different seasoning used between them.

There were a total of four different seasonings that were used.

One was the most basic barbeque sauce, one was a soy sauce based sauce, one was a miso based sauce, and the last one was made with a simple splash of cumin and salt.

Each one had a different taste just because of the condiments alone and with the different types of meat, it was a wonderland of tastes.

It didn't take long before there were many different factions that had gathered in the store based on their favourite seasoning.

The biggest surprise though was that the largest faction was the cumin and salt faction.

People really seemed to like this simple combination, but it wasn't surprising since this simple combination was indeed delicious.

After all, the cumin and salt was the best way to suppress the gamy taste that some of the stronger tasting meat had.

While the more gamy meats like lamb and venison had a strong taste, the sauces that were used were still able to compliment it and still tasted delicious. However, it was only the strong tasting cumin that was able to completely suppress it and bring it to a completely different level of taste.

The rich taste of the cumin mixed perfectly with the umami of the meat, bringing it to a level that was like rich smoothness that slid down the throats of all who ate it.

So in the end, it was the cumin faction that had the most members.

Of course, the other skewers were also delicious.

The barbeque sauce was a classic, providing the meat with a tangy taste that had a bit of sweetness to it, enriching the umami of the meat.

The soy sauce based sauce provided a hint of saltiness to the meat that created a contrast with the oils and juices that came out, accenting the richness of the oil and making the taste even stronger.

As for the miso based sauce, it was salty just like the soy sauce based sauce, but it was also much more earthy and richer which created a more bold taste with the oil and juices of the meat. It was much smoother going down compared to the soy sauce based sauce, plus there was a hint of sweetness that went along with it.

All of these skewers were delicious and there was a scramble to get more.

Luckily, Lin Fan and his assistant chefs were more than capable of keeping up with them. They had run this restaurant for this long now, so they were far faster than normal chefs and were able to easily feed everyone.

Once the festival was halfway finished, it was time for the Gluttony King contest to begin.

The contest would last for two hours, so there was still plenty of time for people to come, but the people that came late would be handicapped. They would only have as much time as before the contest ended to compete.

But of course, those that were there from the beginning wouldn't have the absolute advantage since there was a rule that helped keep it fair.

One could only compete for as long as they could keep eating and if they stopped for more than five minutes, they would be considered out and they wouldn't be able to compete anymore.

The smart people would eat slowly to make full use of their two hours, but there were plenty of people that couldn't hold back and stuffed their faces as quickly as possible. It didn't even take half an hour before these people dropped out of the contest.

Among the people that were competing, there were quite a few familiar faces.

One of the surprising combinations in the contest was…Ah San and his father in law Oberon.

They hadn't been planning on competing at first, but he had been egged on by his daughters…

It wasn't Flora, but rather her little sisters.

They had asked Oberon who was better between him and Ah San and he took this personally. So he dragged Ah San over to the contest and signed them both up, giving him no choice in this matter.

But of course, as a slender elf, Oberon really wasn't suited for something like this. Not to mention that he was slowly showing signs of aging and could no longer do the things that he had been able to do as a young man.

So it didn't take long for him to fall behind Ah San even though Ah San had deliberately held back.

There was only so much that he could hold back by before it seemed suspicious, but even then he still couldn't let Oberon win.

Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, Oberon's daughters had completely forgotten about him. They had run off with the other little kids in the restaurant and were currently playing hide and seek.

They wouldn't see him lose…but they also wouldn't see him doing his best for them…

It was unknown which one would have hurt him more.

There were also the four lonely dogs who had met up and entered the contest together.

It was just too bad that the same thing happened for Rare Steak where his daughters also ignored him to play with their friends…

But at the very least, the four of them had quite the fun time competing together so Rare Steak was able to cheer up because of the fact that he was with friends.

Though that only lasted until they saw Finn and Amphi together.

Finn had entered the contest and Amphi was sitting by his side helping him.

She helped him take the meat off the skewers and put them onto plates that she handed to him. Like this, he was able to continue eating the meat without stopping to bite them off the skewers.

It was actually quite the efficient process and he was able to quickly soar to the top of the leaderboards.

At the same time, it broke the hearts of quite a few single dogs that were forced to swallow this dog food along with the skewers. They quickly filled up on the dog food and withdrew from the contest…

They really couldn't eat anymore with the two of them spraying dog food everywhere…

But in the end, it wasn't Finn and Amphi who had won in the end.

To everyone's surprise, it was a little fairy who won the whole thing.

This fairy was only around two feet tall and weighed less than twenty pounds, so everyone couldn't help wondering where all the food that she stuffed down went…

The food that she ate was already several hundred times her body weight and yet she still didn't seem like she was full.

The only reason she stopped was because time was up, not because she couldn't eat anymore.

Looking at this little fairy, Yami couldn't help feeling fear as she handed the month pass to her…

She only hoped that this little fairy wouldn't eat them out of house and home.

After all, it wasn't as if she couldn't not give her the pass…

That would hurt the reputation of the restaurant and they would lose more than just paying for this little fairy's meals.

But luckily for her, the little fairy didn't eat that much the next time she came.

The only reason that she had eaten that much was because she had starved herself for three days after seeing the poster for the Gluttony King contest.