Chapter 48 Brawling vs Cooking? (2)

"Alright, here comes our contestants, all ready to show us their best!!" 

Hearing the announcer's voice, Yuki steeled her heart, a single sigh escaping her lips, "Let's do this," she whispered, walking out with the other contestant.

"Here they are, our contestants!!!" the announcer roared as Yuki and the other contestants walked out. 

The crowd erupted in a thunderous cheer, their excitement electrifying the atmosphere as it surged through them like a wave.

From within the spectator balcony, Jaylen, Brandon, and Sarah watched with great interest.

"You guys see anyone interesting, they could become our next private chef," Brandon questioned with a smirk, his arms crossed. 

"Are you really looking for your next private chef among our schoolmates?" Sarah gazed at Brandon like he was crazy for even having such an idea.

"And you're not, oh, of course not, you're probably looking for your next meal instead," he retorted

Sarah's brows knitted together in frustration as she let out an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Tch, who's looking for their next meal? If I'm looking for my next meal, what use do I have for you, darling?"

Before they could continue their back and forth, Jaylen interrupted, his cold voice quickly grabbing their attention, "There's Yuki."

Brandon and Sarah both looked where he pointed. There stood Yuki dressed in uniform, her hair neatly tied behind her. She was calm at her station, a faint chill in the air each time she exhaled.

"She looks like she's about to duel her dinner." Brandon joked.

"I think it's starting," Jaylen commented, as one of the judges stood, raising his hand, asking for silence.

"Ahem, you have thirty minutes to craft your finest Hamburger steak. Any ingredients you need can be found within the spatial compartment next to your stations. All ingredients are the same across all stations. All spells and techniques are allowed. Within five minutes, a special ingredient will be revealed.

You may all begin!!!"

The contestants leaped into action. Fires flare, Knives flash, and spices float through the air. A contestant reveals a metal pan of their own, placing it on the stove. Runes lit up around its edges.

"Oooh, Contestant number 23 has surprisingly revealed their own pan. The runes on it seem to be a gravity array for flotation. I wonder what our judges have to say about that." The announcer yelled with a dramatic flair as the screen zoomed in closer on the contestant.

Standing from his seat, the green-haired judge began to speak, his voice echoing loudly, "Understanding how to use the tools in your kitchen is essential to elevate your cooking beyond something a five-year-old can throw together in a few minutes.

However, within the cooking sphere, many ideologies exist. I, myself, am within the idea of not relying on my tools to do everything for me. So I frankly dislike the idea and–"

Another judge stood up, interrupting the first, her lightly blue hair shimmered gently in the sun, "I would have to disagree with you, Carel dear. Using a tool to help cook isn't something to frown upon, especially in this case, where they only have half an hour to cook their finest dish.

And I would much rather have a complete dish to taste than a hodgepodge of incomplete dishes. What do you think, Vanessa?"

The last of the third-year judges stood, her raven-colored hair swaying behind her, "Haa, do you two always have to drag me into your disagreements, you know what don't answer that.

Ok, now, here's my opinion: this is a competition to join the cooking club, where their only goal is to cook their best hamburger steak, not how they cook it, or whatever philosophy matches their cooking style. The former may be more important once they are in the club, but it's of no consequence for now."

"Now that we have most of the judges' opinions, let's focus back on the competition, where some interesting development is taking place.

Contestant number 23, our main focus, has prepared their patties and is almost ready to begin cooking, while it would be great to understand what our contestant put in the patties, we sadly missed it. But we are in luck." As the announcer finished speaking, the large screen moved off of contestant 23 before focusing on two other contestants.

"Contestants 45 and 44 are currently in the process of creating the mixture for their hamburger patties. So let's give them a shout of encouragement, Woooo!" Her hand shot up in the air as the crowd cheered, their voices like thunder rumbling.

Contestant 45, known as Yuki, and contestant 44 reached into their spatial compartments, intent on retrieving what they needed.

Contestant 44's expression brightened as she removed her hand from the compartment, tightly clutching a piece of meat that radiated a fiery aura.

A few gasps rang out from the crowd. "Is that?" 

"What is it, Jaylen?" Sarah questioned

"Well, this just got a whole lot more interesting." He smirked, the coldness in his eyes deepening ever so slightly as he continued watching.

Hearing the gasp from the crowd, Yuki looked away from her compartment, her eyes landing on the piece of meat held by the other contestant.

Almost instantly, a chill swept over her station, covering it in a thin layer of frost, a sharp contrast to her eyes burning with anger.

"Oh, what's this? Is our little ice princess angry?"

Yuki remained silent, her eyes scanning the girl before her, "Huff." Turning away, she resumed looking for the ingredient she needed.

Inwardly she thought 'Who does this stupid b*tch think she is, daring to use the meat of a phoenix while standing next to me. I'll put this low-class witch in her place.' Glinting sharpness flashed through her eyes as she yanked her arm out of her spatial compartment, holding a piece of meat high in the air.

Her gaze turned not to contestant 44 but towards the crowd, more specifically the spectator balcony, where her gaze met his.

"Ha ha ha," he threw his head back in laughter, fingers raking through his hair as if brushing off the moment's weight.

"Whoa!! Jaylen, what's wrong?" Sarah jumped, surprised by his outburst.

"That piece of meat… It's of dragon origin, and it's fairly fresh."

"What! Is it a True Dragon?" Sarah quickly asked

"Hmp, as if," He said it with such conviction, as if the very idea had never crossed his mind.

"Oh," She responded, clearly not interested anymore.

Back over to Yuki, she had already finished grinding the dragon meat and adding it to a bowl for later. Grabbing the glacium onion, she cut it in half, throwing one to the side while finely mincing the other.

Placing a pan on the hob, she summoned a small flame in her hand. Its cool blue light resembled early morning frost as she tossed it lightly within the hob, igniting the wood into a flame.

As the blue-white flame licked across the iron pan, the air turned crisp. A chill shimmer spiraled upward—Yuki's frost fire had begun its work.

A few drops of oil lay in the pan, quickly followed by the minced onions. She stirred the diced glacium onions until they turned glassy and fragrant, her frost fire coaxed out the onion's sweetness without breaking form—each piece still firm, still alive with bite.

Taking the pan off the heat, she set it to the side before grabbing another bowl, pouring into it exactly two tablespoons of panko. Then, soaking it in one tablespoon of low-grade alchemical milk, also called spellmilk.

She grabbed the bowl of ground dragon meat, added the onions from the pan, mixed in the panko, cracked an egg into it, and then lightly seasoned the mixture.

Putting on gloves, she dipped her fingers into the mixture before activating her phoenix bloodline, chilling the mixture.

Once it was adequately cool, she split it in half before forming the mixture into two oval-shaped steaks. Placing the pan back on the heat, after adding more oil to the pan, she gently lowered the patties into the pan.

The sound of sizzling filled the air, not just from her station but from many others as well. Though she stood by her station and could only smell what she was cooking, she couldn't help but feel bad for the crowd who would have to smell the mixture of different scents.

She felt even worse thinking about Sarah and Jaylen, who had sensitive noses, but it was their choice to be here, so they could only deal with it.

Focusing back on the food, she willed the frost fire to intensify, quickly searing the outer edges, encasing moisture inside a thin elemental crust. Lowering the heat once more, she kept them in the pan to allow them to fully cook internally.

Taking the chance, she looked over to contestant 44, who had just begun to prepare the ingredients for the glaze. 

'She's just now getting those ingredients out. Tch, I knew she was all talk,' Yuki thought, completely disregarding her early anger.

After a short minute of observing the other contestants, she returned her attention to the pan. Scooping the patties out, she set them on a cooling rack to rest.

Just then, one of the judges stood up, his voice echoing over the area, "It's time to introduce the surprise ingredient. This year's surprise ingredient is… Starshroom. Use it well, or your steak will eat your reputation alive." 

"Starshroom, huh, perfect," Yuki mumbled, looking at the ingredient that appeared on her station, and without wasting any time, got to work.

Using the same pan, she begins by pouring half a cup of shadow-wine reduction, deglazing the pan with a slow stir. Then adding two tablespoons of wrym-soy, one tablespoon of redroot glaze, and Worcester hex, letting it shimmer till thick.

While that shimmered, she grounded up a portion of the starshroom into a fine powder before folding in a tablespoon of voidbutter and a dash of the starshroom powder, stirring clockwise with wind magic to prevent curdling.

After tasting the sauce and feeling satisfied with the taste, she began plating. Placing the hamburger steak in the center of the heat-insulated obsidian plate, she then dizzled the sauce in a spiraling arc around it. At last, she garnished it with flash-frozen star petals and a single candied ice phoenix feather flake.

"There," She said with a smile, looking at her creation. "Now for the next part," she added, proceeding to clean her station.

After ten more minutes, the judges called time, allowing all contestants the chance to plate whatever they had done. After walking around and disqualifying anyone without a complete or cooked dish, they then went through and tested each dish to ensure it was edible or, more correctly, safe for them to eat as humans.

After a lengthy process, they finally started to taste the remaining dishes one by one until it was finally Yuki's turn.

The judges didn't waste time, each taking a bite before placing a crystal on top that briefly flashes red, then pink, to green, and at last a warm gold.

Giving her a nod, the judges walk away to the next contestant, and within a few more minutes, they were back on stage, ready to announce the rankings.

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{A/n} I wanted to talk about what is going to happen to this book going forward since I went on hiatus.

Firstly, this story will continue, just at a slower update frequency, especially when I take into consideration how important this book is to the other books I've been writing to release. (though this book doesn't directly interact with those in a normal manner)

Second, I want to write this book to continue improving my writing overall. This book won't be getting a contract unless I want to try one last time(I won't), but even then, I like the story I have planned out for this book and want to write it and will bring it to life in any form I can.

At last, like I mentioned in my first point, I'm working on two new books, one will be released soon(or now, depending on when this chapter is released) while the other will be released later when I can manage to write both in a reasonable amount of time.

I thank everyone for reading, even if you read only one chapter or all 48. this is not the end of the journey but the next chapter.