First Test

"Can he really cook?"

Yukihira Seiichiro pulled Yukihira Soma aside and "whispered" in a voice loud enough for Xu Yue and the others to hear.

"Yeah, he’s really good."

Yukihira Soma slipped into goofy mode alongside his father, and the atmosphere around both of them suddenly changed.

"Your peanut butter squid tentacles?"

"No, it’s a new dish I came up with in a flash of inspiration…"

Yukihira Soma briefly introduced his dish.

With Yukihira Seiichiro’s skill, even that simple description was enough for him to judge the dish’s flavor and difficulty with reasonable accuracy.

While it was not a dish that particularly tested one’s cooking skills, making it taste good was still beyond the ability of ordinary chefs.

"He’s amazing. He only watched me cook it once, yet he managed to recreate seventy or eighty percent of the dish’s flavor."

Yukihira Soma did not hide his admiration. He was always straightforward and could not keep things bottled up. His happiness and anger were both written all over his face.

"Wait, are you saying he made it on the spot after watching you cook once? And you came up with that dish on the spot based on the situation here?"

Yukihira Seiichiro keenly caught the meaning behind his son’s words!

At first, he had thought his son had merely taught the other party a simple step—chopping vegetables, using the oven, washing dishes, something like that—and that the other party had successfully done it.

Given the condition of those hands, being able to do even that would already have been incredible.

But now he realized that was not the case at all!

The other party had completed an entire dish from start to finish?

Even from the lingering scent and Yukihira Soma’s description of it being seventy or eighty percent complete, he could roughly gauge the other party’s standard.

He had assumed the dish was made by his son, but that scent belonged to the other party’s cooking!

And this was a brand-new dish Soma had thought up on the spot!

His first time encountering cooking, his first time making a dish, and he had already reached this level.

This…

He had truly never seen a monster like this before!

Then let me see it with my own eyes…

"I already promised my friend I’d go help out, and I only came back this time to pack my things. So I only have half a day to teach you. What you can learn will depend on your own ability…"

Yukihira Seiichiro turned toward Xu Yue, completely dropping his goofy expression. He suddenly seemed deeply interested in him.

Let me see how much someone with no foundation in cooking can learn in half a day!

"Huh? This is definitely your fault! Otherwise, why would my old man toss me into some weird school like this?"

Sitting in Xu Yue’s luxury car, Yukihira Soma showed no awareness that he was freeloading a ride as he continued complaining to Xu Yue.

All along, Yukihira Soma had thought that after graduating middle school, he would finally have plenty of time to hone his cooking skills.

Yet his father had stuffed him into some culinary academy.

Did cooking even need classes?

He simply could not understand it. Cooking was an art that required massive amounts of practice and experience!

Sitting opposite Yukihira Soma, Xu Yue held an application form as well, looking equally unconcerned.

"Yukihira, don’t you think you can improve more effectively by sparring and honing your skills with peers of similar ability? Only when the ideas of culinary geniuses from all over collide can true sparks of wisdom emerge. Working behind closed doors by yourself has its limits."

With his family conglomerate’s capabilities, it would certainly be impossible to directly secure his enrollment, but obtaining an application form as quickly as possible was no problem. As long as he passed the entrance exam, Totsuki Academy treated everyone equally!

"Tch, you’re the least qualified person to say that. What a monster."

Apparently recalling something, Yukihira Soma’s expression toward Xu Yue became somewhat strange, carrying a faint hint of jealousy.

During the half day his father had taught Xu Yue, by the end, he had worn an expression of genuine seriousness that had never appeared even when teaching Soma himself. That Aura, like that of an asura, still left Soma unable to fully recover from the shock.

Still, with someone like this enrolling too, the school probably would not be too boring.

When they arrived and stepped out of the car, Yukihira Soma stared dumbfounded at the school before him. It occupied the entire mountainside, ancient in style yet carrying an air of luxury.

Was this some kind of joke? It was just a culinary school, wasn’t it?

Did it really need to be this extravagant?

"Oh, don’t be surprised. This is one of the world’s foremost holy lands of cuisine. Money alone isn’t enough to get in here. Its graduation rate is less than ten percent."

Xu Yue came up from behind him and, in turn, gave Yukihira Soma a brief explanation.

Looking around, Xu Yue’s luxury car, which had originally seemed extravagant, now appeared rather ordinary.

It seemed perfectly natural for people who came here to study to arrive in cars like this!

As Xu Yue scanned his surroundings, he was also doing something else.

He was searching for Reincarnators…

Even in a Punishment Space, Xu Yue did not believe he was the only one to have encountered it.

Sure enough, under his keen Primal Sense, he spotted two people whose presence was utterly incompatible with this world.

Both wore chef uniforms, and both looked somewhat pale.

If the Elite Ten Council was the ultimate objective, then finding a way into the school was the first trial before them.

Under normal circumstances, they probably would not even be able to pass this stage…

Since Yukihira Soma had arrived at the school together with Xu Yue this time, the incident where others looked down on his small diner background before kicking a chair out from under him did not occur.

Following the directions, a group of people preparing to take this transfer exam arrived in a huge, luxurious restaurant.

The restaurant’s chairs had already been cleared away, and everyone stood quietly in the middle, waiting.

Before long, two beautiful figures emerged from the corridor.

One was a blonde young lady who exuded arrogance without even needing an expression, yet that potentially off-putting aura perfectly complemented her lovely appearance.

The other was a delicate-looking red-haired female secretary following closely behind.

They were none other than the current Tenth Seat of the Elite Ten Council, the female lead of this Mission Space, Erina Nakiri, possessor of the God Tongue, and her little secretary, Hisako Arato.

"Wow, she’s gorgeous! Is this Mission Space really not some kind of vacation space?"

"Shut up! It was because you messed around in the last Mission Space that we ended up in this mess. Think about the punishment here and keep the meat in your pants under control. Even copping a feel once could cost you everything, got it?"

Xu Yue, whose attention was on them, still caught the two Reincarnators’ hushed conversation.

After receiving his companion’s warning, the rather restless fellow with dry yellow hair, who looked somewhat like a delinquent, no longer dared to look any further.

He merely muttered quietly.

"If I win her over with my own ability, that should be fine, right?"

"Hmph. If you have that kind of energy, figure out how to complete this mission first!"

The bespectacled man beside him was clearly much more rational.

It looked like they knew absolutely nothing about the plot. The space’s confidentiality measures were quite good.

Unfortunately, this particular assessment was truly difficult to pass. Just quietly get eliminated here and go take a vacation afterward, Xu Yue thought.

Just don’t come bother me…

"I am Erina Nakiri, the examiner for today’s entrance test."

With her arms crossed, Erina Nakiri spoke coldly, her school uniform doing nothing to conceal her impressive curves.

It was as if she had no expectations whatsoever for the people before her.

"Huh? The examiner? She’s wearing a school uniform, isn’t she? She’s a student too, right?"

Yukihira Soma, who knew nothing about this academy either, seemed greatly puzzled.

He had never expected that the woman standing before him was currently even more skilled at cooking than he was!

Though they were merely students, the Elite Ten Council possessed authority equal to that of the academy’s supreme commander. A resolution passed by more than half of the Elite Ten members could even remove the commander!

Erina Nakiri had also completely overturned the examination plan Hisako Arato had originally prepared.

With an intrigued expression, she walked to the area specifically set aside for ingredients. After choosing for a moment, she picked up an egg.

"We won’t bother with those tedious and boring tests. This time, the subject is eggs."

"Make a dish with this. Anyone who can satisfy my tongue may enter Totsuki Academy, and…"

"You may only withdraw from the test within the next minute."

When she said this, Erina Nakiri’s expression visibly darkened.

As the possessor of the God Tongue, Erina Nakiri held considerable fame in the culinary world. Once she passed judgment on someone, it would likely be difficult for them to ever recover in that world.

Thus, the moment her words fell, the vast majority of contestants rushed to leave the venue. They could always try again if they failed the exam, but if the God Tongue declared them talentless, it would all be over.

This development left the other two Reincarnators and Yukihira Soma completely bewildered.

What had just happened?

What happened to the exam?

Likewise, Erina Nakiri was somewhat surprised that four people had remained. Since when had her reputation become so ineffective?

"Miss Erina Nakiri, so all we need to do next is cook an egg dish that satisfies you?"

Xu Yue was the first to speak, a bright, sunny smile appearing on his face.

Unlike Yukihira Soma, he did not have the academy’s supreme commander pulling strings for him. If he wanted to pass the exam, he still needed the woman before him to nod.

If his attitude was too bad, making this tsundere queen say the words "delicious" would probably be about as difficult as making her analyze the taste of his ancestral chromosome composition.

So before Yukihira Soma could court death, he needed to stand out and distance himself from him first.

After all, that guy had the academy’s supreme commander securing his admission through the back door…

Two updates today~