As soon as the timer began, the remaining contestants rushed to the pantry to gather ingredients, but they were all surprised by the abundance of rare and expensive ingredients available.
"Wow, there are so many ingredients here!"
"Look, they even have truffles and caviar!"
"I can make something amazing with these!"
The contestants started grabbing as many rare ingredients as they could, as quickly as possible.
"Hmm, what do I need? Well, I'll take as much as I can. Since this is my first time cooking, I'll have to figure it out through trial and error," Akira thought as he gathered enough ingredients to feed a large family.
"I wonder what Akira is going to make?" Yuki wondered aloud, watching her son load up with ingredients.
"He's taking so many ingredients, and most of them are common ones, not the rare stuff. What is he thinking?" Ryuji commented.
"Well, he probably doesn't know how to cook the rare ones…..what is he doing?" Yuki responded, watching in surprise as Akira carried two huge baskets full of ingredients out of the pantry. No normal seven-year-old could carry that much weight.
"Seriously, what is he thinking, showing off his superhuman strength in front of everyone?" Yuki thought. She knew her son was naturally stronger than other children his age, even without magic. She was sure he wasn't using magic now, but still…
"Who is that kid? A foreign child?"
"How can a child carry so much weight?"
"He's adorable!"
The audience was amazed as they watched him. A seven-year-old lifting more than adults could handle was already impressive, but being the youngest competitor here, while most of the others were between nine and twelve, made Akira stand out even more. His adorable appearance only added to the attention he was receiving.
Yuki grew more anxious as Akira was already drawing too much attention, and the competition had just started. She just hoped he wouldn't do anything foolish.
"He won't do anything stupid, right?" Ryuji asked. It seemed he shared the same concern, especially since this was Akira's first time out in the world.
"Don't worry, remember, he's a genius. He won't do anything silly..." Yuki tried to reassure her husband with a smile, but her expression froze when she saw what her son had just done.
"Oh, it seems I underestimated my power," Akira thought with an awkward smile as he looked at the cutting board, split in two along with the vegetable he had tried to cut.
The entire audience was stunned into silence. A small boy had just cut through a cutting board in a single stroke.
"Did you see that? Did he just split the cutting board in half?!"
"How is that even possible?"
"Am I hallucinating?"
The murmurs of disbelief rippled through the crowd, and even the judges were left speechless.
"Haha, I guess the cutting board I got was damaged," Akira said with an awkward laugh, but it was clear no one in the audience believed him.
"Iori, could you...?" Yuki sighed, turning to Iori.
"Yes, Akira-kun does seem to be a bit of a troublemaker," Iori said with a smile, though his expression turned serious as his blue eyes glowed red and he activated his magic.
Akira was still troubled by his mistake. It was his first time using a knife, and he couldn't control his strength properly. As he pondered what to do, he suddenly sensed a magical energy in the air.
"Did someone use magic?" Akira wondered as he used his mystic eyes to trace the energy to the VIP room where his parents were sitting, but the signature didn't belong to either of them.
"Maybe it's Iori," Akira concluded. Soon, the murmuring in the audience started again.
"Oh, it looks like the cutting board really was damaged after all."
"Yeah, there's no way a kid could slice a cutting board in half."
"I know, right?"
"Is it perception-altering magic? Or memory magic?" Akira wondered. Everyone suddenly accepted his ridiculous excuse.
"Well, whatever. Problem solved," Akira thought as he grabbed a new cutting board and resumed cutting vegetables, this time carefully controlling his strength to avoid any more accidents.
"Phew, that worked," Iori sighed, his eyes fading from red to blue.
"But still, for Akira-kun to have this much strength without using magic... even considering his family..." Iori thought, watching Akira closely.
"Thanks, Iori," Yuki said gratefully.
"Oh, don't worry about it. It was nothing," Iori replied with a smile.
"Oni-san, what did you do? Did you erase their memories?" Erika asked curiously.
"No, I just altered their perception a little, nothing too major," Iori replied with a smile.
"Sigh, I hope nothing else happens," Ryuji muttered.
"Don't jinx it," Yuki scolded him, then glanced at her son and sighed. "Please, let nothing else happen," she thought as she watched him happily cutting vegetables with a smile.