When Erina picked up the egg-stuffed pancake again, the look of disdain from before had already disappeared. No matter how much she wanted to deny it with her words, her expression couldn't lie. And for someone like Erina, whose feelings always showed right on her face, not even Hisako could miss it—let alone Hachiman.
She glanced at the pancake in her hand. Her expression had shifted from disdain to something heavy. After taking a deep breath, she took another bite.
No... that's not right...
This feeling, this taste—it was completely different from before. If the earlier bite had been about the strong punch of broth, then now... the soft-boiled egg combined with the rich stock burst into her mouth like a fountain, releasing an irresistible umami flavor.
Erina wasn't someone who would fall twice in the same spot. No matter how strange the taste might look compared to its appearance, she would never forget the reason she came here.
With her God Tongue, Erina only needed a small taste to know the ingredients inside.
Her cheeks still held a faint blush unique to her. Compared to her earlier confidence, now when she looked at Hikigaya, her face only felt even hotter.
"It's termitomyces mushrooms."
"Correct. After boiling the mushrooms quickly over high heat, they're mixed in using the special method of the Hikigaya Diner, then folded into the half-cooked pancake."
Listening to their exchange, Hisako was in disbelief. She had been watching Hikigaya cook closely, but how could anyone manage to add a broth like that?
For an answer, she immediately looked at Erina. In her eyes, as long as someone had the God Tongue, there was no secret that couldn't be revealed.
But...
Erina stayed silent, her eyes locked firmly on the man she had just been looking down on.
Hachiman spread his hands: "It's jelly. What seems like broth inside the pancake is actually a meat jelly made by blending gelatin from meat stock. That's why two different flavors showed up like that."
Hisako quickly jotted that down in her notebook, then muttered in thought: "So that's it..."
Erina clenched her fists, her face showing unwillingness. "You're telling me you really only started cooking yesterday?"
Hachiman: "That's the truth."
Hisako leaned close to her ear and whispered: "Lady Erina, the way he cooked really matched the reports exactly. If even you acknowledge him, maybe he really is..."
"I did not acknowledge him! Not at all, not at all!" Like she'd been poked in a sore spot, Erina snapped back in full denial.
Hisako let out a small sigh of understanding. "Well... alright then."
Still, her instincts as a chef wouldn't let her resist. While Erina kept protesting loudly, Hisako quietly tasted a bite of Hikigaya's dish.
The complex layers of flavor, the perfect level of heat—it was clear to her. Even she might not be able to produce such a dish within one minute. And Hikigaya had spent most of his time just on preparation.
Erina: "Unacceptable, unacceptable! Not good enough! Hisako, give him a score!"
Hisako: "Lady Erina... this..."
Hachiman: "The score doesn't matter. At least I've already given it everything I can right now. But... Miss Nakiri, you should still remember what you promised me just now, right?"
"I'd like to taste it myself—what kind of level is the cooking that Erina Nakiri speaks of?"
Hearing his provocative words, Erina, already irritated, now found herself fully dragged into Hikigaya's challenge.
Erina rolled up her sleeves and tied back her long hair. Her expression was nothing like before. "Then let me show you what real cooking is!"
"To be fair, so no one says I bullied you, I'll also make something with eggs. And the time limit will be the same as yours, of course."
Erina had been cooking since the age of three. She had served hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Whether they had bias against her or hidden motives, in the end, once they ate her food, none of them could stop at just one bite. None could resist their instincts and claim, "It's not good."
What she didn't know was that Hikigaya never lied. If something was good, he would say it was good. If it wasn't, he would say so. Even with bias, he would never betray his own feelings.
Looking at the dead-eyed man in front of her, Erina felt her competitive spirit flare up.
She wanted to watch Hikigaya eat every bite of her cooking. She wanted to hear him say "delicious" with her own ears. She wanted to see the look of surprise on his face. And she wanted to wipe away the shame she had just suffered.
No matter what, this battle was already unavoidable, and Hisako clearly couldn't stop Erina's stubborn will.
Hikigaya: "I haven't eaten much in my life. Most of the food I've had was made by my sister and dad, so I'm really curious."
Erina gave a faint smile without saying anything more. She was going to prove everything through cooking.
If it was an egg dish, and one that could be finished in under a minute, then of course there was only one choice.
The thought of that dish flashed through her mind, and her hands began to move instinctively.
Unlike Hikigaya just now, her movements could only be described as swift and graceful, smooth like flowing water. Without the slightest pause or hesitation, in less than ten seconds she had already prepared all the ingredients she needed.
Watching this scene, Hisako had already guessed what Lady Erina was about to make.
An Eggs Benedict...
As someone who had tasted Lady Erina's cooking many times before, Hisako was surprised to find herself feeling a strange sense of worry.
The shock from the egg pancake she had just eaten was still lingering, like a warm current that kept flowing through her without end. Honestly speaking, that level of cooking could already be called worthy of a Totsuki student.
And yet...
Normally she would support Lady Erina without question, but maybe the taste of that dish had shaken her too much. Now, for the first time, a thought she had never had before slowly surfaced in her heart.
Could Lady Erina's Eggs Benedict really surpass his egg pancake? Could it truly bring the same shock to him that she herself had felt?
Hisako glanced at Hikigaya unconsciously, only to notice that he was watching more seriously than anyone else, almost as if... he was studying.