In other competitions, the final contestant often has amazing skills. But in cooking, the last one to present loses some advantage.
Especially when the judges are already full and have tasted so many dishes, Hachiman's advantage is completely gone. The only good thing is that he hasn't revealed his dish yet.
But this doesn't give him extra points with the judges.
Ryoko: "This feels bad. He's in trouble right from the start. If he doesn't get over 89 points, he'll be kicked out."
Ibusaki Shun: "I didn't think the competition was this tough in area A. But that's Hikigaya. He can turn things around, even in a situation like this. He might have something planned."
Compared to his roommates from the Polar Star Dorm, Grandma Fumio seemed especially calm. She just smiled and said:
"Don't worry. That guy is Joichiro's son. It looks like I can finally feel like I did back then."
With everyone watching him, Hachiman returned to the stage. But compared to how he felt before, he clearly enjoys this moment more.
He still hasn't become popular, but he's changed a lot compared to the past. Right now, Hachiman's first thought is:
'What would Komachi think if she saw me like this?'
'She would probably cry and say that her brother has finally grown up and become independent.'
He's the older brother, but his sister Komachi always takes care of him. It doesn't seem right.
Before he knew it, Hachiman had walked to the center of the stage. Everyone was looking at him, judges and audience alike.
"That's Hikigaya, right?"
"I wonder what kind of dish he'll make."
"It looks like we'll find out today if that rumor is true."
Hachiman sighed. He never thought he would become this kind of person. He thought he would quietly spend his three years in high school, but he made a scene in his first semester.
Now that he thinks about it, this time has passed so fast. And maybe this dish is his way of truly saying goodbye to the past.
Thinking this, Hachiman didn't hesitate. He gently lifted the pot lid.
Tadokoro Megumi: "Here it comes, Hikigaya's dish."
Takumi: "What did he make that's so mysterious?"
Hisako: "Lady Erina cares about you so much. What kind of dish will you present?"
Yukinoshita held her breath, as if everything had stopped. Her beautiful face looked blank.
Erina: "Finally..."
Hayama Akira: "You spent over a month in the Shiomi lab. I won't let you make a bad dish."
Yuigahama: "Hikki, do your best!"
As the dish was revealed, it seemed to shine with golden light, lighting up the entire room and forming a bright beam.
Hoshino Ai: "This is..."
Hachiman: "Vegetable salad. Please enjoy."
"Sa... salad..."
The entire room went quiet, as if no one could say anything.
Salads usually taste the same. It mostly depends on how fresh the ingredients are. And even someone who isn't a chef can make a good salad. So...
When they heard the dish, Totsuki students were speechless.
Only Yukinoshita covered her mouth and chuckled:
"Well, that's like Hikigaya."
Anton: "Is this... a normal salad?"
Hachiman: "Every dish is made from normal ingredients. The key is whether you can use the dish to show what's in your heart. If you can, even a normal dish will become special."
Hachiman made a good point, but Totsuki values taste above all else. If his dish doesn't score high enough, he'll be kicked out.
The headmaster looked at Hikigaya with a serious face. And Hayama Akira frowned.
Erina was annoyed again. She slammed a window in a corner where no one could see her and said:
"I knew he would make a dish like this..."
Even though she said that, Erina didn't comment on the taste of Hachiman's dish this time.
Hoshino Ai: "He's interesting. But it smells and looks like a normal vegetable salad. I don't even smell any curry."
When Hoshino Ai said that, the judges realized that the other contestants' dishes had smelled like curry. But this vegetable salad didn't smell like curry at all.
Of course, to really understand a dish, you have to taste it. So...
Hoshino Ai picked up a spoon and put the salad in her mouth.
Since this was the last dish, the judges didn't say anything. They tasted the dish, like Hoshino Ai.
Their faces turned red, and the five judges tensed up. They couldn't describe what it tasted like. They weren't moving their mouths, but they looked very moved.
Ten seconds later...
Kawashima Urara: "Um... Judges?"
Grandma Fumio: "That guy made the judges freeze..."
Ibusaki Shun: "There are only two reasons why professional judges would look like that..."
Ryoko: "Either they're eating the worst dish in the world, but I don't think Hikigaya would make that. Or they're tasting something they've never tasted before."
Yoshino: "What's going on with Hikigaya's dish? It's just a salad, right?"
Everyone was talking about the judges' reactions, not just the people from the Polar Star Dorm. But in the noisy room, Yukinoshita and Erina just smiled calmly.
Takumi: "They're completely silent..."
Hisako: "Hikigaya..."
Kawashima Urara: "Um, Judges, how does it taste?"
Kawashima Urara's words seemed to bring the judges back to reality. They put their hands on their chins and carefully savored the taste.
A minute later, the judges finally snapped out of it. They looked at each other, unsure what to do. They were afraid to judge the dish.
They needed all five judges to agree before they could start talking about it. But Hoshino Ai stood up. Her sparkling eyes looked dull. Her smile disappeared, and she showed a side of herself that no one had ever seen.
"Mr. Hikigaya, I'm inviting you to join my personal team. I want to hire you as my personal chef. As for the price, one hundred million a year... no, two hundred million."
The room erupted when Hoshino Ai said that.
Erina was really worried. She knew that Hikigaya was lazy. He might leave just to get two hundred million.
She wanted to stop it, but she was in the VIP room. She couldn't get down there fast enough, and no one could hear her voice.
Yukinoshita noticed that Hachiman was acting strange. She didn't know what had happened to him, but she knew that he wouldn't be swayed by two hundred million.
Hayama Hayato smiled calmly:
"I knew this would happen…"
Yuigahama: "Hikki is so amazing…"
Takumi: "Is his cooking as good as Yukinoshita and Hayama's now?"
Isami: "It looks like my brother didn't have to worry."
Hisako smiled wryly and said: "I knew it. Lady Erina, you must have known that I couldn't beat him."
Tadokoro: "Hikigaya..."
Alice: "I'm glad I made it."
Hayama Akira smiled calmly. He thought:
"I'm glad I picked the right rival."
...
Hoshino Ai's words excited the audience and the judges. The judges were shocked by her sudden reaction.
She offered Hikigaya a price that he couldn't refuse, unlike Yukinoshita's polite invitation.
He would have to agree to get a huge amount of money and live comfortably. It was impossible for Hachiman not to be tempted. He realized that life was a joke. He had just decided to make his own way, and then he got this offer.
If it had been a few months earlier, Hachiman would have agreed without thinking. But now, he had things he wanted to do.
So, the result was obvious.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Hoshino Ai. I can't accept your offer. But thank you."
His words shocked the room again. Yukinoshita might refuse because of her powerful family, which didn't care about money. But Hachiman didn't have any power. Why would he refuse?
Just because of a promise? Was that why Hachiman was giving up all that money?
Hachiman was more conflicted and determined than anyone else.
Hoshino Ai wasn't angry that Hikigaya had refused her. She walked up to him and fixed his collar. She was the same age as him, but she acted like an older sister.
"Well, I'm glad you made your own choice. Here's my card. Call me if you need anything."
Hachiman chuckled and took the card.
If he called her when he was in trouble, he would probably become her personal chef after she helped him. He wouldn't call unless he had to. But if that day came...
Hachiman nodded to thank her. Hoshino Ai waved her hand: "You're a pioneer in the world of cooking. I'm not a professional judge, so I shouldn't say this, but that's the best way I can describe you."
"Thank you."
Erina couldn't hold back her anger anymore. She started banging on the window:
"What's wrong with that girl?! She's supposed to be a famous idol! Why doesn't she care what people think?"
"And that idiot! Why does he always get led around by people? Doesn't he know how to fight back?"
By the way, that was the closest Hikigaya had ever been to a girl. He could feel her breath, and his face turned red.
After Hoshino Ai returned to her seat, people started talking about it. Since this was a cooking school and the situation was unusual, many people were curious about Hikigaya's vegetable salad.
Judge Anton sighed and said:
"I have to say what's in my heart, even if it means I have to quit my job as a judge."
The room went silent.
"I've never tasted a dish like this before. I've never experienced this taste in my life. I agree with Hoshino Ai that he is a pioneer in the world of cooking."
It was unprofessional for a judge to say that he had never tasted a taste before. It could even get him fired. But Judge Anton said what he really thought.
Hachiman bowed slightly and smiled:
"Thank you."
The other judges stopped pretending and asked the boy:
"Can you tell us how you made this dish?"
Hachiman didn't show off. He humbly explained how he had made the dish.
"I thought about the curry theme for a long time."
"Everyone else was using traditional curry. I wanted to make something new, so I decided not to use curry spices."
"But I had to hide the taste of curry and the taste of the dish."
"So, I chose vegetable salad. It seems simple. I used the skills I learned from my roommates at the Polar Star Dorm. I combined vegetables, smoked them, and used 'douchi' that I learned from my dad to change the dish."
The dish was a normal vegetable salad. He didn't use any meat. He combined Tadokoro's vegetable cooking, Ibusaki Shun's smoking, and Yoshino and Mito's "meat" cooking to blend the flavor of curry into every leaf.
It was raw vegetables, but it still had spices. But that wasn't enough.
More importantly, the sweet and sour sauce and the salad dressing were made by Hachiman using smoked ingredients and douchi. He also used the new spices he had learned at the Shiomi lab and Ryoko's fermentation techniques.
So...
The dish wasn't about the ingredients. It was about the special sauce that made it taste so good.
That's why the judges looked so confused.
If a skilled food critic can't describe the taste, the dish must be beyond their understanding. It would be different if it were just Hoshino Ai. But the five judges couldn't describe how it tasted.
While the judges were unsure, the headmaster walked onto the stage.
"Excuse me. I need to taste this dish."
"Even the headmaster is saying that. What's going on with this dish?"
"I don't understand. I don't understand at all..."
"We can't even smell the curry. It's the opposite of Hayama Akira's dish. I don't know how it can be that good."
While everyone was talking, the headmaster looked at Hachiman. Then he went to the table, dipped the sauce onto a spoon, and put it in his mouth.
The freshness of tomato, the spiciness of chili, the bitterness of bitter melon, the sourness of cucumber, and the sweetness of apple blended together and filled his mouth. Underneath the five tastes, he could taste dozens of spices in each vegetable. The spices were used in different ways. Some were smoked, some were pickled, and some were fermented. The complicated process must have been what made the judges pass out.
If he stopped there, he wouldn't understand the dish. The headmaster swallowed the sauce. The warm scent of curry burst into his mouth. The spices that had been hidden until now burst out.
Hayama Akira's curry could fill the entire room. But Hachiman's curry wandered through your body, invaded your mind, numbed your senses, and finally...
"Boom!"
The headmaster's clothes ripped open, and he became a muscular giant.
"No way..."
"The headmaster's clothes exploded. That says it all."
"This year's Autumn Election is amazing."
Alice was shocked. Erina reacted the same way as her sister. Many people were speechless.
Hayama Akira: "You..."
Kurokiba: "I can't wait."
Yuigahama: "Hikki... is amazing."
Yukinoshita stared without saying anything. Her serious gaze wouldn't let anything else in.
The headmaster was giving off a powerful aura. He looked down, and his white hair and beard stood up like a Super Saiyan. Kawashima Urara had never seen this before. Her high-pitched voice became scared:
"He... Headmaster?"
The headmaster said in a deep voice:
"Hikigaya, you remember the recipe for this sauce, right?"
Hachiman nodded.
Headmaster: "From now on, I'm putting this sauce in Totsuki's textbooks. You'll be the teacher for the class."
"Huh?" Hachiman was speechless.
The headmaster didn't care. After tasting the dish, he knew that it wasn't about the judges' skills. He had never tasted this taste before, even after being a chef for his entire life.
So...
Headmaster: "I'll be in charge of your score."
The students on stage were breathing hard. Hayama Akira stared at the screen.
But...
Hachiman: "Um, Headmaster, I'm not done with my dish yet. Actually..."
He handed a green drink to each of the five judges. The headmaster was surprised by his sudden action.
"There's more?!"
"More..."
"I can't take it anymore. Can we hurry this up?"
"It was so crazy just now. What is it now..."
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