Chapter 34
"Why?" Even if he had already expected this encounter, he still could not help but be curious about Erina's reason. The Totsuki princess just snorted at him with a disdainful face.
"Isn't that obvious? I don't know why Grandfather suddenly wanted us to work here, but I will not lower myself and work under a mere commoner like you!" Alice nodded in support of her cousin, clearly not accepting their fate to work here.
"And what will I receive?" Hiroyuki asked, feeling curious about what she could offer.
"Not that you will win, but if you want to know, I can make this café's name famous across the country. But if you lose, I will take over this café!" This time, it is Hiroyuki who snorted.
"I can say for sure that Megumi-san and I are satisfied with the current situation and didn't have interest in your offer." Megumi-san nodded beside me. The Nakiris looked stupefied for a moment, clearly not believing what they heard.
"Y-y-you are not interested in being famous? What kind of businessman are you?" Alice asked still with a stunned face.
"Of course I want this Den to be famous. But I will not bet the entire Den to your promise for the reputation, not when I can do that personally." Hiroyuki said while thinking inwardly of several ways to gain a reputation for the Den. He could use his reputation as a former volleyball player or his new reputation as mangaka to do that. He didn't need Erina's help to do that.
"So, you are just afraid of losing to me," Erina said with a disgusted face. Hiroyuki just shrugged, not agreeing nor denying the statement.
"What is it that you want? We can give you a lot of things! Money? Connection?" Alice asked once again, but this time with a hint of panic in her voice.
"To be honest, I don't really need anything from you, so I don't see a reason for me to accept your cousin's challenge."
"W-w-we.. We can also work under you willingly!" Hiroyuki raised his eyebrow at that.
This is a library café, and the average number of visitors here didn't even reach 50 persons per day. With the addition of Nino here, Megumi-san didn't really need more help for me to consider adding more workers.
And you do know that you are under the order from your grandfather to work here, so I can just tell your grandfather about this right?"
This time, Hiroyuki could see the panic on both girls' faces. "Please don't tell Grandfather about it!" Alice shouted in fear.
........
There is a silence inside the cafe before Erina whispered in low voice,
"I just want to know why Grandfather is so adamant to send us here. He even threatened to revoke my status as the elite ten." Hiroyuki could hear the desperation in Erina's voice. He sighed tiredly, and after thinking for a while, he opened his phone to call their grandfather.
"I know you are watching this from somewhere near here, so if you want for me to amuse them, you better come out now."
[......…..]
There is silence as the others just looked at Hiroyuki with curious faces, not knowing who he called. But a few minutes later, their curiosity was answered as Sanzaemon-san comes.
"Grandfather!" The Nakiris looked panicked at the sight of him, but the headmaster just ignores them and asked Hiroyuki,
"How do you know I am near here?" Hiroyuki snorted.
"Although you have researched anything about me, you still don't know anything about my personality, so you will have a distrust toward me and want to look at how I handle this situation."
Sanzaemon nodded. "I see.. You are indeed a smart person, Hori-san. So, why do you want me to be here?"
"I will amuse your granddaughter's challenge, but as a contest, not a shokugeki. I will not be a fool to bet at this Den for anything you could offer." He ignored the offended reaction from Erina.
"And you will be the judge with Megumi-san and Alice. How about it?" Hiroyuki said as he makes an apology sign to Nino for not including her in this contest. Fortunately, she didn't mind about it as long as Hiroyuki cooked one for her.
"What if I win?" Erina said, still offended at me refusing the shokugeki.
"You and your cousin can just leave and your grandfather will not force you to work here." She nodded, satisfied with the deal.
"So, how about it?" Hiroyuki turned his attention to Sanzaemon who didn't even hesitate to answer.
"Sure, let's do this."
'Of course, you are not objecting to this offer. You just want to see my skill and see if you can use me or not in the future.' Hiroyuki muttered inwardly.
"So, what is the theme?" Erina asked with a confident face, clearly expecting an easy win.
"Megumi-san, can we use all of the ingredients here?" Megumi-san nodded at him.
"You can make anything as long as the ingredients are from here. The theme is something that could be accepted in this café's menu. We will cook for one hour. Is that acceptable?"
"Sure,"
"Then, let's begin," With that declaration, Erina runs quickly to the kitchen to see the ingredients. But within a second, all of them could hear the disgusted voice from Erina.
"Ewww.. What is this? All of the ingredients are a third-grade, and you expect me to cook with this?" Hiroyuki could see the disgusted face from Alice as she heard what her cousin said and the ashamed expression from Sanzaemon.
"You have already accepted that, so bear with it," Hiroyuki replied calmly. He could feel the glare that come from Erina, but he ignores it as he walked to the kitchen too.
As he looked at a lot of fruits here, he decided to make a dessert. He started cracking several eggs, separated the whites from the yolks, and whisked them while adding sugar until they turned into meringues.
He then sieves icing sugar and cornflour over, folds to combine them, then spooned 8cm-diameter mounds onto oven trays lined with baking paper. He bakes it until the meringues lift easily from trays and are crisp but not colored.
While he waited for the bake, he tosses strawberries and caster sugar in a large bowl to combine, and then set it aside for at least 20 minutes until juices begin to seep. He moved fast and started to whisk cream, crème fraîche, icing sugar, and vanilla seeds together in a separate large bowl until soft peaks formed.
Then he scatters a quarter of the strawberries in the base of a 3-liter serving bowl, spreading it with a quarter of the cream mixture, and coarsely crumbles a quarter of the meringue over the top. He repeated the same method to create several layers with the remaining ingredients before adding extra strawberries and raspberries on top of the glass.
Right after he finished the last step, he could hear Erina shouts, "I am done!" So, he shouted the same within a second, "Me too!" as we served our food.
Unsurprisingly, Erina cooked a set of beautiful sushi as her dish. Well, that was an obvious choice as the fish is the best ingredient here, the only thing that met her standard. It was definitely delicious by the look of Sanzaemon and Alice, but Megumi just ate her sushi without being impressed.
After they finished eating Erina's dishes, they turned their attention to Hiroyuki and could not help but feel curious about what he cooked to compete with the dish from the god's tongue holder.
"So, what is it, Hiro-kun?" Megumi-san asked as Hiroyuki bought his dishes forward.
"Well, it is Eton Mess, a traditional dessert from Britain created with a lot of summer fruits as the base. You can see it yourself." The judges and Nino were very impressed with how Hiroyuki presented his dishes.
"It is gorgeous, Yuki-san.." Nino muttered in awe. Hiroyuki just smiles as he said,
"Well, thank you. But if you are done with admiring the look, I will appreciate if you started to eat the food." That snapped the judge's attention from the presentation and started eating the food.
Right after the first bite, Alice dropped her spoon and exclaimed, "Oh my god! This is so good.." Ignoring the stunned expression of her cousin.
"It is not too sweet and not too heavy either. The combination between the meringues, the cream, and the fruits created a beautiful harmony inside my mouth. The level of freshness is also very good, making it a perfect dessert for the summertime like now." Sanzaemon too, could not deny Hiroyuki's food.
Megumi didn't speak anything, but Hiroyuki could see by the expression on her face that she is indeed impressed. As for Nino, let's just say she devoured the food instantly.
"So, who is the winner?" Hiroyuki asked. Even with hesitation, Alice chooses Hiroyuki, followed by Megumi and Sanzaemon. Erina could only stare with a disbelieving face, didn't expect that her first loss is coming from a mere commoner.
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Author note:
You can also read:
- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 41
- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 11
You can read all of it at my Patreon account, pat_reon.com/zwolf1 (Without '_') Thank you for your support! :)