Chapter 35

"I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT!!" Erina suddenly shouted at all of them. Hiroyuki, Sanzaemon, Alice, Megumi, and Nino just looked at her with confused stares.

"What do you mean, dear?" Sanzaemon asked even if he knows what Erina means. Losing for the first time what she thought was a mere commoner is definitely something not acceptable in her dictionary.

"YOU!" Erina pointed at Hiroyuki. "I don't know how you did it, but I bet you cheated! I will never admit this humiliation!" Hiroyuki just snorted at her.

"So you admit that I somehow cheated in front of your grandfather without him knowing?" Erina didn't know what to say for a moment before she accused once again,

"I don't know! But I know you are cheating! If you won't admit it, I will not accept this result!" Now almost everyone in the Den looked at Erina ridiculously. This time, Sanzaemon took over the conversation and asked,

"How about you have a taste for Hori's food?" Erina hesitated for a bit, didn't want to taste it but didn't dare to disobey her grandfather either.

"Well, what will you do?" Hiroyuki asked with an amused tone. After glaring at Hiroyuki and a moment of hesitation, Erina finally decided to take a bite of Hiroyuki's Eton Mess. After having a bite, she couldn't say anything about it.

'H-how is it that he could make something like this?' Erina asked herself inwardly, still didn't raise her head to look at the other out of embarrassment. Suddenly, she found what she thought was the reason why she loses.

"I know it! This is because of the low quality of the ingredients that my dishes could not shine!" Hiroyuki sighed tiredly at her ridiculous reasons.

"So, you say you cannot cook with common ingredients and only cook with the best ones?"

"Of course! I mean, I can't even eat anything from a mere commoner! My god's tongue will never accept something that low. You must know about it and decided to sabotage the ingredients!" Hiroyuki decided to ignore her ridiculous accusation and turned his attention to Sanzaemon.

"Can I go all out?"

"Go ahead." Sanzaemon nodded with an ashamed look on his face. But for Hiroyuki, the approval from their grandfather is enough for him to slap the spoiled princess.

"Do you know that your grandfather also has what you called this god's tongue?"

This time, it is not just Erina who was shocked, but Alice who listened from the beginning too. As for Megumi and Nino, they were surprised but didn't know the gravity of having god's tongue in the culinary world.

"Is that true, grandfather?"

Alice asked with a disbelieving face. Her reaction was understandable as the knowledge of this is not something that her grandfather announced loudly. But the simple nod from their grandfather is enough to convince the princesses that what Hiroyuki said is true.

"And you do know how your grandfather lived when he was a child, right?" This time, Alice let out a small gasp, realizing where Hiroyuki wanted to go with this explanation. "It seems your sister realized what I want to say. Good, your sister didn't have a skull as thick as you." Erina wanted to scowl, but hold herself as she also wants to know about her grandfather.

"But since you still don't realize, I will tell you about it. Your grandfather was born in the era right after Japan lost the second world war. The economy was very bad at that time, resulting in the inflation of food ingredient prices. Not many families could afford to buy rice, so a lot of them had to think about alternative food.

Your grandfather told me when we first met a month ago that he used to eat a slice of plain bread for a week just because his family could not afford to buy something better. How would it feels for the god's tongue holder to eat like that?"

Erina paled at the story. She didn't want to accept it, but the look on her grandfather's face confirmed all of what Hiroyuki said. But before she could say anything, Hiroyuki has already resumed his talk again,

"Now you tell me. Can you compare eating from the ingredients in this kitchen with what your grandfather had to eat for surviving? If you say it can, you are completely disrespecting your grandfather, as he would love to eat something from this kitchen when he was a child." Hiroyuki took a breath,

"If you asked me, your grandfather is a great man. He survived from the difficult era and created Totsuki's dynasty which still stands now. But he is clearly not a good parental figure." This time, Erina and Alice looked enraged.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT?!" Both of the Nakiris shouted in rage. But strangely, Sanzaemon didn't react to this, as if he already expected that Hiroyuki would say something like this. But Hiroyuki didn't notice that. Instead, he started to talk once again,

"Yes, I dare." He said it calmly before turning his attention to the furious Erina. "Just look at your mother now. She didn't want to eat any food and choose to inject the nutrition directly into her body. Honestly, if she wasn't a Nakiri, people would take her to a psychiatrist for mental illness.

Honestly, there are a lot of people who could not rice every day, and with all of the wealth your family has, your mother decided to not eat anything for almost four years. If only your grandfather thought her to appreciate all kinds of food instead of spoiling and fulfilling all of her requests, she would not become like this."

"This…." Alice was speechless as it is the first time she heard someone dares to say something bad to Erina's mother in front of her grandfather. She could see Erina struggling to say something as she could not find a good reason to defend her grandfather. Unfortunately for them, Hiroyuki is not finished.

"But Your grandfather's biggest mistake was letting Nakamura Azami marry your mother. He should know better about your father's obsession with god's tongue as your father was elite ten in his school time.

But no, your grandfather not only accepted the marriage, he even let your father bear the Nakiri's name, broadening your father's influence around the world. What is the result now?

Your father is not seeing each other with your mother, leaving you behind after he successfully implants his idea about the gourmet world into your thick skull, making you refuse to eat anything that you didn't consider the top, even throwing away some of the food without any consideration. Honestly, your family is messed up."

Erina didn't dare to look at Hiroyuki. Instead, she turned her attention, start whining to her grandfather,

"Grandfather, he talked bad about you since the beginning. Why didn't you speak up and deny his accusation?" But to her surprise, her grandfather just sighed defeatedly, looking more like a tired old man rather than the untouchable Totsuki's headmaster.

"I didn't say anything because what he said is true." His granddaughters looked at him with disbelieving faces, didn't think that their proud grandfather would admit his mistake. "I have reflected on my past for a month after I meet Hori here, and I can definitely admit that this is the mess I created. That is why I tried to send both of you here, to learn something from this café."

"I am afraid I don't understand. What is the relation between your mistake and sending us here?" Alice asked with a confused face. Her grandfather took more time before he replied,

"Azami is making a move, and he wanted to take over Totsuki."

Alice looked shocked, but it quickly changed into a frightened face as she realized what is the implication of her uncle's takeover. However, her reaction is tame compared to her sister's. Erina looked like all of the blood inside her body drained into nothing, leaving her frozen with a paled face.

"I have prepared for this day since I banished him, and now I am still gathering all of my allies. But I cannot protect you forever. That is why I want you to be free from Azami's influence, and if something bad happened to me, you can survive living as normal people, because your princess act would never be accepted in society. I could not teach you the last one as I would just spoil you more, so I tried to find a restaurant for you to learn.

And here I found, a good place for you to learn that didn't even afraid of scolding me, willing to let you learn here, and the most important reason is, he has better skills than both of you. I will tell you something though. In my opinion, Hori is slightly better than the first seat of the elite ten right now."

Both of the Nakiris looked at their grandfather in surprise as the first seat is definitely not a joke in Totsuki.

"That is why I want both of you to learn from here. Can you do that for me?"

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Author note:

You can also read:

- Transmigrated Into Anime World as Kiyoko Shimizu's Older Brother up to chapter 42

- Naruto: Ashigaru up to chapter 12

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