"You've been busy all morning, take a little rest."
Mutou Judai looked at Erina who was still busily working and couldn't help but speak up.
On the way to the kitchen, he had already seen that the self-service dining area was wrapping up, and the private rooms had also stopped serving dishes. All the orders had been completed.
Erina had been busy all morning. When Mutou Judai arrived at the kitchen, he could see a mix of fatigue and joy in the girl's expression.
Then, after seeing Mutou Judai arrive, although Erina had already taken off her chef's hat, she still picked up her kitchen knife.
"There are still some ingredients left, and other things haven't been cleaned up yet. Anyway, you definitely came over without eating lunch... cooking for just one person isn't a problem."
Mutou Judai sat backwards on a chair, leaning against the backrest while watching Erina cook, and didn't say anything more, gradually falling silent.
He just waited like this, and Erina didn't speak either, though Mutou Judai still noticed that with him staring at her, her ears were somewhat red.
But even so, it didn't affect Erina's cooking.
In no time, Erina placed a pasta dish with many high-end ingredients in front of Mutou Judai.
Mutou Judai picked up his fork, twirled the noodles and put them in his mouth, then was slightly stunned.
This wasn't his first time eating this pasta, but compared to the last time and the time before that, there were some subtle adjustments in the taste.
"You..."
Mutou Judai looked toward Erina, while Erina sat across from Mutou Judai, crossed her arms, turned her head away, and didn't make eye contact with him.
"The first time I cooked for you, you ate this pasta the fastest... The second time you ate it, you paired it with something spicy, and you seem to like spicy food when eating, so I slightly modified the preparation method..."
Erina first explained like this, then when she looked at Mutou Judai again, her face was slightly red, but she awkwardly explained to herself.
"But don't misunderstand! After all, I still owe you a year of meals. If you feel uncomfortable eating my cooking during this year, it would be belittling my abilities!"
Hearing Erina say this, Mutou Judai rarely showed a light smile.
"But I haven't said anything yet..."
"You—hmph!"
Erina turned her head away again, and Mutou Judai slowly ate all the noodles on his plate clean. Then after Erina was silent for a while, she brought Mutou Judai a cup of water.
"Thank you."
Mutou Judai happened to be a bit thirsty. After taking a sip of water, he slowly looked toward Erina.
"It seems I'll have to frequently find excuses to have Shokugeki with you in the future... Never mind a year, just these few days have spoiled my palate."
"Then we can have Shokugeki whenever there's a chance. As long as I'm free, it's fine—every day is okay."
Erina instinctively said this, then she realized—wasn't saying this making it seem like she wanted to cook for Mutou Judai every day!
So she hurriedly explained.
"What I mean is, even if you're currently using that ability of yours to gain the upper hand, sooner or later my culinary skills will surpass that strange ability of yours!"
Regarding Mutou Judai's ability, Erina had roughly adapted to it.
Moreover, she didn't think there was anything particularly strange about it.
After all, her God's Tongue was one thing, but her grandfather's clothes bursting open definitely couldn't be explained by science.
So her ability to accept these bizarre things was quite strong.
Hearing Erina say this, Mutou Judai raised an eyebrow.
"Honestly, at first I thought that after you learned about my ability, you'd say something like 'underhanded methods' or something. I didn't expect you to accept it surprisingly quickly."
Erina blinked, looking at Mutou Judai with some confusion.
"Why would you think that! How could I possibly say such loser-like lines! Saying such things would be equivalent to admitting defeat!"
"I will never admit defeat."
Erina was rarely serious.
She had a smile at the corner of her mouth, but flames seemed to be burning in her eyes.
"Strange abilities, culinary skills refined enough to shock people, unprecedented unique ingredients—these things might defeat me temporarily, but I will ultimately surpass them with my strength!"
"—I am Nakiri Erina!"
Proud, confident, elegant—except in front of her own father who had left her with psychological trauma, Nakiri Erina maintained this attitude toward culinary arts.
That's probably why she was strong.
Seeing her like this, even a lazy person like Mutou Judai felt a fire burning in his heart—though such flames burned for a while and then extinguished.
After all, if laziness could be cured by being slightly influenced by influential people, this stubborn disease would probably have gone extinct long ago.
"In that case, do your best..."
"I don't need you to cheer me on!"
"Uh... then should I be more arrogant at this time—like saying, 'Work hard and feel despair! Because even if you spend a long time achieving one victory over me, by that time you might need to cook for me for a hundred or even a thousand years consecutively'—something like that?"
"You..."
Erina instinctively wanted to retort, but she found that she surprisingly couldn't say a single word of rebuttal.
This made Erina so angry that she bristled, then glared at Mutou Judai's half-smiling face through gritted teeth.
As expected...
—This guy's personality really was despicably terrible to a despairing degree!
...
Toyo Electric Headquarters.
Hayami Katsumasa held a piece of intelligence, and after reading it once, casually threw it onto the coffee table in front of him. His already ugly face became even more hideous due to his current expression.
"That waste Eizan Etsuya... Originally I thought he could serve his purpose well as a hidden piece, but now I didn't expect that his own problems would basically cut off all his future paths..."
Initially, Hayami Katsumasa had bought off Eizan Etsuya with benefits.
But now that ninety percent of Eizan's future income belonged to Mutou Judai, the benefits that Hayami Katsumasa had originally given and promised to Eizan were no longer so reliable.
Moreover...
The Shokugeki Administration Bureau was now investigating and cataloging Eizan Etsuya's influence and wealth.
Although they would need some time for a thorough investigation, if they really completed their investigation, then the issue of Eizan Etsuya being his hidden piece might be noticed by Totsuki.
So...
Although it wasn't Hayami Katsumasa's original intention, at this time he could only temporarily use other methods to cause trouble for Totsuki, so that Totsuki's attention couldn't focus on Eizan Etsuya for now.
"Directly attacking Totsuki isn't possible right now... Hmm... let Meguro go to Totsuki Resort—but have Meguro act in the name of Kengan. You should know how to do this specifically, right?"
Hearing Hayami Katsumasa's words, his subordinate beside him nodded.
"I understand, Chairman!"