Whatever they had done with the logs, Harald’s team had hidden them well. Their team’s oven was chugging away, but Team Natsuko's logs would’ve been too damp to throw onto the pile. Hiding behind some barrels, Natsuko and Sofiane planned their next move.

“Are we trying to be subtle or…?” Sofiane asked.

“No, we’re sending a message,” Natsuko said, conjuring a flickering ball of flame in her hand.

“Wait! Hold up there, firecrotch. Whatever we do, they’re gonna know it’s us. But let’s at least try not to get disqualified, non?”

“Ugh. Yeah, yeah. For the money. So what do we do? Douse their logs too?”

“With what, more fire? Shuixing is our water elemental and she’s too goody-goody for sabotage,” Sofiane said.

“Can we buy a bucket of water?”

“It’s a skill challenge, Natsu. Don’t be ridiculous. You’re supposed to use combat abilities.”

Natsuko exhaled through her teeth. “Damn. You’re right. Wait! Maybe we can douse it with more fire!”

“You mean—” Sofiane grinned. “Aha, you mean!”

Natsuko returned his conspiratorial grin. The Non-Heroes gave the two Heroes some space. As a matter of self-preservation, most had learned to stay well away from whatever the Heroes were getting up to. It was usually bad, and in this case, they were correct. Strolling by her competitors’ oven with her arms innocently behind her back, Natsuko subtly flicked a ball of flame into the log fire, causing it to flare. Looking back nonchalantly and finding no one looking, she turned around and hucked a few more in until the entire oven looked like it had an aurora inside it. Only then did she look back to see Sofiane mouthing “too much!” at her.

A moment later, Harald’s teammates piled out of the wagon.

“Our pie!” shouted Margaret.

“You bastards! I told you they would cheat!” The raccoon girl said.

“Only cuz you cheated first!” Natsuko shot back.

“What are you talking about!? We’ve been baking the whole time!” Harald said. “Oh gods-dammit, we don’t have any water to put it out. T-Take— take it out of the oven!”

Margaret dashed back up into the food wagon and returned with a pie-shaped lump of coal. Disappointment and anger flashed in her teams’ eyes.

“Why!? Do you really need the Ying that bad? You have the freaking #4 Hero helping you, you don’t need to steal our money from us!” The raccoon girl said. Natsuko had decided she was never going to ask the racoon girl what her name was. On principle.

“Someone put out our oven before we could finish roasting our pumpkin. You're saying that wasn’t you?” Natsuko said.

Harald growled and reached for his halberd.

“Calm down, sir. Calm down. We're not going to cause any trou— well, we're not going to assault you, anyway,” Sofiane said.

There was a smidgen of fear in Harald and his teammates’ expressions, and it occurred to Natsuko that she was as much at the mercy of Sofiane as they were. Not that she expected him to do anything. But their difference in power was enormous as Sofiane had so easily demonstrated against Harald. Once more, her sympathies lay with Harald's team rather than Sofiane.

“Okay. We’ve got a burnt pie,” Margaret said, dumping the burnt lump onto the ground. “And you caused it. How are you going to make it up to us?”

“Um…” Natsuko said.

“Uh…” Sofiane added.

It was almost physically painful to say, the words like a hairball of needles Natsuko was trying to choke up. “We… can probably convince Daisy to give you the reward money. She’s only in this for archetype-building so she doesn’t need the money. I’m sure she’d be happy to—” Natsuko’s eye twitched “—part with it.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The raccoon girl folded her arms. “That’s assuming you all win, which doesn’t look promising at this point.”

“Pffbt, no, we’ll win handily if we can get this stupid pumpkin roasted,” Sofiane said.

“Uh-huh. You better.”

Harald’s team all looked like they had more to say, but the world revolved around power and strength, and if you were wronged by someone higher-level and with better stats, there was nothing to be done for it. Their only option was to throw themselves at the feet of Sofiane’s goodwill. Fortunately for them, Sofiane looked only mildly annoyed at having to give up his reward money. It was, after all, comparatively nothing to him, he just didn't like to leave money on the table.

Sofiane and Natsuko returned to their food wagon to find Pechorin and Daisy stuffing more logs into the oven.

“You all did a good job keeping folks away from messing with our stuff, everything’s right where it should be!” Daisy said, chucking her last log in.

Natsuko blinked. “Huh? Oh yeah. So, um, assuming we win, we were thinking about donating the reward money to the other team of Heroes…”

“The ones who stole our fuel?” Daisy asked.

“Yeah, they uh— well it wasn’t them, we found out, and uh—”

“Heck, I don’t care. I got more money than I know how to spend! Let’s get that puree ready,” Daisy said.

After the pumpkin was done roasting, Sofiane finished the final touches by whisking the pumpkin meat with sugar, cream, eggs, and the spice mix and pouring it into the prepared crust. Once it was done they stuck it in the oven and a few minutes later had a beautifully baked pie with a golden crust and glistening orange filling, complete with a leaf-shaped piece of dough Sofiane added in the center. The aroma was like standing in a spice shop with the windows thrown open.

“Oh yes, here we go! This baby’s a winner,” Sofiane said, rubbing his hands together.

The pronouncement was not a moment too soon as one of the judges poked their head over the counter to announce that time was up.

Natsuko’s stomach rumbled. “They better let us have the leftovers. I could demolish one of those by myself.”

“Touch it and you’ll be waking up at 4am tomorrow morning,” Sofiane said.

The judge’s table was set up in front of the bubbling fountain in the center of the market square. The other teams had placed theirs in front of their associated name placards. The team of burly men had produced a messy-looking pie whose top had burst and exploded, leaving a caldera of purple jam. Their entry card pie announced it the, “Nature’s Gifts to Man Pie.” The goblin-made pie, which was titled, “MMM MEAT,” had a bone sticking out of it and the top crust was still bubbling. Meanwhile, the young girls led by Eve had made a dainty looking “Enchanting Apple Pie of Scrumptiousness” with intricate flower designs carved into the crust.

Spotting the last one, Sofiane leaned over to Natsuko. "Don't worry, they spent all their time making a beautiful pie crust to compensate for their underdeveloped palate. I have no doubt it is overly-sweet and lacking in aromatic spices or the balance of acid to unlock a deeper depth of flavor.”

Beside that was Harald’s pie, which was a pile of black flakes and a card that read, “The Best Damn Butternut Squash Pie in Po-Lin.”

The final team, the scholars from the Mage’s College, had created a bizarre, avant-garde art project consisting of a wafer-thin pastry crust across the bottom of the plate on which lay artful smears of clotted cream and multi-colored orbs the size of marbles embedded in the cream. The entry card read, “Deconstructed, Choose-Your-Own Flavor Pie with Spherified Flavor Concentrates,” and a color-coded guide for which colored orb corresponded to which concentrated flavor. The last to go on the table was a pumpkin pie whose entry card read simply, “Pumpkin Pie,” in elegant calligraphy.

“Ooh! Our card looks so schnazzy!” Daisy said with a squeal and a clap.

Sofiane took an oh-so-humble bow. “It was the best work I could do on such short notice, though I cannot help but notice little mistakes.”

Natsuko rolled her eyes. Once the pies were down, the judges began their appraisals. Sofiane muttered his commentary as they went down the line.

“Good flavors, bad bake, poor technique,” Sofiane said about the “Nature’s Gift to Man” pie seconds before the judges said the same thing.

The goblins’ pie earned a, “what meat is this? No, we are not going to eat this until you tell us what the meat is. What do you mean you don’t know? How do you not know?” The young girls’ pie was exactly as Sofiane anticipated. “Beautiful technique, superb crust, but did you have to use two cups of sugar? We can’t even taste the apple.” The judges skipped Harald’s butternut squash-flavored pile of ash entirely, causing the raccoon girl to burst into tears.

“There but for the grace of gourd go we,” Pechorin said sagely.

However, the judges were astounded by the innovation, artistry, and flavor-profile of the scholars’ pie. Out of the corner of her eye, Natsuko saw Shuixing giddily clapping for them.

“It’s interesting, sure,” Sofiane said, “but the judges will respect the classic earnestness and depth of flavor of our pie, I’m sure. We’ve got this in the bag.”

Natsuko’s heart was pounding as the judges arrived at her team’s pie. Even if she didn’t get to keep the prize money, she at least would get to keep her word. Then, each of the judges carved into the delicate, fluffy orange filling and buttery crust, lifted it to their mouths, took a bite, then spat it out on the ground.