Lily was woken up by Pearl who was sitting at the foot of the sofa. She sat up and rubbed her eyes and was told that the competition started in 10 minutes. You had to cook where there were ingredients available, but you could bring your own. You weren't afraid of the top 5 most handsome men being poisoned because first a judge had to taste the food and afterwards the handsome men could choose whether they want to taste your food. It was about impressing the men and not the judges.
She knew that people judged on appearance and if no one wanted to taste her food she could not move on and therefore had to force the food down on the judges as a last resort. She was curious about who the handsome men were and had an idea that William was definitely included. She wondered if Ace would show up because he was surely as handsome as William. They were already in a competition so it could also be someone completely different that she didn't know.
She looked at Rosie who was sitting across from her and asked, "There are hundreds of contestants so how can they taste all the dishes?"
Rosie shook her head and replied, “You're misunderstanding. Because Celestia always participates and always wins, people have given up participating at all, so there are probably only about 50 who participate who just come for the gold like you.”
Lily had already taken 21 places with her clone and Lillian, Flora, Shui, Belladonna and the others from her family also participated so they had already taken most of the places. She was relieved and happy that it wouldn't take forever to taste one's dish. She wondered if Jade would participate because she was a cute girl and could definitely go far because there were men who dig cute girls.
When it was time, they got up and went towards the stage which had a black carpet so you couldn't see the audience. Chairs were placed so that you could sit down until it was your turn when you were sent into random groups of 10 people. Lily looked around and said that there were approx. 80 and, in any case, less than 100 people present. They were all beautiful, but she couldn't spot Celestia and could figure out that she was given special treatment and had been given a VIP seat. A woman of her status would never sit in the same room as losers.
A short time later they heard a man's voice say, "Welcome to the annual beauty pageant starting now."
There was a loud cheer of men and suddenly a large screen appeared above them and they saw that two appeared above the stage. They saw a woman go to some tables and pick up some women and they went behind the curtain.
“How do they eliminate people?” Lily asked.
"Most people fail in the first round because everyone cooks the same food because they have cooking skills, so it's all done by the system." Rosie replied.
Lily understood well the judges that it was boring to eat the same thing every time, especially for 10,000 years. When she ate noodle cups for a whole week, she also got tired of it, but funnily enough she could eat her Japanese curry every day. She had prepared for unforeseen situations when she traveled to the hot spring and her space ring had ingredients for her curry dish. She wanted to make gyoza as a starter with salad and curry as a main course.
When it was her turn, she went on stage with a group of women and when they got to the other side of the curtain, she saw a lot of men gathered who sat down on chairs and looked at them. There were 10 mini kitchens, and she took the first one she could see which was to her left and farthest from the audience.
There was a row consisting of 5 judges on the stage and down in front of the stage there were 4 men where she recognized 2 of them as William and Ace. She saw there was an empty chair and looked at the other 2 men. One had medium long blond hair, pale skin, blue eyes and looked like a skirt hunter. He was wearing a white shirt and a blue cloak. The other had medium long black hair, pale skin, dark eyes and exuded something cool and wore black clothes.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
She immediately started cooking and quickly made the dough for the gyoza. She made her curry with chicken meat, apples, carrots, onions, ginger, whipping cream and her mother's homemade curry powder recipe which was a mix of different spices. When the curry was put on the stove, she folded all the gyozas and threw them on a frying pan.
She had put beef, ginger, garlic, and spring onion as filling and fried them in olive oil on the pan. She timed it so that both dishes were finished at the same time and placed them beautifully on the plates. She put a mixed salad with coriander next to the gyozas. She went to the judges table and placed the plates and waited for them to taste. She waited for several seconds and saw that they only looked at the food and then looked at her face and it was clear that they did not want to touch her dishes.
"Poor girl. The judges don't even dare to touch her food.” laughed a man loudly and the audience began to laugh.
Lily smiled because she hadn't given up but as she was about to force the food into the judges, she heard William say, "I'll taste the food if the old goats won't."
"I’ll also taste her dishes." Ace said with a big smile.
The audience stopped laughing and looked at them in surprise, thinking they had heard wrong. The judges also thought they had heard wrong and when one of them cleared his throat and was about to say something, William stood up and walked towards the table to Lily's left.
He looked at her and gave her a beautiful smile and said, "The food will get cold if they wait too long." and took a gyoza with his fingers and ate it.
His eyes widened and he ate it faster and took another. As he was about to take the third Ace came on stage and took one too and ate it.
"You can't eat them all." he said looking annoyed at William.
He had wanted to taste Lily's food, but it had never happened and now he had the chance and didn't want to miss it. When they had eaten, they took a spoon and tasted the curry, which was a sweet Japanese curry with rice.
"I tried to give it a creamy taste with whipping cream and added a bit of cornstarch to make it thick." Lily explained.
Both William and Ace ate quickly and suddenly the 2 other men also came on stage because they had become curious and tasted the gyoza first and the curry afterwards.
“Wow. It's delicious. The curry has an addictive taste.” praised the man with the fair hair.
The man with the dark hair nodded and agreed with him and said, "It reminds me of my aunt's food since she’s Japanese." and ate the whole plate.
When all the men had eaten, they went down from the stage and the judges sat back speechless but knew they had to taste the food now to see if it really was as delicious as the men had said.
As one was about to take the last gyoza, a man appeared who was the same one who had registered them. He took a gyoza and ate it in one mouthful. Lily hadn't done too many because there were only 5 judges. He ate the curry dish afterwards and smiled and was satisfied. He looked at her and gave her a thumbs up and nodded. That was enough for Lily, and she knew she had passed and bowed to him and went backstage and sat down with the others.
Celestia sat with a group of women who had seen what had been happening on stage and became angry. She bit her lip and her eyes fell on Ace who was sitting on the chair and looked very pleased because he was smiling big.
"My lady. Don't lose heart. This year is the first time that William and Ace participated, and you know Ace. He’s nice to all women.” Karen said.
"He didn't taste the other people's dishes." lamented Celestia.
“He’s William's friend. William tasted the dish, and he supported him just so people wouldn't get the wrong impression of him.” Karen explained.
Celestia smiled and nodded and said, “Okay. That means he will also taste my dish.”
Lily was eating some snacks and her eyes happened to fall on the screen in front of her which was showing the competition. She suddenly saw a woman she recognized all too well who had long blonde hair and was wearing a long white dress that was cut down in the front. The dress was almost transparent, and it was clear that she had chosen it so that everyone could see her full forms. She was wearing a blue tiara that looked like glass and a pair of blue star earrings. She had white stilettos and bare legs and looked like someone who was going to a fairytale ball.
When she finished preparing her dishes, everyone saw that it was a three-course menu that looked like something you would eat in a very expensive restaurant. The starter looked like a prawn cocktail and the main course was roast beef with vegetables, potatoes and sleep and the main course was a chocolate cake which looked like a brownie.
All the judges tasted her dish but she didn't see that man taste them and neither did William and Ace, but the other two men did. She saw Celestia looking disappointed and hopeful at Ace who wasn't looking at her at all but was busy having a conversation with William who was chuckling who was in a good mood. She was happy that the men supported her because otherwise she would have had to use other means to progress in the competition.