Soma Yukihira felt no sadness at all over Joichiro Yukihira's unannounced departure.
The father and son had a rather superficial bond. One believed his child had grown up and was now capable of standing on his own.
The other believed his old man was already well advanced in years and perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Besides, compared to his father, Soma now had someone else he wanted to defeat even more.
In any case, his father had only temporarily run away from home, not vanished forever. With Soma's abilities, running the family restaurant was more than manageable.
Whether he would attend Totsuki Culinary Academy could wait. Opening time was drawing near, and he had used up nearly all the ingredients in the restaurant last night, so he needed to restock before today's business was affected.
Soma had barely stepped outside when he saw Seiya, who was likewise preparing to head out.
Their destinations were actually the same: the morning market, where they would buy ingredients wholesale and pick out some quality produce.
Whether vegetables or seafood, anything freshly harvested or caught early in the morning was bound to be at its freshest.
Soma had nearly wiped out the restaurant's ingredients during last night's intense competition.
Seiya, meanwhile, needed fresh ingredients so the restaurant could reopen today.
Since the two of them usually handled the restaurant's purchasing, they knew the route like the backs of their hands. On the way, Soma even started chatting with Seiya.
"Seiya, have you heard of Totsuki Culinary Academy? My old man said there seem to be a lot of amazing chefs around our age there."
Because they had grown up together and lived so close to each other, they had always attended the same school.
Soma did not yet know whether Totsuki Culinary