But they only paused for a moment before continuing to eat. After all, this steak rice suited their tastes perfectly. Flaws were flaws, but they were enjoying it comfortably anyway.
Erina could not continue by the end of her criticism, because she realized that despite all its problems, her tongue did not feel the slightest rejection. It was even craving more, urging her to finish the steak rice quickly.
That was simply impossible under normal circumstances. Erina fell silent, said nothing more, and lowered her head to eat in silence.
Although the girls were very confused about why Erina had suddenly stopped talking, they did not know her and felt too awkward to ask.
And so, everyone finished dinner amid a strange atmosphere.
The students who had been waiting to watch a show were all dumbfounded. This was not how they had imagined it! According to the script, shouldn't Emperor Erina have suppressed Venerable Megumi Tadokoro with one hand? Then Venerable Megumi Tadokoro should have exploded with power after being defeated, and the two supreme beings should have fought to the edge of the universe, grinding even the Great Dao into nothingness. That was how it was supposed to go, right?
After Kanemori Taihei finished his steak rice, he let out a satisfied burp. Then he glanced toward Erina and smiled. Hopefully, that young lady would come to understand something.
Then he shouted, "What are you all still staring at? The customers will be here soon! Do you all want to get expelled?"
Hearing that, the students finally snapped out of it and immediately resumed making their dishes. They did not want to be expelled.
Among the crowd, several people gave Megumi Tadokoro a deep look before returning to their own cooking.
After hearing Kanemori Taihei's words, Megumi Tadokoro also stood up and continued making her dish in a fluster.
Erina, meanwhile, asked Luo Yu in a complicated tone, "Why? It was obviously made so badly, but why do I still want to finish it?"
An Encounter at the Bathhouse
Hearing Erina's question, the girls all turned to look at Luo Yu. They also wanted to know why this young lady, despite saying the steak rice was terrible, still wanted to finish it.
"Was it really made that badly? I don't think so." Luo Yu finished arranging the dishes and chopsticks, then looked at Erina and replied calmly.
Erina instinctively wanted to argue, but she fell silent. She truly did not know how to begin, because she had already eaten every last bite of the dish she had called terrible.
Seeing Erina fall silent, Luo Yu turned to the girls from the Light Music Club and asked, "What do you think? How was this dish?"
"I want another serving!" Yui Hirasawa said with shining eyes as she rubbed her stomach. She looked as though she could not eat another bite, yet she was asking for more.
Luo Yu felt like letting her eat herself to death and spare everyone the embarrassment.
Shaking his head, Luo Yu turned his gaze to the remaining girls. They did not disappoint him, answering in unison, "It really suited our tastes. It was very comfortable to eat."
Hearing their answer, Erina froze. She had indeed eaten very comfortably just now, a feeling she had not experienced in a long time. The God Tongue would feed the flaws in a dish back to her. Normally, food with so many flaws would be difficult for her to swallow. So why was this happening?
Looking at Erina's puzzled eyes, Luo Yu answered, "Erina, do you understand now? Food, at the end of the day, is only meant to fill people's stomachs. The ingredients she used were the same as everyone else's—the low-grade ingredients in your eyes. Honestly, after all this time, your view still hasn't changed.
"I went off on a tangent. Back to the point. This student used what you consider low-grade ingredients to prepare the most suitable dish for the customer, something that made people feel very comfortable while eating. None of you managed to do that. Where do you think the gap between you lies, Erina?"
Erina shook her head and said, "I still don't understand. Her cooking skills are obviously still so poor."
"It's sincerity!"
"Sincerity?" Erina repeated the word in confusion. It felt unfamiliar to her.
Seeing Erina's expression, Luo Yu knew she had not noticed the heart of the issue.
"It's sincerity—the sincerity of thinking about the customer. Among everyone here, I only found that in a few people. The rest of the dishes, including yours, were all made merely to fulfill your own tasks, weren't they? As for the customers' circumstances, I doubt you ever paid attention to them."
How arrogant. Shaking his head, Luo Yu stopped paying attention to Erina and gestured for the girls to leave with him. As for Erina, he believed she would understand sooner or later. After all, simply improving one's cooking skills was not enough to reach LV5.
After hearing Luo Yu's words, Erina sank into thought, not even noticing his departure. She still did not understand what he meant.
What sincerity? Why should she pay attention to customers? Weren't customers supposed to just wait and eat? As long as she made her own food well and served it to them, wasn't that enough?
After Luo Yu and the others left the place, Yui Hirasawa could no longer suppress her curiosity and asked, "Luo Luo, was what you said earlier true?"
At Yui Hirasawa's question, the girls all turned their eyes toward Luo Yu. They were curious too.
"Half true, half false. To reach my level, Level 5, sincerity is still necessary. But if you only want to reach the level below mine, LV4, then talented people only need to improve their cooking skills."
Still, to reach LV5, you needed your own sincerity. According to the standards of gourmet novels, reaching LV5 required... what was it called again? Oh, right. Culinary Heart. Yes, Culinary Heart. That was a hard requirement for reaching LV5.
But Luo Yu did not need to go through all that trouble. When he rose to LV5, he had simply gone, 'Prometheus, add points.'
After all, if I have cheats and don't use them, wouldn't that mean I started this story for nothing?
Besides, cheats were cheats? Everything I, Luo Yu, had achieved today came from my own talent and hard work. Prometheus had only provided a tiny little bit of help.
Hearing Luo Yu's words, the girls roughly, perhaps, probably, maybe, possibly, might have understood that he had not been fooling Erina?
After returning to the villa, everyone played their instruments for a while as some after-dinner exercise. After fooling around for some time, they realized it was getting late.
After some discussion, the girls decided to soak in the large bathhouse. They returned to their rooms, gathered clean clothes, and headed out.
"Then we'll be going first, Luo Yu." After saying goodbye to Luo Yu, the girls from the Light Music Club left the villa and headed toward the bathhouse. What disappointed them was that they had not managed to bring Mashiro along. No matter what they said, Mashiro refused to leave Luo Yu's side.
After the girls left, Luo Yu had no plans to go out again. After he and Mashiro washed up simply in the villa, they returned to their room and began discussing the work ahead.
When the girls from the Light Music Club reached the bath, they discovered that a blonde girl was already inside, humming a little tune and soaking comfortably in the water.
Taking a closer look, they realized they knew her. Wasn't that the girl from earlier, Nakiri Erina?
The girls noticed Erina, and naturally, Erina noticed the Light Music Club girls as well. Though she had not yet seen clearly who they were, the sight of people approaching made her panic.
Hadn't they said no one would come at this time? What was going on?
But when she saw who the newcomers were, she froze. She had not expected them to be the girls around Luo Yu.
The girls from the Light Music Club greeted Erina openly.
"Hi! I didn't expect it to be you." Ritsu Tainaka naturally greeted Erina, and the other three girls followed suit.
However, the girls' enthusiasm left Erina, who was not good at interacting with strangers, at a loss. Especially under the current circumstances, where they were bathing together. Erina had never experienced such a scene in her life.
She shrank back, submerging her entire body beneath the hot water. Only then did Erina timidly greet the girls.
She really was arrogant, but that was toward other people. These girls were Luo Yu's friends, after all.
"Ahh, so comfy!"
As soon as the girls entered the water, they narrowed their eyes and let out blissful sighs.
After soaking peacefully for a while, Yui Hirasawa casually glanced in Erina's direction. The moment she did, Yui froze on the spot.
Some Yuri, Please
"Amazing! They're huge!"
Yui Hirasawa's cry made the others open their eyes as well. Curious, they followed her gaze and saw Erina preparing to stand up and leave.
Although Erina was trying her best to cover her chest with both hands, she still could not conceal the balloons floating above the water's surface.
Just as Erina was about to stand, she heard Yui Hirasawa's cry and noticed everyone staring at her. Her face changed drastically, and she immediately sat back down in the water, doing everything she could to hide her body beneath the surface.
"What are you saying?!"
Erina glared at Yui Hirasawa with a face full of embarrassment and anger. When had Miss Erina ever been spoken about like that?
She had been ready to leave, but after Yui Hirasawa shouted that, she did not even dare stand up anymore.
Even if everyone was a girl, anyone would be embarrassed about being watched by other girls, right?
"Yeah... they really are huge."
Ritsu Tainaka had also been stunned by the mountains before her and only now came back to her senses.
At those words, Erina curled up even tighter.
These two... Mio Akiyama grabbed Ritsu Tainaka beside her, whose eyes had already begun shining. She was certain these two troublemakers were about to start something.
Unfortunately, she was a step too slow and only managed to catch Ritsu.
Yui Hirasawa had already approached Erina, staring at Erina's huge chest with gleaming eyes while constantly making strange, meaningless giggling sounds.
Seeing Yui Hirasawa like this, Erina immediately sensed danger and quickly retreated into a corner.
She said in panic, "Y-you... you... what do you want to do?!"
She felt that the girl before her seemed determined to cause trouble, and she would probably be the victim.
Tsumugi Kotobuki, meanwhile, was staring with shining eyes without blinking once, afraid she might miss even a single frame.
Having cornered Erina, Yui Hirasawa could no longer hold herself back. She pounced directly into Erina's arms, her hands reaching restlessly toward the two bouncing rabbits that had begun swaying wildly from Yui's movements.
"Wow! This feels incredible!" Yui Hirasawa stared at Erina with sparkling eyes. She could hardly believe that Erina was the same age as her.
"Wait! Let go of me! Don't touch me randomly! Keep your hands to yourself!" Erina wanted to push Yui Hirasawa away, but she could not summon any strength at all.
What kind of people had Luo Yu brought with him? How could they start touching people as soon as they met? But Erina did not realize that she did not actually hate Yui Hirasawa's closeness all that much.
Seeing this scene, Mio Akiyama released Ritsu Tainaka and covered her eyes with both hands, her face flushed as she watched Yui Hirasawa and Erina pressed together. However, the gaps between her fingers made people wonder whether she wanted to watch or not.
As for Tsumugi Kotobuki, judging by her glowing eyes and heavy breathing, all that could be said was that the young lady was probably nearly done for.
Freed from Mio Akiyama's restraint, Ritsu Tainaka also let herself go and pounced over as well.
"Oh, oh, oh! This is seriously incredible! They're even bigger than Mio's!" Ritsu Tainaka cried out excitedly.
Erina looked as though she was about to cry. She had already given up struggling. Those two had bullied her until she had no strength left. All she wanted now was to give up and let them do whatever they wanted.
After a round of horseplay, the girls became more familiar with one another. After all, they had formed a rather special kind of friendship.
Erina calmed her restless emotions, returned to her usual expression, and said unhappily, "You girls were really too much."
As she spoke, she rubbed the spots they had grabbed. Looking closely, those places had already begun to redden.
"Hehe, sorry! I just wanted to know how you made that part of you so impressive."
Ritsu Tainaka apologized awkwardly, then made a shape in front of her chest with both hands as she asked.
The other girls' eyes also lit up. They all stared at Erina with shining eyes, wanting to know what she had eaten to grow so big. If possible, they wanted to try it too. They cared quite a bit about the size of that part.
Being stared at by so many people made Erina blush deeply. She stammered, "I-I... how would I know? I was born like this."
"Aw..."
Hearing that, the Light Music Club girls all looked disappointed.
"You all came here. Where's Luo Yu?" Erina asked about Luo Yu.
"Luo Luo said he wasn't coming to the bathhouse. He doesn't have a habit of bathing with other men," Yui Hirasawa answered first.
"But I'm curious. Luo Yu said he knew you in middle school, Erina. Could you tell us what Luo Yu was like back then?" Tsumugi Kotobuki asked curiously.
After all, that period was rumored to be when Luo Yu had run away from home. They truly knew nothing about what he had experienced during that time.
Erina was startled by the question. Then she thought that since they were people Luo Yu had brought, there was nothing to hide. So she told the girls from the Light Music Club about the time she and Luo Yu had studied cooking together at Totsuki.
"That's how it was. In the end, I still lost the Shokugeki, and he didn't stay. After that, he never came to Totsuki again. The next time I saw him was earlier, when I saw you walking through the hall with him."
"So you were there too. We didn't notice." Tsumugi Kotobuki recalled the scene. They had been hurrying to lunch and truly had not paid attention to the other students' stares.
"What about you? What is your relationship with him? Classmates? Or...?" Erina was also curious about the relationship between these girls and Luo Yu.
She knew that Luo Yu had been just like her in middle school, without even a single friend. He had said so himself. She at least had Hisako, but Luo Yu truly did not have any friends.
Back then, she had reluctantly considered him a friend. You should thank me, Luo Yu. If it hadn't been for me, how lonely would Luo Yu's middle school life have been?
All of that was merely Miss Erina's fantasy. Luo Yu had been busy grinding skill experience. Where would he have found time to care about whether he had friends?
"We're members of the same club! Oh, and we're also in a band together." Ritsu Tainaka gave Erina a thumbs-up. She was truly proud of her band. Although they had not achieved anything yet, she believed K-ON would definitely become famous in the future.
"A band?"
Erina was rather confused. How had that guy chosen a profession that had absolutely nothing to do with cooking? Luo Yu had only displayed his cooking skills in front of Erina and had never shown any of his other abilities.
Erina's Visit
Once they had soaked long enough, the girls prepared to return to the villa. As they were leaving, Tsumugi Kotobuki invited Erina, "Erina, do you want to come to our villa and hang out for a while?"
Erina was tempted by the invitation. After all, this was probably the first time someone her own age had invited her to hang out.
Though tempted, she quickly calmed down. There was still an assessment tomorrow morning. Even if she was confident, she still had preparations to make.
After thinking it through, Erina declined, "Sorry, I have an assessment tomorrow morning, so I need to go back and prepare later. Maybe tomorrow. If I have time tomorrow, I'll come to your place and hang out."
Although they were disappointed that Erina could not come to the villa, the Light Music Club girls were sensible. Knowing Erina had an exam the next morning, they did not press her further. Though somewhat disappointed, they perked up again when Erina said she would come to the villa tomorrow.
"Then it's a promise. We'll be waiting for you at the villa tomorrow."
After saying that, the girls parted ways with Erina.
Before you continue