"That's right, with Divine Hearing I can easily pick up the flaws in their cooking and help them improve fast."
Kael nodded. It wasn't exactly a secret; word had already spread around Totsuki.
Lately, the Chinese Cuisine Research Society had been recruiting more new members than usual. A lot of students regretted not choosing Chinese cuisine earlier. After all, once you joined the Chinese Cuisine Research Society, you had a chance, once a month, to receive Kael's guidance.
Just that one perk made others green with envy. An ability like that was close to having God's Tongue. Honestly, if they could be guided by Erina Nakiri once a month, how happy would they be?
Of course, that kind of treatment only existed at the Chinese Cuisine Research Society. Under Erina, the only person who could call on God's Tongue to boost their skills was Hisako Arato.
For everyone else, it depended entirely on Erina's mood — feeling generous, she'd offer pointers; in a bad mood, she wouldn't bother.
"That really is enviable!" Miyoko Hojo said, openly jealous.
"Then join the Chinese Cuisine Research Society. With your cooking you won't have any trouble getting in, and Terunori Kuga isn't spreading his doctrine anymore." Kael said this casually.
Hearing it, Miyoko's eyes lit up. She'd come over to introduce herself and to get a read on the society's situation. Though she had friends there, she wasn't part of the management, so her knowledge was superficial. Now that she had Kael's answer, she was eager to join.
"Then I'll be in your care, Captain!" Miyoko replied immediately, already acting like a member with Kael leading them.
"Welcome aboard, Hojo." Kael reached out and shook her hand, then the two of them returned to their spots to prepare for the assessment.
It was still before six, so there was time to cook. Many students had already started, some were actively cooking, others prepping ingredients.
At his station, Kael had begun kneading dough. He was making five hundred shumai, but the wrappers were thin, so his dough ball wasn't huge. Still, the way Kael worked scared the onlookers.
The pre-cut dough pieces were simply pressed, then the rolling pin moved, and a wafer-thin shumai wrapper, like an insect wing, appeared.
Wrapper after wrapper seemed to come off an assembly line. Curious classmates glanced over and realized every single wrapper was exactly the same size and shape, indistinguishable from one another.
"This isn't human work — it's like a machine. All those shumai are exactly identical!" the students exclaimed, eyes wide. Although the assessment was approaching, more and more students crowded around Kael.
That was the domineering side of Divine Touch. A normal person could press dough flat, but it would be uneven. Kael, with Divine Touch, applied force uniformly across the dough, so a single press already formed the wrapper's base.
The rolling pin followed the same quick, even force; in the blink of an eye a perfect wrapper was done.
No one else could do this. Only someone with the Divine Senses could.
Using that technique required solid physical ability, Kael was already practicing the foundational force techniques of darker secret arts. The Dark Cooking Society's secret techniques were impossible for ordinary people to use.
Kael had Kaiyu's inheritance and knew those dark techniques, but he couldn't yet perform the full moves: they needed massive technique integration and top-tier physical conditioning. Still, he was learning the force application methods, which is why he could produce wrappers so fast.
"Students, the assessment is about to begin. Please return to your stations immediately."
The broadcast cut into the growing crowd, snapping them back to attention. The students dispersed and went back to their spots, but their minds were still on Kael's astonishing technique.
In the monitoring room, graduate students and Roland Chapelle watched over the students via cameras. With so many venues and students, they couldn't be everywhere, so they relied on surveillance.
Top performers were positioned close to the monitors; every move could be seen clearly. Kael's operation had naturally been noticed.
"Isn't it natural for us to be pulled in? Honestly, it's hard to imagine a human doing that. Is he really human?" Hinako Inui looked at her hands. She wasn't a pastry specialist, but she knew enough about dough work to be shaken by Kael's performance.
"I have seen similar things. Among the Midnight chefs, a standout young cook recently has a hand ability — the name was something like Marcanta," Gin Dojima said.
He kept an eye on Midnight chefs; that generation had many strong figures. He mentioned someone who used a hollow iron sphere, put ingredients inside, spin it with their ability, and it acted like a pressure cooker.
"Hand abilities? I can understand that. But if I recall correctly, Kael's ability is Divine Hearing!" Fuyumi Mizuhara said, and everyone nodded. The fact that Kael had Divine Hearing made his display even more incredible.
"He can't have two abilities, can he? So far no one in the culinary world has possessed two." Mamoru Sekimori's comment drew everyone's attention.
"Maybe you're right, but that's not what we should worry about. Let's watch what he does next." Gin Dojima cut off further chatter.
He agreed with Sekimori: Kael's speed wasn't normal, and the simplest explanation was a special ability. But if he did have two abilities, he'd be the culinary world's first double-ability cook, and that news would shake the culinary world harder than ever before. Gin decided to wait until after the assessment to call Senzaemon Nakiri.
With that, the others fell silent and kept watching the students on the monitors, their gaze drifting back to Kael. There was no helping it, Kael stood out so much that other students, excellent as they were, looked like infants in comparison.
Two minutes before the assessment started, Kael had already finished five hundred wrappers.
"Hojo, your fried rice — you let the heat go a little long around the Xth second..." Kael paused and casually pointed out a timing issue; he had noticed Miyoko making egg fried rice.
"Got it, thanks, Captain!" Even though she hadn't officially joined yet, Miyoko was treating herself as part of the Chinese Cuisine Research Society and gratefully noted Kael's advice. She wrote down everything he mentioned, determined to be careful when she cooked.
Habits weren't easy to change in a short time, but knowing the problem was the first step.
"Students, attention. The assessment begins now."
The broadcast blared and customers flooded into the hall. Seeing that, students sped up their motions.
Kael kept things simple. Once the filling was ready he quickly assembled the shumai and stacked them into a gigantic steamer, in fact, he had brought out Totsuki Resort's largest steamer. With multiple steaming trays stacked, he could steam all five hundred at once.
Using such a huge steamer made it tricky to control flavor and presentation, but Kael didn't worry. His Divine Senses monitored the shumai continuously, and he adjusted heat and placement on the fly.
In under half an hour, all five hundred shumai were ready. When the steamer lid opened, a bold fragrance rolled out, and the crowd was instantly attracted.
"It smells amazing. How can it smell this good? Shumai — and their shape is so strange!" Customers gathered around Kael's plates, surprised.
Kael's golden-ratio shumai had a distinct size and shape that set them apart from the others. As he plated, he explained the concept of his golden-ratio shumai, and the audience was stunned. None of them had seen shumai like this.
They didn't hesitate — everyone grabbed a piece and stuffed it in their mouths. The instant it entered their mouths, the enticing flavor immersed them completely. They began tasting layers they hadn't noticed before.
It was the flavor of chef's heart. That taste was domineering, aggressive in the best way.
They had sampled many dishes before coming to Kael, but his shumai's presence washed all other flavors away.
Kael's cooking had gradually infused his will into the dish. He had found the direction of his chef's heart: domination.
Kael wanted to climb to the culinary summit, not just in the World of Food Wars but in the Chuuka Ichiban world as well, and his chef's heart had evolved into an aura of dominance.
Of course, Kael's chef's heart was only at an early stage. This domineering taste lasted only a few minutes, so it didn't completely overshadow other contestants. If it lingered longer, no one else could have their dishes break through Kael's blockade unless their skills utterly crushed his.
With five hundred shumai plated, Kael cleaned up and wandered over to check other students' stalls. It had been just over half an hour since the assessment began.
Kael hadn't reached two hundred points yet, but he had produced five hundred servings, it was only a matter of time before they were gone.
He was that confident. In terms of cooking, Kael had already reached Five-Star Chef level. His skill had been propelled by his chef's heart; now that he'd found its direction, he'd naturally risen to Five-Star.
If a Five-Star Chef couldn't pass this breakfast assessment, that would be ridiculous.
After finishing his own setup, Kael left the food out on the self-serve table. Whoever wanted to eat could take it, if some people couldn't get any, that was just bad luck.