"This… this can't be real!"
The student stared blankly at his total score—twenty-three points. His mind had completely shut down.
"Um… e-everyone… judges… each of you can give up to twenty points, not ten…"
The host, Yua Sasaki, whispered timidly. Honestly speaking, she was probably hired purely because of her looks. With a personality this timid, no one would ever expect her to handle hosting.
She couldn't even get a sentence out smoothly.
"We're well aware," one of the judges replied with a smile. "This score is exactly what this student deserves. We're grading strictly by international standards this time."
They loved moments like this—watching students break down from shock.
Low scores were normal. Anyone who'd watched previous Autumn Selections knew that.
But once you were actually in the competition, everyone convinced themselves they wouldn't score that low—not after spending the entire break preparing. They had poured their hearts into these dishes. Yet the truth slapped them across the face: barely twenty points.
Even with the judges explaining, the blow was still hard to accept.
At this point, nothing the students said mattered. No one here could afford to offend the judges' panel.
Once the first low score appeared, more followed. One disappointing score after another made the tension in the arena unbearable.
The average this year hovered in the low twenties. Anyone hitting forty was considered excellent. A score below twenty meant either a tragic misfire… or they simply didn't take this seriously.
And neither excuse should happen here. Nerves were normal—but nerves didn't erase an entire summer of practice. After so much repetition, muscle memory should carry the dish. Messing up would actually be harder unless they never put in the work.
So anyone scoring under twenty deserved no sympathy.
As time passed, the ultra-low scores finally gave way to higher ones—sixties, then climbing into the nineties.
Ryo Kurokiba, who wasn't living in the Polar Star Dormitory, ended up with the same result as in the original story: ninety-three points.
That score shocked both students and judges. In previous years, the highest ever was in the seventies or early eighties. Now someone had broken ninety.
"Over ninety… The champions of the last two years only hit the eighties. Go back a few more years and it was mostly seventies. Isn't this already the third highest score in the Academy's history?!"
The students exploded in excitement. A sudden ninety-plus felt unreal. Even Eishi Tsukasa, the world's current number-one seat, never scored that high when he participated.
And before the shock wore off, more results rolled in.
Ikumi Mito scored a bit higher than in the original timeline—eighty-nine.
Since she never joined the Donburi Research Society this time, she stuck with what she did best: meat dishes.
Back in canon, after losing to Soma Yukihira, she switched tracks and buried herself in donburi experiments for only one semester—nowhere near enough to match her true specialty.
So eighty-nine made perfect sense.
Subaru Mimasaka followed with another high score. Thanks to everyone's improved cooking levels, dishes now took longer to prepare, pushing completion times back.
The Polar Star group—Kael included—finished later than most, and by then the students were already numb.
Three people had already broken ninety. After Ryo and Subaru, Akira Hayama scored ninety-four, taking first place.
These ridiculous scores piled up like a dream. But the judges here weren't the type to toss out points blindly—especially not someone like Natsume.
"Three students above ninety, and another just one point away. Totsuki's students this year are terrifying…" One judge sighed at the rankings.
"Yeah, I wonder how the other arena is doing. They wouldn't put all the strong students here—there must be monsters over there too."
"Is the Golden Age about to return again?"
Excitement buzzed among the judges.
The previous Golden Age birthed monsters:
Joichiro Saiba—one of the ceilings of the culinary world, beyond Nine-Star.
Gin Dojima—head of the Totsuki Resort, an Eight-Star Chef close to Nine-Star.
Azami Nakiri—a terrible man, but undeniably brilliant. He and Erina both became Elite Ten during middle school.
Unlike now, where most wait until high school, a student strong enough could challenge for an Elite Ten seat any time. The Autumn Selection only produced candidates, not guaranteed successors. Seat transfers still required Shokugeki battles.
Middle schoolers could participate—if they were strong enough.
But picking a fight without skill was suicidal. If you failed, the new Elite Ten would make your life miserable.
So no one interfered with the Ten Candidates unless they knew exactly what they were doing.
Erina once challenged Isshiki's generation while she was still in middle school and won her seat. Azami did the same back in his time.
Now, seeing this year's insane scores, the judges felt as if the Golden Age was returning.
In another ten or twenty years, several chefs might surpass the Nine-Star rank.
And everyone already agreed: Kael was guaranteed to surpass it.
While they talked excitedly, the first Polar Star member finally presented his dish.
Zenji Marui had finished first among them—and his score stunned the entire hall.
Ninety-seven points.
The room erupted again.
"Wait, what?! Ninety-seven?! Has that score ever existed before?!"
Even the judges were shaken. Ninety-seven meant two judges gave him full twenty-point scores, and the rest deducted only one point for personal taste.
"Marui-kun, after you graduate, would you be interested in working under my culinary group?"
Natsume asked immediately.
Whether he would graduate was not even a question. Someone like Marui failing meant everyone else might as well drop out now.
"Uh… maybe we can talk about that in the future."
Marui still looked dazed. There was a long road before graduation—who knew what opportunities awaited?
"Sorry, I got a bit ahead of myself."
Natsume smiled. She knew she was being impatient, but planting a seed early mattered.
After Marui, Ryoko Sakaki and Shun Ibusaki both stepped up. Their scores:
Ninety-six and ninety-six.
Kael raised an eyebrow, amused.
"Interesting. Are they going to let five people advance this time?"
With his Divine Senses, Kael could tell Ryoko was slightly stronger than Shun, but the judges didn't have that ability. To them, the two were equally matched.
Marui whistled. "Same score… Are they going to bump you both forward? Or will they add a tiebreaker?"
Ryoko laughed. "Either works. If we all pass, that means four of us advance."
She and Shun sat exactly at Third place.
What no one else realized was that Kael and Soma Yukihira would obviously take the top two spots—meaning Akira's ninety-four was already in danger.
Across the arena, Ryo Kurokiba stared blankly at the screen.
His ninety-three placed him below the cutoff.
He had never imagined such a path. He knew he couldn't win against Kael, but everyone else? No way. And now not only Akira, but three more people had overtaken him.
He was eliminated… in the prelims.
"What a nightmare…"
Akira Hayama, hanging on at fourth with ninety-four, felt his stomach drop. Kael hadn't even presented yet.
A literal Five-Star Chef. Even if he went easy, he would crush Akira. Unless… Kael failed to finish in time.
Akira shut that thought down immediately. Someone like Kael would never make such an amateur mistake.
Which meant Akira was already out. He just hadn't been officially pushed off the board yet.
But before Kael even stepped onstage—
Soma Yukihira smashed the scoreboard with a perfect 100 points.
"One hundred… Based on Soma's current level, this evaluation must match a Four-Star Chef standard." Kael compared everyone's scores and understood the scale instantly.
"One hundred points! Soma Yukihira scored a perfect one hundred!"
Even timid Yua Sasaki couldn't hold back a shout. That alone showed how shocking it was.
Akira's name slid off the ranking board entirely.
"I thought I'd survive until Kael appeared… I didn't expect to get kicked out now…"
Akira twitched at the corner of his mouth, speechless. Being eliminated before Kael even appeared was not something he was prepared for.
In the stands, Jun Shiomi was already teary-eyed. She knew how hard Akira had worked. She wanted this Autumn Selection to be his breakthrough moment—yet he didn't even make it past the prelims.
"Jun, look at the ranking. The Elite Ten are probably panicking right now!"
Roland Chapelle wasn't upset. Akira wasn't his student. What interested him was the ranking itself.
Without Kael, they had four finalists.
With Kael… they suddenly had five.
The original bracketing required eight contestants for one-on-one matches.
Now they had an extra pair. What were they supposed to do?
And just as Chapelle predicted—
The Elite Ten Council members were feeling the headache.
"Five people… So what do we do now?"
Rindo Kobayashi frowned at the display.
"Don't ask me! Everything was scheduled down to the minute. How were we supposed to predict something like this?"
Eishi Tsukasa rubbed his temples. Every match, every time slot, every judge had been arranged perfectly.
One extra match?
That would derail the entire tournament.
Even Tsukasa felt helpless.