Cooking Showdown (11)

“Do you understand?”

“Ah, I see. You did it too, so there’s no reason I can’t do it.”

“Anyway, I’m off! You’d better get the ring quickly too!“

Rurin said that and immediately used teleportation. She wanted to return quickly and had no reason to stay here for even one more second.

“Wait, what were you two talking about…?”

El was flustered, but in Real Rurin’s eyes, no further scenes came into view.

Soon, the world turned completely dark.

An infinitely rotating tunnel of spacetime. El had described it as a nauseating feeling due to the endless rotation, but Rurin didn’t feel anything at all.

So, with perfectly clear eyes, she looked around for the rift that El from the other world had mentioned.

And she found it. The rift created by the overcharged mana, a tear in spacetime, shrinking even as the moment passed.

As Rurin focused her mind on it, the world soon turned completely white.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in front of the clinic.

Rurin looked around. There was no El or Rurin from the other world.

She felt a gaze watching her and quickly turned her head.

The owner of the gaze was none other than Elena. Rurin, suddenly appearing, found Elena walking quickly toward her.

“Ugh.”

It would be awkward if Elena knelt down here. That was clearly Elena from another world. Rurin stared at Elena intensely, recalling her past memories.

Slightly tense, Rurin unintentionally let out a soft “ugh” sound.

Fortunately, Elena didn’t kneel. She simply leaned in slightly and whispered in front of Rurin.

“Oh my? Rurin, if you teleport so blatantly like that… Won’t El scold you?”

“……”

Rurin raised an eyebrow slightly.

It was good that Elena didn’t kneel, but the temperature difference between the Elena here and the one from the other world was too much.

“Ahhh! You can’t say that!”

“Ahhh!”

When Rurin let out a loud sound, Elena was startled, but Rurin, thinking she had startled her enough, went into the clinic.

There was one more thing she needed to confirm.

The clinic was quiet. Even though she had already felt the Dragon’s mana, she anxiously looked around, needing to confirm with her eyes. She wasn’t sure if another dragon might be living there.

With that thought, when she entered further inside, her eyes met Sereina’s. Sereina immediately scowled and waved her hand.

“What’s the matter? Why are you staring at me? I don’t have time to deal with you. I’m busy trimming my nails, so go away.”

Her dazzling red hair.

That irritating tone of voice.

The Red Dragon Sereina, who hadn’t been there before. It was definitely her.

“Hehehe.”

Rurin let out a joyful smile.

“Huh? Why are you laughing like that? What’s wrong with you?”

Sereina gave Rurin an unpleasant look.

“It’s the Red! I don’t like Red, but in this moment, it’s good. Hehehe, but since your words are annoying, take this!”

Rurin kicked her in annoyance, but Sereina, who had built up an immunity to Rurin’s kicks, easily dodged it and calmly resumed trimming her nails.

“Hehe, I missed!”

She missed and laughed, a laugh as if she owned the world. Sereina was stunned. Rurin’s reaction was so ridiculous.

“Are you crazy?”

But Rurin showed another unusual reaction. She laughed when asked if she was crazy. Sereina started to wonder if she was actually crazy.

“More importantly, do you know this?”

She even brought up something else.

“Do you know this?”

Sereina replied with a puzzled look.

“What?”

“That there’s a parallel world similar to ours.”

Sereina gave a strange expression to Rurin’s question, then placed her finger to her temple before answering.

“It probably exists. But it’s just a theory; you can’t go there or come back. That’s what a parallel world is. A world where you didn’t meet El, or where I didn’t live here. There are many possible worlds, each with endless possibilities based on the choices made.”

“Ugh, you’re really annoying. Forget it!”

Rurin, who had tried to boast but ended up getting bombarded with knowledge instead, quickly turned her head and left the clinic. However, she soon returned to ask one more thing.

“Oh, by the way… Didn’t El come by?”

“What? I haven’t seen him today. Did he come down with you?”

“No? I went to run an errand! But I disappeared, so he should have come to look for me…didn’t he?”

Rurin carefully asked, filled with frustration that no one looked for her when she disappeared, but Sereina just shrugged.

“You disappeared? Where did you go? I wouldn’t have noticed unless you completely left the city since your mana would not feel the same. What are you saying? Stop with the weird talk.”

“No. I came from another world…”

“What? Didn’t you just go shopping like five minutes ago? What do you mean you disappeared?”

“Huh?”

At Sereina’s words, Rurin blinked in astonishment.

“My mana must have disappeared for a whole day!”

“Your mana? I don’t know why, but it’s a bit bigger than other dragons, so I wouldn’t have missed it. There’s no other dragon around here. It disappeared for a moment but showed up again, probably because of teleportation.”

“Eh?”

Rurin tilted her head. What did that mean? Was it that she had only been gone for a few seconds in the other world?

In shock, Rurin ran outside.

But soon, she realized it didn’t matter. There was no other Rurin, and as long as El, the El she knew, was there, she didn’t care if it was hell. It was fortunate that El hadn’t worried for nothing.

She looked up at the hill, planning to return to the restaurant right away. However, she didn’t use teleportation.

The rift was closing, but it wasn’t completely closed yet, so she knew it was off-limits for a day or two. She didn’t want to experience that again.

With that in mind, Rurin started running toward the restaurant.

Thump, thump, thump.

Her heart began pounding heavily.

She didn’t feel the presence of any other dragons. El was definitely there. There was no other Rurin.

With that certainty, she dashed through the wind and into the restaurant.

“My El!”

But El had no idea about Rurin’s situation. As Sereina had said, Rurin’s mana hadn’t disappeared. No time had passed in this world.

“Huh? I sent you on an errand, why do you have nothing in your hands? What were you doing?”

“Eh?”

As soon as Rurin heard that, she was suddenly brought back to cold reality. After all, the source of all this trouble was that shopping basket.

“Th-th-th-that…”

“What?”

“Aahhh!”

Rurin ran out of the restaurant in frustration. The threat that there would be punishment, not reward, if she didn’t complete her errand crossed her mind.

Still, Rurin’s face looked happy as she ran away. She smiled brightly, running down the hill.

That was because El was certainly her El.

That fact was the most important thing to Rurin.

“Why, Rurin?”

As she looked up at me, I grabbed her hand and pulled her into my embrace, and Rurin stared at my lips intently.

Why the lips?

“What’s wrong?”

Without answering, she brought her face closer, but when our eyes met, she became flustered and quickly turned her face away.

“Ah, no! I mean…uh, I’m just…hungry.”

“Hungry? Yeah, you didn’t eat anything today, huh?”

She nodded.

It’s good that she’s hungry.

But why are your ears turning red when you’re hungry? I haven’t done anything to make your ears go red?

Rurin’s ears wouldn’t turn red just from pulling her into my arms. That’s still a very early stage. She has already passed the stage of being shy about that long ago.

She has been doing strange things recently, and I wondered if this was part of that trend.

She came close as if she had something serious to say, but then couldn’t even look me in the eye, which made it impossible not to think it was strange.

At that moment, Ricent was looking at us with a peculiar expression, so I decided to stop my thoughts about Rurin and spoke up.

“Rurin is hungry, and we’ve decided to work, so we should head to the kitchen. Could you guide us?”

“Really? That’s the most welcome thing I’ve heard all day!”

Ricent yelled with a bright face. She had seemed like she was dying just moments ago.

“I’m so hungry.”

Ricent led the way, and Rurin, repeating how hungry she was with a face that looked like a parrot, followed her to the kitchen.

Then, something suddenly crossed my mind, so I stopped Ricent and whispered to her in a voice low enough not to be heard by Horai or anyone else. Of course, Rurin, who was right next to me, would hear it, but that didn’t matter.

“By the way, we’ll be testing dishes for the festival and the shop, so let’s close early today. There are no customers anyway. There might be spies in the kitchen or among the staff.”

“Ah, that’s right! Now that you mention it…”

Ricent looked at me, startled, as if something clicked. I nodded again, and she nodded back, then said,

“Please wait a moment,”

before starting to tidy up the restaurant.

She sent the staff and kitchen workers off with paid leave for the day. Soon, the restaurant was empty.

We headed to the now empty kitchen.

Thanks to Ricent’s business policies, the kitchen was clean, and the ingredients were well-stored.

There were many reasons to help Ricent this much.

In fact, she had nearly completed her revenge. The shop’s revenue had been steadily rising.

She would have succeeded if I hadn’t helped Bissera.

That’s why I am here to help her complete it.

A quick and decisive victory, using all my skills to make her the best, then giving Bissera’s restaurant a happy ending.

As long as this woman gets her happy ending, that’s all that matters.

She might win, and someone else might suffer, but that’s none of my concern. I live the way I want; I’m not a symbol of justice.

If Ricent had done anything I didn’t like, I would have crushed her beyond repair and taken over the restaurant.

Her reason for revenge was valid and firm. I helped her because I liked her resolve.

I picked up a kitchen knife and looked at Ricent.

Then I looked back at Rurin.

“Hmm, anyway, the specialty of this town is noodles, so let’s base the shop’s dishes on noodles, and also have skewers made from Ma’a meat.”

“Noodles…aren’t they too common? I’m not sure about the skewers either.”

Ricent tilted her head, then spoke again.

“Oh, could it be that dish from Bissera’s restaurant?”

She asked, her face full of expectation, but the answer was no. Bissera’s dish could only be sold at Bissera’s restaurant to maintain its uniqueness.

For the time being, it had to remain like that to keep the customers loyal.

“No. It’s a different dish. A unique kind of noodle. I’ll have you taste it now.”