First Glance (3)

“Don’t worry! Be a man and just swallow it!”

Mr. Knoll confidently nodded once more and I put the item he chose into his mouth.

Mr. Knoll began chewing boldly, just as he said he would. Boldly.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Then he spat it out into the bowl, and when that wasn’t enough, he went outside and started rubbing his mouth with snow.

No wonder, as what he ate was a Habanero, a monstrous chili pepper.

If the spiciness (SHU) of a Cheongyang chili pepper is 4,000, the Habanero’s power is at level 350,000. It can’t even be compared to Cheongyang chili.

He chewed on that wildly. Perhaps it was good that he spat it out.

This makes people think it’s better to chew cautiously and spit it out if they can’t handle it. That’s human psychology.

I’m getting curious about who among the remaining people has the best patience and mindset to face fear.

Next up was Linte.

Linte nodded firmly at Mate and stepped forward. Linte bravely put a fork into the pot. Then he immediately decided and nodded.

What he chose was a root called Nerto. It’s a wild herb that grows on hillside mountains, very good for the body, but its smell and bitterness make it impossible to eat raw. Elena recognized the herb and immediately frowned.

With everyone holding their breath, Linte began to chew the herb wildly. His face contorted. He started gagging and brought the bowl to his mouth, but Linte shook his head and chewed and swallowed it all.

“How about it, Mate! Senior! I’m strong against food waste. This is nothing compared to the weird food waste I ate here before… Ugh!”

Linte, thinking he had won, said something but then fell back in surprise when he met the dragon’s glare. He fell on his butt and started begging on his knees.

Linte and Mate don’t know Rurin’s identity, but they are terrified of Rurin for no reason.

It’s understandable that they are scared because of the subtle aura from the dragon, but I don’t understand the talk about food waste from the restaurant.

Looking at Rurin’s reaction, it seems like she knows something. I’ll have to interrogate her later.

I let Linte pass for now and called the next contestant.

Mrs. Seral surprisingly couldn’t stand the sour taste and was eliminated, Elena couldn’t eat meat and picked a piece of it, so she was eliminated. Mate, surprisingly cowardly, ate gelatin-like jelly and spat it out because of the bitter taste.

And next, it was the dragon’s turn.

“Hehe, I won’t lose.”

Rurin boasted while putting on a blindfold. When I held her hand, she stirred the pot. What Rurin picked was candy. Candy. Lucky.

Modern Chupa Chups. And Cola flavor at that.

“Hey! What’s this? It’s sweet!”

Rurin started to smile with the candy bulging in her cheek. The sweetest thing in the world. Naturally, she was happy eating candy.

The Greek boy stepped forward with a determined face, but he was a noble. Having grown up eating only good things, the Greek boy couldn’t overcome the bitterness and gave up.

“How could this be… Is this the taste of the people… I still have a long way to go.”

Leaving him to his own despair, I called the next person.

“Next up, Mrs. Rayne!”

Mrs. Rayne stepped up confidently, saying she wouldn’t let Mr. Knoll make a sound, but she was teamkilled.

Mr. Knoll, afraid of the scolding he would get if Mrs. Rayne succeeded, took special measures.

“Honey, bu, bug….”

“Pffft!”

At the word ‘bug’, Mrs. Rayne was startled and spat out what she was eating.

Mrs. Rayne was eating fried food. There’s no teamkill like this.

Next was Mr. Ment.

What Mr. Ment picked was the Infinity chili pepper, spicier than Habanero. He picked well. He likes spicy food.

The Infinity chili pepper’s level is 1,200,000. Even Habanero can’t compare. It’s not easy to endure the feeling of your throat burning and your tongue being pricked by thousands of needles.

Unlike the reckless Mr. Knoll, Mr. Ment cautiously began to chew the Infinity chili pepper. Surprisingly, he looked pleased.

What is this monster?

Slurp, slurp.

Slurp, slurp.

The sound overwhelmed the room. Even standing nearby, you could feel the spiciness making you cough.

“Ah, this… It’s incredible. But it’s delicious… Haha.”

This crazy man.

Mr. Ment, a self-proclaimed lover of spicy food, was a real monster.

In no time, he had eaten all the Infinity chili peppers he put in his mouth.

As a result, the first-round qualifiers were Mr. Ment, Linte, and Rurin.

“Ooo, Senior, what did you eat? It makes me cough just being near you. Cough, cough.”

When Miltain asked, Mr. Ment just laughed.

“Now we will choose the winner among the three. It’s simple. Whoever eats this wins.”

What is the hardest food to eat in the world?

One of them is stinky tofu. Its strong rotten smell makes it impossible for anyone unfamiliar with it to eat.

But there is a food worse than stinky tofu.

“First, open all the windows. And the restaurant door too.”

Saying that, I brought out a can of surströmming. It’s considered the hardest food to eat in the world.

It’s made by fermenting herring for years, and while it’s good for the skin, its smell is beyond imagination. The strong ammonia smell makes it impossible for anyone not used to it to swallow it.

“If you eat this, you win!”

Thinking it would be a fun day, I opened the can. And I regretted it.

Ughhh.

Everyone except Linte, Ment, and Rurin stepped back and grimaced. No, even the three of them stepped back.

Mr. Ment is strong with spicy food, not this kind of stinky food. He shook his head and said.

“I, I give up.”

“Senior! What a waste!”

Linte looked at Mr. Ment, then back at the surströmming. The herring floating there was…

“Do you really need that tax exemption? This is like pee! Pee! It smells worse than pee!”

“If you need it, I’ll eat it?”

“Ugh. If you… If you really need it…”

Our Rurin looked up at me with desperate eyes. But Rurin can never eat something that tastes bad. She can’t stand it.

Besides, we don’t really need the tax exemption.

“Rurin, if you eat this, your mouth will smell, and I won’t stay by your side.”

So I teamkilled too.

Rurin, horrified, ran far away.

“You strange humans! I won’t eat it!”

Only Linte was left.

There was no wavering in his expression.

Linte walked over confidently and began eating the surströmming.

He was a scary guy.

Talking about food waste, is he already trained to handle bad smells, or does he not have a nose?

Or is his sense of smell numb?

“I ate it all!”

In the end, Linte became the winner. He seemed capable of eating anything. It was terrifying. Everyone accepted his victory, and the restaurant was filled with the smell of ammonia.

“Hahaha, well, shall we go?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Even Ms. Elena, horrified by the smell, went downstairs, saying she felt like she was with a patient.

After everyone left, I had to use magic to ventilate. The competition ended in failure.

Frowning at my miscalculation, I cleaned up the restaurant, and before I knew it, it was night.

The snow had long stopped, and the accumulated snow started to harden as the moisture froze. The snow reflected the night sky, shining like jewels.

“Rurin, let’s eat.”

“I’m not hungry because of that smell. Ugh.”

“Then you won’t eat?”

When I asked again, Rurin shook her head.

“No. I’ll eat anyway! I’m hungry!”

The confident voice of a dragon. Of course.

I grabbed a shovel and started digging the snow piled next to the restaurant.

“What are you doing?”

“You help too.”

When I handed the shovel over, Rurin looked puzzled, as if asking why I said we’d eat.

“I’ll show you the mood, just follow along. The smell won’t go away, so we can’t eat inside. We’ll stay outside while we ventilate.”

“Can’t you just use magic? There’s no one here.”

“No, this is a delicate task.”

I gathered all the snow in front of the restaurant, packed it, sprayed water to make it harder, and started digging from the center of the snow.

The snow, soaked and frozen, doesn’t collapse easily. After digging inside, if you spray ice magic on the ceiling, a simple igloo is completed.

You can’t use magic when digging it, but it’s fine afterward.

Then I dug a space to store a fireball and put a pot on top, and it was ready.

I added the prepared broth and mixed it with Palenque meat and special seasoning to make chicken hot pot.

The smell of the boiling chicken hot pot in the igloo was incredibly rich.

The snow piled up everywhere sparkled.

The igloo’s snow also sparkled.

“Come here.”

The dug-out space was just big enough for Rurin and me to sit close together. And a place for the pot.

But Rurin, naturally, came between my legs and sat with her head against my chest.

Right in front of the pot.

“Sit next to me. Geez.”

“No! This is my reserved seat!”

“Reserved?”

“Yes! I’ll eat in your arms. It smells good!”

Rurin’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the hot pot.

“Take off your hat and gloves.”

Since she was still wearing the hat and gloves I put on her in the morning, I took them off, revealing her black hair. Thanks to that, her hidden diamond earrings sparkled.

Rurin’s eyes sparkled.

The earrings sparkled.

The igloo’s snow sparkled.

With the snow falling, the clear sky was also filled with sparkling stars.

“Haha, nice atmosphere, right?”

At my words, Rurin scooped some chicken hot pot into a bowl, ate it, and nodded.

“It’s sparkling. I like sparkling things. But your embrace is the best!”

“Is that something to say boldly? You never know, saying it shyly might make your heart race.”

“Shyly? How do you do that?”

Rurin tilted her head back, looking at me as if she really wanted to try it.

“You sometimes get shy recently, don’t you notice it?”

“I don’t know! And I’ve never been shy! I’m a dragon!”

“Oh, really?”

I turned my head forward again and blew air into the ear of the dragon drinking the hot pot broth.

Her earrings swayed wildly with her surprise.

“Huh?”

“Isn’t this what being shy is like?”

The dragon squirmed wildly.

The fact that she almost dropped the bowl shows how shy she felt.

“Huh?”

“What do you mean huh! Huh huh!”

“Did you see it?”

“I saw it!”

Rurin and I witnessed a meteor shower falling from the sky.

“Rurin! When you see something like that, you have to make a wish!”

“Right! The world of those stars is a divine realm even dragons can’t reach. So if you make a wish, it will come true!”

Rurin put down the bowl and clasped her hands. The meteors had already fallen, so it was a bit late. But I didn’t say anything. The act of wishing itself is meaningful, regardless of the wish.

Because you can live for that dream.

“What are you wishing for so hard?”

When I asked, Rurin picked up the bowl again and whispered quietly.

“I wished that you would die later than me.”

Then she drank the broth. The breath from Rurin’s mouth dissipated into the sky.