Hayashi also looked at Nakiri Erina with confusion.
He couldn't help but doubt.
Because the dark cuisine in front of Nakiri Erina should be the same thing as what he made.
But his smelled aromatic, though it did look rather terrifying.
However, Nakiri Erina's looked even more terrifying, like a mass of dark, sticky skulls clumped together.
Moreover, there was a subtle, barely perceptible strange odor.
It wasn't quite like a stench, but just smelling it made people frown and feel naturally uncomfortable.
This didn't look like success at all.
At this time, Nakiri Erina clearly saw that everyone didn't believe her, and immediately said dissatisfiedly:
"You don't trust my judgment? In that case, I'll taste it myself to show you."
Saying this, Nakiri Erina directly picked up a spoon, scooped a bite from her dark cuisine, and put it directly in her mouth.
Nakiri Erina, who had originally looked confident, the moment she tasted that bite of cuisine, her eyes widened like copper bells, her face filled with shock and disbelief, even showing a trace of pain in her eyes. Her little face scrunched up in discomfort as she made slight groaning sounds.
Then Nakiri Erina directly spat it out in a big mouthful.
"This dish failed! How could this be? I clearly grasped the timing very accurately - it shouldn't have failed."
Nakiri Erina at this moment was in disbelief.
She couldn't figure out exactly where she had gone wrong during the preparation process.
Suddenly, her face became extremely ugly.
Because she remembered - she knew exactly where she had made the mistake.
It turned out that while Hayashi was cooking, she had been constantly curious about whether he could actually make it, her thoughts always on Hayashi, causing her left hand to unconsciously want to peek at him.
Combined with Hayashi finishing so quickly, this caused her to become slightly distracted and actually mix up the order of two seasonings.
This caused what should have been a masterpiece delicious dish to instead become a dark cuisine with a strange taste.
However, nothing would happen to Nakiri Erina, because she had really exaggerated before.
In reality, even if this dark cuisine was made to the worst degree, it would only taste strange, like eating flies - uncomfortable but not life-threatening.
She had originally only planned to use this dark cuisine to prank the person who had bullied her.
She never expected that this time, in such an important competition, she would bring it out as a contest dish.
And she actually failed at such a crucial moment!
Meanwhile, Hayashi, making it for the first time, had succeeded directly.
For a moment, Nakiri Erina was like a deflated balloon, hanging her head, pouting, with a bitter smile on her face.
She knew she had failed this round. Looking pitifully at Hayashi and the three little judges, she begged:
"Hayashi-kun, Tohru, could you give me just a few points?"
"If you don't give me any points at all, our girls' trio will lose directly."
Nakiri Erina turned her pleading gaze to Takanashi Touka and Arato Hisako, feeling like she had really done something terribly wrong.
If both scoring categories in this round were rated zero, the girls' trio could directly declare defeat.
And Arato Hisako wouldn't even need to compete.
Although Takanashi Touka had won the previous round, the score was still a tie, unable to create any gap.
If the next two rounds' scores couldn't be pulled back, or even surpass Hayashi, then they would fail.
For a moment, Nakiri Erina was filled with regret.
She hated that she shouldn't have been so stubborn and confident. Why did she have to use this most difficult dish - one that even she couldn't succeed at 100% - as a competition item?
She should have used a project she was completely confident about.
But only with this dark cuisine did she have confidence in having a chance to beat Hayashi.
If it were anything else, Nakiri Erina really felt she would at most tie with Hayashi - and that would be the best result. Normally, her score would definitely fall behind.
That's why she thought of taking this risky move to maximize benefits, but she never expected to trap herself.
Seeing this scene, Tohru, Kanna, and Takanashi Rikka couldn't help but feel sad.
As fellow girls, they were already sisters with Nakiri Erina.
Setting aside this relationship, they couldn't bear to see Nakiri Erina sad and crying.
Tohru and the other two little judges all looked at Hayashi with pleading eyes.
To this, Hayashi immediately shook his head with a bitter smile and said righteously:
"How about this - for this round, we'll give Erina's scoring appropriately."
"Appearance score gets two points, taste score gets six points. How about that?"
As soon as these words came out, Nakiri Erina's eyes immediately lit up, and her face also showed a blush as she said shyly and embarrassedly:
"Hayashi-kun, actually..."
Actually, what Nakiri Erina wanted to say was that she didn't mind failing.
But the words stopped at her lips.
She couldn't forget about her two other companions just for her own pride.
She had taken this risky step - she should bear this responsibility and take on this blame.
This was also the mindset and conviction a top-tier chef in the culinary world should have.
Moreover, Hayashi had already given her a chance - at this time she should thank him.
Nakiri Erina, having corrected her thoughts, wiped away the remaining tears from the corners of her eyes and said confidently:
"Thank you, Hayashi-kun. I lost this round."
Seeing Nakiri Erina so straightforwardly admit defeat, Hayashi smiled and reached out to pat her little head.
For a moment, all the grievance in Nakiri Erina's heart disappeared like smoke.
Like a little kitten, she actively responded to Hayashi's caressing, even playfully nestling directly into his arms, giggling happily.
Seeing this scene, Takanashi Touka and Arato Hisako on the side both showed relieved smiles.
Although they were also jealous in their hearts that Nakiri Erina was taking advantage of Hayashi at this moment.
But they were still happy for their good sister.
At this time, the score was still one win and one loss - a tie between both sides.
But the previous round's score was a complete tie. Although it counted as a victory for the girls' trio, the score gap hadn't widened.
Now in the second round, Hayashi was already completely leading by two points.
This meant that in the third round, if Arato Hisako wanted the girls' trio to achieve victory, her score in the competition would have to lead Hayashi by at least two points or more.
Because as long as it was a tie, with completely identical scores, it would count as a victory for the girls' trio.
But at this time, Arato Hisako understood in her heart - this was too difficult.
With completely identical scores, she had no confidence in beating Hayashi, let alone now being behind by two points. The difficulty was hell-level, even completely unsolvable.
---
Advanced 30+ Chapters in pat/reon.com/KyokaSuigetsu