"Yeah, yeah... you really, really stood out!" Yuki Yoshino added.
"It was alright," Lexon replied.
"But won't that make the other students hostile? Is that really okay?" Ryoko Sakaki's tone held a hint of worry.
"You'll have to ask Mr. Soma Yukihira about that." Lexon immediately shifted the blame to Soma.
"Heh heh heh, everything we said was the truth!" Soma Yukihira happily accepted the blame, slinging an arm around Lexon's neck with a smug look.
It seemed he already believed the day they would become the two big shots of Totsuki was just around the corner.
He was already weighing whether he or Lexon should take the first and second seats of the Elite Ten.
The boy named Soma Yukihira was just that confident.
However, as soon as Soma's words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the dormitory room shifted, falling into an instant silence.
"Soma-kun..." Megumi Tadokoro, the modest girl who had partnered with Soma in the morning's cooking class, also noticed the strange shift in the room's atmosphere. She couldn't help but whisper to the thick-headed Soma Yukihira.
"All of that was his own idea and his own words; it has nothing to do with me." Lexon brushed off Soma's arm and moved slightly further away from him.
"Eh?" Soma Yukihira let out an incoherent sound.
"Who exactly are you calling a stepping stone... Soma-kun...?" A ghostly voice drifted from the mouth of Yuki Yoshino, who wore a very 'kind' expression.
"We are not stepping stones!" Ryoko Sakaki emphasized.
"Soma, let's have an interaction between men!" The quite muscular Daigo Aoki slowly approached Soma Yukihira.
"We'll show you just how formidable us 'stepping stones' can be!" Shoji Sato did the same.
"Everyone... everyone... calm down!" Soma seemed to turn into a delicate young girl, forced into a corner.
"Lexon said it too!" Soma Yukihira, now with disheveled clothes and messy hair, protested.
"That's because his attitude was good..." Yuki Yoshino said with her arms crossed, smiling. "Plus, he's good-looking!"
"The last part is the main point, isn't it!" Soma Yukihira shouted.
"Hahaha..." Several people in the room burst into laughter simultaneously.
"Humph, Soma, your strength isn't enough. You need to keep training!" Daigo Aoki said, flexing his muscles.
"Lexon looks about the same as me. I think you should tell him that too." Soma Yukihira tried to direct the fire toward Lexon, who was watching the scene from the side with a smile.
"There's no need for him; he looks plenty strong." As Lexon's classmate in the culinary practicum, Daigo Aoki naturally wouldn't think that someone who could leave fingerprints in a stainless steel bowl with just his bare hands lacked strength.
"Why!?" Soma Yukihira expressed his inability to understand.
"Everyone... I'm back!" Just then, Satoshi Isshiki returned, carrying many dishes.
"Great! Did Lady Fumio make these?" Shoji Sato asked while taking the dishes.
"Yes." Satoshi Isshiki nodded slightly.
Then, he looked at Lexon and Soma Yukihira and said, "I haven't introduced myself yet... Hello to our two transfer students. I am Satoshi Isshiki, a second-year. You can just call me Senior Isshiki."
"I'm so happy... our circle of companions sharing this brief youth has grown by one more..."
"There's nothing more joyous than this!"
After the self-introduction, it was Satoshi Isshiki's turn for a period of ceaseless, enthusiastic chatter.
Once he finished, Ryoko Sakaki filled cups with juice for both Lexon and Soma Yukihira.
Accompanied by a shout of "The welcome party officially begins! Cheers!"... the Polar Star Dormitory welcome party officially started.
Laughter filled the entire room.
It really was a relaxed and cheerful daily life.
Watching them, Lexon sipped the rice-brewed juice, thinking to himself.
'Experiencing daily life once in a while is also a good thing...'
"By the way, Lexon, using those leftovers today gave me another good idea. I'll make it for you to taste later. Let me know if there are any flaws..." Soma Yukihira suddenly said to Lexon.
"Okay." Lexon naturally wouldn't refuse something that could make his 'God's Tongue' even more sensitive.
After all, helping Soma Yukihira improve his dishes and making him progress was equivalent to helping himself.
When the piglet gets fattened up, isn't it the owner who benefits...?
"Eh? Is Lexon-kun's cooking level much higher than Soma-kun's? To the point that he needs Lexon-kun to help find flaws..." Yuki Yoshino asked in confusion, having noticed the conversation.
Asking someone to find flaws in a dish wasn't something people of the same level usually did. Moreover, judging by the way they spoke, it didn't seem to be a one-off thing. This meant it must have happened quite a few times before.
"No, it's just that my sense of taste is quite sensitive," Lexon explained.
"Lexon's sense of taste is very, very sensitive... he can easily spot where my cooking is illogical," Soma Yukihira emphasized.
"Is that so..." Yuki Yoshino looked quite intrigued.
"'God's Tongue'?" Satoshi Isshiki, who had already changed into his naked apron, wore a solemn expression as he rubbed his chin in thought. After pondering for a moment, the term escaped his lips.
"Yes." Lexon nodded calmly, hiding nothing.
Revealing this talent would actually encourage these people to come to him to improve their cooking.
Especially Satoshi Isshiki...
That way, he could take the opportunity to get a free ride for himself.
Furthermore, with the nature of his 'God's Tongue,' tasting more delicacies was the only way to promote progress.
There were only benefits and no downsides.
"'God's Tongue'??!!"
Lexon was very calm, and Soma Yukihira, who didn't understand the significance, was also very calm. However, everyone else in the room could no longer remain composed. They all let out cries of surprise and stared at Lexon.
"Lexon-kun... are you saying you possess the 'God's Tongue'?" Ryoko Sakaki, the older-sister-type girl, spoke with a slightly trembling voice, clearly finding the fact hard to believe.
"Yes," Lexon nodded in response once more.
"What is the 'God's Tongue'?" Soma Yukihira asked in confusion, seeing everyone's incredibly shocked voices and expressions.
"For real? You actually don't know what the 'God's Tongue' is?" Daigo Aoki said to Soma Yukihira in disbelief.
"I really don't know," Soma replied while scratching his head.
"You really entered Totsuki Academy without knowing anything..." Shoji Sato remarked.
"Soma-kun, one of the geniuses among the Elite Ten possesses this talent. Because of it, she became a member of the Elite Ten early in her first year of high school and became famous among many chefs..." the friendly Ryoko Sakaki explained.
"Who?"
"The granddaughter of the academy's director... the Tenth Seat of the Elite Ten... Erina Nakiri," Ryoko Sakaki said word for word.
"Ah... I remember now. It's that thing..." Only then did Soma Yukihira recall that during the entrance exam, Lexon had mentioned that the proctor had the same picky tongue as him...
"Exactly," Yuki Yoshino nodded. "That would be Erina Nakiri."
"So she's Lexon's cousin... no wonder... it's hereditary, hahaha..." Soma Yukihira laughed while rubbing his head.
However, after he finished laughing, he realized the room had suddenly gone silent.
Everyone's eyes snapped toward Lexon.
"Cousin?" Yuki Yoshino asked Lexon, seeking confirmation.
"Yes, cousin," Lexon answered with certainty.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]