Chapter 348

The training continued.

Over the next several matches, Haruto’s team faced Team One—Isshiki Satoshi, Hayama Akira, and Takumi Aldini—and Team Two—Megishima Tōsuke, Tadokoro Megumi, and Arato Hisako.

Thanks to their relatively seamless coordination, Haruto, Erina, and Kurokiba ultimately finished the round robin undefeated.

As the other teams grew more accustomed to working together, however, none of their later victories came as easily as the first.

The results between the remaining teams were far less predictable.

Team One defeated Team Two.

Team Two defeated Team Four.

And Team Four unexpectedly managed to beat Team One.

That left Teams One, Two, and Four with two losses each, which meant all nine members had to accept the punishment and put on Haruto’s Spring-Resistance Training Suits.

Soma moved his arms and legs experimentally after fastening his suit, surprise spreading across his face.

Because of the springs installed throughout the equipment, every movement met powerful resistance. Even something as simple as raising an arm or bending at the waist suddenly required considerable effort.

"Whoa, this thing is amazing! It feels like every single movement is training my muscles!"

Alice, standing beside him, looked as though all hope had left her life.

She hung her head, puffed out her cheeks, and bitterly kicked at the floor.

Not only had she failed to beat Erina, now she had to suffer in this ridiculous training suit too.

Her luck was terrible.

Dojima clapped his hands and announced the end of the first day’s training.

"That’s enough for today. You’re free for the rest of the evening. We meet here again tomorrow at eight sharp."

"Those serving punishment, however, still need to finish your assigned training first."

From that point onward, the intensity increased by the day.

On the second day, Dojima focused specifically on teamwork.

Everyone was divided into pairs, with one person serving as head chef and the other as assistant. Each pair had to complete a designated dish together within one hour.

At Haruto’s strong insistence, since the odd number of participants left them one person short, Hinako was recruited to fill the final spot.

She complained the entire time.

"Honestly... I came here to be an instructor. Why am I suddenly being put to work too?"

Despite her protests, she took her role as an assistant chef very seriously.

On the third day, Dojima, Shinomiya, Hinako, and Jōichirō personally took over as head chefs, with everyone rotating through turns as their assistants.

On the fourth day, everyone had to wear the Spring-Resistance Training Suits.

And the days only became harsher from there.

They went from working in pairs to groups of three, from assigned dishes to free-form creation, from simulated Food Wars to direct competitive matches.

Everyone improved at astonishing speed.

At the same time, they gradually came to understand what genuine teamwork meant.

It was not about suppressing your own strengths to accommodate someone else.

It was about using your own specialties to their fullest while covering for your teammates’ weaknesses.

A week passed before they knew it.

By then, everyone had grown accustomed to moving in the Spring-Resistance Training Suits and could even wear them while tossing woks, chopping ingredients, and cooking.

That was when Haruto brought them another "pleasant surprise."

One morning, he walked into the kitchen carrying two bamboo baskets.

He placed them on the counter and lifted the lids.

Inside were two unusual ingredients.

The first looked like taro with smooth pink skin resembling a peach.

The second was a bundle of thick, dark-green chives.

"Today’s training is to process these two ingredients."

Haruto pointed toward the baskets.

"This one is Peach Taro, and these are Stonefish Chives."

"Try handling them yourselves first. The Peach Taro needs to be peeled, while the Stonefish Chives need to be cut into two-centimeter lengths."

Everyone crowded around the counter and examined the ingredients with unimpressed expressions.

Peeling taro and chopping chives?

What was supposed to be difficult about that?

For chefs of their level, it sounded laughably easy.

The moment they actually started, however, they realized how badly they had underestimated the ingredients.

Erina was the first to pick up a Peach Taro.

She held her knife the same way she would when peeling a potato and drew the blade across the skin.

The knife immediately slipped away.

The Peach Taro’s surface was so slick that it felt as though it had been coated in oil. The blade barely left a shallow mark.

Erina frowned and applied more pressure.

Her hand slipped again, and this time she nearly cut her own finger.

She tried one method after another, but the Peach Taro remained as slippery as an eel and almost impossible to hold securely.

Ten minutes later, she had peeled less than a tenth of it.

Sweat already covered her forehead.

The others were not doing much better.

Megishima tried relying on raw strength, gripping the Peach Taro firmly while forcing the knife against its skin.

The ingredient promptly shot from his hand and nearly struck Megumi.

Kuga eventually slammed his knife down on the cutting board in frustration.

"What the hell is this thing?! Why is it so slippery?!"

The people assigned to the Stonefish Chives were even more miserable.

The leaves looked almost identical to ordinary chives.

But the instant a knife pressed against them, their astonishing stickiness became obvious.

No matter how hard anyone tried, the fibers refused to cut cleanly.

Before long, the kitchen was filled with sighs, complaints, and the clatter of knives against cutting boards.

Everyone was being driven insane by two ingredients that had looked completely harmless.

Sweat poured down their faces as they struggled in increasingly undignified fashion.

Haruto could not help laughing.

"Peach Taro skin contains a special mucus. That’s why it’s so slippery."

"Stonefish Chives, meanwhile, contain huge amounts of gelatinous material in their fibers, which makes them incredibly sticky."

"These ingredients don’t just train knife skills and hand stability. They also train patience and concentration."

"You won’t process either one properly unless you calm down and focus."

To help everyone recover from the physical strain, Haruto supplemented the Doctor Aloe with a new batch of Pokéblocks made from Nurse Mascot Grass juice and Berries.

The Pokéblocks were pale green and translucent, melting immediately in the mouth with a faint grassy fragrance.

After eating one, the exhaustion accumulated throughout the body quickly vanished.

Thanks to the restorative Pokéblocks, everyone could be worked to complete exhaustion, recover shortly afterward, and throw themselves straight back into training.

Another week quietly passed.

At last, the two-week training camp reached its end.

That afternoon, Dojima gathered everyone together.

After two weeks of brutal training, every participant had undergone a remarkable transformation.

Their individual cooking had become more refined, while their ability to coordinate with others had improved dramatically.

"After evaluating your performance throughout these two weeks, we have finalized the ten participants for the Régiment de Cuisine."

Dojima began reading the names.

"Nakiri Erina. Megishima Tōsuke. Isshiki Satoshi. Kuga Terunori. Hayama Akira. Takumi Aldini. Tadokoro Megumi. Arato Hisako. Kurokiba Ryō. Yukihira Soma."

Almost everyone instinctively turned toward Alice.

She stood among them, staring ahead in disbelief.

"Dojima-senpai... I... I didn’t make it?"

Dojima looked at her with a trace of regret.

"If we were judging purely by individual cooking ability, you’re actually stronger than Tadokoro and Arato."

"Your molecular gastronomy techniques are among the very best at Totsuki."

He paused before continuing.

"But the Régiment de Cuisine isn’t an individual Food War. Coordination between teammates matters just as much as individual ability."

"And molecular gastronomy naturally depends on specialized equipment, precise procedures, and a high level of technical knowledge. That makes it considerably harder to integrate seamlessly with the cooking styles of the others."

Alice’s eyes immediately turned red.

She bit her lip, desperately trying to stop herself from crying, but tears still escaped and rolled down her cheeks.

Then she abruptly turned around and ran away.

She had worked just as hard as everyone else for the Régiment de Cuisine.

She had believed she had done enough.

In the end, she had still been left out.

The others watched her disappear with complicated expressions.

They had all known from the beginning that one person would ultimately be cut from the lineup.

Erina silently followed after her.

The rest exchanged glances before trailing behind.

Outside Polar Star Dormitory, Alice was crouched on the ground with her shoulders trembling.

Erina stood beside her, seemingly unsure what she was supposed to say.

Haruto walked over and handed Erina a packet of tissues.

She gave him a grateful glance before holding them out to Alice.

"Hey... stop crying already. So you didn’t make the lineup. It’s not the end of the world."

Alice looked up at her through tear-filled eyes, snatched the tissues, and wiped her face.

"What do you know?! I worked so hard... I just wanted to participate in the Food War with everyone else..."

"I know."

Erina crouched beside her and gently patted her shoulder.

"I saw how hard you worked."

"You did very well. This particular Régiment de Cuisine simply wasn’t suited to you."

Alice looked up in surprise.

She clearly had not expected to hear something like that from Erina.

After a moment, she glanced at Haruto beside them, then at the others watching from a short distance away.

She sniffed, wiped her face one last time, and stood up.

Alice Nakiri was not the kind of person who stayed down just because she had lost once.

After everyone had finished comforting her, they held a banquet at Polar Star Dormitory.

And with that, the two-week training camp finally came to an end.