A top-heavy sensation of falling was transmitted to her, and a fierce wind whistled past her body. Gazing at the scene of blue sky and white clouds before her eyes, Nakiri Erina was startled to realize she was actually situated high in the air.
"Ahhhhh!!!"
An uncontrollable scream escaped from her delicate mouth.
"Chirp~" With the long cry of a bird, a black shadow whistled over from the distance.
The eagle strikes the vast sky!
It was just that this eagle was slightly a bit fat.
Very quickly, a pair of warm, large hands tightly embraced her as she fell from the sky.
"Your Highness the Princess, are you alright?"
With her mind a complete blank, she met the knight youth's eyes, which shone like a galaxy of stars.
"Mm." It took a good while for Nakiri Erina to come back to her senses.
Being gazed at by these eyes, Nakiri Erina felt only that her cheeks were burning hot, and it was as if a little deer was ramming around inside her chest.
"That is good." Mo Bai withdrew the hand that was clasping her knees from below the princess carry, and Nakiri Erina felt a soft, elastic sensation beneath her, like a trampoline.
"This fat quail again?!" Nakiri Erina looked at the large quail with mixed white feathers, its neck bent backward in a goofy manner, and her forehead was covered in black lines.
As if perceiving Nakiri Erina's thoughts, a human-like expression of disdain flashed across the large quail's bird face.
Nakiri Erina felt a great sense of foreboding in her heart. "W-What do you want to do?"
"Gu↑ Gu↗ Gu↓."
The altitude pulled up abruptly. The Storm Quail retracted its wings, turned its belly toward the sky, swiveled its head one hundred and eighty degrees, and dove down from the clouds in a somersault.
You thought I was a quail? It is I, the Ace Combat Mount!
Eat my Bell Maneuver!
"Wahhh!"
After the sense of weightlessness, the sensation of high-speed falling whipped up Nakiri Erina's golden hair while simultaneously making her hands and feet turn ice-cold.
"Rest assured, nothing will happen." Words filled with confidence reached her ears. Nakiri Erina raised her head and saw Mo Bai's fully focused gaze; the cold armor pressed tightly against her thin dress transmitted an unparalleled sense of security at this moment.
The sounds of the two people and one beast falling rapidly from the high altitude could be heard. Just as they were about to crash into the forest, Mo Bai abruptly pulled the reins. The Storm Quail spread its wings once more, and the violent airflow surged from beneath its dual wings, blowing the surrounding tree crowns helter-skelter, while the vertical fall was pulled up again into a flight direction parallel to the ground.
Having experienced a flight experience a hundred times more thrilling than a roller coaster, Nakiri Erina let out a long breath, closed her eyes, and her body went limp.
The cold metal tactile sensation against her cheek was transmitted to her, and trembling along with her body was her heart.
Nakiri Erina hurriedly opened her eyes. The current state of the two was just like lovers, with the female snuggled in the male's embrace.
Seeing clearly the intimate posture between herself and Mo Bai, even her ears surfaced with a crimson color.
"Your Highness the Princess, look quickly."
"The flowers have bloomed."
Following Mo Bai's words, Nakiri Erina, who had been immersed in her own inner world, subconsciously looked down.
As if by magic, the emerald-green forest burst forth with gorgeous and colorful hues wherever the two passed.
A feast of beautiful flowers bloomed in competition; in a split second, it was like a riotous carpet slowly unfolding.
The entire Green Kingdom's fairy tale forest was rendered into a sea of flowers.
Snuggled against the knight's armor, Nakiri Erina's gaze was intoxicated.
Flying over the White Stone City walls embellished with fresh flowers, the two landed on the castle's watchtower, closely admiring the magnificent scenery of flowers blooming all over the earth.
The two sides turned their heads to look at each other with a mutual understanding. Amidst their flickering gazes, their lips gradually drew closer.
The Storm Quail's eyes flashed with gratification as it flapped its wings and flew away.
The image froze at this moment.
The Gourmet Illusion shattered, and the members of the judging panel remained silent for a long time.
The spectating students, who could not taste the cuisine, were each scratching their ears and cheeks in anxiety.
"So, was it successful or not!"
"It should be a success, right? After all, even the judges were glowing."
"Heh, by your logic, were Mo Bai's previous dishes all Special-Grade too? How could Special-Grade cuisine be that simple."
"But how do you explain that the judges now look as if they've lost their souls from sheer pleasure?"
The students were faintly divided into two camps, and the noise began to clamor.
Mark swallowed his saliva and looked nervously at the judges. As the opponent, he too wanted to know if Mo Bai's cuisine was truly Special-Grade.
In the entire venue, only the party involved, who was in the midst of cheating and didn't quite understand the situation, appeared incomparably calm.
"Does this set of cuisine have a name?" Nakiri Senzaemon, who was the first to break free from the lingering aftertaste, broke the weird scene where everyone on the judges' table had their eyes closed in smiles.
"Mm, yes."
"It's called Forgive..."
"Cough cough cough!" Transmitted along with the coughing sound were three sounds of slapping the table, as well as the sound of a knife and fork cutting into something.
Mo Bai glanced at the three palm prints in front of Head Chef Zhang Yu's table and followed his heart (acted cowardly).
But what is with the sound of the knife and fork?
Mo Bai tilted his head slightly. Behind the judges' table, Luo Ziyan was staring him to death with emotionless eyes. In front of Luo Ziyan, a knife and a fork were sunk into the judges' table in unison, buried all the way to the handles.
Can't afford to offend, can't afford to offend.
"Let's just call it the Tale of the Green Kingdom." Mo Bai's survival instinct was off the charts at this moment.
"Tale of the Green Kingdom—" Nakiri Senzaemon pondered and nodded. "Indeed, there is no name more suitable for this set of cuisine than this."
No no no, actually there is, only I dare not say it right now.
Mo Bai felt the threatening gazes from front and back, and silently recited 'Forgiveness Set' a hundred times in his heart.
"That was a long and drawn-out scroll of a painting. Every dish painted a heavy stroke upon the scroll, finally composing an incomparably brilliant tale."
"After tasting your cuisine, even this old man felt vitality being transmitted from the tip of the tongue to the body."
"Truly a remarkable young man."
"This 'Tale of the Green Kingdom' set menu, through the stacking of several dishes and several Culinary Hearts, has truly and solidly opened the door to Special-Grade."
Nakiri Senzaemon's evaluation instantly detonated the venue.
"It's actually really Special-Grade!"
"An eighteen-year-old Special-Grade Chef?!"
"You guys calm down! Making Special-Grade cuisine doesn't mean one is a Special-Grade Chef, don't you understand?"
Even the very few fellows who refuted their companions looked at Mo Bai with the same gaze as their companions—fanaticism filled with reverence.
Special-Grade Chef—that was the stage every chef wanted to step onto.
It symbolized glory, status, money, and so on and so forth; to them, it was akin to possessing everything one could want.
"The evaluation is concluded. Let the voting begin."
The result was completely without surprise; Mo Bai crushed Mark with nine votes, the full count of the judges' votes.
Mark's expression was dejected. From the moment the words 'Special-Grade cuisine' popped out of Auxis's mouth, he had already known the ending.
Even if his condition was good enough to eat until he died, it would be no more than High-Star cuisine; he couldn't even touch the edge of Quasi-Special. How could he defeat cuisine that had nearly pierced through the Special-Grade barrier?
This was a gap in levels!
"Special-Grade?!" As the chef who had personally produced the Special-Grade cuisine, Mo Bai had a face full of confusion.
To tell the truth, I really just pieced together a set menu! I never even thought about anything like Special-Grade or not!
And what the hell is 'several Culinary Hearts'? I only have one cheat-type Culinary Heart!
"Can I taste your cuisine?" Mark looked strangely at Mo Bai, whose horrified expression did not resemble a victor at all, and asked. It was precisely this funny expression that diluted his embarrassment over the defeat.
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