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The sky gradually darkened.

Yet the mountain where the St. Caroline City sat lit up like a long dragon.

The bright lights illuminated half of the sky, like the vigor of the youthful students.

The St. Caroline Academy Festival was just getting started.

“Hey you! Don’t miss the best fish balls in the world!”
“I’ll have two!”
“Consider yourself lucky if you can get a taste of the most delicious grilled squid in this academy!”
“I’ll have two!”
“Can you smell this amazing aroma? This is the best stinky tofu you can find in this street!”
“I’ll have a bowl!”

Thea was elated ever since she learned about the Academy Festival, even more so now that she was here in the liveliest street in the academy. Her reserve as the former saintess was totally gone and she was acting no different than Lilith when she was in Aeria not long ago.

“Sheesh, can’t you maintain your composure like me?” Lilith shook her head then spoke to Brea who was beside her, “You better not follow her example, getting that excited by mere food. What’s so special about those foods? We’d be better off…”

“Eating contest! Eating contest! The 1599th eating contest in St. Caroline! All students in our academy can participate! The prize is a month’s worth of free meal coupons at Food Street!”

“We’d be better off participating in a meaningful contest like this!” Lilith announced.

Brea was speechless.

……..

“Alright, registration is now closed! The warriors who dared to challenge the St. Caroline Eating Contest have appeared!”

The host stood on the stage and introduced the contestants in succession.

“Our first contestant looks like a forty-year-old uncle, but is actually only a twenty-eight-year-old who looks old… Welcoming Mr.Student-Who-Is-About-To-Starve-To-Death!”

“Hello everyone.” The mysterious uncle had severe dark circles under his eyes and looked suspiciously like Professor Kumar greeted the audience weakly. “I’ll definitely win.”

“Wait a minute!”

“Miss, you have a problem?”

Lilith pointed angrily at the mysterious uncle who looked suspiciously like Professor Kumar. “He’s not a student! He’s a professor in this academy!”

“Oooohh!! The contest hasn’t even begun and one of our contestants is already shamelessly using a dirty attack! Looks like this year’s contest will be an extremely exciting one!”

“I’m not using a dirty attack! That’s Professor Kumar no matter how you look at him!”

“I’m not Professor Kumar. I’m Student-Who-Is-About-To-Starve-To-Death,” the mysterious uncle defended himself weakly.

“Oooohh!! The dirty attack has just been perfectly countered! As expected of Student-Who-Is-About-To-Starve-To-Death! It would seem like his great potential is brought out at the most critical moment!”

“How can you call that a counter? He’s just talking nonsense!!”

The host ignored Lilith and continued.

“Next up, our second contestant looks like the president of the disciplinary committee who skipped work, but is actually just someone who looks like her and not the real president. Welcoming, Miss Normal-Passerby!”

“Hello everyone!” Normal-Passerby waved and smiled at the audience. “I’ll definitely win this too!”

“What Normal-Passerby? She’s none other than the president of the disciplinary committee who skipped work!” Lilith once again made a ruckus. “And how come Secretary Wendy hasn’t caught you yet?!”

“Fufufu…” Normal-Passerby crossed her arms in front of her chest and sneered. “I have long figured out how Wendy moves. There’s no way she can catch me!”

“……”

Just how many times have you skipped work, Miss President!!

“Next, our third contestant looks like a demonic bear who was captured to make up the number, but is actually Miss Cutie disguised as a demonic bear!”

“HOOOOOOOHHHHH!!” Cutie waved its incredibly sharp claws around then smashed the table in front of it into pieces with one claw. “HOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!”

“That’s a demonic bear!! It’s definitely a demonic bear!! It’s been eyeing you and seems to be thinking that you look really delicious, Mr. Host!!”

“Well then, let’s welcome our fourth contestant who hasn’t only been noisy since just now but also using despicable attacks, Miss Petite-And-Flat-Chested!”

“P-Petite-And-… Flat-Chested?”

BOOOOOM!!

A dazzling beam of light streaked across the sky of St.Caroline.

Mr. Host was killed in battle.

“I… I’m… Host Number Two. Following our gentle, lovely, beautiful, elegant, enchanting and gorgeous contestant, Lilith, the fifth contestant is… Miss Brea, who isn’t anyone special.”

“H-Hello… Umm…”

Unable to bear the attention, Brea lowered her head in mid-sentence and flushed. White cloud of smoke appeared over her head, like something had just short-circuited.

Host Number Two wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, “Now that the contestants are here, allow me to explain the contest rules.”

“This contest is sponsored by our Dark Cooking Club. The contestants will need to finish the dishes made by the Dark Cooking Club members within the time limit. You are not allowed to request any help during the contest or use methods like vomiting to increase food intake. The last contestant standing will be announced the winner and receive a month’s worth of free meal coupons!”

“Well then, begin!!”

Once the announcement was made, the dishes prepared by the Dark Cooking Club were served to each contestant.

Grumble, grumble…

“………”

It was at this moment, Lilith finally understood why there were only five contestants in this incredibly popular eating contest.

“The first dish is Tentacle × Beauty!!”

A devilish black tentacle wrapped around a white unknown matter, making skin-crawling noises as it pulsated endlessly. The white unknown matter was also oozing disgusting substance.

Can something like this even be considered food?!

“Oooohh! The Dark Cooking Club unexpectedly broke through their limits once again this year and created such an out-of-this-world dish!!”

Host Number One struggled as he climbed out of somewhere. Despite being drenched in blood, he maintained professionalism and continued hosting the show.

“In order to preserve its freshness, nothing was done to this live Malaghobi tentacle. And this old female Ersin worm was also probably just simply boiled in water. Oh dear, what an authentic dish! I’m pretty sure our contestants must have fallen in love with this dish!”

“Delicious.”

“See? Student-Who-Is-About-To-Starve-To-Death is already wolfing down the dish! What are the other contestants waiting for?”

That guy is just starving to the point that everything is delicious to him!

“Not bad.”

“Normal-Passerby has also started gracefully partaking the dish, not forgetting to leave a pertinent evaluation while she’s at it!”

She’s requesting help! President Diana is requesting help!! She’s calmly shoving that disgusting meal into someone else’s mouth!! Are you guys blind?!

“HOOOOOHHH!!!”

“Ah! It seems like Cutie is already… Ah! Already loving the meal… Ahh!! It even made it… Ahhh!! That excited…!”

Mr. Host was once again killed in the battle.

Lilith was speechless.

I see now. This 1599th eating contest is just a huge trap!

And now the next question is… should I eat this dish or not.

Lilith thought for 0.1 second.

Of course not!
Only crazy people would eat such a horrible-in-every-way dish!

“Oh, that’s quite good.”

“……..”

Lilith turned her head stiffly to Brea.

“As expected, Malaghobi tentacle is only tasty when eaten alive. The temperature used to boil this old female Ersin worm seems to be a bit too high…”

Brea skillfully cut off the pulsating tentacle with a fork and knife before putting it in her mouth. She made an evaluation that could only be made by people who often eat this kind of thing.

“Simply divine.”

She even had a look of enjoyment on her face.