Supreme Husband System! & Supreme Wife System!

Chapter 781: The beginning of the competition

"These two are Miss Sofia and Mrs. Fein," Beatrice introduced Sofia and Arabel to Arthur as two chefs who intend to compete in cooking.

"Nice to meet you," Sofia said, and Arabel just nodded in response.

"Well, since the third judge is already here, let's get started," Sofia suggested.

"Yes, let's get started," Arabel agreed and followed Sofia into the kitchen, while Darkia, Arthur and Beatrice remained in the hall.

The kitchen corresponded to the size of the establishment — it was not very large, but it was quite spacious for two people.

"Mrs. Fein, let's flip a coin to determine who will take which seat. This will help to avoid misunderstandings in the future," Sofia said, extracting a copper coin from the world of Junonia.

"The winner will choose the place first, and the loser will take the rest," Sofia suggested.

"I don't mind," Arabel replied, and immediately identified: "I choose the back of the coin."

"Then my obverse is the coin," Sofia said, and tossed the coin into the air.

After spinning in the air, the coin fell to the floor with a thud, rolled and stopped with its back side up.

"You've won, so choose a place," Sofia announced.

"I choose the right one," Arabel said and went to the right side of the kitchen, while Sofia went to the left side.

Besides them, Sofia's mother and two waitresses were in the kitchen. At that time, the other waitresses served the three judges at the table, bringing them drinks and light snacks.

Since the competition was spontaneous and took place in a small establishment, it was not possible to organize it so that the judges and everyone could observe the cooking process.

When Arabel reached her seat, she felt that her eyes had almost completely recovered, and the pain had receded. She tried to open them slowly.

The bright light from the kitchen blinded her, and she squinted, but she didn't stop. Gradually, blinking, she was able to open her eyes. Although her vision hadn't fully returned yet, she could make out the basic shapes.

Using her Soul Force and her eyesight, Arabel carefully examined the kitchen, the appliances, and the prepared ingredients.

"Everyone has the same amount of ingredients," she heard Sofia say.

"Let's cook everything we can using all the prepared ingredients. In the end, we should have at least three portions for the judges to evaluate," Sofia suggested.

"Okay," — Arabel nodded, studying the ingredients and considering what to cook.

Despite her outward calmness, Arabel felt some excitement inside. This was her first cooking competition, and the opponent was an awakened one with a System specializing in cooking.

"System didn't require me to win this competition, so I've already completed her task.", — Arabel thought. "But unlike the other assignments I've received before, this one has a hidden condition, and the question is, what is that condition?"

"Beat Sofia in this competition?"

"Or, on the contrary, give in and let Sofia win?"

"But if I do that, Sofia won't join our guild."

"Did I make a mistake by making such a bet?"

Standing by the ingredients, as if thinking about what to cook, Arabel was actually thinking about something else, far from the recipe of the dishes.

Meanwhile, Sofia has already started the cooking process.

Arabel spent some time thinking and decided to watch Sofia cook.

Sofia's movements were smooth, without fuss. She could be seen immersed in the cooking process and enjoying it.

"Oh," Arabel said, noticing something interesting. After watching her for a while, Arabel had an idea of what the hidden condition of the assignment might be. With that thought in mind, she also began to slowly and carefully prepare the ingredients.

But before that, Arabel took off her outer suit, remaining in a white blouse, and rolled up her sleeves.

She focused on the ingredients while watching Sofia. The more she looked, the more convinced she became of the correctness of her assumptions.

Sofia's mother and the two waitresses watched Sofia in silence at first, but when Arabel began to act, they turned their full attention to her.

During all the time that they worked with Sofia, they saw how masterfully she cooks. Now they were interested to see how skilled the one who challenged Sofia was and compare their skills.

Arabel's movements were as smooth and graceful as Sofia's. In the eyes of Sofia's mother and the waitresses, she was in no way inferior to Sofia.

But if Idan were here, or someone who had previously watched Arabel cook, they would immediately notice the difference. Arabel's movements were slower than usual, but at the same time more precise and clearer, so that even ordinary people could catch her every step.

Sofia was the first to start cooking, while watching Arabel and occasionally noticing something interesting for herself.

Meanwhile, Arabel was finally convinced of her assumptions.

"She kind of reminds me and Dan of back in the day.", — Arabel thought. "Of course, considering that she only has a Silver Rank and she mainly works with ingredients of the Bronze and Silver ranks, this is understandable."

Arabel knew from her own experience that the more valuable an ingredient is, the more difficult it is to prepare. This requires not only skill, but also a lot of practice.

She and Idan had wasted a lot of time and ruined a lot of valuable ingredients. They would have messed up even more if it wasn't for their master Milica. She always gave them advice and even showed them how to properly handle ingredients of this rank, saving them many hours of trial and error.

If it wasn't for Milica, they probably wouldn't have been able to reach their current cooking level so quickly.

Watching Sofia, Arabel realized that there was no one next to her who would point out her mistakes and give her advice. Sofia learned only from her own trials and errors, and, as Arabel had noticed earlier, she learned quite quickly.

Drawing conclusions from her observations, Arabel came to the conclusion that, probably, the hidden condition of the task was not to win or lose to Sofia, but to inspire her by showing her skills.