Chapter 240: No Grudges for Losing
"A slave to ingredients."
This single, quiet phrase made Eishi Tsukasa completely freeze in his tracks. He stood there, genuinely stunned, feeling as if a heavy hammer had just struck the very foundation of his culinary soul.
[Akarin's Note: Eishi Tsukasa is a major character from Food Wars! (Shokugeki no Soma). He is the 1st Seat of the Elite Ten Council, known as the 'White Knight of the Table' (Schwertleite) due to his absolute dedication to bringing out the pure, unadulterated essence of his ingredients, completely erasing his own 'ego' from the dish.]
He desperately wanted to open his mouth and argue. He wanted to proudly declare that his cooking was carefully guided by his own meticulous thoughts, his endless hours of research, and his absolute dedication to the craft.
But he couldn't. He clearly knew what his own cooking philosophy truly entailed.
His entire approach to the kitchen was built on having no self. His goal was to completely erase his own ego and absolutely obey the natural properties of the ingredients in preparing a dish.
So, as a chef, was he actually the one holding the knife? Or had he been completely controlled by his ingredients all this time?
When Eishi Tsukasa truly realized the weight of this terrifying concept, a sheen of cold sweat immediately broke out across his forehead. His breathing hitched slightly as a recent memory flashed through his mind.
Just a few moments ago, he had been thinking about how to prepare a simple, rustic potato and egg soup. It was a dish that any amateur could throw together. Yet, in his mind's eye, he had actually felt a few agonizing seconds of hesitation.
He had worried about the precise starch content of the potato overpowering the delicate, velvety texture of the egg yolk. He had stressed over the exact micro-temperature of the broth.
Although his god-like skill level made such a dish incredibly simple to create in reality, the psychological barrier was undeniable. The undeniable fact that a chef of his caliber would hesitate and second-guess himself over something so utterly basic was a terrifying thing to ponder.
Ren quietly observed Eishi Tsukasa from behind the counter, easily noticing the young man's dangerous spiral of overthinking.
Ren knew exactly what was going on in the boy's head. Eishi Tsukasa, as the reigning First Seat of the Elite Ten, carried an unimaginably heavy burden.
That immense work pressure, combined with his naturally introverted, highly anxious personality, meant his daily stress levels were astronomical. He lacked a fundamental sense of security in his own kitchen.
Because of this intense fear of failure, he was far more prone to overthinking, pushing himself to unhealthy extremes, and getting entirely lost in his own chaotic thoughts.
Ren leaned comfortably against the polished wooden counter and offered a warm, reassuring smile. "Eishi-kun, don't think so much about it."
Eishi blinked, snapping out of his panicked daze as he looked up at the handsome restaurant owner.
"No matter what philosophical approach you take, at the end of the day, you are the one holding the knife and standing by the stove," Ren said, his voice smooth and calming. "You are the one who makes the dish."
Ren picked up a pristine white towel and casually wiped down a spotless cutting board. "Your technical skill is already incredibly strong. A true master of the craft."
"It's just that you rely far too heavily on your innate ability to perfectly read ingredients."
He tossed the towel aside and looked Eishi directly in the eyes. "Next time you step up to the prep station, try to loosen your grip. Try to incorporate just a little bit of your own personal ideas and desires into the pan."
Eishi tilted his head, his silver hair falling slightly over his eyes in confusion. "My own... ideas?"
Ren nodded slowly, his smile never wavering. "You have a beautiful gift. You can clearly hear the ingredients speak to you, telling you exactly how they wish to be prepared."
Ren chuckled softly, the sound deeply melodic in the quiet dining room. "But a kitchen shouldn't be a dictatorship, nor should it be a place where you act as a mindless servant. You can converse with the ingredients, not just hear them issue orders."
"Next time, try actually discussing the final outcome with the ingredients," Ren suggested kindly. "For example, I think cutting those potatoes into thick strips instead of perfect cubes would have also been perfectly fine just now. It would have given the soup a more rustic, comforting texture."
Eishi Tsukasa's eyes widened slightly as the simplicity of the advice washed over him. He nodded slowly, the tense muscles in his shoulders finally beginning to relax.
Ren's voice grew even gentler, carrying the warmth of an older brother guiding his sibling. "In that case, you should finally know exactly why all your recent improvements and endless tweaks never quite achieved the desired effect."
Eishi Tsukasa let out a long, heavy sigh. It was a sigh that seemed to carry months of pent-up exhaustion and culinary frustration.
The silver-haired boy looked up, his eyes shining with a profound, newfound respect. "Shopkeeper Ren, if it is at all possible, I'd like to..."
"No need to ask for an apprenticeship," Ren interrupted smoothly, waving his hand with a lazy, good-natured grin. "I don't take disciples."
Eishi Tsukasa closed his mouth, but he wasn't disappointed. Instead, he nodded very seriously, taking the gentle rejection in stride.
Slowly, the heavy, anxious shadows that usually clouded his handsome features melted away. A rare, genuinely bright smile—one that was actually appropriate for a high school boy his age—bloomed on his face.
"I understand," Eishi said, his smile widening. "But Shopkeeper Ren, if possible, after I finally graduate from Totsuki, I would like to officially invite you for a tasting."
Ren was momentarily stunned by the boy's sudden shift in demeanor. He paused, then laughed heartily.
"That's always fine by me. My doors are always open. And you don't have to limit yourself to just trying it once."
Ren leaned closer, his dark eyes sparkling with a knowing, competitive glint. "Also, let's be honest here. What you were really about to say just now was, 'I want to have a Shokugeki match with you,' right?"
Eishi Tsukasa scratched the back of his head, his pale cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment, but he still nodded firmly in agreement.
Ren pretended to think about it for a brief moment, tapping his chin playfully before giving a decisive nod. "No problem."
"Eh?!" Eishi gasped, his eyes lighting up like a kid in a candy store. "Really?!"
Ren chuckled again, amused by the First Seat's sudden burst of energetic innocence. "Of course, it's no problem at all. I welcome all challengers."
Ren's lips curled into a slightly teasing smirk. "But remember the golden rule of this kitchen. No grudges if you lose, okay?"
"Yes! Absolutely not! I would never!"
Eishi bowed his head enthusiastically, his heart racing with an entirely new kind of motivation.
He suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall and realized how late it had gotten. "Ah... Shopkeeper Ren, I should really head back to the academy now. The total for my meal is..."
"1400 yen," Ren replied effortlessly.
Eishi paused, reaching into his pocket, his brow furrowing in genuine confusion. "So cheap! Are you sure?"
Ren waved a hand dismissively, gesturing around the cozy dining room. "These aren't incredibly rare, luxurious ingredients here with me. It's just a simple meal meant to warm the stomach."
Ren smiled warmly at the young prodigy. "But, Eishi-kun, if you ever open your own high-end restaurant in the future, just be sure to set your prices normally to reflect your immense skill. Don't undersell your hard work."
"Hmm... I will keep that in mind," Eishi murmured thoughtfully.
After Eishi Tsukasa carefully placed the exact amount of cash on the polished counter, he took a step back. He looked at Ren, his expression turning incredibly deep and solemn.
"Shopkeeper Ren," Eishi said, his voice carrying an unwavering conviction. "I will be here on time on the exact day of my graduation. I promise you, I don't think I will disappoint you."
Ren stepped out from behind the counter and gently patted Eishi Tsukasa's shoulder. The physical reassurance was grounding.
"It's not about disappointing me, kid. It's about not disappointing yourself."
Ren shoved his hands into his pockets, looking at the young man with immense pride. "You'll travel around the world after graduation to hone your skills, won't you? It's a very good choice for someone with your talent."
"When you pass by here in the future, or if we happen to meet somewhere else out there in the vast world, your challenge and your cooking are always welcome," Ren declared openly.
Ren then raised a single finger, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "However..."
"If you lose, no grudges," Eishi finished the sentence with a bright, confident laugh.
Ren nodded in approval. Eishi Tsukasa said nothing more. He simply turned towards the back of the restaurant where the beautiful women were gathered, giving a quick, deeply respectful bow.
"Goodbye, Teacher's Wife," Eishi called out politely before pushing the front door open.
The brass bell above the door chimed a cheerful melody as he stepped out into the night. Ren stood alone in the dining room, looking at the closed entrance of the shop with a soft, affectionate smile.
To maintain absolute simplicity. To move forward with unyielding persistence. As long as one had those traits, the inevitable bumps and failures along the road of life were never truly a problem.
Outside the shop, Eishi Tsukasa stood on the quiet pavement. The cool night breeze ruffled his silver hair, bringing with it the faint scent of cherry blossoms and distant city exhaust.
He didn't walk away immediately. Instead, he turned around to face the glowing wooden facade of the small restaurant. He placed his hands neatly by his sides and bowed deeply, forming a perfect ninety-degree angle towards the door.
"Thank you so much for your invaluable guidance, Teacher Ren..." Eishi softly whispered into the night air.
Eishi Tsukasa knew full well that Ren would never actually admit to being his formal instructor. In the strictest sense, he wasn't. They belonged to entirely different worlds.
But deep within Eishi Tsukasa's heart, Ren was the absolute best teacher he had ever encountered in his entire life. It was a profound level of respect, which was exactly why he had always politely referred to Lucifer and the other women in the shop as "Teacher's Wife."
Ren, with his sharp perception, had obviously noticed this little quirk of address long ago. But he had never bothered to say anything to correct the boy.
Sometimes, the most important things in life are left unsaid. They don't need to be explicitly stated with heavy words; simply knowing and understanding it in one's heart is more than enough.
Back inside the warm, softly lit restaurant, Courage watched the door gently swing shut.
[Akarin's Note: Courage and Rantabi are First-Class Book Masters (Inspectors) for the World Gourmet Organization (WGO) from Food Wars!.]
She leaned elegantly against the back of her chair, her eyes tracing the lingering silhouette of the boy through the frosted glass. She looked back at Ren's broad, reliable shoulders and spoke with genuine emotion.
"Mr. Ren, you claim otherwise, but you actually still treat Eishi Tsukasa and those other Totsuki kids as your own personal students, don't you?" Courage asked, her voice laced with a mixture of awe and profound respect.
Ren didn't even turn around to face her. He simply picked up his cleaning cloth again, letting out a soft, amused sigh. "I don't teach students, Courage."
"But..." Courage started, her brow furrowing slightly. "The way you guided him..."
"I'm just a humble restaurant owner who occasionally offers passing suggestions to my paying customers," Ren interrupted playfully, his tone light and entirely devoid of arrogance.
Courage looked at the gentle, completely unbothered smile resting perfectly on Ren's handsome face. Without any warning, her heart inexplicably skipped a beat in her chest.
A sudden flush of heat rushed to her cheeks. She quickly looked down at her hands, trying to compose her sudden flutter of emotions.
"I think..." Courage said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I think this student named Eishi Tsukasa will definitely become an unbelievably excellent chef in the future. Perhaps one of the greatest."
"That entirely depends on how far his own two feet want to walk," Ren replied smoothly, turning around to lean against the counter, perfectly at ease.
Courage finally looked up, unable to hide the deep admiration swimming in her beautiful eyes. She offered him a breathtaking, genuine smile. "Mr. Ren is truly an exceptionally charming man."
"Hmm? You think so?" Ren chuckled, his dark eyes locking onto hers with a magnetic pull.
"Maybe that's exactly why I'm always being called a shameless playboy out on the streets. Isn't that right, my Little Queen?"
Sitting at the nearby table, Lucifer suddenly stiffened.
The immaculately dressed, silver-haired demon CEO crossed her arms defensively. She let out a loud, highly exaggerated scoff, aggressively turning her face away from him.
"Hmph! Don't drag me into your delusions of grandeur!" Lucifer snorted haughtily, her sharp red eyes violently flicking back down to the screen of her smartphone.
She vigorously tapped at the glass, pretending to be entirely engrossed in her emails. She absolutely refused to admit that her demonic heart had been more than a little moved by the poignant, incredibly human exchange she had just witnessed.
The most precious thing for human beings was undoubtedly emotion, and the most magical, unpredictable force in the universe was also emotion.
The passionate, fiery camaraderie and mutual respect between men. The deep, unspoken love between lovers. The unconditional, protective familial affection between blood relatives.
These were all the beautiful, chaotic emotions that consistently made people stop in their tracks, watch in awe, and be profoundly touched by the sheer beauty of existence.
At this very moment, miles away from the cozy warmth of the restaurant, Eishi Tsukasa was silently walking down the paved road.
He moved gracefully against the thinning flow of late-night pedestrians, his face bathed in the pale, ethereal glow of the moonlight.
The cool wind rustled the trees lining the street, sending a shower of loose leaves dancing across his path. Eishi Tsukasa's mood at this specific time was incredibly complex, a swirling vortex of relief, excitement, and trepidation.
He didn't entirely know why, but as he listened to the rhythmic tapping of his own footsteps against the concrete, he felt as though he had suddenly grown a lot taller.
It was a strange, liberating sensation. Sometimes, a boy truly grows up and steps into his own manhood in just a single, defining instant.
Suddenly, the sharp, vibrating ringtone of a cell phone shattered the peaceful quiet of his walk.
Eishi Tsukasa paused under the harsh yellow glow of a streetlamp. He pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at the brightly lit screen. It was a completely unfamiliar number, boasting an international country code he didn't immediately recognize.
He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his thumb hovering over the red button. But, driven by a strange intuition, he still chose to answer it.
He lifted the phone to his ear. "Hello?"
A relatively gentle, impossibly smooth, and deeply cultured voice flowed through the speaker from the other end. "Good evening. You are the current First Seat of the Elite Ten Council, Mr. Eishi Tsukasa, aren't you?"
Eishi's brow furrowed at the stranger's formal tone. "Yes, I am. Do you need something?"
"Nothing much," the aristocratic voice replied, the words dripping with a sickeningly sweet poison. "I just sincerely hope that Mr. Eishi Tsukasa can take a moment to closely look at the highly detailed email I sent to your private inbox tonight."
The man on the other end paused, letting the silence stretch just long enough to assert dominance. "I truly believe that, as an exceptionally excellent and forward-thinking individual, you will definitely agree to my grand idea for the future. I eagerly look forward to your positive reply."
Click.
Eishi Tsukasa slowly lowered the phone, staring blankly at the disconnected call screen with a deeply puzzled expression.
He stood there in the chilly night air, his mind racing. He didn't know why, but despite the man's perfectly polite and cultured tone, he had felt an underlying sense of desperate anxiety leaking through the syllables.
It was the voice of a man who was setting a massive, dangerous plan into motion and couldn't afford a single piece to fall out of place.
However, Eishi simply shrugged his shoulders, dismissing the ominous feeling. Looking at a single email wouldn't take up too much of his precious time.
Especially since he had gained so much profound inspiration from Ren today, he had already fully planned to pull an all-nighter in his private kitchen to frantically research and refine his cooking techniques.
Besides, he was the untouchable First Seat of the Elite Ten. He was basically royalty within the academy.
He didn't even have to attend regular morning classes like the other common students if he didn't want to. He had all the time in the world.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, high above the glowing grid of an unknown metropolis, a private jet was preparing for departure.
"So, the First Seat all the way down to the Ninth Seat have all been formally notified of the plan."
Azami Nakiri sat back into his plush, diamond-stitched leather seat, a cold, predatory smirk twisting his handsome, sharply contoured face.
[Akarin's Note: Nakiri Azami is Erina's father and Mana's estranged husband. He is infamous for his abusive, dictatorial approach to cooking and his obsession with 'true gourmet' perfection, which heavily traumatized Erina in her childhood.]
"Only Eishi Tsukasa required a personal phone call to ensure his absolute attention," Azami muttered into the opulent silence of the first-class cabin. "What a deeply troublesome, overly sensitive brat. But given his undeniable obsession with culinary perfection, he shouldn't disappoint me in the end."
Azami Nakiri finished speaking into his encrypted smartphone and smoothly switched the device into flight mode. He placed it carefully onto the mahogany table beside his half-empty glass of vintage red wine.
Outside the thick, double-paned window, the massive turbine engines roared to life. The luxurious plane slowly began to move, taxiing down the dimly lit runway.
Azami Nakiri turned his head, looking out towards the distant horizon. He let out a dark, mocking sneer, aiming his boundless contempt directly at the distant headquarters of the WGO. Their era of judging true culinary art was rapidly coming to a violent, definitive end.
He casually reached out with a perfectly manicured hand, picked up a thick, highly classified dossier report regarding the internal power structure of Totsuki Academy, and calmly began to read.
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]