A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Kira sat on the judges' panel, bored out of his mind, and could only start chatting idly with the two people next to him.

It was only after chatting that I discovered that the president of this food guild had a legendary experience.

The president's father was a famous chef, and his mother was a traveling gourmet. The two met and fell in love at a culinary competition. Influenced by his parents, the president learned to cook from a young age and became famous at a young age for his superb culinary skills. However, his arrogance offended someone, and he had his hand chopped off.

Just when his life was at its lowest point, he met his current wife, a female chef who had lost her sense of taste.

His wife dispelled his inner demons with love and gave him support, and the president finally rallied. With his tenacious will and unremitting efforts, he overcame all kinds of difficulties, learned the magical skill of cooking with one hand, and experienced a second spring in his culinary career, eventually becoming the president he is today.

Kira was completely stunned by this classic action-romance novel, and for a moment he even thought he was in an anime about cooking; the reporter next to him was even more moved to tears, crying and begging the Food Association president to let her find an opportunity to include this story in her report to promote the spirit of cooking.

"You said someone cut off your hand? But this..." Kira pointed to his body, looking puzzled.

Because both of the chairman's hands are now perfectly healthy!

You mean this?

The president of the Gourmet Merchant Guild smiled and deliberately showed off his hands to Kira and the reporter, as if to say, "Look, I have two hands!" He then explained, "This was an unexpected surprise! Several years ago, I went to Giltina to participate in a culinary competition, where I met someone who healed my hands."

Kira: ? ? !!! !

"What?! It can actually regrow a severed hand?!" The reporter exclaimed in shock, pressing for an answer. "Could it be some kind of magic? Could it be the legendary 'lost magic'?"

The president of the Gourmet Merchants Association shook his head regretfully: "I don't know about that. That person was very satisfied with the food I made. Since he happened to be without money, he treated my arm as payment. I haven't seen that person since!"

Chapter 517 Infiltrating the Competition...

At this moment, Kira's heart was filled with a raging storm.

This is alchemy, isn't it?! It must be alchemy! It's that kind of alchemy called 'human transmutation'!! How amazing! It's really amazing!!

Magic and alchemy are the two major subjects of cultivation in the world of Aslant.

Given the unique nature of this world, both magic and alchemy can revolve around a single concept, allowing users to unleash limitless power through their will. For example, Natsu's fire can burn away magic with spacetime attributes, and Gray can create ice with freezing and annihilation attributes.

So, just how outrageous can alchemy get?

The known 'Alchemy of Locks' can create absurd things like 'Chains of Bonds,' 'Chains of Destruction,' and 'Chains of Weakness,' which have almost nothing to do with 'chains' themselves; just how vast is the human body? Body, soul, memories, personality, emotions, thoughts…

Ugh~ I don't dare think about it! Thinking about it any further would be beyond my scope!

As the clock struck ten, Kira and his two companions' chatter came to an end. Before the match began, they also obtained the backstage data.

A total of 314 chefs signed up this time, which was within Kira's expectations. After all, there are more than 300 restaurants in the city, and even if you pick one chef from each of them, the number would be more than that, not to mention the chefs from other cities.

Fortunately, there are plenty of venues here, a total of 100. Contestants enter according to their assigned numbers, and those who haven't been called yet wait backstage. As long as the host manages the time well, the competition should be able to be completed within a day.

After contestants numbered 1 through 100 filed out and went to their respective cooking stations, the host finally revealed the question for the first round to the audience.

"The theme for the first round is seafood!! Time limit: 20 minutes!!"

Upon hearing the question, the contestants' expressions changed in accordance with probability; some were full of confidence, some looked worried, and some were already selecting ingredients.

For Kira, the time he spent cooking was very boring because he didn't know how to cook and only knew how to eat.

In my past life, when I watched similar variety shows, the production team would skip this part, either using the judges' comments on the contestants to pad the runtime, or showing the audience some of the final contestants' actions as a buffer. But in the actual live show, there are no such things; you can only wait!

During this time, Kira listened as the host talked about the topic of 'seafood' from ancient times to the present, from east to west, from the coast to the inland, discussing local cultural customs, famous historical anecdotes, and even mentioning that 'a certain king gave up his throne for seafood'.

"He's such a good talker..."

Kira himself didn't feel anything when he listened, but when the audience below the stage were all convinced, their eyes shining, and they were completely impressed by the host's eloquence, they couldn't help but marvel at the host's ability.

"This guy seems more like a comedian..."

Ten minutes later, dishes of seafood began to be served one after another.

Seafood can be broadly categorized into about seven types: fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish, meat, seaweed, and others. There are numerous ways to cook it, easily exceeding several dozen.

However, in this world, in the Alvarez Empire, the cooking methods available are only about one or two tenths of the total, and they must be completed within twenty minutes without any preparation or limited ingredients, which actually limits many cooking methods.

The Fairy Tail world is not known for its abundance of ingredients. Compared to other worlds such as Toriko, One Piece, Cooking Master Boy, and Food Wars!, the development of culinary arts in this world is much less advanced.

Fortunately, magic made up for this perfectly!

The Alvarez Empire is a magical empire, with a higher level and wider reach of magical education compared to the Kingdom of Fiore. As a result, even those whose main profession is cooking know a thing or two about magic.

For example, fire magic can be used to control the cooking temperature to achieve the ideal temperature; water magic can be used to clean ingredients to ensure that the fishy smell of seafood is completely removed; plant magic can be used to control the growth of algae to achieve the best taste...

In addition, some chefs choose to add their own magic to the ingredients. Due to the influence of magical properties, tasters can have a special experience when eating these dishes. Such cases are not uncommon.

With so many contestants, Kira and his two companions certainly couldn't try each one individually. Otherwise, even if they only took a bite of each, they would be stuffed to death by the end of the round, or at least sick of the food.

So, according to the rules, each of the three people chose a dish, tasted it together, and gave each other scores. The rest were sent to the hundred-person group on the other side who were already starving for food.

"It smells so good!! I really want to eat it!!"

"Give it to me now! I came here without even having breakfast, and my stomach is already growling with hunger!"

"Come on, what young person eats breakfast these days?"

"This knife skill is simply art!!"

"That kid's cooking skills are no less than mine..."

"A seemingly ordinary fish has seven or eight different flavors! This chef will surely become a major enemy of my Gourmet Guild's 'Lost Salmon'! He must not be allowed to live!!"

"This dish glows?! That's terrifying!!"

"Are you kidding me?! Algae counts as seafood?! Why is everyone else eating shrimp, crab, and shellfish, but we're the only ones eating this?! I protest!"

"If you don't like it, don't eat it!!"

Based on the same principle as Kira and his two companions, and because the portion size of a dish is indeed limited, the 100-person panel of amateur judges cannot possibly taste all the dishes from all the contestants. Therefore, they determine the final score of a dish by having several people taste it, removing the more outrageous scores, and calculating the average.

An hour later, the first round ended, with 267 people advancing and 47 being eliminated. Without much of a break, the host immediately began the second round.

"birds!"

Birds, that is, winged animals, and their eggs, whether they can fly or not is not really important.

Upon seeing this question, Kira paused for a moment in thought: "I wonder if dragons count as birds? Probably they do..."

Unfortunately, even though dragons are birds, there is no dragon meat available here, since Eileen didn't come, and she might be the only dragon in the entire Alakitasia.

Another hour passed, and the third challenge was "meat," followed by "fried rice," and finally "fruit." It must be said that the order of the competition was very well thought out, taking into full account the stomachs of the tasters.

The following rounds each lasted twenty minutes. When the last round ended, there were still 77 chefs remaining, and it was nearly 3 p.m.

It was at this moment that Kira, who had been bored and distracted, finally spotted someone among the many chefs who shouldn't have been there.

With her familiar bright red hair, cold and serious face, and still exuding an aura of seven parts seriousness and three parts absurdity, the woman standing on the field wielding a wok is none other than Erza, who manages discipline in the guild every day but is utterly useless.

Kira's eyes widened instantly, and he almost spat out his water: "What the hell?! Why is Erza here?!"

……

The story begins a few days ago.

On the night Laxus, Erza, and their group reunited with Mavis, the two found Prehito and obtained the directions for the other two squads (Kira, Ultear, and Selene; Dispel, Culnuki, and Silver). They then decided to split up, with each leading one squad to provide support, and both sides set off simultaneously the following day.

As for Makarov and Gerald in the capital, Auguste naturally ensured their safety.

In the following days, Erza led Natsu and the others in the direction that Kira's team had left in, and finally met Selene, who was hailed as the 'Goddess of Gluttony', three days ago. She also learned about Kira's situation from her.

Then... just yesterday, they arrived in this city and learned about the 'Food Competition'.

"Although I didn't make it to the end in the last 'Dessert Competition,' I've been working hard on my culinary skills lately, and I'm sure I can win the championship this time!!"

"Natsu, did you see that? There's a two-meter-long fish in the prize! Two meters long!!"

"Yes! I saw it! You absolutely have to win the championship, Erza!!"

"Of course!!"

"The newly appointed assistant mayor they're talking about... I think it's Kira?"

"Same name, same image and personality, it's definitely him!! This guy... he really knows how to get along anywhere..."

"How exactly did they do that..."

"Kira is amazing!!"

"With Kira around, Erza might be able to win this time?"

"I'm going to win the championship fair and square!! It doesn't matter whether Kira is there or not!!"

"Is...is that so..."

Chapter 518 Erza: I will win the championship fair and square!

Kira didn't know why Erza was there, but in this situation, the reason didn't matter anymore. He just hoped that nothing would go wrong in the upcoming matches.

On the stage, Erza wore an exquisite and sexy lace-trimmed chef's outfit, her fiery red hair tied up high, and she held an 80-centimeter-long large ladle, concentrating on cooking food in front of the stove.

Even without armor, she still exuded a heroic and dignified aura, as if she were treating the arena as a battlefield.

Remembering how Erza had participated in the 'Dessert Contest' without hesitation back in Giltina, Kira couldn't help but mutter to himself, "That girl really... likes to jump into every kind of contest..."

"But I'm the same way!"

Kira has a clear understanding of himself in this regard. After all, he also enjoys these activities. Otherwise, he wouldn't always hold major competitions. Isn't it all just for the sake of watching the excitement?

"Since Erza is here, then Natsu and the others should be here too?"

Thinking of this, Kira scanned the audience from the stage to the audience and finally spotted a few familiar figures in a corner of the crowd.

The restless Natsu, the drooling Happy, and Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Carla, and others are all there. In addition, there is Brandish, who is their guide, and Timalia, who seems to be no different from the third party who inserted herself between Lucy and Brandish, but is still scheming to seduce the little girl Wendy.

"How did those two end up with Erza and the others?" Kira wondered.

Just then, the others noticed Kira's gaze and turned to greet him warmly, just like they would in the guild.

However, seeing their attitude, Kira's heart skipped a beat, and a very bad feeling welled up in his heart—the last time he had this feeling was a few days ago when his savings were spent by Ultear.

After stiffly waving, nodding, and smiling at Natsu and the others, Killer was instantly wide awake and became extremely alert, paying close attention to his surroundings. This was the limit of what he could do at the moment!

This is the Alvarez Empire, not Magnolia! The people here have absolutely no idea about the destructive power of Fairy Tail mages, and there are no proper defenses in place for the arena. If Natsu, Erza, Gray, or the others were to accidentally cause a scene, the consequences would be...

Tsk tsk... This city can't afford it!