There is no Drug in my Cooking! Chapter 22

Even though Alice was going to confess to her "fiance", she ended up working for him all day in a daze, and now she was walking through the Totsuki Academy campus with her head down, carrying a bunch of ingredients and feeling increasingly guilty as she got closer to her place.

Alice's heart raced as she approached the place where Erina lived, knowing she would have to pass by it on her way to her own villa. Alice didn't feel guilty towards Erina, as everything had started because of her. If Erina hadn't used Alice's name to communicate with her fiance, the current situation wouldn't have happened. It was because of Erina that Ichiyo blindly believed her lies and even treated her as his fiance.

Although Alice didn't feel guilty, she couldn't help feeling a little nervous. She knew that according to Murphy's Law, if she worried about something happening, it was more likely to happen. Although the book was full of nonsense and had little scientific basis, Alice couldn't shake the feeling that some things really did have a probability of happening.

Suddenly, she heard a voice calling out to her.

"Alice, why are you back so late?"

...

After a long day of work, Erina headed to a four-star western restaurant in the evening to sample the dishes. However, she was already feeling irritable and the poorly made dishes only served to increase her frustration. She couldn't bring herself to swallow a single bite, and the numerous flaws in the dishes stood out in her mind one by one. Without hesitation, she gave the restaurant a negative review and returned to Totsuki with her secretary, Hisako, to prepare something edible for herself. After all, her picky palate had reached a ridiculous level after years of tasting increasingly excellent dishes.

If this pattern continued, Erina worried that she might eventually develop anorexia like her mother had. Her mother had struggled with anorexia at a young age, and Erina was still in high school!

For some reason, today Erina found herself thinking about her fiancé, whom she currently did not fully acknowledge. Let's call him "stupid student" for now!

That guy has a lot of potential as a chef!

However, as she thought about her original purpose and the awkward relationship between them, Erina couldn't help but feel conflicted. Prideful as she was, she struggled to accept the fact that their marriage had been arranged, unless the stupid student's cooking skills surpassed her own. In that case, she would be willing to confess the truth to him. After all, despite his annoying habits, he wasn't a bad person.

Due to her competitive nature and desire to see a culinary genius reach his full potential, Erina was somewhat looking forward to seeing how far the stupid student could grow. She was curious to see what he was capable of and hoped that he would continue to improve as a chef.

Erina couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she one day revealed her true identity to the stupid student. Would he be scared?

As Erina was about to head home, she happened to see Alice rushing past the entrance of her villa. Alice appeared flustered and seemed completely unaware of her surroundings, just lowering her head and rushing along. Sensing that something was wrong, Erina called out to Alice.

Despite the fact that their relationship had become somewhat estranged, Erina still considered Alice one of her few family members and was concerned for her well-being. It was just her personality not to express her emotions openly. Seeing Alice come home late at night twice in a row had left Erina feeling a little worried.

"Erina!"

Startled by the familiar voice behind her, Alice, who was already feeling guilty, accidentally dropped one of the cabbages in her arms. She quickly hugged the remaining cabbage and the box of meat, which represented her salary, to her chest.

"Erina, don't you still have a tasting job at a western restaurant? Why did you come back so early?"

Erina watched as Alice, who had been facing away from her and seemed unwilling to turn around. Sensing that something was amiss, Erina wrinkled her brow and picked up the cabbage that had fallen to the ground, holding it up in front of her eyes. With her years of culinary experience, she could almost instantly tell that this was a new model of cabbage and was definitely a high-quality ingredient.

"The cuisine at that Western restaurant is too rough and the chef didn't put in enough effort. It seems like they were just using my name as a gimmick for their grand opening, but they didn't realize their own limitations. As a result, I ended up returning."

Erina explained that she was not satisfied with the Western restaurant's cuisine, despite the fact that they had spent millions of yen to have her taste it. She doesn't enjoy this type of work to begin with, but her grandfather always insisted that she continue doing it.

Erina understood her grandfather's good intentions in having her taste relatively inferior cuisine from time to time, in order to prevent her pickiness about food from developing too quickly. However, for someone with super tastebuds of God's Tongue, each taste of that type of cuisine was undoubtedly torture.

Even if there are occasionally a few more innovative and distinctive restaurants, they are still too few compared to the overall workload!

Ignoring the unpleasant feeling of being affected by inferior cooking, she asked her cousin, "Is this a new variety of cabbage that you cultivated?"

"Er... um..." Alice stuttered, unable to find the right words to say. Eventually, she came up with an excuse, "No, I have a friend who can cultivate a small number of high-quality ingredients on a small scale. He gave this to me to try out and asked me to give him feedback on the dish."

"Anyway, Erina, you've been busy all day, so go back and rest. I'll go home first. Goodnight!"

Feeling inexplicably reluctant to stay with Erina any longer, Alice quickly left the villa where Erina lived and headed towards her own home. Behind her, Erina scowled and held up the cabbage, reminding Alice, "You forgot your vegetables!"

Alice ran even faster, shouting back from a distance, "I don't want it anymore, you can have it!"

Erina had finally tried to be straightforward with Alice in an effort to make amends. But she never expected Alice to hold a grudge like this. It was just a word spoken during their childhood, and yet she still remembered it!

Spiteful younger sister!

Ishiki, who had been silent during the conversation between Erina and Alice, approached Erina and asked quietly, "Do you need me to return this cabbage to Miss Alice?"

Erina shook her head, "No!"

"Come on, Hisako, let's go back to the kitchen and whip up something to eat. While we're at it, we can check on the progress of Alice's friend's cabbage and see how much the quality has improved."

"Yes." The secretary didn't say anything else and followed Erina into the villa.

However, Erina's doubts only grew. Wasn't Alice just back from Europe? Where did she meet a Japanese friend? Lately, Alice has been acting more and more strange!

Before, Alice would always try to challenge Erina and attempt to defeat her whenever she saw her. But lately, it seems like Alice has forgotten about this and has been purposely avoiding Erina rather than coming over to challenge her. What could have caused this change in behavior?

After considering the situation, Erina couldn't find an answer and was left with only one conclusion.

Something must be wrong with Alice!