The next morning, at an early hour. The MoonShadow train reached its destination; the economic and political center of Hokkaido, the ever-most-important Sapporo.
The center of this city contains many fine eateries and it is a quite popular tourist destination. Anyone who came to Japan must pass by Hokkaido and visit Sapporo.
A few minutes away from the center of the city, at a lone eastern styled Hotel, Totsuki's buses have arrived and a wave of students descended. No one has failed in the last exam and all the first years that have participated have excelled, and Central is making sure they excel.
As the students made their way inside, they were guided by the security of the hotel and gathered them in a large and empty hall.
A teacher came in and cleared his throat "First of all..." he spoke, "congratulations on passing the first exam and I hope you had a nice trip in our train after all that train is Totsuki's pride."
Alexander was standing with his friends at the back of the hall, Alice and Erina were leaning on his arms while watching with the least amount of interest.
"Anyway, my name is Endo; i am the teacher responsible for overseeing the second phase of the exam..." Endo started walking between the students "Moving on, the rules of this round is that this phase will be completed individually and even more to that, the limitation will not be just the theme of the dish...but also the genre."
Once everyone heard Endo state the rules, although this wasn't the first time they had a test in a specific genre of cooking, it still came as a surprise to them that it will be given in an already difficult test.
"The theme will be...[Noodles], as all of you know, the most famous noodle dishes in Hokkaido are definitely the many kinds of ramen that it has; Sapporo ramen, Hakodate ramen, and the list goes on and of course, there are few famous Udon and Soba dishes as well. Throughout the years, Hokkaido was and still the largest producer of Soba noodles in Japan and there is not a shortage of lands here and therefore each area developed its own culture of noodles and Soba."
Alexander hated history classes and if it wasn't for the fact that the teacher may drop some hints to make it easier for him to pass the exam without too much effort he would have been asleep by now.
"Today we will have you try your hands in making dishes from these cultures," Endo concluded his speech.
"So we are allowed to make whatever we want?!" Soma was interested but confused too.
"They are leaving us a lot of space to play in..." Takumi added.
"It can't be as simple as that, they still have not revealed their plot yet." Alice reminded everyone that they were enemies and it is impossible for them to let their enemies go safe.
"We will see soon..." Erina had her eyes on the teacher all along, she knows that he had something still hidden from the way he would look at their direction.
"Now, we have prepared for you just the basic ingrediants..." Servants brought in carts full of ingrediants that are almost enough for everyone " Any missing ingredients you need, you can go get it for yourself and with those ingrediants, you must create a dish that adheres to the standards decided by Central..." Endo said terrifying the students "The time limit is three hours." He said.
"For now, you are to listen to the servant as they assign you to your cooking halls and you can start cooking as soon as you reach your station!!" Endo shouted as servants started calling names of students and guided to various halls.
Not surprisingly, Erina was taken first as she had the special treatment of her father, but she didn't forget to remind everyone of their lessons one last time and wish them luck.
The rebels were left celebrity until the end, they were taking students in groups of three while Alexander stayed last in the hall.
One servant came to him, she was a tall woman in a black suit, her blue eyes were cold as ice as she looked at him "You are left alone, due to you being alone and with no partner, you will be given a lone hall and will have to work alone. Follow me." She said. Alexander didn't complain as she followed her. They reached a hall and she opened the door. Alexander entered and looked at the equipment and ingrediants.
"Spices check, Vegetables although there are only a few, check...but no noodles..." Alexander started laughing as he realized whats the scheme "Alice was right it can't be that easy!! Hahaha!!"
The servant heard Alexander and sighed "As stated by Endo-san, any ingrediants you lack, you can go out and get for yourself." She said these words as she took a seat and sat beside the door.
"Ah~I see..." Alexander started leaving the hall "I will go out." Alexander went down to the reception area and asked for a warm coat to leave. But once he stepped outside of the Hotel, he was met with a snowstorm "Great!!" Alexander leaned on the wall as he glided down to the ground, he sat on the floor with his hands in his warm coat. He took out his phone and called Vlad, they said i can go get my ingrediants but never specified how. So it's their fault.
The phone rang and the line connected...
"Privet Vlad..." Alexander spoke in Russian
(Hello Vlad...) he said.
[Milord, kak ya mogu vam pomoch']
(My lord, how can I help you) answered Vlad.
"Da, izvinite, chto pobespokoil vas, no yesli vy mozhete...prishlite mne korobku s lapshoy v otele Totsuki v Sapporo"
(Yes, I'm sorry to bother you, but if you can ... send me a box of noodles at the Totsuki Hotel in Sapporo) Alexander said.
"No yest' metel'"
(But there is a snowstorm) Vlad said.
"...otpravit' yego na vertolete"
(...send it by helicopter) After thinking for a moment, Alexander knows that althought it may hindrance their sight in the storm but a helicopter can fly almost all kinds of weather.
"YA prikazhu nekotorym muzhchinam na Khokkaydo sdelat' eto"
(I will command some men in Hokkaido to do this." Hearing his lords order him, Vlad can only comply with his will and do as he was told, after all, they exist to serve him.
Alexander sat in his place after ending the call watching the snowstorm rage on, he sat there for a while until he heard the sound of a chopper mixed with the wind, he stood up and called the helicopter number from his service phone and ordered them to drop the box in front of the hotel.
After a moment, at the doorstep of the hotel, a large black box was dropped and it almost sank in the snow. Alexander chuckled "Lucky!" he said. The helicopter flow past the hotel and Alexander picked the box and entered the hotel once again under the gazes of some of the staff who saw this.
Alexander made his way to his kitchen as he spoke "Am I overpowered or not overpowered? that is a question I have answered when I concluded that I was overpowered."
-----------------------------------
Chapter 147 is out on Pat reon
Go to: Pat reon.com/RedVoidDoragon
Or the mobile app Pat reon version: Doragon
Or you can consider the free donations
Please donate to keep this story going, hit me with what you can.