Chapter 258: The War that Decides the Fate of 'The Bridge' Part 61

Kayn nodded. "Just three rounds, I think that would be more than enough,"

"Alright," Maria agreed. "What would the three rounds be?"

"First round would be the appetizer. The second round would be the main dish, and the last round would be the desert,"

"I see," Maria understood.

"We'll have Judges, maybe just three, including you, of course. To decide who should go to the next round and who will be crowned the winner,"

"I need to find two Judges.." Maria fell into deep thoughts.

"I suggest Wesley,"

"No way!" Maria shook her head unhesitatingly.

"Is there a problem with him?"

"Do you know about his Gift?"

"Yes, he can charm people using food,"

"Exactly! That's why we can't let him get close to any food-related matters unless it comes to eating.."

Maria realized.

"It's exactly because his Gift is related to food that's why he is a perfect fit to become a Judge,"

"Alright," Maria finally relented. "I'll just assign men to guard him and prevent him from doing anything,"

"And do you have any suggestion for the last Judge?"

"How about his majesty, Chief Kylo,"

"That's impossible!" Maria rejected. "He's very busy taking care of bigger matters,"

Kayn sighs regretfully. If they were able to invite Chief Kylo, he would have been able to end this war easily.

"I don't have anyone else in mind," Kayn shook his head. Honestly, he is only familiar with Chief Kylo and Wesley in the Assembly of Freedom. He knows the name of their other important members, but he has never met them even once before.

"Okay," Maria decided to think of it herself. "And what's the price for the competition? Would it still be a voucher?"

"That would be impossible," Kayn shook his head. It should be something that can attract the attention of professional chefs. The voucher to be excluded from the war can only attract ordinary people and soldiers, not professional chefs. "Ingredient,"

Maria understood. "Alright, I'll take care of that. In the meantime, I want you two to prepare for the cooking competition as you both will be participating,"

"In that case, who will take care of the preparation?"

"I'll assign one of my men to manage it,"

"Okay," Kayn was delighted. He was expecting that he'll be managing everything since he had proposed the idea. Good thing that Maria thought of something else.

"Good luck in the cooking competition," Maria uttered before leaving to take care of other important matters.

Not long after Maria left, a woman who introduced herself as Evelyn approached Kayn and Gilbert to ask for a note about the food contest.

Gilbert gladly gave Evelyn the note as they watched her start preparing for it.

.... historical

It was during lunch break that the food contest, which is now called Pre-war Cooking Show, officially commenced.

As there were plenty of open spaces caused by the explosions yesterday, they didn't have any trouble looking for a venue. But in order to accommodate a lot of people though, they went ahead and took down a few more buildings to expand the area.

They also leveled the ground and made a few decorations to fit the theme.

The first event that took place was the food-eating competition.

Because of Maria's influence, they were able to invite three head chefs along with their complete team to take care of cooking the food for the contestant.

And with the promise exception voucher, hundreds of people participated in the food-eating competition causing the venue to bustle with multiple activities.

Merchants took advantage of the event to sell their overpriced merchandise.

Thieves use the crowd as cover to steal.

And other people settle their personal grudges.

It was very weird.

However, Kayn and Gilbert found it reasonable considering that this is the Assembly of Freedom.

Food-eating competitions don't usually take long to finish. Although there are a lot of people who participated, not all of them have a huge appetite to continue eating for a long time. So, around twenty minutes later, they finally picked a winner for the event.

Unfortunately, because of the nature of the Assembly of Freedom, the winner didn't live for long, especially considering that he was so full from eating.

Chaos was issued upon the appearance of the exception voucher.

It took roughly around ten minutes before the scuffle was settled down by the security team assigned to the event.

Ultimately, approximately fifty individuals lost their lives, and the exception voucher found its way into the possession of a notorious gang leader whom few dared to provoke.

"I was honestly expecting more," Gilbert can't help chuckling at the scene of the security team carrying tens of corpses out from the event.

"Having fun?" Maria interrupted.

"Madam Maria?"

Kayn and Gilbert were surprised.

"Yes.. I guess," Gilbert can only pretend that he was enjoying people dying. He was genuinely enjoying though, especially since it was the members of the Assembly Of Freedom who are suffering. He's even starting to believe that if they are given the chance to host more events, they might even reach the point where they can eliminate the entire organization.

"Are you prepared for the cooking competition," Maria wanted to know.

"I saw all of the professional chefs participating in the competition, I don't think I can beat any of them yet," Kayn scratched his head. He wasn't lying. Even though he has cooked for himself countless times and has more experience when it comes to cooking, professional chefs are way different. They have bonuses from choosing the Merchant class and those bonuses can sometimes even become the deciding factor for their dish.

"Just do your best," Maria gave Nyak a thumbs up for good luck.

"I will," Kayn nodded with a smile.

Gilbert also pretended to appreciate.

Maria left since she still has to prepare herself as one of the Judges.

To be honest, Kayn wasn't worried about making it through the elimination round. His main focus was on getting Wesley to try one of his dishes. Just achieving that would bring him closer to his real goal of Charming Freedom.

"The next event would be the long awaited Cooking Competition," Evelyn, who took the position of host, announced.