[Lisa]: "HELLOOOOOOOOOO EVERYONE! WELCOME TO THIS YEARS ASTORIA COOK OFF!"
The Room practically vibrates with the cheers from every member of the Muriel party. Julius, Lawrence, and Yuri. Alongside them are two special guests, Camilla Sato, and Great Dragon Everard, who seems to go completely unnoticed by everyone. They were all seated in soft, luxurious sofa style seats, all except for Everard, who stood up leaning against a counter.
The other side of the room lights up, revealing two large kitchen sets. Residing in each one are familiar faces, ones that bring another round of cheers from the group.
Lisa shouts once more from her own table and a chair that was larger than the rest, she sat next to her mother Muriel, who had a matching chair. They were clearly the judges of this strange event.
[Lisa]: "IN KITCHEN NUMBER ONE! IS A SPECIAL GUEST FROM THE CAPITAL!... ALCARD CASTELLAN!"
Alcard crosses his arms and puffs out his chest, sporting his usual, casual attire, a black yukata with a red spider lily pattern. He closes his eyes and poses proudly in the kitchen.
[Alcard]: "HMPH!"
A loud cheer along with clapping is heard from the crowd as a strong gust of air blows into them, emitted from Alcard's grunt. They start to quiet down as Lisa begins to announce his contender.
[Lisa]: "AND IN KITCHEN NUMBER TWO! IS OUR OWN PERSONAL CHEF BY NATURE, ASTORIA MANORS MAID! LUCILLE ANASTASIA!"
[Lucille]: "GGGGHRR!"
Lucille places her hands on her hips and puffs her chest out, mockingly imitating Alcard and letting out a growl. She wore her usual black maid uniform.
Another cheer and more clapping is heard at Lucille's introduction. Everyone slowly falls silent as Lisa announces the start of the challenge.
[Lisa]: "Today! I would like the two of you to make us cupcakes! you have exactly 30 minutes! Starting... NOW!"
[Lucille]: "G-gah!"
The challenge had started far sooner than she expected, and looks over at Alcard, who now wears a white apron, seemingly pulling it out of nowhere and had begun to start the cupcakes already.
[Lucille]: "Gh!"
Lucille darts across the kitchen with precise expertise, mixing the ingredients and starting the baking process. Alcard had done the same, in a similar amount of time. In a battle of cooking, Alcard had never had anyone come close to contending with him, but now, faced with another Aspect Of Cooking, The knight faced his first real opponent.
[Julius]: "Wow, look at them go. They are both so fast."
[Yuri]: "Of course. When two of the same aspect go head to head in a battle of their own specialty, it really is a tremendous sight to see."
Julius watches in awe at the two cooks darting around the kitchens, specifically at Lucille, who seemed to be falling behind. At the sight of her struggle, he stands up, and shouts to her from the other side of the room.
[Julius]: "GO LUCILLE! YOU'VE GOT THIS! I'M ROOTING FOR YOU!"
She looks back at Julius with wide eyes, and pauses briefly. After a short moment passes, she smiles proudly, and throws a thumbs up towards Julius.
[Lucille]: "HMM! I'll do it for you, Julius!"
Julius smiles at her, returning the thumbs up, and watches as she returns to her baking, now with a strong renewed vigor. On the other side of the wall that separates the two kitchen sets is Alcard, who is currently arguing with Everard over minuscule things.
[Everard]: "RED! MAKE THE ICING RED! IT SUITS US!"
[Alcard]: "SHUT UP! I'M MAKING IT PURPLE!"
Alcard's sudden outburst sends a strong sense of fear into the crowd, who are also just as confused at him yelling to himself.
[Camilla]: "GO ALCARD! SHOW THIS GIRL WHOSE THE BETTER COOK!"
Lucille glances over and grits her teeth, producing a 'Tch' noise. The two finally finish the baking part, and continue to decorate them.
Yuri leans over his seat closer to Julius, and starts to talk to him.
[Yuri]: "Sorry J, but Alcard is going to win, one hundred percent."
[Julius]: "You don't know that at all. Lucille will win, and if she doesn't, I'll face you in a cook off myself. A friendly challenge, that's how sure i am."
[Yuri]: "Then prepare to lose!"
Lucille's cupcakes had yellow icing, with pink stars sprinkled over them, something that she knew Lisa would drool over for sure.
[Everard]: "Make the sprinkles red at least! Or gold!"
He watches intently as Alcard places pink sprinkles over the cupcakes, something that makes Everard gasp.
[Everard]: "A-aggghh! And you call ME the monster!"
*DING DING*
[Lisa]: "AAAAAAND TIMES UP! Please present my mother and I the cupcakes."
Both Alcard and Lucille walk over to the table, and place their cupcake trays down in front of Muriel and Lisa.
[Muriel]: "Thank you darlings. Lisa dear, lets try Lucille's first, we must."
Lisa looks at her mother with a wide smile, nodding and letting out a 'Hm!' sound. Lisa and Muriel both take a cupcake from Lucille's tray, and the colors that match Lisa entirely make her drool and stare at it in awe, it takes every muscle in her body to stop herself from eating it right there in an instant, but she holds back, taking one bite at the same time as her mother.
Lucille watches intently as they both take a bite, and she subconsciously finds herself leaning forwards slightly. After chewing, Muriel And Lisa let out the same sound in unison with a satisfied face, the both of them now smiling widely, and their eyes sparkling with joy.
[Lisa]: "Mmmmmmmh"
[Muriel]: "Mmmmmmmmmh"
Lucille's face lit up with excitement, smiling happily when she gets given a 10/10 by both judges. Alcard looks visibly shocked, "a ten?" he questions in his head, there's no way he will be beaten just like that, they hadn't even tried his yet and they both gave her a ten?
[Everard]: "WhhaaaaAAAAATT! YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! THIS GIRL GOT A PERFECT SCORE?"
Almost everyone in the crowd cheered, especially Julius, who sat next to Yuri whose mouth was still wide open. He knew her cooking was good because of her aspect, but a perfect ten? Really?
Lucille glances over at Alcard who stands next to her in shock, and covers her mouth as she chuckles to herself. "I've won, but I'll be nice and wont rub it in. Not too much at least.", she thought.
[Lisa]: "Now to try Alcard's."
[Muriel]: "Hm. Of course dear."
The two pick up a cupcake each and bite into it. Alcard watches with unbroken focus, his mouth was left open as he watches their facial expressions. They pause after the first bite, and look down at the cupcakes. They were both speechless.
[Muriel]: "O-... ooooooooh."
Lucille's face shifted to surprise and shock. "An eleven out of ten? What the fuck?" She thought. Alcard stood proudly once more, and Camilla had jumped out of her seat with a loud cheer, clapping for her squad leader, and dear friend.
[Camilla]: "YEAAAHHHHH! WAY TO GO ALCARD!"
Alcard turns his head to Lucille, smiling widely, a sort of "In your face!" type look. Back in the crowd, Yuri had a sly grin and looked over at Julius.
[Julius]: "Lucky."
-
[Lisa]: "VIA SUDDEN CHALLENGE, WE HAVE OUR SECOND ROUND OF THE ASTORIA COOK OFF! OUR VERY OWN...."
"YURI CAMBROSE VS JULIUS ROGERS"
The crowd roars with cheers, Lucille's voice can be heard the loudest, cheering full-hardheartedly for Julius.
[Lucille]: "KICK HIS ASS JULIUS!"
[Yuri]: "Ouch, I thought we had something here, Lucille."
Yuri rubs the back of his neck in defeat, looking back at Lucille and locking eyes with her, but he is only filled with fear when she looks back at him, her face filled with a cold blank expression and intimidating eyes. She had her full loyalty placed within Julius.
[Muriel]: "This round will be a cake, the instructions have been written on a sheet on your counters. Your thirty minutes start now."
The two immediately start to throw together ingredients and spend a stupidly long time going over the instructions, both of them clearly had no experience in a kitchen.
Lucille walked closer to Lisa, standing next to her.
[Lucille]: "I'll bet you 10 silver that Yuri's oven explodes."
[Lisa]: "Deal."
Lawrence watched with a surprising amount of engagement, he didn't expect to enjoy a cook off so much, but over the years, they started to grow on him.
Julius and Yuri frantically race around their kitchens, both of whom have somehow managed to cover themselves in flour by this point, an embarrassing show that Alcard seems to find a lot of amusement in watching.
"Why does there have to be so many steps?" Julius thought. Yuri had managed to get to the step of putting it in the oven, but after a concerning amount of time, his anxiety got to him, and he opened the oven to check on it, something that he should have done far sooner, as upon looking into the oven, he noticed that he had never even turned it on.
[Yuri]: "AAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!"
Yuri's scream over the wall only heightened the pressure that came with Julius's cake. Everyone was watching, and he had never baked before, he had only ever used basic functions of kitchen appliances at a young age.
Mixing. Measuring. It was all too overwhelming for him, but Lucille was rooting for him.
"I will win."
It was time for the oven step. This oven was completely different to the one in his world, it worked entirely differently and it worked its way into his head, adding to the overwhelming intensity of this impossible task, to bake a cake.
"I will win."
He places the cake inside the oven. The oven that he has no understanding of. The intimidating machine fueled by magic.
"I will win."
Which knob does he turn? Does he even turn one at all? Does he press a button instead? There were so many buttons. So many dials. Which one? Why were there no instructions on how to use the oven instead of 10 paragraphs on how to create a fucking cake mix?
"I will win."
He finally presses one of the buttons. His hearing was practically blocked out at this point, the overwhelming pressure had forced his mind to focus solely on the task of turning the oven on. And he finally pressed a button.
-
[Julius]: "This... This cant be real."
[Lisa]: "Sorry J, I guess I should have added a paragraph or two on how to use an oven."
Lisa stood next to Julius, resting her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. The group now all stood outside watching the building that is now fully engulfed in flames. Lucille sat next to Julius and rested her hand on his lap.
[Lucille]: "You won in my eyes. I'll teach you how to use an oven Julius, don't you worry!"
Alcard and Camilla stood next to each other, glowing in his victory. Everard sat nearby on the ground, his tail curling around him as he folds his arms and pouts, still childishly annoyed that Alcard didn't use red sprinkles.
[Muriel]: "Well everyone, seeing as Julius burnt down the building, Yuri wins the competition!"
[Yuri]: "YES! I KNEW I WAS THE BEST COOK HERE!"
His proud and excited personality is quickly cut short as Lucille shoots a sharp glare towards him while still comforting Julius, her eyes wore a very intimidating look, cutting into him.
[Yuri]: "EEEK!"
He folds up trying to block her view of his face, but she looks back at Julius, now with a smile on her face and a happy look in her eyes.
At the end of the event Muriel bestowed a gold medal to Alcard, who accepted it with pride, smiling at Camilla, who interlocked her hands and held them up to her cheek, admiring him. Lisa held onto Julius's hand, and Lucille stood beside him on the opposite side. If she could hold hands with Julius, she would, but Lisa would stop her.
The group slowly watched as the sun set, providing a beautiful pink hue over the burning building that Julius still locked his gaze upon, a strong shade of defeat in his eyes.
[Lisa]: "At least the view is nice?"
Julius and Lucille look down at her, before all bursting into laughter together, watching as the building slowly crumbled due to Julius's efforts to use an oven.
---