After seeing this, the head chef bit into the cupcake as well. And then a horrible bitterness spread throughout his mouth. Yes, this was very bad indeed. He wanted to spit it out and never eat it again. He shook his head sadly.
But at the same time, the head chef suddenly felt that his body was growing warmer.
"Huh? Could this be…"
"What is it?"
"Your Majesty… Yes. I think this cupcake has magic in it. Though, it"s just a little."
In spite of the taste, it seemed very effective, as you would expect from a Fairy King. The head chef was so impressed by this, that he ended up eating the entire cupcake.
Next, it was the macarons that Hartknights and Sirius had made. Liliarge seemed to really enjoy them and Sotiris and Lavina finished their portions easily.
However, they really were just average macarons without anything new. And so they did not rate them very highly.
"Next is Tiararose"s cake. The large rose made from candy is so beautiful."
Queen Lavina said as she stared at the cake. The candy sculpture shone brilliantly, and there were cream and chocolate ribbons that also decorated it.
It was a work of art.
"It"s almost a waste to have to eat it. But it will rot if you don"t. I have never felt like this about food before."
Lavina hesitantly stabbed her fork into the sponge cake and carried a piece of it to her mouth, along with some cream and chocolate. The cake, cream, and chocolate were separated into layers that melted in your mouth.
"…Oh…it is delicious."
"Aye, this is very good. Such elegant and refined taste."
Sotiris agreed as he finished his sample. After that, they discussed who would be the recipient of the special award.
—Oh, I wish that I could judge too.
Tiararose was watching as they ate the delicious-looking sweets and put down flowers in front of their favorite team. She swore in her heart, she would be a judge next year and she would eat as much as she could.
Of course, Tiararose"s team was receiving a lot of flowers as well. In fact, she was starting to believe they had a shot at winning. Just then, a cheerful voice entered her ears.
"Sister Tiararose."
"Prince Sirius. Good job on the sweets. How was it?"
"My brother wasn"t very good and gave me a lot of trouble." Sirius said with a laugh.
"Oh, you mean to say that Prince Hartknights is clumsy?"
Akari chuckled. To the side, Olivia was taking embarra.s.sing notes about this new-found information.
But it was true. The two of them had made macarons, and Hartknights had crushed half of them.
"Still, it"s nice to have to make something that you are used to eating without much thought.
…Actually, I brought you some of our macarons that I wanted you to eat."
"Macarons that you made, Prince Sirius? Thank you. They look delicious. They must have been very hard to make?"
Tiararose smiled as she saw how beautifully they were wrapped. She was always happy when someone else took the time to make sweets for her.
And so she praised Sirius, as she knew it would have been difficult for him to do something so unfamiliar to him.
"I made mistakes at first, but I"m used to it now."
"Prince Sirius. You are so talented."
Tiararose was impressed. Just then, the announcer"s voice boomed throughout the square. It seemed that the voting had finished.
"All votes have now been cast! We will now count them, so please wait one moment!"
"Hmm. I have a feeling we might win. What do you think?"
Akari said as she compared their pile of flowers to the other teams. Tiararose"s heart began to beat excitedly as she watched the staff count the flowers.
—Did they like my cake?
It was something she had worried about, but the high number of flowers suggested that they had rated it highly. Still, her anxiety could not be eased until the results came in.
Olivia seemed to be affected by this, and she also became nervous.
"The results will be announced soon. …Prince Sirius. I think you should return to your table. Prince Hartknights will be worried."
"Yes, I suppose I must for the results. Though, I would much rather stay here with you, Tiararose."
He looked adorable with his disappointed face. Tiararose wished she had a younger brother like him. She sent him away moments before the announcement.
"How cute." Olivia said when he was no longer visible.
"He barely appeared in the game. But he"s very pretty, so that"s actually quite unfortunate."
"Oh, Olivia!"
Olivia sighed and said that she wished she could have met him in the game. Then she remembered that he was now Akari"s brother in law, and she sighed again, this time with a hint of jealousy.
Tiararose chuckled at this. And then the announcer"s voice rang once again.
"Yes, we will surely win!"
Akari stood proudly, eager to hear the results. The top five teams and then the special prize would be announced.
"First! Coming in at number five! We have the Flower Honey"s Honey Cupcake! They had 186 flowers!"
The crowd clapped and cheered. The owner bowed and thanked them.
"The Flower Honey. That is the cafe Olivia and I visited recently. I am so glad that they did well."
"Yes, indeed. We should visit again with Akari."
"I"d love that!"