A full week had passed since Raizel and the others defeated Viernes, yet the shock caused by the Gold Dragon God's death showed no sign of fading.
Even Guiltina's Magic Council, MNP, had contacted Raizel personally.
The Council had always paid close attention to the Five Dragon Gods, but while they had previously managed to pinpoint the locations of Mercphobia and Aldoron, they had known virtually nothing about Ignia, Selene, or Viernes.
When they learned that Raizel's group had actually killed the Gold Dragon God, the Council had practically wanted to send them a medal of appreciation.
Raizel, Ultear, and the others did not dwell on the attention for long.
They split into two groups with Selene and Irene, each setting out separately to search for information on Ignia.
Raizel had no idea how Selene and Irene were conducting their investigation.
His own group, on the other hand, looked increasingly like they had gone on vacation.
That was how they eventually arrived in Ordore, one of Guiltina's most famous culinary cities.
The city's traditional food festival was scheduled for that weekend.
According to everything they had heard along the way, as well as the local travel guides, the festivities would include an eating contest, a cooking championship, and competitions for desserts and drinks.
Raizel's group had actually been invited by MNP to attend as special guests and participate in the tasting events, partly as thanks for dealing with Viernes.
The eating contest would not begin until the day after tomorrow, but Erza, Wendy, and Lucy immediately rushed off to register, with Natsu joining them soon afterward.
As for the cooking championship and the dessert and beverage competitions, the girls had been invited as guest tasters and judges.
In other words, Erza, Lucy, and Wendy had somehow arranged things so they could eat during all three major events.
Mira stared intently at Raizel.
"Are you entering the cooking championship?"
Raizel pointed at himself.
"You want me to compete?"
Mira nodded.
Raizel immediately invoked the four sacred words that justified countless questionable decisions.
"Well, we're already here."
He shrugged.
"I might as well give it a try. Winning doesn't matter. It'll be fun to experience the competition."
Raizel had a fairly accurate understanding of his own culinary abilities.
If the contest were specifically about grilled skewers, he might actually have been able to challenge the professionals.
Mira, meanwhile, was genuinely skilled in the kitchen, so there was no question that she would participate.
She intended to show off everything she could do and take on the chefs of Ordore City by herself.
After Erza, Lucy, Wendy, and Natsu finished registering for the eating contest, Lucy returned with the unmistakable expression of someone carrying juicy insider information.
"I heard there are going to be three mystery contestants in the eating competition. They even released silhouettes!"
Natsu's imagination immediately ran wild.
"Could one of them be a dragon? Or maybe somebody as big as a mountain?"
Lucy stared at him.
"You really will imagine anything, won't you? You might be willing to sit beside a dragon and eat, but that doesn't mean everyone else would."
She handed Raizel and the others a flyer showing the silhouettes of the three mysterious entrants.
"Wait..."
"They're all women?!"
The silhouettes revealed little beyond their figures, but all three were unmistakably female.
They were shown from partial side angles, and even from the outlines alone, it was obvious that all three had impressive figures.
Ultear suddenly narrowed her eyes.
"Hold on... Those twin buns... I think I know who one of them is."
Mira and Kagura realized it almost simultaneously.
"Minerva!"
Erza's eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
"I get to compete against Minerva again!"
"..."
Ultear and the others exchanged looks.
They all wanted to ask whether Erza had somehow forgotten the last eating contest, when Minerva had completely destroyed her.
Wendy quietly said nothing.
She had noticed something else in those silhouettes that no one else seemed to have picked up on yet.
...
Ordore City was so crowded for the food festival that Raizel's group struggled just to find a restaurant with enough room for everyone.
When they finally did, they happened to run into Sting and Rogue, who were already enthusiastically working their way through a mountain of food.
Once everyone had squeezed around the same table, Ultear casually asked, as though the question had only just occurred to her,
"Where's Minerva?"
Sting exposed her immediately.
"Ojou-sama entered the eating contest as one of the mystery contestants! Apparently she found out there are some really strong opponents this year, so she's gone into seclusion to train!"
Lector looked disappointed.
"Unfortunately, Ojou-sama wouldn't tell us who those two powerful opponents are."
Frosch raised a paw.
"Frosch thinks so too!"
That confirmed it.
Even something as simple as the omurice Raizel ordered tasted noticeably different in Ordore. The city truly deserved its reputation as a culinary destination.
Erza, meanwhile, somehow managed to drink iced lemonade with the intensity of someone chugging an entire barrel.
"Glug, glug, glug..."
"The strawberry cake we had this afternoon was incredible!" she declared later that evening, still reminiscing about it. "It smelled so sweet too!"
Ordore's food festival had originally begun as a celebration of the harvest, much like Magnolia's Harvest Festival.
The competitions were only part of the event. The entire central plaza would be filled with food carts where visitors could sample dishes from all over Guiltina.
The cooking championship attracted chefs from cities across the continent, all of them coming to Ordore to test their skills, exchange techniques, and pursue even greater heights in the culinary arts.
For this year's festival, Raizel was personally more interested in the cooking championship he had entered, as well as the beverage and dessert competitions.
The eating contest held no appeal to him whatsoever.
He was nowhere near enough of a glutton to compete with people who took that sort of thing seriously, and he had no intention of humiliating himself.
...
By the time the weekend arrived, the autumn weather was clear and pleasantly cool.
Ordore's food festival opened right on schedule.
From early morning, the enormous central plaza surrounding Ordore Tower—the towering landmark at the heart of the city—was packed with food carts of every size imaginable.
The smell of grilled meat, fresh bread, pastries, soups, desserts, and countless other dishes blended together in the air, making mouths water before people had even decided what to eat.
The official competitions would begin inside Ordore Tower at ten in the morning.
"Fresh secret-recipe apple pie! Straight from the oven! Here you go~!"
Vendors called out constantly from every direction.
Their enthusiasm was not merely about making money.
Every festival visitor received one voting ticket, which they could give to their favorite food cart.
The stall receiving the most votes would win the Food Festival Popularity Award, along with a special medal.
That medal could later be displayed at the owner's restaurant or shop.
For any business, it was priceless advertising.
People would travel from all over simply because they had heard that the establishment had won Ordore's famous festival award.
Erza, Lucy, Wendy, and Natsu dove into the sea of food carts like fish being released back into the ocean.
"One milk pudding!"
"I'll take the grilled steak with potatoes!"
They had all completely forgotten that they had entered an eating contest.
...
At exactly ten o'clock, the eating competition began.
One huge, broad-shouldered contestant after another took their places, most of them sporting enormous stomachs that looked perfectly suited for the task ahead.
Among them, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, and Natsu stood out so badly that they looked as though they had wandered into the wrong event.
"Those four are way too skinny. Can they really eat that much?"
"Especially that little girl! She'll be lucky if she finishes one steak!"
Comments rippled through the audience.
Then the announcer—apparently a disciple of the ancient art of screaming everything at maximum volume—raised his microphone.
"FIRST OF ALL, LET US INTRODUCE OUR THREE MYSTERIOUS CONTESTANTS!"
"OOOOOH!!! FINALLY!"
"We've been waiting for this!"
"Our first mystery contestant! It's almost impossible to imagine how such a petite body could conceal such an enormous appetite! Coming all the way from Gazania Town in the Kingdom of Fiore, on the continent of Ishgar—MINERVA!"
Minerva stepped onto the stage wearing a blue qipao.
Her bronze skin, slender hand resting confidently against her waist, distinctive eyebrows, and twin hair buns immediately caught the crowd's attention.
"MINERVA-SAN!"
Cheers erupted from the audience.
Not because Minerva was particularly famous in Guiltina.
She was simply beautiful.
The announcer waited for the applause to settle before raising his voice again.
"AND NOW, PLEASE WELCOME OUR SECOND MYSTERY CONTESTANT! ALSO COMING TO US FROM ISHGAR—SELENE!"