Renz felt completely caught in the crossfire. He was minding his own business, taking care of the kids in the audience, when Erina Nakiri inexplicably got jealous, inexplicably called him down to bring her mineral water, and then, inexplicably, wanted to "argue" with him after he delivered it.
Innocent. Truly innocent.
The situation was now extremely awkward. Their conversation didn't exactly delay the competition, but Erina's position was very special. She was a judge, and her comeback was a unique situation, so all eyes naturally turned to her. A few words wouldn't have been an issue, but stretching it out meant everyone's attention was fixed on the two of them.
It was mortifying. He'd never seen a scene like this. Erina couldn't stay calm either.
What to do?
Renz gritted his teeth and said, "Erina said she's not feeling too well, and I'm here to accompany her. She's my wife, so it's perfectly fine for me to show a little concern, right?"
A true warrior faces fear head-on.
Ideas always outnumber problems. Renz was a king of brilliant ideas, and in a flash, he found a way out of the predicament. He couldn't possibly reveal that Erina was arguing with him; that would not only annoy her but also spark new family conflicts. Instead, speaking this way gave Erina a graceful exit.
However, the best course of action would have been to simply remain silent, smile, and gloss over it. The more one said about certain things, the more likely one was to make a mistake. But Renz's genius mind hadn't reached that level of enlightenment yet.
And clearly, Erina was also a little genius. She actually went along with Renz's words.
"Yes, I'm feeling a bit unwell," Erina mused for a moment. "How about this: I'll transfer my twenty passing slots to Megumi Tadokoro and Ikumi Mito."
Erina understood that due to the unique nature of the God's Tongue, her standards for contestants' dishes were extremely high. Lowering her standards would be irresponsible to the God's Tongue and to the Nakiri family's reputation. Unqualified simply meant unqualified. However, the level of cooking required to pass her assessment might simply be beyond what these participants could achieve. Renz had given her a way to resolve the awkwardness, and she seized the opportunity to deal with her difficult situation.
"Does that comply with the rules?" The host was somewhat dumbfounded. The Food Soul Competition had been held for so many years, and this was the first time he'd heard of someone transferring their preliminary passing slots to other judges due to feeling unwell.
"Of course, it doesn't comply with the rules," Senzaemon Nakiri had been patrolling the examination hall. His granddaughter, Erina, making a comeback and immediately presenting him with such a challenge was truly unexpected. However, the quality of this year's contestants was quite poor. After looking around, Senzaemon hadn't found any dishes that were truly remarkable. Asking Erina to be a judge was putting her in a difficult position.
"However, these twenty slots can't remain empty," Senzaemon said, stroking his beard. "Let me be the additional judge for these."
If these twenty slots were distributed to the other two judges, it would actually be disrespectful to them, making their standards seem very low. Even if that were the truth, it couldn't be revealed so directly. Therefore, these slots could only be reviewed by someone with sufficient qualifications and authority to command the stage, and the only person capable of this was the retired Totsuki Director-General himself.
"This is a bit unreasonable, Lord Senzaemon. Could our production team here discuss this?" the director from the host's production team called out. Senzaemon was not in a hurry. This was the best solution. If the production team had a better one, he could accept it too.
After about twenty minutes of discussion, the production team agreed to Senzaemon's plan. Erina continually failing contestants meant the show couldn't proceed, and they really had no other choice. Everyone's attention finally shifted from Renz and Erina to Senzaemon.
Evaluations from the Demon King of Cuisine? That didn't sound bad either. Some people even began submitting their dishes to Senzaemon for evaluation. His standards were much more relaxed, and gradually, people started to receive passing slots from him. The anxious atmosphere in the examination hall slowly dissipated.
"You almost got me killed," Renz said, lowering his voice, standing next to Erina. "You know this is live, and you're still arguing with me?"
Erina scoffed. "We agreed that we'd be a model couple until the children grew up. What were you doing, interacting with other women?"
"Alice is your cousin, how could I get involved with her? Wasn't she just taking care of Rina and Haruki there, and I happened to chat with her? What's the problem?" Renz said, exasperated.
"You know she's my cousin, not your cousin. You two aren't blood relatives. I'm just worried that someone… might accidentally cheat and get caught red-handed, then affect the family," Erina felt it was important to emphasize this point.
"Your name is on the marriage certificate, not hers. Why are you overthinking this?" Renz sighed.
"I just want to say that even if we're a superficial couple, we should at least put in the effort on the surface, just like how I've been studying these things lately," Erina said with a hint of dissatisfaction. "You should at least have basic loyalty, right?"
"Am I disloyal just for saying a few words to your cousin?" Renz retorted, feeling utterly defeated by Erina's terrifying possessiveness.
"What do you think?" Erina asked. "You're my husband. Is it appropriate for you to chat so closely with another woman?"
"But we're fake, aren't we?" Renz said in a low voice. "And even in a normal marriage, you wouldn't expect such strict standards, would you?"
"Fake couples can be disloyal?" Erina countered. "I've been strictly holding myself to the wife standards written in light novels."
I swear to God. Only you. A woman who has never been in a relationship. Truly terrifying. She was actually holding herself to light novel standards?
It was important to remember that light novels, to cater to most people's romantic ideals, depicted extremely unrealistic standards for male and female leads. For her to hold herself to those standards… was truly pushing the limits of human endurance.
And now, Renz was also getting angry. He hadn't done anything, yet he was being accused of "disloyalty," a grave injustice! It was like snow in June!
"Fine, which light novel are you reading? I'll read it too. I'll hold myself to the male lead's standards from that book. Whoever can't meet those standards is a dog."
"I can't be bothered to argue with you anymore. I'm dying of thirst," Renz made to leave, intending to get a bottle of mineral water from backstage.
"Here's water," Erina said, holding up the mineral water bottle on the table.
According to light novel heroines' behavior, offering the male lead water at this moment was the optimal move.
"You've already drunk from it," Renz said mercilessly.
"I've drunk from it, and you won't?" Erina frowned. Renz wasn't following the light novel script at all.
"I'm a germaphobe," Renz offered no further explanation.
"You think I'm dirty?" Erina's tone paused. "I don't even dislike you, and you dislike me?"
"I'm afraid if I drink it, you won't be able to," Renz shook his head. "Because it would be an indirect kiss."
"Then let it be an indirect kiss. The heroines in light novels wouldn't mind such behavior," Erina continued.
Erina was also pouting now. And it was a known fact that when tsunderes pouted, they could do anything.
"Are you going to drink it or not?" Erina asked, shaking the mineral water again.
"Alright, fine, you win."
Renz had already understood Erina's meaning: she was truly going to hold herself to the light novel heroine's standards. Pouting, huh?
Damn it, light novel authors are all male authors. What do they know about women? You pout, and you'll suffer for it! Those heroines often end up having countless children for the male lead by the end of the story.
When they got home later, Renz felt he needed to give Erina a good lesson in proper etiquette. She was learning all the flashy, unnecessary things instead of what was truly important.
She was truly too pure.
You big tsundere dummy!
And she wanted to argue with him even over drinking water? Are you a child?!
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