So You're the Challenger

On the first day of the competition, the amphitheater was packed with people.

It was called a cooking competition, but the atmosphere was almost more like a swordsmanship tournament.

Nobles and commoners mingled in the stands, while rows of workstations had been set up on the central stage.

Even though they had been arranged spaciously with room for the contestants to move, the stage looked cramped with all one hundred of them standing there at once.

Magic crystals installed by the Magic Tower floated high above, and Estelle was continually adjusting something with the mages below them.

One crystal showed the contestants' hands, while another showed what was happening over the pots and pans.

They had been set up so that even people at the back of the stands could watch the knife work and heat control.

Cooking had now become something done in the middle of an amphitheater.

The world had changed in a strange way.

I sat in the judges' section and looked over the list of contestants...