Mmm~

This one is made using chocolate and there's also white chocolate pieces on it!

Well… It's definitely nice but I think this one skimped a little on the sugar and the chocolate used for the cupcake don't seem to have blended well either.

But it's still nice!

That's why I still ate it all up anyway~

The moment I finished, Katsuki stepped forward to help wipe my mouth before turning to the larger table.

"Judges, please show your scores."

Eh? What scores?

I turned to the side to see the girls lifting up cards with numbers on them.

I didn't need to be a genius to know that those were score placards that they were holding up.

The Queen held up a five, the Princess held up a three, Odeta held up a six, Delmare had a four and Lisa had a five as well.

Katsuki gestured to the judges, "What a surprise for the first contestant. Let's hear the reasons for the score starting with Miss Lisa."

My Infrid took a moment to think, "I believe that her reaction wasn't as strong as normal, that's all."

'Her reactions'? Who? Was the girl who gave me the cupcake reacting or something?

Katsuki then gestured to Delmare.

My Siren lowered the placard, "Mmm… Her shoulders would usually lift up if she thought the sweet was nice. She did not do that here."

Wait… Are they talking about my reaction to eating the cupcake? Is this a contest of me reacting to the eating of sweets that my schoolmates are queuing up to give me?

Is this to judge me or judging the sweet?

"What about you, Miss Odeta? You gave the highest score here," Katsuki asked, not even giving me time to come to terms with the realisation.

Odeta shrugged, "Sister Aster looked like she liked it so that was good enough for me!"

"And what about you, Princess Tiara? Why the low score?" Katsuki asked, immediately moving on to the next judge.

"It's not a cookie," She answered simply.

Katsuki simply nodded like that was a legitimate answer and turned to the Queen, "What about your score, Your Majesty?"

The Queen smiled at her, "I believe in this case, Aster did enjoy the sweet itself but it was not on the same level as the sweets that she would usually eat on a daily basis."

Katsuki then turned back to the girl, "As for me, I would have to give a one to bring the total score to twenty four."

Oh wow… First of all I didn't even know Katsuki was included as one of the judges. Second of all, that was a brutally low score, Katsuki…

Look, the girl's face fell when she heard the score from Katsuki.

"As for the reason why, Mistress did not lick her fingers. If she really likes the sweets that she is eating, she would definitely lick the crumbs off her fingers. To not do that meant that she felt there was something missing with the sweet she just ate."

I had to do my best not to look down at my hands because I only realised that this was true…

The girl looked at me and I think she also realised that was true because she looked placated and retreated to give way to the next person.

The next person was a male student who stepped up and also offered me a small box, "I erm… I tried to make this myself, Aster…"

I opened the box and peeked inside to see a bunch of cookies.

Oh, I think Tiara would like this one so I'll just save some of this for her later.

And now that I know what kind of contest this was, I considered just trying to act like I like it just to give them a better score.

I took one of the cookies and took a bite of it…

And I immediately spat it out.

"Wahh! Salty!! Did you not taste them first?" I cried out before I could stop myself.

Almost immediately, everyone at the table held up placards that showed zeroes except for Tiara who held up a negative ten.

Why the heck are there even negative scores?

His face turned white and Katsuki picked up one of the cookies.

She held it up to her nose and gave it a sniff before placing it back to look at the boy, "I would give it a negative ten as well."

The boy grimaced and quickly retreated to let the third girl forward.

Eh? Wait… You are…

"Happy birthday, Aster!"

Since when did Eldoria sneak in here?

Last I remembered, she was still training with Tracey as a maid in the mansion. Yet now the Off-Worlder who was a former patisserie chef was now standing in front of me with a box of her own.

Ah whatever… I opened it and peeked inside to find a small saucer that had little colourful pellets arranged inside it.

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I looked up at Eldoria who was smiling at me, clearly anticipating me to taste this sweet that she made.

"Do I just eat the whole thing?" I asked.

She nodded, "Just toss the entire thing into your mouth."

Alright then…

I did as she requested and picked up the saucer to throw the pellets into my mouth.

The moment I bit down on it, I realised that these pellets were different kinds of sweets that had been rolled up into the pellets so that I could enjoy an explosion of sweetness in my mouth that was different with each bite.

First I was tasting cotton candy, then there was a bit of strawberry cream, then the next bite had me tasting cookies and cream and then next it was chocolate.

Mmmm!! It was so good!!

I remember the last time I ate at her store and I already felt that the sweets were especially good but this… This one really showed that she got much, much better than the last time I ate her sweets!

When I came back to myself, I realised I had unconsciously started licking my fingers despite there not being crumbs. But there was still the slight taste of those pellets still on my fingertips from when I held the saucer so I just continued licking them anyway.

"Now the judges?" Katsuki called out.

All of them gave a ten of course.

Katsuki didn't even ask them for the reason why and simply turned back to face Eldoria.

I was also expecting Katsuki to give a ten but she unexpectedly announced, "As for me… I would say a nine."

Eldoria was understandably quite surprised by this verdict as she goggled at Katsuki, "Why?"

Yes, why, Katsuki? Even I thought that this would be deserving of a ten!

Katsuki nodded at the judges, "You can't see it from where you're sitting, but Mistress's tail only did a slow wag. For the sweets that she really likes, it would be moving at a faster speed than that."

I curled my tail to grab it to stop It from moving. How in the world do you even notice things like this, Katsuki?

Eldoria paused before breaking into a smile, "That means I still have space to improve! Alright! I'll work harder on this!"

She then ran off instead of rejoining the crowd and I guess everyone figured that she wasn't one of our schoolmates by now.

Katsuki then motioned for the next person to step forward and the girl presented me with her sweets which looked like a pink macaron from first glance.

I picked it up and tossed it into my mouth.

Mmm!! Sweet and creamy! And I think I taste raspberry!

As for the score…

It was six for the Queen, four for the Princess, seven for Odeta, seven for Delmare and five for Lisa.

I'm actually surprised about Lisa's score and Katsuki went ahead to ask her reasoning for that.

Lisa cleared her throat and gave her a serious look, "Firstly, Aster's eyebrow remained neutral instead of scrunching up or lifting, that shows the sweetness isn't enough. Next her tail also curled slightly to the left before wagging a little which meant that there was a moment that it was a little sour. Then her hands were also brought close to her chest first before she started licking them which meant that she wasn't interested in a second serving and was just satisfied with one. For her not to want a second serving is a pretty bad sign in my opinion."

Lisa? Weren't you supposed to pretend like your relationship with me was purely professional? Wouldn't this give it away that you actually do have a closer relationship with me than people might have thought.

I don't get it… Why did you even want to give that detailed--

I paused before looking at Katsuki then looking back at my Infrid.

Oh, no way… She got a little jealous that Katsuki was showing off that she knew me better than all of them and wanted to show off as well?

That is… So cute~

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