What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?-Chapter 540: Bartending Results

Everyone had their eyes glued to the screen waiting for the results to appear.

There were still some 'judges' that had not cast their votes so everyone had to wait until they were done before the results would appear.

Right now both Valiea and I were making our final drinks that we would swap with each other, which I have now learned that served as some kind of gesture of respect to the other competitor.

That way, they could personally taste the skill level of their competitor so that they know whether the win was deserved or not.

For me, I had chosen to give her something sweet tasting by mixing and crushing some of the synthfruit together to make different tasting syrups before combining them into the alcohol I mixed.

I was worried that I took too long with mine but that did not seem to be the case since I finished several minutes ahead of Valiea who needed more time with hers.

When she finally stepped out from behind her counter, she was carrying a beautiful rainbow coloured cocktail in her hands which was a clear contrast to mine which was just a simple brown colour.

"This is something that I spent all the time before this challenge to make, just so that I can let you taste it," She explained, handing the glass to me. "I call it… The Rainbow Nebula."

I received it and swapped it with mine before the both of us lifted our respective glasses up to taste the cocktail that we made for each other.

The moment the liquid touched my tongue, I felt my whole world blank out and I was floating in the middle of space.

In front of me was an entire sea of stars that were each blinking in a different colour, making it look like I was looking at a living rainbow that seemed to shift and move in the blackness of space.

I blinked and I was back in my body again, the cocktail glass in my hand and already empty.

On the opposite side of me was Valiea who seemed to be staring off into space, her glass also empty.

This drink she made… It's so good… I can see people actually getting hooked on this.

That brief feeling of floating through space while watching those stars wink at you… That was an experience that you can't get anywhere else.

Valiea suddenly jerked and it seems like she had also just woken up from her stupor.

She needed another moment to look around and a confused expression crossed her face.

"Where… Where am I? Wasn't I… Holding my children? Where's little Timmy? Eh? Tera? What are you doing here? Didn't you say you were going to open up the store early today? Your girls are already at the store waiting for you, aren't they?"

What the heck was this woman hallucinating about? I mean… I get the kids part, which I am already pretty surprised was what you hallucinated about since I don't think my drink gave that sort of feeling… But why the heck was I part of your hallucinations too?

I cleared my throat, "Ahem… Valiea… We're still in the bartending competition…"

"Eh? Oh… Oh! Wow… Err… Te-- I mean… White Mask… This drink of yours is really dangerous, you know? People can get hooked on this… I think it's best that you don't serve it normally…"

"I can say the same for your drink too… It's way too good."

"No, no, no… It can't even compare to yours… The feeling I got was so realistic… If I was a lesser person, I would have wanted that dream to continue and begged you to make more of it."

I'm pretty sure she's exaggerating but I dunno…

"Ladies and gentlemen! The results are in!! May I draw your attention to the screen please!!" The announcer's voice suddenly rang out.

Everyone in the venue turned their gaze towards the nearest screen where it showed a picture of me in my mask on one side and Valiea on the other side.

A bar appeared under our pictures and they slowly started to rise with a number that increased at a fairly quick rate, which I assumed was a representation of the number of votes we had each received for this challenge.

Both of our bars started rising at the same speed until it both stopped at a hundred each.

The collective gasp coming from the people in the venue could have sucked a ship down from orbit.

I thought that it ended as a draw but my bar suddenly started rising again to stop at three hundred and one.

Now the gasp was so loud that I could have sworn they could have sucked the moon down onto earth.

And that wasn't even the end because that was apparently just to vote for the taste. Now a new bar appeared next to the first one which was representing the number of votes we received for our flairs.

The last time I lost to Valiea completely in this category and since we were taking both scores into account, Valiea could still totally turn this match around.

The scores kept climbing and climbing, both of us shooting past the one hundred mark and still continuing to climb.

Then mine stopped at one hundred and eighty three while Valiea stopped at two hundred and eighteen.

There was a short moment of just pure silence as everyone beheld the results that were being displayed on the screen.

Even I was just staring blankly at it because I realised what those results meant.

"The… The… The winner of this competition is White Mask!!!" The announcer cried out, being the first in the entire venue to recover.

Even despite his announcement, silence reigned over the entire arena as if everyone was still struggling to comprehend what just happened.

Then one person started to clap, which prompted another to start clapping, then another, and another, until an entire wave started from the point of origin and spread to the rest of the arena.

Soon enough, the entire venue was roaring out in cheers, drowning out any other sound.

It took me another moment to also realise that I had won and I turned to Valiea, only to realise that she was grinning at me with an 'I told you so' look.

You'd think that she would show some other expression like disappointment or something but she was really proud of her loss for some reason.

"With a grin like that, people would have thought you're the winner instead…" I pointed out after the cheers died down a little.

Her grin got a little wider, "I already told you, didn't I? I already expected something like this and I was prepared for it. And we are profiting from this after all."

I raised an eyebrow at her which would have usually been hidden behind my mask but the animated face being projected on it should have also shown a similar expression.

"How?" I asked.

"Simple, we made a bet that you would win in all the betting pools we could find." frёewebnoѵēl.com

I paused, "What?"

"Oh don't worry, I still tried my best to win. I did not go easy on you at all. I think you could tell from the Rainbow Nebula I made right? How was it by the way?"

"I told you, didn't I? It was really, really good. It felt like I had been brought into space and I was looking at a rainbow nebula."

"I'm actually surprised that you got that vision but I'll take it. Anyway… It was a good competition."

She stuck out her hand and I shook it, which made the crowd cheer even louder.

I guess that was it, I was the official winner of this competition.

*

I was still a little out of it as I walked down the corridor to return back to my waiting room. The box containing the credit chip was still there since I didn't want to touch it until the competition was over.

But when I reached the waiting room, I realised that the same messenger that had delivered the box was there, this time he had some kind of memory stick and was in the midst of trying to slide it underneath the door.

He froze when he saw me and sheepishly stood up with the stick held in his hand.

"Damn… My timing is really bad huh? Umm… Yeah… This is from my employers…" He explained, handing the stick directly to me.

"Stay right there," I ordered him while taking the stick from him.

He obeyed and I plugged the memory stick into my Codex, prompting a voice to start speaking from my Codex.

"Well done. We should meet for you to receive your reward. Details and location are attached in the memory stick. I'm looking forward to meeting you."

That was all it said before the recording stopped and a screen popped up to show the meeting point to be at the top most Ring and the meeting scheduled tonight at midnight. Seems like they aren't willing to waste time at all.

Hmm… Is it worth it to meet them?

Read 𝓁atest chapters at fr(e)ewebnov𝒆l.com Only