(Just ride straight up the mountain and turn left on the first road intersection. Your men are waiting in the hut.)

. . . . .

In a room. Richard and Clarence finished watching the footage.

"How is she?" asked Richard.

"Got feisty for waking her up." In reality, she was feisty for two reasons. First, because of being wakened. Second, which is the main reason, that was being reminded of the stolen kiss, but he couldn't say that.

"That's good, nothing happened. She slept well that the commotion didn't wake her up. I'm amazed. Such a good sleeper. I can't do that."

"I really thought she was wakened but seems fatigue caught up with her. I understand this well. I experienced this on my first cooking compet.i.tion. With this intense adrenaline pumped up cooking for long hours and days in a row who would not get exhausted.

"Never been to any cooking compet.i.tion, just eating. Haha, that's not intense at all. Anyway, I thought Jack was greatly involved but he's not. This is a relief."

"Yeah, I hope he will keep his word."

"No need to worry then. He won't try to cause chaos and draw more problem to himself."

"What made you say that?"

"Why would he invite trouble to himself? He doesn't want his activities to be disrupted. "

"And this job from Cathy?"

"I think it's only for a favor or just trying to fill his time with easy jobs with free money."

"Easy job? Harming Beauty as an easy job for free money? Who does he think he is?"

"Can't you see? He was careless and overconfident and missed the CCTV. Good thing I set this up." He obviously installed the surveillance camera since the first day they got there.

"I know, just… I'm just really angry. Because of me, JUST BECAUSE OF ME… she would have suffered twice... I really couldn't believe that Cathy paid that much just to…," he heavily punched the wall. Silence prevailed for a while.

Richard was about to ask on why 'twice', but chose to give Clarence some peace to recollect his emotions.

After quite some time.

"You're getting better now. You seemed to be training still."

Clarence breathed deeply to release his trembling nerves. "Hooo!… just… missed a sparring partner like you. By the way, where's Kyle?"

"He's on his way back."

"You were careless as well."

"You're here. It's also good that he only brought two men. Even if he had 10 more, we could still handle them."

"I know, but if guns were used, how would we get away unscathed?"

"I have an anti-bullet vest on and stun gun ready. I do believe you have them, too."

"Still…"

"I know but if Miss Jenna was well, do you think Jack has time to pull a gun? They're probably in more severe condition than what they got from you." He partly diverted the topic when he saw Clarence reverting back emotionally.

"Until now, I can't still take her down. How could a girl be that strong? Who's man would fall on her that way?"

"She got Ronald." The older man laughed thinking of their canceled date.

"Well… if its Ronald then probably… I feel sorry for the guy. His manly pride might get hurt to see Supergirl protecting him instead of him doing the protecting."

"Haha, but I think they'll do fine. She seems docile toward him."

. . . . .

The next day, Beauty woke up early and had a little exercise with no idea of the fight outside her room that night. She was so exhausted combined with the cold mountain temperature that she slept soundly.

Clarence reluctantly decided from sending Beauty to the compet.i.tion hall. He knew the consequences well. If he did, people might recognize him and could start a bad rumor. He was avoiding this of all things.

With the reason of saving Beauty from bad rumor, he kept on coaxing her to reward him a kiss even just at the cheek, at least, before they got separated temporarily. Yet, the girl refused and gave him the cold shoulder.

Poor Clarence went to pester Ronald, who newly got well from flu. After hearing to all the complaints and about the stolen kiss, the latter thought he would get sick again. He was really vexed, Clarence was purposely making him jealous.

. . . . .

Beauty and the four semi-finalists were excited and nervous after receiving a new set of green ap.r.o.n and cap, ent.i.tling them as semi-finalists.

"Whew! I'm so excited, only four were left from the 100 chosen partic.i.p.ants from the Visayas region. Out of these four, who will come out as the champion?" John started causing everyone to be excited.

"Do you know what's the theme for today?"

The audience shouted, "NO."

"Then let me help you. Bring in the boxes." The other four of the eight national representatives brought a box each and stood up front.

"Now, these people have lost a chance for champions.h.i.+p yesterday but now, out of them a dark horse will emerge and fight for the champions.h.i.+p tomorrow. So there will be three people who will face off tomorrow and will become the top three chefs for the region. Each one will receive a plaque and prize money. Now, are you not happy for this chance? Are you ready?" He asked the four holding the boxes.

All four shouted, "Yes, we're ready."

"Each one of the semi-finalists will choose a box with the corresponding holder. The holder will become the a.s.sistant of the semi-finalists. Inside the box is a piece of paper with the chosen theme for each semi-finalist to fulfill. So the four of you must give your best to help the semi-finalist to win. The emerging two finalists' a.s.sistants will fight to become the dark horse. "

"Are you all ready?"

"Yes, we're ready!"

"To be fair, semi-finalists pick a ball from the gla.s.s jar. The corresponding numbers will choose your box and your a.s.sistant. Let's start with letter B, Beauty. Next, C, Cathy. E, as Ernie, and last but not the least, L as in Luisa." Each one picked one in an orderly manner.

"Beauty got the number 4 and number 4 is… Rene. Rene, I take that you're hand is now ready to make you the black horse?"

"Yeah!" He gestured a punch with his wounded hand while shouting.

"Good, the doctor came yesterday and gave him a good medicine to totally stop the bleeding and hastily heal it. As long as he will not carry heavy objects, he can still cut properly. Am I right?" He asked Rene. The other nodded in affirmation.

"Cathy got the number 1, that is Renee. All Rs are now taken. Ernie got 3 and that was his opponent yesterday, Elaine. The last one Luisa got Nota. Hope for the best for all of you."

Each one checked their respective boxes and saw the word written on it.

"Beauty you've got? Glamorous. Cathy got… Extraordinary. Ernie? Super? Yes, super. What kind of dish will that be? And Luisa got… Dauntless? What dish can be considered dauntless?" John scratched his non-existing itch and apologetically said, "Guys, we, as judges didn't know this. The nationals sent these guidelines. Well, it's up to you on how you'll interpret these words."

"We'll give you 30 minutes to talk with your a.s.sistant and plan."