Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 144

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Successor Can Wait — Let Me Just Heal | Chapter 144

“A snack I haven’t even tasted myself…….”

Lion fell into contemplation.
Food was abundant in this world, so finding something he’d never eaten should be easy enough — but what the quest was actually demanding was something else entirely.

‘It’s not simply about rare foods.’

The wording was charming, but Hidden Quests were never straightforward.

‘Though it does give quite a few hints.’

The House Bydentis amulet hadn’t been any simpler, had it?
Compared to that, this was…….

-What’s the snack you’ve most wanted to eat?

Remarkably kind of it to ask.
The real problem was that Lion had to find the answer entirely on his own.
He sank deeper into thought.

“The snack I’ve most wanted to eat…….”

First, he had to rule out anything he’d eaten even once since birth.
And anything he’d tasted, even once, in his earliest childhood.
Once he’d eliminated a few obvious candidates that came to mind, the field narrowed considerably — but even so, he wasn’t sure which to choose.

But if he did that, Nature’s little belly might swell up and burst.
And besides, even so — it’s a snack, isn’t it?
No matter how ancient the spirit, feeding her frequently wouldn’t be good for her body.
Beyond that…….

‘Since I’ve already received a quest.’

Lion wanted to give her something proper.
So he needed to think carefully.
Lion folded his arms and squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Truth is, I’ve already eaten most foods I missed out on as a child.’

Growing up, even when he’d wanted certain snacks, there was never time or means to buy them properly.
The biggest problem, first and foremost, had been money.
So he’d actually made a list, thinking vaguely: ‘Once I earn money, I’ll eat everything I want.’ The fact that it had come to this was something he thought back on now as childish, even endearing, but at the time it had been nothing short of sincere.
Looking back, he’d done some foolish things, yet those had been good experiences all the same.

‘It was a decent memory…… So what was the very first food I bought?’

Ah, that’s right. It was that.
French Toast.
Though truthfully, it wasn’t what you’d call proper French toast.
Wouldn’t “fried bread” describe it better?
Back in his early elementary school days…….
Lion, eyes still closed, drifted back into memory.

* * *

While drawing a weekend diary in crayons, his classmate beside him gasped at Lion’s picture.

“Wow! Lion, did you eat ice cream over the weekend?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m so jealous!”

Young Lion had truly loved ice cream.
Originally, it was a food that his modest family circumstances made impossible even to dream about.
But there was a tall man who would sometimes press ice cream into his hand.

“Hey there, kid. Come here. Quick.”

The Convenience Store Owner from the neighborhood.
Whenever Lion walked the streets clutching his hungry belly, the man would glance furtively around before whispering something to him in hushed tones.
Lion loved those words.
Because if he hurried over, delicious ice cream appeared.

“Here. If anyone asks, tell them it grew from the ground. You hear me?”
“Thank you!”

He must have pitied the boy, denied his parents’ care, offering him one each time.
At first he’d been embarrassed, but the ice cream’s sweetness was too good to refuse.
Artificial fruit-flavored hard ice cream—just a lump of sugar.
By the time he’d accepted it five times or so, the owner’s concern for him felt profoundly moving.
That cheap ice cream became, in Lion’s mind, the sweetest, most delicious, happiest snack there was.

“Wow, really? Lucky you. I made toast at home. You know what French Toast is?”
“No.”
“It’s supposed to be really tasty and soft, like cake bread, but when Mom and I made it, it turned out dry and burnt and awful. I’d rather eat ice cream too!”

Looking back now, his classmate had probably just been chattering away, wanting to befriend him.
In fact, the boy had taken good care of him.
Sharing sharpened colored pencils, lending him the latest popular Educational Comic Books first.
But unfortunately, young Lion never grew close to this friend.
Why?
Because he was jealous.
A stone had lodged itself in his chest.
He didn’t realize then that a casual remark could become a wound.
He only understood that after it happened two or three more times.

‘That’s when I decided.’

No matter what it took, I would eat whatever I wanted later.

* * *

“I ate a ton of it.”

From the moment he began earning money, whenever he found a place serving French Toast, he’d carve out time to go there, or have it delivered just to cram it into his mouth.
Of course, all that toast he ate was dry and soggy, tasteless.
But he ate it anyway. It was cathartic.
It was a wound he’d inflicted on himself, so he tried to heal it himself.

“I gained a lot of weight too.”

Lion chuckled at the memory, shaking his head as his eyes opened.
It didn’t hurt the way it used to. Now it was just something he could laugh off and talk about.
……Anyway! Foods he’d desperately wanted to taste as a child—like French Toast—he’d solved long ago by the time he became an adult, with the simple power of money.

“That’s precisely the problem.”

Lion uncrossed his arms and scratched his head vigorously.
If he kept going like this, nothing would be resolved before they had to head back to the Hotel.
That wouldn’t do.
Lion wanted to get Nature a delicious snack as soon as possible.

“Alright.”

Lion scooped up Nature and pushed himself to his feet.
When thinking alone yielded no answer, it was because he lacked information.
In moments like this, fieldwork was the solution.

“Let’s go check out the Night Market.”
“Chirp!”

Lion quickly grabbed his outer coat and stepped out of the room.
The paper marked “No Entry” still clung stubbornly to the door.

* * *

The Night Market thrummed with energy as always.

“Cheap, dirt cheap!”
“Fresh-baked bread coming through! That whole wheat bread everyone’s crazy about!”
“End-of-night clearance sale! If you don’t come now, you’ll be the only loser!”

The Night Market felt utterly different from the daytime bazaar—a different atmosphere, a different energy.
If the daytime market was all about survival necessities, the Night Market specialized in indulgence and pleasure.
Multicolored lights and the scent of countless spices.
And from somewhere, the aroma of grilling meat wafted through the air!

‘It’s like when the elves came.’

What had changed slightly was…….

‘Was whole wheat bread a trend before?’

The fashions seemed to have shifted a bit.
Lion stared at the freshly baked whole wheat bread on display.
But where had he seen this style before?

‘……It looks just like the whole wheat bread I made.’

You could say all bread looks the same, but the way this was dusted with whole wheat flour and scored with knife marks was identical to his.
Word must have spread nicely from the orphanage.

‘Well, I copied it from something I saw somewhere anyway.’

Lion nodded to himself and moved through the crowd, surveying the market.

‘Wow, I could easily get pickpocketed in a crowd like this.’

The throng was that dense.
Like office workers who’d just clocked out on a Friday night, all crowding in for a good time!

“Chirp-chirp.”

Nature, nestled in Lion’s pocket, made a soft trilling sound to assure him there was nothing to worry about.

“I’m not worried.”

Part of that confidence came from Nature perching directly atop the money pouch, standing guard, but truthfully, this sum amounted to pocket change for Lion at this point.
So why had he worried at all?

‘……Well, the thief’s circumstances, you know.’

Capture was inevitable, and he imagined the culprit wouldn’t fare well.

“Hey, should we try that?”
“Chirp!”

Lion bought several dishes and shared them with Nature.
First came a potato dish topped with a generous dollop of cheese sauce over mashed potatoes.
It carried that distinctive, provocative richness the Night Market was known for.
The kind of flavor that made your arteries feel sticky rather than promoting health—exactly that sort of taste.
Yet somehow, eating it amid the Night Market’s particular atmosphere made it taste even better.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to come out like this now and then?”

Nature accepted a small portion of the Potato Cheese that Lion offered.
But of course.

‘No change at all.’

The Hidden Quest remained unbroken.
Lion had anticipated this much beforehand, naturally.
But then, what was fieldwork for if not fieldwork?

“Alright, how about we try this next?”

Lion purchased an enormous portion of Skewered Meat and took a bite.
The firm meat yielded softly beneath his teeth, its stimulating marinade mingling with a subtle oakwood fragrance that drifted into his nostrils.

“Chirp.”

But it didn’t quite suit Nature’s palate, judging from how the spirit nibbled it a few times before losing interest.

‘As expected.’

Lion nodded to himself.
The reason for coming to the Night Market.
Of course, part of it was to draw inspiration from the food sold here.
Imagination and reality were worlds apart—seeing the actual presentation, tasting and smelling it, made all the difference.
And the second reason was.
None other than taste-testing Nature’s preferences!
Ordinarily, Nature accepted whatever Lion prepared without complaint.
The ideal familiar spirit—no picky eating whatsoever.
But.

‘I can’t tell what it dislikes.’

So this time, he wanted to take the opportunity to identify what foods Nature didn’t actually want—at least for now.
Direct questioning would be more efficient, certainly…….
But there was something good about coming out like this, spending time together.
Lion didn’t want to be consumed by efficiency.

‘So far, it doesn’t seem to prefer anything too rich or overly salty.’

Lion’s experiments continued after that, though…….
Nature didn’t seem to fancy any of the foods particularly.
As a result, Lion’s stomach had simply filled to the brim.

‘Full, so full……!’

Was this what it felt like when the elves came visiting and gorged themselves?
Lion glanced sideways at Nature, wondering if perhaps the spirit disliked the Night Market atmosphere.
But then.

“Chirp~ chirp-chirp.”

Seeing the small body bobbing with movement, it seemed Nature was enjoying itself well enough.
Which meant…… it simply hadn’t found the right food yet.

‘I didn’t have anything particular in mind either.’

Though the ingredients varied slightly, these were Night Market foods Lion had eaten before.
It was hard to call any of them the finest snack.

‘I should sit down for a bit.’

Lion slipped away from the crowd and made for an alley some distance from the Night Market.
Since it wasn’t a main street, few people wandered down here.

“Sigh.”

As the clamor of the Night Market faded behind, a peaceful quiet descended.
And then Lion’s eyes caught something.

“Hmm?”

A street stall spread across a mat, displaying various goods, came into view.
More precisely, Lion’s gaze landed on those ‘various goods’ themselves.

“Care to sample some flower preserve?”

The vendor’s eyes met Lion’s and he smiled warmly, holding up a jar and shaking it gently.
Lion reached out as if entranced, and the old vendor grinned, pressing a sugar-preserved flower into his hand.

[Soft Rose Preserve]
-A sugar preserve made from carefully selected rose petals known for their particular softness and fine fragrance.
-The quality exceeds typical Night Market standards.
-The rose scent and sweetness complement each other beautifully.

Lion didn’t consume the rose preserve at once, but gazed at its shape for a moment.
A flower preserved in sugar.

“……Ah.”

Suddenly, a snack flashed through Lion’s mind.
Fruit preserve.
That was it, wasn’t it?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————