Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing - Chapter 273

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Don’t Care About Being a Successor; I Just Want to Heal – Chapter 273

[Alchemist’s Glass Orb Chestnut Pastry (★★★)]
-A delightfully sweet chestnut-flavored confection with exceptional aroma and taste!
-The challenging ingredients have been handled with remarkable skill! The shelf life appears quite impressive as well!
-With a pastry like this, wouldn’t anyone be able to enjoy it?

Lion examined the appetizing Yulran from every angle, satisfied with the result.

“Good. Let’s make a few more just like this.”

He’d deliberately gathered a substantial harvest of chestnuts.
Lion shaped the mashed chestnut filling into smooth, round balls, completing them one by one as he worked his way through a pot heaping with the paste.

‘This feels just like a holiday.’

Didn’t families make rice cakes and dumplings during holidays?
That’s what this reminded him of.

‘Now that I think about it……’

He remembered coworkers and juniors returning to work after holidays, hurrying to distribute the lunch boxes they’d brought along.

‘They were all so prettily arranged.’

Perhaps because the food was meant for ancestral rites, but he could feel how his parents had carefully chosen the most beautiful and substantial pieces—an expression of how their clear-eyed child kept weighing on their minds.

“Mm. So this is what that feeling was?”

Of course, he was making this to apologize to Elvia, and their parents had simply expressed in this way how their innocent child kept tugging at their hearts—but the parallel struck him nonetheless.

“Let me see……”

He selected the Yulran that had turned out particularly beautiful in shape and arranged them in a bowl.
The round, chestnut-shaped pastries clustered together had a charming, endearing quality to them.
Lion drew out a pen and paper from his pocket, scribbled a brief letter conveying his apology after several attempts, then rose to his feet.

“There.”

This would do.
He couldn’t risk missing the right moment to apologize by putting in too much effort.
Lion smiled wryly, picked up both the Yulran he’d made for eating and the gift portion, and headed outside.

“No, Young Master! You should have called for me.”
“It’s not even heavy, really.”

As expected, Lepios was waiting outside.

“Here, try one of these. The taste is quite good.”

There’s no special effect in it, mind you.
Lion added the caveat teasingly—

“Could it be…… something you cooked using those chestnuts?”

But the jest never reached Lepios’s ears.

“What? How did you manage it? Until now, let alone other things, the chestnuts in particular have never even been successfully transformed into a dish!”

His eagerly raised voice made him look like a researcher incarnate.
Before Lion could say anything, Lepios rushed on in rapid, scattered speech.

“An apple could only be cut with very sharp magic or magical tools. And I’d never even tasted it properly before……!”

Of course, research into making plants themselves into preservation cooking had only begun relatively recently, but still!
Not a single person had ever succeeded!

“How could you possibly…….”

Lepios, on the verge of dragging Lion straight into the laboratory, suddenly came to himself.

‘Oh! What discourtesy am I showing the Young Master!’

Moreover, wasn’t Young Master Lion currently a patient?
One look at the Grand Master’s expression made it clear he was not in ordinary condition.
And yet here he was, pressing him like this!

“I’m terribly sorry! I was far too rough, wasn’t I?”
“It’s fine.”

Truth be told, Lion was a bit surprised at how suddenly excited Lepios had become, but well…….

‘He’s a mage and a researcher, after all.’

It was understandable enough.

“Here. Let me give you one. It’s called Yulran. Then I’ll take my leave.”

Lion placed a Yulran in Lepios’s palm, then rode the elevator straight back up.
Left alone in the basement, Lepios stood motionless, a single chestnut pastry dangling from his fingers, staring blankly at the departing elevator.

‘……Is he in a hurry?’

He looked quite rushed now, unlike the leisurely air from a moment ago.
Lepios glanced once at the departing elevator, then once at the Yulran—the chestnut pastry—held in his hand.
He broke off a pointed edge and tasted it.
Then.

“……!!”

Boom! Thunder and lightning seemed to flash through his mind.
The flavor was extraordinary.
He wanted to devour the whole thing in one bite, research be damned.

“Lion……!”

Lepios cried out belatedly at the already-departing elevator.

“Please…… please just tell me the recipe before you’re discharged……!”

Whether he could apply that method directly was another question.
It would probably be impossible, but……!
Please!
Unfortunately, Lepios’s voice neither reached nor touched Lion at all.

* * *

-Huh? Lion, you’re back early?
-How could you ask me to wait and then just leave? Do you have any idea how bored I was?
-You just lie around here all day long, grumbling…… wait?

Tiamatrak trailed off mid-complaint, his attention catching on the pastry held in Lion’s hand.
Its shape resembled a chestnut perfectly.
And if chestnuts were truly baked into the dessert, the sweetly fragrant aroma made sense.

‘……Hmm?’

Tiamatrak felt a small stir of surprise within himself.
In his spirit form, many things he could do while living became restricted.
Most notably, he couldn’t touch objects — or rather, that constraint certainly applied to him.

‘Though being near Lion solved that problem well enough.’

The range was extremely short, but he’d gained the ability to interact with physical matter within it.
And the second restriction was that he could scarcely catch scents.
Of course, being a dragon of great magnificence, he could perceive faint fragrances and subtle nuances.
Musty sensations or disagreeable odors came through as mere impressions.
But now…….

‘I’m smelling it clearly, aren’t I?’

Perhaps Lion had undergone many experiences related to spirits in the interim, making this possible.
Or perhaps he’d recovered the scale fragment Tiamatrak had left behind.
But if that were so, shouldn’t he have smelled it before now?

‘He’s definitely put something special into that pastry.’

In an instant, Tiamatrak’s curiosity fixed entirely on the chestnut confection.

-Hmm, you’ve made something interesting?
-Is that an apology gift for that temperamental witch?

“Yeah. Elvia seemed worried about a lot of things.”

Lion carefully placed the letter and pastry into the basket that Elvia’s ravens had brought.
Compared to the things Elvia had prepared for him, it was quite modest in appearance…….

‘It’s the thought that matters, after all.’

Ha ha…… Lion laughed awkwardly, examining the ravens.
Fortunately, after some time had passed, the panting ravens seemed to have regained their impressive composure.

“Will you deliver this basket to Elvia?”

The ravens surveyed the basket with eyes like rubies.
After checking it from various angles, one of them suddenly hoisted the basket in its beak and stepped out through the window…….

Whoosh!

The remaining three formed an escort, wheeling around it like a guard detail.
Despite the fierce wind tossing the ravens’ feathers in wild directions, the basket remained perfectly steady, not even trembling.

“Thanks for doing this.”

As Lion waved, the ravens flew off into the sky with impressive flair.

-Putting on a show, aren’t you. When you were gasping and panting just moments ago…….

Tiamatrak grumbled pointlessly, his gaze returning to the chestnut pastry.

‘I’m curious,’ she thought.

Until now, she had watched Lion make all manner of things and carry out his eccentricities.
That alone had been enough to satisfy her boredom.
But this time was different.
She wanted to experience it directly, if she could put it that way.

‘I could seize it, certainly.’

Consuming it was another matter entirely.
Of course, if it entered Lion’s body, she could taste it through him—but…

‘Not now, though.’

Even by Tiamatrak’s measure, Lion’s condition was terribly poor.
In truth, she had thought he was dying then.

‘His soul had separated from his body.’

He had even suffered grave Contamination.
By rights, the Contamination should have spread throughout his body and killed him, or Demonification should have progressed as it should.

‘Why it stopped, I cannot say…’

Still, seeing that form, he did not seem the type to die so easily, so she had transported his body away for now.
Besides, had the human she’d made a Contract with died, wouldn’t Tiamatrak have followed him to the afterlife as well?
It was a secret Lion of Asteri would never know.

‘What would the little one do with such knowledge anyway?’

Even if he did know, he’d likely just be called a “gambler who bets his very soul for amusement alone.”
And that was precisely what made it amusing.
As she sat there thinking such things and staring intently at the chestnut pastry…

“Here.”

Lion suddenly held out a pastry to her.
Aside from the most beautifully shaped ones he’d given to the witch, this was the next most symmetrical.

“You seemed to want one.”

-What would you give this to me for? I can’t even eat it anyway.

“Is that so? You could smell it, couldn’t you? I saw you sniffing at it.”

-…

Had it been that obvious?
It was the moment a dragon’s dignity crumbled away.
Or rather—

-I can eat it?

“I think you might be able to eat a little of it.”

He couldn’t promise she’d be able to eat much, but…

‘I think it might be possible.’

Wasn’t that what the instructions said?
That anyone could enjoy eating it.
Then Tiamatrak should be able to as well.
Besides, that was precisely why….

‘That’s why I chose Spirit Stones as the ingredient.’

If Spirit Summoning and the soul were connected, then something boiled with Spirit Stones ought to have some effect.

“Just try it. If it doesn’t work, so be it.”

-Tch. Hoping for something and then failing—how it stings.

Tiamatrak grumbled even as he accepted the chestnut pastry carefully from Lion’s hands.
The aroma was unmistakable: roasted chestnuts, steeped in sugar syrup and dusted with cinnamon.
…Quite appealing, in other words.

‘When you think about it, humans always were the finest at cooking.’

Memories surfaced of foods he’d tasted in ages past, when he’d worn human form for amusement.

-…Should I eat it?

Tiamatrak, surprisingly stirred by anticipation, slowly opened his mouth and bit into the pastry.
At first, there was nothing—no taste at all.
Only the texture of the chestnut pastry registered.
He was about to resign himself to having at least felt the substance of it, when—

-…!

A faint sweetness bloomed across his tongue.
Then a richness filled his mouth, and the sharp, spiced notes of cinnamon pricked his nose.
Dimly perceptible, yes—so faint that by ordinary standards it would scarcely register—but present nonetheless.

-It’s delicious….

For Tiamatrak, it was an overwhelmingly vivid moment.
He even found himself laughing without quite meaning to.
To taste something, even in death. He’d never imagined such a thing.

-That witch would love this.

“Really? It worked for you?”

Worked was putting it mildly.
Being dead, he’d never expected to have such experiences anymore.
So he was about to assent when—

“I owe you my thanks for this too.”

Lion had spoken first.
Tiamatrak listened in silence, chewing and savoring the pastry as he took in Lion’s words.

“I know you were surprised too. But you kept your wits about you and handled it well. You helped me greatly.”

-That was only the terms of our contract.

“I’ve thought about a lot of things since waking.”

Lion sat on the bed, handing Yulran to Foos and Nature alike, his voice a low murmur to himself.

“It was partly because of what Hoffmann said. So I wanted to convey my feelings this way, at least.”

Lion rubbed the back of his neck and laughed awkwardly.

“Anyway, so… thank you.”

Ruffle.

Tiamatrak grabbed Lion’s head with one hand and ruffled his hair roughly.
Despite his youthful appearance, he was tall enough that his entire hand could encompass Lion’s head.

-Don’t worry about that stuff. Just do what you want.
-That’s more fun anyway.

“…….”

Yeah… is he consoling me? Thank you.
But my mood still feels off, somehow.

“Yowl!”

Fortunately, Foos, quick to sense his master’s displeasure, bit Tiamatrak’s forearm with a mouth caked in chestnut pastry, bringing the moment to an abrupt end.

-Aaargh! You little beast! I knew you’d cause trouble!

“Hehehehe…….”

Lion pretended not to notice and gazed out the window.
The crows had long since vanished from sight.
He hoped Elvia had safely received the Yulran of apology.

‘Surely she won’t send it back…?’

He was more worried than usual, given how angry she’d been.
Of course.

“……Oh my.”

There was no way Elvia, who adored Lion so dearly, would do such a thing.

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