The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 17

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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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Chapter 17
What she found was a drawing her mother had sketched carelessly.
A rough sketch of lines meant to hold onto a memory rather than render it with precision.
Yet it did not deviate an inch from what Aila had described, and from what Lucyella remembered.
A blue stem, and fruits of three different colors hanging thick upon a single branch.
Beneath the drawing, the location was written in her mother’s handwriting.
[Garden of the Gap]
Lucyella gazed at that name for a long time.
It was there. The place her mother had taken her by the hand so rarely when she was small.
A place without seasons, without wind, strangely quiet, yet strangely not frightening.
Her mother had tended the plants there, and Lucyella had played with the soil.
It was all there.
An extinct bird, herbs that existed nowhere else on this continent, a small cottage, and several magical tools her mother had crafted with her father’s aid.
“Hah…….”
Lucyella exhaled long and slow, settling onto the foot of her bed.
‘I can’t go right now.’
Without ‘that thing,’ she could never find the garden on her own.
“Still…….”
Lucyella worried her lip between her teeth.
It would be better than the Northern Continent. Better than journeying to the end of the world.
It wasn’t as though there were no means. But she couldn’t use it just yet. And she had no time to dwell on what she couldn’t do this moment.
For now, set aside the Detoxification Herb. Begin with what she could do.
Help Bael recover as quickly as possible, away from the source of poison.
In the end, the answer lay in cooking.
* * *
“What’s so great about him anyway?”
“Well…… until he died, it was as if he had an Undying Body. He was clearly bedridden and frail, yet whenever he suffered a wound, he recovered at an incredible speed.”
“Amazing.”
“There was variation depending on whether he had the will to live. His recovery doubled whenever the Joy of Living was fulfilled.”
What her mother had told her long ago was true.
For Bael had begun recovering like a man possessed.
After hearing about the Three-Leaf Herb, Lucyella made something for Bael to eat every day.
The progress was unbelievable.
The day she brought him butter toast thickly spread with honey and warm milk, he managed to bend his knee completely. The day he ate risotto with chicken torn into fine pieces, he could stretch his ankle and toes straight.
That day, Aila, watching from nearby, widened her eyes and snatched a bite of the risotto for herself.
“It’s strange that he’s healing so fast.”
Her reason was to check whether Lucyella had deceived her and added some buff, but after eating a few mouthfuls, forgetting all about Bael, she simply scooped half the risotto onto her own plate and consumed it.
Bael, who hadn’t yet finished his meal, widened his eyes, but in any case, that was when it began.
The next day she brought a stew made with rich bone broth and plenty of vegetables. The day after that, thinly sliced beef roasted in herb butter with mashed potatoes.
That day, Bael managed for the first time to lift one leg while leaning his back against the headboard of the bed.
On the fifth day: a bagel spread with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and asparagus drizzled with lemon juice.
“Mana Circulation in his body has risen to half of normal. I haven’t seen such beastlike recovery since Lord Cain.”
That day, after completing several examinations, Aila spoke to Lucyella in disbelief.
The sixth day, the seventh day, the eighth day.
Bael’s complexion changed a little each day.
Color returned to skin that had once been pale as porcelain, and light kindled in eyes that had been dull—the eyes of someone truly alive.
Cain stopped by every other day to check on Bael’s condition.
He and Bael still sparred vigorously, but now the main subject of contention was no longer what it had been—who would eat the last remaining cookie Lucyella had made.
“I only ate one! Just one, I’m telling you.”
“A cowardly lie. I saw you take two at once at the start.”
On the ninth day, Bael gripped the bed railing with both hands and slowly pulled himself upright.
As he put weight on his legs, his knees straightened, and he held the position for several seconds.
Aila held her breath, and Cain instinctively reached out to steady him before stopping himself—he seemed unaware of his own reaction.
“……Ngh.”
Bael’s two legs could not fully support his body weight.
Soon after, he sank back onto the bed and lowered his hands to the blanket.
“Hah…….”
Bael released a short breath.
“That’s incredible progress.”
Aila spoke first, her voice trembling thinly.
“I never thought I’d see Bael stand on his own strength.”
“Remarkable indeed.”
Cain smiled faintly.
“…….”
Bael did not answer.
He seemed frozen, caught between elation and disappointment.
Lucyella settled on the edge of the bed beside him and studied his expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“……I want to move.”
Bael opened his mouth slowly.
“In the direction I choose, of my own will. Not just twitch my muscles.”
Lucyella said nothing.
She understood and yet did not. And that made it all the more pitiful.
Why did this boy push himself so endlessly?
Even while suffering, he couldn’t sit still.
There was never a day he let go of his sword.
What must he see in himself?
What was lacking?
“With a bit more practice…….”
Cain began to speak, but Bael shook his head.
“The Mana Circulation starts but becomes blocked somewhere.”
His voice was calm.
“Now my body doesn’t hurt, I have no trouble breathing, my mana heals itself the moment I use it. But somewhere, it gets blocked.”
He looked toward Aila.
“That’s what can only be solved with a poison herb, right?”
Aila nodded slowly.
“Residual toxins in your body are blocking part of your mana circuit. That section can’t be forced open on your own—it requires direct detoxification with medicinal herbs.”
“……I see.”
Bael released another short breath.
“I know I’ve made progress. That I could have died but lived.”
He looked at Aila and Lucyella in turn before continuing quietly.
“That I owe them my life.”
“…….”
“Which is why I can’t give up.”
Bael added softly.
His jewel-blue eyes gleamed with brilliant light.
‘Ah.’
Lucyella understood suddenly.
This was not something to pity.
The Bael before her now was different from the boy who had first entered this room.
He was not that child with a sharp edge to him, pushing everything away, tangled between sensitivity and resignation, unable to bear himself.
What stood before her was a boy who advanced toward something he couldn’t bear to want, who possessed purpose and will, who refused to accept his own limits.
Lucyella bit her lip briefly.
‘I want to help him. Keep helping.’
She gazed into empty space for a moment, thinking of her mother.
‘Was that why mother couldn’t give up on him in the game?’
Because he would not abandon himself, no one else could either.
* * *
The next morning, Lucyella headed to the kitchen earlier than usual.
Today she planned to make a lemon tart.
She would fill a thin, crispy tart shell with tangy-sweet lemon curd and top it with meringue, baking it lightly.
It was the result of determining in ten days that Bael loved sweets but hated anything overly rich.
As Lucyella cut across the backyard of the Duke’s Estate toward the kitchen door, she stopped in her tracks.
A group of people had gathered near the entrance.
Two or three kitchen servants pressed their backs against the wall, avoiding eye contact, while four or five figures occupied the space ahead of them.
A large black shape stood in front of the corridor connecting to the stables on one side of the yard. The people seemed to be looking at it.
After stepping closer, Lucyella realized the black shape was a massive horse.
The horse’s legs were slightly unbalanced, its coat dull and matted, and it appeared to be in pain.
Though the animal was large, its physical frame seemed weak and uncoordinated.
Its bones were thick but lacked proper flesh—it looked as though it had starved for long, or suffered long illness.
‘Doesn’t seem like a war horse or a racing horse…….’
“Ha, weren’t we swindled?”
Standing before it, poking at the horse, was a boy who appeared to be around seventeen.
Tanned skin, blonde hair, and bright blue eyes like Bael’s and Cain’s.
His manner was bold and indifferent to those gathered around him—somewhat arrogant.
He had a good build and decent features, but the twist of his mouth gave him a petulant look.
Lucyella instinctively sensed he was of direct Bellaon lineage.
“What use could this possibly be?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Its movements are sluggish, and it doesn’t seem to know how to do anything.”
The one sniping beside him was Ruben.
Lucyella’s eyes narrowed slightly as she recognized him.
‘Ah, so this is him.’
A direct descendant of the Duke, the son of the second son Osborn—Theo Bellaon.
The one who had placed Ruben at Bael’s side and made him run personal errands when he should have been attending to Bael’s care.
The boy her mother had described in the game as ‘a character with only high scheming points, who ranked third in most disliked votes among players.’
Lucyella instinctively stepped back, feeling she should distance herself from him.
Unfortunately, Theo’s gaze had already found her, and it brightened with interest.
“Oh, wait.”
He snapped his fingers, calling to Lucyella.
“Blonde hair, pale green eyes…… pretty little face carrying a pile of cooking ingredients…… You’re the one? The girl who poured dirty water on Ruben’s head?”
His mouth twisted in an even more petulant grin.
“Lucky me.”

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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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