The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 30

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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 30
The food remained untouched.
It was a pot of Venison Stew, tender and perfectly crafted by Renar over several days for twenty-one participants.
She clenched her lips tight.
Everything in the kitchen was intact, yet the stew itself hadn’t diminished.
That meant there was only one answer.
Someone had tampered with the food.
‘Status Window.’
With a pop, a miniature window materialized in the air before her.
‘Can you tell me what’s in this? You handle basic Recipe Analysis all the time.’
[Venison Stew — Basic Analysis Complete]
Ingredients: Venison, potatoes, carrots, herb blend, stock.
Overall ingredient condition: Satisfactory.
Preparation state: Deep flavor from extended cooking. Salt balance excellent.
※ However, this Status Window’s Recipe Analysis function specializes in discerning taste and nutrition of ingredients. Precise analysis of deliberately added foreign substances lies outside my authority. My apologies.
‘Try harder.’
She demanded irritably.
‘Is it exactly the same as yesterday, then?’
[Comparing with yesterday’s data… Something does seem different, but precisely… %!☆…]
Waaaah!
[Energy Points depleted. Forcibly shutting down. Please do not overexert me.]
Overloaded, the Status Window flickered and died.
‘This won’t work.’
The problem was she’d been driving the Status Window too hard these past few days, ferrying late-night meals to the duke.
Its performance had degraded this much.
She looked back and forth between the stew and the empty air where the Status Window had been, racking her brain.
She couldn’t throw it away.
According to tradition in the Bellaon household, she had to serve it to all the participants.
But she couldn’t leave it as is, either.
She couldn’t serve this mystery food to Bael.
“What are you doing?”
Behind her, frozen between impossible choices, came Renar’s exasperated voice.
“Get the morning preparations started. We’ll boil the stew again and serve it fresh.”
Renar said this flatly.
As Luciel turned slowly, the entire kitchen staff, just arrived for their shift, was watching her.
“…I can’t.”
“What did you say?”
“…We have to remake it. Someone’s tampered with the cooking.”
At Luciel’s words, Renar’s pupils trembled and his brows drew down sharply.
“…Enough nonsense.”
Renar spoke with finality.
“I’ve been simmering that stew for days. The seasoning is absolutely flawless. You want me to throw out everything based on your word alone? What kind of ridiculous talk is that?”
“The lid was strange, but the stew itself looked different. Yesterday the biggest piece of meat was right on top, but today it’s as if something stirred it—the potatoes floated up. And I didn’t reheat it in between.”
“Who on earth would notice such a thing!”
Renar bellowed.
“Are you asking me to believe you?! Get it boiled up and ready to serve, now!”
‘…Something’s wrong.’
Luciel watched Renar spitting his words, clinging to the stew like a sentry.
Despite his nasty temperament, he was the head chef of a massive household.
Caution should be ingrained in his bones. Especially with a dish he’d staked his name on.
‘Even if he didn’t believe me outright, normal procedure would be to at least investigate, or taste it himself.’
Yet Renar, despite showing a moment of confusion at her words, had drawn his conclusion without even looking at the dish.
“All the participants will have the Venison Stew I’ve made. That’s tradition. You can’t change that, no matter who you are. Understood?”
Could it be.
“This stew specifically. Right?”
Several memories flashed through Luciel’s mind.
“If you ever run into people from the Bellaon Family, what did I tell you to do?”
“Be careful! Be alert!”
“Good, your pronunciation is improving! That’s right. You especially have to watch out for Osborn. He’ll eventually sit on the Nobility Council too, but this man’s specialty is planting his own people everywhere.”
“Plant people? Like flowers?”
“He stations people who listen to him in important places. In taverns where gossip flows, in the Knight Order, among the stable hands. In a way, he manages his network very well.”
“Why?”
“Well… maybe because he couldn’t find another way to build his own power? Through other people, you can control many things. Anyway, later he even reaches into the Imperial Palace itself. I’ve noticed that when you’re doing the Crown Prince Beating Quest and suddenly get ambushed from behind by a doorkeeper, they’re often Osborn’s people…”
The kitchen was an important space. Perhaps even more so than the Knight Order.
Luciel recalled the first day she’d met Renar, and the look they’d exchanged.
Back then she’d assumed Renar was simply deferring to Osborn.
But was Renar actually loyal to Osborn?
Tampering with food while he did it?
Luciel’s brow furrowed.
But could such a thing happen? A chef, of all people?
Especially when the people eating were all nobles. More than just a handful of them.
“Hmph. If you’re that concerned, I’ll show you.”
Renar took a shallow breath and ladled out a spoonful of stew, then stared at it with eyes wide open.
The next moment, he squeezed his eyes shut and drank it down in one gulp.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
“…”
By this point, Luciel had grown certain of two things.
Watching him assert without the slightest doubt, clenching his teeth and pushing the claim that the stew was fine, she was sure—Renar was the culprit.
And what went into the stew wasn’t a fatal poison.
If that was the case…
“Could you perhaps call Aila?”
Luciel said quietly.
“Aila carries a remedy that neutralizes all poisons beforehand. It doesn’t affect the taste at all. Adding a little bit should be fine.”
Of course, it was a lie.
If such a thing existed, she’d have used it in everything already.
This was an experiment.
“Absolutely not! Who does she think she is, putting her hands on my food? The stew goes out as is!”
“…”
I see.
The fact that he wouldn’t even allow that made it certain—Renar had done something to the soup.
And considering all the evidence, what went into it was…
‘Probably a light potion that saps the strength from the limbs. Something barely worthy of being called a poison.’
She’d heard of such things a few times from her mother.
Apparently they sometimes came as rewards in game quests.
Using them could reduce an opponent’s Energy Points.
Since coming to Esselred, she’d even seen knights in the Imperial Palace feeding such things to rivals before martial tournaments.
If Renar had used this drug for Osborn, then the one he meant to crown champion was Theo.
Especially since he’d said from the start that the Cadet Branch members didn’t aim for victory.
“…”
Luciel exhaled softly.
Then one thing was certain.
“That stew cannot go out. Not like this.”
“What?”
Renar’s face darkened further, but Luciel did not back down.
This was too underhanded.
Even if the tournament couldn’t be perfectly fair, tampering with a participant’s food crossed every line that existed.
No—in fact, a chef staking his name on a dish while using such dirty tricks was contemptible beyond measure.
“Step aside.”
“I won’t.”
The two faced each other with murderous looks, while the other cooks hesitated and watched nervously—and then.
“What is this commotion?”
A low, heavy voice resonated through the kitchen.
The duke had arrived.
Behind him came Osborn, Theo, and even the Cadet Branch relatives.
More than twenty people were now filling the corridor, their eyes turned toward the kitchen.
“We haven’t even reached the Banquet Hall and it’s loud already?”
“It’s nothing, sir.”
Renar stepped forward quickly.
“The girl was talking nonsense. She seemed unwell, so I was about to send her to rest.”
“I heard it all.”
The duke spoke curtly. His gaze turned toward Luciel.
“You say there’s a problem with the stew?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Venison originally symbolizes Misfortune Symbol, but Renar’s stew is famous enough that word of it spread beyond the Bellaon estate. It takes ten days to make.”
“I know, sir.”
“Then if we cannot serve it to the participants, do you have an alternative?”

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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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