The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 33

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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 33
Bael seemed to understand something, and his grip on the rein loosened.
Both he and the horse appeared to hold their breath in unison.
Luciel instinctively held her breath with them.
She didn’t know why, but the tension was unmistakable.
The next moment, Bael drew his bow and twisted his body to the side.
He released the arrow he’d nocked, aiming across their path.
Whoosh—thud!
A large stag fell silent and still.
A stag had been hiding in the brush just beside the starting point.
“Bael has taken a stag.”
The Butler spoke into the air. His voice echoed across the entire Primordial Forest—apparently there was some device amplifying sound hidden somewhere.
“Well done!”
Cain shouted, clenching his fist.
“Five seconds from the start…… isn’t that a record?”
The Duke’s expression was equally pleased.
Luciel’s eyes widened too.
‘So that’s what the sensitivity of a Bonded Horse is like.’
The stag had likely been detected by Estel, and Bael’s quickness had allowed him to understand and act on it.
The two of them were creating far greater synergy than expected.
The other participants ahead turned back, unable to hide their shock.
Those scattered through the forest seemed spurred on by this, and began hunting in haste.
Celine and Theo each drew their bows and brought down a pheasant apiece.
Several of the younger participants chased rabbits and squirrels.
Edwin caught a rabbit as well.
Young Isolde caught nothing.
She seemed to have no interest in the hunt from the start, her face alight with the simple joy of riding her white horse through the forest.
When a Branch Line boy trailing behind her slipped a raccoon he’d caught into Isolde’s pack, a smile spread across Osborn’s lips in the spectators’ stand.
The man who appeared to be the boy’s father nodded in approval.
‘As a Branch Line member, this is a chance to curry favor with someone from the Main Line who has real potential as a successor,’ she recalled Melina’s words.
Luciel remembered what Melina had said.
The boys and girls who followed Theo had done the same, and that family had clearly aligned themselves with Osborn as well.
Meanwhile, Theo had begun chasing a wild boar.
He seemed bothered by Bael’s success with the stag—his movements were hurried and urgent.
“Drive it this way!”
Seven Branch Line members surrounding the boar pressed in from all sides, and in the moment it faltered, Theo unleashed five arrows in rapid succession, finally bringing the beast down.
“Ohhhhh!”
“Splendid! It looks just as large as the stag Bael took earlier!”
Exclamations erupted from the spectators’ stand.
“Now let’s find a deer! They said there’s a black stag!”
When Theo shouted this, the Branch Line members following him cheered.
“Waaaaah——ugh?!”
Just as their momentum was building to a fever pitch.
One of the Branch Line members pulling an arrow from the boar suddenly clutched his stomach.
Grimacing, he soon tilted his head and grasped the arrow, but even when he strained, it wouldn’t come free.
“What’s wrong? Don’t mess——ugh.”
Another member who came to help also grabbed his stomach for a moment before letting go.
The two pulled at the arrow together, but something about their posture seemed wrong.
The arrow finally came free only after they’d strained for quite some time.
“I’m feeling a bit dizzy.”
“……So am I.”
All seven members following Theo came to a halt, their faces vacant and confused.
Their bodies weren’t paralyzed. Their minds were still intact.
But drained of strength as though running a fever, they could muster barely half their usual power.
“……Maybe we should rest here.”
Only Theo’s voice remained sharp and clear.
“Huh?”
“We were supposed to make sure you won…….”
“You’re useless like this anyway.”
Theo spoke with a cold sneer on his lips.
His eyes alone remained perfectly lucid among all those gathered there.
“Clean up the boar. I’ll handle the rest myself, so don’t get in my way.”
“Theo, we, we’re not……!”
“We need to catch at least a few small animals to place in the rankings……!”
“Not my problem.”
Leaving their stricken faces behind, Theo mounted his horse and rode swiftly away.
The ones who should have been weakened were actually Bael and Celine.
Seated on his horse, Theo chewed his lips.
‘But it doesn’t matter.’
He drove his mount through the center of the forest and pressed on.
He had a different plan for those two.
* * *
Everyone in the spectators’ stand was confused.
It wasn’t just Theo’s group that had mysteriously lost their strength.
Throughout the forest, several of the younger participants hunting in separate groups noticeably slowed down.
Edwin’s arrows kept missing, as did those of the Branch Line members near him.
But no one raised objections about the danger.
They merely guessed that perhaps these participants simply had poor stamina and were falling behind earlier than expected.
After all, only one person was clearly in visible distress.
Thump.
The youngest and weakest participant, Isolde, daughter of Osborn, appeared half-collapsed upon a stone—visible in the Crystal Orb.
“Isolde……!”
Thalea, Osborn’s wife, cried out in alarm, while Osborn himself peered into the Crystal Orb with worry written across his face.
“Forfeit. Isolde forfeits. Go bring my daughter out.”
Of the attending physicians, Aila moved first and fastest.
She and several others quickly reached Isolde, placed her on a stretcher, and carried her out of the forest.
“Why is Isolde in such a state?”
The Duke asked.
He had tried to remain composed, but his concern for his youngest granddaughter had left him visibly pale.
“It appears to be a temporary condition.”
Aila replied.
“The cause is unknown, but the symptoms resemble a common fever. I’ve prescribed medicine, and she should recover soon.”
“Are you certain?”
“Well…….”
Before Aila could fully answer, Isolde soon opened her eyes, sat up, and looked for her mother.
The Duke nodded, finally reassured.
‘……He sacrificed his own daughter.’
Luciel, who had witnessed everything, clicked her tongue softly.
Osborn’s strategy was half admirable and half repugnant.
Isolde was barely ten years old—the youngest of all participants.
While others might simply feel tired and sluggish from such a drug, it was foreseeable that she would experience genuine suffering.
With this, Osborn had freed himself from the Duke’s suspicion.
Even if someone suspected the food had been tampered with, they wouldn’t imagine that Isolde’s father—the one who suffered most visibly—was behind it.
‘Besides, such mild symptoms would barely allow anyone to suspect food tampering at all.’
Luciel exhaled quietly.
In any case, the matter of the food was now behind them.
All that remained was to hope that Bael would win.
Since things had come to this, she wanted to be the one who stayed with the Duke’s household.
Not to mention that she needed the Duke’s Crystal to stabilize.
“The reason remains unclear…….”
At that moment, the Duke murmured from a short distance away.
His sharp, hawk-like gaze fixed on the many Crystal Orbs floating in the air.
The Duke’s attention was drawn to three people in particular.
Celine, Dale, and Bael.
All three rode their horses swiftly, releasing arrows with the speed of wind.
Rather than slowing down, they seemed to be accelerating—fast and powerful.
“At least one thing is now clear to me.”
He murmured to himself.
“If one of the dishes held Luck, it was not Lenar’s.”
“…….”
Though he had spoken softly, Lenar—who heard these words from a corner—began trembling violently throughout his entire body.
His face drained of all color, his eyes searched for Theo.
Please.
Please, if nothing else, let Theo win.
Lucky Lenar.
The Lucky Stew.
All of those titles, his honor, and his very livelihood now rested entirely in Theo’s hands.

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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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