The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 37

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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 37
* * *
It didn’t take long for the remaining participants to trickle back from the Ancient Forest.
Celine maintained an elegant composure, though bewilderment flickered beneath the surface.
Dale followed behind her with a vacant expression.
Theo trudged along dragging a horse that swayed from serpent venom, his face contorted as though he’d chewed through two dozen insects.
The sound of Estelle’s hooves came last.
At the end of all their gazes, silver hair shimmered like moonlight, and eyes of startling blue blazed with brilliance.
“Grandfather.”
Bael rode Estelle straight toward the Duke.
“The year’s Champion has arrived!”
The Duke cried out heartily, then personally helped Bael dismount from his horse.
His smile stretched ear to ear.
Almost foolishly wide.
“Ha, ha, ha! My grandson. The very image of Cedric. No, precisely my own image. Only fourteen, merely fourteen, and he’s captured a Frost Water Snake.”
“……!”
Complex calculations flickered through the minds of the gathered cadet branches.
After Cedric, the Duke’s eldest son, died, they had all quietly assumed Osborn would be the Successor.
Though some families bound by business had supported Melina, she lacked the martial prowess that House Bellaon prized, and though they had sought to train Celine to compensate for this weakness, defeating Osborn and Theo, who controlled the family hierarchy, proved impossible.
Debron couldn’t assert himself before Osborn, and Cain, who had appeared like a holy apparition, was now twenty-six and had married without yet producing an heir, so those thoughts had only grown more entrenched.
For them, Bael’s emergence—and the Duke’s reaction to it—was no different from a small bomb dropping.
The son of the flawless Cedric, and a boy who had been hailed as a prodigy before his illness.
That boy had cast off his sickbed and returned to the Duke’s embrace.
Whether this bomb would detonate, whether it wouldn’t, or in which direction and how violently it would detonate remained unknown, but one thing was certain: the landscape of succession had just shifted slightly.
“I have never seen such horsemanship even in the Imperial Knights.”
“Good heavens, we all thought he was bedridden, and yet…….”
“I do wish he and our Raiza might become friends.”
In moments, people swarmed around Bael, murmuring amongst themselves.
Some spoke words meant for the Duke’s ear, while others endeavored to catch Bael’s eye.
“A prize for you, Bael.”
At the Duke’s instruction, Melina, her expression tight, handed the Sapphire Box to Bael.
“It is said that the Sapphire of Bellaon holds the stars of heaven within its stone. It is only fitting that it be given to one who shines like a star.”
The Duke spoke thus.
Everyone gazed at the box with bated breath.
Not merely an expensive and beautiful gem, but something imbued with profound symbolism.
Only Bael’s eyes were not fixed upon it.
His gaze, having received the Sapphire, was already searching through the crowd for Luciel.
* * *
“You’re not hurt, are you?”
Luciel examined Bael thoroughly as she spoke.
This was just after Bael, having finally escaped from the throngs of people with Cain’s help, had settled into a chair beside Luciel.
“I’m not hurt. And this.”
Bael rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.
“You wanted it, didn’t you? Take it.”
He offered her the box.
“……I wanted it. More than anything.”
Luciel smiled brightly as she opened the box, and Bael’s ears flushed slightly pink.
The Sapphire, which he had thought would shine brightest beneath the clear sunlight, revealed its deep presence even beneath the cool glow of twilight.
Luciel withdrew the gem—that stone of a color identical to Bael’s eyes—and held it against his nape.
As though having found its true master, the two were a perfect match.
“It would look beautiful worn here.”
“Hm?”
“For a young master, you don’t have many costly jewels.”
“You want me to…… wear it?”
A flicker of confusion crossed Bael’s face.
“Don’t you need it? Didn’t you want to wear it yourself?”
As disappointment crept into her voice, it was Luciel’s turn to be taken aback.
“Why would I need a sapphire?”
“Well…… you said you wanted it.”
“I do want it. This box.”
Luciel held up the empty box.
“But…….”
Bael was so bewildered he couldn’t find words.
She’d wanted the box? Just the box?
But what of the contents?
That’s something genuinely rare.
And expensive. More than he could ever afford from his own purse.
“I know the sapphire is precious.”
Luciel answered as if she’d heard the thoughts running through his mind.
“That’s why I want you to wear it. Because you’re precious.”
“……!”
Bael’s ears flamed again.
His heart lurched, thump-thump, within his chest.
“……I’m precious, you say.”
He murmured to himself.
“To me, yes.”
“Yes. You’re truly precious to me. Next only to Mother and Father.”
She answered with a bright smile.
Thump.
His heart lurched again.
Bael could not fathom why.
He could only guess that it had something to do with Luciel.
“But let me be clear about one thing.”
Luciel added with her same bright smile.
Mercifully—or perhaps unfortunately—she seemed not to notice what was happening in Bael’s heart.
“This one is far more valuable.”
She merely held up the black-stone-set box once more.
* * *
“Wait.”
Luciel’s steps toward the kitchen halted.
It was Melina. Celine stood beside her.
“What exactly are you?”
She asked without preamble.
“I beg your pardon?”
Luciel looked up at her with a blank expression.
Melina’s piercing blue eyes—the kind that seemed to see through a person—darted about uncertainly.
Luciel glanced at Celine to ask what she meant, but the young woman was staring intently at Luciel alone.
“Yes, I’ve been curious too. What exactly are you?”
“Ah…….”
“I saw you return that jewel to Bael. If you weren’t after the first-class Sapphire that even my daughter and I covet, then what in the world were you thinking approaching him?”
“How do you make the venison stew so tender, and where can I find the cream you used in the cranberry tart?”
The mother and daughter spoke at once, as if crying out.
A brief silence fell.
Melina and Celine glanced at each other, then back at Luciel.
Celine realized too late that her mother’s intentions had been in an entirely different direction, and she cleared her throat quietly.
“So you truly have no interest in jewels at all?”
Melina asked again.
“I do like cash, however.”
Luciel answered honestly.
“But not jewels.”
For Luciel, it was a truthful answer.
The Sapphire was dazzlingly beautiful, but it suited Bael far more than herself.
“Then what is truly important to you?”
Melina pressed further.
By nature, she was someone who couldn’t bear to leave questions unanswered.
“There must be a longing in your heart, mustn’t there? There’s no use hiding it. Mere retainers seeking to attach themselves to House Bellaon don’t have eyes like yours.”
“…….”
“You have passion. What is it? Tell me what occupies your mind at this very moment.”
“……Pistachio cream millefeuille.”
Luciel blurted it out almost without thinking.
At this very moment, she was wrestling with what to present to the Duke at the coming tea service.
“And black sesame ganache tart……. And after that, I’m considering new menu options for Estelle as well.”
“A millefeuille and…… ganache……? Merely cooking? And who is Estelle?”
Confusion deepened on Melina’s face.
The content was suspect, yet Luciel’s eyes shone with such evident sincerity that understanding only grew more elusive.
“……I find this unbelievable.”
“Mother, she truly does cook well. I myself have tasted…….”
“I believe in nothing except what I have witnessed with my own eyes. That is my way.”
Celine interjected, but Melina cut her daughter short.
A wave of tension came over Luciel belatedly.
Realizing too late that she had been misunderstood as a child after their wealth, she swallowed hard.
‘Will she cast me out after all?’
She couldn’t help but worry how Bellaon’s merciless youngest daughter would punish her.
“Then I shall taste it myself.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I will taste it directly. The food you have made.”

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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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