The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 42

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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 42
Aila came looking for Cain, Bael, and Luciel that morning.
It was the seventh day since the Hunting Festival ended—since she and Luciel had found the Samyo Grass.
“It’s done.”
She spoke to Cain with a hollow-eyed face, the result of nights without proper sleep.
“What?”
“The medicine. I’ve finished it.”
“…Is that true?”
Aila nodded.
“Are you certain? Any side effects, perhaps…?”
“Nothing’s certain. As I’ve said, this is a dangerous treatment. I’m only proceeding because Bael wanted it. But…”
Aila smiled weakly as she continued.
“I’ve verified what I could. Since I’m introducing a new poison into the body, I had to be careful.”
“Verified?”
“I tested and validated it on myself dozens of times, so please don’t worry too much.”
“…On yourself.”
Only then did Cain’s gaze, which had been sweeping over her from head to toe, come to a halt at her wrists.
More precisely, at the dozens of red bruises blooming there.
Luciel gasped and covered her mouth, while Cain’s brow furrowed.
“…Who told you to conduct experiments like this?”
“I couldn’t exactly announce that I was about to inject poison into the Duke’s direct line, could I?”
“You should have called for me instead…”
“I have more experience with poisons. And I likely have greater tolerance.”
When Aila gave a small laugh, Cain’s expression darkened further.
“…You’ve always had this terrible habit—when you focus on one thing, you can’t see anything else around you.”
“I know.”
“That’s why you left to gather herbs without telling me beforehand.”
“I thought you’d refuse if it seemed dangerous. Both Luciel and I thought so.”
“Ignoring me at every crucial moment…”
“But when I came back, only a minute had passed. The experience of crossing dimensions was precious. The Jeoktgeun Grass for staunching blood, the Dalgaebi Grass for body regeneration…”
“Child or adult, no difference.”
Cain let out a long sigh.
From his expression and tone, he wasn’t truly angry.
“If you’re going to do something reckless, at least tell me beforehand. And then Luciel had to use that Buff…”
Cain seated both of them and gave a lengthy lecture about not engaging in dangerous activities.
He’d said much the same thing the day they returned from gathering herbs, but the sight of Aila’s arms made him even more serious now.
Half a day passed in this manner, and now all the treatment was complete.
The process had been simple.
Aila burned a mass of medicinal herbs in an incense burner, then dipped three needles into a blue solution of her own making and plunged them into Bael’s wrist.
After that, Bael lost consciousness, and the three of them had been watching him without a single movement ever since.
“…Still nothing?”
“It hasn’t even been an hour.”
Aila answered, then left the room, saying she needed to burn more herbs.
Cain bit his lip anxiously.
Bael remained still, as though dead.
In stark contrast, Cain’s body and face trembled faintly.
As though he might go mad from worry.
“…Have I ever told you how I came to look after Bael?”
He murmured as though the thought had just occurred to him.
His gaze was directed at Luciel.
“…Not directly, no.”
Luciel replied.
She’d only heard a brief explanation from Aila.
That in this vast Mansion, Bael had been the only person who needed Cain.
Even her mother didn’t know the details.
“Do you want to hear it?”
Cain tilted his head slightly as he asked.
“If you’ll tell me.”
“…Well, I’ll tell you.”
He turned his gaze toward where Bael lay and began to speak.
“When I first came here, I was sixteen. Osborn and Melina tried to kill me on sight. Even Debron, who feared making enemies, turned lethal toward me.”
Cain began his story.
“I understood—I was an uninvited stone. I decided to endure alone. For quite a long time, I didn’t speak to anyone in this Mansion, just ate and slept repeatedly. Eventually, that became normal.”
He rested his chin on one hand as he continued.
“I received formal invitations to family dinners in the Banquet Hall and to knight’s training, but whether I went or not, nothing changed. As though I were invisible.”
“…”
“I felt bored, anxious, and in another sense, lost. As though this Mansion could never truly be my home.”
“…”
“Then one day I realized something. That there was another lonely person in this Mansion.”
“…Bael.”
Cain nodded.
“He was four years old then. Nursemaids kept changing, and no one—not even family—made him a priority. Ironically, he was devoted to everyone he met.”
“Bael was?”
Luciel lifted her head at the strange comment.
She couldn’t imagine him—with that cold countenance—being fond of everyone he encountered.
“He’d smile brightly whenever he saw anyone, and cling to them excessively. Even when cousins pushed him away, he’d only laugh. Like a child who didn’t know how to be angry.”
Cain closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled slowly.
“I understood even then. That without a protector, his survival would be difficult. It wasn’t joy that made him smile—it was closer to survival instinct.”
“…”
“One day, when rain was falling hard, I found him on top of the Stable roof by pure chance. Later, I learned that cousins had lied to him—that if he stayed there, someone would come to play the role of his parents, someone who wouldn’t leave. He must have wanted to believe that. I brought him down, soaking wet, and he grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go. Not when he slept, not when he ate, not even when he bathed.”
“…”
“I liked that. He needed someone, and I needed to be needed.”
He gave a small laugh, lost in memory.
“That was enough. And gradually, Bael learned genuine emotions.”
Luciel conjured an image of Cain from that time.
Existing or not—it made no difference.
A state where no one would mourn him, even if he died.
A boy who spent months in that state, then met a child who desperately wanted him.
They had to mean everything to each other.
“That’s all. And at some point, Bael learned genuine emotions little by little.”
Cain leaned back against his chair as he spoke.
“Since he’s been bedridden, he’s been angry at me and scolding me, which I actually found preferable to his endless smiling.”
His gaze turned once more to Bael lying there.
“Bael has never truly lived. He was always precarious.”
“…”
“It’s been Aila who kept that fragile life intact, and it’s been you who slowly taught him to truly feel life again.”
He looked toward Luciel as he spoke.
“You did that.”
“…”
“And so, you’ve given my life a second beginning. You, who have already saved my life once.”
Thump.
His hand came to rest on Luciel’s head.
“So if this fails…”
His lips trembled faintly as he spoke.
“It will never be your or Aila’s fault. I want you to know beforehand that all responsibility lies with me.”
So that was it.
That was what Cain had wanted to say.
Aila, attempting a dangerous treatment on Bael. And Luciel, who had become the key to that treatment.
Cain was saying he would shoulder the responsibility for both of them.
Even as he fought to suppress his own anxiety.
It was a powerful expression of trust toward Luciel.
“…”
After hearing the full story, Luciel gazed quietly at Bael lying a few paces ahead.
“I’m not anxious.”
“…Really?”
Cain looked at her with surprise in his eyes.
“The Bael I know has always been solid, rather than precarious. So…”
Luciel gripped the hand resting on her head firmly.
“I’m just going to trust Bael completely, trust Aila, and wait.”
“…”
Their gazes met.
At the unwavering light in Luciel’s eyes, Cain’s pupils wavered for a moment.
Her words were sincere.
Bael had always been a child who relentlessly pursued life.
While her mother had played through the game dozens of times, that child had never let go of life with his own hands.
He’d reached toward life until the very end.
He hadn’t lived as fully as he wished, but he was not the kind of weak thing that would die easily.
“…You truly do trust him that much.”
“Yes.”
“Then I too will believe and wait. That Bael is strong.”
He slowly nodded, his gaze fixed on Luciel as if drawing certainty from her presence.
Luciel looked at Bael once more, carefully.
It felt as though everything Bael had endured was transmitted through his body.
She found herself wishing he could be at peace.
Not forced to smile from anxiety, not hurt, not full of rage.
Always bearing that calm he sometimes showed while riding Estel.
Not merely lying here, breathing alone…
Wait.
“Breathing?”
“What did you say?”
Luciel rose from her chair and pointed toward Bael.
“Just now… his chest moved.”
“…!”
Whoosh.
A thin, long breath escaped from Bael’s lips in that very moment.

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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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