The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 43

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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 43
Creak—
“Bael!”
Aila, who had just opened the door and stepped inside, rushed forward and stopped before him.
She did not immediately make contact with his body.
Rigid as ice, she simply watched him with keen eyes.
Three seconds later.
Bael’s frozen eyelids trembled faintly, and his gaze, which had been fixed blankly on the ceiling, slowly came alive.
Then his fingers twitched.
Once, twice.
As if confirming the movement, Bael clenched his fist and then opened it, repeating the action several times.
As the tension drained from his face, color gradually returned to his pallid complexion.
“Bael, can you hear me?”
Cain asked.
Bael did not answer. His expression showed deep concentration on something.
Slowly, his right leg moved.
…….
Next, Bael’s ankle shifted slightly, and then his knee began to bend.
At first only a fraction, barely enough to form an angle. But as he applied pressure once more without stopping, his knee folded halfway.
Bael slowly moved his body toward the edge of the sickbed.
As his feet touched the floor, he remained still for a moment, as if savoring the sensation.
Whoosh.
He rose.
Steady and straight, as he always was.
“Bael.”
…….
Cain’s eyes widened, and Bael, rather than responding, took a step forward.
And then another.
“Oh!”
Aila covered her mouth with her hand.
Bael was walking.
Not wavering or stumbling, but moving with even weight on both legs, perfectly upright.
Though his pace was slow, it was unmistakably true that every muscle in his legs was moving as his will commanded.
“I…….”
Bael stopped and turned to look at all three faces.
“I just…….”
Half disbelieving, half certain, his expression was wonderfully complex.
No one in the room spoke.
Thump—
Cain was the first to move. Without a word, he reached out and pulled Bael into an embrace.
“You walked, Bael.”
“……You fool, I know I walked.”
Bael clicked his tongue even as he slowly placed his hands on Cain’s back.
“Idiot, you had a vacant look on your face just moments ago.”
“You two are both ridiculous. Stop it, you two.”
Aila cut through their words and embraced them both.
Cradled in Aila and Cain’s arms, Bael lifted his head.
Lucciella’s face came into his view.
“……You really did it.”
Lucciella was smiling at Bael with radiant brightness.
Her soft jade-colored eyes sparkled with particular luminescence.
It was unclear whether her proud tone was praising Bael or herself.
Perhaps she had never distinguished between the two to begin with.
When Bael accomplished something, Lucciella’s expression became even brighter than his.
Looking back, it had always been so.
He wanted to keep watching that face.
No—he wished that face were always turned toward him.
Thump.
The moment he became aware of that yearning, Bael’s heart beat forcefully.
Not because of the treatment, not because of the sudden movement, but simply because Lucciella was there.
Because she was smiling at him.
Because her smiling eyes met his.
Because she rejoiced in his happiness as though it were her own.
Bael had sharp instincts.
He recognized his own emotions with equal quickness.
He knew with clarity.
That he liked Lucciella.
As a cook.
As a person.
And as a woman.
Thump.
The moment he acknowledged all of this, Bael’s ears flushed crimson and his heart thundered once more.
At the same time, everything she had ever given him came rushing back.
The warmth of the butternut squash soup first pushed into his mouth. The sweetness of chocolate melting on his tongue. The texture of gnocchi, tender to the bite, crowned with the deep aroma of truffle cream.
The tartness of cranberry tart cutting through, followed by the layered, nutty richness of pistachio milk cake.
And above all, that single piece of chocolate she had pressed into his mouth on the day he first stood completely upright.
All those flavors grazed his tongue once more.
They were not merely food, but a new world Lucciella had shown him, moments that had planted the will to live.
And now, they were the reason he felt that being alive was not mere survival, but joy.
The reason he began to hope each morning would be different from the last.
The reason he came to anticipate what he would eat tomorrow.
And perhaps, the reason he began to desire far more than that.
Bael’s first love began in this way.
* * *
“Can you bounce in place? Higher, like a rabbit, higher.”
“Bael, you can jump? How about walking backward? No, can you try jumping backward?”
“Um, your right leg is fine, yes? Try kicking it up…… No, I meant kick your left leg. Let me see your bracing strength.”
“Please, one thing at a time. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Bael heaved a deep sigh and sank onto the bed.
“How many more days are you all planning to keep this up? I’m fine now, I’m telling you.”
Cain, Aila, and Lucciella fell silent with disappointed expressions.
In truth, Bael was not wrong.
It had been several days since the treatment ended.
Bael had truly recovered.
Not only had his blocked Mana Circuit reopened, but even the muscles that had stiffened from disuse had now fully loosened, and there was no strain in his natural movements.
“I’d never done a treatment like this before, so I couldn’t be certain,” Aila said.
She chuckled softly as she murmured.
“I spent days fearing the whole approach might have been wrong. How could I not?”
“What do you think now?”
At Cain’s question, Aila shook her head.
“The toxin is completely gone. Since the cause blocking his leg’s movement has been eliminated, we can say the illness is fully cured.”
Her voice trembled slightly, but her eyes were certain.
Cain nodded and looked toward Bael.
“Good. We’ll stop the experiments here.”
“Is that a promise? Then give me back my sword that Uncle took.”
“I’ll allow it in a few days.”
Cain said.
“Let’s wait before announcing your condition to others. Once the Duke returns from the Imperial Capital, that will be a fitting time.”
Bael nodded.
It was a consensus among all of them to keep the treatment process secret.
Regardless of the circumstances, Aila had used poison on a direct member of Belaon, and if it became known, she would deserve undeserved blame despite the successful outcome.
After enough time had passed since the hunting party, and after the remaining minor branch members had disappeared, before anyone else could spread rumors, they planned to formally tell the Duke that “Aila’s prolonged treatment finally came to fruition with the addition of Lucciella’s cooking.”
“When the Duke returns…….”
Lucciella, remembering something, swallowed hard.
The Duke’s return was also the deadline for her assignment from Melina.
In other words, the final day of developing the new menu.
She exhaled quietly.
The other three in the room could afford to be lost in the joy of having healed Bael, but she could not.
Her mother had told her this.
That contracts were frightening. That breaking them carelessly brought calamity.
“I should go now.”
She left Bael’s room with quick steps and headed toward the Kitchen.
Watching Bael walk was a great happiness for Lucciella, an achievement that might occur only once in a lifetime.
Something she’d want to boast to her mother about for a week.
But her mind had already begun racing in another direction.
‘Three days left.’
Within that time, she had to complete it. A menu that would astound the Imperial Capital.

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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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