The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 47

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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 47
No one dared speak.
Even the Duke stood with his mouth half-open, words failing him.
Bael walked.
He stood at this very moment.
On his own feet. Without anyone’s support.
As if the two years spent bedridden had been nothing but a lie.
And the first thing he did with his recovered body was to kick his cousin?
“I meant to tell him with words.”
He muttered.
Though the method differed from what he’d planned, Bael had no time for regret as he moved his legs in this moment.
He walked slowly toward Theo, then pressed his foot down on the boy’s wrist, grinding it against the ground.
“Ugh…! What—what are you doing?”
As Theo gasped in pain, Bael twisted the boy’s wrist and wrenched something from his grip.
Fragments of gold and violet glinted softly.
They were pieces of the bracelet Theo had shattered moments before.
“…So it was you after all.”
Bael laughed hollowly.
He’d suspected it, but to have it confirmed.
For two years, instead of using his body, he’d lived focused entirely on Mana Flow Perception.
His senses could not be wrong.
Bael flicked three Mana Stone Fragments into the air.
Toward the Butler.
“What is this?”
The Butler caught them reflexively, then narrowed his eyes and examined the fragments in his palm.
“…Wait.”
As if enlightened, he gathered Mana at his fingertips.
The artificial Mana flowing from the Mana Stone Fragments was quietly sealed away in the Butler’s hand.
In that instant, the sickening vibration vanished completely from the room.
Those who hadn’t yet touched the food blinked.
The dulled sensation that had been pressing down lifted all at once.
“Am I right?”
Bael asked.
“…You are, sir.”
The Butler answered quietly, then turned his gaze toward the Duke.
“The cause of the nausea is these Mana Stone Fragments.”
He declared.
“It appears the stored Mana reversed its flow when forcibly destroyed, disrupting the senses of those nearby. The food is blameless.”
“…!”
Theo’s complexion drained to ash in an instant.
What little composure remained in his eyes was gone.
Beside him, Osborn’s expression hardened like stone.
He drew a few slow breaths, then fixed Theo with a glacial stare for about a second, as if grasping something.
All color fled Theo’s face.
“……”
Osborn seemed to be calculating an escape route, his fingers tapping silently on the table several times.
“What in all this is the meaning of this?”
The Duke opened his mouth slowly.
“Answer me!”
Expression drained from his face. Not a muscle twitched at his eye, yet that very stillness weighed heavier than any rage.
“This is to you, Osborn.”
After casting about for words, he spoke not his grandson’s name, but his son’s.
His pale blue eyes blazed as if lit from within by flame.
“…It is entirely my negligence!”
Without warning, Osborn surged to his feet and dropped to one knee.
His wife, Talea, seemed to understand something and knelt beside him simultaneously.
“The bracelet is not mine. Theo’s servant brought it from the Gambling Den.”
Osborn poured out his words without drawing breath.
“I kept it out of affection for the boy, and it seems to have broken moments ago, but the child could not have known it possessed such Mana.”
Thump.
Theo fell to his knees.
“I—I really didn’t know. I knew nothing, Grandfather.”
The Duke’s expression turned cold as ice as he listened.
“…Knew nothing, you say.”
He spoke quietly.
“Did you truly know nothing?”
“……”
A deep, blue gaze met that of his son.
The Duke’s eyes seemed to pierce through everything Osborn was.
“Do I appear to you as a doddering scarecrow?”
A voice cold enough to chill bone resonated through the Reception Room.
“I do not punish you for trivial matters.”
The Duke spoke.
The Reception Room fell silent, all holding their breath as they listened.
“I do not involve myself in the petty quarrels between you. I have shown you far more leniency than you realize.”
“……”
Like a beast growling, an aura of menace clung to his voice.
Osborn said nothing, biting his lip firmly.
Melina and Debron too averted their eyes elsewhere.
“This is not because I know nothing. It is because I judged that those of your nature cannot help but fight. I judged you capable of maintaining at least the bare minimum. The children of House Bellion have always struggled thus.”
He paused.
Bang!
The Duke’s hand came down hard on the table, the sound echoing through the Reception Room.
“Yet you have overstepped even the line I have drawn with clemency.”
“……”
“You deceived me, attempted to cast grave blame upon a fourteen-year-old boy, and obstructed a venture undertaken in House Bellion’s name. How will you bear responsibility for this betrayal of the family?”
“……”
Osborn slowly raised his hand, then glanced at the boy beside him.
Crack!
The next moment, his hand came down across Theo’s cheek.
Everyone’s eyes widened, and Osborn met the Duke’s gaze with resolve.
“I will have Theo expelled from the family.”
“No!”
Hearing this, Talea clung to her husband’s arm, and Theo prostrated himself on the ground begging forgiveness.
“Father, no—please, Father. That cannot be……”
“Cannot be, what……”
“Sniff!”
It was Isolde who cut off the Duke’s retort with a sudden sob.
“G—Grandfather… sniff!”
From her large, round sky-blue eyes, tears spilled like rain.
Her small hands, reaching to wipe them, trembled in the air, never quite finding her face.
Her shoulders heaved as she fought to contain herself, her bitten lip unable to hold back the crying that escaped.
“……”
The Duke pressed his temples and exhaled a heavy sigh.
The others he could dismiss, but it was not easy to ignore a small granddaughter weeping as if the world had collapsed, her platinum hair falling loose.
Isolde was only ten years old.
Rare among the children of House Bellion, she had been indifferent to power struggles and competition.
She was correspondingly innocent, and thus the Duke had come to cherish her quietly.
“F—Father is doing this to my brother… sniff.”
“Isolde, if you do not stop crying, you too will face punishment.”
“I—I’ll stop… h-ugh……”
“Enough. I said enough!”
Looking down upon the Reception Room turned to chaos, the Duke raised his hand.
“The rest of you—hold your tongues.”
Osborn’s household remained frozen like ice, motionless.
“An expulsion decided on a whim? What of the family’s honor? The Branch Family have not yet left the Imperial Capital.”
“But Father……”
“I will impose a Confinement Order on Theo. And you, Osborn……”
The Duke’s eyes turned cold once more as he regarded his son.
“You will hand over your authority in personnel matters to Debron for the time being. You have lost my trust.”
“…I accept.”
The Duke waved his hand, and Osborn’s household rose and left the Reception Room.
Footstep.
Osborn’s expression was heavy as he walked the corridor.
His complexion had gone beyond pale—it was ashen.
How.
How could this be.
That Theo had committed such a foolish act and been caught was secondary.
He had known that if he declared he would expel Theo, Isolde would weep, and if she wept, matters could somehow be salvaged.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
Bael had walked.
Perfectly, with no one’s assistance. On his own feet.
His illness—the one that should never have healed—had been completely cured.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
He had lost his chance.
He should not have let him live.
Should have simply removed him during these two years.
Grrrr.
As Osborn walked the corridor, he clenched his teeth.
This was no ordinary crisis. Even before today, his position within the Duke’s household had been crumbling.
He had to find a way.
If he could not act alone, he would depend on a greater authority.
The thought of watching House Bellion pass into another’s hands was not a suffering Osborn could bear.
In the Reception Room, the Duke remained silent for a long while.
His gaze was fixed on Bael.
Where had that sharp ferocity gone? His eyes trembled faintly.
“Bael.”

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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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