The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 60

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 60
Bael, facing him, clenched his teeth and suppressed his emotions.
He wanted to hit him.
Ever since the first moment they met. He’d never wanted to strike a face so instinctively before.
He disliked the blood-red hair, the sharp-featured face.
But most of all, he hated those golden eyes.
Eyes that held light but no warmth.
Eyes like glass that didn’t see people as people.
Yet relentless, hunting eyes that pursued prey.
The fact that those eyes were looking at Luciel made his skin crawl.
Bael took a deep breath and analyzed Serion again.
He was as perceptive as Serion himself, and skilled at reading people.
Lying in sickbed day after day, one grows accustomed to observing visitors closely.
The boy before him was angry, but still capable of controlling himself.
Accustomed to pressuring others, threatening them more severely than most, he wouldn’t attempt a direct attack on Bellaon’s Direct Line within the Imperial Palace.
Pop—
Threats must be met with threats.
Bael decided to accept his provocation.
A circular Magic Sigil bloomed on the back of his hand as well.
“Attack me? Inside the Imperial Palace?”
“There’s nothing I cannot do. I too am quite precious bloodline.”
“Precious bloodline, is it? You lot seem to keep your heads even when they’ve been severed.”
“If you wish to see the Imperial Palace burn, feel free to try.”
“All this…over a cook.”
In an instant, Serion’s gaze turned back toward Luciel.
Bael flinched and moved his hand; Serion’s lips curled upward slightly.
“So you care for that girl.”
Silence.
When Bael said nothing, Serion twisted one corner of his mouth higher.
“I thought so.”
He murmured.
“Come to think of it, you’re an interesting human yourself. You clearly despise me, yet you’re exerting every effort to understand what I am.”
His gaze toward Bael shifted from pure hostility to something half-curious.
Meanwhile, Bael’s hostility only deepened.
“Your Highness should learn to set aside such curiosities.”
“I have no need to learn such things.”
Silence.
“Fortunately, there’s no one here. I’m curious whether your grandfather would truly burn down the Imperial Palace if I happened to wound one of you by accident.”
With a pop, the mark inscribed on his cheek gleamed again.
Bael tightened his grip once more.
The two of them stared each other down in a tense standoff.
Thwip.
A thin sliver of mana pierced the air and struck Serion square in the nose.
“Ack!”
As Serion crumpled with a nosebleed, Bael’s eyes widened in surprise and he quickly scanned the surroundings.
It wasn’t me.
If not me, then…?
When he turned around, he found Luciel standing there with a look of shock on her face.
“I’m screwed.”
She murmured.
A small Magic Sigil was floating above her palm.
“You…did that?”
“I told you I’m bad at Mana Control!”
Luciel cried out miserably.
She did feel genuinely wronged.
With the two men glaring as if ready to kill each other, it was natural that she’d grown tense too.
In that precarious moment, thinking she should be ready to help Bael if danger came, she’d gathered her magical power.
The problem was that without recent practice and no proper medium to work with, it wouldn’t gather cleanly.
When she forced it, the mana spiraled out of control and scattered outward.
Right at Serion’s nose.
“These…mad bastards actually attacking me…”
Serion clutched his nose and staggered upright, his upper body trembling.
No one was visible nearby, but it was only a matter of time before someone came.
Was she dying? For Treason?
‘Mother managed to evade capture for fifteen years as a Wanted Person.’
“You have…that, right?”
While Luciel was reviewing her short life, Bael whispered something close to her ear.
“What?”
“The Crystal of Still Water. You have it?”
Luciel instinctively reached for her neck.
The crystal was there, hanging as it always was.
“I do, but why…surely you’re not…?”
Without waiting for her answer, Bael gathered more of the mana still at his fingertips and rapidly drew a Magic Sigil around Luciel in quick strokes.
“To the Garden? Now?”
“And what, stay here after wounding the Crown Prince?”
“Running away? And you, without any buff to support that kind of spell…!”
“Since my body fully healed, this much is manageable. And besides…”
Bael succeeded in drawing the marks rough and quick, then reached toward Serion.
“Now’s not the time to worry about that.”
Before Serion could fully regain his senses, he seized him by the collar and dragged him into the center of the Magic Sigil in one swift motion.
“What—what is this…!”
Serion thrashed belatedly, but Bael simply pinned him down to the ground, sitting on top of him.
The moment their three bodies made contact.
Crack—
With the sound of air tearing, the buildings of the Imperial Palace that had been before them vanished.
What appeared next was a Garden where there was no season, no wind—only light.
“Hack!”
Serion, who had tumbled in that Garden, clutched his throat and coughed violently.
Bael, who had been holding him down by the collar with one knee, finally released his grip.
“You…damn…dog…I’d drink you down and it wouldn’t be enough…hack!”
Serion, holding his bleeding nose with one hand and rubbing his throat with the other, glared at Bael and Luciel.
“Where is this? You dare kidnap the Crown Prince? The day Bellaon is destroyed will be today.”
“That won’t happen.”
Bael answered curtly.
“Won’t? When the attendants notice I’m gone…”
“Which is why we need to stop your bleeding quickly and send you back.”
He answered with a shrug, not particularly sorry.
Luciel, watching from the side, quickly grasped the situation.
They couldn’t keep fighting inside the Imperial Palace, and they couldn’t sit him down for treatment without being seen, so he was moving temporarily to this gap in the Garden to settle everything.
Here, time essentially doesn’t flow.
“Right. Stop the bleeding, is it?”
Serion asked back, cupping his nose as blood streamed freely.
“Just your nose bleeding? My mouth is also torn…hack!”
When Serion spat blood, Bael’s expression clouded slightly.
Had his mouth been injured?
A nosebleed that stops is different from wounds inside the mouth.
It would take at least several days for such wounds to heal.
Waiting that long would be difficult.
If so, he couldn’t avoid suspicion for Crown Prince’s injury, much less kidnapping charges.
‘Should I go back now?’
Wait for the blood to stop and leave, then claim the bastard must have bitten his own tongue.
Or maybe beat him a few more times and see if he’d cooperate.
While he considered a few options.
“One moment.”
Whoosh.
Luciel, who had somehow gathered what looked like bundles of plant roots in her arms, brushed past him and crouched down in front of Serion.
“How dare you, a criminal about to die…oof!”
Without waiting for Serion to finish speaking, Luciel stuffed the plant roots into his mouth.
“Hack! Spit! What filthy thing are you feeding me!”
“This is Red Root Herb.”
Luciel, ignoring his protests, shoved several more leaves deep into his mouth.
Caught off guard, Serion inadvertently swallowed it whole.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————