The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 66

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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 66
“This is exactly why I’m no good at politics…….”
“No good? You’re just brainless! A selfish bastard who thinks of no one but himself! No wonder your wife left you!”
Cain shook Debron by the collar a few more times, hurling curses, before glancing sideways at Luciel.
“Sigh.”
He exhaled sharply and released the fabric he’d been gripping.
“……I’m sorry if I frightened you. That wasn’t a scene a child should have witnessed.”
“No.”
Luciel’s expression wasn’t one of fear.
Rather, the kindness she’d worn moments before had vanished entirely, leaving her face cold and hard.
“You could have hit him more.”
She was angry too.
An apology wouldn’t change that.
Setting aside her own sense of injustice, she remembered the persistent gleam in Serion’s eyes.
She didn’t need to see how Serion would react—it was obvious.
‘If he apologizes, Serion won’t just let it go quietly. He’ll make some demand, twist it to his advantage…….’
“I… I was wrong.”
“Uncle, you should focus on your wife.”
Cain’s sharp gaze fixed on Debron.
“If you interfere in anything concerning Bael or Luciel again, I’ll break every bone in your fingers.”
He muttered the threat coldly, then—ignoring Debron’s response—took Luciel’s hand and strode out of the Kitchen.
* * *
“Uncle Debron by the collar? Cain grabbed him?”
Bael’s face registered genuine shock.
“It’s not the first time you’ve had a physical clash with your uncles or aunt, has it?”
Having heard the story, he seemed far more composed than Cain and Luciel.
He even appeared to find the situation somewhat amusing.
“So how many times did he hit him?”
“I couldn’t very well have the grown-ups fighting in front of a child.”
At Cain’s shake of the head, Bael’s expression turned regretful—much like Luciel’s had been.
“Don’t worry too much about it. The Emperor already declared he’d apologize of his own accord. Even if Uncle Debron did say some nonsense, once the Duke returns tomorrow…….”
“What Uncle said at first was correct.”
Bael cut off Cain’s words.
“If he sent it with the Family Seal, the Crown Prince will use it as an excuse—whether the Emperor approves or not—and come to the Mansion without hesitation.”
“Come here…….”
“And since Uncle Debron issued a formal invitation, it’s even more certain. He’s under house arrest now, so he can’t come at once, but it won’t take long.”
Bael tilted his head thoughtfully as he spoke, organizing his thoughts.
“We couldn’t have avoided it anyway. I think it would have happened eventually, whether Uncle’s letter came or not.”
“……Can you handle it?”
“Hard to say. To be honest, I’m more worried about Uncle Osborn than the Crown Prince.”
Bael spoke calmly.
“What do you mean?”
“Tomorrow.”
He looked directly up at Cain as he explained.
“Once the Duke knows everything, he’ll likely entrust the Family Seal back to Uncle Osborn. Along with the authority to manage affairs within the Mansion.”
“…….”
“Most things happening in the Family will be decided by that man again. Who and what come in and out.”
Speaking as though stating an established fact, Bael’s blue eyes seemed cold and composed.
……He’s grown up.
Luciel murmured inwardly.
What she saw before her was no longer the sickly boy from her mother’s stories, nor the child whose eyes had once lit up at food she gave him.
Those eyes could no longer be called the eyes of a fourteen-year-old. They belonged to someone older, bearing an uncommon depth of insight.
With a feeling that was half-proud and half-sorrowful, she continued to listen.
“How are you so certain?”
Cain asked.
“The Duke’s anger and suspicion toward Uncle Osborn haven’t faded.”
“And there’s no one else.”
Bael shrugged as he answered.
“The Territory is spread all over, and problems keep arising that require the Duke to go himself. Steward Grandfather will mostly accompany him, so someone from the Family needs to take that position. The Nobility Council needs a representative too.”
“But even if it’s not Uncle Osborn…….”
“Uncle Debron caused trouble in just a few days. And while drunk, no less. The Duke won’t entrust the Family to such a person again.”
“There’s Aunt Melina too.”
“Aunt already holds something too substantial.”
Bael answered without hesitation.
“The Duke won’t grant power to the child who holds the Family’s purse strings. Not until he decides on a Successor he favors—he has to maintain balance.”
He pointed out each possibility methodically, as though everything were transparent to him.
“Then…….”
“What about entrusting it to Uncle?”
Before Cain could speak, Bael completed the thought, raising his eyes.
“That’s not quite what I meant…….”
“The same as Aunt. If he gives the Mansion to a child who already took a baronetcy, what would be the point?”
“…….”
“Isn’t the reason Uncle can’t appear in the Nobility Council under Bellaon’s name despite all the achievements the Imperial Capital recognizes because of that? If the Duke put Uncle forward publicly, it would be as good as announcing that all three of his Direct Line children have been sidelined.”
“……!”
Flawless logic.
Consideration of every given element.
Clear observation of the Duke.
Certainty in the conclusion drawn from it all.
Luciel understood.
Bael wasn’t wrong.
He already possessed eyes that saw further and wider than others.
“……When did you start thinking like this?”
Even Cain seemed shaken, asking quietly.
“When did you begin to see these things……?”
“I’m not sure.”
Bael laughed softly.
“Some of it was visible from the start, but I think I started considering it seriously today.”
He looked up at the empty air as though recalling something.
“After meeting the Crown Prince, my mind grew uneasy.”
“What could that brat possibly do to us…….”
“He had the face of a beast that’s spotted prey.”
As he spoke, Bael slowly turned his head toward Luciel.
“When he looked at you.”
“……!”
“So I started thinking. About the things I need to know. About other things I’ve put off. Because…….”
He paused briefly, then continued.
“Only then can I protect you.”
He spoke while looking directly at her.
“The Crown Prince won’t give up. He’s the type who doesn’t understand such things. But…….”
He added quietly.
“Neither will I.”
Bael and Luciel’s eyes met.
There was much contained in those impossibly blue eyes.
Sharpness, coldness, a gaze that penetrated situations and saw their essence.
And toward Luciel—a force that seemed to offer certainty.
Suddenly, Luciel recalled a game her mother had played before the possession.
Her mother had said that in the game, Bael was the only person capable of bringing down the Crown Prince.
That he had indeed tried to stop the Crown Prince in countless ways.
Even before the Crown Prince had revealed his true nature.
Why this child, of all people?
How had he recognized the villain beforehand?
She thought she was beginning to understand, just a little.
Bael reads people.
He possessed an exceptional talent for seeing into others’ hearts.
Different from Serion’s way.
Serion observed others through his own eyes, calculating how to bend them to his will. But Bael saw the world through the eyes of many others.
The Duke, his relatives, Cain.
And perhaps even Serion.
Luciel looked into Bael’s eyes once more.
Beneath silver hair, eyes as deep and transparent as a lake.
Blue eyes that conveyed beauty and simultaneously a sharp keenness.
Eyes that seemed not merely to accept what they saw, but to pierce through to what lay beyond.
In that moment, those eyes softened as they crinkled in a smile.
That smile, which saw her completely, was truly radiant.
And in that instant, Luciel felt the desire to trust Bael wholly.
‘Was it always like this?’
She slowly understood, within herself.
Why her mother had never given up on him.
What he possessed wasn’t merely outstanding intellect or strength.
Bael was, from the beginning, a child who drew people in.

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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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