The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 72

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

Chapter 72
“You didn’t like me? How so?”
Debron asked in a bewildered tone.
“Every woman I’ve seen was drawn to you…”
“That constant confidence of yours grated on me. Your easy, carefree nature—I never cared for it.”
“But, but wasn’t that your charm?”
“Charm? True charm is when a man gets flustered in front of a woman, his face turning red.”
……
“Even Cedric was nearly going mad with anxiety after meeting Sienna… but from the start, there was no chance of him marrying me. Perhaps Cedric was considering whether to proceed by weighing gains and losses, but I despised that sort of calculation.”
“So… you didn’t marry me out of necessity, but…”
“I chose you very deliberately.”
She declared it without the slightest wavering.
“If I’d wanted power, I would have seized it myself. Not handed it off to my younger brother.”
Ah.
Luciel, who had been watching the two of them with an intrigued expression, let out a silent exclamation of understanding.
So that’s what she likes.
A man with a quiet, modest charm.
What did Mother call it? Egennam?
“It’s not just that I dislike engaging in political struggles directly… power was never something I needed in the first place. That’s no small statement, is it?”
Debron asked again and again, as though everything he’d believed in had crumbled.
“What I needed was a pretty garden with flowers, travel, and this.”
She deftly speared with her fork the single bead of Ice Cream rolling about on the plate and popped it into her mouth.
“This jewel-like Ice Cream. From now on, you’re going to learn how to make it. If you want my anger to fully subside.”
“I, I’ll do that.”
Debron’s expression brightened completely.
“If I can fully appease your anger…”
His eyes cleared, brimming with hope, and determination flickered to life within them.
“I’ll master it without fail!”
“Mother, me too!”
Edwin hugged his mother from behind as he made the same vow.
Sigh.
Loren let out a small sigh and turned her gaze toward Luciel.
“These foolish people have caused you no end of trouble.”
“That’s true.”
Luciel answered.
Separate from the satisfaction of having resolved the situation, the fact remained that she had endured considerable hardship.
Though Edwin had peeled an entire week’s worth of potatoes in advance.
Though she’d had some of them fried on the spot and eaten them alone as snacks.
Though she’d made full use of Edwin for several hours and strutted about it.
It was still trouble, all the same.
“The people of the Peyton Family do not forget kindness—they repay it.”
Loren said.
“I will remember.”
As she spoke and rose to her feet, her face bore a brilliant smile the likes of which none had seen before.
Eyes curved in graceful arcs, mouth rising in an easy curve, her gaze meeting his directly—
the brightest, sunniest smile in the Empire.
No wonder suitors had once flocked to her in great numbers.
As Luciel watched Debron gazing at his wife with an expression as if his soul had left his body, she recalled what Cain had said the day before.
“Well then, we should be on our way.”
Loren nodded once more to Luciel, and Debron and Edwin each took her by an arm as they followed.
“Not you.”
Loren said firmly, peeling Edwin away.
“Yes? But why me…”
“If you leave, am I to clear the dishes? Should your teacher do it?”
“Pardon?”
“Finish the washing up, then come back. And from now on, come spend two hours each day helping in the Kitchen. Growing up too pampered makes a fool of anyone.”
“But, Mother? From now on? How long is ‘from now on’?”
Leaving the bewildered Edwin behind, Loren and Debron departed the Kitchen together.
…She was a good person, truly.
A satisfied smile played at Luciel’s lips as she watched the woman’s retreating figure.
After all, she’d just acquired an assistant she could put to work two hours a day.
* * *
An hour later, in the Kitchen.
“So your brother begged and wept, and Loren took him back?”
Melina let out a derisive laugh.
“How did he beg? I’m sure it was pathetically pitiful.”
Sitting before a small table, sipping tea while she looked to Luciel for the details, her eyes sparkled with interest.
“It wasn’t at first, but he kept asking, saying he’d do better…”
“When did I—”
Debron, who had been listening, cried out.
“We had a serious, mature conversation between adults, and simply agreed to get along well again.”
He offered his justification.
He’d come into the Kitchen late at night wearing only sleepwear, hoping to rummage for any remaining Ice Cream that Luciel had made in the afternoon, when he’d discovered his younger sister merrily mocking him.
He’d tried to defend his honor by taking a seat across from her and objecting, but it had done little good.
“Shedding tears and snot, one-sidedly begging for just one more chance—when did that become a mature conversation?”
“You cold-blooded thing, you wouldn’t understand! Do you even know what words like tolerance, generosity, forgiveness mean?”
“If I’d understood such words, I wouldn’t have been able to drive out my ex-husband when he was embezzling my company’s fortune.”
She spoke without the slightest concern and took a sip of the tea Luciel had poured for her.
Debron, as if the sight was familiar to him, picked up his own teacup and huffed indignantly.
“Were you… all here together?”
Cain’s voice came from behind them.
The three turned to see Cain and Bael entering the Kitchen together.
“Aunt, Uncle.”
Bael nodded in greeting, his gaze alternating between Melina and Debron before fixing on the latter.
“So, has your plan to clutch at your aunt’s skirts and weep been successful?”
“Skirts?!”
“Hahahaha!”
Debron’s outrage and Melina’s laughter erupted simultaneously.
“I clearly saw you this afternoon practicing how to beg—saying you’d rather be a servant than anything else if it meant staying as her husband…”
“Be quiet and get out of here!”
“Have some tea. Edwin polished all the kettles in the Kitchen earlier, so feel free to use them.”
Though Debron tried to shoo them away, Luciel’s matter-of-fact gesture toward the empty space at the table left him no choice but to shift his chair slightly to make room.
Bael brought two teacups and the pot of tea Luciel had already brewed, and Cain sat down with an awkward expression, looking between the two siblings.
“In any case, the conclusion is that I married a woman like Loren thanks entirely to my natural charm.”
Debron jumped several steps ahead and drew his conclusion.
“There was no need for everyone to be like Cedric… ah, well, um!”
He trailed off abruptly, as if suddenly recalling whose son Bael was.
Bael showed no particular reaction.
Lost in thought, he simply gazed at his teacup.
Luciel couldn’t say precisely what he was thinking.
Quiet contemplation had become a frequent sight from him of late.
Yet in his quietly gleaming eyes, she could discern that he had something he wished to say.
“Where had you gone?”
Melina asked.
“When I brought the Rose Trellis this afternoon, you seemed to be in the Kitchen helping with cooking.”
“I rode Estelle some distance away.”
Bael answered.
“To the south of the Ancient Forest, beyond the edges of the Imperial City.”
“That far in such a short time?”
Melina raised an eyebrow.
“A fine horse is a fine horse indeed. A rare bloodline, I hear, nearly beyond valuation…”
“Estelle is too young to bear foals. Her owner is Luciel.”
“You wouldn’t even consider it?”
Struck at her weak point, Melina turned her head with a sharp grunt.
“In any case, from the south of the forest, by a stream running along a cliff, I gathered some flowers. They’re meant to be steeped in tea, so I placed them in this pot just a moment ago.”
Bael tapped the small teapot in the center of the table.
Hmm?
Luciel’s head tilted slightly to the side.
She knew Bael had traveled far.
It was true he’d been holding flowers earlier.
But as far as she knew, those flowers were…
“The fragrance has enriched it. As Loren said, flowers truly are fine things.”
Debron foolishly smiled and drank his tea.
“Something that only has value when dried, and he’s just tossed it into premium Green Tea like this…”
Melina also grumbled and raised her cup to her lips again.
“…Now I’m certain.”
Bael, who had been staring intently at the two of them, slowly opened his mouth.
“I understand it clearly now.”
“Understand what?”
“It was Uncle Osborn who poisoned my parents.”

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