The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 73

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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 73
“It was inevitable from the start.”
Luciel studied Bael’s face as he spoke those words.
For a moment their eyes met, and he appeared serene.
As though he had simply finished a task he was meant to do.
He’d done it.
In this brief span of time, he had managed to unravel one strand of a tangled knot.
Looking at those unwavering blue eyes, she could see he harbored no doubt in his own reasoning.
Luciel exhaled softly in relief.
Not Melina. Not Debron either.
It meant, at the very least, that Bael would not have to fight them all.
It meant she could continue to take pride in having made her business venture with Melina succeed, and in having helped Debron preserve his marriage.
“…You suspected me? Me?”
“You thought I killed Cedric?”
Slowly, Debron’s and Melina’s eyes widened.
“Would it not have been reasonable for me to harbor such suspicion?”
Bael answered with a bitter smile.
“But…”
Both fell silent.
A long stretch of quiet passed before Melina spoke again.
“From your perspective, I see.”
Her voice trembled faintly, uncharacteristic of her usual composure.
“You were young then, Cedric’s cause of death was unclear, and after his passing, I myself stepped forward to claim his position.”
“You interpreted it that way? I only entered that competition because my brother died, and I didn’t want to!”
“Yes. That is why I believed you were innocent. Except.”
He looked toward Melina.
“Father’s cause of death was clarified by Luciel.”
Bael briefly explained the circumstances by which he had learned of his father’s poisoning.
“The Magic Stone in the blade.”
Melina opened her mouth upon hearing his words.
“By your account, the Magic Stone in the blade came through a small merchant house that I had begun to manage. Osborn did specifically request that stone, but…”
“And I was the one who delivered it.”
Both their faces grew noticeably pale.
“Then Osborn deliberately…!”
Bael nodded.
“On what grounds did you conclude that these two were not guilty?”
Cain, who had been listening quietly, asked sharply, and Melina and Debron looked at him with indignation.
“What, you suspect us too…!”
“Never mind Bael, but what do you know?”
“All I know is that both of you wish to become Duke of Bellaon. That much, at least, I have felt deeply since entering this Mansion.”
At Cain’s words, both fell silent and shifted uncomfortably.
Cain’s gaze naturally returned to Bael.
“Speak. Did you find evidence?”
“At first, I wondered if it was something all three of them had done together.”
Bael continued, looking again at the two of them.
“But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Uncle Debron needed Father to remain alive for his marriage to proceed smoothly.”
“Right. From the start, I married on the assumption that your father would naturally maintain good relations with my wife’s family.”
“And as for my aunt…”
His gaze and Melina’s met in empty air.
“The Butler told me that after Father passed, my aunt did not leave her room for the first six months. She only began taking control of all the family’s affairs some time later.”
“…”
“The timeline did not add up. If she had killed Father to seize power, she should have stepped forward as the center of the family business when my grandfather was devastated and unable to function properly. And besides.”
He paused briefly before continuing.
“My earliest memories, but I felt that my aunt had affection for Father.”
“Affection may be too strong a word.”
Melina replied.
Her voice, her gaze, every muscle of her face trembled finely.
“I admired him. I wanted to surpass him—not to kill him.”
Her pale face drew a deep breath.
“…And then?”
Cain asked again.
“As I told Luciel and Uncle before. I found evidence.”
Bael spoke.
Luciel swallowed dryly.
On the day the Duke had raged and stripped Debron of all authority, Bael had already been considering this matter.
Even then, he had suspected that Debron and Melina were not the culprits; he had only needed evidence.
For that evidence, I brought him before the Butler—
As a former Magic Theory professor, the Butler had already taken considerable interest in this promising young man and would surely have offered help readily.
“After recovering from the illness, I thought much about it—where could such a rare poison have come from? The Blue Eagle was extinct from a massive hunt long ago.”
He explained with his arms crossed.
“Then Aila experienced a space where plants that could not normally grow together sprouted all at once.”
He glanced at Debron and Melina as he continued.
He had not stated it precisely, but he was alluding to the garden in the crevice.
“That’s when Aila realized something existed—a land where a certain special Life Force flowed. Upon hearing that, I thought that something similar might apply elsewhere.”
“…”
“A strange Life Force flowing through a space within the Empire. A place where life forms that exist nowhere else grow.”
At Bael’s words, Cain’s eyes slowly widened.
“…The Primordial Forest.”
“Yes. If someone had found an extinct Blue Eagle, I thought it would have been there.”
“Then the ten-year-old records you wanted to find…”
“Uncle Osborn’s authority over all household matters was stripped for a time. The Butler carefully searched through the servants’ entry records for me. Uncle Debron never properly maintained such records.”
“What? You did such a thing?”
Debron asked in alarm, but Bael ignored him and continued.
“I found the old records. About ten years ago, just before Father’s blade was exchanged, a household servant made repeated trips to the Primordial Forest, specifically to its southern reaches where few venture. The man had originally belonged to a guild that hunted using poison and was particularly skilled at bird hunting.”
“…!”
Everyone in the room froze.
“That servant…”
“The servant is already dead. That’s why I went to the southern reaches of the Primordial Forest today. To confirm that a Blue Eagle must have nested there.”
Bael looked at Melina and Debron again.
“You know the saying—the ground near where the Blue Eagle nested carries poison for decades.”
“You mean the tea we just drank…!”
“The flowers were picked from in front of the house.”
As Debron gasped in horror, Bael took a slow sip of the tea before him and drank.
“Nothing grows in the area where that servant went, as though there had been a fire. So I was certain—the Blue Eagle did live nearby. There are not many poisons capable of laying waste to earth so thoroughly.”
Bael spoke.
“I only wanted to confirm how the two of you would react. If you had known of the poisoning, you would never have brought poison-born plants from the Primordial Forest’s south to your lips in a brewed tea. That was the final confirmation I needed.”
He concluded calmly.
For a time, silence hung over the Kitchen.
Luciel slowly nodded.
Bael’s logic was flawless.
Whoever had ordered the Blue Eagle poison would have known that poison flowed in the southern reaches of the Primordial Forest.
Plants could not grow in such a place, but if by some miracle a plant did survive there, no one with such knowledge would ever place it to their lips.
Not gulping it down eagerly, as Debron and Melina had done.
He truly accomplished it.
She exhaled a small note of admiration within her heart.
Within days, Bael had reconstructed a ten-year-old crime with flawless precision.
“…Meticulous.”
Melina spoke after the long silence.
“More than your father. More than me.”
A piercing blue gaze turned toward him.
“So it truly was Osborn. He…”
She could not finish her words and drew a deep breath.
“So, what do you intend to do?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Do not play dumb.”
In those blue eyes that fixed on Bael, the trembling had vanished, replaced once more by cold reason.
“There must be a reason you revealed all of this here, now, to us.”
“…”
“Do you need an alliance? Is that why you laid bare all these facts in this moment?”
Bael lifted his eyes to meet Melina’s directly.
Two pairs of alike eyes seemed to battle, each trying to pierce through the other.
“Your words are not wrong. However.”
He opened his mouth slowly.
“Perhaps it is the two of you who are in greater need of an alliance.”
Melina’s eyes trembled once more.

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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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