The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 74

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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 74
“W-we? You’re saying we need a coalition?”
Debron asked, his expression bewildered.
“……It’s true.”
Melina nodded slowly.
“Is that so?”
Debron turned to Melina and asked again.
His entire bearing seemed to broadcast his lack of aptitude for politics.
“If Osborn poisoned Cedric and Siena, and if that’s also why Bael’s body was damaged, then there’s no reason we should be safe.”
Melina spoke with measured analysis.
“If what Osborn wants is the Duke’s title, then we’re just as much of an eyesore as Bael—and the same goes for Celine and Edwin, of course.”
“I can’t die! I promised to spend a hundred years with my wife. And Edwin too!”
Debron cried out, his face gone pale.
“……So they found the poison.”
Leaving him to his panic, Melina murmured to herself, lost in thought.
A moment later, her gaze landed on Luciel’s face.
“It was you. You found that poison.”
“Pardon?”
Luciel’s eyes widened.
How on earth did she know?
It was already known that her cooking had played a significant role in healing Bael’s body.
But she had never revealed to anyone that she was the first to discover the poison’s circulation.
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Aila tried for years and couldn’t find it. Cain didn’t manage it either. Bael’s true recovery only began after you arrived—anyone with eyes can see that much.”
Melina spoke as though stating the obvious.
“Luciel, you’ve truly transformed this entire mansion.”
“…….”
Luciel could not deny it.
Was reading people and situations through to their depths a family trait?
She bit her lip.
‘Is she going to ask how I did it? I can’t explain the Status Window.’
“I won’t ask how you managed it. You’re a child of many secrets, and I respect that.”
Melina spoke as though she had read Luciel’s mind.
“But answer me one thing. Is there poison in my body? In Celine’s?”
She asked directly.
Her gaze flickered slightly as she looked at Luciel—wavering, as though she both desired the answer and feared it.
Both needing to know and afraid of what she might learn.
“There isn’t.”
Luciel answered without hesitation.
“Melina, Debron, Loren—and Celine and Edwin as well. None of you are poisoned.”
Luciel had cooked for them countless times.
She could state it with absolute certainty, having observed their palates and health conditions continuously, both through the naked eye and through her Status Window.
“You’re all in good health.”
A soft sigh escaped from both Debron and Melina.
“To see you both relieved, I realize I’ve come to trust you quite deeply.”
Melina smiled with self-deprecating irony, then turned her gaze back to Bael.
“Yes, I want a coalition. But—”
She pointed at Luciel.
“—a coalition to protect that child. I need her, and Osborn will already be targeting her.”
She spoke with quiet certainty, as though her thoughts had crystallized.
“Luciel is in danger. Perhaps more so than any of us. If we don’t cooperate, there’s no knowing what might happen.”
“That aligns precisely with my own thinking.”
Bael met Melina’s eyes as he answered.
“Just so you’re aware, there are others besides Uncle Osborn who might target Luciel……”
“I know. I’ve heard about the Crown Prince. And that Debron sent a rather foolish letter.”
At Melina’s words, Debron shrank back in embarrassment.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll protect Luciel even if it means bringing down the Imperial Court.”
She continued without pause.
It was a dangerous utterance—one where lives hung in the balance—yet she voiced it with no hesitation whatsoever, as though all calculations had already been settled.
Bael nodded and turned his gaze to Debron.
“For me, it’s only natural……Beyond questions of need or whatever—I’ve already incurred a great debt to Luciel.”
“Very well. Uncle Cain?”
“You’re asking me too?”
Cain responded as though the question were absurd.
“Who do you think has the oldest connection with Luciel? I couldn’t possibly leave her to face danger alone.”
“Then that settles it.”
Bael looked from Melina to Debron and then to Cain, his expression resolute.
“First, we secure Luciel’s safety. From Uncle Osborn, and from the Crown Prince who will soon visit.”
The three nodded in agreement.
Their eyes shifted toward Luciel, sitting quietly in the corner.
Luciel’s heart quickened.
She was not unaware of the danger she faced.
She had witnessed what Teo orchestrated the day she made three varieties of dessert, and there was no guarantee that Osborn would leave her alone.
It was Luciel herself who knew better than anyone how dangerous the Crown Prince was, and how interested he had become in her.
Yet Luciel had always believed that all of this was her burden to shoulder.
Life was inherently precarious—she had accepted this long ago—and she was well practiced at surviving alone when her mother was not there.
But now, two people for whom cooperation had seemed impossible—Bael and Cain—were declaring a coalition.
Centered on her. For her sake.
They spoke without reservation of their readiness to stand against not only Osborn but the Crown Prince as well.
A flood of emotions swirled together.
Relief at the knowledge that Melina and Debron were not enemies but allies.
A quiet moved feeling at knowing they genuinely cared for her.
Admiration for Bael, for orchestrating an outcome she had never imagined.
And bewilderment at discovering herself at the center of this unlikely coalition.
‘The development is different.’
Luciel suddenly recalled her mother’s words.
Her mother’s assessment of the Bellaon Duke’s Family’s nature and weakness.
“They don’t come together easily. They can’t come together, those people.”
“…….”
“If several of them had allied back then, it might have been possible to overturn things before Bael died. I always wondered—if Bael’s character were developed well enough, couldn’t something like that become possible?”
It was a coalition and a strength that had never once appeared in the game.
Yet the one now standing at its center was not Bael, but Luciel herself.
“Can you really stand against the Imperial Court?”
Luciel asked them all quietly.
“Of course.”
Melina shrugged.
Once she had made a decision, she did not waver; her voice was firm.
“Do you think Debron and I have any loyalty to speak of?”
“I may be indecisive, but I won’t betray someone who found my wife.”
Debron met her gaze with a similar expression.
“…….”
As Luciel’s eyes shifted to Cain, he laughed dryly, as though bewildered.
“There’s no one here who doesn’t owe you a debt. And I was first.”
He spoke.
“You saved me when I was dying alongside monsters. How could I possibly abandon you now?”
“……We’ll find a way.”
It was Bael who spoke last.
“By any means necessary, by any method, I won’t let anyone lay a hand on you.”
They were all sincere.
All of them had sworn they would find a way.
A way to stand against the Crown Prince, and ultimately against Osborn, who would join forces with him.
‘But why.’
Luciel went blank for a moment.
‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
She had always believed her role was to save Bael.
To revive him, restore him, help him gain strength—that was what she had taken to be the continuation of the endeavor her mother had pursued across two lifetimes.
But it was never only that.
Her mother had not relied on Bael alone.
Before the possession, she had sought paths in countless directions, and after it, the same was true.
After opening her eyes in Eshelred, she had first sought a way to prevent the Crown Prince from being born.
Everyone here was prepared to do their utmost in the same way.
And Luciel should have done the same.
Not just to save Bael, but to find a way to stand against the Crown Prince herself.
Together with them all.
The moment that thought reached her,
“……!”
A single new method—one that had not existed before—suddenly emerged in Luciel’s mind.

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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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