The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 80

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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 80
Luciel studied the boy before her with careful attention.
A cute face still soft with youth.
Downturned eyes, innocent gaze.
Yet those eyes now held a glimmer she hadn’t seen before.
This child who looked gentle as a puppy — Arnen Esselred.
Her mother had never mentioned him directly.
It was through the diary that Luciel discovered her mother had wrestled with far deeper concerns about him than she’d ever spoken aloud.
Second Prince. Arnen Esselred.
Character: Unknown. Moral alignment: Indeterminate.
Stats: Unmeasurable — no in-game activity.
Not a Playable Character. Route strategy: Unavailable.
Survives in every route. No exceptions.
No Death Flag — reason unknown.
Survival Method: Varies by route.
Escape / Submission / Resistance / Compromise — employs all. No preference.
Unknown whether variable or constant.
Just a kid who stays alive.
It was the sloppiness of these notes that first caught Luciel’s eye — but what truly seized her attention was the profusion of underlines and circles her mother had marked throughout this section.
As though she’d pondered him endlessly.
The line about his survival in every route, without exception, bore multiple markings — more than once, more than twice.
Marked so often that Luciel found she couldn’t forget it.
According to her mother’s assessment, Arnen was a survivor.
He endured even when Serion set the Empire ablaze, usurped his father’s throne, and murdered every rival kinsman within reach.
Running, crawling, flattering, resisting — he did everything and anything, yet he lived on, unblemished by death.
Looking at those heavily drawn underlines, Luciel understood what her mother must have been thinking.
Once the Crown Prince is safely born, there are only three ways to dethrone him.
Kill the Crown Prince.
Replace the royal house itself with another family.
Or find a better successor within the imperial family — someone superior to the Crown Prince.
Assassinating the Crown Prince past his full retinue was nearly impossible. Escaping unscathed afterward was even less feasible.
Toppling the entire royal house to replace it with another was also difficult.
That path would require a war of staggering scale — something Luciel did not want.
It wasn’t even an option in the game, her mother had written somewhere in the diary.
What remained was to find someone who could replace Serion.
Among the royal family’s numerous Branch Line relatives, someone with ambition enough to be useful.
There were in fact many such people.
Only Arnen possessed survival skills as refined as his.
Until recently, Luciel had assumed all of this stemmed from Arnen siding with Serion.
Until very recently, after she’d cautiously broached the subject of Arnen, when Bael said something that changed everything.
“How I found out.”
She’d answered Arnen.
“The Prince told us.”
……
Arnen’s expression grew complicated.
His gaze drifted slowly back toward Bael.
“That day, you lied to the Emperor and Empress.”
Bael spoke while leaning against the kitchen wall, arms crossed.
“Several things seemed strange. I kept watching, and when you claimed you hadn’t seen us and Luciel and the Crown Prince cross dimensions — that’s when the inconsistencies began.”
……
“We were told you never resisted your older brother, yet you appeared at that crucial moment and testified against the Crown Prince’s interests. And conveniently, at that exact moment, the Crown Prince was so entranced by something else he had no time to rage at you. That timing was too precise to be coincidence — it made me think you’d calculated it, at least to some degree.”
……
“But the most damning detail — the one I could hardly dismiss as mere chance.”
Bael’s gaze turned sharp, fixing on Arnen.
“When you rushed to Their Majesties and claimed ‘I saw it with my own eyes,’ you positioned yourself to the left.”
“Why does that matter?”
“To conceal the small fragment I failed to erase — the one inscribed with a Magic Circle. As though shielding us.”
……
“You were helping us. And you made sure we’d know you were helping us. You took considerable risk in doing so.”
When Bael finished, Arnen fell silent for several seconds.
Slowly, his eyes crinkled and a smile bloomed across his face.
“You’re as sharp as they say.”
He spoke with genuine warmth.
“Not a single detail wrong. Every word is correct.”
In sincere admiration, he shook his head in wonder.
“Both you and Luciel the chef truly impressed me.”
His eyes sparkled as he spoke.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone stand up to my brother like that. And of course……”
He turned to Luciel as he continued.
“It’s also the first time I’ve seen my brother bleeding from his nose after being hit.”
……
Seeing that hero-worship in his eyes, Luciel swallowed the words that it had all been a mistake and said nothing instead.
“Since we’ve come this far, let’s be honest. With you too, Luciel.”
Arnen shrugged as he spoke.
“Like the two of you, I despise my brother. Not out of emotion, but because I believe his ascension to emperor would ruin us all. I intend to stop it.”
His words carried certainty — the kind that comes from thinking something through dozens, hundreds of times.
“I’m facing a fight where I’m heavily disadvantaged. No one will extend their hand.”
……
“Until now, anyway.”
He smiled ruefully, looking up at Bael and Luciel once more.
“You both understand the danger, don’t you? My brother never lets go of prey once he’s marked it. As long as he remains Crown Prince, as long as his future as emperor doesn’t change, you two will be in constant peril.”
“……Precisely the same conclusion I reached.”
Bael nodded, his voice low as though speaking only to himself.
“So we can consider this shaking hands?”
Arnen crinkled his eyes once more and extended his right hand forward.
“You summoned me here because you wanted this, didn’t you?”
Luciel studied him for a moment.
He was much smaller than her, craning his neck upward to meet her gaze.
Still a child.
Not the sort who spoke carelessly even to Bael, and certainly not to a commoner like Luciel — no roughness about him at all.
Simply a boy who’d grasped early the dangers of his world and of his brother, yet possessed a strength far greater than his appearance suggested.
Pitiful on one hand, remarkable on the other — a child willing to do anything to survive, and perhaps the finest ally she and Bael had found.
“Hands joined.”
Luciel said lightly, shaking his hand.
“And this is the token.”
She pressed a plate into Arnen’s palm as she spoke.
“……Cake?”
Arnen’s eyes went wide as saucers.
“I made it earlier. Bite-sized Sea Salt Brownies.”
The Status Window had noted that the Second Prince preferred a chewy texture.
Arnen’s face brightened noticeably.
The moment he bit into a brownie, his expression radiated pure contentment.
“With a token in hand, we’re in the same boat now.”
Bael and Luciel both nodded at his words.
“So.”
When Bael opened his mouth, the other two looked up, meeting each other’s eyes.
“What’s the plan?”
All three asked simultaneously.
“……There isn’t one.”
Arnen chuckled softly, murmuring the words.
“Obviously not. The opponent is too unpredictable. Besides, you two are probably already facing other complications.”
“Other complications?”
“Osborn of Bellaon.”
He spoke while looking at Luciel.
“I too have ears for rumor and eyes for ill intent. I’ve already heard that tensions within Bellaon run fierce. That much is common knowledge.”
……
“Osborn — I’ve a vague memory of seeing him once from a distance. It was the day he entered the palace with Debron of Bellaon, I think. There was something about his bearing that felt… menacing.”
A sharp child.
Precocious, able to distinguish between lies and sincerity, observant of the world around him.
Perhaps.
Perhaps this boy might make an unexpectedly capable emperor someday.

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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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