The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 86

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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 86
In her letters to Bael, she’d whined that he was insane, claimed her precious life was too valuable to waste, demanded they abandon whatever ridiculous strategy this was and run away together.
Yet the result was flawless.
With only the handful of Imperial Army soldiers under her command, she’d drawn the enemy this far.
“She must have lacked the numbers for direct engagement. Looks like she just showed her face and slipped away.”
Peyton spoke, and Bael nodded in agreement.
It was pure Arnene—maximizing thought, minimizing collision.
The Torguard Army, spotting a seventeen-year-old prince with only a handful of companions in the distance, must have descended upon him with bloodlust.
“Go find wherever he’s hiding. If he injures himself sitting alone, he’ll spend the next few months lying in bed complaining about it.”
“Just me? Then you’re going to…”
Elion’s face drained of color as understanding dawned.
“You can’t possibly mean alone. At minimum, you need a few—hey!”
Bael was already moving, ignoring his words entirely.
“If you go alone, you’ll die—”
Elion tried to say more, then gave up.
There was no catching him when he rode on Estel anyway.
And Elion knew something.
Bael didn’t die.
Over the past two years, the crown prince—now commanding half the Imperial Army—had sent Bael into countless battles.
Whenever he mentioned the Northern Region happened to be nearby.
Thrown onto the ice of the Northern Sea, fighting in valleys with no bottom, plummeting from cliffs, pierced by blades.
Bael always returned alive. As if Death’s scythe deliberately curved away from him.
And with each return, he grew stronger.
Or perhaps he’d been strong from the beginning.
Elion recalled rumors he’d once heard.
Some fool had spread the tale that Bael was sickly, that he’d never survive to adulthood—but everything Elion had witnessed contradicted it utterly.
He was a being who seemed to transcend human limitations.
Tall frame, long limbs, movement elegant and without excess, a face handsome to the point of being objectionable, eyes that read even intricate schemes with unwavering clarity.
As if he’d been born already complete. With such a person at your side, even strategies that defied convention began to feel possible—an irrational certainty that took root.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—
Bael descended the slope, cold wind rushing past him.
This operation couldn’t succeed through numbers alone anyway.
“Let’s finish this quickly, Estel.”
He caught sight of a few men at the vanguard gesturing, and he poured on more speed.
“This is the last one. The very last, I promise.”
Snort-snort-snort—
He felt Estel’s mocking disbelief at that claim.
“I mean it. When we get back, I’ll give you something delicious.”
Neigh!
—Your soggy apple pastries all taste the same anyway.
“I mean we’re going back to Luciel, you idiot.”
Whinny!
Estel’s eyes brightened, and her gait became impossibly lighter.
Whistle—
In the heart of the Snow Plain, the enemy army shifted into an assault formation aimed at Bael.
Whistle—
Bang-bang-bang—
The Torguard Army’s horns blared, and in response, the Kragons began charging en masse toward Bael.
“Tell me where. Can you find it?”
Snort-snort-snort!
As Estel galloped, she read the vibrations of the earth.
—Not here.
—Not quite there either.
Veering left and right, she seemed to be carefully tracing the currents of Magical Power flowing beneath the ground.
Bael smiled softly.
He’d known she was perceptive, but he hadn’t expected her to examine things with such precision.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—
“I suppose I’ll have to decide soon enough.”
Watching the Kragon horde closing in with alarming speed, Bael drew his blade.
Whinny!
—This spot will do.
“Good.”
Blade in hand, Bael leaped from Estel’s back in one fluid motion.
Confusion flickered across the faces of enemies now barely twenty meters away.
“…You’re going to kill us with that?”
“Just one man?”
“They did say he was insane, but…”
After a moment’s hesitation, they steadied themselves and drew their own weapons.
The prince wasn’t visible; only this one man filled their sight.
Kill him first, and they’d have accomplished their objective.
“Right here.”
Whisk— Crack.
Bael raised his blade to meet the enemy approaching within arm’s reach, then drove it into the ground instead.
The enemies’ expressions grew even more peculiar.
“What? Did he miss?”
“What’s that stance? Is he surrendering…?”
Their hope shifted to confusion in mere seconds.
Crack-crack-crack—
The Snow Plain beneath their feet began to split open from the tip of Bael’s blade.
“What—what is this!”
As his eyes met the enemy commander’s, Bael smiled and poured more Magical Power into his blade.
Screeeech—
Ground where Water Veins flowed.
Terrain where the earth was weakest.
A place hollowed beneath, where vibrations and Magical Power flowed differently.
This was where Arnene had drawn the enemy, and the spot Estel had found was the most vulnerable point within it.
A place where one person’s strength alone could bring the ground down.
Bang-bang-bang-bang—
“Ahhhhhhh!”
In the instant the lead enemy soldier reached Bael, his body was pulled downward—as if seized by invisible hands—and vanished into the earth.
Those behind him suffered the same fate.
The Snow Plain collapsed in moments, and a thousand Kragons along with their riders began sinking into the ground.
Whinny-whinny-whinny!
Responding to Estel’s urgent cry that she’d leave him if he got hurt, Bael withdrew his blade and remounted.
Just before the ground beneath his feet disappeared.
Estel confirmed he was safe, then began zigzagging again.
Seeking out the few remaining solid patches.
“Well done, Estel.”
Bael smiled warmly, stroking her neck.
“Now we head back to the Imperial Palace.”
He murmured softly.
“To see Luciel.”
Estel’s speed became as if she were flying through the sky.
* * *
Tap.
Luciel examined the petal held at the tweezers’ tip once more.
Edible Viola Petals restored to freshness in ice water.
Color and form—both approved.
She held her breath as she carefully lowered the violet petal to the center of the Soufflé Pancake that had risen into delicate clouds.
A subtle vanilla fragrance mingled with the richness of butter wafted through the air.
As a final touch, Luciel scattered honey so lightly that it glazed the petal with translucent brilliance.
It was complete.
She tilted the plate, and the pancake jiggled with gelatin-like softness, stimulating the appetite.
This would be more than enough to awaken even a noble’s appetite.
On a day as good as this, she’d wanted to serve something even more special than usual.
“…Mm.”
She heard someone swallow behind her.
Luciel sighed softly and turned around.
Lined up by the kitchen entrance were precisely the people she’d anticipated.
Celine, Edwin, and Jerome, along with several other cooks.
As if by prior agreement, they tracked her every movement with hypnotized eyes.
“I’ve mentioned several times that watching me so intently during cooking is uncomfortable.”
“But we were quiet,” Celine protested.
“We deliberately didn’t call you over. We only watched from completion to completion.”
In other words—the unfinished process remained unseen.
“…”
“So, Luciel.”
Celine stepped closer to the counter and opened her mouth again.
“You know what I’m about to ask, right?”
“Yes.”
Luciel exhaled and faced her directly.
Beneath the light, silver hair flowed cold and flawless, and within it, pale eyes gleamed with crystalline clarity.
A delicate, sculpted face that inherited her mother’s beauty down to the last detail.
The pride of Bellaon—the Empire’s most beautiful woman, a genius of commerce, the strongest archer, all in one.
A faint trace of saliva seemed to linger at the corner of her mouth.
“Just one bite.”
The Empire’s most beautiful woman had spoken.

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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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