The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 95

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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 95
“It’s a dessert called a choux pastry.”
At Luciel’s words, Noahd, who stood at the front of the group, turned his gaze toward the trolley.
There, stacked like mountains, were round golden orbs dusted with a fine white powder so delicate it seemed as though fresh snow had just fallen on a winter peak.
They were far too light and tender to be called freshly baked bread—the rough hands of a knight would surely send them floating skyward like dandelion seeds.
On another trolley that followed came cold milk, tea, and juice, all neatly arranged.
‘Beautiful.’
Noahd, who had grown up on the southern coast, was a man who loved daintily plated desserts.
The kind of man whose hands reached out instinctively at mountains of sweets.
Years ago, when someone suggested it might be nice to leave the seaside and journey to the Imperial City, he’d accepted without hesitation—partly for this very reason.
“Eating sweets during training is hardly appropriate.”
From beside him, Vice Commander Alph’s voice cut through the moment.
‘A lie.’
Alph was no less obsessed with sweets than Noahd.
He often stopped by the Imperial Palace Kitchen on the way to the Training Ground, gathering all manner of treats for snack time with the knights—and Noahd knew he paid the kitchen maids handsomely to make it all possible.
Under his influence, many of the knights lined up behind them were already swallowing hard, their eyes fixed on the trolley.
Still, Noahd nodded at Alph’s resolve.
After all, the entire 7th Knight Order had just been utterly crushed by the new Commander and her companions.
It would be shameful for the whole order to lick their wounds with wagging tails like dogs.
Noahd, who had been thrown to the ground by Bael’s hand, knew this truth better than anyone.
He worked his still-bruised neck and shot a sidelong glare at Luciel and Bael.
Preserving pride mattered more than dessert—the honor of a knight.
Alph seemed to agree, clearing his throat as though to gently admonish Luciel.
“The knight order has its principles. If you leave these here, I’ll take them home and dispose of them——”
It was around then that hands began quietly pulling the trolleys backward.
“Nom.”
“Gulp.”
“Swallow.”
Alph’s words died under the sound of eager chewing.
“Oh, this is incredible!”
“Huh… it’s like angels are singing in my mouth.”
Noahd’s brow furrowed.
Several knights had lost their restraint immediately.
‘These shameless bastards!’
He glared at them with furious eyes.
No discipline, no pride.
At least the Vice Commander should have some dignity——
—until Noahd’s gaze caught sight of something unseemly.
“You fools! One at a time!”
As though discarding the dignity he’d just invoked, Vice Commander Alph was urgently snatching choux pastries from another knight’s hand.
It was the signal they’d all been waiting for. The knights in the Training Ground rushed toward the pastries en masse.
“Anyone who’s already finished, get out of the way! I’ve been suffering from that delicious smell since we arrived!”
“It’s been at the top of my mind since before! The chef from Maestel!”
“Chocolate Choux Pastry! There’s Chocolate Choux Pastry here!”
‘This one and that one both…’
Noahd’s face twisted in frustration.
When he looked up at Bael, he felt again the killing intent that had choked him moments before.
He hadn’t even had time to surrender.
By the time he’d heard Haber’s voice declaring the order’s defeat, by the time he’d seen the dart that Kal threw with his own eyes, he still hadn’t managed to move.
For someone who’d once boasted of being the finest warrior in his village, it was the greatest humiliation of his life.
‘I won’t eat.’
He sniffed at the air and muttered inwardly as his comrades made their mad dash for the bread.
‘Not even if I die, not even if a sword comes to my throat—I won’t eat.’
It was at that precise moment that someone standing nearest to him, unable to contain their excitement, gripped their prize too hard.
Splurt—
The side of the choux pastry burst open, and cream began to leak from within.
A sweet fragrance assaulted Noahd’s nose.
Through the fine cracks, cream oozing forth looked as smooth and pearl-like as melted nacre.
A creamy rivulet, glossy and enticing, trickled down the delicate shell.
A fatal temptation that made one’s mouth water merely by looking.
The vanilla scent that rose from the gap swept away the Training Ground’s earthy smell in an instant and demolished Noahd’s last defenses against reason.
He extended his hand forward as though in a trance.
It was not a choice.
His body moved of its own accord, like a priest receiving a divine revelation.
Gulp.
The moment he put the choux pastry in his mouth, he froze in place, dumbstruck.
‘Is this… magic?’
The crisp exterior crackled and dissolved in an instant, and within, a rich cream burst forth, flooding his entire mouth like a wave.
The vanilla flavor that clung to his tongue seemed to soften every muscle in his body with its sweetness.
As if washing away the memory of being thrown like a dog by Bael’s hand.
But there was more.
The muscle soreness vanished, and new energy swirled through his body.
As though he’d consumed some universal panacea.
‘This impossible illusion…’
This was no ordinary food.
He stuffed the remaining pastry into his mouth and, lost in bliss, looked up again at Luciel.
A witch of a woman.
One who enthralls people through cooking.
One who gave him the experience of a miracle.
Noahd understood instinctively.
How she had seized this position.
It was said that many Honorary Commanders had come before.
Some had showered the order with gold, others had provided new armor and weapons, elevating the order’s standing.
But the most overwhelming Honorary Commander was surely this woman before his eyes.
At least to Noahd, she was.
She’d brought the master of the Northern Region without ceremony and devastated the entire knight order.
And just as casually, she’d shown them a taste of heaven and healed all their wounds.
Where shame once dwelt, only understanding remained.
‘Is it really her?’
Noahd blinked slowly, thinking it through.
The master he’d truly desired to serve ever since he made his vow to become a knight.
‘Was it always meant to happen? To find them while living?’
Haber, sucking on the cream that clung to his fingers beside him, seemed to be having similar thoughts—staring dumbly at Luciel.
One might ask how a knight could pledge loyalty over a single pastry, but then again. That’s only something someone who’s never eaten a ‘choux pastry’ could say.
And it wasn’t merely the food, anyway.
‘That leaves only him.’
His gaze shifted slightly.
To the one person among the thirty knights who remained rigid and unmoved.
‘Needlessly stiff, that one.’
Kal—or rather, Kalik—stood apart from the heap of choux pastries, his face hard and turned away.
‘…How impressive. How truly impressive.’
Luciel watched Kal, who had remained motionless, and clicked her tongue softly.
She’d made these choux pastries since morning, and they came out perfectly.
The aroma was so good that before even entering, she and Bael had snuck two each.
And she’d woven her Special Buff Function into these pastries as she made them.
Not merely restoring strength, but relaxing a person’s body as though they’d received an hour-long massage.
It was certainly partly why the knights had given in so easily before the pastries.
‘His tastes really are particular.’
Her mother had mentioned it before.
When Kalik was injured, in the game, even the stews and breads everyone else ate wouldn’t fully restore his energy.
He maintained a level of health where he wouldn’t die outright, but he rarely responded well to ordinary nourishment.
“……”
Luciel pondered for a moment, then dug through her pocket and carefully withdrew the single choux pastry she’d been saving from the start.
‘It has to succeed.’
Even as she thought that, she moved forward.
Luciel was the sort of person who tried first and judged afterward, regardless of outcome.
“Please, have this.”
“…Pardon?”
Seeing the pastry she offered, Kal’s face grew even more rigid.
“I’m afraid I don’t eat much bread——”
“Just one bite. If it tastes bad, you can stop right there.”
Kal’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
He wasn’t angry, but his expression suggested he found the situation uncomfortable.
“Half a bite.”
Luciel made her request again.
Her eyes wide and innocent, her expression as earnest as she could make it.
Kal’s pupils wavered for a moment, and his hand moved toward the pastry.
“Just half a bite.”
He opened his mouth very slightly and nibbled the tiniest morsel.
And in the next instant, he froze as though turned to stone.
“This…!”
“Exactly.”
Luciel spoke softly.
“Salt from the Kalbat Strait—the most dangerous waters in the South Sea—went into these.”
A small smile played at the corner of her mouth.
Kal could only blink, rendered speechless.
‘She knew.’
This woman, barely more than a girl, with her gleaming green eyes looking up at him.
She had known his identity from the very beginning.

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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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