TPCFE 12

Chapter 12

Luciela managed to obtain Cain’s permission to keep an eye on Bael.

Officially, she was Bael’s personal chef, and in practice, she fed him a great many things.

Part of the reason was that she found it difficult to completely trust food prepared by someone else, but more than anything, she wanted to make sure he was actually getting enough nutrition.

Using the kitchen was no longer a problem.

“Goodness! Our genius little chef is here! Come on, you should use the biggest cooking station over here.”

Whenever she appeared, Jerome would come rushing over, organize all the ingredients she needed, and then stick close by, devoting all his attention to memorizing her recipes.

Every day at the same time, Luciela would head to Bael’s room carrying the food she had prepared with care.

The first time she presented him with whole roasted potatoes, asparagus, and several juicy slices of beef, Bael coldly shook his head.

“I don’t need it, so go away. You’re just going to collapse in someone else’s room again…”

His refusal was stubborn.

Until Aila finally gave up waiting, reached over Bael’s tray, picked up a piece of beef, and popped it straight into her mouth.

Bael’s eyes lit up in alarm at the sight.

“W-What are you doing? You came here to see a patient, so what are you—”

“I’m sorry. I’ve been skipping meals all day because I was preparing Lord Bael’s medicine… Oh my, this is delicious! The seasoning is incredible! So there really was a reason Lord Cain praised it so highly!”

As Aila’s eyes sparkled and she emptied the plate, Bael could only stare blankly at her, completely at a loss for words.

It was on the second day, when gnocchi covered generously in truffle cream sauce was delivered.

Bael picked up his fork somewhat reluctantly, while also casting wary glances around to make sure no one else had entered with it.

“Well… if I don’t eat it, Aila will have to force herself to eat it again, right?”

“Lady Aila even gave me pocket money and asked me to make an extra portion for her…”

Luciela spoke, but Bael abruptly shook his head as though he didn’t want to hear it.

“Anyway, I’ll eat it, so don’t bother anyone else.”

He quickly polished off the entire plate of gnocchi.

The meat pie she gave him the next day, too.

And the sandwich she brought the day after that, packed with cheese and ham, with honey spread on one side of the bread and sauce on the other.

Every time, he would pout and complain, but he ate every single thing Luciela brought him without leaving even a crumb behind.

“It’s lunch.”

On the seventh day, Bael, who had been lying down, sat up at Luciela’s words.

His large, vividly blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.

He alternated between examining the tray Luciela held out and looking at her face before muttering quietly.

“…You didn’t put that in, did you? You look tired.”

He was asking whether she had poured her mana into the cooking.

After learning that her collapse had been caused by the buff, Bael had occasionally interrogated her like this.

Luciela gave a small laugh and firmly shook her head.

“I told you I didn’t. This is just an ordinary lunch.”

“You’re not going to collapse?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“Are you worried?”

At Luciela’s casual question, Bael’s lips pressed tightly together.

After a brief silence, he snapped back irritably.

“Of course I am. If you collapse on top of me, you’ll be heavy.”

He said that, but his hand was already reaching for the tray Luciela had brought.

Herb-crusted chicken roasted until golden brown, fluffy baby potatoes, a fresh vegetable salad, and freshly baked rye bread.

Bael still seemed suspicious of something as he slowly began eating.

Although, strangely enough, the clinking of his spoon seemed to grow faster the more he ate.

“When are you leaving today?”

Bael asked after pushing his empty plate aside.

“I don’t know.”

Luciela answered while looking around the room.

The source of the poison was still a complete mystery.

It wasn’t the bedding or the tableware.

It wasn’t the furniture Cain had replaced several times, either.

Even magical tools specifically designed to detect toxins had found nothing.

It was incredibly frustrating.

Especially considering that, among the handful of people who entered and left Bael’s room, no one except Bael himself seemed to be affected by the toxins.

The only reassuring thing was that Bael’s complexion had noticeably improved.

While Luciela was lost in thought, Bael reached out and picked up the sword lying beneath his bed.

It had been there since the very first day she met him.

An heirloom he had inherited from his father.

The moment the hilt touched Bael’s hand, the exquisitely crafted rapier, set with jewels, gleamed as it absorbed mana.

“It’s just my usual practice, so you can stay if you want.”

“…”

When someone first learned to manipulate mana, they normally used a medium or catalyst. Eventually, with enough development, they could gradually manipulate mana with their bare bodies.

Even so, people still used mediums during training because they made the power flowing through the air visible to the eye.

Bael was unusually capable of manipulating enormous amounts of mana with his bare body at the age of fourteen, but he still kept a training sword nearby.

Luciela, however, frowned.

“I told you your stamina isn’t good enough for that.”

“What?”

Bael abruptly turned his gaze toward her.

“Why should I listen to you?”

He replied defiantly.

“My body has finally started obeying me a little, so don’t try to stop me.”

Luciela frowned.

Cain had gone to the Imperial Palace after receiving an imperial summons, while Aila had gone out to find a supplier of medicinal herbs.

The Grand Duke still hadn’t returned from the territory, so he wasn’t at the residence either.

In other words, there was no one around to stop Bael.

“If you don’t listen to me, I’ll only make foods you hate.”

“Do you even know what tastes bad to me?”

“I’ll squeeze the juice out of bitter melon and grind an entire butterbur root into it, then mix in unripe astringent persimmons. For dessert, I’ll give you gentian tea. How about that?”

“…!”

Bael’s face filled with alarm, as though merely hearing the description made him shudder.

“…I’m still going to do it.”

“I’ll take away the honey Aila puts in your medicine, too.”

“…Do you think I’m a child?”

He flinched again before forcing his expression back into place and snapping at her.

You are a child.

“This is ridiculous. Uncle and Grandfather don’t care, so what right do you have to stop me?”

Bael abruptly turned his head away and began gripping the sword while putting strength into his legs.

“Stop.”

Bael didn’t stop.

His legs trembled faintly, and Luciela’s expression filled with shock.

Is he insane?

He had actually managed to move his legs, even slightly, despite their paralysis from the poison.

After experiencing his leg muscles moving once after eating the buff-enhanced soup, he must have been using that memory to train himself relentlessly every day.

It was an absurd rate of progress.

Almost to the point where it should have been impossible for a human being.

The problem was that he was burning through his own stamina just as relentlessly.

Flash!

The blade shone silver, and a pattern of the same color appeared on the back of Bael’s hand.

“…!”

Before Luciela could even understand what was happening, he channeled the mana he had gathered into his legs and bent his knees.

“Urgh…”

“Stop!”

Luciela repeated herself, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he gathered even more mana.

This time, his ankle twitched.

“Gasp! Cough!”

“I told you to stop!”

Seeing his face turn pale with pain, Luciela hurriedly snatched the sword away and dropped it onto the floor.

“Haa… huff…”

Bael breathed heavily.

His face had completely lost its color, making him look like a ghost.

“I thought if I pushed just a little more, I might be able to put weight on them…”

“…”

Supporting Bael by holding his arm, Luciela stared straight at him.

Cold anger began boiling up from deep within her stomach.

“…Why?”

“What?”

“Do you actually want to get better?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I…”

“Then is it because you don’t trust me, Lord Cain, or Lady Aila that you refuse to listen to us?”

“…”

Only then did Bael slowly raise his head and meet her gaze directly.

Luciela’s eyes were ice-cold as she looked at him.

“You know, all of this effort is meaningless if you don’t have the will to get better.”

Bael’s face twitched with humiliation.

“Not enough will? Me?”

“If you really had the will, you’d also know how to endure.”

“…”

“You’d know how to trust and follow the people who are trying to help you recover. Instead of abusing your body like this.”

“…!”

“I’ll be blunt. Decide right here whether you’re going to trust me or not.”

She said it with an expression completely devoid of a smile.

“I’m telling you clearly. If you don’t trust me, I won’t come here anymore.”

Bael bit his lip tightly.

“…What do you know?”

He muttered.

“You don’t know why I have to go this far…”

Perhaps because of his frustration, color began returning to his previously pale face.

“You think there’s nothing else I can do?”

“…”

As though she had struck the exact center of the issue, Bael’s eyes shook violently.

“I know. At least that much. Because I’ve been there, too.”

When she was young, whenever the Red Moon appeared and her mother would disappear for months, leaving Luciela behind.

When the neighbors who had been paid to look after her ran away in the middle of the night with the money.

Luciela would practice using mana just as her mother had taught her.

Because only when she felt certain that she was becoming even a little stronger could she finally ease the anxiety that had been constantly bearing down on her.

“If you don’t do at least this much, it feels like your very existence is being denied. Like you’ll be left completely alone in this world and simply disappear. That’s why you keep pushing yourself like this.”