TPCFE 10

Chapter 10

Luciela slowly lifted her heavy eyelids.

An ivory-colored ceiling and a small chandelier came into view. Her body was wrapped in a soft, cozy blanket.

…Am I dead?

The unfamiliar luxury brought her fully back to her senses, and she slowly sat up.

“You should probably sleep a little longer.”

A young woman’s voice came from nearby.

Luciela turned her head and only then realized that Aila and Cain were sitting beside her bed.

Judging by the dark circles beneath their eyes, it seemed the two of them had been watching over her for quite some time.

“Eat first. We’ll talk after.”

Aila stirred the plate she was holding, scooped up some of its contents with a spoon, and put it into Luciela’s mouth.

It was a thick, milky-white soup.

The moment it entered her mouth, the luxurious aroma unique to pine mushrooms filled her nose.

“Wild pine mushrooms…?”

The thinly sliced mushrooms still had their natural texture, while cream burst forth as she chewed them. It was clearly an extremely high-end dish.

“Yes. When Jerome heard that you had collapsed, he made a huge fuss and prepared it.”

Cain answered.

“He even asked whether it was his fault for making you undergo that unnecessary test… but I suppose we can’t say that was the case.”

He lowered his head with a deeply furrowed brow.

Like a man blaming himself for something.

“Would you like some?”

Unable to think of any other way to comfort him, Luciela offered Cain the spoon.

“You should eat it all.”

“But it’s really delicious. I made it using just the right amount of stock from the Olive Merchant Guild. Did you watch me make it?”

Even as she brought the spoon back to her own mouth, she tried once again to persuade Cain.

At this point, she felt Jerome seemed like someone she could even exchange recipes with.

It also seemed like a sign that Jerome no longer disliked her, which secretly made her feel rather proud.

Cain sighed again.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Why, you ask? Because I…”

Cain raised his head, only to find Luciela staring at him blankly.

If you’re going to refuse the food anyway, why do you look like that?

“Because I am a piece of trash.”

“What?”

“I saw you collapse, yet I trusted the doctor at Lord Nor’s castle and didn’t even let you rest properly… Aila told me that exhaustion wasn’t your only problem. The fingers that came into contact with the poisonous pufferfish were injured, and there were also problems with your mana circuits.”

Cain finished speaking and let out another deep sigh.

Ah.

He’s blaming himself because of me?

Luciela stared blankly at Cain, suddenly feeling strangely awkward.

She had grown up receiving an abundance of love from her mother, but Luciela had always lived moving from one place to another.

Whenever she was separated from her mother, she had become accustomed to taking care of herself and simply surviving.

When she was sick, the best thing to do was usually to endure it and get back up. Even fainting after exhausting all her mana wasn’t a particularly big deal to Luciela.

She had spent quite some time serving a terrible superior at the lord’s castle, after all.

But to have an adult look at her with such concern simply because she had collapsed…

The unfamiliar warmth made Luciela flustered. As though asking for help, she glanced at Aila beside her.

I’m uncomfortable, so you comfort him instead.

That was what her gaze was meant to say.

“You’re right. The baron deserves divine punishment.”

Contrary to Luciela’s hopes, Aila drove the point home in a frigid voice.

“If you brought her all the way to the ducal residence, you should have brought her to me first.”

She turned toward Luciela for a moment, then smiled warmly as though she were an entirely different person.

“All the poison that remained in your fingers has been removed. Perhaps because you’ve been exposed to toxins so often, you have some resistance, so the treatment went quickly… As for your stamina and mana, we replenished them with medicine.”

Hearing this, Luciela looked down at her hand.

The wounds that should have remained, even faintly, had disappeared completely, and her body felt lighter than usual.

Can I really be this fine after using a buff and touching a poisonous pufferfish?

“What did you say your name was…?”

Perhaps because of Luciela’s suspicious gaze, Aila smiled again and held out her hand.

“You can call me Aila. Everyone else calls me Doctor Ruan, though.”

Doctor Ruan.

A memory from the past flashed through Luciela’s mind like lightning.

“You know, Mom was really curious about why Bael dies, so I tried all kinds of things in the game…”

“…What did you do this time?”

“Hey, I was a game player back then. Anyway, I wondered if there was something wrong with the people around him, so I killed them all one by one to test it.”

“…That’s cruel.”

“But when I killed his attending physician, Dr. Ruan, Bael couldn’t even survive for three days. That was when I realized this character was a genius, too.”

So this is that person.

It had been Aila who had kept his precarious lifeline intact for the past two years.

“Oh, right. I heard you drew your sword in the kitchen. What were you thinking, doing that when you could have frightened the girl into fainting?”

Unaware of Luciela’s small revelation, Aila began verbally attacking Cain again.

“Do you even think before you act? Is Lord Bael the only person who matters to you? Does nobody else matter?”

It was a vicious tirade that crossed every conceivable line for a subordinate speaking to her baronial superior, yet Cain lowered his head even further as if he accepted every word.

“I was trying to ask her for a favor…”

“You call that asking? I’m sure your eyes were raised like this again. I’ve told you before that when you speak in that blunt tone with those sharp eyes, the other person hears it as a threat, not a request. Look at yourself. Does that look like someone asking for a favor? I told you not to look at people like that!”

“…”

Luciela sat awkwardly on the bed, watching Aila viciously tear into her superior.

After another ten minutes of insults, and after seeing Cain obediently listen to every single word, Luciela became certain of one thing.

Cain hadn’t been trying to threaten her in the first place.

He had genuinely been trying to ask for a favor.

It was simply that his naturally intimidating appearance and blunt way of speaking made every request sound like a threat to kill someone.

“Let me say this again. You owe me nothing, child. If anything, I am the one who owes you.”

Once Aila’s scolding finally ended, Cain spoke.

“The dish you made for Bael must have been extraordinary. His leg muscles even moved slightly. That is enough.”

Cain slowly raised his head and looked at Luciela.

His eyes were filled with deep anguish and regret.

“I don’t remember everything your mother said while she was beside me ten years ago, when I was hovering between life and death. But when I saw you collapsed, I remembered one thing.”

He continued.

“You said you were sick back then, too. Because you made that bread called castella.”

“…”

“A dish that instantly restores stamina and mana. It seems that making such a dish causes side effects on your body.”

Instead of answering, Luciela pressed her lips tightly together, and Cain seemed to take that as confirmation.

“I will never force you to do anything like that again.”

He declared quietly.

“I swear on the name of Bellaon. And I will keep your ability a secret. If someone should discover it and try to take advantage of you, then I, the person who brought you here, will do everything in my power to stop them.”

Luciela stared at him for a moment before meeting his blue eyes.

He was still a frightening man. His huge frame, cold aura, and overwhelming presence hadn’t changed.

But the worried look in his eyes now somehow made her feel at ease.

Rather than a threat, it felt like a shield.

The fact that Aila, standing beside her, had just hurled an unbelievable amount of abuse at her own superior for Luciela’s sake also gave her a strange sense of security.

So much so that the ducal residence felt more comfortable than the lord’s castle where she had spent two years.

“We’ll continue with the apologies later.”

Aila spoke as she cleared away the now-empty soup bowl.

“If you don’t mind, may I ask what you meant by what you said right before you collapsed?”

She looked Luciela straight in the eyes.

“You said Lord Bael’s problem couldn’t be solved with food. That toxins were the problem.”

“…”

Only then did Luciela remember what had happened just before she fainted.

She also remembered the symptoms the status window had shown her about Bael.

[Symptom: Toxins flowing throughout the entire body.]

If the source of the poison is not removed, DEATH IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN.