BOPE 23

Chapter 23…

Aside from being unusually large, it was unmistakably the same kind of potato Donghee remembered.

Excited, Donghee forgot it was getting dark and eagerly pulled up another potato vine beside her.

“Jackpot!”

The potato was so big that calling it “hefty” didn’t even begin to describe it.

And they were starving, leaving something like this untouched?

“My Lord! You mustn’t touch such a plant filled with demonic energy so carelessly!”

Scrucie came rushing in, pale-faced and trembling like a man who had seen death. Without knowing what to do, the butler tightly shut his eyes and flung the dural Donghee was holding straight to the ground.

“What are you doing?!”

“It’s dangerous! You can’t just touch that plant!”

“Why? Is it poisonous?”

Donghee frowned as she looked at the potato rolling on the ground. She had been so pleased with it, and now it was just lying there, dusty and unappreciated.

“It’s not poisonous, but—”

“Then why?”

“It’s a plant filled with demonic energy!”

“So what if it is? Does eating it kill you?”

“Well… no, but…”

Scrucie looked deeply confused, even as he spoke. It was because, in all his life, he had never once considered dural something edible, not to mention the superstition that touching it brings three years of bad luck.

“Butler, did you say this plant is called dural?”

“Yes! So please, put that dreadful thing down right away! Sigh! If only you’d studied more, you wouldn’t be messing with such cursed things!”

Though it sounded like muttering, Scrucie’s words had a strangely reproachful tone. Donghee narrowed her eyes and gave him a sharp look, clearly annoyed.

In the meantime, Scrucie had stepped back again, stomping his feet about two meters away in distress.

“I’m taking it with me.”

“Whaaat?! Are you saying you’re bringing dural into the estate?!”

Scrucie reacted as if Donghee had invited a serial killer to move in.

“Why? I can’t?”

“As I said before, it’s filled with demonic energy—!”

“And yet I’m holding it just fine. Nothing’s happening. Instead of just staring, how about holding some of these for me?”

Since she had already pulled some out, Donghee crouched again, intending to harvest a few more.

The reason these potatoes had been left untouched all this time was probably because no one dared go near a plant so saturated with demonic energy.

Donghee looked up at the endless field of potatoes stretching before her.

With this many, the estate’s food supply should be secure for the time being.

The real problem, however, was the unfounded fear people had about dural. Unless she tackled that first, her people would continue starving with food right under their noses.

“You want me to hold them?”

Scrucie’s pupils trembled with unease.

He looked utterly pitiful, as if he’d been asked to commit a heinous crime, but Donghee was unmoved.

“Should I carry all of them myself, then? They’re heavy. Quit whining and come take them.”

Pretending not to notice his hesitation, Donghee tossed one dural toward Scrucie.

She thought he might just let it fall, but perhaps because it was a direct order, he caught it with a pained expression. From a distance, the gathered villagers gasped in shock.

“Eek!”

Scrucie grabbed only the stalk, holding the dural tuber as far away from his body as possible, arms outstretched like it was a ticking bomb.

The sight was so comical that Donghee burst into laughter, then went back to harvesting more potatoes.

The fertile soil yielded an endless supply. Donghee lost track of time until the sky had gone completely dark and she was practically dragged away from the hill by Scrucie.

“I’m only trying to educate you for your own good. If you’d studied, you wouldn’t be acting like this…”

“That sounded like a veiled insult. Just me imagining things?”

As Donghee was being pulled away from the dural field, Scrucie looked solemnly toward the dark forest and said,

“The Black Forest has turned completely black now.”

“Yep, definitely not my imagination.”

“That—That’s dural, isn’t it?!”

The chef nearly leapt backward when he saw Donghee walk in, arms full of potatoes.

Covered in dirt and misshapen, the tubers looked more like orc faces than vegetables.

“Yup. It’s potato.”

Donghee deliberately spoke in a calm voice to counter the chef’s panic.

“W-What? Not dural?”

At Donghee’s words, the fear and suspicion on the chef’s face began to melt away. But then—

“It is dural. But it’s potato too.”

“Eek!”

The chef recoiled again and rolled his eyes nervously between Scrucie and Delma, who were standing behind Donghee. Scrucie already looked utterly destroyed.

The chef stepped back and bumped into Scrucie. Realizing the butler’s clothes were caked in dirt, he yelped and jumped away again.

“Yes, it’s true. I brought dural here.”

Scrucie’s voice sounded hollow, his eyes void of life.

The chef and Delma turned to Clory for an explanation, but no one present could truly explain what was going on.

All they could do was show them firsthand just how delicious this “dural” — or whatever it was — could be.

“Wait. I’ll show you.”

“Show us what?”

“Something unbelievably delicious.”

This estate was so poor that the kitchen only had a chef and one assistant. The assistant couldn’t quite run away, so she clung to the kitchen wall, quietly observing.

The chef and his assistant were mainly in charge of preparing meals for Clory and the rare visiting guests.

Thud!

Donghee placed a large potato on the cutting board.

The chef gasped audibly. The assistant covered her mouth.

Bringing such a cursed thing into the kitchen… It was hopeless.

Donghee ignored the chef’s sobs and peeled the dural with practiced skill.

If you just looked at the way he writhed, it wasn’t the dural being peeled — it was the chef himself.

“Why is Her Lordship doing this?”

Delma, patting the chef’s twitching back, asked Scrucie quietly.

“Just when things were starting to look up…”

“Still, let’s wait and see. She really has changed, after all.”

Delma was reluctant to give up hope.

Meanwhile, the chef had stopped twitching and now blankly stared around the kitchen.

“Disinfecting the cutting board and knife will take a whole day, right?”

“What about the Lord? How do we purify her?”

“The dural must’ve really tainted her. Bathing alone won’t do.”

Delma shook her head.

“Then what if we take her on a sunny walk to soak up some rays?”

“She hates walking.”

“This is such a dilemma…”

Their quiet plotting drifted over to Donghee, who could clearly hear everything.

If she left them be, they’d probably hang her up on a laundry line and scrub her clean. Good thing bleach didn’t exist in this era.

Tap tap, tap tap!

Donghee’s swift hands sliced the round dural into long sticks.

The three observers, previously filled with concern, now showed flickers of curiosity.

They had expected black miasma to seep out the moment she cut it.

But despite peeling and chopping hundreds of pieces, there was no black smoke, no ominous aura at all.

The chef and Delma cautiously peeked into the kitchen. Scrucie, however, hadn’t moved an inch from his original spot.

Now Donghee was pouring oil into a pot.

“What! That precious oil?!”

The chef nearly fainted.

They only used that rare, expensive oil when important guests visited or during major estate events.

In wealthy territories, cooking with oil was normal, but in their poverty-stricken one, it was a luxury—something the chef considered a rare indulgence.

And now, their clueless lord was robbing him of that too.

Tears streamed down the chef’s cheeks.

Delma couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze. She simply patted his shoulder with an awkward smile.

It’s okay. Everything will be okay. Time heals all things…

But even she wasn’t confident. She just admired the enthusiasm Donghee was showing and quietly watched her work.

Donghee poured oil into the pot and began steaming some of the dural on the side.

She heard murmurs in the background again, but now wasn’t the time to pay attention.

Steamed potatoes and fries.

Just thinking about it made her mouth water.

Sssshhh!

When the thin dural sticks hit the bubbling oil, a mouthwatering sizzle echoed through the kitchen.

The pale dural turned golden and crisp, releasing a savory aroma that filled the room.