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 warm, comfortable 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 Ayla and Cain were sitting beside her bed.

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

“Eat first. We’ll talk after you’ve eaten.”

Ayla stirred the dish she was holding, scooped up some of its contents with a spoon, and fed it to Luciela.

It was a thick, milky-white soup.

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

“Jinbaek matsutake…?”

The thinly sliced mushroom broke apart along its fibers as she chewed, releasing the rich cream beneath it.

It was clearly an extremely high-end dish.

“Yes. When Jerome heard that you collapsed, he went into a frenzy and made it.”

Cain answered.

“He even asked whether it was his fault for making you undergo that pointless test… but I suppose it wasn’t.”

He lowered his head with a deeply furrowed brow.

Like someone blaming himself for something.

“Would you like some?”

Unable to think of any other way to comfort him, Luciela held the spoon out toward Cain.

“You eat it all.”

“But it’s really delicious. He used the Olive Merchant Guild’s stock in just the right amount to make it. Did you watch me?”

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

At this point, Jerome seemed like someone she could probably share recipes with.

It also seemed like his cooking was a sign that Jerome no longer hated Luciela, which secretly made her feel proud.

Cain sighed again.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Why, you ask? Because I…”

Cain raised his head, and Luciela stared blankly at him.

If he was going to refuse the food anyway, why did he look like that?

“Because I am garbage.”

“Huh?”

“I saw you collapse, yet I trusted what the doctor at Lord Nor’s castle told me and didn’t let you rest properly. According to Ayla, it wasn’t merely exhaustion. The finger that came into contact with the poisonous pufferfish was injured, and there was also a problem with your mana circuits.”

After finishing, Cain let out another deep sigh.

Ah.

He was blaming himself because of me?

Luciela stared blankly at Cain, suddenly overcome by an awkward feeling.

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

Whenever she was separated from her mother, she had become somewhat accustomed to taking responsibility for herself and simply surviving.

If she got sick, the best thing to do was usually just suffer through it and get back up.

And passing out after exhausting her mana wasn’t anything particularly serious to Luciela.

Especially after spending so long serving a terrible superior at Lord Nor’s castle.

But this…

An adult looking at her with such concern simply because she had collapsed.

The unfamiliar warmth left Luciela flustered.

As if asking for help, she glanced at Ayla beside her.

The meaning was essentially:

I’m uncomfortable, so please comfort him for me.

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

Contrary to Luciela’s wishes, Ayla drove the point home in a cold voice.

“If you brought her to the ducal residence after all that, you should have brought her to me immediately.”

She briefly turned toward Luciela, then smiled at her affectionately as though she had become a completely different person.

“I removed all the poison that remained in your finger. You must have developed some resistance from handling poison so often, because the treatment went quickly… As for your stamina and mana, I replenished them with medicine.”

Hearing Ayla’s words, Luciela looked down at her hand.

The wound that should have been there, however slight, had completely disappeared, and her body felt lighter than usual.

Could she really recover this perfectly after using her buff and coming into contact with a poisonous pufferfish?

“What did you say your name was…?”

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

“You can call me Ayla. Other people call me Doctor Ruan.”

Doctor Ruan.

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

“You know, Mom, I was so curious about why Vael died that I tried all sorts 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.”

“…That’s cruel.”

“But when I killed Doctor Ruan, Vael couldn’t even survive for three days. That was when I thought, ‘This character really is a genius.’”

So this was that person.

Ayla had been the one continuously extending the precarious thread of his life for the past two years.

“Oh, right. I heard that you drew your sword in the kitchen. What were you thinking? What if the girl had been frightened and passed out?”

Unaware of Luciela’s little realization, Ayla began unleashing more verbal attacks on Cain.

“Do you actually think things through? Is Vael the only person who matters to you? Does nobody else matter?”

For someone of lower status to speak so harshly to a Baron was far beyond the line of propriety.

Yet Cain lowered his head even further, as if accepting every word.

“I was trying to ask her a favor…”

“It was only a favor in words. Your eyes were probably glaring like this again, weren’t they? I’ve told you before that when you speak in that blunt tone with those sharp eyes, it sounds like a threat rather than a request. Look at yourself. Does that look like the face of someone asking for a favor? I told you not to open your eyes like that!”

“……”

Luciela sat awkwardly, watching Ayla’s vicious barrage of personal attacks.

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

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

He really had been trying to ask her for a favor.

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

“Let me say this again. You owe me no obligation whatsoever, child. If anything, I am the one indebted to you.”

After Ayla’s scolding finally ended, Cain spoke.

“The dish you made for Vael must have been extraordinary. It even caused the muscles in his legs to move slightly. That alone 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, fighting for her life ten years ago. But when I saw you collapsed, one thing came to mind.”

He continued.

“You said you were sick back then as well. Because you made that Castella.”

“……”

“Food that immediately restores stamina and mana. It seems that after making such food, your body suffers some kind of side effect.”

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

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

He declared quietly.

“I swear upon the name of Vellaon. And I will keep your ability a secret. If someone happens to learn about it and tries to exploit you, I will do everything in my power to stop them. After all, I am the one who brought you here.”

Luciela stared at him before meeting his blue eyes.

He was still a frightening man.

His large body, cold atmosphere, and overwhelming presence had not changed.

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

Rather than a threat, it felt like a shield.

The fact that Ayla, standing beside her, had just unleashed a tremendous amount of verbal abuse at her own superior on Luciela’s behalf also gave her a strange sense of security.

So much so that the Vellaon Ducal Residence already felt more comfortable than Lord Nor’s castle, where she had spent two years.

“We’ll apologize some more later.”

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

“But if you’re feeling well enough, may I ask what you meant by what you said right before you collapsed?”

She looked directly into Luciela’s eyes.

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

“……”

Only then did I remember what had happened right before I passed out.

And the symptoms the status window had shown me for Vael.

[Symptom: Toxins flowing throughout the entire body.]

If the source of the poison is not removed, DEATH IS !A!B!S!O!L!U!T!E!L!Y! guaranteed.