TPCFE 30

Chapter 30

The food was still there.

It was the tender venison stew Renard had spent days painstakingly preparing for the twenty-one festival participants.

Luciella bit her lip.

Everything in the kitchen was intact, and the amount of food hadn’t decreased at all.

That left only one possibility.

Someone had tampered with the food.

Status Window.

With a soft pop, the miniature status window appeared in the air.

Can you tell what’s in this? You can do basic recipe analysis, can’t you?

[Venison Stew — Basic Analysis Complete]

Ingredients: Venison, potatoes, carrots, mixed herbs, broth.

Overall ingredient condition: Good.

Cooking status: Long-term simmering has produced deep flavor. Seasoning is well balanced.

※ However, this status window’s recipe analysis function specializes in evaluating flavor and nutrition. Precise analysis of intentionally added foreign substances falls outside authorized parameters. We apologize.

Try harder.

She snapped irritably.

So it’s exactly the same as yesterday?

[Comparing with yesterday’s data… Something does seem different, but specifically… %!☆…]

Heyyyyy!

[Insufficient mana. Forced shutdown initiated. Please do not overexert yourself.]

As if overloaded, the status window flickered out.

No…

The problem was that she had overworked it for days while delivering late-night snacks to the Duke.

Its performance had dropped this badly.

Luciella alternated her gaze between the stew and the empty air where the status window had vanished.

She couldn’t throw the stew away.

According to the Duke family’s traditions, it had to be served to the participants.

But she couldn’t leave it as it was either.

She couldn’t let Bael eat this mysterious food.

“What are you doing?”

Renard’s irritated voice sounded from behind her.

“Hurry and prepare breakfast. We’re reheating the stew and serving it.”

As Luciella slowly turned around, she saw that the entire kitchen staff had already arrived and were staring at her.

“…We have to do it again.”

“What?”

“…We need to make it again. Someone tampered with the food.”

At her words, Renard’s eyes trembled for a moment before his brows knitted together fiercely.

“…Don’t talk nonsense.”

His tone was firm.

“I’ve spent days making that stew. The seasoning is perfect. What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this, saying we should throw it all away just because you said so?”

“The lid was wrong, but the stew itself looked different too. Yesterday, the largest chunk of meat was floating on top. Today the potatoes are on top, like someone stirred it. Even though nobody reheated it.”

“Who would notice something like that?!”

Renard shouted.

“And you expect us to believe that?! Stop wasting time and get it ready to serve!”

…Something’s wrong.

Luciella watched Renard practically spray spit while defending the stew.

He might have a terrible personality, but he was the head chef of a great ducal family.

Caution should have been second nature to him.

Especially when it concerned a dish for which he bore full responsibility.

Even if he didn’t believe me immediately, a normal person would at least investigate or taste it first.

Renard had clearly been startled by her accusation.

Yet he didn’t even look at the stew before reaching his conclusion.

“Every participant is eating the venison stew I made. That’s tradition. It’s not something a nobody like you gets to change. Understand?”

Wait…

“It has to be this stew. Got it?”

Several memories flashed through Luciella’s mind.

“Lucy, what did I tell you to do if you ever run into members of the Bellaon family?”

“Be! Care! Ful!”

“Our Lucy pronounces things so well now! That’s right. Especially be careful of Osbern. He’ll eventually sit on the Noble Council, and his specialty is planting his people everywhere.”

“Planting pebbles? Like flowers?”

“He places loyal followers in important positions. Taverns where information can be overheard, knight orders, coachmen. In a way, he’s very good at managing connections.”

“Why?”

“Who knows… Maybe because he couldn’t find another way to increase his own power. Through other people, you can control all sorts of things. Eventually he even extends his influence into the Imperial Palace. Whenever I was doing the ‘Hit the Crown Prince’ quest and suddenly got whacked in the back of the head by a gatekeeper, it was usually one of Osbern’s people…”

The kitchen was an important place.

Perhaps even more important than the knights.

Luciella recalled the first day she had met Renard.

The look exchanged between him and Osbern.

At the time, she had simply assumed Renard was wary of Osbern.

But what if…

What if Renard was actually loyal to him?

Enough to tamper with food?

Luciella frowned.

But was that really possible?

A chef?

And the people eating this food would all be nobles.

Not just one or two, either.

“Hmph. If you’re so worried, I’ll show you.”

Renard took a small breath, scooped up a ladleful of stew, and glared at it.

The next moment, he squeezed his eyes shut and gulped it down.

“See? I’m perfectly fine.”

“…”

At this point, Luciella became certain of two things.

First, Renard was definitely the culprit.

The way he stubbornly insisted the stew was fine without a shred of doubt made that obvious.

Second, whatever had been added wasn’t a deadly poison.

If that was the case…

“I’ll call Aila, just in case.”

Luciella said.

“Aila has medicine that neutralizes poisons beforehand. It doesn’t affect the flavor. Adding a little should be fine.”

Of course, that was a lie.

If such a medicine existed, it would have been added to every dish.

This was a test.

“No! Who gave you permission to touch my food? The stew is being served exactly as it is!”

“…”

I knew it.

The fact that he wouldn’t even allow that confirmed it.

Renard had definitely done something to the stew.

And considering all the clues…

It’s probably some kind of potion that weakens the limbs. Too mild to really be called a poison.

She had heard her mother mention such things before.

Sometimes they appeared as rewards in game quests.

Using one would reduce an opponent’s energy points.

And after arriving in Eselled, she’d learned that some knights secretly fed similar substances to rivals before swordsmanship tournaments.

If Renard had used it for Osbern’s sake, then the person they wanted to win was undoubtedly Theo.

The collateral family branches weren’t even aiming for victory in the first place.

That made it even more obvious.

“Haa…”

Luciella let out a small sigh.

Then one thing became absolutely clear.

“That stew is never leaving this kitchen.”

“What?”

Renard’s expression darkened even further, but Luciella didn’t back down.

This was too underhanded.

No competition could ever be perfectly fair, but tampering with the participants’ food crossed every line imaginable.

No—in truth, a chef using dirty tricks in a dish bearing his own name was despicable in itself.

“Move.”

“No.”

The two glared at each other with murderous intensity.

The other cooks nervously watched from the sidelines.

Then—

“What is all this commotion?”

A deep, heavy voice echoed through the kitchen.

The Duke.

Behind him stood Osbern, Theo, and even the collateral relatives.

More than twenty people had gathered in the corridor and were now staring toward the kitchen.

“We haven’t even reached the banquet hall yet, and it’s already this noisy?”

“It’s nothing, Your Grace.”

Renard hurried forward.

“The child was spouting nonsense. She seemed unwell, so I was about to send her back to her room.”

“I heard everything.”

The Duke spoke briefly.

Then his gaze shifted to Luciella.

“You’re saying there’s a problem with the stew?”

“Yes.”

“Venison traditionally symbolizes martial fortune. Renard’s stew is famous even outside Bellaon territory. It takes ten days to make.”

“I’ve heard.”

“And despite that, if the participants cannot be served this dish… do you have an alternative?”