TPCFE 02

Chapter 2

“They say that food made with this tastes like heaven. No matter how much you complain about the fishy smell or anything else, do you really think the lord, who can’t forget this taste, will take your side……”

“So you’re the thief.”

Luciela muttered in a low voice.

“What?”

“That belongs to me. To me and my mother.”

Luciela pointed at the bottle Nigel was shaking.

“Do you know how carefully I had to figure out the ingredient ratios just to make one bottle of that powder? I tasted it down to the decimal point so many times that my tongue went numb.”

“W-what?”

They say it’s darkest under the lamp.

And it really was.

“What about the diary? Give that back too.”

“……”

Nigel’s eyes darted around for a moment, seemingly caught off guard.

But after a few seconds, his expression changed as though he had realized something, and a vile smile spread across his lips.

“Hmmm…… So that blonde-haired librarian who suddenly disappeared was your mother? Now that I look at you, I can see that you have exactly the same eyes.”

As if deliberately provoking Luciela, who was glaring at him, he slowly pulled an old notebook from inside his clothes.

A brown cover worn smooth from years of handling, with a leather strap tightly wrapped around it to keep the book closed.

One glance was enough.

It was definitely her mother’s.

“But I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was written in this thing.”

Pretending not to hear her, Nigel chuckled and flipped through the pages.

Of course he couldn’t understand it.

What was written inside wasn’t the common language of the Empire, but Korean—the language of the world her mother had originally belonged to.

There were only two people in the Empire who could decipher those letters.

Luciela’s mother.

And Luciela herself, who had learned everything from her.

“I was going to throw it away, but you need it that badly?”

Nigel waved the diary in front of her with a smug expression.

“Then beg for it.”

He paused.

“No, wait.”

He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Swear that you’ll work like a dog for another three years, just like I said earlier. Otherwise, I’ll burn this worthless bundle of paper right now…… What’s so funny?”

He stared at Luciela’s slightly upturned lips in confusion.

“Of course I’m smiling. Now I can finally leave this place without having to hold myself back anymore.”

And she meant every word.

Luciela no longer had any reason to endure it.

That pig-like face.

That irritating way of speaking.

That sleazy, filthy smile as he told her to remain an unpaid worker for even longer.

She gathered up every bit of mana she had left.

Almost all of it had already been poured into the Tornado Potato.

Then she snatched up the poisonous thornfish scales she had prepared earlier that morning, which were lying on the kitchen floor.

“W-wait, what are you doing? What are you planning to…… You can use mana?”

“Of course. Whose daughter do you think I am?”

In truth, she could only use a tiny amount.

But Luciela decided to frighten Nigel as much as possible.

A faint blue glow of mana flickered at her fingertips.

She used the mana to determine the direction, put all the strength in her body behind the motion, and threw the thornfish scale.

Thud!

The rapidly flying scale struck Nigel directly in the forehead.

The poisonous scale pierced his forehead, cheek, and chin, and his face instantly turned a swollen bluish-purple.

“Ugh?”

He let out a short cry before collapsing onto the kitchen floor with a heavy thump.

Luciela gasped for breath.

Now not only her mana, but her physical strength was completely exhausted.

She staggered over to Nigel and picked up the bottle of MSG and her mother’s diary from the floor, tucking both into her arms.

“……Ah.”

Just as she started walking away, Luciela suddenly remembered something.

She turned around, quietly approached Nigel again, and carefully removed the pouch of gold coins hanging from his waist.

“You follow the law when you have the luxury to do so. If you see something you need to survive, just take it.”

“Wouldn’t that make you a criminal?”

“My dear, I’m sorry, but Mommy is already a wanted criminal. And yet here I am, living quite happily with such a pretty daughter.”

That was how my mother taught me.

The woman who had once had the highest bounty in the entire Empire.

With the pouch of gold and her other belongings in hand, Luciela walked away.

“Is that it up ahead, Lucan?”

A man in his mid-to-late twenties, dressed in blue, dismounted from his horse and looked toward the lord’s castle.

He was a handsome young man with neat features and thick black hair combed neatly backward.

“Yes, Baron. That is the Nor Lord’s Castle.”

The tall guard following behind him dismounted and answered.

The black-haired man, Cain Bellaon, narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the castle walls.

“So she’s there…….”

He muttered under his breath.

For a brief moment, his throat moved instinctively.

She might be here.

The person who had saved him ten years ago, when he had been on the verge of death.

The miraculous taste he had experienced ten years ago suddenly came flooding back to his mind.

“Let’s go quic—”

“Yes, my Lor—uh?”

The two men stopped simultaneously as they walked toward the lord’s castle.

The massive iron gate protecting the castle creaked open all by itself.

And from within, a tiny foot stepped out.

“Who……”

It was a girl.

No—she was so young that she didn’t even look fifteen.

Cain narrowed his eyes once more and examined the girl carefully.

Blonde hair that looked as though it hadn’t been washed in several days, all tangled and messy.

An apron smeared with flour and various sauces.

Hands swollen bluish-purple, looking as though they might even be bleeding.

In those hands was something that appeared to be a strangely cut potato threaded onto a skewer.

Old, worn-out clothes and shoes.

In short, she looked absolutely filthy.

Cain had first experienced the “miraculous taste” about ten years ago, in the middle of a hellish battle to exterminate monsters.

At the time, the Empire was suffering from a shortage of manpower after years of continuous monster extermination campaigns.

With the lives of Imperial citizens becoming so devastated that everyday life itself was beginning to suffer, the Imperial family sent a distant collateral member of the royal family into the extermination campaign and ordered the nobles to do the same.

The message was simple:

The Imperial family has set an example, so you nobles should follow suit.

Most nobles complied.

In other words, just as the emperor had made a show of sending a distant collateral nephew into battle, most nobles either paid money to avoid service or hastily arranged for an adopted son to be sent in their place.

The Bellaon Ducal Family was similar to the latter.

This wasn’t the duke’s intention.

Marceus Bellaon, Duke of Bellaon.

A man who had once been called a war hero and the Sword of the Empire.

As a proud knight, he had believed that at least one of his legitimate children would volunteer for military service.

However, every one of his children refused, each making one excuse or another.

“I raised these brats as my children, only for them to……! If only Cedric were still alive……”

His close nephews were no different.

Eventually, the turn came to Cain, the son of one of his cousins.

In despair, the duke summoned Cain—the only member of the Bellaon family who hadn’t run away and had accepted military service.

“You said your name was Cain? How old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“You’re not even an adult yet…… If you come back alive, I’ll grant you a title. I’ll treat you better than my own children.”

The duke arranged for sixteen-year-old Cain to enter the Imperial Army at an intermediate rank rather than as a low-ranking soldier, hoping that he would be able to serve comfortably and return home safely.

Under normal circumstances, Cain would have been able to fight somewhere in the middle of the formation and return home.

But there was one problem.

The officers above him began fleeing one after another.

Before he knew what was happening, Cain had become the commander of the remaining extermination force.

At the age of sixteen.

During his very first battle.

Cain gritted his teeth and continued fighting.

There was nothing else he could do.

Miraculously, he managed to command the knights and drive a swarm of Basilisk Wyrms into a valley.

He then blew up the valley using flaming arrows and barrels of oil.

Finally, he succeeded in entering the wreckage alone and driving an arrow directly into the heart of the Queen Basilisk Wyrm.

Having accomplished the extermination force’s objective and secured victory, Cain collapsed after being covered in deadly venom.

No one came for him for a long time.

Just as he had given up on everything and was preparing to accept death, unfamiliar voices began reaching him through his fading consciousness.

“Oh my, what is this? Why is the Queen Basilisk Wyrm here? According to the setting, she isn’t supposed to die yet……”

“Basilisk! Poison spraaaay! Got you!”

It was a woman and a child.