TPCFE 04

Chapter 4

“……!”

Cain’s molars sank into the crispy, fried exterior of the potato.

Then the fluffy flesh inside melted across his tongue, releasing the rich umami of butter.

It was an incredibly sophisticated and elaborate flavor for something as simple as a potato.

What amazed him most was the seasoning.

Between the saltiness of the coarse salt, layers of an unfamiliar dried herb aroma unfolded one after another.

The combination cut sharply through the richness of the butter while bringing out the potato’s own savory flavor to its absolute limit.

Even the Imperial chefs were more concerned with pouring expensive spices into their dishes than with carefully balancing herbs and salt to create such an addictive depth of flavor.

But was it his imagination?

Immediately after chewing and swallowing the potato, Cain felt a faint vibration in the flow of mana throughout his body.

“What……?”

Crunch.

Cain snatched up the remaining piece and chewed it.

This time, there was no doubt.

A warm energy traveled down his throat and spread throughout his entire body.

His heavy body became lighter, while the sensation in his fingertips sharpened dramatically.

His physical abilities had been temporarily enhanced.

It was exactly the same sensation he had experienced in that forest ten years ago.

It’s her.

There was no doubt.

It was the work of the same person who had made the Castella.

“Child! Wake up!”

When Cain urgently shook Luciela, she opened her eyes ever so slightly.

Her unfocused green eyes wandered through the air.

“Did…… Chef Nigel make this?”

At his question, tears welled up in the corners of Luciela’s eyes.

Even through her hazy consciousness, her sense of injustice seemed to burst out as her lips trembled.

“……Mine.”

It was barely more than a whisper.

“I made it…… My Tornado Potato……”

Cain was struck by a shock as though he had been hit in the head with a blunt weapon.

The young voice from his memories overlapped with the hoarse voice he heard now.

“Ugly oppa, are you better now?”

Ten years had passed, and the child had grown.

Even so, her distinctive tone of voice remained.

The person who had made the Castella he had eaten on the battlefield wasn’t the mysterious woman.

Nor was it Chef Nigel.

It was the child who had been with that woman.

The little girl who had stroked Cain’s cheek and asked the woman to save him.

His benefactor—the person who had saved his life—was the dirty little girl standing before him.

Luciela opened her eyes inside a swaying carriage.

As her blurry vision gradually cleared, she saw the silhouettes of two people.

The brown-haired guard she had encountered just before fainting, and the nobleman with thick black hair and brilliant blue eyes.

Luciela narrowed her eyes as she tried to get a better look at them.

Up close, both men were exceptionally handsome.

The black-haired man in particular had sharp eyes and finely sculpted features, like a prince straight out of a fairy tale.

“Are you awake?”

Perhaps aware of her gaze, the black-haired man turned toward Luciela and asked.

“Where am I……”

“Inside the Bellaon family carriage. You didn’t wake up even after we waited, so Lucan carried you inside.”

“The Bellaon family……?”

Luciela’s eyes widened at the familiar name.

Not simply because the Bellaon family was the most prestigious family in the Empire.

Bellaon was a family that appeared frequently in the “original story” her mother had told her about.

It was supposedly the only family in the Empire capable of standing against the Emperor.

A family powerful enough to pressure the Imperial Family with its wealth, threaten the Imperial Palace with military force, and use its honor and reputation to rally the aristocratic council behind it.

Luciela slowly sat upright.

“Long ago, you once saved my life. Do you remember?”

But the man’s next words were completely unexpected.

“Me?”

“It happened ten years ago. Do you perhaps remember a soldier who was lying unconscious beside the corpse of a Basilisk Wyrm in Parsil Valley?”

“……?”

“You and your mother put a type of bread called ‘Castella’ into my mouth.”

“……?”

“You were on your way to see a doctor because your head hurt.”

“……?”

“……You called me ugly. Several times.”

“Ah! Ugly oppa!”

The memory suddenly flashed through Luciela’s mind, and she exclaimed happily.

She couldn’t remember everything clearly, but a face appeared in the back of her mind.

A face that had looked much flatter and puffier than that of an ordinary person.

“That was me.”

The man sighed, apparently somewhat offended by the memory.

“My name is Cain Bellaon. You may also call me Baron Bellaon. The man beside me is my guard, Lucan.”

“……Baron Bellaon.”

Luciela stretched out her neck and stared at Cain’s face.

Cain Bellaon.

He was indeed a character from the original story.

Not someone who had merely been mentioned in passing, either.

He had a role of his own.

A supporting character from The Empire Is Doomed!, the game her mother had loved most before she was transmigrated into this world, was now standing alive and breathing right in front of Luciela.

According to her mother, she had been an ordinary woman in her twenties living in a country called South Korea.

What had helped Luciela’s mother cope with the exhaustion of working life was all kinds of games.

Among them, her favorite had been The Empire Is Doomed!.

The plot was simple.

The Crown Prince of an Empire born under divine blessings grows up to become a foolish tyrant and ruins the country.

The players had to find a way to save the nation—whether by killing him, overthrowing him, or using some other method.

According to her mother, no one had ever managed to play the game all the way through and achieve the happy ending.

Her mother was no exception.

She had tried countless methods.

A simple, straightforward assassination.

Raising allegations and conspiracies to remove the Crown Prince from his position.

Sending an excellent nanny to reform him.

She tried everything.

When none of it worked, her mother decided to overthrow the Imperial Family altogether through a rebellion and began looking for a promising noble family capable of accomplishing it.

But no family succeeded.

Instead, their attempts only accelerated the Empire’s downfall.

According to her mother, the only family that had ever come close to succeeding was the Bellaon Ducal Family.

The problem was that the hero of that family died just before they could achieve victory.

After making several more attempts and still failing to clear the game, her mother became furious.

She started pounding every button on her laptop.

And then she was sucked into the game.

No—

She had actually entered it.

She had been transmigrated into the body of a palace maid.

That game world was the very same Empire I now lived in.

Esellred.

“That’s how Mommy became a transmigrator. Cool, right?”

“Mommy silly. You should stop the game when you’re angry.”

“……I didn’t know that the Red Moon had appeared that day and opened a dimensional gate.”

“Then Mommy coming here was a bad thing?”

“Of course not! If I hadn’t come here, I never would have met our Lucy. Being transmigrated that day was the greatest luck of my life.”

“……Really?”

“Of course. Actually, Mommy had already come to love the Empire of Esellred quite a lot from the moment she was transmigrated.”

That, she said, was why her mother had tried to save the Empire.

Not simply because she feared that she would die if the Empire perished.

She had come to love everything about this country.

Its nature.

Its culture.

Its food.

Even the nameless people she happened to encounter while walking down the street.

And so, Luciela had grown up listening to her mother’s stories.

Stories about everything her mother had done after being transmigrated to prevent the Crown Prince from ever being born.

Living as a maid while seducing the Emperor to prevent his marriage to the Empress.

Disguising herself as a man and seducing the Empress.

Even secretly giving both of them contraceptive medicine.

After all of those attempts failed, her final method was to kidnap the newborn Crown Prince.

She had almost succeeded.

But she was spotted by a guard at the last moment.

In an instant, Luciela’s mother became a wanted criminal.

And she fled while pregnant with Luciela.

Luciela’s father, who had been a magical scholar, tried to send her mother back to her original world for her safety.

Instead, he became trapped inside a rift between dimensions.

That was why her mother disappeared every time the Red Moon appeared.

She was going to search for her father.