How Can You Pay Back The Kindness I Raised With Obsession?

So far, there has been no poisoned food. Still, one could never know. She stirred the dish with a silver spoon.

 

‘It doesn’t change.’

 

However, not all poisons in the world discolor silver.

 

“Ah, a noodle dish prepared ambitiously by the chef.”

 

When the emperor lifted his spoon, I had no choice but to pretend to eat. The distance between them was too close for me to steal food by snapping my fingers together, so it was obvious that I would be caught right away.

 

‘When I go back later, I should cook something delicious to eat.’

 

With this in mind, she put a piece of pasta on her spoon and put it in her mouth. For a moment the smell was unusual… Immediately, her tongue started to tingle and became numb.

 

‘Omg! It’s spicy!’

 

She chewed on the pesto sauce. As soon as the sound was heard, a spicy taste burst out. She almost screamed when she realized the true nature of the spicy taste.

 

‘This is Cheongyang pepper!’

 

She was so happy that she almost cried. At first, she thought there were no peppers here. In this fairy tale, she thought the crops strictly followed those of medieval Europe. But maybe that didn’t make sense. There’s chocolate and tomatoes, but no peppers. So, when she had possessed that body for about half a year, she went to the village farmers and seed merchants and asked them.

 

“Oh, you mean the peppers?”

 

She knew everyone knew this, but she was shocked to hear this.

 

“Yes? W-Witch, do you want chili peppers?”

 

“…What on earth are you trying to do?”

 

When she answered that of course she would eat it, people opened their mouths so wide that she was worried that their jaws would fall to the floor.

 

“Well, I would give it to you if you wanted it, but it is a crop that was banned a long time ago by the Vatican and the Wizards’ Association, so it is not sold anywhere.”

 

“Oh, that’s right!”

 

She knew, but she pretended she forgot for a while. Then she never asked again. But could Koreans live without spicy food? Whenever she got cravings for something spicy, she soothed her empty heart with garlic. However, since garlic, pork belly, and red pepper, which together make up one-third of the Korean soul, were missing, the feeling of emptiness would not go away. People who have smoked say that it’s not about quitting smoking, it’s about holding back.

 

She wondered if she would have to endure that hot spicy taste for the rest of her life, but now it was bursting like a firecracker in her mouth and celebrating.

 

‘This taste I’ve been missing!’

 

It was to the point where she wanted to jump for joy.

 

“What’s the matter?”

 

Oh, she forgot for a moment that she was in front of people. The Grand Duke must have been worried as she covered her mouth and shed tears, so he leaned towards her and asked.

 

“No way…”

 

When asked if it was poisonous, she quickly shook her head.

 

“Then why…”

 

The Grand Duke’s eyes turned to her plate. As soon as he ate one piece of pasta, he groaned and covered his mouth. The Grand Duke’s eyes were fierce as he looked around at the members of the imperial family sitting at the same table.

 

“Who on earth would do something like this…”

 

His fists on the table were shaking.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

The Emperor, who was sitting at the head of the table at the end of the table, asked with an incomprehensible look in his eyes. The Empress and crown prince sitting across from them were silent. The crown prince was looking at the Empress with blank eyes, wondering where the sharp gaze from earlier had gone. But why was the Empress glaring at her with her eyes wide open? Her face was so distorted that it turned red. It may be rude to use this analogy, but she looked exactly like a guy straining in the bathroom.

 

“Hazel, haha, are you okay?”

 

“…I think you should ask yourself, not me.”

 

The Grand Duke’s eyes were red and his lips were bright red and swollen. She felt embarrassed for some reason, so she cleared her throat and looked away from him.

 

‘Why is the Grand Duke like that in front of the dinner table…’

 

This was the result of just eating a piece of Cheongyang pepper pesto pasta. From milk to tomato sauce. The Grand Duke tried everything she said was good for neutralizing the spiciness, but nothing seemed to work. A man as big as a bear was abusing her because he only ate a little bit of it and said it was spicy. There was no big teddy bear. However, the middle-aged man trembled as he continued to look at the Grand Duke, as the chef standing at the end of the table looked like a ferocious brown bear.

 

“Where did you get the peppers?”

 

As soon as she asked, the chef’s pale hands started shaking even more.

 

“Well, I don’t know that…”

 

“Do you think that makes sense?”

 

The Grand Duke placed the empty milk glass on the table menacingly and glared at the chef.

 

“No, wait a minute.”

 

She was not interrogating him, she was just making inquiries.

 

“I’m not trying to get angry because my food is spicy. I’m just really curious where you got this.”

 

From kimchi to tteokbokki, to rice balls made with chopped Cheongyang peppers and mixed well with fragrant sesame oil. She was going crazy because she wanted to eat it.

 

“Well, I don’t know that either. What I received… It’s just that.”

 

“You were told to take forbidden crops and serve them as a meal for witches? So you just did as you were told. I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know what that means.”

 

She didn’t know. She tapped the Grand Duke’s shoe under the table with the tip of her shoe, and he glanced back at her.

 

‘Oh, Hazel doesn’t know.’

 

The Grand Duke looked like this and then turned his head back to the chef. Then he spoke as if he wanted the chef to listen.

 

“I’m sure you don’t know that the reason chili peppers are banned is because they neutralize those who have holy and magical powers.”

 

Actually, that was the explanation given to her.

 

‘Ah… I see.’

 

But was that really the case? She snapped her fingers.

 

‘Isn’t it true?’

 

This was because a cookie from the cookie jar at her cabin, a five-day carriage ride from here, arrived safely in her hands.

 

‘Could it be that it just doesn’t work for me? Why doesn’t it work?’

 

She snapped her fingers and put a cookie in her mouth without anyone knowing, and she tried to get another one from the hut and give it to the Grand Duke, but he wasn’t in the mood for that. He looked even angrier than before. But she was fine.

 

‘Sweet, when I eat something sweet, I think of something spicy.’

 

She glanced sideways at the Cheongyang pepper pasta placed in front of the Grand Duke. She was drooling and crying. She wanted to eat more, but she had to hold back. If that were the case, the Grand Duke would be angry at them for trying to harm her, and she, who was munching on the dish that was intended to harm her, would become a strange person next to him.

 

“Doesn’t the entire empire know that there was a time when Miss Hazel’s mana was depleted in an unexpected accident and her life was in danger?”

 

Tendons bulged from the Grand Duke’s fist resting on the table.

 

“You hurt the Grand Duke’s lover. Who on earth would instigate such a thing? In this safe and peaceful imperial palace, who dare?”

 

It seemed like it was being said to the chef, but it was said to be a member of the royal family. The Grand Duke pretended to look around at everyone gathered at the banquet hall and cast his gaze towards the royal family. The moment the crown prince averted his gaze, the Grand Duke’s eyes sparkled.

 

“What on earth were you trying to do by disabling my lover?”

 

The moment he pretended to be talking to himself and asked the crown prince a meaningful question, she clenched her fist. She was so preoccupied with the peppers that she didn’t even think about this, but this makes her feel bad too.

 

‘What?’

 

But wasn’t he the crown prince? For some reason, the gaze of the chef, who was an accomplice, glanced towards the Empress. It seemed that the culprit was the Empress. No, maybe she should call her a benefactor.

 

“Tell the truth right now!”

 

The Emperor, who was just watching this situation with his eyes wide open, suddenly shouted and put pressure on the chef. He didn’t cover up the case, but instead investigated it. It was unexpected, but when she thought about it, it was disadvantageous in many ways for the Emperor to call her and try to harm her.

 

“Well, I…”

 

The chef looked at the Empress again and stuttered as he spoke. The Emperor’s startled gaze flicked to the Empress as she glared at him with wide eyes. The chef looked at her again, swallowed dry saliva, and confessed.

 

“I didn’t add red pepper as you said. In fact, it was supposed to be served to Her Majesty the Empress, but it appears that the servant made a mistake.”

 

“What?”

 

The Emperor frowned as if asking what kind of nonsense this was.

 

“Why does the Empress do this?”

 

The Empress did not answer, but gritted her teeth and glared at the chef.

 

“Lorraine.”

 

The Emperor’s voice became chillingly low. Only then did the Empress reluctantly open her mouth.

 

“Hmm, my hands and feet have been getting cold lately. They said green peppers are a special medicine for warming the body, so I told them to put it on top.”

 

Even when she heard it, it was a flimsy excuse. For that statement to be true, when people say that her dish was spicy, the Empress should have taken it as her own.

 

“Then eat it.”

 

The Grand Duke smiled as he pushed the plate in front of him toward the Empress. Suddenly, the atmosphere here became even more brutal. With the Emperor and the Grand Duke glaring at the Empress, only the Crown Prince turned his head in the opposite direction and covered his mouth.

 

‘No way… Are you smiling?’

 

Why was her son smiling when his mother was cornered?

 

“Hurry.”

 

“Let’s eat.”

 

She came to her senses as she watched the Emperor and the Grand Duke suddenly join forces and put pressure on the Empress. No, but that’s not important now! Where could she get peppers? She was dying of frustration!

 

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Translator Note: