In the end, he ended up only strengthening the royal family.
“Was I out of my mind then? What was I captivated by?”
It was a behavior he could not comprehend, even if he drank liquor straight from the keg.
[The Cayah region and the Neiphet region are currently vacant.]Casus looked at the names of the remaining two regions in the document.
The good lands had already been taken by others. All that remained were the soso Cayah region and the wasteland known as Neiphet.
If he delayed any further, the Wellington family’s rights of precedence might be transferred to a foreign tycoon.
“It’s really time to choose.”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Casus, still standing without sitting in a chair, tapped the desk with his forefinger.
[This is the time separator]The Duke’s lunchtime.
Everywhere was busier than ever.
Since Heidegger had brought his subordinates, the number of people to be served had increased significantly.
“Hmm.”
And the busiest place among them, the kitchen.
Leo, who was leaning leisurely, was loitering there.
‘I need to see for myself how they prepare the food I will eat.’
In order to become the strongest, one must pay special attention to the diet.
From the kind of pot they used to the overall state of the kitchen, Leo scrutinized it meticulously.
He would open his eyes wide and trace his fingers along the kitchen wall.
“Dust is coming off?”
With Leo’s arrival, all the servants were on high alert.
Even the veteran chefs were on their toes.
Everyone was just waiting for this time to pass, but every second felt like a week.
As expected.
“Tsks…”
Leo glared at the head chef who was scooping soup with a ladle. He glared so intensely that the chef’s face felt like it was going to be pierced.
The hand scooping with the ladle began to shake.
“You.”
“Ye, Yes, Young Master!”
“You, I said.”
As Leo approached him, he narrowed his eyes and said,
“Why are your eyelashes so long?”
“Eh?”
“What are you planning to do if they fall into the food?”
“That, that is…”
“When did you start adding eyelashes as a seasoning?”
The only sound in the silent kitchen was the quiet bubbling of cooking food.
One wrong word, and an irreversible incident would occur.
Under Leo’s scolding, the head chef put down his ladle and hastily bowed.
“I’m, I’m sorry, Young Master. I’ll cut them short right away!”
“What’s the use of cutting them now? What if they’ve already fallen in?”
“…….”
“What if I unknowingly ate it?”
It was a critical situation.
Leo snorted, looking at the head chef who looked like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.
He was always enraged when he saw someone with long eyelashes.
Atia.
That bad woman, with her dolllike big eyes and longer eyelashes than anyone else, came to mind.
It was fortunate there was no one with silver hair in the kitchen.
If there was, Leo would certainly find some fault and torment them.
Then,
“Young Master.”
The servants brought a basket and plates to Leo. They had just returned from shopping as part of Leo’s errands.
But, upon checking the contents, Leo’s brows furrowed.
“What is this? Is this all there is?”
“Young Master, it’s difficult to get the other ingredients you mentioned since they are not in season.”
One of the employees replied weakly, unfolding the paper Leo had handed over.
“Huff.”
Leo, seeming irritated, ran his fingers through his dark brown hair.
“Damn! If it’s not there, you should make or find it, shouldn’t you?”
Thud!
Leo knocked a basket and a plate, which the employees had painstakingly prepared, to the floor.
Various ingredients, including the Northland Snow Fragrance strawberries that were perfectly fine just a moment ago, were now scattered all over the kitchen floor.
The employee who brought the ingredients bowed and groveled.
“I’m, I’m sorry, really sorry, sir. I will try again, I’m sorry.”
“You’re all fired.”
“Si, sir…….”
“Get out! Get out of my sight now!”
“…….”
“Get out now!”
At that time, there was someone observing this scene from outside Leo’s field of vision.
The person, who had been watching with his arms crossed, snickered as if he found it absurd and approached Leo.
“Is this like ‘I’d like a warm iced Americano please’?”
“What?”
“Or, can you make me a ‘cold hot chocolate’?”
A familiar voice.
The moment Leo frowned and turned his head, his eyes widened, and his mind went blank.
Atia, with her silver hair tightly tied up, was watching Leo with her arms crossed. She was wearing comfortable workout clothes, damp here and there with sweat.
Looking at the food ingredients shattered on the floor, Atia spoke.
“They say you can judge a person’s character by how they treat their employees.
“What?”
“You really are, hopeless. Are you in cahoots with the devil?”
Atia began picking up the scattered ingredients herself.
The ingredients that were still intact, she dusted off and placed in the basket.
“Well, at least these can be used.”
The employees, in a fluster, reached out to the kitchen floor.
“Ma, madam. We will do this.”
“No, I’m sorry. For having to put up with that guy.”
Atia blinked as if it was nothing.
“What, what? You…….”
The person who was most surprised by Atia’s sudden appearance was Leo.
Moreover, those big eyes and long eyelashes always made one’s heart flutter.
Every time Atia’s eyelashes fluttered, Leo’s anger gauge rose even more.
“Why did you come in here?”
“Is it strange for the Duchess to come into the kitchen?”
Atia picked up a Snow Fragrance strawberry from the floor and popped it into her mouth.
“Mm, delicious! Why did you throw this tasty thing on the floor?”
Embarrassment,
Shame,
Confusion,
And the feeling of not wanting to be ridiculed.
Leo was quite confused, with various emotions all mixed up.
“I’d like you to leave, as this is my area.”
As Atia was chewing on the Snow Fragrance strawberry, she nearly bit her tongue.
“What? Where’s yours and mine in the kitchen of the same house, sir?”
Watching Atia nibble on the strawberry he had thrown away like a squirrel, Leo clenched his teeth.
She was eating his Northland Snow Fragrance strawberries.
He had been eating them secretly to get stronger.
And there she was, stuffing them into her mouth as if showing him.
“It’s mine.”
“Hmm?”
“That’s mine. Don’t eat it.”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
