Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 88: The Battle of the Soup Spoon and The Leviathan Nanny

Chapter 88: The Battle of the Soup Spoon and The Leviathan Nanny

Day Twelve of Tutoring.

The enemy was round, made of porcelain, and filled with a creamy mushroom bisque.

Lady Ellia stared at the soup bowl as if it were a landmine.

"This is impossible," she declared, slamming her hands on the table. "The spoon is too small! It is a ladle for ants! How am I supposed to nourish myself with this... this thimble?"

Across the table, Countess Giselle did not look impressed. She tapped her cane against the floor. Click.

"You do not ’nourish’ yourself in polite society, Lady Ellia," Giselle hissed, her arm feathers rustling. "You dine. And you do so silently. Dip away from you. Skim the surface. Bring it to your lips without slumping. No slurping. No clanking."

Grand Duke Bastion, who was trying to be a supportive father by participating in the lesson, looked equally stressed. He held his own spoon with the grim determination of a man holding a grenade.

"Just... dip and lift, Ellia," Bastion whispered. "Like... like scooping water from a river."

Ellia tried. She dipped the spoon. She lifted it.

CLANG.

The spoon hit her teeth.

"Gah!" Ellia dropped the spoon. Soup splattered onto the white tablecloth.

Giselle closed her eyes. "Disgraceful. A true lady eats as if she is a ghost. Silent. Invisible."

Ellia growled low in her throat. "I am not a ghost! I am a Lion! Lions tear their meat! We do not sip mushroom water with tiny silver sticks!"

She looked ready to flip the table.

I stepped in. Time for the Primrose Translation Method.

"Ellia," I said, wiping the soup off the table. "You’re thinking about it wrong. Don’t think of it as eating."

Ellia looked at me, desperate. "Then what is it?"

"It’s... bomb disposal," I lied smoothly.

Bastion choked on his bisque.

"Bomb disposal?" Ellia’s eyes widened.

"Yes," I nodded gravely. "The soup is... highly volatile acid. If you splash it, it burns through the table. If you clank the spoon against the bowl, the vibration sets off the explosion."

I leaned in.

"Your mission, Agent Lion, is to drain the acid without triggering the trap. You must be silent. You must be steady. The fate of the tablecloth depends on you."

Ellia looked at the bowl. She looked at the spoon. Her posture shifted instantly. She wasn’t a bored child anymore; she was a specialist on a high-stakes mission.

She picked up the spoon with surgical precision.

She dipped it away from her. (To direct the blast radius outward, obviously).

She skimmed the surface. (To avoid disturbing the core).

She brought it to her mouth without a sound.

Sip.

She lowered the spoon. Not a single drop spilled. Not a single clank was heard.

Giselle’s eyes snapped open. She watched Ellia take three more perfect mouthfuls.

The Iron Swan looked at me. She adjusted her spectacles.

"Tutor," Giselle said dryly. "If you tell her the salad fork is a dagger, I am going to retire."

"It’s not a dagger," I winked. "It’s a trident."

---

While Primrose was busy averting soup-based disasters at the Palace, the Daycare was under new management.

King Caspian sat in the center of the rug. He was wearing the clothes Primrose had bought him—a soft linen shirt and dark trousers—and around his neck, the Star-Iron pendant hummed with a low, steady vibration, keeping the grey veins on his chest frozen in stasis.

He looked every inch the regal King of the Deep.

Except for the fact that he was currently buried under a pile of puppies, bunnies, and one very energetic tiger.

"Submit!" Arjun roared, climbing onto Caspian’s back. "The King has fallen! The Tiger Clan claims the throne!"

"The King has not fallen," Caspian corrected calmly, turning a page of his book (The Little Prince, which he found fascinating). "The King is merely acting as a structural foundation. Do not pull my hair, Arjun."

"I want a horsey ride!" Vali demanded, tugging on Caspian’s left arm. "Primrose gives us horsey rides!"

"I am a Leviathan," Caspian stated. "I do not ’neigh’."

"Please do not fracture the King," Jasper advised, coiling neatly on the armrest of the chair, adjusting his glasses. "We do not know the bone density of a merman. If you break him, the structural integrity of the pack is compromised." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

From the shadows beneath Caspian’s legs, a small black paw swatted at his ankle. Silas blinked his glowing eyes. "I am the assassin in the deep," Silas whispered. "You are the mountain. I climb you."

Jax leaned against the wall, flipping a gold coin. He wore his usual green shirt and tie loosely, looking like a sly hustler taking a break.

"Looking good, Your Highness," Jax smirked, his fox ears twitching with amusement. "A little less ’King of the Seven Seas’ and a little more ’Playground Equipment’, but it suits you."

"Your commentary is noted, Fox," Caspian sighed.

"Hey, Jax!"

Finn ran past, wearing a matching cap. Finn leaped off the sofa and landed squarely on Caspian’s knee.

"Parkour!" Finn yelled.

"Finn, get off the King," Jax called out, though he didn’t stop leaning. "If you break him, we have to pay for it."

"He’s sturdy!" Finn argued, poking Caspian’s chest. "Like a rock!"

Luna walked out of the kitchen with a tray of apple slices. Her long ears flopped gently as she walked over to Jax, offering him a slice first.

"Be nice, Jax," Luna chided gently, pecking him on the cheek. "He’s helping. And he’s doing a great job."

Jax took the apple slice, his smirk softening into a genuine smile as he looked at his girlfriend. "Whatever you say, beautiful. But if he starts singing sea shanties, I’m charging overtime."

Clover hopped over to Luna and tugged on her apron. "Sissy! Sissy look!"

Luna crouched down to hug her little sister. "What is it, Clover?"

"The King is reading!" Clover whispered loudly. "Can he read us a story?"

"I believe he can," Luna smiled.

Suddenly, the chaos settled down. The cubs gathered around Caspian’s knee, munching on apples.

Arjun looked at the door. He looked at the empty spot on the sofa where Ellia had slept yesterday.

His ears drooped.

"Where is the Loud Girl?" Arjun asked, kicking the rug.

"Lady Ellia is at the Palace," Caspian explained. "She is preparing for a great battle."

"A battle?" Vali perked up. "Is she fighting goblins?"

"Worse," Caspian said gravely. "She is fighting etiquette. And dancing."

"Ew," Vali crinkled his nose. "Dancing is the worst. You have to hold hands."

"I miss her," Arjun mumbled, his tail giving a sad little twitch. "She was fun. She threw a pillow at Jasper’s face. No one ever throws pillows at Jasper because he cries."

"I do not cry!" Jasper protested, pushing up his glasses with dignity. "I merely have sensitive tear ducts that react to velocity!"

"It is too bright without her," Silas whispered from under the table. "She had good shadows. Scary shadows. I liked them."

"She is part of the Pack now," Clover whispered, holding her Safety Rock. "Packs stick together."

Caspian looked at the circle of sad faces. He felt a strange warmth in his chest that had nothing to do with the Star-Iron.

When he had first come to the Surface, he saw these creatures as noisy, land-dwelling annoyances. Now... he saw them as Primrose saw them. A chaotic, messy, fiercely loyal family.

"She will return," Caspian promised them. "But she needs encouragement."

He closed his book.

"Who knows how to draw?"

---

An hour later, the floor was covered in crayons, paper, and glitter glue.

"This is me," Arjun explained, holding up a drawing of an orange blob eating a stick figure. "And this is Ellia. We are eating the enemies."

"Very... visceral," Caspian nodded approvingly.

"I drew a map," Jasper said, holding up a grid drawn with ruler-straight lines. "It shows the optimal escape route from the Palace, just in case she needs to flee. I marked the ventilation shafts."

"Pragmatic," Caspian agreed.

Silas offered a piece of paper that was colored completely black with crayon. "It is a cloak of invisibility," Silas whispered. "So she can hide from the staffs."

Finn handed over a drawing of a whoopee cushion. "It’s a trap for her uncle," Finn grinned, tipping his cap.

Jax walked over and tossed a shiny, chocolate-covered gold coin into the pile. "Tell the kid to keep her chin up. Royals love gold, right?"

Orion handed Caspian a drawing of a blue square.

"It is a block," Orion stated. "It represents stability."

"Profound," Caspian noted.

They gathered all the drawings into a pile. Luna added a bag of cinnamon cookies. Vali added a "lucky bone" (which Caspian secretly removed because it was gross).

"I will ensure she receives this," Caspian told them, tying the bundle with a ribbon. "It will be a strategic supply drop."

---

I returned to the West Wing just as the sun was setting. The soup lesson was over. Ellia was lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, looking utterly drained.

"I hate soup," she muttered. "I never want to see liquid food again."

"You did good, kid," I said, putting my bag down. "Giselle didn’t hiss at you once in the last hour. That’s a new record."

I pulled the bundle out of my bag.

"Mail call," I announced.

Ellia sat up. "Mail? For me?"

"From the monsters," I winked.

I handed her the package.

Ellia opened it. She saw Luna’s cookies. She saw Jax’s chocolate coin. She saw Jasper’s escape map. She saw Arjun’s drawing of them eating enemies.

She picked up the drawing. She traced the orange blob with her finger.

Bastion watched from his desk, holding his breath.

A slow smile spread across Ellia’s face. It wasn’t the polite, courtly smile she had been practicing all day. It was a real one.

"He drew me taller than him," Ellia giggled. "He knows I’m the Alpha."

She looked at me.

"Can we go back?" she asked. "After the Ball? Can we go back to the Daycare?"

"Of course," I promised. "Arjun is already planning a rematch for ’The Floor is Magma’."

Ellia hugged the drawing to her chest.

"Okay," she whispered. "Then I’ll do the stupid dancing. And the fan snapping. And the soup silence."

She looked at her father.

"I’ll do it so I can finish the mission and go play."

Bastion smiled, his eyes shining. "That sounds like a perfect plan."

I leaned against the doorframe, watching them.

All we had to do was survive the most dangerous event in the Empire: The Debutante Ball.

Easy, I thought. Just like a raid boss. But with more glitter.