Chapter 298: This Lazy Snake

Unfortunately, her legs were still functioning like overcooked noodles. She didn’t even come close to reaching the Snake King. Instead, Ren plummeted through the humid air and belly-flopped directly into the steaming pool, making a massive, echoing splash a good distance short of Syris.

“Ren!” Syris gasped.

He hurriedly waded forward to help her up, grabbing her by the waist as she floundered. Ren breached the surface violently coughing and sputtering, her fiery red hair plastered to her face. A generous amount of fragrant bathwater had gone straight up her nose and into her mouth.

She wiped her stinging eyes, wheezing as she grabbed his muscular forearms. “Do… cough… do you have the vial?!”

Syris looked at her, entirely bewildered by her desperation over a piece of trash. Slowly, he opened his hand. He showed her the tiny glass bottle, the single drop of clear liquid still gently swishing around safely inside.

Ren completely sagged against him, releasing a massive, wet breath of pure relief.

Some time later, Ren was fully dried off and dressed once again in her magical, indestructible emerald silk dress. Through a miracle of nagging and stubbornness, she had actually managed to convince Syris to put on a robe, though he stubbornly left the front completely wide open to display his muscular chest.

They were currently standing side-by-side at a smooth, flat stone table in his private chambers.

Ren opened her inventory and a pile of the herbs she had painstakingly gathered from his garden tumbled out onto the stone surface.

While she was diligently sorting the spiky succulents and silver-tipped mint leaves into neat little piles, Ren casually looked around the empty room.

“Where is Altair?” she asked, trying to keep her tone completely neutral.

Syris let out a dark, dismissive scoff, crossing his arms over his robe. “I am assuming the bird finally left, exactly as I requested. An eagle absolutely should not be in a swamp anyway. I might not be afraid of him, but the lesser snakes will be terrified of his presence.”

Before Ren could even feel a pang of disappointment…

Ding!

[System: Do not fret, Host! The giant bird is still within the swamp borders.]

Ren released a very soft, secretive sigh of relief. She nodded at Syris, pasting a perfectly innocent smile on her face. “Okay. I understand.”

She clapped her hands briskly together, turning her full attention to the pile of foliage. “Alright, your majesty. I am going to teach you how to make the remedy for your sunburn.”

Syris’s brows instantly furrowed. He looked at the pile of leaves as if she had just insulted his ancestors. “Teach me? Can you not make it for me every single time? You are my mate. It is your duty to care for me.”

“I won’t be here with you all the time, Syris,” Ren pointed out reasonably, picking up a stone pestle. “You need to learn some basic independence for when I’m in the forest.”

Syris instantly pouted. He actually poked his bottom lip out like a grumpy toddler who had just been told it was finally time he started washing his own underwear.

Ren burst out laughing, reaching over to pat his cold cheek. “I promise, it’s nothing hard! Come here.”

The remainder of the afternoon was dedicated to the most chaotic apothecary lesson in Beast World history. Ren firmly believed in hands-on learning, which meant she was forcing the pampered Snake King to do all the actual manual labor.

“Okay, this is swamp aloe,” Ren instructed, slicing open a thick, spiky green leaf with her knife. “We need the cooling gel from the inside. Scrape it into the stone bowl. Go on.”

Syris sighed dramatically. He picked up the knife, delicately scraping the thick, gooey gel into the bowl with the enthusiasm of a sloth.

“And these are swamp mint leaves,” Ren continued, pointing to the silver-tipped foliage. “They will stop the itching. You need to crush them up with the pestle and mix them into the gel.”

Syris took the stone pestle. He began to lazily, gently stir the leaves around the bowl, barely applying any downward pressure. His amethyst eyes completely abandoned the medicinal mixture, drifting blatantly downward to stare directly down the front of Ren’s silk dress as she leaned over the table.

“Syris!” Ren scolded, loudly slapping the stone table. “Pay attention! Stop staring at my boobs and put some actual effort into mixing!”

“They are more fascinating than these stupid leaves,” Syris smirked, unapologetically keeping his gaze exactly where it was.

“Mix!” Ren demanded, crossing her arms. “Put your back into it!”

Syris’s eyes narrowed, and he instantly began violently mashing the pestle into the bowl, completely pulverizing the mint leaves into a fine paste within seconds.

“Better,” Ren nodded approvingly. “Now, pop quiz. What does the plump purple leaf do?”

Syris didn’t even look at the table. “It makes you want to take your dress off again.”

“No!” Ren groaned, rubbing her temples. “That is the venom-spit orchid! If you put that on your sunburn, you will break out in full-body hives!”

Syris was an incredibly lazy student. He couldn’t answer a single one of her pop quiz questions correctly, entirely distracted by her close proximity and the lingering memories of their recent activities.

Still, against all odds, they eventually managed to complete the base remedy. A thick, soothing, minty-green paste now sat perfectly mixed in the stone bowl.

“Perfect,” Ren smiled proudly. “All that is left is my special, final ingredient.”

She pulled out the tiny glass vial.

Syris paused, his amethyst eyes locking onto the small bottle. He wiped a streak of green aloe from his thumb. “What exactly is that?” he asked, genuine curiosity in his deep voice.

Ren pulled the tiny cork free. She tipped the vial over the bowl, letting the single, glowing drop of clear liquid fall perfectly into the green paste as she casually answered him.

“Oh, it’s just Altair’s tear,” Ren stated simply, stirring it into the mixture.

To Ren, she genuinely assumed that all golden eagles possessed this neat little magical healing ability. She thought it was just standard, general knowledge in the Beast World.

She had absolutely no idea that she had just casually given away Altair’s true identity directly to Syris.

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