Chapter 2, Chapter 2: Lex was exposed to the light coming in through the window...
Lex was awakened by the sunlight streaming through the window.
The moment he opened his eyes, he was met with a pair of round, black bean-like eyes, which almost made him fall off the rocking chair in fright.
When he looked closely, he realized that the owner of the black bean-shaped eyes was actually a crow.
However, this was no ordinary crow, because it actually opened its beak and spoke in front of Lex.
"Mera, he's awake! He's awake!" Silas dutifully alerted his master.
"Quiet down." Mela was using a long-handled iron spoon to pour the concocted potion into a strangely shaped earthenware jar, not even bothering to glance at Silas and Lex.
Here we go again. Silas knew that in Mela's heart, nothing was more important than her potions.
It had no choice but to take Mela's place and continue to keep an eye on Lex's every move.
Lex seemed terrified, cowering in the rocking chair like a quail, his long blond hair obscuring most of his face and completely concealing Lex's impassive scrutiny.
Lex controlled the movement of his eyes, slowly scanning his surroundings.
This was a shabby wooden hut in Lex's eyes. The only kerosene lamp hung haphazardly from the roof beam. Occasionally, when the wind blew in from outside, it would sway from side to side, as if it could fall down and kill someone at any moment.
The room was a mess, with ancient parchment books, exquisitely sewn cashmere blankets, various bottles and jars containing unknown contents, and a huge black pot in the center that was impossible to ignore.
Without firewood, a layer of pale blue fireflies floated at the bottom of the pot, causing a constant "bubbling" sound to rise from inside.
The woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, stood in front of the pot, her red curly hair cascading haphazardly down her back. As she bent down to taste what was in her spoon, a large clump of hair naturally fell to her chest.
To be fair, she was far more beautiful than Duchess Verna, the most celebrated beauty in the capital. Her skin was as white as milk, and every feature seemed to have been meticulously designed by a court painter. Only figures in paintings could possess such flawless beauty.
Lex was momentarily distracted by what he saw.
My gaze lingered on her for a long time.
So, as a result, Mela noticed his little trick.
Mela gave Lex a casual glance.
Those were eyes even more emerald green than a deep pool overgrown with aquatic plants, their dim, unfathomable light shimmering within them, utterly captivating.
Lex's gaze immediately snapped back as if he'd been burned.
The young and beautiful woman who lives alone here possesses a unique talking raven, and her identity is immediately apparent: she is the legendary evil witch who lives in the dark forest.
Lex never expected that he would fall into the hands of a witch.
This was no better than falling into the hands of pursuers. The only saving grace was that he had at least temporarily escaped death.
No one knows what the witch's purpose was in bringing him back. Was it because she recognized him as a member of the royal family and was taking revenge on him?
From the reign of Nurengal IV onwards, the kingdom issued a decree to hunt down witches. If a witch was discovered, the local lord was required to send troops to bring her back and burn her alive in public. Therefore, by the time Lex's father ascended the throne, witches had virtually disappeared from the populace.
Without a doubt, the witches harbored deep resentment towards the royal family for causing all this. Several of Lex's uncles died tormented by the witches' curses.
Now it's Lex's turn to walk right into the trap.
Thinking of this, Lex continued to pretend to be quite frightened, curled up in the rocking chair. When he was unable to confront the enemy head-on, showing weakness was a good way to lower the enemy's guard.
He will eventually find a chance to escape.
Mela indeed stopped paying attention to Lex, and frowned as she savored the taste of the transformation potion she had just tasted.
Strange, it tastes a bit rotten, even though she has made similar potions many times without ever making a mistake.
What exactly went wrong?
Mela's gaze wandered aimlessly around the room, and then she spotted a slender-necked bottle piled in the corner of a cupboard, next to which a brightly colored mushroom was growing ostentatiously.
"Silas! Why are mushrooms growing in the cupboard! I already told you that the unicorn horn bone powder in that corner can't get wet!"
Mela now understood why the freshly brewed transformation potion tasted rotten: the animal horn and bone powder added during the brewing process became damp with water and then quickly moldy.
Hearing Mela's sudden increase in volume, Silas flapped his wings in alarm, losing a few feathers in the process.
"Silas did clean the cupboard properly as Mela instructed, but wings are not as convenient as human hands. There are gaps in the feathers, so I might have missed some places when I swept them..." Silas explained to himself hesitantly.
"So you're planning to leave this house cleaning to me?" Mela crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow, and snorted coldly.
While Silas was right, Mela was very busy every day. She had to study spells and collect all sorts of strange materials to brew potions, so how could she possibly waste her precious time cleaning the house?
“That’s not what Silas meant!” Silas’s beady eyes darted around and turned back to Lex, who was curled up in the rocking chair. “Previously, only Mela and Silas lived in this cabin, but now there’s a third person who can share Silas’s work.”
Me? Cleaning the house? Lex, who had been eavesdropping on the witch and the raven's conversation, couldn't help but widen his eyes, revealing extreme shock and disbelief.
For twelve years as crown prince, Lex was always surrounded by dozens of servants who diligently took care of his chores. He never even touched a feather duster, let alone cleaned the house!
Now that I've fallen into the hands of a witch, I'm forced to condescend to do the work of a servant. It's utterly shameful.
Mela listened to Silas's words and quickly showed a thoughtful expression. Her gaze also fell on Lex. "What's your name?"
"Lex." Faced with the witch's question, Lex wanted to pretend he couldn't hear, but when he thought of the witch's cruel methods, he still endured the humiliation and answered.
"So, to repay my kindness in saving you, from today onwards you will be responsible for doing chores for me, starting with cleaning the house," Mela announced cheerfully.
*
Even though Lex was extremely unwilling, he dared not refuse Mela's request on the spot. What if he angered Mela and she didn't want him to work anymore, but instead wanted to use him as an ingredient to make potions?
Mela didn't know what Lex was thinking, nor did she care to know; as long as Lex could do the work for her, that was enough.
Anyway, the entire Dark Forest is Mela's territory. How could Lex, a mere brat, possibly cause any trouble?
Silas let out a noisy laugh. This crow had done all the housework every day, and now finally a poor fellow had come to share the burden. It was overjoyed and bloomed.
"Stop laughing and hurry up and make me breakfast." Mela stopped Silas's gloating. The sun was already high in the sky, and she hadn't even had breakfast yet.
Upon hearing this, Silas immediately stopped laughing and dutifully waved his two black wings. One wing held a knife, and the other held a clean potato. After a flash of silver light, the potato chunks of varying sizes fell into the pot one after another.
A series of thuds rang out.
"Wait, wait a minute, doesn't this pot need to be washed?" After confirming that Silas was going to use the pot that had just been used to make potions to cook potatoes, Lex finally couldn't help but speak up.
If he drank a bowl of potato soup with added ingredients, he probably would have died on the spot.
"There's only one pot in the house, so we'll just have to make do with it."
As if knowing what Lex was worried about, Mela calmly reassured him, "Don't worry, the transformation potion is very expensive. I've scraped off every last drop of the liquid; there's no way there will be any residue."
The implication is that what you're drinking is absolutely the most ordinary potato soup.
Want something spiked? You'll have to pay for it.
...Lex didn't want to try this strange dish, but thankfully the soup he finally drank was a little bland, but not odd.
Seeing that Lex had finished a whole bowl of potato soup, Silas immediately flapped his wings and urged, "Alright, Lex, it's time for you to get to work."
"First, you should wash the dishes."
Under Silas's command, Lex fetched a bucket of clean water, washed the bowls and spoons that had just been used, and then laid them out to dry on a large rock outside the cabin.
By evening, the natural wind and sunlight have washed away the moisture, and it can be used to serve dinner again.
"Next, we need to clean the dust in the corners."
Silas directed Lex to find a feather duster in a corner of the cabin, first to shake off the existing dust, then to dust off the dust in the crevices and the spider webs that had formed at some unknown time.
During this time, Lex inevitably had to move the items that Mela had piled up everywhere.
"Don't move that!" Mela, who was sitting at her desk repairing a quill pen that had stopped writing for some reason, caught a glimpse of Lex's actions out of the corner of her eye and immediately shouted.
"That book was something I painstakingly dug out of the basement and put there. If you move it, I won't be able to find it."
Upon hearing this, Lex silently put the heavy book, which was as thick as a brick, back into its place.
"Don't touch that blanket either!" Mela shouted again a second later.
“That’s my favorite spot to daydream. I can use half of the cashmere blanket as a cushion and drape the other half over myself.”
Well, Lex had no choice but to put the cashmere blanket back.
In short, under Mela's orders not to move this or that, Lex painstakingly cleaned every corner of the house and the long-hidden cracks.
"Sigh, finally someone understands the pain I've been through." Seeing Lex being bossed around by Mela, Silas suddenly felt a sense of goodwill towards him, as if he were seeing himself diligently serving Mela for the past ten years.
"She always likes to leave things everywhere and won't let me touch them, but how can I clean the house if I don't move things?" Silas whispered to Lex, complaining quietly.
"If I do something wrong, she takes it out on me. Honestly, Silas did absolutely nothing wrong."
“Silas—” Mela drawled, her swamp-green eyes narrowing slightly, “What were you talking about with Lex? Were you whispering bad things about me?”
“Of course not!” Silas retorted confidently. “I was just teaching Lex how to clean the house better without touching Mela’s things.”
"Oh? Is that so?" Mela's gaze shifted to Lex's face.
Lex lowered his eyes and remained silent.
They neither said yes nor no.
It seems that Mela has accepted Silas's words and is no longer pursuing the matter.
Lex heard Silas let out a soft sigh of relief beside him.
That evening, to reward Lex for his help, Seras specially scooped an extra spoonful of potatoes for Lex, saying, "Eat more, you're still injured, you need to eat well to have the strength to recover."
Silas suddenly remembered that Lex was still injured, and that afternoon it had been making Lex work tirelessly.
Fortunately, the witch's hemostatic powder was very effective, and Lex was young, so as long as he didn't make any big moves, the wound wouldn't tear open again.
Lex silently ate his glutinous rice balls while staring at the potatoes in his bowl, considering whether he should take all the witch's hemostatic powder with him before escaping. After all, it was a genuinely good product.
When he gets back, he might be able to get the court pharmacists to study whether they can replicate the same ointment.
The thought of going back made Lex's eyes darken. He wondered how the knight commander who had lured away the main force of the pursuers was doing now, whether he had managed to escape and was now searching for him everywhere.
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