The room next door turned out to be Keith’s bedroom. It was large and included a balcony lined with flowers and plants.
Cassius walked to the storage cabinet. It had four shelves filled with all sorts of bottles, each sealed with corks and twine and marked with a wax seal.
Two of the bottles held a brown liquid and were labeled “High-Potency Painkiller.”
He picked one up. When the bottle was shaken, the liquid shimmered into a silver color. It looked strangely magical.
When Cassius returned to the room, Keith was still curled up in bed. Cold sweat glistened on his forehead and nose. He half-opened his eyes when he heard the footsteps.
Cassius opened the bottle and sat on the edge of the bed. He gently helped Keith sit up and lean against the headboard.
“Sit up. Drink this first. One bottle is enough?”
“Yes,” Keith replied weakly. He leaned into Cassius’s arm, barely able to hold himself upright. His head throbbed and everything was spinning. Cassius’s face even appeared doubled in his vision.
“Thank you.”
“Drink it and try to rest,” Cassius said as he brought the bottle to Keith’s lips. Keith reached out for it, but the blurring made him miss.
Cassius had to support his jaw and guide the bottle to his mouth. Keith followed the motion and drank the potion.
The pain eased considerably afterward, but his mind became even heavier. Keith lay down again, but didn’t want to fall asleep just yet. He looked at Cassius and said softly,
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
Cassius pulled the blanket up to Keith’s shoulders.
“Are you feeling better? How long does your heat usually last? Is it always this painful?”
“It’s not too bad,” Keith replied, forcing himself to stay awake. “For me, it lasts three days. There are two more to go. One bottle of potion each time helps with the worst part. The last two days should be a bit easier.”
The potion had a sedative effect. He was already fading fast.
“I heard my cousin Erland is coming. When does he arrive?”
“There’s only one bottle of painkiller left in the cabinet. The Third Prince will arrive the day after tomorrow.”
“That’s fine. I’ll brew another dose tomorrow. It’s an easy recipe,” Keith mumbled. “The last two days don’t have a fixed schedule. I just wish I could go welcome him.”
Cassius picked up the cloth that had been tossed on the bed and gently wiped the sweat from Keith’s forehead and nose.
“You really want to go? Are you two close?”
“We were pretty close growing up. We used to play together all the time. As adults, we only see each other every few months,” Keith said, his eyelids growing heavier.
“It’s a shame I can’t go greet him.”
Having a heat attack during a royal reception would be far too humiliating.
“Get some sleep,” Cassius said softly. He stood and pulled the curtains closed.
The painkiller was incredibly strong. Not even ten minutes had passed since he drank it, and Keith was already deeply asleep, like someone under full anesthesia.
Cassius couldn’t help but think how fragile Keith looked. Knowing that he still had two days of this and still planned to brew potions tomorrow felt a little tragic.
Keith had said the potion was easy to make. Cassius wanted to try brewing it himself.
He stepped into the back garden, where a simple outdoor shelter had been set up as a temporary potion-brewing area. It had everything needed.
Beside the shelter was a small altar crowded with ingredients. Several spare cauldrons had been placed nearby. Cassius inspected the setup carefully.
On the altar, he found a handwritten book.
The name on the cover was Vincent, suggesting it was a formula notebook written for Keith.
Many of the recipes inside were low-level, mostly first-tier potions.
He flipped through the pages until he found the one for the high-potency painkiller.
The main ingredient was datura, a poisonous flower often used for pain relief and sedation. In high doses, it could be harmful to the body.
Recipe instructions: Add water first. Grind the datura into powder and boil it in the cauldron. Once boiling, add the rest of the ingredients. Use a magic wand to tap the cauldron three times. (This step is critical. If you do not have a wizard’s mental focus, you may skip it, but your success rate will drop to 30 percent.)
Finally, add a magic stone. If the potion fails, the cauldron may explode.
Note: First-tier potions can be made by anyone. Without a wizard’s focus, you can rely on luck, but it’s hard on the equipment.
Regarding Keith’s three-day heat: to ease the pain, an Alpha can help by providing some pheromones. However, these must not be released through the scent glands. Releasing scent will only make the pain worse.
Cassius stared at the last part, confused. Vincent had written it in such a vague way. How was an Alpha supposed to give pheromones without releasing scent?
He couldn’t figure it out. Cassius truly wanted to help, but for now, it seemed like brewing the potion was the only thing he could do. Luckily, it was a basic-level formula, and even non-wizards could attempt it.
A 30 percent chance of success wasn’t too bad, and there were enough ingredients in the altar to make dozens of doses.
Cassius couldn’t help thinking Keith was like a little squirrel, stockpiling supplies in secret.
Once he got started, Cassius quickly realized it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
He followed the steps and skipped the part with the magic wand. After adding the magic stone at the end, the cauldron let out a thick cloud of smoke. The potion turned from blue to red.
It boiled for about two minutes. Cassius began backing away instinctively. Just as he expected, the cauldron exploded.
He tried again. Even with a thirty percent success rate, there was no guarantee. And there was definitely no safety net.
On his fourth attempt, after blowing up three cauldrons, he finally succeeded.
That was a very unlucky streak.
As a physical-type combatant trying to brew a wizard’s potion, this was truly exhausting.
He found an empty bottle and poured the potion into it. The ingredients produced only one bottle per batch. Including the one left in the cabinet, there would now be enough for Keith to get through the rest of his heat.
Keith didn’t know how long he had been asleep. When he woke, he thought it was night. The curtains were drawn, and the room was very dark. He seemed to be alone.
Cassius had probably gone home.
His body no longer hurt, though he felt weak and very hungry.
He drew the curtains open. Outside, the sky was painted with purple clouds. It was evening.
Keith suddenly remembered the flower hadn’t been watered. He headed out to the garden and was surprised to see that Cassius was still there, seemingly busy with something in front of the altar. On the ground lay three charred, broken cauldrons.
“Cassius? You’re still here?”
“I brewed another bottle of painkiller for you. Just focus on resting for the next two days,” Cassius replied. When he turned and saw Keith coming downstairs in just a thin shirt, he grew worried. “Are you cold?”
Even though the weather wasn’t cold, someone with a fever could still feel chilled.
Keith was stunned. He didn’t care at all about the destroyed cauldrons. In disbelief, he said, “Did I hear that right? The Governor himself brewed a potion for me?”
“Sorry about the three ruined cauldrons,” Cassius said as he finished cleaning up the altar. He walked over and handed Keith the small bottle. “Here. It should be usable.”
Such a small bottle had cost him a great deal of effort.
“It’s perfect. I didn’t expect you to have a talent for magic,” Keith said with a smile, holding the glass bottle in his hand. It was still warm from Cassius’s touch. He shook it gently and saw that the color was exactly right.
Oh my god. The Governor had brewed him a potion. Most physical fighters wouldn’t even bother trying. Without a wizard’s mental focus, the success rate was only thirty percent, and it could never go beyond tier one. It was a waste of time and money for most.
“Thank you so much. I almost don’t want to drink it now,” Keith said, his heart filled with emotion. Just moments ago, he had felt weak and miserable, but now his spirits had lifted. “The first potion I ever learned to brew was this painkiller.”
He didn’t talk much about it, but the story behind it was painful. If not for the curse, he might never have needed to learn potion-making at all. Most common painkillers sold on the market barely worked for him.
Cassius noticed how Keith had perked up and felt strangely pleased, even though his own attempts had blown up three cauldrons. He wasn’t interested in becoming a wizard. Still, he remembered something written in Vincent’s notebook and asked,
“Vincent wrote that an Alpha could help relieve your pain. Can I help you somehow?”
If it could even save him one day of suffering, it was worth trying.
“What?” Keith froze. His gaze shifted to the notebook on the altar. He knew exactly what that meant—but he couldn’t say it.
That method required an Alpha to kiss him. That way, even without releasing pheromones through the glands, it would still calm his body.
There was no way he could say that out loud. How embarrassing would that be? He couldn’t just ask Cassius to kiss him.
But now that the idea had popped into his head, his mind began spiraling in all directions. He tried to shake the thoughts away.
Besides, Cassius seemed to like Long Shi. How could he cut in between them?
Keith’s already pale face flushed faintly pink. He looked away awkwardly.
“I… I’m not sure. Maybe ask Vincent about it?”
Cassius could sense his hesitation and guessed that he was hiding something. But there wasn’t much he could do, so he said,
“Alright, I’ll ask Vincent next time I see him.”
“You’re really going to ask him?” Keith asked quickly, sounding a bit flustered. He had only brought Vincent up to deflect the question.
“Aren’t you the one who told me to?” Cassius asked, puzzled by his reaction. This was starting to feel like some kind of secret.
“Right… I guess I did,” Keith replied, clearly flustered and trying to hold himself together.
