Damien looked at the woman in front of him, for two whole seconds he was certain that there was certainly something wrong with her head.
Firstly, she was a dashing woman —with an hourglass body and a figure that could make any man have immoral and carnal thoughts about her.
Secondly, he was a young man full of vigour. He might be in a body much younger than he was in the past but he was nonetheless an old soul. One who wouldn't refuse the company of a woman especially if she was as good-looking as Wistoria.
"Do you even know what you are talking about?" He said to her, with his eyes darkening with a hint of confusion.
"I do," Wistoria replied confidently as she walked over to the side of the bed and sat down. She glanced over at him as if he was asking something foolish, "Taking you as my husband means that I will be allowing you to fulfill your responsibilities as my husband—"
"Exactly—"
"However," she interrupted him as she crossed her arms in front of her generous bosom. "No matter how much we want to refuse the titles that are imposed on us, I believe that it's better if we accept it rather than reject it. You might already be aware of the fact that spies are hiding among the servants or the officials of this city."
"I hope you are not naive enough to believe that Emiliano is not aware of anything that's happening in this city?" She asked and Damien narrowed his eyes. Indeed he was not foolish enough to believe that Emiliano had no idea what was going on in the city.
Seeing that he understood what she was saying Wistoria swung her legs over the double Queen-sized bed and remarked in an off-handed voice, "That's why isn't it better to accept our situation? Maybe that way Emiliano will think that we have given up fighting."
Damien opened his mouth to refuse but soon closed it shut as a second late Wistoria curled her lips up in a disdainful smile before saying, "Don't tell me you are going to chicken out?"
"Who said anything about chickening out?" Damien's eyes flashed with anger. "No matter how I look at it, the person who is in a difficult position is you, Lady Wistoria."
His words brought mirth to her eyes and two seconds later Wistoria burst out laughing. "Aahaha! Do you take me as a lowly rat or hamster beast woman? I am a wolf shifter and we enjoy intimacy, not to mention beast men and beast women go through heat cycles once every one or two months."
She raised her head and licked her lips before stating, "And being a high-ranking beast woman the chances of me eating you clean is much higher than yours as your beast nucleus has been destroyed."
Damien smirked inwardly. This woman—she really had no idea what kind of fire she was playing with was she?
••••
On the other side of the city, Adikus was at his wit's end. He looked at the fourth healer who had refused to treat Sigurd and turned them away, with desperation in his eyes.
"What should we do now?" Martha asked while looking up at Adikus. "No one is willing to treat him."
"We will find someone," Adikus said to her with a consoling voice but he too seemed to be filled with worry as he knew that there was no other healer left in the city who would willingly treat commoners.
And they did not have enough time to wait for the temple to open the public community centre.
They needed to do something—they had to!
"It's all my fault," Martha wiped her tears as she looked down at Sigurd. His lips were turning blue and the more she looked at him, the more it looked like he was closer to dying.
She sniffed and said, "If not for me… he wouldn't be suffering like this."
"Don't blame yourself —it's not your fault, it is all this…" Adikus cut himself bitterly. He knew that neither Martha nor him was wrong in this situation. The one who started trouble was Lord George and yet the one who was suffering was them.
They had nothing wrong but as they belonged to the bottom of the apex—no one respected them.
Martha shook her head as she felt nervousness kick in, she raised her head and said to Adikus anxiously, "Why don't we go and ask for that healer who was willing to help us earlier? At least he was willing to help us..isn't it better to do something than just letting others turn us away."
At least Damien had agreed to treat Sigurd and he hadn't shrunk away from the prospect of touching him just because he was working as the guard of a brothel and was a dog beastman.
Adikus pursed his lips, he did not trust Damien nor did he trust his skills but he dropped his gaze and looked at Sigurd whose condition was barely maintained by the continuous use of restraining bleeding ointment.
Usually, this ointment was enough to stop the bleeding of a beastman as long as his condition was not serious but — it seemed like there was something else that they could do.
He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine. Let's go." Anything was better than nothing, at least he would not have any regrets left. Even if he couldn't save Sigurd, Adikus could tell himself that he did everything that he could to save his friend and colleague.
Then without waiting for another second, Adikus picked up Sigurd in his arms and shifted to his beastman form before rushing out of the city.