Quinn tossed his head back to down a vial of medicine. Once his body was fully recovered, he hurried after them.
"Your Majesty, I suggest having the doctor do a follow-up check."
Ornado paid him no mind.
Quinn called out again, "Your Majesty?"
Yuxing helpfully answered on behalf of her owner: "What he means is that your suggestion is wonderful, and you should never suggest anything again."
Quinn smiled and waved a hand. "Impossible. The King wouldn't..."
The next second, Ornado spoke.
"She meant exactly what she said."
Quinn: "..."
He, Fedetick Quinn—the King's most trusted, valued, and favored confidant—seemed to have fallen out of favor!
Deep down, Quinn was biting a little handkerchief in grief, casting a reproachful glance at the "heartless man."
Without even turning his head, Ornado seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, his tone freezing cold. "Don't want those eyes anymore?"
In a split second, Quinn snapped back to a professional expression and earnestly admired the wall murals.
Held in Ornado's arms, Yuxing watched this with fascination, her gaze following the owl gentleman to her side.
Huge oil paintings hung along the walls.
Their frames were made of an unknown material, and the paintings depicted landscapes her original self had never even seen.
Every single meter featured a mermaid-shaped wall sconce, the lampshades carved with strange oceanic motifs.
They walked down the spiral staircase and arrived at their destination.
Yuxing couldn't help praising, "Just for the decor alone, I'm giving this restaurant five stars."
Habitually, Quinn took a seat on one side of the five-meter-long dining table and picked up his exclusive pure gold cutlery.
"You haven't seen anything yet. Once you taste the Royal Palace's specialty cuisine, you'll know what true heavenly food is."
Full of anticipation, Yuxing swallowed hard, but she was guided to the head seat, only realizing what happened after a long moment.
Should she be sitting here?
The crucial question was: if she sat here, where was her owner supposed to sit?
Quinn shared her bewilderment. He stopped urging them to eat and stared blankly at the King, who suddenly felt so unfamiliar.
Ornado sat down right next to Yuxing.
He wrapped his arm around his pet's back and rested it extremely naturally on the chair's armrest, creating a posture full of possessive shelter.
Yuxing decided to voice her humble question: "With so many chairs, can't we fit? Why do we have to squeeze together?"
Ornado offered no explanation for his pet's query. Instead, he twirled a lock of hair from beside her temple around his fingertip and played with it.
Quinn's playful expression finally turned serious. He had already sensed the King's unnatural and excessive possessiveness toward the person before him.
Just as he was about to ask something, Ornado raised a hand to cut him off.
The next second, several figures filed in carrying trays. They wore matching black-and-white long dresses, keeping their heads down and stepping lightly as they entered.
Yuxing was instantly captivated by the food on the platters. "What are these?"
Their blue shells made them look like eggs, yet they were as big as the palm of a hand. The main point was that every single dish was piled with these eggs.
Ornado's tone remained completely flat. "Water-turtle eggs."
Yuxing was shocked.
A dignified ruler of a nation ate this?
Where was the legendary heavenly cuisine?
If there wasn't a grand feast, there should at least be three dishes and a soup!
Slowly, Yuxing calmed down.
Her original self's memories told her that interstellar food was scarce, that edible ingredients were few and far between, and that the nutrient fluid she drank yesterday was the norm.
Perhaps the water-turtle eggs before her were genuinely rare.
The owl gentleman was already eating so fast he couldn't lift his head, which was the highest praise possible for the water-turtle eggs.
Peeling and slicing them, Quinn shoved them into his mouth continuously, quickly clearing two plates and marching on toward the third.
Only after Quinn laid down his knife and fork did Ornado speak. "With the expedition imminent, clean up the First Legion."
Yuxing chewed.
Quinn paused his napkin-wiping motion. "Uh, I need to ask for instructions—are we leaving none of them?"
Ornado's expression was unreadable. "The legion doesn't need maggots."
Yuxing chewed and chewed.
Ornado continued, "Also..."
Yuxing chewed, chewed, and chewed.
Ornado dropped his gaze onto his pet's puffed-up cheeks.
Yuxing swallowed her second egg. "You want some too? I'll peel one for you."
As she spoke, Yuxing skillfully used the ring on her owner's hand to crack open a water-turtle egg.
Ornado leaned down and took a bite straight from his pet's hand.
Yuxing didn't dare move a muscle.
The sound of her owner drawing near was clearly audible. A fierce, masculine aura washed over her, and his breath against her fingertips felt as if it carried thorns.
It pricked her so sharply she almost lost her grip.
She shifted her position slightly, attempting to distance herself from the source of heat.
Ornado fixed his gaze on his pet's earlobes, watching a faint flush spread outward from the tips bit by bit.
Still just as heart-stirring.
He reached out.
His calloused thumb stroked back and forth with moderate pressure, until his pet's earlobes turned a much more noticeable shade of red.
Only after doing this did he snap out of it.
An indescribable, bizarre desire had compelled him to make a move that even he found out of line.
If his pet glared at him, she had every right to.
Quinn: "..."
He shouldn't be sitting at the table; he should be under it.
The strange feeling in his chest intensified. Quinn probed tentatively, "Your Majesty, where did you find this little thing? She's so cute—ouch, my bad!"
He had merely cast one extra glance at the human pet, and the next second he sensed the King's displeasure and the restless twitching of his tentacles.
At that point, someone as experienced in romance as him understood everything. Their King wasn't raising the human before him as a pet at all.
The main point was that the King hadn't even realized the problem yet.
That must be why he asked him that question last night.
If things were allowed to progress naturally, the Alpha Empire might just welcome its very first human queen.
Ha.
He was actually starting to look forward to it.
Ornado issued a dismissal. "Get lost."
Quinn hurriedly grabbed two water-turtle eggs and shoved them into his pockets. "You got it!"
Ornado felt utter disdain for his confidant's miserliness and stinginess. He had never denied the man anything, yet those bad habits simply refused to change.
Ornado turned his face back toward his pet, his gaze softening once more like spring water, hiding a partiality deep within his eyes that he had yet to realize.
"Like eating them? These are all yours."
Hearing this, Quinn—who was halfway to the door—burst into internal tears. "Your Majesty."
Ornado's brow twitched. Unable to endure it any longer, a tentacle lashed out. "Your share is already waiting at your estate."
Having taken a hit, Quinn flew off looking thoroughly satisfied.
Yuxing posed a philosophical question: "Is he a masochist?"
Ornado: "..."
He didn't want to admit it.
There was a feeling that whenever a subordinate lost face, he lost face right along with him.
Ornado changed the subject. "When you're done eating, I'll take you out."
Yuxing turned back and locked eyes with him.
Up close, she could see that those blue eyes were deeper than the night, resembling a deep-sea whirlpool capable of swallowing the Titanic, concealing a fatal allure that piqued curiosity and begged to be explored.
She thought of those strange tentacles.
Were they squid or octopus?
Yuxing began to crave grilled squid skewers and takoyaki, swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
Ornado's slender eyes narrowed. "Not full?"
His low voice beat against her ear, sending a shiver down Yuxing's spine. She raised a hand to press against his well-muscled chest, refusing to let him get any closer.
How could Ornado possibly give up on getting closer?
He pulled her into his arms.
Yuxing felt a constant source of heat radiating through her palm. The heartbeat beneath that chest thrummed like a drum, faintly revealing a dormant, dangerous aura.
"I'm full! Do you have clothes for going out?"