Altair looked at the person and the black panther, who were still staring at each other, and reminded them, "Remember to deal with the beakers and plates in a moment."
After saying this, Altair left the laboratory.
Vera, coming to her senses, looked at the beaker and plate with disdain, then turned back to look at Panthera. At this moment, her expression seemed to say, "These things were caused by you, so you have the responsibility to deal with them."
Panthera did not choose to respond to Vera's expectant gaze, but instead performed a standard feline stretch, with its front limbs extended and supporting its weight on the ground, its rear raised, and its spine fully extended.
After completing this set of movements, it shook its head, preparing to leave. Its behavior seemed to say, "I am just a pet, only responsible for providing emotional value, not a maid. Cleaning should be your job."
Watching Panthera turn to leave, Vera closed her eyes as if making a decision of great sacrifice and said, "As long as you help me deal with these things, I will—I will share seven days' worth of my snacks with you."
Hearing this, Panthera stopped in its tracks and turned around to look at Vera, as if asking, "Really?"
Only after Vera nodded affirmatively did it pick up the contaminated plate in its mouth and signal Vera to place the beaker on it.
Not long after, Altair, strolling in the garden, saw Panthera carrying a plate in its mouth with a beaker on top, gradually walking toward the perimeter of the manor. Vera followed closely behind and said, "Panthera, remember to throw these things out of the manor through the gaps in the fence. Don't dig a hole to bury them."
Seeing this, Altair couldn't help but ask Vera out of curiosity, "Didn't Panthera just consume the potion? How can it have such strong intelligence? How did you get it to help you throw things away?"
"Of course, it's because I sacrificed my snack stash," Vera explained with a sigh, looking as if she had suffered a great grievance. After speaking, she walked up to Altair, took her hand, and said coquettishly, "Count Altair, Panthera really eats a lot. Don't you think we should increase its food budget and buy it more snacks and such?"
Altair remained unmoved by Vera's coquetry. After pulling her arm away, she rubbed Vera's delicate cheek with her fingers and teased, "I remember the snack fee you apply for Panthera each week is 30 gold pounds, but the actual amount spent is only 15 gold pounds. Where is the rest of the money? Are you skimming Panthera's snack money?"
After hearing Altair's teasing, Vera couldn't help but make a smiling face, making her cheeks look even rounder.
After teasing her, Altair left and began to appreciate the flowers that were blooming one after another.
Not only was Altair, as the master, aware of Vera's little tricks, but Hahn, Aileen, and everyone else also knew perfectly well, though no one pointed it out.
Of course, the main reason was that the young girl hadn't gone bad; she was just a bit of a foodie and kind-hearted. Most of the snack money she skimmed from Panthera was used to buy black bread to give to the beggars on the street.
Fortunately, she gave the black bread in the name of the Sheffield Family. If she had done it in her own name, she would have faced at least a scolding, and the maximum punishment would be hard to imagine.
Skimming pet food money to do charity is certainly a method someone could come up with.
Although Altair and the others didn't want to interfere, Panthera, who had just returned and heard the entire conversation, bared its teeth at Vera and let out a low "Wu~~ha," as if warning her, "If you dare to do this again, I will definitely bite you to death."
March 30, 1347, 10:00 PM.
East Borough, Backlund. On an unnamed street under the bright crimson moon, two carriages were slowly driving toward Backlund Queen District.
Sitting in the lead carriage, Altair was thinking about the difficulty of obtaining Beyonder characteristics.
She had just finished attending Mr. A's Beyonder gathering and chose to leave immediately after the transaction was completed.
The problem was that no high-level Beyonder materials appeared at the gathering, and things were capped at sequence 7. Even if Mr.
A accepted commissions for 'on-demand kills,' she could only obtain sequence six Beyonder characteristics through this channel.
Of course, Mr. A had also hinted that if Altair were willing to purchase at double the normal price, he would be willing to hunt sequence five on a large scale.
But Altair did not agree. She was in no hurry to buy right now; she was just testing the waters for now.
Moreover, regarding sequence five Beyonder characteristics, Mr. A would occasionally sell them, but at most once a month, and sometimes they wouldn't be seen for two or three months.
And what Altair found most strange was that the Beyonder characteristics of the Pathways belonging to the Seven Orthodox Gods were all scarce items at Mr. A's. The highest recorded purchase was the sequence six Polymath of the Reader Pathway; most of the time, they were low-Sequence characteristics like Sequence nine or eight.
While Altair was still lost in thought, Simon, who was driving at the front, brought the carriage to a slow stop and looked helplessly at the three tall figures not far ahead.
Feeling the carriage stop, Altair asked the front in confusion, "Simon, are we home already?"
"Not yet, Count Altair," Simon replied respectfully and explained, "There are people blocking the road ahead."
Hearing Simon's words, Altair curiously pulled back the carriage curtain and looked out, only to find three tall, humanoid giant wolves running toward them.
Altair smiled and said, "Just leave one alive; smash the other two."
After receiving the order, Simon looked at his teammates who were rushing over and signaled to them, "You two deal with the two smaller ones; leave the big one to me."
After saying that, Simon activated Dawn Armor. Once a faint yellow light condensed on his body, he charged at the largest Werewolf.
He did not choose to use a weapon but instead directly collided with the Werewolf covered in black fur in a savage charge, sending it flying.
Taking advantage of the momentary stiffness while it was airborne and had no point of leverage, he seized the opportunity to reach out and grab its upper jaw, giving it a rotation of about 120 degrees and slamming it into a nearby stone pillar.
Perhaps fearing it still had strength left, Simon hurriedly stepped forward and continuously struck the Werewolf's limbs with his fists and feet—as Simon's striking force grew stronger, cracks appeared on the stone pillar behind the Werewolf and continued to spread. Altair, looking at the venting Simon from the carriage window, couldn't help but click her tongue. Even if the Werewolf had been careless at the start, it wouldn't have been defeated in one move like this. Was this a Pathway suppression or a Sequence suppression?
A sequence six fighting a sequence 7 is truly like a father beating his son; the son has no power to fight back.
Not long after, Simon dragged the half-dead person back to the carriage and said respectfully to Altair, "Count Altair, among the attackers this time, only one is a sequence 7 Werewolf of the Mutant pathway; the other two are ordinary people infected with Wolf venom."
"I see," Altair said in a flat tone, showing no emotion. "Remember to send someone to notify the Church of the Night to handle the matter of the two ordinary people turning into Werewolves."
"Bring this Beyonder of the Mutant pathway back to the manor and temporarily imprison him. Keep a close eye on him and don't let him die; he is still useful for now."