The Damned Demon

"A cripple with some skills…not bad…" Sabina smiled as she sipped on her chalice. But she never expected she would lose a bet against someone, especially someone like him. Still, instead of feeling angry or disappointed, she only had her eyes glow briefly as she looked at him.

*Clap! Clap! Clap!*

Kookus was the first to clap loudly with a wide grin. Ceti shot him a strange look, "Stop making a fool out of yourself."

"Fool out of who?" Kookus grinned as Ceti turned around and saw everybody else slowly beginning to clap as well.

As more of them clapped, others also joined to the point even Rebecca and Oberon Drake had no choice but to simply hit their hands together lest others see it as disrespect to the queen.

Rowena took a step back with blinking eyes as if she had come back to reality and realized what was going on.

She gave a brief glance at Asher before walking away towards her throne with an inscrutable expression while Asher stood in the same spot and subtly smiled.

Lord Vernon Valentine smiled and applauded loudly, "What a beautiful dance. I never thought I would be witnessing such a different yet graceful style. Surely, I hope Your Highness can share some tips later."

"Thank you for the kind words, Lord Valentine," Asher said with a subtle bow. He wasn\'t expecting anybody here to truly get impressed by his dance. So he didn\'t know if Vernon was being courteous or if he truly took a liking to his style.

This style of dancing was something he and Aira had come up with together in his previous life. He never expected he would be doing it with someone else at that time.

Since someone as respectful and powerful as Lord Vernon personally congratulated the royal consort, some of the lords and ladies of various noble houses passed on their congratulations as well, to which Asher accepted with a polite smile.

He didn\'t care if these people were being sincere. At least he left some impression on all of them, and even if this won\'t really bring any benefits to him, he at least won\'t get forgotten as some background character.

"Where did he even learn to dance like that? It doesn\'t make sense," Lady Esther Thorne mumbled with a narrowed gaze.

"Why do you care? It doesn\'t matter if a cripple can dance or not," Lord Thorin Thorne said with a stone-faced look.

"This cannot be happening…He is pushing things too far," Oberon said as a dangerous glint shot past his eyes upon seeing how his annoying dance even left an impression on others. Who knows what Rowena must have felt.

Seron Drake looked at his son and said, "Just lay low for a while and don\'t do anything reckless. The queen won\'t fully ignore the words of that cripple. It must be because of something her father said to her before he left. How frustrating…"

Oberon clicked his tongue with an annoyed look as he rubbed his lower lip with a menacing gaze.

As soon as the queen sat down, the others stepped back onto the dance floor and continued dancing. Some were inspired by the dance between the royal consort and the queen and tried to imitate their style.

Asher walked towards where Sabina was standing with a smile.

"My, my…No need to gloat before me. I know when to admit defeat even though I am not really used to it," Sabina said with a subtle curve of her succulent red lips.

Asher chuckled, hearing her words as he drank some more wine kept on the table.

"But I am curious…When did you learn to dance after not getting out of your room for all these years? I have yet to meet someone who mastered dancing within a night," She said with a peculiar gaze.

"Well, you did meet that someone now…What other possible way could I have learned? Maybe I was born to dance," Asher said with a wink as he sipped on his wine.

"Aren\'t you quite talented~" Sabina let out a charming giggle as she caressed her lower red lip with her hand fan.

Edmund Thorne, who was sitting with his family, noticed his sister, who was also his fiance, giggling and talking to that crippled consort.

He had been noticing this for a while, but this time he just couldn\'t take it as he stood up, "How dare that cripple breathe the same air as her. I will—"

"Sit down, Edmund. You do know how she doesn\'t like to be interrupted or told what to do," Esther Thorne said with a brief shake of her head, making Edmund\'s hands shake, "Mother…you can\'t let this go on…"

"So now that I won, I hope you aren\'t planning to back out," Asher said with an expectant look.

Sabina subtly chuckled and said, "This lady never backs out from a promise. I am curious what gift the royal consort would need from me."

​ "I won\'t ask for anything that would cause you inconvenience. All I want is the potion ingredients for healing. Just the ingredients for the basic one will suffice and should last me few months," Asher casually said.

Sabina raised her brows as if she didn\'t expect him to ask for such a thing, "Ingredients for a healing potion? How strange…I don\'t mean any offense, but what possible use could you have with that or even learn to use them? Surely, you seem to be in great health, and if not, the royal physician can perform miracles you won\'t even expect."

"Of course, I have no use for it. But I feel like I have a lot of time on my hands which makes my life quite boring. So I decided…why not learn something to keep my mind occupied. I plan to learn the formula from the library here and experiment with the ingredients to create my own formulas no matter how daunting that might be. I know the hard truth that I am a cripple, and my prospects are greatly limited. But I can at least use my head and contribute to the welfare of our kingdom in my own way. If I can become someone who can at least create some potion formulas that can benefit our brave raiders and reapers, then I wouldn\'t feel I am letting down our kingdom or its people," Asher said with an inner light in his eyes.

He knew it would seem suspicious if he simply asked for a potion formula without a good reason. However, if he gets his hands on a health potion formula then he can brew them on his own and not worry about feeding blood to his bloodthirsty ring. As someone who was also renowned as the Potion Prince in his previous life, he wanted to utilize those skills in this life as well.