A faint red glow rose at the edge of the sky. The Nile River, carrying black silt from upstream, quietly covered the farmland on its banks. The light reddened the reflections of the date palm trees in the water. Sun God Ra drove the solar boat, beginning a new day’s journey.
When Xin Hexue woke up, his head was still somewhat heavy. Often, the appearance of such symptoms could prove that his sleep quality the previous night was not very good.
But before sleeping last night, Xin Hexue had taken two capsule medicines, which were bought from the mall using the pitiful points K had handed over. The medicine’s instructions clearly listed the side effects: using this medicine may cause fatigue and drowsiness.
Logically speaking, he should have slept very soundly and woken up the next day feeling refreshed and clear-headed.
Xin Hexue rubbed the center of his forehead, and a few blurry images flashed through his mind.
The palace under the hazy moonlight, the wolf-like young royal leaning against his bedside in a dependent posture, letting him scratch under his chin like a dog, then stroking his short hair. Because of the pitch-black mask, Xin Hexue couldn’t see the other party’s expression, but judging from Seto’s posture and hoarse voice in his memory, it should have been a rather pleasurable experience.
Later…
After Xin Hexue lay back down, accompanied by the faint sounds of rustling clothes and woven blankets, and the sinking feeling at the foot of the bed from added weight, Xin Hexue’s last awareness before falling asleep was that Seto had slept at the foot of his bed.
He thought the puppy would ask him anxiously yet full of hope if he could sleep on the carpet beside the bed just like when they first met.
Maybe because of his praise last night, the other party got carried away.
Xin Hexue thought with an indifferent expression, not paying much mind to Seto’s presumptuous act of sleeping in the same bed as him.
His gaze swept over the foot of the bed. Although the bed was wide enough for two grown men to sleep side by side, its length was not so generous. Fortunately, he had the habit of curling up slightly when sleeping.
From the wrinkles on the woven blanket at the foot of the bed, Seto had slept there last night.
He yawned, his eyes still sleepy, slowly guessing the reason.
Perhaps he wasn’t used to sleeping with another person, which caused his sleep quality to decline.
Sounds of servants and guards moving about could already be heard in the corridor outside. The golden morning light spilled into the hall, making the gold leaf on the rock-red carpet glitter.
It was at this moment that Xin Hexue stepped onto the floor.
“Hiss…”
Xin Hexue sucked in a sharp breath.
His pain sensitivity, higher than average, caused the corner of his eye to twitch uncontrollably.
What happened?
Did some careless servant leave a needle on the carpet while cleaning?
It was prickly, with a slight numbness and heat.
The undeniable pain traveled from the sole of his foot, seemingly following the direction of the light blue blood vessels and all the way up.
The servant attending to his washing entered carrying a silver basin. The water in the basin swayed due to his quickened pace. “Lord Iah, what’s wrong?”
Xin Hexue sat on the edge of the bed, his knees splayed outward.
He didn’t care at all that the layers of his loincloth had ridden up his thighs due to the movement, revealing even whiter, more delicate skin within.
“Lord Iah…”
The servant’s ears instantly grew hot. Actually, most men in this land wore loincloths shorter than the Divine Envoy’s, with their length not even reaching the knees in order to ensure ventilation and breathability while working in the hot weather. If it weren’t for displaying civilization and enlightenment, many farmers and lower-class slaves would even choose to wear nothing at all.
Perhaps it was because the Divine Envoy’s appearance was so different from theirs…
Skin that was smooth and white like goat’s milk, when exposed, was like a traveler finding a pearl in the golden sand while walking through a dry, windless desert.
The servant averted his gaze, not daring to look. Then he exclaimed, “My lord, what happened to the sole of your foot?”
He then realized that Xin Hexue had spread his knees outward to tilt his ankles, making it easier to see the abnormality on the soles from this angle.
Xin Hexue was born with thin skin. This made it quite easy to leave red marks on his body from intimate contact like kissing or friction.
The current situation seemed far more serious than that.
The soles of his feet looked as if they had undergone some kind of excessive torment, dotted with specks of scarlet red. The skin wasn’t broken, but the capillaries must have ruptured and bled under the skin.
Perhaps these scarlet specks would turn into bruised purple after a day.
The sharp, intense pain the moment he stepped on the carpet had made his whole body shudder.
Helpless, Xin Hexue could only sit on the edge of the bed to wash and change.
He glanced at the shoes presented by another servant and shook his head.
In this condition, how could he wear them?
Xin Hexue frowned and prepared to endure the discomfort in his soles as he stood up to go to the dining table.
His hands pressed against the bedside, preparing to use the support to stand, when he was suddenly lifted into the air. A bronze arm slipped under his knees, another behind his back, effortlessly lifting Xin Hexue up.
Seto kept his head down. From Xin Hexue’s perspective, he could only see his sharply defined, tense jawline.
He was securely placed on the chair before the table.
Xin Hexue found out what Seto had disappeared to do this morning. There was a moist, damp air about him, as if he had just bathed. Seto had also brought back a pottery jar of ointment. Then, he silently knelt before Xin Hexue’s knees.
His lowered head seemed to suggest he had done something wrong, so guilty that he couldn’t lift his head. He could only speak in a tight voice, “Nephthys, is injured…”
Xin Hexue said nonchalantly, “Let’s have breakfast first.”
Situations like this had happened before. His body simply wasn’t suited for long journeys without transportation.
“I walked too far yesterday and I’m not feeling well today. Send someone to tell the Vizier that I won’t be able to go with him to observe the farming on the dry land for the next couple of days.”
Xin Hexue said to a servant nearby.
“Yes.”
One of the servants bowed their head and exited the palace.
………
Soft flatbread, baked until slightly golden on the outside, was drizzled with a layer of honey. The aroma was sweet but not cloying. It was made from fine wheat flour, completely different from the coarse bread eaten by commoners, which contained leftover bran and sand grains.
A golden plate held curd-like cream. More thick fresh cream was cooked with beans into a smooth, velvety soup. Vibrant, fresh fruit was piled high on the table like a small mountain, and the ripe dates and figs emitted a fresh, sweet scent.
Xin Hexue stirred the bowl with a silver spoon, and thin slices of fish floated on the white, thick soup.
Ancient Egypt was skilled in using spices for cooking. Cumin, pepper, and various herbs were commonly found in dishes, so the food here tasted quite good. But occasionally, it made him miss staple foods made from rice, and the sweet and sour taste of tomatoes.
He did have ways to obtain seeds, like directly exchanging for them from the mall. However, the climate conditions here would probably make it difficult for foreign plants to take root and sprout successfully.
So, Xin Hexue let out a long sigh.
For someone like Seto, who grew up here, he probably wouldn’t have the worry of getting tired of the food… right?
Xin Hexue lifted his gaze and looked across the table, then suddenly paused.
The food placed before Seto was completely different from the exquisite, fragrant dishes in front of Xin Hexue.
It was pure, natural, and unprocessed meat. In other words, Seto’s plate contained bloody animal organs and large chunks of meat. The freshness of the blood’s color suggested these were likely dug out from an animal’s body within the last hour.
Seto, who had been asked to stay and eat together, was clearly sitting on pins and needles in his chair, clearly very restrained.
He also seemed to struggle greatly with the utensils. The small knife among the cutlery appeared harder for him to handle than the sword he wore at his side. Xin Hexue saw him wanting to give up several times and grab the food with his bare hands.
The sitting posture also seemed to cause him considerable difficulty.
It wasn’t hard to guess that if Xin Hexue weren’t sitting across from him, Seto might have directly chosen to eat his “breakfast” crouching on all fours like a real wolf.
Xin Hexue frowned.
The servant attending to him nearby said in a low voice, “Lord Iah, that has always been Lord Anubis’s dietary habit.”
Bizarrely, the servant’s tone was matter-of-fact about this, even filled with reverence.
‘A habit?’
:Eating raw meat?’
Xin Hexue: “Is that so? Does he also eat like this when dining with the Pharaoh?”
The servant replied: “In fact, Lord Anubis does not dine with the Pharaoh or the other lords.”
Xin Hexue noticed that these people used the title “Anubis” to refer to Seto far more often than his given name. Clearly, for Seto, the religious concept placed upon him was higher than his own self.
“To awaken his instincts,” the servant said reverently, “the previous Pharaoh placed him in a bronze cage with a lion from childhood.”
‘Awaken instincts?’
‘Or abuse?’
No wonder Rahotep had once reminded him that Seto might behave in ways unlike ordinary people.
Xin Hexue glanced at Seto and finally instructed the servant to remove the cutlery in front of him. Without the troublesome knife, the royal could finally wolf down his food happily.
Halfway through swallowing, Seto suddenly paused again. The jackal-head mask only covered the upper half of his face. His thin lips were stained with blood. The eyes visible through the narrow black slit looked at Xin Hexue, revealing his uneasiness and dilemma.
It seemed Rahotep had not given up on having etiquette scribes teach this royal brother table manners, but without exception, they had failed.
However, the repeated training wasn’t entirely wasted. Seto at least knew that in the human world, wolfing down food and eating raw meat were unwelcome.
“It’s alright,” Xin Hexue said, his eyes curving slightly, and his expression seeming very gentle. “Eat.”
Seto breathed a sigh of relief.
His eating movements were very fierce, but his posture before Xin Hexue seemed extremely docile.
This savage beast would kneel down docilely when Xin Hexue approaches.
His posture was the same as when he applied medicine to Xin Hexue after breakfast.
He held Xin Hexue’s feet and placed them on his own thighs, which was much better than the carpet, then lowered his head to carefully apply medicine to the soles.
While applying the medicine, the golden arm rings on Seto’s arms clinked together, and the well-defined muscles of his legs tensed into lines, extending from beneath his loincloth.
Xin Hexue realized that Seto had indeed developed solid and useful muscles from fighting male lions since childhood.
The problem was…
They were a bit too solid.
It made him feel that even stepping on the other party’s thighs caused some pain.
…
…
?
In a flash, a thought came to Xin Hexue’s mind.
He raised his hand and dismissed the servants in the palace. His snow-white eyelashes lowered, a faint chill spilling from his eyes. “Seto. What did you do last night?”
Seto’s back stiffened. He kept his head lowered, not daring to look up. “Nephthys…!”
Before he could say another word, a white foot was already stepping on the space between his legs, even maliciously grinding against the front.
Seto instinctively arched his back and let out a muffled groan, his voice as if filled with sand grains.
The prickling pain made Xin Hexue suck in a cold breath, causing his words to resemble a beautiful serpent hissing a threat.
“Good boy.”
“What bad thing did you do… with my feet?”
Seto’s eyes were crimson, and beads of damp sweat slid from his temples down his facial contours. An extremely wet, sticky and hot atmosphere permeated the air.
“Sorry… didn’t mean to hurt Mother Goddess…”
He pleaded, meeting Xin Hexue’s eyes.
At this point, what was left for Xin Hexue to not understand?
The smile on his face faded like a tide, and frost covered the beautiful face.
In his anger, even the fluffy big white cat tail emerged from under the loincloth, dangling between his legs and swaying left and right in an unhappy arc.
Seto’s gaze involuntarily followed it, completely hooked. “Tail.”
Soon, he could no longer keep his attention on Xin Hexue’s tail.
A heavy grind, accompanied by immense stimulation and pain, swept over all of Seto’s senses like a flood and he groaned in pain.
Xin Hexue suddenly paused and looked down in disbelief.
Even the tip of his tail was stained.
This infuriated Xin Hexue, and he gave a very faint, cold smile.
Through K’s long-term research and rich experience of the special creature, “Xin Hexue”, this indicated that his host was completely provoked.
Xin Hexue lifted his knee and hit Seto’s jaw with it, forcing the young royal to look up at him.
“Seto, what have you done?”
Seto’s dazed golden-brown pupils contracted.
………
………
Ankhet returned from the temple outside. He had been officially transferred to oversee the construction of the obelisk in front of the temple. His frustrated mood from the whole day reached its peak when his confidant returned to report that Xin Hexue still hadn’t stepped out of his palace.
Was being sick once so serious?
What a precious Divine Envoy.
Ankhet swore he just wanted to go see, to ensure this Divine Envoy could participate in the Sacred Bull Festival as the new High Priest. After all, they couldn’t let their efforts go to waste. He was definitely not concerned about the other person’s health.
What did the Divine Envoy’s health have to do with him?
But when he arrived at the palace, the young man had just emerged from the bath, his back turned. His long silver-white hair was wet and clinging to his spine. A slender, well-proportioned frame was covered with thin muscle. Water droplets trickled down at every dip, and slid down to the small of his back.
Xin Hexue’s waist was quite slender, a tapered curve. Further down, the lines of his hip bones flared out, but all were obscured by the spread white linen cloth. The servant bowed, his hands deftly moving around to help Xin Hexue put on his loincloth.
Ankhet felt his blood churning. He looked like someone who had come a long way and was very thirsty. He even accepted the cup of wine presented by the servant attending to guests and downed it in one go.
Ankhet’s brows were furrowed almost seamlessly. He felt more and more thirsty, and the thirst threatened to devour him.
He almost suspected that Xin Hexue had foreseen the future and seen through their scheme.
Otherwise, it was hard to explain why he felt even thirstier after drinking the wine or even why his ears felt hot.
Did the Divine Envoy add something to the wine?
