The Devil's Betrothed novel Chapter 301

Chapter 301: Potion Making

With the conclusion of the conference came the start of an even busier schedule for the Crown Prince and his fellow delegates from Griven. There were countless social calls and visitations not only from the nobility of Othinia, but also the ministers and officials from the other kingdoms, some bearing gifts while others merely to purely establish connection.

Since the royal ball hosted by the Nefertiti Royal Family was happening tonight, Oriana and her colleagues were especially hard at work as well.

As such, she skipped her morning meal in order to save time. However, she was still an hour later than usual.

’Neil told me we might leave Nefer in two or three days, depending on the results of today’s social visits. Today might be the last day I will get personal lessons. I cannot waste it.’

With this thought, she used the pendant and called her teacher. She braced herself to be scolded, but Rosetta took her away without a word, which surprised Oriana.

’I am late for the lesson, but she did not get mad at me? Strange. Is my teacher not feeling well?’

This time, they did not appear within the meadow hidden in the forest, but inside a quaint yet clean cabin. The scenery beyond the window showed they were in some idyllic village near a river, but it was impossible for Oriana to determine where they were.

Oriana looked around that spacious cabin. She recognized it to be the standard workroom illustrated in the book. In the middle, there was a long table platform made of stone, with various utensils, burners and herbs neatly arranged. There were colorful liquids in the crystal flasks, as well as a pile of glowing stones that didn’t look like jewels.

For their potion-making lesson, they needed such an arrangement, and Rosetta had it prepared beforehand in order to teach Oriana.

"Since you wasted the first hour of your lesson, we will skip practicing the spatial pocket spell and head straight to the study of potions." _{freewēbnoveℓ.com}

Oriana had nothing to say but to apologize. It was indeed her fault, but in her defense, it was hard to juggle the life of a full-time attendant who is secretly learning witchcraft.

"Tsk." Seeing Oriana being obedient, Rosetta could only begrudgingly begin their lesson. She began to introduce the objects in the table to Oriana, naming each of them and their usages. Oriana realized she really didn’t know most of them, and some were names she only read once in the potion-making book.

"Potions are easy to make as long as you have the correct attributes, the recipe and the exact resources." Rosetta introduced her with all the herbs placed on the table. "For your first potion, I will teach you how to make that elixir which I give you to drink to regain your energy. You ought to have found out what it’s called by now, right?"

"A recovery elixir," she answered confidently.

"And how many types of basic recovery elixirs are there?"

"The book listed fifty-two kinds of recovery elixirs."

"How many of them can be concocted by a potion-maker of the darkness attribute?"

"Fourteen."

Rosetta nodded, unable to nitpick since Oriana answered correctly, and started the process of handling the herbs. She raised two bright purple mushrooms the size of a palm. From their color alone, one could tell these mushrooms were highly likely poisonous.

"Each magic attribute can change the quality of an ingredient. Those with the light and water attribute are best for purifying ingredients, that is common knowledge. For the darkness attribute, we have a weaker albeit similar effect as our magic specializes in removing toxins and poisons, and even without manifesting it from our body, we can affect the more sensitive ingredients by mere skin contact..."

Oriana began to realize why black nightshade would react to her black magic, causing failure to her medicine concoctions. Black nightshade must belong to the very sensitive category of herbs.

Removing poison!

It was not that her magic was corrupting the medicine, but it was removing the important properties of the herb,

Black nightshade was banned by the continent due to its poisonous nature, dangerous to both humans and animals once ingested. However, that very toxicity was an important component in the ancient medicine recipe to combat the worsening of dementia.

In the right amount, black nightshade was a poison that cures. Without the toxin of the herb, the concoction would only end up as a disgusting black sludge.

Oriana paid attention to each of Rosetta’s words. The woman placed the mushrooms on the table before gesturing in the air. Two beautiful stemmed roses appeared in her hand. She stuck the stem of the first flower on the mushroom, and it wilted in less than five seconds, causing Oriana to inevitably step back.

’That level of poison! And she was touching them barehanded just a minute ago?!’

The second mushroom, Rosetta wrapped it in a faint black fog before inserting the stem of the second flower on it. Even ten breaths later, there was no outward change on the rose.