Don't Dare To Intimidate

After her work was done, Lotus continued to speak with the adults before leaving the room and was brought to the office where Jade handed her the bag of tarantulas and she placed them into the bags. Azul raised a brow curiously, "It's unusual that you would request for these tarantulas, though..."

Lotus smirked, "The body parts of these spiders have their uses. The poison can be used for antivenom or manmade poison. The hair have other uses and the fangs has their own use. When that's done, I just burn the carcass. The next time you find these tarantulas just grab something to throw them away."

"What are Metallic Sapphires, anyway?" Floyd looked to her in confusion.

Lotus shrugged, "They come from the South and are very unique as they are one of the few species of tarantulas that lives in colonies. Their lives are magically connected to their queen and a bite from her is no different to that of a cobra. They're rare, however, and are hard to come across because they dislike light. So, you'll find them in places with a lot of shade, but there are few in numbers now compared to the past."

Lotus thought for a bit before hesitating, "I've read it was due to a loss of habitat, but I'm not too sure about that. I didn't even think they'd come here to Night Raven College."

She sighed, "However, with them dead, it just means the queen had either died or someone killed it. But the corpse of these tarantulas are more deadly than when they're alive. Like when a spider curls up after death, one pressure on the body is able to make their body attack on reflex. You could say it's their last defensive mechanism to protect their colony. So, picking up with the bare hands is dangerous."

"You tell us this now?" Floyd grumbled nervously.

Lotus shrugged, "After seeing the others get bit, I'm not to concerned that you'd get the message that they're dangerous or not."

"However, I'm surprised that you would have the antidote on you..." Azul responded curiously.

Despite all his words, Lotus have long known that Azul has a very calculative mind as per required when running a business, but she wasn't concerned about that in the least as she responded, "Yeah. I came across a bottle of venom for it one in the Hot Lands a few years back."

Lotus continued with a sigh, "The antidote requires the venom of the spider, so the antidote I had before was made from that, but the ones I gave your residents are made with the venom of these spiders here. The antidote doesn't require for it to be boiled or anything. What I've done is create and build antibodies using herbs in the botanical garden. The antibodies are built with a mixture of herbs and I train them to eat away the poison of the spider in a week."

Azul shuddered, "A week?! Then, the price..."

"You've already paid." Lotus smirked and held up bag of spiders, "These are pretty expensive except only people of the black market would want them. As you run business, I'm sure you don't want to be involved with shady businesses. I'm going to burn away the carcasses after I'm done, so you don't have to worry about shady things coming back to you."

Azul watched her firmly, "I'm not accusing you of anything, but I just want to know..."

"If I want get myself into any shady dealings from today's event?" Lotus finished with a smirk, "It's not that I have to or don't have to. I won't."

Hearing the firm answer in her voice surprised Azul and Jade.

"You mean to say..." Azul stared at her in confusion, "You don't want to."

Lotus raised a brow, "Maybe I didn't get my words across..."

Lotus smirked, "When I said I won't, then I won't. Haha..."

She sneered as she continued, "For those who wants me to work with anyone in anything I'm unwilling to... I'd like to see who would like to force my hand..."

Azul froze in bewilderment as Jade narrowed his eyes. Both could already feel the firmness in her response as they soon came to realize that, for someone without magic, she finally seemed to have flipped their initial harmless presence at the beginning. They didn't have to be fighters to feel this aura around her either.

"Wah..." Floyd smirked as he heard this with a wide smile on his face as she could feel the change of presence coming from him.

"Floyd." Jade responded.

"I know. I know." Floyd responded slightly irritated.

"Also," Lotus responded with a smirk, "The fact that the contract hasn't pulled me here means that I haven't spoken a single lie yet either."

Azul sighed with a nod, "That is true. I understand and apologize if we seemed to have intimidated to you."

"It's quite all right." Lotus responded with a renewed peaceful smile.

With that, she told them what she had told the nurse to do and such before leaving the dorm. Though they offered to escort her, Lotus turned down the offer, bought a drink and left the place after she was done in a kind gesture.

.....

"So, there's only the remanent of those tarantulas that have left the people here muddled?" Zhang Yong looked to Lotus in bewilderment.

Looking up from her desk, Lotus nodded with a sigh, "The Metallic Sapphire is a rare species of tarantulas that inhabit the south of our world in the lower realm. They aren't from here and the last time I came across the poison was when the enemy was using their venom in their needles. That was how I acquired their batch of poison before and made numerous antidotes from it."

Having told them that it was from the south, Lotus didn't clarify that it was not in this world.

Currently, they were in her room as she continued to used the steel tweezers and carefully dissect each of the spiders one at a time.

"This is the first that I've seen these spiders too..." Zhang Li noted as she watched Lotus dissect the venom from the body.

Zhang Yong sighed, "Ah-Li, move back before the thing shoots out venom at you."

"It's fine, brother!" Zhang Li stated cheerfully, "Our master has things under control."

"You..." Zhang Yong sighed in exasperation.

It was then that Lotus caught a whiff in the air and raised a brow but didn't say anything

Zhang Yong turned to his master, "Master, what do you plan to do now?"

"Hm?" Lotus called out curiously.

"Now that the enemy has lost their source of intel, now is the best time to strike." Zhang Yong responded.

"Nah." Lotus grumbled as she carefully dissected the next spider.

"Huh?" Zhang Yong looked to her in confusion, "You're not going to fight back? B-but, you have us to back you."

Lotus placed the dissected fangs into a porcelain vial and opened one of her books she had been reading earlier before capping away the vials, "I'm busy. Just who would have time to play with four giant children?"

Zhang Yong was left dumbfounded as his little sister giggled, "Brother. Your face, your face..."

Her words brought him back to reality as he watched their master began to study arrays diligently.

This can't be!

He frowned. As the elder one, he should instruct his lady and make her understand the severity of the situation. However, just as he was about to call out to her sternly. His sister pulled him back with a smirk, "Eldest brother, are you blind?"

"Huh?" He looked to his sister in bewilderment.

Zhang Li heaved an exasperated sigh and shook her head as she realized her brother has become dumber than her these past years. She gestured to the table as he raised a brow and examined the table of their lady's room. The feel was different than that of their world. The rooms were smaller and much warmer than the bedrooms of their own rooms which was probably smaller than theirs. Her bed was hardly used and her furnitures didn't seem to have been touched a lot aside from her chair and desk.

The table had a row of their master's text books and the spiders. Aside from the tools and the smooth light bag, there was their versions of books stacked up in two bundles categorized into arrays and alchemy...

He was lost for a moment when he felt something was off and paused for a while.

"Alchemy?!" He hollered in shock, "Our la- Ow..."

He received a pinch from his sister as he grumbled when he realized his mistake, "S-sorry... But...'

He turned to Lotus who was still busy reading, "But, our liege is also an alchemist?"

With the ruckus in her ears, Lotus frowned and raised a brow in irritation before turning to them and found that the man had stopped yelling. Instead, he was staring at her with eyes wide to which she frowned and grumbled, "I became an alchemist weeks ago and even took pills in front of the two of you. You mean to say that you haven't noticed it till now? I told you, you can't obtain pills the style of our world in this world."

"Th-That's true..."

"Eldest brother is so slow..." Zhang Li shook her head as she teased her brother with a smirk, "If our master also became a Spirit seeker, I bet it'd still be me who noticed it too."

"K-Keep your mouth shut..." Zhang Yong reprimanded his younger twin nervously, "Even if you'd be the first to notice when he became a spirit seeker, I bet I'll be the first to notice if he became a beast tamer!"

Hearing this, a thought came to her mind as Zhang Li rolled her eyes, "I bet even if you did notice that, it would take you weeks before I did."