I Would Rather Be a Rogue [BL]
Chapter 126: Tedious First Task

Chapter 126: Tedious First Task

Just as Felix received a call from Kade, informing him that the Alpha was almost there, and would arrive within ten minutes or so, Remi brought one thing for him. A large stack of papers, sewn together with a thick, white thread to form a handmade book.

It was quite unlike the notes he usually received. The paper was old and yellowish, but not as aged as the one the witch used, at least not in appearance. The handwriting was also different, pretty, but not as ornamental, and straight instead of slanting right. Clearly written by someone else’s hand. As for the content, it displayed various plants, as well as other items, such as fangs, feathers, claws, scales, and so on, one per each page, including their names, descriptions, as well as watercolor paintings to help identify them. The colors were a bit dulled from the passage of time, but it was still recognizable. Some of the pages were marked with copper darts...

Quite a lot of pages marked with copper darts. At first, Felix had thought that those were the ingredients Kade was supposed to deliver, but the further he flipped, the more he started to doubt it.

"How am I supposed to know which of those we need?" he asked, glancing at the fox.

Remi stared at him for a moment, before climbing up Felix’s leg and torso, all the way onto his shoulder, to flip the book back to the front page. There, attached to the book with another dart, was a list of ingredients, together with the required weights in grams.

A very long list of ingredients, featuring at least fifty items or so, judging by the eye.

...Were there really so many ingredients needed to brew just a few potions? Felix found it a bit odd...

But then again, he didn’t know much (or anything, actually) about brewing potions. Not to mention, Kade’s father was in a bad state after suffering from a powerful curse, so perhaps he needed multiple complex potions to recover. Either way, his job wasn’t to question the necessity of the ingredients the witch requested, but only to receive them, so he shrugged his shoulders, and went to the kitchen to grab the kitchen scale. Since the witch provided him with the list, he probably expected Felix to check if everything was as he required, and Felix wasn’t going to slack off on his first task in his new job!

He prepared the scale and a bowl, setting them on the table, and plopped down on the couch to relax a bit before Kade came. He barely managed to sit down, though, before someone knocked on the door.

Well, Kade did say he was almost there, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was just that Felix still wasn’t quite used to not being able to sense the Alpha approach, since it was only the second time Kade came to Silverfall since they had broken their bond...

Felix let out a sigh, and dragged himself up to his feet to open the door. As expected, the person waiting outside was Kade. Standing on the porch with a large box filled with glass jars.

"Hi," he grinned at Felix, flashing his teeth. It was the grin that the Omega was familiar with, the one Kade used to frequently wear before, not tainted by exhaustion and worry.

Seems that his father was doing well.

"Hi," Felix answered, opening the door wider to let the Alpha in. "Come in."

At his invitation, Kade’s grin widened. He was prepared to whine if his cute little future mate attempted to turn him back at the door, after merely accepting the ingredients, but it turned out it wasn’t needed!

Naturally, the reason why Felix invited him in was to check the ingredients, but Kade refused to entertain that thought. Why would he bring himself down for no reason?

As Felix moved on to close the door, though, Kade stopped him. "Wait, there’s more," he said, placing the box on the floor, before stepping out again to bring another box from his car.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And then two more...

They were all piling up on the floor, giving Felix a headache just from looking at them. Weighing them all was going to take a while...

At this point, he truly started doubting whether the witch truly needed it all, or was just using Kade to restock his pantry. Felix would bet his pottery wheel on the latter.

"...Do you want anything to drink?" he turned to Kade with a sigh. "Water? Tea? Apple juice?"

"Tea sounds great!" Kade answered, overjoyed. To think that Felix would not only let him in, but even offer him a drink! Did that mean he wasn’t angry anymore?

Of course, Felix did it since he was currently on his trial shift as the witch’s assistant, while the Alpha was their client. It was only right that he would offer him something to drink during the long wait. As for whether he was still angry...

Felix himself didn’t know. But he didn’t want to dwell on his feelings too much, as they were deeply inconvenient.

He brewed two cups of tea, one for himself and one for Kade, took out one of the jars from the box, and started on the task.

It was a tedious process. Browsing through the book to identify the ingredient, confirming it with the fox, transferring the contents into the bowl to check the weight without the jar, then back to the jar, cleaning the bowl so there would be no cross-contamination, and repeating the process. Some of the ingredients that were requested in larger amounts were in several jars, each of which had to be weighed. And Felix couldn’t even use one empty jar to set the scale, as they were all packed in different jars!

Perhaps working as the witch’s assistant wasn’t such a lazy job as he had expected...

Not that he complained. Actually, he preferred it that way. He didn’t mind that it was boring, and at least it felt like a real job, and not being paid for simply existing.