The Mind-Reading Mate: Why Is the Lycan King So Obsessed With Me?!-Chapter 39: Trash-Talking Session (II)

[How dare she accuse me of being a faker?! Has she never heard of my name?!]

No, actually, Primrose had never heard of his name. Not in this life. Not in the last.

[Well, that makes sense. I use a different name when working with humans anyway.]

A different name? Which one?

"No, Your Majesty," Salem gritted his teeth, clearly holding back his irritation. "With all due respect, your case doesn’t interest me."

"And why is that?"

Salem took a deep breath as if debating whether he should even say the next words out loud.

"I mean no offense, but to kill someone like you ... no one would even need a strong poison."

[Honestly, I even wonder how she’s still alive despite being marked by someone as powerful as His Majesty.]

Primrose blinked.

Wait. Was everyone aware that she and Edmund had already consummated their marriage?

Who knew beasts were such gossips?

"But, Mr. Vesper ..." Primrose leaned forward slightly, resting her chin on her palm. "What if someone wanted to poison me with something undetectable? Something that leaves no trace ... something with only the faintest scent?"

She tilted her head, watching his reaction carefully. "Would that be enough to pique your interest?"

Salem didn’t say anything for a moment. He just blinked at her, processing her words. [An undetectable poison? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of one, but poisons like that are extremely rare.]

He tapped his fingers against his chin. [But why would someone go that far just to poison her? She’s not even that interesting]

Then, his thoughts shifted. [Well ... she is a queen after all. Killing her with something as simple as rat poison would definitely spark a political mess between humans and beasts.]

That’s right! Her position was too important for him to have dismissed her so easily.

Who in their right mind would poison a queen with something as basic as rat poison? That would be way too easy to detect.

If they used an undetectable poison, people would assume she had fallen seriously ill. The human empire wouldn’t immediately suspect murder, and the beasts wouldn’t be accused of assassination.

It would be a clean death.

His interest was finally piqued

Salem narrowed his eyes. "Do you happen to know if someone is trying to poison you, Your Majesty?" For the first time, his tone was serious.

Primrose smiled. "That’s none of your business," she said lightly. "The only thing you need to do is be my poison tester and make sure that everything I use like perfume, soap, even makeup, won’t kill me."

[Is she just being paranoid?]

Primrose assumed Salem wouldn’t be impressed by her reasoning, but to her surprise, he immediately sat back down, crossing one leg over the other.

[But she seems so sure of herself when she talks about poison. Maybe she does know someone wants her dead.]

"I must admit," Salem said, tapping a finger against his knee. "Poisons like that are rare... and I like rare things."

Then, with a smile, he added, "But, Your Majesty ... My services don’t come cheap. Shouldn’t we talk about my payment first?"

Primrose narrowed her eyes slightly.

If he cared so much about money, then why had he refused the job from the Queen in the first place?

He needed to make up his mind, did he want to be an idealist or a capitalist?!

"What do you want?" Primrose asked, her patience thinning. "Just tell me the price."

One thing was for sure, she would never use her dowry to pay Salem. No, she would hand the bill straight to her husband and let him deal with it..

[Hmm... gold isn’t that interesting anymore.]

Gold isn’t interesting?!

Who in their right mind didn’t like gold?

Actually, who even was this man?! Why did he act exactly like some spoiled young master?!

[If I’m going to ask the Queen for something, it has to be something valuable.]

Primrose narrowed her eyes, waiting for his answer. If he dared to ask for something ridiculous like a high-ranking position in the palace, she would shut him down immediately. novelbuddy.cσ๓

Not only did she despise nepotism, but a man like him had no business holding a position in court.

Then, completely out of nowhere, Salem said, "I want your body."

Primrose froze.

Her fan slipped from her fingers, falling to the floor with a soft clatter as she stared at him, utterly stunned.

Had he completely lost his mind?!

Did he want to taste the sharp edge of Edmund’s sword?!

"I beg your pardon?" Primrose frowned, clearly offended by his request. "Do you even realize how terrible that sounds?"

Salem rolled his eyes. "Your Majesty, you really need to stop thinking about dirty things. That’s not what I meant."

[Besides, I have absolutely zero interest in her ’body.’]

Now, Primrose was even more confused and offended at the same time. How could a man have zero interest in her body?!

"Then please, Mr. Vesper," she said, folding her arms, "explain what exactly you mean."

Salem sighed like he was dealing with a particularly slow student. "What I meant was, I want a sample of your blood, a strand of your hair, and maybe your nails."

Primrose let out a sigh of relief. Oh. So he only wanted—wait, what?!

That wasn’t better!

So he wasn’t a pervert, but instead ... was he a psychopath?!

"M-My what?" she stammered.

Salem inhaled deeply, looking as if he was forcing himself to stay patient. "I experiment with poisons, but up until now, I’ve only tested them on beasts."

"That’s why I want to expand my research to humans," he explained, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "I want to see if human blood reacts differently to poison."

Then, he smiled. "Don’t worry, I won’t ask for your heart." He paused, his grin widening. "Not yet."

What did he mean by not yet?!

Was he planning to create some kind of mass destruction weapon?!

"And why exactly do you suddenly want to experiment on human blood?" she asked, her voice filled with suspicion.

Salem tilted his head. "That’s none of your business, Your Majesty." His smile didn’t waver. "All you need to do is hand over your body to me, and I’ll be your poison tester."

[Unlike beasts, humans are far more vulnerable to poison. If I create an antidote, they’d be the ones who need it most.]

Oh ... was he actually trying to help humans?

[That way, I can charge them a ridiculous amount of money for it.]

Never mind.

This damn capitalist just wanted to rob humans money!