The hot steam rolling up from the giant copper pot in the middle of the Fallen Star City governor's mansion dining table carried the scent of dried chili, monster-meat oil, and Nocture's signature spicy herbs, so thick it stabbed the nose of anyone standing within three steps. The red-black broth inside the pot boiled gently, showing off fist-sized chunks of Alpha Shadow Tiger meat that Sylvia had harvested from the Forest of Death a few days earlier.
Sylvia sat gracefully at the head of the table in her elegant black casual dress, silver chopsticks in her right hand and a smile at the corner of her lips that reflected no sincerity at all. In the lap of First Princess Hua Zhaoyue, seated on the right side of the Queen of Death, a small white cat with thin black stripes on its back had just opened its pale golden eyes wide, its tiny nose bobbing up and down as it sniffed the steam drifting in the air.
