Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 271: Blind Leading Blind

The three-way procession continued through the pitch-black forest in complete, uncomfortable silence. Ren marched purposefully down the winding dirt path, simply assuming it led directly to the swamp because Viper hadn’t said a single word to correct her.

"You seem tense," Vex purred smoothly from behind them, shattering the quiet of the night.

Ren tightly clenched her hands into fists at her sides. She absolutely refused to give him the satisfaction of a response, keeping her green eyes locked dead ahead as she continued to march.

Vex chuckled with wicked amusement. "Are you upset that I left you so abruptly after pleasuring you?" he teased shamelessly. Then, dropping his velvety voice into a dark, conspiratorial whisper that easily carried to her ears, he added, "Or... are you upset because I took your little pregnancy stopper from your arm?"

Ren stopped dead in her tracks.

Viper, who was still fiercely walking entirely backward to keep his eyes locked on the fox, didn’t anticipate the sudden halt and almost crashed directly into Ren’s back.

Ren’s green eyes were blown wide with shock. She had genuinely thought Vex had just felt a strange bump under her skin and curiously dug it out. But he hadn’t. He knew exactly what it was!

Ren slowly turned around to look at him. Vex was standing there with the most devastatingly smug, arrogant look plastered across his handsome face.

She quickly glanced up at Viper, who was looking down at her with intense curiosity. The snake beastman clearly had no idea what a ’pregnancy stopper’ was, but he knew it sounded important.

Ren quickly crossed her arms over her chest and aggressively cleared her throat. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," Ren lied smoothly, maintaining a mask of perfect, blank innocence. "There is no such thing as a ’pregnancy stopper’."

Vex smirked, his orange eyes dancing as he instantly realized her game. He casually shrugged his broad shoulders, shifting the heavy wool sacks.

"Maybe I was mistaken, then," Vex conceded with entirely fake humility. "Maybe not everything I hear from random little birdies is true."

Ren’s brain instantly went into a chaotic spiral.

Birdies.

Did he mean that literally or figuratively?!

Only two people in this entire world knew about the tiny piece of plastic buried in her arm: Kael and Altair. Kael absolutely hated Vex with a burning passion, so there was zero chance it was him.

So, it had to be Altair. A literal birdie.

Ren hated pointing fingers without solid evidence, but in all honesty, she didn’t really know Altair that well. Maybe he was secretly meeting up with Vex in the woods and spilling all of her business every single time he suddenly disappeared!

It wasn’t entirely impossible, but Ren desperately didn’t want to believe it. Altair just didn’t seem like the type to betray her like that.

Then again, even back in her world, Ren had always heard the exact same warning: the quiet ones are the ones you should be wary of the most.

Ren subconsciously rubbed her left bicep right where the implant used to be. She tilted her chin up defiantly, fixing Vex with a sassy glare. "You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. We live in a world of liars."

Vex’s fluffy orange ears twitched in profound amusement as he watched her turn back around and march away, her hips swaying rhythmically beneath the short, clinging fabric of the silk dress.

He chuckled under his breath, muttering softly, "And you are the Queen of liars, my little rose."

Vex continued to stroll casually behind them. Viper’s narrowed eyes remained intensely focused on the fox’s every move, ready to strike at the slightest provocation. But Vex wasn’t even looking at the deadly snake guard. His orange eyes were completely, shamelessly focused on Ren’s ass.

He had never seen a material quite like her dress before. It was clinging perfectly to her backside, outlining its shape with every single step she took.

"I really like your dress," Vex complimented casually. "It really shows off all your best assets."

Ren’s face burned a brilliant red at his words. She whipped her head over her shoulder, glaring daggers at him. "Stop staring at my ass!" she hissed.

"It is incredibly hard not to look," Vex sighed dramatically, not sounding the least bit apologetic. "It’s pulling my eyes."

Viper immediately took offense on his King’s behalf. The loyal snake beastman aggressively shuffled his body to the side, using his broad, muscular frame to completely block Vex’s line of sight.

"Her butt belongs to my King!" Viper argued fiercely, his fangs bared. "You cannot look at it!"

Ren wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole.

"Shut up!" Ren yelled, throwing her hands up into the air. "Both of you, just shut up! No more talking! Nobody is allowed to say a single word for the rest of the night!"

A tense silence immediately fell over the trio. Ren released a heavy sigh of relief when they actually listened to her strict command.

They walked in silence for another mile. Eventually, they reached a fork in the dark path. Vex didn’t say a word, simply offering a mocking two-finger salute before casually veering off onto the different path, disappearing completely into the thick brush.

Ren was genuinely surprised. He really, actually wasn’t following them.

Ren and Viper continued to walk in total silence.

"Okay, let’s break for a sec," Ren groaned, her legs finally giving up. Her feet and calves were screaming in agony.

She stopped and collapsed onto a large, flat rock resting by the side of the trail. She massaged her aching calves and rolled her stiff ankles, wincing at the dull pain. She got her waterskin from her inventory and took a long, desperate gulp of the cool water.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked up at her escort.

"Will we arrive at the swamp’s edge soon, Viper?" Ren asked tiredly.

"We already went past the path leading to the swamp," Viper stated simply, his voice completely devoid of panic.

Ren inhaled sharply right as she was taking another drink. The water shot straight down her windpipe. She aggressively choked, violently coughing as her chest burned and tears rapidly pooled in the corners of her eyes.

She pounded on her own chest, gasping for air as she stared at the snake beastman in absolute horror. When she was finally able to force a coherent word past her burning vocal cords, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"WHAT?!"