The girl went to the garden for the afternoon activities. Unlike the lunch banquet, the guests gathered around the garden, burned incense, and asked musicians to play music so that they could enjoy the beautiful view of the garden while chatting with each other in a pleasant atmosphere. As for the attendants and waiters—individuals with lower social statuses—they were required to stay outside the garden or in other halls on standby.
The garden was a semi-open space that extended from the house to an outdoor area. The garden was remarkably important to the Juan family because it was a place for them to entertain their guests and show off their social status. To display the richness and vitality unique to the oasis, the Juan family constructed an artificial river with circulating water and planted tropical trees, shrubs, and various flowers in the garden. The river and a trail were ingeniously designed into a ring-shaped area, similar to a long, coiled snake spitting out life and living water. Idnan always proudly referred to this place as “the place where the Snake God resides”; whether her pride was from vanity or passion for her religion was irrelevant at this point.
At this moment, the girl and Idnan sat together, surrounded by female royal relatives and the wives of businessmen. Naturally, the male and female lizard demihumans engaged in activities separately; the males repeatedly issued rude threats to each other while the females tried to ignore them as they stayed engrossed in conversation.
The females seemed to have endless topics to talk about. These topics all involved fashion, jewelry, businesses, or complaints about their spouses. The girl felt that even the real Diana would not have been able to keep up with them. The girl almost fell asleep and was awakened by one of the ladies who showed off her carefully maintained scales and turned to “Diana” to tell her how she should maintain hers; the lady indicated that there were simply too many small scars on the girl’s scales.
This statement hit the girl where it hurt, rousing her.
“She fell in the garden a few days ago. We decided to change the landscape of the garden and hired a few craftsmen to discuss the matter. The girl did not see their tools on the floor and… sigh…, I do not even know where to begin when criticizing her carelessness,” said Idnan, who tried to change the topic clumsily. She then proceeded to turn to the girl and said, “Speaking of carelessness, why hasn’t the kitchen brought out the mint tea yet? You’d better go check on it. If no one pushes them, they will certainly delay our dinner.”
“Of course.”
The girl got up and left. She knew it was Idnan’s signal for her to leave to avoid raising others’ suspicions.
The girl looked down at her gloved arms. Indeed, a well-to-do individual should not have so many subtle wounds on her body. These injuries that she sustained during her combat training with Lazer were difficult to hide. It was not a surprise that others minded them.
“Looks like I need to do something for them to heal…” she muttered to herself, sounding exhausted.
“Miss, why did you leave the garden on your own?” asked a maid as she noticed her and hurried forward.
“The mint tea has not been brought out to the guests yet. What is going on in the kitchen?” She looked up and showed the disgusted expression that Diana often showed. “If they take any longer, I will have to go into the kitchen myself.”
“I am terribly sorry! Let me go remind the chefs immediately. Please go back and wait!” The maid jumped up in fear when she heard that the girl was going to the kitchen herself; she lifted the corner of her skirt and rushed to the kitchen.
The girl felt a sense of guilt and decided to hurry back to the room to rest. To change the medicine and protect the safety of the real Diana, Lazer spent the entire afternoon with her in the secret room. Without him around during today’s important occasion, the girl felt a little insecure.
