Interlude (1.0)

"So, he was being nice to you." Harvey gives me a hard look. "But you kept provoking him?"

I place my elbow on the edge of the table. "I was just surprised. He was supposed to be a cruel emperor."

"Yeah, but he sucked the poison out using his mouth." Harvey chuckles when I make a face at him. "That was thoughtful of him."

"It wasn't thoughtful." I pick up the fork and stab the molten chocolate dessert. Two minus one is one. But that emperor tricked me.

Not only that there was an antidote to that poison, but the method of sucking out the poison was crude. The antidote was also quite common. All the soldiers carried it in their pouches.

The person who told me about the antidote was none other than Aloisia.

"He killed you twice and treated you nicely the third time." Harvey smiles at me. "Do you truly not think of him now?"

"He was a fiction