'How Does It End?'

'Hah...'

After Heinz left, Doctor Lysander soon followed for a follow-up check-up, asking questions about Florian's experience. It was then that Florian learned he had been poisoned. Fortunately, he had been brought to the palace just in time—any later, and the poison would have fully taken over his body. If they had been even a bit delayed, he might have actually died.

That realization alone should have been enough to make him uneasy, but another question pressed at his mind.

'How did I get here so fast?'

Of course, he asked the doctor, but Lysander hesitated. After a brief pause, he merely told Florian to ask the king himself.

Again, Florian had to wonder—why?

Something felt...off. Heinz, the doctor, even the maids who came in to give him medicine, water, and food—they all seemed to be acting strangely.