Became the Tyrant’s Pet

The moment Mia saw that her heart sank.

“It’s the first time I’m seeing this kind of tea.” Adillot said calmly as if he had not noticed Mia’s change in expression at all.

“His Majesty seems to have lost your energy, so we used a new medicine.” The servant who brought the tea set answered.

“Really? What is it?”

“Cinnamon, apples, green hawthorn, and…” The servant added the following words slowly. “…We used a slightly unusual type of thistle.”

Just when the servant’s explanation finished, the eyes of Adillot and Mia, who were holding the teacup, met.

His red eyes were strangely cold. But Mia did not notice the meaning. Mia could only see Adillot pulling the tea to his mouth.

At that moment, Mia got up from her seat.

“Don’t drink it!”

Then, without realizing it, she moved her hand to hit Adillot’s teacup.

Smash!

The teacup flew off and hit the floor, shattering into tiny pieces. Silence came into the room in an instant.

“Your Majesty!”

Mia gasped for a moment to catch her breath, then quickly grabbed Adillot’s face.

“Hey! Spit it out fast! Hurry!” Mia frantically said as a sense of worry started washing over her.

“Let go.”On the other hand, Adillot was very calm. He didn’t seem surprised that Mia suddenly acted like that.

“Please spit it out! Don’t drink it!”

“…What are you doing?”

“You idiot, vomit it quickly!”

“Ha?”

“Artificial respiration!? Should I do artificial respiration? Oh, or the Heimlich maneuver!? But does it work with water!?”

Adillot sighed.

“Mia.”

After hearing his voice, Mia—who had been flustered—stopped. Mia looked down at Adil with a blank expression on her face.

“Huh.”

“Move. You are sitting on the Emperor’s seat.”

Mia didn’t even think to answer, she just blinked her eyes. It was the first time Adillot had called out her name.

It’s just a name. It was strange to feel embarrassed for some reason. But Mia quickly came out of her stupor and shouted.

“It doesn’t matter now!”

“If Ferdinand sees this, he might kill you.”

“Ah.” Even though she knew that Ferdinand was not here, her body stiffened reflexively. Adillot grabbed Mia’s waist, lifted her up, and put her down beside him. Mia felt restless, not knowing what to do.

“Adil, I know I’m acting suspicious, but I’m asking you to trust me just this once,Okay? Maybe the tea was poisoned! Well, it was originally a medicine… Of course, it’s not certain, but once I tell the doctor… Ah! But the Imperial Medical Center is not-”

“I know.”

“…What?”

“Your Majesty. Here’s a neutralizer.” At that moment, Joachim held out a small cup from the side. He gave it to Adillot and to Mia.

“And Mia, you also must drink it.”

“Why…?”

“It is an antidote. Didn’t you put something on your hand?”

“No? I don’t… oh.”

She had the ointment applied by Embra. He smiled apologetically at Mia, who was bewildered.

“It is a poison that could be absorbed through the skin. It’s not too strong, so don’t worry too much.”

Mia took the cup Joachim had offered her and drank it. Adillot also calmly took the small cup, drank it, put it down, and said, “There is no way we would manage so poorly about what goes into the emperor’s mouth.”

Mia’s eyes moved slowly and looked around.

Adillot was still calm as usual. Joachim had a troubled expression. The servant still has a polite attitude.

Mia stuttered and opened her mouth.

“But I knew that Purple Thistle was in it…”

“Because when it went in, the tea became this colour. I got sick from eating it when I was young, but now only my fingertips are paralyzed when eating it.”

“Then Embra…” As soon as she finished speaking, Adillot snapped his fingers. The bookshelf at the back of the office moved and Embra appeared.

“Ahaha! This mysterious doctor appears!” The green short-haired senior doctor smiled apologetically and shook her head at Mia. “I’m sorry, Lady Mia.”

“Embra?” Mia blinked, not understanding the situation. “You weren’t the Empress Dowager’s spy…?”

“Aha! How could I be a spy when I’m trusted enough to be invited to His Majesty’s office!”

“But, the Imperial Medical Center must be in the hands of Empress Chrysor…”

“That’s right! That’s why the fact that the Empress Dowager’s doctor was actually the emperor’s niece, can you keep it a secret?” Embra said cheerfully and winked. She said that lightly, but her expression was quite serious. Adillot continued speaking to Mia with a blank face.

“By the way, the suspicious person who took the purple thistle you met was also an actor I prepared. Right, Joachim?”

“… How did you know I was going to the greenhouse?”

“I will answer that. It was my plan.” Joachim said.

“Mia, did you know? There are several places in Leventor where Empress Chrysor’s influence is strong. The Imperial Medical Center is one of them.”

“Yeah. Roughly…”

“Just in case you’re Empress Chrysor’s ally, I’ve prepared the places you can go to.”

“Then when you were going to drink that…” Mia, who realized the answer as she spoke, didn’t continue.

‘He wanted to see if I stopped him or not.’

Meanwhile, Adillot was staring at her with his chin resting on the table.

“If you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn’t have stopped me, but you stopped me.”

At that moment, Mia’s eyes became fierce.

“Is that all you have to say now?”

***

His attention was on her knife-like gaze that seemed to pierce through people.

Adillot knew that Mia was angry, seeing as she bit on her trembling lips.

‘She was suspected and was even poisoned, her reaction is normal.’

It was not surprising. However, seeing those large, round and pink jelly-like eyes moistening, it made him feel uncomfortable.

He turned his head away from Mia and said. “I apologize for the poison. A servant’s mistake is their master’s responsibility.”

“It’s not like that!”

“Not like that?”

Mia clenched her fists. Her tear–ridden face had turned red from her intense emotions.

“I know that you’re used to such situations! I know you shouldn’t trust anyone easily, but…… Don’t do that, please!”

“The emperor was going to-”

“I didn’t mean that!” She groaned as she tried to think of the right sentence, and eventually shouted in an explosive outburst. “Why didn’t you treat yourself well!?”

Adillot’s eyes widened at the unexpected words. It was the same with Joachim, and Embra stared at Mia with a confused expression on her face.

While the three were silent, Mia looked directly to Adillot and wept.

“If you thought of yourself as an emperor, you should’ve treated yourself preciously and you wouldn’t have drank it! Why on earth would you drink it? What if something went wrong?”

“But Lady Mia, I’m standing by here just in ca-“

“Those who deceived me don’t have any right to speak!”

“…As you wish.” Embra, who was trying to sneak into the conversation, stepped back again.

Adillot, who had had a blank face up until that point, began to open his mouth..

“I said that they didn’t deceive you willingly…”

“It doesn’t matter whether they deceived me or not anyway!” Mia exclaimed loudly with a force that did not suit her small body.

“I was very worried and it was disheartening when I found out! But I can understand. There must have been a way for you to pretend to drink it!”

After pondering Mia’s words for a long time, Adillot opened his mouth belatedly.

“……Isn’t it a little strange that you’re angry because of that?”

“It’s not strange!”

Then Mia burst into tears. At that moment, Adillot almost stood up without realizing it. It had been a long time since he was speechless and didn’t know what to do.

“I’m afraid you’ll die without me knowing…… I’m afraid you’ll die because I can’t stop you…”

Mia’s shoulders trembled. She cried as if the thought of losing Adillot made her feel sorrowful.

Her tears glistened like pearls and had soaked the carpet, but Adillot remained stiff and said nothing. He didn’t know what to do.

At that moment, Mia reached out her hand to Joachim who was next to her.

“……?”

When Joachim was confused, she opened her eyes wide as tears were still streaming down her face.

“Handkerchief!”

“Ah, yes.”

Joachim, who rarely panicked, offered his handkerchief to her.

Mia sniffled and wiped away her tears, then shouted again.

“I won’t give it back because you tricked me! I’m going to use it, step on it and throw it away!”

“……I see.”

“I’m going to wipe something dirty and stuff it into Adil’s pillow!”

“……”

She made Joachim, a person who was well-known for his calmness, speechless so easily. Then she began to whimper again with regret and resentment.

“Really… How could a person do that? Adil always doesn’t care about himself! Also you’re going to make someone who loves you cry tears of blood later! I can’t allow you to do that!”

Adillot barely managed to speak.

“How could you decide that……?”

“Those who tricked me don’t have any right to speak!”

“… Are you the emperor?”

“I am the Emperor’s pet!!”

“Ah. Yes… ….”

Adillot was as perplexed as Joachim was. They had never seen anyone talk that way in front of the Emperor.

Tears welled up again in Mia’s eyes.

“I’m going to bed!” After shouting that, she slammed the door and left. Her exit left quite the impact on them as they were still processing what had just happened.

“……”

After Mia disappeared, the only people left in the room were two men and a woman who were prohibited from speaking.

After a while, Joachim laughed.

“…… Did you figure it out? Is she really not on the Empress Dowager’s side?”

“For now, we should apologize to her.”