Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

The restaurant "Egret and Seagull" is quite well-known in Fontainebleau. It's not on the busiest main street and the storefront isn't large, but its location by the water is its advantage. After nightfall, the lights on the opposite bank are reflected on the water, and looking out the window looks like a painting crumpled by the wind.

Navia's seat was by the window, offering a wide view of the harbor where the silhouettes of several merchant ships unloading cargo gradually faded into dark shadows in the twilight.

When Fanes arrived, Navia was already seated, with a half-empty drink in front of her, a fine layer of water droplets clinging to the glass. Clorinde sat on the outer edge of the row of chairs opposite her, her sword sheath resting at her feet, with only a glass of water in front of her.

As Fanes pulled out his chair and sat down, he glanced at the table and saw several appetizers already laid out. Crab roe pastries were indeed on the table, along with a plate of thinly sliced ​​roasted mushrooms and a small bowl of thick soup with a pale golden sheen.

Fanes took the folded velvet cover out of the inside pocket of his coat and placed it on the corner of the table, without opening it, just leaving it there.

Navia's gaze lingered on the velvet cover for a moment, then she spoke: "You really brought your own cutlery?"

Fanes nodded: "You keep your word."

Several dishes were served in succession. Fanes picked up a piece of crab roe pastry and put it in his mouth. The outer crust was crispy and the filling was soft and fluffy. The salty and fresh crab roe and the oily aroma of the pastry melted on his tongue. It was indeed more satisfying than the same dish he had eaten in other parts of Fontainebleau.

Fanes chewed twice and swallowed, then reached for the drink that Navia had ordered on the table—the drink was light gold in color, with a thin slice of lemon on the rim, and fine water droplets condensed on the glass, looking like some kind of mixed drink with citrus and honey as its base.

Fanes naturally picked up the cup, took a sip, then put it down, his brow twitching slightly.

Navia sat across the table watching him pick up the glass she had drunk from. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but hesitated and remained silent.

Navia's gaze darted back and forth between the cup and Fanes' face, and a thought popped into her mind: This person seems to have no sense of boundaries.

However, Navia thought again that the untouched drink in front of her should be Fanes's—the waiter had indeed arranged the drinks according to seating arrangements when they were served, but she had simply grabbed the wrong one. If Fanes had drunk the wrong one, then she could just drink the one in front of her.

Fanes put down his cup, licked his lips with the tip of his tongue, and said, "Why does this taste so salty?"

Fanes picked up the cup and examined it carefully again. He dipped his finger into the liquid remaining on the rim of the cup, smelled it, and then put the cup back on the table.

Fanes turned to Navia: "No, someone poisoned it. What about mine?"

Fanes' gaze shifted to another identical cup beside Navia's hand. There was a faint lipstick mark on the rim of the cup, and the liquid inside was already half gone.

Navia followed his gaze to the cup in front of her, then to the one Fanes had just drunk from, as if she were using limited reference points to calculate whether the coordinates of the cups and the relationship between the remaining amount were reasonable:

"...I only drank one of your beverages, how could someone poison such a fancy hotel!"

Fanes barely paused when he heard this. He raised his hand and patted Navia's hand as she was about to pick up the cup again, the force just right, knocking the cup from her hand.

The cup rolled halfway across the carpet, spilling liquid and leaving a dark, damp stain on the dark velvet.

Navia's hand remained suspended in mid-air, still holding the cup: "What are you doing?"

Fanes stood up, walked around the table to her side: "This stuff is poisonous. Quick, gag yourself and get that mouthful out of your throat."

After speaking, Fanes turned his head and glanced at Clorinde sitting opposite him. "Could you help by pressing down on her shoulders and keeping her still?"

Clarind had already put down her chopsticks when Fanes spoke the first word. She stood up and walked behind Navia's chair, placing one hand on her shoulder with a light but firm touch, while raising her other hand before Navia could even utter a rebuttal.

Then Clorind did something very skillfully—she used her index and middle fingers together to probe Navia's throat at a precise angle and depth, triggering a clear contraction response in that reflex zone.

Navia bent forward slightly, her shoulders held down by Clorind and not moved. The second trigger was deeper than the first, and Navia bent down even more. When she straightened up again, her eyes were already glistening with tears.

Clarind withdrew her hand only after the third trigger was complete. She pulled a napkin from the table and wiped the remaining liquid from her fingers, her movements unhurried and calm, as if she had done this many times before. Navia took a few breaths before straightening up again, her voice slightly hoarse from the shock: "Are you serious? Was that drink really poisoned? I threw up what I drank, and what about you? The sip you just drank made me throw up even more."

Fanes stood beside her, glanced down at the wet patch on the carpet, then at the empty glass he had just drunk from: "I was in an emergency, but I'm fine now. You'd better check yourself."

The waiter was drawn over by the commotion. Fanes briefly explained the situation and then gave the Foolish Executor's number.

The atmosphere inside the store changed from dinner to the scene in just a few moments—lockdown, evidence collection, personnel registration, sample collection, the process was fast and standardized.

Clarinde stood beside Navia the entire time without leaving, her scabbard moved from her feet to her hand, so that she could draw and swing it in the shortest possible time if necessary.

The test results came back the following morning and afternoon. The two drinks did indeed contain a chronic toxin that mimicked the composition of the original seawater in the primordial womb and produced a gradual reaction in the body of a person in Fontainebleau that resembled dissolution.

Its onset cycle takes about a day and a half to reach a clearly visible stage, which is much slower than the reaction speed of the original fetal seawater. It is not easy to cause alarm immediately after drinking it, which also means that it stays in the body for a longer period of time. Before completing a complete enzyme metabolic cycle, it can maintain a detectable concentration in the blood circulation for a considerable period of time, and the window period is much wider than that of acute poisons.

Fanes sat on a folding chair in the hospital corridor, looking at the last few lines of data in the test report.

Clorind stood beside him, the end of her sword sheath lightly touching the floor, maintaining a posture that suggested she could stand up at any moment.

"How did you discover that there was something wrong with that drink? You only realized something was wrong after you took that sip, but you had already determined that there was something wrong before that."

Fanes folded the report and placed it on his lap, then leaned back in his chair and glanced at the ceiling.

"Because that drink was really salty. It was supposed to be a mixed drink with honey and citrus juice, with a slightly sweet compound fruit juice base, but that sip had almost no other taste besides saltiness. Navia usually likes sweets, so she wouldn't order herself a drink that tasted like seawater. So I judged that it contained seawater from the Primordial Sea of ​​the Dead, or something similar—that kind of saltiness is different from the salt in other foods, it stays on the back of the tongue longer, and there's a slight astringent feeling when you finish. As for why it's a slow-acting poison... think about it, if an executor of the Fools dies directly in the shop, everyone within a 30-mile radius will die. If the poison doesn't take effect slowly enough, given the Fools' reaction speed, the shop will be shut down before the poison takes effect, without even a chance to trace the poisoning route."

Clarind nodded, then looked up from the documents and down at his face: "Have you ever considered who would have died if that drink hadn't been served to the wrong place?"

Fanes folded the report and put it in his pocket: "I thought about it. That's why I immediately confirmed that her drink had also been tampered with after I realized I had drunk the wrong thing."