"Even if we didn't drink the tea, there shouldn't be any danger, right?" Wise Sovereign looked at Angel.
Hearing Wise Sovereign's question, Dox's eyes widened round as he stared at Angel in disbelief.
Angel smiled. "As expected, I couldn't fool Wise Sovereign."
Angel's definite answer made Dox snort repeatedly, his cheeks flushing red with anger. "Were you seriously messing with me just now?"
Angel wore an innocent expression. "No. These teacups really were drawn here by your traits. Serving tea to guests is courtesy, and refusing to drink it is discourtesy. Once you are discourteous, you will naturally be punished by the Teacup Band."
Dox said, "Then Wise Sovereign..."
Before Dox could finish, Angel cut him off. "Since it is punishment from the teacups, it is naturally limited by the upper bounds of the teacups' abilities. If you observed them a little, you would discover that these teacups actually have no real means of attack."
Dox said, "...Then why did you say that refusing the tea would lead to bad things? Things like having one's combat ability stripped away, or suffering bad luck for a while?"
Angel said, "Having your combat strength stripped away for one second is still having it stripped away. Being unlucky for half a second is still being unlucky."
Hearing that answer, Dox sucked in a breath, feeling a stifling heaviness in his chest.
Sure enough, he had known Angel was the quietly wicked sort. Whenever the mood struck him, he could pull some nasty prank anywhere, anytime!
Once the others learned the truth, they merely laughed it off. They could tell that Angel had deliberately done this to ease the atmosphere. Look, wasn't the mood now much better than that frozen, rigid tension at the beginning?
As for Dox, he probably felt somewhat embarrassed and