Cora froze.
She stood there in a daze, feeling as though the twenty years of her life had been finely minced and arranged on a plate like a dish with a dreadful presentation.
She had lived in the Empire for so long, yet it was as though she had never lived here at all.
She still knew nothing of what the Empire was truly like.
Looking at Cora's bewildered expression, Elliot could not help shaking his head.
If Vanessa had not happened to encounter him opening the Difference Engine, perhaps she too would have become a dish.
Or worse, she might have died without a sound before she could even be brought to the table.
Clap, clap, clap.
Tobias applauded, an approving smile spreading across his face. "Very well said."
He turned to the middle-aged man cutting meat beside him. "What do you think?"
"He... I..."
Hesitation appeared on the man's face.
Instinctively, he felt that Elliot was right, yet he was afraid that what he said was true.
Am I... really a dish?
"Look, this is the difference between diners and food. Someone who can see the truth in three minutes will naturally have a different fate from someone who cannot see it in thirty years."
Tobias spoke without the slightest reservation. Then he looked at the man and grinned again.
"You know, what you should be doing now is not continuing to cut meat, but holding that knife to my throat. That is the only way you can get everything you want."
The man froze. Sweat ran down his forehead, following the wrinkles folded into his skin by years of toil, as though this moment was more exhausting than cutting meat.
At last, he slowly lowered his head. "My lord, how could that possibly be?"
Tobias's smile deepened.