With a clang, the silver fork in Dante Wayne's hand dropped onto the plate.
The sound of the falling fork was somewhat piercing in the slightly empty dining room, startling the maid standing by, who quickly approached to inquire, "Mr. Dante?"
Dante did not respond to the maid's inquiry. The City-State Governor still sat there in a daze, as if his soul had temporarily left his body. It took him quite a while before he suddenly blinked, his consciousness snapping back to the surface from the edge of drowning, the sounds of the real world exploding in his ears—he suddenly took a deep breath and heard the maid's voice again, "Mr. Dante, are you alright?"