A/N: Inspired by that one skit from the side quest with Richter (you know which one if you've seen it). Lemme warn you: what you're about to read is corny af.
"A little goes a long way."
Herbs
It all started after their visit to the Camberto caves. After Emil found out that Richter liked herbs he borrowed every cookbook from the library that had recipes with herbs. He tried them out one by one on his journey with Marta, who didn't understand his sudden obsession with herbs. Primarily because of the sour face he made whenever he ate one of the experimental dishes. He loathed the bitter aftertaste more than Marta's cooking.
But still he carried on, until he had tried out every recipe at least once. He even asked Marta which tasted best to her, because he was too poor of a judge on that matter. He even kept a list of her opinions on the different dishes. Richter's tastes wouldn't be identical to hers, but even a little bit of overlap would suffice.
Emil knew it was wrong to use Marta as a guinea pig. She didn't mind it, even thought he was doing it for her, to keep her healthy. And that gave Emil the feeling that he was leading her on. While she denied having feelings for him, he knew there was still love in her heart for him.
His heart did not beat in sync with hers. It belonged to someone whom he was trying to protect Marta from. Although Richter's intentions seemed bad, Emil had faith in him. He really wanted to befriend him and learn more about why he wanted to destroy Ratatosk the "demon lord" (as Richter called him). Maybe if he understood his motives he could help him change his mind. Then they didn't have to be enemies anymore.
Before they finally got to that part he'd have to do whatever it took to make Richter like him more, and he would. He'd have every foul flavour of those herbs on his tongue if that was what he needed to do and when he thought of Richter, that awful taste might become a little more bearable.