Giafil glanced at her two comrades, both weighed down by gloom, and said with a perfectly straight face, "Think of it this way. Compared to you, the Chancellor's Office—which signed a whole slate of development deals with the Commonwealth government—is the one that suffered the greatest loss."
"Gilly, has anyone ever told you that you're actually pretty bad at comforting people?" Oliver said, wiping away her tears.
"More than one person has. But you could look at it this way: since the Chancellor's Office's offer was part of a deception, maybe your investment was, too. The Privy Council will probably reimburse you later."
"...R-really?"
Vovna cut in. "Of course not. But maybe hearing Gilly put it that way will make you feel a little better."
"Ostana was right. Those so-called legal lolis are unnatural creatures. No matter how they act normally, once you cut them open, they're always black inside." Oliver wiped away her tears, gritting her teeth. She wondered whether to dump the hotpot on her friend's head.
Even so, she eyed the other girl suspiciously. After all, Vovna Maimidal might have been a petite "legal loli," but she was also an upright, decent person. She rarely got this vicious.
It was easy to imagine how much the Privy Council's decision had shaken everyone.
"So it was all part of the plan? The Chancellor's Office's business deals, the reduction of troops on the New Continent front, even the joint three-party campaign to exterminate the snakes over the past two months. Was it all the Privy Council's plan?" Naerhana asked quietly.
The chief of staff replied, "According to King Vellent's statement at the Privy Council meeting, the withdrawal is real, and so is the peace. The snake hunt is real, too. If all is quiet across the universe, then a