Hesta picked up the document Pakart had handed her again and read it carefully from beginning to end. When her gaze left the final line, she finally looked up at Pakart. "But you recalled this email..."
"I don't want to use my knowledge to help evildoers do evil." Pakart stared seriously into Pakart's eyes. "I've said everything I needed to say. Now it's your turn to tell me what you saw in the Pious Youth Front. Do you think there's anyone among them worth trusting?"
Hesta let out a soft sigh.
"Where should I even begin..."
At five the next day, Kovishik began washing and dressing as usual.
For some reason he could not quite explain, he had not followed the other nobles in rushing off to His Majesty's country residence. Instead, he remained in his mansion in the city. A few friends had privately asked whether he wanted to go with them for a while. He had said no—Chloe was there, and he needed to stay away from that crazy woman.
Yet Kovishik knew perfectly well that he had stayed away from the country residence only because it made his pride feel a little better. During these days of perpetual mild intoxication, he had been like a drowning man, desperately struggling to clutch at a straw. Yet there were also moments when it felt as though he had suddenly fallen into an ice cellar, becoming completely sober and overwhelmed with shame at his own obsequiousness over the past days. Absurdly, whenever he sank into fantasies of the future, he found that even these damp, unutterable pains could make him happy.
Kovishik had received word the night before that Hesta's car had returned to the farm. Though she had not arrived with it, she was surely not far behind—before