There was a certain smugness in the male secretary's tone, and Stella heard it clearly—making the rules was always superior to carrying them out.
The three of them entered a rather impressive reception room. After sitting down, Hesta casually picked up a newspaper beside her and began leafing through it, saying nothing more.
Stella kept an eye on the time. Although they had not set a specific meeting time yesterday, she still tried to measure from the other party's failure to appear whether this counted as a slight.
From outside came a burst of footsteps, growing faster and faster.
"Inspector." A rising voice came from the doorway. Hesta looked up and saw a middle-aged man who seemed somewhat familiar. Just as Stella had said, she did indeed have an impression of this face, this person—after all, a man who was no longer young yet still had a well-proportioned figure was always rare.
Hesta stood and shook hands with him, then the two of them sat down together.
Ernesto crossed one leg over the other, placed both hands on his knees, and put on an appropriate smile. He did not dare slight Hesta in the least; his tardiness was precisely the result of his excessive nerves. He had been present the night Hesta delivered the Division Speech, and several times afterward he had personally seen how warmly Arevalo treated this young person...
Ernesto felt extreme pressure over Hesta's visit today. He was terrified that Hesta would make some request he would find difficult to handle, yet be powerless to refuse.
The room fell silent. Stella felt an urge to open her mouth and break the awkwardness, but she forced herself to endure it.
"...Today," Hesta said, her voice very calm, "our meeting has nothing to do with the Governor."
Ernesto's expression