The speaker was a handsome young man with blond hair and blue eyes. He was tall, with a jawline that looked as though it had been carved with a knife, and wore a monocle perched on the bridge of his nose. He was studying Eli as though appraising livestock. His name was Valerius Saul, and his surname could be traced back to one of Terra's oldest noble families, predating the Great Crusade. His great-great-great-grandfather was said to have once led a horse for the Emperor during the Unification Wars.
Eli stopped and looked at him in confusion. His simple mind had yet to fully process an emotion as complicated as "malice." All he thought was that this blond fellow was really good-looking-even better-looking than the archives supervisor's daughter.
"Hello, my name's Eli." Eli gave what he considered his friendliest, warmest smile and offered his hand. "Are you a cadet here to register too? Great! I thought I'd come to the wrong place!"
Valerius looked at Eli's outstretched hand. Its knuckles were somewhat enlarged from years of copying documents, and traces of stubborn ink still lingered beneath the fingernails. Undisguised disgust crossed his face. Rather than shake it, he took half a step back, as though Eli were some contagious plague.
The lackeys beside him burst into laughter.
"Eli?" Valerius repeated the name with exaggerated inflection. "What a... rustic name. It sounds like the grox in my family's stables that pulls the dung cart. I suppose you come from some Agri World fragrant with the scent of soil?"
"No, I'm from Terra," Eli answered honestly.
"Oh? Terra?" Valerius raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise. "Then you must come from some vibrant... district that nobles like us would never set foot in? Just smell the air. Hmm, standard synthetic machine oil, mixed