"Saten Ruiko... What a lovely name."
"Ah, thank you."
The change in Roland's expression had lasted only an instant. By the time Saten Ruiko noticed, his usual gentle expression had already returned.
So the girl could only put it down to her own overthinking.
It was not that she was too unguarded. It was simply that, to someone like Roland, who worked at the Blue Dream Company, a student whose ability and family background were as commonplace as hers hardly had anything worth being surprised about.
"Ring, ring-!"
Just as Saten Ruiko was agonizing over how to keep the conversation going, an urgent ringing interrupted her thoughts.
She fumbled out her phone, and her face went pale when she saw the alarm's label.
"Are you late?"
Her experiences had been so simple, almost entirely free of complicating factors, that Roland easily guessed what was worrying her.
"Y-yes. I'm sorry. I was too careless."
Saten Ruiko felt rather embarrassed about being late for the project's very first briefing, and her voice was timid.
"Surely you're not the one who should be apologizing, Saten..."
Roland chuckled and shook his head. "This could count as a failure on our part, too. How about this? I'll arrange a separate briefing for you later. You've had a fright today anyway, so you can go home, get some proper rest, and recover."
"Huh? Is that really all right?"
Saten Ruiko blinked in surprise at this exceedingly generous treatment.
Although she was indeed the victim, no organization, however powerful, could predict when it would come under attack.
Saten Ruiko did not think she could behave so unreasonably as to shift the blame from those malicious attackers onto the Blue Dream Company, which had issued the invitation.
She had only hoped Roland would overlook her lateness. She had