This was the second time Lawrence got invited to Marshal Hester’s office, but even if that wasn’t to be the case, you couldn’t miss it without making an effort. The elevator door opened silently, without making as much as a squeak, and Lawrence found himself in front of a looming double door that was six meters tall. If you were to exclude a couple special spaces scattered throughout the building, the top floor had the highest ceiling, from which hung box-shaped lamps that barely managed to keep darkness at bay.

Lawrence didn’t get to explore where else the corridor led previously, but he had a hunch it might turn out differently today. Still, for now he approached the door.

Golden accents lined the wood and split in the middle was the shape of an eight-pointed star- such was the symbol of a marshal, a star overshadowing all of its humble four-pointed counterparts. And while the decorations were commonplace for all high officials, there was one thing far more valuable than the gold—it was the naturally white timber. Not even Lawrence would spend his fortune on something this lavish... or perhaps he would, if it had any benefits at all for the unreasonable price it fetched.

Then again, the military didn’t abide by the same rules that bound him, not in full, including the availability of goods on the open market...

Lawrence knocked on the door, unfazed by its size or whom he expected behind it. However, all that answered him was silence... then, a couple seconds may have passed, before he pulled on the handle and entered the empty room anyway, disregarding the etiquette.

First thing he noticed after setting foot inside was the odd mixture of a detergent’s floral scent and a signature perfume of an elderly lady. It wasn’t a match made in heaven, but it didn’t irritate Lawrence’s nostrils either.

The layout of the office was fairly straightforward. There were four enormous windows on Lawrence’s left and in front of him was an unnecessarily large desk. Behind it stood a lonely, white leather armchair, followed by another door. The walls were primarily occupied by various distinctions- medals, words of gratitude signed by influential people... but there were also a couple bookshelves—for decorative reasons more than anything else, was what Lawrence thought.

He considered picking up a book, but his mood wasn’t quite right. Instead, he headed towards the glass door that was situated in-between the windows and stepped out onto the terrace. It was a rectangular open space cut out from the building’s grayish-turquoise roof, directly above the entrance of the grand hall. Intended for marshal’s personal use.

Lawrence leaned against the balustrade overlooking the street below and swept a bored glance across the city—it didn’t look much different from up here than... anywhere else, really. He didn’t necessarily dislike it, no. There were even some aspects of it that he enjoyed, for example the food, cinemas and other luxuries. It was more of a case that looking at it as a whole reminded him of the less favorable things...

After a moment, he heard the door’s lock click and a woman’s voice reached him from behind. “My, my, have you really put in so much effort to earn the privilege of getting arrested by me personally?” Actually, the etiquette wasn’t the only thing Lawrence had gone against... it was also the rules of this place. “You needn’t trouble yourself like that, have some confidence. The last time was suitable enough to do so.” The tone of her voice wasn’t exactly a pleasant sound, especially not with that raspy background it had, but he had heard far worse.

“Indeed. It’s been a while, Marshal Hester.” Lawrence turned to face her with a smile that wasn’t completely fake. Serious as this meeting was for him, at some point in his life he began enjoying the battles where no blood was shed. “And we have such a fine weather to accompany us on this morning.” You could think that he should have shown some restraint if having his request fulfilled mattered to him that much, but perhaps, after all this time, his priorities were bound to get mixed up in the heat of the moment.

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The woman responded in kind, with a wry smile of her own. “Yes. It is such a blessing.” From her face alone most would have guessed that she was around sixty to seventy years old, but about fifteen of those years could be attributed to stress. It was what earned her an extensive collection of wrinkles and graying hair, though her blue eyes were still full of energy. However, few would dare comment on any of it in her presence, once they saw the golden star on the chest of her white uniform; the golden epaulettes on her shoulders; and the white cape reaching her ankles that had an even larger star embroidered from golden thread. “Believe me or not, but your tantrum is misguided. General Nockett’s case is not exclusive to my branch. Has never been.”

This, being realistically no information at all, was already more than Lawrence got out of the government during the past nine years—or five, if you were to exclude the effort he put into it before reaching adulthood. A few more minutes and this meeting would also become lengthier than their last one. “How so?”

“Not so fast, you should know by now that I don’t run a charity. You have rejected offers from the army many a time, but you see Mister Nockett... I’m not the one wasting time here, don’t get the wrong idea. There is something that will make you have a change of heart, something that will help your nation.” ..and something that will help her. “But first, come inside. Let’s sit down.”

Lawrence barely restrained his sudden urge to laugh out loud, because there was only a single chair inside, thus he imagined himself sitting on Marshal Hester’s lap. 'Luckily' he got over the thought quickly, reminded of his grandmother...

It was just as he expected. Once inside, she sat down in the armchair, while all he could do was stand in front of the desk. “I do find your persistence in retaining civil status stubborn and unwise, but that no longer matters to me. All I need is your signature under this business contract and then I shall show you one of your father’s secrets.” As she spoke, Hester procured the contract from within one of her desk’s drawers. Her words about 'his father’s secrets' did, in fact, spark a change of heart within Lawrence. “After you are done with your part, you will receive copies of the documents listed on the last page.” She then presented the papers to him.

Right away, he was surprised with the thickness of the bundle—or rather, its lack of thickness. Not even his commonplace contracts spanned as few as eleven pages, such as this one.

As he read through it, Lawrence came across the usual, mandatory section that forbade him from leaking information under a bountiful collection of threats, not excluding the death penalty. It was followed by a few more ordinary paragraphs and finally, the list of documents. He wasn’t naive enough to expect the whole truth, but if, for example, the mentioned copy of the 'autopsy report' was to be genuine...

Bewildered as Lawrence was to not find any loopholes making him the military’s plaything, he did notice one issue—“What’s the job?” Not a single paragraph touched up on the subject.

“Don’t fret the details.” Hester had been certainly expecting this question, as an odd smile formed on her wrinkled lips. “After all, I wouldn’t wish to spoil a surprise from your father.”

If Lawrence had ever seen a red flag, this would have been one, so, of course... he signed his name at the bottom of the last page.

And the reason why, was trivial—to quit, he had to pay a fine. It was nothing.

The lack of accurate description of 'his part' did also leave the contract vulnerable to invalidation, but Lawrence wasn’t naive. At least not naive enough to not understand why this agreement held any value in the first place—it was due to his potential for future contributions. Lawrence made a laughing stock out of the government’s arrangement researchers and the Empire simply couldn’t afford to lose him.

“See. It wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Seeing Marshal Hester’s smug face was the greatest downside to this meeting. “Now, since time seemed to fly oddly rapidly today, I wonder if I have enough of it left to show you around...”