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((Triple Wednesday -- Page 3 of 3))
“A very helpful way of looking at things, as always,” said Roman.

‘I’m just jokin’, c’mon. Obviously, I care greatly about what happens to this worthless piece of shit you call a homeland.’

“It’s not the land we’re worried about, Voreese,” said Roman. “It’s the people.”

‘You think I don’t know that, you fucking dolt? Don’t try to argue semantics with me.’

“Why not? Semantics are important. You saying clarity doesn’t matter now, you ignorant bint?”

Hector exchanged glances with Gina and wondered how many times she’d heard half of an argument like this. All things considered, she didn’t look particularly confused.

Roman and Voreese’s arguing didn’t seem like it was slowing down, however, so Hector decided to intervene with a question for Gina. “Have you been following the economic crisis?”

“Of course,” she said. “There seems to be a lot of confusion about what actually caused it, though. I don’t think anyone will know that for a while.”

“Madame Carthrace said something similar,” said Hector. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“Um...” Gina took a moment to think, perhaps noticing that Roman had stopped back sassing his imaginary friend. “Well, I’m not much of a financial person, myself, but I’ve got a guy for that, and he--”

“I think you mean I’ve got a guy for that,” said Roman.

Gina tilted her brow at him. “Yes, Master Roman. Technically, he works for you, not me, but do you even know what he looks like?”

“That’s not important.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Why would it be? I bet he doesn’t know what I look like, either.”

“That’s not a good counterargument, Master Roman.”

“What did your financial guy tell you?” said Hector with a mild laugh.

“Oh, he said that the situation probably isn’t as bad as everyone is currently making it out to be,” said Gina. “He’s mainly an investment guy, so he’s really annoyed and thinks that all of this panic is going to upend a lot of the projects he was eyeballing.”

Hector didn’t know what to make of that. It sounded counter to what Amelia had told him.

Or, wait. Did it?

She had said that a bunch of foreign interests would come in and “save” the economy. Maybe that was why this guy, whoever he was, didn’t see the crisis as that big of a deal. Atreya’s financial sovereignty probably didn’t matter to most people.

Hell, did it even matter to Hector?

A year ago, he would’ve said absolutely not, but now?

Shit.

‘Do you want to bring it up, or shall I?’ said Garovel privately.

He knew the reaper was referring to the loan. The specter hanging over this conversation.

‘I’ll do it,’ said Hector. ‘There’s no reason to exclude Gina.’

‘Have at it, then. We can’t sit here all night.’

Roman and Voreese were already arguing over one thing or another again.