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~~((The Mother's Day Special -- page 11 of 14))~~
Amelia showed Hector a news report from Lorent about him and the Darksteel National Bank. It seemed to just be a fluff piece of some kind, expressing vague praise and a bit of confusion, so Hector mostly just wondered why the Madame Carthrace was bothering to show it to him.

But then she showed him another one. And another. And another. And then still one more. They weren't all about him, per se, as some were just about the generally insane circumstances that Atreya had been through in the past year, but Hector did appear in all of the reports at one point or another.

He had no idea why Lorent had taken an interest in him, but he was prepared to write it off as just some kind of strange foreign fad that he lacked the cultural context to fully understand.

He didn't want to ignore it completely, though. Lorent was an important neighbor. It was the country on Atreya's northern border, which meant it was practically on Warrenhold's doorstep. Hell, maybe that had something to do with it. The region around Gray Rock was almost entirely enveloped by Lorent.

Still, that seemed unlikely. Lorent was much larger than Atreya. They probably wouldn't have any lingering attachment to a tiny bit of land that had been independent for three hundred years.

Whatever the reason was, it was fucking weird.

And it certainly didn't get any less weird when he received a call from Queen Helen, telling him that the Lorentian Ambassador wanted to meet with him.

Hector had blinked a few times in disbelief when he heard that.

<"Apparently, you have gotten quite famous there,"> the Queen told him. <"However, I suspect that he does not wish to meet with you merely because of your notoriety.">

"You suspect?" said Hector. "You don't actually know what he wants?"

<"Oh, no, he claims that your fame alone is the reason,"> said Helen. <"I simply do not believe him.">