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~~((The Mother's Day Special -- page 13 of 14))~~
And so it was that Hector found himself visiting Bosliat Palace again. The crowd wasn't nearly as crazy as it was during the Gala, which was nice, and yet somehow, he still felt like he was drawing even more attention than before. The Gala had been so busy and full of big name lords from all over the country, but now, it seemed like every single person he passed by paused to stare at him.

Maybe the Bank had something to do with it, too. He hadn't opened it before the Gala, and it had only increased his fame further.

Man.

This was just life now, wasn't it?

In the back of his mind, he'd kind of been thinking that this fame would eventually die down or normalize a little--that fifteen minutes or whatever would be up. He'd been looking forward to it, actually.

But he was starting to realize that this really wasn't going to just go away. Thanks to the Bank, it seemed like his fame within Atreya's borders had reached some kind of critical mass. It was now totally self-sustaining.

Was there a term for being both flattered and horrified at the same time? Mere "embarrassment" didn't seem like it quite captured the depth of what he was feeling, these days.

Well, at least he could relegate his utter confusion on that subject to a background thought process.

And it sure was nice to visit Bosliat again, if for no other reason than to admire the architecture as his designated guide led him down the tall corridors to his meeting.

The Lorentian Ambassador was a man named Edgar Stoutamire, but thanks to the short notice of this meeting, Hector hadn't been able to learn much more about the guy.

When he finally saw the man, Hector couldn't help being a bit surprised. He'd never seen someone quite so... square-shaped.