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'Hmm, good question,' said Garovel. 'If we want to hang around P.J. for a few more days and enjoy this hospitality, then there's no real reason to meet the President tonight. But if we're in a rush to get back to Warrenhold, then the sooner the better.'

'I say we take a load off and relax,' said Mevox. 'Surely, after a battle like that, we deserve it.'

"You barely even did anything," said Salvador dryly.

'It's not about the quantity of one's contribution, my dear boy, but the quality.'

"Oh, shut up."

'Maybe you should call the Queen and ask for her input,' said Garovel. 'She might want us to stay longer for political reasons.'

'Oh, good excuse!' said Mevox. 'Yeah, let's do that!'

He heard Salvador sighing, but Hector actually agreed with the reapers on this one. The Queen's opinion was pretty important here, he felt.

They decided to go through the other papers in the folder first, though. One of them was a handwritten letter from the President himself, Hector discovered with widening eyes.

It was quite wordy, but it essentially just seemed to be thanking him for his service to the country.

Wow. He should probably frame this and put it on his wall or something, shouldn't he? That would be the proper thing to do, he supposed.

He honestly wasn't sure that he was going to, though.

The final piece of paper was just a blank checklist with a short passage at the top explaining that the Riverton Hall staff would bring him any item that he wrote down. This, it clarified, would be in addition to the actual reward for killing the Beast of Lorent--which would be formally presented to him by the President and the Secretary of the Treasury.

All in all, it was pretty damn generous.