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Hector had his own investors to think of, too. Meeting with all those Atreyan lords, asking for their financial backing--if he didn't start turning a profit soon, they wouldn't be very happy with him.

Not to mention, his own friends had helped him out, too. Roman had just fucking GIVEN him ten million troa. If that wasn't the ultimate bro-move, then Hector didn't know what was.

And of course, the Rainlords had put their faith in him, as well.

The last thing he wanted was to let all that trust and generosity go unrewarded. Honestly, he was still a little shocked that they had decided to invest any money in him to begin with, much less twenty-five million troa. Sure, they hadn't seemed very pleased by the idea when he and Garovel had asked for their help, but that number spoke for itself.

Their faith in him was... well, it was mind boggling, quite frankly. Heck, he felt like the Rainlords probably wouldn't even get that mad at him if he couldn't deliver.

Yet somehow, imagining that outcome made him feel even worse.

Like he'd be kicking them when they were down. After all they had been through, the last thing they needed now was to take a huge financial hit because of his incompetence.

And so, with all of that in mind, Hector decided to just keep on chewing his salmon. It was perfectly cooked and melted in his mouth, but he kept chewing it for a while longer, anyway.

Ravi's question--of whether or not he intended to expand into Lorent--was not something that Hector wanted to answer, right now. Giving voice to his thoughts didn't feel like the smart move here.

Even if he'd pretty much made up his mind, already.

Ravi might have grown on him a bit in the past few days, but Hector wasn't so comfortable with the guy as to tell him things that he hadn't even finished discussing with Garovel and Amelia yet.