The mouth hidden behind the book chuckled. “I suppose I am lucky then.” He lowered the book, closing it before sitting it on the nearby desk, and rose gracefully from his chair despite his odd reading posture. He looked truly pleased to see Thea, a softness showing in his eyes that was normally absent when he was dealing with others. He placed his spectacles back on, slightly obscuring his dark, almost black irises with their odd silver ring around the pupil and the iris’s outer edge. “I’m glad to see you back, Thea. It’s been quite a while. I’m a bit disappointed that the only correspondence I received from you were reports on how the east district branch was fairing, but I suppose that’s what I deserve for all my pestering.”

“Quite right.” Anything beyond strictly progress reports would have created an opening for him to nag her more about coming back.

“But we’ll have plenty of time to catch up now that things have come full circle.” There was the smug smile that Thea had been dreading. “And please stop with the “sir” nonsense. You know I can’t stand that from those I work closely with.”

I swear. Someone will get the wrong idea again before long. The past rumors had managed to die down, but now there would surely be new ones. Theirs truly was a strictly platonic relationship—though perhaps “partnership” was a more fitting word—but the rumor mongers were hardly interested in the truth.

Thea kept her sigh strictly in her thoughts. “Yes, Adrien.” To quickly dampen Adrien’s pleased look, Thea changed the subject. “Oh, I have a guest with me today. I’ve decided to sponsor a boy to attend the academy. He came with me today to see the campus and to register. May he come in so that he is not left out in the hall by himself?”

Adrien lifted an eyebrow as his expression turned thoughtful. “Ah, so I wasn’t imagining that you were talking to someone.” He was quiet for a moment, his forefinger tapping his lower lip. “In the interest of continuing our conversation, which may take a while, it would be quite unreasonable to leave a young boy out in the hallway. You may have him come in. I think I’d like to see this boy who has convinced our Lady Thea to sponsor him.”

Thea searched Adrien’s expression for a moment, but though she had a feeling he was both curious and simply humoring her, his true feelings were unclear. She went to the door, cracking it enough to call to Luin before holding the door open for him. She brought Luin forward.

“This is Luin. He surprised me with his intellect when he came into the east district library one day, and when I found that he had no home or family, I knew it would be a waste for him to labor in the temple in their orphanage. Without a doubt, he would be best suited to studying the highest subjects among his peers here at the academy.” Thea put as much conviction in her words as she could, as a small part of her worried that Adrien would laugh at her for it.

Adrien looked down at Luin, his expression having lost all of his prior mirth. His piercing eyes appraised the boy as if he were looking at some kind of odd animal.

Thea tensed as she moved to complete the introductions. “Luin, this is Lord Adrien Noctis, the head librarian of the central library.”

Luin broke the resulting silence first. Bowing slightly, he said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. As I greatly value libraries and their contents, I cannot help but see you in the highest light, Lord Adrien.” Luin’s words were much more formal than anything Thea had heard from him before, and she couldn’t help but be impressed. Where did he learn that, I wonder? And it seemed Adrien was impressed as well.

Adrien’s lips turned up, and he extended his hand—which surprised Thea since the man was well known for not wanting to touch those whom he had no respect for. “That’s quite admirable of you to value knowledge and books so highly. Without them, surely the accomplishments of humans would be unknown, few, and slow to develop.”

Luin took the hand that was offered to him. Adrien pulled Luin forward a step and bent until his mouth was near the boy’s ear. Thea didn’t know what Adrien said to him, it was so quiet. All she could do was analyze their expressions. While Adrien had a serious look on his face again, his eyes cut to the side to gaze at Thea as he whispered. Luin’s eyes widened and then a blank expression fell over his features before he nodded.

Worried, Thea couldn’t help but have a bit of warning in her voice. “Adrien….” The man could be quite callous sometimes, though he was honest—brutally so.

Adrien smiled and backed up once his name was called. He dropped Luin’s hand after one last shake as well. He held up his hands in a peacemaking gesture. “His guardian need not worry. I only gave the boy some encouragement. In fact, I think I can arrange the meeting he’ll need with the headmaster to enroll. Students being sponsored without their own family backing them have to be approved by the headmaster himself. How does tomorrow sound? Sooner the better, no?”

Luin had a determined look on his face as he nodded and looked to Thea for confirmation. Thea’s mouth opened and closed with no sound, her hand coming to cover her lips. A bit of guilt filled her as she realized she might have judged Adrien too harshly this time. For him to get them a meeting so soon with someone as busy and important as the headmaster, the Marquis Emeritus, Royson Treadguard, then that was quite the boon.

Thea smiled, an apology in her eyes for Adrien. “That would be of great help! We would certainly like to take you up on that then.”

Adrien brushed his hands together as if he were washing away the slight detour he’d encountered. “Now that that’s out of the way. Why doesn’t the lad pick something in here to read while we finish our business concerning your work status.” He pointed to a shelf on the right wall without looking. “I would recommend The Continent’s Ancient Theology through Modern Times—third bookcase, second shelf, fifth book from the left.”

Thea only had a moment to wonder if Luin was really alright with everything happening so quickly. But he seemed normal as he followed Adrien’s directions and retrieved the book. He settled onto a stool by the wall. That was all she had time to observe before Adrien’s focused and detailed debriefing began.