“All right, I think it will open now.”
“Really?”
Angelo slowly pulled the handle, and despite having been stuck for ages, the drawer rolled open without issue.
“Wow, thanks! You’re really good at this.”
“I’ve been working in the Repair Division, after all…”
Ophelia smiled happily in response to Angelo’s praise. Claudio, who’d silently observed the exchange, found his eyes inexplicably captivated by her smile.
Angelo began pulling everything out of the drawer. There was a penlight missing its cap, a dirty towel, and a crumpled desk liner. It was most likely this desk liner that the drawer had gotten caught on, preventing it from opening. These items were stuffed into a bag, transforming them from “nameless items” into the clear designation of “trash.”
The last item tossed into the trash bag was a cookie with green mold growing on it.
“Ew, yuck! Don’t you dare try to stuff that into the trash can in here. Take it straight to the incinerator outside!” Bruno covered his mouth and nose with one hand, face twisted in disgust, and used the other hand to make a flicking gesture at Angelo, bidding him to immediately take the offending garbage out.
“But, but, but! This is the first and only cookie Marilyn ever gave me…”
“Who cares?! Get rid of it!”
“A moderately popular guy like you wouldn’t understand, but this is a precious memory.”
“What the heck is moderately popular? And, anyways, that’s no longer a cookie—it’s a breeding ground for pathogens.”
“How cruel!”
With an exaggerated sigh, Claudio finally spoke. “Angelo, go throw that away in the incinerator. And when you get back here, you’re to clean out every drawer in your desk. See that it’s done before the end of the day today.”
“I don’t have time to finish such a big project in one day!”
Claudio frowned fiercely and, without further argument, returned to his paperwork. When Angelo muttered to himself, “Oh, so that’s where that went!” Claudio’s head snapped back up, and he shouted, “NOW, Angelo!”
Even though she wasn’t the one being yelled at, Ophelia reflexively jumped at the volume of his voice.
“Oh… Oh my…” she rambled.
“Hey, you.”
“Oh, goodness…”
“Are you listening to me?! Ophelia Narve!”
“Eek!”
Samael gave his boss a pointed glare, causing Claudio to set down his pen and fold his arms grumpily. Then, at a slightly lower volume, he again addressed Ophelia, who was standing ramrod straight with tears in her eyes.
“Starting tomorrow, you’ll sit in on interrogations. You don’t have any other duties aside from that. As long as you don’t get in the way, I don’t care what you do with your time. Bruno, give her a tour around the Ministry.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ophelia set her bag on her desk and hurried to follow Bruno. When she glanced back over her shoulder, she found Claudio had returned to his paperwork, and Samael was waving goodbye from his desk beside Claudio’s.
✦ ✦ ✦
🌷 🌷 🌷
CLAUDIO watched Ophelia’s retreating figure as she muttered a parting greeting and hurried out of the room. The bag she’d set on her desk was almost comically large, especially for a noblewoman. Based on the fact that she’d pulled a ruler out of it, he could only imagine what other repair tools she was carting around with her in that thing.
Is she always like that? I’m not sure if I should call it kindness or meddling, but… Why would she go out of her way to do something like that for someone who might as well be a complete stranger?
Claudio rubbed his temple. Samael had pestered him with repeated reminders to be nice to Ophelia. Furthermore, he’d given his word to Earl Narve to take good care of the precious daughter he was entrusting him with, so he couldn’t very well treat her the same as Angelo and the others. She hadn’t been here more than a few minutes before he’d broken his own self-imposed guidelines by shouting in her presence, but… He’d just have to be more careful from here on out.