[Even after a few years, the topic warms him.] She's a little mercenary. She set out to acquire me for professional use early on. When I started, I was with the Research division and, at the time, she was the head of Diplomacy, so you see how that's gone.

[It wasn't as direct a line as that, but on the other hand: she hadn't been wrong about him.]

I certainly didn't fail to notice her many charms right away, but given how formal she is, at first I assumed she hadn't any interest in me that direction. But she's so clever, I found her very easy to talk to. Even about serious things, and I've not been a man with many confidantes. It's quite a thing, to feel understood by someone. Especially, for me, someone who hasn't known me all my life, when I spent so long with the same handful of people.

[He even may miss one or two of them. When he'd set off into the wider world, he'd never really considered the prospect that someone could get to know him properly again. That someone would so obviously want to.

With a small laugh, he adds:] Saying it out loud, I suppose it makes me sound very egotistical. But the truth was, I wanted to know her, too. To give her the gift of someone to confide in, in return.