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Éliane merely gave Kayliss a pleasant smile at that challenge, allowing her temporary superior to leaf through their combined reports. To her growing horror, the older woman burned right through the entire thermos of expensive coffee… although the pink-haired officer probably should have expected as much. She didn’t know any Skaelan bureaucrat that didn’t consume copious amounts of caffeine, which was a thing that she could heartily relate with. 

She nodded once Kayliss was done, and acknowledged the congratulations offered her way with another, but shrugged when the SEED deputy director mentioned the reward money. Officer pay in the Household Guards was quite generous, and there was little that she used her money for aside from coffee and sending some of her pay to her family. However… [b]“Ten million gil could go a long way towards fully equipping this expedition with better and heavier weapons…”[/b]

She would have continued to make a point here if it wasn’t for what Kayliss mentioned next. Frowning at the timepiece she had taken out, she schooled her face.

[b]“Esben is an important asset to this team. He is popular and works well with the rest of Kirin, and his contributions in planning and on the battlefield have been essential,”[/b] she immediately responded, falling back into the old routine she was familiar with when convincing superior officers about personnel assignments. [b]“If you refer back to the report on the jailbreak assault, without Esben’s direct planning that mission would have likely failed.”[/b] She then cited a few more excerpts from the reports.

[b]“Most importantly though, the more Skaelans that remain with the team, the better we can pursue our agenda and maneuver for positions more favorably for us.”[/b]