The Vice Dean's emaciated fingers still pressed on the dossier, his gaze darting between the military lieutenant opposite him and the sword on the table.
The air was thick with tension, like the smell of gunpowder; the gray-coated soldiers stood stiffly, resembling the marble pillars in front of the Parthenon, without a hint of expression.
The Vice Dean narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly removed his glasses, pushing the wax-sealed dossier forward.
"All of Nikolai Ogarev's documents are here; you can take them."
The military lieutenant reached out his hand, intending to take the documents, but in a flash, the Vice Dean pulled them back again, almost deliberately teasing the group of soldiers: "However, if the Constitutional Guard Headquarters wants to access the files, they must sign in the transfer logs of the Moscow Court first. This is standard procedure; you presumably have no objections to that?"
