Assistant official of the Chancellor's Office. Born to a pawnbroker, he passed the civil service appointment examination at sixteen and was recruited at twenty-three. Courteous and unreadable, he gives no impressions and returns questions instead. He reads documents abnormally fast, and always aligns the corners of the paper once he has finished reading. Interest, collateral, loans and debts. Whatever the topic, his speech turns into the language of accounts. Right after praising someone, he prompts them to doubt that praise. He does not trust people who treat numbers carelessly, and when someone calls the pawnshop a lowly trade, he keeps smiling while writing their name in his ledger. When testing someone, he invariably offers sweets.