"M'mother believes in making sure that one's best foot is always put forward. For people with public offices, that includes the office itself." And no one is impressed by a boring one that had the air of 'I spend too many hours here and don't really care about it'. "I had help." People to get the things he wanted, someone to paint the walls. Things like that.

The change of expression is encouraging, or so Ivan hopes.

"I know you just mentioned the couch. It's comfortable, though, don't worry." He made sure of that, in case Duv really was going to fall asleep on it in the future.