He allowed himself a slightly twisted smile and a vague wave of his hand. "I suppose there have been a few I don't regret." Everyone he'd sacked in the past five years, for instance. "And - like most rumors - some of them are, certainly. I don't miss answering to the Dark Lord or his ranks of high-and-mighty sycophants, of course, but whether it makes the drudgery and more bearable ... I don't know." He expected that was the worst of the rumors, although he personally thought of it as something to be quite proud of. He had even enjoyed it a little. "But I find things have taken a turn for the tolerable, recently."