The Princess of Wrath

Chapter 14 - Part II: The Four Warlords

It had been only a few minutes since Roland Casimir left the operating room where Justine Fontaine was to be rebuilt into a mechanical woman, leaving her at the mercy of his assistants. They were going to perform basic but critical tasks for the survival of the Shield Saint, such as continuing to repair the nerve connections and electromagnetic matrices of the prostheses, or maintain a stable performance of the machines that, for the moment, kept the patient alive.

But Roland had made one thing clear to them, and that was not to try to do the impossible: if Justine Fontaine gave up in that battle for survival that promised to be as long as years, then it was not their problem.

Now he was in one of the most luxurious rooms in the Silent Keep, specifically inside a bathroom wrapped in the discreet privacy of a cloud of steam, enjoying the hot rain from the shower against his back that relaxed his muscles with therapeutic delight. With both hands against the dark wall, his head down and his eyes closed, Roland was giving himself the benefit of a moment of respite that he undoubtedly would need in order to face the near future.

They needed to find Asura as soon as possible and eliminate her before any chance of damage control is lost. If only Diana Belmont had followed the plan...

"Fuck!" he roared inside her head before punching the stone wall. The pain in his knuckles was insignificant compared to that unfortunate barrage of failure he was feeling. "Belmont..."

Why did she allow Asura to slip through her fingers like that? She had promised him that she had absolute control of the situation. The coldness with which she had planned everything. The secret wedding. The tainted chalice... The inevitable death of Prince Julianos.

Roland felt his throat seeking closure, while the surface of his sapphire eyes threatened to crack at the horrifying memory that he had of the remains of the little Prince's body.

"...For the best interest of humankind...," he murmured, that phrase hidden amid the uninterrupted sound of the water, before a shrill voice overcame any sound barrier coming from the other side of the door:

"Professor?! Are you alive in there?!"

"Don't yell, Ada...," Roland admonished his apprentice, raising his voice as he suppressed in parallel any emotion that reflected weakness. "I'll be out shortly."

Just as he promised, a few minutes later he opened the bathroom door and went outside, naked and accompanied by the remnant steam.

The room was as expected from the quality of the imperial house, softly lit by crystals inserted in the tips of a chandelier, with picturesque furniture of classical style, an exit to a balcony and a double bed in which, in those moments, Ada was lying down while reading an old copy of the newspaper.

"Have you been exercising, professor?" his apprentice asked him as she looked away from her reading source to appreciate Roland's body as a slight blush covered her cheeks. "You're looking good."

"Shouldn't you be with Justine Fontaine? Or you are here to tell me that she's dead?" Roland looked with disgust at the dirt stains Ada left on the white sheets with her boots and the wrinkles from not having removed her lab coat, but he made no comment and took the garments he had left on the edge of the bed.

"No, she's alive. But Councillor Walker arrived unannounced and asked us to supervise the work. I thought it would be wise to ask you if his presence there is acceptable," she explained as she read the rewards of criminals posted on the wanted posters that came with the newspaper. "A million sen for these monsters!? A very attractive offer, but what bounty hunter can be crazy enough to give it a try?"