"I. Only I… Will be the one to slay the She-Wolf.”

  The eyes of all the Senate and the cabal were upon him. Each senator wore garb from their home territories, though all wore cloaks. It was a display of brooches, disgusting… They glared lazily, all for his grandfather, the Emperor and representative of the Trasians, who was eating popcorn.

  Their brooches and the dead celestial essence within them were lightly glistening. Kazuki could see one on practically every senator here… What excellent representatives of the people, he snickered to himself.

  “This alone is a fact. Not the opinion of one murderer to another, but the simple reality.” Kazuki kept it short. Snappy. A sense of snide held on his tongue.

  This was an inquiry. Useless. Glancing up, Kazuki sighed.

  ‘Don’t worry, Kaz, it’s only the Senate and the eyes of the Republic on you!’ Archius jeered, waving from the numerous spectator booths above the Senatorial booth sections.

  Kazuki grumbled. ‘Corrupt idiots surround me…’

  ‘Corrupt… narcissistic idiots, get it correct, Kazuki!’ Archius continued jiving as he chuckled.

  Commissioner Frederick and ENFORCER Kelina sat beside him. Lorenza looked displeased by Kazuki’s answer, sitting on the questioning board.

  "An informative opinion," commented Lorenza. "But your report ignores a semi-close relationship to the Third of the Seven Mercenaries… and I’m sure you’re more than willing to throw yourself into the fighting, just like on that skyliner. Care to elaborate for my honoured peers?”

  Murmurs arose from these ‘fine noble’ senators. Scum. The lot. Kazuki caught their glances and strangled them with but a momentary gaze. Most were rich and powerful aristocrats from their homeworlds.

  Even now, they looked down their noses at him, at the one who failed during the skyliner operation – ignoring how he brought Svenn and the loyalists to justice in the end.

  Knowing them, he thought, it must have ruined some nice property developments.

  Boo hoo. Their feigned care for human lives did not convince Kazuki.

  It was clear to all that Kazuki was going to be made the scapegoat. Both Kelina and Frederick were silent. Loyalty? No. Fear of the ire? Yes. Absolutely. Especially with Senator ílize overlooking the procedures, from an unassuming spot, right beside Kazuki’s grandfather.

  Kazuki replied calmly, “I was unaware that we called cold-blooded murder the basis of a relationship. You might see things differently, Second Consul.”

  Ensuring to never mention Lorenza by name will probably piss her off, especially as she is the… SECOND… Consul. The First Consul was sitting in the viewing stands.

  ‘Keep at it,’ Fer-Charelota commented to him. ‘Don’t worry, I may not be able to speak because of ílize, others can.’

  Kazuki tapped his fingers on the golden-wood table. "You blame me for this massacre," Kazuki asserted.

  "I do," said Lorenza. Inquisitive eyes from the senators all around dotted between Kazuki and Lorenza, their ornate dresses, suits and robes glistened with each movement. “You are a stain, a threat, a challenge by relation and existence, young man.”

  ’She’s going to make a right mess of herself – rightfully so,' said Fer-Charelota, over uplink to Kazuki.

  Kazuki asked, 'When will your support materialise?’

  ’It’s Lorenza!’ Fer-Charelota jived. ‘You’ll have a field day walking over her, my friend will speak when she must, and only when the stars have aligned.’

  Kazuki sighed, ignoring a bout of questions and statements thrown by Lorenza. Senator Iana Nimitz-Delia was also on the board, smiling for the cameras, but remaining eerily silent. Lorenza took most of the supposed credit, or the blame…

  However, for a brief moment, Kazuki swore that he saw Delia glare at him with spite and frustration…

  ‘Delia?’ Kazuki asked Archius.

  ‘She’s still sore about Clandestine, even if she says otherwise… maybe, with time and money and contracts, she’ll become whole,’ Archius replied.

  She must. If not, Kazuki thought, she’d be a powerful adversary.

  "Mr Geminorum-Ryzaku! Is the Senate boring you?" asked Lorenza. She had noted his lack of enthusiasm too well.

  She didn't even bother to address him properly. He was a prince - she knew that, but she didn't refer to him as high highness.

  If it were anyone else, he wouldn't care. But it was his enemy, and that alone was a strike against her life.

  Kazuki wished he had pulled the trigger… A slap on the wrist would have been better than this…

  "Here, before the eyes of all the Senate and the People of this Grandé beloved Republic?" Kazuki sarcastically jeered. "No. Absolutely not. If we weren't here, I could have been organising a hunt for the She-Wolf. Instead, we are here. To talk. You may like talking, Second Consul, but I prefer action over incompetence.”

  “That does not answer my question, Contract-Breaker…”

  “Your incessant nags delayed Police response,” Kazuki remarked. “If you weren’t present, we’d be in a much better state.”

  “As again… Contract-Breaker, you are speaking off topic…”

  Kazuki heaved a heavy sigh, rolling his eyes before pulling out a small plasma cartridge to play around with.

  Loud murmurs and whispers filled the chambers. Cheeky display, but it made the Marquis, the First Consul, very pleased. Iana seemed to be cheekily hiding her amusement.

  Other members of the board held their poker faces tight. Lorenza, meanwhile, did not.

  Standing up, Kazuki approached the questioning board. He placed his hands in his pockets. Each movement caught flashes of light from photographers and journalists.

  The Maroon Guards stood firm. There were statues along the walls and booths. All were readied. That readied maroon steel awaited to bleed against the marbled halls and walls.

  "You may stay seated," Lorenza continued. "We are not here to discuss me; we are here to inquire into the nature of this attack! Those of District Three are under fire and brimstone!”

  ‘Check it…’ Archius started, before sending something over to Kazuki. Kazuki knew this was… going to be juicy.

  Slowly, Kazuki grabbed a holographic copy from his ICAPAD and placed it on the questioning board table. Ornate carvings of Anagora’s past were engraved masterfully. The Crusaders. The Empire. The Dark Ages…

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  The mess of data was assembled into a voicemail. ‘Direct forces to us… I want extra reinforcements to secure my party!’ It was Lorenza’s voice!

  Archius must have scraped this information from when he was… slinking near her.

  ‘District Three can wait! I have many important individuals with me… Do you understand?!’

  Murmurs arose in the Senator’s booths. Some jeers fell from the spectator stands.

  “Heresay!” Lorenza objected, looking up at Senator ílize. He looked back down with intrigued eyes…

  ‘Ah, Senator ílize finally caught on, hmm?’ Archius remarked.

  The Senator had pale blonde hair, with a long beard to match. It exuded an air of strength and unity, along with his black and white suit.

  ‘No one man can fester with power before it consumes them,’ Kazuki replied.

  Archius nodded from the viewing galleries. ‘What he intended to stop, he became, as is the fate of all in this game. Order is his policy, stagnation is his result… Just look at him, he runs the show without needing the Consulship, his pawns can have such positions.’ Archius snickered, and Kazuki could almost feel a sense of twisted admiration behind Archius’ voice.

  The mastermind behind the current order was an elderly man. Grandfather sat close, near the ílize inner circle, but not a part of it.

  "It was an attack. It was a massacre."

  Kazuki walked back to the witness table, in the centre of the whole room. Simple ploy. Malevolent. It invited anxiety to the ill-prepared.

  "You summon me here. Waste my time. Hang threats on my neck. Ask meaningless questions. Tell me, Second Consul, are you a traitor, or a fool?”

  “We are not here to discuss me, Contr—”

  Kazuki grumbled. “—So both.”

  The Senator beside Delia tapped Lorenza on the shoulder. Scorn hung from his eyes with a message, sent down by ílize himself. Suddenly, Lorenza nodded and shifted in her seat.

  The Senator stood up, gesturing to the eye-rolling booths of Senators to the ‘impudent Contract-Breaker’. “You speak so highly of your worth, are you sure you can take on this beast?” he snarled.

  Kazuki nodded. “I must. If I do not, it would be an insult to all those who have died in District Three.” Kazuki’s words were blunt yet honest.

  “Yes… the victims…” Senator Jajan snorted, before his eyes looked up and above to the rest of the Senators present. “Our thoughts and prayers are with these victims, for a swift justice, I presume?”

  Pausing, Kazuki dug his nails into the palms of his hands. Thoughts and prayers? That was all these so fine, noble Senators can offer? No aid? No relief? Thoughts and prayers… Kazuki was sure it was a valuable currency, wherever these pompous fucks came from.

  Whilst Kazuki silently sneered, the members of the senate rose with an agreeing groan. Some raised hands in support of Senator Jajan.

  “And that is all you will offer,” Kazuki replied, silencing the Senators. He expected them to interrupt him. The long pause and stare did most of the talking.

  Jajan tugged at his collar, as it unfolded to reveal a golden coloured cravat. The Senator cleared his throat before sitting back down.

  Apathy.

  Boredom.

  Insolence.

  "My peer has additional inquiries. Right Honourable Senator Iana Nimitz-Delia.”

  The Speaker of the Senate tapped the floor on his hover booth with his staff. A resonating thud crackled throughout the Senate room. “The honourable Senator Iana Nimitz-Delia of the planet of Jizkalia has the floor!”

  Kazuki took a moment to size up the speaker. He hovered around in his booth, yet Kazuki could tell: he was blind.

  Senator Delia stood up. She then nodded to Lorenza’s central position next to the microphone.

  "Ah... yes..." Lorenza murmured as she activated the table's mechanisms. It shifted the focus to Delia, as well as the microphone.

  This was his plan. 'What's her price?' asked Kazuki.

  'Oh, she only wanted to humiliate Lorenza... But you and I both know there's more to that. The Senate’s watching, and more importantly, Senator ílize. Influence at the expense of her?”

  Humiliating Lorenza would diminish her position as Second Consul. Maybe Delia simply wanted to be the one to ‘tame’ the vile Contract-Breaker… Where others have failed, in the eyes of the ílize regime.

  Cunning move, Kazuki thought, sitting down and leaning back.

  "Contract-Breaker," Delia started. Oh. Violent start? Kazuki nodded to that name. "Mr Geminorum-Ryzaku, this inquiry, as my peer has stated, is to find out the nature of this tragedy. Your reports denote a level of confusion; can you elaborate on this?"

  Kazuki played into it. Where Lorenza received insults, Delia will receive results. "Confirmed, Senator Delia. We find no logical reason for this attack other than to provoke the Judiciary into a response. This was nothing but terror. And the people have paid for it.”

  "Then it is safe to say... You don’t know the nature of the She-Wolf Beamont’s attack?” she asked. "Even if it was precise."

  "No," Kazuki answered, clearly and calmly. "Unless other members of the JTF have… withheld information from me, I do not know.”

  Kazuki’s eyes scanned the people beside him, as well as both Bernside and Hamzarhi. Bernside was military, hence he was a spectator. Hamzarhi was different…

  Lorenza was gone. Time to put his own peers into the limelight. Hamzarhi was seated nearby, reading through a report before passing it to a drone. The Intelligence Specialist had his eyes directed on Delia, as the drone provided it to her – sparking backlash.

  Second Consul Lorenza glared at Hamzarhi, but he merely gave a courteous nod of his cap back to her.

  Delia read it, then dismissed it. She tugged at her cloak’s collar. "Republic Intelligence, and I believe the Senate will, finds no probable cause for the Anagoran Judiciary to have faltered in their diligence to protect the people of District Three."

  Lorenza scoffed silently. Then, she grabbed the mic. “Senator Delia, would you not comment that their incompetence was what led to this mess to begin with?”

  Kazuki snarled loudly, “You held us in a meeting, adjourned it and then sent reinforcements to your safe location. The She-Wolf had me pinned. If the honourable Hamzarhi had not sent Deathtroops to my location, the slaughter would have continued.” The dam broke. Kazuki made no attempt to hold back.

  Kazuki had spoken. Lengthily. Still, even with many words, he broke briefly, snapping his lips shut.

  Delia raised an eyebrow. “Second Consul Lorenza, I believe it’s not a good time for this. Many judicial enforcers died to protect those they could. Many were in vain, and it is my aspiration here to turn their vain deaths to fuel this republic’s answer…”

  Kazuki’s defiance, followed by the heartfelt reply of Delia, was what gave Frederick time to speak. Slowly, he grabbed his mic and tucked it close to his mouth.

  Seventy-nine. That is how many officers we lost in the first response wave. Seventy-nine good men and women laid down their lives,” Frederick started. “Highly motivated. I hear that Second Consul Lorenza was interfering with… certain aspects of command. A civilian cannot lead this JTF, Senator Delia…”

  Commotion started amongst the aristocratic Senators. However, a figure rose. Lorenza had thought too much on the blame… the fall… and now, it had come in from the unbarred window.

  A figure rose in the booths, a brown haired, tanned Anagoran lady. She wore government garb, along with both a Senatorial and Diplomatic cloak. “I, too, must profess… Second Consul Lorenza’s actions have been most hearty yet directed too hastily in her… honest pursuit of justice.”

  ‘Is this the plan?’ Kazuki asked.

  ‘Of course it is,’ Gilbera replied. ‘I cannot criticise Lorenza directly… But Maria? She owns the Constitutionalists… if she criticises, they follow.’

  The woman was none other than Senator Maria Tankitarika-Muqihar, head of the diplomatic services.

  “And for that, I propose a strip of command… And to empower Commissioner Frederick and his good peer, Prince Kazuki, to the positions of joint chiefs of the task force.”

  “What about my Enforcers?” Kelina spoke up, uninvited. “We nipped at their heel, lost two hundred to claim twice as many of theirs…”

  Maria nodded kindly and smiled, gesturing to the trio. “I, with my Diplomatic Imperium, dictate a proposal for these three to be leveraged up to joint positions to head our republic’s response to the Contractor menace!”

  Lorenza was frozen in shock. The amount of political grease applied to this situation made it a trap for everyone involved. Still, the Senator ílize was not pleased. He was glaring at Lorenza, down from his podium.

  And the vote passed… Many Senators looked down their noses at the Second Consul, unable to grasp at straws. Now, they no longer have to deal with Lorenza. Still, she remained a powerful opponent.

  ‘I’m done here.’ Kazuki sighed and stood up. He took a look at Frederick, seated beside him. “Thank you.”

  “Be quiet, boy….” Frederick murmured back.

  With that out of the way, the three simply left. A thousand news flashes came down, as chaos nearly erupted throughout the whole Senate chamber. Lorenza tried to retake control. Yet it was clear: no one respected her authority.

  She was just a Senator… A Consul, yes, but the pride of the title required maintenance. Lorenza was not Gilbera – that much was enshrined to all watching.