At the end of the hallway, a door with a carved dragon head welcomed Edrick and Liza. The door automatically opened after the head of the organization scanned his eye retina and fingerprints on a special sensor.
After the door opened completely, various types of weapons and their respective advantages were visible. Liza stared at one weapon on the wall with her mother's name emblazoned underneath.
"Alina Stuwerd," She whispered in a sad tone. Edrick walked towards the object that Liza had been staring at and picked it up with careful movements.
"This is your mother's favorite weapon. She preferred the katana to the gun." Edrick gave the katana to Liza and asked her to practice some Japanese martial arts moves with it.
Liza received it with emotion and then twisted her body according to her father's orders. Unconsciously, a drop of blood fell on the floor, and even more drops of blood came out of her mouth.
Edrick smiled slightly at the look of pain on Liza's face. The man snapped his fingers as a code for the princess to stop her activities.
"You have to be careful when using that katana because there's a razor blade hidden in the hilt," Edrick explained while treating Liza's hand, which was still bleeding.
"Isn't Dad afraid of Mom getting hurt?"
"Mom put that razor there because she doesn't like it when someone touches her things."
After her hand was finished being bandaged, Liza said goodbye to Edrick to prepare a few things before running her errands tonight. Liza put the katana back into its original place, then, without her father's knowledge, she took a pistol that the Russian side had just produced. She deftly put the gun in her pants pocket and turned to leave as if nothing had happened.
***
Liza walked into her room and was surprised to see a man sitting casually, sipping wine on her bed. The man gave her a wink, which was met with a rude snort from his opponent.
"Ma cherie, didn't you miss me?" seduced Damian in a seductive voice. Liza snorted back and said, "Big no, Dude!"
"Shit! Can't you be nice for a day? I'm tired of seeing that straight line on your lips," He complained.
"I can help you." Damin's gaze instantly brightened when he saw Liza approaching him with a seductive look. He spread his arms as a code for Liza to hug him, but his face turned deathly pale as his fiancée threatened him while scraping his neck with a very sharp knife.
"This time you survived because I have an important assignment from Edrick. Next time it won't be just a small scratch that decorates your neck, but a big cut until you can't see the world anymore."
Damian gulped his saliva with difficulty while raising his hands as a sign that he was giving up. "Okay! I give up, Mademoiselle. You've changed after gaining Edrick's trust. Where did the sweet and obedient little Liza go, hm?"
The tables were turned quickly after Damian seized the knife perched on his neck and twisted the fiancée's hands, causing her to fall to the ground with her hands cuffed behind her back.
"Well, a few minutes ago, I did give up because the one talking to you was Damian, the successful businessman. Now I don't hesitate to kill you, Ma cherie, because the one talking to you right now is Bradley, the most famous cold-blooded killer in New York."
The knife switched positions to Liza's neck, which the woman greeted with a dismissive laugh. "Unfortunately, it's Paris, Dude," Liza said and acted recklessly by rubbing her neck against the knife until it bled.
"Fuck! You're crazy, Ma cherie!" shouted Damian as he hurriedly reached into his pocket for a handkerchief to cover the wound on Liza's neck. "Why are you so desperate? I was joking," he continued.
Liza smiled and grasped Damian's hand tightly. In a hushed voice, she said, "I love you."
"I love you, too," Damian replied.
Liza left Damian's presence and walked towards the bathroom to clean herself up. After pressing a few buttons, she lowered her body into the bathtub filled with warm water and lavender flower extract, which provided a calming scent.
Liza played with the soap bubbles until her tears involuntarily fell as she recalled the fateful incident a few years ago.
"Mom," she whispered.
Flashback On
Little Liza walked with cheerful steps with Gavin towards a table containing various kinds of cakes. She enthusiastically ate some of the cakes while babbling about her admiration for her uncle's lavish wedding party.
"Gavin, look, Uncle Dimitri is so great, this party is so luxurious. I want my wedding party to be this luxurious later," Liza babbled with her mouth full of food.
Gavin did not respond to his cousin's words in the slightest as his gaze was fixed on his uncle, who gave the code to approach him.
"Gavin."
"Gavin! Hey!"
Liza's touch on his shoulder successfully startled Gavin, who was still glued in the same direction. "What are you looking at, anyway?" Liza scolded in surprise.
"Eh!" Liza was even more surprised when her cousin left her alone without saying anything.
"Ah! Never mind." Liza resumed her meal while admiring every detail of the wedding, which looked beautiful. Unknowingly, her footsteps led Liza to an empty room at the back of the building. She stared in surprise at several masked and black-clad men talking about something that looked very serious.
Her brow furrowed even more when she saw Dimitri and Gavin joining in the same outfit. Her eyes immediately widened when Dimitri said something that made her heart beat very fast.
"The bomb will explode in a moment. Make sure they all die, including the girl's parents," Dimitri ordered, and was answered with nods by several other men.
Liza backed away slowly, then ran fast to find her father and mother to report her findings. With her breath rising and falling, she approached her mother and father, who were in the hotel ballroom, and tried to babble.
"Mom! Dad! T-"
"Calm down, Honey. What's wrong?" asked Liza's mother. Gavin's parents also approached when they saw their nephew acting strangely. The four of them tried to calm Liza down, who was speaking in a muffled voice.
"Honey, please get some water for our daughter," said Liza's mother to her husband. Liza shook her head quickly and hugged her father, not to go anywhere before she finished speaking.
"What's wrong, Honey?" This time, it was her father who asked, and Liza stuttered while looking at her father and mother with fear.
"T-there's a BOMB!" She screamed.
They were all shocked and looked at Liza with uninterpretable gazes. "Don't joke around, Honey. Mom doesn't like it!"
Before Liza could react and explain everything, an explosion was heard, and cries for help were exchanged from people in the hotel ballroom, including her parents, uncles, and aunts.
Liza's body shook violently as she saw the horrifying scene in front of her. With slow movements, she moved her mother's body, which was lying on top of her.
"M-mom," She called out. Her throat tightened as her mother was lifeless with severe burns.
"MOM!"