Chapter 141: The Senate’s Inquisition

This was undeniably the brutal handiwork of the Senate’s Inquisition...

Aurelia touched the branded skin; whether she had suffered these horrific wounds as a slave before her conscription, or as part of her brutal conditioning within Valerian’s secret police, no one would ever know...

However, the exact origin of her torture was no longer important.

From this moment onward, she could never hunt another Syndicate operative, nor would she ever suffer the Senate’s torments again.

After searching the dead assassin’s leather harness, Aurelia extracted a sealed parchment scroll, a cipher wheel, and a signet ring from the interior lining.

The signet emblem was a stark Roman eagle clutching a bleeding dagger in its talons.

The Envoy carried nothing else... no gold aurei, no silver denarii, no personal keepsakes.

"Look at the specific asset I managed to secure," Camilla’s voice echoed down the path.

Aurelia looked up and saw the operative dragging a struggling, bruised man by his collar, throwing him into the snowbank.

The man groaned in agony and rolled wildly, attempting to stand, but his wrists and ankles were hog-tied with climbing rope.

All he could do was twist in the snow.

The man’s ruined Praetorian armor revealed that he was undeniably Tribune Severus, the corrupt officer who had occupied the second carriage.

"Where are Valerius and Silas?"

"They are sweeping the southern ridgeline to ensure zero auxiliary survivors escaped the kill zone." Camilla walked over to the dead Envoy, nudging the body with her boot. "So this is the apex predator trained by Valerian’s Inquisition?"

"Indeed," Aurelia said, holstering her smoking revolver. "She will not be tracking our logistics ever again."

"Looking at her facial structure, it is difficult to believe that she viewed us as existential enemies who had to be slaughtered..." Camilla sighed, staring at the brand marks.

"If not for the corruption of the Roman Senate, none of this bloodshed would have occurred." Aurelia turned her eyes to glare at the captive Tribune.

When Severus saw the elite Imperial assassin lying dead in a pool of blood, his eyes instantly widened in horror.

He attempted to scream a threat but could only emit muffled grunts because of the wool gag stuffed in his mouth.

She yanked the cloth out. "Do you possess any final statements for the record?"

"Ahem... you, you Gallic savages have executed the premier Frumentarii of Consul Valerian! You reckless demons! You will sooner or later be nailed to crosses at the gates of Rome and left for the vultures!"

"Even if we had not executed her, being interrogated in the bowels of the Inquisition is no better than a quick bullet," Aurelia stated, "and compared with her fate, you had vastly better start worrying about your own survival."

"Even if I die in the snow, I will have the glory of the Roman gods, and you Syndicate bastards will only sink into Tartarus and be tortured for eternity!" he screamed hysterically.

"That specific volume is exactly why I had to block his airway," Camilla muttered, rolling her eyes.

Aurelia stuffed the cloth directly back into his mouth. "Let the Forge Master deal with his fanaticism. He stated that Chief Auditor Aulus is incredibly proficient at extracting financial ledgers from corrupt Patricians."

...

By the time Silas and Valerius returned to the wreckage of the carriages, the Alpine sun had already begun to set...

The Heavy Infantry Commander vaulted off his warhorse and landed next to Aurelia. "Your structural integrity is intact?"

"The extraction was executed flawlessly," she said. "What is your report?"

"Obviously, not a single Roman legionary escaped the perimeter," Valerius laughed.

"Is the assassin definitively dead?" Boduoc asked, stomping through the snow and staring down at the Envoy. "I assumed you would attempt to capture her alive for strategic interrogation."

Valerius twitched his mouth. "If I were in Aurelia’s exact position, I would not have kept that venomous snake alive either."

"By the gods, you possess no mercy for your fellow Romans..."

"She is not our kin; she was a weapon controlled by the Senate," the veteran Commander stated. "Besides, sometimes our own countrymen can be exponentially crueler than barbarian raiders. I have never seen Gallic warlords imprison and torture orphaned children for decades."

Valerius pulled off his gauntlet and offered his hand to Aurelia. "Your execution and command performance were flawless, and you made the correct decision in this gorge."

"..." Aurelia stared at his hand for a long moment before gripping it tightly. "Thank you, Commander."

Boduoc grunted in agreement, hefting a captured Roman gladius.

Valerius rolled his eyes, reached out his hands, and placed them on top of Aurelia’s and Camilla’s. "I must clarify that if it were merely the Celt’s hand, I would not touch it, so this gesture is for the Director’s sake."

Silas nodded, raising his eyebrow as he placed his hand on the pile.

Then, the five Syndicate operatives stood together in a circle, their hands locked over the bloodstained snow.

Next, they needed to collect the classified intelligence carried by the convoy and eradicate the traces of their ambush...

After spending two days burying the Roman corpses in a ravine and collapsing a snowdrift over the carriages, they rode toward the Gallic border, arriving back at the gates of Lugdunum three days later.

After dismounting in the fortified courtyard of the praetorium, Aurelia was swarmed by the highest-ranking members of the Syndicate’s inner circle.

"I received a telegraph that you sustained structural damage. Where exactly is the fracture?" Gaia, the young Chief Chemical Engineer, demanded, her eyes scanning Aurelia’s legs.

"She has been pacing the courtyard waiting for your return. Why did you ride back so slowly?" Octavia, the Chief Statistician, asked, her eidetic memory already cataloging Aurelia’s ruined armor.

"Does the blunt-force trauma... still limit your mobility?" Decimus asked urgently, adjusting his spectacles.

"It can not only stop arterial bleeding, but also rapidly calm deep tissue swelling, so the effect should be perfect," Dr. Tullia said, holding up a glass jar with a smile.

"How could you be so reckless to sprint down an open corridor against a javelin volley!" This was Aulus’s stressed voice.

"It is acceptable as long as she has returned to the command center safely," Commander Valerius chimed in from behind her.

Seeing their genuinely concerned faces warmed Aurelia’s heart.

There was absolutely no doubt that this republic was worth devoting her life and blood to protect...

Then, she saw the Forge Master, Lucius, descending the steps.

Camilla instantly rushed forward and gave a military salute.

Boduoc simply nodded his head.

Although Aurelia felt a profound, irrational impulse to drop her military bearing, she knew she was the Director of the Umbrae, so she forcefully held back the exhaustion, stood at attention despite her fractured shin, and said with a smile, "Mission accomplished, Dominus."

"Indeed. I have waited for your report for a long time." The Forge Master smiled. "Report to the medical wing for immediate structural repairs and get some rest. I placed a hot pot of imported Arabian coffee and the blueprints for a new repeating rifle prototype on your desk."

"I will execute those orders immediately."