Day 2: Outside Golden RuleWalking through the automated doors, Shirou Kotomine shook his head slightly in a bored manner, having just finished an hour long argument in the early hours of the morning until he finally got a reasonable price out of the businessmen he was conversing with. Truth be told, he was almost on the verge of having Assassin put something in their drinks, but they ultimately pulled through.
"Incredible how much they can take for just dirt and stone, isn't it?", the priest said with a bored demeanor.
"Indeed. Though Assyria was a land of riches, I had not expecting it's very soil to become a luxury. The world truly has changed, hasn't it?", was the reply from his immediate left.
To the priest's side was the person he had come to know as Assassin, or, in conversations not in the public eye, Semiramis. One of the greatest rulers the Babylonian region ever saw, who stole the throne from King Ninus through poisoning and seduction. To not call her beautiful would be a sin to all women, for the word was not adequate, but Shirou kept himself quiet on that matter. He had a more important goal than a woman or love and though he would not admit it, some things about her worried him a bit. Regardless she had proven herself to be one of the greatest parts of his plan, and she was quite cooperative in that regard.
"For better or worse. How long will we have to postpone our plans with the rebuilding of the Gardens?"
"The ritual will be done in two days, at which point we shall be unstoppable."
"We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves with such thinking. Until it's final stage, our plan is at constant risk. Unless we acquire some powerful pawns."
"For once I wish you would have a little faith in me", said the Queen with a slight uncharacteristic pout, the faintest of red spilling on her cheeks.
Shirou smiled a tad at her response, not taking account for her slight leak of emotion. Noticing that his second compatriot was not with them, he asked aloud, genuinely curious.
"Caster? Where did you go off to?"
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave, sir," she said again, undaunted. "I doubt you could cut open an apple in your state, anyway."
In a moment influenced by Ragna's behavior, she almost called him a "bitch". However, Celica held back. Better to only taunt the snake as little as possible.
"Tch, have it your way, bitch. I'll go find better food. Blame yourself if more corpses are discovered in the mall, you little shit", he said with a taunting smirk, placing a kick on the cash register that rattled it's contents and sending a few coins of various origin sprawling across the floor. He turned his back and walked out, but as he was a few steps away from the counter, he turned his head to the side with a cruel smile.
"Watch your back, bitch. Relius is also around." With that he walked out.