“Young master Lawrence, we shouldn’t keep the officers waiting.” Joseph spoke by the door to the washroom, from where the sounds of water splashing could be heard. It was an arched, brown double door of the fancy kind—at least three meters tall, with thin frosted glass windows and golden accents.
“And why is that?” Contrary to his elderly butler’s advice, Lawrence had no intention of skipping his morning shower—an hour-long morning shower. He was being petty on purpose. “What is a couple hours to the years they made me wait?” And a couple hours he could spend there. After all, if Lawrence kept on doing exercises in the shower, he would keep getting sweaty, and he couldn’t face the officers in such a state.
He had just stood up, having completed a set of diamond push-ups. His water-soaked blonde hair grazed the top of his ears, while the warm morning sunlight did the same with the rest of his lean, athletic body. The light had entered through a large arched window and scattered around the room. Aside himself, it bounced off the beige tiles covering the floor together with the lower half of the walls, where said half was taller than an average grown man.
Eventually Lawrence decided to step out of the shower, which was so large he could lie down in it. But of course, if he was going to do that, he would have rather chosen the bathtub. With his lower half wrapped in a towel, he approached the mirror to shave—what was perhaps the most striking in his appearance, was not his chiseled jaw, but the silver irises of his eyes. They were dark at the edges, but shimmering where light grazed them.
Done stalling, Lawrence donned the clothes that Joseph had prepared for him—a dark-blue vest that went over a white shirt; a black velvet jacket with golden finish around the edges; a matching pair of closely fitted pants; a pair of black leather boots that reached above his ankles; and polished gloves. The outfit was further complemented by a dark, patterned ascot.
The doors opened and Lawrence stepped out of the washroom. “Let’s get going then!” He announced with a lively, yet mellow voice.
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“I always understood young master’s bitterness towards the military.” Joseph began saying from behind the steering wheel of their old, yet fine, shining black diesel-mobile. “Elias had been my employer, but a friend first and foremost. However, I must remind you, Lawrence, that having strained relations with the government won’t do you any good. If anything, I had hoped you would have changed your mind about this by today.” They were driving on a five-lane road—that is, with five lanes on each side, which were split in the middle by sturdy piers supporting elevated railway tracks that seemed to never end.
Meanwhile, Lawrence was looking out of the window. “There’s nothing to worry about, Joseph. I only have to know what really happened back then.” Paying no mind to the other vehicles, nearly all of which were steam-mobiles, his eyes focused on the station that they were currently closing in on—a large structure overarching the road. It reached all the way to the sidewalk, where people were marching up the stairs to catch the approaching steam-powered train. Which, unlike its long gone predecessors, relied on a closed water loop made possible with advancements in material arrangements...
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Even though it’s been so long—even though it wasn’t even the same station, Lawrence felt his chest tighten at the sight. Especially today.
“I only hope that you are making the right choice, young master.” Joseph looked to the right, as they were nearing their destination. He was going to leave Lawrence at the main entrance of the building belonging to the MSSA—the Ministry of Science for Strategic Advantage. “I just want you to know, that whatever it is you choose to do, I will always be there for you.” The tone of his voice was warm, but it carried a slight worry.
“You make this sound overly dramatic.” Lawrence looked into the rearview mirror at his loyal butler—his wrinkled face, the eyes that almost seemed too deeply burrowed into his skull, the short black hair that still kept that graying beard of his at bay... and a moment later, the vehicle came to a stop. “Thank you, see you soon.” Lawrence opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
No longer obscured by the diesel-mobile’s roof, he found himself surrounded by the enormous city, that was only a provincial capital.
The majority of the buildings were more than a hundred meters tall, squeezed tightly together. Most of them had blocky shapes, with a slight variation here or there. The color palette was also fairly similar, dominated by warm pastel paint on the walls, coupled with dark mansard roofs. There was a tad larger variety in the styles of doors and windows, where the various kinds of arches were popular, but rectangular designs weren’t rare either. However, Lawrence had seen all of this a million times and the view was hardly a concern of his in this very moment.
What now awaited Lawrence was a battle for the truth behind his father’s death and for his own freedom, which he could lose today if he wasn’t careful. Or rather, that had been the only price he had been offered up to now.
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“Mister Lawrence, welcome!” The receptionist called out to him shortly after he had entered the grand hall.
It really was grand, with an enormous white and silver carpet covering a big portion of the taupe-brown marble floor, from which two rows of five blocky columns rose up to the vaulted ceiling above. It wasn’t an obvious architectural choice, considering the roof was still a few floors higher, but nothing the empire couldn’t afford.
“Good morning, Donathan.” Lawrence responded in kind to the receptionist whose hair color was akin to his own. However, that was about everything that was similar between them. Donathan’s irises had an ordinary brown tint, he had a softer face, his work clothes were roughly twenty-times cheaper and so on... “Quite early, isn’t it?”
Donathan smiled at the mention of it being 'early', but not in a mocking manner. It was far from being the first time they met. “Marshal Hester awaits mister in her office.”
Unlike his father, Lawrence didn’t work for the government directly, but as a third-party contractor. He had a few investments here and there, but the majority of his income came down to designing and selling arrangement blueprints to the MSSA; they were especially willing to pay large sums for anything enhancing steam-powered engines.
Oil-related blueprints sold too, but despite their superior qualities, the market was all about coal. Understandably so, once you considered that the oil reserves were now so low, even the military stopped production of higher grades.
“Floor twenty-six, entry one. The elevator on my right will take mister right next to it.” Donathan pointed to the elevator with his palm.
“Thanks.” Lawrence was already on the way there before Donathan finished speaking, not minding the one or two odd looks his behavior got him from the other people in the hall that witnessed this scene for the first time.
Donathan was used to this, to the point where he managed to unlock the elevator’s access to the twenty-sixth floor before Lawrence got in reach of the button.