25 Chapter 25 The Cross and the Lion

"Delacroix!!!" The voice of a woman screamed Helena's name as she entered her office, with an aura of anger all over her, this woman that was already in her mid 40's but looked like she was in her late 20's, had an enviable, beautiful figure, with long golden blond hair that reached to her hips, her eyes had a strong piercing look and they were greyish blue, she wore a red military jacket with a few medals, reminiscent of the ones used by royalty, with a pencil skirt, and around her hip, she had a sheathed sword that looked like one of, the XV century, and what called the attention of anyone that saw her, was the white fur-trimmed cape she wore that reached to her knees and covered half of her torso, leaving only visible the half part of her body that showed her sword, this woman was the leader of the Lion Emperor Organization and the Queen of the knights of England, this woman was Alice Pendagron the V.

And from behind she was followed by a man clad in black armor, that was a tight fit with a sheathed sword on his hip, he also wore an equally black cape, but what stood out the most about him was the helmet that had small horns, Helena upon seeing this kept sitting on the sofa drinking her tea, and ignoring Alice as she entered the room.

"Don't think you can ignore me, Delacroix!" Alice said with a tone filled with anger as she got close to Helena.

"My, my Alice, what do you take me for? I would never ignore you!" Helena said in a mocking tone as she took a sip of tea, Alice got even angrier.

"Don't go calling me by my name like your close to me!" Alice said as she glared at Helena, that was unfazed by this.

"Listen, Alice, the moment you barge in my place unannounced, and without a good reason, I can call you, whatever I please!" Helena said as she finished sipping on her tea, and she too glared at Alice, the ambiance was getting heavier with every passing moment, as Alice and Helena kept glaring at each other, it felt as if you could see two demons in the place of her auras.

"I am very sorry for Lady Delacroix's behavior, Lady Pendagron, but she is kind of right you can't just barge in here unannounced, you have to arrange a meeting just like everyone else..." Michelle said to Alice as she got close, and placed herself between her and Helena, trying to stop a fight from happening.

"There is no way, I'm asking to arrange a meeting with her for as long as I live, I would rather grovel on dirt, than asking for that!" Alice said to Michelle as her face became covered with more anger.

"Please Michelle, you don't have to intervene, I'm not doing anything too important right now, so I will listen to whatever problem she has with me..." Helena said as she placed her teacup on the table in front of her and signaled Michelle to step aside, something she did almost instantly as she heard Helena.

"Well then, Pendagron why don't you..." As Helena was about to invite Alice to take a seat, she was already taking that said seat on the sofa in front of Helena and the knight that accompanied her placed himself behind it, with his arms behind his back.

"Never mind then...so tell me, Pendagron, what's wrong?" Helena asked as she looked at Alice with an uninterested face.

"Don't act dumb! You know exactly, why I'm here!" Alice said as she crossed her legs and looked at Helena still with anger in her eyes.

"I honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Helena said as she shrugged with confusion written all over her face, Alice just glared at her upon seeing her reaction, but it didn't last long.

"I'm talking about you, asking Lady Youjo to let you take one of my knights into custody!" Alice said as she pointed at Helena.

"Oh! I see I see, so that's what you are talking about! And that is the reason why you are here?" Helena said in a joking tone as she placed her hand in front of her mouth.

"Why you...! Do you think this is a joke?" Alice asked as anger filled her face even more for Helena acting like this was nothing, a joke of sorts.

"Please, Pendagron, right now you should be lowering your head and thanking me..." Helena said as grabbed her teacup, this made Alice look at her with a confused expression.

"What, are you talking about?" Alice asked with a calm, yet angry tone.

"I mean, I just saved you from getting into trouble with Lady Youjo, by sending a fake Excalibur to Takamagahara, and you come in here treating me like this, seriously..." Helena said as she looked at Alice that now, any anger she had in her face turned into shock and surprise

"H-How do you know that?" Alice asked with a curious and surprised tone as she got up.

"Well, one of mine was there when you're knight, Kay Cross, is it? Was trying to steal Excalibur, from the report I got, I know that a fight broke out and the sword broke into pieces, it was quite the shock, since it is the so-called "unbreakable" sword, but the biggest surprise was the fact that it never once reacted with its user, no aura, no magic, nothing so I can only assume it's fake, am I right?" Helena said this and as she finished she took a sip from her teacup, Alice just looked at her in complete silence.

"Judging by your silence, it looks like I'm right, so now, this brings us to what happened next, upon hearing this report, I contacted Lady Youjo, and told her a little lie that would keep you and me out of trouble!" Helena said as she smiled.

"A little lie?" Alice asked more curious than angry.

"You see, I told her what happened and that it was thanks to one of my "soldiers" that Kay Cross was stooped, but unfortunately, my "soldier" broke the sword during the fight, she was quite shocked and surprised with it, she thought that you had tricked her or that it happened because of our little feud, but I told her that it wasn't anything like that, and if we look at the information we have at hand, the fact of Excalibur being unbreakable was a legend, a myth, nothing proved that it was unbreakable, so all was nothing more than an unfortunate accident, for which I took full responsibility!" Helena said this then she made a small pause before proceeding.

"In the end Lady Youjo was angry, but since we took care of this problem, stooped your delusional knight and saved people from getting hurt, Lady Youjo allowed me to take Kay Cross into custody, since he attacked one of ours and as for you Pendagron, I will have to give you quite the generous compensation for what happened to Excalibur, after all, it was my fault and it is supposed to be the "Crown Jewel" of The Lion Emperor organization, right?" As Helena finished saying this Alice looked away from her visibly angry.

"Looks like you owe me an apology, Pendagron, after all, I just saved you from one hell of punishment for lying to Lady Youjo, about the Excalibur that you sent her being fake, honestly what were you thinking, you idiot?" As Helena said this with a mocking tone as she took another sip from her teacup it was right then and there that Alice snapped as she grabbed the table that separated her and Helena and threw it to the side, with extreme violence, surprising Michelle that prepared herself to attack Alice, Helena, on the other hand, was unfazed by this.

"You can keep that stupid compensation, I would rather have your head than accepting anything that comes from you, Delacroix!" Alice said as she grabbed her swords handle and prepared to attack Helena, but she was stooped dead in her tracks as out of nowhere the tip of a sword was placed against her neck, this sword was held by a tall muscular man, that had various scars on her body, with long wavy black hair and a long beard, his eyes were white and they glowed bright, as for his clothes he wore a simple black toga, upon seeing this Alice didn't look scared or impressed, she looked annoyed if anything.

"Now, now, Pendagron, I do accept a lot of things like you barging in here and whatnot, but please refrain from violence!" Helena said in a calm tone that had a faint hint of anger as she looked at Alice that was still with her hand on her sword handle and kept looking at her.

"I won't say this again Pendagron, accept what I have done and, forget about this one man of yours, and in return, I won't tell what really happened to Lady Youjo, and in the end, we all win and we can all keep going on with our lives or we can solve this the only way you know how to take care of you're problems, but I warn you, I won't go easy!" Helena said as her pale violet eyes became dark violet as she looked at Alice, after a little while she took her hand off her swords handle.

"Fine then, you win this one, Delacroix, but don't think this is over, and tell this bastard to stop pointing his sword at me!" Alice said as she crossed her arms, and looked at the tall man that kept his sword pointed at Alice's neck.

"Good to know that your still reasonable Pendagron! It's alright Ezekiel, you can stop that now!" Helena said as she looked at the man that upon hearing her stooped pointing his sword at Alice and bowed to Helena with one knee on the ground, as he vanished like a cloud of smoke being blown away, this man was one of the three summon spirits of Helena, known as the holy trinity.

"Well then, I believe that this ends your unattended visit Pendagron, now if you would be so kind as to take your leave..." Helena said as she had a smile across her face that could be read as, please just go away, Alice just glared at her.

"Let's go!" Alice said as she looked at the knight that came with her and signaled him to leave, but she stooped as she got close to the door.

"Delacroix...aren't you hiding anything else?" Alice asked as she glanced at Helena over her shoulder, this caught her a bit off guard

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not one to have secrets!" Helena said with a smile this just made Alice look forward and leave without saying anything else.

"Have a safe trip home!" Helena said in a joking tone as she waved at Alice that just ignored her, when they finally left Helena got up from her sofa and began to walk towards the table Alice threw away and started to put it back in its place.

"Please Helena, let me do that" Michelle said as she got close to Helena.

"Don't worry about it Michelle, I kind of provoked our cute Alice it's only normal I clean the mess I made..." Helena said as she finally placed the table in its original position.

"Helena, what Pendagron just said, do you think she knows about the Endbringer?" Michelle asked a bit worried Helena just looked at her in silence, for a bit.

"Perhaps she knows, perhaps she suspects something, after all, if we know about it then she or the other organizations might know, but don't worry about it, I already talked about that with Lady Youjo, she will tell everyone it was just an "experiment" that got a bit out of hand, like that, the other organizations will ignore it, for the time being, so rest assured Michelle!" Helena said with a comforting tone to Michelle as she crossed her arms, something that made her just nod in agreement, but it was at this moment that the phone in Helena's desk began ringing, Helena approached the desk and picked it up.

"Yes?" Helena said as she placed the phone close to her ear.

"Lady Delacroix, c'est moi, Laura!" Laura answered from the other side with a cute voice.

"Oh, Laura, what is it?" Helena asked with a curious tone, but she already knew why she called.

"Nous avons le bâtard, he is here at my place!" Laura said with a happy tone that had a faint hint of anger, as she told this to Helena, that upon hearing this her eyes opened wide.

"That was really fast! good job Laura, I will be there Immediately!" Helena said with a happy tone as she placed the phone back on the table ending the call, and as she did she began walking towards the door but not without first picking up her umbrella.

"Wait Helena, where are you going?" Michelle asked a bit curious about Helena's reaction, after the call she received.

"That is obvious Michelle my dear, I am going to the La Sainté prison!" Helena said as she grabbed her umbrella and exited her office in a way as if she was skipping instead of walking...