"That sounds like something a mother should explain to her daughter."
"Yes, I guarantee your adoptive mother must have explained it. Ancient Greece's educational philosophy still seems advanced even today." Bayonetta let out a long breath, wishing she could blow away all her troubles. This sort of situation was common in families with rebellious teenagers, but she had never imagined she would feel this way herself. "But Lorna is too smart. She must have ideas of her own. Darling, I know you see Constantine as your child. How did you educate him?"
Salomon did not even need to think before giving an answer.
"Close-quarters combat, shooting, Gene Alchemy, bloody trials, infiltration and assassination, chemical brainwashing, mental conditioning, thrown into a library... The final step was battlefield combat. Those who survived were considered qualified." Constantine spoke softly. "Since you are so curious about the Praetorian Guard enhancement process, I have no intention of hiding it from you. I am already tired of your probing."
"You told me he was both a father and a king to you."
"Yes, he is my king." Constantine removed his helmet and set it aside. The Communication System integrated into the helmet was connected to the Power Armor, so even without his helmet, he could still operate it through the neural synapse link. "In fact, I was not the first successfully enhanced Praetorian Guard, but I was the first Praetorian Guard test subject to survive. I vaguely remember my companions in those training camps, but only I survived. I can no longer remember their faces."
Constantine recounted those horrifying facts, enough to drive anyone mad, without a trace of emotion.
On a planet covered in red sand, countless figures whose faces had long blurred in his memory stood side by side, all of them wounded. Every