This was starting to get boring, Camila thought absently as she stood in front of her master. Normally any time when she was conscious and not murdering someone was nice, but waiting while her master watched her flesh regrow wasn’t that interesting.

To be fair she didn’t really feel emotions per se. She knew what emotions she was supposed to be feeling, but they never really materialized. Probably the way she was being controlled. She’d learned back in school emotions were how people made decisions. If she was actually allowed to be angry she might have snapped her master’s neck.

At last her master stopped prodding her and stepped back. “Well, at least the regeneration is working properly. As irritating as it is to learn this from a failure.” He turned away, facing the other jiang-shi standing in the room like a statue. “And it seems I was right to send both of you. Had I sent one I would have lost a huge investment. Or perhaps more.”

The man began to pace. It had been a while since Camila had seen him monologuing. “I underestimated her. A mistake. She studied under ‘the Tutor,’ after all. The assassination was a good plan, but when it failed I shouldn’t have pressed the attack. I had to reveal too much information for too little gain.”

The woman had been pretty impressive. Camila had written her off as just a cute girl in a nightdress. Another unfortunate victim. But she survived being kicked through a window, and had started tossing around lightning bolts and spears. Probably was a good thing Camila wasn’t able to feel emotions then, or she might have been worried about getting killed.

“I’ll have to gain more information before our next fight,” he finally said before striding off. “I just need a bit more money for my next experiment. Her death will get me that and more. And then…”

Consciousness slowly faded from Camila as her master let her fall into topor. She couldn’t hate him. That wasn’t allowed. But as her mind greyed out, she found herself idly wishing that girl she’d tried to kill would hunt her master down and put him out of everyone’s misery. And if Camila was really lucky, maybe without her getting killed in the process.

It was a nice wish at least.