Sankan Palace Hotel

Sankan Palace at nighttime

Sankan Palace Hotel (サンカン・パレス・ホテル Sankan Paresu Hoteru) is a luxurious hotel in Roanapur known for its high desirability and expensive room prices.

Features

Exterior

The building is located directly on the corner of an intersection, and its main entrance is at the corner of the building. On the exterior, the building has a bullnose corner and intricately designed balcony doors, with the exterior painted cream-white. At night, the building's exterior lights make the building appear light-brown in color. Directly above the red entrance door is the sign "Hotel Sankan Palace" in white neon-light letters on a purple background, and another large pink neon sign "Sankan Palace" is on top of the building's roof corner. As mentioned in the novels and as can be seen on the outside and on the elevator's floor indicators, Sankan Palace has seven floors (including the ground level) and a basement. Several coconut palm trees are planted around the building's exterior sidewalk.

Interior

Suite interior

Throughout the halls and rooms, the interior walls are painted orange with white baseboards and crown moldings, and they are adorned with white wall lamps. The elevator doors are gold-painted sliding grille gates that match the gold-painted dial floor indicators. In the corner of the lobby, there is a dining bar where breakfast is served. Additionally, Sankan Palace Hotel's suite has an eight-paneled white wooden door with a gold-color doorknob and keyhole, and the suite is designed with several paintings, gold-color curtains, three mahogany-edged, white-colored wingback chairs, a brown coffee table, and a grandfather clock.

Black Lagoon history

El Baile de la muerte / Roberta's Blood Trail

When Garcia Lovelace decided to travel to Roanapur to find Roberta and put a stop to her desire for revenge on the Grey Fox soldiers who murdered his father, he and Fabiola Iglesias rented a suite at Sankan Palace Hotel. There, Garcia waited in his room while Fabiola sought out the Lagoon Company on Garcia's behalf. Soon after Fabiola found the Lagoon crew and got into a shootout at the Yellow Flag, Mister Chang of the Hong Kong Triad decided to visit Garcia at the hotel to confirm the rumors about Roberta's presence in the city. While Biu drove Chang to the hotel, the Lagoon crew drove Fabiola back to the hotel, with Dutch remarking that he wish that he could stay at a place as classy as Sankan Palace.

Before the four pirates entered the room, Fabiola reminded them that they would be in the presence of the twelfth head of the Lovelace family. They entered the room to see Chang there, infuriating the young maid. She tried to attack him but Chang disarmed her, with Garcia assuring the maid that he was only there to talk, so Fabiola reluctantly backed off, standing at Garcia's side. When Revy pulled out a cigarette, Chang forced her to ask Garcia permission first, and Garcia politely told her to refrain from smoking since there were no ashtrays in the suite. Beginning their discussion, Garcia told everyone that after the bombing, members of the Venezuelan military sympathetic to the MVR visited the Lovelace estate to tell Garcia about six conspirators with Western ties involved in the bombing, showing them a photograph of U.S. and Venezuelan nationals six months before the tragedy. Furthermore, the six conspirators quit their foreign intelligence agency jobs six months before the bombing occurred, creating suspicion.

Garcia recalled that with that little bit of information, Roberta secretly left the Lovelace estate to track down the conspirators and find the true culprits behind the bombing, killing and interrogating all six men including the leader Marcos José Lucientes. When Garcia said that Lucientes' body was found by a river on the outskirts of Calabozo, Venezuela with his lower legs hacked and stabbed numerous times, Chang remarked that Roberta's tracking skills really matched her bloodhound nickname, causing Garcia to slam his fists on the table. The boy demanded Chang to refrain from calling Roberta that moniker, to which he calmly agreed. Continuing onward, Garcia pointed to a U.S. Army colonel, Simon Dickens, in the photograph and explained that his body was found in a burning building in Caracas. He elaborated that Roberta ordered a plane and bus ticket to travel from Venzuela to Thailand via Miami, also mentioning that Dickens was a high-ranking active duty United States officer, startling Chang and Dutch.

Sankan Place in daytime

After relaying this information to Chang and the Lagoon Company, Garcia and Fabiola stated that their goal was to find Roberta and return her to Venezuela, adding that anyone who helped them would be paid greatly. Chang stated that Roberta's enemy was U.S. forces, with Garcia saying that was all the more reason to stop Roberta since he was pained to see Roberta kill people. Chang joked that he would love to send the two children home, but he reminded them that the Colombian Cartel in Roanapur wanted to kill Roberta, summarizing that such discord would throw Roanapur into even worse chaos.

In his closing statement, Chang told the Lagoon Company that they were the best fit to take Garcia's job since they were a neutral party, but Dutch wanted nothing to do with it. Chang responded that the Triad would take the job if they did not, and he left. Likewise, Rock left the hotel to ponder on Garcia's request. Chang also told the Lovelace affiliates that they needed to leave Sankan Palace Hotel the next morning regardless of their decision. The next morning, the two children did not hear from Rock and planned to leave the hotel until Rock and Benny swung by, agreeing to help the children. After leaving Sankan Palace Hotel, Garcia and Fabiola stayed at Chang's yacht house for better security.

Light novel history

Shaitane Badi

In the first light novel Shaitane Badi, the contractor Jane had her hired mercenaries stay at the Sankan Palace Hotel. When four survivors, including Stanislav Kandinsky, Jake and two others, returned to the hotel after a failed attempt to assassinate Mister Chang, a couple bodyguards from Hotel Moscow recognized Stanislav and came up to him and spoke in Russian. Stanislav reciprocated surprise since the men thought that he was dead, and they told Stanislav that his former captain Pavlovna set up business in Roanapur. Although Stanislav denied familiarity with them, the Russian-speaking men gave him a Bougainvillea Trade Company business card if he wanted to contact them. After the men left the hotel lobby, Jake recognized the company name, telling Stanislav that the company was the Russian mafia's front in Roanapur.

Ballad of the Sinful Wizard

In the second light novel Ballad of the Sinful Wizard, Lotton took Tricia O'Sullivan with him to Sankan Palace Hotel to watch over her, although his ulterior motive was to find a pillow that looked like the one belonging to Shenhua that he accidentally got destroyed. As Lotton entered the lobby with her, a gangster of Budaibang spotted her and informed Lu Tao of her presence since they were looking to capture Tricia. Although the front desk clerk told Tricia that Sankan Palace was the most luxurious hotel in town, she thought that it was just a cheap hotel compared to luxurious hotels in the United States. Lotton calmly asked the clerk for one single-bed room and then turned to face Tricia, who was confused, but Lotton assured her that he did not need a bed for himself. On the sixth floor after the clerk had laughed at the request, Lotton checked the first room's bed, but told the employee that it was not satisfactory and desired another room.

While Lotton checked the next room, Tricia herself felt the bed but could not see the problem with it. She appreciated his gentlemanly attitude, but she remarked that she wanted to take a shower soon, and she continued to the next rooms. Despite numerous choices, Lotton rejected all beds on the sixth floor, so the attendant guided him and Tricia to the seventh floor. Hearing gunshots nearby, Tricia thought that it was just the normal noises throughout Roanapur, but she also heard some commotion downstairs. Arriving at Sankan Palace to find Lotton, Shenhua went to the front desk with Frederica Sawyer, Revy and Rock to ask about Lotton. Subsequently, the clerk argued that he could not disclose any information due to guest privacy, but he became cooperative once Rock mentioned Mister Chang's name. Going up the elevator, Revy continued cussing to Shenhua's great annoyance. Outside room 605, Shenhua knocks on the door and calls for Lotton, saying that she knows he was in there.

In contrast, the impatient Revy knocked her foot against the door, soon kicking it down and asking Shenhua why she only knocked. Glaring at Revy, Shenhua thought to herself that she could not act so uncouth since she was representing Mister Chang in public. The women then hid in the room and several Budaibang gangsters entered, and Sawyer cut one man down while Shenhua decapitated the other. Immediately, Revy escaped to the balcony to the upper floor while Shenhua and Sawyer fought the men, and Shenhua got into a fight with Lu Tao. Upstairs, two men found Lotton and Tricia and tried to shoot at the former, but he was saved when Revy shot the men dead. Rock entered the room to guide Tricia out as he asked Lotton what his plan was since the former was going to escape. Lotton only agreed that his plan was good and he followed them.

Meanwhile, Shenhua almost killed him due to him not noticing her left hand and being distracted by Sawyer cutting up his friend's corpse until his informant Dick Krugland interfered to save him, giving Shenhua and Sawyer the opportunity to escape. Accordingly, Lu Tao saw that Revy, Rock and Lotton successfully fled downstairs with Tricia but he could not fire a clear shot at them, so he and Krugland left the hotel to pursue them further. Afterward, the news of the massacre of Budaibang gangsters inside the hotel was spread around town, and Richie Leroy reported the incident to Eda.