PART ONE: LEMRINA

01. A Knight's Vow

Princess Lemrina was unimpressed with the display.

Oh, it was all very nice. All very touching, even. All those crying people at the funeral, so upset that poor Princess Asseylum was dead. Perhaps they hadn't gotten the memo back in July.

Ordinarily, Lemrina might have swallowed all the grandstanding. ("Asseylum was truly a martyr who wished for nothing but peace!") Her sister was such a goody two-shoes, after all. But she was equally certain that most of the noblemen orating at the funeral had never actually had a conversation with Asseylum - or perhaps they had managed it once or twice at a dinner party. Most of the Orbital Knights kept to their castles and petty clan feuds and shiny Kataphrakts.

Lemrina could smell the hypocrisy a mile away. Asseylum would probably turn in her grave. It all made her so sick and she didn't even like Asseylum very much, even if she was so nice you felt bad about hating her.

And the worst of it was that Lemrina could see herself getting dragged into the whole mess of lies and hogwash in the near future.

It all started when her grandfather, who usually liked to quietly pretend that she never existed, called her to his bedroom.

"Asseylum is dead," he announced in his gravelly tone.

"Yes, I know, grandfather." Who didn't know?

"Gilzeria is dead," Emperor Rayregalia went on.

Gilzeria was Lemrina's father, who had died before Lemrina had even been born.

Lemrina sighed. She knew what would come next. She was the replacement, the placeholder, that awkward existence which must never be named.

The bastard child.

"Lemrina, my granddaughter. You are my only kin."

And now it had come to this.

Lemrina couldn't help but crack a wry smile.

"Is it time for me to suddenly come into existence?"

"Don't be impudent, child," the Emperor intoned. "We must proceed with caution."

Of course. If Lemrina died, the Vers dynasty would die with her, along with the Aldnoah activation factor.

But still, the Emperor was seventy now, and the Orbital Knights wouldn't be satisfied fighting like rabid dogs over portions of Terran land forever. Eventually, one of them would get it into his head that he could take the crown for himself once the Emperor was gone. The war was strategically necessary, but it didn't solve the root of the problem.

The Emperor needed a legitimate successor - and soon.

"Lemrina, how old are you?"

"Fourteen, my grandfather."

"Fourteen… you are old enough to give birth to sons."

Lemrina stiffened. She had expected something like this, but to hear her grandfather actually utter the words so frankly… it sent shivers down her spine.

Princess Lemrina had never known her mother. She always liked to imagine that her mother had been a noblewoman or at least someone intelligent. But sometimes, she heard whispers of the word "harlot". She could never work out if those gossipers in the court meant it literally or if every woman who makes love to a man she wasn't supposed to counted as a harlot. Either way, she hated the word.

And now she, the princess, was being told that her only role was to spread her legs for some man she had probably never met. In other words, she was being told to become a prostitute, if not in title then in spirit.

"What if I refuse?" Lemrina demanded.

"It is not something you can refuse," intoned the Emperor. "Nor can you run from it," he added, looking at her legs.

Princess Lemrina gripped the sides of her wheelchair until her knuckles were white, scowling thunderously like she never had scowled before.

She was trapped, trapped, trapped like a bird in a cage - like those creatures from the storybooks she had never actually seen. And it was all the fault of this… this hideous ghoul of an old man.

A sudden thought flashed through the white of her fury: what if she had a knight to sweep her into his arms and take her away? That would be just like the storybooks as well. She'd say no to an arranged marriage and run off and elope and live happily ever after. But that was impossible for so many reasons, number one being her crippled legs and number two being that all the knights in this wretched empire were self-obsessed clowns.

The Empire of Vers was nothing like the storybooks from Earth. Nothing like them at all.

And so now here Lemrina was, watching her sister's funeral broadcast, listening to the Orbital Knights talk and realising with a sinking sensation in her stomach that she might actually have to marry one of these vacuous morons.

Behind her, a maid brushed her hair and crooned over her how nice and silky it was.

Ugh.

Lemrina had half a mind to tell the stupid maid to shut up, but that would probably seem capricious, even for her standards. So she just satisfied herself by imagining a dozen ways to humiliate her grandfather and all the knights who served him.

Once the mourning period was officially over, she would make her public debut. Only a few precious weeks, then, to come up with a plan for self-preservation.

A knock on the door distracted her from her grim thoughts. "Yes, yes, come in," Lemrina said irritably.

The door opened smoothly and her tutor Sir Slaine Troyard walked in.

Her grandfather had told her that she needed formal knowledge of Earth now that she was going to become the formal successor to the throne. So he arranged for a Terran tutor to teach her, only as it turned out, his knowledge of Earth was a complete joke.

For a start, the tutor had only lived on Earth until he was about ten. He knew nothing about arts or history or literature or any of the things Lemrina was interested in. He knew about stuffy, boring things like animal biology, because his father was a scientist, apparently. As a result, the lessons were terribly dull, and it didn't seem like Sir Troyard was too enthused about them either. In fact, he seemed distracted about something half the time.

"It's time for your lesson," he said listlessly as he came into the room.

"All right, hurry up and get it over with," she said with a sigh.

Lemrina instantly tuned out as soon as Sir Troyard began talking. The good thing about him was that he never quizzed her on anything she was supposed to have learned, so she could just go "Uh huh" or "I see" at regular intervals and he would never notice a thing. Lemrina's eyes drifted up to the television screen, watching the funeral procession.

She could not afford to be like Asseylum. Her sister's naiveté had been her undoing. That was why she watched this funeral so carefully, because she needed to know the knights. Which ones were stupid and which ones were smart?

She had been so intent on the screen that for a moment, she didn't even realise that Sir Troyard had stopped speaking. When she suddenly remembered where she was and glanced sideways at him, he was staring at the screen too. The coffin was being lowered into the red soil.

Also, did she imagine it, or were Sir Troyard's eyes rather glassy?

"Sir Troyard?"

The knight blinked. "Oh, er, where was I? Oh right, crabs walk sideways because-"

She tuned out again. Instead of staring at the screen, she started at her tutor, studying his features intently.

Now that she thought about it, it was odd that a knight like him was not at the funeral. Then again, it probably had something to do with the fact he was a Terran. He'd probably get mobbed considering the furious anti-Earth sentiments expressed in the speeches.

He was definitely upset about something. But at the same time, he was trying to hold it in. It probably had something to do with her sister, judging from his reaction to the funeral. His efforts to suppress his emotions somehow made his sadness seem more palpable, unlike those ostentatious displays from the knights onscreen.

And he was young. Probably only about two years older than she was. She wondered how a Terran so young could become a knight - undoubtedly, it had something to do with connections because she had never heard of anything like that happening before.

"Are you listening to me, Your Highness?"

It was Lemrina's turn to blink.

"Er, yes, I'm listening."

"I think we'd better end this early today," Sir Troyard said stiffly. "I understand your distraction. I'm so deeply sorry about your sister."

No, you're the distracted one.

But instead of saying that to him, she said, "You're right. I am distracted. My sister is dead, after all."

"I'm sorry-" Sir Troyard began.

"Don't be. I can't grieve over someone I've only ever watched from a distance."

"But still-"

"Like I said, don't bother. The least you can do is tell me… whether she was really that much of a saint."

"She was," said the knight solemnly. "She was a truly kind and genuine person, far more than any of us ever deserved."

His lip trembled.

Hmm, Lemrina thought.

"All right, I'll go now," he said, standing up. "Again, I apologise for keeping you, Your Highness."

As soon as he was gone, Lemrina turned her attention back to the screen, her mind deep in thought.

The maid went back to brushing Lemrina's hair, giggling as she did so. "Don't you think Sir Troyard is quite handsome? Even if he's a Terran, he's quite a catch."

"I suppose so," said Lemrina absently, her mind elsewhere.

Out of all the knights she had seen so far, Sir Troyard was the biggest mystery. Was he telling the truth about his admiration for Asseylum? Could he be trusted? No, perhaps it was better to ask if he could be used.

Lemrina had never tried to actively manipulate someone before, but she knew she would have to learn soon, because as it was, she quite literally had no leg to stand on.

Meanwhile, the maid was still rambling on about something, a twinkle in her eye.

"Perhaps you should marry Sir Troyard. You'll be looking for a husband soon, won't you?"

What a passive aggressive woman, thought Lemrina.

It wasn't that Lemrina had anything in particular against the Terrans, but she knew exactly what most Martians thought of them. It wasn't exactly difficult to spot the insult via association.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, sniffing. "He's the last candidate on the list."

As far as Lemrina knew, her grandfather was still undecided about who she was to take as a husband. Any act of overt favoritism towards one of the Orbital Knights was a politically dangerous move, but also a necessary one. There was no one to explain any of this to Lemrina, but she could figure it out on her own. She had to - her life was at stake.

Marry the wrong knight and he might just kill her after she gave birth. That way, he would become the sole heir to the Vers throne.

Even more likely was the possibility that she would be imprisoned, never to possess any power or freedom of her own. In other words, her situation would not be much different than she was right now. But even a caged bird had its own kind of freedom if no one ever heard its song. What if she ended up like Asseylum?

Oh, yes, Lemrina had her suspicions. She doubted the Terrans had ever laid a hand on her sister. If Asseylum died, the Terrans had everything to lose and the knights everything to gain. Say if Asseylum's death was the result of some Martian plot… were all the knights involved, or was it just a faction? When the knights had declared war on Earth, which of them had done so out of loyalty and outrage and which of them out of self-gain? It was impossible to tell just from watching them on a television.

Lemrina thought of the Terran knight. Perhaps he knew something. She would have to get the information out of him somehow. But she couldn't just ask him straight; he might get suspicious.

She needed some kind of hold on him… a guarantee of his cooperation…

As surreptitiously as she could, she asked the maids and engineers about Slaine Troyard. "What's a filthy Terran doing in a knight's uniform?"

Well, that wasn't really a surreptitious approach, strictly speaking, but no one batted an eyelid at the question. Everyone on the base answered her as frankly as they could, perhaps because they had all been whispering about the same thing among themselves.

Slaine Troyard was the son of Dr. Troyard, who had come to Vers to study the Aldnoah system. He hadn't made a name for himself until he brought back Princess Asseylum's body from the United Earth HQ. Now he was a knight under the protection of Count Saazbaum and piloted the Tharsis, the late Count Cruhteo's Kataphrakt.

Asseylum… Count Saazbaum… the Tharsis…

Lemrina turned these things over in her mind. The more she learned about Sir Troyard, the more of an enigma he seemed. One thing was for certain: he had a connection with Asseylum - with her sister…

Scrunching up her courage one day, she decided to put her theory to the test.

Despite all the ugly Kataphrakts and machines in the hangar, she loved being there. She had no need of the wheelchair. There, she could walk on her own two feet and fly.

She loved the hangar especially at night, when all the machines were turned off and nobody was around to get in her way. At that time, the world was completely silent. There was no need to fear being alone when she was the only one in the world.

One step. Two steps. Jump. Fly.

Lemrina laughed and giggled and flapped her wings like a bird. She thought she could occupy herself like that forever. Oh, if only the night could last forever.

But soon, she heard footsteps walking down the corridor towards the hangar. Lemrina quickly came down to the ground and prepared herself.

The door opened.

"Your Highness, what calls you at this ho-?" Slaine Troyard stopped mid-sentence and stared at her, his mouth agape.

Lemrina smiled and curtsied at him. "It's been a while, Slaine."

The stupid look on his face was almost enough to make her laugh. But somehow, the thought of laughing seemed painful. The more she thought about it, the less funny it seemed.

Lemrina regretted her prank as soon as she had pulled it.

She opened her mouth, about to admit her own misdeed, when suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around her.

"This is a dream… it must be a dream… oh, my princess…"

He was hugging her!

"I've missed you… I've missed you so much, Princess Asseylum…"

For a moment, Lemrina was too stunned to even register the words. He was embracing her so tightly she could feel the firmness of his chest through his uniform and the warmth of his breath against her nape.

Lemrina had never been touched like this by a man before.

Inadvertently, she let out a squeak of surprise. Sir Troyard pulled away quickly, bowing his head furiously in shame.

"I'm sorry…! I'm terribly sorry…! I was acting out of line… I never meant to… Princess Lemrina?"

In her alarm, she had failed to keep up the holograph. When Sir Troyard looked up, he caught sight of Lemrina's wide blue eyes and her thin, still underdeveloped body.

Definitely not Asseylum.

For a moment, the shock remained frozen on Sir Troyard's features, but then resignment flickered in his eyes and he let out a withdrawn sigh.

"I apologise for my imprudence, Princess Lemrina," he said, his tone noticeably colder than before.

Lemrina's body still tingled from the feel of the knight's embrace. She barely heard his apology, let alone registered the tone of it. She stumbled back a step - and lost her footing.

Sir Troyard reached out quickly to pull her back to her feet. "You mustn't come out alone at this time of the night, Your Highness. What were you thinking?"

He was touching her for the second time. But this touch was very different from the first one. It was enough to shake Lemrina out of her stupor. With a start, she remembered why she had pretended to be her sister in the first place. It was to see what reaction he would show her.

"I get it now," she said with a smirk. "You're in love with my sister."

Sir Troyard looked away and said nothing.

"Well, I don't blame you," Lemrina went on. "My sister was beautiful and kind and everyone in the empire loved her. That's why we're fighting a war over her."

She phrased her words like daggers.

In response, Sir Troyard looked up at her with something very much like resentment simmering in his eyes. But still, he kept his mouth shut.

Lemrina narrowed her eyes. "I wondered how you were able to use the Tharsis. A Terran shouldn't be able to activate the Aldnoah drive. She must have given you the power."

She saw a flicker of acknowledgment pass through Sir Troyard's eyes. She must have hit the nail on the mark. Yet even now, Sir Troyard remained stubbornly silent.

"Slaine," she said, foregoing his title. "Do you know why I called you here to this hangar?"

"…why is that, Your Highness?"

"I want you to show me how you pilot the Tharsis. Your princess commands you."

Sir Troyard frowned, but he bowed and nodded. "If that is your wish, Your Highness, then let it be done."

He drifted up towards the Tharsis, which was stashed away behind thick glass walls. Like most Kataphrakts, it was an enormous, grey hulking thing, hunched on two mechanical legs. Perhaps some sorts could find beauty in such a monstrosity, but Lemrina despised any machine with an Aldnoah drive.

She watched Sir Troyard climb into the Kataphrakt and waited a minute. Then two.

There was no response from the machine.

Soon enough, Sir Troyard climbed out of the top hatch. "What have you done, Princess Lemrina?" he demanded.

Lemrina smiled foxily. "What else? I deactivated the Aldnoah drive. That is something only I can do."

Sir Troyard stared at her.

Lemrina stared back at him, her smile never wavering.

She knew she had the upper hand in this exchange. She could win this staring contest. Yet at that moment, for no reason whatsoever, she found herself remembering what her maid had said: "Don't you think Sir Troyard is quite handsome?"

Come to think of it…

He was short in stature compared to most Martians at the base, though still half a head taller than her. His face was slender, somewhat effeminate even. But you could definitely say there was something manly about the hard, determined glint in his eyes. Somehow, she could sense that this small, scrawny body of his possessed great strength. She remembered how firm and reliable his arms had felt around her body…

Lemrina broke eye contact first. "Don't underestimate me, Slaine Troyard. I'm not nice like my sister is."

"What do you want from me, Princess Lemrina?"

"I want your loyalty, Slaine."

"You already have it. My heart is sworn to Vers."

"No, no, no," insisted Lemrina. "I want you to belong to me."

"I'm not sure what you mean by that."

Lemrina took a deep breath. She knew she had to choose her next words carefully. Sir Troyard's cold gaze unnerved her.

"Swear your loyalty to me above the empire, as you did with Asseylum."

Sir Troyard said nothing. He seemed to spend an awful lot of time silently measuring people.

"Why?" he asked finally.

"Because… because…" Lemrina struggled to answer.

Because she had no one. Because she was alone.

It was too pathetic to say any of that.

"Because I need an ally," she settled for.

"With all due respect, you could have just asked."

"No, no, no!" Lemrina repeated herself, shaking her head firmly. "I told you, I'm not nice like my sister is. Asseylum… she was too naïve. Believing that Terrans and Martians will get along if they just put the past behind them. As if being nice really means anything. Everyone's nice to me, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a bastard."

As she spoke those last words, she blinked angry tears out of her eyes.

For a moment, she thought Sir Troyard was about to contradict her, but then he closed his mouth and blinked slowly.

"And besides," Lemrina went on sadly. "You hate me too, don't you?"

"I don't hate you," Sir Troyard said.

"I don't believe you."

"It's true," the knight insisted. "I think I can understand your suffering, if only a small portion of it."

"So will you swear fealty to me?" Lemrina demanded.

This knight was just full of surprises. Lemrina's heart thumped quickly in her chest as she listened to his every word. She had not realised how desperately relieving it was to hear that he did not hate her.

"My loyalty is to Princess Asseylum first. But to you I will swear second, and to the Orbital Knights I swear third. Does that satisfy you, Your Highness?"

"Yes," said Lemrina breathlessly. "Yes, it does."

She brought the back of her hand to her mouth, half to cover the faint blush on her cheeks and half to run her lips over it. Then she brought her hand down in front of Sir Troyard's face.

"Kiss my hand," she commanded.

"Yes, Your Highness."

He knelt, and with infinite gentleness he took her hand and pressed his lips against it. A tingle ran down her spine. It did not feel unpleasant.

"There," she said imperiously, as he brought his head up, letting go of her hand. "I just granted you the power to activate the Tharsis once for yourself. Be grateful."

Sir Troyard nodded solemnly. Lemrina smiled almost sheepishly. She was not sure what was supposed to come next.

And then, for the very first time, her knight - Slaine - smiled in front of her. It was only a small smile, but it took Lemrina's breath away. "I will treasure this gift, Your Highness," he uttered, sounding genuinely grateful. Oh, he could be so sweet.

"Good." She sniffed, turning her head away. "At least you know your place."

It was only later as she lay in her bed sighing into her pillow that she found herself wondering if she had actually gotten what she wanted out of that exchange with Slaine. She had wanted his vow and now she had it. She had his permission to use him. He was in over his head about Princess Asseylum and she had been able to use that to her advantage.

(Or maybe she was the one who was in over her head.)

Despite her small victory, Lemrina did not sleep that night.