The royal court waited anxiously in the throne room, they had all been supposedly summoned by the emperor, who had been missing for almost a month now. He was supposedly going to make an announcement, and a few elite members of the press were also there to broadcast it live to the whole world.
They all ushered to each other, speaking of the rumours that the emperor had gone mad, or had fallen ill. There were the ever increasing of an attempted coup staged by Schneizel. Nobody knew what to expect when then emperor made his appearance.
They all heard the clacking of footsteps as the announcer announced, "Presenting his imperial majesty!"
Instantly everyone's conversations came to a halt as they all stood to attention. However, the murmurs quickly returned when they saw an unfamiliar looking boy approach and sit on the throne.
"Greetings, I am Lelouch vi Britannia, and I have invited you all to announce my claim to the throne."
There were gasps amongst the crowd and even a few protests by some of his older siblings, but it was Odysseus that stepped forward and gained Lelouch's attention.
"Lelouch, it is so good to see you. When Nunnally was located, I figured you would be found alive too, but now, don't you think that you are carrying this joke a bit too far, that is the throne of our father," Odysseus tried to smooth things over.
"Charles zi Britannia is dead, I have killed him for his crimes." There were again gasps of shock amongst the crowd, "And therefore, by his own philosophy, that makes me the next emperor."
Guinevere, his oldest sister, was the first to show her outrage, "Guards! Take that fool and execute him, he is guilty of murdering our emperor!" The guards from the back of the room followed her orders and marched over to the throne.
A booming voice echoed through the room, striking fear into the court, "YOU DARE BEAR ARMS AGAINST HIS MAJESTY!" Jeremiah appeared seemingly out of nowhere to defend Lelouch, landing on the ground heavily with his blades extended, making the guards hesitate and halt in their path.
Lelouch raised his hand and gestured to Jeremiah, "I introduce to you Jeremiah Gottwald, my personal knight and the new knight of one." The court began to exchange glances, realising what was going on. The Gottwald family was a prestige line of nobility, and with Jeremiah, Lelouch had their backing. The guards lay down their weapons to show their surrender.
"And while we are making introductions, I would like to formally introduce Kallen Kozuki, my imperial consort." Lelouch gestured off to the side, where Kallen hesitantly showed herself in formal Britannian dress, angry blush on her face. While she was happy that Lelouch was going to give the two of them a shot, to be introduced like this was embarrassing and not her style. She would have preferred to have been given a position as a knight of the rounds, but she understood Lelouch's purpose in not doing so. Lelouch was about to make big changes soon and was likely to face assassination attempts, it was better if people were not aware that she was his secret bodyguard.
Realisation of what was going on had started to settle into the crowd and they began to quiet down, to which Lelouch took advantage of.
"Hear me! Charles zi Britannia was unsuited to the throne! He had become detached and cruel, which became evident when he abandoned my blind and crippled sister and myself, his own children, to fend for ourselves in a war zone without making any attempts to rescue us. It became even more so when he called the war against the Black Knights a trivial matter and left it to his children to deal with."
Members of the imperial family began to look down, the couldn't deny what Lelouch said was true.
"I will lead Britannia back to the path of righteousness! All you need to do is let me, all you need to do is accept my claim to the throne!" Lelouch used his Geass carefully on the crowd. He wanted them to make him emperor, but he didn't want to enslave them.
Doubtful gazes became confident, and the royal family started to nod to each other, "All hail Lelouch!" Someone chanted, and soon everyone began to join in.
"All hail Lelouch! All hail Lelouch! All hail Lelouch! All hail Lelouch!"
Lelouch grinned at the crowd. Now he could begin.
Lelouch gave some time for the media to calm down from his sudden takeover before he made his first royal decree. It was important that he gets it right, after all, an emperor's first royal decree was his first official act as an emperor and indicated how they planned to rule in the future.
He couldn't wait too long, however, as he needed to be ready for when Schneizel made his move, so no less than two days after his first appearance he organised for another meeting with the royal court and invited the press to come too.
He had given the option to Kallen to join him if she wished, but she had declined. He predicted that would be her response though, making official public appearances required her to wear formal dress, which she despised almost as much as the nobles that she would have to mingle with while wearing it.
He was quite used to making important public appearances as Zero, however, things were different now that he was appealing to Britannians. While it was true that he wanted to dismantle a large chunk of Britannian culture, it was necessary for him to do it small pieces at a time to avoid a public uproar, which he would start today. Until the day his mission was complete, however, he had to look the part and wear Britannian dress.
None to say he too pleased about that. He had chosen to wear a more military attire at least, to avoid the atrocious, overly fancy, more-costumes-than-outfits that nobility too often wore. He wasn't wearing his usual colours though, it was neither black nor purple, but rather white. He might have complained if it wasn't his idea, colours had meaning and white was almost universally accepted as 'good', so if he wanted to give the impression that he was leading Britannia on the right path, white it was.
"Are you ready, my lord?" Jeremiah asked standing at the door to his quarters, ready to escort him to the throne room, Lelouch glanced at the clock on the wall and realised that he was five minutes of schedule, meaning Jeremiah must have been waiting there for ten minutes while he was too deep in thought to notice.
"Yes, Jeremiah. My apologies for keeping you waiting." Jeremiah didn't say anything in response, but Lelouch knew that Jeremiah would have been content waiting ten hours for him, it was the world, however, that he couldn't keep waiting.
Lelouch was glad to say that he had been prepared for possible delays when he had created his schedule, to begin with, so he made it to the throne room in time to make his announcement.
The announcer called for the court's attention, "Presenting his imperial majesty!"
He entered the throne room, the court all watching him, waiting him to speak and anxious to see what he was going to do, "Greetings Britannia! It was my father, Charles zi Britannia who said that all men are not created equal, this, sadly is true, but it doesn't mean that it is right. We as a holy nation should not be treating people differently based on how they were born, so my first royal decree is that all Britannian citizens from this day forward be treated equally under the law." There were whispers of shock amongst the crowd, "A duke shall not be treated less harshly than a commoner who has committed the same crime, nor shall a countess be given a lesser punishment for murdering a commoner rather than a duchess."
Lelouch paused to allow the crowd to process what he had just said. He had decided that this would be the best way to start, this way, he would be known as the people's king, he would gain popularity there, and while had the masses backing him, nobility wouldn't be too much of an issue.
"And for my next decree," Lelouch spoke again, gaining everyone's attention, "I abolish the number system." If there wasn't uproar before amongst the nobles there was now that not only were they going to be treated equally as commoners, but by mere numbers too. Lelouch didn't care.
"All citizens of the former nations conquered by Britannia in the past and in the future will be treated as full Britannian citizens, free to call themselves by the nationality they were born as, as well as Britannian. They will be given equal rights and responsibilities as everyone else. That is all." Lelouch left the throne room ignoring the protests made by the more arrogant members of the court.