Path 08: School Festival

The cursed day for the young prince had arrived. The day that had kept him on the edge for weeks, the day that made him lose his sleep, the day Ashford Academy was conducting the School Festival was finally here. Under the tyrannical rule of the Kaichou (President) Dominic and the Director (Milly Ashford) along with the assistance of Knight of Zero (Kouzuki Karen) and the ever reliable Teacher Chigusa, Lelouch had more than enough work in front of him. He had barely slept for 2 days since the day after his talk with C.C. Although he was worried about Coun, he didn't have a moment to spare it a thought. And, along with that he had to worry about the special guest. Since he had guessed accurately who it was, he was under a different kind of pressure.

Lelouch was standing within the cheerful crowd of festival. He was holding a tablet and was co-ordinating everything. Since Dominic was with Milly and was busy with the preparation of Pizza and security, almost everything fell on Lelouch's shoulder. The other members of the student council were given task of looking after many counts and Baron's that had visited.

"It's tough" Lelouch thought as he was moved his wrist across the tablet he carried, "I thought I could handle this but it's not as easy as I thought Kaichou, how did you do this alone last year?"

"Fuku-Kaichou…" a boy came running to him

"What's the matter?" Lelouch asked without looking away from the tablet

"The generators of drama club are not working and their show is about to start!"

"Ah! I already asked the maintenance crew to look into it. For now, just switch to the back-up generators used by movie club"

"Fuku-Kaichou…" another boy came running just after the first one left

"There was a disturbance and the horses from the riding club have escaped"

"Who in the world decided the stable next to the fireworks?" Lelouch said as he browsed through the map in his tablet, "The horses will be at point E89 in 8 minutes, intercept them between D23 and E49 within 5 minutes. Use nets from the sports club and fishing club if you have to"

Beep… Lelouch took the call as the boy before him took off.

"Fuku-Kaichou, This is 2-B hosting Haunted house. Our navigation system kind of broke and…"

"Idiot" Lelouch shouted, "You should have checked that before. What are you doing call me now?"

"We are sorry, but none of us thought this would happen and we were just busy with our costumes and along with that…"

"That's enough. I will send someone. Also escort the costumers to drama club"

"Eh? But beautiful swimming girls cafe members are requesting us to send them there?"

"Try to understand, only couples come to Haunted house. If you send them to swimming club, they won't be going out as they came in. I will talk with the drama club to increase their capacity and for swimming club, tell them to scout around sector J, it's time for the first game to end"

"It's Nostalgic" Milly said as she looked down from her window, "Hey Karen, come here"

"What is it Milly?" Karen asked as she walked next to the Milly. She held some papers in her hand which described how to properly prepare a pizza in a Knightmare

"Look at that" she said as she pointed down

"Look at what?" Karen asked as she looked down. She could only see the stores that were noisy on either side of the path under the shade of trees

"That busybody over there" Milly pointed

As Karen shifted her gaze, she saw it, "His Highness…"

"No, no…" Milly said, "He is just Lelouch. He is trying so hard to be a commoner, you should respect that fact"

"You're right" Karen agreed. But only she knew she was here on a mission and one of her objective was to join the crown prince's ranks concerning Coun.

"But still, looking at him really brings back memories" Milly said as she thought back, "On his first school festival, Lelouch was also like that"

Milly smiled, "He was always acting so calm and composed, but that was the first day I had ever seen him become flustered? That is the same for him too…"

Karen looked down on Lelouch who seemed as busy as ever, "Of course he would be flustered, just how much of a work do you think he is doing? If Nunally-sama found out about this…"

"It's alright, it was really his punishment for skipping a day and spending it with his girlfriend"

"His girlfriend?" Karen asked a bit surprised

"I don't know but that's the rumor going around the school"

"His Highness's girlfriend" Karen couldn't know whether to laugh or cry

"I know right? It's not easy to believe that thickheaded boy would confess to someone"

"Ah… look at that" Milly shouted as she saw a girl approach Lelouch

"Who is that?" Karen asked a bit curious

"That girl's name is Alice. You can say she is the one who hates our prince the most with a pinch of love?"

"Why is that a question?" Karen walked away from the window and sat on the bed at the centre of room as she saw Lelouch getting dragged away by the girl.

"What's the matter? You don't look so well" Milly asked

"They both are similar… right?" she asked with her last conversation with Lelouch was still fresh in her mind

"Similar! You can see they are both exactly same. Honestly I am still baffled how much they resemble each other. Say, do you think Lelouch did anything weird to Empress?"

"Don't say like that" Karen said, "That man would never let his sister get a scratch." That's what Karen wanted to say but she couldn't. Because only a handful members knew the truth of everything including Zero Requiem.

"Karen, can I ask you a question?" Milly asked a bit seriously "When are you planning on settling down?"

"Why are you asking such a question?" Karen was surprised at such question.

"You are not young anymore. You should leave the dangerous battlefields and settle down. I am sure Gino will be happy too. It's been 10 years since you left both him and Kino, you should really…"

"Milly please stop" Karen said as she stood up, "I don't want to hear anything more about it"

"Karen…" Milly was a bit shocked, "How long do you plan on fighting? Don't you want to see some peace in your life?"

"I don't want to talk about it" Kallen said this in a cold voice again

Looking at the look on Karen's face, Milly just sighed and gave up.

Just then, somebody knocked the door.

"Yes"

As soon as the permission was granted, Dominic entered the room "Director, about the special guest…" he stopped as he saw Karen

"I apologize, my lady" Dominic became stiff as he bowed before Karen

"Relax" Karen said, "You must have a lot on your mind with the preparations, Don't waste time like that."

"Yes" Dominic replied and turned towards Milly, Normally he wouldn't be so informal but just as Karen said, he had a lot to do.

"Director, all the security is dispatched as we discussed. The ingredients are going through final check-ups. But, we still haven't heard from the Guest of honor…"

"They will be here soon" the next moment Milly completed her sentence 'beep' the phone that was near the window rang.

She took the call, "Yes, it's Ashford Academy"

"…"

She suddenly stood up

"Yes…Yes…We understand, within 30 minutes right?... Yes, we have done with our preparations here…Eh?...Alright"

"Karen", Milly said in a low voice as she handed over the phone

"Yes…This is knight of Zero…Yes, I have personally looked after the security and there are no abnormalities…Yes, I understand…I have reported to His Majesty… Yes…Yes…I will speak with him again as soon as possible… Yes…"

Soon, she handed the phone back to Milly.

"Yes… we are looking forward to it…Yes…" Milly sighed as she ended the conversation

"Director…" Dominic asked in a surprised voice, "Don't tell me the special guest is from the Imperial Family!"

"You figured it out? That's Sapphire's crystal for you." Milly said, "It's the Empress Nunally"

"What?" Dominic shouted in a loud voice which made all the birds on the very top of the building fly away!

"Emp…ress…Nunall…y? How…did yo…u do that…?"

"You forgot? Her Highness's mother Marianne-sama belonged to Ashford Family. It's easy for us to obtain an audience with the empress."

"I know that, but still for her to agree to come to this academy that too for a school festival, it's not possible…"

"Don't worry about it" Kallen said toward the dumbstruck Dominic, "she is coming and that is why I am here"

"My lady…" Dominic slowly recovered from the shock, "Then, I will ask Chigusa-sensei to revise the security once more"

"Dominic, we don't have that much time to revise the entire security"

"Of course we don't!" Dominic shouted, "Empress is coming in half an hour and we still aren't even prepared to welcome her properly. And the knightmare frames… we have to check them once again and make sure there are any abnormalities, and the ingredients… we have to check again"

"What are you talking about? You already did all that right" Milly asked in her laidback voice

"The Empress is coming here!" Dominic shouted on the Director before him, "Why didn't you tell me before? Revealing such important of her arrival just 30 minutes before, I have to re-check everything!" saying that he ran out of the room without even taking a proper leave from Karen.

"As always, he loses his calmness quickly" Milly smiled as she saw Dominic's state of panic

"As always, you still get your fun" Kallen smiled as she saw Milly's smile and stood up, "Well I better get going"

"Yes, good luck today"

Lelouch was being dragged to kitchen by Alice, a blond girl with blue eyes who was wearing blue swimsuit underneath the coat she wore. She came from the family of Counts of the homeland and was quite famous among the class

"So, what's the problem?" Lelouch asked as he inspected his classroom which had turned into a kitchen.

"Two of our chef's were injured and we are currently shorthanded" Alice reported

"You could have said that outside. Why did you bring to me here? I am just as busy as it is…"

"I didn't want to bring you here trust me" Alice said dissatisfied, "But the head-chef insisted on bringing you"

"Head-chef?" Lelouch asked, "Do we have a had-chef?"

"That is…" Alice became silent

"It's me Lelouch-kun" a girl just appeared before him

"You" Lelouch was shocked

"C.C-san" Alice exclaimed looking at C.C who was in an orange/blue china dress with an apron with symbol of Ashford Academy in its centre.

"What are you doing here?" Lelouch asked trying to suppress his astonishment. Suddenly he had a realization, "Don't tell me you are the head-chef"

"That's right" C.C said as she coiled her hair

"You're not a student here, what are you doing in our class's attraction?"

"I was hired" C.C said as she looked at Alice who held her head down

"What?" Lelouch was surprised. As he looked around the room once more, he saw quite a few famous chef's who appeared frequently on T.V. "You hired them?"

"What else could we do?" Alice asked a bit flustered, "Everyone here is a noble and we have no one in our class who can cook for a noble's satisfaction and Knight of Zero is here, if we served her something she didn't like we could lose. We know you don't care about our class but we still want to win…"

"You idiot" Lelouch shouted on Alice, The whole kitchen fell silent at that instant.

"Really" C.C agreed, "Those who take 1st place are decided by how many points they have rather the number costumers they have. The points are distributed by the Student council based on various factors like helping other clubs and utilizing the minimum resources and costumer satisfaction right?"

"That's right" Lelouch answered, "That's why we gave up on the idea of attraction which has the only goal of attracting costumers and instead decided to help out other clubs."

"The chances that everyone would like your attraction are zero. No, even if everyone did like it, there is no way you can accommodate all of them" C.C looked at Lelouch

"But every human being has a common factor" Lelouch replied

"Hunger" C.C said, "No matter who it is, he has to eat and if the food prepared is delicious, you can gain points without much effort at all"

"Yes" Lelouch said, "There are always many stores that use food during the school festival, from cafes to street shops…"

"By taking everyone of their contracts to provide food, you have already won this race"

"Even if we do get only quarter of the satisfaction points, we have around 34 stores under contract. By the rules, we are both helping them and satisfying the customers at the same time. There is no way we can lose here…and yet…"

The whole kitchen fell silent. Every student there was silent. This was actually Lelouch's idea and no one in the entire class was keen in doing in this. Because, they thought Lelouch was planning on disqualifying them. But no one opposed him. Maybe because Dumas wasn't present there? They just now realized he just had planned a way to certain victory.

"Sorry" Alice said as she looked at Lelouch and C.C. The entire classroom was a bit shamed.

"You cheated" Lelouch said as he looked at the professional chefs.

"Then I will take my leave now" C.C said as she turned

"Wait" Lelouch grabbed her hand

C.C stopped and looked back at Lelouch.

"Did you plan this?" Lelouch asked

"What might you be talking about?" C.C said as she averted her gaze.

Lelouch understood what that sign meant. He then turned towards the classroom, "Those who don't belong to our class, please leave this instant. Your contract will be carried out but we don't need your services"

"Eh?" The students were a bit shocked. But the chef's quietly bowed and left their positions in few minutes.

"What are you going to do?" C.C asked, "If you don't prepare the food, the contract will be broken and you will lose. And with the student chefs left here, you won't be able to gain much satisfaction points

"No" Lelouch replied, "Even if we don't get much satisfaction points, as long as the contracts are in place we will still have a huge lead over others."

"But with this blunder, how much of the points will you lose?"

Lelouch just gritted his teeth. "I too am a student here" Lelouch said in a low voice

"What was that?" C.C asked, the next instant she realized, "Don't tell me, Lelouch…you are going to…"

"That's right…" Lelouch said as he made a very familiar posture C.C. knew. The one he did at the ending on 1st episode of R2, he continued "I… will cook" at this response, C.C thought she was seeing lightning behind Lelouch as he made this proclamation

"What?" everyone in the class was just as shocked as the next one.

"Mmph.." C.C held her mouth and tried to suppress her laughter.

"I am serious" Lelouch said as he looked at the surprised C.C and classroom.

"But…" Alice said as she too was trying to suppress her laughter "But what about duties as vice-president?"

"You take care of it" Lelouch said as he pulled C.C by the hand he held

"Me?" C.C was surprised, and honestly so was the rest of the class

"All you have to do is act as a mediator between me and them. You can handle small problems right? If the situation gets out of control, then inform me. Can you make yourself at least that much useful?"

C.C glanced at Lelouch and replied "Understood", as she took the tablet from Lelouch's hand.

Both of them walked inside the classroom. Lelouch then took the apron that C.C wore from herself. It was something only head-chef wore.

"Point PNF… The preparations are already made, you just have to retrieve it" C.C was relying orders as Lelouch said. As the entire class was looking at both of them, a girl came running, "We need the cake for M69" her voice echoed in the silent classroom.

"Did something happened?" the girl asked a bit afraid looking at the soundless classroom

"No…nothing of your concern" Lelouch said as he smiled at the girl. Poor girl, she too had hard time closing her mouth which fell looking at Lelouch.

"Cake unit, dispatch M69 order quickly" Lelouch ordered

"Ye…yes" and then, slowly the classroom resumed itself.

Toukyou was usually a busy place, but today it was busier than normal. It was because Ashford Academy was having their school festival or should one say Knight of Zero was there. Whatever the reason, that was a disaster. No one there even dreamed what would happen next.

"Lelouch…" as Dominic called his vice-precident, an unexpected woman answered his call

"This is acting Vice-President! What might be the problem?"

"Who is this?" Dominic asked a bit surprised

"This is acing Vice-President" C.C replied

"Acting vice-President? Then where is Lelouch?"

"He is busy preparing Italian cuisine right now"

"What?" Dominic still couldn't understand what had happened. He was with Viletta Nu monitoring the security.

"Let me talk with him. This is very important"

"Please tell me. I will directly rely it to him" C.C replied as composed as ever

"Give the phone to him woman, I am the President" Dominic shouted

"President…" C.C thought for a moment and handed over the call to Lelouch

"Kaichou? It's me" Lelouch replied

"Who was that woman? And are you not doing your job properly?"

"You don't have to worry about it. I am holding up quite well. Anyway why did you call me?"

"That's right!" Dominic realized as his priorities became clear, "Did you know Empress Nunnally was the special guest?"

"Yes, I did" Lelouch replied calmly

"Since when?" Dominic asked

"Since I saw the announcement. Honestly who could be more important than Knight of Zero whose identity has to be secured under Security reasons?"

"Now that you mention it…" Dominic realized, "Then you could have told me about it"

"Ah Kaichou? Didn't you realize it?" Lelouch asked a bit surprised

"I knew it was someone from Royal family, but for Her Majesty herself to come here…"

"Yes I know…" Lelouch consoled Dominic. Had he not been here, he too doubted his mother would come here.

"Then? What's the problem, you didn't just call me to inform that did you?"

"No" Dominic replied. "Actually if the Empress herself is coming here, then we need to concentrate on her safety. So I was thinking of increasing the Knightmares in the vicinity"

"Kaichou, we can't afford that on our budget. Even so, we have put a lot of thought on security planning. Even Knight of Zero approved it. What's the problem?"

"But it's Empress" Dominic insisted, "What if by some ill fate something were to happen to her? How can we live…"

"Kaichou, you're worrying too much. And besides even if you wanted to how do you plan on increasing the troops?"

"That's…you know…the Pizza team?"

"What?" Lelouch exclaimed

"Then we will get at least 15 more knightmare and Karen-sama can concentrate on her Highness without this distraction"

"Absolutely not" Lelouch exclaimed

"Why not?" Dominic asked even though he was excpecting that answer

"Kaichou, if we don't succeed in making the Pizza this time, then we have to do this next year. So, it's better to finish this this year"

"Even so, the Empress won't be here next time, we can take our time… and there is no way for sure that Director won't do this next year…"

"That's all the more reason to finish this now" Lelouch replied in a frim voice,

"Lelouch, it's me" Viletta spoke as she took the phone from Dominic

"Yes, Sensei" Lelouch replied

"We will take care of security here. Don't worry about it"

"Thank You" Lelouch said as he let breath of relief

"And, is this girl the same from your dre…" Lelouch cut the phone

"Is it your mother whose coming?" C.C asked as she took the phone back from the Lelouch

"Yeah" Lelouch replied as he got back into his cooking. They both stood quite far from the rest of the team. At least for enough so their conversation couldn't be heard. Fortunately various noises from the kitchen also helped that fact.

"You must be happy, meeting her after all this time"

"Of course I am" Lelouch replied with a faint smile

"And about that pizza?" C.C said trying to change the pace, "Won't you be at a disadvantage if it's completed?"

"A bit maybe"

"A bit?" C.C asked

"There is less than 20% of chance that a pizza of 157m of diameter can be created. There are only two possibilities"

"Two?"

"It succeeds or it fails. If it succeeds, then we will get points because we have contract with them. If it fails, then we will still be the largest food source"

"So, you're gambling?" C.C asked

"No, I already know the outcome?" Lelouch replied, "It will definitely succeed"

"How can you be sure?" C.C asked

Lelouch just looked at C.C and smiled, "You do know the first successful pizza which was over 100 m in diameter was created last time"

"Don't tell me" C.C gasped, "That was just a rehearsal for this time"

"Yes" Lelouch replied, "Last time was just a pre-act for this one. Using the data from the last time, all the knightmares are tuned for optimum results and with the Knight of Zero piloting it the odds currently are over 90%"

"Why?" C.C asked, "Why this far?"

"Shouldn't you be overjoyed?" Lelouch asked, "You love it don't you?"

"But still, even I think its going too far"

"You may be right" Lelouch replied, "But it's necessary for country"

"For country?"

"You know the Empress Nunally will be be here right?" Lelouch asked her

"Nunally and… Pizza and…World" C.C pondered for a few seconds and had a look of realization in her eyes

"You get it huh?" Lelouch said as he looked at her, "Equality… creating a food that both an Empress and the public share, don't you think its wonderful?"

"Hoh?" C.C nodded as if she was impressed

"This way, it doesn't feel like The Britannia nobility is showing pity on powerless, by utilizing the eccentricities of Director it doesn't feel like a plot of the royalty to increase their reputation and the Empress herself coming here and eating a food that is open for public, A wonderful way to demonstrate equality; isn't it?

"I am impressed you thought all that" C.C replied

"It wasn't me" Lelouch replied, "I too realized this after a while"

"Then who is it?" C.C asked

"Curious; aren't you?"

"Just a little, but I can make a guess that is…"

"You are correct, it's the one of whom you think"

"You realized"

"Of course, in all of Britannia, only man is as shrewd as this." Lelouch paused for a moment "The aid of Zero, Schneizel El Britannia"

What followed them after that was a heavy silence.

Zzt. A noice appeared from the phone.

"Fuku-kaichou we have problem"

"This is acting Vice-President. What seems to be the problem?"

The school festival continued…

Thank you for reading the chapter. This will be last chapter for this week. I have exams coming up so I have to concentrate on them.

I am still struggling to find my writing style so, some of you may be inconvenienced by so many abrupt changes in my style, but please forgive me. I am still an amateur and am using this opportunity to gain some experience. So, Constructive criticism is welcome.

And again thank you for reading. Let's all hope(at least I hope) Boukoku no Akito will lead to our beloved CG:R3