Chapter 14.998 Advent
"My lord..."
Lelouch turned around as Jeremiah presented him with the royal coat that he would be wearing during his formal reintroduction to the imperial court, as well as to the rest of the world. He took the offered coat and sat on a nearby seat before examining the details on it. Much to his surprise, aside from some minor details like the embroidery patterns and colour schemes; the outfit bore great similarity with the coat he had when he used to be Zero. Funny how that works.
"You all right?"
Lelouch turned around to see Kallen staring back at him, clad in a red-white Britannian Knight uniform, while also wearing a worried expression. He tried to give her a reassuring smile but ended up just showing her a weak imitation of it.
"Wanna talk about it?" she asked gently. Lelouch shook his head.
Kallen gave him her usual smile. "I told you this before. When you think that you're ready to tell me about it, I'll listen to it. I promised you to keep on being your strongest support. You remember that, right?"
"I know," he said as he put on his coat. Lelouch took her hand and squeezed it gently.
"Thank you, Kallen."
xxx
"President! Can't you find out anything about it? I mean, if not because of Shirley who insisted that we needed to check on the Stadtfelds, we'd never have found out that Kallen hadn't returned home ever since that incident from last year. So including Lelouch, we had two peoplewhom we didn't know what happened to them, isn't that enough reason to be worried?"
Milly let out a grimace as Rivalz kept pounding on her the many concerns and frustrations he's been keeping inside of him while she tried to resume her student council duties. "I told you already, there's nothing that I could do to find out what happened to them! I've already asked my grandfather to try using his contacts to look for them. But it seemed any information about them were placed under strict confidentiality. I can't even have him get me an audience with Nunnally to ask about this!"
She let out a long sigh before taking a seat on her desk. "It was hard enough for me to get the information about Nina above everything else! I can't believe that until now she never told me that she had been scouted by a private research company and was doing special research someplace I didn't know. She should've at least called me to tell that she's safe!"
Rivalz just shrugged, but then his ears perked over some of the things Milly just said.
"Wait a minute! You said that any information on Lelouch was unattainable because of some hush-hush reasons, but wouldn't that mean that their whereabouts were actually known somehow?"
Milly blinked at him. "You know you might be onto something here—" she started saying before her phone suddenly rang. She gave Rivalz an apologetic look before answering the call.
"Yes, Milly here—oh, you want me to gather everyone at the main hall?—I see, I'll get to it right away," she said before ending the call.
Milly turned towards Rivalz immediately. "Rivalz, go run to the media club to ask them to make an urgent announcement to the whole school. Also, tell the other student council members to help out to gather everyone into the main hall,"
Rivalz frowned as the orders seemed so sudden. "Why? Did something happened?"
Milly just shrugged as she hurriedly packed her things before leaving.
"Grandpa said that there is going to be a live broadcast from the mainland. He asked for everyone to not miss it since it sounded like it was supposed to be very important."
Rivalz let out a surprised cry before having himself ushered out from the clubroom in a hurry.
xxx
"It's been almost a month. It doesn't sound as if anything big going to happen any time soon."
Kaguya turned her glance towards the older man as she gave him a patronizing look. Well, as much as someone her age could make towards someone who was a few years older than her.
"Be patient, Ohgi-san. Certainly, Lelouch-sama must be busy making his preparations and everything..."
The man gave the girl a withering look. "Do you really believe all that, Kaguya-sama?"
Kaguya just cocked her head at him.
"Why did you say that, Ohgi-san? Didn't you also decide to go with Lelouch-sama's plan the other day? Shouldn't you try to be more supportive of him?"
Ohgi just blinked at her before shaking his head.
"B-but that time—!" he exclaimed before turning away, "—it's because the things he said were way too big for me to understand. And because I can't think of any other solution that was better than that. Even then..."
A door was slammed from the other side of the room as Toudou walked in. "Even then, considering that that prince had placed you to be the second-in-command of this organization—shouldn't that mean that supporting your leader in his endeavour be the least you could do for him?"
Ohgi glared towards Toudou before frowning again. "I know that! But still, I mean—!"
"Kallen said it last time, right? If Lelouch-sama had used his powers on us, we wouldn't be here arguing about it. Shouldn't that be enough?"
Kaguya smiled weakly. "Everyone had placed their trust in Zero before we knew who he really was. Can't we keep trusting Lelouch-sama even if he stopped being Zero?"
"The late Kirihara-sama had placed his faith on Lelouch when they met before,"
Ohgi glanced back towards Toudou as the man spoke again, "And Lelouch had told me that he revealed his true identity to Kirihara-sama at that time." Toudou raised a hand to stop Ohgi from speaking. "I think I should be able to tell if Kirihara-sama had been mind controlled by anyone at any point of time back then. He wasn't. And Kirihara-sama had been present when Lelouch and his sister was sent to the Kururugi household all those years ago."
"Back then Kirihara-sama had placed his trust on Lelouch before. So until his actions proved otherwise I'll also place my trust on Prince Lelouch."
Ohgi froze for a moment as that last line left him speechless. But that moment was quickly broken as someone else stepped into the room without warning.
"You guys sure are dramatic," C.C. commented snidely before giving Ohgi a knowing look. "Just because you lost contact with Lelouch for a brief period you start to panic for no reason." She let out a chuckle before facing the three of them.
"It's time. We just received a message that Charles has called for a public announcement. You guys might want to stop bickering and listen to what's going to come out."
She started to leave as Kaguya called out to her.
"Aren't you going to watch the broadcast as well?"
C.C. turned her head towards the little girl before shrugging. "I can always watch the recordings later."
xxx
"People are not created equal. This is what I have always believed as the ultimate truth."
When the live broadcast started, it appeared to Suzaku that it looked like any other announcement that the emperor has made in the past. He bit his lips. Today's announcement should be about Lelouch since the only way Lelouch would be able to do anything would be to reclaim his title.
But where is he?
As Suzaku anxiously watching the broadcast, Emperor Charles continued with his speech.
"For many years I have sought to find the answer. As well as the solution. In the world where the strong triumph over the weak, where the fools that think they could overturn this reality crumbles in defeat. Would there be merit in remaining weak?"
He frowned. While the content of the speech was different than the usual speech that the emperor used to make, there were still a few points that have been said before. Also, the emperor used to make these speeches about 'the strong versus the weak' with a certain intention in the past.
Why did the emperor start his speech the way he used to? Wasn't this broadcast meant to inform the world about Lelouch's return?
"Peace. Unity. A world without war. For years Britannia has sought to unite the world into one. Yet despite the conquest and victories there remain the fools who would resist our cause. In the end, rather than achieving a world without war we raised a world that constantly remain at war."
He couldn't understand it. Why did the emperor talking about the war?
"Many years ago, I, Charles zi Britannia had believed in a dream. A dream in which I would attempt to make real no matter what the cost. Alas, a tragedy fell and that dream was vanquished."
Suzaku blinked.
"Suzaku?"
He turned around to see Nunnally approaching him with Sayoko. The young princess perked up when she heard the voices from the television screen. "Oh! Is the broadcast started already?" she asked as Suzaku nodded shakily...
"But it seems that heavens have not abandoned Britannia completely. That hope that disappeared long ago, my lost prince. Today I'm welcoming the return of a royal heir that was once thought to be gone."
Suzaku glanced back towards the screen as the camera zoomed closer towards the emperor as Charles continued speaking.
"My eleventh prince. Lelouch vi Britannia!"
A/N: Of all the thing that was the hardest to write... it's Charles official speech.
Here ya go... cos I dunno what else left that I could do for this chapter.