Chapter 36
An Imperial Meter
As one might expect, the viceroy's palace required a rather substantial staff to maintain its premises and provide for the upkeep of those that lived and worked there. Being the administrative center of Japan, over a thousand bureaucrats, secretaries, soldiers, and other functionaries passed through its halls each day on business. Simply keeping everyone fed was in and of itself an immense challenge, something not made any easier by the standard of quality demanded by the various notables that took their meals in the palace.
In point of fact, Lelouch was actually not a terribly fussy eater, at least in comparison with some of the other nobles that frequented the palace. He did expect at least a modicum of care in the preparation of his meals, but the cardinal was certainly not so indulgent as to insist upon fillet mignon or some equally extravagant dish day in and day out. Indeed on most days for lunch he simply had whatever was the regular selection in the castle cafeteria brought up to his office, on account of it being fare that could be quickly wolfed down to let him get back to work quicker. The only real occasions where he indulged in something fancier were the dinners he might hold with various personages or when Milly was over. Still, this was the viceroy's palace, so even the basic cafeteria food could give any number of high-class restaurants in Japan a run for their money.
Part of the secret to the quality of meals came down to the ingredients used. The palace actually had an arrangement wherein it received direct shipments from several farms just outside of Tokyo fresh ingredients at the start of every day, including weekends. Because of this constant flow, the palace did not actually require a particularly long shelf-life for those ingredients, which meant most everything delivered was actually picked after properly ripening instead of being prematurely pulled off the vine or branch to accommodate time spent in transport or storage. Of course such on-demand supplies did significantly increase the cost of the ingredients, but of all the budgets that Lelouch took a hacksaw to after his appointment as viceroy, he had mostly left intact that of the palace kitchen's. The cardinal seemed cognizant at least of how useful good food was in the maintenance of morale.
In some ways, one reason for Lelouch's satisfaction with the general cafeteria fare was probably down to the fact that it was notably better than what was available at the Citadel where he had grown up. Being in the Antarctic, there were some limits as to what fresh food could be made available, with everything else getting shipped or flown in. While the Citadel did maintain a large hydroponics facility to ensure at least some supply of fresh vegetables and fruits, there were simply some things that needed proper farmland to grow. And basically anything that was an animal product, be it meat, dairy, or eggs, had to be imported. While fresh milk was actually fairly readily available, the natural conditions of the Antarctic made safely storing it simple enough after all, Lelouch had long ago grown to absolutely despise powdered eggs. If there was one staple he refused to go anywhere near unless absolutely forced to, that would be it. And this in spite of him knowing the exact ratio of powder and water, calculated down to the milliliter, to get just the right sort of fluffiness in a cake. Fortunately, amongst the ingredients delivered to the palace each day were several pallets of freshly harvested eggs.
Of course merely getting the ingredients to the palace was only the first step in getting everyone fed. There were functionally three shifts amongst the kitchen staff, with the morning shift arguably the most important and the busiest, since their preparations set the stage for the rest of the day. Those on the morning shift were thus obliged to get up at basically the crack of dawn or even earlier to wolf down their own breakfast before they went about receiving the deliveries of food and performing the prep work for the next three meals. For in addition to having to make breakfast, anything that required a long prep time and which were intended for use the day of needed to be handled by the morning shift. That meant while some chefs were quickly scrambling eggs or frying bacon or melting butter on toast, others might be marinating cuts of meat or simmering soup to make stock. By the time the other residents of the palace woke, the cooking staff were likely to have been up for several hours already.
While the kitchen staff did try to be up early enough that those that needed to take breakfast at the palace could do so at their convenience when they woke or otherwise arrived, there was of course a practical limit to their ability or willingness to how early they themselves could get up. Only a very select few individuals could get away with demanding a fresh meal be prepared for them outside the normal service windows, and while Lelouch was one of them, the cardinal tended to refrain from abusing that privilege. Those late nights that he worked and got the munchies, he was perfectly fine with sandwiches or the like made from dinner leftovers, and even when he did rise early, he was patient enough to wait until breakfast was generally served. It was small considerations like that that endeared Lelouch to the palace serving staff, so that even those that rarely ever saw the viceroy were inclined to think well of him. That Lelouch had also made abundantly clear no one else was to abuse the kitchen staff's availability certainly did not hurt.
Of course, that was not to say the staff did not from time to time receive rather oddball requests even so. Most were not too strenuous, and a break from routine was not exactly a bad thing for those chefs that liked to get creative with their work. Still, the stipulation that pizza be on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next week or so certainly befuddled the cooking staff. As far as any of them knew, the cardinal had never shown much of a taste for pizza, and neither had any of his other guests. Still, orders were orders, and so they dutifully complied, crafting the very best pizza they could. Lelouch would later grouse about how difficult it was to get the grandmaster to actually return to the Citadel after she had had a taste of the pizza his chefs could bake.
"Mmm, I could stay here forever," C.C. announced as she happily munched on a slice of said pizza.
"MmmMmm," Dalque echoed the noises the much older woman, err, girl, was making.
"Don't try to speak with your mouth full," Sancia admonished.
The way she even went ahead and wiped Dalque's mouth made the raven-haired girl look quite motherly, a thought that made Kallen want to sigh. There was still no news of her own mother, and Kallen was starting to get very, very worried. If even Eden Vital, with all its resources, could not find her mother, Kallen tried not to dwell on what that could mean.
"Something wrong, Kallen?"
Looking up, Kallen's gaze met a pair of bright, yellow eyes.
"No it's, it's nothing," she tried.
"Kallen," C.C. said with a flat expression. "Do you really think I buy that for a moment?"
"I suppose not," Kallen said with another sigh. "I just, don't want to bring down the mood here or anything."
The other girls all looked over at Kallen. While the redhead normally remained at the Ashford dormitories during the week, she did have a room assigned to her at the palace. It might have seen only semi-regular usage, but on those occasions where Kallen had reason to stay late at the palace, like for some social event or as part of her geass training, it was certainly more convenient than her lugging clothes in and out of a random guest room. And on those nights where she did stay over, the expectation had become that she would also breakfast with Lelouch and his attendants. This was another such morning, though with the difference that the cardinal himself was absent, while C.C. was present. Whether the grandmaster's presence was also the reason for Lelouch's absence was as yet a point of speculation for Kallen.
As if in response to Kallen's remarks, Dalque sidled over to be closer to the older girl, food still in hand. At the quizzical look Kallen gave her, the tanned girl simply gave her a wide smile. And then to Kallen's other side, Alice slid closer as well, and the unspoken point was made. Kallen was one of them, and whatever worries she might have, they were here to help her bear them. The girl could not help but smile slightly and sigh.
"It's my mother," she finally said. "After all these months and we still haven't been able to find her. It's, getting harder not to worry more and more."
Of the other women gathered around the table, Anya was the only one that still had a mother around. C.C. obviously had long outlived her own, while Lucretia's had been murdered by her father. Alice's perished, alongside the rest of her family, while Sancia's had, as the only gesture of love that she could afford, given her up to Eden Vital when she was still a baby. And Dalque, no one had ever been able to pry from the girl what happened to her before she wandered into an Eden Vital facility. Disparate as all those circumstances might be, the shared commonality of their tragedy did at least make them acutely sensitive to how worried Kallen herself must be for her own mother.
"My apologies, Kallen," Sancia said, with brow furrowed. "I honestly never imagined it would be this difficult to track your mother down, what with the information network Eden Vital possesses. This is most definitely a miss on my part."
"Oh, no, no!" Kallen quickly said. "You've been doing your best, and I'm more than grateful. And well, if my mother really did decide to slip through the cracks and go completely to ground amongst the general Japanese populace, well, there're a lot of places she could hide."
"But you can't help but shake the feeling that something's off," Lucretia gave voice to the other girl's anxieties.
Kallen sighed. "It's just, I've been back for a while now, and I've been very publicly going around as part of Eden Vital's PR campaign. If my mother was in any position to get in touch with me, she should have tried by now, right?"
Sancia and Lucretia exchanged looks, and then tellingly glanced over at the grandmaster. C.C. swallowed the mouthful of pizza she had and tapped her forehead.
"There are mechanisms by which we could try to look for your mother more directly," the grandmaster said. "The process is far from trivial, and it would require some effort on your part as well."
Kallen blinked. "What?"
"Have you already forgotten? What are all human minds connected to at the unconscious level?"
"C's World," Kallen answered, as realization dawned upon her. "And we have access to C's World via the thought elevators."
While Kallen had no way of knowing, the localization mechanism that C.C. was describing was the very means by which Eden Vital provided Britannia the locations of the ballistic missile submarines fielded by the other polities. And Britannia's own, for that matter, though the Order refrained from openly advertising that fact to its nominal sponsor. Providing this service was not cheap however, in fact the invoice the Britannian government got each year came to a hundred million pounds, making this the single most expensive computational job farmed out to Eden Vital. Part of this cost came down to the need to monitor the submarines basically 24/7, which required tying up a substantial number of the Order's contractors as they rotated in shifts to maintain this continuous surveillance. But that was not the most significant contributor to the extravagant expense the operation incurred.
"Yes, but it is not as if we can simply pluck out any single mind we want on a lark," C.C. stated. "There are over six billion individual minds floating around, and even assuming we narrowed it down to say just the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area, we'd be looking at over thirty million people."
The first number was common knowledge for anyone that paid even passing attention to global demographics. The second, C.C. clearly stayed abreast of matters in much greater detail than her lackadaisical attitude might otherwise suggest.
"Trying to do a blind search amongst all those minds would be impractical, we would need a direct mnemonic pattern to find her. Except normally to get such a pattern in the first place requires us to have physical custody of the person in question."
"Normally," Kallen repeated, certain that C.C. would not have raised this option in the first place if it were truly infeasible.
"We can narrow down the neural signature of a person by building up a composite, using mnemonic data from other people," C.C. explained.
As C.C. alluded to, the bulk of the expenses associated with the ballistic missile submarine tracking program came from the acquisition of the neural signatures of the boomer crewmembers, from the captain all the way down to the lowliest ratings aboard. The other nations were certainly not going to let Eden Vital get physical access to their submariners to acquire this signature, so in this instance Eden Vital had had little choice but to take the brute force approach and manually search for them via the thought elevator's network.
Fortunately, for Eden Vital, less so for the other polities, the Order did not actually have to sift through all the countless billions of people in the world to find their targets. As C.C. mentioned, simply zooming into a single city reduced that number by several orders of magnitude. And if they managed to localize further, say in the vicinity of the submarine bases themselves, well, that reduced the number of signatures to search to the mere thousands. Even so, the effort had taken Eden Vital years to build up enough of a portfolio of signatures that they could be assured they would not miss a submarine putting out to sea. Now though, the Order, and Britannia, had pinpoint positions of exactly where those boomers were when on patrol, which would play a crucial role in allowing Britannia to chance a confrontation with a nuclear power like China. That was in the grand scheme of things. At a more local, personal level, it might offer Kallen an avenue to find her mother. And considering what normally Eden Vital used this for, it was quite the concession on C.C.'s part to offer to use it on Kallen's behalf.
"The closer one was to that person, the more accurate an approximation that can be constructed. In the case of your mother, your data, that of her other family members, so on and so forth."
Kallen's expression stiffened. While she was certainly prepared to provide whatever cooperation was necessary to help, she had long since lost contact with her mother's side of the family, which made finding them a task in and of itself. Her friends like Ohgi and Inoue might be able to help a little, but the only other person Kallen knew that could contribute as much as her was her father. And while she knew exactly where he was, more or less, getting his cooperation would also be its own thing. Kallen shook her head. What was she thinking? This was her mother. It didn't matter how easy or hard it was, if she needed to drag her father into an Eden Vital lab to get his memories scanned, then so be it. The worried look was now replaced with one of determination. She would find her mother, no matter the cost.
Despite usually taking breakfast with his attendants, this morning had found Lelouch grab an earlier meal than them in order to get an early start. The reason for this was not to avoid the grandmaster, but because of the meeting he was now sitting in that had attendees from drastically different time zones. While Cornelia was physically seated next to Lelouch, Schneizel and Olivia were being projected from their respective locations on the other side of the world. In truth considering the sensitivity of the discussions being held, it would not have been out of place for C.C. to also have availed of her authority to sit in. That the grandmaster did not could be interpreted as an indication of her trust in her subordinates. Or her leisurely attitude towards her duty, it really could go either way.
"The Sabine researchers have completed their preliminary analysis of the Guren graser," Olivia began, "and based on the rated output the graser is capable of, they believe it does provide a pathway to inducing a fusion reaction without the need for a fission first stage. They are still performing yield calculations, but any fusion weapon developed would almost certainly be capable of surpassing the yields of Britannia's current thermonuclear warheads."
A few moments of silence lingered uncomfortably in the air at Olivia's opening statement, until Lelouch himself finally broke it.
"Bloody Sabine researchers," the cardinal actually growled.
It did not take one overly familiar with Lelouch to hear the not too subtle contempt in his tone. The cardinal was not one to usually hold in disdain the researchers of the Order Sabine, even if he often found their enthusiasm for investigating the mysteries of the universe, and of code and geass, tiresome. Especially when it was directed at him. Sometimes the fruits of their labors were even useful, like the neuro-link interface and the cybernetic augmentation suite that Lelouch presently enjoyed, even if the installation and acclimation process had been a month or two of considerable pain. But sometimes, sometimes Sabine would come up with something that not only risked sowing considerable chaos in the world, but more importantly also greatly complicating Lelouch's own work in the process. No, the cardinal did not see anything wrong with the relative emphasis placed upon between the two consequences.
"My understanding is that a pure fusion warhead has only been theoretical up till this point, even with the graser Eden Vital itself developed," Schneizel's opening remark being a bit more topical.
"That is correct," Olivia responded. "Eden Vital's graser was fairly bulky, and did not achieve the scaling factor needed to generate the energy levels fusion requires. The Order Sabine had a low-level effort examining ways to work around this limitation, but the majority of our effort was in refining the existing design to ease the deployment of Damocles. When our researchers learned that the Sumeragi Group were employing the Guren graser in their ICF reactor design however, they began to suspect the Guren team had already overcome those limitations, a suspicion that they've now confirmed after examining the technical documentation."
Schneizel nodded, then took a deep breath. "This, changes things."
An understatement that, if there ever was one. A pure fusion weapon, unlike the thermonuclear warheads that currently filled Britannia's strategic deterrence arsenal, did not require a primary fission stage to create the high-pressure environment to induce nuclear fusion. The advantages to this were many, not least because without that fission primary stage, a pure fusion warhead did not create highly radioactive fallout as a byproduct of its detonation. Of course, fear of that fallout, and its long-lasting nature, was one of the biggest reasons why nation-states were so hesitant to employ them for anything except a truly do or die moment, and even then there were governments that might even prefer subjugation than being responsible for a nuclear holocaust. But if that fear were removed, then as Schneizel so succinctly put it, things changed.
"Is it safe to presume the Sumeragi Group, or at least the team that works on Project Guren, are aware of this potential application?" Schneizel asked.
"Almost certainly, considering they are attempting to use their graser in inducing a controlled fusion reaction," Olivia said. "The Sabine researchers have simply turned it towards initiating an uncontrolled reaction."
Lelouch's lips thinned. "I presume your concern is that the Chinese Federation is also aware of the Guren graser and its applicability here."
"The research team is mostly composed of people from the Indian subcontinent," Schneizel stated.
"Which is actually a good reason for why that team itself would not be the cause of any leaks," Lelouch said. "You are well aware of the Indian people's antipathy towards their Chinese overlords, no?"
Even Cornelia could see the angle Lelouch was taking here. Like with Britannia, many of the lands the Chinese Federation held dominion over were won through conquest. And in a fit of irony, the Indian subcontinent had been won by the Chinese due to a conflict between them and elements of the old British Empire, more specifically the British East Indies Company. The old empire's need to finance its struggles against its various European rivals had seen it rather aggressively push forth commercialization in its various colonial domains, not least India. Part of this drive included the commercial cultivation of opium, which in its processed form created a highly addictive narcotic, that was then exported to China. The Chinese government was, to put it mildly, not amused, and after diplomatic efforts to end the trade failed, resorted to military action. The resulting Opium War saw the Chinese directly invade and annex India, with the newly formed Britannian Empire too busy reconstituting its government to lend any aide to the previously royally chartered conglomerate.
Since then, China had more or less ruled India with a fairly light hand, at least compared to how Britannia approached its conquests. The Chinese tended to allow their subjects to retain their cultural heritage and social structure so long as they deferred to Chinese primacy, unlike the Britannians that attempted to impose a certain degree of standardization everywhere. In the long run, it was hard to say which approach was better. China had after all faced its own fair share of insurrection and rebellion over its long existence, many as brutal if not more so than any Britannia had found itself dealing with in its much shorter existence. That even included an uprising or two in India, though none ever ballooned to the point of genuinely threatening Chinese control. But there remained a nationalist undercurrent within Indian society, and even now a few independence movements carried on clandestinely. Cornelia herself had no sympathy for such insurrectionists, even if she recognized their potential utility as a distraction against the Chinese Federation. Still, the value of that distraction never felt worth the commitment of Britannia's word that lending active assistance to these rebels entailed. Then there was the precedence that might go on and encourage those resistance movements operating within Britannian territory if the Indians were to actually succeed, or even merely come close to their goals.
"That being said," Lelouch continued, "the wider infiltration that the Sumeragi Group appears to have suffered in the prelude to annexation does suggest the Chinese might have gotten a whiff of Project Guren. After annexation, we have a degree of confidence that the flow of information stopped, and the majority of the major refinements that went into their graser came in the postwar timeframe."
"I suppose that will have to do," Schneizel said, then looked over at Olivia. "Does Sabine have an estimate on how long it would take to actually put such a weapon design into production?"
"A year, two if we're being conservative, to build a prototype," Olivia answered. "It's not as if constructing a fusion warhead is in and of itself terribly complex, it's mostly a matter of ensuring the, shape, of the fuel and implosion chamber will work with the graser. Even without slicing off compute time in the thought elevator, the Empire could probably do the necessary modeling using conventional supercomputers, though that will take longer to complete."
"A year," Schneizel said. "If Britannia really were to possess pure fusion warheads in a year's time, in combination with the neutralization of the bulk of the Chinese Federation's nuclear arsenal, the strategic balance might sufficiently tilt that we could convince the Federation government to concede without having to invade."
"That would certainly be preferable," Lelouch said, "but the issue is whether the Chinese government possesses the capacity to actually concede. After all, our present circumstances are a consequence of elements of their government having been suborned by the heretics."
"And you believe the heretics would resist even if they had no chance of victory?" Schneizel said with raised eyebrow.
"They're fanatics who would rather see the world burn if they can't provide it with their demented salvation," Lelouch said with a snort. "What do you think?"
A part of Cornelia wondered if Lelouch recognized the irony of his remark, or if her brother simply did not consider himself and the rest of Eden Vital to warrant the label of fanatic. The steadfast determination in which he went about his mission certainly carried similar overtones. Though Lelouch did have Eden Vital's seeming lack of interest in a mounting body count going for him. That alone was a vast improvement over the modus operandi of the heretics. And it was not as if Cornelia did not also want dead the same people as Lelouch. There were lots of kettles to be had all around.
"The weapon may still prove useful as leverage," Schneizel said instead of further arguing the point. "Even if significant portions of the Chinese government have been suborned, there should still be others that remain true to their nation. If they can be found, and given the right motive and support, it might be possible to wrest control of the country back away from the heretics and allow us to conclude this conflict without having to go to war with all of China."
Whether that was easier or harder than attempting to outright conquer China was actually not an easy call to make. Fortunately for all present, it was not a call they needed to make just yet.
"Setting aside the strategic implications of the pure fusion warhead," Olivia said, redirecting the conversation back towards the original topic, "Sabine's engineers believe they could produce a field deployable version of the Guren graser as well."
Both Lelouch and Cornelia frowned in puzzlement at that.
"Field deployable in what manner?" Lelouch gave voice to their confusion.
"Field deployable as in mounted on, say, a knightmare frame."
Cornelia made a choking sound, while Lelouch gave an incredulous snort.
"And how do they propose to power the damn thing?" the cardinal said. "From the numbers I've seen, a single shot would completely drain the charge of a knightmare's Yggdrasil drive."
"That is true, but Your Eminence just so happened to recruit an attendant that is capable of absorbing and converting kinetic energy," Olivia said. "If her power can be conducted through a knightmare, she'd be able to harness the necessary energy to fire off the graser in the field."
While Cornelia's own confusion continued, and Schneizel did not look too far behind his sister, the surprise on Lelouch's expression lacked the befuddlement of his siblings.
"Sabine actually thinks they can project Kallen's powers through a knightmare?" the cardinal said, sounding skeptical.
"Yes," Olivia however was nonplussed. "Though they haven't actually been able to run any tests with Sister Kallen in Japan."
"Ah, I see," Lelouch said with a nod of comprehension. "So, how much confidence do Sabine's engineers have that the entire contraption won't blow up the first time Kallen tries to initiate an energy transfer?"
"Several are volunteering to transfer to Japan to assist with the bring-up."
"Hmph," Lelouch grunted. "Fine. Send the system over and we'll get it installed."
"Very well, Your Eminence."
"Make sure the engineers understand that we will be doing the bring-up in stages," Lelouch emphasized. "They will test the energy conversion mechanism first, and only if that works without any complications are they to attempt to power the graser with the system. If I find out they skipped a step and attempted to test the two in combination from the start, those engineers will be swimming back to the Citadel."
"I'll be sure to pass on your warning," Olivia said with a slight quirk in her lips.
Lelouch clearly had a lot of experience with the tendency of Sabine's researchers and engineers to try to do too many things at once. Still, there was plenty more to discuss than just the idiosyncrasies of scientists and engineers this day.
"If the Guren graser is small enough to at least physically mount on a knightmare," Cornelia now spoke up, "should that not mean it can indeed be used for Damocles?"
"Technically, yes," Olivia said, "but the benefits it brings are a matter of degree, not magnitude. While a Guren-based Damocles satellite would mass less and thus be easier to launch into orbit, its lasing medium would still burn out after a similar number of shots. Having to replace them will become cost prohibitive at some point, so unless some means might be found to retrieve the satellites to refurbish them, and fairly economically at that, maintaining a network of weapons satellites in orbit for tactical responses remains outside the bounds of practicality."
"I see," Cornelia said with a disappointed frown, even as she snuck a glance over at Schneizel.
The prince gave a noncommittal smile, indicating that he did not have anything further to add on the matter, at least not in this meeting. Cornelia determined to press him on that the next opportunity she could, having that kind of firepower available to the Empire's field commanders would represent such a shift in the playing field that she was determined to get it to them someway, somehow.
"If there are no further questions, Eden Vital hereby considers the Britannian government's request that it assesses the Guren graser completed," Olivia said. "All of the technical data produced as part of this assessment will be provided to Your Highness' office."
"My thanks, Your Reverence," Schneizel said. "As always, the quality of Eden Vital's work is superb."
"We aim to please, Your Highness."
And if that ever stopped, there would certainly be a reckoning, both sides knew.
Milly looked down at the cat seated in the makeshift bed made by padding a small box with blankets. The cat looked back up at her. She continued staring at the cat. The cat meowed.
"Since when did Patches move into the clubhouse?" the Ashford head girl finally asked.
"I found him outside shivering in the cold, and I couldn't just leave the poor thing alone," Euphemia said as she walked over with a bowl of food. "I know the dorms don't allow pets, but I was hoping you'd let me keep him here?"
"I suppose that's fine for the short term," Milly said, "but are you intending to adopt him in the long term?"
"Well, if he has nowhere else to go, then yes," Euphemia said. "I was the one that brought him in, so I should take responsibility for him."
"So long as you don't go adopting every stray that crosses your path," Milly said, giving the cat a scratch behind the ears. "Hmm, come to think of it, I don't think we ever confirmed one way or another whether Patches was a boy or a girl."
The cat purred contently, but once the bowl was set down, immediately escaped Milly's reach to start chowing down. Clearly its time roughing it out on the streets had given the animal an appreciation of easy meals.
"I haven't actually checked," Euphemia said. "Do you have a vet that you could recommend? I should at least make sure he gets all the necessary shots. And maybe get him a collar too, if I'll be adopting him."
"No sweat," Milly said. "Sebastian's vet is great, I'm sure he can handle one more cat."
Tilting her head as she recalled Milly's large dog, Euphemia regarded her friend.
"Is Sebastian going to be okay with a cat in here? Since you do bring him over from time to time."
"I think it'll be fine," Milly said. "Sebastian's seen Patches plenty of times, considering the little guy's made the school his defacto home for a while now. He's never seemed to mind him."
"That's good to hear."
Euphemia ran her hand down the cat's back, who aside from a quick glance at her, did not seem to take issue with the girl's ministrations while eating.
"So what are you going to name him?" Milly asked.
"What? Haven't all of you been calling him Patches?"
"That's just a nickname the students gave him," the older girl said. "If he's going to be your pet, you should pick something of your own for him."
Euphemia looked down at the cat happily munching away. Despite the shortness of their time together, she already had a fair impression of the cat's personality. He was quite playful, and once his left leg healed, Euphemia was certainly he would be running all over the place again. And he was smart. He definitely seemed to recognize Euphemia, always coming to greet her when she dropped by the clubhouse. In a way, that made him a very loyal cat.
"Arthur," the girl announced. "How does that sound as a name?"
The cat actually stopped eating to look up and give a loud meow, as if actually answering her question, before resuming its meal.
"Arthur," Milly repeated. "Has a nice ring to it. Though, wouldn't it be something if Arthur here turned out to be a girl?"
Euphemia giggled. "Well, that's fine too. All it matters is that the name fits the person. And this little guy here seems like an Arthur."
"Fair enough. Welcome to the family, Arthur."
As it turned out, when Euphemia brought Arthur to the vet, the cat was indeed pronounced to be a girl. But that was fine too, as once she was fully healed, Arthur assumed a suitably kingly place within the prefect clubhouse. And made manifest her dominion by promptly biting Suzaku's hand the first time he tried to pet her.
As the capital of the Chinese Federation, Luoyang was one of the largest cities in the world. Even so, its populace of over sixteen million did not actually place it as the largest city in China. That honor actually went to Shanghai, which breached twenty million in the last conducted census. And if one were to include the wider Federation, there were multiple other cities that were of similar if not greater magnitude. Indeed at least five out of the ten most populous cities in the world lay within Federation borders. And if one were to expand that list a bit more, the Federation had over a dozen cities whose populaces skirted or outright exceeded the ten million mark. Such was the magnitude of manpower at the Chinese Federation's disposal that it was little wonder the nation constituted one of the three great powers of the world.
Yet quantity by itself is rarely enough, quality also played a significant role. In this regard, it was not as if the Federation were lacking in persons of quality. Amongst its ranks were some very competent soldiers, scientists, administrators, and leaders. The biggest problem it faced however was far too few of these qualified individuals were in positions of authority, and that too many of those that did rise to such positions were arguably not actually suited to them. In this regard, China's greatest failing was that it was not able to winnow away those that needed to be dismissed, a failure that those gathered in this particular corner of the capital spent a significant amount of time ruing.
"It's been confirmed," Lao Gaoshun, a fairly high-ranking official within the Federation's Ministry of War, announced. "The High Council has requested that the ministry conduct a study as to the feasibility of, in the wording of the written order, 'restore to Japan the sovereignty that it was deprived of by the Holy Britannian Empire.'"
The others seated around the room were masters at controlling their expressions, but even so more than a few let slip their true feelings for such circuity.
"They ask this despite the indications that Britannia's new viceroy seems to have successfully convinced a large portion of the Japanese populace to accept integration into the Empire?"
The man that so spoke what was on everyone's mind was not one of those whose expressions slipped, his face maintaining that nymph-like bearing that so easily beguiled anyone graced with his visage. Still, the wryness of his tone was in its own way as revealing.
"That is so, Master Jinshi," Gaoshun affirmed.
"How audacious," Jinshi remarked, though there was not a hint of approval accompanying that word.
"It's not like the High Council doesn't possess some measure of boldness," another youth, one with a more mischievous edge to his features remarked, "whatever else they may lack."
"Well, far be it for us to question where the Councilors might be so impaired," Jinshi said. "Still, in their ostensible boldness, they risk dragging China and her people through great ruin. And that is not something any of us here wish to happen, would you not agree, Yao Ling?"
Yao Ling cracked a smirk. "Fair enough, Prince Yue."
As the courtesy indicated, the host of today's gathering was of imperial lineage, and even close enough to warrant open acknowledgement of it. That it was not him sitting on the Dragon Throne had quite a bit to do with the current court politics, though he remained sufficiently influential that moving openly against him could be quite perilous.
"Oh, my apologies, you go by Lord Jinshi these days," Ling said, though he hardly looked contrite. "But there is the question of what, if anything, we can do about it."
"There is indeed," Jinshi agreed, then looked over at Gaoshun. "Give me your honest assessment. What are the chances that China could actually conquer Japan from Britannia?"
"Does Your Highness wish me to assume a purely conventional conflict," Gaoshun said, "or one where nuclear arms are involved."
"The former, please," Jinshi said with a disgusted snort. "If the latter were to occur, none of us would live to see the aftermath anyway."
"Very well. If China and Britannia were to engage in a purely conventional war over Japan, the odds favor Britannia."
"You sound pretty confident of that," Ling said, and despite the lightness of his tone, his squinted eyes belayed a careful intelligence.
"It is a simple matter of logistics," Gaoshun said. "To combat the insurgency in Japan, Britannia maintains a standing force equivalent to two divisions of armor and mechanized infantry, along with an air combat wing to provide air support. Their Seventh Fleet is also anchored at Yokosuka, which provides another major concentration of combat power, especially when one considers the aircraft carrier attached to it. All this any attacking force must match, if not exceed by several factors, to have any chance of success. Marshaling such a force however simply cannot be done in secret, and the moment Britannia became aware China's mobilization, the Empire would immediately reinforce their Japanese garrison and make it even more difficult to overcome. And in a war of attrition, China is at a distinct disadvantage. Whereas the core Britannian territories are on the far side of the Pacific, the Empire has multiple bases, including but not limited to Japan, from which to strike at China's heartland. For these reasons, any conflict with Britannia would be foolhardy and carry with it far greater risk of China's ruin than our victory."
An unpalpable truth, and one that would not make Gaoshun particularly popular with the High Council. But those that abided the man's advice were usually all the better off for it, for Gaoshun was just as capable of spotting, and orchestrating, opportunities as he was in identifying follies.
"That makes it sound like China should have intervened in the Britannian invasion when it happened," Ling remarked. "Back then, the Empire wouldn't have enjoyed the proximity of support, since they'd be the ones needing to strike across the Pacific."
"Your pardon, sir, but that is not necessarily true either," Gaoshun however dismissed the suggestion, though with a noticeable show of deference towards the younger man.
"Oh? And why is that?" Ling asked.
While Ling was not of so prestigious a lineage as Jinshi, he did share a familial connection with the older, slightly older, young man. Ling's connection to the imperial family however came from his mother, so he was a bit further removed from the imperial throne. And while he was not granted the courtesy of a princely rank, he still had the support of a portion of the court, support which Ling himself had thrown behind Jinshi, explaining the former's presence in the latter's residence.
"Because in its flying fleet, Britannia has a strategic asset that allows the Empire to deploy a substantial force anywhere within the world in short notice," Gaoshun explained. "You were too young to have been involved with the ministry when the Empire invaded Japan, but suffice it to say, the rapidity with which Britannia was able to move stunned us. On the first day of the invasion, Japan had managed to land two full divisions on Kyushu. By the end of the week, they had over two hundred thousand soldiers sweeping the island, and were in the process of taking Tokyo. By the second week, when Britannia's conventional naval forces finally arrived to blockade Japan, the Empire had already effectively won the war. The Japanese military might have been able to prolong the fighting for a few weeks longer, but there was never any chance of them managing to actually stop the Britannians after that point. In that same timeframe, while China could have mobilized enough troops to face the Empire, we actually would have had great difficulty getting them shipped over to Japan quickly enough. And that is setting aside the question of just how much the Empire was willing to escalate should China attempt to intervene."
"The way you put it, you make it sound as if China stands no chance whatsoever of winning a war against Britannia," Ling said, his eyes narrowed.
"That would depend on what defines victory," Gaoshun stated frankly. "China does not possess the strategic reach to actually take the fight to the Britannian homelands. Our navy is too small, and we do not have the logistical infrastructure to supply our forces even if we somehow managed a successful landing. At the same time, despite their strategic reach, even Britannia would be hard pressed to win a war of conquest against China. As destructive as it may be, fighting at our own doorstep does convey some advantages."
"In other words, we couldn't conquer Britannia, but neither could the Empire necessarily conquer China," Jinshi summarized.
"That is correct, Your Highness."
"So what, we're stalemated, then?" Ling said.
"For now," Gaoshun said. "However, this stalemate will not last forever, and the way things are currently trending, it will not be too long before the balance is tilted so heavily in Britannia's favor that the Empire could force China's capitulation without having to resort to open war."
"Surely things aren't that bad," Ling exclaimed, his eyes widening.
"You think so?" Jinshi said, his own voice still calm and silky. "Recall that China's economy has faced severe constrictions ever since sakuradite exports from Japan were so heavily curtailed. And what sakuradite we can buy, we pay a heavy price for it, made even dearer after that debacle at Lake Kawaguchi. The Britannian economy on the other hand continues to expand, which then fuels the expansion of the Empire's military. What happens when Britannia becomes capable of maintaining a standing army that could match the entirety of China's mobilized reserves?"
Ling grimaced, indicating he grasped the distinction. Each country normally only maintained a limited number of soldiers during times of peace, if for no other reason than the wasted manpower having all those people sitting around instead of working some productive job represented. The bulk of the troops that fought any actual wars that broke out tended to be reserve forces, or civilians drafted into the armed forces when hostilities were imminent or commenced. Even then, there was still an upper limit to how much of a country's adult populace could be pressed into military service, as there still needed to be someone to man the factories churning out the weapons and munitions without which the war could not be fought. And as difficult as it might be to imagine, it was entirely possible for one country to be so much wealthier and more powerful that it could completely eclipse another in warfighting capacity. China had after all been in the giving side of this imbalance often enough through its long history, it did not grow into the large empire it was today by picking fights with those that could successfully resist its imperialism.
"Damn my grandmother for buying into the promises of that rogue Eden Vital cardinal," Jinshi said with an exasperated sigh.
"The late empress dowager was not the only one taken in by the heretic's offer," Gaoshun noted. "Many of China's leaders were eager for an opportunity to close the gap between our nation and Britannia. With such temptations dangled before them, it is not surprising they chose to disregard the Empire's warnings."
"And in the process threw out over fifty years of friendship with one of our closest allies," Jinshi said with a bitter grimace. "Did you know, Ling, that when the Japanese started building bases in Manchuria, it was the Prince Ulysses that personally promised Britannia would help ensure the Japanese did not turn their footholds into some sort of informal annexation of the region, and then made good on that promise when the Empire deployed its armies to evict those Japanese units that refused to vacate the bases as the Great War as a whole drew to a close."
"I did pay at least that much attention to my history tutors," Ling said with a wry smile. "I even noticed when they stopped singing the Empire's praises and started talking about how Britannia was only interested in restraining China from achieving its proper glory."
"Yes, well, a more sophisticated and nuanced view might have served all of us for the better," Jinshi said. "Britannia was a stalwart ally, one who has always kept its word. But that word isn't always for China's betterment. Since our government decided to align with the Eden Vital heretics, the Empire's given word is a promise to put down the heretics, even if that required them to go through China."
"Much as they went through Japan," Gaoshun added. "Indeed, one of the first things their parliament did after China refused to hand over the heretics was to terminate the mutual defense treaty that was signed between our two nations at the end of the Great War."
"So what you're saying is, the best choice would have been China acceding to Britannia's request at that time," Ling said.
"The argument could be made," Jinshi said. "While we've certain been able to make more efficient use of the Taklamakan thought elevator with the help of the self-proclaimed grandmaster, that has come at considerable cost. And frankly, it's not as if China has actually secured some independent means of tapping into the thought elevators, we've simply shifted from being beholden to Eden Vital to being beholden to the rogue cardinal of theirs."
"But isn't our hand stronger now than before?" Ling asked. "The cardinal is only one person, while Eden Vital is an entire ecclesiastical order that has Britannia's backing. Should that not give us more leverage in this partnership?"
"And yet, why is it that every time the High Council publishes an edict, it reads as if it is someone else's hand wielding the pen?" Jinshi said.
Ling had no immediate response to that, so Jinshi laid out further his worry.
"China is our home, and yet it feels as if we are losing more and more say over the fate of our nation. All this, when that renegade cardinal first made his approach to the empress dowager and her allies. Now, it is all we can do to keep my dear niece safely cossetted in the Forbidden City, so that she does not meet the same fate as my brother. But that is all our influence has managed to achieve. Even now, the High Council, while claiming to act in my niece's name, sets our country on a course that I fear will destroy over a thousand years of legacy, and all because in our hubris we sought to sate our ambition instead of paying heed to unpleasant warnings."
"Surely you haven't actually given up," Ling said after a brief moment of contemplation.
"Far from it," Jinshi said, a determined glint in his eyes. "But without more support, trying to supplant the High Council risks fracturing China in a civil war. That is the danger we must weigh our actions against, and that is no easy ask."
That Ling found himself wholeheartedly agreeing with. Before the conversation could continue however, one of Jinshi's attendants knocked upon the door.
"Enter."
The elderly woman did so and bowed slightly. "Master Li Xingke has arrived, Your Highness."
"Ah, excellent. Send him in."
The young man that walked in was several years Jinshi's junior, but still had a few more on Ling. That actually made him quite young for the rank he held as a captain within the Imperial Guard, but his position was something Xingke had earned on merit, with just a tiny dash of favoritism from his patrons.
"Your Highness, Your Lordship," Xingke bowed to the others. "Apologies for my tardiness."
"Not at all," Jinshi said with a slight smile. "Gaoshun was just filling us in on the High Council's latest brainstorm."
"I see," Xingke said, then took an envelope out from his uniform. "In that case, before we get onto business, allow me to present to you the letter your wife entrusted to me, Your Highness."
Gaoshun, not Jinshi himself, accepted the letter, before handing it over to the prince. Jinshi broke the seal and gave the letter a quick glance over before letting out a dry chuckle.
"It seems my wife is still in fine spirits, despite being cloistered within the inner palace," Jinshi said. "She at least has not yet reached the stage wherein my presence is missed."
None of the others made any remarks regarding that state of affairs. It was not as if there was any real turbulence in Jinshi's marital life, but neither could it be said that the couple were infatuatedly attracted to each other. Or rather, if anyone were overly attached and desirous of affection, it would be the prince himself. Jinshi's wife tended to be more levelheaded and rationale, at least when it came to human relations. That she did have a few quirks of her own went without saying, seeing as she was someone actually able to put up with Jinshi himself.
"It is with some relief that Your Highness was magnanimous enough to allow your wife to attend to Her Majesty," Xingke instead stated simply enough. "We would be hard pressed to find anyone that could fulfill all the roles she so deftly serves."
And that was not an understatement, seeing as Jinshi's wife served as the young empress' doctor, apothecarist, poison tester, and surrogate sister/mother figure all in one. Indeed the woman was one of the few people the empress felt unconditionally comfortable having around, seeing as the former had served the latter's mother as a lady-in-waiting. Finding someone else that might be able to replicate that level of trust would have been difficult, if not outright impossible, and trust was especially important in keeping the young empress alive these days.
"Anything to keep my beloved niece safe and happy," Jinshi said with complete honesty. "Though that may well prove more difficult in the near-future, if conflict does indeed break out between China and Britannia." The prince tapped his temple. "We need something to break the current deadlock at court, to tilt the balance in our favor."
Of course if such an advantage were so easily found, there would have been no need for the gathering Jinshi hosted today.
"It is Eden Vital and Britannia that is the source of our current troubles," Ling spoke up. "Might they also serve to provide a solution, as well?"
"If it were possible to enlist their assistance, I am at this point desperate enough to accept it," Jinshi said with a rueful smile. "Unfortunately, the issue is determining who within the Britannian hierarchy can be approached, and how to make the approach without the High Council interfering."
Ling looked over at Gaoshun. "The High Council might have asked the ministry to perform an assessment, but it's probably a given that they'll push for an offensive against Japan whatever the ministry's conclusions might be, right?"
"That seems probable," Gaoshun said unhappily.
"Then doesn't that also offer an opportunity to get in touch with the Britannians?"
The others all looked at the youth.
"How so?" Jinshi asked.
"If the Britannians really are in a position to defeat any force China's able to land in Japan, presumably the surviving soldiers would be taken prisoners of war," Ling said. "And if the prisoner in question is sufficiently high ranking, the Empire would probably be willing to have someone high up on their side at least listen to what he has to say. So if I were to accompany the invasion force-"
"Absolutely not!" all of the other men immediately exclaimed.
"What? I think it's a pretty good idea!" Ling protested.
"It's a reckless idea," Jinshi admonished. "You're as liable to get killed in the fighting as survive to be taken prisoner."
"I mean, sure it'll definitely be dangerous, but isn't what we're doing now also dangerous?" Ling pointed out. "And of the people in on this little conspiracy, I'm probably the most expendable one in this room. After all, it's not like I'm a high-ranking bureaucrat in the war ministry, or a captain in the Imperial Guard, and I'm most definitely further down the succession than you are, Your Highness."
Jinshi felt a headache coming on. Was this what others felt whenever he himself ran amok?
"The idea, may not be entirely farfetched," Xingke said slowly.
The prince glared at the other man. "Are you actually serious, Captain?"
"The young lord does raise a few valid points," Gaoshun lent his own support while wearing a contemplative expression.
Seeing the others slowly coming around, Ling now looked at Jinshi with a wide smile. The prince sighed.
"We will play it by ear. If the opportunity arises, it would be foolish to not seize it. But neither should we be too reckless in seeking opportunities that might not actually exist. We will save no one if we end up perishing ourselves, and those left behind will not be granted any swift mercies. I would hope that, if nothing else, will encourage a modicum of caution in all of you."
The other men exchanged brief glances before all nodded as one. All of them had people they cared about and wanted to protect. And while some might make the mistake of thinking that this was a weakness that could be exploited, in truth what it truly meant was each man here was simply that much more capable of ruthlessness to ensure the safety of their loved ones.
End of Chapter 36
The anime's FLEIJA warhead was, if I'm being perfectly honest, somewhat incoherent. It's as if they threw a bunch of spaghetti words together in the hope that it sounded scientific or technical. In a very literal reading, what they created was akin to a point singularity weapon. Or basically a miniature black hole, in order to achieve the sort of disintegration effect they claimed was happening. The other option is some sort of direct energy conversion, akin to a matter-antimatter annihilation reaction. I have a slight problem with this, as if the Code Geass universe actually had the capability to manufacture miniature black holes (or antimatter at the needed quantities), they damn well shouldn't have had so much trouble with something as basic as using U-235 as a fuel source. Hence why I'm going with a slightly less fantastical/physics breaking superweapon. Cause frankly, a pure fusion weapon is already in and of itself way more destructive than anything my story is going to (probably) need, as such weapons can easily scale into the gigaton range.
I'm sure some people are going to speculate this, so I'm going to preempt the discussion. No, Eden Vital cannot read people's memories via the thought elevator. At least not remotely. If they got their hands on a person, they do have a procedure to extract actual memories out, but depending on how cooperative or uncooperative the subject is feeling, the process may or may not be survivable. What Eden Vital can do is glean a lot of what amounts to metadata through their remote access, building up association graphs and simulating stimulus responses, stuff like that. That's enough to allow them to data mine quite a bit of information, up to and including who the person they're peeking at is, but they can't literally look into that person's memories or tap into their senses. Not directly at least.
Romance is going to be present in this story if only because as in life in the real world, people make connections and get together. And as I've noted previously, Lelouch has obligations regarding his lineage that he needs to fulfill. As such, it doesn't really matter whether the focus of this story is romance or not, it has to have a presence if only to round out the overall character building. Completely ignoring it would be downright unnatural if the goal is the portrayal of characters as people. And if I'm going to bother putting it in, I might as well make use of the romance to further other narrative needs, as well as make sure the romance as written is at least coherent and doesn't detract from the overall story because I skimped on its quality.
So a reader asked over PM (repeatedly) why Britannia did not just ally with Japan against the Chinese Federation instead of invading. Hints for what that reason was have been strewn all throughout the story, with some more explicit ones set out in this latest chapter. Even setting that aside, one should recall that officially, Britannia's invasion was provoked by the sakuradite embargo that Japan initiated. So it's not as if Britannia didn't pursue a diplomatic solution, with both China and Japan, it's that both governments got themselves sufficiently suborned by the heretics that official policy in both countries took an anti-Britannian slant, with pro-Britannian officials getting sidelined or even outright eliminated. And in Japan's case in particular, Genbu Kururugi allowed himself to be played completely by V.V. and the heretics, such that he was completely oblivious to the heretics' endgame, which was the conquest of Japan by the Chinese and the seizure of the Kamine Island thought elevator.
Trying to intervene after the Chinese had made their move would have been way too late, especially if Japan wasn't willing to let Britannia station enough forces in the country beforehand. That would have conceded the initiative to China and forced Britannia to fight a much tougher opponent at the end of a very long logistics chain across the Pacific. Invading Japan preemptively once it was clear the Kururugi government wasn't going to get its head out of its ass on the other hand ensured Britannia retained the initiative, allowed the Empire to keep Japan out of Chinese hands without having to prematurely fight the Federation, and in the long run provided the Empire with a large, secure base with which to confront China once it was actually ready to do so.
As for the EU, they simply weren't in a position to intervene to begin with. Armies aren't mustered out of thin air, and Japan is halfway on the other side of the planet from Europe's core territories. Recall that Britannia supposedly only took one month to force the Japanese government to capitulate. In that time, the EU might have had enough time to mobilize enough troops to credibly challenge Britannia, but they most definitely would not have been able to get them all shifted over to Japan to make a difference. For one thing, they did not have enough ships, both transports and escorts, over in the Pacific to perform that sort of transfer. The travel time for any ships that started out in Europe would have taken multiple weeks, at which point again, the war would already be functionally over. An airlift was also impractical, not with Britannian control of the skies.
And as for why China didn't intervene then and there, that's already explained in this latest chapter. The scene it's part of wasn't exactly written for the purpose of answering any questions, we just got to the point in the narrative that I need to start doing explicit buildup towards the climax of the R1 sequence and also introduce characters that will be relevant to for the R2 sequence. Bonus points to those that can figure out from where I'm borrowing the characters from, and who Jinshi's wife is.
For all the seeming inevitability that many of the characters treat the upcoming conflict between China and Britannia, in a lot of ways, an actual war breaking out between the two superpowers is considered a worst-case scenario for all involved. This is why you see so much effort being invested by both sides to obtain some kind of edge or advantage that would let them win the conflict without firing a shot, or to at least score a decisive enough victory in the opening stages of the war to force the other side to the negotiating table. Neither side wants to get into a war of attrition, whatever their respective capacity to endure such a conflict. And a lot of Britannia's maneuvers are to try to make it so the factions in China opposed to the heretics decide that they are better off risking a civil war moving against the heretics and their supporters than risking a war against Britannia. Yes, the geopolitics in this story is extremely complicated and convoluted, because basically everyone has an agenda.
I mean, sure, if one's goal is to have the Holy See flattened, I suppose having the Vatican try to declare a crusade against Britannia could be a thing. Of course, I've already written a story wherein Britannia sacked the Vatican, so we'd be retreading worn ground.