Chapter 26 : Hostile reception.
Cecile and Lelouch were walking down a corridor, heading for his quarters.
Damn Cornelia ... Couldn't you ask someone else to escort him to his room?
The woman thought, annoyed.
"It's been a century since we met, Cecile ..." He said.
"Three years." She replied, annoyed.
"For me a century ..."
"Look, Lelouch ... I don't hold rancor against you. But because of you I killed Suzaku, the only boy I ever loved. "
"Suzaku had betrayed me ... More than once. And he would have opposed my plans. I had no choice. "
It does not show a minimum of remorse ... And I would have been surprised at the contrary.
"Where is Loyd?"
"Dead. He was at the Pendragon space center when the aliens razed the capital. "
"I see ... Too bad, he had been a faithful servant."
He served you because it was conditioned by the geass.
She thought, taking care not to say it.
At one point the two bumped into Yurishia, Sayoko, Chris, Irina and Yuriko, who were talking to each other. When they saw who was with Cecile Yurishia exclaimed:
"But good! Look who honors us with his presence! What do you say we disappear again, and this time definitely? Here there is no room for the depraved! "
"I believe that too. Yet you are here. "The boy replied, winking.
"Oh, you want to be funny! Let's see if you laugh at that too! "
That said he tried to hit him with a punch but Lelouch stopped him easily.
"What a warm welcome ..."
"Now don't be a fool, Lelouch!" Yuriko warned him.
"I don't understand the reason for such great hostility ... What have I done to you so terribly?"
"And you ask? For years you treated us like slaves, raping us! "Irina accused him.
"I confirm!" Sayoko intervened.
"Ah, and was that life for you like a slave? You lived in a palace with all the comforts! You enjoyed the food, the luxurious clothes, the satellite TV, the swimming pool, the holidays in the most splendid places on the planet, right? I treated you like queens, nothing but slaves! In return, I was just asking for benefits, nothing more!" The emperor stated.
At those words they all looked down, embarrassed; all except Yuriko.
"I was already rich, I lived in a luxurious estate in Tokonosu, I had a husband and a daughter! I haven't seen them in years! Because of you! "
Lelouch was about to reply but Cecile got in the way.
"Now is not the time for controversy! I have to escort Lelouch into his rooms! "
"We don't want it here, it will make us slaves again with its geass!" Irina stated.
"We need to win the war, for now you will have to endure it."The blue-haired replied.
That said she and Lelouch resumed their journey.
"I'm not very popular here ..."
"Not at all."
"I don't understand them ... With me they lived in well-being, they never lacked anything."
"But they were not free."
"They were, except to oppose my orders and to escape."
"Ergo, they were prisoners."
"I repeat, I made them live in luxury."
"A cage, even if golden, remains a cage."
"True ... But better a gilded cage than suffering from hunger and misery."
She didn't answer.
Albacete, 5:00 pm
Damn it ... We've been buried alive here for three weeks, and I can't even put my nose out because the aliens would cut it off!
Roberta thought, annoyed, as she read Marco Polo's The Million in PDF on a laptop provided by Eda.
Every once in a while he also took a look at the Biglobe news; the war between humans and aliens continued between alternating events: countless battles, offensive and counteroffensive, territories lost or continually reconquered by the two factions. Unfortunately they were in the Iberian peninsula, in enemy territory, and did not dare to rise to the surface, except for sporadic sorties to monitor the situation.
"Everything okay?" Nadie asked.
"Everything ... Except being buried underground, like moles."
"I know, it's depressing. But if we stay out too much we risk drawing attention to ourselves. "
"Garcia?"
"He ... He is in the company of Revy and Eda."
"Two bad subjects ... I am surprised that el nino does not smoke and does not drink beer."
"They are not two saints, but they offered us hospitality. And I'm very grateful to them for that. "
Roberta smiled and adjusted her glasses.
"Listen ... Why don't you come back to my service?" Nadie suggested.
"First you accuse me of theft and now would you like to sum me up?"
"I took a blunder ... A big blunder. And in doing so I ruined a friendship. I feel so guilty ... "
Roberta snorted, stood up and turned to Nadie, still smiling.
"When this war is over, if we live, I will be happy to work again for you."
Happy, Nadie embraced her. They stayed like that for a few minutes, then they heard someone clear their throat. They turned to the front door and saw Revy staring at them.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this sweet moment, but we have to take a trip on a surface."
"Who, exactly?" Nadie asked.
"Me, Eda and Roberta."
"And I?"
"You are not a fighter, nor is Garcia. It's better if you stay here. "
"You instead?"
"Roberta didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
"That in the past the three of us were in the European army."
"This gets me new."
"Returning from the African front. We were under General Esdeath. "
"Roberta, why didn't you ever tell me?" Asked the redhead.
"It's a chapter in my life that has been closed for years ... Although I'm proud of it, I prefer not to talk about it, given that there are now British in power."
"But Leila and Esdeath are Europeans, and members of the imperial government."
"The real power is in the hands of Cornelia, the empress."
"But she has never shown herself hostile to Europeans, since she is on the throne."
"I know ... But prudence is never too much."
"Now let's move on, time is money." Revy intervened.
Earth orbit
Gerel was annoyed. She had expected a lightning victory over the earthlings, but they resisted her strength tenaciously.
I should have expected it ... The invasion was organized two millennia ago, when the Earth was sparsely populated and technologically backward. And in this time, humanity has proliferated and evolved, perhaps even by copying the technologies found on the lunar outpost.
The blonde thought.
She didn't like this situation at all. Her army was not boundless, and by this step the invasion would have failed miserably. And she couldn't afford that. She had sworn to avenge her brother and to create a new empire of Rathúnas, and he would have kept that oath, at any cost, even to go down into the field herself. She could not afford to fail, both for the memory of the extinct and for himself, the last representative of an ancestral people, who made interstellar journeys when humans still built the pyramids on Earth. She had to win that war, it had become a personal matter. It would have emerged victorious from that conflict or it would not have survived the outcome.