Lelouch did not have as much time to talk with Shirley after her awakening as he would have liked. The doctors came running in to check on her, and as he had predicted, the police were eager to ask her questions about her disappearance. He didn't get to stay with Shirley while she was being interrogated, though evidently the police left frustrated that she claimed not to remember much about the incident. That was a relief

Though she had regained consciousness, Shirley would still have to remain at the hospital for another day or two. The doctors wanted to continue to observe her while she continued to rebuild her strength. Fortunately, there was every indication that she would make good progress.

As he got ready for bed, it was hard to believe that it had been only a week since the calm of Tanabata, with entering Shirley's Palace, Medjed's challenge, fighting Shirley's Shadow, her subsequent hospitalization, and exams all one after the other. But in his singleminded determination to save Shirley, it had been some time since he had spent time with his confidants. It wouldn't do to neglect them further. His powers depended on the strength of his bonds with others, and a bond could always fade, especially if unattended to.

But which of his confidants should he visit first?

"I guess the Oni has to let me go now," a voice echoed in his mind. "But I come here from time to time. I hope I'll see you again soon!"

Kaguya.

Other than Shirley, the Sumeragi heiress was his newest confidant, and she only knew him from two chance encounters. The faint bond that they had formed at Tanabata would be the first to fade if he ignored her. And there were other potential advantages to meeting with her… political advantages, of course. Perhaps through her, he could come into contact with other leaders of the Japanese Resistance.

There was no guarantee that she would be at the shrine tomorrow, but it was worth a try.

xXx

"The Oni came back!" Kaguya smiled, running over to him. She was dressed similarly to how she had been at Tanabata, suggesting that it was her usual manner of dress and not simply worn for the holiday. "I was starting to think you had forgotten about me," she pouted. "Don't you know how to keep a date?"

"Firstly, this isn't a date," Lelouch said in annoyance. "Even if it was, you never gave me a specific time to meet with you. "Besides," he said, giving her his best wicked grin. "Since when does an Oni follow human rules?"

"You remembered!" Kaguya cried in delight. "That's what you asked me when we met in the woods all those years ago."

He had? She gave him too much credit.

"Anyways, what do you want with someone like me, Lady Kaguya? Surely you know that we're both too old for make-believe things like oni."

"You're no fun! Why do I have to want anything from you?"

"Because someone like you wouldn't survive as the head of one of the Six Houses without growing into a shrewd politician. You get others to underestimate you by playing up what they perceive as youthful naïveté and flights of fancy, and then you outmaneuver them before they've even had a chance to realize their error."

"You make it sound so sinister."

"It's in your namesake. Kaguya-hime, the princess of the moon who deceived five mortal princes with impossible tasks."

"That's right!" She said cheerfully. "And she was one of the most renowned beauties in Japan!"

He had been wondering why his bond with Kaguya was represented by the Sun Arcana, rather than the Moon Arcana, as would have befitted her namesake. But it was clear to him now. Kaguya Sumeragi simply radiated energy. Yes, she hid devious intelligence behind that sunny expression of hers, but the upbeat young girl before him was the real Kaguya Sumeragi as well.

"So I ask again: what is it that you want from someone like me, Lady Kaguya?"

"You don't need to be so formal," she said, drawing uncomfortably close to him. "Or would you prefer that I call you Prince Lelouch?" She said, dropping her voice to a private whisper. "I know these days who was kept at the Kururugi Shrine before the war, and who the Oni of my childhood had to be."

"Don't go saying things like that out loud," Lelouch bristled. "Besides, I renounced that title years ago."

"No one can hear us," Kaguya replied. "The only people around at the moment are my bodyguards, and I ordered them to stay at a safe distance. They won't come unless I call."

"You make it sound like you were expecting me." He eyed her intently.

"Tell me, did you stake out the shrine every day, waiting for me," he asked slowly, "or did you choose just this particular day?"

"Just today. You would be in school during the week, and we ran into each other a week ago to the day, so if you were going to return, it would be today."

"Very astute of you. It appears I allowed myself to underestimate you as well." Was he letting himself become too trusting of people? Of course, if she meant to harm him, she probably would have done so already. "So now what? Do you intend to whisk me off to Kirihara? If that's the case, I won't resist. I wouldn't mind meeting with Kirihara again after all these years."

If he knew Kirihara, the old man would listen to him, and be willing to lend his support to the Black Knights, which would enable him to expand the scope of his rebellion. It would however be problematic if she brought him before the other leaders of the Six Houses instead of Kirihara. They wouldn't know him as well as Kirihara would from his days at the Kururugi Shrine, and as such would immediately distrust him as an exiled Britannian prince who was supposed to be dead. They might seek to use him as a bargaining chip, or worse, decide he was an unacceptable security risk and silence him themselves.

The others wouldn't be happy if they knew he was taking such risks, and so soon after they had berated him for going into Shirley's Palace alone.

"Oh… so that's what you're after," Kaguya pouted. "What do Kirihara and those other stuffy old men have that I don't? Half of them dress up in fancy suits, and the other half is so stuck in the past that they let so many opportunities slip them by! 'This isn't the right time… Patience, Kaguya'," she said, imitating as masculine of a voice as she could, though her youth worked against her. "They talk about things as if I can't understand them!"

"Then you have to make them understand. If their rules are holding you back, then break them. Make it so that they can't ignore what you have to say."

"Like an oni!" Kaguya said, her eyes lighting up.

"If you must put it that way."

"Well, I suppose I could arrange for you to meet with Kirihara," Kaguya said after a moment's consideration. "But you have to do something for me first."

"And that something is why you were waiting here for me in the first place."

"That's right!"

"What are your terms then, Kaguya?"

"Come walk with me! I want to know more about you! And if you know how my cousin Suzaku is doing," she added quickly. "You were his friend, back at the Kururugi Shrine, weren't you?"

"Yes… I was."

"Then you're not still friends with him?" Kaguya asked, giving him a piercing look.

That wasn't true! He still got along fine with Suzaku… well, except whenever the topic of the Black Knights came up… then….

"It's complicated," he replied.

Kaguya nodded. "Indeed." While Kaguya was undoubtedly an Honorary Britannian herself, at least on paper, to know that her cousin had enlisted in the military of the country that had invaded her homeland certainly put her in an awkward position.

"Did you know that I was once engaged to Suzaku?" She asked quietly. "It was to be a political marriage. That we were cousins didn't enter into it. The marriage was supposed to solidify the alliance between the Sumeragi and the Kururugi families. I used to treat Suzaku horribly…. It was probably because I resented being forced into a marriage when I thought I didn't have a say in it.". She frowned. "But he came for me, on that day in the woods, after you had left me in disgust… Not that I blame you. I was an awful, conceited person back then. I decided I would try to be nicer to him. And then…."

"The war," Lelouch finished.

Kaguya shook her head. "Listen to me, going on about such gloomy things!" She grabbed his arm excitedly. "Let's go!"

Lelouch knew he wouldn't be escaping her clutches any time soon.

xXx

It was late when he finally extricated himself from Kaguya and her seemingly boundless energy, so he retired to the Clubhouse.

He was less than pleased to see that Shi was there with Nunnally again.

Lelouch didn't have anything against Shi herself. The younger green-haired attendant was just a child at heart, and had none of her sister's spitefulness, nor Igor's deceit. In of herself, Shi could hardly be considered a bad influence on Nunnally, short of innocently repeating something that Tsu had told her. But her presence was nonetheless disconcerting. It made him wonder… did Shi have a deeper interest in his sister, besides having a friend to play with? An interest possibly involving the Velvet Room?

No, that was absurd! Even if she could somehow access the Metaverse, Nunnally wouldn't be able to fight! She was blind and crippled! If she was ever to get dragged into it by mistake and run into Shadows, then she… The thought was too terrible.

More than anything, Medjed's kidnapping of Shirley had shattered illusions of safety at Ashford Academy. If Medjed could effortlessly abduct her, who was to say that the mysterious Black Mask couldn't do the same to Nunnally? Sayoko was one of the best bodyguards he could ask for to protect his sister, given her background, but even she would likely be hard pressed against a Persona-user as soon as the fight moved to the Metaverse, especially one as experienced as the Black Mask, who had been causing mental shutdowns long before Lelouch had ever set foot in the Metaverse.

Or even…. No, Medjed/Mao was dead. There was no way Mao could have survived being pulled under that freezing water, injured as he had been. But now the fact that he hadn't actually seen Mao die started to gnaw away at him. He was getting soft. He should have killed Mao when he had the chance, but he had been too concerned about Shirley and what his fellow Black Knights would think instead of doing what needed to be done to ensure his sister's safety.

Then there was Alice… he knew he was probably being paranoid, but he still couldn't help but be suspicious of her. Diethard was running checks on her even now, as was Jeremiah. It hadn't taken much to persuade the media man, and Jeremiah's loyalty him had never been in doubt. Mao had mentioned that the Code-R lab had been located within the Narita Mountains, and they knew from Shirley that her father had supposedly worked as a geologist in a lab near Narita. Given that her father had been presumably killed by the Black Mask, it would be logical to assume that Mr. Fenette's co-workers had been eliminated as well. While it was a certainty that anything of value at the laboratory had already been removed, Diethard had leaped at the lead, and graciously didn't ask questions about where he had come by the information. He was also thankful that neither Diethard or Jeremiah had asked why he was so interested in the background of a junior high school girl.

"Lelouch?" Nunnally asked, a hint of worry in her voice. "Is that you? Is something wrong?"

Nunnally must have heard him come in, but he had been so lost in his thoughts that his failure to greet her must have unsettled her.

"No, Nunnally, nothing's wrong," he lied. "Did Shi come over again?"

"That's right! Shi says she's never had a slumber party before, so I was wondering if she could stay here tonight."

Shi nodded. "Big sister Tsu says the beds here are much more comfortable here than in that room."

Nunnally cocked her head in her brother's direction. "Lelouch?" She frowned. "What did I say about two-timing?

"We've been over this before. Tsu and I don't have that sort of relationship."

"But she visits you all the time," Nunnally pressed.

"She's a confidant, no more and no less," he replied.

"Confidant?" Nunnally asked, her suspicion of him clearly only growing.

Damn! He had meant to say "friend", but "confidant" had slipped out. He had to change the subject!

"It's nothing, Nunnally. As for your earlier question, I see no reason why she can't stay over." As wary as he was of the idea, it wouldn't be wise to refuse, or else Tsu might decide to get back at him for upsetting her sister.

Nunnally and Shi both seemed happy, but he had a feeling that his sister didn't fully believe him.

Soon, the three of them were in Nunnally's room. Shi had borrowed an older set of Nunnally's pajamas and was sitting next to her on the bed.

"Ummm…" Shi said nervously. "Mr. In-" She paused, correcting herself. "Mr. Lelouch? Could you read Miss Nunnally and I a story?" She averted her eyes. "The only book in the room is the Compendium, and I…"

That was right. Shi couldn't read.

How could he say no to her?

"What do you want me to read?" He asked gently.

Shi froze up, staring at him blankly. Of course…. As one who had never read before, Shi had no idea of what sorts of books there might be, other than the Persona Compendium.

Fortunately, Nunnally came to Shi's rescue.

"Could we read a story about Elizabeth III?" Nunnally asked expectantly.

Lelouch frowned. Elizabeth III was their ancestor, and one of the more controversial figures in Britannian history. She was known as the monarch who lost the British Islands to Napoleon after the defeat at Trafalgar and her subsequent abdication when she was betrayed and arrested by revolutionaries at Edinburgh. But she was also the lover of Duke Ricardo von Britannia,who was the first Emperor of the newly reborn nation of Britannia when she named him as her successor on her deathbed. Nunnally had once read a rather inaccurate book on that romanticized the queen as a tragic figure, and had been a fan of Elizabeth III ever since. To suggest that Elizabeth III might not have been a good ruler, or worse, to bring up the conspiracy theory that she had secretly arranged for Napoleon to be poisoned, was to make Nunnally defensive.

He couldn't read Shi something that would give her such inaccurate ideas. "Maybe a work of fiction would be better as a bedtime story," he suggested. Given how little regard he held the romanticized version of Elizabeth III's story in, he had to consciously stop himself from saying "another work of fiction", as doing so would inevitably upset Nunnally, but his sister still frowned in disappointment. "But if you want something historical, I have an idea." He got up, and returned a short time later with an old book, a collection of short stories. Flipping through it to the desired spot, he read, "The Queen's Necklace, by Maurice Leblanc."

It might not have been what Nunnally wanted, but she seemed satisfied enough just to have him reading to her. It had been too long since they did something like this together. As for Shi, every word he read off the page seemed almost magical to her.

"So he came in disguise to visit the family he'd stolen the necklace from as a boy, and then he returned its mounting to them," Nunnally said thoughtfully.

"To think he was already a Trickster at such an age!" Shi said in wonderment.

"You like stories like this, don't you brother?" Nunnally asked.

"And you don't?"

"I could relate to how everyone overlooked him at the time," Nunnally said slowly. "But it makes me worry about you."

"How so?"

"You admire kaito like Lupin, don't you?"

Kaito? That was the Japanese word for 'phantom thief'. Lelouch looked at his sister curiously. "Did Sayoko teach you that word?"

Nunnally nodded. It was conceivable that Sayoko had used it when Nunnally was asking about the Black Knights as they appeared in the news. But for a moment, Lelouch thought he saw a guilty look cross Nunnally's face. Simply inquiring about them wasn't anything to feel guilty about. Was his sister hiding something from him?

A sudden chill gripped Lelouch. What was with him? Of all people, he was starting to suspect his beloved little sister.

That couldn't be, could it? Once again his thoughts went back to the pinky promise he had made to Nunnally, and the thousand needles they had sworn to eat if they lied. He had reneged on that promise almost immediately, and continued to do so every day that he acted as a Black Knight. Should it come to it, he would accept whatever consequences his choice would bring. But Nunnally… she was the type to buy into ideas like pinky promises a little too much. He had little doubt that Nunnally took her end of the promise very seriously.

What would it take for her to break it?

Shi came to his aid, letting out a yawn. It still seemed odd that a warden of the Velvet Room could get tired in the same way that humans could. But then again, Tsu didn't have any issues with falling asleep in his bed, and she had said that they were indistinguishable from humans in most ways while manifested in the real world. It could well be that Shi really did need to sleep.

In any case, he wasn't going to question Shi when she had given him, unwittingly or not, the perfect means to extricate himself from a conversation that had turned awkward quickly. Saying that it was getting late, he tucked Nunnally and the young warden into bed, and then took his leave of them.

Why had he chosen to read a story about Arsene Lupin to Nunnally and Shi anyway? Perhaps he had wanted Nunnally to understand him a bit better. It wasn't exactly a secret that he had taken a favorable stance on the Black Knights in front of Suzaku or the others. But if she actually made the connection that he was a Black Knight… Suffice to say, it had been foolish of him.

Everything had once been so simple. Nunnally had been his only guiding light when he thought he had lost everything else. Now, he had more friends…. No, not just friends, confidants whom he could trust, not only with his secrets, but with his life. They each had their own reasons for fighting, and along the way, they had become reasons for him to fight as well. But at the same time, he felt lost. While he had never expected rebelling against Britannia to be painless, navigating the web of relationships he had formed around himself brought with it troubles of a far more personal nature, hurting those closest to him in turn.

It was a dilemma. If he had kept his friends at a distance, then most of them would have stayed safe, and Kallen and Shirley wouldn't have to deal with such heartache, and he wouldn't be beset by such confusion. But without his strengthened bonds with them, he would have never have gained the power to come this far, so going back to how things had been was out of the question. What he really needed right now was some advice on relationships, especially those with girls, lest he unwittingly entangle himself in an even more precarious situation than the one he found himself in now. The last thing he wanted was for the Black Knights to be torn apart from within by jealousy and spite.

But who would he talk to? He could rule out Sayoko. She would, as usual, get the wrong idea about everything. Then there was Jeremiah. While he couldn't exactly say that Jeremiah was one to be considered an older male role model, Jeremiah had lived in Pendragon and served as a guard to his mother in a court filled with the Emperor's scheming and jealous wives. Jeremiah might know something that could help him, and certainly would not hesitate to provide counsel for his sworn lord if asked. However, asking Jeremiah would have to wait until he was done checking Alice's background. Who else was there?

There was Leila. She had proved herself insightful time and again. He might even say that she was too insightful. She was part of the reason he was in this mess after all. But maybe she could help get him out of it.

xXx

There was no school the next morning. With exams over, Ashford Academy was officially on its month-long summer vacation. The dormitories would remain open, as many students had family who were either on active duty in the Britannian army, or who were otherwise back in the homeland. The Clubhouse also remained opened year round. Not only was it home to Lelouch and Nunnally, but the Student Council would often meet over the break to organize special trips, events for those remaining on campus, and plan for the fall trimester.

Wandering down to the academic buildings, Lelouch checked the bulletin boards, and saw that the spring trimester's examination results had been posted. Examining the results with more interest than usual, he quickly found his own name. He was one of the top ten highest scoring students in his year. That was what he was capable of when he actually tried. He probably could have done even better, if he hadn't exhausted himself in the Metaverse. Of course, such high marks were a deviation from his past practice of intentionally keeping his grades low, and he had ended up doing even better than he had planned, but one set of trimester exams, even in the top 10 of the class, was by itself very unlikely to lead to discovery by unwanted parties, while it would certainly provide a small but much more immediate boost to the esteem in which several of his confidants held him, which would in turn increase his power slightly. All in all, he was pleased with his performance.

There were some other familiar names among the top ten. Nina came out ahead of him, with perfect scores in science and mathematics, though Lelouch outperformed her in history and literature. He beat Kallen, who was consistently among the highest ranking students in their class, though he supposed appearing studious, to say nothing of her affected frailty, helped maintain the pretense that she couldn't possibly be involved with the resistance. Shirley would usually be among the top ten as well, but due to her kidnapping and subsequent stay in the hospital, she had been unable to take the exams. Doubtlessly she would have to make them up soon after returning to Ashford.

Out of curiosity, he checked the rankings for the seniors. Milly's name was far lower than he expected. She wasn't an exceptional student by any means, but she usually did passably. Yet with scores like those… if Milly were to do similarly on the midterm and final exams, she would fail her classes for the year. Was it because she had let her studies slide since becoming a Black Knight? Or was there another reason?

He met with Leila by the school gate. She was back to wearing sunglasses to disguise her face, given that they were meeting in broad daylight, though she continued to wear her usual hairstyle.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked. "Shall we go to our usual place?" She paused. "Or is it too soon?"

That was right. They had fought Shadow Shirley in the cognitive version of the chapel. "Going in there now would only be distracting."

"I agree that a change of location is in order. And to tell the truth, I didn't call to play chess with you today."

"I thought as much," Leila said quietly. She paused. "If you don't want to discuss it here, we could go to my place. It might be more comfortable than the alternatives, and we can be assured of privacy. Even if we are overheard, my staff was very carefully vetted, so they won't repeat anything that they hear to others."

Lelouch nodded. Given that Leila's parents had been spies for Europia, likely for many years, it made sense for them to surround themselves with individuals who shared their anti-monarchial sentiments and now served their surviving daughter. Lelouch knew that wearing a mask all the time could be tiring, especially in one's own home.

xXx

Superficially, Bresigau Manor followed the same pattern as Stadtfeld Manor: a walled compound mounted with battlements, with the actual residence, a four story building constructed in a similar style, behind them. But the two homes were very different if one spent more than a moment looking at them. Breisgau Manor had a pair of concentric walls whereas Stadtfeld Manor only had a single wall, and its walls were made of genuine stone in an authentic medieval style. A handful of towers with square bases rose at roughly even intervals behind the inner wall, and a central keep stood high above and next to the main residence, which had a blue roof. A second, smaller building stood perpendicular to the main structure. Perhaps it was the servants' quarters?

What was certain was that Bresigau Manor was a grander structure than Stadtfeld Manor, a small castle that looked like it had been transplanted from Europe. Was the Breisgau family considerably wealthier than the Stadtfeld family despite their nominally identical ranks? Or had the Bresigaus simply invested far more of their wealth into Area 11?

"It's modeled after my family's ancestral home, Castle Weisswolf," Leila explained.

"That's German," Lelouch replied. "Castle White Wolf."

Leila nodded. "You may recall that my father was Bradow von Breisagu."

"Bradow of Breisgau."

"That's right. It's a region of southwestern Germany, near the French border, along the Rhine and the Black Forest, known for its vineyards and orchards. Before the revolutions in Europe, it was common for Britannian nobles and royalty to arrange marriages with their counterparts on the continent to establish alliances between their families. In doing so, Breisgau became a fief held in vassalage to Britannia." A wistful look crossed her face. "I hear the countryside there is very beautiful, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. While I retain the title, my family hasn't held Breisgau since Napoleon's conquest. My parents recreated much of the look of Castle Weisswolf here in Japan, but I was told that it's smaller than the original castle."

"It's far larger than most people could ever hope to have, Britannian or Japanese."

"Don't think I'm proud to have such an extravagant home when there are countless Japanese people forced to live in squalor," Leila said quickly. "I'm grateful to have a comfortable place to live, but I didn't do anything to earn it. Nor did I earn my noble title. I just happened to be born into a noble family, and then I inherited my parents' estate when they were killed. The entire system which allowed me such comfort growing up is built upon the suffering of countless others, and I hated that. My parents felt the same way. Still, they understood that keeping up appearances was important, and how better for them to play the parts of proper Britannian nobles than making such a wasteful expenditure as building this castle?"

"If they really wanted to play the part, they wouldn't have lined the grounds with native plants of symbolic significance to Japanese culture," Lelouch said. All around them were cherry trees, wisterias, hydrangeas, irises, and more. "It's practically wearing their hearts on their sleeves."

"They grow well here, and they're pretty," Leila replied. Her lips spread into an almost mischievous smile, one that he was unused to seeing on her. "At least, that's what they told anyone who asked about them."

After a short walk through the garden, they arrived at the front door.

"Welcome back, Mistress Leila," her butler said. He was a kindly looking old man. His eyes widened as he saw Lelouch. "My lady… who is this young man?" he asked.

"This is Lelouch Lamperouge," Leila replied, wisely not disclosing his true identity. Even if she trusted her servants completely, if any of them were ever to be arrested and forced to confess by Britannia, they couldn't tell Cornelia what they themselves didn't know. "He's a friend of mine."

"This is the first time you've brought a friend your own age here," the butler replied. His eyes appraised Lelouch. "Quite a handsome young man too. Is he the one you've been meeting with? I must say, he seems much more agreeable to you than that vain prince."

Leila frowned. "I don't want to talk about Clovis."

"My apologies, Mistress Leila. I forgot myself. Can I get anything for you or your boyfriend?"

Wait. Boyfriend? That was a complication he didn't need. This scene was turning all too familiar. "You've got it all wrong-" he frantically began.

"That won't be necessary," Leila said, distressingly not bothering to correct her butler. "You've been working yourself too hard lately. I can take care of it."

Leila's butler suddenly looked very worried, but he composed himself quickly. "As you wish, my lady. If you require anything, you only need call. As always, I shall be discreet."

Leila's butler departed, leaving her alone with Lelouch in the foyer.

"He's been with our family for as long as I can remember," Leila said. "He's nothing but loyal and diligent in his work, but he seems to think that I can't take care of myself, and that's only gotten worse since my parents died."

"What are you playing at?" Lelouch asked.

"I beg your pardon?" Leila said, looking perplexed.

"First you ask if I love Shirley, choosing the most inopportune time to do so. Now your butler thinks that we're dating each other, and you made no effort to correct him."

"The truth would be too complicated to explain," Leila said defensively. "And I can't fault him for thinking that. It does look that way, from a certain perspective."

"Wait, what?!" Lelouch thought silently.

"Well, I suppose we can be thankful that he won't talk," Lelouch said after he had had the opportunity to more fully process what Leila had said. "The last thing I need is for Kallen to think that I'm in a romantic relationship with another girl." He shook his head and let out a chuckle, trying to relieve the tension. "So don't tell me that you're in love with me too."

Leila frowned. "I wanted you to be honest with yourself," she replied, a twinge of pain in her voice. "It was clear from how you were talking about her that you really cared about her, more than just a friend."

It began to dawn on Lelouch that he had read the situation very poorly.

"You could have asked me at a more opportune time," he said cautiously. "Why then?"

Leila firmly met his gaze. "Sun Tzu said, 'If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.' You were prepared to rush headlong into that sinking ship to save Shirley without fully grasping the nature of her Shadow, and all of our predictions about the nature of the trap she had set for us turned out to be wrong. At the same time, you didn't fully acknowledge your own reasons for doing so. Unless you stepped back and understood why you were taking such risks, you would continue to behave recklessly, and that could have put everyone else in danger."

"Making me acknowledge that in front of Kallen thew her into doubt. That distraction could have just as easily been fatal."

"I miscalculated, yes," Leila replied. "In retrospect, her reaction was obvious, but I failed to account for that at the time. I know myself, but I still have much to learn about others, so I won one and lost another."

Lelouch's mind began going into overdrive. Kallen had realized that Leila was interested in him too, in a way that went beyond simple admiration, but he was only truly recognizing that fact now. Leila's words and behavior since he had arrived at her home clearly made that the most probable scenario, and after the events of the last Palace, he could no longer afford to be willfully blind where the feelings that the girls in his life had for him were concerned.

As for Leila's question back in the Palace... He now saw that she had indeed had a vested interest in knowing how he felt toward Shirley, given her own evident feelings for him. But he also had no doubt that Leila had been telling him the truth, that she had wanted to to confront his feelings out concern for him if he were to continue on heedless of them. He could see it in her eyes and hear it in the earnestness of her words. It wouldn't have been the first time that her words had helped push him to a deeper understanding of himself either, something he was grateful for.

Yet that presented him with an apparent paradox. Leila could read him easily, a skill that was no doubt useful for navigating the politics of Area 11, which required a great deal of social grace and intuition. Yet there appeared to be conspicuous gap in Leila's expertise, namely having a full understanding of how to handle relationships involving people around her own age. Otherwise, she would have immediately recognized why asking that question might upset Kallen.

Then again, if he was perfectly honest with himself, he was the last person who had any right to criticize Leila on understanding of relationships. For the longest of times, his own experience in such matters had been sorely limited, and even now he still had much to learn. But even with his own shortcomings there, he at least had a circle of friends on the Student Council...

A thought occurred to him. Did Leila actually have a meaningful circle of friends at St. Lucy's that she could call her own?

She would certainly have acquaintances, and there were probably at least a few that Leila could say she was on friendly terms with. But the more Lelouch thought about it, the more he realized that Leila's upbringing would likely serve to isolate her and keep what friendships she had outside of the Black Knights on a more superficial level.

Leila was the daughter of spies; she always had to be on her guard, lest she give her true loyalties away, which, until recently, would have risked getting her entire family arrested and executed for treason. Lelouch was no stranger to having to hide his true self around Ashford Academy, which was part of the reason why he had never been particularly interested in having a larger circle of friends outside of the Student Council. Moreover, unlike himself and the Ashford Family, who had been able to prevent most people from looking into his background too closely, the only shields that Leila had been able to rely on were wealth and the privileges afforded to her family by their noble title.

Being a noble was, of course, a double-edged sword. People would see her title and not Leila herself. Even students weren't immune to that. It wasn't unusual for him to see some of the more shameless ones around Ashford Academy engaging in flattery with and toadying up to those students from noble families. It was what Britannian society had trained them to do, after all. Besides staying out of the Imperial Family's vicious political games, that was another reason why Lelouch was glad that Nunnally and himself were able to pass themselves off as commoners at Ashford. He had no patience for that sort of thing, and he didn't want his little sister to be subjected to it either. But Leila didn't have that luxury.

And all of that was before she became Prince Clovis' supposed girlfriend. Her 'relationship' with the late Viceroy had invited all sorts of media attention upon her, which even his passing hadn't been able to fully dispel. The press, especially its tabloid elements, still occasionally ran stories on her, albeit thankfully less frequently than before, continuing to present Leila almost as if she had been Clovis' widow. That coverage would inevitably distort the lens through which others viewed her, a phenomenon witnessed in how the media shaped the public's perception of any individual who became a celebrity of sorts, for good or ill.

In her case, it was almost certainly more for ill. Now this was only guesswork on his part, but if her classmates at St. Lucy's believed what they saw on TV or read in the news and magazines, they would be fundamentally misinformed about what she was going through. Even if they tried to be kind to her, they would likely end up rubbing salt on her wounds in their ignorance. That would damage whatever chances Leila had of having a healthy social life there.

And moreover, it would not be unreasonable assume that Leila's intelligence could have an isolating effect among her peers at St. Lucy's. She was an articulate and very well-read young woman, faced with an educational system that was intended to mold her classmates into loyal subjects of Britannia who would wholeheartedly believe the propaganda that they were fed. Lelouch had historically slacked off in class, primarily to avoid the attention that performing as his true level of ability would bring, but it had also given him a partial reprieve from having to deal with such drivel. But he couldn't see Leila as being anything less than dedicated in her studies, and so she would have to fully apply herself to defending positions that she knew were false, and generally dumb herself down enough so that neither her classmates or her teachers would suspect her true sympathies. Yet at the same time, Lelouch could imagine that even a dumbed-down Leila would likely intimidate some students: both those would take it as further proof that she was out of their league, or those who would envy her for her gifts.

All of that would go a long way to explaining why she had made a faux pas such as asking him if he loved Shirley while still in front of his girlfriend in the first place; she had simply had few opportunities to truly be honest with others outside of her immediate family and staff. As such, she when she had attempted to be forthright with him, she had done so with all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Yet Lelouch realized, to his own embarrassment, that in spite of having far more opportunity to learn how to interact with others than Leila, with all of his friends on the Student Council, there had still been gaps in his expertise than were just as glaring as hers, if not more so. He probably wouldn't have even begun to address them if he hadn't awakened to the the Wild Card and learned that developing his bonds with others would prove key to his power.

"Lelouch?" Leila asked uncertainly, noticing that his attention had wandered, right when she was anxiously waiting for him to say something, anything.

"I'm sorry," Lelouch said to her. "I failed to recognize your feelings earlier, nor just how lonely you had to be outside of the Black Knights. I was a bit overwhelmed, as understanding dawned on me all at once."

His mind was still busily working though. Lelouch recalled what Leila's butler had said just a few minutes before. He wasn't just the first boy to visit her home; he was the first friend her own age ever to do so. He didn't know if Leila's butler knew that she was regularly meeting with Princess Euphemia or not. Leila did get along well with Euphemia, but their meetings were first and foremost a pretext for Euphy to leave the Government Bureau. For all he knew, the two of them might not even meet at Breisgau Manor to begin with; they could just as easily have some other rendezvous point arranged between them. And warm as Euphy was to everyone, there simply hadn't been much time for Leila and his half-sister to really get to know each other outside of the context of the Black Knights, meaning that their relationship was still mostly a professional one, rather than a full-fledged friendship in its own right. Which meant that he was likely…

The only real friend who Leila both regularly had contact with, and could consider her intellectual equal.

"I don't want to come between you and Kallen. Or Shirley for that matter," Leila said apologetically. "In their own ways, they're both remarkable young women, and they're lucky to have someone like you. There has to be some way to work things out between the three of you." Her cheeks flushed. "If I had met you a few months sooner, things might have worked out differently." Her cheeks turned red, and she shook her head. "No, what I mean is… We can still be friends, and play chess together from time to time." She was becoming more flustered, as if searching for a lifeline. "Or maybe we could try shogi," she added hastily. "That's like chess. I have a set here too."

Lelouch grimaced. Without meaning to, he had forced Leila to awkwardly attempt to bury her feelings for him, while desperately searching for a way to preserve one of the few meaningful relationships that she had.

It was to her credit that she did not seem to bear any ill will toward Kallen or Shirley for taking places in his heart before she could. And on his part, he had no intention of spurning Leila's offer of remaining friends; he valued her too much as one of his confidants, whom he could engage with in a way unlike any other. At the same time, he had no intention of being unfaithful to his girlfriend, but he understood now that Leila needed far more than just an occasional match with him.

"You're as much a friend to me now now as any of the others on the Student Council," he told her, "and a trusted confidant besides. I would miss it if we were to stop having our matches. It's hard to find a worthy opponent."

"Thank you, Lelouch," she said softly.

"But you know, Leila, you can only learn so much from playing chess. At some point, you have to get out and experience the world for yourself."

"What do you suggest?"

"I don't think our summer plans are finalized yet, but I'm sure that the others wouldn't mind having you join us. How does being an honorary member of the Ashford Academy Student Council sound?"

"Wouldn't that be too suspicious? Wouldn't there be those who would ask what connection I had with you?"

"If you need a pretext, you could just make a donation to the Ashford Foundation, and we could call you a "Friend of the School", or something like that. You could even transfer in after the summer break if you wanted to. In the end, what others think doesn't matter. You have to think of what's good for you. And what you need are friends who will accept you for who you are. You'll have that at Ashford."

Leila smiled faintly. "You're very kind. I shall think on what you have said."

The power of the Priestess resonated within him, signifying that his bond with Leila had taken another step forward.

xXx

As Lelouch arrived back at Ashford Academy, he received a call from Jeremiah.

"Your highness, I finished making the inquiries that you requested of me."

"There's no need for formality, Jeremiah. What did you find?"

"Officially, she doesn't exist, at least, not anymore. A girl matching her description was reported to have died in a fire along with her younger sister, a paraplegic, several years ago, but records of her cease there . Either you have an imposter with a resemblance to the deceased Alice, or…"

"Someone erased her records…"

Nothing good could come from either explanation. His fears were confirmed. He didn't know for sure what Alice wanted with his sister, if she even was the girl who had been called Alice, but one thing was certain.

Nunnally was in danger.

A/N:

This marks a landmark in the story. 40 chapters, over 200,000 words (including the author's notes) and not even one year since the first chapter was published. To think how far this story's come in so short a time, and the mostly positive feedback it has received is always a source of encouragement (but constructive criticism is always appreciated as well). I expect that the pace of updates will be somewhat faster over the summer, so stay tuned!

Edit: Made substantial revisions to Lelouch's scene with Leila to address the point raised that parts of his original narration felt too much like an omniscient narrator. In doing so, I expanded parts of his analysis, specifically relating it more to parallel situations in his own life, and slightly adjusted some dialogue to make things flow better.