Code Geass: Enduring Retribution
Key:
" " - Regular Speech
' ' - Unheard Thoughts
" " - Radio Communication
" " - Amplified Speech / External Speakers / Public Address System (PA System)
Disclaimer - Code Geass is owned by Sunrise Inc.
Chapter II: The Black Prince
1 Year Later
For the past few weeks, Charles zi Britania, 98th Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, had been encountering a emotion of which he had had little experience with in the latest years of his life, that of the feeling of pride. In the last two decades as ruler of the world's largest and most powerful empire, Charles had abandoned virtually any hope that one of his descendants may prove worthy of inheriting the throne, the vast majority of both his wives and children resulting in generally bitter, if not total, failures. True, some had stood out from the mass, including Marianne, Cornelia, and most notably Schneizel, whom, despite the boy's snake like demeanor, had shown rather promising potential. And yet, despite his recognition of these rare and few outliers, none seemed to come close in comparison with his latest son, Lelouch vi Britania, 11th Prince of the Empire and 17th in line for the Imperial Throne.
The boy was, in rather blunt terms, a genius. But such a word was far too weak to accurately described the raven haired toddler. He was a prodigy, better yet, a miracle of nature. The amount of intellect displayed by the boy was one he could not have, even at his most wishful of times, possibly imagined.
Aged but a mere five months, Lelouch had learned to walk in the most dignified of fashions, as if he had been trained from birth in the ways of nobility. At eleven months, the boy had learned to speak and, within but a few days, and gone from his first word to completely fluent speech, as if it was but a second nature. Even more impressive was the toddler's insatiable desire for information, having ransacked the imperial archives after having browsed through the entirety of the Aries Villa's private library, his mother having only been alerted of the fact that her child was reading college level works after a formal complaint from the archivist, whom had become anxious over the disappearance of a variety of volumes from his shelves.
Having learned of her child's apparently sensational mind, Marianne had requested him if she could allow Lelouch to begin his private schooling as soon as possible, a wish he granted without a second thought. To both his and Marianne's surprise, Lelouch had been found apparently skipping his afternoon classes upon the very first day, bringing him the considerable ire of his tutors. It was not his blatant disregard towards his education that elicited surprise from the duo, but rather the events that had followed.
"Now Lelouch, you realize that this is of great importance, don't you? You possess a mind like nothing I, nor any of the royal family, have ever even heard of, let alone possessed. Why then are you attempting to bypass your education? Do you not care?" Marianne had been berating her child for the past half - hour, somewhat ticked off that she had to treat the boy as nothing but a child, ironic considering his age, despite the phenomenal mind he seemed to possess.
"Mother, you do realize those persons you reference as 'tutors' have nothing to teach me that could possibly ever come to any…" Lelouch's rant was quickly cut off as his mother scolded the boy once again.
"Tut, tut, tut. No child of mine, especially with the natural abilities such as yours, is going to skip school as long as I remain."
Dejected and seemingly chastened, Lelouch had given arguing with his mother, Marianne having then picked him up and carried him to his first official session of the day, history.
However, it was not long before Cornelia had dragged an angered Lelouch back before Marianne, having found him, once again, lounging comfortable within the family gardens.
The sight of her son in her captain of the guards' figurative chains, Marianne had become rather annoyed with her son, her earlier intervention having clearly lacked in terms of effects. Herself now dragging an indigent Lelouch, Cornelia closely at her heel, the 5th Empress and Consort of the Holy Britannian Empire addressed the boy's tutors, having convened them in one of the villa's many living rooms.
"It seems your charge has escaped yet again. Now I realize he is a prince of the empire and my son but that does not give him an excuse to simply neglect the education I and his father have decided to provide him. If he causes any more trouble you are to report directly to me and I will handle the situation as I see appropriate. Is that clear?" A both commanding and forceful edge having seeped itself into the woman's tone, with a hint of annoyance making itself hear as well within the declaration.
Of all the reactions Marianne had come to expect from the brief meeting however, the one received was not one of them. She had envisioned the tutors' becoming anywhere from anxious to relieved, either due to the shame of letting a mere toddler, one whose size made his run slower than most adult's leisurely walk, to escape their attention and sneak away or his usage of princely authority to force them into obedience, something he had caught onto rather rapidly she noticed. Instead, Marianne became intrigued when the faces in front of her displayed embarrassment.
"Empress Marianne…" A male tutor began. "Your son…How do I put it…Did not, um, 'escape' as you and the captain believe."
"What do you mean he didn't escape?" She asked. "Cornelia here clearly found him reading in the villa's gardens, so please elaborate on your explanation."
An aged female tutor now faced the confused duo of women, now turned interrogators, stating "His highness was allowed to leave at our discretion, he did not leave his courses behind without permission as you perceive."
"But Lelouch barely spent the better part of four hours in class before the captain discovered him, and the customary lunch break had yet to pass for at least another hour. What convinced you to let him leave so early?" It was clear at this point that Marianne's earlier annoyance was transforming into earnest curiosity, her desire to understand the tutors' actions only growing by the minute.
Once again, the elderly woman answered the inquisitor, explaining to her how, "Upon his highnesses' earlier return, he demanded us to present him with the curriculum's final examination papers, not for his designated grade level but for that of graduating students." The woman paused, letting the implication sink in, before continuing, "Naturally, being a prince of the empire, we carried out his request and displayed before him the five graduation examinations of language, history, mathematics, science and philosophy, at which point he began working through each one. Around an hour and a half later, the prince declared that he had finished all of the exams before him and handed them to us for assessment. To our, in all honesty, greatest shock, none of his papers scored lower than the 90th percentile. Believing, and forgive us for even thinking of such a possibility, that his highness had somehow cheated, we each presented him with completely different versions of the exams, asking him to redo them once more, this time under our intense and watchful gaze. In a similar fashion to the first time, the prince completed his examination in little - over an hour, at which time we, once again, proceeded to evaluate them. To our surprise, each and every one of the works came back with an even greater score, the lowest of them reaching the 95th percentile this time around. Empress Marianne, your child has officially completed his education as of 5 p.m. this afternoon."
A tense silence hung in the air, disbelief rife throughout both Marianne's and Cornelia's minds as they registered the woman's long winded explanation. After several moments, both royals looked down upon Lelouch's small figure, only to see an almost infuriating degree of smugness upon the boy's face, an unmistakable smirk plastered across his lips.
While both knew Lelouch had proven to be unimaginably intelligent, the very fact that he, a toddler in every physical sense of the word, at the age of 1, had not only completed, but also passed, the graduate level examinations, with flying colors no less, simply left them in a state of awe.
"Now mother," the young boy said, "Would it inconvenience you to let me return to the gardens? I was in the middle of a rather intriguing novel before all of this unnecessary commotion and would desire to pick up where I left off. Is this a problem?" Lelouch's tone of voice was almost condescending in nature and held no small amount of amusement at his captor's predicament, extracting the most of the situation to his deleted benefit.
"Um…Yes of course dear. Now run along now, I'll see you later at dinner tonight."
And with a quick hug and a word of thanks, Lelouch sauntered away back to his previous position of comfort, his destination a large orange tree whose shade he could use to protect himself from the afternoon sun.
Upon hearing the story from Marianne during the Imperial Family's weekly evening gathering, Charles curiosity and pride in his latest son had, to his pleasure in fact, quite frankly peaked, yet another fact that did not fail to disappoint. Yet Lelouch's staggering intellect was not the only detail which drew the Emperor's attention, it was also the prince's apparent attitude.
Lelouch was, in all appearance, an extremely cold and distant child. The toddler was paranoid in every sense of the word, always wary of his interactions with others, whether they be members of the royal family, nobles, military personnel and even commoners. Those few whom had attempted to engage the boy in conversation often met both icy and dismissive responses, their attempts often facing rapidly apart. It was only a select few individuals whom had the privilege of eliciting emotion some form of positive emotion from the boy, those few including his mother, Clovis, Cornelia and a very young Euphemia, his younger but by a few weeks. But even more intriguing of the boy was his absolutely ferocious defensive streak, sending withering glares and monstrously brutal worded assaults towards anyone who dared strike at those he cared for.
In one particular event, during Cornelia's graduation celebration from the military academy no less, the boy had , almost savagely, bent a noble's pride and standing merely through the power of words. The Earl of Nashville, a rather prideful individual, had made some derisive comment upon women in the military. Having been passing by the ballroom floor at the time of the statement, Lelouch had taken great offense considering both his mother's and half - sister's involvement within military affairs. It was not long before the toddler had publicly threatened the man with the possibility of life - imprisonment under the pretense of Lèse - Majesté, quickly silencing him and forcing him to recant his previous statement. Needless to say, whatever political support the Earl had quickly evaporated following the his humiliation.
And so, it was these traits that brought Charles a deeply ingrained feeling of pride. After countless wives and children, finally one had shown true promise, not only meeting his expectations, but surpassing them as well. He was, for lack of a better word, pleased, impressed more - so.
However, despite the positive outlook he could not overlook over Lelouch's development, both Charles and Marianne had begun to experience feelings of worry over there son's inhumane rate of development. With his frightening intellect, Lelouch could truly endanger the duo's plans in initiating Ragnarök should he ever learn of its existence and become opposed to it, not to mention the obvious ire of V.V. towards the boy, believing him to be 'unworthy' of Charles attention, a feeling elevated by the very fact of him being Marianne's child, a detail which angered the immortal to no end.
But of everything which garnered both Emperor and Empresses' concern was the seemingly friendly, if not almost intimate, relationship between Lelouch and C.C. While it had been apparent that the green haired immortal had shown interest in the child since his birth, the sheer number of encounters in which Lelouch and C.C. seemed to find themselves in, often in semi - secluded parts of the villa, had gradually instigated a sense of suspicion upon the witch by her 'allies'.
"Charles?" Marianne asked, her tone an intermix of intrigue and worry.
"What is it dear?" Charles responded in his typically gruff, yet somewhat soften, voice.
"Have you noticed how C.C. has been interacting with Lelouch recently? The way they've been meeting and relating to each other is starting to worry me. Do you think, perhaps, that she's offered him a contract?"
Charles pondered the question for several moments, carefully thinking over the details of his beloved's question. After several moments of quiet reflection, he answered, "While I do agree the girl's fascination to the boy is both rather unnatural and, dare I say, friendly, I don't believe it is anything we should concern ourselves with. After all, should she have gone through with offering our son a contract, I have no doubt my brother would have already informed us."
"He might have informed you maybe, but I highly doubt he would have done so for my sake. That brother of yours seemed to loathe my very being and I am honestly worried of what he might do to Lelouch. The very mentioning of his name seems to make him want to cringe in frustration."
Yet again an award silence hung over the two, observing the green and raven haired beings interacting with each other under one of the villa's many trees. C.C. could be seen eating one of her pizzas, much to Lelouch's apparent discomfort, the younger of the two conversing with her while holding a copy of "War and Peace" in his hand, a gift from Schneizel he had told them.
When Charles responded, his voice trace of apprehension, words carefully chosen as he voice his response. "I do not believe my brother will make a move against the boy or you for the time being, he is too focused on making sure I am not displeased with him and achieving our dream to take action on his displeasure. As for C.C. we can always increase our surveillance on her, but for now she should pose no threat, as long as her ultimate wish is accomplished. The only thing we must be wary of is that son of ours now however. I expect a great many things from him but we must be wary of what course of action he may take should he be "rubbed the wrong way"."
"As smart as you are Charlie, I cannot hide my displeasure when you talk of Lelouch as nothing more than another pawn of yours. He has, after all, taken on the best of both our qualities. He is only a year old and he already dwarfs most of your other children. Even Schnitzel seems apprehensive of him; have you ever seen the two interact with one another? Its as if they are both preparing to be backstabbed at any moment."
Charles failed to comment on the woman's latest comments, quietly reflecting on the possible implications. Whatever may come, however, he would be ready. In the end, no matter the consequences, only Ragnarök mattered. While he had genuine respect for Lelouch and love towards Marianne, their deaths would be remedied once the Collective Unconscious of humanity was destroyed, permanently merging the should of both the living and the dead, ending the lies and deceit strife throughout the world.
It was at that moment that Marianne brought his attention back towards herself, gaining it through a quick jab to his left arm, seeing as how she was standing at his side. She then directed his gaze towards an approaching C.C., the witch holding in the right hand a small white card, with golden leaf decorating its edge. What caught the Emperor's attention, however, was the almost unnoticeable blush that seemed to make its presence felt upon the green haired immortal's checks, a detail that caught his full attention. Neither he no Marianne had ever seen the woman express any form of emotion other than annoyance on her indifferent facade, yet here a genuine expression of happiness seemed to grace her eternal youthful features. Such attention to detail was not lost upon Marianne either, whom noticed herself an ever minor upward curl of her contractor's lips, as well as…what seemed like, dare she think, tears?
'What has happened to make her act in such a way?' Marianne thought to herself.
"What is that in your hand C.C.?" Mariannes inquired.
C.C. remained frozen for a time, quickly schooling her features into her casually uncaring facade, before answering. "It's a gift from your son." She stated, her tone flat but with a trace of happiness.
"Oh?" Marianne said, attempting to dig deeper into the matter at hand, "Whatever for?"
"He…he said that, considering he did not know my birthday, that he might as well present me his gift now…" C.C. voice was now wavering ever so slightly. Then, before her contractee could make a retort, the immortal briskly walked away, finding refuge within the Aries Villa's walls, a single tear of joy rolling down her cheek.
"I dare say Marianne, whatever our boy has done, he is very unique…" Charles stated, interest blatantly apparent in his voice. His son's ability to move C.C. to tears was something that truly grasped his attention. "I think, as we conversed upon earlier, that it may be wise to watch the two more closely from now on."
"I agree. My oh my our boy is growing fast, already wooing women to his will." A playful tease worming its way into the otherwise serious statement of conformation to her husbands desire.
And with that, both Charles zi Britania and Empress Marianne vi Britania parted ways, each in the direction of their respective destinations. Truly their son was special.