Chapter 50
The Dues of Lineage
Despite her own wounds being fairly minor compared to what Lelouch and some of his other attendants suffered, upon their return to Tokyo Kallen had still been ordered to remain at the viceroy's palace for observation. The girl did not mind too much, aside from having to deal with the makeup homework built up as a consequence of her absence from school, but that was dealt with for the day and so she was resting in her room when a knock sounded.
"Enter," Kallen said.
The door opened to reveal a familiar smiling blond, who for some reason was cradling a bottle of wine.
"Hey Kallen, you busy?"
"Not as such," Kallen said. "I didn't know you were at the palace."
"I had some business with Lelouch," Milly said, "so I thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing." She raised the bottle. "Care to share a drink?"
"I'm technically underage," Kallen pointed out.
"So am I, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a glass every once in a while."
"Of course it wouldn't stop you," Kallen said with a wry smile. "Sure, why not. Let's see, I should have glasses somewhere."
While Kallen was underage, such peripherals were standard issue for the residential suites in the viceroy's palace. Thus not only were a pair of wineglasses quickly set on the table, the requisite bottle opener was also found.
"Lelouch prefers sweet meads, but I'm more partial to whites personally," Milly said as she poured. "That being said." She picked up the phone that was on the end table. "This is Milly, could I get some crackers and cheese that'll go well with sauvignon blanc brought up to Sister Kallen's room? Merci."
"Wine and cheese? How indulgent."
"Get used to it, Kallen," Milly said with a smirk of her own. "When you start getting wined and dined by the rest of the upper crust, it'll pay off in spades knowing which combo goes well together."
"Hmm, probably," Kallen conceded. "So what was your business with Lelouch? Assuming you can tell me."
"Negotiating the prenuptials," Milly said, swirling her wineglass.
Kallen was just reaching out for her own when her hand froze. After spending a moment or so gaping at the other girl, she finally took hold of the wineglass.
"I didn't know you two had gotten so far. Are congratulations in order?"
"Probably," Milly said, "but it's not as if he's actually popped the question. The discussions right now are sort of a, preliminary round, just to get a basic idea of what both sides are bringing to the table." The girl took a sip of her wine. "Marriages between nobles are as much business transactions as they are romantic affairs, something you'll want to keep in mind as well."
Kallen grimaced slightly, eliciting a chuckle from Milly.
"Oh, it's not so bad," the older girl tried to assure her junior. "If you and your prospective fiancé get along well, the prenups are more a formality than anything else, and a way of making sure the families on both sides don't get snippy after the fact."
"What do you mean?"
"A lot of it comes down to inheritance," Milly said. "Depending on where you and your partner are in your family's succession, it's often important to clarify how your own children will end up. If both partners are the primary heirs of their respective households, there's usually an effort to try to keep one child from inheriting both titles, since there's no way a single person could do all the work. For that matter, it's not uncommon for someone married to a peer to get passed over for another sibling."
"Oh, I didn't know that," Kallen said earnestly.
"I thought you wouldn't," Milly said with a slight smile. "It's another one of those things you would have learned more about had you had more time to prepare for your inheritance, but well…"
"I certainly do appreciate the time you're taking to help me fill all the holes," Kallen said.
"No problem," Milly said with a more mischievous smile. "Besides, it gives me opportunity to vent a bit about my own noble obligations."
At that point another knock sounded, notifying the two of the arrival of the hors d'oeuvres. The spread that was ultimately put before them was not too extravagant, even while boasting an impressive selection.
"Thank you, Nancy," Milly said, addressing the maid by name.
Considering the sheer number of servants that worked in the palace, Milly either had a really good memory or only a select few were granted the privilege, and responsibility, of attending to the girl when she was present. The woman in question at least seemed somewhat familiar with Milly, as she favored the girl with a slight smile as she bowed and took her leave.
"The other thing that prenups generally cover is how much each family will be contributing to help set up the new household," Milly said once the door closed. "That can get pretty varied since it depends on where the couple will end up living. Is the bride marrying into the groom's family or the other way around? Are the two going to be striking out on their own? Are either of the two already functionally independent? So on and so forth."
A brief thought flickered through Kallen's head as to what her father's arrangement with Yvette might have been, and how messy its dissolution was. The girl decided not to dwell on the thought however and focus on other parties.
"And which category will you and Lelouch fall under? If you don't mind me asking."
Milly dabbed her lips with a napkin, wiping away some of the creamy cheese that didn't quite make it into her mouth.
"Ah well, that's where things get interesting," she said. "You know that Lelouch is no longer part of the imperial succession, of course."
Kallen nodded. "He was removed from the imperial family upon his ordination as an Eden Vital priest."
"Whereas I am still the Ashford heiress, expected to succeed my family's title once my parents decide to retire," Milly said. "In these sorts of circumstances, that would usually mean he'd marry into my family instead of me marrying into his. On account of his connection with Eden Vital however, things get more complicated."
"No doubt," Kallen said dryly.
Milly gave a chuckle. "When a peer or their heir marries someone, the general expectation is that that spouse will help carry out said peer's duties. With Lelouch however, he has his own responsibilities as an Eden Vital cardinal, which keeps him busy enough that he just wouldn't have the time to help, especially not for a marquisate. That means he won't be getting the traditional stipend that a peer's spouse would get for their work."
"A peer's spouse is paid to work?" Kallen raised an eyebrow.
"I did say noble marriages were kind of like business transactions," Milly reminded. "And the stipend is often compensation for the spouse marrying in giving up whatever career they previously had to help with the household's noble responsibilities."
"I see," Kallen said thoughtfully.
"Anyway," Milly continued. "Lelouch intends to continue his duty as cardinal, but if he for whatever reason decides to step down from that and actively participate in managing the Ashford peerage, it's better to have the stipend's structure agreed upon now than have to haggle over it after we're married."
"That makes sense," Kallen said in between bites of her own. "I think."
"The most complicated part of a prenup negotiation tends to be how the assets of the individual spouses are dealt with," Milly said. "While keeping them entirely separate is always an option, it's looked down upon a bit, since it can come off as one side lacking commitment to the union."
"So what are you and Lelouch planning?" Kallen asked.
"Oh, we're definitely keeping things separate," Milly answered without missing a beat. "Lelouch actually has a lot of assets that can't be inherited by whoever ends up inheriting my family's peerage after me. It'd be an absolute train wreck trying to untangle those after the fact, so way better to just keep everything of his off to the side."
The almost flippant manner in which Milly made that declaration pretty much also made clear her thoughts upon what polite society would think of such noncommittal practicality. Kallen could only hope she could be so blasé if, or she supposed when, the matter arose for herself.
"What does Lelouch have that makes it so complicated?" the Japanese girl asked. "Assuming it's not all confidential."
"Mmm, you're not going to be spreading it around, so I don't mind," Milly said. "And neither would Lelouch. And it's not like it's that big of a secret, anyone that knows how to look up entirely public corporate tax records would be able to figure it out."
That was somewhat reassuring. Probably.
"So, Lelouch is kind of rich," Milly began. "Sorta."
From the look Kallen gave her, it was not the most auspicious start.
"What I mean is, Lelouch's net worth looks impressive on paper," Milly continued, "but there are a lot of qualifiers that make it so the amount of money he can actually make use of is much more limited."
"Okay, that makes sense," Kallen nodded.
"In fact, aside from the financial instruments, probably the single most expensive thing he owns is that fancy car of his you've been driving around."
All of the guilt that Kallen had managed to wash away from her continued borrowing of Lelouch's Lamborghini returned at that particular revelation.
"Then there are the things that he has use of but doesn't actually own," Milly went on, though the slight smirk made clear she was enjoying the rigid expression that flashed over Kallen's face. "Take the Imperial Ares Villa. His Majesty has granted Lelouch permission to live in it for as long as he wants or needs, but the villa itself is still property of the imperial family, and that permission can be revoked at their will."
Milly refilled her wineglass, causing Kallen to blink. Considering what was left in the bottle, the two between them must have drunk quite a bit, but Kallen could not recall just how many glasses she had had.
"Of course it's not like we need the villa or anything," Milly said. "Even in Pendragon, we could stay at my family's local residence. And then there's the family estate back in New England, and of course the house we have here in Tokyo."
"And for the time being, Lelouch has this nice big palace as well," Kallen added.
"That he does," Milly flashed a wider smile. "Which actually brings up a good point. Lelouch doesn't pay for any of his basic living expenses. Food, clothing, shelter, that all gets covered by his work, either by the government or by Eden Vital. Which means the stipend he gets paid as an Eden Vital cardinal goes straight to his bank account without him really needing to spend any of it."
"Huh," Kallen said. "I never actually considered that."
While Kallen also spent none of the stipend she received as an Eden Vital sister, that was because her own family's finances were more than enough to cover her relatively meager for a noble daughter's expenses. Her pay had previously just been accumulating in an Eden Vital credit union account, but since her rapprochement with her father, Albrecht had redirected all of it into some investment fund or another. The man seemed utterly incapable of letting money just sit around doing nothing.
"Anyway, back to Lelouch himself," Milly said. "In terms of the cash he has on hand, a decent chunk of it is in the savings he's accumulated from his pay as a cardinal. The rest of his net worth however comes in the form of shares he owns, which he inherited from, well, his mother."
Kallen's lips thinned at that. The Empress Marianne was not exactly a common topic, even with the cardinal. Still, that seemed more because there was rarely a need to invoke her name instead of any actual reluctance on Lelouch's part to talk about his mother.
"Did you know the Empress Marianne was descended from French nobility?"
"Only vaguely," Kallen said. "Something about her family escaping the French Revolution?"
Milly nodded. "They were part of the rush of aristocrats that fled continental Europe during that era, first for Great Britain and then for North America. Her Majesty's family managed to get some of their money out of France before their properties were seized by the insurrectionists and pooled it with a bunch of other similar such families to found the Imperial Bank of Britannia."
It took a moment, but Kallen's eyes went wide as the name registered.
"That's right," Milly said with a slow nod. "The Lamperouges are one of the founding families for IBB, and they still retain their golden share."
The Imperial Bank of Britannia was, while far from the oldest bank in the Empire, certainly one of the most prestigious and powerful. A good part of that power was because of a quirk in Britannia's taxation system, wherein it was at IBB that taxes collected from the general populace and businesses were deposited. The reason for this arrangement was because under imperial law, taxes were actually owed to the crown instead of to His Majesty's government, and it was the crown that disbursed the collected tax money to the government to implement whatever budget parliament passed. Indeed this arrangement served as one of the levers that helped the imperial family maintain its political supremacy. As for IBB, it had been chosen in the early days of the Empire's founding to handle this duty because amongst its founding families were not only those European noble houses that fled to Britannia, but also the Britannian imperial family itself. Which actually put the Lamperouge family in even loftier company than the Ashfords could claim.
"Holy shit," Kallen hissed. "I can see why you said Lelouch is kind of rich."
"IBB isn't publicly traded," Milly nodded again, "so it's not like there's a readily immediate price that could be put on the shares Lelouch owns. From the amount of assets it manages however, we'd probably be talking about somewhere in the billions of pounds, none of which Lelouch can actually use. So, yeah, kind of rich indeed."
Kallen took a moment longer to contemplate all that.
"But wait, if Lelouch owns shares in IBB, then wouldn't he get those uh, what do you call them…"
"Dividends?" Milly helped supply the word. "And yes, he does. In fact the dividend payments amount to more than his pay as a cardinal. Way more. So even setting aside the fact that he won't be doing any work for the Ashford Marquisate, we don't have to worry about providing him any other financial support either. Plus there's the bonus of not having to worry about him getting bribed by something as mundane as money."
"Bribes?" Kallen repeated. "Is that actually a thing you have to worry about in prospective spouses?"
"Of course," Milly said. "Remember-"
"Noble marriages are like business transactions," Kallen finished.
"You're learning," Milly said approvingly. "There have been instances where a peer's spouse used their position for their own personal enrichment instead of for the prosperity of the house they married into. As you can expect, those relationships never end well."
"Yeah, I can see that," Kallen agreed. "I guess in some respects this makes Lelouch a great catch for any noble daughter that stands to inherit."
"Oh definitely," Milly said. "And it doesn't hurt that he's plenty handsome."
Kallen chuckled at that. "Are you sure you're not here just to brag about your boyfriend?"
"Well who else could I brag about Lelouch to?" Milly said with a wide smile, not even denying it. "All the other noble daughters I know would give me the stink-eye, while the commoners wouldn't be able to empathize with me about all the noble obligations."
"What about his siblings?" Kallen suggested. "One would think the Princess Euphemia would love to hear more about her brother's affairs."
"Euphie's been pretty busy as of late," Milly said, "cramming the third-year civics material. With Suzaku."
That elicited a raised eyebrow from Kallen.
"So I don't want to distract her."
"Distract her from the material or from Suzaku?"
"Yes."
That was all the answer Kallen needed. It seemed things were actually getting serious between the two.
"Is she going to be okay?" Kallen asked. "Not from Suzaku, of course, but you know."
"If you're going to be worried about anyone, worry about Suzaku, not Euphie," Milly responded. "With that knight of hers following her everywhere now, no one without a death wish is going to say anything too rude to her face."
Kallen pursed her lips. The selection of Marika Soresi as Euphemia's knight had caused more than a slight disquiet on Kallen's part when she found out. While the girl knew she should not preemptively prejudice herself merely on account of Marika's familial relations, it was undeniable that Marika's older brother was an active, and willing, participant in the conspiracy that tried to gas the Japanese ghettos with sarin. Thus far Kallen had treated Marika with polite but distant apathy and the knight reciprocated in kind. Maybe in the long term they might move past that if Euphemia lingered overlong in Lelouch's orbit, but Kallen was not in any particular rush to hurry that along.
"Suzaku on the other hand, well, hormone-addled teenage boys tend to not have the best judgment," Milly continued, "and in his wheelchair Suzaku looks a lot less threatening than he actually is. Rivalz has been trying to help keep an eye out for him, but unfortunately someone is almost certainly going to try something stupid."
To that Kallen gave a more open scowl. By this point she and Suzaku were, while not friends, at least congenial enough that Kallen had no particular wish for him to come to harm. Combined with how the hostility towards Suzaku was obviously driven by prejudice of his Japanese ethnicity, and this was one of the instances where the two arguably had common ground.
"I take it I should also keep an eye out for him?" Kallen said.
"Well you are already a prefect," Milly said, "so that's a given. And it's not like Suzaku isn't without friends of his own. Quite a lot of the Japanese students have consolidated around him and Kaguya, and since Kaguya seems to be okay with his dalliance with Euphie, they've been pretty supportive as well, which extends to also keeping an eye out for him."
Kallen scratched her head. "The way you describe it makes it all sound like some sort of political play."
"Keep in mind the demography of Ashford's student body," Milly said. "We're basically a microcosm of the Empire's nobility and upper crust, and the same politics that affects the adult world gets reflected amongst the students as well."
"Huh, that is true," Kallen conceded, then chuckled. "I suppose that says something about how little I've been paying attention."
"But at least you're paying more attention now," Milly said with her own smirk. "And if you were actually inclined to put some more effort into it, you'd probably be third in the school's social hierarchy after me and Euphemia."
"That high?" Kallen said with eyebrow raised.
"Well sure. The rest of us noble scions are still just heirs or spares. You're the only one that's about to come into her own title. That actually would make you the second ranking peer in the school after Euphie, and the only reason I'd outrank you socially is because my family does own the school."
"Right," Kallen said with a snort, then noticed the empty bottle. "Wait, did we really finish off the entire bottle?"
"Sure did," Milly said cheerfully without any indication of intoxication. "And good job keeping up with me there."
That was arguably thanks to Kallen's augmentation than any natural tolerance on her part.
"Before we wrap up," Milly said, setting down her empty wineglass, "there's one last thing I wanted to discuss with you."
"Oh?" Kallen said as she did likewise.
"Lelouch told me about it," Milly began anew. "The Lineage Preservation Program."
Kallen somehow maintained a stoic composure on her expression.
"And the fact that he is obligated to participate in it. He made sure to clarify that if we got married, I would have right of first refusal."
Kallen tried not to make a face, though from the way Milly smirked back at her she had obviously failed.
"The existence of this program however also led me to wondering. Are you under similar obligation?"
"And if I am?" Kallen responded levelly.
Milly's lips thinned. "To be completely honest Kallen, the mere existence of this program creeps the hell out of me. I can sort of understand the practical rationale behind it, but there's something off-putting about the prioritization of one's lineage over one's person."
"Well, you're certainly not alone there," Kallen said with a wry smile.
Milly returned the expression, then took a deep breath.
"The reason I ask, Kallen, is if you are obliged to participate in this program, do you have enough safeguards in place to protect your child?"
Kallen blinked. "Why would you be asking me that?"
"Kallen," Milly said in a deadpan tone. "What did we just talk about?"
Thinking back, Kallen tried to figure out which specific topic Milly might be alluding to.
"Umm, noble marriages?"
"Are like business transactions," Milly repeated, "and the child that is produced is one of the assets that gets a lot of investments poured into."
To that Kallen actually inhaled sharply. Maybe it was because she had spent so long avoiding her noble duties that such a thought would have never occurred to her without someone, like Milly, bringing it up. Milly gave Kallen a gentle, sympathetic look.
"I'm not saying that such children are nothing more than tools or assets," Milly said. "At the very least, they shouldn't be to their parents. But that is sort of the thing, it's on the parents to protect their children, to shower them with enough love, to keep the demands of state from crushing them. But what happens if the parents aren't there?"
Then the rest of the family should pitch in, was what Kallen wanted to say. It was even something she still believed in. In fact she had had a rather long, and exhausting, conversation with both her mother and father about this every eventuality. Kallen did not doubt for a moment that her mother, and her father for that matter, would look out for any children of hers birthed from Lineage. But there was obviously something more that Milly was worried about.
"I trust my parents," Kallen finally said. "That they'll love any children of mine, as much as I would have loved them."
"Good," Milly said, with a brighter smile. "Then you wouldn't mind me being your children's godmother as well?"
"Huh?"
The way Kallen's jaw now dangled was most unladylike, but she could probably be excused. One could only account for so many surprises based on Milly's reputation for spontaneity alone, and the girl had been tossing them out one after another this evening.
The smile disappeared as Milly assumed an almost imperial visage.
"This would be the third time that Lelouch came back to me with injuries incurred over the course of carrying out his duty."
The first, was probably Shinjuku, Kallen quickly surmised, though back then Lelouch and Milly weren't an item yet. The second, was actually not Lake Kawaguchi, since Lelouch personally emerged from that pretty much completely unscathed despite all the near misses. That meant it was instead when Lelouch lamed himself healing Kallen's own mother. The third would then be this latest excursion out to the Kamine Island thought elevator, where the strains of projecting Clarent had bedridden Lelouch for a few days.
"I have a fairly limited understanding of the full extent of those duties," Milly continued, "aside from the fact that there is an inherent danger to them. And it is a danger that I am utterly helpless to help him face or protect him from. The same however cannot be said of you."
Kallen pursed her lips. "I have my own reason for following His Eminence."
"I know you do," Milly said. "But it doesn't change the fact that of the people around Lelouch, of the people in this entire world, you're one of the few that can help him shoulder his martial duties. That you're taking a hell of a risk in the process as well. So the best thing that I can do, the only that I can do really, is to make sure none of you have anything to worry about in the home front. And, if the unthinkable happens, to be ready to pay the debt I will owe you."
"You won't owe me anything, Milly," Kallen declared.
The other girl however shook her head. "If you fall in Lelouch's defense, then I will owe you the world, Kallen. There's no way I wouldn't, not with you sacrificing everything for me, and for Lelouch."
Even if Milly seemed determined to hold onto such a sentiment, Kallen was not entirely comfortable with it. Yes, she could abstractly understand the obligations that came with these bounds of duty, but sticking to them so dogmatically almost seemed to cheapen the sentiment they were supposed to convey.
"And besides," Milly however was not done, as she regarded Kallen with an almost sad expression. "Do you have any idea how much it'd hurt to lose a friend like you?"
With those words, the unease gnawing away at Kallen turned into something else entirely. A sense of guilt that she had taken at face value Milly's remarks about obligations and debts. Noble marriages were like business transactions, but they were also human transactions, with all the emotional complications that entailed. One was not likely to conclude a successful transaction if the two parties could not stand each other, after all. And Milly Ashford, despite being a noble through and through, also wore her heart on her sleeve when it came to her family and friends. She would love every single one of them unreservedly, which made each and every loss all the more painful.
"Sorry Milly," Kallen said. "I suppose, I'd been so resolved in risking my life for the causes I believe in, I'd, stopped thinking about what gets left behind."
"That someone our age needs to steel their resolve so much," Milly said, "I have a lot of problems with that. And that's not counting the outright kids following Lelouch around." And then took a deep breath. "But it's an imperfect world we live in, and trying to stop any of you from doing your jobs will only make things worse."
Much, much worse, of which the Ashford heiress had only the barest inklings of, and even that was enough for someone as smart as Milly to recognize putting what amounted to child soldiers like Alice, Anya, and Dalque on the frontlines was the lesser evil by far.
"You'll also be following Lelouch for quite some time, no?" Milly continued. "Not just until this current crisis is over, based on what Lelouch has told me, you'll likely be part of his working staff for a while yet."
More like the rest of her working life, with some allowance for her duties as a noble peer.
"That's right," Kallen gave a nod.
"Then you will be as much one of my own as one of Lelouch's," Milly said, then more firmly, "and I take care of my own."
That Kallen did not doubt. At the same time, the girl was coming to another realization as well. Whereas in the past she had always looked down upon the cliques and factions that nobles formed as little more than self-serving backscratching, she was beginning to recognize that some of these alliances of mutual benefit originated from the close, personal ties of their members. That they looked out for each other out of mutual self-interest to be sure, but also out of care for friends or even family. And because it had taken so long for Kallen to become consciously aware of this distinction, she had never envisioned herself becoming party to such relations, until now at least. Still, there was one teensy little detail that Kallen wanted to set straight.
"I hope you're not expecting this care to be completely one-way," Kallen said with a slight smile.
The one Milly beamed at her was much wider. "Kallen, there are few things more reassuring than having you watch my back as well. And that of my children."
To that Kallen gave a nod, even as her smile slightly faltered. It still felt a bit early to be thinking of children, and Kallen was enough of an innocent maiden that the act of having kids easily made her blush.
"So, are you thinking of having two kids?" Milly asked without missing a beat. "Or maybe even three?"
"Uh, what?" Kallen stared at the other girl blankly.
"What what?" Milly parroted. "Surely it's not that hard a question. How many kids do you think you'll have? I won't get greedy and ask to be godmother to all of them, I'm sure you'll have plenty of close friends who would also like the honor."
"Have," Kallen was now the one repeating things, "as in with the program?"
Milly snorted. "No, silly. Have with whoever you marry! What, you think my offer was only for the absolute worst case?"
Something told Kallen if she actually said yes to that, she would definitely set Milly off. It probably wouldn't outright anger the other girl, but she would rightfully be irked.
"In all honesty, I really haven't thought about it," Kallen said instead.
"Hmm, maybe that's only something you'd think about after finding someone that strikes your fancy," Milly said. "Want me to introduce you to someone? How about Cole? He's the president of the culinary club, and is as good a cook as that title implies. A fine catch."
Kallen groaned. "Milllllly!"
Perhaps a single bottle of wine wasn't enough after all.
"Mrrrrw."
Suzaku gave a slight chuckle as he withdrew his hand. Arthur was not outright hissing at him, but the cat still regarded him with a less than pleased glint in her eye.
"I wonder what I did to offend her," the Japanese youth said aloud.
"I don't think you've offended her," Euphemia said. "She's just, very picky about who she lets close."
When the princess reached out to give Arthur a scratch, the cat accepted without any complaint. She even started purring.
"Maybe Arthur's just more comfortable around girls," Suzaku suggested. "Milly and Kallen don't seem to have any trouble playing with her either."
"Well, she is one of us after all," Euphemia said with a playful giggle, then glanced at the other woman in the room. "Want to give it a try, Marika?"
"I've already acquainted myself with Arthur, Your Highness," Marika responded. "She did not seem particularly averse to accepting my pets."
"I suppose that's another point in favor of your hypothesis," Euphemia said to the Japanese youth.
"For better or worse," Suzaku said with a sigh. "Well, maybe I can bribe her with some treats."
The youth looked back down at the book laid out in front of him. The two, three if one counted Marika, even if she was not actually studying with them, were again in the prefect clubhouse, working through the latest supplemental assignment given by Mr. DuBois.
"I honestly never realized just how much the Britannian government has evolved since its founding," Suzaku remarked.
"A lot of people think of the Empire as some sort of unyielding monolith," Euphemia said. "But in honesty, the way the Empire is now is likely nothing like what the Emperor Ricardo envisioned. Which is probably a good thing, to be honest."
The work before them was an annotated treatise by three seminal sovereigns of the Holy Britannian Empire. Three, because that was how many times Britannian sovereigns were forced to drastically overhaul the Empire's system of government to remedy some major crisis that had arisen. The first was such instance was with Ricardo von Britannia, the nation's founder and first emperor. One could hardly argue the fall of the old kingdom was not a major crisis, creating the need as it did to reestablish the government as a whole in North America, and the solution that the Emperor Ricardo settled upon was described in detail in his treatise.
Central to His Majesty's conclusions was an unequivocal dismissal of populism, of the unreliability of the masses in weighing decisions of state, and of the uncontrolled savagery the masses descended into until a firm hand once again imposed a singular will upon them. As evidence, Ricardo naturally drew upon the French Revolution for examples. To the man's credit, he actually rejected the notion of some divine right of kings. A king possessed obligations and duties, Ricardo argued, the fulfillment of which entitled him to the privileges of the crown. Failure to uphold those duties and a king became unfit to wear the crown. But who then should judge whether a king has failed or not? Certainly not the people, as in their eagerness to tear down a failed king, the French mobs demonstrated that they were not interested in actually rectifying the ills of their society, but in sating an animalistic thirst to make others suffer. That marked them automatically unfit to wield authority in society, whose purpose was to tame the more degenerate tendencies of man and guide him towards more productive ends that would benefit the all instead of satiate the one.
That still left the question of who should hold a king, or sovereign to account. Ricardo actually sidestepped this question, which the annotations explicitly pointed out. Instead he focused on how to get the most fit person, the one most likely to succeed in upholding their duty and therefore obviate the need to answer the question of accountability outright. Prospective heirs to the throne would be forced to compete with each other in the various fields relating to governance and statecraft. Order of birth would play no part in determining the order of succession, except perhaps giving a head start to the older imperial scions. The succession itself would be determined by which heir excelled the most in his or her studies, with the spares ordered on similar merit. Some might call this a rather optimistic approach, while others might ascribe a degree of cynicism in Ricardo's motives. The annotations did not offer a determination either way, except to note that the gaps in Ricardo's vision would cause problems the second of the three great sovereigns would need to deal with.
"I don't think the Emperor Ricardo was wrong in wanting his heirs to prove themselves capable of ruling," Suzaku said. "Though he probably didn't need to go to such extremes with it."
Extremes that saw quite a few members of the imperial family be killed.
Euphemia made a slight face. "I personally prefer the Empress Claire's methods."
"Claire li Britannia," Suzaku read the name of the author of the second treatise. "Her last name is just like yours, Euphie."
Euphemia blinked. "Yes? I mean, my family is descended from her."
"Oh, I meant the li bit," Suzaku clarified. "What does that mean, anyway?"
"Oh," the princess mouthed. "Right, it's something I'm so familiar with I rarely think about it. The letters signify the order in which a spouse married the sovereign, and of which spouse's child each of us are. My mother is officially considered the second wife of the Emperor Charles, so she, my sister, and myself are referred to as the li Britannias."
"I see," Suzaku said. "Then, the Empress Claire was similarly the daughter of a second wife?"
The princess nodded. "And that ended up saving her life when the imperial family fell into a civil war. Back then, the children her father had with his first wife were quite numerous, so no one was really expecting Claire to be a serious contender to the throne. In fact she didn't even grow up in Pendragon, she lived with her mother's side of the family on the west coast. So when the civil war started, Claire avoided getting caught up in the opening stages and became a rallying point for all the people that opposed her older siblings."
Which ultimately catapulted her onto the throne, as her title of Empress Claire indicated. She would be the first woman to sit upon the Britannian throne, though the British throne had already seen multiple female occupants. And she would prove just as worthy as the best of them, for while Claire inherited an empire divided and broken by war, she left behind one confident in its power and righteousness.
"Empress Claire was the one that sent Commodore Perry to open up Japan, wasn't she?" Suzaku said.
"I suppose that's what she'd be known for in Japan," Euphemia said, "but in the Empire she's known for quite a few other things."
"Oh? Such as?"
Euphemia considered for a moment. "Well, for one, she's the one that founded the Imperial Gendarmerie."
"Really?" Suzaku said.
"And the Crown Loyalist political party was founded by her followers in the civil war."
"Uhh…"
"And she was also behind the qualification requirements nobles need to meet to inherit."
"That was her!?" Suzaku exclaimed.
Euphemia nodded. "Yep. It's why her reign is often known as the 'Second Founding.' In a lot of ways, Empress Claire really did establish Britannia anew."
"She sounds amazing," Suzaku said earnestly. "I'd like to learn more about her later, once we get through all this material."
That elicited a wide smile from the princess. "Empress Claire is a personal hero of mine. She was said to have healed the Empire through not just strength but also kindness."
As with all things, the reality of the situation was a bit more complicated. It was certainly true that the Empress Claire exhibited a far greater compassion for her subjects than some of her immediate predecessors, and certainly more than her siblings that plunged the country into civil war in the first place, but it was ultimately still with cold steel with which she triumphed over them and enforced the reforms she enacted.
One such reform, as Euphemia had already noted, was an overhaul of the qualification system for noble heirs. No longer was simply being the child of a titled peer enough, one needed to demonstrate proper scholastic excellence, as judged by the Britannian state, in order to inherit. After all, civil war was as much about which imperial scion would take the throne as it was a fight between different factions of the nobility. The eastern noble houses that coalesced around different children of the first wife all tended towards older families that were ennobled during the founding of the Empire or even traced their pedigrees back to the old kingdom. The western nobles that backed Claire were of a newer breed, those that earned their titles through merit and service. These were the sort of nobles that were more conscious of the duties that came with their privilege, and Claire was determined that this consciousness would not be lost like it had been with the eastern houses. As a consequence of her reforms, it would be another hundred years before Britannia would face a crisis as grave as that which put Claire on the throne, a crisis that one Charles zi Britannia had to surmount.
"I can see why," Suzaku said as he flipped through the pages, and then. "Ah, the last treatise is, by your father?"
"Yes," Euphemia said, her eyes glazing over a bit. "His Majesty wrote it after he took the throne."
His Majesty. Not Father. Suzaku reached over, giving Euphemia's hand a squeeze. The princess blinked in surprise, but then returned an appreciative smile.
"I imagine it's not the easiest thing," Suzaku said. "Having a father that's so famous and powerful."
Euphemia took a deep breath. "It comes part and parcel with being a princess of the realm. Though, I do remember a time where His Majesty, felt more like a father than a sovereign." The smile this time was notably weaker. "It was before what happened to the Empress Marianne."
Perhaps that explained why Euphemia was so determined to reconnect with her half-siblings. Because they represented not just a time when all of them were together, but also a time when the man that was her father acted more as such. That was not to say a great schism had suddenly divided her family, but it certainly had been made lesser after that tragedy.
"I think I can understand," Suzaku said. "I was always happy when my own father paid attention to me as his son. But when he became prime minister…"
The youth frowned as a slight pressure began building up in his head. Pressing a hand against it, he tried to massage it away, but the pain persisted.
"Suzaku?" Euphemia said worriedly.
"Sorry," Suzaku said, shaking his head in another effort to clear it up. "I was just saying, my father seemed to change after he became prime minister." The frown deepened. "There were times when, he didn't seem like the father I knew beforehand. And then…"
Suzaku's eyes glazed over, his vision blurring until his surroundings disappeared. The room he found himself in was not the prefect clubhouse, but a stately office with a large desk. One that he was well familiar with, but had not stepped foot in for years. Nor set eyes on the person whom the office belonged to.
"Father?"
Suzaku looked around, trying to find said owner. And then he noticed a cold sensation in his hand. Looking down, Suzaku flinched. The hands he saw were smaller than he remembered. Smaller, and tightly gripping a pistol. Why did he have a pistol?
"Father!?" Suzaku called out again.
The door opened, and a heavy-set man entered. Despite the stern expression he wore, that face had never been anything but a source of reassurance to Suzaku. Until now. Genbu Kururugi regarded his son, and his mouth opened to speak. Suzaku however could not make out the words. Instead, he found the gun his hands gripped rising into his sight.
"Father! Run!"
The elder Kururugi did no such thing. He continued speaking, vigorously at that, but again Suzaku heard nothing. No, that was not true. What he heard was a loud bang as his fingers pulled back the trigger.
"Suzaku!?"
Another voice pierced Suzaku's awareness, as well as a great, throbbing pain in his head. Try as he might, Suzaku could not raise his head. What was more, he could make out the distinct taste of blood in his mouth. And that was the last thought he had before his consciousness faded entirely.
The drive outside the city limits was not terribly long, but even so Maho had her laptop open to do some work along the way. On the screen, she scrolled past a multitude of photos, all taken surreptitiously of the large military base outside of Fukuoka City. Due to the distances involved, details were sparse and hard to make out, but what they could see was still enough to draw some conclusions.
"Taking this base would be an arduous task," Tohdoh remarked as he steered the car. "The mechanized elements have the range to cover quite a bit of Kyushu's northwestern coastline, and their air support gives them striking ability against the enemy even before they make landfall."
As its size indicated, Fukuoka Base was the largest military installation the Britannians had on Kyushu. It was a joint forces base, with the Britannian Army as the primary host and the Air Force acting as a tenant. A full mechanized division along with an air combat wing stood ready to discourage any attempts by the local populace to challenge Britannian rule, though in reality everyone knew the firepower deployed was geared more to deter foreign intervention in opposition of that rule. The island of Kyushu was after all one of the closest points to mainland Asia, and there lay one of the few powers in the world ambitious enough, and powerful enough, to seriously challenge Britannia's locally deployed strength.
"Which means the surest way of achieving victory would be to neutralize Fukuoka Base's assets beforehand," Maho said. "At least that's what I would aim to do if I were the Chinese Federation commander in charge of their invasion. And thanks to its proximity to the coastline, the base itself is quite vulnerable to naval bombardment."
"Agreed," Tohdoh said. "Though vulnerable is not the same as defenseless. Take a look at photo 47."
Maho jumped to the appropriate image and narrowed her eyes. "A missile battery. Likely one of the surface-to-air systems, considering its size."
"The Empire's weapons are not to be dismissed lightly," Tohdoh said, "either defensive or offensive. If the Chinese were to attempt to assault Fukuoka Base from a distance, they will likely need to invest a fair amount of assets to overcome its defenses."
"One would think if they were inclined to attempt it at all, that would be exactly what they would do."
The good captain had a point there. No credible military strategist would advocate attacking a base this well-defended without a decisive advantage in either quality or quantity, if not outright both. Those that did were either desperate or stupid, and it was not always easy to tell the difference.
"Our pre-war intelligence indicated the Chinese were capable of landing a regiment sized force without usage of port facilities," Tohdoh recalled, "the capture of which would be the primary objective of said force, aside from merely surviving, of course."
With the history they had, Japan had historically invested more effort into grasping the degree of strategic threat China represented to them than say Britannia. That was only slowly changing when the Kururugi government began shifting the country's diplomatic alignment away from the Empire, but obviously not quickly enough considering how the Britannian invasion so badly blindsided Japan.
"Of course," Maho echoed. "We should probably take the disposition of Britannia's forces that its current assessment does not indicate any drastic increase in the Chinese Federation's capabilities. Still, we are all expecting the Chinese Federation to succeed in at least establishing a beachhead. Otherwise none of us would be here."
The 'us' extended to well beyond just Tohdoh and Maho, while the 'here' was the island of Kyushu. Over the past few months the Japanese Liberation Front had been shifting almost all of their combat assets over to the island in preparation for the suspected Chinese offensive. For the infantry, that had been a simple enough affair, with even their combat gear making it over without any particular fuss. Getting the heavier pieces of equipment like the JLF's knightmares had taken more doing. Ironically enough, not that the majority of the JLF's rank and file had any inkling thereof, the one who made the suggestion as to how the JLF could surreptitiously ferry such arms over had been the Cardinal Lamperouge. Not that His Eminence had actually openly advocated circumventing Britannian security, but his recommendation that Kirihara Industries consider a significant expansion of its presence in Kyushu, an expansion the government would be more than happy to support, had provided the sort of heavy traffic necessary to hide the movement of the JLF's own equipment. In the process, Lelouch had provided tacit confirmation of his awareness of the JLF's intentions, and implicit approval thereof. Of course, just because the cardinal approved did not mean the local Britannian garrison shared that approval, or was even read in on the plan. For that reason, the JLF still remained in hiding, waiting for the opportunity to demonstrate their valor to arise. In the meantime, its members reconnoitered the region, made connections with the locals, and prepared for the inevitable confrontation that awaited them.
Of course, that did not mean they could not do other things at the same time. Quite a few JLF soldiers were taking the opportunity to enjoy the local cuisine, which carried its own distinctive tastes and textures compared to that of Honshu. In the case of Mako and Tohdoh however, they had been given leave to take care of some personal business once their units had settled in. Business that was arguably long overdue.
"We're here," Tohdoh said, letting the car slide to a stop in front of a fenced residence.
The name that adorned the threshold was worn, but the characters maintained a defiant poise even so. Maho's eyes lingered on their faded shapes before she took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell. The two then waited, for a not inconsiderable amount of time, before a voice called out.
"Yes?"
At hearing that word, Maho found herself smiling. "It's me."
There was no immediate response, but a few moments later the small slit on the door opened and a pair of eyes peered out. They widened, and the next second the door was almost flung open.
"Maho-sama!?"
Maho gave a bow. "It has been a while, Kikuyo-san. Thank you for everything you have done for my family, and my sister."
The Nishizumi family had deep roots in Kumamoto, with Maho herself having attended high school in the prefectural capital. Over those many years, it established equally longstanding ties with the families that served in its household, creating bonds of loyalty that went both ways. After Shiho Nishizumi's passing and Maho's disappearance, those families had banded together to first keep the Nishizumi family estate from being seized by the Britannians or other opportunistic parties, and then to keep the house itself in at least fair condition. Indeed much as the other Alright girls sent a portion of the money they made back to Oarai to help their families, Miho had been doing likewise for her family's household back in Kumamoto. Maho on the other hand had not been able to do anything of the sort, in hiding with the JLF as she was. In that regard, it could be said that Miho was now the proper head of the Nishizumi household. And Maho could not be more proud of her little sister.
The reaction of the woman now standing before them however made clear the Nishizumi family's retainers had not forgotten Maho. Tears visibly welled up in her eyes, and Maho herself felt a tightness in her chest at the nostalgic face she now gazed at.
"I'm so glad," Kikuyo said, "that you are well. Please, come in, come in! This is your home after all!"
Maho nodded as she stepped over the threshold. Tohdoh gave a bow of his own before following, and from the smile Kikuyo graced him with the woman also remembered him. Others emerged from the house to see what was going on, and more gasps sounded as they rushed over to greet Maho. The return of the prodigal daughter was clearly an event worthy of celebration. With all those that wanted to pay their respects, it took a bit of time before Maho and Tohdoh were seated in the main living room with a cup of tea set before them. Across from them was Kikuyo, who was still smiling, albeit a bit more wistfully now.
"It is good to see you well, Maho-sama, after so long. And Kyoshiro-san, thank you for looking after her."
"It was my honor," Tohdoh said.
"We were all quite worried after we lost touch with you, Maho-sama," Kikuyo said to the girl.
"My apologies," Maho said, "but my duty required that I remain under the radar and avoid the attention of the authorities as much as possible."
"I see," Kikuyo said. And the woman probably did, which was why she did not openly press the point. "May I take it then that your return means that duty to be, concluded?"
"Not quite," Maho said. "But things have come to a point where my need to hide from the authorities has, lessened. And it is my hope that in the near future that this need will be eliminated entirely."
"I am glad to hear that," Kikuyo said. "Once this need is gone, do you intend to return here?"
"If I am so permitted."
"What are you saying, Maho-sama? This is and always has been your home."
"That may be so, but I am not the mistress of this household," Maho said. "Despite having been groomed for such a role, I have arguably abdicated it by remaining in hiding all these years. In so doing, I forced a heavy burden on another."
Kikuyo placed a hand on her cheek, looking if not uncertain, then at least unconvinced.
"You of all people should not have reason to doubt Miho-sama's kindness," the woman said. "These few years would hardly be enough for her love of you to wane."
"Perhaps not," Maho said, "but it is not my place to presume. What lies between us, as daughters of the Nishizumi clan, as sisters, must be settled by us."
In their own way, both Maho and Miho could be a mite stubborn, especially when it came to things they believed in. In many ways, that was a good thing. In other ways, like now, they insisted on shouldering burdens that would crush less determined persons.
"Then are you here to begin that settlement?" Kikuyo asked.
"I have," Maho, "with all of you first."
"All of us?" Kikuyo said quizzically.
Maho nodded. "I, we, have reason to believe that Kyushu will in the near future become a battleground."
Kikuyo's eyes widened but the woman waited for Maho to finish before vocalizing her reaction.
"This is not because any of us, or even Britannia, wishes it to be so," Maho emphasized. "Powers beyond the Empire's borders however have ambitions of their own that puts Japan in their sights."
There was no need to say which powers were being alluded to, since there were really only two close enough to credibly meet the criteria.
"When that time comes, we will do our utmost to protect the people," Maho continued, "but it would be beyond us to offer any guarantees. All of you must make preparations, to be ready to flee if nothing else."
"I understand," Kikuyo said, her eyes reflecting the same determination as Maho's. "We will make sure everyone is safe when the time comes." And graced Maho with another wistful smile. "So fight without hesitation on that day, Maho-sama, so that you may come home once more." She also glanced over at Tohdoh. "With your, dear friend."
Tohdoh somehow managed not to let his expression slip, while the slightest hint of a blush reddened Maho's cheeks. Still, when she gave her response, there was only a firm determination shining on her face.
"I will."
End of Chapter 50
Actually had quite a bit of fun writing the opening scene. I know some people speculated in the past that Lelouch was rich, but until now I hadn't outlined any details as to how rich he was. Even so, he's still nowhere as rich as say the Ashfords, but he's pretty much completely financially independent. And all of you also learn a bit more about the idiosyncratic nature of the Britannian government.
It was something of a happy coincidence that Kuromorimine is canonically based in Kumamoto. That turned out to be quite handy for my narrative purposes.
Right, I give up on predicting how many more chapters it will be before the end of the R1 sequence. There's ending up a tremendous amount of additional world building and character development that I'm having to shove in before we get to the climax point.
The Umbral Star's mission in my narrative is not the same as in its home canon. It'll get covered in a later chapter. There are still plenty of secrets that C.C. and Eden Vital haven't divulged yet.
Forgot to answer this last time, but no, as far as I am aware of, the lore for this story is not documented anywhere else. I'm frankly not likely to commit the effort to doing so, since that'd just end up diverting my time from actually writing the story, and that time is limited enough as it is due to work. There is a tvtropes page for this fic that could use filling out, for those inclined.