Ashford College.

Not so long ago, it was a place where it was called "home".

The empty campus, silent, no longer the same as before, the "everyday" of the past・・・・・・

Those laughter, classes, stupid fights, I think of it as if I am a world away.

"Do you regret it?" The girl sat down beside him, studying his expression with a wicked smile.

"I'm not qualified to do that."

Lelouch said lightly.

Everyone here has fallen victim to their own ambitions.

In the days that Ilan had fallen into a coma, he was running around for his brother's explosive speech, destroying the evidence of his own existence.

Burning the archives, burning the Personnel Bureau, burning the storage equipment, and pushing these actions onto the riots of the residents of the concession themselves. In an instant, all registered Britanians in the concession became black households at the same time.

The hardware has been destroyed, and next, there is the software.

Those who have seen him.

Gather all the students in the gymnasium and count the heads to make sure that nothing slips through the net...

He doesn't regret it, not knowing himself means they can be safe, the empire will not let go of any possible breakthrough, and will use any means to get ZERO's information.

It's for them, and it's for themselves.

Lelouch Lampeluki is dead.

He killed his own storage with his own hands.

These eight years have been nothing more than an illusion.

"That little girlfriend of yours..." the green girl said as she played with the ends of her hair.

“C.C。” Lelouch stopped her harshly.

"I was crying so sadly, at the time."

“・・・・・・”

Doomed to loneliness, the price of the king's power, he finally realized this.

He is just a passerby, no matter who he stops by, no matter how attached he is, in the end, there is only one person who continues to walk.

No.

Not alone.

At least ・・・・・・

"Do you drink?" Lelouch asked slowly.

"Huh?"

"Come with me for a drink, later."

"Are you okay?" The girl looked at him suspiciously. "I haven't seen you touch alcohol except for disinfectant."

"Give it a try."

The girl looked sly.

"You owe me a favor."

"Of course."

Sighing with relief, Lelouch smiled and looked at the playground in front of him.

Two figures were jogging in circles around the court.

For them, it may be a "jog", but in Lelouch's opinion, it is already a speed of 100 meters, and it is still a sprint. The white one reached out and patted the shoulder of the partner next to him from time to time, talking endlessly, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

"This guy might be smarter than me." Lelouch propped his chin and said self-deprecatingly.

"How?"

"At least he knows not to take strangers' things."

“geass？”

"Ahh

"What about another chance for you?"

"This assumption is meaningless, and I would have died without that ability under the circumstances. Give me one more chance, my mother won't die, Nanali won't go blind, I won't fall to this... If I want to say it, the most regrettable thing is probably that I met you. ”

"A man with little affection." C.C took a sip.

As they spoke, the two of them had already stopped, hunched their waists, and moved their legs towards here.

Lelouch pinched off his phone's stopwatch, fifteen minutes and twenty seconds.

"How?" Bai Mao picked up the water from the bench, threw it to the Suzaku beside him, unscrewed another bottle himself, and poured half a bottle heroically.

Lelouch didn't say anything and handed him the phone.

Ilan glanced at it, with a disappointed look on her face, and silently returned the phone.

"You give me about the same." Leluxiu's self-esteem as an athletic idiot was deeply hurt. "Two and a half minutes faster is the five-kilometer world record, what else do you want?"

"Huh?" It was Suzaku who spoke, with a shocked expression. "Is that a world record?

"Hmm."

"Within thirteen minutes?"

"Don't tell me..."

"I seem to have run for about 12 minutes and 30 seconds."

Lelouch suddenly didn't want to talk to them.

"Elan-kun can be faster, right?"

Bai Mao waved his hand embarrassedly to make a modest appearance, looking like a good man who didn't mention the courage of the year.

How can it be faster... Even if you can run in your peak state for thirteen minutes, you have to burn high incense.

"Go ahead, Shuki, I'm almost done today."

Suzaku nodded and returned to the runway, he was only pulled by Ilan to do the sparring of rehabilitation exercises, and now there is one less crane tail, and he directly hangs up a gear, circling around the playground at an amazing speed.

As he ran away, Ilan coughed violently, the cramping pain in his chest that almost curled him into a ball.

Muscle strength recovers quite quickly, but cardiopulmonary function is not something that can be done in a month or two, and running is the most direct manifestation. This kind of speed is not even a workout in the past, it is just a warm-up process, and now, in this short five kilometers, I actually experienced the feeling of being at the limit twice.

"That bastard... cough, what the hell is it eating..."

Finally panting evenly, Bai Mao looked at the body of the girl running wildly on the playground, and his eyes were full of resentment.

This guy is also technically a sick person, and two overload jumps more than a month ago also damaged his internal organs, and he was diagnosed with considerable internal bleeding at that time. Normal people are bedridden for at least a few months, but this guy has once again subverted the limits of medicine with facts. I got out of bed after three days, and a week later, I was like no one else, and now I am back to my peak.

"Does it need to be like this?" Lelouch looked at Ilan, who was fighting against him, and shook his head helplessly.

"It's needed." Bai Mao replied without hesitation.

The few days when he was lying in bed without a chicken was powerless, and he almost had a late nervous breakdown with the delusion of being severely killed, and the feeling was like being stripped naked and thrown on the road.

Anyone, doctors, nurses, soldiers outside the door, civilians coming and going in the corridors, these people who could have killed with one finger can now take their own lives lightly. begged in every way, but finally let Karen get a fruit knife, and finally felt a lot more at ease in her hand.

"I mean, do you need to die like this to save face?"

"I'm used to it."

"Just don't backfire."

Lelouch didn't know if this overload of exercise was good or bad for him, and he could only give him a little bit.

"I know my body・・・・・・ then again, that guy's reaction was unexpectedly calm, and for you it's ZERO."

Ilan said and pointed at Suzaku with his chin.

Lelouch snorted noncommittally.

"Are you going to use him in the future?"

"He won't be honest here."

This elm head will only rush forward, no matter what the outcome is, there is no button to stop on him. The only thing I can do is to pull him onto my own path and go down together・・・・・・

No, now is not the time for melancholy, business matters.

Ilan is still recovering, and he hardly asks about state affairs except for exercising every day, and in order not to let him fall behind, Lelouch will pick up some important things to tell him every day when they meet.

"Gawain's wreckage has been recovered, and technicians in Kyoto are reverse-analyzing it and Lancelot, and preliminary results should be available soon, and Lloyd has helped a lot. The next step is cross-generational mech development, striving to catch up with the empire in a short period of time. It's going to take some time, but the good thing is that we have time. ”

"Driver."

"There was blood in the cockpit, but no bodies were found."

“・・・・・・”

Ilan showed her face-changing skill, and her expression was clouded in a second.

"Temporary demographic statistics have been completed, hukou registration is a long-term process, and at present only food stamps can be used to maintain food rations for all. Traffic damage in remote areas is strict, and security measures are difficult to reach. Until the new land policy is introduced, they can only be left to cultivate indiscriminately, and the production capacity is simply not enough to sustain the country's food rations. The granary of the concession is currently only enough to last for two months. The season has passed, and if you want to be self-sufficient in food, you will have to wait until this time next year. ”

"What standard did you feed them on?"

It was obviously easy to feed 1500 million people according to the minimum standard during the occupation, but it was really uncommon to starve people to death or something, so how could they be stretched out so quickly?

"Pretty high standards." Lelouch said honestly.

"Is the so-called slapping a swollen face to make a fat man?"

"For them, 'hope' is just being able to eat with an open stomach." The United States must be a beacon of hope.

"What about the solution?"

"Foreign aid."

"Federal?"

"Hmm."

"Sakurashi for food?"

That's what it means. The Federation has come to visit, and the unofficial visit to Wèn can be regarded as a secret envoy. It's still like the nose is up to the sky, and I open and close my mouth to see ZERO. I'm in the Congress, and I'm playing Tai Chi with Diethart's old foxes. ”

"Hey, I can't feed my four billion people."

"That's not something we're worried about."

"Which eunuch?" Ilan rubbed his nose and asked with a gloomy expression.

"Gao Hai."

"The ten permanent attendants, the specifications are not low. What else is there besides food? ”

"Not a word."

In other words, does it depend on how much you can squeeze?

"I'll go." Ilan took a deep breath and patted his cheek.

"No, I'll go." Lelouch said categorically.

"Huh?! ~~~~~”

"There's not much to say."

"Why?"

"Your identity is too embarrassing, and ・・・・・・ wait for you to see him, Gao Hai won't be able to go back."

"A hand?" Elan bargained.

"Is there a difference?"

"Tongue? Eye? The nose is also good. Gotta leave some souvenirs, right? There were little stars in the white-haired eyes, full of pleading.

"Are you listening to me?"

"The Federation wouldn't dare touch us anyway, would it? If we call Luoyang now and say that we will send a eunuch's head and one cherry stone, half of the eunuchs will die in a minute, right? ”

Lelouch silently twisted his head to the side, pretending not to know the other.

It was a long time.

"The UAE and the Southeast Peninsula are also here, you can..."

"Okay, that's it, Brother Huang, you go and deal with the Arab League and the Vietnamese, and I'll be responsible for killing Gao Hai!"

“・・・・・・”

"We said yes, didn't we?" Ilan finally put away her playful look and lowered her tone. "The Federation is mine."

“・・・・・・”

"I'm measured in this kind of thing."

Lelouch struggled inwardly.

It is certain that this kid will not be ambiguous, but the Federation is an exception, especially since the other party is one of the ten permanent servants who indirectly forced his mother to death that year.

I've seen it too many times when I'm young, and as long as it involves his mother, this kid will automatically switch to a hidden mad dog mode・・・・・・

C.C. on the side was drowsy in the turbulent political struggle between the two, and he snorted without an image, and fell softly on the bench.

"We said yes." Ilan stared straight into Lelouxiu's eyes, unflinching.

"Only talk about business, don't use knives." Lelouch finally relented.

"I promise!"

Ilan put his left hand on his chest, and his right hand pointed straight to the sky.

"Why am I even more worried?" Lelouch muttered quietly.

"I promise, I won't kill that eunuch, okay?"

Lelouch finally convinced himself, and with deep uneasiness, he called the civilian clique and asked them to prepare for the meeting with the Vietnamese at ZERO tomorrow.

Ilan put on a starting pose, the index finger of his right hand was bent towards the palm of his hand, and the other three fingers were stretched out flat, making a hand knife shape, stabbing the air in front of him one by one, and seeing that the position was clearly the throat of an adult. Something inexplicable burned deep in his pupils, and the air around him seemed to crackle.

Sure enough, he shouldn't have been allowed to go!!

"Nanali." As if sensing the remorse in the imperial brother's heart, Yilan took the first step to block the other party.

"Huh?"

"How's Nanali?"

Lelouxiu's expression suddenly darkened.

"Let's be like that."

For his sister, he can no longer hide his identity.

After learning the truth, the little girl was surprisingly calm, neither crying nor making trouble, but the sentence "My brother is a liar" went straight into his heart like a dagger.

Refusing to move out of school, he follows his usual daily routine, reading, eating, and sleeping.

Weak and stubborn to maintain her daily routine, silent protest.

"It's going to be fine."

Yi twisted his neck and moved his shoulder joints sharply.

"I hope so." Lelouch sighed.

"It's going to be fine." Ilan reiterated. "On the bright side, family troubles are just extravagant annoyances, and she's right there, isn't she?"

Won't go anywhere, right now, right here.

It's all around us.

“After，all. Family，is，Family.Blood,is,Blood.”

"When did you become so warm-hearted?"

Before Lelouch could speak, C.C couldn't help it.

"By the way, sister-in-law, when are you going to have a child?" Ilan forcibly changed the subject with a lower limit question.

"It's none of your business."

"It's just a kind reminder, but I'm working hard every day. You know, once a woman is over 30 years old, it is dangerous, ah... Is it because of age? Looking deeply at the thousand-year-old banshee, Ilan's eyes were three points of love and six points of pity, and there was a faint point of forgiveness in the middle, and the whole person instantly exuded a holy light.

"Want to fight?" Rao is C.C millennium cultivation was also forced out of the real fire by the highest level of acting with this eye.

"Sister-in-law, please go first."

With the current physical condition, it is no fun to practice with Suzaku, and C.C is a similar opponent.

"Can't you two be quiet for a second?"

Lelouch pressed his forehead and spoke in a muffled voice.

Suddenly there was a sense of satisfaction.

It is true that he has lost a lot, and it is true that he is walking on a road from which there is no turning back, and his hands are stained with the blood of countless people.

But right now, right here・・・・・・

The girl sat beside her, crossed her legs, and played with the ends of her hair angrily. It was still the same distance, but he knew that if he stretched out his hand now, the other party would not avoid it.

White fur squatted on the ground and pulled the ligaments seriously. is still so broken-mouthed, I don't know when the next line that makes me angry will pop out. The two are still using subtext dialogue, and they are 108,000 miles away from each other. But, in that mortal situation, he did not choose to betray himself, and he did not choose to betray him.

Suzaku seems to have reappeared yesterday. After seven years, this best friend is finally back with him. I have suffered a lot, suffered a lot of sins, and experienced a lot of vicissitudes, but I have not been contaminated with accidents at all, just like the stupid people in the past.

Nanali, who came home every night to see her sitting at the table, reading, or origami. Although it was only a few cold words of exchange, he could now understand the little girl's thoughts.

Why didn't she want her brother to look at her?

No matter what goes through, no matter what happens, only one thing doesn't change.

We are family.

That's enough.

Everyone has changed too much, but we are still together, so ・・・・・・ hasn't changed.

Will be back.

Whatever I lost, I will come back.