Chapter 174
"Cough cough cough..."
Odysseus coughed awkwardly but politely, put down his teacup, and said with a hint of annoyance, "Vera, why bring this up all of a sudden? Today is Clovis's mourning ceremony, this topic is not appropriate."
"I absolutely support my elder brother."
Vera gave a thumbs up.
As for Clovis's memorial service, don't be ridiculous. He's been assassinated for months, his body is cold, and those who were truly sad have already finished grieving and accepted reality. Now it's mostly just a ritual. Her return is just to say goodbye for the last time. If you really want her to go and waile over the coffin... well, it's not impossible.
However, it should be noted that too much of a good thing is bad.
"She's too young."
Thinking of the white-haired, red-eyed young Celestial Emperor who might become his fiancée in the future, Odysseus couldn't help but facepalm.
Although he knew that members of the royal family had no say in their marriages and had no objection, given their age difference, it felt like he was raising a young girl as a wife.
Even under the current laws of the Holy Britannian Empire, being caught means certain death. Of course, it's common knowledge that the law presents two faces to nobles and commoners.
Vera smiled gently.
She truly supports it.
Brother Odysseus, in this life, you must marry the Federal Empress Li Hua!
She will kill anyone who tries to stop the arranged marriage.
This is key to Britannia's future unified federation and the unification of the world. It can minimize war, reduce resistance among the federation's people, and eliminate obstacles to the process of conquest and unification.
Her personal likes and dislikes, as well as her ill-fated lover, all had to give way to this grand goal!
After all, she can't very well go and marry him.
Guinevere suddenly said, "Speaking of marriage, Vera, you're twenty-five now, aren't you..."
"Stop."
Vera calmly gestured to stop the conversation, "Imperial Sister, your marriages with Cornelia and Schneizel haven't been settled yet, why should I be in a hurry?"
Seeing the conversation drifting further and further away, even touching on his own situation, Schneizel had been standing aside, sighed softly. Just then, the clock struck midnight, and he changed the subject, saying, "The mourning ceremony is about to begin. Gentlemen, it's time to get going."
After he finished speaking, he stood up.
Odysseus nodded with a touch of melancholy and said, "Let us give Clovis a final farewell..."
Vera and Guinevere also got up one after the other.
Inspired by this, the imperial officials in the waiting room all stood up.
Tower, tower.
Led by the master of ceremonies, Vera passed through layers of guards and ascended the steps of the grandstand. As she walked towards the central seating area, the attendants accompanying Vera and her entourage stopped and went to their proper places, making the procession appear much smaller.
There are not many seats; they are arranged in rows, with the emperor's golden-red velvet throne in the very center.
A large platform was placed in front of the viewing platform, facing the main avenue.
According to the order of succession to the throne, Odysseus, Schneizel, Guinevere, and Vera sat on the throne in that order...
All territories, colonies, and dependent states belonging to the Holy Britannian Empire, as well as mainstream media worldwide, broadcast this scene live at that moment.
Meanwhile, in District 11.
Tokyo Concession.
Ashford Academy, Auditorium.
The entire faculty and students gathered here and stood solemnly, listening to the live broadcast of the mourning ceremony from the Imperial Capital Pendragon.
Among the crowd, a figure with a slender, slightly thin, yet perfectly proportioned body, straight and smooth black hair, and a handsome face tinged with melancholy, appeared. In an instant, a look of disgust and hatred flashed in the depths of the Ashford Academy's school heartthrob, the 'Melancholy Black Prince' Lelouch Lamperouge.
The boy stared intently at the screen showing the Britannia royal family taking their seats.
His so-called blood relatives.
Crown Prince Odysseus, that mediocre man, there's nothing to say about him.
Britannia doesn't have the custom of primogeniture or any order of succession; this order is simply a matter of lineage and birth order.
Guinevere was like gleaming copper, beautiful in appearance but fragile in reality, unable to live up to her title as the eldest daughter of the royal family.
The people we really need to be wary of are Schneizel and Vera.
They are the same kind of people as Cornelia, who has taken office as governor of District 11... no, even more troublesome.
The former is the current Imperial Chancellor, a man of great wisdom and cunning.
Lelouch clearly remembered his mother's evaluation and praise of him before she passed away. In his Remembrance, before he was stripped of his prince status, he had never defeated him in any field, including chess, which was his greatest strength.
The latter.
Vera...
Ah, of all Charles's descendants, no one embodies the terms 'great aristocracy' and 'conservative Conservatives' better than her.
His origins were quite different from those of his mother, 'Radiant Marianne,' a commoner knight.
Knight Marquis was a non-hereditary noble title in the Britannia Empire. It was a title granted by the royal family to meritorious individuals for a limited period of one generation.
The other party's maternal family is the Hohenzollern family, which has a long history of feudal rule.
Since the outbreak of bourgeois revolutions in Europe in 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte of the French Revolution rose to prominence. France defeated Great Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon led an army of 120,000 to land on the British Isles. Queen Elizabeth III abdicated, abolishing the monarchy. The revolution then swept across Europe. Napoleon led his army eastward, defeating the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Prussia, and Russia one by one, and the crowns of Europe fell. (Countless noble families with scholarly backgrounds fled overseas with their family fortunes and supporters.)
Nobles from several countries, including Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia, fled to the Americas and together formed the noble system of the present-day Holy Britannian Empire.
The Hohenzollern family was the former royal family of Prussia.
For over two hundred years after arriving in the Americas, the family continued to thrive and multiply, with frequent intermarriages among the nobility. Due to Britannia's emphasis on military merit and its dog-eat-dog social atmosphere, the Hohenzollern family, with its strong military aristocracy, emerged as the most prominent. Historically, it had formed alliances with the Habsburg, Orléans family, and Romanov family through marriage, effectively claiming dominance over Eastern Europe, Central and Southern Europe, and even France.
After all, they only fled overseas; legally, they have not abdicated.
Emperor Charles married Princess Victoria Adelheid of the Hohenzollern family as his second wife.
This gives them a pretext to declare war on the EU and a legal basis for their rule. Similarly, as the offspring of a royal family, Vera naturally possesses the legal basis to rule Europe.
This is also why Vera was specially dispatched to European Britannia to oversee the Eastern Europe front and command the Pan Continental Air Force Field Group in the Russian theater, with the full support of the local Grand Duke Venance.
The influence of maternal relatives was powerful.
His disciples, former officials, and vassals were numerous and diverse.
Followers and supporters were found throughout the empire, both within and outside the court.
It can be said that they were in natural opposition to the family of Marianne the Fifth, who came from commoner backgrounds.
During Lelouch's most cherished childhood Remembrance in the Aries Palace, the second princess Cornelia and Euphemia, along with the third prince Clovis, often came to play with him.
The former was more out of a desire to visit her sister and admire her mother, while Euphemia, like Nunnally, was a sister and playmate with pure feelings, and Clovis mostly came to him to play chess or to have his oil portraits copied.
Other half-relatives.
The First Prince Odysseus Guinevere, due to their age difference, have a relationship similar to that of elders and juniors. The Second Prince Schneizel occasionally visits the Aries Palace to explain the outside world to him and Nunnally, or to play chess with him.
The third princess, Vera, is one of the few among her peers who keeps her distance from the Aries Palace.
Contact, yes.
But very few.
Even the sixth princess, Karin, who was rivals with Nunnally and had a very bad relationship with her, visited the Aries Palace far more often than the third princess Vera.
Although the other person seemed gentle and refined, with elegant speech and a keen sense of etiquette, there was a hidden coldness beneath that warm smile. It was easy and pleasant to greet her, but difficult to have a deep conversation with her.
He heard his mother, Cornelia, mention him quite often when he was in Aries.
Cornelia seemed somewhat dejected after the exam, saying that whether it was the operation of mobile armor, basic subjects, military and political studies, or even extracurricular activities such as shooting, wrestling, fighting, fencing, and horseback riding, her opponent was far ahead of her, with a precipitous lead, excelling in both physical and mental abilities.
There are even more instances of saying things like "other people's children are like this and that".
My mother also used it. When Nunnally was being noisy, my Imperial Sister Vera, at your age, could quietly sit at the table and watch our father, who occasionally visited the Gemini Palace, review state affairs all day long.
Lelouch doesn't have many Remembrance of having direct contact with her.
On one occasion, on Nunnally's birthday, her Imperial Sister, who rarely attended royal gatherings at the Aries Palace, was present. At that moment, Lelouch once again utterly defeated Clovis on the chessboard. In high spirits, he prepared to find a new opponent and chose Vera, whom he rarely interacted with. Then, he was utterly defeated by her.
The other party showed no mercy.
The relentless, almost non-stop, and seemingly effortless, pressure-based attack left the young Lelouch completely disoriented. He lost his rhythm, was forced to run for his life, and suffered a record-breaking defeat as he struggled to defend himself.
"The future is yours."
The other person simply patted his head with a smile, left a word of comfort, and then pushed him in front of Nunnally and Euphemia chattering away before going to talk to the adults or other older princes and princesses.
After his mother's death, his status as heir to the throne was stripped, and he and his younger sister were sent to Japan as hostages, Lelouch carefully studied Vera's attitude and words and actions. He was now quite certain that his Imperial Sister knew something.
The response he received after using Geass's Absolute Obedience to control Clovis further corroborated his conjecture.
"Who killed my mother?"
Clovis: "The second prince Schneizel, the second princess Cornelia, and the Third Princess Vera, all three of them know."
"Are they the masterminds? Tell me everything you know."
Clovis: "Third Princess Vera may know the whole story. After seeing you and Nunnally off to Japan, I investigated the assassination of Empress Marianne. She was too ruthless. She seized and swallowed up the Ashford family's development industry and technical personnel in Knightmare, which Empress Marianne had strongly supported during her lifetime."
Recalling the scene, Lelouch's eyes shifted dramatically, and he unconsciously clenched his fists, his chest heaving.
The struggle, he will definitely... He will trample everyone else under his feet. All his half-siblings and half-brothers who feel disgusted by his existence, by his mother, and by the existence of Nunnally are his enemies to be destroyed!
Just then, the slogan read, "Truth and hope in our Fatherland."
"And death to every foe."
As the instrumental version of the national anthem, "All Hail Britannia," began, a formal male chorus joined in, adding to the solemn atmosphere, and a burly man appeared on the viewing platform.
His broad shoulders and thick waist were encased in a magnificent Prussian blue military uniform; his long, white hair, styled in elaborate curls like that of a classical monarch, his face despised and hated by countless people, and his undeniable arrogance and majesty—all spoke volumes about his identity.
Charles zi Britannia.
Upon his first appearance, his domineering aura and sharp gaze that almost overwhelmed those in front of him transformed this mourning ceremony into a military parade filled with the sounds of bayonets and military boots.
The master of ceremonies announced in a respectful tone, "Please welcome His Holy Britannian Empire, the 98th Emperor Charles, to speak."
Snap.
A pair of strong hands gripped the edge of the podium. With his head held high and chest out, Charles proclaimed in a very impassioned tone, which was not at all like a lament. "Men are not equal."
His opening remarks were completely irrelevant to the theme of the mourning ceremony.
"People are born to run fast, beautiful, poor, or born with diseases. They are all different in their birth, growth, and talents."
The emperor's high-pitched, powerful voice instantly resonated throughout the world via live broadcast.
"Yes, humans exist to be treated differently. That's why humans fight and compete with each other, thereby creating a cycle of old and new. Inequality is not evil; equality is evil."
The EU, which proclaims equality of all rights, only breeds foolish politics with its term limits; the federation, which equalizes wealth, creates a bunch of lazy and decadent individuals. But we Britannia are different.
Struggle and competition are always accompanied by evolution. Only Britannia moves forward, moving towards the future.
The death of my son Clovis is also proof of Britannia's continuous evolution.
Go and fight!
Struggle, plunder, acquire, dominate—at the end of that lies the future.
A powerful, resonant voice echoed throughout the empty auditorium. On the viewing platform, Vera sat with her hands clasped over her lower abdomen, leaning back in her high-backed chair, silently watching the back of Emperor Charles as he delivered his speech.
A textbook example of a social statement.
It's hard to imagine that such a person's wish would be to create a world without lies...
At the end of his speech, Emperor Charles, with a resolute expression, raised his arm and shouted, "All Hail Britannia!!!"
(Glory belongs to Britannia)
"All Hail Britannia!" ×N.
In an instant, a deafening Tsunami filled my ears.
A smile curved her lips, as if infected by the fervent atmosphere. Vera's eyes trembled slightly. The throne... should be so.