REFRAIN (5.3K)

After leaving Lake Kawaguchi, Mahiro did not leave with the Shadow Garden, but instead went to Lelouch's base for a while.

"I didn't expect you to be so good."

Mahiro sat on the sofa, looking around. The room's decor could be described as extremely luxurious.

The space might be a bit small.

But it's not bad either.

After all, this is a civilian RV, even if it is extremely luxurious, like a small mobile villa, the space is still ultimately limited.

I don't know why, even though Lelouch called him over, he sat in the swivel chair opposite the sofa without saying a word, and didn't even take off the suffocating mask on his head.

"So, you specifically asked me to come here just so I could admire the RV you stole and have a staring contest with you?"

"They were given to me voluntarily by those nobles," Lelouch.

"Alright, a gift using Geass is still a gift." Mahiro shrugged indifferently. "Let's get down to business. What do you want from me?"

"Um..."

Lelouch seemed to be organizing his thoughts, pausing for a moment.

"Cornelia, that woman has found you, hasn't she?"

"Huh, you don't even call me 'Royal Sister'?"

"Shut up! What if someone hears us!"

Hearing Mahiro casually utter the words "Royal Sister" here, Lelouch immediately panicked.

After all, there are other people in the car, and even if there's a wall between them, they know whether there's anyone outside the door!

"Don't worry, there's no one outside. Your Black Knights are all downstairs; no one's coming up."

Mahiro waved his hand and said, "But it's really ironic that a terrorist would call himself Knight."

"Stop joking!"

"Alright, alright, let's get back to the point. Cornelia did indeed recognize it. If she hadn't suffered any serious head trauma or been brainwashed by Geass, she would have recognized it when I pulled out the Knightmare."

Otherwise, do you think someone with her volatile temper would let us go?

Lelouch silent.

Given Cornelia's stubborn nature, the possibility is indeed very small.

"If you're worried about being exposed, don't worry. It will only expose that you and Nunnally are at the Ashford Academy. It won't have any other impact."

And it was only a matter of time, since Euphemia li Britannia already knew."

Lelouch: "..."

Lelouch had originally intended to tell him not to involve Nunnally, but upon hearing that Euphemia li Britannia already knew, he had no choice but to swallow his words.

Instead, he changed his tune and said:

"And what about Monica Krushivsky? That Knights of the Rounds, what are you going to do with her?"

Why are you concerned about this now?

Mahiro chuckled and glanced at Lelouch, who was sitting with his legs crossed like an old man. "She's my trophy. There's no way I'll put her back. But you seem so concerned... Could it be that you know she's the illegitimate daughter of the girl with the curly hair?"

"I'm worried that with such a big commotion today, with one of the four Knights of the Rounds captured and another killed, what will happen next... Wait, what did you say?! She's that man's illegitimate daughter?!"

Lelouch his voice an octave higher.

Even through the stuffy helmet, you could tell that Lelouch's eyes were wide open.

But Mahiro seemed completely unconcerned.

"What's so surprising about that? The man with the curly haircut has nearly a hundred children, including several illegitimate daughters. What's so surprising about that?"

That's true...

Mahiro said is correct.

Lelouch remembered that the original First Princess Sherry ME Britannia Sumeragi Shigamori, Hokkaido had a daughter.

"As for whether the other Knights of the Rounds will come, that's none of your concern. If they do come, they'll be looking for me, not you disguised as ZERO."

The Black Knights currently just a small organization at best, not even worth mentioning.

Lelouch knew this too, so he didn't continue the conversation.

"Alright, it's getting late, I should head back."

After saying that, Mahiro got up and left the room, leaving Lelouch alone to think.

Those who were once part of the Red Moon, but are now Black Knights, seemed to view him with a certain awe.

But when he had walked a short distance from the RV and was walking on an empty street, he suddenly stopped.

A slight smile curved his lips as he spoke:

"I said, why are you following me so late at night instead of going home, what do you want me to do, Stadtfeld?"

"..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Kallen, with her fiery red, shoulder-length hair, slowly emerged from the shadows in the corner behind her.

But unlike in school, she didn't look that decadent and weak at this moment.

The black knight uniform accentuated her shapely and toned figure.

And his eyes and brows were filled with a sharp edge.

She stared intently at the man who called himself Shadow and led the Shadow Garden, and spoke solemnly:

"I wasn't wrong, it really is you, Yotsuba Mahiro- sensei."

Chapter 264 REFRAIN (5.3K)

Ashford Academy today is still filled with the usual hustle and bustle of a school, as if the hostage situation at Lake Kawaguchi two weeks ago had never happened.

However, the two organizations that emerged as resistance forces were genuine.

By punishing evil and promoting good to maintain order and continuously expanding their group, they forced Cornelia to destroy the stable situation she had built up over a long period of time, thus definitively confirming the guilt of Clovis, who had already died, in the massacre of Shinjuku.

And without a doubt, the Black Knights became a thorn in the side of Britannia, the concession in Area 11.

However, he received support from others.

Simply because of the principles they uphold—

"We do not deny the existence of war, but we will never allow the strong to unilaterally slaughter the weak! Only those who are prepared to be attacked can be the attackers. When the powerful attack the powerless and weak, we will appear again, no matter how strong the enemy may be!"

This is not just empty talk.

The Shinjuku incident, the Orange incident, and the Lake Kawaguchi hostage incident all confirm this point.

They treated even the weaker Britannia the same.

However, the Shadow Garden has become relatively quiet, with almost no activity, as if it had vanished from Area 11 out of thin air.

Meanwhile, their leader is peacefully enjoying campus life.

"I said, teacher, you can't be lazy!"

Inside the Student Council room in Ashford, Student Council Milly tapped a Mahiro Makoto's head repeatedly with a paper tube folded from a club report.

"Yes, yes, I won't slack off, but I'm your teacher, you know. Milly, that's very disrespectful of you."

"Since you approved Lelouch's leave of absence, you're the one who has to do all of Lelouch's work."

"Oh, really, teacher, you spoil Lulu too much."

Milly crossed her arms and spoke with an air of self-righteousness, like a supervisor, while Shirley, sitting opposite her, looked at him with a resentful expression.

Before him lay a mountain of letters.

With the Ashford School Festival approaching, Milly, as in previous years, gathered ideas and adopted suggestions from students by sending them letters.

And because Lelouch and Kallen were always busy with the Black Knights' activities, these tasks fell to him.

"Sigh, what a tragedy..."

Sighing, Mahiro opened the first letter of the day.

But after reading it for a bit, I couldn't help but make an expression like an old person, on the subway, and with a cell phone.

What is this...?

Are students these days so open-minded?

"?"

Upon hearing this, Shirley and Rivalz stopped what they were doing and instinctively turned their gazes to him.

Milly bent down and rested her head on his shoulder. As a refreshing fragrance wafted into her nose, the girl softly read aloud the contents of the letter.

"... A swimsuit maid cafe, plus spa services...? Haha, that's quite an energetic suggestion."

Milly laughed out loud, oblivious to everything else.

"Energy my ass, vetoed."

"Hmm? I think this event is pretty good. Although we've had swimsuit-themed parties before, we've never had a swimsuit maid cafe before..."

Milly actually started thinking about it carefully.

"Enough with the nonsense. I'm the Student Council advisor, and what I say goes. Pass."

Mahiro ignored Milly's attitude, crumpled the paper into a ball, and casually threw it into the trash can.

While he may not be a good person and is interested in things like swimsuit spas, as a teacher, he still has some basic principles.

If Milly were to go off on her own and set up a swimsuit maid cafe and spa, the school festival would probably end up killing several people.

However, what he didn't notice was that Milly behind him was looking at him with a sly glint in her eyes, revealing a faint smile.

Then Mahiro opened the second letter.

This time it was much more normal; they even suggested setting up food stalls and such.

The subsequent suggestion letters were also quite normal, just the activity requests of ordinary high school students, with some even taking the opportunity to demand an increase in activity funding.

Until he saw this letter--

A letter from the pizza-loving witch...

Just seeing this name made Mahiro's brow twitch; he knew who it was without even guessing.

Mahiro wanted to stuff the letter into the pile that had already been processed, but before she could do so, the envelope was snatched away.

"Wow, what an interesting pen name! Let me see what it says!"

Holding the envelope she had snatched from him, Milly tore it open in no time.

"Hello, this is my first time writing a letter. Although it's a bit abrupt, just like my name suggests, I absolutely love pizza. Especially Pizza Hut's seafood pizza, supreme pizza, and so on. I could eat pizza for every single meal."

"So I suggest we try making the world's largest pizza during the school festival, how about that?"

The reason I say this is because my roommate has been really annoying lately. He keeps saying things like, "It's pizza every day! Even picky eaters have their limits!"; "It's all because of you that people think I'm in a strategic partnership with Pizza Hut!"; "I'm just a freeloader, please stop this!" and so on and so forth...

Honestly, he's just a little brat who doesn't even know how to release his excess male desires without my help. Locking me up in his bedroom is one thing, but not even letting me eat pizza?

The beginning was fine, but by the end, Shirley was blushing and covered her face in embarrassment.

Releasing desires... imprisonment... Are there any boys this daring in our school?

"I remember Yotsuba Clan- sensei ordering pizza every day, right?"

Rivalz suddenly thought of this and casually mentioned it.

I originally wanted to ask if Pizza Hut's pizzas were really that delicious, but Milly stole the spotlight and joked:

"That's right, teacher, don't you order pizza every day? And sometimes you throw away more than ten boxes a day, could it be... teacher, you're the person mentioned in the letter?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Nina, who usually sat in the corner operating her computer, suddenly trembled slightly and pressed the wrong key.

The computer immediately emitted an alarm sound.