Zero will come

"Using murder to make an example of the hostages... those barbarians!"

At the conference center hotel at Lake Kawaguchi, the Island Nation Liberation Front had lost patience.

They would push one hostage off the building every thirty minutes until Britannia agreed to negotiate with them.

Such provocation enraged both General Dalton, the aide to Area 11's governor, and Gilford, Cornelia's knight.

"Perhaps we should agree to negotiate for now, at least to get them to release the women and children first..."

"No!"

Hoping to ease his mistress's burden, Gilford had offered a suggestion, only for Cornelia to reject it without hesitation.

As a member of the imperial family, Cornelia could never do anything that compromised their dignity and honor.

"The moment we agree to negotiate, we legitimize the terrorists' methods!"

"Then should we storm the building?"

"Surely that's an option we can only consider once Princess Euphemia's safety has been secured?"

The suggestions from her two longtime subordinates did nothing to ease Cornelia's anxiety.

Euphemia was her younger sister, and the person closest to her heart-even closer than her parents.

It was no exaggeration to say she would do anything for her sister.

That was both her strength and her weakness.

Euphemia was trapped inside the building the terrorists had seized. Although her identity had not yet been exposed, her presence still severely restricted Cornelia's actions.

If only Euphemia's safety could be guaranteed...

"Gilford, is there any word from Ask?"

In this moment of crisis, she decided to place her hopes in her younger half brother.

Ask's achievements on the EU battlefield could rightly be called miracles.

Winning against superior numbers had become routine for him.

She had never seen a troubled or hesitant expression on her exceptional younger brother's face.

Whatever the situation, he always seemed utterly at ease, crushing his opponents in ways no one else could imagine.

His position as the leader of one of the Three Great Factions was not merely the product of praise. He possessed absolute strength that even Cornelia had to concede surpassed her own.

She believed that, for someone of her brother's caliber, the situation before them hardly even counted as adversity.

"Prince Ask? No, not yet..."

Bzzzt-!

The vibration from his pocket rang out distinctly in the quiet corridor, cutting Gilford off.

He glanced at the number on his phone, which displayed a saved contact name.

"It's Lady Leila."

"Of course! I knew he would have a solution!"

Relief washed over her anxious face. Cornelia, who had been wound tight all this time, finally relaxed the moment Leila's call came in.

As Ask's sole personal maid, Leila was closer to him than anyone except Monica. Almost every member of Britannia's imperial family and nobility knew that.

Leila's words represented Ask's will.

At Cornelia's nod, Gilford immediately answered the call.

"Yes... yes... yes... understood... huh?"

Beep, beep, beep...

Gilford looked a little startled at the end, but the call had already disconnected.

Cornelia hurried over to him.

"What did he say, Gilford?"

"Prince Ask said to hold our position for now and have the Special Dispatch unit prepare to breach the building. Once... once Zero arrives, we begin the assault."

"Zero?"

Cornelia froze.

She had expected Ask's solution to be something she would never have thought of, but "wait for Zero to arrive" was rather too outrageous.

Were they supposed to let the terrorist who had murdered a member of the imperial family become their savior?

"Wait, Zero... is coming?"

"My apologies, Princess Cornelia. Lady Leila didn't go into detail..."

"..."

Setting aside her prejudice against Zero and thinking it over calmly, she began to understand Ask's meaning.

After killing Clovis, the third prince, Zero had become a hero to the Elevens overnight.

Whatever attitude the Island Nation Liberation Front held toward this "hero's" arrival, they would choose to meet the mysterious Zero.

While that meeting occupied their attention, the Special Dispatch unit could breach the building through the underground passage, rescuing the hostages and taking them all down in one stroke.

It was indeed an excellent strategy.

There were only two points she could not understand.

First, how could Ask be certain that Zero would come?

Second, how would Euphemia's safety be ensured?

If there were any holes in the plan, those were the only two.

A single brief instruction was not enough for Cornelia to fully grasp what lay behind it.

Besides "powerful," "mysterious" was another word that always accompanied Ask.

"Understood. Then we'll do as my brother says."

What she had to do now-the only thing she could do-was trust him.

After hanging up, Leila returned to Ask's side.

"Should we contact C.C? If Lelouch fails to realize that Euphemia is inside the conference venue, I'm afraid your plan will fall through."

"Do we have any way to contact her now?"

When he sent C.C to the Island Nation, he had given her no communication equipment, to avoid drawing attention.

Both her capture by Clovis and her encounter with Lelouch had been planned in advance.

C.C had simply memorized the script and added some appropriate improvisation to make everything look perfectly "normal."

At least Ask was confident that, so far, no one besides Leila and Monica could detect the "coincidences" involved-not even Emperor Charles.

But if anything unexpected could happen, it would come down to C.C's loyalty.

"There is a way, but..."

"But it might expose us, right?"

Even without her spelling it out, Ask understood what method Leila meant.

They had shared deep intimacy in both body and mind many times. Even a simple glance was enough for them to read each other's thoughts.

Ask waved a hand at Leila, a confident smile spreading across his face, as though having his identity exposed was not a concern at all.

"It's fine. Plug in the anti-tracing device. As long as they can't trace it back to us, it doesn't matter if we leave a few clues behind."