At this time, Britannia's highest-level entry sequence finally began to enter the preparation area.
Knights of the Round, Lancelot, Gloucester Royal Family direct-operated machines, as well as several special-purpose KMFs that have not yet completed public performance descriptions.
The atmosphere in the audience has obviously changed, and the truly anticipated highest-level competition is about to begin.
Only in Great Han's central command area, Lin Cuo's interest in the next game suddenly dropped a lot.
"Bismarck, you need to pay attention. Let Kallen and Li Xingke deal with the others first. This is the one that you really cannot put back casually."
He pointed to a personnel record on the screen.
[Suzaku Kururugi.]
Chou Xianglin was silent for a moment after reading it.
"Sir Regent, you just announced in the global live broadcast the day before yesterday that this is an international friendly event to promote Human Common Defense."
"Yes."
"Now you are going to detain Britannia to officially participate in Driver?"
"Don't use the inaccurate word withhold."
Lin Cuo Drag another document onto the screen.
"I am prepared to provide an identity verification that fully respects individual wishes for the son of former Area 11 Prime Minister who may have been improperly controlled by the imperial military system."
Chou Xianglin stared at him.
"What if someone refuses?"
"Then we will directly enter the review process."
"Continue to reject after review?"
"Continue to confirm whether its refusal is due to true free will."
"Regent-sama!"
"That's why I asked Li Xingke to come back."
Chou Xianglin's expression finally changed.
"You asked General Li to rush back to Luoyang from Western Common Defense to General Staff just to deal with Suzaku Kururugi?"
"What if?"
"He still has three BETA seeding units to track!"
"The data has been handed over to Orbital Early Warning Committee. He only needs to come back for half a day. Moreover, if you ask ordinary officers to stop someone like Suzaku Kururugi, if there is a fight, the entire guard force may not be able to stop him."
Lin Cuo is not joking on this issue. He has repeatedly studied Operation White Chrysanthemum's records. The real danger of Suzaku Kururugi is not just Lancelot. Even if that person leaves the body, he still has extremely abnormal physical abilities and reaction speed.
What's even more troublesome is that the logic of his behavior cannot be easily predicted at all.
Sometimes, in order to comply with Britannia military orders, he would take the initiative to accept obviously unreasonable treatment.
Sometimes, in order to protect someone, they suddenly take actions that are completely outside of normal military discipline.
If you just want to kill him, there are many ways, but what Lin Cuo wants is a Suzaku Kururugi who is alive, not completely angered, and who may still cooperate in the future.
Then someone must be able to control him within a range that will not cause a large number of casualties when he really decides to resist, so Li Xingke must be present.
And there was a second target. Lin Cuo's eyes glanced across the imperial Knights of the Round list and stopped at a photo of a young woman.
He has long pink hair, an indifferent expression, and is accustomed to carrying a recording terminal with him.
[Anya·Alstreim.]
Driver, Lin Cuo of Mordred enlarged the photo, hesitated for a moment, and connected to another private line.
"C. C., you mentioned before that some people around Charles may have more than one set of memories of their own."
The sound of the Pizza box opening came from the other side of the communication.
"Have you finally had time to think about this question?"
"I just want to confirm one thing. Does the death of Marianne Imperial Consort really mean that her consciousness also disappeared?"
It suddenly became quiet over there, and after a while, C. C. finally spoke slowly.
"Kid, you want to find Lelouch's mother?"
"I want to find someone who can explain the assassination of Marianne, the World of C Plan of Charles, and what role Imperial Consort played in it."
"Oh?"
"By the way, let's see if we can hire a long-term consultant with the Royal Family background and rich strategic experience for Great Han."
"Then you'd better figure something out first."
C. C.'s voice rarely contained a smile.
"That body itself has an owner. Even if you find another consciousness, it doesn't mean that you can regard her as a palace talent that can be directly signed. Also, Marianne is not the kind of gentle mother you imagined who would only sit in the palace and smile."
Lin Cuo blinked.
"Of course I know, otherwise how could she marry Egghead?"
"You'd better be a little wary of her."
"Don't worry, I always respect highly capable people."
"Your words don't reassure me at all."
After the line was cut off, Lin Cuo looked at the list again. Now was not the time to move Anya. He needed to at least confirm first whether there were traces of Marianne in the girl's memory.
As for Suzaku Kururugi...
Lin Cuo has been eyeing it for a long time.
Suzaku left the Britannia preparation area alone before Knights of the Round officially debuted.
The reason is actually very simple. He wanted to see Kallen. After Operation White Chrysanthemum, he never had the chance to have a real conversation with her.
Now the whole world is cheering for Guren Shen Hu, but he knows better than most imperial nobles what the woman in Cockpit has paid for.
She didn't win the competition with the blood of the Stadtfeld family, nor with the personal favor of a certain Regent.
Suzaku wants to tell everyone this personally.
But as soon as he bypassed the imperial rest area and walked into the passage connecting the central medical and Driver preparation areas, he discovered that there were two more Great Han officers in front of him.
Suzaku stopped.
"Excuse me, what's the matter?"
The two officers looked at each other, and one of them bowed his head very politely.
"Sir Suzaku Kururugi, in accordance with the latest security regulations of the conference, you have just passed the Britannia delegation registration area and entered the Great Han Common Defense internal control channel. You need to confirm your identity."
Suzaku glanced at his feet. There was indeed a yellow dividing line in the center of the passage, and his left foot happened to be on the other side of the line.
"This is the internal passage of the competition venue. I have passed the conference security review."
"Yes."
"Then why do you need to reconfirm?"
The officer's expression remained unchanged.
"Because you used your left foot to enter an area that is inconsistent with your registration permissions."
Suzaku was stunned.
"Left foot?"
"Left foot."
"What if I step in right foot first?"
The officer hesitated for a moment, and new instructions came from the earphones.
"That's still something that needs to be confirmed."
Suzaku Finally realized something was wrong, and he took a step back.
"Sorry, I'm returning to the Britannia maintenance area now."
"Please wait."
A familiar voice came from the other end of the passage.
Suzaku raised his head, and Li Xingke was already standing there, wearing only a Great Han military uniform and a sword at his waist.
"Suzaku Kururugi."
Suzaku's breathing suddenly became tight.
"Li Xingke General..."
"Regent-sama would like to have a talk with you."
"I have not received a formal diplomatic invitation, so I should be able to refuse it directly."
Li Xingke looked at him for a moment.
"Of course you can refuse to talk, but the personnel identity verification process has been started on site. Before the verification is completed, in accordance with the security rules of the conference, you cannot enter other controlled areas without authorization."
Suzaku's eyes quickly swept across the passage. He was not sure that he could break through it without hurting the people around him.
What's more, there are a large number of competitors, engineers, medical personnel and general staff around.
He cannot directly turn an international event into an armed conflict just because he is unreasonably blocked.
"General, I do not want to have a dispute with Great Han."
"I don't want to either."
Li Xingke even sounded a little tired.
"In fact, what I hope to happen most right now is that Mr. Regent can at least one day invite guests according to normal diplomatic procedures."
A few minutes later, a temporary announcement suddenly appeared on the big screen at the global arena.
[Identity verification of special personnel of the conference.]
Knights of the Round, who was originally about to appear, had to postpone his entrance. Cornelia was the first to frown.
"What happened again?"
Lloyd watched the communication status suddenly change to restricted Lancelot Driver positioning, and blinked slightly.
"Oops?"
Cecile also raised his head.
"Where is Suzaku?"
Then she saw Suzaku Kururugi, accompanied by two Great Han officers and Li Xingke, appearing in the central review area.
"...Earl."
"Huh?"
"I have a very bad feeling."
"What a coincidence, so am I."