Recaps

At Ashford Academy, Tabane announced a one-year exchange program at Penglai IS Academy and revealed that Lelouch was already in Goryeo helping with military courses. Nina decided to apply, while Shirley considered going so she could ask Lelouch why he had left and check on Nunnally.

• Milly teased Shirley about repeatedly watching Lelouch's empty seat, while Rivalz shared rumors about Lelouch's work in Goryeo.
• Nina studied footage of the IS operations in Kashgar and questioned how Great Han had developed its technology and academy.
• Tabane announced that Penglai IS Academy was inviting Ashford students to a one-year exchange program, with IS operator courses restricted to women.
• Tabane showed footage of Lelouch in Goryeo, teased Shirley about her feelings for him, and revealed that he was helping design courses for the exchange program.
• Nina decided to apply after learning that Princess Euphemia might visit Penglai, and Shirley considered applying to speak with Lelouch and check on Nunnally.

After C.C. woke in Luoyang, Lin Cuo tried to confirm her contract by kissing her without permission, prompting Jiang Lihua to scold him and join C.C. in criticizing his conduct. The encounter established a weak psionic resonance for Lin Cuo, leaving him with a new potential trait rather than an immediate power.

• Nina hesitated before submitting an unpublished Orbital Physics paper to the Sakuradite High-Energy Experimental Group application.
• Lin Cuo kissed the newly awakened C.C. before she could explain her contract terms, and she bit his lip.
• Jiang Lihua arrived, heard C.C.'s complaint, and warned Lin Cuo not to act without consent again.
• Lin Cuo invoked Chancellor Cao's tradition of recruiting talent, while Jiang Lihua and C.C. mocked his excuse and discussed his kiss.
• The system granted Lin Cuo the leader trait psionic potential after he formed a weak, stable resonance with the higher-dimensional sea of consciousness.

Lin Cuo recruited the newly awakened C.C. as a temporary consultant for the Regent Council's supernatural affairs while she negotiated limits on her employment. After Tabane praised Nina Einstein's research on sakuradite, Lin Cuo ordered her immediate recruitment.

• Lin Cuo discovered that his new [Psionic Potential] ability had not given him a Geass contract, and C.C. clarified that their consciousnesses had only briefly resonated.
• Lin Cuo tried to draw C.C. into a ceremonial embrace, then offered her a position with the Regent Council; C.C. accepted temporary consultant work with the right to quit at any time.
• Lin Cuo assigned C.C. a large collection of research files, and she objected by throwing one at him.
• A Prussian adjutant reported that the Empire's confidential secretariat had cleared the area, while Jiang Lihua left to handle the Son of Heaven's live broadcast.
• Tabane told Lin Cuo that Nina Einstein had derived key boundary conditions for high-energy sakuradite, and Lin Cuo ordered her recruited immediately.

Nina arrived at Penglai as head of the Firmament Project’s student theory group, while Milly accepted a paid role overseeing student research ethics. Lin Cuo also arranged for the E.U. delegation to remain in Great Han for 180 days, offering access to research and protections for W-0 members as Leila challenged the arrangement.

• Nina received a special researcher appointment and learned she would lead the Firmament Project’s international student theory group under strict safety rules.
• The Great Han Court Television Bureau announced the Firmament Project’s first phase, with five joint research groups and a 120-day target for the first low-orbit satellite.
• Lin Cuo greeted Nina and explained that Tabane had found two errors in her theory; Milly accepted a paid position as the student self-governance committee’s founding chair and research ethics liaison.
• Leila and the E.U. delegation arrived in Luoyang to find their mission extended to 180 days, with their equipment and funding tied to staying in Great Han.
• Lin Cuo offered the delegation research access and proposed status options and protections for W-0 members, while Leila accused him of manipulating the E.U. committee.

Lin Cuo publicly praised the E.U. delegation before detaining its armed W-0 personnel, claiming he was protecting their freedom to choose their allegiance. Kaguya Sumeragi and Great Han officials offered Area 11 citizenship and legal protections to W-0 members, while Lin Cuo examined Eito Hyuga’s unusual combat traits.

• Dietrich began a worldwide broadcast, and Lin Cuo and Leila described the E.U. observation mission and debated W-0 members’ freedom to choose their futures.
• After the broadcast ended, Great Han Military Police and Prussia Gendarmerie disarmed and restrained the delegation’s armed personnel.
• Lin Cuo told Leila the detentions temporarily separated W-0 members from military orders so they could decide freely.
• Kaguya Sumeragi announced that eligible W-0 members could regain Area 11 citizenship, while Great Han offered additional citizenship and support to those who joined its defense framework.
• Lin Cuo viewed Eito Hyuga’s character information, including his high Valor and the dangerous effects of his mind-control experiment.

Lin Cuo secured the transfer of W-0’s combat personnel to the Area 11 Government-in-Exile by offering citizenship and military service, while Leila objected to losing her unit. He then revealed that Great Han had acquired W-0’s Apollo’s Chariot deployment system and its technology license, leaving Leila and Anna alarmed by its dangers.

• Lin Cuo offered Eito Hyuga a custom-built Alexander unit and military enlistment in Area 11 under conditions that forbade suicide tactics and required obedience to retreat orders.
• Sayanami, Naruse Yukiya, Kousaka Ayano, and Eito Hyuga signed documents becoming Area 11 and Great Han Community citizens, with Naruse securing a protection against involuntary Brain Raid experiments.
• Leila accused Lin Cuo of poaching her unit, while he invited her to remain as their political supervisor and tactical adviser.
• Lin Cuo announced that Great Han had purchased an Apollo’s Chariot system, its engineering documentation, and a nonexclusive production license from the E.U.
• Anna explained that Apollo’s Chariot launched KMFs through a mountain track and sent pilots through a hazardous high-altitude descent into enemy territory.

Lin Cuo proposed transforming Apollo's Chariot into Great Han's first crewed return system, with unmanned tests and verified safety measures before any pilots flew. He offered Akito Hyuga the first pilot's place, making survival and the choice to launch explicit priorities, and waited for Akito's answer.

• Lin Cuo criticized the W-0 program's lack of recovery systems, and Leila challenged his motives for buying Apollo's Chariot.
• Lin Cuo unveiled plans to adapt Apollo's Chariot into a crewed spacecraft, with unmanned launches, life-support tests, and three escape systems before crewed flights.
• Lin Cuo ordered the military police to remove the W-0 members' restraint bands.
• Lin Cuo offered Akito Hyuga a role as a test pilot for Great Han's first crewed near-orbital return flights, promising to cancel the mission if safety checks failed.
• Lin Cuo named Akito the first pilot and asked whether he would join the mission, while Akito's answer remained unheard.

Akito Hyuga agreed to join the Golden Crow Project after securing safeguards for himself and his companions, with Tōdō Kyōshirō backing the conditions. After the public proceedings, Akito and the others left with Area 11's Government-in-Exile, while Leila Marukal was summoned to hear a new personnel decision from Paris.

• Akito Hyuga agreed to join the Golden Crow Project on the condition that Ryo, Naruse Yukiya, and Kousaka Ayano serve on the Mission Safety Committee and retain the right to refuse missions.
• Lin Cuo promised that launches required approval from the Son of Heaven, the Common Defense Military Affairs Committee, the Mission Safety Committee, and the Driver.
• Tōdō Kyōshirō supported Akito's conditions and vowed to petition the Son of Heaven if Lin Cuo tried to reinterpret the safety rules.
• Kaguya Sumeragi asked Lin Cuo to include Area 11's Government-in-Exile emblem on the Return Capsule, and he agreed to display both nations' emblems.
• Akito Hyuga, Sayanami, Naruse Yukiya, and Kousaka Ayano left for the Independent Medical Zone with Area 11 officials, while Leila Marukal was summoned to hear Paris's new personnel decision.

The E.U. suspended Leila’s delegation and surrendered her to Great Han’s protective detention as part of a ceasefire deal with Britannia. Great Han used Anna and the other delegation members as leverage to force Leila’s cooperation, while Lin Cuo later received the system updates and noticed C.C. enjoying pizza.

• The E.U. committee revoked Leila’s delegation mandate and diplomatic immunity, revealing that the Marukal Family and other factions had traded her removal for concessions from Britannia and Great Han.
• Great Han detained Leila, Anna, and the rest of the delegation, then separated them and took them to different locations.
• An interrogator presented Leila with a supervision agreement and threatened her team to force her to stop interfering with W-0’s change of nationality and Great Han’s defense projects.
• Great Han’s guards beat Leila while interrogators threatened Anna and a technician, but Leila told Anna not to surrender the encryption key.
• The system recorded Leila’s imprisonment and her shift to viewing Lin Cuo as an enemy, while Lin Cuo saw C.C. enjoy pizza and receive a temporary improvement in her mood toward him.

Lin Cuo persuaded C.C. to consider a future trip to the moon, then convened Great Han’s supreme Common Defense military conference to propose standardizing the army’s equipment. Cao Yuanming eagerly accepted leadership of the new commission, while Lin Cuo also presented plans to upgrade tanks and develop a massive siege vehicle.

• Lin Cuo argued that C.C. could observe the moon from lunar orbit, and she conditionally agreed to discuss going after he built a Return Capsule.
• At the military conference, Li Xingke anticipated another major assignment, while Lin Cuo proposed creating the Great Han Commission on Armored Force Organization and Military Equipment Standards.
• Lin Cuo flattered Cao Yuanming into accepting the commission’s directorship and tasked Liaodong with preparing standard equipment samples within thirty days.
• Li Xingke questioned Lin Cuo’s plans for conventional tanks, and Lin Cuo outlined upgrades to existing tanks alongside a 180-millimeter Quake-Mountain Siege Vehicle.
• Lin Cuo showed how the siege vehicle would deploy spread tracks, hydraulic supports, and recoil spades before firing.

Lin Cuo presented the Earth-Shaking Type concept, but engineers raised technical challenges he could not answer. Li Xingke connected the design to the Dragon's Gall's amphibious technology and proposed separate operating modes for movement and firing, leaving Lin Cuo considering a heavier, costlier machine.

• An engineer questioned the Earth-Shaking Type's recoil, track deployment, electromagnetic acceleration, and energy storage, while Lin Cuo admitted he did not understand the technical details.
• Li Xingke refused Lin Cuo's attempt to delegate the technical review to him and asked whether he remembered the Dragon's Gall.
• Chou Xianglin explained that the Dragon's Gall was a huge tracked command platform that could be refitted to operate on water, and Lin Cuo realized its propulsion system supported different modes.
• Li Xingke proposed combining floating mobility with ground spades and hydraulic locks for fixed firing, while engineers suggested interlocking the power systems and adapting the Dragon's Gall's heavy gun mounts for testing.
• Lin Cuo asked whether the machine could have two operating modes, and Li Xingke warned that the design would increase weight, cost, and maintenance.

Lin Cuo and Li Xingke discussed expanding the Earth-Shaking Type project as Great Han mobilized its neglected technical workforce. The meeting ended with officials restricting Lin Cuo’s authority to make foreign commitments after reviewing Leila Malcal’s detention, while the system exposed his poor diplomatic credibility.

• Lin Cuo agreed to pay more for the Earth-Shaking Type, and engineers were tasked with preparing three prototype designs.
• Great Han’s population review verified nearly four billion people, revealing a vast technical workforce that had been misallocated or left away from professional posts.
• The system initiated a national focus to bring back those who had left their posts and improve engineering, procurement, and equipment reliability.
• Li Xingke presented Leila Malcal’s detention report, and officials agreed that her immediate release could create diplomatic risks.
• Cao Yuanming proposed requiring the Son of Heaven’s countersignature and legal review for external commitments, and C.C. told Lin Cuo that others could no longer trust him.
• The system rated Lin Cuo’s personal and treaty credibility extremely low and said Great Han’s ability to fulfill commitments depended primarily on Son of Heaven Jiang Lihua.

Lin Cuo used a global broadcast to defend Great Han’s actions and promote military and industrial reforms, boosting domestic support while damaging international trust. He then enlisted C.C. to examine ancient records and planned a visit to Penglai’s academy, while Nina remained unaware that Lin Cuo intended to recruit her.

• Lin Cuo gave a global speech denying that Great Han had detained the E.U. delegation, defending his credibility, promising better support for engineers, and justifying the Great Purge.
• Cao Yuanming ordered Liaodong officials not to cite Lin Cuo’s technical comments, while the broadcast increased domestic support and engineers’ willingness to return but further reduced diplomatic credibility.
• C.C. criticized Lin Cuo’s handling of his credibility and challenged his claim that Leila was being treated well in detention.
• Lin Cuo gave C.C. twelve boxes of historical and supernatural records, and she corrected an error in one document and identified a hidden entrance on an ancient map.
• Lin Cuo assigned C.C. eighteen hours of archival work per day, and she added a permanent right to refuse overtime and forced labor.
• Lin Cuo told C.C. to review the third box while he prepared to visit the academy in Penglai, and Nina remained unaware of his plans to recruit her.

Lin Cuo visited Nina Einstein at Penglai Academy and used personal attention and reassurance to draw her out, while C.C. warned him not to exploit her vulnerability. The chapter left Nina listening as Lin Cuo told her she had noticed his injury when others only saw his authority and usefulness.

• Lin Cuo asked for Nina Einstein at Penglai Academy and activated a plan to win her trust by appealing to her need for affirmation and protection.
• C.C. criticized Lin Cuo's approach and warned him that Nina might mistake his attention for her whole life, and he promised to take responsibility for her.
• Lin Cuo visited Nina's temporary theory room, put aside her reports, and told her he had come to meet her rather than discuss work.
• Lin Cuo complimented Nina, asked to call her Big Sister Nina in private, and noticed she had not eaten.
• Nina noticed Lin Cuo's injured hand, and he told her she was warm and that she was the only person who had noticed his pain.

Lin Cuo deepened Nina Einstein’s attachment by giving her personal attention before leaving Penglai, while Leila endured coercive interrogation in Luoyang. The chapter ended with Leila receiving three books, including Lin Cuo’s My Struggle.

• Lin Cuo told Nina that her care gave him a feeling of maternal warmth, and Nina admitted she did not dislike hearing it.
• Lin Cuo left without pressing Nina further, promised to visit again, and called her “big sister Nina”; Nina spent the evening thinking about him instead of working.
• Leila refused to surrender the E.U.’s encrypted communications structure despite hunger, sleeplessness, and manipulated footage of Anna being tortured.
• Leila confronted the interrogator after he used her wartime records and her former comrades’ departure from the E.U. to provoke her.
• After the interrogator left, a tray arrived for Leila containing three books, the last titled My Struggle and bearing Lin Cuo’s courtesy name, Fengxian.

Leila read Lin Cuo’s book, which traced his childhood and argued that humanity must unite under one political entity, alliance, ideology, and commander-in-chief to survive the Alien Civilizational War. Her reading was cut short by the review officers, who shocked her and took the book before reporting that Mein Führer had not yet arrived.

• Leila read Lin Cuo’s account of growing up without his mother and of his father’s death, alongside his early interest in painting cities.
• Lin Cuo argued that Britannia’s empire had to be defeated and dismantled, while distinguishing it from ordinary Britannian citizens.
• Lin Cuo criticized Great Han, the E.U., and his own purge policies, and wrote that Leila’s kindness could not change a system that treated W-0 as ammunition.
• Leila read Lin Cuo’s proposal for one nation, one alliance, one ideology, and one commander-in-chief, including his warning that a dictator might claim to be buying time for democracy.
• The female officer ended Leila’s reading, and guards shocked her and took the book away.
• A German-speaking officer reported that Leila’s response matched expectations and that Mein Führer had not yet arrived.

Lin Cuo planned a personal Knightmare with Tabane and C.C., giving C.C. a role with independent veto power despite her objections. As he left Penglai, he strengthened his bond with Nina, while the Mars Hive prepared three new landing units and the distant war continued to divert the BETA’s attention.

• Tabane and C.C. teased Lin Cuo about his efforts to stabilize Nina, and he brought them into a meeting about his personal machine.
• Lin Cuo presented the Mirage Bird of Paradise design, placing C.C. in its lower core pod; Tabane proposed giving her emergency authority to stop the machine and eject him.
• C.C. remained in Penglai as Supernatural Affairs Advisor and Experimental Knightmare Safety Supervisor.
• Lin Cuo left Nina a handwritten note and asked her for advice; Nina prepared recommendations about his interactions with female political figures and responded warmly to his call for her to be a dependable big sister.
• The Mars Hive divided its G-Element reserves among three surface-seeding units aimed at the Athabasca Basin, Mashhad, and Bhopal.
• The node on Mars continued receiving echoes of a war in another A.D. universe, where conflict among BETA, ELS, and humanity kept the BETA’s main forces occupied.

Installation began on Great Han’s Apollo Chariot No. 2 Test Facility, where former W-0 members now enforced safety rules over the E.U. engineers. Eito Hyuga accepted that the new procedures meant pilots could refuse dangerous tests, while his centrifuge results raised questions about how much g-force KMF pilots could withstand.

• Eito Hyuga checked the installed track data as the chapter described how Great Han had adapted the E.U.’s Apollo Chariot design for orbital launches and crewed missions.
• Sayanami blocked Anna Kleiman from authorizing the third track section until she reran the Escape Pod separation test and obtained the required approval.
• Eito Hyuga reflected on how Great Han’s test rules required officials to cancel unsafe launches and guaranteed that pilots could refuse missions.
• Eito Hyuga completed a human centrifuge test, maintaining mission-level reactions at eleven g and showing fluctuating vision after a brief fourteen-g peak.
• Lin Cuo questioned the medical officer’s assessment of Eito Hyuga as an excellent candidate, noting that his performance seemed abnormally good by ordinary human standards.

Lin Cuo used newly identified human traits and pilot data to push Great Han toward rebuilding its conventional air force alongside its KMFs. Chou Xianglin took charge of the reconstruction plan as the country’s military-focused mobilization expanded, bringing new opportunities and mounting costs.

• Lin Cuo’s system identified humans’ strong and charismatic traits, then mocked his attempt to use them to explain his personal history.
• Lin Cuo submitted pilot adaptability findings to Chou Xianglin and urged a full reassessment of Great Han’s aviation forces.
• Chou Xianglin accepted responsibility for air force reconstruction but demanded that authority be divided to prevent all work from accumulating on her desk.
• Chou Xianglin reorganized the plan around floating relays, restored conventional aircraft, KMFs, and new orbital observation and communication networks.
• Great Han’s aviation workforce and military institutions expanded, creating advancement for commoners while increasing workloads, training risks, and pressure for permanent wartime mobilization.

Britannia examined BETA specimens and ordered research into how to kill them before they reached the ground. Lloyd rejected Heavy-Metal Clouds as too disruptive to Britannia’s own systems and proposed layered defenses built around energy shields, thermal-protection coatings, cooling, and maneuvering.

• Cornelia, Schneizel, Lloyd, Cecile, and Charles examined BETA specimens, and Cecile explained that the creatures gathered humans and other materials for Hive production.
• Charles ordered the Imperium to study the BETA and learn how to kill them before they reached the ground.
• Imperial researchers proposed Heavy-Metal Clouds to weaken Laser-Class beams, but simulations showed the particles would disrupt Britannia’s communications and equipment as well.
• Lloyd rejected the cloud approach and presented data on Laser-Class irradiation and recovery windows alongside the Imperium’s existing shield technology.
• Lloyd proposed layered defenses combining adjustable Luminous Shields, Special Composite Thermal-Protection Coating, active cooling, structural redundancy, maneuvering, and Unmanned Decoys.

Britannia and Great Han independently began developing shielded aircraft, KMFs, and floating battleships after encountering the Tank-class threat. In Luoyang, Lin Cuo visited the imprisoned Leila Malcal, who condemned him, and he tried to deflect responsibility for her treatment onto the E.U. and his subordinates.

• Britannia rapidly redirected its military industries toward shield technology and accelerated plans for floating battleships.
• Leila Malcal endured interrogation in Luoyang until Lin Cuo entered and asked how far she had read the books in her cell.
• Leila denounced Lin Cuo as a torturer hiding behind official procedures, while he privately took satisfaction in her criticism.
• Lin Cuo's system showed that Leila regarded him as a mortal enemy and had almost no willingness to be recruited.
• Lin Cuo told Leila that her imprisonment and interrogations were a diplomatic-management failure, blaming the E.U. and the personnel who carried out his orders.
• Leila was left disbelieving as Lin Cuo portrayed himself as a victim of the situation he had authorized.

Lin Cuo confronted Leila with documents showing that General Jean Smilas planned to pin W-0’s failures on her while preparing for emergency military control. He asked her to distinguish personal responsibility from institutional blame, then accused her of refusing to make the same distinction for him.

• Leila tried to kick Lin Cuo, but her weakened body slowed her, and he caught her ankle before she nearly pulled him off balance with an aikido move.
• Lin Cuo stopped the guard from intervening and said he had come to correct the security procedures that had left Leila too weak to stand for her live public review.
• Lin Cuo showed Leila a draft investigation assigning her responsibility for W-0’s creation, casualties, and the leak of Apollo Chariot technology, while placing little blame on Smilas.
• Leila examined a separate emergency military plan that could give Smilas administrative power during a crisis, but said it did not prove he was planning a coup.
• Lin Cuo asked whether W-0’s humanitarian crisis was Leila’s fault, and she said she bore command responsibility while arguing that the committee and Smilas had created the conditions behind it.
• Lin Cuo admitted his own command and supervisory responsibility for coercive measures, then accused Leila of demanding that others separate him from the institutions and personnel involved.

Leila challenged Lin Cuo over his responsibility for the torture she endured, but he argued that blame should be apportioned across the institutions and officials involved. He revealed that the interrogations had been documented as evidence for a live public review the next morning, then predicted that E.U. legislators would soon demand Leila’s return to Paris.

• Leila accused Lin Cuo of using her efforts to protect W-0 to excuse his approval of torture, while Lin Cuo argued that both of them had acted within flawed systems and should share responsibility.
• Leila recognized that Lin Cuo was using a false equivalence, but her exhaustion made it difficult for her to dismantle his argument.
• Lin Cuo called the interrogations compensation and gave Leila records documenting the torture, his authorization, and the E.U. committee’s revocation of her status.
• Lin Cuo told Leila that a live joint public review of W-0 citizenship, her revoked E.U. status, and Great Han’s protective custody would take place the next morning, with time for her to question officials and him.
• Lin Cuo proposed a bet and predicted that E.U. legislators who had approved keeping Leila in Great Han would demand her return to Paris within a week.

The E.U. launched a public review intended to blame Leila Malcal for W-0 and related scandals, while Lin Cuo turned the proceedings into a worldwide political spectacle. The trial began with the prosecution portraying Leila as the central force behind W-0, elevating her importance before the audience.

• Lin Cuo and Dietrich planned to use the review footage and public trial to build Leila's public profile and expose the E.U.'s hypocrisy.
• The Forty-Person Committee approved an open review, Britannia sent observers, and Jiang Lihua and Li Xingke questioned Lin Cuo's decision to appear as a witness.
• Lin Cuo publicly denied any improper relationship with Leila and dragged Kallen Kouzuki into the rumor, prompting Kallen to berate him.
• The broadcast showed Leila's detention footage before she entered the tribunal, and she reacted with surprise when she realized the world had seen it.
• The E.U. prosecutor accused Leila of directing W-0's political, military, and personnel activities, and Dietrich recognized that the accusation had made her seem more important than the Committee and its generals.

At her trial, Leila challenged the prosecution’s claim that she was W-0’s guiding spirit and demanded that responsibility also be placed on the system that shaped the unit. With W-0’s former members standing behind her, the court allowed her to continue her statement, while Dietrich ordered a key line from the broadcast prepared for worldwide release.

• Anna Clement, Eito Hyuga, Sayanami, Naruse Yukiya, Kousaka Ayano, and other former W-0 personnel entered the hearing chamber in their new uniforms.
• Chief Justice Montfort overruled the prosecutor’s objection and admitted the group as parties to the case and witnesses.
• Leila argued that the prosecution’s description of her as W-0’s guiding spirit entitled her to answer before its presentation was complete.
• Leila admitted signing orders that caused casualties but argued that the indictment ignored the conditions that had forced W-0’s members to earn identity through military service.
• Eito Hyuga testified that Leila had never ordered or pressured him to change affiliations, and said someone else had ordered him to die.
• Leila demanded that politicians share responsibility with her, and Montfort allowed her to finish her statement while Dietrich ordered a key line cut for worldwide broadcasts.