Page 113

The rapid, agitated, scribbling sound of a pencil against paper filled the office of the normally rowdy and boisterous Student Council of Ashford Academy, as everyone silently stared at the figure at the end of the table with confused, surprised expressions.

Milly, Rivalz, Lelouch, Shirley and Nina glanced at each other briefly as they watched Kallen making the estimated budget summary of the various clubs in Ashford Academy for the school festival aggressively. She had a scowl on her beautiful face, an expression no one would've expected from a normally soft spoken, quiet, and graceful sickly young lady, as she clutched onto her mechanical pencil with a vice grip.

"Uhm... Kallen-chan...?"

Milly tried to snap her out of it, but her voice failed to reach the agitated red hair as she continued to write aggressively on the piece of paper.

Milly looked around to her friends with a confused look and asked.

"...What happened to her?"

"I'm not sure... She seemed fine yesterday... But she's been like this since morning."

Shirley answered, shaking her head, as the rest similarly shook their heads in confusion.

Kallen was perfectly normal when she attended school yesterday. But the moment she entered class this morning, she was visibly in a bad mood.

When some of her friends asked her what happened, she kept denying that something happened. But, given how upset she seemed, they knew it was a lie and that she wasn't keen on sharing it.

Lelouch silently glanced at Kallen and couldn't help but smile inwardly as he recalled his conversation with Yuuji yesterday.

It seems like every world he goes to, he'll always have trouble with women.

In both of the worlds he had visited before Code Geass, including his original world, Lelouch had heard about the many troubles and interactions he had with girls. The other members of the group chat also knew all about it. After all, Aika and Erika had shared many of the stories they knew about his episodes with women directly to the group chat where everyone can see, to Yuuji's headache and embarrassment.

So, it's not surprising for him to have trouble with women here as well. His appearance alone was already a massive magnet for trouble with women. Add to it his personality, character, and him being a "protagonist of a harem hentai"... He was fated to be troubled by women who wished for his love and lived a debauchery-filled life of a harem protagonist.

Just then, the door to the Student Council office clicked and swung open, revealing two a male with jet-black hair and another male with dark brown hair carrying tall stacks of files, binders, and papers in their hands.

"We're back. We've brought the documents you all requested."

"Oh, welcome back~ Thank yo-"

*SNAP*

The entire room went silent as all heads snap-turned towards Kallen in an instant. And there they saw Kallen with her head looking down, her beautiful, straight, crimson hair covering her eyes, and the mechanical pencil she had been using snapped in two.

And despite all his immunity towards spells and magical effects that would affect the mind, Yuuji felt a chill down his spine as his eyes widened in shock.

And with the silence prolonged longer than it should be, Kallen snapped out of her daze and realized what happened.

She slowly turned her head and looked towards her friends, her gaze landing at Alexander a few seconds longer than the rest, before gazing down to her hand that was holding the snapped pieces of her mechanical pencil.

"A-Ah! A-Ahahaha! I-It seems like my pencil was already very worn out! I-I've been meaning to replace it for a while now, but I haven't got the chance!"

She laughed nervously as she began sweating profusely, trying to make up an excuse about how a supposedly sickly young lady from a rich family could snap a mechanical pencil in two.

But this was not entirely her fault! Mordred was also at fault!

How could he just let C.C flirt and be that close to him yesterday?! What's their relationship?! She never heard of those two being so close to each other like that!

Was he keeping secrets from her? No, he obviously has secrets that he hadn't shared with her, but she didn't expect one of them to be being that close with C.C!

And why did he let her use his shoulders and hug his arm like that?! E-Even she hadn't actually held his hand or be that close with him!!!

"What... happened...?"

Yuuji muttered with a nervous smile on his face.

"I-It's nothing...!"

Kallen said in a fluster and resumed doing her task in a fluster with a new mechanical pencil, trying to ignore the surprised gazes of her friends.

Yuuji and Suzaku looked at each other in confusion before Suzaku shrugged and went ahead, putting all the stacks of papers on the table.

He followed suit, and as he went past Lelouch's side, he glanced at him questioningly.

But instead of an answer, Yuuji only got a somehow... pitiful smile before Lelouch continued doing his work.

After placing the majority of the stuff he had brought onto the table, Yuuji took a file from the pile and went towards Kallen.

"K-Kallen, here you go. It's the accounting ledger from recent years for the Equestrian Club's School Festival budget you asked for."

"A-Ah... Thank you..."

"Mm... You're welcome."

He sat down on the seat opposite her, and looked at Karen briefly. And after a brief thought, he realized what might've just happened.

Ah... I guess I can't put this off any longer huh...

He smiled helplessly in his mind and began thinking of ways to tell her... and C.C the truth.

The members of the student council continued working in silence as each and every one of them focused their attention on their respective task. Only the sound of papers, pens, and clacking of the keyboard from Nina's computer resounded within the room until a phone ring captured everyone's attention.

They all turned towards Suzaku, who immediately took his phone out of his pocket and answered the call.

"Hello...? Ah, yes. Yes, I'm currently in the academy... O-Of course. I understand..."

The tone of his voice slowly turned from surprise, to grave as he lowered his voice and spoke quietly to his phone. It was difficult for the others to clearly hear what he was saying, but Yuuji and Lelouch could clearly hear it.

"Yes. I will see you soon."

Suzaku closed his phone, stood up, and faced the others with an apologetic smile.

"Everyone, I'm very sorry, but I've been summoned by the military... They said it's urgent."

Milly waved her hand dismissively in response to his apology and gave him a kind smile.

"Don't worry and just go. You can leave the rest to us, right Alex~?"

She winked teasingly towards Alexander, who let out a sigh at her words. But, he also gave Suzaku a kind smile and reassured him.

"Yes. Just go. We're almost done with today's work, so don't worry. You've helped enough."

The others nodded in affirmation to his words.

"Everyone... Thank you. Then, please excuse me."

He lowered his head and left the room with hasten steps.

And as he left, Lelouch and Yuuji glanced at each other with meaningful gazes.

Something must've happened...

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

The door into a small, makeshift room built within a container slammed with a blaring noise, alerting all four people who were resting within.

"O-Ohgi-san!"

"What happened?! Is it an emergency?!"

Ohgi immediately rose to his feet, followed by Inoue, Sugiyama, and Tamaki, when they heard the young man's panicked shout.

Having lived with the possibility of being raided by Britannian soldiers day in day out for so long, they've never been able to completely relax their guard and alert. Even if their base were hidden and there was little to no possibility of Britannia attacking them out of nowhere right now, they still couldn't drop their guard completely.

The young man with a shaved head, a recent member of the Black Knights, stuttered as his mouths flapped open and close in a fluster, before finally telling his seniors what happened.

"T-There's a beautiful woman, and s-several guys in white coats. T-They came here, and just barged into the base!!!"

"What? Are they armed?"

"N-No, t-they're unarmed. B-But they're heading to the hangar! W-What should we do?"

Ohgi and the others looked at the young man confusedly, their minds still processing the bizarre situation he just described.

But, Ohgi soon shook his head and snapped himself out of his daze.

"Let's go! There's no use thinking about it here!"

""Yes!""

They all quickly made their way to the hangar, or at least, the make-shift hangar they've built within the warehouse where they stored their knightmare frames in.

Upon arriving, they were welcomed by a bizarre scene of men in white coats, some of the quite lanky and some quite plumped, crowding around the jet-black ace in the hole of the Black Knights, the Excalibur, and a beautiful, chocolate-skinned woman with pale blonde hair.

She wore a long white coat and a maroon red shirt underneath which was barely buttoned, revealing her smooth, golden brown skin, thin waist, and a voluminous chest barely held onto by a lacy black bra. And the exotic beauty was currently standing a few distance away from the Excalibur, staring at it with eyes full of interest, as she held a pipe to her luscious red lips.

Even with Ohgi and the others' loud arrival, she did not even spare them a glance and continued staring at the Excalibur in silence.

Ohgi, Inoue, Sugiyama, and Tamaki were stunned by the appearance of such a bizarre group of people. Then, they noticed Silver, the masked-clad leader of the Black Knight's technology's R they just realized the presence off as they've been too preoccupied and... enamored by the beauty that was the Knightmare Frame before them.

While the female scientist still hadn't move from her place nor shifted her attention away from the Excalibur.

Inoue and Sugiyama pulled Tamaki back as they stared at the group of scientist with wariness and genuine confusion.

"...May I ask who you are? And why have you come to our base...?"

Ohgi stepped forward and asked with wariness clear in his voice.

While they might seem harmless, bearing no weapon or any of the sorts that he could see, he was still extremely wary of the people who could simply walk into their "secret base" so easily as if it was their own front yard.

He glanced at Silver for a moment, trying to see if he was similarly wary of their "guests". But, with the mask covering his face and the silence he kept, Ohgi failed to gain anything from just glancing at Silver.

The group of scientists, who heard his question, turned towards the brown-skinned woman and waited for her answer.

Silence fell upon the area as each moment seemingly felt like minutes.

And soon, the woman slowly turned her head back, glancing towards Ohgi and the rest of the group. Her sharp, turquoise eyes looked at them with a hint of annoyance, as if they had just disturbed her.

The silence continued as the woman simply glared at the group, when suddenly, a few more sets of footsteps resounded from behind Ohgi's group.

"They're my guests, Ohgi. You may stand down."

Ohgi and the others all turned back and saw Zero, Mordred, C.C, and a seemingly surprised Karen, walking towards them.

"Zero!"

The masked leader of the Black Knights stopped and stood a few distance away from the pale blonde-haired scientist as Ohgi's group stood in the middle, and addressed her.

"Welcome. I see you've managed to find your way into the hangar without anyone leading."

"I waited for a few minutes, but no one came. So, we just entered and "coincidentally" found our way here."

"I see."

The brown-skinned beauty answered, her silky, seductive voice, capable of tickling arousal out of most men, resounding throughout the warehouse.

"Well, I don't personally mind. But would you like to introduce yourself to the others? I believe they've become quite wary of you, which might be a hindrance to our future cooperation with each other."

The pale blonde haired woman narrowed her eyes and sighed heavily, before turning towards Ohgi's group.

"Fine... I am Rakshata. And I'm the mother of the Guren you see here."

"!!!"