BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
“Lelouch!
Wake up!”
The pounding on the door sounded considerably closer to an attempted breach than an effort to wake someone.
Lelouch opened his eyes.
Outside the window, the sky was still a deep blue.
The first light of dawn had only begun to creep above Orario’s walls, and beads of dew clung to the grass.
Most of the manor was probably still asleep.
With one obvious exception.
A certain captain possessed far more energy than any sane person required before sunrise.
“I’m counting to three!” Alice called through the door.
“One!
Two!”
“I’m awake.”
“Three!”
The door opened at the exact moment Lelouch sat up.
Alice poked her head inside with a brilliant smile.
She was already dressed in training clothes, her red hair neatly tied back.
A folded set of clothing and a towel rested in her arms.
Lelouch looked at the unlocked door.
Then at the morning intruder.
“You continued counting even after I answered.”
“Once you’ve started counting, you have to finish.”
“I’m beginning to understand why Kaguya has to restrain you so often.”
“Don’t bring up Kaguya this early.
You’ll make the whole day feel serious.”
“I’ll be sure to repeat that statement to her later.”
“You’re meaner than I thought!”
Lelouch got out of bed.
Most of the exhaustion from the previous night’s Magic use had faded, though a lingering heaviness remained behind his eyes.
His body, still unaccustomed to prolonged walking or any meaningful physical exertion, complained at every movement.
Remembering the five-kilometer run waiting for him outside, Lelouch began to suspect that accepting Alice’s invitation might have been his first serious error in this world.
Alice tossed him the towel.
“Take a bath first.
I prepared everything already.
It’s still too early for the others’ bathing time, so you don’t have to worry about breaking Kaguya’s rules.”
“I was never worried that I would break that particular rule.”
“But you are worried Kaguya will cut you down if you do.”
“That is an objectively plausible risk.”
Alice laughed and led him back toward the manor.
The corridors were quiet in the early morning.
Most of the lamps had already gone out, leaving only faint light from the windows.
Lelouch followed Alice to the bathing room at the rear of the building, where a hot-water pool large enough for several people waited.
“I’ll stand guard outside,” Alice said.
“If anyone comes, I’ll stop them.”
“Please do so without announcing to the entire household that I’m bathing.”
“Got it!”
Alice inhaled deeply.
“EVERYONE, DON’T COME THIS WAY!
LELOUCH IS—”
The door slammed shut in her face.
Lelouch leaned against it and closed his eyes.
“Is she doing this deliberately…?”
Alice’s laughter answered from the other side.
The hot water loosened the pain in his muscles.
Lelouch did not spend long washing away the dirt and sweat of the previous day.
When he looked down at his reflection in the water, he saw a pale, slender young man whose face still felt strangely unfamiliar.
His left violet eye looked no different from the right.
Yet he knew the Geass sigil slept within it.
After bathing, he returned to the guest room and found a fresh set of clothing arranged on the bed.
“Where did these come from?”
“Someone donated clothes to the Familia a while ago, but none of us could wear this size.
Lyra and Neze adjusted the waist and sleeves for you last night.”
Lelouch unfolded them.
A clean white shirt.
Black trousers.
Leather ankle boots.
And a short black-violet coat with understated silver trim along the hem.
The outfit was not extravagant enough to qualify as noble attire, but its cut was considerably more elegant than ordinary adventurer training clothes.
“This does not look particularly suitable for running laps.”
“The fabric is tougher than it looks.
And you don’t own anything else.”
“I can wear yesterday’s clothes.”
“Those are torn at the shoulder, covered in dirt, and Kaguya said I’m not allowed to bring someone who looks like a beggar into the dining room again.”
“Yesterday she was still calling me a potential spy.”
“Suspecting you of espionage and wanting you to be clean aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Lelouch found no reasonable response to that.
He took the clothes and closed the door.
Everything fit him surprisingly well.
The waist was tailored closely enough to allow movement without restricting him.
The dark coat made his complexion appear even paler, while the high collar emphasized a posture that already carried an inexplicable air of refinement.
When Lelouch opened the door again—
Alice froze.
“Is something wrong?”
“No…”
She blinked twice.
“I was just thinking that those clothes really picked the right person.”
“Clothes do not possess the ability to select their wearer.”
“Do you understand metaphors at all?”
Alice walked around him once before nodding in satisfaction.
“Yesterday you looked like a handsome young master who’d been robbed on the road.”
“And today?”
“Like a prince who just wandered out of his palace to explore the city.”
Lelouch stopped.
The word prince triggered something.
A white palace.
Imperial banners.
An enormous throne.
Then everything vanished.
“Please don’t call me that.”
His voice was slightly more serious than before.
Alice noticed.
She did not ask why.
“Then… Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
dazzlingly handsome gentleman?”
“That is considerably worse.”
By the time they entered the dining room, the morning conversations gradually died away table by table.
Lyra froze with a knife still spreading jam across her bread.
Neze stopped chewing.
Ryu lifted her eyes from her tea and forgot to look away for several seconds.
Even Kaguya, ordinarily excellent at controlling her expression, looked twice to confirm that this was indeed the same man who had arrived yesterday.
Lelouch stopped in the doorway.
“I believe collectively staring at another person in complete silence is considered impolite.”
Clack.
Someone’s plate struck the table.
Ryu was the first to turn away.
Several others immediately pretended to become extremely interested in breakfast.
Lyra made no effort to conceal herself.
“Are you seriously the same person?
Can clean clothes and a bath really change someone this much?”
“I was not that dirty yesterday.”
“You had a leaf stuck in your hair for half the day.”
Lelouch stared at her.
“Why did no one tell me?”
“It fit the whole ‘mysterious lost noble wandering through the wilderness’ atmosphere, so I left it.”
At the far end of the table, a tall Amazoness rested her chin on one hand.
Her sharp gaze openly traveled over Lelouch from head to toe.
“That face is more dangerous than your Geass.”
Lelouch turned toward her.
“That is clearly an exaggeration.”
“Not at all.
If you walked into my tribe’s village looking like that, several Amazons would probably fight over you.”
Someone on the other side of the table choked.
Alice burst out laughing.
Lyra immediately leaned forward with obvious interest.
“Really?
Amazons like men with faces like his?”
“We prefer strong men.
But a good face is certainly an advantage.”
The Amazoness continued examining him.
“Especially if he trains until that body gets stronger.”
“Please stop assessing my market value as though I were livestock.”
Lelouch looked genuinely weary.
“My face is not something I can alter.”
“That sounds exactly like someone suffering because he was born handsome,” Lyra said.
“I’m suffering because none of you will stop discussing it.”
Kaguya raised her teacup.
“If you do not wish to be stared at, perhaps stop standing like royalty.”
“I’m standing normally.”
“That is precisely the problem.”
Ryu set down her cup without looking at him directly.
“The clothes suit you.”
“Thank you.”
The simple answer made the tips of the elf’s ears twitch slightly.
She raised the teacup again—
Despite it already being empty.
Lyra noticed.
Her mouth opened.
Ryu sent her a glacial look.
The Prum wisely swallowed whatever comment had been about to escape, though a mischievous smile remained on her face.
Lelouch decided that remaining in the room any longer would only worsen the situation.
“Alice.
Weren’t you going to take me to the training grounds?”
“What’s the rush?
You haven’t even eaten yet.”
“I am willing to run five kilometers if it means escaping this conversation.”
“Oh!
Excellent motivation!”
Alice clapped her hands.
“Then eat properly and we’ll start immediately!”
Breakfast at the Astraea Familia was simpler than the manor’s exterior suggested.
Bread.
Vegetable soup.
Boiled eggs.
And a modest amount of smoked meat.
Neze watched suspiciously every time anyone’s hand approached her plate, which convinced Lelouch that the warning from last night had not been a joke.
After breakfast, Alice brought him to the training grounds behind the manor.
Nearly every member was already there.
Some had come for their usual morning practice.
Others had very clearly come to watch the Familia’s first male member get reduced to a corpse by their captain’s training regimen.
Kaguya stood beneath a tree with her arms folded.
“Do not expect us to lower our standards merely because your body is weak.”
“I requested no such thing.”
“Good.”
Alice clapped her hands.
“Ten laps to start!”
She pointed around the field.
“Everyone runs together, but don’t use your Status at full power.
Otherwise Lelouch will probably only see us at the start and finish.”
“Even if all of you reduce your speed, I doubt I’ll keep up.”
“Don’t give up before we begin.”
“Evaluating reality is not the same thing as giving up.”
The starting signal sounded.
The result unfolded exactly as Lelouch had predicted.
He fell into last place before completing even half a lap.
The members of the Astraea Familia had possessed Falna and trained for years.
Even while deliberately slowing themselves, their breathing barely changed.
That reduced pace was still beyond the limits of a young man who had received Falna only the night before.
By the end of the second lap, Neze had lapped him.
During the third, Lyra—whose legs were barely half as long as his—ran past while waving.
“Keep going, Prince!”
“If you…
still have enough breath to speak…”
Lelouch forced the words out between breaths.
“…then you’re running too slowly.”
“Still insulting people?
You’re fine!”
Every breath burned inside his lungs.
His legs felt as though chains had been wrapped around them.
Alice slowed until she was running beside him.
“You can stop and rest.”
“You told me to run ten laps.”
“I can change the number based on your condition.
You only recovered from Mind Down last night.”
“Then you should have decided that before we started.”
Lelouch forced another breath into his lungs.
“Not because I’m falling behind.”
“This isn’t a competition.”
“Which gives me even less reason to stop before completing what I was told to do.”
Alice studied him for a moment.
“You’re really stubborn.”
“I’ve been hearing that since I arrived in this city.”
“If you genuinely can’t continue, tell me.”
“Understood.”
Alice returned to the front, though she kept glancing over her shoulder.
Lelouch stopped trying to match anyone else’s pace.
He adjusted to a rhythm his body could maintain.
Steady breathing.
Shorter strides.
Foot placement on the hardest sections of ground to reduce wasted force.
He was indisputably the slowest.
But he never stopped.
The seventh lap passed.
Then the eighth.
By the ninth, everyone else had finished long ago.
Several members stood at the edge of the field.
Some called out encouragement.
Others watched with growing surprise that he was still moving.
During the final lap, Lelouch’s legs trembled so badly he could barely lift them.
His heart hammered violently.
The sounds around him became indistinct.
The finish line was ahead.
Only a few dozen steps.
Then—
A strange familiarity rose within him.
As though once, long ago, he had continued toward a destination while knowing perfectly well that only death waited at the end.
If he had been able to keep walking then—
There was no reason to stop now.
Lelouch crossed the finish line at a pace scarcely faster than walking.
Then his balance gave out.
Ryu caught one arm.
Alice seized the other.
“Ten laps…”
Lelouch spoke between ragged breaths.
“No reduction.”
“Mm.”
Alice smiled.
“All ten.”
Kaguya held out a waterskin.
“Pathetically slow.”
“Thank you for the unnecessary assessment.”
“But you didn’t stop.”
Her tone softened by the smallest amount.
“At least your will is not as weak as your body.”
Lelouch accepted the water.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Do as you please.”
The running—
Was only the beginning.
After Lelouch recovered enough to breathe normally, Alice tested his lifting strength, balance, evasive ability, and basic weapon handling.
The raw physical results were exactly as poor as expected.
A standard training sword was too heavy for him to swing repeatedly with stability.
A long spear disrupted his balance.
A medium shield strained his shoulder almost immediately.
And when he sparred with Alice using wooden swords—
She touched twelve potentially fatal points on his body in less than a minute.
“Your body reacts much more slowly than your mind,” Alice observed.
“That’s a polite way of saying I’m weak.”
“I was going to say that you predicted almost every attack correctly.”
Alice raised the wooden sword.
“Before I moved, you watched my shoulders, hips, and feet.”
She shifted her stance.
“You knew where the blade was coming from.”
“But my body could not evade it.”
“Exactly.”
“Correct information is useless when the instrument cannot execute the command.”
“Which is why we’re going to strengthen the instrument.”
Lelouch looked at the wooden sword in his hand.
It did not feel familiar.
No memory of sword practice existed in his muscles.
Whenever he held a close-combat weapon, he felt oddly misplaced.
He had fought before.
That much seemed increasingly certain.
But perhaps—
He had never been someone meant to stand on the front line.
“I may not be suited to swords.”
“Too early to decide,” Alice replied.
“But I agree that you should develop another primary method of fighting.”
From nearby, Lyra raised a hand.
“Does that mean it’s finally time to test the handgun?”
Alice’s eyes lit up.
“It is!”
….
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….
I also have many more novels in my collection that you might be interested in I upload ten novels a day, with 3 to 4 chapters per title depending on the length.
If you’re following a particular series, please wait your turn a little If there’s a particular novel you’re enjoying on Patron, please give it a ‘like’ so I know to focus on it