Chapter 264: REFRAIN
Today's Ashford Academy was still filled with the lively hustle and bustle unique to schools, as if the hostage incident at the lakeside two weeks ago had never happened at all.
Yet the two organizations born from the resistance were undeniably real.
Through punishing evil and promoting good while maintaining public order, their growing groups had disrupted the stable situation Cornelia had built over such a long period, thoroughly cementing the deceased Clovis' guilt in the Shinjuku massacre.
And without a doubt, the Black Knights had completely become a thorn in the side of Britannia within the Area 11 settlement.
But they had gained support from others.
Simply because of the principles they upheld—
"We do not deny war, but we absolutely will not allow the strong to unilaterally slaughter the weak! Only those prepared to be attacked may become attackers. When those with power assault the powerless who cannot fight back, we will appear again, no matter how powerful the enemy may be!"
This was not empty talk.
Whether it was the Shinjuku incident, the Orange incident, or the lakeside hostage incident—all had proven this point.
Even when dealing with vulnerable Britannians, they showed no discrimination.
In contrast, however, Shadow Garden had grown quiet, with almost no visible activity, as if they had vanished from Area 11.
And their leader was currently peacefully enjoying campus life.
"I'm telling you, Teacher, no slacking off~"
In the Ashford student council room, student council president Milly was tapping Mahiro's yawning head with a rolled-up paper tube made from club reports.
"Yes, yes, no slacking off. But I am a teacher, you know? This is very disrespectful of you, Milly."
"Who told you to approve Lelouch's leave request? So all of Lelouch's work falls on you now."
"That's right, Teacher, you spoil Lulu too much."
Milly spoke with the righteous air of a taskmaster, crossing her arms, while Shirley across from him looked at him with resentful eyes.
Before him now piled up a small mountain of letters.
With the Ashford school festival approaching, Milly had followed tradition by collecting suggestions from students through letters.
And since Lelouch and Kallen were constantly off doing Black Knights activities, this work had landed on his shoulders.
"Sigh, what did I do to deserve this..."
Sighing, Mahiro opened today's first letter.
But after reading it briefly, he couldn't help making an old man, subway, phone expression.
What is this...
"Are students these days really this open-minded?"
"Huh?"
Shirley and Rivalz stopped their work upon hearing this, instinctively turning their gaze toward him.
Milly leaned down over his shoulder, a refreshing fragrance wafting around his nose as the girl softly read the letter's contents.
"...Swimsuit maid café, plus spa service...? Haha, now that's energetic, this proposal."
Milly laughed heartlessly.
"Energetic my ass. Rejected."
"Oh? This event idea seems pretty good to me. Although we've held swimsuit-themed parties before, we've never done a swimsuit maid café..."
That girl Milly was actually seriously considering it.
"Enough nonsense. As the student council advisor, what I say goes. Rejected."
Mahiro didn't care about Milly's attitude at all, crumpling the paper into a ball and casually tossing it into the trash.
While he wasn't exactly a good person and was indeed interested in things like swimsuit spas, as a teacher he still had to maintain certain basic principles.
If he really let Milly run wild with ideas like swimsuit maid cafés and spas, the school festival would probably end up with several casualties.
However, he failed to notice the sly glint in Milly's eyes as she watched him from behind, a faint smile playing on her lips.
Mahiro then opened the second letter.
This one was much more normal, suggesting setting up food stalls.
The subsequent suggestion letters were also quite ordinary, just typical high school students' activity requests, with some even taking the opportunity to ask for increased activity budgets.
Until he came across this particular letter—
A letter from the Witch Who Loves Pizza...
Just seeing this name made Mahiro's eyebrow twitch. He didn't need to guess who it was.
Mahiro instinctively tried to slip this letter into the processed pile, but before he could do so, the envelope was snatched away.
"Ara, what an interesting pen name! Let me see what it says!"
Holding the envelope she had snatched from him, Milly quickly tore it open.
"Hello, this is my first time writing a letter. Though this might be sudden, as my name suggests, I absolutely adore pizza. Especially Pizza Hut's seafood pizza and supreme pizza. I wouldn't mind eating pizza for all three meals a day."
"So I propose that we attempt to create the world's largest pizza during the school festival."
"The reason I say this is because the person I've been living with recently has been really annoying, always complaining: 'It's pizza every single day,' 'Even picky eating should have its limits,' 'Because of you, people think I have some strategic partnership with Pizza Hut,' 'You're just freeloading, know when to stop,' etc., etc..."
"Honestly, he's just a brat who wouldn't even know how to relieve his excessive male desires without my help. It's bad enough that he keeps me confined to his bedroom, but now he won't even let me eat pizza?"
The beginning was fine, but when she heard the last part, Shirley blushed bright red, covering her face in embarrassment.
Relieve desires... Confinement... Do we really have such bold boys in our school?
"I remember Yotsuba-sensei orders pizza every day, right?"
Rivalz suddenly recalled this and mentioned it casually.
He originally intended to ask whether Pizza Hut's pizza was really that delicious, but Milly seized the opportunity to tease:
"That's right, sensei, don't you order pizza every day? Sometimes you throw out more than ten boxes in a single day. Could it be... that you're the person mentioned in the letter?"
As soon as the words fell, Nina, who usually sat in the corner operating the computer, suddenly trembled slightly and pressed the wrong key.
Immediately, the computer emitted an alarm sound.
The experimental simulation had failed.
"Nina, what's wrong?"
Milly was somewhat curious; Nina had never made such a mistake before.
"I-It's nothing..."
Nina appeared flustered.
"That kind of joke isn't funny, Milly. Confinement is a genuine criminal act. Your teacher here is still young and doesn't want to eat prison food."
Mahiro suddenly spoke up, expressionlessly complaining."
Shirley chimed in, "That's right! Mahiro-sensei is so handsome and popular—how could he possibly do something so beastly?"
"Oh my, Shirley, why are you so defensive? Could it be... you've shifted your affections and fallen for the teacher?"
"Milly, don't talk nonsense! Me and Lulu..."
"Aha, getting flustered, are we?"
Watching the two lively girls playfully bicker, Mahiro secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Though he appeared calm on the surface, inside he was panicking.
If Milly, that clever and quirky girl, were to discover C.C.'s existence, this world might as well restart.
Destroy it all, no mercy.
"Decided!"
After their playful argument ended, Milly suddenly clapped her hands and declared:
"This year's school festival theme will be making the world's largest pizza!"Hmm, as expected, it was the same old recipe, still so willful."
"Right! And we even have our TV star lady!" Rivalz chimed in.
"Eh? M-Me?"
Shirley pointed at herself in surprise, and indeed, Rivalz was referring to no one else but Shirley.
Ta oh~
"Exactly! Coincidentally, there's a third-generation Knightmare developed by our Ashford family right here at school—the very one Empress Marianne piloted back in the day.
Of course, the weapons have long been removed.
It's perfect to use as a tool for making pizza. Shirley just needs a little training in piloting skills to operate it~"
"Eh? N-No way! And don't joke like that! The commotion just died down—I don't want to go through that a second time."
Shirley complained gloomily.
The reason Rivalz teased her as the "TV star lady" was mainly due to the previous hostage incident, where they happened to be caught on news cameras.
They made the newspapers and even got a close-up shot.
After returning to school, she was constantly surrounded and questioned, even while bathing.
To this day, she dared not step outside the school gates, living in the dormitory every day.
If she went out, she would be swarmed by reporters.
But whenever this topic came up, Shirley couldn't help but fume. Clearly, Mahiro-sensei was the one who rescued the hostages, yet those later-arriving terrorists shamelessly stole the credit.
And that day, no one knew where Mahiro-sensei went after eliminating the terrorists.
It was said he was kidnapped by that Black Knights group.
What a bunch of despicable guys!
After school.
Taking advantage of the slanting sunset, Mahiro headed straight back to the student council clubroom.
As soon as he entered the room, he saw C.C. lying quietly on what should have been his bed, though he couldn't tell whether she was still napping or something else.
Even though she had caused him so much trouble during the day, here she was sleeping lazily in his room without a care.
"Such a willful woman..."
Shaking his head helplessly, Mahiro walked to the bedside and instinctively tucked the blanket around her, covering her exposed fragrant shoulder.
Looking at C.C.'s gentle sleeping face, one would never imagine that this woman had once suddenly woken up in the middle of the night, rousing him from sleep, and willfully demanded like a child:
"I'm hungry, go buy me pizza..."
Even now, sleeping in a man's bed, she showed no trace of unease or worry, instead appearing completely at ease.
Her natural demeanor seemed as if she didn't know the difference between men and women.
Or perhaps this woman simply didn't understand what feminine modesty meant!
But when he remembered the letter he read today, the good mood he felt while looking at the beautiful Witch instantly vanished, replaced by irritation.
"Hey~ C.C., wake up! Get up and sleep properly!"
He gently shook her body, but the Witch remained peacefully asleep, perhaps dreaming sweet dreams.
"C.C.?"
Finding that slight shaking wasn't working, Mahiro began poking here, pinching there, and prodding elsewhere.
Her fair cheeks were left with red marks from his pinching.
Yet the Witch showed no reaction beyond a slight frown.
"Sleeping so soundly, or maybe she's pretending... let me test this."
Gazing at C.C.'s adorable face, a mischievous smile curled at the corner of Mahiro's lips. As the bed gradually sank under his weight, he reached to undo his collar.
Just as he was about to proceed with the next step, the curtains in the room fluttered.
Someone had broken in.
It was a girl with shoulder-length silver hair and a teardrop mole at the corner of her eye. Her form-fitting black combat suit clung tightly to her body, accentuating her impressive bust.
"Beta?"
"Yes, Lord Mahiro. I have a situation to report to you."
Beta looked up and saw the green-haired girl sleeping soundly on the bed, her eyes instantly turning dangerous.
To think she would sleep in Lord Mahiro's bed... how enviable... no, how shameless!!!
"A situation? I don't recall it being time for the regular report yet?"
His voice brought Beta back to reality, and the girl quickly lowered her head to respond:
"That's correct, but this matter is extremely urgent. Lady Alpha, while busy, ordered me to report to you for your decision."
In the moment her gaze shifted away, C.C.'s brows on the bed subtly relaxed.
"Is that so? Then tell me about it."
"Yes."
Beta began her report, but during it, he heard something interesting.
"Refrain?"
"That's correct, Mahiro-sama. This is a prohibited drug. Its most notable characteristic is inducing the sensation of returning to the past. According to Eta's research report, this drug is highly addictive. Excessive use causes neurological damage, yet it sells extremely well on the black market, particularly among those ELEVENS."
As she mentioned this, a clear look of disgust surfaced on Beta's face.
Instead of striving for progress and stepping toward a brighter tomorrow, they cling to past glories...
Does this have any meaning?
Would the Britannians who invaded them and now stand high and mighty ever leave just because of this?
Obviously not.
Moreover, the rampant underground sales of REFRAIN also gave Cornelia, as the Viceroy, massive headaches. The booming contraband trade caused Area Eleven's productivity to plummet dramatically.
It forced her to neglect even the Alamain Front under attack by the EU and temporarily postpone the eradication of the Black Knights.
She focused entirely on severing the supply routes between Kyushu and Southeast Asia.
"..."
After listening, Mahiro pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something and asked, "Speaking of which, while analyzing REFRAIN, Eta didn't conduct human experiments on you, Gamma, or anyone else, did she?"
He didn't care whether it sold well or who got addicted.
He was more concerned about whether Eta would use this stuff on their own people.
He was quite uneasy about that foolish girl's temperament. After all, she'd even drugged Beta before—it was necessary to stay vigilant.
Hearing his question, Beta naturally understood, recalling those unbearable past memories. Fighting back tears, she shook her head and said, "Mahiro-sama, this time... she didn't."
"Really?"
"It's true."
"What about others? For instance, my little captive Monica?"
"As for her..."
Beta hesitated slightly before explaining, "Eta did have such an idea and even forged Alpha-sama's signature. But before she could proceed, Alpha-sama successfully stopped her."
Well, she was knocked out on the spot with a slime hammer, dragged away, and locked in a dark room, with her research funding cut.
"Alright."
4.
After hearing this, Mahiro broke into a slight sweat.
Among the Seven Shadows, Eta was undoubtedly the most willful. Thanks to Alpha's deterrence, she hadn't run completely wild yet.
"Then, Mahiro-sama, about the REFRAIN matter..."
"Proceed. It's about time our Shadow Garden became active again anyway."
Mahiro crossed his legs, a carefree smile gradually curling at the corner of his mouth. His words were clear and composed, as if discussing some trivial matter.
His calm and detached demeanor had Beta utterly captivated.
"Mahiro-sama... Understood. I shall return at once to inform Alpha-sama and organize the operation."
With that, Beta vanished from the room.
As silently as she had arrived, leaving only the pure white curtains tinted madder red by the setting sun, swaying gently in the breeze.
"Haa~~~~"
Just as Beta departed, the woman C.C. unexpectedly woke up.
Rubbing her eyes with her hands, she opened those beautiful amber pupils in a daze, then slowly climbed up from the bed.
The thin blanket slipped from her delicate figure, and beneath the partial concealment of her green hair, her perfect appearance was fully revealed to Mahiro's view.
The plum blossoms blooming proudly on the snow-capped peaks swayed gently with the breath of the cold wind, exquisite as if they were works of art.
However, a wound visible on her chest disrupted this beauty.
It was a scar left on C.C. by the nun when she transplanted the CODE to free C.C. from eternal life, now solidified into a mark.
Perhaps noticing the man's gaze, C.C. finally reacted, but she didn't cover her body like an ordinary young girl would, nor did she shyly scream in embarrassment.
Instead, as if tempting him, she straightened her body and calmly asked:
"Is it beautiful?"
"Hmm, it really is quite beautiful."
"Heh, with so many girls around you, do you still need to look at me? Wasn't it always that blonde little girl by your side before? Why has it become a silver-haired one this time?"
C.C. was naturally referring to Alpha and Beta.
Mahiro simply shrugged at this and said: "Both of them are members of my Shadow Garden... What, is the proud Witch actually jealous?"
"Such useless provocation. You should know things like this mean nothing to me. All I care about is whether you can fulfill my wish."
C.C. said leisurely.
At the same time, she raised those amber eyes and quietly met his gaze.