The world has changed, especially the ones who were attending a military academy in Tokyo Settlement.
'Well, it's no longer Tokyo Settlement. It's simply Tokyo, and it's no longer Area 11.' Marika Soresi, one of the cadets who attended the academy for Knightmares pilots, felt the change the most.
For one… she had arranged marriage, but all of that simply… was gone. She was now with Anaheim, and her supposed future husband is still with Britannia.
The next thing is her 'status' in Britannia. Her family was struggling, but now her brother is part of G-Force. Piloting one of the most advanced suits in existence.
That reflects in her living standards; now she is living in an impressive house.
Apart from the situation at home, things at the academy changed even more. She was no longer training to pilot a mere Knightmare like Sutherland, but something far more advanced.
Her eyes went to the sight outside the building. Through the window, she could see a line-up of a Setanta training model.
A far taller machine, a far more advanced machine and a far deadlier weapon of war.
From classes to curriculum to standards, everything changed in a matter of days.
By this point, she hoped that things could just settle down.
"Marika! Did you hear? We are getting visited soon!" A blonde girl got her attention.
"...Who this time?" The brown haired girl asked with a sigh.
"Our esteemed leader." She winked while saying that.
"...And that is? We have many of those…" Marika was a bit confused. There are Lieutenant-Commanders, Generals, General Commanders, all of that!
"Not that silly! I mean the LEADER." The blonde girl deliberately highlighted the word 'Leader'.
"...The Prince himself? What is he doing here?" The sister of a G-Force member knows quite a bit about the Exiled Prince. Hell, her brother was following the Prince even back when the mobile suits were a myth, when they would appear like ghosts and would do all sorts of missions.
"Beats me. He was in Japan, I guess." The blonde shrugged.
"You do realise this is a great opportunity for us!" Marika scrambled as she got worked up.
"Maybe, but we don't know the—" The blonde looked to the side as she noticed that the shadow cast on the building had changed!
"Liliana?" The brown-haired girl followed her friend's gaze and noticed that something was casting a shadow on the whole Academy.
"...What is that?"
Sure enough, they saw a floating warship fly over. An array of smaller transporters landed at the entrance, one of the things that landed was a mobile suit. The suit was something they learned in one of the lessons.
It was a custom machine; it was THE custom machine of the Leader of Anaheim. Those wings are something pretty much anyone could recognise! It was shown on live television multiple times.
Named after the Celtic God of Sky, the Knightmare Killer Tiranis.
"Whoa… I would love to pilot something like that!" Liliana commented with a dreamy voice.
"...Yeah…"
'This is a machine that can change the course of a battle if not the whole war.' Marika commented to herself. She heard from her brother about the Gundams. Machines that are used to infiltrate behind enemy lines and destroy military infrastructure.
They are so strong that they can pick a fight with the whole garrison and come up on top.
That has been shown several times already in Asia's conquests.
"Everyone! Line up and get ready for inspections! His Highness will be visiting us soon enough!" Their officer scrambled into the classroom, and the man looked all sweaty and worried.
Clearly not expecting such an arrival.
'I am surprised that they didn't realise that Prince Lelouch is known for his dramatic arrivals.' The girl commented to herself as she recalled the live broadcasts when the Prince talked to the world.
As she pondered this, the cadets left their seats and walked outside, where they lined up. This was a military academy, so everyone was trained like the military, even though most, if not all, of their battles would be fought in the safety of a cockpit.
Moments later, the Prince, accompanied by an array of females, walked over to the field where the cadets were waiting.
He was on a tour led by the academy's principal.
"Whoa. He is more handsome than on TV…" Liliana whispered to Marika. The brown-haired girl's reaction was short and straight to the point.
"Zip it!"
The blonde girl chuckled as she was surprised by how serious her friend was. She was rarely like that ever since Anaheim took over. It looked like Marika was confused about her life.
"Not bad. It would seem this batch of pilots is quite ready." Prince Lelouch, who was dressed in a black and purple military uniform, inspected the selection of pilots who would be piloting for Anaheim.
"Now. Many of you will be piloting my Setantas, but… There are five Scathach units ready as well, once you graduate and join the 25th Battalion.
The group perked up when they heard that.
"We shall conduct training exercises to see which one of you has the best tactics and reaction speed worthy of piloting the commander models."
The lined-up cadets almost broke their lines from that excitement, as soon enough, a mini-tournament will start.
~~~
As the training models are getting set up and the sparring arena is opened, the Inventor Prince ended up sitting in the seat of honour where he could observe the arena from the high ground.
Next to him were his Knight and his two girls, who came along.
"Is there a reason why you are making such a big fuss about this. Isn't the data clear which has the best parameters?" Leila, who knows quite a bit about how well the Legion system knows about these pilots. The AI has already made its calculations on who is the best.
"Oh, I know, already. I just want to see how well a couple of these cadets will fare. After all, I am always looking for talent." He smiled while looking at them.
"So you know some of these people?" Kallen narrowed her eyes.
"Knowing is a strong word. More like I heard about them." He continued to smile while saying that.
"Those eyes of yours are not fair, you know that, right?" Leila sighed. It would seem even Geass has its own levels of talent.
Her power can't compare to his!
Though when Inventor Prince heard that Leila attributed this to his eyes, he chuckled internally.
'It's better this way. Any strange knowledge we can attribute to my broken eyes.' His eyes went down as he looked at his tablet. He could see two names at the top of the list.
One of them is the little sister of one of his Gundam pilots.
Marika Soresi is decent as a pilot —not an Ace by any stretch —but still above average compared to the rest. Same with Liliana Vergamon.
As far as his memory goes, both of them are supposed to die in the Second Battle of Tokyo, but Marika's death was retconned, and she ends up in Glinda's Knights.
'Hmm…'
'Not this time, though. I am very attached to what is mine.' Marcus stroked his chin. Yes, his pride won't allow anyone to leave him in any shape or form.
That includes death as well.
That is why he offered Scathach units. In the future, maybe even Gundam units. His 3rd generation machines will boost people's performance.
Eventually, anyone who pilots those machines will naturally 'Evolve' so something like 'talent' will be irrelevant.
When people are psychic, they are at a different level, especially when a machine reacts at the same level as a person's thought.
"They are starting, Your Highness."
One of the officers said to Marcus, who was pondering on Gundams and their pilots.
"Then let's see how good they are." For a second, he closed his eyes before smiling, and then, looking down at the arena below, he could see two Setanta training models.
~~~
Kallen wasn't impressed. It's a bit strange for her to see other people spar like that. With each action they took, she could imagine how she could counter those.
Midway, she understood the difference between mediocre and gifted; at the same time, she realised that she should continue to improve her talents at mobile suit piloting.
Thought a pair of girls stood out to her. They were the ones who dominated the rest of the cadet class.
'...Girls… of course… who else could it be?' The crimson-haired girl deadpanned at her boyfriend.
"What?" The Inventor Prince noticed how one of his girls was looking at her.
"Nothing. I should have realised this earlier." She didn't clarify what she meant by that.
"I already knew what this meant." Leila joined because she had a similar look.
"You are not going to let them join the 25th battalion, aren't you? It would be a waste of talent." The blonde commented after seeing how the spars ended. In the end, Marika and Liliana ended up fighting each other in the finals.
The rest could not hold a candle. Even with Setanta's improved neural link, some people simply have better reaction speed, leading to rapid beatdowns.
Kallen is the best at this.
"Of course, now that I've seen this myself, I will keep them for myself." He replied with an obvious tone.
"...told you so." Kallen shrugged before crossing her arms, waiting for more explanations.
"I will be stationing them in space. They will be part of an advanced fleet that will be invading the EU."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"We are already at that point." Leila frowned. She then recalled what Anna said.
"...Marcus." The blonde got serious as she called out her boyfriend.
"What is it?" He looked at her; something changed in her.
"Anna wants to speak with you about the EU."
Marcus raised his eyebrow. This was a roundabout way to ask him about something.
"If she wanted to talk, I am always ready to talk with her. She knows that." The Inventor Prince shook his head. Why those extra hoops?
"Yes, well, I was on the phone with her. She randomly mentioned that… so…" Leila sheepishly replied, a bit embarrassed about that.
"I see. Well, I was planning a space trip. Sword One is almost there, and it will be coming online soon. While there are no buildings there, yet… we can still walk around the nature… in space." Midway, Marcus realised how wild it sounds.
"...When you put it like, it sounds strange." Kallen giggled. "But that is something that I can't wait for. I do want to have a house there or something. Even a flat would be good."
Everyone looked at her strangely.
"You do know that our Marcus would give you a colony in itself if you ever want." Leila giggled as well as she realised that Kallen is quite silly!
Kallen blushed when she heard that.
"I-I don't want something like that!" The girl blushed even more when she tried to explain herself.
"Or a planet. You do know that the Alpha Centauri system most likely has one or two planets ready for terraforming.
Hell, if you try hard enough, I could give you Venus."
Marcue pondered out loud as he was thinking about who gave the planets in his solar system.
"Don't do that! You know that the world is a sore spot for girls!" Leila got agitated when Venus was mentioned.
"...Is it? You girls are weird." He shook his head while saying that.
"Then I will keep Mars and Venus for myself." The Inventor Prince concluded by himself what he would do.
"...Can't we talk about literal planets in the middle of all of this?" Kallen motioned where they were.
"Sure. Let's go and congratulate the girls for their hard work." The Prince motioned for them to follow him.
'Finally. These conversations can get wild.' Jeanne at the back sighed in relief; she noticed how the other guards were looking at them. They looked… concerned.
Not every day they hear how Marcus is thinking of handing out worlds like some side snacks…