Chapter 04: Children

The generation scared by war, expansion, racism and secrets discuss their part, now older and wiser, trying to focus on the food before recalling that thier present is something to be cherished, while the youth born to that cherished past wonder on the past they never knew.

Ashford was a place that Kallen had…mostly good memories about.

She had been a student since her freshmen year, but it was only when she met the council under the She-Devil, Milly, that she enjoyed spending time there. Older now, she could contend that she hated it because she didn't put in any work to enjoy it. Britannians, they might have been, weren't like her; most had grown up normal. No wars, no terrorism, no families torn apart by Britannian ambition and cruelty.

Why would they question the system? Why would they sympathise with 'Numbers' if they hadn't been shown the truth? She might not have seen that potential in them if not for the council and Lelouch's annoying machinations. In a way, when she got her wish to stop attending when the first rebellion failed, she wished she could reverse the clock. It was what made Lelouch ask her to return with him so sweetly.

It had nothing to do with her growing feelings for him, nope-she would never admit to such.

The school had been grazed by the first F.L.E.I.J.A. Still, for the most part, it escaped complete annihilation, unlike much of the settlement, and since Milly was made Duchess, she had made sure that it was rebuilt greater than ever.

As the Tokyo Settlement had been rebuilt, Milly had been sure to expand Ashford from a high school first into a higher education institution, finding professionals primarily from the former Eleven populace to serve as the first lecturers and bringing in professors from the homeland at a large sum.

But Milly wasn't satisfied with just having a singular school with a small university division. She expanded all three, creating several new campuses across the settlement for different socio-economic groups. Sure, some didn't have the same luxuries, but she worked her ass off to ensure the education and sporting departments across the board were up to snuff.

Did she stop there? God no, Milly didn't stop at reasonable or even excessive; she went beyond all rationale, and gold for her was settling. Ashford's reach grew across Area 11 as she went and opened elementaries, mainly for Japanese Britannians. Still, their quality and affordability meant poorer Britannians sent their kids there. From that, she expanded, founding new sporting centres for those kids and for the general public, buying up several businesses, and now?

Now, Ashford had a finger in half the pies in Japan. It was not a direct monopoly, as Lelouch wouldn't have allowed her to break his new laws, but when she controlled as much as she did, Milly didn't need such. In political and economic power, Milly ruled Area 11. She loved to tease the straight-laced Viceroy that he was a glorified manager.

The man's ability to accept that spoke to his character. Milly, at least, hadn't gone insane regarding her new residence. She could have built a palace that would have put the new Viceroy building to shame, but she chose to be humble by noble standards.

Her residence was built near Ashford's main campus, which was only 20 minutes away from her new corporate headquarters. Rising five stories, the neoclassical mansion was perhaps the biggest private estate in its area. Tall sashed windows, pilasters, and balustraded balconies puncture its pale stone façade. Beyond, a manicured, expansive garden of clipped yews, fountains, and classical statues completes the scene of lavish opulence.

"I can never get used to stuff like this." Rivalz laughed as he relaxed in the chair. The salon around them spoke of wealth that even Kallen, as a child of nobility, found intimidating at times. Gilded cornices, a crystal chandelier secured to reinforced beams, and tall sash windows with silk drapes. Milly's theatrical flair appears in jewel-toned cushions, playful gilt masks, and a petite stage corner; Rivalz's practicality shows in sturdy velvet sofas, a low oak play table, and a plush rug. Child-safe finishes, rounded edges, and hidden locks keep their three-year-old safe.

Rivalz himself had changed a lot since his marriage. He might have been a lord married to Japan's most powerful noble, but he worked in construction. More precisely, upon graduation from Tokyo, he had taken a job at a business that serviced, built, and dismantled construction machinery. One that, in those early years, also dismantled older knightmares for spare parts. Much like with his treasured bike, Rivalz preferred to go as much as he could by hand, and it showed.

It might be 11cm shorter than his wife's, but did he pack on the muscle and bulk? Kallen was half-suspect that the fitness nut Suzaku might get jealous if he saw Rivalz shirtless. Other than that, Rival's hair had been trimmed, and he sported a thick beard, which gave him the appearance of Santa but younger and on a fitness bend.

"You don't look it, Rivalz," Kallen noted as she sat across from the married couple, her children seated next to her with her youngest napping in her arms. Little Inoue tuckered out from their long flight while Sōsuke struggled to escape. Still, he hadn't helped himself when he happily accepted some hot chocolate.

"Oh, don't mind him, he says stuff like that all the time." Milly waved her hubby's comments, happily leaning into the man she loved. She didn't care for social status or that he was just some middle manager who insisted on working with new hires in the dirt and grime. Rivalz was the same, as he never cared for Milly's insane wealth and power. They loved one another with all their hearts.

Now, if only the media could stop gossiping about her 'getting tired of the commoner' and 'moving to someone more in her station.' Milly would never say it, but she had told Kallen a few times how pissed she gets when she hears it and how she wanted to either buy out the publication just to run it into the ground or do an interview where she and Rivalz would set the record straight.

Why she never did was the first wouldn't help the situation. And with the second, Milly had admitted she would bring up the fact that she and her hubby had a very active sex life, one which made her glad the bedrooms were soundproof.

Kallen didn't need to think about how Mily vividly described how her brains fucked out of her as Rivalz spoke up. "Well, it's true. When my mom visited, she got lost looking for the bathroom."

“I offered to show her the way.” Milly pouted, as that had been a little embarrassing for both sides.

“Let me guess, she thought she could find it?” Kallen asked, looking a bit bashful herself. "I…had something like that happen with the new palace. My mother had the sense to ask for directions, and still, it took her a while to find one."

Her eldest found this impossible, as his mom was awesome, and he knew the palace really well, so she had to know it. On the other hand, Byakuya knew that they knew it so well because they loved it there. Mom moved in, so like a new book, there was stuff she wouldn't have known.

"Right? I get that it's a whole status thing, but does this place need to be massive?" Rivalz let out a hearty chuckle, which made Kallen wonder if he should get a belly to pat.

“And yet, it makes games so much more fun, isn’t that right, Shirley?” Milly looked to her feet, where her 3-year-old played with her dolls. The toddler looked up at being called, smiling and revealing that she was missing some baby teeth.

“Hmm!” she sounded cheerfully. The little girl had her father's dark blue hair and her mother's fair skin and blue eyes. “I win hide-and-seek a lot.”

"I bet I could; I'm the champ at hide-and-seek," Naoto boldly declared as he jumped off the sofa.

“Brother is really good, but Atalanta is even better.” Byakuya giggled as his big brother looked at him in shock.

“No fair.” Naoto stomped his foot.

"Play time?" Shirley asked, holding a toy styled after the old Ganymede for Naoto. The prince pouted, still mad that his brother had outed him, but he plumped down next to Shirley and, all the same, started to play.

“So, any big reason for the trip?” Rivalz smiled as he walked his baby girl to play.

Kallen groaned. Adjusting her hold on her sleeping daughter, she shot Rivalz an annoyed glare. “Rivalz, you better not be reading those gossip rags.”

"What? It comes up a lot at work, can't blame a guy for hearing about stuff like that occasionally." Rivalz defended himself, though his smile showed how little he feared the Consort in Red.

“Just time to time?” Milly teased him.

Rivalz shrugged. “I like knowing things about people. Got into the practice back at Ashford.”

“Why did you?” Kallen asked, as Rivalz wasn't someone who partook in gossip even back in their school days. Sure, he wouldn't stick his head in the sand, but he tended to judge things for himself or based on facts. It was perhaps why he was so quick to accept Suzaku into their friend group.

“Lelouch,” Rivalz chuckled, recalling the day. “Day I met him, he knew stuff about me like he was reading off a file, claimed he knew stuff like that about everyone.” He left out that it was while they were out gambling and how Lelouch bailed him out.

He felt his wife and friend wouldn't like him revealing such vices to their children. Fortunately, Naoto and his brothers would want to try it out.

“Did dad do that?” Naoto looked at his uncle in surprise. He knew his dad was smart, but he didn't know he was that smart.

Rivalz rubbed the kid's head, messing with his hair as the boy complained. "Yup, kiddo, he did. He had a knack for learning stuff like that. I never understood why, but I gotta admit, it sounded fun, so I did it too."

"He did mention once, when you caught him looking at me, that you gave him the lowdown. Something about being well-bred?" Kallen raised an eyebrow as she spoke, Rivalz freezing up as he slowly turned to her, suddenly feeling he should be…not here.

"Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that." He tried to defend himself while simultaneously betraying Lelouch. He would have told his wife something he had told his bro in confidence.

“Then how did you mean, hubby?” Milly joined in, hardly upset, but she did love making her husband squirm. It was such a funny sight when he looked like he could bench two of hers and not break a sweat.

“Who wants some ice-cream?” Rivalz suddenly jumped to his feet, looking at the kids with a kind smile, though both adults could smell the desperation off him.

“Ice cream?” Sōsuke, fighting off the draw of his sleep, jolted up before he raised his hands high, finding a second wind, as children always did regarding treats. “Ice cream!”

"I'll go get some. Do you have any requests?" Rivalz asked as he moved to step out. He could just ring up the staff, but the ice cream would taste better if he brought it. Yes, that was what he was going with. It had nothing to do with avoiding questions.

“Strawberry.”

“Caramel!”

“Watermelon!”

“Chocolate.”

Shirley, Naoto, Byakuya, and Sōsuke all made their requests, and like that, Rivalz was gone. He was not running, but he certainly didn't waste his time.

“Sneaky,” Kallen grunted, but shared a glance with Milly, leading to the two mothers laughing as it wasn't that deep. Frankly, Kallen had found it funny when Lelouch mentioned it in passing, the idea that noble birth would work for a girl's favour for a man like him, and Rivalz 's assumption that she was frail was funnier with hindsight. Yes, she was faking it, but still.

 Milly got herself under control as she continued the chat. “But in all fairness, he probably was happy Lulu finally was showing interest, Shirley senior never worked up the nerve till…well, I’m just happy he fell for someone, or someones.”

It hurt bringing up her child's namesake, particularly when she understood the finer details of why she was taken from them too soon, but it didn't hurt as much as it once did. Shirley was in a better place. Milly always checked up on her mother to ensure she was doing all right, which she was, having decided to foster several children, and the world was a hell of a lot better than it used to be.

Milly considered that a win.

“Knowing him, it wasn’t that at the time. He saw me at Shinjuku and probably was surprised he wasn’t the only Brit in the fight.” Kallen replied, as she hadn't realised it was possible then, she identified more with her Japanese side than Britannian. Who would have thought a Britannian prince would also be involved in the fight?

Milly nodded. “Did explain why he seemed to enjoy teasing you so much, I always thought he liked redheads.”

“Milly…” Kallen warned her to avoid more mature topics, as her children were present. So was Milly's.

“What? He loves you, doesn’t he?” Milly smiled, as she had long mastered the word game, and having an adorable ball of energy in Shirley only made her all the more competitive, finding means to say what she wished without saying what she wished to keep her bundle of joy from learning about things too young.

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Rivalz didn't take too long to return with the frozen treats, which the kitchen staff had made prettier with waffles and sprinkles for all of them. For his wife, he got mint, which they'll share, while Kallen got her favourite, Vanilla with blueberries.

They enjoyed the threat for all it was worth, but the sugar crash slammed into their children, and eventually, all of them had passed out. Moving them to Shirley's room, the adults walked through the lavish gardens, dotted with trinkets and curiosities that the Ashfords had found over the years.

It was such a wonderful and calming place that Kallen could pretend she didn't see her bodyguards and the Ashfords. The soldiers are always dedicated to their protection and on high alert. "Back to Rivalz's question, I came to just spend some time with you all. I've made some friends in Pendragon, but they're more court ladies, you know? It's more relaxing with you; you know me and I know you better than those other women.”

Milly sighed, the trio standing beneath a large oak she had shipped over, the tree providing shade in the summer heat. "Same. Not all of them seek approval or influence by playing nice, but they still play by the same rules. I once noted I had an issue with a dish at an event, and it seemed like the host was going to have a heart attack. I had to make it clear it was a minor thing, and I still enjoyed myself."

“You looked so upset then, but it’s water under the bridge now.” Rivalz chuckled as he still struggled with high society stuff, but he wasn’t nearly as sensitive about it as his wife. “Any news from the capital we should know about?”

“Aside from a new transportation bill, nothing," Kallen replied. Things had been calm in the halls of power, and more focus had been put on the big celebration.

"With how things are here, it might be a boon, as having a high-speed freight line from here to Fukuoka would be great. Really helps with the trade." Milly commented that, despite the tensions that simmered beneath the surface, the UFN and Britannia were large trade parties.

The UFN was predominantly made up of poorer countries that didn't have large manufacturing and tech sectors. Britannia's move away from the number system and having an emperor who installed people who actually enforced it meant tens of millions of once cheap labourers dried up, mainly in the fishing and agricultural sectors.

The solution? As both superpowers fixed this issue, they would trade with each other. Britannia had a massive industrial and tech sector, and the UFN produced millions of tons of food products, such as grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat.

Japan, being split as it was, greatly benefited from this, as it wasn't hard for one side to trade with the other. This was part of why, despite having a border, it was somewhat loose.

“The other reason I came,” Kallen started, looking out over the garden towards a flower bed, one which she recalled helping to plant with the rest. “Well, I wanted to ask what your plans are for the coming 10th anniversary, as I would like us to gather, you know, the entire council back together."

"That would imply you could convince Nina," Rivalz reminded her. He wasn't against the idea, but the mousy woman rarely took time off and could be hard to contact.

“I have someone on that already.” Kallen cheekily replied.

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The lunch bell rang out across Sōrin Elementary. Teachers glanced towards the clocks but didn't stop their students from either heading out into the yard to enjoy their lunch or, for some, remaining in class. Even before their teacher stepped out, Naoto could hear his classmates unzipping their bookbags and, following this, bentō lids coming off their lunches. Others carried more foreign lunches, but he hardly noticed at this point.

He glanced out the window, spotting the port of Ōita in the distance. It wasn't a bad view if he had to think about it, but then again, their school was in a pretty good spot for a public school, as he heard that the private spots got the best real estate. However, Sōrin Elementary was new, as they only finished building it a couple of years back, making it new enough that the corridors smelled of polish and the windows and doors didn’t creak or moan when opened.

He conversed with his friends, holding a half-eaten onigiri his mom had packed for him. Dad worried for him when he started school, saying he might find it hard because he was different, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.

Sure, he was small for his age, but the 10-year-old wasn't the smallest kid in class. Yeah, his dark skin was a quiet contrast to the pale, more Asian looks of his classmates, but it wasn’t the only one. There were four other dark kinds in class: one Indian, another Pakistani, and a third, he was pretty sure, was from Nepal. Even their homeroom teacher was a balding dark-skinned man.

He could only assume his dad was talking about his hair, which was the same silky smooth bluish-gray. He even styled it in a wolf's tail as he didn't cut it often, but he's never had people do more than ask 'why he had long hair'.

Adults were weird.

But as they talked about a new game that was set to release in the fall, the first entry in a once-dead Pokémon franchise, one of his friends, Riku, brought up something else.

"Speaking of things coming back, have you heard the news earlier?" Riku asked.

“What news? You’re the only one who keeps using his phone in class, one of these days, the teacher’s gonna catch you.”

"Yeah, right, at this point, I can hide my phone in my sleep." Riku scoffed at the notion. "Anyway, I was scrolling through my feed and saw a news report on the Consort in Red, who landed in Tokyo a couple of hours ago."

“The traitor showed her face, pretty ballsy I’ll say.” Aya scowled, stabbing a pickled plum with the tip of her chopsticks. Her words weren’t unpopular around town, as Kallen was far from liked, but among their table, it wasn't so simple.

“I don't know, have you seen the clips of her tournament appearances? She’s the best knightmare pilot.” A boy close to Naoto, Yuta, stated. “She pulled off a one-vs-ten victory during the exhibition part, like total embarrassment for the fighters.”

Naoto recalled hearing about it, as Britannia did have a large and crazy competitive knightmare duelling scene. Still, he wasn't allowed to watch it. So he kept up with news from whenever Yuta came barrelling in with the latest.

“Someone got a crush on her? I mean, I can’t blame you. She's not even in the league, yet she's one of the best fighters. And she's a total hottie." Another boy, Sanji, teased Yuta.

"Shut up, it's not like that at all!" His cracked voice said enough about the validity of his denial.

"I don't know why you like her so much. Traitor doesn't even compete like normal people, probably because she thinks she's too good for it." Aya remarked that in all the clips Yuta had shown them, Kallen had never once been on an official team or even in the sol events for the gold.

"I heard it's all politics; she gets involved mainly since it's mainly guys who compete, so she wants to encourage girls or something like that." Đặng, the last member of the group and the son of Vietnamese doctors who worked in the city, suggested.

“You know more about this?” Naoto asked, to which Yuta shrugged.

"Nope, I watch for the action and drama, not the politics; that sounds boring as dirt." That made sense, as their friend seemed to hate politics and always called it a waste of time. But then again, he was the son of a close official to the mayor, so maybe he was just sick of hearing about it outside his house.

As for Naoto, he kept on listening and pitching from time to time, but he couldn't stop thinking about it. He had heard the term Consort in Red before; they were all hard, but he also knew more about her than most. He recalled when he found an old picture of his dad while helping Mom clean.

Dad looked a heck of a lot younger, and with him was his uncle Naoto, the man he was named for, who died long before he was born. He had known about that, as Dad regularly talked about Naoto the first, but it was the third person in the picture that threw him off.

Why was the Consort in Red there? He asked Dad about it, but didn't reveal the picture, and the old man didn't give him a straight answer. Instead, he turned the conversation towards the weather, his grades, and an upcoming family trip to Okinawa.

So, he went to his mom and asked her about it. She tried to change topics, but when he pulled the picture, she finally explained it to him. Uncle Naoto was Kallen's older brother, and Dad had known her since she was 8, which was…wow, that was a bombshell.

She sat him down and explained parts of it, though he was pretty sure she was leaving out details. Kallen had been a close friend and one of the Black Knight's founding members, their best pilot, but without anyone knowing, she and Lelouch got close. The soon-to-be emperor got into her head and convinced her to betray them for him. Now, she was a consort of the empire that once abused and mistreated the Japanese.

It seemed simple enough, but he still had questions. Why would Kallen just…betray them? She and Dad were friends, right? Wouldn't she want to help him? And was Britannia really all that bad? Mom was Britannian, and she was the best mom ever. Wouldn't his kind of auntie be the same?

“Yo, Naoto!” Yuta came into focus, Naoto yelping as he nearly fell over and would have if not for Aya catching his arm.

"You good, man? You were spacing out there for a second." Riku asked him.

“Yeah, I’m good…” Naoto started, but he could see no one believed him, so he just came out with it. “Hey, guys, what…do you think about Britannia, like for real?”

The group looked at each other in confusion, but answered all the same. "I mean, it's a pretty scary place, right? They've never lost a war." Yuta was the first to speak.

"They're brutal, they still kill criminals there and in horror game-like ways," Riku replied.

"Seems different from the history books, so maybe it's changing for the better," Đặng added.

“I don’t trust them,” Aya stated, crossing her arms as she looked away. “They…too nice. My parents think there’s something up.”

“And what do you think, Aya?” Naoto asked again, as he didn't want to hear what her parents told her, but what she thought. None of them had even been alive when Britannia was this fricked up place; they had siblings who were, but some of them were little kids and barely remembered it.

Aya pursed her lips, looking like she sucked on a lemon, but she ultimately gave an answer, a bit of colour forming on her cheeks. "I…I would like to see the Rocky Mountains. I heard they have some good gem deposits."

Riku hit his fist into his palm in realization. “Oh, for your collection!”

“You idiot, don’t say it out loud!” Aya yelled at him as she tried to jump him for outing her rock and gem collection when half the class was still present.

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I started this so late that I worried I'd not get it done in time, but as I already had to delay Thursday's upload until just this past afternoon, I worked my ass off to not repeat that. This chapter will be something of a continuation of the previous chapters, with some more wholesome stuff thrown in for good measure, as I have not gotten my Dress Up Darling fix, and I needed something sweet.

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Ladies and gentlemen, I have revealed the older Naoto. Much like Rivalz was meant to serve as every man in the last story, Naoto I(he's the older of the two) is the new generation living through this peace. Sure, as we see with Aya, parents can still shape their kids, but as someone who was born after a sad time in my country's existence, I…just can't connect with older folks who mention it and the injustice it brought.

What this could mean…well, we'll just have to wait and see. Just know I'm not going to dunk too hard on Ohgi and Villetta as I think they're bitches, particularly Ohgi. Still, I don't want this story to have anything too deep.