Chapter 144: Terrible Man
Dr. Lingus finally didn't need to run around all over the world and returned to Anaheim to start working again. Scientific research was not only a job for him, but also his greatest interest and hobby. Although he could meet a lot of interesting things by moving around, he really preferred to stay on the moon.
At this moment, he was in his office, writing and drawing on the huge electronic screen on his desktop. On the screen was an intricate and huge technology tree, with various branches filled with unexplained technical terms.
"How is the gap of nanotechnology so big?" Ade took a pen and lightly tapped it on the screen unconsciously, "We have only a hundred years, no matter how I calculate, it is not even possible to escape from the halo array."
He sighed in annoyance, cleaned the screen, pick up the pen and start writing from scratch again.
"Time, please stop, can't you just give me a thousand years?" Ade listed out the things he needed one by one from memory, and adjusted the priority order every now and then, "In the end, I still have to take desperate measures, V plan, this is the fate…"
Focused on writing, he didn't feel the passage of time. Until Ade completed the general plan, he found that there was still more than an hour before the end of the day. He encrypted the plan and then saved it, casually clicked on a news website and started reading it. Appearing on the front page was Scirocco.
"… organized and premeditated terrorist activities, undertaken by a small group of illegal and disorderly foreign reactionary force, aimed at splitting national unity and shaking the prestige of the army… "Ade thought randomly in his heart while listening distractedly to the statement Scirocco issued only this morning, "… terrorism is the main obstacle to world peace and development, but we need to recognize that it is a challenge, but also an opportunity. In times of crisis, we need to work together and overcome the difficulties…"
In the previous incident, he graciously left the wreckage of the MSs to the Halevy family, and the big shots there immediately surveyed and found the source of the MSs and their pilots. Many of Scirocco's allies immediately announced to stay away from him, and such a statement on the TV now was only better than nothing.
"So TITANS is screwed, and I should move my eyes to Britannia's side." Ade completely ignored the TV and thought to himself, "The courier has been signed for long ago, why hasn't there been any movement on Nunnally's side?"
The λ-drive study was difficult to continue without clinical data to support it, and according to his speculation, this thing and Geass would probably conflict. Of course, this is purely a theoretical conjecture not yet confirmed, so he didn't tell Nunnally. This was in no way because Char had warned him countless times that "Lelouch's ability was too dangerous. You must be careful."
"Nunnally is so smart, Lelouch isn't stupid, and Kururugi is so dumb, I'm sure she'll be able to work it out." Ade thought peacefully, "I shouldn't give judgment on things undetermined, of course, it's not time to tell them about it."
Just as he was rambling, the doorbell suddenly rang. Ade quickly turned off the video and web page, clicked on a design document to maximize it on the desktop, then picked up a pen to pretend that he was thinking of something important, and finally pressed the answer button and said in a majestic voice, "Come in."
The door of the office was pushed open, and Diana and Loran walked in. The couple sat down on the sofa very naturally, obviously, this was not the first time they did this kind of thing.
"Sorry, Ad… Doctor, I hope we didn't interrupt your thinking." Loran gave Ade an apologetic smile and turned his head to Diana and complained, "I told you he was busy, we should have waited until he got off work."
Diana glanced at Loran and didn't say anything, instead, she looked at Ade. She had always been a woman of few words, and this gesture was not surprising.
"It's okay, I just finished my job." Ade casually shut down the document and stood up. He remembered that Loran was fond of tea, so he took two clean cups and started to make tea, "What is the matter with me at this time?"
Loran weakly looked at Diana. Diana took the initiative and said, "To thank you for your previous behavior, I would like to invite you to our home for dinner. Please forgive me for being presumptuous and having already obtained permission from Your Ladyship in advance."
"Sorry, I wanted to ask you first, but I thought it's not good to disturb your thinking." Loran apologized again while looking at him with hopeful and sincere eyes, "But today, I'm cooking it myself, so I hope you can enjoy it."
"Yes, since Lacus has agreed, of course I will." Ade smiled as he picked up two cups and walked towards the couch, "I've never tasted Your Highness Loran's cooking, I'm looking forward to it."
Seeing Ade walk over, Loran hurriedly got up to take the cups. As for if he would touch Ade's hand during the process, well, they are friends, this is a normal thing, nothing strange.
The Loran in front of Ade was wearing ordinary male clothes and sitting side by side with Diana. Looking at him, Ade would not produce any other ideas. He is just an ordinary friend, and what happened that night was like a bubble of dreams, nothing left and shouldn't be left.
The couple chatted casually with Ade. When it was almost time, they went to Diana's home. Diana was very grateful to Ade, in the car, she took the initiative to sit in the passenger side, and let Loran sit in the back row with Ade so that they could talk at ease.
The dinner was carried out in a happy and peaceful atmosphere, and Ade naturally praised Loran's handicraft, regardless of whether it was good or not.
After the meal, it was still early to say goodbye, so they sat down and chatted for a while, and on the way, Diana took the initiative to say, "Thank you, Doctor, thank you for saving my husband. I don't know how to thank you, but if there is anything you want, please feel free to say, I will do my best."
"No need, really!" Ade and Loran spoke at the same time, and both looked at each other in surprise, Loran then said, "Diana, we're friends. We don't have to force him to get paid like this."
"Yes, yes, we're friends. It's natural for friends to help each other." Ade responded, "If I really want anything, I will definitely talk to Your Highness Loran myself."
Seeing that both of them said so, Diana just had to give up.
After chatting for a while, Ade said goodbye to the Queen and her husband. Loran insisted on taking Ade to the car himself. When the two walked side by side to the door, Loran suddenly stopped and Ade followed him to stop and looked at him curiously.
"Well, I actually don't know how to thank you for that." Under the color of the night, Loran smiled coyly, "No matter how you think, to me, this is a life-saving gift."
"In that case, it would be rude to say that I don't care." Ade scratched his head in distress and suddenly blurted out, "I learned how to dance, can it be considered a payment?"
"Of course it doesn't count, my life isn't that worthless." Loran turned his head sideways in embarrassment, "And you've only just started to learn, you're still far from mastering the skills of dancing."
Ade didn't know how to reply for a moment, and they looked at each other in silence with awkwardness.
"So I took it upon myself to do something for you, and I just finished it today." Loran broke the silence and winked at him mischievously, "It's kind of a surprise, you'll find out when you get back."
The bewildered Ade returned home and he was greeted with—
"What time is it? You finally know to come back, hum?" C.C.'s tone was still strong, but her voice was unprecedentedly soft, "I bought a dozen sets of new clothes, help me to choose one tonight, that's all."
"Ade, let's dance." Ange secretly whispered in his ear, "I got the princess set out again, well, anyway, you know, no running tonight."
"Well, I, I can do it anytime!" Momoka gazed at him with her face blushed, "Even today!"
"Had Lacus fed them love potion at dinner?" Ade fled into Mineva's room, while directing the young girl to watch for him, and then hurriedly took out his cell phone to call the culprit, "Hello, Your Highness Loran?"
"Excuse me, hold on a moment." A footstep and the sound of opening and closing the door, "Well, it's convenient now. Diana was at my side just now. It's late now, is there any emergency?"
"What the hell did you do?!" Ade's voice was unconsciously loud, "They suddenly behaved like, like…"
"I used your name to mail a marriage certificate to each of them, with the stamp of the Civil Affairs Bureau stamped, legally valid."
"I …!" Suddenly, it all made sense, "Wait, Momoka has one too?!"
"Doesn't Momoka count? Sorry, maybe I screwed the things up." Loran's voice suddenly became sullen, "I'm really sorry. If I caused you any trouble—"
"No, no, I'm glad. Good job!" Ade interrupted him decisively, "You did so well for me, I don't know what to say to thank you!"
"There's no need to comfort me, I knew I did something wrong by the tone of your voice. I'm really sorry." Loran smiled bitterly, and his voice got lower and lower, "The situation at your house was complicated enough, and I ended up making it worse. I just wanted to surprise you, I didn't think it would … I'm really sorry …"
Now there are two options in front of Ade. Either hang up the phone and pretend that nothing has happened and let time heal everything. Either continue to comfort Loran until they reached a mutual understanding.
"Ange asked me to dance with her, but I felt I hadn't learned yet and didn't want to make a fool of myself in front of her." Ade had a brainstorm and chose the third option, "Can you keep teaching me?"
…
"No." Setsuna coldly retorted, "If there is nothing else, goodbye."
Kururugi watched Setsuna disappear from view with a dejected look on his face and walked back listlessly. This was not the first time he had failed to invite Setsuna to his house. While he was still walking, it was as if he was hearing Nunnally's voice in his ears, "A loser is a loser, what a useless waste. You and my loser Sister Euphemia are a perfect match."
"Well, she isn't likely to say the last sentence." Kururugi murmured to himself, "She couldn't have said such a delightful line."
Half an hour later, what awaited him was indeed, "A loser is a loser, how many times have you failed? You're not useful at all, no wonder you and my loser Sister Euphemia are hugging each other and licking each other's wounds."
"Although not as good as a perfect match, licking each other's wounds is acceptable." Kururugi thought inexplicably, "The power of habit is really scary."
The Lelouch siblings were now lurking in Kururugi's home, using Geass to infiltrate the Britannia hierarchy. They discreetly went through Kururugi's steadily expanding network of contacts every day, inviting important people to Kururugi's home to control them one by one — there is nothing more stupid than to have a cheat but lose everything because of carelessness.
Because Kururugi failed to invite Setsuna several times, he made Nunnally feel very unhappy.
"We have already won, is there anything to be distressed about?" Lelouch asked puzzled, "Schneizel's coup can be launched at any time, just wait for them to lose both, then we will come out to suppress the whole scene and clean up the mess. If you don't think that's safe enough, I have a more perfect plan."
"What?" Nunnally asked with no expectations whatsoever.
"We can buy or control the defense forces and construction workers in the imperial capital." Lelouch smiled confidently, "Then we plant a ring of explosives underneath the palace and just wait for them to gather together—"
"All right, brother." Nunnally interrupted him impatiently, "I'm thinking about a very serious issue, I don't have time for jokes."
"So, what is that very serious issue?" Kururugi was still watching from the side, which made Lelouch feel a little shame, "We're about to win, we're about to take revenge on them. Nunnally, why haven't we launched the coup yet?"
"Because there are not enough chips." Nunnally paced back and forth in annoyance, "The problem is, we are winning too fast and not saving enough chips before it's all over. We haven't found the secrets of Setsuna·F·Seiei and Gundam00, Mr. Lingus must be disappointed. Do we have to risk exploring the one sensed under the ground outside the palace? No, Charles may kill the person if he realized something. We have to be careful."
"Why must we please that person?" Lelouch only felt the feeling called jealousy burning in his heart and unconsciously raised his volume, "Is that person's opinion that important?"
"I have long been able to wipe out the bunch of losers in the palace, why do I wait until now? Do you know how many times has Mr. Lingus rushed me? What do you think I've been dawdling for so long?" Nunnally shouted with impatience, "It's for you!"
"For me?" Lelouch froze, "You think too highly of him, I admit he's smart, but also—"
"Do you really think Adrien Lingus is an honest scholar sitting in a lab with his head buried in research? Be a little self-conscious about your own abilities, brother!" Nunnally suddenly felt tired and didn't want to try anymore, "If you want to take revenge so much, then let's just start, maybe Lingus-san is a good man with a soft heart? Suzaku Kururugi."
"Yes." Kururugi, who had acted as a transparent person from the beginning to the end, finally spoke up at this moment.
"Go to that warehouse. The new wine that Lingus-san sent is still unopened." Nunnally pulled out something from her pocket and threw it at Kururugi, "This is a bottle opener."
Kururugi took the small device and put it away, and drove the Lelouch siblings to a private warehouse. There was only one MS in the huge, empty warehouse, reflecting a cold, pitch-black sheen in the light of the warehouse's overhead lights. The MS was wrapped up in a wing-like component that stretched out behind it, and it was impossible to see exactly what it looked like.
"Because it's a secret weapon, we can't take the risk to expose it, so there's no chance for you to get familiar with its operation, but you should have memorized the operating manual, right?" Kururugi nodded under Nunnally's gaze, "Lingus-san is somehow unusually confident in you, don't let me down."
"For Euphemia's sake." Kururugi looked at the MS in front of him, only feeling a chill rush from his back straight to his brain, "Even if I become a god of death, I will not hesitate to kill."
