Chapter 212: The Battlefield of Women
In the extravagantly decorated study, a three-dimensional map of the world was unfolded in its entirety on an electronic screen, covered with red circle marks. Sitting at the desk, Nunnally stared at the map, occasionally adding or removing one of the marks.
"Your Majesty." Standing aside, Schneizel stood erect, "May I ask what we should do to Setsuna·F·Seiei?"
"Send him back for re-education." Nunnally answered without looking up, "Britannia is in need of people, killing such a person is a waste. It should not be difficult to rehabilitate him and turn him into another Kururugi."
"As ordered." Schneizel bowed his head respectfully, "And what about the captured MS? Although it has lost its head and limbs and is in tatters, it is after all a historical artifact, so I dare not make a rash decision."
"Put it in the palace treasury after it's repaired." The corner of Nunnally's mouth unconsciously lifted slightly, "It's Mr. Lingus' first work, it's still quite collectible."
"Yes, sir." Schneizel didn't seem to see Her Majesty's smile and didn't hesitate to change the subject, "In addition, regarding Kamille Bidan, I think it's inappropriate to just let him go. Since Your Majesty has received the important information, there is a risk of invalidating it by letting him go. I suggest arresting him immediately while he is still on the plane."
"Didn't you hear that he had a date with his girlfriend on Christmas? It will alert the enemy if he's missing, and you can't even figure that out?" Nunnally's slender fingers tapped the desk quickly in an impatient tone, "What else is wrong?"
"About Azadistan." Schneizel continued to pose as impassive, "Now that the desired person has been captured, what should be done with the civil war and Marina Ismail? I thought—"
"You want me to teach you how to prop up a puppet government and get oil? Do you want to bother me with this little shit? What do I need you for?" Nunnally slapped the table heavily, "Get out!"
"Yes, Her Majesty." Schneizel saluted expressionlessly and turned away calmly.
With the door closed from the outside, the only sound that remained in the quiet study was Nunnally's heavy breathing. She was staring at the map marked with red circles, her chest rose and fell violently, and her left hand crumpled into a fist countless times and let go as if she couldn't find a target.
After an unknown amount of time, Nunnally swept her right arm, spilling the items on her desk onto the floor. She looked at the mess on the floor for a moment in silence, and finally leaned back in her chair and looked up at the delicate chandelier on the ceiling, letting out a long sigh.
"Incompetent rage." Her self-deprecating laugh rang out in the empty study, "That's the current me…"
It didn't take much for her to break Setsuna's& heart of the defense and got everything she wanted to know. However, the more she learned, the less hope she found. How easy it is for a woman with intelligence, scheming, and determination to hide on Earth and not be found?
Not to mention that Lacus still have secret bases that Setsuna doesn't know, even if she take a step back, assuming that Setsuna told her all the bases, the bases in Europe were already more than ten.
The best thing about what Lacus did was that her plan was so absurd that it was impossible for anyone to come up with strong evidence of its veracity. Except for Nunnally, probably only the moon, whose most up-to-date MS& was robbed would believe it, it was impossible to convince the Federation Council to take action.
"Only I, only I have one more chance to talk to her." Nunnally stood up and paced back and forth, casually kicking things off the floor when she stepped on them, "What would it take to convince her, or gain her trust?"
Relying on talk or acting won't work, and according to Mineva's description of Lacus, she's not confident she can outwit Lacus in that regard. To gain the trust of a suspicious and black-bellied woman, how could … it seems that someone did succeed before?
"How did Mr. Lingus gain my trust?" Nunnally froze in place, and her deep frown gradually unlocked, "So that's the way. Treat people with integrity and then give her what she wants most."
With that in mind, Nunnally walked over to the bookshelf and fumbled with it, which then slowly shifted to the side, revealing the secret space behind it. As she entered it, the interior lighting came on in response to her footsteps, and the hidden door closed automatically behind her.
The secret room was discovered while she was going through Charles' belongings and is only known to her and a few of her personal attendants. The room has a complete set of top-notch encrypted networks connected to communication satellites, where Charles originally participated in SEELE's meetings, and after she took over it, it became her private space for relaxation.
The original plain and technological sense of the secret room was decorated with a girlish pink. There was even a single bed that was stuffed into this small room, and a small bear-like pillow was placed at the head of the bed — that was a birthday gift from Mineva.
Nunnally walked over to the communication device that was still working, took a few deep breaths, and then calmly entered the emergency contact information for Lacus that she had gotten from Setsuna. Waiting for less than ten seconds, the connection was quickly answered, "Setsuna?"
The tone of voice was smooth, Nunnally couldn't judge whether she was woken up while sleeping, and the background voice was very clean, with no extra information. In other words, no usable information could be found to determine the other party's geographical location.
"Hello, Mrs. Lingus." She looked at the screen calmly, "I'm Nunnally, Britannia's Nunnally."
"Setsuna was captured and the Azadistan civil war was your handiwork?" Lacus, on the other end of the line, deduced the truth of the matter with barely a pause, "I don't think we have anything to talk about yet, or are you going to blame me? I'll hang up now if there's nothing else."
"Setsuna·F·Seiei was caught by an enthusiastic college student named Kamille Bidan." Nunnally spluttered before Lacus could hang up, "And this college student was introduced to me by Mineva."
Lacus's voice rang out from the other end of the line again, "At the dinner on the last day of the Tri-State Summit, you kissed Ade on purpose? To cause chaos in our family, and then to get connected with Mineva?"
"It's easy to talk to smart people." Nunnally's left hand was supported on the table, and her right hand put on her chest, "About your Human Instrumentality Project, I, as a person who had read the Dead Sea Scrolls, have a small suggestion, maybe you can listen to it. "
After an unbearable silence, Lacus finally spoke slowly: "Speak."
It's done!
Nunnally waved her fist in excitement and threw herself onto the single bed behind her. The soft mattress sank slightly downward. Her slender little legs swayed gently and her shoes were flung capriciously to one side while Nunnally rolled around on the bed in excitement.
"Although I have no way of knowing exactly how you're going to do it, it seems to me that you're missing key materials, but in any case, Lingus-san's LCL is not a necessity, right? In fact, he just needs to stay on Earth when 'that' happens, right?" Nunnally asked in a lighthearted tone, "Wouldn't it be safer to deposit him with me?"
"That joke isn't funny." Lacus sneered, "Or are you still acting?"
"No, no, no, I'm very serious. Too bad you're not a NewType, I can't prove to you how serious I am." Nunnally casually pulled the little bear pillow in her arms, "Look, in case some crazy person gets lucky and finds you — and you know the world is always full of crazy people — and a nuclear bomb is thrown down, what are you going to do? It doesn't matter if you die, but you can't let Mr. Lingus die with you, can you?"
Again there was silence, which indicated that Lacus actually understood her seemingly inexplicable logic.
"Besides, in case someone else — like me — figured out a way to turn Lingus-san back, how could we stop you at that time?" The legs under the hem of the skirt clamped tightly around the bear pillow, and the pure white velvet rubbed the pink cotton pillowcase, "In addition to Kaworu Nagisa, there is still one angel left, right? Guess which one? You know EVANGELION-01, right? I almost find it, and my mother's soul is inside it. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"A ridiculous and unthinking plan." Lacus grunted disdainfully, "Will it work? Is it worth it? And most importantly, are you willing to do it?"
"I don't think your plan is more brilliant and credible enough." She buried her face into the soft neck of the pillow, and her long hair was messily scattered, "Smart people like to leave themselves a backup plan, and I think your backup plans are not enough. In case you are really wrong, at least leave yourself a way back, right?"
That was all Nunnally could use to convince Lacus. If& that was still not enough to convince Lacus, then humanity could only wait to be turned into LCLs. In fact, think about it, it was a little exciting, maybe it was not so bad?
The silence was longer this time, and Nunnally waited with bated breath for Lacus' reply. After about three minutes or so, she heard the sound of a door opening, a whirring wind and the faint sound of … water? Wait, is this a river or an ocean?
"I don't think I'll be able to sleep well tonight." Lacus' ethereal voice sounded a bit muffled in the wind, "Let me think about it again. This& communication line is null and void, don't contact me in the future."
Then the connection was disconnected.
Nunnally let go of the pillow, jumped off the bed, stepped on her socks, and paced the floor in circles with her head down, while her mind replayed the map she had just memorized.
Lacus was near some water that hadn't frozen over by the end of December, and that water was likely to still have MS-carrying capacity. Considering the time difference and longitude, the place she was at should be at night now. Combining the above conditions with the map given by Setsuna …
"… got it." Nunnally looked up, "But why? She was obviously giving me clues on purpose at the end."
"So she's still testing my sincerity? So this is … hoping to pass on a message through my mouth? To whom?" Nunnally twirled a strand of hair mindlessly around her finger, "The Federation Council? Bright Noa? Diana and Loran? Or …Mineva?!"
Whether Lacus was testing her sincerity or simply using her, Nunnally had no way back and the only thing she could do was to play along with Lacus' script.
"I just want to have an act of happy revenge, is it too much? Why does fate have to interrupt me by adding so many irrelevant subplots!" She sat on the edge of the bed and stirred her legs unhappily for a while, just before she was about to climb into bed but she froze involuntarily, "Ah, the socks are dirty."
…
Loran stood alone on the balcony, staring at the dark artificial canopy. Although in the lunar city, people couldn't feel the change of seasons, he shivered at this late hour, still wearing a single coat.
"People on Earth have the moon to look at at night, while there is nothing to look at on the moon." Loran said to the visitor behind him without looking back, "Shouldn't we make a fake moon to hang in the sky?"
"I don't think that's necessary." Diana gently draped her coat over him, "If you really want one, you can start a poll on the government website first, and then draw conclusions based on the results."
"Let's forget it, not everyone is as sentimental as I am." Loran shook his head with a bitter smile, "Where is C.C.? Has she gone back?"
"Go back." Diana stood at Loran's side and looked up at the empty canopy with him, "Nowadays she is very unstable, we need to guide her to vent out her emotions reasonably, otherwise, she is likely to do something stupid with her extreme personality."
"I know." Loran stroked his chest as if in fear, "Fortunately, Audrey give me Lacus' information instead of her, otherwise, the odds are that she would have run over to Lacus herself on impulse, and the trail would probably have been broken, with unimaginable consequences."
"So what are you going to do?" Diana gave the person next to her a calm look, "You only get one chance."
"I …" Loran sullenly slumped his shoulders, "I don't know, Diana, I don't even know what I really want as a result. I … can't help but think sometimes that if Lacus succeeds, it would … be nice if Ade could really come back, wouldn't it? I know it's not right to think that way, but I, I just …"
"Just say it." Diana took his hand, "It's better to say it."
"I …" Loran closed her eyes in pain, "I almost cheated, Diana, just half a step … "
Diana still held his hand without responding, and at the moment, the lack of response was the greatest encouragement of all. The cool night breeze blew on Loran's face, and he took a deep breath as if he had gained a little extra courage.
"At first, I was just lonely for too long and wanted to make a friend, and I happened to get along well with him." Loran's voice was calm and low, "After a long time, I found out that he was a very pessimistic person, so I couldn't help but worry about him and want to take care of him."
"Because of loneliness, right?" Diana's eyes were as clear as water, "The longer you live, the easier it is to be lonely, and the lonelier you are, the more easily you can't help yourself. Look at C.C. and you'll understand."
"By the end of the day, I knew I'd crossed the line too. But I lied to myself that it was friendship and normal, and just kept fooling myself, but …" Loran's voice grew choked, "I knew it was wrong, Diana, but I don't know what to do. It was… I thought about ending it here, and I said it, but just little by little … and then, and then I …"
"And then, before you can figure out how to face you and me and him, the person in question disappeared." sighed Diana.
"I …" Loran choked, "Diana, I …"
"How am I going to be jealous of someone who isn't even here anymore?" Diana hugged Loran tenderly, "Cry it out, you haven't cried since he left."
Loran could no longer control himself and threw himself into Diana's arms and cried out in pain. The latter gently patted Loran's back. After a long time, the sobs gradually turned into intermittent sobbing.
"Whether you want to take responsibility, or whether you want to get emotional, I support you, because we are supposed to be one." Diana said softly, "Think carefully about what you really want, what the people you hold most dear really want."
Loran left Diana's embrace reluctantly.
"Lacus must be stopped, at all costs." Loran wiped the corner of his eye with his sleeve, "I know it's irresponsible to say that, but I'm sure there's another way, the future she's designed is too sad."
"Hmm." Diana beamed, "I'm with you."
"Let C.C. go, she has the ability and determination, the point is that if we don't let her go again, I always feel like she will stir up trouble." Loran locked eyes with Diana firmly, "Use TurnA."
