Chapter 88: The People Left Behind
With the bell ringing, it was time for school to end at Anaheim Elementary School. Mineva, carrying her backpack, chatted with her classmates in a casual manner, with a smile on her face, and greeted everyone gracefully after arriving at the school gate, then got into a car and sat in the back seat. Children would subconsciously imitate the people around them, and Mineva in the school always behaved like a small mixture of C.C. and Lacus.
"Audrey." Uraki greeted her casually, "We have a long detour to take to Anaheim to pick up someone."
"Sister Lucette? Yeah." Mineva pulled out her phone and looked at it as she spoke, "Uncle Kou, when are you having babies?"
"Not yet." Uraki scratched his head in embarrassment and started the car, "Your Sister Lucette got another promotion and her salary is getting higher than mine, I'm under a lot of pressure at home. She didn't mention that she wants a child, so I didn't mention it neither."
"Then I'll talk to Sister Lacus and ask her to give Uncle Kou a salary increase?" Mineva looked up from the phone and looked at him fervently, her little face made a very serious look.
"No no no, just casually talking, you don't tell her." Uraki smiled happily. He is truly like Mineva, "In this society, education is very important. I graduated from military school and suffered a lot of losses because of my low education. Audrey, you must study hard."
Uraki was originally Dr. Lingus's bodyguard, after the death of Dr. Lingus, Lacus had become a widow with a daughter, and she dismissed him for fear of being gossiped about by others. Uraki understood Lacus's decision, and after marrying Lucette, he applied for the job again. This time, he became Mineva's full-time driver.
"Well, I got good grades, and I was the best of the class in the final exam last year." Mineva was flipping through her phone when a big smile suddenly bloomed on her face, "Uncle Ade will praise me when he comes back, I want Uncle Ade to play high-flying with me!"
Uraki went silent. Only Mineva of all people kept believing that the doctor would come back, and no one could bear to burst her hopes.
After a while, Uraki received Lucette in Anaheim from work, and the three of them went to the Lingus' mansion. Soon after the Doctor's disappearance, Lacus and C.C. moved and bought another large house. The house was in the best part of the capital and was said to be fully paid for. Uraki and Lucette calculated, if they worked hard enough, they may be able to buy the same house before they retired.
Uraki went to park the car alone, and Lucette took Mineva into the house. As soon as Mineva changed into her slippers, she snapped and ran to Cagalli and hugged her, then put her little head sideways on Cagalli's belly. Cagalli nodded to Lucette in greeting, stroking Mineva's little head with a gentle smile.
"Audrey, etiquette." C.C., who was sitting on the side, made a cold voice, "There are still people who you haven't greeted, right?"
Mineva shrank her head, embarrassed and let go of Cagalli, and greeted one by one honestly, "Sister C.C., Sister Cagalli, Brother Kira, Sister Mayu, Sister Stella, and Brother Shinn."
"Only Kou is the uncle, and we are sisters and brothers, I feel sorry for him." Shinn joked, "He isn't a few years older than us, I wonder how Audrey actually counted."
"Ade is also an uncle!" Mineva corrected him seriously, and everyone went silent again at once. Mineva didn't care about the awkward atmosphere and continued to hug Cagalli, "Sister Cagalli, how much longer before they come out?"
"It's only six months, it's still early." Cagalli also did not care that Mineva would ask this question every time, it's very normal for a child to be curious about this, "After they are born, Audrey will be their sister, you can take good care of them."
"Yeah, yeah!" Mineva nodded vigorously, "I'll have a brother and a sister by then! Sister Cagalli, what are their names?"
"Uh, about this…" Cagalli looked blankly to Kira, "Kira, what are their names?"
"I haven't, haven't thought of one yet." Kira immediately used the catch-all answer, "What do you think?"
"Well, this…" Cagalli stroked her chin for a few seconds and gave up, "My name means lights, your name means luminous, I hope their names will have the same meaning. I can't think of one, it's better for you to decide."
"Lights and luminous?" Mineva said incredulously, "Isn't that like--"
"Audrey." C.C.'s voice rang out again. Mineva didn't know what mistake she had made, but she definitely made a mistake anyway, so she reflexively shrank her head.
"The name issue is important, huh?" Kira's forehead was instantly filled with sweat, "How about we go ask someone more learned?"
"Ask Uncle Ade when he gets back!" Mineva raised her hand excitedly, "Uncle Ade knows everything!"
No one was too eager to take that up, except Shinn who mustered up the courage to reluctantly respond, "… Yeah."
"Sister C.C.." Mayu whispered to C.C., "This kid hasn't actually spent too much time with Ade-san, right, so why is she so affectionate to him?"
Today was supposed to be a get-together to celebrate Mayu being able to walk, but Mayu wasn't upset at all that she wasn't the center of the conversation. She was standing next to C.C., Shinn nervously holding her up for fear of the slightest problem, and Stella was staring at Shinn with a resentful look on her face.
"Either you don't remember, and if you do remember, you can't forget, this is called NewType," C.C. laughed softly, "It's all like this."
Everyone had thought that Mineva would soon forget Ade, but everyone underestimated how deeply NewType remembered each other. Mineva often mentioned Ade in talks as if she didn't know what happened. C.C. and Lacus were both pained by Mineva at first, but now, they had gradually got used to it.
At almost seven o'clock, Lacus, who was dressed professionally, finally came back. She greeted everyone one by one, touched Mineva's head intimately, and went straight back to her room to change her clothes. The women in black suits behind her set the bought food on the table and then respectfully exited. Today, Lacus just had an emergency press conference, she does not have the time and energy to cook at this time.
Mrs. Lingus is now the press spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Lunar Government, mainly responsible for lulling Moonlight-Butterfly-related issues. These women in black suits are transferred to her from Diana's personal guard, considered as Ade's legacy.
After a while, Lacus, who had changed her clothes, came out of the room and greeted everyone at the table for dinner.
"Congratulations Mayu, you can finally walk on your own." Lacus invited Mayu to sit at the top and herself as the hostess to sit at the bottom, "Everyone is happy for you, but I'm afraid the happiest is Shinn, right? He must be happier than you yourself."
"Brother is happy that he can finally get rid of his burden and can spend full time with his girlfriend, right?" Mayu pouted petulantly, "Now you don't have to help your sister with muscle rehab or wash her feet every day, how nice it is."
"I swear to God, there's absolutely no such thing!" Shinn looked very excited, "I'll still treat Mayu as usual in the future, no, better!"
"Shinn." Stella beamed and pulled him, "Shinn, what about me?"
Both Lacus and C.C. looked at the anxious Shinn and couldn't help but laugh out loud, but the laugh contained a bit of desolateness.
Mineva felt the tangle of emotions in the air for a moment, then pulled out her phone, opened a picture, stuffed it into C.C.'s hand in one go, and then ran all the way to Cagalli to hug her tightly behind her.
C.C. felt confused and watched Mineva for a while, then looked down at the phone. Within two seconds, her face changed from shock, ecstasy, fear, anger, relief, and finally to flatness.
She expressionlessly shoved the phone into Lacus's hand, spoke with a choke in her cold voice, "Mrs. Lingus, look at this, you must want to divorce, right?"
Lacus took the phone, looked at the picture, and stared in disbelief, her eyes turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and her chest rose and fell violently. She lifted her other hand to cover her mouth to keep from making any sound, but tears were still welling up in her eyes.
The atmosphere was eerily quiet as everyone looked at C.C. and Lacus in turn in dismay.
"Audrey." C.C. patted Lacus's back and looked at Mineva, who was hiding behind Cagalli at this moment, "Who and when was this sent to you?"
"Uncle Char, a month ago," Mineva replied in a whisper, but everyone could hear it in the quiet. At this point, no one cared why the infamous Char was mentioned there, because her next words were this, "Page down, Uncle Char says that Uncle Ade will be back soon."
There was a sudden clanging sound on the table, and it was Uraki and Shinn who simultaneously stood up in excitement and knocked over the dishes in their hands. The two looked at each other, both seeing a shocked expression on each other's faces.
"Look at his movements, his expressions." C.C. sneered in a hoarse voice, "If there's two, there's three, his nature is never changed."
"Never changed?" Lacus took a deep breath, took a tissue to wipe her eyes, and immediately calmed down, "Nothing to worry about, I am Mrs. Lingus."
C.C. raised an eyebrow and looked at her playfully, not saying anything.
Lacus turned to the next page to read Char's message, followed by a gasp, "He's in a military fortress on Misurugi's territorial waters?!"
Everyone looked at her uncertainly. She shook her head and said with a worried expression, "Today's emergency press conference is for this, this week, TITANS and Britannia are going to conduct joint military exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, very close to the Misurugi kingdom. Colonel Scirocco and Charles are forcing the military exercise against the opposition of the entire Federation Parliament, and everyone is speculating if they are going to attack Misurugi."
"So they also got the information? Are they actually going to rob the doctor?" Uraki said excitedly, "Then we have to get the Doctor back before they do!"
Shinn nodded hardly.
"Not necessarily yet, there's no need for such a big show if they just want to get Ade." Lacus frowned thoughtfully, "There should be other reasons. If Colonel Scirocco did it just for a personal grudge to vent his anger, why did Charles cooperate with him?"
"Ade has offended Britannia for me, a blood feud, don't you know?" C.C. said, "Just take your time to think of the reason, Uraki, Shinn, come with me when the time comes."
"You're simply as twisted as Ade." Lacus sighed breathlessly, "The Atlantic Ocean is so big, how will you find him if I don't go?"
"Humph, it's so convenient to have the Lingus radar." C.C. grunted, "It's hard for Loran to stabilize the situation, Diana and he won't intervene to it, but they can give us some convenience."
"So there is not enough battle power, right?" Cagalli said to Kira beside her, "Kira, you go too, I really still want Dr. Lingus to name the children for us."
Kira took Cagalli's hand and nodded to Lacus and C.C.
"Well," Shinn couldn't resist interrupting everyone, "Can you show us the picture Audrey was talking about? I'd love to see what Adrien-san looks like now."
"No, everyone will be able to see it when he comes back." Lacus turned off the screen and put the phone down to the desktop, "Ade is doing well as usual, no, he should be doing well, very well, extremely well, too good to be well."
Mineva felt a chill run through her body and hugged Cagalli a little tighter.
"I'm so sorry, Mayu." Lacus smiled shyly at Mayu, "It might have to go from a celebration to a battle meeting."
"It's okay, really!" Mayu hastily waved her hand, "I'd love to have Ade-san back, too."
"Then let's begin." Lacus cleared her throat, "This time, it will be an invasion of another country's territory, Your Highness Loran can hardly give us support. In order not to clash with the Britannia and TITANS armies, we are going to stagger with the military exercise and move ahead."
After the meeting, everyone dispersed with different minds, and Mineva sheepishly trotted back to her room and closed the door, leaving only the two women left behind in the living room.
"I thought he likes long hair?" C.C. lounged lazily on the sofa, "When we did that, he was obviously … you should understand what I'm saying?"
"I thought so too, who knows." Lacus responded in a low voice with a smirk, "Her figure is so good, I am envious of her."
C.C. gave a "tsk" and didn't reply.
"We can talk about all of this after he comes back, I don't hope to rejoice too soon and get nothing in the end." Lacus shook her head, got up, and walked to her room, "After he comes back, we will have enough time to talk."
"So if you want to be happy, you have to go through a lot of suffering …" Sitting in the empty living room alone, C.C. closed her eyes and said to herself, "Lilith, I've had enough big falls in my life, it's not too much to give me a big rise now, is it?"
Meanwhile, in the Gibraltar base.
"Colonel Scirocco." Suzaku Kururugi gave him a standard military salute, "Suzaku Kururugi, the Seventh Knight of the Knights of the Round Table, reports to you! The Third Knight and I are in charge of this military exercise."
Scirocco nodded imperceptibly to indicate that he had heard. The other side is just a knight of the round table, relying on women to get promoted. He doesn't think that he needs to be too polite to such a person.
The continuous loss of Unicorn Gundam and Sinanju Stein within a year made him feel very annoyed. This time, he was forced to personally escort Banshee Gundam, and joining the military exercise is purely a coincidence. He knows the purpose of the military exercise, mainly Britannia and one of his patrons want to mess things up. He just needs to send some soldiers to participate and doesn't need to pay much attention to it.
As for Lingus, who is said to be hiding on an unknown island, he plans to send some people to take a look. He knows how difficult it is to catch an NT, so he doesn't really mind if they can catch Lingus.
"Does Charles the Great have anything to say?" Scirocco asked casually and insincerely.
"His Majesty wishes the military exercise to be brought forward." Kururugi answered honestly, "The time announced to the public is to confuse Misurugi, and he hopes to catch Misurugi off guard."
