Chapter 10: Zealot

Lelouch had a hard time keeping his thoughts straight. There wasn't much he could do at the moment, and it gnawed at him. Annoyance at being defenseless wasn't even the least of it. No, it was the tip of the iceberg.

Word spread fast. Reinhard said that some of the nobles wanted to hire Lelouch for the display at both chess and magic. Most of them were capable of magic on their own, but Yang magic was rare, and Yang mages weren't exactly unpopular.

He could just refuse, no headache about that, but by now he was established as an unknown power without affiliation in a capital that was currently undergoing something of a management change. Keeping his head down and observing while nudging people into doing what he wanted them to do was not going to be as easy now.

"It's kinda weird," Reinhard said, a soft smile on his lips.

"What is?" Lelouch asked.

"Every time I see you do magic, you seem to have improved leaps and bounds, it's kinda incredible."

"Is it? Considering the state it left me in, I'd think that I looked more like a flailing child."

"If that were the case, you'd probably be sleeping for a week," Reinhard said. "From the looks of it, you should be alright by dinner."

"Ugh," Lelouch groaned. "I apologize for the inconvenience."

"Don't worry too much, it's not every day that you survive an assassination attempt."

"I have the feeling that killing him will mean more will come," Lelouch said, shaking his head. "Though it seems I hit a nerve with this one, he was that gut-slicer woman's man, wasn't he?"

Reinhard nodded. "From the looks of it, there wasn't anything to imply otherwise, though-"

"You're worried that he might've been hired by someone in the capital," Lelouch deducted. Reinhard nodded, his lips drawn into a thin line. "The thought crossed my mind, but I don't think I've an enemy that would go and hire assassins to go after me right now."

"Talking like that you sound like you'll have some in the future, Lelouch." Reinhard's grin was almost teasing, despite the rather morbid topic.

"I think you know me better at this point," Lelouch hissed as he righted himself up, sitting in the bed. "I'm going to step on a lot of toes."

Reinhard shook his head slightly, shrugging. "Of course. Please rest, I'll attend to Lady Felt."

"You have to be careful with that wallet of yours," Lelouch warned ."She'll drain you for the last coin."

Lelouch grabbed his head when Reinhard left, his brain was trembling.

Using a gate was like using a muscle. Flexing it, poking it, releasing mana from it, it became easier with practice. Ferris warned, however, that using magic in this state might damage his gate to the point where he'd be without magic for weeks to come.

That wasn't something he could risk. So Lelouch waited, dealing with the painful feeling of being helpless and slowly regaining control of his body.

###

When Lelouch woke up, the sun was on its way down already. Soft red and orange rays entered through the open window in front of his bed and cast the room into a---

Lelouch blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Open window. It was closed before, he was sure. The breeze that entered through it made him shiver slightly, the cold touching and penetrating his skin down to the marrow of his bones.

Pressing into the corner of the room, Lelouch slowly stood up on the bed and looked up, then around. Not giving it much thought, Lelouch jumped up and down on the bed, and heard nothing - nobody was hiding under it either.

Slowly moving towards the window, he closed it and took in the sight of the room once more, and when all the tiredness was finally out of his body, he noticed what was off. It was small, almost not noticeable among the other books he had put onto the desk. A book with a white cover, open as if put there to be unnoticable until the last moment.

He couldn't feel anything from it, no magical properties, so that left a physical trap. Poison? Maybe… maybe he could ask Reinhard. Trust the man that had helped him along so far.Taking another few books, he opened them and hid the white book underneath. This could wait until he could talk to Reinhard alone. Whoever did this could've been from inside the mansion as well - Lelouch had a light sleep, but considering his condition, it wasn't unlikely that anyone could've sneaked into his room.

Opening his door, he found a young woman in a maid's dress about to knock on it.

"Sir," she said. "Master Reinhard has asked me to call for you, there's an urgent matter to attend to."

"Of course," he said. "I'll be right there-"

"Should I help you dress, sir?" the maid said, looking down on his half unbuttoned shirt.

"I can do that on my own, thank you," Lelouch said, smiling at the woman. She shook her head, a bit of red coming to her cheeks.

"I insist, you are still hurt, Sir-"

Lelouch didn't bother trying to discuss and simply closed the door, moving to his wardrobe. He didn't need another situation like that Barielle daughter, especially not in his friend's home.

###

Dressed and only slightly in pain, Lelouch moved down the stairs towards the dining hall. When he opened the door, all the eyes moved towards him.

Including the eyes of one Crusch Karsten and the helmet of a huge man with only one arm.

"Yo," the man in the helmet said. "I'm Aldebaran, please call me Al."

The sudden introduction was all it took for the situation to go from surprising to tense. The atmosphere shifted when Crusch stood up, giving a slight and courteous bow towards Lelouch.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said. "My name is Crusch Karsten, head of the Karsten house and royal candidate."

Wilhelm and Ferris were seated next to her. The fact that she appeared here without Ferris being hurt was surprising - even Aldebaran's presence made more sense considering the involvement of a Barielle, though why Priscilla would send him instead of coming herself was unclear…

No, it wasn't. Lelouch dismissed the thought the moment it came up. Of course someone like Priscilla Barielle would not stoop so low to meet someone like him after saving a member of her family.

That wasn't who she was, after all. She was ruthless. Arrogant. But competent nonetheless.

Clovis or Schneizel, he still couldn't decide.

"The pleasure's all mine, Lady Karsten," Lelouch said, trying to keep his posture straight as he walked towards a seat, next to Reinhard, who was sitting with a dressed up Felt.

The girl didn't seem very happy to be there, her arms crossed and glaring at Wilhelm across the table.

"Pardon if I seem rude," he spoke up again when he was seated. "But due to my rather sudden use of magic, I'm not quite capable of moving that well."

"It's alright," she dismissed the concern with a wave of her hand. "I'm the one who appeared so suddenly and uninvited. Sir Reinhard invited us in nonetheless."

Even though Wilhelm, despite his low position in the family, could've done just the same, Lelouch assumed it would've been more of a political headache considering the mansion was housing Felt, a rival.

"And you, Al, was it?" Lelouch asked, turning his head to the large man. Despite the helmet, the large man was scratching the back of his head.

"Aye, bro," he said. Lelouch's eyebrows twitched at the way he spoke. So casual that the entire setting around them just made it awkward. "I was sent to talk to you."

"What about?" Lelouch asked. Crusch made a small noise, her sharp eyes focusing on Al.

"Let me start, please," Crusch said. Her voice wasn't very harsh, but the way she said it still made it sound like an order. Al just shrugged, not confronting the possible princess. "Say, Lelouch Lamperouge, where do you come from?"

Reinhard's hand immediately came down on Lelouch's shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through his body. The red-haired knight leaned in and whispered. "Her divine blessing tells her if someone lies."

Lelouch's eyebrows twitched. That'd make it a bit harder, but there was more ways to deal with something like that than just saying the truth.

"From a distant place," Lelouch said. Crusch's mouth twitched into a smile.

"And what brought you here?"

Lelouch shrugged. "It wasn't really my intention - though if this is your way of scouting possible threats to Lugnica's security, I must advise you to be more subtle."

"Let that be my worry," Crusch said. Felt was looking back and forth between them, ignoring the tense atmosphere and leaning back in the chair to the point where she was sliding down. Reinhard righted her up again. "Though I don't think that you're a threat to national security, I believe that your appearance here was not exactly random. If it wasn't your intention, is it safe to assume that someone brought you here?"

Lelouch didn't frown, but he didn't smile back at her either.

"Something like that," Lelouch said. She must've asked around. Found out some things before coming here. Non-committal answers would help him out for a bit - but he wanted answers as well. Even if he could end the conversation at any point, doing that wouldn't help him get those. "Let me ask you a question in return."

"Go ahead."

"Is this line of questioning going anywhere?" he asked. "I would prefer if we could cut to the crux of it, and I don't believe my origins are going to be that interesting to you."

"Hmph, very well," she leaned forward, her hands over each other on the table. "Have you ever heard of the four powers that protect Lugnica?"

"I know of the dragon and the sword saint," Lelouch said, nodding towards Reinhard.

"The royal family is the third, their blood and covenant with the dragon have made this nation strong," she explained. Lelouch nodded, of course blood was important here, the Sword Saint's power was inherited through it, so the covenant could be as well.

"And the fourth?"

"The Sage, Flügel," she said. "Though he's long since gone from this world."

"So there's only three?"

She nodded. "Though someone had reported something strange. Flügel has planted a tree, once, it became the largest tree in the kingdom, and just a while ago, that tree began to bloom."

"Bloom?" Lelouch asked.

"White flowers," she explained.

"And that concerns me, how?"

"After asking around, I know just when you arrived in the capital," she said. "And the tree's bloom aligns. You're an unknown, no noble family I know in any kingdom shares your features, and I know all of them."

Reinhard was actually staring at him now, while Lelouch was out of his depth. Was that the conclusion she got? He had something to do with the Sage? Even if that were true, Lelouch didn't understand the exact train of thought here.

"And the first thing you do when you arrive is approach the Sword Saint of this generation."

Lelouch nodded. It made a bit more sense now.

"You also immediately found a royal candidate nobody knew about." Crusch nodded towards Felt, who stared back as if seeking confrontation. Lelouch's perfect plan led to something like this. Of course it did, working with wrong or incomplete information leads to things like this. In Britannia, he knew the families, the political climate, the mythology. Here? Here he was a fish out of water, and no matter how much he learned, he'd still be a step behind someone like Crusch Karsten, who was born and raised here and took over her family at a young age.

Of course, if she could tell he was lying, he could simply say he doesn't know anything about relations to the Sage.

But this was the point where he could use her theory for his own advantage.

"Say your theory was true," Lelouch said. "And I'm somehow related to the Sage, what would you do?"

"I'm not trying to create false hope in the kingdom, and even if we have our differences, I know Priscilla won't either," Crusch said, her gaze moving to Aldebaran, who was silent. "I did wish to inform the other royal candidates and the Sword Saint of this."

"Why, though?" Lelouch asked.

"Because I want you out of this country," she said bluntly. Even Felt made a noise at that rather hostile statement. "The covenant with the dragon will come to an end under my rule. We've grown weak, lenient and trusting."

"And you believe that ending the covenant with the dragon will make you strong?" Lelouch asked. "So if the dragon is gone, you can't have someone like me, whom you assume to be the fourth pillar of this kingdom, stay?"

"Exactly."

"Like hell!" Felt said, standing up. Her voice was loud, but not yet shouting. "You can't just throw people out of the country because they don't fit you!"

"I'm not throwing him out," Crusch said, crossing her arms. She was calm, but it was clear that she wasn't considering Felt someone to brush off easily. She was, after all, a rival for the throne. "I'm asking him to leave the country and make himself home somewhere else. I would pay for the expenses."

"You'd do all this over an assumption?" Reinhard asked. "The theory that he might be someone that died four-hundred years ago?"

"People are superstitious, believing and trusting," Crusch explained. "I don't need someone like him in this kingdom if there's only the off chance of someone spreading these rumors. Furthermore, should the public actually believe in this theory, his word would have just as much sway as yours, Sword Saint Reinhard. Considering he lives here, it would assure Lady Felt's victory."

"I understand," Lelouch said, nodding. Felt turned to him.

"Don't listen to her!" Felt was shouting now. "You're not that bad even if you seem like a stinking noble--"

Lelouch raised his hand, stopping her rant before it began in earnest.

"Of course, I understand," Lelouch said, smiling at Crusch. "I don't support Lady Felt, however, I've decided to learn about all the candidates. If me living here means problems as such, then I shall find another place."

"Thank you for understanding," Crusch said. Felt was grinding her teeth together.

"But," Lelouch said quickly, "that would limit my options, wouldn't it? I couldn't go to Kararagi, where Anstasia Hoshin lives, and the people in the north want me dead considering the assassin sent after me."

Ferris and Wilhelm were not looking very happy about how the conversation had went up to this point, but stayed silent. Lelouch could see a few uncomfortable glances between them.

"So, unless you're planning to drag me to the border and throw me over it, or have someone kill me when I turn my back," Lelouch said, his voice tight, "I will remain in the capital. I might or might not be an aspiring sage, I don't doubt that there might be more people who would claim the same."

"I see," Crusch said. Before she could continue, Lelouch spoke up again.

"I will move out of the mansion though, to make it fair," Lelouch said. "In case someone manages to convince people that I am the person you claim I am, nobody can claim I'm supporting Felt alone. I've helped Lady Emilia too, after all. And I've had the pleasure of saving a relative of Lady Priscilla Barielle."

Crusch smiled, her fingers forming a bridge under her chin.

"Nobody gets what they want, then," Crusch said.

"On the contrary," Lelouch said. "A place of my own doesn't sound too bad, I managed to earn myself a bit of coin lately."

"You still don't seem very happy about actually leaving," Felt muttered, looking away from him. Lelouch frowned.

Staying here was, barring the freak accident with the witch's scent, safe. Leaving a safe place was problematic. Lelouch acknowledged her words with a curt nod and combing through his hair with a hand.

"I would be lying if I said that I didn't like it here. I'd consider Reinhard a friend, after all," Lelouch said. Felt nodded.

"Friends, uhuh."

She didn't sound very convinced. Reinhard just smiled nervously at Felt's continuous teasing.

"So, Lady Karsten," Lelouch said. "I suppose that should be enough to satisfy you and Lady Barielle?"

"I'm not sure about her," Crusch said. "If anything, it might actually increase her interest, and she believes that the world around her will always do her favor, unless you support her openly, she won't spread rumors."

"Sounds like it," Al finally spoke up. "You and the miss have quite the relationship going, huh?"

"She's my cousin," Crusch acknowledged. "Ever so distant, but still family."

"Ah yeah, I know how that is," Al said. "Alright, I guess it's my turn now?"

Crusch motioned with her hand to go ahead. Al sighed.

"Well," he said. "Your name is Lelouch Lamperouge, right?"

Lelouch nodded. "Yes."

"It's kinda funny, actually, I knew someone once, ages ago," he said. "She had the same name."

Lelouch's eyebrows twitched. The man was nonchalant and impolite, but his words were carefully chosen, he was speaking slowly, making sure that Lelouch understood everything.

Just like Crusch, Aldebaran didn't seem to care who was listening to the conversation. Reinhard actually perked up at mention of Lelouch's family.

"And, heh." Al actually sounded embarrassed. "It'd not really be anything if the name was known, but the Lamperouge family doesn't exist here."

"Could you get to the point, please?" Crusch asked. Lelouch's gaze moved towards her - she had her eyes closed, simply listening. Al wasn't having any of it.

"And your hair color's the same too-"

"What do you want me to say?" Lelouch asked. Al stopped. "You say you knew my mother? That's impossible."

"Well, you're here, aren't you?" Al said. "And so am I."

There it was. Information, useful information, and dangerous in this conversation. Priscilla sent him here to put him into place, knowing something about him that nobody else knew because Al was… Al was…

"Ah," Lelouch said. His face was twisted in an expression between frown and smile. "I see."

"For what's it worth, I'm not really privy to all these plots and all that, used to be a soldier," Al said. "Back before your mother married that man. I heard she had a son before arriving here."

Here was this world. The man had been here for as long as Lelouch had been alive, maybe a shorter time than that. About nineteen years.

Suddenly the uniqueness of his situation vanished and was replaced with uncertainty of the unknown. If the witch was related to his appearance here, then was she also related to Aldebaran?

Did Aldebaran have a similar power? Are people summoned to this world somehow more special? This explained why his first meeting with Priscilla a few loops back was interrupted by Al's whisper. He knew. She knew now.

He'd hoped that she was more Clovis than Schneizel. That hope was gone now.

"You're from the same place as Sir Lelouch, Sir Aldebaran?" Ferris asked. The curious edge of his voice made Lelouch's annoyance flare up. Was this the price he had to pay for going into the public eye by helping Felt out?

"Somethin' like that." Al shrugged. "I was just some guy from a small family, he was probably raised in a man-"

"That's enough," Lelouch said. "What does she want?"

Al cocked his head to the side. "I'm not sure."

"Then why did she send you here?" Lelouch asked.

"To provoke you," Al said, his voice as calm as ever. Lelouch narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning back, putting one leg over the other. "You're like her."

"Like who? Lady Barielle?"

"Like your mother, Lady Marianne."

"No," Lelouch said, shaking his head. Remembering the confrontation with his parents, Lelouch sighed, lowering his gaze slightly. "I'm nothing like her."

His mother wasn't ready to die for her dream. His mother wasn't ready to give everything for Nunnally.

"I'm pretty sure you're similar enough," Al said.

"I don't talk about my family," Lelouch said a bit forcefully. "Because there's no family to talk about, Sir Aldebaran. If Lady Barielle wishes to threaten me with your information, then please do so in a more private setting."

"Sure thing, pal."

Lelouch didn't get angry quickly, but when he got angry, lashing out was something he was good at. He wouldn't flail and shout and swear revenge. Instead, Lelouch liked to go the slow way. Rip someone apart with his mind rather than his body.

The strain on his body was forgotten as he quickly stood up, the chair scraping against the floor and making a squeaky noise before he all but limped out of the room. He ignored Crusch's stare.

"It seems family is a sore subject for him," he heard Reinhard speak before the door closed. "Please don't bring it up again."

Instead of asking more questions, Reinhard stopped the conversation that could've taken place.

###

It took a while before someone knocked on his door. Lelouch took that time to calm down slightly. Bad information, spotty knowledge and now he had both Crusch Karsten and Priscilla Barielle as possible enemies.

And he didn't know how far he would go back if he died, so trying to avoid the conversation going that way would be futile. He just left it there, proving that he had something to hide, though that was something everyone in there knew already.

Not being very forthcoming about your origins can do that.

Opening the door slightly, Lelouch found Reinhard standing there, a small grin on the knight's face.

"I should apologize for putting you into a spot like that," Reinhard said. Lelouch sighed.

"It's not your fault," Lelouch said, stepping away from the door. "Please, come in, I have a favor to ask."

"If I can help," Reinhard agreed immediately, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. Lelouch moved towards the bunch of books and lifted them up one by one, revealing the still open white book underneath, open on an empty page.

"Someone broke into the room while I was sleeping," Lelouch said. Reinhard blinked.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Because they left this and nothing else," Lelouch pointed at the book. "It doesn't feel magical, it doesn't look like much. I don't know if there's some kind of poison on it, or it will explode-"

Reinhard moved to it and put his hand on it before smelling his hand and touching his palm with his tongue.

"No poison," he said. Lelouch furrowed his eyebrows at the knight and stepped forward.

"You can tell just like that?"

"Yeah, it's one of my blessings," Reinhard said. "Even if there was poison, I'd be okay, so don't worry."

"If… you say so," Lelouch nodded, stepping forward to take the book. The pages were thick, and when he flicked through, the text began to appear. "I can't read this."

When he showed it to Reinhard, the man looked before shaking his head.

"Well, yeah, it's empty."

"Empty?" Lelouch asked. The letters became clearer by the second, but they weren't any local ones. He couldn't read the writing unless he managed to decode the language, - but… "I can see words appearing on it."

"Well it doesn't seem dangerous, though you might want to have an actual mage check it out," Reinhard said. "Just because you can't feel anything from it doesn't mean it isn't, especially considering I can't read it while you see words."

"Good point," Lelouch said. "Though I don't understand why the delivery had to be done this way."

"To show you they can," Reinhard explained. "I know that kind. Sneaking everywhere, leaving clues, making it obvious they can do it whenever they want."

"Has it ever happened to you?"

"Oh? No no!" Reinhard waved his hands in front of him. "It's like that in my favorite novels. I'm really into espionage stuff, there's one about a man who hides as the child of-"

"That sounds interesting," Lelouch said, his voice betraying his actual thoughts. "I might ask you to lend those to me once in a while."

"Really?" Reinhard's eyes lit up. Lelouch felt like he had made a great mistake, but just shrugged.

"Yes," Lelouch said. "It's already late, I'll try to decode the book before going to bed again. Is there anything else for now?"

"Yes," Reinhard said, pulling out a letter from his pocket. "Roswaal L. Mathers is inviting you to his mansion to speak about a reward for saving his ward."

"It'd be hard to say no to an offer like that," Lelouch said. "But I imagine it might provoke Crusch Karsten even more."

"Don't worry too much about her," Reinhard said. "She's giving the impression of an enemy to you so you won't stick around in case she becomes queen."

"I understand that," Lelouch said. Of course, being outed as possible sage to the people and friend to Reinhard would be detrimental to her, so she wanted to avoid just that and he wouldn't be inclined to stay in a country with an antagonistic queen.

Unfortunately for her, that just meant that she made it harder for him to bend the knee. Lelouch wasn't someone who actively sought out confrontation.

"But she'll learn that having me as enemy isn't going to help her get rid of me," Lelouch said.

"Oh, it's worse," Reinhard said. Lelouch gave him a quizzical look. "She might try to become your friend instead."

"Give me land and throw me somewhere?" Lelouch asked. Reinhard nodded. "Maybe even set me up as some ambassador elsewhere. She made a similar offer to Felt, didn't she?"

"Yeah." Reinhard nodded again. "She knew you'd be the kind of person that wouldn't fall for offers of money like Lady Felt would when you refused her like that, so now she might want to keep you closer than she had initially planned."

"To keep an eye on me," Lelouch said.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you've done something like this before."

"You don't know better, then," Lelouch said. The red-haired knight laughed. "Good night, Reinhard."

"Good night."

###

#

###

"He came!"

The barely illuminated chamber was filled with sounds of annoying screeching.

"Who?"

Nails cut into a wooden table.

A man with a large grin and wide eyes that looked ready to fall out was leaning over the table, his right hand scratching into the wood and his left hand flipping through the pages on a black book.

"The one mentioned in the gospel! The one who is loved and hated! It's on him, the smell, the smell of love, but he refuses it, he keeps it at bay, he rejected her love! He rejected her! He rejected her! He rejected her! He rejected her! He rejected her!"

"Cease this insistent yapping at once. Who did?"

"He did! It is written here - he rejected her love, how slothful, truly, the most slothful of aaaaaaall."

"The gospel speaks of someone who is torn."

The people at the table turned to the woman that spoke, and even the scratching of the wood stopped.

"Torn?"

"Someone who can keep her at bay but pays a price for it, and if he didn't, she would eventually consume him. I sent him a gift, it might help him."

"A gospel?"

"Something like it. A book I grabbed once from the grave of an annoying man. It'll help us keep track track of him."

"Her love! He rejected her loveeeeee!"