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Chapter 84 ~ Mordred

Karen, Ohgi, Tamaki, and Minami followed their female comrade towards their main headquarters a few distance away from the warehouse knightmare frame hangar. 

They saw a few other members of the Black Knights already standing in front of the massive, dark purple RV that had the logo of the Black Knights, and some others arriving after them one by one. 

And after a while, all members of the Black Knights arrived and the area was filled with a little more than 50-ish people here.

They were still a very small group, especially if they considered the nature of the Black Knights. But these few people were able to accomplish what other rebel groups, even the Japanese Liberation Front, weren't able to accomplish with many more. And with their fame and popularity increases amongst “elevens”, and even some Britannians, their number would soon soar high. 

Every single one of them knew they would grow. It was inevitable and necessary for them to grow in order to expand their range of operations. But none of them expected Zero, their leader and the man who had brought them to this stage, to bring in three new people just a few days before their main operations in Narita. 

They were understandably nervous to introduce new blood just a few days before an incredibly important and dangerous operation. But at the same time, they’re also curious. 

What kind of people would Zero, the man of many miracles, bring in. Unlike their future recruits, these were people Zero brought personally into their ranks, not volunteers who members of the Black Knights have vetted and listed for Zero to choose. 

They must be special for Zero to bring them in this suddenly and even risk some friction between them and the existing members. 

They all waited, bated in anticipation. And finally, Zero came out of the RV with two figures behind him. 

The one on his left was a tall, lithe-built man. He was dressed in a black and gray uniform and a black, hoodless cloak around his shoulder that had the symbol of the Black Knights emblazoned behind it. He had slightly sunken cheeks, presumably due to an unhealthy diet, but he had quite the average appearance. At least as far as they could tell since they couldn't see his eyes, which were covered by dark purple v-shaped visor glasses.

To his right was a slightly shorter, but well-built man. Similar to the man to Zero’s left, he wore a black and gray uniform with the same black, hoodless cloak around his shoulder. However, his head and face were completely hidden. He had worn a black, tricorn hat, a gray mask that covered the bottom half of his face, and a visor that completely masked his face.

Silence fell as all members of the black knights stood frozen in shock as their eyes widened. 

Imposing… There were no other words more appropriate than that to describe how they appeared right now. They were… truly imposing. Not just their appearance, but the air around them. 

It was as if they’re looking at two more Zero…

Just then, the cold silence was suddenly broken, causing some to flinch as they snapped out of their gaze.

“Let me introduce you to our new members.”

Zero gestured to his left with his left hand.

“This is Ainz. He will be in charge of our human resource department.”

Then, he gestured to his right.

“This is Silver. He will be in charge of the research and development of our knightmare frames and weapons. And this…”

Zero snapped his finger, and suddenly, the ground shook with a rumble. 

“W-What’s happening?”

Panicked yelps and confused shrieks spread amongst the Black Knight members. When suddenly, they saw a jet-black knightmare frame appear out of the darkness. 

They couldn’t see it clearly, but they felt eerily familiar with it… Judging from its build and the little parts that they could see from the little amount of light, It seemed quite similar to the White Knight knightmare they fought in the past, but darker… both literally and metaphorically. 

The mysterious knightmare soon came to a stop, ending the rumbling they felt beneath their boots. 

The cockpit opened, and coming out of it, they saw a man in a form-fitting, jet-black, armored suit and helm. Due to the nature of his suit, his perfectly sculptured muscular figure was apparent. But that was it. They couldn’t see any other part of his body nor his face, which was covered by a demon-like mask. 

The mysterious figure walked up to the shoulder of the knightmare, who was still standing upright. And jumped down, landing with nothing but a light tap, on both of his feet. 

All eyes widened once again as they all gasped. 

He fell from the height of a knightmare frame, but not only did his knees not buckle, there was almost no sound of his landing. And now, he’s walking towards them like nothing happened!!!

“This is Mordred, our new Knightmare Frame pilot. He will be piloting the Excalibur, and become the tip of our spear of our operation along with Karen.”

“What..?”

A few yelps of shock and murmurs began to spread amongst the members of the Black Knights. And some turned their gazes towards their ace knightmare pilot, while the red-haired girl stared at “Mordred” in silence. 

Upon meeting his gaze, the man bowed sincerely towards her, and in proper Japanese manners, which shocked those who were keen enough to perceive his sincerity. 

They… fully expected him to be arrogant and standoffish, given his appearance and the fact that he was highly regarded by Zero. 

But turns out… he seemed polite enough.

“Uhm… Zero, are you sure about bringing them for our operation in Narita? I don’t mean to question your ability to judge others or your strategy. But some, if not most of us, have expressed their concern for having new blood, who we haven’t even talked with, come with us into such a dangerous mission.”

Ohgi stepped forward and voiced his concern which he shared with the rest of the members. Having been their leader before, and now, their second-in-command, he had the responsibility to show any concerns they have to their current leader, Zero. 

Zero turned towards him with a nod.

“I understand your concern. But they will be an integral part of the plan if we want to succeed completely. So I hope you can spend the last few days before the operation getting to know them.”

Many were quite unsatisfied by his decision, and if not for Tamaki being afraid of the three new people’s appearance, he would’ve shouted his complaint long ago. 

But to their surprise, “Ainz” suddenly stepped forward and addressed them.

“Everyone, we understand how our sudden appearance and our integration into the Black Knights would raise concerns and unrest, especially with such an important and dangerous operation in just a few days. However, we share the same goal as you, and though you may not see the extent of our conviction yet, we shall show it to you from now on. 

I understand that it will be quite difficult to welcome us with open arms so soon. But please let us prove ourselves, that we can become a part of your group, that we can be a helping hand, and work together to achieve our shared goal.”

“Ainz” lowered his head in a bow, followed by “Silver” and “Mordred” in an act of genuine sincerity. 

And as Japanese people themselves, who knew how much sincerity he had put in his words and actions, none could bring themselves to object anymore. Not even Tamaki. 

Ohgi, who was honestly quite taken aback by the juxtaposition of their sincerity and their appearance, finally let out a sigh and nodded.

“I understand… If you’ve gone so far, then please take care of us in the future.”

“Thank you very much. And likewise. Please take care of us as well.”

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Thanks to Satoru’s eloquently put speech, a skill he had cultivated from all the years he had spent dealing with difficult clients as a veteran salaryman and mediating between his guildmates as the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown, some apprehension and rejection have been lifted from the hearts of the Black Knights’ members. 

Of course, some such as Tamaki were still upset at Zero’s decision and others still couldn’t trust them completely with their lives. However, at the very least, none voiced their rejection outright and have decided to just take a “wait and see” stance for this matter. 

Out of all members of the Black knights, there were only a few of them who decided to approach “Ainz” and “Silver” to talk to them, including Ohgi, Minami, Inoue Naomi, and Sugiyama Kento. And they only did after Zero had returned into the RV. 

Satoru and Tatsuya were able to identify them by appearance alone as they were “named characters” who appeared in Code Geass. Of course, except Ohgi who was a central character in the entire story, they weren’t as familiar to the rest as they were towards him. 

But, they’re still able to make some amicable conversation with Satoru in the lead as Ohgi and the others questioned them about their backgrounds, their skills, and overall trying to get to know the new bloods as much as possible.

Yuuji saw this and he was about to join them. But he stopped when he noticed Karen approaching him.

She approached him with a grave expression. No… upon closer look, he could see nervousness and apprehension in her eyes. Her scowl and narrowed gaze was simply her way of hiding these feelings from showing. 

And once she arrived in front of him, she said nothing. She was simply staring at him from top to bottom before gazing a hole into his mask, as if she was trying to see through it. 

“A pleasure to meet you. I believe your name is Karen Kozuki? I’ve heard about you from Zero. You are the ace pilot of this group.”

Yuuji said calmly, slightly changing his voice and mannerism so she won’t realize that he was “Alexander”. And thanks to his [Acting Proficiency], she seemed to be none the wiser. 

Karen visibly flinched when she heard his words. A sense of pride and happiness from being called the “ace pilot” welled up within her heart. But she quickly repressed it by deepening her scowl and averted her gaze away from him and towards the towering, jet-black Knightmare frame behind him. 

“...This machine. It’s clearly not normal. What exactly is it…? And where did you find it…?”

Yuuji smiled, though she wouldn’t be able to perceive it since he was still hiding his face behind the helmet of his mobile suit from Tatsuya’s world. 

“There is no need for you to worry. We did not steal it from Britannia, if that’s what you are insinuating. We just… found it destroyed and fixed it.”

“You fixed it?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief and shock.

“Well, Silver did most of the work. He’s an incredible engineer.”

“...Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

Her head quickly turned towards Silver, who was talking amicably with Ohgi and the others. The disbelief and shock remained, but there was also awe and admiration now. She didn’t expect him to be able to fix a knightmare from its destroyed state, especially not on the level such as this “Excalibur”. This was clearly not a normal knightmare.

“As for your former question… Well, would you like to see it for yourself?”

“Huh?”

Karen turned her gaze towards “Mordred” once more, his sculptured figure slightly towering over her. 

“Would you like to see inside the cockpit? Perhaps, you may gain some insight that would allow us to work together better during the operation. After all, we will be fellow knightmare frame pilots.”

Karen was still extremely apprehensive towards this “stranger” who suddenly entered their group out of nowhere. But she also couldn’t lie to herself. She was very curious and very excited to see inside the cockpit of such an unusual knightmare. 

“C-Can I really?”

“Of course. Here…”

Yuuji offered his hand, causing her to become confused.

“Eh? What are you doing?”

“Hm? Aren’t we going up to see the insides of “Excalibur”?”

“Yes, but why are you offering your hand? Why don’t you just lower it?”

“Well, I can… But it will be faster his way. Excuse me…”

“Hm? Hyaaah-?! W-What are you doing- UWAAAAAAAHH!!!”

“Hm? Ah- K-Karen?!”

Ohgi, Satoru, Tatsuya, and the other members of the Black Knights who had remained to talk with the newcomers all turned towards Yuuji and Karen when they heard her scream. 

And when they turned to look, they saw “Mordred” lifting Karen up in a princess carry and jumping up the knightmare frame casually, as if he was simply skipping through a stroll.

“Karen! Are you okay?!”

Ohgi shouted up towards the top of the knightmare worriedly. 

“I-I’m fine!!!”

Karen shouted back to calm him down after reaching the Excalibur’s cockpit. Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when she was suddenly lifted up and brought up so high by the bastard. 

She glared at “Mordred” and didn’t hesitate to his him on his armored chest. 

“You bastard! W-Why did you suddenly lift me up like that, you pervert?! Are you crazy?!”

“Ah- S-Stop! There’s no stairs around here! Even if I lower it, you’d still need to climb! I-It’s the easiest and fastest way for you to come up here. I-I’m sorry!”

“Y-You bastard… If you do that again, I’ll f*king kill you!”

“Alright alright… I get it.”

Karen huffed in annoyance and gave him a final glare before she tried her best to calm her heart. 

Then, she looked around the interior of the cockpit. 

“Wow…”

All the shock and scare she got from being suddenly whisk away by “Mordred” disappeared after the impressive interior of Excalibur’s cockpit stole her breath away. 

The layout of the cockpit was quite different fromthe Glasgow she used before. For one, the control system was vastly different. Unlike the Glasgow, the “Excalibur” had a much more intricate and complex control mechanism. 

There were two ergonomically shaped control sticks that seemed to be the main control mechanism of the knightmare. 

Normally, the main control would have one or two buttons in addition to perhaps launching the Slash Harken and shooting a weapon. But the main control stick of the Excalibur had four buttons for all four fingers in addition to another button on top for the thumb. In addition, it could also be pulled towards and away from the pilot to, presumably, perform additional ranges of movements.

And when she looked down, she could also see two pairs of pedals, one large and one smaller and to the side which, she guessed, was used to perform even more types of movements.  

“This is… pretty complex, huh? And there’s even more than two pedals for your feet. Are you sure you can use this…?”

Honestly, even for her, it would be quite difficult to properly utilize all of these controls in the heat of battle. 

Sure it’d allow her much more precise and flexible control of the knightmare. But in the heat of the battle, she might not even be able to utilize half of it if she hadn’t spent a lot of time trying to familiarize herself with the controls. 

She glanced towards “Mordred”, who was standing on her side, holding onto the edge of the opened cockpit. 

“Hm? Is it really? Well, I’ve never seen other knightmares before. But if you say it is, then I guess it’s true. And yes, I can use it. I’ve tried practicing with it a few times.”

“...What? A few times?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes and mouth opened wide in disbelief before she began hitting his arm again. 

“A-Are you crazy? You’ve only piloted a knightmare a few times and you want to join us in this mission?! Can you even pilot this knightmare properly?!”

“S-Stop hitting me! I’m about to fall here! And I’ll be fine! At the very least, I promise I won’t hold you back.”

“...”

Karen wanted to keep shouting at him for being unreasonable and insane. She couldn’t understand where he got his confidence from!

He had only pilotted a knightmare a few times… How could he be able to pilot such a complicated knightmare? Was he really an idiot? Or was he insane? 

“...Please think twice. Seriously. You might not only lose your life, but this knightmare as well. This seemed like an amazing knightmare, and it’d be even more detrimental to us if it’s destroyed or, God forbid, taken by the enemy. They don’t need even more firepower than they already have.”

Karen looked at him right in the eye, or at least towards the blade-shaped eye part of the mask that seemed to glow with light, trying her best to convey the graveness of his decision. 

She didn’t understand the extent of this knightmare’s potential since she had only seen the interior of the cockpit. But just from that, she knew that the potential of this knightmare was beyond anything she had seen. 

If such a machine were to fall onto Britannian’s hand and they got someone who could pilot it, then she might not be able to win against it. 

“I know. I won’t lose either of them. I promise.”

“...”

Normally, Karen would’ve brushed those words off as baseless confidence. She had heard it many times before from her comrades. Baseless confidence.

Some said it because they genuinely believe they could pilot the knightmare well. While others said it because they feel like they’d be safer inside a knightmare rather than outside of it during missions.

But both similarly lost their lives, their knightmare, or both. She had seen it multiple times before during their previous missions. 

But why… Why did she feel like it really won’t happen…? Where did his confidence come from…?

Karen fell into a daze as she stared silently at “Mordred”. But she was suddenly brought out of her daydream when Mordred began speaking again. 

“So? Do you still want to see what this knightmare can do?”

“Eh? Ah, sure.”

“Alright.”

“Eh- Hyaaah! W-What are you doing?!”

“What do you mean?! I need to be inside too if we were to turn it on!”

“U-Urgh…! F-Fine! But don’t you dare touch me!”

“I won’t!!!”

“Mordred” shimmied into any space left at Karen’s side as she sat down on the cockpit seat. 

He plugged in a jet-black, sword-shaped activation key, and the Excalibur came alive. 

Its eyes shone with a bloody crimson light as its core luminous began to spin at nigh-impossible speeds, quickly achieving Yggdrasil Resonance beyond that of Lancelot in but a few seconds.

And yet, it was silent. If not for its eyes lighting up, Ohgi, Satoru, Tatsuya, and the others wouldn’t have noticed it coming to life. 

“Wow…”

Karen let out a sigh of amazement as the UI of the knightmare lit up and displayed a perfectly clear feed of the outside, as if she was looking through a perfectly clear glass window. There’s even a screen which showed her what was behind “Excalibur”. She had information in all directions in the 3D space. 

She looked around excitedly, like a child in a candy store, as she took in everything around her. And she instinctively took the control stick and began walking and looking around. 

She’s… pretty cute when she’s like this.

Yuuji had seen how endearing, beautiful, and cute Karen was. But that was only through the anime. 

In reality, he had only ever seen her stoic persona as Kallen Stadfeld and her brash, hardened, and for the lack of a better word, soldier-like persona as Kozuki Karen. But now… he saw a glimpse of her true self. 

A girl whose eyes could still shine so brightly and smile so genuinely, despite having lost her older brother, possessed a complex relationship with her mother, and was forced to go through war at such a young age. A strong and bright girl.

Yuuji couldn’t help but look at strong girls like her in a favorable light. And he couldn’t help but smile as he watched her play around with “Excalibur”. 

That is… until she made Excalibur fall onto its face several times…

“You… That’s it!!! You’re out of the hot seat! What will we do if you break Excalibur a few days before the operation starts! Even Silver won’t be able to fix it in time!!!”

“T-T-That’s your fault! You’re a shitty teacher! Just let me try again once! I promise I’ll do a perfect backflip this time!”

“No!!!”

Yes… After Yuuji made “Excalibur” backflip, she begged him to teach her how to do it. After all, although it might only be possible due to “Excalibur’s” advanced control mechanism, she might be able to do it too in the future. 

And he did. Multiple times. But every single time, she’d make it land on its face. 

Thus, she was forced out of the pilot seat and became upset. 

But, she quickly forgot about it after Yuuji showed her the different kind of weapons “Excalibur” had. And they played around in the nightmare until past midnight, only to stop after Ohgi yelled at them and made them stop.