"Our spars always end up like this," Liliana complained as she looked at the mirror. She looked sweaty.
"It's that you never give up," Marika replied as she looked at herself in the mirror as well. It was like she had run a marathon.
"Do you think I would give up in the presence of our esteemed leader?" The blonde asked. Suggesting something as absurd as giving up in front of their nation's leader!
"You could have! It would make me look good." Marika smiled for a bit. Before they could start changing out of their pilot uniform, the doors opened up and two more girls walked in.
'Those are!'
"I suggest you wait before you change." The crimson-haired girl said with crossed arms.
"Prince Lelouch wants to speak with you two." The blonde next to her said with a small smile.
"I-Is it related to our sparring?" Liliana asked hopefully.
"Indeed. You could say that he decided to keep you two." The blonde continued to smile while saying that.
"...K-Keep us?" Marika was confused by what she heard.
"You will understand what this means in due time. The Prince is a special case." Blonde said that while looking at the red-haired girl next to her.
"I am Leila, and this is Kallen. We got here because of his 'fascination'." Leila reminded Kallen of how she met with Marcus when they were still attending the Academy.
"You mean… he just 'kept you'..." Liliana just learned something interesting.
"...You could say that."
"What do you expect. He is a royal, and this one is on a completely different level." Marika sighed. She heard something like this from her brother. He always commented on the fact that Prince Lelouch had a small army of females, a harem of sorts.
It would seem she will be part of that 'army'.
"Yeah. Now come with us." Kallen motioned with her thumb to come with them.
"...Alright."
The four of them left the changing room and went to the sitting area in the arena, where Marcus was with another girl.
This one was a prim and proper bodyguard lookalike with a serious expression.
"I got them," Kallen said to Marcus upon arrival.
"Good." He nodded before looking at them. He was sipping tea, enjoying his break.
"Both of you, good work." He praised them as he put the cup down on the provided table.
"Setanta was designed to extract the maximum amount from their pilots. And two of you performed the best from the whole cadet class." He praised them, again.
"That is why you two will pilot Scathach units." The Inventor said what Marika wanted to hear.
The pair of girls smiled after hearing that.
"Thank you very much, your Highness." Both of them bowed, remembering their etiquette.
"Yes, well, this is not all. I will take you two to space. Part of my advanced fleet that will be used to conquer the EU."
Their eyes widened when they heard that! Space! That became part of the curriculum! Space combat and learning about gravity and related stuff. It was the wildest subject.
Learning a bit of it in a broad subject is something they learned in school, but as an actual part of a military subject was… strange to say the least.
It was something Liliana began to worry about as she didn't pay attention to that as much as she needed to!
"I-I see, thank you for such an opportunity." Marika once again thanked him.
"Think nothing of it. Now go and change." Marcus smiled before he looked at Leila.
"Provide them with their new uniforms; they are graduating today."
The blonde nodded at his command.
"Follow me, you two." She motioned for the duo to follow her.
Once they were gone, Kallen looked at him.
"I can assume they will get customised machines at some point?"
"Depends, Kallen." He motioned for her to come over.
The crimson-haired girl rolled her eyes as she blushed a bit, but still walked over and got to sit in his lap.
Marcus hugged her for a second before explaining to her.
"They will pilot their Scathach units, accumulate battle data which will be used to improve future models and might as well be used to create personalised machines.
"...You…"
At that moment, she realised something!
"You are using talent to improve the machines further!"
"And you realised that just now? Remember how Cornelia assisted in creating reflection technology, or C.C. assisted in literally brain-related things for Ecne?" Marcus chuckled, as expected from his Red Queen, she is slow on the uptake when it comes to such things.
"I-I get it…sheesh, what did my piloting skills assist in making?" She asked, now a bit curious.
"Neural interface improvement."
"...And that is?" She asked, not understanding the complex mumbo jumbo wording.
"It means how the pilot seat is reading your thoughts and translating them to a machine to assist with the reaction time."
"Oh… so that's what I assisted in making?" Kallen was surprised to hear that!
"Not quite. The technology was already there. I already had it as it was used for prosthetics, but you assisted in creating the next generation of it."
She nodded a couple of times when she heard it.
"That is why my old man is falling behind with his tech. It's a layered issue for him. I am deliberately collecting talented pilots.
Because they will help me build a superior mobile suit, he is limiting himself to only Britannians, and even then, mostly nobles.
Though that could be changing in the upcoming months." He started pondering midway. It's becoming clear that the Holy Britannian Empire is struggling, and they are slowly discarding their 'identity' to keep up and fight Anaheim.
A clear indication that it is crumbling under pressure.
"Hmm, I guess." The girl ended up not caring as she focused on cuddling in his lap.
~~~
"...So umm…what will we be doing?" Marika asked Leila, now that they were away from Marcus, she is a bit relaxed and could ask the blonde before her.
"You will be part of Prince's private retinue, think of it as his private army. We are far more flexible than the military. We join frontlines when Marcus feels like."
"He still uses that name?" Liliana asked; she recalled that this was his name when he was undercover.
"I met him when he was calling himself that name. So it stuck with me; besides, he doesn't mind either way." Leila shrugged.
"...I see…"
"Yes. Well, I suppose we will be doing some odd jobs?" Marika rolled her eyes. She was asking more important stuff than names!
"You could say. Kallen often fights on the front lines; I run logistics for the Anaheim bases; and Jeanne mostly stays as his Bodyguard. There are his scientists, who most of the time are developing something for him.
I would say you two will be with Kallen and assist with Mobile Suit testing." Leila pondered where Marcus would be stationing these two.
"I see… I don't mind that." Liliana had a small smile when she said that. She wanted to test Anaheim's latest creations anyway!
"Yes, well, he could station you two in some academy where you could collect more talent instead." Leila joked while saying that. This is where Milly is most of the time!
Perfectly honestly, she feels like Marcus is simply indulging in whatever Milly wants. That girl wants to play a high school girl, so he allows her to do that.
But soon she will graduate—what then?
Join Kaguya and the diplomacy branch of Anaheim?
Or something else entirely. Well, whatever, that girl always ends up spoiled by Marcus.
"...That's so random…" Liliana didn't understand the inside joke.
"What I mean is that one of Marcus' earliest… girls is still attending Academy and is working with PR group and human resources, collecting talent for Anaheim; she is the one who recruited Maya for the G-Force."
Marika had a look of realisation! Yes, there was a black haired girl who was around her age and piloted one of the Gundams for the Prince.
"I see. But I am more useful if I pilot a mobile suit for him." The brown-haired girl reasoned that she doubted she would be useful in something like an HR department.
"Suit yourself. Though the Artificial Intelligence we have will figure out where you would be the best." Leila replied, she knew that Legion would be the one who would suggest where they are the best.
~~~
Marcus looked at the pair of girls dressed in black and dark purple uniforms. Where Marika was in shorts, Liliana was wearing a skirt.
It would seem Leila gave them some choices.
"Not bad. Now let's go, the first colony should be in place."
He motioned towards the waiting transporter plane waiting for them.
'Space colony!' Marika and Liliana were excited to see what it was going to look like!
The pair followed him as they got into the plane that took off vertically and flew them to the carrier waiting for them.
The massive war vessel began to move upwards as the transporter landed on the catapult deck, which pulled the ship in.
Once inside, they walked out and proceeded to move to the bridge.
"At the moment, we are working on five initial colonies. Once they are functional, we shall proceed to improve on the designs we have.
By our estimations, each colony could support around 200 thousand people, could support even more depending on building designs." Marcus explained to them about the colonies Anna has been working on.
"...I am more surprised how you had time for all of this. Aren't you waging war on the entire world?" Marika and her friend wonder about that! This guy was multitasking at what is considered absurd.
"War is more or less about resources and manpower. All I needed to do was manage those two; if I don't lose people and have a large pool of resources, I can work on other things.
Not to mention the bulk of labour is done by robots."
His explanation made them slowly nod. When he says it like that, it sounds reasonable.
"We should move to the bridge. The warship will be leaving the atmosphere soon." Leila reminded them that they were on a tight schedule.
"R-Right." The new girls noticed that the mechanics and crew in general are scrambling to do things.
"Yes, well, leaving the gravity of the planet could be bumpy." The Prince grimaced as he began to walk faster.
"Come, we will take a lift to the bridge."
~~~
At the bridge, the newbies were allowed to enjoy their first orbital exit and witness the vastness of space.
But there was one issue, especially for a blonde girl who was wearing a short skirt.
Liliana swiftly noticed that there was no gravity, and she began to float. Her skirt became an issue!
"Eep! N-No, this is not good!" Liliana tried to pull it down, but the shirt wasn't listening.
"That is why I told you that shorts are better." Marika giggled, seeing the struggling girl.
"...I get it!" The blonde complained back, then looked at Leila. "Miss Leila, can I get a change of clothes?" She asked the fellow blonde.
Instead of saying anything, she looked at Marcus, who closed his eyes. There was a smile on his lips; he was enjoying this silliness.
"Take her to the crew quarters; we have spare uniforms there."
"Sure, follow me, Miss Vergamon."
"Y-Yes." The girl covered herself as she flew over to Leila. It was a bit strange as she is not used to a zero-gravity environment.
In fact, it was so bad that Leila needed to pull her over towards the doors.
"I am still baffled how Leila allowed her to choose something like a skirt. Not to mention the newbie girl knew she would be stationed in space." Kallen commented on silliness.
"Maybe she thought that skirts have their own gravity." Marcus reasoned. It was a joke, but Kallen looked at him with a questioning look.
"What? It's hilarious, besides pink is not a bad colour." He shrugged.
The Prince didn't hide the fact that he saw… everything.