A Sol of Ends and Beginnings, Part 7
(Desperation - Code Geass)
In Dorothy’s cockpit, the computer let out a warning. Her plasma meter flashed red. “Damnit!” she cursed. “Durendal’s nearly out of energy!”
Probably enough plasma for one more strike, so I got to make it count!
---
In Angelica’s cockpit, other warnings had popped up on her computer. “What do you mean the reactor’s starting to overheat?”
I’ve never pushed the Balmung this far before, but it’s going to need to last a bit longer!
---
“An opening! Got you now!” Dorothy charged straight at Angelica, more recklessly than usual. Perhaps it was desperation, or maybe it was trying to surprise her more experienced opponent with unpredictability. Bringing down Durendal as hard as she could, the Balmung barely managed to stop her blow, but the red and gold autoritter’s arms noticeably shook, its servos sparking and spewing smoke. Even without her computer’s analysis, Dorothy knew the Balmung was at its limits.
---
Angelica knew that too. But she was determined to win, no matter how bad things were. Her younger opponent, in her rashness, had left a few openings. She couldn’t deny they could be a trap to break her stance, but she had no choice but to press those openings. The Balmung and Roland continued their dance, this time at a closer range due to energy considerations.
I can’t beat her! How can I not beat her?! I’m the best knight in the Reich, I’ve been doing this for years, and yet… She shook such defeatist thoughts out of her head, but by then Dorothy had closed in with another spinning kick—that was dodged—followed by a punch from the Roland’s free hand. The Balmung blocked the punch, though several armor plates shattered and synchronization rate plummeted.
---
“Your strength is unimaginable, Dorothy,” Angelica said.
“Thanks,” Dorothy said, “You’ve provided some great field data.”
“I guess that’s a compliment.”
“I don’t think we can keep this up much longer.” Dorothy disabled several alarms. “Let’s end this, once and for all!”
“Agreed.” Angelica readied her sword and charged. “Sieg Anniona! Sieg Terrankind!”
Dorothy prepared Durendal and accelerated. “For Earth! For humanity!”
They drew within twenty feet. Angelica put everything she had into her swing. Dorothy activated Durendal’s plasma blade. The two swords locked for the final time. Durendal easily cut through the other sword and continued on its path, but the bottom half of Angelica’s sword—the part that didn’t get sliced off—was also no longer held back. The Roland’s computer calculated that the Balmung’s newly shortened sword would not be long enough to hit anything vital. Dorothy grinned.
Just when Dorothy thought she had won, the Roland’s left knee inexplicably exploded, tearing the lower left leg clean off and forcing the autoritter to topple forward onto Angelica’s sword.
On Fraternity
Doctors piled chairs and tables against the door, while the boarding party on the other side kept ramming it. As Papadopoulos treated another patient, a chill suddenly went up his spine.
Roland lab, Beck
Static filled the computer screens. Telemetry was lost. Clara fell to her knees.
Saxonia staging area, Beck
The Sigurd and its squad burst through the disabled airlock, guns blazing. The UN troops defending it were quickly gunned down. Registering a loss of atmosphere, the emergency airlock doors descended behind the Austrians, making up for the ones Julius had destroyed.
“Come on, my lord!” Ehrenfried said. “They will no doubt be sending reinforcements!”
“Yes, but…” Julius’ heart suddenly felt like it had been stabbed. “What just…”
“We must press the advantage, while we still can!” Ehrenfried and his men continued through the vehicle entrance into the civilian area. “For the glory of the Reich! Sieg Anniona!”
Julius sighed. “Fine…” He drove after them.
Outside
When Dorothy regained consciousness, she was greeted with the sounds of alarms and warnings filling the cockpit as critical failures scrolled across the Roland, and then the computer itself succumbed under the weight of all those failures and shut down. The only lights now came from the radio in her vac suit and a gaping hole created by Angelica’s broken sword, which was buried…oh, right in her torso. She groaned and coughed up blood. “I…owwwww…” she muttered. “Should have known…the joints…weren’t good enough…” She tried looking through the hole but couldn’t focus her eyes. “Does that mean…I didn’t get her…in the end?”
She heard Angelica’s pained groan over the radio. “You’re wrong…urk…”
---
The Balmung’s cockpit was even more devastated. It barely maintained its cohesion, as the head and shoulder parts threatened to collapse in on the midsection now. The entire front part, where the main computer should have been, had been cleaved in two, with both edges melted by Durendal’s plasma. The plasma seemed to have run out of energy right after piercing through the armor, but by then Durendal had cut deep enough that…oh, the tip of its sword had cut deep into Angelica’s body from shoulder to hip. Her vac suit tried to seal the long gash created, but it was futile. Atmosphere was still being lost.
Wonder…what’s going to get me first…asphyxiation or blood loss. She tried putting on a smile. “You’ve got me alright, Dorothy.”
The Balmung toppled onto its back, Durendal being pulled out of Angelica’s wound and clattering on the ground. Angelica coughed up more blood.
I guess I’ve got my answer, then. I guess this is where things end for me. But I can’t say I regret it.
“I just wish…I could be buried…with my family…on Earth…”
As the light faded from her eyes, and the warning signals of her compromised vac suit grew distant, she thought she saw a figure standing outside the gaping gash in her front armor. It looked like a woman, with long flowing hair, dressed in Austrian imperial robes instead of a vac suit. A woman she hadn’t seen in 21 years, since that fateful day.
Earth - 2018
Air raid sirens blared in the distance, by now a familiar sound echoing across the doomed capital and the surrounding areas. Vienna’s Emperor Giselbert II Spaceport, despite being located far outside city limits, was consumed by chaos. Crowds of thousands crammed into the terminals, their desperation to escape clear on their faces. The police tried their best to keep things in order, but it was futile. They wouldn’t hold out much longer, and neither would the military.
Far from the panicked crowds, two women limped down a maintenance hallway. One wore relatively fine traveling clothes, though they had been stained with mud and blood and torn at the fringes. Burns and dried blood covered much of her skin. A tiara sat on her frayed black hair, its shine long faded by the realities around it. One leg trailed behind her. To prop herself up, Empress Eva von Anniona had wrapped one arm across the shoulders of the other woman. About the same age, this one was dressed in the red uniform of the Imperial Palace Guard, which was also tattered and faded. Dust and a few cuts crossed the face of Lieutenant Angelica Neumann, but that didn’t reduce her resolve. Her teeth remained gritted and her eyes firmly focused in front of her, never looking back.
“Ow…” Eva coughed up some blood.
Angelica laid her against a wall so her hands could be freed up. She dug around in her pack and took out anti-radiation medicine. “Here, Your Majesty. Try this.”
Eva took the pills and tried putting on a smile. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get you up to Giselbert’s medical bay.” As in the ARC ship
Giselbert, currently in geosynchronous orbit over the Holy Roman Empire. They had left off the “II” at the end because it would have implied there was a
Giselbert I.
“Don’t bother.” Eva shook her head. “I can feel it…I’m too far gone.”
A flash of light in the distance, and the crowd’s screams rattled the spaceport’s very walls. Another nuke had detonated nearby. From the size of the mushroom cloud looming in the window, it had probably hit somewhere downtown. Again. If the imperial palace hadn’t been destroyed already, it certainly was now.
Eva coughed up blood. “You need…to go…”
“Nonsense, Your Majesty! I’m your retainer! I can’t just leave you.”
“As your Empress, I can order you to leave me.”
“If you did, I would refuse your order, with all due respect. You must survive. For Julius’ sake.”
Eva sighed. “I admire your loyalty, Lieutenant Neumann. If only we had more people like you, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“We can still get out of this!” Angelica helped Eva to her feet and propped her up, her arm around Eva’s shoulders. They continued walking down the hallway. “We just need…to…rendezvous…with the other guards…” She was already getting tired.
“You should go on ahead,” Eva said, “I’m done for, yet you aren’t. You can make it out. You shouldn’t be tied down by me. Go to the others.”
The roar of a rocket engine shook the walls. A pillar of blue fire appeared in the window, rapidly ascending into the heavens. That was the second last launch.
“Come on, we’re almost…there!” Angelica pushed open a door and exited the maintenance area. The final stretch to the gate was filled with more panicked people barely held back by police officers. Screams filled the air. Hands were stretched out, clutching wads of annons or precious heirlooms. Some parents held out babies and young children, begging for them to be saved. Tears flowed freely from desperate eyes. Some people’s faces were clearly starting to show the effects of radiation, while others were bloody and bruised from the panic. Yet Angelica couldn’t spare any time for them, as much as she wanted to. “I’m sorry…I wish I could help you all…but…”
They pushed through and reached the gate. Here, the military took over for security. Angelica recognized a few faces from the palace. There were a bunch of servants and maids, as well as more of the Imperial Palace Guard. When they noticed Eva, they immediately ran over.
“Oh, thank God she’s alive!” Two maids took Eva off Angelica’s hands. “Get the medic!”
The medic ran over and began inspecting Eva’s wounds. Her expression was…somber.
“I thought so,” Eva said, “I’m already too far gone, am I? My fault for staying too long in the radiation zone.”
“Nonsense, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be…” the servant broke down and sobbed. “Thank you so much for helping us, Your Majesty! We aren’t worthy of your kindness!”
“As your Empress, it was the least I could do,” Eva said, “As long as my people are alright…then I will be content.”
“Okay, we need to move out,” Angelica said, “The rocket’s ready to go, and we don’t know when or where the next nuke’s landing. We need to board now.”
“Everything is ready, Your Majesty,” one retainer said, “We can launch as soon as you board.”
“Thank you,” Eva said, “And Julian?”
“Over here.” One of the maids carried a baby over. Swaddled in cloth, all that was visible was the child’s sleeping face, peaceful among all of the chaos. Which was surprising, because Angelica expected he would have been bawling his eyes out. “He’s remarkably well behaved.”
Eva took Julian from the maid. “Thank you for looking after my brother.”
“It is my duty, my lady.”
Angelica’s attention, though, was still focused on the desperate crowd. The more she did, the more she heard individual voices. Cries for help, pleas to save their children, prayers to God, everything. “They’re imperial citizens, just like us. Fellow subjects of Her Majesty. So why are we leaving them to die?”
“I’m sorry?” the head maid said. “We need to go. Her Majesty needs immediate treatment!”
“We don’t know when the next nuke’s going to hit,” one of the soldiers said, “Her Majesty and the prince are the last two VIPs. They board, we depart immediately.”
“No,” Eva said.
“Excuse me?”
Eva shook her head. “Lieutenant Neumann is right. We can’t go yet, because there are so many people around us who need saving.”
“Are you mad, my lady?” the head maid said. “Look at these rabble! These…irradiated…rabble!”
“They are still my citizens,” Eva said, “And they are no more irradiated than I am. Why did you waste a space on me, who can’t be saved, instead of a child in that crowd who still has their whole future ahead of them? Why do we save my brother but not any other baby?”
“I agree, Your Majesty,” Angelica said, “How much room is left in the shuttle?”
One of the engineers checked a tablet. “There is enough fuel to carry another…53.”
“Then we’ll bring on 54,” Eva said, “We’re not leaving until we have them.”
“Fifty…four?”
“I already said, you’re wasting fuel on me,” Eva said, “I’m going to give up my seat.”
“Your Majesty, what the hell—I mean, do you understand what you are doing?” the head maid said.
“Yes, I do,” Eva said, “Help me board as many of them as you can. Prioritize women and children in good health.”
“But, Your Majesty!” the soldiers said.
“This is an order from your Empress!”
At that, everybody immediately saluted. “Yes, my lady!”
“Lieutenant Neumann, speak to the crowd on my behalf,” Eva said in between coughs, “My voice…isn’t what it used to be.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” Angelica turned to the crowd. “Listen to me! Please!”
The crowd continued yelling. Angelica turned back to Eva. “Cover Prince Julian’s ears.” After Eva had done so, Angelica took out her sidearm and fired two shots into the ceiling. “ENOUGH!”
The gunshots were enough to quiet everybody down. Now the panicked citizens’ eyes—those fearful and bloodshot eyes—bore down on her. Angelica kept her cool.
“Listen up,” she said, “This shuttle has room for 54. Her Majesty has decided to grant those seats to 54 of you, giving up her own.”
“Take me!”
“I can pay as many annons as you want!”
“I’m a CEO!”
“My brother’s a baron!”
“I don’t want to die!”
“Save my child!”
“Quiet!” Angelica repeated herself. “Officers, keep everybody calm.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, children first,” Angelica said, “In order of least to most injured. Then the women. Social status is irrelevant. Children and women first. You hear me?”
The clamoring resumed as the crowd started turning on each other, arguing over which child’s injuries were less severe and thus had priority.
“ENOUGH!” She fired one more shot into the ceiling. “Listen to me! People of Vienna, where is your pride as Romans? We are better than anyone on this planet. We have persisted, no matter what this Reich has gone through. The Byzantines and Umayyads and Aztecs tried to destroy us. Then the Soviets, Hong Liao, and the Sudamerikans. Now the Indians and Continentals have tried. But we forget that we are Romans, no matter where we came from.”
I’m from France. My grandparents still have nightmares from all of the deportations and forced assimilation. But in spite of that, I still want to serve the Reich—serve Her Majesty herself—and show we are also Romans who deserve respect. But I guess that doesn’t matter now, does it? “Romans always endure. We will put our enemies in their place, but many of us won’t be around for that. There is only room for 54 of you. There will be children, their mothers, and younger women getting on. Healthy and young individuals. Those with potential to strike back against our enemies when we are ready. The rest of you…make way. Be strong and enduring as Romans are, and do what must be done. For the future restoration of the Reich.”
Murmurs went through the crowd, accompanied by a few nods as Angelica’s words got to them.
“Alright, then. Form a line.”
The crowd did so. Children and their mothers went first, the soldiers helping carry some babies. Some of the younger kids desperately clung to their mothers as they boarded, reminding Angelica a little of Julian and Eva.
“That’s good. Keep moving. We have…16 spots left.” Angelica crossed her fingers, hoping it would be enough.
It was. The last child in the crowd was #54. It seemed there weren’t many children, despite the sheer number of adults.
“That’s it,” Angelica said, “I promise you, we will look after the children.”
“What do we do now?”
“Where do we go?”
“I…” Angelica said. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t know. But you are Romans. I know you can figure something out.
The remaining crowd bowed their heads, accepting their fates, both with the hope that the children would make it out and the realization that they themselves wouldn’t. Slowly, the gate area emptied. Perhaps they would head back to the city to meet their deaths head-on. Or maybe they would try their luck at the other launch platforms. Angelica had heard of a fourth generation ARC ship that was under construction in a nearby factory. Maybe they had installed the engines and completed the hull by now. Whatever the case, there was no further reason for them to stay here, so they left.
“It’s time,” the head maid said, “Let’s go, Lieutenant Neumann.”
Everybody began boarding the shuttle.
“Yes, let’s.” Angelica followed them, only to feel a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and met Eva’s eyes.
“I’d like to ask a favor of you, Lieutenant.” Despite all of the worsening injuries covering her body, Eva stood straight up, regaining some of the poise she had in her official appearances.
“Anything, Your Majesty.” Angelica bowed her head.
“I would like you to watch over Prince Julian.”
Angelica was confused. “Me? Lieutenant Angelica Neumann?”
“Yes,” Eva said.
“Surely there are better people to do it, like his wet nurse or the maids or—”
“It has to be you,” Eva said, “You’ve known me and Julian just as much as the maids do. If I can’t raise my brother, I’d rather it be you.”
“I…I don’t know what to say, Your Majesty,” Angelica said.
“Please, call me Eva, like before…Angelica,” Eva said.
“I…I can’t, you’re the Empress…”
Eva sighed. “Empress of ashes and bones, more like. What good is a crown if there is no kingdom? This is the end of me, but Julian’s time has yet to begin. I’d like you to be there for him.”
“Of…of course, I can do that, Eva,” Angelica said.
“Please indulge me with one final order,” Eva said, “We, in our capacity as Roman Empress—no, no, no…I, Eva von Anniona, in my capacity as your friend, order you to live. Live, and watch over Julian until can stand on his own as an emperor. This is my final request to you, Lieutenant Neumann—no, Angelica Neumann.”
Angelica saluted. “I humbly accept this order with honor.”
She received Julian from Eva, then entered the gate to the shuttle. As the doors shut behind her, she looked behind her one more time, getting one final glimpse at her empress. In her final moments, Eva appeared almost…glad. Satisfied with how things turned out. Hopeful, even, that Julian was in good hands with Angelica.
As the shuttle pierced through the clouds, Angelica looked down at Earth for the final time, just as Vienna was hit with one final nuclear warhead, the spaceport blowing away like dust in the wind.
Mars - 2039
Eva obviously wasn’t there in reality, but the phantasm before her put her mind at ease. At the very end, although she could no longer smile, Angelica Neumann was satisfied.
“Eva…I followed your order…with honor…”
---
Dorothy couldn’t even smile at this point. “I…can’t believe it…I took her down…I took down the Valkyrie of Alençon…”
The Roland, propped up almost entirely by Angelica’s sword and its last leg, finally fell over. Angelica’s sword was pulled out of both the hand of the Balmung and Dorothy’s wound, falling onto the ground.
The lab
“GET SOMEONE OUT THERE!” Clara pleaded. “NOW!”
On Fraternity
Papadopoulos dropped his phone, frozen in place. He began hyperventilating. “No, no, it can’t be…not again…not…NOT AGAIN!”
Looking down from orbit. A flash of light in the Bosphorus. Zoom in. A mushroom cloud right over downtown Konstanstadt. More in the surrounding cities and everywhere across the Reich. The atmosphere takes on an orange-gray hue. Why am I up on Fraternity
? Why am I up here when she’s done there? When my little girl…why, WHY?! Why did she have to die? Why did she die but I lived, after all I’ve done?! I should have been down there, not her! They should have killed me instead!
The boarding party busted down the door and stormed inside the clinic. Tetsuya raised his daggers. “I am Imperial Commander Tetsuya Hochenburg! Surrender and nobody gets hurt!”
Papadopoulos fell to his knees, his mind going blank.
Beck
Everybody’s jaws remained on the floor. Some in the room had even started crying. Livia’s face had crumbled into abject despair, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.
“It…it’s over, isn’t it?” she said.
Murad steadied himself against the table. “I guess it is.”
---
Once even one autoritter got into a settlement, it was all over. No matter how large a settlement was, its defenders’ armaments were limited by the fragility of their life support systems. Bullets and explosives had to be used in such a way to minimize damage to life support and prevent loss of atmosphere. Organized and equipped primarily for crowd control and law enforcement, settlement security forces were ill-equipped for combat against autoritters. All non-Austrian settlements had thus adopted strategies focusing on destroying or turning back the autoritters while they were still outside, because once they got into a settlement, there was no stopping them. Not even Beck was spared this.
Julius and his autoritters rolled through Saxonia. “Bow before your rightful masters, descendants of Widukind the heathen!” Ehrenfried cut a path for his emperor, running over civilians in his path and trampling over the irminsuls. Many of them didn’t even get out of the way—almost everybody was frozen where they stood, as if paralyzed by shock. Julius brought up the rear, his eyes fixated on the devastation left in the squad’s wake. The bodies didn’t even look human after being crushed under an autoritter’s foot. And yet his attention was divided. The Sigurd was moving via autopilot at this point. Julius’ eyes passed over each crushed body he passed by, then at the frozen civilians who still wouldn’t budge from their spots. His mind foucsed on the words he had just heard over the radio.
No…it can’t be…she couldn’t have…impossible…
“Your Majesty, it won’t do you any good to be on your own!” Ehrenfried shook him back to reality.
How could she have…is this really… “I appreciate your enthusiasm, Knight Ehrenfried, but I assure you, the Sigurd should be enough.”
“Nonsense! If you died, all would be lost! We can’t let that happen when victory is within reach!”
The Celtic and Arthurian motifs of Pendragon, the Copenhagen-like design of Heimdall, and the Russian mosaics of Little Russia all fell before the Reich’s might, frequently literally as Ehrenfried and his men delighted in their rampage through Beck’s districts. By the time Julius passed through what was left of each neighborhood, their streets had been torn up, buildings had been demolished, and hundreds of civilians had been reduced to red smear marks on the roads. And yet the survivors remained frozen in place. It was as if with so much having happened at once, from the battle outside to Julius himself in the settlement, their brains simply couldn’t handle it anymore and shut down, giving in to complete despair.
Finally, they arrived at Central Authority. In the deepest part of Beck, far from life support equipment and the outside domes, the UN soldiers here opened fire with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, targeting the autoritters’ joints. Or rather, they tried, because the autoritters quickly deployed their own machine guns and mowed them down in five seconds. Only a couple autoritters suffered substantial damage. When Julius arrived in Central Authority, Ehrenfried cheerfully saluted. “The area’s cleared out and fully secure. We can disembark.”
“Very well, then,” Julius said.
What is this all for? What am I even doing?
They climbed out of their autoritters. Ehrenfried had come prepared, tossing assault rifles and pistols to everybody else. “Let’s not waste more time, my lord. Victory awaits!”
“Why does it feel like I’m not the one in command here?” Julius complained.
But he found a rifle in his hands, and everybody else had already moved forward. Ehrenfried kicked open the door to the Presidency and was confronted with a bloodcurdling scream from Jane, whom he immediately shot in the head. Apparently, their attack had happened so quickly that she couldn’t even evacuate from her desk. They forced open the security gate and waited for Julius to catch up. Ignoring Jane’s headless body slumped over the receptionist’s desk, they smiled and beckoned to the open security gate. “After you, my lord.”
“What have you…”
“Cleared away your obstacles, sir! There will be nothing standing in the way of your victory!”
Obstacles…is that how I’ve been seeing everybody the whole time?
They continued through the gate and down the hallway, arriving at the entrance to the situation room. Walt and his colleague drew their weapons but were instantly shot.
“As I said, we’ve cleared away your obstacles, sir,” Ehrenfried said.
And these kids…grew up believing that?
They placed breaching charges around the door and detonated them. The door was blasted off its hinges and fell down with a loud thud. A split second later, Ehrenfried tossed a flash grenade inside. The explosion filled the room with light, and everybody inside screamed. Not giving them any time to react, Ehrenfried and his men walked in and racked their machine guns.
“ANNIONA UNIVERSALIS! FOR MARS AND TERRANKIND FOREVERMORE! SIEG ANNIONA!” The sound of gunfire and the screams of the dying filled Julius’ ears.
Was Angelica just another obstacle in the end?
He couldn’t take anymore of this. “IN THE NAME OF YOUR EMPEROR, CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE AT ONCE!”
Ehrenfried looked at Julius. He didn’t look mad or betrayed, just…baffled. “I’m sorry, my lord?”
“I SAID, CEASE FIRE!” Julius grabbed the nearest soldier’s machine gun, its barrel still hot, and pointed it at the floor, tearing up the tiles. “I AM YOUR EMPEROR, AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INSUBORDINATION ANY LONGER!”
At that, the rest of the squad lowered their guns and snapped to attention.
“But we’re merely executing your will, my lord!” Ehrenfried said. “We’re eliminating all threats to your rule! Isn’t this what you want? An end to UNAP and its clinging to the past? An end to their tyranny over Terrankind?”
“Look at them!” Julius gestured around the room. Half the people inside were dead, slumped over the table with multiple gunshot wounds. Lev Konstantinov was dead, as were the president of Scandinavia and the prime minister of Russia. The computers had all been destroyed. Murad had shielded Livia behind him and taken a shot to his leg. The screen in the back, with a live feed to Dorothy’s battle, had gone dark even before half of it got shredded by bullets. “Look at these people! They are no longer in any position to fight back! They aren’t even armed! Why do you still slaughter them like animals?!”
“Because of the poisonous obsession with old Earth they stand for!”
“And did you not hear me?!” Julius shook Ehrenfried’s shoulders. “They have
already lost! They can’t fight us anymore! We’ve effortlessly taken control of this entire settlement, and you still want to deprive them of their lives?! I am disappointed in you, Knight Ehrenfried!” He motioned to the others in the squad. “Restrain him! He will face court martial when we return to Olympus.”
“Yes, my lord!” the squad obeyed.
Once Ehrenfried had been restrained, Julius stepped forward, dropping his gun, which hadn’t even been fired the whole time, and raised his hands to show he was unarmed. Yet the remaining United Nations officials, those who could still move, crawled away from him. Their faces did not have the expected look that came with the fear of imminent death. There was none of that panic or fear. No, what Julius saw was resignation. Resignation to the fact that they had lost. It was the same expression he saw on the faces of the frozen civilians outside, the ones who didn’t even get out of the way when Ehrenfried gleefully mowed them down. So much had happened in just this day alone. So much had gone wrong. So much had been lost. Judging from the dead feed on the screen, it seemed their last shred of hope had just been taken away as well by some inexplicable stroke of bad luck. With all that having been piled onto them in the span of several hours, it was only natural for one’s mind to simply…give up.
Julius pulled over a chair and slumped into it, holding back his own tears. He couldn’t even enjoy the victory he had been given.
---
Annionaverse Angelica’s backstory is elaborated on a bit here. I checked the relevant threads and found that the Norman culture never emerged in Dragoon’s games. So Angelica is just French (“Francien” in the game, but both me and Dragoon use “French” regardless). She joined the HRE military to help make things better for her people, ultimately becoming a palace guardswoman and Eva’s retainer. They became close friends because Angelica, unlike the Germans who made up most of the staff, wasn’t bound by decorum and acted honestly around her. That was why Eva entrusted her with raising Julian.
