The Tech Pince Of Britania - Chapter 3 Meeting Interesting People Left And Righ

Speaking to Slaine was surprisingly interesting, he was the only child of a rising merchant family that dealt with food stock, to be more precise corn and potatoes, and he was expected to be the next one to lead the family in it’s business even if he said he was not that good with numbers.

I guess that explains why he would not be known in the original timeline, he probably was someone who wasted his talent. After we talked for a while he finally relaxed and told me more of himself.

“So you are going to the imperial academy? That sounds, interesting?” I said tentatively, the imperial academy is probably the reason why so many people had chosen to leave the mainland to go to Area 11 to study in CANON. The place is boring like hell and the discrimination and elitism is as bad or worse than the court, not to forget that the education is promoted as excellent but I’d call it sub-par at best.

“I do, and I am sorry to say but it is not interesting. The professors brush over many subjects and there are students there that actively act against me and others of low nobility, it is not a good place.”Slaine said while rubing his arm. I saw this and continued.

“Then why not get a school tutor for you? I know there are many very capable ones out there and you probably would understand it better then.”

He shook his head.

“It wouldn’t be possible, most tutors are far too expensive if you want good quality and my family still has a lot of competition so we can’t spend too much. The Academy still teaches and it is not that bad.” His face in the end shows to me he really doesn’t like it there.

Maybe I should invite him over to have him take some lessons with the tutors that were assigned to me? I never really much cared for them as I quickly went beyond them but they are still paid already and they are high quality so I think they could be given some work to do instead of scratching their butts back in the mansion.

“Hey, how about I give you my tutors then? My mother already paid them and they are iddle as I didn’t need their lessons anyway, and with this at least you can get out of that damned purgatory.” I proposed, and quickly held him back as he was one movement away from kneeling to me. “And stop all this kneeling thing, I want to make friends with you so you don’t need to be all stiff with me, relax.”

He hesitantly nodded. He might act meek but I can see that he is probably as stubborn as a Ox and would not stop what he wants to do even if I tried to stop him. I guess it would be more interesting this way, having someone too servile and obedient by my side would be too boring anyway.

“Your highness, are you good in sports?” He asked.

“Sure, I am as good in sports as a human is capable of flying with no equipment.” I deadpanned, he stiffled a giggle seeing me deadpan like this. Oh well, I only laughed a bit before feeling my stomach grumble a bit. I guess spending so long in that discussion with Lloyd and using my brain so intensively made me hungry.

“Slaine, I was thinking of catching some chocolate truffled cake, would you like some too?” I asked.

“Sorry, but I am not sure. I have never eaten this cake you mentioned.” He said.

‘Times New Roman’; font-size: medium;”…WHAT?!

“Wait, you mean you never tasted chocolate truffled cake before? How can you even survive without tasting that?” I said. Sure, I know many never tasted it before but it still stands to reason that anyone that wants to taste how heaven is like should eat it.

He tilts his head as I sighed, he truly is clueless about the pleasures of life.

Turning to one of the servers I said.

“Bring me and my friend here two big slices of chocolate truffled cake, I want the best ones you can find.” I said.

“I am sorry, your highness, but there are no such cakes in today’s kitchen. Would something else work?”

Groaning in annoyance I said to the servant to go somewhere else as there was nothing else I want right now. Turning to Slaine he had wide eyes while looking at me, seeing his innocent face I released a light laugh.

“I guess we will need to wait for a future opportunity to make you taste it, oh well I guess you can always just come to visit when you want. No, you must come to visit whenever possible.” I said seriously.

“So that you can have an excuse to eat more sweets?”

“In big part, but also to educate my friend here on what he is missing and-” it was at that moment when two realizations hit me.

First, I spoke too much and might have ruined the image of myself which I was trying to show. Second, and much more important, is that the the one behind me is a nightmare incarnate to me.

“B-b-big sis Cornelia?!” I yelped as I instinctively tried to run, but her claws of evil locked me in place.

“No, you are not running away. I want to know why I heard of how you have been eating your weight in candies while ignoring your training.” She said sternly.

Shit, why, of all times, did she manage to find me now?

I could not move as she has that stupid strength which she emanates from all around her. Seriously, how a twelve year old girl is capable of being more intimidating than most generals is a mystery to me. Is this a testament of how weak some of the generals are or is it evidence of how terrifying she is.

I guess probably both.

Sighing in defeat as there is no way I can get away from this evil incarnate I gave her my most innocent smile.

“Big sis Cornelia, it is so good to see you.”

“Yeah, so why did you run from me since that one training session between us?” she asked.

‘Because I hated it almost as much as Suzaku and that nonsense Zero Requiem’

“Because I feared pulling you down as I am not that good in it.” I said.

“Nonsense, I have seen the numbers and tested you as well, your talent for piloting is better than most of the members of the Rounds when they were your age. Not using it due to some excuse is unforgivable.” she said, making me again think I should have downplayed myself then.

It happened a while ago, a basic technology to test potential pilots is used on most young members of high nobility and royals, but no one told me how it worked or how high the average numbers are and as I could never see my own color I just went at it with all I got. The problem is that I DO have a lot of talent for the thing, thankfully I managed to convince Charles to not let the news spread with some excuse I can’t remember, but the main problem is that Cornelia found out about it.

She can’t reveal my real numbers but she still decided to train me on how to be a knight.

I can officially say that I have a lot of respect for knights after training like one for a day, it takes a lot of confidence to walk proudly after becoming such a masochist as I doubt anyone normal would want to work with that.

And, to be honest, when I said I had high numbers I mean it was actually high beyond all others tested except the knight of one and Lelouch’s mother, bitch that she is.

But I feel no desire about becoming a knight, I want to be my own boss and have my own little kingdom/city, not to go to the battlefield and die in a ditch somewhere.

Cornelia looked at me with a disgruntled face as she tried carrying me to the knights in another area, looking at Slaine he simply was shell shocked as he saw me being dragged away.

“Let’s talk more later, you can come and find me in my villa anytime.” I said loudly to him, many turned to see who it was that was talking loudly and seeing me many showed surprised faces as most did not recognize me before, some then turned to see who I was talking with and when they saw the small form of Slaine I could swear some were already thinking about eliminating or humiliating him.

Normally I would not care about the court and the stupid pigs we call nobles despite having no talent or capacity, but if they are aiming at someone I want as a knight and possibly a friend, well that’s a different story.

Thinking that I took out one of my rings after pressing a digit to it for a second and then threw it to Slaine who already had a group of people approaching him. As he caught the ring with a symbol of a bat on it I continued, hoping he would listen as Cornelia was yanking me away further and further. “A symbol for our friendship, if anything happens just show that ring and say that messing with you means messing with me.”

I wanted to say more, but the evil took me away. At least the bat ring is with him, it is one of the little things I developed and it can work as a distress signal to the guards back in my family’s mansion as well as being able to release directed sound blasts. I have other such items on me as a precaution but it should work well to help keep Slaine safe.

Reaching where Cornelia wanted to take me I had to try, and I mean REALLY try not to fall asleep. No, it is not because it is getting somewhat late and I am a kid, but because the conversations are so absurdly boring. I mean, seriously, if you are starting to strain too much on your reserves of food and weaponry you should try and sign a peace treaty already and develope better ways of production to actually ensure you can continue in one decisive movement.

But, I guess expecting those of the military to even think of that when we are winning is impossible. We are nearly finished in conquering the entire African continent, if we do that we would win a lot of land and grainaries but I can’t help but wonder how the population of the former territory is coping. The custom of conquering more and more land without regard is something that will inevitably lead to failure in the long run, which the emperor doesn’t mind but I do.

I want to build my academic city, Britannia would work perfectly as a shield to me but if it were to fall or worse drag me with it I would really be annoyed.

As the conversations continued and no decent decision was reached I decided to just go ahead and explain the obvious for them.

“You should just use the R23K chemical on the food you are providing to the soldiers.” I said to the general complaining like a little bitch.

As he heard my comment he turned to me, he had a single eye as the other was destroyed and only a scar was left but that single eye and his face had an expression like he was trying to please me but also was looking down at me for my age. It is his mistake I guess. Though Ciel frowned a moment as the man looked vaguely familiar.

“And what exactly would using that make?” He asked. “Would the food taste better? Maybe like sweets?” he said teasingly, he has a high rank and my love for sweets is well known for all anyway.

I was about to answer when someone interrupted me, seriously I need to get myself something like a alarm on my back to warn me when someone is about to suddenly appear behind my back like this.

“I-It is not to change the taste.” A girl said behind me. I turned to look and was almost blinded by how Orange she was, seriously I bet even Jeremiah isn’t so Orange for Marianne or Lelouch. The girl that spoke up is exactly one of my targets of tonight, I guess she is much more open now than she was in CANON.

“And how would you know that? You are just a child.” The general said dismissively.

She looked down before I stepped in, she was about to leave when I held her in place by the shoulder and I was honestly surprised. There actually IS someone physically weaker than me, who would have thought that?

“There is no need to run, you are correct in what you said and did nothing wrong. And as for you, you should treat a lady better! Especially when she is smarter than you.”

“You bra-”

“General Ogre, please remember who he is and that any actions against him will not to be forgiven by me.” Cornelia said, I guess she has her not evil moments. Not like I won’t be careful as I don’t want to do laps again. Those things are simply not something a human good in the head should do!

The general Ogre, backed down as I looked at the green haired girl.

“Now, why don’t you show him and everyone just what you know? If anything goes wrong I will help so don’t be afraid to talk.” I said to Nina Einstein, she looked at me for a moment more before nodding and beginning to talk.

“The R23K is a chemical product that would allow for the slowing down of the metabolism of the eater, making them need a smaller intake of food and need longer periods of time to sustain the eater with no great problem for the person. The only issues it has is how hard it is to actually obtain said chemical so it is not used despite its advantages.” Nina explained, when she finished she turned to me and I gave her a smile and a nod as she blushed, but if it is because of my actions or of her talking to all these people I don’t know. She is someone that when she was only 16 managed to create basically a nuclear bomb without any helpers or financial support, she definitly is a genius.

“Huh, so what? If we can’t produce this thing then it is useless anyway.” General Ogre said.

“Well, that is…” Nina started talking without knowing how to continue but I simply gave her a smile before turning to Ogre.

“For that you can just leave it to me, I already finished my latest project for the Emperor so creating a better way to extract this chemical will not be hard at all, maybe one or two weeks I suppose.” I said, making not only Ogre but the other generals look at me with strange faces.

“And are you shrimp really capable of doing anything? I doubt you can even reach the shelf, there is no way you can go and make anything good for the Emperor.” Ogre said, looking around I see that some of the generals are nodding slightly. Oh well, at least this gives me an excuse to get out of here.

“If you truly think so it is your problem, but I do have time now. Well, if you really think you don’t want what I have to offer then I guess it is not my fault,” I said trying not to laugh as I imagined what his reaction would be when he realizes what I will be revealing.

“Humph, as if I need the help of some toy a kid as small as a meal to me can offer.” He said dismissively.

“Well, it is your and your troop’s losses then. I guess Britannia can live with one less battalion anyway.” I said, earning an irritated glare from him, his hand itching towards his sword as he did so. Honestly, I could not be any less fearful of him if I wanted to, with some of the little trinkets I have with me I doubt I would need to worry about anything bellow riffles or Knightmares. Turning to Cornelia I gave her a courteous bow before opening my mouth. “Princess Cornelia, I am sorry to have to cut this enlightening conversation short but I fear that my presence would sour the mood. As such, I will leave you and yours to meet on a more appropriate time.”

The translation to that is ‘Sorry, I may have pissed off a bunch of idiots so I am going to use that to run. Bye, see you never if possible.’. I REALLY dislike military personnel, especially old types that likely bought their way to the top. Also, the farther away from Cornelia I get the less chance there is of her making me work out.

She tried to say something but I quickly bolted away, if this was a cartoon I would likely have dust flying on my trail from how desperate I was to get out of there.

Seeing as Cornelia hadn’t chased me with a swinging sword (yep, that happened once) I sighed in relief.

“Humm, where are we going?” A weak voice said from the side. I almost jumped in fright as I heard it and as I looked I noticed something.

I may have, potentially, perhaps, pulled Nina with me as I ran due to my hand being on her shoulder. The greenet was fidgeting as she was looking up to me, or to be more specific my hand.

Quickly taking my hand away I sheepishly smiled.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t intend on dragging you along like this.” I said and she moved frantically her hands in front of her.

“N-No problem. I, I was just s-suprised by it, that is all.” Nina said. She then started fidgeting her hands as she clasped them together. “Why did you help me back there?”

“Huh, why? It is obvious isn’t it?” I asked, seriously why is everyone so slow on the uptake sometimes?

“N-No, I don’t understand it. I, I was never protected by someone else before, so I don’t understand.” She said, her words dying out by the end.

“Well, I guess it is alright then. And, to answer your question, I just did what I did because it was what I wanted to do. But let’s forget all the heavy stuff, why don’t you tell me more about yourself?” I said.

Now that I think more about it she likely isn’t dangerous unless ‘triggered’, like the death of her crush or something. If I manage her right she could easily be a great asset, even if I would prefer to have approached her on my own volitions instead of her doing it for me.

“I, I am Nina Einstein. I am from a count family and came here to accompany my sister and our friend to the party.” Nina said. Well, that is unexpected. In CANON there was never a mention of a sister, perhaps she died or something in the original timeline?

“Interesting my name is-” It was at this moment that I realized it, I haven’t told my name yet! I can just prank her and say a pseudonym to her, and one I always wanted to use no less. “My name is Ciel Phantomhive, I am at your disposal my green princess.” I gave her my most charming smile. I had to learn a bunch of smiles under one of the only tutors I even have classes with, Adelle Schnee for my education in the nobility way of acting, and when she saw I couldn’t act like that without grunting in displeasure every five minutes she taught me how to pretend like I care and many different smiles. I admit that when I heard her name is Schnee, that her family is the owner of a company named Schnee Mining Industries and responsible for a large part of the excavation of the Sakuradite within the borders of our territory, and that she had white hair I honestly almost yelled hundreds of curses but I managed to reign myself in, after all it is not like she has a daughter called Winter and another named Weiss or anything.

Anyway, my actions seem to have hit the spot if her face getting red like a ruby tells me anything. I was about to ask more when I heard the music start playing and it was the time for the first dance. I extended my hand to a blushing Nina.

“Would you care for a dance, my lady?” I said. She instantly got shell shocked from my words and almost as if she was a robot she extended her hand rigidly to me, I guess she is nervous.

Not minding her actions I pulled her to the dance floor, this was not my first dance but for her it just might be as she stepped on my feet more than five times during our little dance to the sound of Clair de Lune by Debussy, one of my favorite classic songs even if I was more of a rock type of guy. It is a slow song but it is so beautiful that even those around and the chattering nobles quieted down to enjoy the music, me and Nina just continued to dance to the sound of it but I noticed midway through that she was looking down to the floor as if she was nervous.

Cute.

Approaching her ear I opened my mouth and whispered to her.

“Don’t worry about the stares, just look at me and everything will be okay.”

After she heard that I could swear she was about to run away before she calmed down enough and looked straight at me. We continued our little dance on the floor and by the end of the song the chatter began anew, I could not help but say.

“Shame, I wanted to dance some more. Would you accompany me next time?”

Yep, it is possible for someone to get even redder than a ruby, and Nina is definitely going there right now. She was just about to answer when someone suddenly hugged/tackled her from the side.

“Sis, I am so glad you are okay!” the invader said. She looks slightly older than me or Nina, perhaps seven or eight years old. She had orangish red hair that was quite long and with side braids to it as well as wore glasses. Her dress was not that good either, just like the one Nina had but instead of green it was a pale yellow. She was hugging Nina so much that I am afraid she might end up suffocating the poor thing.

“That should be enough.” I said while pulling the new addition back. “Now, would you mind telling me why you decided it would be an appropriate action to jump onto someone during a party like this? I hardly think it is a very appropriate action.”

The girl scratched the back of her head as she seems embarrassed.

“Sorry, I just… HEY, why should I apologize to you about anything?! She is my little sister so of course I should protect her against a smooth talker like you, mister… sorry but what is your name again?”

This girl is all over the place, but now that I look closer she has a similar light to Nina even if the orange isn’t nearly as bright or blinding. Well, patience is a virtue so I guess I should not be too hard on her, I want to foster as many good relationships as I can if I have to stay here until the Emperors arrival.

But that doesn’t mean I should let someone else walk over me like this girl. When in court proper etiquette is needed, which is one of the reasons as to why I hate the court but rules are the rules.

“And why not be a more proper lady and tell me your name first, it is the custom to tell your own name before demanding another persons after all.” I said impassively.

The girl was about to say something when Nina intervened by standing between the two of us. Turning to me she started.

“She is my big sister, her name is Matsu Einstein.” She then turned to Matsu. “And his name is Ciel Phantomvine, he was gentle with me so treat him well big sis.”

I barely managed to surpress a curse as looked at the Girl which he now recognized as a seven year old version of the Brain-Sekirei Matsu. What the hell did the Collective do?

Is she really THAT Matsu from Sekirei? Seriously, her way of acting and talking seems almost identical to me.

Deciding that I need some air and space to think of what this likely revelation means I turned to the two.

“I am sorry for needing to cut this short but I have some business to attend right now. But take this,” I said, giving her another one of the rings on my hands, this one had a shining star in it and has both a alarm system to distress calls and a flashlight capacity to blind whoever is attacking the person. “Use this to visit me in my Villa any time you want, here is the address.” I said as I also gave her a tiny piece of paper with my adress on it.

Only after walking away did I remember that Nina still thinks I am named Ciel Phantomhive.

…Oh well, I am sure it won’t be a problem.

As I was thinking that I approached one of the many tables with heaven in it. This time I know that the Evil is not around so I can relax and eat to my heart’s content.

I caught one cupcake and was just about to put it on my mouth when the sound of trumpets was released, I groaned as I know perfectly well the reason why this would happen.

“And now, the Emperor has arrived. All Hail Britannia!” As these words were released everyone went to their knees, I having to leave the cupcake on the table to also kneel to the Emperor.

“All hail Britannia!”

“”””””””””””””All hail Britannia! All hail Britannia! All hail Britannia! All hail Britannia!”””””””””””””

I also followed the chorus, but my mind is still on the cupcake. Fuck, I still haven’t eaten any sweets for the last 6 hours, if I take much longer I might die.

I tried to grab the cupcake again when a booming voice came from the center of the hall.

“Ciel Zi Britania, come here this instant! I have a question for you.”

Yep, Destiny must hate me with a passion as Charles looming and big presence washed over everyone as I almost cursed at this. Why does everyone seem to hate me so much that I can’t even snack in peace?

Hiding away my discomfort I steadied myself and moved towards the Emperor. His eyes were hard as his white hair in that honestly ridiculous hairstyle showed signs of age that disagreed with his muscular and fit body. By his side was both Marianne Vi Britannia and my mother Marie Zi Britannia, both smiling gently at my approach even as I noticed a slight discomfort from Marianne, I guess she really doesn’t like me all that much. Probably because the Emperor favours me much more than Lelouch.

When approaching the emperor I did not look down or act weak towards him, I refuse to let myself be seen as a true weakling on his eyes. It seems like the others noticed my actions but I promptly ignored them all. Kneeling before the emperor when I got close enough I waited for him to speak.

“My nephew, it is to my understanding that you have been developing a new weapon after I ordered you to, I want to know if it is ready yet or if you intend on testing my patience.”

I could barely restrain a roll of my eye at his words. This? He really stood in the path between me and heaven for some simple thing like this? Yep, I am definetly killing him later.

“Yes, my majesty. I luckily managed to complete a perfectly functional prototype a few days prior and was only running some extra safety tests.” I said. “The Ultra Vibrating Blade is ready for field use as of this afternoon, but I must warn you that it has a large energy consumption which is why I already developed a functional knightmare with a special fuel system that would more than make it up for the energy consumption of the sword. I already have sent word to bring my new creation over to the colosseum close by so you can see with your own eyes if the money spent was used in a good way.” I explained.

Of course, the ‘new’ Knightmare was just a slightly better version of a Glasgow with different paint and the Yggdrasil Drive being much more functional and capable. If I were to compare my energy system should be equal to what a seventh or eight generation Knightmare frame would possess years from now.

It took me about 2 days to build the system so I guess it was money well spent.

Of course, this was far from all I managed and will deliver, I do need more funds and to show everyone that I am someone worth investing in.

“My majesty, I also have reached a new breakthrough on the new energy source utilization I mentioned to you on an earlier date. I believe that if everything continues as it is we can manage to obtain a clean and near limitless power sources to all our main cities and military bases without any big risk, this shall lessen the expenses of the Empire as a whole for more than 18% thus allowing for the money to be reinvested in more interesting and needed areas.” I finished. Taking a look around I could see that most were thinking my words funny and some were shaking their heads like I was promising something absurd.

The ones who didn’t, however, were those that had their jaws agape. One good example is Lelouch who was looking at me as if I was a monster, another person that, while not agape, was still looking at me with a serious face was Schneizel, that snake is probably thinking of ways to put me under his employment by now.

I was expecting some sort of question from the Emperor but instead, he just nodded firmly and turned to the others.

“We will all go to the Colosseum then, when there I also have an announcement to make after the test is complete.”

And like that, he turned around as my mother came to me and by hand started taking me with her. I guess something is about to happen, let’s just hope it isn’t 100% bad.