first commandment

It happened so suddenly.Flora was stunned for quite a while before regaining her senses.

After waking up, the red heat on her face spread to the tips of her ears.After hesitating for a while, she remembered to pull back the hand held by Slein.

And Slein, who was still half-kneeling on the ground, always looked puzzled as he couldn't figure out her reaction.Seeing him with such a confused face, Flora, who was strongly aware of the hidden feelings in her heart, felt even more embarrassed.

"Okay, okay...you get up quickly."

Before she could help him, Slein obediently stood up by himself.

Flora coughed lightly, and forced herself to think about tomorrow's arrangements, so as to divert her thoughts.

Now that Slein had agreed, she no longer shy away from hiding her arrangement.So she said that she would replace one of the next day's close escorts with Slein.

"But..." Hearing such an arrangement, Slein couldn't help showing doubts.

"You said you wanted to be my knight, so do you still want to hide in a dark corner and be lazy?" Flora smiled wantonly, and she seemed to have guessed what he was thinking, "...don't worry, I know you what you want to say."

As she spoke, she took off a ring on the index finger of her left hand, pulled Slein's hand and handed it to him.

Slein spread out his palm in doubt, and saw a delicate silver ring surrounded by "X"-shaped claw-shaped protrusions, and two blue gemstones were inlaid between each "X" shape.One of them is a transparent and sparkling sapphire, and the other is a warm blue-green turquoise.

The ring was a woman's style, and it looked small in the palm of his hand.He couldn't figure out why Flora gave him this beautiful ring, but before he could ask, Flora put her hand on his palm...

After a burst of dazzling brilliance, Flora looked at him and smiled with satisfaction.

Now he understood that this ring was used to activate the holographic projection.He looked at himself and saw no major changes.Turning around, he saw the vanity mirror in Flora's room. He took a few steps forward and saw himself in the mirror with chestnut hair and reddish-brown eyes.It's just...he felt that this look looked familiar.

"...Edgar gave it to me on my twelfth birthday."

That was Earl Jung's name.Thinking that this picture looked familiar, Slein resolved the doubts in his heart.

"He's just so self-aware... But, don't worry about that," Flora walked behind him with a smile, and looked at him in the mirror, "Please stay with me tomorrow like this .If anyone asks, just say that you are his distant relative."

"Yes, Your Highness."

He responded respectfully.Then he tried to put the ring on, but it was a girl's thing after all, and it was too small for him.He tried it and found that it could barely fit on his little finger.

"Oh, yes, one more thing..."

Flora, who saw all his movements, suddenly spoke.Slein turned his head and saw her sitting on the bed at some point, with her chin resting on her hand, looking like a naughty child.

"You can just call me Flora from now on!"

She smiled and said, tilting her head, with a kind of happiness and satisfaction on her face that he couldn't understand.

The next morning.

Both sides of the road where the parade was scheduled to be held were crowded with pedestrians who came to watch. From the main road outside the embassy, ​​through the city hall, to the gate of the downtown park, it was about two kilometers away.

October is the season of high and crisp autumn, and that day is also a good weather with clear skies.

When the people waiting outside the cordon heard cheers coming from the beginning of the queue, that is, from the gate of the embassy, ​​they guessed that the car that Princess Martian was riding in drove out.Displeased by the long wait, they immediately put on excited expressions, and leaned out excitedly, trying to see the convoy earlier.Facing the excited crowd, the guards, who had been a little slack, immediately tensed up and began to maintain order.

At the same time as the cheers surged, Slein, who was sitting behind the bulletproof glass window, saw Flora sitting next to him clenched her hands.

Her face was shrouded in solemnity.The black translucent glass windows do not let in much sunlight, making the atmosphere in the car more and more heavy.

Slein felt strange to her who was so anxious.

After all, when she saw him in the morning, she still had a firm smile on her face.At that time, he tried to persuade her to give up the operation, because after some consideration he still felt that sex was not a good choice.But even if he tried to persuade him as her knight, Flora still kept her indifferent attitude and laughed heartlessly.She patiently listened to his request, and finally said with a trace of helplessness:

"Why don't you understand, Slein? As long as they want to kill me, even if not this time, there will be a next time. The time and place are not a problem. Do I have to hide my head and hide for the rest of my life because of this?"

He said in his heart that if she wanted to, she could shrink her head and hide for a lifetime.As long as she is less ostentatious and more low-key, she probably won't attract so many murderous intentions.To be a puppet princess, to spend a lifetime ignorantly and happily, without putting your life in a precarious situation.

But he couldn't speak.

Because he has already deeply realized that she is not the kind of person who compromises.

【Because I am Weiser's princess. 】

When she answered him like that, he instantly saw the responsibility, courage and... unwillingness of this 16-year-old girl.

At that moment, she who was already eye-catching became even more dazzling.Her bravery moved his heart, but what shocked him even more should be the indignation at the injustice of fate.And that's probably why he obeyed his inner calling and suddenly offered to protect her.

Seeing Flora with a disturbed expression at this time, Slein felt more and more that his choice was correct.He found that not only did she need him, but he also needed her.He who lost his longing and enthusiasm in the prison seems to have obtained her emotion, her bravery, sense of responsibility and resentment from her.

As if being infused with the breath of life by the gods, he felt himself becoming alive, as if his pale and powerless ghost was regaining life.

Flora, who was sandwiched between Slein and another guard in the middle seat, wandered around, not noticing that Slein was observing her.

She breathed heavily, quietly waiting for the gunshot that meant the start of the attack.However, halfway through the first route, she didn't wait for the assassination, but for the warmth that suddenly covered her hands.

Surprised, she looked up the hand with the white glove, and found that Slein, who had changed his costume, was looking at her.

The change in his appearance didn't matter to her, because when she looked at him, she always noticed his eyes first, and then couldn't look away.

At this time, the four eyes met, and Flora's suppressed heartbeat became active again.She looked at him, and he looked at her.With thoughts that the other didn't know, the two of them didn't speak for a while, and they didn't move their hands away.

"don’t worry."

After a while, he whispered to her.

"..."

She was speechless.

Much later, and much, much later, no matter how many years passed, Flora remembered this moment vividly.

The cheers on both sides of the driveway gradually faded away, replaced by the gradually clear sound of her heartbeat in the dark car interior.Restless, as if about to burst from the chest, but the appearance became more and more calm as if cooled by the shadow.In the silence, the only thing that could prove that she was alive was the sound of her heartbeat.

If he held my hand harder, maybe the feeling of being alive would be more real.Thinking like this, she waited greedily for him to hold her hand tightly, in a vacuum-like silence.

But he didn't.Even so, she was content.

Many years later, she, who still clearly remembered everything, faced him and recalled her feelings at that time:

"... At that time, I really felt that there was nothing to be afraid of dying."

Indeed, as I said later, Flora temporarily forgot her fear at that time.But when the convoy drove out and arrived at the location of Aldnoah's No. [-] furnace by the sea, her mood was once again shrouded in anxiety.

Expected things did not happen as expected.Feeling that things were developing in a direction beyond her control, she became uneasy again.

Of course she wasn't the only one full of unease.

In the command room in Yanglu City, Jung was looking up at Flora on the screen.When she got off the car, she smiled peacefully and looked the same as usual, but in his eyes it was not the case.Jung, who has been by her side since she was a child, can be said to know the deep meaning of her every frown and smile.He also felt that the situation was unexpected, and at the same time he was uneasy, but also worried.

"My lord, what should I do next?" The guard standing beside him bent down and asked respectfully when he saw the change in his expression.

Without even looking at the man, he waved him away irritably:

"Do you still need me to say? Of course, follow closely! This old fox in Freiburg doesn't intend to play his cards according to the routine. The first thing is to protect His Highness..."

Because of the armed demonstrations a few days ago, Atheram criticized his actions, and coupled with the protests from the earth, Jung lost the opportunity to personally escort him.At this time, he became more and more anxious because of his powerlessness.

Although Slein's being by Flora's side will make him feel more at ease, but to be honest, how much trust can there be?Suspicious by nature, it is also difficult for him to trust a person whom he only meets a few times—even if it is someone Flora cares about.

Just as the impetuous flame in Jung's heart was burning more and more vigorously, Flora, who was listening to the host's opening speech on the screen, touched her crystal earrings, and then her voice rang in Jung's ear :

"Edgar, what's going on?"

He pressed the ear-mounted communicator and replied, "I don't know. I didn't receive any warning feedback, and the old fox didn't move at all."

"understood."

She responded, then cut off the communication.On the screen, her expression remained unchanged, she put her hands back to their original positions, and waited dignifiedly for the end of the opening speech.Then she deepened her smile, walked towards the Aldnoah launcher at the host's invitation with the eyes of the officials from the Earth side and the Mars side.Slein beside her also followed, and Jung, who was inconvenient to continue to establish contact with her, ordered the soldiers to establish a communication with Slein instead.

"Earl Jung?"

"How's it going?"

Jung asked after hearing Slein's voice.However, for some reason, after a burst of noise, the original clear voice of the other party also became intermittent.

"Hello? What? Can you hear me?"

Jung pressed hard on the receiver next to his ear, but he still couldn't hear the other party's voice clearly.At the same time, the image of Flora, who was putting her hand on the starter on the screen, was also disturbed, and miscellaneous lines sometimes ran across the entire screen.

But within 1 minute, such a change occurred.Jung's heart skipped a beat, and the alarm bell rang wildly:

"...Go to Your Highness's side!"

After he yelled such a sentence into the communicator, the intermittent noise of the earpiece and the image on the screen were at the same time, like a light bulb that was cut off in an instant, returning to darkness and silence.

"..."

Facing the pitch-black screen, Jung froze as if the electricity had been cut off.

The soldiers who tried to re-establish the connection cast questioning glances at Jung's guards after unsuccessful attempts.The guard had just been beaten up before, so he hesitated for a while, but when he was about to ask another question, Jung regained his composure.

"Damn it!" He cursed in anger, turned his head and walked towards the door of the command room.

Seeing this, Jin Wei hurriedly followed, puzzled and said, "Eh, eh? Lord Earl..."

The figure in the dark red uniform was furious and said loudly:

"Stop talking nonsense! - Cavalry, all members dispatched!"

At the same time, Weisser Palace.

Atheram watched in disbelief as the vivid girl in the projection was swallowed by the sudden darkness.

After the deathly silence, there was the announcement from the guards, saying that the communication with the venue had been cut off.

However, after the queen got up from the throne, she stared at the picture that had already turned into pitch black without moving, as if she didn't hear what the guards were saying.In other words, the sudden change has made her lose the ability to digest the news from the outside world.

"His Majesty?"

Kurankan, who was by her side, walked up to her and put his hands on her back.However, the moment she was touched, she trembled as if she had been electrocuted, and her legs collapsed under the support of her husband.

"--His Majesty!"

She clutched Kurankan's arm desperately, as if she had lost all her strength.The exclamations of the maids and guards who rushed to her side, as well as Kurankahn's worried whispers, everything was gradually going away to her...

【Mom, I'm fine.Don't worry. 】

The only words that really echoed in her ears were Flora's comforting words a few days ago.

The author has something to say:

BGM: Butstill...—Aimer

This song on Xiami has been taken off the shelf... I will make it up another day

The design of the ring comes from Tiffany, which looks like this:

Gemstones have connotations and are acrostic jewelry.

Sapphire=Sapphire=S

Turquoise=Turquoise=T

S and T are the initials of Srain Troyet... so you get the idea!Jung who hides merit and fame!