Interlude-Black Prince

Within the privacy of his home behind Ashford Academy Lelouch Lamperouge found himself with a rare opportunity to himself where he had very little to do at the moment.

The former 11th Prince of the Brittanian Empire sat at his desk tapping his black king piece on the desk with an annoyed frown on his face.

The source of his current frustrations were his hosts of this very house, the Ashford family. Their current actions of late had left him on edge.

It had all started near the beginning of the season when Milly had approached him asking for information on a certain house. House Jackson had been one Lelouch had made a point to be wary of. While it was an open secret that a majority of the Nobility were connected to criminals in one form or another (Even the fallen house of Ashford was no exception as the young man refused to believe that the butlers and maids-one Sayoko Shinozaki in particular for how they could turn downright frosty when trouble approached their charges) the name Jackson was steeped deep within the Brittanian Underworld of crime.

And Claudia Ashford had sent Milly, her daughter and his childhood friend/ pseudo sibling (he'd never admit the last one aloud lest the she-devil somehow record it for posterity to embarass him), to dive head first into it. Worse Ruben Ashford was doing seemingly nothing to stop it.

And worst of all Milly herself now seemed fully on board with it! The girl who'd sent men running for the hills in frustration was completely fine with being given away to criminals!

Naturally Lelouch had tried to get to the bottom of it. He'd pressed the Ashford Elder for answers but the old man had stated he had no idea what Claudia was up to. Lelouch liked to think he was told the truth but Ruben could be as sly as a fox when he wanted to be.

Milly wasn't spilling anything either. Simply telling him not to worry about it. Only saying she was happy with how things were playing out.

He'd even tried to pressure Benjamin into talking but the useless man had been just that; useless.

Which left only Claudia herself and it had gone as poorly as Lelouch thought it would. With Lelouch demanding to know what she was thinking to her responding it was none of his business. He had done everything from bargaining to outright pulling the Oath of Loyalty House Ashford owed Vi Brittainia. She stonewalled him refusing his bribes and stating her loyalty was to Marianne and not him. This continued on until she had her staff escort him out of her home.

The pair weren't necessarily hostile to one another but they stepped on each others toes more often than not. On more than one occasion Claudia had suggested he return to Pendragon and retake his place as Prince of the Realm while leaving Nunnaly with them.

Naturally he refused. Vehemently. He refused to ever be a pawn in his fathers game after the loss of his mother and the Invasion of Japan had only solidified that resolve. Nevermind that leaving behind Nunnaly was anathema to him.

It wasn't just the refusal to return to him home country either. His identity didn't help hide him quite so well eithef. He was fully aware of that. All anyone would need to do was pull up his mother's information and dig a little to discover her maiden name and pull up a picture of his younger self and the lie be rendered worthless.

He still held onto it for a number of reasons. One was spite, the other being few would be looking that deeply and another being Lamperouge was more common than many gave credit for.

Granted it still wasn't the most logical thing to do when hiding from a man in control of almost 1/3 of the world but on this Lelouch refused to concede logic on.

'Besides,' he thought to himself as the grip on his favorite piece tightened 'I've been dead since the day I was born according to that man.'

Why bother hunting for a corpse of his son and daughter when he didn't even give a rat's ass about the wife he supposedly loved?

The hidden royal dragged a hand down his face to return to the matter at hand. His options had been limited and now dwindled to almost nothing. Keyword almost. There were other ways to get answers but they were risky.

But for Nunnaly and Milly...

Without a moments hesitation he picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Rivalz it's me." He said into the device putting on his best carefree voice, "Are you free for an impromptu gambling run?" An enthusiastic affirmative was his answer as he knew it would be. "Good to hear. Meet you at the front."

He was already fully intent on taking on a national super power after graduation. A few houses of crime lords were nothing to that.