Geass.
A collective term for mental-type superpowers.
Vela had long known and confirmed that supernatural forces existed in this world.
The world of [Code Geass] was not merely the surface of a physical world presented as a purely sci-fi mecha world with a skewed tech tree.
In this world, she was born in A.T.B.[1] 1992 in the court of the Holy Britannian Empire.
Even before awakening and embracing her own [Divine Gift], in childhood, when her brain gradually developed enough to bear and support more complex thoughts, those unspeakable, otherworldly [soul memories] naturally surfaced.
Beyond the basic knowledge she possessed at birth, more profound, hazy, half-true images and concepts emerged in Vela's mind, becoming clearer.
It was then that she, without seeing or being shown, 'knew from birth,' grasping fragments of the future world's turbulent shifts. Only scraps and traces.
At the right time, regardless of good or evil, regardless of whether to use it or not, a simple utilitarian spark lit up Vela's 'young' heart—
I want it!
She deeply desired to obtain the power of Geass.
Unfortunately, fortune and misfortune came hand in hand. Her prestigious, privileged birth gave Vela the imperial inheritance right to 'rule the world supreme and strike down all before her,' while at the same time restricting many of her words and deeds.
Private space? None.
Born naturally under the spotlight, once Vela left the Twin Palaces, layer upon layer of attendants, guards, and maternal family bodyguards followed close. Who knew how many?
Vela knew that Geass was gained through contracting with a Code bearer. But others did not know this, and she had no way to explain the source of her information.
She could hardly say she was a 'disciple of Jehovah,' or a 'dreamer of humanity's collective unconscious Alaya,' or the 'reincarnation of A.T.B.'s first Emperor, Alwin I.' Would they believe her?
Moreover, Code bearers were not like Geass users, who later became increasingly common.
In short, Code meant: immortality, and the ability to grant others Geass through contracts.
Geass powers, bestowed by Code bearers or fragments of Geass itself, varied in form and traits depending on the individual, manifesting according to the recipient's wishes and aptitude.
The Code bearers Vela knew of were only two: C.C. and V.V.
The former was the immortal witch of the forest, leader of the Geass Order at the time, participant in Emperor Charles' mystical 'Ragnarok Connection.'
The latter was even more significant: Charles' elder brother, her uncle, mastermind of the A.T.B. 2009 'Aries Palace Incident' that killed Marianne, and, after C.C.'s departure, the current leader of the Geass Order.
So yes, a little child should not keep scheming.
Soon, as A.T.B. 1998 approached, the 'Emblem of Blood Rebellion' erupted and was quelled, and the Fifth Empress Marianne rose onto the stage of history.
At that time, Vela had reason to suspect C.C. and V.V. walked often in the Imperial Capital Pendragon. Unfortunately, they were most likely conspiring at Marianne's Aries Palace, and Vela had never cared for Aries Palace.
She was not Cornelia; she had no interest in clinging to Marianne's cold favor.
Playing house with the inevitably rebellious 'problem children' Lelouch and Nunnally was even more a waste of time.
Better to spend time with her elder brother Odysseus. The mild-tempered First Prince had far fewer schemes, and being with him was more relaxed and pleasant.
Realizing that Geass could not be obtained in the short term, Vela had already suppressed the restlessness in her heart, restraining her greedy craving. Her mindset returned to calm, and her days passed as usual.
Step by step, unhurriedly, she continued cultivating her forces, strengthening ties with her maternal supporters, building her own faction and cadre, while watching the Aries Palace's influence swell like oil on fire.
Then—Marianne died.
After losing his mother, Lelouch stormed into court to question the Emperor—his father—about why he had failed to protect her. In a fit of rage, he defied the Emperor and renounced his right of succession on the spot. The result: a one-way ticket to Japan, together with his crippled sister, never to return.
As the saying goes, Vela patiently sat on the riverbank, watching the corpse of her mother-consort Victoria Adelheid's palace rival drift past.
Although many within and outside the Empire believed the 'Aries Palace Incident' to be the handiwork of the Hohenzollern faction—the greatest beneficiary.
But such things could never be proven.
Vela did not care. The innocent need no defense, and Emperor Charles, who already knew who the true culprit was, had his own considerations. He would not move against her.
If he did not act then, there was even less reason to act now.
Do not make mistakes—wait for others to err.
Do not be the first to strike fatally—fight without breaking, consolidate inner strength.
Raise high Emperor Charles' banner of world unification, fully implement the policy of hegemonic conquest, and make Britannia greater!
Thus was established, from the A.T.B. 2010 Far East Incident and the conquest of Area 11 until now—A.T.B. 2017—the baseline of Vela's conduct and her strategic framework.
Vela remembered clearly the audience when she was formally granted her title and about to take office in Euro Britannia, heading to pacify the newly conquered territories.
In the great hall, only she and Charles, with the First Knight Bismarck as the secret-keeping guard.
It was the end of their conversation.
Seated high upon his throne, Emperor Charles asked: "My daughter, what is it that you seek?"
Vela countered: "Do you wish me to speak with frank honesty, or give the perfunctory words of courtesy?"
Charles laughed heartily: "Interesting! And what would you say, if frank? And what, if mere courtesy?"
Without even a moment's pause, Vela answered bluntly: "Courtesy is nothing but pleasant words—may Father ever be healthy, may you live without end. Frankly? Long live Your Majesty—but after you, I desire to restrain the world."
Charles was not angered. Instead, he gazed down at his third daughter with an appreciative yet piercing look. "Very well, my daughter Vela. To face your own desires without hypocrisy or concealment—you are more honest than I had expected. But—"
"Do you have the capacity?!"
The Emperor suddenly rose, his voice booming across the great hall, the sharp glare in his eyes stabbing like needles.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Faced with the authority that once made young Eleventh Prince Lelouch lose composure and stumble, Vela lifted her chin calmly and met his gaze without flinching.
"I will aid you in crushing the E.U. Under your reign, Earth shall achieve its first unification. History will record that under Britannia's 98th Emperor, the world was united—one world, one nation, one leader. An unprecedented feat, forever immortal."
This was truth.
Vela knew well that Emperor Charles loathed lies above all.
For in his youth, he had witnessed too many struggles for power among nobles and royals, his own mother assassinated in such strife.
He and his brother V.V. had made a contract after their mother's assassination: to forge a world without lies, never to lie to each other.
This was the origin of Charles' Geass power—the ability to rewrite memory.
To modify and supplement the memories of others: in a way, this reflected his wish, his method of creating a new world—since people could not truly understand one another, he would force his thoughts upon them.
Perhaps the concealments and half-truths of his children no longer mattered to him, but frankness was always a merit.
Vela had never intended to hide her ambition.
For princes and princesses, taking office was like entering a career. To advance, doing the work was one side of it—but presenting the "PPT," speaking of visions and ideals, was just as essential.
Charles listened with interest.
When Vela finished, only then did he speak again. "Continue. If it were you, how would you govern? Vela, my daughter, what kind of world do you wish to create?"
Vela smiled lightly: "Expansion."
"Expansion?"
For the first time, an unusual expression crossed Charles' aged face.
At this, Vela merely turned her head toward the rose window of the great hall, built of pure white marble and wide gilded crystal structures. The crimson light of dusk, like blood, shone through the polarized glass, casting its glow upon the steps and carpet. She extended her flawless hand.
The light fell upon that exquisite hand.
Vela spoke slowly: "From land to sea, and then to sky—humanity has never hidden its desire to master the stars. Human progress should not stop… and that includes me."
As though seizing something, she closed her hand into a fist.
In her indigo eyes burned both greedy desire and a blazing spirit of ambition.
To Vela, it did not matter under whose reign the Earth's unification was achieved. What she wanted was ascension.
Either way, she would leave a brilliant mark in the history of the wars of unification.
As for her own vision—
"After you, my goal is the sea of stars! Humanity must leave its cradle and reach farther beyond!"
Vela looked at the Emperor.
Rather than embellishing upon fixed quantities of the old order, playing with empty words of 'love, peace, and hope' only to drain herself spiritually, Vela chose to create new growth.
"Interesting!"
Charles laughed.
The lips that so often curved in arrogance or disdainful sneers this time held a faint warmth of expectation.
It was after that audience that Vela could clearly feel how support from the Imperial Capital of Pendragon toward Euro Britannia—and more precisely, toward her—rose by another level.
As Vela proved herself in practice during her governance of Euro Britannia, demonstrating excellent unifying leadership and gradually fulfilling what she had promised in her "PPT," Pendragon's central financial grants, policy favors, and personnel support grew year after year.
Thus were built the four thriving industrial regions of Euro Britannia and the effective pilot reforms of its military.
Especially with the awakening of her [Divine Gift], Vela had 'embraced and accepted' everything of her eight 'sisters.'
Problems that had only been laid down as groundwork before A.T.B. 2014—many of which were expected to take years to overcome—now saw crucial breakthroughs in optimization projects. It was foreseeable that A.T.B. 2017–2018 would be years of abundant technological harvest for Euro Britannia.
During this period—before and after the awakening of her [Divine Gift]—Vela had in fact slowed down, even forgotten, her craving for Geass.
First, the time was not ripe. Second—there were far more beneficial and interesting matters to occupy her energy: cultivating, research, imitating Gundams, drilling soldiers, handling state affairs, needling the E.U., arbitrating in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, whipping those shameless nomadic peoples who flaunted the Old Testament to claim Canaan as their covenant land… all endlessly amusing.
Until that numbered refugee from Area 11, brought into view by Lord Manfredi of the St. Michael Knights—whom many knights praised as the last samurai of the East, later adopted into the heirless Shaing family and made a son-in-law—made Vela reconsider and resume her pursuit of Geass.
The Order and V.V.? Too deranged, too unstable—best not considered.
Unless they came to her.
C.C.? By the time Vela escaped the limits of age, skipped grades from officer academy into the Imperial University, and first gained power, C.C. had already departed.
It was only known that she wandered the globe, later arriving in Area 11, where she was captured by a Geass research organization and imprisoned for study.
To Vela, she was a fallback option.
Unless there was no other choice, Vela would not go to Area 11.
The combination of the green witch of the forest and the rebellious black prince was a critical piece in shaking the world. Since even Charles, who had already seen through everything, was not in a hurry, why should she be?
Finally came the method Vela was currently pursuing: fragments of Geass.
She remembered when she had visited her uncle's private museum at the New Hohenzollern Castle in the Americas. It was filled with antiques, paintings, and luxuries brought from the Old Continent by exiled nobles of the Napoleonic Wars—some Hohenzollern, others purchased from fallen aristocrats.
During her tour, Vela noticed on many medieval paintings, frescoes, and porcelains a recurring red sigil of the Geass bird. Religious themes, epic praises of heroes, and the witch trials era—these were especially dense.
It was clear: in the Middle Ages, Geass users had often shown their power openly, their deeds recorded.
Among them were the founding legend of the Teutonic Knights, who chose an ancient Prussian settlement with unknown ruins to establish Königsberg, and the tale of the last Grand Master, Albrecht I, who transformed the Teutonic domain into the fixed Duchy of Prussia.
Ruins—Geass ruins. Königsberg…
Ah. Two birds with one stone.
Thus Vela set the terminus of her Northern Army Group offensive.
Königsberg, in the present.
Vela surveyed the frescoes in the underground sanctuary, within the ducal crypt of Prussia. The vivid Geass bird emblem was eye-catching, just as she had seen in her uncle's art collection in the Americas.
Tap, tap.
As though paying homage to her ancestors, Vela dismissed her guards, then gently touched the fresco with her hand.
In the next instant, something invaded her mind.
Her indigo eyes were unknowingly tinged with a faint, almost imperceptible red glow. Vela felt as though something new had been etched upon her retinas.
"Not Geass, then… never mind. Though somewhat disappointing, at least effort was not in vain."
[1] Ascension Throne Britannia