Carim put away her writing momentarily to clear up this new misunderstanding. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”
“How so?” asked Olivie who was now paying full attention. “Is she something like a doppelganger?”
The way the Kaiser said that last word had Carim slightly on edge. Belkan myths often painted doppelgangers in a poor light, seen as harbingers of ill fortune and representatives of the forces of evil. Superstition had a place among the Royal Family once. And she wasn’t sure if Olivie was among those who placed a high value on those things.
Well, best to go with a truth she could understand. “Not precisely. The story begins with a blood sample that was obtained by a mad scientist over ten years ago after stealing a shroud that we had guarded in our church.”
“A shroud…?” She wasn’t sure what the Church Director meant until a thought finally came to mind. ‘Ingvalt’s old cape?’
“It was your only personal belonging that had been recovered after the war next to your journals,” explained the Saint Church director. “And the shroud played a part in his plan to conquer this world.”
“So he wanted to conquer the world with a bloody cloth?” For some reason, Touma had the image of a man clad in a white lab coat and brandishing the shroud with blood like an all powerful super weapon.
“Er… that’s not quite it,” confessed Hayate. “That man was involved in an illegal project that focused on creating copies of people.”
“And what he wanted was to create a copy of someone from the Kaiser’s bloodline since at the time; there were no known living members of the Royal Family. In this case, he created Vivio who’s essentially a genetic copy of Her Majesty here,” continued Carim.
“A copy of me?” The concept seemed rather out of this world to Olivie but then again, she had been thrown nearly a century forward in time so who was she to judge? But there was still something she was missing.
While there was no doubt that the Saint Kings were powerful living warriors, she was certain that this world had more than enough competent mages to stop a renegade Kaiser. So what was the last factor? What other reason would there be a need for a Kaiser to help in world domination?
Then it hit her. “The Saint’s Cradle…?”
The Saint Church Director nodded. “That’s right. He had managed to locate that Lost Logia and needed a key to activate it.”
“Then… instead of properly seeing the Cradle’s destruction to the end, I…” A sense of horror grew inside the young woman’s heart.
“Um, if I may ask… what was your last memory about the Cradle?” asked Yuuno with his curiosity now at its peak.
“The Cradle didn’t include a proper self-destruct mechanism since it was a warship that predated Belka. The only thing we could do was to steer it towards a natural phenomenon in space where it could stay lost forever. Something like a black hole,” said Olivie as she remembered what she had planned on that day before her sudden trip through time. “My father had managed to program a random course that couldn’t be overridden until the ship got to its destination but he succumbed to his injuries that he got from the insurgency of the Radicals. I had planned to reach the Cradle and ensure that the ship would stay lost but things… went rather differently. And because I wasn’t strong enough, someone else suffered as the Cradle’s Key.”
“You are not to blame, Your Majesty. At the time, we didn’t realize the child’s true identity until after the Cradle began its ascension. It is we who bears the responsibility of making up for our negligence,” said Carim.
“What is she like? This Vivio girl?” asked the Kaiser.
“She’s a good girl although it takes her a while to eat all of her vegetables at dinner time,” replied Nanoha. Yes, Vivio may have managed to accept green peppers as part of her diet but she’s still a bit picky about eating other vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts.
“Is she cared for? Is she happy and safe?”
Yuuno nodded. “Yes she is. Nanoha-san here is the girl’s adopted mother.”
The sudden revelation caused most of Olivie’s attention to focus right on the Ace of Aces. “You?”
“Yes. Do you have a problem with me continuing to care for Vivio?” She had to admit that the moment when she learned the true identity of that woman, the thought of her child leaving her to live with her true biological parent passed through her mind. And it scared her a bit.
“No. Because I wasn’t there for her… because I couldn’t save her from the fate of being the Cradle’s Key, I don’t have the right to make those kinds of choices,” replied Olivie quietly.
“Even though it’s beyond dispute that you share the same blood as her?” pressed Carim.
“If she doesn’t want anything to do with me, I can accept that. But before I can step out quietly, I want to make sure she will be properly looked after. Who’s in charge of her security?”
It was a bit surprising to see her change from a self-hatred emotional state to a commanding presence. Then again, this is the Kaiser herself. And plus the fact that she’s now a parent meant she had to continue projecting that sense of confidence properly in front of her son.
“Uh, I don’t think we have a full security detail in place but if I were to guess, it would be Nanoha-san who looks after that,” said Subaru.
“So you’re saying that Ms. Nanoka here is capable of protecting the child?”
“It’s Nanoha, Your Majesty,” corrected Carim. “And she is one of the strongest mages on this world.”
“Is that so?” After some thought, Olivie glanced at the Ace of Aces. “I’m going to put that to the test. Start warming up.”
“… … Eh?”
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(Posted Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:56)
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