Marcus looked at the world's map on a huge screen in his workshop.
If he can't find his sister, then he might as well lure her to him.
But to do that, he needs a location.
He won't do that in Pacific or even Asia, no…
His eyes ended on a city that made him double-check the name of it.
'Constantinople? Are you serious?'
The Inventor Prince walked closer to the map. He needed to be sure his eyes were not lying.
As a fan of history, Roman history included, to have this city called by its Roman name was something else!
'Does it mean Byzantine didn't fall to Ottomans?'
Honestly, he needed to visit the city now!
He began to read up on the history available online. Mostly propaganda posted by Euro Britannia. To miss the 'landmines', he used Legion to cross-reference the validity.
Regardless, for now, he forgot the schemes done by Schneizel and Merrybell.
After a while, he got interrupted.
"Marcus." A familiar voice of his girlfriend got his attention.
"Mh?"
He turned around and looked at Leila and Jeanne standing side by side. What got his attention was the clothes.
They were dressed in purple and black military uniforms.
"Not bad, so we finally got proper female version uniforms." He commented with a smile.
"Indeed, but don't know what my rank is. In the E.U. I was Lieutenant, and soon to be Lieutenant Commander, but in your faction, I have no idea." Leila crossed her arms while complaining to him.
"Your rank is my girlfriend, which is around General." He joked back, making her blush.
"...wouldn't that be nepotism?" She concluded.
"Maybe, I do come from the biggest Empire this world has seen. That makes it our second nature." He continued to joke.
"You Royals are something else."
"...Wait… you are his lover?" Jeanne's brain finally caught up.
"I said 'among other things' that the spectrum is wide." Leila clarified to her.
"But don't worry, he is practising the same thing his father became famous for." The blonde commented with a smile as she looked at the girl to her side.
"..."
The knight girl looked speechless.
"Regardless, now that you have adjusted a bit, Jeanne. I want you to show me your prowess while piloting a mobile suit." Marcus changed the subject as he got up from his seat and walked over.
"If you impress me, you will pilot a custom machine meant only for you.
Do you understand?" The Inventor Prince asked as he looked at her.
"I-I understand." She seriously nodded.
"Good. Then we can start." He nodded back as he then motioned for them to follow him.
The group left his spacious workshop and walked through the corridors to one of the hangars in the Solomon Base.
"What have you been reading on?" Leila asked him as her shoulder touched his, she asked him once she got close.
"I think I will start a legitimate conquest instead of waiting for rebellion to start." He said to her.
His reply made her stop for a second. Her brain tried to process how A led to B. How checking a city led to him trying to conquer the world in this way.
"...How did you reach such a conclusion?" Leila asked him, a bit concerned.
"I have forgotten how beautiful the world is." He said to her.
"..."
At that moment, her left eye turned into Geass as she looked at him.
Marcus smiled as he made eye contact with her.
His emotions connected to her as she realised that he was excited. His excitement was borderline childish.
The girl realised that he had found something that made him excited like that.
He can't explain to her in a way that she could understand. Not yet, anyway, maybe on a later day.
"...I see… I do understand, even though it is a bit strange."
Leila is finding it a bit strange that she needs Geass to keep up to understand his actions.
"I will start with Constantinople—the old Capital of the ancient Eastern Roman Empire.
As people say, men at least once a day think of the Roman Empire." The Inventor Prince joked at his own joke.
"...I see… well, we have the means to wage conquest, but we don't have the actual manpower to keep and maintain large swaths of land." Leila tried to play along as she tried to use her logical thinking to assist him.
"I know. We can think of something along the way." He smiled back at her assistance. He knows what he is saying sounds a bit crazy, but he finds it cute how she, even when it's crazy, is trying to assist him.
The trio arrived at the hangar, where there were several assembled Setanta mass-produced mobile suits and opposite to them were rows of Simulation Spheres.
Many of the spheres were in use, but there is a considerable amount that are free. The base was built with the intention that it would be massive, so there is room for growth.
"Jeanne, get into one. The AI will explain how this works." He said while looking at the simulation machines.
"Understood."
The girl walked close to one; she was about to ask how to get in, but the AI already opened the hatch for her.
Soon enough, the slender girl was inside the sphere.
Meanwhile, Leila, next to Marcus, reminded him of Jeanne's situation.
"She is still malnourished, don't push her too much." The blonde sounded worried.
"Not my intention, this is a Britannian aptitude test. I am not planning anything else."
After a couple of moments, Legion summoned a Hologram before Marcus. He saw Jeanne ace basic movements, then basic shooting tests.
Soon enough, the testing got more difficult, like running through an obstacle course inside a mobile suit.
All of them were easily passed.
Something all the basic pilots did. But then it switched to combat, and sure enough, the girl showed her prowess in bladed weapons.
The girl was a close-range fighter, and on top of that was good with a long-distance rifle.
Midway, Leila's expression was that of surprised awe.
Her gaze then snapped and looked at him.
"H-How did you know she was THIS good?" The blonde asked him, her voice was full of curiosity.
"A hunch." He replied while looking at Jeanne performing.
"Legion, she meets the criteria for a KK-Unit, right?" Marcus asked his AI.
[Most definitely]
His AI sounded certain that it would be a good choice.
"Yes. Pity Suzaku wants to keep piloting his Lancelot." The Inventor Prince is a bit dissapointed that his childhood friend wants to pilot an inferior model of machinery.
Knightmares simply can't keep up against Mobile Suits.
"As you can see, my knight will be one of a kind." Marcus then looked at Leila.
"This, considering that I want Jeremiah at the head of my armies, next to Cornelia." The Prince explained to his girlfriend.
"You still haven't told me what my position is!" The girl got back at that.
"You seriously bothered by that?" He replied with an amused expression.
"Of course!" She puffed her cheeks a bit.
"Well, darling, remember that you are my girlfriend. Once we marry, what is going to be your position? Use your expressive mind to predict that."
He grinned when he saw her blush. His explanation caused her mind to fantasise a bit before focusing back on what was important.
"...I-I see… it does make sense when you put it like that!"
As they were chatting, the rest of the trainees noticed Jeanne's performance.
"W-Who is that girl? She is better than Kururugi!"
Marcus snapped at that remark as he checked the comparisons.
'That guy is right. She indeed has better reaction speed and is better at melee.'
"No way… she is almost as good as Kouzuki!"
"As expected from the Prince, he is collecting the best of the best."
Some of them even praised Marcus for his talent at collecting people.
"...Do they know that you're kidnapping people?" Leila whispered to him, and there was a small smirk on her lips.
"Shhh, that's a state secret." Marcus placed his finger on her lips.
"You need to persuade me to keep such secrets~."
The Exiled Prince chuckled before pulling her for a hug.
"We can have a date or two, now that I have a bit of time."
"Deal~"
~~~
Marcus' excitement was concerning for some people as they wondered what had got into him.
Not that it would be easy to explain, as someone who is from a parallel Earth, how could they understand him?
The territories, the cities, and even the histories were different in this world.
He could find so much new stuff on this parallel Earth that it makes him excited even more!
Now that he realised, he should study a bit on the differences between the worlds.
'My history marks were the only bad marks now that I think about it.'
Marcus stroked his chin. But then shrugged and continued to design the core piece of his first space infrastructure.
Now that his motivation is through the roof, he even started to hum Bury the Light.
"...That reminds me."
He checked his Katana. The handle was purple…
He needs to change that!
"I need to give you a name… and I know what it will do for you." The Exiled Prince grinned as he swiftly went to change the colour of the handle and carve a specific word on the blade.
It will be Yamato!
Regardless, after a short distraction, he continued to work on the core piece.
His works made the fellow scientists a bit concerned as they had never seen him work that much. After finishing his Tiranis, his pace went down a bit.
But now they are finally seeing the speed that created the mobile suits.
"Umm… I thought we would use 3rd generation for the space industries." Nina poked her head into Marcus' workshop.
Now that the majority of people have moved to Solomon Base, everyone has their space and workshops.
"Second generation is good enough. I will simply add a rotating piece for living quarters."
He showed her Codename SWORD.
A space station shaped like a sword.
There was a circular piece at the top, which was rotating around the sword-like part.
"The refineries, assembly lines, and the port will be located at the long part, while people will be living at this rotating part," Marcus explained with his finger on the hologram.
"You will be able to test the 3rd generation fusion reaction in space. On Earth, we could struggle to perceive gravity to see if it works properly." Marcus explained with an excited look.
His hype was infectious as the girl slowly nodded at him with a smile.
"Okay, I understand."
With that said, Marcus returned to the core piece design. It will be a Fusion Reactor that he will send into space, followed by a refinery, and Legion Bot maintenance facilities.
It will be automated.
'That reminds me.'
Marcus swiftly added a particle cannon at the bottom of the station.
This was to satisfy his darling older sister, who wants orbital bombardment capabilities in any of his space stuff.
'Things I do to satisfy my family.' The Inventor Prince sighed as he checked the data for orbital bombardment.
He needs to ensure that what he is creating will work. If it's too big, he could cause something like nuclear winter.
Therefore, it must be hot enough to melt everything.
'So basically a big version of my rifle.'
However, a big rifle is so basic that he needs something flashier.
So a magnetic particle accelerator?
'Hmm… I need to test this.'
With that said, he decided to make prototypes for this.
If only Cornelia saw him, she would shake her head and think he was stupid. After all, both of them blow things up.
What's the difference?
Not that it would take that much time. Both technologies already exist. So it's a simple test to see which one is flashier and better at 'Aura Farming' as they say.
Once the winner is decided, the explosions will look greater than ever!