The Sneaker Novel Summary

[arhel.livejournal.com]

There is a light novel series that started being serialized in The Sneaker magazine in their June issue (published actually at the end of April due to the way Japanese magazines number their issues) dealing primarily with the Knights of Rounds. It's a little too long to fully translate, but contains some interesting information about the setting and characters.

While this is an official side story, I'm not sure if any of the information will come up in the anime series proper, and they may change details as necessary for the anime plot, so please take it with a grain of salt.



Plot Summary

The story's written in third person, using Gino's POV, and relates how he and Anya first meet Suzaku.

1) The story opens with Tristan and Mordred decimating an EU base. The EU recognize them as KoR by their KMFs. Anya stops to take a picture of a rabbit.

2) They return to Britannia to report to Beatrice (see characters), and receive their next assignment to sit around the palace and chill.

3) Gino receives an invitation to an exhibition match with the newly appointed Knight of Seven

4) KMF duel happens while the Emperor and various nobles watch. Both Suzaku and Gino hold back to drag out the fight for longer than necessary.

5) Story ends with Gino escaping Beatrice's fury (Gino lost the match due to being more concerned with testing Suzaku's abilities than seriously fighting for points) by literally dragging Suzaku off to an impromptu welcome party at his house. Anya railroads Cecile into helping her deterr Beatrice to cover for the boys.

About Characters

Suzaku:

-is discriminated against in Britannia due to being an Eleven. A lot of the nobility disapproved of his promotion to KoR.

-his military rank is 准将 (Brigadier-General) at this point.

-still uses polite language to Cecile even though he technically outranks her, and apologizes like a sad little boy when she gets mad at him.

Gino:

-is the fourth son of a prestigious noble family, raised in isolation in a seperate estate from his parents.

-while it's hard to tell the difference between in-world pretty and generic anime attractive in anime itself, the novel author makes it clear that Gino is supposed to be unusually handsome and capable of charming most women with just a smile if he were so inclined.

-believes that only "weak" people are qualified to be knights. This is a little hard to interpret, but the gist of the idea is that a "strong" person would be unable to prevent themselves from trying to fight the fact that, when it all comes down to it, a knight's job is to kill people. Whereas a "weak" person can be a good knight because they're able to use excuses and self-deception to soothe their conscience in order to keep doing their job. This philosophy is somehow related to a girl from his past.

-first impression of Suzaku is that he's "lost something fundamental to a human being". Also thought he was the same age as Anya.

-knows the language of flowers (whut)

Anya:

-doesn't know how to use formal forms of speech.

-is bad at paperwork and gets chewed out by Beatrice for it.

-is very competitive or just likes to fight, offering to substitute for Gino in the duel even though her Mordred isn't a melee KMF.

-is probably skilled in some form of martial arts, possibly swordsmanship, as she acted as a bodyguard for the Emperor during the exhibition match. Gino said something along the lines of "don't slash at people again just because you don't recognize a new maid".

Other characters:

-the manager in charge of the KoR (and all security matters relating to the Emperor) is a secretary general and duchess named Beatrice Phalanx, a retired KoR nicknamed "Lost Sword". She has long hair, glasses, is strict and humorless and always addresses the other KoR by title.

-Euphemia is known as the "massacre princess" even to the Britannians.

About the KoR

-there aren't currently 12 of them, even though there are 12 designated seats. Seven was an empty seat before Suzaku was promoted, so he didn't kick anyone out. It's possible that the KoR we saw in Ep2 are the only ones currently active.

-aside from One's special priviledges, the numbers in the KoR do not mean anything in terms of rank.

-KoR normally address each other by first name.

-have charter planes to cart them around when not in combat.

-each KoR has an R&D team dedicated to development and maintenance of their KMF; for Lancelot, this is Lloyd and Cecile's Camelot unit. The abilities of each custom KMF depend on the skills of their technicians and what effort they put into various aspects of the mecha. Lancelot has better melee capabilities than Tristan.

-both Suzaku and Gino were addressed as 騎士公 ("knight-duke"), although it's unclear whether this is the standard aristocrat title for KoR (as opposed to, say, Marianne, who was a 騎士侯 ("knight-marquess")).

Comments

[faye-naruse.livejournal.com]

Interesting :)

Seven was an empty seat before Suzaku was promoted, so he didn't kick anyone out.
My sister and I were wondering about that cuz that would have been pretty sad if he had just kicked someone out XD

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank you so much for the information! Is it possible to have you write a (relatively) full summary of the side story? I've been really curious about this for a while. In exchange, I can scan in some pictures from my copies of Newtype and Animage as well as Queen/Knight 3 when they arrive tomorrow :3

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Welcome =)

Hmm. How detailed are you looking for? A complete translation would take awhile because I would have to rewrite it as prose (and it's some 12 pages of magazine text) but I can probably do a narrative summary when I get some time this weekend?

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

While I would worship you if you wrote a complete translation, I don't want to pressure you into it if you don't want to. If you could do a narrative summary with possibly a few lines of translated text, that'd be ridiculously awesome! :D

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Aight, I'll see what I can do this weekend then =)

[eevaleena.livejournal.com]

A lot of interesting facts! Thanks for sharing ^^

[able.livejournal.com]

I'm loving the whole Gino sidestory. can not wait for it 83

[arhel.livejournal.com]

This is the first in a supposed series of short stories relating to the KoR. I'm not sure whether the next story will focus on Gino again, or switch POVs to someone else, but it should be interesting background information nevertheless.

[implication.livejournal.com]

*watches several fic bunnies get blow to tiny bloody pieces*

I've been wondering about a lot of this since they KoR were introduced. So nice to finally have a little more information on them x3

[huntress-9.livejournal.com]

Euphemia is known as the "massacre princess" even to the Britannians.

i wonder if the britannians sees this as a good or bad thing.

and thanks for the translations ^__^

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Given their reactions I don't think it's a positive thing ^^;

[saverellawish.livejournal.com]

believes that only "weak" people are qualified to be knights. This is a little hard to interpret, but the gist of the idea is that a "strong" person would be unable to prevent themselves from trying to fight the fact that, when it all comes down to it, a knight's job is to kill people. Whereas a "weak" person can be a good knight because they're able to use excuses and self-deception to soothe their conscience in order to keep doing their job. This philosophy is somehow related to a girl from his past.
I'm liking Gino finally. He seems to be more than just an over grown kid running around with a mecha. His observation of Suzaku was spot on too.

Gino said something along the lines of "don't slash at people again just because you don't recognize a new maid"
I like Anya XD

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Part of why I wanted to translate that novel, I think it gives some insight on the characters that the anime might not really have time to develop yet. How much of it they are going to use is another question though ^^;

[saverellawish.livejournal.com]

True, and its kind of sad too. The KoR all seem like interesting people, and it would make more sense to know why they're one of KoR, and why they're the rank they are for that matter (now that I think about what you said about Suzaku's rank), and why they're fighting for Britannia rather than just remaining a simple knight or soldier.

I do hope the anime gets to explaining some though.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing all this information <3 Gino is one of my favorite characters.

BTW just taking a stab, but from what I remember when planning my wedding, different flowers have different meanings (like a yellow rose==jealousy) so I would guess this means Gino knows all the flowers and meaning. ^^;

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Yep. He goes on about a Cineraria in Beatrice's vase and how it means "always cheerful". It was just kind of random :P

[rkold.livejournal.com]

That just makes me love him more, it is a sort of random skill, but oddly seems very Gino. It probably helps him charm people lol

It's too bad it's novel, I would have loved to have seen him drag off Suzaku

thank you again, I do appreciate the info. :D

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Suzaku was being all stiff and formal, but Gino being in a hurry to get away claps a hand over Suzaku's mouth and literally hauls him off. "But I have a report to write- mmffff!!" was how it turned out.

Welcome =)

[rkold.livejournal.com]

And thus makes my awful awful inner fangirl squee. I suspect that sets the tone for the rest of their relationship.

But again I can't thank you enough, how often will these be coming out?

[arhel.livejournal.com]

It's serialized in The Sneaker, which is a bi-monthly magazine, so I assume end of... June? for the next one. This issue was published on 4/30.

[rkold.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, hopefully by then the Knights will have all done more within the actual series as well.

Oh, one more question, so what form of "I" does Gino use? Is he "ore", "boku" or something else? I've not caught it when watching the episodes.

[arhel.livejournal.com]

In the novel, only "jibun" (standard formal pronoun used towards superiors), because the only time he uses a first person pronoun is when addressing Beatrice.

In the anime it was "watashi", just the once when addressing the Glaston Knights prior to beating them up. It's unclear whether he uses something else while chatting with friends because it's never come up yet ("watashi" is a little odd for an (anime) male teenager, but considering his rank and background it's quite possible).

[sukiyakiya.livejournal.com]

So anya using a sword too then? *check* I love her more :D

[rainbow-cnxn.livejournal.com]

There was totally not massive amounts of squeeing that just happened. Nope, none at all. >_>

[kamina.livejournal.com]

I don't usually do this, but,

[arhel.livejournal.com]

Erm... are you alright there? ^^;

[http://users.livejournal.com/tsubaki_/]

zomfg, thanks for the information!

[kadekmoment.livejournal.com]

omg ♥ If you do summarize it completely, I'd love to see that too. But thank you so much for sharing! I've been waiting for more backstory on the Knights ever since their designs came out.

[jusrecht.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the info! Now, at least we know a little more about Gino...

[zinik-alexander.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot for such great details.

[kerina.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, thank you so much for this. ♥ I was hoping we'd get more information on the KoR, seems like my wish was granted! <3

[furato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

Suzaku and Cecile's relationship is really cute, it's almost like siblings. Maybe they do find family in each other...

[arhel.livejournal.com]

She seems more of a surrogate mom ^^;

[angel-katsumi.livejournal.com]

OMG!! Thanks for the precious informations!!!! :Q___ I bet that this is a very important piece! I'm glad to know much about Gino, is one of my favourite characters of this second season!!

Infinitely thanks!!! >___<3<3<3

[x-drear-x.livejournal.com]

Oh so very interesting! This is a serialization, yes? Can't wait for more.

[fujiappletan.livejournal.com]

Euphemia is known as the "massacre princess" even to the Britannians.


...WOW.

[csakura.livejournal.com]

oh this sounds really exciting! never really interested in code geass spin-offs, but im definitely going to look into this one for sure! *fangirl jumps up and down

[volfield.livejournal.com]

I love these little bits of info, thank you so much ♥