Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Just a quick author’s note before the chapter starts, if you wish to skip it, be my guest! Some of you may be aware of the old version of this fic, well it’s gone. I no longer have all the chapters saved anymore, so I’m not going to bother with an archive. If I have time I’ll upload the old chapters on my discord.

Why did I restart it? Because as you’ll likely read, this version of the fic changes quite a bit of things, gives Anya a reason for existing, and tries to give Tanya a proper character arc as well as fix some other minor things.

I don’t like restarting fics, but this is just one of those cases where I have to.

Also this chapter is absurdly long since it was originally meant to be two, however since we don't get till operation strix till the third chapter in my original plan, I’ve combined chapter one and two into a single (very long) prologue! Don’t expect future chapters to be nearly this long.

Have fun!

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

XXXXXX XXX, XXXX

Beyond the Mortal Plane

Deep within the highest reaches of the heavenly plane, the King of Kings rested, sitting atop his throne as he glanced down at the world below. The world was caught in the midst of a ‘Great War’, a war to end all wars as the people of that world believed, but he knew better.

Great Wars were a consistent trend among his worlds as they emerged into a modern era, and this world was no exception to the rule. What made this world stand out wasn’t the people of the world, their actions, or the course history seemed to be taking in it. No, similar events have occurred in dozens of worlds before it and would continue happening in dozens after, for all of eternity.

What made this world of particular interest to the heavenly king was a single person; a little girl who had so aggressively refused his mercy, his miracles, his greatness that she had even managed to resist the influence of a holy artifact meant to forcefully convert her into a saint.

It would’ve been impressive if it did not infuriate him so much. All this added onto the fact that she refused to acknowledge him for what he believed he ought to be; a god, the true creator of the world and its inhabitants. No, she gave him a much more crude title: “Being X,” as if he were just another living mortal being whom she didn’t know the name of.

He had originally taken pity on the sinner, someone who lived their life with little empathy and far less faith to support them in their times of crisis. He had planned to offer them a better life, hoping that his direct intervention would lead them onto the righteous holy path. In the past, simply speaking to a person would’ve been enough to get them on their knees in prayer. Yet for them, it seemed to have the opposite effect, in fact.

The sinner had spited him, effectively spat in his face, with their actions against the heavens’ grace. He would not, could not, take that standing down. If religion was only for those in ‘dire straits,’ then he would put her in the same dire straits she believed incited faith.

And that’s what he did, and that's what led him here. He reincarnated the sinner into the body of a little girl, forcing them into a world prone to war on a side guaranteed to fight. Before long, they had been dragged into it as an aerial mage in the midst of the harshest war that the world had ever seen.

In the end, the experiment failed. Even with the miracle Type 95 Computation Jewel that was meant to instill a holy faith into her forcibly, she still despised him with every inch of her body, and the feeling was mutual, at least to an extent.

The truth was that while he despised Tanya Degurechaff, he was a god of many worlds, managing countless domains with countless struggles. In each one, a decline in faith was a consistent trend. It was a minor crisis that needed to be fixed, Degurechaff was but one of many experiments in that regard. Sure, she was a particularly frustrating experiment, but that was all she came to in the end.

He could only get as mad at her as one would to a cake they had dropped onto the floor, ruining it. Sure, it was frustrating to have all that effort be for naught, for the hours spent planning and baking had been wasted, and he was certainly angry, but he would forget about it in a minuscule amount of time. Given a few decades, he would forget about her entirely. He had lived for eons, after all. The anger generated in less than a measly 20 years wasn’t worth fretting over for any longer than a few decades.

Besides, he had hardly paid attention to her during most of that time. His focus was on other agendas, even within her own world. The Russy Federation became his primary target. Tanya Degurechaff was an experiment, one that seemed to enjoy pissing him off on a personal level, but she wasn’t a problem , per se. The Russy Federation, a communist state in Eastern Europa, however, was.

He had influenced the Russy Federation into a war with the Empire, not to crush the Empire or Degurechaff, but instead in hopes that the Empire would crush the Federation, better still if it caused more trouble for Tanya, killing two birds with one stone. In the long term, however, the Empire was now slowly collapsing under the weight of its many enemies across the world.

It wasn’t without its benefits, and even despite the Empire’s impending loss in the war, they achieved what Being X hoped; they had destabilized the Russy Federation. In a move that was ironically pushed for and suggested by Degurechaff herself, the Empire began collaborating with ethnic groups to form civilian governments in their occupation.

These civilian governments gave the ethnic minorities who so aggressively despised communism an opportunity to experience greater freedoms that they wouldn’t soon forget. The foundations were set, all that was needed was a little manipulation and the exhausted Russy Federation would come crumbling down, taking its anti-religious policies with it.

However, his negligence with Degurechaff wasn’t without its consequences. While he was busy with his other affairs, Degurechaff had begun amassing a small web of influences. While she wouldn’t, couldn’t get out of the front lines during the war, she would no doubt be well set for the war’s impending end.

Although he could extend the war for perhaps another year at most, that year would only allow Degurechaff to spread her influence even more. Although he hated to admit it, there was only so far he could really go in manipulating the world and its people before it started causing problems. His Angels wouldn’t take too kindly if he manipulated free will too much, and they would rebel.

His angels were loyal, but they also had some semblance of free will. If they got mad, usually when the free will of humanity is challenged, they would protest, which while not much danger to him was a headache to deal with and would mean a few centuries of fixing the mess. It was better off letting this one cake burn itself in the oven compared to having to repair the oven itself.

Although he would soon move on from Degurechaff and her antics, he despised the possibility of sending her back into the cycle of reincarnation. Contrary to many religious beliefs based around him, hell didn’t exist, not in a conventional sense at least. If a soul did not reach salvation, it would be reincarnated over and over again until it reached it, resulting in its eventual enlightenment even if it took millennia of crossing over hundreds of worlds.

Reincarnating Degurechaff felt like letting her out without any punishment at all for her annoyances, even if she wouldn’t remember any of her lives in her reincarnation. There was no hell to really send her to, and destroying her soul felt like a waste and yet another escape without punishment since she was quite worthless in the grand scheme of things. 

Yet there was another possibility. Sure, hell didn’t exist, but he could make one. A personal hell for her to relive over and over again for the rest of time itself. He would take all the worst battles and experiences over her second life and piece them together in a single never-ending battle. She would spend the rest of eternity desperately fighting over the skies of the Rhine. Each time she died, it would begin again as if it had never stopped, leaving her ever-aware that she was fighting a perpetually-losing battle.

Yes, it would be a perfect hell for the war-lusting devil; an eternal hell in a battlefield that never ends, all perfectly forged and hidden deep within her Computation Jewel which will serve as a capsule for her soul to remain to rot away.

Was it a bit cruel? For anyone else he’d agree, but to him Degurechaff had it coming. There would be no third chances for that devil. The Devil of the Rhine would be brought down, and after that he would leave this world; it had failed him.

He had thousands upon thousands of worlds, he had discarded worlds many times. Of course, he would still benefit from their faith and their souls would still be brought into the cycle of reincarnation, but something about the world itself left a foul taste in his mouth. He didn’t want to look at it any more than he had to. Out of sight, out of mind, after all, and he had other marbles of worlds to experiment with.

He’ll banish the world out of his view so that he may forget about it and forget about Degurechaff, like a bad day in a long year of business. 

The question now was how to properly end the Devil’s Saga. In the end, he decided to not end it with a whimper or a triumphant cry, but rather… with a bang .

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

August 8th, 1929

Amstelerdam, The Empire

Tanya Degurechaff let out a loud sigh of exhaustion as she pulled her shovel out of the chest of the last mage, allowing his bleeding corpse to plummet to the ground below, splattering on the pavement of the city far below her.

This was all exhausting, she was nearing her limit. Although her limit was high thanks to the Type 95, even she had a limit. Of course, she could easily handle a few more hours of fighting, but her battalion likely wasn’t so lucky.

Looking around her, the rest of the battalion had finished off their respective targets. The last of the mages in the current wave had been killed off or fled the battlefield.

She glanced down at the shovel in her hands, stained now with a fresh red paint of someone else’s blood. Just how many people had she killed in this war? She lost count, she lost the ability to care. Human Resources were wasted in such numbers that she became numb to the loss.

The smell of death was in the air, it was a smell she had once despised but now knew nothing but. She wasn’t sure if the smell would ever leave her mind. The metallic smell of blood filled every battlefield she found herself in, the sights and sounds of which she would not soon forget.

None of that mattered though. The horrors of war could be reflected upon after the war, an event they weren’t yet at. Tanya looked up at the sky, the end of the war was in sight, but they weren’t to be the victors. And to think they were so close!

Tanya felt the need to be frustrated, but she just couldn’t. She felt defeated, if anything. The small amount of pride that she once felt for the Empire and her desire to bring it victory had faded, replaced with her original desire to just survive .

But it was no longer just her, there were others now, too. When she had first forged her battalion they were little more than meatshields for her own survival. But she had gone through hell with these people, and though she lost many throughout the war, enough to be desensitized to their deaths, losing all of them when the end of the war was so close would be more than a waste, it would be a tragedy.

Being X destined for her life to be hell. She knew that once this war was over, it was likely only the start of Being X’s torment. Her next life wouldn’t be a pleasant one and was hardly one to look forward to, but her battalion was different. Being X hadn’t set his sights on them; they weren’t his enemies. They had long, potentially happy lives ahead of them.

She did not.

It was a frustrating thing to have your happiness completely in the control of another that rested far beyond your reach, it was a feeling Degurechaff was unfortunately stuck with.

She would finish this war, and her battalion would come out alive . She’ll face whatever challenge Being X will bring to her, but she would not take her Battalion down with her.

Tanya glanced down from her introspection to find Viktoriya approaching her rapidly, slowing down as she got close. Saluting, she declared, “Enemy mage forces have been routed, ma’am. They seem to be retreating en masse!”

Below them was a major city of the Empire. The Western nations had managed to land on the shores of occupied Franqois, launching this world’s equivalent of D-Day. Now they had pushed back to the Rhine, and with the Empire’s mage corps spread thin, mages had begun launching raids on the Empire’s industrial capacity in the Lowlands. It was for this reason that the 203rd was now on the rear guard, protecting what cities they could even if they were miles from the front line.

Yet there was something strange about this raid. They had failed to strike most of the industry, they seemed too distracted with the Anti-Air’s pressure on them, taking them out before they even began. The result was minimal damage to the industry while the 203rd was able to inflict significant casualties.

Yet despite their casualties, most of their unit was still left standing, nearly outnumbering the 203rd two to one. It was odds Tanya was willing to bet on with her 203rd, but for them to flee so soon, were they aware of the 203rd’s strength?

“Why would they be fleeing without even trying to achieve their targets? They spent so long taking out our air defenses that they nearly didn’t notice us. We’re they so scared of guns meant to take down planes? Why would- Unless…” Tanya muttered as she slowly raised her head to the sky again.

Now, piercing through the sky was a large group of planes emerging from the thick clouds. At the center of the massive escort of fighters were but three bombers, several mages underneath them that seemed to specialize in speed and height, using new magi-tech invented by the Unified States.

“Enemy bomber raid spotted! Although they only came with three bombers. What’s their plan? Do you think it's a trap?” Viktoriya seemed confused, and for any normal person, an air raid of three bombers was largely insignificant compared to what the West was able to pull off usually.

But Tanya could tell what this was. In her head, she heard a voice echo out, a voice that she so despised declaring, “It’s about time we end this, devil. Our game is over, rest in an eternal hell where you shall know no peace!”

The voice was undeniably Being X. Tanya clenched her fist in frustration.

‘So this is how he wants to end it? Take me out by bringing on the modern era. I suppose if there’s no Japan to use it on, why not use it on the Empire? Alright Being X, I’ll play your game. Even if I succeed in surviving here, you’ll just find another way, won’t you? Ah, well if I’m going down, I’m going down swinging!’

Tanya turned to Viktoriya, her face grim yet firm, her eyes glaring with fury, determination, and strangely enough sadness. She waved her arm and ordered, “Take the battalion and fall back. Retreat as fast as you can. Now!”

Viktoriya seemed concerned and somewhat concerned, “B-But we haven’t received orders to-“

“We don’t have time to wait for orders! Go! Now!” Tanya yelled.

“But…”

“GO! NOW!”

Viktoriya nodded, grabbing her jewel as she ordered the battalion to retreat at the order of their commander.

Tanya looked back towards the sky now, and with a heavy sigh, she grabbed her jewel, clenching it tightly as she loathed what she had to do next. “I pray to you god, grant your mercy upon these sinners that I must strike from this world. Give me the strength to save the Empire!”

Tanya shot up like a rocket into the sky, rifle raised at the mage escort of the bombers which rushed forward to challenge her. She fired her rifle one by one, blasting their barriers and piercing through them.

As she approached the swarm of mages she spun herself around, slamming her foot through the barrier of another mage, shattering his ribs and knocking him to his death on the surface below as his gun flew away.

Mages all around her began to fire en masse, bullets bouncing off her barrier before she launched up higher. She had no time to fight all of them, she had a target and it needed to be destroyed.

She aimed her rifle towards the sky, steadying it onto the bomber at the very center of the escort. It would only take one shot and she could create an explosion that would take out all three of the bombers, giving one last ‘fuck you’ to Being X.

She found herself pushing harder than she ever had before, pushing the Type 95 and herself to their limits. Every last ounce of mana in her body slowly drained out for one last shot.

As she got closer to being in range of the plane, she counted down the seconds.

‘Three…’

‘Two…’

‘One…’

A bang echoed throughout the battlefield as Tanya’s finger left the trigger, her rifle falling out of her hands. She stared down at her chest, blood staining her mage gear and uniform, a hole ripped right through the coat that she wore by the hundreds of bullets that had been fired her way. She then looked up at the sky, the planes flying forth unfazed, slowly approaching their target.

Tanya’s flight formulas gave way as she fell towards the ground. Silently she muttered, “That’s it then, huh?”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The 203rd flew steadily away from the city. Although they had rushed out of its immediate vicinity, for the sake of conserving mana they now hustled away at a steady pace.

Although they made it out quickly and followed their commander’s orders, most weren’t sure as to why she gave those orders. Sure, there was a bombing raid coming, but it was pretty hard for bombers to hit mages, and the 203rd was pretty good at handling any fighters that tried.

The mages escorting them would certainly be a problem, but they probably would’ve been able to tough through it given enough time. Even still, if they weren’t likely to, why would she tell them to leave, but not herself?

It wasn’t like Tanya to tell her battalion to outright retreat for the sake of personal glory. If she wanted to take down a threat herself, all she had to do was say so and the Battalion would stand by and happily let her do it.

As the battalion flew away, Viktoriya stopped, turning back to look at the city. As the rest of the battalion keeps flying, Weiss turns and joins her, folding his arms. “Why do you think she told us to book it?” Weiss asked, looking down at Viktoriya, a worried expression growing on her face.

“I don’t know… The only other time she deliberately disobeyed orders was…” Viktoriya trailed off.

“During the armistice. She noticed something nobody else did. They didn’t let her go through with what she wanted, but if they had, the war would’ve ended right there. Do you think it’s something like that?” Weiss asked.

Viktoriya nodded. “Yes. But I’m worried about what she fears. Or rather, I’m worried that she hasn’t fled with us. I hope she didn’t try to face whatever it is herself…”

Weiss sighed, “I believe she can handle herself. C’mon, we need to keep going.”

Viktoriya shook her head, grabbing her rifle, “No, I’m going back for her. I don’t know what she wanted us to run from, but it must be dangerous, and that means she’s in danger too!”

Weiss tried to stop her. “Serebryakov, she ordered us to get out of there, she probably had a good reas-”

“If Tanya can disobey orders, then so can I!” Viktoriya blasted off away from Weiss, dashing towards the city at the highest velocity she could manage.

Weiss considered going after her, but whatever their commander had feared so much that required them to run, he wasn’t running his risks with it. “At least come back alive, Serebryakov…”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Tanya saw the planes and mages fade further and further away from her as she fell to the ground. Her vision blurred as she faded in and out of consciousness, her thoughts swirling in her own head.

‘That was a stupid idea from the start… I probably would have lived if I had taken the whole battalion and fled… No, that would’ve risked them being caught up in Being X’s revenge whenever he struck again. My life was over the second Being X declared it to be, it’s for the best that I don’t drag them down with me.’

As Tanya awaited the inevitable feeling of the cold hard ground below her, she instead felt her fall being cushioned. She looked up, her vision stabilizing for a brief moment as she found herself in Viktoriya’s arms.

She could barely keep herself awake, much less speak, but she needed to, and so through sheer willpower alone, she spoke, “V-Visha… G-Get the hell out of here! Now!”

“Then you’re coming with me!” She declared.

Tanya scoffed, “F-Fine! J-Just apply your barrier! Don’t let it fall, not for a second! Not until you’re far from the city!”

“Got it!” Viktoriya exclaimed, launching with all of her speed towards the exit of the city.

Tanya looked up, seeing the front bomber drop a single bomb below. They had but a few seconds left until it hit the ground. Fortunately, Viktoriya pushed herself to her limit, pushing herself as fast as she could as she carried Tanya away.

Suddenly a bright flash emerged from behind her, the shockwave soon meeting them as the two tumbled onto the ground.

Tanya opened her eyes, her body barely holding on to life. Soon she was picked up by Viktoriya, her barrier still active, though a bleeding scar now over her eye where debris had hit her. No doubt there was a good chance that she had been hit with some of the radiation, but fortunately, it was likely little enough that her passive defensive formulas could resist it.

After just a moment, Viktoriya picked Tanya up and continued flying, soon reaching beyond the city, landing on the side of a nearby hill where the cover had protected the area from the blast and even the shockwave.

Viktoriya, still holding Tanya in her arms, finally released her barrier, her breath heavy with exhaustion. “W-We finally… Made it… Who knew a weapon like that existed… No wonder you wanted us to run. Don’t worry, we’ve made it out, soon the war should be over and we-”

Viktoriya stopped talking as she saw the hole shot through Tanya’s chest. Blood had been pouring out of it since the beginning, staining even Viktoriya’s hands with her blood. Medical mages could heal even some of the most critical of wounds, but the wound Tanya had was far beyond what anyone would be able to handle, not that there were any dedicated healing facilities nearby anyways.

Tanya just smiled, her mana flowing through her veins giving her the last ounce of strength to keep herself alive. “So you finally noticed, huh? W-Well I’m grateful you came for me… I-It was… unfortunately pointless.”

Viktoriya’s arms trembled beneath her, barely able to keep a hold of Tanya’s weight, tears welling up in her eyes, “N-No… W-We can get help… T-Theres bound to be a mage with healing magic somewhere I-I…”

Tanya just shook her head, despite how much she would’ve loved to survive it, she knew there really wasn’t any point in trying. She frankly should’ve died minutes ago, her raw adrenaline being the only thing keeping her alive.

Tears were now rushing down her face as she looked around frantically for something, anything that could help her. “B-But… T-The war… I-it’s almost over… J-just a little more and…”

Tanya slowly closed her eyes, leaning her head against her, the last of her strength drained, no longer able to hold on, as she sighed her last wartime sigh. 

Viktoriya just stared at her, a defeated look on her face. She had spent years with Tanya, from the Rhine front to the Southern Continent, to the Federation; everywhere she went during the war, Tanya was right there. She was the closest friend she had, she could even go so far as to consider Tanya as a sister of sorts, although she knew Tanya would likely reject such a comparison.

After all this time, after the years of her childhood she had sacrificed for her country, for it to all be stripped away in the final hour of the war she so nearly ended countless times… She had nothing to say. It was over.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

August 26th, 1929

Outskirts of Berlun, Russy Occupation Zone

The members of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion stood beside a single grave as dirt was placed to fill it. On the tombstone was Tanya’s name as the small coffin had been placed within it. They didn’t get, couldn’t get an official soldier’s funeral, the Empire couldn’t be bothered on account of the fact that it no longer existed.

Her funeral and grave had been organized by the 203rd themselves, believing their commander to deserve a proper goodbye for what she had done. She was buried on the outskirts of Berlun, right near the orphanage where she was originally raised. With it doubling as a church, there was as such a graveyard nearby they were allowed to bury her in.

The members of the 203rd were just about the only ones in attendance with the exception of some officers who knew of Tanya personally. Most wore what formal clothing they had, and those that didn’t have any wore their uniforms out of respect.

Most of the battalion watched in a mournful silence. Despite how terrifying she could be, she was still respected and appreciated as a good leader, not to mention she was only a child thrust into an adult’s war.

Among the battalion, Viktoriya stood out, being the only one openly sobbing and crying out of everyone. Most of the people there had gotten used to death and loss, even if it was someone as important as Tanya. But for Viktoriya, she not only felt closer to Tanya, but she felt as though she could’ve saved her, had she only come sooner. Had she not let Tanya fight on her own, she could’ve helped prevent it in some way.

Tanya had a whole life to live, yet she grew up only knowing war. She had entered the frontlines at nine, and died at fifteen. That was nearly half of her life at war, and even that’s accounting for her time as an infant or toddler when she could barely comprehend existence.

A close friend of Viktoriya, Erya stood beside her, patting her on the back. Erya had hardly known Tanya personally, her death meant little to her in the end. However Viktoriya was still her friend, and she clearly needed the support.

As the last of the dirt was placed onto the grave, Weiss attempted to speak to Viktoriya, however before he could even muster a word, Viktoriya stared at him and turned to leave.

Erya folded her arms and shook her head. “Don’t think too much of it, she’s still mourning. I’m sure she’ll be more open to talk later.”

Weiss sighed, “I suppose you’re right. I feel as though she’s angry about me wanting her to continue retreating with us back then… I’ll have to apologize at some point.”

“I see… Well by the way, if you want a way to the west, I can get you there,” Erya muttered.

“The west? You mean the western occupation zones?” Weiss asked.

“Yes. Things are going to go downhill, and fast. It may be better to be on the western half when it happens. Don’t think this is a personal favor or whatever, I’m making the same offer to whoever I can give it to, mages especially.”

Weiss nodded. “Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll stay here and protect what family I have left. Not many of them can get up and move, you know. The war was hard enough on them as is.”

“I understand. I should catch up to Visha now… Best of luck.”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

XXXXXX XXX, 1957

Outskirts of Berlint, Ostania

The full moon shone over the dark night below, men dressed in dark clothing working through it as they grabbed their shoves and continued to dig. They had only until morning to finish, though several of them were making good progress.

Behind where they dug was a tombstone, one clearly aged after standing for decades now, the name hardly even visible on it anymore. In the aftermath of the war, it seemed few could make a high-quality tombstone, there were far too many that needed to be made, after all; some soldiers were lucky to even get one, and this was clearly one of them.

Overseeing the group of men was an elderly man wearing a white, old, and torn lab coat. The youth had long left his body, and even he understood he only had a few years left in his time, a decade or two at most. But he wanted to leave his country a gift before he went. There was a problem that needed to be solved, a vacuum that needed to be filled. The key to what he sought was buried six feet under.

The man stood and watched with eager eyes before he was approached from the side by another man, this one dressed in a formal black suit, not a single speck of white on his outfit in contrast to the old man. This man was younger, more youthful, although he knew but a fraction of the knowledge the old man possessed.

The younger man folded his arms, unimpressed by the sight of them defiling the grave of a supposed soldier, although considering the fact the grave was mostly filled with orphans, it gave him the impression that they were more likely to dig up a child or a teenager instead.

“Are you sure this is the right place? I understand you worked with them during the war, doctor, but this is the graveyard of an orphanage. The people buried here are almost entirely orphans!”

The doctor shook his head, “Hohoho, I understand your concern, Agent. But you see the name on the tombstone? Tell me, what kind of standard orphan has a ‘von’ in their name? That is a title given expressly to those of nobility, whether they’re born into it or earn it, perhaps through the war college.”

The agent sighed, “I suppose you’re right. I just hope we aren’t defiling the grave of someone not essential to the project. Just what are we after anyways?”

The doctor looked up at the moon in the sky, the moonlight reflecting off his old, wrinkled face. “Long ago, during the Great War, I created a weapon, one that surpassed all others. It was a Computation Jewel of immense power, one that reached heights still unreached to this day. However, that technology was only functional by a divine miracle, and only one person could use it. The Devil of the Rhine, she was called.”

“Wait, you mean that one war hero that got turned into a sort of war-time legend after the war? They were real?” The agent seemed surprised, the doctor couldn’t blame him. The stories of the mage had gotten so out of hand that those who didn’t research history doubted how true it really was.

“Of course. Do you really think both Ostania and Westalis would create the same legend without some sort of base?”

“I suppose not,” The agent mumbled.

“The Devil of the Rhine and the White Silver were originally believed to be two separate people, although historians soon figured out the truth. When the Empire lost the war, the spirit of the people was broken, and so they clung onto whatever war heroes they could during a period where so many of the major figures had been declared as ‘evil warmongerers’ by the rest of the world. The Devil of the Rhine being dead meant that there was nobody to bother accusing her of being such, allowing her to become a symbol of the empire itself during the war. The fact she was there at both the first and last battles of the war certainly helped.”

The agent knew vaguely of the story, the Devil of the Rhine had faded away into wartime legend over the decades, but she was far more well-known during the East-West war several years back. Since then, she had faded into a vague historical fact, something you’d learn about in a book and say ‘Huh, neat’ to. She was by no means forgotten, and many history buffs both within the former Empire and beyond it still took a fascination in her exploits. One of the main causes for speculation among these circles, both now and back then, has always been the strange computation jewel she was supposedly spotted using.

“So you made the computation jewel that allowed her to be absurdly powerful? Why didn’t you make more? If you had even a few more of those the Empire might have even won the war!”

The scientist shook his head, “The problem was that only she could use it. The jewel was otherwise too unstable. However, when she died, she was buried with the jewel. When I had heard of this, I considered hunting it down and taking it for myself again, but I decided against it at the time. But if we take the Jewel, we have two possibilities.”

“And those are?” The agent asked.

“The first is that we use her DNA to recreate her body. Perhaps it was something in her magical composition that allowed her to use the Jewel. It was God’s doing that allowed her to use it, but surely God must have altered her DNA to do it. Alternatively, if that doesn’t work, I may be able to engineer a more stable version of the jewel, or at least a slightly weaker version of it that is stable.”

The agent gazed over at the doctor, “So that’s why you want her corpse? Can you even get DNA from that thing?”

“Of course you can! It’s a bit complicated, but thanks to some recent inventions it's a lot easier. And while I do want a sample from her corpse, her entire corpse is unnecessary. Let the sleeping devil lie, I say. Although how much I would love to bring back she who angered God himself, even I understand the limits of my mortal self.”

The agent found himself ever increasingly exhausted the more he talked to the scientist. There was no doubt within the organization that he was among the best scientists in the former Imperial States, if not the world outright, but he was aging. His ramblings about God, the divine, and how ‘God had abandoned them’ had only grown more and more frequent as time went on. He was only kept on the project, hell, kept employed due to the fact that behind that insane mess of a man was an actually competent scientist, apparently one of the best to actually live, as hard as it was to believe.

The agent personally couldn’t care less. He wasn’t part of the research side of things, he was an agent, meant to get his hands dirty and his feet on the ground. S.N.A.K.E. wasn’t foreign to extraction missions, either. They had a job to fulfill, and for the sake of Ostania, they needed it done effectively.

Project Eve was underway, it was only a question of how well could the scientist manage running it.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

XXXXXX XXX, 1960

S.N.A.K.E. Research Facility, Berlun, Ostania

Something felt… off.

Tanya looked around, was she still alive? Where was she? And who were these men in lab coats?

Immediately Tanya felt confused. Her mind was fuzzy and her memories hazy. She remembered dying, rather vividly in fact, although the second she tried to remember it, her brain recoiled, rejecting it. She felt like there was something after that though. Like there were entire decades of memories that her brain was suppressing. The more she tried to force herself to remember, the more her brain seemed to beg her to stop. Whatever memories have been hidden from her, it seemed it was best if she didn’t remember.

Still, questions remained. The first and most obvious one was, how was she alive? Unfortunately, such a question didn’t seem to have a simple answer, leading her to the next question, where the hell was she?

In front of her were two men and a woman wearing lab coats and basic clothing underneath. They were no doubt researchers, but they didn’t quite seem like doctors one would see in a hospital. She was also standing, yet she felt even shorter than she was in her last life. She looked down at her body and realized that she was basically a toddler, again. With her current size, there was no way she was any older than three years.

Was this some sick joke by Being X? Putting her into yet another life? This time as some sort of science experiment baby?

However, she noticed something around her neck, the Type 95. That was problematic. Either she had been reincarnated with it, or this somehow wasn’t a reincarnation. It was then she realized the scientists were speaking Germanian . The possibility of this being anywhere but her old world was rapidly decreasing. The scientists spoke as if she wasn’t there, although with her head swirling with thoughts, feelings, and all-around nausea, she could hardly focus on the specifics of the conversation.

The scientists spoke of her ‘unnatural behavior’ that seemed to start when they had given her the Jewel. Something along the lines of her looking so lifeless and empty before, but now she was moving around so naturally as opposed to before.

Now that she realized it, she was starting this life later than before. While she wasn’t conscious right out of the womb before, rather it seemed to take a few months until she was fully aware, this time it seemed to take several years. What was she doing at that time? If the words the scientists were saying now were to be believed, she was doing basically nothing. She wandered around like a lifeless husk, obeyed simple commands, but didn’t seem to do much thinking on her own.

Even for a toddler, that didn’t seem right. Toddlers were random, chaotic, and messy. If she wasn’t controlling this body before, surely a normal toddler would’ve just acted normally. But the lifeless way they described how she was before she got the jewel, seems to imply that her body was basically a mindless, soulless husk until she touched the Jewel.

It didn’t really make all that much sense, especially if the Type 95 was the catalyst. Tanya’s best guess was that she was running with only a fraction of her memories before, perhaps all of it being blurred out by the trauma of dying in such a way. Her first death had been quick and mostly painless after all; or rather, the pain only lasted a second. If that was the case, the Type 95 served as a means for her to recover from her amnesia. It was certainly possible, but Tanya’s instincts led her away from that conclusion, not that she had a better one yet.

The scientists took down notes and quickly left, seemingly satisfied with the results of whatever ‘test’ they had been running. Although something caught Tanya’s ear as they left, they called her ‘Tanya.’

Either Being X was fucking with her and giving her a new life with the same name, or this was her body, somehow aged down. Was she a clone of some kind? It would make sense why they call her Tanya then, but it wouldn’t explain how she has her memories. There were a lot of questions, and unfortunately not too many answers for the confused girl, but for now she was content with exploring around her room. She needed to find out more.

As she glanced around her room, the main things that came to immediate notice were the various kid toys and playthings. Crayons, paper, building blocks, even a dollhouse. Definitely things a normal three-year-old would play with but not someone with a mental age of… Now that she thought about it… She couldn’t remember how old she was.

She knew she was about 15 or so when she died, but her memories of her first life were fuzzy, but not in the way that the memories after her death were. She knew she still had the memories of what happened after her death somewhere in the depths of her mind, but for her first life, many of the memories seemed… distant. It felt like she hadn’t lived her first life, but rather learned of it. She knew most things she learned while she lived it, what she learned from a college education was still in her mind, but anything personal had faded; she wasn’t even sure of her old name, age, or gender in her first life. Was this a punishment of Being X or just an effect of being reincarnated for a seemingly third time?

Nevertheless, the dolls and toys littered around appeared untouched. They were all neatly kept in cabinets and boxes, covered in a thin layer of dust from lack of use.

What truly caught Tanya’s eyes however were the decorations in the room. On the back wall opposite the door were two flags and a map. The flag on the left was the same, red, white, and gold flag she remembered; the flag of the Empire. If she wanted a clue to tell her with a hundred percent certainty that this was the same world, that was it. However, the flag on the right was new.

The flag had a yellow square on the right with a black eagle symbol on it with outstretched wings. To the left of the yellow square were single red and black stripes, forming basically the German Flag from her first life. The only difference was that this flag was sideways and the yellow section was far bigger than the rest. A small plaque under it labeled it as ‘The Flag of Ostania’ with another flag under the Imperial one labeling it as ‘The Flag of the Empire,’ not that she didn’t already know that.

She was initially confused at what ‘Ostania’ was, but then she took notice of the map. There she saw the fallen ruins of the once mighty Empire. The central European hegemony had been broken up into smaller pieces, and Ostania appeared to be one of them.

Ignoring the Empire for a brief moment, Tanya found a silent joy in the fact that the Russy Federation had completely shattered. And with the map labeling the year as 1960, it meant there wasn’t all that much of a Cold War. Instead, the Russy Federation had been broken up into various states which seemed to mimic her old world’s Ukraine, Belarus, Caucuses, and the Baltic States. Legadonia, now named Nortica, or more specifically the Confederation of Nortica, even seemed to expand into Finland as well as former Imperial land such as her world’s Denmark.

Frankly, they were lucky to still be a single country after the Great War, but it seems the nationalist government that started the war in the first place was deposed pretty quickly in an attempt to keep the state together. That was Tanya’s assumption, at least; they really had no chance in hell of remaining stable under the former government.

Returning to the Empire, it was fairly clearly broken up into several states. The regions that Tanya knows from her old world as Hungary and Slovakia were under a single country called ‘Hugaria.’ An equivalent to Poland existed in the east under ‘Polonia,’ and the Lowlands were an independent state called ‘Belgica’

Ildoa had even taken much of the Aegean coastline and Dacia even got a small chunk out of the war, although considering their non-existence throughout most of it, they were lucky to even get anything.

What this left was the core of the Empire; the part of the country that was effectively the country’s core, where the language of Germanian was spoken by almost every citizen. It was the hope of most citizens near the end of the war that an Imperial Defeat would still allow for these core central Germanic lands to remain unified. Unfortunately, those hopes seemed to be dashed. In the place of the Empire’s central heartlands were Ostania, Westalis, and Sudstria.

Westalis had borders exactly mimicking the West Germany she knew from before the end of the Cold War. Ostania meanwhile had eastern borders that mimicked the eastern borders of Weimar Germany, East Prussia and all, as well as western borders that mimicked East Germany from before the end of the Cold War in her old world. The last remaining country being Sudstria, consisting of Austria, Bohemia, and Slovania.

Although it wasn’t clear what set of events led to the Empire being split up like it was, Tanya was able to make a rough guess. In the aftermath of the war, she assumed that the Russy Federation had formed a puppet state out of Ostania, much like the Soviets had historically made East Germany in her own world. However, likely due to the Empire’s policy with ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe, in part thanks to Viktoriya’s translations, the ethnic groups protested and collapsed the Federation while it was still weak from the war.

Why the two Germanic states Ostania and Westalis didn’t unify immediately, much less far after, remained unclear to her, however. Her best guess was that there was some conflict keeping them going. Despite the name ‘People’s Republic of Ostania’ being used, Tanya doubted that the state was purely communist, such a state wouldn’t last long right in the middle of a non-communist Europe. The more likely scenario was that the name was a remnant of the former Ostanian government under the Federation’s oversight and that the current government still considers itself the successor to the state originally made there, thus using the same name.

The most likely outcome in her mind was the intervention of foreign powers. If they truly wanted to, it wouldn’t have been hard to provide Westalis with enough weapons and economic aid to simply force Ostania into submission. However, if the major powers of Europe feared an Imperial unification, then she could totally see them keeping the two nations divided indefinitely.

Without the fear of the Federation looming over their shoulders for half a century, the fear of the Empire never had time to truly fade away. The Western powers, as she assumed, were more than content to let the two Germanic states keep fighting each other until they effectively destroyed each other. It was a smart game, albeit dangerous should it ever fail. The second one state did come out on top, they probably wouldn’t be too happy with the major powers of Europe.

Whatever the history likely was, Tanya would have to figure that out later. She seemed to be a mere test subject for now. Her Type 95 being given to her was a clear sign of just what they wanted her for, and if she wanted a safe and secure life in the rear, she couldn’t stay here.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

XXXXXX XXX, 1962

S.N.A.K.E. Research Facility, Berlun, Ostania

It had been a few years now since she had regained consciousness in this body. She had desired to escape sooner, but as she probably should’ve expected, the facility of a highly advanced and secretive research organization was pretty well guarded.

Fortunately for her, the actual security placed on watching her was fairly lax. It seems they didn’t expect all too much of a five-year-old who supposedly didn’t even know how to use magic yet. Unfortunately for them, she very much did.

While she was somewhat confident with her ability to use magic, especially with her computation Jewel, she had correctly assumed the facility to contain at least a few mages as trainers or guards. Her barriers and mana blades were strong, but she didn’t know how far magical technology had improved in the 40-ish years since the Great War. For all she knew, she would have only a slight advantage or none at all with her Type 95. The Type 95 she’s wearing might not even be hers , perhaps they managed to make a stable version and began to mass-produce it. She doubted that last possibility, but most was left for speculation.

At least it was for a while. Thanks to the fact they barely kept an eye on her, she had on multiple occasions managed to obtain the occasional document when they weren’t looking and skim through it before placing it back.

These documents were a treasure trove of context and explanation that she desperately needed. First of all, the organization that had seemingly ‘made’ her was called ‘S.N.A.K.E.,’ which was an acronym that stood for ‘Society of Neo Arcane Knowledge Exploration’ and seemed to handle all sorts of magical science, especially in regards to how it influences and is influenced by the body, mind, and genetics of a person. In Tanya’s opinion, some of their supposed ideals teetered far too close to eugenics for her liking, but she was in no position of power to change it, nor had she ever been.

She herself was part of ‘Project Eve,’ meant to recreate the supposed best mage in history using the DNA of the ‘White Silver’ Tanya von Degurechaff in order to create a host capable of utilizing the Type 95.

It was one of the more recent documents she got her hands on that told her the full extent of magical technology in the past few decades. In short; it didn’t come close to the Type 95. If she had known that before, she would’ve escaped years ago. However, along with those documents she found out she was planned to have her first training with an actual rifle soon. It was for that reason alone that she decided to wait. Even if she was more confident that she could escape now, having a rifle would simply guarantee her chance of success then.

Luckily, her stay in the facility wasn’t actually all that bad. It was pretty clear that they didn’t want to outright piss her off, knowing the magical power she had, but at the same time they also heavily implied that she had no choice but to be their weapon. For the sake of ‘protecting the nation,’ they say. They had really tried to hammer nationalism into Tanya’s head during the ‘education’ that she was given.

They were largely unsuccessful; Tanya wasn’t just some child with an easily molded mind, after all. But it made it very clear what she was, what she was going to be, and why they wanted it. She was a weapon to give a nation an edge over its rival. Neither side seemed to have all too many mages left, the mage population being devastated by both the Great War and some supposed ‘East-West Wars’ that she had seen mentions of. It wasn’t hard for her to assume those to be wars between Ostania and Westalis.

It was when she was still thinking about all of this when a scientist called for her. She quickly and obediently followed as she always did, compliance having proven good in receiving improved luxury during her stay. Best to make them think she was obedient and loyal and thus let their guard down around her. Eventually, they’re led to a door that Tanya hadn’t entered yet. She had studied the layout of the facility as best she could; or rather, as much as she was allowed to see, but this room was among the many she had never entered.

Inside was a shooting range, albeit one clearly not meant for a lot of people. After all, she was probably one of the few people training. Inside the room was a mage veteran from the Second East-West War; apparently there were two, although the first was really a short glorified build-up to the second. The veteran himself didn’t seem to have a large computation Jewel, instead having a few rings with gems on them that seemed to function as several smaller computation devices.

She had read mentions that the Type 95 was considered ‘large’ and ‘clunky,’ but she hadn’t imagined that Computation Jewels had been condensed so far down, and even split up to allow for continued function if one of them failed.

After giving a demonstration of himself firing a magical shot, the veteran began to explain how a gun works and how to properly shoot it. She mostly phased out here; she knew how to shoot a gun, even a more modern one.

After a short while, he began to explain the battlefield she may be fighting in. Stating that she wouldn’t often be shooting people in calm, safe, peaceful silence. Instead, she would be firing in the middle of a hectic battlefield, one that she must be constantly aware of. It was a fact she was well aware of, of course, she was probably just as good if not better of a mage as this guy was.

However, the veteran used his jewels to show projections, showing videos and footage of the battlefield. The videos lacked any sort of gore or on-screen deaths, she was very much still just a child in their eyes. But the sounds . The sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds . THE SOUNDS!

She had forgotten what it all sounded like. It felt like it was just two years ago, but part of her felt like it had been an eternity, and part of her felt like she had experienced it for an eternity.

It was only then she remembered that she had . She didn’t die after the blast, not conventionally at least. No, she was granted the blessing of living on forever, only to repeat the worst fights of her life. To forever experience the constant fear of death, the pain, the agony, the death, the sounds of death. The sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the SOUNDS!

It drove her insane.

She hadn’t even realized it, but she had collapsed to her knees, her left hand gripping her chest, her right grabbing tightly at her Type 95. Just how many years had she been there? Suffering in agony over and over again. All for his entertainment. No, he wasn’t even watching anymore. He wasn’t watching her anymore, it was just for the sick knowledge that she would be suffering forever. Forced to live through the worst of humanity until the end of days. She had been freed, but what if she hadn’t? She would still be there, crying out in pain endlessly beyond the end of time. 

And the sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds, the sounds…

She couldn’t sense her surroundings anymore. The present melded with the past, her memories melded with reality. The two were the same, it was as if she was living it all over again. The sounds kept echoing in her head.

She couldn’t make them stop. They wouldn’t stop. They can’t stop. She would MAKE. THEM. STOP!

A hand had reached towards her, as if trying to see if she was okay, her arm simply raised and sliced it in half, mana rushing out of her arm like a sword. She stood up and thrust the blade into the heart of the veteran, although he seemed just like any normal Franqois, Russy, Legadonia, or Commonwealth mage. They all looked the same, she couldn’t tell any of them apart anymore. They were all her enemies.

The soldier dropped his rifle, she quickly grabbed it as it fell and fired it at every scientist enemy there. She kicked open the door, firing at any enemy she saw. Everyone in the halls, she didn’t care who they were, they all appeared like enemies to her; that’s all that mattered.

She knew where the exit was, but her instincts led her somewhere else. Like a hound of hell smelling his next meal. There was a room, supposedly for the head scientist of the project. She had never been inside and she had never seen him herself, but he was an enemy , she would pay him a visit.

She bashed open the door to the head researcher’s office. There she saw… Doctor Schugel? No, her memory wasn’t failing this time, at least not exactly. Doctor Schugel sat at his desk before her. Although he was now a wrinkled old man, her vision saw him only as she remembered him, a younger, but still fairly old man mad with his faith in god. She hated him, but he wasn’t outright her enemy…

The elderly Schugel laughed as he stared down at Tanya who slowly lowered her rifle, although keeping her grip on it as tight as possible, her eyes unknowingly glowing a bright vibrant glow alongside her Computation Jewel. She hadn’t needed to pray to activate it, that curse seemed to have faded; at least to an extent. Instead, it activated on instinct, on memory . 

Schugel spread his arms and eagerly welcomed her. “My my, Degurechaff, it’s truly a pleasure to see you again!”

Degurechaff? He knew she was Degurechaff?!

Tanya was startled. All the other scientists called her Tanya, none dared compare her to her real self, after all for all they knew she was just some recreation, a clone with her DNA, not her mind. Yet here Schugel was calling her ‘Degurechaff.’

“Hoho, don’t be so tense, young lady. We have a lot to talk about, I had assumed when I heard the explosions that it was you. I knew your spite would bring you back one day. You were made from your own DNA, albeit modified with more magical power and with a mana frequency designed specifically to be nearly undetectable unless you cast some massive spell. But, you see, when you were born a lifeless husk of a human, we were confused, but after my own independent research, I found out why! Within every human is a bit of DNA made up of small practically unnoticeable amounts of mana. This determines things like Magical Signature, Mana capacity, and as I found out… Soul compatibility. Every soul has a code that goes with it, and if you make a body with the same code as a soul that already exists, the being born won’t have a soul!

When I discovered that, I thought that was all; not that anyone believed my conclusion. Regardless, I thought that maybe we could make another clone after changing the soul part of your DNA. but then something interesting happened…

You came to life! You were given the Type 95 and suddenly you started acting, moving, and interacting far different than before! You became a masterfully intelligent student and an incredibly mature child. I knew it was too strange to be a mere coincidence. But the opportunity was even greater than I imagined!”

Tanya blinked with confusion at Shugel, her mana still raging and her mind still swirling with her own memories, but for a brief moment, she seemed to have some control.

“I won’t be your weapon, Shugel.”

“Ahaha, no, you’ll be something greater. You may remember me as a zealous scientist, someone who received divine guidance from the Lord himself! And you would be correct to remember me as that. But then after the war, God turned away from us; he abandoned us. It took me some time to truly realize it, but after all I had done for the Lord… He left me to rot in a world he hated. I would’ve been fine to leave this world then, to join him in his grand kingdom if he had simply called for me…

But he did not. He left me here, turned away from me, even after all I did… So I decided to spite him; spite him like you once had . The first step of this plan was to bring back the country he hated most… The Empire! What better tool to do that with than the very device he blessed? I thought to make a clone of you, one which would grow to lead the war to unify the Empire once more.

But then you arrived, and I devised something greater. You don’t need to be a weapon Degurechaff, join me and you can become Empress. The Supreme Ruler of an Empire built to spite God himself! All people of the world will bend to the rule of God’s most hated people! The Empire shall rule the world above all else! The divinely despised people of Germania shall take over the world, erasing any trace of all but God's most hated! THE WORLD SHALL BE OURS! THE EMPIRE SHALL HAVE ITS LEBENSRAU-”

*BANG*

Schugel blinked, looking down where blood began oozing out of his chest. What had he done wrong? He did everything for her. He gave her a chance to spite God in the greatest way possible… Why did she say no?!

Tanya sighed, “Hitler was bad enough in my world, I don’t need one here too.”

Tanya finally found herself calming down as her rifle reloaded itself. As she glanced around, she barely remembered what happened at all. The memories of the horrors she faced for decades gradually faded back to an obstructed corner of her mind as she remembered neither the memories themselves, nor the fact that she had remembered them in the first place. All that she knew was that she was mid-escape, and that she needed to get out, now.

Gathering up as many important documents from Schugel as she could carry in a bag she found in his room, she booked it out of his office, killing more soldiers coming to contain her with explosive spells, dropping them like flies. Fires began to flare in multiple parts of the facility, setting off dozens of alarms. When she was done, there wouldn’t be a facility left . Of course, she may not be the only one. A few documents mentioned other subjects, and she didn’t know if they were in this facility or other ones. Best to not take a chance.

Running down the hallway, she slammed into the security office, breaking down the door with her own sheer magical force, not that she needed to. After killing Schugel, she had taken his security card, and by using it in the console, she managed to navigate around the computer and opened all previously locked doors. Then she set off a fire alarm, although the sprinklers had already started. If anyone was inside, she would give them ten minutes to escape.

As she finished burning any important documents she found that she didn’t need, she booked it out of there, flying high into the air and reading an explosive spell at the facility.

She noticed a few people leave, most being scientists but she swore she spotted at least one child amongst those fleeing, not that she was high enough to see any good details anyways. And after a proper amount of time, she raised her gun and fired, setting the base ablaze as she had so many in her first life.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

XXXXXX XXX, 1962

S.N.A.K.E. Research Facility, Berlun, Ostania

Anya wasn’t too happy with her life here. She was born in some experiment she didn’t understand, and was thus born with a power she was being forced to use for ‘world peace.’ Reading minds had its perks, but with the constant studying and training that they desired for her, she knew she was more a tool for them than anything.

She hardly even knew much about herself or where she was, only learning from reading minds that she was some test subject, and that her name, ‘Anya’ was an incomplete version of someone else’s name, apparently someone whose part of her ‘Dee ennay’ came from, whatever that meant, who was made about a year before her. Who this person was, and what that even meant still eluded her, but she didn’t really care.

All that mattered to her was getting out of there. However, after hearing several explosions in the facility, she began to consider if she may be able to. Sure, the explosions might be distracting the guards, but it's not like she could open the door or anyth-

*click*

Anya’s mouth gaped open in shock as the door clicked open. Sirens blared along with a fire alarm, not that Anya recognized what that was. All that she knew was that loud noises must be distracting and gave her the first opportunity she had to escape.

She was by no means skilled at it, but unknown to her, all of the guards had already been killed or scared off, and most scientists were too busy running to escape to care about some random test subject.

With a bit of totally necessary and totally expert maneuvering, Anya managed to “sneak” out of a side door and into freedom.

But… What now?

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

[Editor Comments]

Dr. Rx - aight it’s time to kill some people

Dragon1008 - Now we need a what if for what happens if Tanya accepted Adolfheid Von Schugel's offer

Discord Invite -> discord.gg/hG79scUNAg

Chapter Text

(New cover art for the remake, not that I ever posted the old one on Ao3)

XXXXXX XXX, 1963

Berlint, Ostania

Operation Strix; an operation planned out by the heads of the Westalian spy agency W.I.S.E.. Designed as a plan to infiltrate the upper echelons of Ostanian society, the plan focused around establishing close contact or relationships to the target Donovan Desmond. To do this, the agent would need to make contact with the target during one of his few official, public outings; an official gathering at Eden Academy.

Getting into that gathering was the main hurdle of Operation Strix. Infiltration wasn’t an option given the scrutiny of those who were allowed entry, and assassination wasn’t yet planned. The agent needed to get close to Desmond, and for the most part that party was the only way to do so. The problem? The only people with access to the party were Imperial Scholars of Eden Academy and their parents.

This meant planting a child into Eden Academy, raising them up to be an Imperial Scholar - which was difficult in and of itself thanks to the high standards to even count as one -, and praying that they would manage to pull it off. Even then, there was no guarantee that just getting access to the gathering would be enough to get close to Desmond, as Desmond could always be busy with other figures more influential than Parent X.

Desmond himself was a powerful and influential figure in Ostania, being the former Prime Minister and current Chairman of the National Unity Party that held much political clout. As one would expect when dealing with a renowned politician, WISE’s agents would have to fight an uphill battle to make their way into his sphere.

It was for this reason that WISE chose their best; Agent Twilight. Having enacted several successful missions in a wide array of different jobs and tasks, there were few better for the job. With him on the job, it would have a better chance of success than any of their other agents. 

As for Twilight himself, he was exhausted.

The first step of Strix was finding a child to enlist in Eden Academy. That seemed hard enough on its own, given the standards, but he did find success in finding a child named ‘Anya.’ Despite their apparent intelligence when they filled out a crossword puzzle in front of him, he was beginning to consider the possibility that it was merely a fluke.

While he was willing to bite the bullet and see how she fared, he wasn’t confident in her alone. He was already stressed enough having to rely on a random child for his mission, so the least he could do was improve his chances by getting another one if the first failed.

For this, he needed to find yet another shady run-down orphanage that likely carried few papers on their children. This was essential to his disguise, as it would allow him to make it appear as if the child had always been biologically his since the orphanage would conveniently lose all of its records shortly after. Currently, he was under the identity of Loid Forger, a completely made-up identity and thus one that they could more easily shift around and alter as needed. Rich? Sure. Handsome? Done. 

The orphanage he was currently standing before was one of the last on his list. Any other orphanages anywhere near Berlint would be of too high quality; their documents would be too reliable and difficult to modify.

He had gone to several equally run-down orphanages before arriving at this one, and he had found some children he considered choosing, but he wasn’t going to take his chances. He wanted to be thorough, no more possible flukes like Anya. He wanted to clearly know the level of intellect the child he was adopting had.

Even he could recognize how unrealistic this was, his standards were quite high, and without studying the children he would never reach them, but his goal wasn’t to find someone who could. His goal was to find whoever got closest. The smartest child he could possibly find was what he was looking for, and he would use every method he had to properly test for it. He would just have to raise them afterwards to become as intelligent as possible.

As he entered the orphanage, he was quickly spotted by an elderly woman laying her head on the front desk. The woman appeared to be in her early 50s, although she could easily be mistaken for being well into her 60s. It was obvious from the look in her eye alone that she didn’t care one bit for her job. While this would start ringing alarms for most people, for Loid it was another good sign of this orphanage’s useful incompetence.

The woman sat up and yawned, leaning her head against one hand as she looked at Loid, mumbling, “Alright, what d'ya want? You want a kid? I got plenty of ‘em.”

“Yes, I was hoping to adopt, you see m-” Loid began before he was suddenly cut off.

The woman interrupted, “I don’t need your sob story. C’mere, I’ll show you the kids.”

The woman led Loid back through a hallway behind her. Soon, the lady opened the door and allowed Loid to step inside. Upon entering he saw a few dozen kids all messing and playing around. Most of their toys were poor in quality or simply just old, the only new ones being clear donations of old hand-me-downs due to how scuffed they were. Their crayons and other art tools were cheap off-brand versions that didn’t seem to work very well, and it was pretty obvious that the whole building was only minimally cleaned at best. All of it almost made him feel bad for the children, but there wasn’t much he could do. He might be able to spare at least one of them from this awful-smelling pit of negligence if he found a suitable child.

The old woman followed behind Loid and soon stood next to him, beginning to point at groups of children. “Over there are the playful brats. Throw them a shitty toy and they’ll be entertained for hours, especially if they have someone else to play with.”

Loid had seen many like them throughout his visits to many orphanages. While such a child would no doubt be good for Anya, it wouldn’t help either much with getting into Eden Academy. He needed one that was able and willing to learn, not one that would prefer to play the whole time instead of taking lessons.

The woman then pointed to another group of kids, this time being a scattered group all sitting or playing independently, doing their own things, uncaring of the others. “Those are the anti-social brats. They don’t play with nobody and they don’t care about nobody, but they’ll usually find a quiet way to entertain themselves, at least.”

There were many quiet kids that he spotted throughout the day, and it was often them who were the top candidates. Quiet might often meant studious, and compared to the more playful children who cared for play more than work, the quiet kids could be swayed more easily; at least in theory. Still, it wasn’t enough for him to fully place his confidence on yet.

Next, the woman pointed at a group of kids all sitting at a table coloring and drawing. Most weren’t drawing well, but there were a few that had decent art ability for their young age and lack of support. “Those there are the creative brats. Damned idiots keep drawing on the walls no matter how much I tell them not to.”

While the arts was a category in Eden Academy that could provide a path towards getting Stella Stars, the main struggle was getting them into and keeping them in Eden Academy. Art was unfortunately not on the Entry, Midterm, or Final exams, at least not for their age.

Lastly, the woman pointed to a lone child sitting in the corner, reading a book of surprising size for someone her age, “And that demon there is the weird kid. I’d pay you to take her off my hands. She don’t talk like a normal kid and she’s done scared off every parent that’s ever been even slightly interested in er’. She insisted on bein’ allowed to go to the library down the road, nowadays I’m just hopin’ she gets kidnapped. No child scares me as much as that one does.”

Loid looked at the girl, her blue eyes never once lifting from her book. It was a bit strange to describe a little girl that way, but from the sheer size of the book she was reading, and her desire to go to the library, she was immediately giving off green flags in Loid’s head. There might be some strange aspects to the child, but if they could get good grades then he frankly didn’t care. 

As Loid slowly approached the child, dodging the other children, he finally was able to read the title of the book stating in large gold font, ‘Ruins of an Empire,’ with the dual-headed dragon symbol of the Empire plastered on it. Although he had never read the book, he had heard about it. The novel was critically acclaimed by many historians and scholars and detailed the years immediately following the end of the Great War and the build-up that led to the First East-West War in 1932.

Although he didn’t know much more than that, he knew that the book should’ve realistically been far beyond the reading level of any normal child. Surely the kid was faking reading the book, right? There were many adults who would struggle to read something as complex and long as such a historically acclaimed book.

The girl in front of him was Tanya, and unknown to him she could very easily read the book. She could read far more than it, in fact. Truth is, she wanted to know more about what happened after her death. She was confident in her knowledge of the past, but when it came to knowledge of what came after her death, she was uncertain. She needed to know more.

By now she had noticed Loid approaching, her wartime senses yet to fail her. At first, she thought it to be some other parent she would need to scare off, but she was surprised to see someone who actually appeared well-kept by most standards.

She had been more or less content with this orphanage, at least compared to her last one. It wasn’t by any means a good orphanage, but she was no longer starving, and that was truly the best upgrade she could hope for. A high-quality orphanage would’ve asked too many questions about where she was from, but she wasn’t willing to take her chances with the nuns again if they were even still around. Nuns were nuns, the less said the better.

Still, Loid seemed to be a neat and professional man, which wasn’t something she expected to see in a million years at this orphanage. Usually, such people went to nicer orphanages where the children were taken better care of; most of the parents that came to this orphanage were people Tanya definitely didn’t want to be a child of, even if they seemed loving and caring.

It wasn’t love and care Tanya was truly after, it was success. She needed an education since even in her previous life she had spent a half decade of her childhood in war and never really got much formal schooling in this world. She was confident that she could get the academic scores needed to earn a scholarship of some kind, but she needed to get into a half-decent school first. Most of the families that came to adopt in the orphanage were largely from low-income communities, and she’d be lucky if they could support even her basic schooling needs, much less any further academic pursuits.

Was she being too picky? Most definitely, and she was even considering lowering her standards. But to see someone walk in wearing an actual clean suit certainly got her interested. If nothing else, it might be best to just take what she can get, so long as this man wasn’t some lunatic. And if the man could display themselves to be more than just this, they had her attention. 

The man himself was strange though. Even ignoring the fact that it seemed like someone from the middle to upper-middle class was looking to adopt in a shitty orphanage like this, the way he looked around the room… He was analyzing them. She had seen a handful of people come looking for a specific child, but this man wasn’t looking , he was observing. She could tell, and that caught her attention. He seemed to judge every move every child made. In what way? She couldn’t tell. Just what was he after, and why?

Part of her hoped he was looking for a smart kid, to be her way out. She wouldn’t be all too surprised if someone was unable to produce children but wanted a reason to pretend like an adopted child was biologically theirs. Usually, such a thing would be more for the upper class that cared more for inheritance, but it was possible it would apply to him, too. Why else would someone come to such a shitty orphanage when there were plenty of better, more secure options. The man was sketchy, but so long as she got what she wanted, she didn’t really mind dealing with it.

And now here he was walking to her . He had analyzed every child in the room and had chosen her above all else. That was a good sign. She specifically chose to read large books like her current one in the orphanage itself. The goal was to attract parents who wanted a genius child, or at least inform any potential parents that she was a kid who would excel in academics. All she was doing was reading, which meant that this man wanted a kid capable of reading advanced stuff. Alternatively, she could be thinking too much about all of this, and he was coming to suggest an easier book to read for her supposed biological age.

The man approached and leaned down to bring himself closer to Tanya’s face as she glanced up from her book. The man politely placed a hand on his chest as he spoke, “My name is Loid Forger, can I ask your name?”

She quickly answered, “Tanya.”

“Well Tanya, that’s a pretty big book you’re reading, are you perhaps interested in history?” Loid inquired. He needed to know if her success was limited to only one or two fields. Clearly, she would succeed in Language and likely excel in History, but he was curious if there was anything else he needed to account for, as it would impact what she would need to study.

Tanya lightly nodded, glancing back down at her book before returning her eyes to meet Loid’s. “I’m familiar with the general bits of history leading up to the Great War, and I’m greatly familiar with what happened in the Great War, but I’m afraid my knowledge of recent history and the aftermath of the Great War is vague, so I was hoping to learn more.”

Loid was taken aback by the sheer vocabulary of this child! Any doubts that she was truly reading the book were quickly fading if she spoke like that. He was still curious about the depths of her historical knowledge though. He couldn’t fairly question her on anything after the Great War, but what about the Great War itself? She seemed to imply it was her best-known era, no better an era to ask about then.

“Would you mind if I ask you some questions about the Great War? I’m curious to hear how much you know.” Loid asked, wanting to make certain that this girl would not be a fluke, despite how too good to be true it seemed.

Tanya nodded, “Sure, I don’t mind. Ask whatever you’d like, I’m sure I can answer it.”

Unless they rewrote the history books. Tanya almost wanted to add, but knew to hold back her tongue. The rewriting of aspects of history was bound to happen, but in the modern age of documentation, the more likely outcome would be the rewriting of perspective at best. They couldn't really erase actions of the past, all that would really change was the political finger-pointing and how certain people would be viewed. People would be framed as evil warmongerers and their achievements shouted as war crimes, while the winners turned into famed war heroes, and their misdeeds largely ignored although not outright denied.

Learning where aspects of history had been changed was another area she needed to do some research on later, but for now, her focus was on the immediate recent history of this world. Of course, with Loid here, her focus was returning to the Great War as he asked his first question.

“Well then, Tanya, when did the Great War start?” Loid expected a simple answer, something like ‘1923’ or along those lines. That was enough to give him some satisfaction.

On the contrary, Tanya blew his expectations out of the water. “The war started in June 1923 when Legadonian armies crossed over into the Imperial Norden Territory in multiple positions. The response was the Empire declaring war not long later and an artillery bombardment by the Empire. The Legadonian armies fell into chaos as they started a war without preparation. When the Legadonian mages finally managed to get past the Empire’s air defenses, they were stopped by a lone mage observer who held them off from attacking Imperial Positions. Of course, one could argue that the Great War didn’t truly start until the Franqois, Dacia, or even the Rus joined at various later points, given the relatively small scale of the violence compared to the rest of the war.”

Tanya adding in a brief mention of her own actions that day was intentional. She was curious if her actions were even still remembered, assuming Being X hadn’t wiped her from history. No, Schugel knew who she was, so that wasn’t a high possibility, but being wiped from all military documents definitely was one since she was a soldier with quite the kill count.

Loid meanwhile was surprised at the depth of her knowledge. Not only was she right, but she had even gotten the finer details of the battle correct too. She even mentioned the first appearance of the White Silver, which nowadays was more of a neat historical fact that people occasionally looked up to rather than a commonly known individual.

Nevertheless, Loid was thoroughly impressed, and he had basically already confirmed that he wanted Tanya, but he wanted to test more of her knowledge just in case. Eden Academy had four main subjects that they tested on during Midterm and Final exams; History, Math, Science, and Reading. Although they also had classes like Physical Education and Arts and Crafts, those didn’t have the same proper tests as the other classes. He had already confirmed that Tanya was proficient in History and Reading, but if he could also confirm that she was proficient in three out of four of the main academics, his immediate worries about Strix would drop, at least for now.

After a moment, Loid asked, “Tanya if you don’t mind, could you tell me what 87 divided by 3 is?”

Without hesitancy, Tanya answered, “29.”

Almost startled by her speed and directness, Loid continued, “4 times 9?”

“36.”

“114 divided by 6?”

“19.”

“The square root of 196?”

“14.”

“86 times 9 divided by 3?”

“258.”

Loid was baffled, but also satisfied. Where the hell did a six-year-old learn all of this in such a shabby orphanage? Clearly, the manager had no part in it, did she learn it all herself? Just how had such a child prodigy never been adopted, something wasn’t adding up.

Then he noticed it, he looked around and out the windows of the orphanage, seeing the low-income town around it. He then looked back towards Tanya, her eyes weren’t the cute sparkly eyes one would expect from a girl her age. No, he recognized the look in her eyes, she was analyzing him as much as he was analyzing her . It became apparent how so many people were scared off by her in the past. She was doing it intentionally . Most of the people who came into this orphanage were no doubt of a lower income. Of course, surely that didn’t mean they weren’t loving, but that meant she had other goals, goals he could work with.

After all, the logical persons were the best to manipulate, and the hardest were the fools, as the former followed patterns whilst the latter did not. 

It wasn’t love she seemed to be after, no, she was aware of the intelligence she had, clearly. She didn’t hesitate on a single question he asked and didn’t seem to question why he was asking them  in the first place, nor have a problem with it. The girl clearly knew her intelligence and knew not to settle for wasting it. A low-income household wouldn’t be able to afford the education she knew she deserved, but fortunately for both her and Loid, he could, in spades and diamonds.

This child wasn’t like Anya though, she was smart, he needed to be blank with his intentions, at least to an extent, so that she could understand properly. A deal was in order.

“Tanya, I have an offer for you. What you want is an education, yes?”

Tanya nodded, her eyes clearly sparkling with interest.

“Well here’s the deal. I was hoping to apply a child into Eden Academy, one of the best schools in the country, however, for that to happen you’ll have to pretend to be my biological child, would that work for you?” Loid knew it was probably for the best to be straightforward with this kid. Anya simply accepted her role as his fake kid, but this child might need some proper explanation.

Tanya’s eyes sparkled like never before, almost startling Loid yet again. She was very aware of Eden Academy. The school had existed for hundreds of years, and as such it was very much around when she was born for the first time in this world. She had discovered it when looking for a school she might’ve been able to squeeze into despite being an orphan. Despite Eden Academy’s position as a prestigious school, it was an elitist school she had no chance of getting into with heavy influences from lineage and wealth, so she gave up on it immediately before. Of course, her plans to get into a school were sidelined by the impending war at the time, but now Loid was offering for her to go to a prestigious school and only in exchange for pretending to be his kid?!

It was the deal of the lifetime, but it was also why she was skeptical. No matter, so long as he kept his word, she’ll deal with whatever shady business came along the way, so long as she got her academic credentials in the end.

“I can agree to that,” Tanya quickly responded, although the eager look on her face did not match her calm tone of voice.

“Oh, right, I guess I should confirm, you are six, right?” Loid asked.

Tanya nodded, “I was born in 1957, I am six.”

Loid wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not, but she was more than mature enough to pretend to be older and she didn’t seem as short as Anya, so it would work out.

Speaking of Anya… How was he going to introduce them?

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As Tanya and Loid approached the apartment where Loid resided, he began to dread how Anya would react to another child. It was like introducing your pet dog to a new pet, they would either jump for joy and welcome them, or become jealous at the prospect. He was hoping for the former, but even he knew of the possibility of the latter.

Tanya’s reaction seemed to be calm, he had told her everything on the way back here and she seemed generally fine with it. The problem with Tanya wasn’t how she’d immediately react to Anya, but how she’d interact with her over the long term. If he had to deal with two sisters fighting each other for the entire duration of Operation Strix, he might lose his sanity before either could become Imperial Scholars. He was good, but he wasn’t that good.

Getting them to become friends was a necessity, not only for the stability of Strix but also for his own mental sanity. It had been a long time since a mission stressed him out so much, and unlike those missions, this wasn’t a one-and-done deal, this was going to last months, maybe even years. For all he knew he could be ordered to keep this false family indefinitely so they could keep an eye on Desmond. Whatever the case was, all that was left was to introduce them to each other and do his best to handle the fallout.

When Loid opened the door to his apartment he wasn’t greeted immediately by Anya, instead he was greeted by a visibly frustrated Franky that quickly marched over to him, loudly whispering, “You know I’m not a babysitter right?! I’m supposed to be an infor-”

Franky stopped as he looked down to see a small pair of blue eyes staring up and judging him. True to what he was going to say, Franky was an informant, and it was largely thanks to him that many of Loid’s operations could go off without a problem. Although unfortunately for him, he was also the only person Loid could get ahold of consistently enough to watch Anya for the day; which largely meant being called ‘scruffy head’ all day due to his distinctly afro hairstyle.

Franky glanced down at the girl and then back at Loid, whispering again albeit more quietly, “Giving up on the first one already? I don’t blame you.”

Loid sighed, “No. I just needed a backup plan. Having two children increases my chances of producing a successful one.”

Franky blinked. “It also means having to take care of two gremlins.”

“I can manage,” Loid replied.

“Well I can’t!”

Franky folded his arms and stepped aside, allowing the two to pass. However, as they did, there was a slight spark of interest in Franky’s eyes as he stared at the piece of jewelry around Tanya’s neck.

As the two walked past, Loid called for Anya, who glanced up from the television she was watching and quickly ran over. Anya’s little run was cut short as she stopped upon seeing Tanya.

Immediately Anya’s face was filled with shock. She was being replaced! She needed to prove her worth somehow! She still had value for the mission!

Upon reading Loid’s mind, she received a different truth, however.

‘Two children will improve the chances that one can be an Imperial Scholar, just so long as the two can get into Eden Academy and get along… Best case scenario, it would be good for them to be like actual sisters who have each others’ backs. Having an ally would probably be for the best in Eden Academy, given how competitive it is.’

Immediately Anya understood the mission; to become best friends with her sister so that both of them could become Imperial Scholars and protect World Peace!

Loid glanced down at the two of them, briefly worried about Anya’s shocked face, although she seemed to revert to a more standard smile afterwards. Now that he studied the two standing next to each other, however, they appeared similar enough to be considered siblings. The different hair and eye colors could be explained easily as the mother having green eyes and pink hair or something along those lines, Tanya herself had Lois’s own blonde hair and green eyes. Nevertheless, it seemed like the worries of them looking too different were conveniently nonexistent.

Loid gestured his hand towards Tanya as he spoke, “This girl is Tanya. She will be your sister from now on. If anyone asks, she’s always been your sister and she’s about ten months older than you.” It was enough of an age difference to justify what seemed to be at least a year difference between the two age-wise, even if Anya said that she was six, it was likely that she was on the lower end of six while Tanya was probably nearing seven if that was the case.

Of course, he knew neither of their birthdays, and he wasn’t sure if they knew their own, either. It was probably for the best if he made up their birthdays to fit his purposes.

Anya happily looks at Tanya with a wide smile, “I-I’m Anya! I am please to meets you!”

Anya’s face radiated joy and an eagerness to play with her new sister, although out of curiosity, she found herself quickly reading her new sister’s mind already.

‘Just what is Loid’s plan here? This child is no doubt adopted as well, what does he need two adopted children for? Or more specifically, what does he need two adopted children to pretend to be his biological ones for? Whatever, so long as I’m not sent to the front lines again. I’ve got another chance at life and even if my magical power is stronger now, there’s no way in hell I’m going down the career path of a mage again! Either way, this seems to be my sister… But what the hell is she doing with her face?’

Anya’s face turned to shock the more she listened to Tanya. The speed at which Tanya’s thoughts ran through her head rivaled Loid’s, if not faster, making it hard for Anya to keep up. This was added onto the several words thrown in there, even ignoring the big ones she didn’t fully understand. Magical power?! Mage?! Another chance at life?! Was her sister a former mage? Those were talked about all the time when she was a test subject and they appeared all the time in her cartoons, for her father to be a spy and her sister to be a mage, or at least a former mage…

It was perfect!

As the two children interacted by awkwardly shaking hands, Loid let out a light sigh of relief that they didn’t seem to immediately be at each others’ throats, although such a worry was no doubt exaggerated. He then turned to Franky, handing him a piece of paper. “Can you go pick up the bed I ordered yesterday? I got it from the store down the road, you should be able to bring it here rather easily. I need to handle Tanya.”

Franky snatched the paper from Loid’s hand as he gave him an intense stare, “Fine, but I’m charging you extra.”

Loid sighed, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

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Franky collapsed onto Loid’s couch with a heavy sigh, leaning his head back against the top of the cushions as he lays back in exhaustion.

Loid meanwhile walks down the hallway from Anya’s room, looking down at the exhausted Franky and muttering, “You don’t live here, y’know…”

“I hauled a whole ass bed up four floors, I’m allowed to take a break!” Franky retorted, lifting his head up.

“Very well then,” Loid sighed and sat down in a nearby chair, having put both Anya and Tanya to bed after setting up space for Tanya to share a room with Anya. Best if the two slept in the same room, might help them forge a better bond, although for better or worse he couldn’t tell.

“That kid’s got a Great War-era computation jewel from the Empire, y’know.” Franky muttered.

Loid raised an eyebrow. “I noticed she had a computation jewel, but I didn’t know the specifics. You can recognize it, Franky?”

Franky smugly rubbed under his nose, lifting his head proudly. “Of course! I’ve got several Great War-era jewels in my collection!”

“Collection?” Loid asked as he gazed over at Franky, exhaustedly muttering, “Is this what you’ve been spending all the money I pay you on?”

“A man can have hobbies, Twilight!” Franky spat, sitting up straight now before calming down again. “Not all of the money, but I have spent some of it amassing a nice collection of Great War-era computation jewels.”

“Is that even legal?” Loid asked.

Franky shrugged. “Not in Ostania.”

Loid sighed, “Just don’t get caught.”

Franky shook his head, “You’re missing the point Loid!”

“What do you mean? The kid has an old computation jewel, so what? It was probably an heirloom from whatever family she had before. I’m not even sure if it's real or not.”

Franky sighed, “Do you not notice how strange it looks?”

“I’m aware of how computation jewels work. As a spy I need to keep an eye out for mages, they’re hard to deal with. Modern computation devices are usually disguised as jewelry, or small enough to escape notice. You can usually tell by the way the light reflects off of it that it’s a computation jewel rather than a real gem. Of course, some of the more expensive variants can perfectly mimic jewelry, so I have to be careful,” Loid explained in a ramble.

Franky looked almost bored hearing how a spy looked at Jewels, not even taking appreciation for the finer art of all the mechanics and technology that goes into making them that small. “I didn’t mean the jewel itself! Great War jewels didn’t bother to hide what they were, they were big and conspicuous specifically because they were the first generation of magi-technology for it and, generally, they could be used to intimidate non-mages by declaring the user to be a mage. The jewel the girl has is undeniably one from the Empire, it’s easy to tell from its large border and cross at the top. The strange part is that it's circular. ”

“You wanted me to be able to notice the strangeness because it was circular? Surely there’s a thousand circular computation jewels.”

“Not in the Empire. The Empire was a generation ahead of all other countries in magical technology, but if there was one thing they weren’t, it was being visually creative. Every single jewel they had followed the same silver rectangular border, not a gold circular one,” Franky explained.

Loid sighed, “Is this even that important? Can’t it be a fake, then?”

Franky shrugged, “Possibly. But I want to check my notebook, it might be rare and thus valuable.”

“I don’t wanna take the jewel from the kid, it’s probably valuable to her,” Loid muttered.

Franky groaned, “Fine, fine, but I’m still checking my notebook anyways. My curiosity must be sated. Either way, I’ll hook you up with some mana-testing devices. You should probably make sure she doesn’t have magical affinity if she’s the kid or grandkid of a mage. Ostania’s been really desperate to get their hands on any they can find. Unless you’re well within the upper classes of Ostania, they won’t hesitate to kidnap your kid, adopt them for their own, and send 'em to become a mage or something. If that kid has magical affinity, you’re going to need to tread carefully if you wanna keep her.”

Loid nodded, “You’re right, I should probably have both of them tested, just in case. If either has a magical affinity that would make things trickier if they’re ever publicly tested for it. But what’s this about a notebook?”

Franky made a smug grin as he explained, “My collector’s notebook. A bunch of fellow collectors have compiled every jewel believed to exist from their creation all the way until the East-West War! Even ones that haven’t been photographed and theoretical ones that aren’t believed to exist are in there!”

“You find the weirdest things to get into, Franky…” Loid muttered, best to leave Franky to his business. It might be good for him to stop obsessing over getting a girlfriend for at least a few days if this jewel thing is enough to keep him distracted. Plus, if he did come up with anything good, more information was always better for his line of work.

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Franky will keep his grubby little hands to himself if he knows what's good for him. - Fish Tank

Dr. Rx - ngl I thought Anya would read Tanya’s mind faster. 

Chapter Text

The hallway of the hotel was silent and empty, the woman’s own footsteps the only sounds ringing through the place, but even those were practically silent. Most of the hallway had been rented out for the night, although a few of the rooms were planned to be used.

Privacy was important when handling sensitive business, they didn’t want to attract unneeded attention. Unfortunately, when that business was treason, they wound up just painting a target on their back. 

To make matters worse for them, that target was now in the sights of an organization few could stand against and that even fewer knew about. The organization was only known as ‘Garden,’ and its members were expert assassins, each one expertly trained in the art of slaughtering those deemed a threat to peace. They didn’t ask questions, they simply received their targets, or rather, clients, and acted .

The woman continued her silent stroll down the hallway, soon finding herself standing before two men. Each was fairly muscular and both were armed, albeit subtly tucked into pockets and folds. The woman’s well-trained eye spotted it immediately, but it was hardly a cause for concern.

Neither of these two were a threat .

The men seemed a bit confused but nonchalantly explained, “Miss, the whole floor’s been rented out tonight. Head on down to some other floor.”

The woman’s face remained firm and unmoving, her crimson red eyes piercing through the strands of black hair that partially blocked them. “I’m afraid my business is on this floor, sir.”

The first guard turned to his partner, silently whispering, “Did someone call for a woman? It’s a bit early for that, don't ya’ think?”

The woman shook her head and subtly reached to where two stiletto needles were kept hidden in her clothes as she muttered, “You misunderstand me. I heard there was an infestation up here… I came to clean up the mess.”

The men’s confusion was silenced by two stilettos piercing through their necks, stabbing into their windpipes and simultaneously silencing any screams. A pair of loud thud noises echoed as their bodies fell to the ground.

The woman continued walking as if nothing had happened, but the guards were alerted, many running around the corner as quickly as they could, where all they were greeted with were two men dead and bleeding out on the ground, and a woman stained with their blood approaching them at a modest pace.

The two guards that had turned the corner were startled, but quickly raised their silenced pistols, firing two bullets at the female, both aimed at her head. She raised her arm, both bullets merely bouncing against it faintly glowed. The two soldiers stood in shock at her apparent superhuman durability, their minds realizing that they were dealing with a person with magic.

Before the guards could gather their resolve and continue their attacks, the woman dashed forward, the stilettos in her hands beginning to faintly glow as she swiftly stabbed the one in her left hand into the front of the first guard’s neck. Swiftly rotating her body in a circle, the woman dodged another bullet as her right hand stabbed her other stiletto into the side of the other guard’s neck, killing him as well within seconds.

The woman now turned and glanced down the hallway, several guards panicked at the situation yet quickly sprung to action. Unfortunately for them, they were hardly quick enough. There was a faint glimpse of a glow around the woman’s legs as she dashed at the guards, the two guards in front almost immediately gushing out blood as she slashed them both inwards with a single motion of both her weapons.

As her arms crossed, she returned them back to her sides, slapping the last guard with her backhand as she did so, launching him through the door to where her target was.

The blood of the guard began to puddle on the carpet of the hotel room, her target immediately cowering behind a couch, shaking in fear. Pathetic, as expected from a traitor .

As soon as she entered the room, the six guards inside all fired at her. She sighed; she was confident she could block bullets from a single or a few points, but from so many angles at once… She had no choice but to use it, but it meant she would need to get out of there quickly.

As the bullets neared her, they were stopped several inches short, bouncing off of a thin glowing wall of magic. Unfortunately, such an action left a magical trace. If anyone had a magical tracking device nearby, she would be spotted. Best if she wrapped this up before it caused more trouble.

One of the guards in the front takes a step back, wide-eyed, “The damned bitch is a mage! St-” His shout was cut off by blood filling his throat, a stiletto having been thrown from the woman, piercing his throat. To the guard’s right was his comrade, who met a similar fate.

There’s no reason to hold back… My magical signature was already left by the barrier, might as well just use everything I have… Well, everything that’s not overkill, that is.

She extended her hands as small gems on the bottom of each of her stilettos began to glow. A millisecond later, the two stilettos launched from the bodies they were stabbed into and flew toward her, both smoothly landing in her hands.

Another guard foolishly tried to rush her, brandishing a knife as she swiftly sliced his wrist with her left stiletto, blood gushing out as she stepped to the side, piercing his throat with a single thrust of the stiletto in her right, leaving the guard dead as he collapsed onto the floor.

The guard left immediately in front of her raised his pistol, hand shaking in fear as she threw her stiletto again, throwing it through the pistol, breaking it as it lodged itself through his right arm from the sheer force behind it. Before he could react, her other stiletto had already been thrown straight through his skull.

There were only two guards remaining now, both were firing at her relentlessly. Her barrier kept them off, but the sounds of their pistols, even if silenced, were still likely to attract unwanted attention.

Not bothering to grab her weapons, she dashed at both of them, a single fist slamming both of their stomachs each. However, it wasn’t the fists that killed them, but a glowing blade that seemingly extended from each, piercing straight through their hearts.

They both fell to the floor, staining the carpet with a fresh red paint as she pulled her stilettos back towards her as she slowly approached the target, sitting in a personal puddle of his own making as he looked up with terror.

“S-Surely we can make a deal… W-What do you want? M-Money?! I-I-Influence?! I-I can do that! I-I can give you whatever you want!”

The woman stared down at him with an unwavering expression. “Then I want your life.”

A stiletto pierced through his neck, and then another through his chest, stabbing through his heart. There was no doubt now, the target was dead.

The woman sighed and let out a groan, “Argh, this was the only good dress I had! Now it’s torn and I still have that party on Saturday… I don’t even have a date after I told my brother I’d bring one…”

The woman looked down at her dress, torn towards the bottom and stained in a few places by blood. The black color of the dress made the blood hard to spot, but still, it would need to be cleaned. That much she was good at on her own, at least. But she had a party to go to with some coworkers later in the week, so fixing up the dress was essential.

There was also the prospect of bringing a date to the party. She had promised both her coworkers and her brother that she’d bring someone. She’d make her brother worry if she didn’t bring anyone at all.

She then glanced down at the mess she had made. She didn’t feel any remorse for killing them, nor did she really even think about it. It was just another day for her, and the biggest inconvenience of the night was the torn dress she now had to fix. It would take time and money to fix it, but that was it.

There was of course the fact that she had let out a magical signature and thus didn’t have time to risk cleaning up the mess, but Garden was pretty good at shoving her messier missions under the rug. That wasn’t to mention that with the entire floor rented out, there were basically no witnesses that could even get close to see the murder scene, much less the murder itself.

With her job done for now, the woman had a life to get back to now that her work was concluded. Although she was the ‘Thorn Princess,’ a feared assassin known only by the magical signature they left behind, in her everyday life she was just Yor Briar, and what that meant for her was making sure her brother Yuri didn’t worry too much about her.

Yor groaned again, who knew assassinations would be easier than attending a party?

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Tanya sat reading yet another book on recent history. She had gotten Loid to take her to the library a few times recently, and although he was insistent she study, she made clear immediately that her need to study was largely non-existent.

There was also the strangeness of the ‘study guide’ that Loid had however, namely the fact it was an exact copy of the entry exam that she had to take just a few days ago now.

Tanya had her doubts that said ‘guide’ was legitimately gotten, but she both didn’t need it and didn’t care. The test was pretty easy for a college graduate like her, but she could easily see how a six-year-old would struggle against material like this.

The level at which she was being quizzed upon ranged from things one would likely learn in elementary all the way up to middle school, which for first graders was pretty absurd to expect. Of course, only a measly 30% was needed to pass the test, so Tanya assumed it was more just to gauge what level their students were at.

If that was the case, there was a good chance she and Anya would soon be separated based on the speed at which they ‘learned.’ This was mostly because while Tanya managed to pass with a perfect score, Anya barely passed with a minimal one.

Tanya almost felt bad for Anya, after all, she clearly didn’t enjoy studying all that much. Tanya considered a few methods to get her to study, but she couldn’t really think of anything, and half of her ideas were things Loid was already trying. And the rest were more oriented for wartime pressures with adults who knew that if they didn’t learn today, they could be six feet under the next. Namely, at gunpoint.

She was out of ideas to help her sister, she would just need to improvise to help make sure she at least passed going forward. Of course, she had no obligation to help her at all, and in fact, it may have been smarter to distance herself from Anya socially. However, something about that felt wrong to Tanya; best to raise her up rather than kick her down.

The immediate focus now was on the second step of joining Eden Academy; the interview. As she probably should’ve expected from an elitist school like Eden Academy, the families that wish to apply needed to go through an interview process to get in. It was clear they valued the parents fitting the image they desired as much as they desired the children to.

The main problem with the interview was the apparent need for both parents to be present for it. That was an issue when her entire family was basically just made up a week ago. As such, it was made up of just Loid, Tanya, and Anya. Without a mother, the entire plan was jeopardized. 

But that wasn’t a problem she could solve. Loid seemed to be handling it himself, after all, it was his wife that he needed to find, and in only about two weeks no less. There wasn’t much a single little girl could do to help Loid create a fake marriage in such a short time. It might be smarter to wait it out and start in Eden Academy next year and just lie about their ages, but it seemed Loid was insistent on them going this year.

As Tanya tried to focus on her book, she found her attention focusing on Anya who sat feet away from the television, watching some spy cartoon that seemed to be some cartoon/comic alternative to her original world’s James Bond. It was apparently quite popular, but Tanya had no real interest in it.

Tanya’s attention was on Anya herself. They had been sisters for only a few days, but they would have to deal with each other for far longer. Anya seemed to have no problem with it, having eagerly shown off all her toys and stuffed animals to Tanya the first day they met, not that she had particularly many.

Whether she liked it or not, Tanya had to figure out how to be a good older sister. Developing resentment and rivalry with Anya would only prove to be a detriment to her growth and success, not to mention it could lead to her home life being miserable for the prospective future.

Anya was clearly sociable, and it partially made Tanya feel bad for her that her adoptive family was basically a fake one. Tanya felt as though someone like Anya might enjoy a more loving family who wanted nothing more than to spoil and have fun with their child, as opposed to making them handle a small mountain of studying to get into some elite school originally designed for nobility.

Tanya herself hadn’t been too social with Anya either, so she was also partially to blame. Tanya cared more about her own studies and research into the world she was in as opposed to worrying about pretending to mentally be a six-year-old girl to play with Anya. Of course, if things went the way they were, Anya could start to build resentment for her family, or so Tanya assumed.

Frankly, Tanya had no idea how children worked. They were an enigma that simply c ould not be deciphered. Their brains didn’t run on logic or reason, they ran on instinct at best and random chaos at worst. This was especially true for their earlier years, a fact that made Tanya already begin to dread dealing with during her first few years at school.

Of course, before she could hope to tackle the children at school, she needed to learn how to deal with the child at home; Anya. By this point, Anya had turned around and was now staring at Tanya curiously. Sometimes, it felt like Anya had a way of staring right into people, as if she was peering into your mind and soul. It freaked Tanya out somewhat, but that's just what children do sometimes, she assumed.

Before Tanya could decide to push the problem away for later, Anya began to pat the ground next to her aggressively, “Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!”

Tanya lowered her book onto her lap, tilting her head slightly as she asked, “What is it?”

“Come watch TV with me!” Anya requested, continuing to pat the floor next to where she sat.

Tanya looked at her book and then back at Anya, “I was hoping to finis-”

Anya’s eyes widened as she made her best puppy-eyed face at Tanya. For all it was worth, Anya was certainly adorable, and although the adorableness factor held little influence over Tanya, she still let out a sigh and mumbled, “Fine… Only for a bit…”

Tanya slowly got out of her chair and joined Anya on the floor in front of the TV, muttering “This is probably bad for my eyes…”

Anya made a cheerful smile and returned to focusing on her Spy Wars cartoon, clearly far too immersed in the experience.

‘Heh, sister is too easy to manipulate…’ Anya thought as she eagerly enjoyed watching television with her sister, even if every thought she read from Tanya’s mind criticized the show from major plot holes, actions that would’ve solved the problem sooner, flaws in realism, and countless other things that slowly made Anya’s cheerful face turn into a blank stare at Tanya.

“You’re making this boring,” Anya muttered as Tanya turned and leaped back in shock at Anya’s deadpan face.

Tanya just stared at Anya with a confused expression of shock on her face as all she could think was ‘ I haven’t even done anything!’

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Franky slammed a massive stack of papers onto the table as he groaned in pain, stretching his back immediately afterwards. “You know you live on the fourth floor, right?! Do you know how hard it is to carry this shit up here? There’s a paper on every single unmarried woman in this city, it’s pretty damned heavy!”

“Yes, I appreciate it Franky, but lower your voice, the children are sleeping,” Loid muttered silently. Truth be told, he was pretty confident he could talk in front of Anya about spy things so long as she was focused on the TV, but he wasn’t sure about Tanya. Tanya was smart and observant, even when she didn’t seem to be and was caught buried in a book. If she wasn’t a child, Loid would’ve recommended that WISE recruit her.

Still, it was best if Tanya didn’t know he was a spy, it was impossible to predict how she’d react. On one hand, it was possible she wouldn’t care, but on the other hand, the girl was probably smart enough to understand what blackmail was. He wasn’t an expert parent by any means, heck he wasn’t even really a good one, but even he could tell that a child having blackmail on a parent was a recipe for disaster, let alone an intelligent one.

“That Tanya kid got perfect scores on her test, didn’t she? She must be good at memorization…” Franky muttered, starting to look through the documents himself, “When you’re done with these I’ll take them back, I might be able to use them to locate a girlfriend for once.”

Loid looked over several documents himself, quickly memorizing and analyzing them at a rapid pace. As he did so he muttered, “Tanya didn’t use the entry exam answers you snagged much. She studied for a short bit, but then stopped. When I tried to make her study again she simply proved that she didn’t need to any further.”

Franky looked up from some of the papers and gazed at Loid, “Are you sure you didn’t make her on some mission a few years ago? I wouldn’t put it past you to do something like that for the sake of a mission.”

Loid stared back at Franky, blinking. “Are you implying that she’s related to me?”

“I mean… Lack of documents, blonde hair, crystal blue eyes that seem like they’re willing to murder you at any moment…” Franky muttered.

Loid raised an eyebrow. “What was that last one?”

“N-Nothing…” Franky muttered, “Moving on, I managed to procure two mana testing devices. They both worked fine when I tested myself, but I got you a second just in case something happens to the first.”

Franky placed two identical devices on the table, studying them. The devices at first glance appeared to be breathalyzers meant for checking alcohol levels, but the labels on the device quickly clarified what they truly were. Mana detectors had come a long way since before the Great War. Originally bulky devices that tested for mana by trying to stimulate and activate it, modern mana detectors could scan how much mana someone has with a single breath, so calling it a breathalyzer for magic wasn’t an incorrect description. Power was intoxicating after all.

In the modern day, mages were scanned using a newly defined numerical scale designed during the Second East-West War. The lowest one could get was 0.00, which meant that the amount of mana in the tester was so little that it couldn’t even be detected. At a rating of 1.00 or higher, individuals had enough mana in their bodies to actually cast magic, although at a lower proficiency. Each number above that was another tier of magical casting higher until you reached 5.00. People with a proficiency of 5.00 or higher were among the most proficient mages in the world. If Loid remembered correctly, the documented world record was somewhere around 5.50, although that didn’t account for anything during or before the Great War.

Loid took the two detectors and placed them in a nearby cabinet. “Thank you, I’ll test them soon. For now though I need to handle the immediate problem.”

Franky shrugged. “If you can find some angel to marry you when you already have two kids I’d like to meet her. We might have to resort to blackmail.”

“I’d like to avoid any complications. Blackmail should be a last resort,” Loid muttered.

Franky sighed, “Well at the very least, while you worry about this you should probably get those kids looking nicer. Neither of them look all that like Eden material.”

Loid rubbed his chin, “You’re right, but it's getting late now, you should probably head back, I’ll look over these documents for a bit and take them to the tailors to get more outfits tomorrow.”

“I’m still going to charge you extra for making me carry all that up four floors again!” Franky shouted as he began to walk out the door.

“Fine, fine, but lower your voice at least…” Loid muttered, returning to the stack of papers on his desk.

This was going to take a while.

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The difference between Loid’s two new children couldn’t be more night and day when it came to getting more clothes. Anya was eager and excited while Tanya seemed more annoyed than anything. While Loid was initially surprised to see how much Tanya seemed to lament going to the tailors, he soon remembered how Tanya was far from a standard child. Actually, neither of them were standard children by any stretch of the imagination, but Tanya was just plain weird .

Or perhaps all children are this outlandish and different… Maybe this is standard…

Loid didn’t really know how to handle it, but fortunately for him, even if Tanya didn’t want to buy more formal clothing, she was still an obedient child who wouldn’t refuse a request even if she didn’t want to do it. That old lady at Tanya’s orphanage must’ve been a harsh disciplinarian, or Tanya was purposely playing the obedient child in an attempt to gain his trust since she evidently knew how to play the psychological cards.

Luckily, the closest tailor store was nearby their residence, with it conveniently also being one that manages Eden Academy’s uniforms. It was partially why he chose an apartment here of all places, it was close to many important facilities, not to mention his fake workplace and WISE’s secret HQ in Berlint. The essentials were always close by when he needed them.

All that was left was for the children to get their measurements taken and have some clothes adjusted or bought for them depending on the sizes the store had in stock already.

He could already hear Tanya complaining, looking over as Loid saw her with folded arms explaining, “No skirts or dresses! I want nothing of the sort!”

The tailor lady gave a concerned face. “What little girl doesn’t like dresses? C’mon, let's see if I can’t change your mind…”

“No! Father, help!” Tanya was already being dragged away by the lady as Loid could only stand and watch, letting out a hefty sigh.

Whether she liked it or not, she would probably need to wear a dress to the interview at least, and that wasn’t even mentioning the school uniform having a skirt as well. Eden Academy valued traditional roles above all else, meaning if Tanya came dressed like a boy, it would harm their score. It was also possible that it wasn’t that big of a deal, but Loid was nothing if not cautious in his line of work.

As Tanya and Anya were dragged away, Tanya more forcibly than Anya, although something told Loid that Tanya probably could’ve brute forced her way out of the situation if she really wanted to, Loid once more scanned the room for his main objective; he still needed to find a wife, even a temporary one.

There were a few unmarried women he had seen in the store already, but most either had trouble in their past that he didn’t want to risk dealing with or were too old to work realistically. He would probably need to go out on his own after this to locate a suitable partner.

Without Loid’s notice, he heard a woman speaking behind him, “Pardon me, I was hoping to get my dress fixed.”

The woman walked up to the counter, placing a dress onto it as an older lady who worked the counter happily took it, “Of course, Yor, you’re one of our regulars. I’ll get this done as soon as I can.”

A woman coming up to the counter wasn’t anything special, what startled Loid was the fact that she had gone completely undetected by him as she did it. He was a spy, he was meant to be constantly aware of his surroundings. For her to sneak up behind him without his notice, he must really be out of his game.

‘Taking care of these children is starting to stress me out… I need to keep my focus.’

But now the question came: who was she? More specifically, was she a potential candidate? He skimmed through his memory, using the woman at the counter calling her ‘Yor’ to narrow down his search.

The name was uncommon in Ostania, the name was Eastern Europan in origin, so the amount of people in the city with the name was low. No, he remembered now, it was one. Or at least, only one was unmarried.

‘Yor Briar. Age 27. Parents are both deceased, only left with a younger brother far younger than her. There was no other record beyond that, no marriages or divorces, and she’s a civil servant with a clean record, same with her brother it seems.’

He glanced back at her, confirming that this was the same person, which it certainly was. Black hair and red eyes as her photo showed. She might be a good candidate, but would a woman like that be interested in such a relationship? He might need to find someone more desperate, a young unmarried woman like her probably isn’t.

Yor turned to him, staring at him with slight confusion, “Uhm excuse me, sir… you’ve been staring at me since I walked in. Can I help you?”

‘She could even sense my gaze? How obvious was I staring at her? I really need to focus more…’

Loid turned and nervously muttered, “Er, no, I’m sorry… I just thought you were pretty…”

Yor’s eyes lit up slightly as she stepped closer, “Does that mean you have a positive reception to my physical appearance?”

“W-Well er… Yes…” ‘That’s what ‘pretty’ means, after all…’

Yor immediately took interest, she needed someone to be her boyfriend at the party, after all. She couldn’t worry her brother. Even if it was only for one night, this might be her chance! “Uhm-”

“Papa! Me and Tanya got massing dresses!” Anya cheerfully explained, dashing out of the nearby dressing room. She was now wearing a simple blue and white dress with a red tie under the collar of the shirt. Tanya followed out shortly afterwards with a disheveled look on their face.

Under her breath, Tanya muttered, “This is worse than the propaganda shoot… Curse this adorable body of mine! I don’t even have malnutrition to make me less adorable anymore!”

Anya turned and saw Yor there who swiftly turned away. ‘He has kids! I was about to make a move on someone’s husband! There’s been stories about wives killing people who try to seduce their husbands. Of course, if that happens I’d just kill them first, but then it’d be revealed that I’m an assassin…’ Yor thought to herself as Anya’s face turned from curiosity to shock.

‘A-Assassin!’ Anya’s shocked face turned to Loid, ‘Spy!’ She then turned to the still-miserable Tanya, ‘Mage!’

Anya, ever desiring more entertainment, knew she had to get the two together. Quickly taking a step back she crossed her arms and began to pretend to be sad, “Oh, I’m so sad without a mama!”

Tanya’s face, still devoid of life, just gazed at her and silently muttered, “What the hell are you doing?”

Yor’s curiosity returned again as she turned back and asked, “Is your wife not with you?”

“Oh, I actually lost my wife about two years ago, so I’m raising those two on my own now,” Loid responded as Anya eagerly nodded nearby, simply waiting and hoping that it worked out.

“U-Uhm well… Could you help me out with something then..?” Yor asked nervously.

“Hm?”

“W-Well I lied to my younger brother about having a boyfriend and that I’d bring him to a party this Saturday… I was hoping that if it’s not too much trouble, you could pretend to be my boyfriend and accompany me to the party? I-I don’t mean to do any harm, I-I just want to put my brother’s mind at ease…”

“I see… I accept, but under one condition. My later wife hoped for her children to enter a good school, however, the school that I’ve been hoping to get them into requires two parents to be present at the interview. If you wouldn’t mind, I was hoping you could pretend to be my wife during the interview. ”

“I-If you think I’ll fit the role, I’ll do it!” Yor exclaimed eagerly, a giant strain being lifted from her back as her date problem was solved easily.

Tanya, still groaning about being in a dress, looked up with confusion at the two, ‘Wait, he’s already gotten a wife?! It’s only been a day!’ Tanya looked at Anya who had a wide grin on her face, grumbling in her own head, ‘What’s she so smug about?’

And of course, the shop receptionist knew all the better to stay quiet, since gossip was the one way to get on Yor’s bad side. And nobody wanted to lose a reliable customer. 

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Dr. Rx - At least it’s only a skirt. Could’ve been a full-blown dress as expected from the nobility.

Fish Tank - “Ah shit, here we go again.” - Tanya, probably 

Chapter Text

“THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK YOU’VE HAD ME HAUL HEAVY SHIT UP FOUR FUCKING FLOORS!” Franky screeched as he heaved a set of boxes onto the ground as Loid stood nearby, having already finished carrying up his set of boxes.

“You’re the one who came over when I was trying to help Yor move in asking for me to give you one of my disguises,” Loid muttered, prompting Franky to shut up rather quickly.

“Just how did you find a wife that quickly anyways?” Franky inquired, mostly curious for his own sake. 

“It was just convenient for both of us. This marriage is purely fake though. Did you get the marriage documents forged?” Loid questioned.

“Yeah, I’ll have it later. Swing by tonight and pick it up. Return those mana detectors by then if you’re done with ‘em though. I’m still charging you extra for this as well.”

Loid nodded, “Alright. Thank you, Franky.”

“Don’t mention it… But that’s not an invitation for you to keep calling me over for this stuff! I’m an informant, not some servant!”

“You’re the one who came over first…” Loid muttered as Franky left, huffing and puffing. 

Yor walked in right as Franky walked out of the apartment, looking at him as he stormed off. She carried in the last of her own boxes, gently placing them on the ground. “It was nice of your friend to help out, what did he want anyways?”

“Nothing important. I’m having him get our lawyer friend to get marriage documents to say we’ve been married for a year so that it doesn’t seem like we got married just for the interview. Does that work out with you?” Loid asked.

Yor nodded, “Yep! Although I’ll have to explain to my brother why I didn’t tell him about my marriage for a whole year…”

“Wouldn’t it be smart to just tell him the truth that unmarried women are suspicious?” Loid inquired.

Yor shook her head, “There’s no way my brother would be happy if he found out I didn’t marry someone I actually loved… Don’t worry, if it ever comes up, I’ll handle it!”

“If you say so. We’ll make the guest bedroom into yours, but when visitors come over we’ll both stay in my room so it’s not suspicious.”

Yor nodded, “Right! O-Oh and Loid, I almost forgot but for the interview, I don’t really have any clothes to wear for it…”

“It’s fine, we’ll head over to the tailors today, I need to pick up some outfits for Anya and Tanya anyways. I was also planning on doing some activities to prepare for the interview itself,” Loid stated.

Anya happily bounced up to Yor, exclaiming, “Welcome to Anya’s house! I will show you around!” 

Yor politely smiled. “Thank you for the lovely welcome Anya!”

Anya pointed at Tanya sitting on a chair “There we have the Tanya. She’s boring.”

“Ey Who’s boring and what do you mean the Tanya!” Tanya shouted out from across the room.

Anya ignored her, leading Yor all around the house and into the various rooms, explaining what various things were for and the rules for them. Tanya merely grumbled to herself and returned to her book, content with learning about the Unified States’ perspective on herself.

Loid began to carry some of Yor’s boxes into her room, and as he passed by Tanya he asked, “You mentioned going to the tailor’s, right? The new clothes we’re getting wouldn’t happen to be dresses… right?”

“We’re supposed to look and act like a traditional upper-class family. Unfortunately, that means dressing like them too. You’re just going to have to deal with dresses for a bit,” Loid explained.

‘Kill me now!’ Tanya internally complained as she audibly groaned, much to Loid’s amusement.

He could always rely on Tanya hating dresses for one reason or another, from lack of mobility range to lack of overall protection compared to pants.

After a few minutes, Yor was already unpacked and settled in, the guest room converted into a relatively snug place. The speed at which she unpacked was surprising to Anya, but she didn’t have all too many belongings to begin with.

Soon Loid lined them all up on the couch and began explaining, “Eden Academy is a prestigious school that will be judging not only the children but the parents as well. They are evaluated on their social standing and how cultured they are. Let’s start with Anya. Please state your name and address.”

Anya looked up and around, somewhat confused as she stuttered, “Anya f-horger… A-Address?”

“The place we’re at now,” Loid explained.

“This is Anya’s house!” Any exclaimed, much to Loid’s distress.

“That’s not what I meant…” Loid sighed and continued, “Miss Anya… How do you spend your days off?”

“Papa forces me to stay home so I watch TV all day since sister is boring and doesn’t like to play,” Anya righteously stated.

“I mean that’s true, but that makes a terrible impression…” Loid moved on to Yor, hoping for some better results, “Now madam, why did you choose Eden Academy and how do you plan to pass this exam?”

Yor nervously muttered, “Uhm pass… Passing… Perhaps because of cardiac arrest or excessive bleeding? Compound fractures throughout the body? Maybe poiso-”

“Kill me now… Tanya,” Loid moved on to the one child he had at least some hope in. The bar of his standards had basically been dropped to the floor, possibly below it. All Loid hoped was that Tanya didn’t decide to bring a shovel. “What do you consider to be the best tool for a stu-”

“A shovel,” Tanya stated matter-of-factly.

“Eh?”

“It is truly an implement born of civilization,” Tanya seemed surprisingly confident in her answer, and frankly part of him felt like questioning it further would only lead to some kind of monologue on the benefits of shovels of all things, to which he didn’t want by any means.

Loid groaned. “Well, this has been unproductive. Let’s head out, I have some things we can do that might help us. It’s our only chance at this rate.”

There wasn’t much choice left, they only had a limited time to get things in order. They simply wouldn’t pass the interview if things remained as they were. They needed to look, sound, and appear like the cultured upper-class families that Eden Academy wanted and admitted, and he knew some ways that might help them do just that.

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The opera was Loid’s first plan… And his most unsuccessful. Anya fell asleep within minutes, Yor just seemed confused, and Tanya was visibly plain bored (and she always seemed bored, so the fact that she appeared even more bored was concerning). If they wanted to look and act like a cultured family, clearly the Opera wasn’t the way to go.

Loid wasn’t without his other options, however. The museum would be a great place for them to become knowledgeable about the arts and history, at least he hoped.

The museum in Berlint was large, being the only major one in the city. Other museums were smaller and often specialized in a single purpose or person; this one was focused on all sorts of things as it relates to Ostania or its predecessor states like the Empire. It attracted tens of thousands of visitors every year from all classes and pathways of life, their little ragtag family would fit in fine. 

As they entered the museum the group soon found themselves in the maze it was, a maze which Loid already memorized every single turn and route of with one glance at the map, but a maze it was nonetheless. It seemed the museum truly cared for amassing every bit of history it could about the nation, and then presenting them in the most convoluted and detailed way possible.

The first section of the museum Loid brought them to was the art section. It was largely a showing of classical paintings, particularly of Germanian artists, throughout Europan history. Due to the museum being built and improved upon during the days of the Empire, it had amassed quite a collection from every corner of the once massive country. So while Ostania was hardly the largest country, Berlint had quite the massive collection regardless, rivaling those of larger nations such as the Unifed States.

Loid’s focus wasn’t on the museum itself, however. It was on how the girls would react to it. Getting them to take in what they would see and use it to help them through the interview was the sole purpose of even coming here. But as he glanced around, he wasn’t filled with the most confidence.

Tanya didn’t seem to care too much about the arts. She looked around curiously, but the look in her eyes wasn’t that of someone who really cared but perhaps was speculating about the past more than anything. Tanya was a curious girl, yet she seemed more interested in history than anything else. Perhaps another section of the museum would be more enjoyable for her, or perhaps the history segment of the art section would be more to her taste, which it was.

Anya was next, who seemed to care more about being on an outing, or as she says, an ‘ooting.’ She ran from one art piece to another, pointing at it and loudly describing it. It took quite a bit to keep her from disturbing the other visitors, but as was expected from a young child.

“Look, papa! This one doesn’t have a head!” She pointed to a broken statue from the Reman era, likely brought from Ildoa or found within the lowland countries while the Empire was still around. Whatever the case of its origins, Anya didn’t seem to care about it, moving on to the next artwork and pointing at it.

Yor meanwhile seemed to enjoy the painting of the Francois revolution quite a lot. The painting displayed the use of the guillotine in the early revolution, back when the whole thing was a huge mess for everyone involved. Loid was surprised to see Yor was interested in history, although that was the only picture she was actually looking at. He’d need to ask her about it later to corroborate their stories if needed be. 

Loid decided to move on from the arts. Art could tell history quite well, especially the history of cultures if you could see past the biases of the painter, but it seemed that interpreting that was quite hard for Anya, and maybe even for Tanya despite her intellect. Yor seemed to just like that one painting. Maybe she liked art more than Loid thought, albeit a heavily niche aspect of it.

Nevertheless, perhaps a section of the museum that told a more direct history would serve the family well in their societal education. Loid led the family over to another section of the museum, leaving the art section behind. Soon they found themselves in a section dedicated solely to the Empire and its history. The Empire wasn’t the longest-lasting nation in the grand scale of human history, not by far, but its impact on the modern day, especially during the Great War, couldn’t be understated. Many of Eden Academy’s staff grew up and even in some cases were adult citizens in the Empire, so understanding its significance might help them out a bit.

Tanya was immediately entranced by it. This was all the stuff she was familiar with. She didn’t remember her first life beyond the information she gained from it, as such for all of her life it felt like she was Imperial. She was from The Empire , not Japan. Of course, she knew that she did come from Japan originally, but she had accepted her identity as Tanya Degurechaff in her last life, and she had been seemingly reborn into it in this one, so abandoning the nostalgia of the Empire was hard for her to do.

Loid seemed satisfied with her curiosity, although grew concerned when Yor began to take a fascination with the rifles; more specifically, the bayonets on the rifles. Anya was just lost and confused, intent on following behind Tanya, seemingly reading her mind and using it as a sort of audio tour through the museum if the occasional surprised reactions to Anya’s comments were anything.

Soon Tanya stumbled upon an image of the General Staff office, the red banners of the Empire flowing down the grand walls of the building. The HQ still technically existed, but the power that radiated from such a powerful building had been greatly lessened when it served a nation with a mere fraction of the Empire’s former might.

‘Just how many times did I have to go there in my last life? I swear I still remember most of the layout like the back of my hand. I wonder if I can ever find an excuse to go back there. I know where some members of HQ hid their secret wine and cigar stashes, not that I ever wanted either, but perhaps today they could be used as funds. I wonder if some of them are still there…’

As Tanya moved on, Anya glanced back at the painting, staring in awe at the building. She had seen it in the modern day once or twice in passing, but to think her sister used to work there! Her big sis certainly lived a fascinating life.

Anya hurried behind Tanya, not wanting to fall behind. Soon she walked into a section focused more on the Great War itself. Panzers were placed in the center of the hallway, showing off the Empire’s technical prowess in tank technology. When it came to tanks and mages, the Empire was unrivaled in their development and usage, even in the final years of the war where they lost battle after battle. What really led to the Empire’s defeat was the loss of fuel, resources, manpower, and most importantly food. Their failure to secure a victory with their air force also proved a major detriment, especially over time as their cities were bombed and fighter planes shot.

‘Their industrial heartland being right near the coast in the lowlands instead of more inland like the Rhineland didn’t help that either…’ Tanya grumbled to herself. Tanya brushed off the thought, no point bothering about it now. The war was over, and as soon as the Unified States made an atomic bomb, it was basically over. In hindsight, Tanya considered that she should’ve become a military scientist. The Empire never had the same brain drain the Reich did in her timeline; the Empire could’ve very well made a nuclear weapon first if they actually had the resources to. However, the last thing she needed was to work with a mad scientist whose creations were 99% faith and 1% science, and becoming a scientist would’ve put her in even more contact with the madman than before.

Well, in the end, they didn’t and she took the full force of that. ‘Technically I suppose I was killed from trying to STOP the bomb, not from the bomb itself. I suppose I have Visha to thank for that. Going out in a fiery explosion probably wouldn’t have left a body for the scientists to clone, so I guess she did manage to save my life in a way. I suppose I won’t be able to tell her that…’

Anya was startled, was her sister actually sad? Tanya rarely showed much emotion, or rather, she seemed to have only a limited range of emotions, and if they were there, they were muted with a sense of inevitability and resignation. Satisfaction, joy, frustration, exhaustion, all of them were emotions Anya recognized from her sister. But sadness wasn’t usually one of them. It felt somewhat out of place for Tanya to be sad, but before Anya could think of a way to cheer Tanya up she already seemed to have passed the tanks.

Tanya’s brief moment of sadness was quickly pushed aside, amazing Anya with her ability to so easily change her mood. Not wanting to be left behind, Anya followed quickly behind Tanya, soon finding herself gazing in awe at a collection of shiny jewels behind a glass case.

“Ooh! Shiny! What are these, sis?” Anya asked Tanya. Without context, there was little reason to assume Tanya would know at first glance, but Anya knew the thoughts on Tanya’s mind; Tanya knew exactly what these were.

“Computation Jewels. Old ones. I believe they’re all Type 97s. They’re what allowed mages to use magic in the Great War. Some skilled mages can use magic without jewels, but even then they were limited,” Tanya explained.

‘I can use a whole lot of magic without my jewel. With how much extra mana I have in this life, I can honestly rival a Type 97 even without my Type 95 or any other computation jewel. The problem with using magic without one is that more complicated spells like flight become incredibly hard to maintain and take up a lot more mana. I’m sure I could fly without a jewel thanks to my increased mana supply now, but not for very long...’

Anya nodded along, wowing in awe. She wowed less at the jewels and more at Tanya’s own thoughts. ‘Big sister is strong!’

As Tanya continued to walk with Anya behind her and Loid watching from a safe distance, she stopped as she read something on a plaque: ‘ [White Silver/Devil of the Rhine/Eleventh Goddess] ’

There in front of her was a small section dedicated to herself, even if it had no name and had only a handful of photos of her that were so low quality that making out any specific features was damn near impossible. Even she probably couldn’t have recognized the figures in them if she hadn’t been the one posing for the pictures, oh those horrendous times. Most of the text in the many boxes was mere speculation, a few theories and ideas. There were some facts placed in there, and some of the theories were right, but it was clear that documentation of her existence was very censored or at the bare minimum lacking.

Then there was her title as the ‘Eleventh Goddess.’ The name seemed to come from the eleven characters in her name, specifically her last name, that were always censored in every mention. Rather than saying ‘Degurechaff,’ most documents tended to refer to her as ‘XXXXXXXXXXX’, which had gotten her the nickname as historians poured over Imperial records.

It had apparently taken them hundreds of hours and lots of correlation to determine that the eleven x’s were always being referred to her since the higher-ups loved to only use last names. They apparently weren’t even sure that they had gotten all of the information they could’ve, as stated in the plaque within.

It was hard to tell if this was Being X doing it out of spite or the Empire trying to cover up that they took a nine-year-old, made them a soldier, strapped a bomb to their chest, and then said soldier proceeded to create new mountains on the map out of the bodies of enemy mages. The idea that your greatest war hero was little more than a teenager at best, a child at worst, probably wasn’t a good appearance for an Empire trying to save face during and after the war.

Either way, it didn’t really matter. Tanya wasn’t sure whether she preferred for her name to be forgotten or if she was upset that it had been. She had never been one seeking glory like many of the hot-headed officers during the war, but on the other hand, being reduced to a line of X’s on a document felt degrading to who she was. If anything it did seem to make her more mysterious, a fact that seemed to thrust her from war hero to war legend fairly quickly as few could properly understand what she did. Her presence was evident from the start to end of the war, and on every front did seem to help; it was a consistent mention every time she heard about the ‘White Silver’ in a book.

‘So this is my legacy? A legend about the greatest aerial mage that ever existed in the last war where aerial mages truly dominated the skies uncontested. I suppose the First East-West War had some aerial mage domination, but that was the war where it was truly shown that jets, attack helicopters, or more specifically the new generation of anti-mage tech made the life of the average mage a lot harder. The only redeeming part about being a mage before was flight, and it seemed now many nations began placing mages in other positions due to their more limited numbers. Much like the Russians after World War II in my world, this world’s mage population likely won’t recover for several generations.’

Anya was in complete awe now, jaw dropped as she stood in place. She knew her sister was a mage, but the greatest aerial mage that ever existed was far, far above what she originally expected. She wasn’t just a mage, she was the best mage, enough so that her legacy still lived on, at least as much as a single ace’s could, anyways. A tiny section in a museum was more than most aces got; most got footnotes in the history textbooks.

Before Tanya moved on, she noticed a few sketches placed next to the poor-quality pictures of her. They all seemed to be different designs of computation jewels. The plaque next to it explained that the White Silver was recorded to have a unique computation orb which was believed to be key to their success. However, due to the lack of clear photos, there are no living references to what it looked like. All that remains are descriptions from her former foes, few of which survived to tell the tale, and designs of more mass-produced computational jewels to reference from.

She looked at the design, some of them were vaguely correct, but not really. The main design that seemed to be the most generally accepted was a circular design with three angel wings encircling the center jewel, which seemed to be more flat than rounded. It was a far more aesthetic design than what she had, and perhaps in some other universe Schugel may have had the artistic skill to make something like that, but in this world, it was gross over-exaggeration. Her jewel was just a simple gold circular border with a cross at the top and a round red jewel as its core.

Other designs didn’t seem quite accurate. Most agreed that it was visually different from the Type 97, but while there are some accounts of it being circular, there are also accounts of it being… triangular? Five-sided? Hell, one of them calls it an octagon!

‘It seems they really don’t know what it looks like, huh? Circular seems to be the general consensus, of course, but reports of the jewel looking ‘heavenly’ seem to confuse people. The only thing heavenly about it was probably the power it radiated when I prayed. How I despised that part of it. Perhaps with being X gone, I can actually use one properly without him breathing down my neck.’

Anya was somewhat confused by Tanya’s inner monologue, but frankly, nothing stated was new. For Tanya, it was reassuring that she largely didn’t need to worry about wearing her jewel in public. She had enough magical power to wipe the floor with anyone without magic, but if a competent enough mage with a modern jewel tried to get her for one reason or another, she would be defenseless without it. She had no idea if she was still being hunted by her enemies; She needed reassurance.

Her main worry was being recognized, less so about being arrested since she could fly and the modern era had few mages. Fortunately, laws on computation jewels were surprisingly lenient. One couldn’t sell them, so having a large stash of them was probably illegal, or at least it made you heavily suspicious, but owning them wasn’t. After all, if you actually used them, you could probably be tracked down pretty easily thanks to their flashy nature. It was their use that was illegal, not their possession. This was mostly because so many jewels were hidden so well in the modern day that making them illegal would only encourage people to devise better ways to disguise them, so it was better to just end the arms race before it even started. 

The knowledge that upper-class families had lobbied greatly to prevent even their ownership from being banned probably helped, given that they held most of the jewels after the war. Given that she was trying to imitate them, the more she learned of their ways, the better.

Anya continued walking along, looking with curiosity at the various things in the museum, continuing to listen to Tanya's monologue reminiscing about the past. It seemed her big sister had gone through a lot, most of which Anya didn’t fully understand, but it seemed to cause her sister a bit of stress, at least when it was happening. Whatever life she had before didn’t seem like a particularly enjoyable one. Perhaps that’s why big sis Tanya never wanted to play or watch TV, since most TV shows these days glorified battles of heroes and villains, of mages and soldiers.

If that was the case, then she would do everything in her power to make her sister learn to have fun! Enough of the boring reading and studying, she would learn to play if Anya had anything to say about it!

But just how could she do that… ?

Anya quickly devised a new plan, Operation Strix was of course the main mission papa wanted them to complete, but Anya had devised her own operation expressly for Tanya. Operation: Get Big Sis Tanya To Start Having Fun! ( The name was a work in progress ).

Anya quickly began scanning around the museum for anything that might be entertaining for Tanya. As soon as she did that, she soon realized; this was a museum, it’s actually super boring. Although Tanya was interested in the items from the Empire, it seemed to be only causing her more stress. Not all of the memories she talked about in her thoughts seemed particularly good . Anya needed to get Tanya out of there, as quickly as possible if she could help it.

Then she spotted it, further down one of the halls was a kids’ play area that connected to the arts section. Perfect! Quickly tugging on Tanya’s sleeve, she pointed at the kids’ area exclaiming, “Big sis! I wanna play!”

Tanya seemed to be hiding a mild annoyance as she put on a small smile, muttering, “Can’t you play by yourself?”

Anya pouted, she needed Tanya to go with her, “No! I want to play with you!”

Tanya sighed, ‘I suppose I should bring my reminiscing to a close. I’m not sure I want to remember some of these things, anyways. Taking a break is probably for the best… but what exactly does she mean by ‘play…’”

Tanya reluctantly followed and allowed Anya to tug her along. Loid was satisfied to see the two getting along, even if it was evident that it was more tolerance than enjoyment that came from Tanya. He had hoped the two would take in the museum a bit more, but it seemed that he had gotten the most he was likely going to get out of this visit.

Soon Anya led Tanya to the kids’ area where she glanced around for anything she could make Tanya do. Soon she set her eyes on a few board games that were laid out for kids to play. She scanned through them, trying to pick one that she or Tanya would like. She saw a pair of teenagers playing a game with a map of sorts which she thought Tanya might like, however, Anya quickly realized the game was way too complicated for her liking.

Turning away from that game, she quickly found another much more up her speed.

The game was called Landlord, although Tanya herself soon recognized it as this world’s alternative to Monopoly. The game had characters moving around the board by rolling dice, buying properties, and dealing with events that occur based on where they land. There were a few differences from the Monopoly that she vaguely knew from her first life, but most of them seemed to just be homebrew rules made official rather than anything majorly game-changing.

Why was there a board game like this in the museum? That was a question Tanya briefly asked herself before deciding it was probably meant to keep kids distracted for long enough that they wouldn’t bother anybody. Monopoly games tended to go on for quite a while, but she would bear through it if Anya insisted, plus it could be twisted into a financial manipulation game if taken seriously.

Tanya sat down at the table as Anya quickly ran off, quickly dragging Loid and Yor into the game as well. It seemed Anya decided that this was family game time now, a fact that seemed to mildly upset Loid, but he didn’t let it impact him for long. If this helped foster family bonds for Anya, the less he would have to worry about giving her cues to keep up the facade.

’Best if we finish this game quickly or this can drag on. It might upset Anya and maybe Tanya, but I’ll probably have to do my best to win this quickly.’

Each of them picked a piece of their choosing; Anya chose the doggy, Loid chose the top hat, Yor chose the iron, and Tanya chose the battleship.

Fairly quickly the game began as the dice rolled, and almost just as quickly it became apparent who the real competition was between. Yor got blown out pretty early, mostly due to a streak of bad luck as she landed on rental after rental of Tanya. All that was left was Anya, Loid, and Tanya.

For Anya though, she was treading through a veritable minefield every time she rolled the dice. She stared down the length of the board where her piece lay, all down it was properly after property with hotels lining the entire way down. If she landed on a single one, it was basically over for her.

She studied the board; landing a three, four, six, or eight would spell her doom. She rolled the dice and the first one quickly landed on a six. Perfect! Now her chances of getting higher than an eight were-

And then the second dice landed on a two. Anya stared at the dice in trembling fear as she slowly moved her piece onto the second blue tile. Tanya had managed to obtain both blue tiles uncontested, and it only took her a few turns to build a hotel on it. In short: Anya was screwed, badly, and Tanya would rake in massive profits.

Anya had already traded away most of her houses to Tanya in order for her to pay off her former debt to Loid upon landing on one of his hotels, but now she had nothing to offer and little money left. Reluctantly she gave Tanya the rest of her money and slouched down.

Yor cheerfully patted her on the back, “You did good, Anya! You lasted longer than I did.”

Anya glanced between Loid and Tanya. Both were fairly determined to win the game yet at the same time, neither really cared. It was a weird paradox of both desiring victory and not caring about the outcome and preferring it to be over. Nevertheless, the board was effectively a stare-down between Loid and Tanya; practically split 50/50 with every hotel in the game already placed.

All it would take is for one of them to land on the other’s spot one too many times. After the first or second time, they would need to start selling hotels, houses, and properties, and when that happened it would effectively become a downward, inescapable spiral of financial doom. Loid was also dangerously close to the blue hotels, landing on them would effectively secure Tanya’s victory.

If luck was on the devil’s side, the white silver would have her victory in the game of ripoff oversimplified free market capitalism. Loid considered for a brief moment using his spy techniques to rig his dice roll but decided against it. This was a children’s game he was playing against a child. Trying too hard to win would be overkill.

The dice rolled and…

Loid lost .

As if the misfortune of an entire lifetime had come back to repay itself in a single board game, Loid landed right on the space Tanya needed to ensure her victory by a landslide. Although Loid could’ve easily sold enough properties to keep going, at that point without all of his hotels and with Tanya having so much money, he was one bad roll away from losing while Tanya had far more breathing room than he had the means to deal with, and the odds simply wouldn’t be in his favor.

”I suppose I’ve been beaten then. Good game, Tanya,” Loid shook Tanya’s extended hand, it seemed the girl understood proper sportsmanship fair enough.

”Now you owe me chocolate.”

‘Eh?!’ Well… Maybe not entirely.

”That wasn’t part of this,” Loid muttered.

Anya nodded, “Yes it was! And because me and Tanya were a team you owe me peanuts!”

”Since when were we a team?” Tanya asked as she gazed at Anya.

Loid sighed, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get something to eat…”

They walked out of the museum with Tanya and Anya having identical smug grins on their faces. ‘Perhaps they were actually sisters after all, ’ Loid thought to himself.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Loid approached the small store where Franky worked as cover. It was here he often met him to exchange information or documents. Upon arriving, Loid places two mana detectors on the counter as Franky looks up from his seat. He stands and takes them, quickly sliding them away as he checked to make sure nobody is watching or listening.

“So, what’s the results?” Franky asks.

“Both got a zero on the test,” Loid explained, folding his arms.

”Huh?! zero?! Did you test it on yourself to make sure it wasn’t broken?”

Franky was clearly startled, and although Loid knew a bit about how mages functioned, he wasn’t sure what exactly had surprised Franky... ”Yes. I did it for both, before and after. My score came in the same both times and it wasn’t the same as theirs. They both just have no mana at all. Is that abnormal?”

”It’s not impossible per say, but it’s very rare. The average for people who can’t cast spells is about 0.40 to 0.60. Having not even the slightest bit of mana at all is rarer than having a mana rating of 5.00, but again, not impossible. Are you sure these two aren’t actually sisters? Sure, mana is vaguely random at birth, and even parents without mana can produce one with a decently high amount of it, but it's still at least somewhat attached to the genetics. Parents with lots of mana are far more likely to produce a child that’s the same,” Franky explained.

”It might be reasonable to assume that. Their faces look similar enough, after all. Sure, I got them from different orphanages but we have no documents on Tanya’s past and Anya herself hopped around multiple foster families. It’s possible they were separated along the way and just didn’t know it,” Loid muttered in speculation. It was a plausible theory, just not one that really had much impact on Strix, but if need be it could be useful for making sure their familiar bond is strong.

Franky shrugged. “I see… Well in either case I did some research on that jewel of Tanya’s.” 

“What did you find?” Loid asked.

”Jack shit. There’s only one documented case of a circular jewel within the Empire, the jewel of the White Silver. The problem with that is that the few accounts we have of what the jewel looks like are heavily inconsistent at best. However, some accounts do refer to it as ‘gold’ and ‘circular,’ but they also describe it as other things like ‘heavenly’ and ‘divine.’ Doesn’t really seem like a fitting descriptor for a rounded yellow Type 97.”

Seems that Franky’s curiosity didn’t really lead anywhere. Ultimately, it was Franky’s curiosity, not his. But there was another possibility that may, even if unlikely, cause complications. “I see, so it’s probably a fake then or some older model used during the last months of the war? Do you think it’s possible that Tanya is some granddaughter of the White Silver?”

”With a mana capacity of nothing? Hell no! Well, technically I suppose it is possible, but it’s so unlikely that when you add on the fact that the White Silver died at the end of the war and that her body was incinerated by a nuclear bomb, it’s far more realistic that your first idea is right. It’s probably some obscure jewel that was never really used, and might even be fake as some imitation for entertainment purposes. Some family heirloom or recreation of it or something. Either way, probably not worth the trouble of taking it from the kid.”

Loid nodded, it was good to have the possibility of some war hero coming after their daughter for her computational jewel kicked off the list for good. Mages with high mana capacity could live longer than the average person, so it was possible that if they were alive they could come back for their daughter, if Tanya even was theirs. The jewel wasn’t a problem regardless; there was no hope in a thousand years of her being able to use it. “I’ll put it in my next report to WISE just in case, but I doubt anything will come of it. We got a family photo today where Tanya was wearing the jewel, so I’ll just send that in, see if they can identify it, if it’s even worth identifying.”

With his other worries alleviated, at least for now, he had one major problem left to attend to: the interview.

The fate of world peace rests on their shoulders.

’God I never thought I’d need a break’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Le Editors:

Dr. Rx. - Ngl good thing Mr. Madman scientist died. Otherwise, he’d be going after Tanya for the jewel once more.

Fish Tank - WISE is gonna have a fit when they finally manage to identify the orb as THE Type 95.

Terraman60 - Tanyademption arc incoming?

Half_Baked_Cat - Guess I’m here now too. I need to say something? Hugs for the Hug Throne! You know you want to Anya!

Dtrackt - grab a shovel and start digging for info WISE cause your gonna have a hard time

Chapter Text

The day of the interview had come; the most dreaded obstacle that lay before them. In theory, it should’ve been the hardest, but Tanya and Loid were both far too skeptical to be so overly confident. Regardless of what came next, this came first, and it wasn’t something they could afford to fail. Failure meant setting back plans for a whole year at least, if not more considering the emphasis on prestige. For Loid, it meant setting back Strix, if not outright canceling it. For Tanya, it meant putting her hope of gaining access to a pristine education at the nation’s top school in jeopardy. For Anya and Yor, it threatened to tear their newfound family apart, regardless of whether the latter saw it as more of a cover story than a family. It was still a family nonetheless.

The preparations were extensive, the test interviews conducted were many, and Loid seemed insistent on planning for every conceivable eventuality. He was as thorough as Tanya would’ve been herself, even more so in fact. His preparedness leaked over into the realm of paranoia, at least from Tanya’s perspective.

Tanya had no problem with it, however. ‘Know thy enemy’ and whatnot, after all. However, in this case, they were less of an enemy and more of an obstacle they had to appease . They had to get approval from the judges, and if Loid was to be believed, they would be watched and judged from the very start to the very end.

Tanya questioned just what sort of insane school went through that much effort to single out the ‘inelegant’ lower class, but then reminded herself that they were dealing with not only the rich but the inherited rich , old money. Most of these people got their money from birth, and thought that having huge sums of money was as natural as existing. Although plenty were worthy of respect and knew how to use that money properly, many did nothing more than sit on it and live off of their inheritance alone rather than working to improve society, and that meant those biases of working for finances would result in the characteristic superiority complex they were preparing to soften up.

Whatever the case may be, they were fighting an uphill battle, one that they were (at least in theory,) very prepared for. Emphasis on in theory , Tanya didn’t have much confidence in Anya, but Loid and Yor could possibly pass alongside her. 

Before them stood Eden Academy’s vast campus, towering over them all. The school grounds contained all grades from first to twelfth, meaning it was quite massive overall for a school, let alone a school as prestigious as this one. The family of four walked amidst a crowd of several other families, each vying to have their children enlist in Eden Academy and dressed in their best. Out of all the families here, only a fraction of them would succeed, and the odds were stacked against them all.

‘What was the name of the project that made me? Project Eve, was it? How ironically fitting that I’d be going to a school called Eden of all places...’ Tanya mused as she began to survey her surroundings.

She needed to keep her composure, even if she was skeptical if they were truly being watched. True to Loid’s suspicions, she spotted observers in the overhead passage above them as they walked by, peering down and jotting down on notepads. Optical formulas quickly improved her eyesight, making spotting them a bit easier, although the formulas could only do so much. She was once an artillery spotter, after all; she needed a good eye.

The exam had already begun, no turning back now. Victory or Valhalla.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

“Elegance makes tradition, elegance is what makes the world a better place…”

That was the philosophy of Henry Henderson, the Housemaster of Cecile Hall. It was his duty now to handle the entrance exams for the incoming new generation of Eden Academy. For him, the entire academy was sacred ground, in which the inelegant were staining with their very presence.

Those without elegance didn’t deserve even a chance to pass, for they had no place in the prestigious and old Eden Academy. Filtering out the elegant from the inelegant was his duty for today, and he would make sure it would be fulfilled with the utmost elegance.

He walked up to the window and observed down below at the families approaching the interview location. They walked as a small crowd, and almost instantly he could filter out those destined to fail and those with a chance of succeeding with only a brief overview of the crowd. He had been working here for decades, he knew the interview process inside and out. And this year’s incoming applicants were no better than last year it seemed.

‘The way one carries themselves shows their elegance… One can tell if another has no elegance just by observing that…’

He continued observing the families until he spotted one near the back, walking at a more polite pace compared to some of the families that had so inelegantly rushed through the academy’s sacred gateway.

There weren't any clear giveaways about the family at first glance, which he could respect. The father walked proudly and with the utmost elegance that Henry could respect, obviously practiced with a refinement only extensive familiarity could’ve done. The mother walked with confidence in her movements, similar to the father. The family seemed to have two daughters applying today, such wasn’t unheard of, but you only got so many successful applicants each year. The two daughters couldn’t have carried themselves more differently, however, as stark as the difference between day and night.

What appeared to be the younger, or at the very least shorter, daughter with pink hair seemed to be trying her best to walk with elegance, but it at times seemed stiff and overly firm. Of those who hadn’t undergone as much training as those truly elegant, he could at least respect the effort, sometimes simply having a willingness to be elegant was a good sign for a child, although he wasn’t sure if she would get accepted. 

Meanwhile, the other child with blonde hair walked firmly, yet not stiffly like her sibling. It was the kind of orderly walk you’d expect to see from a military officer or veteran, from years of discipline and mirroring the veterans he knew of. It wasn’t inelegant by any means, on the contrary, such an orderly form clearly showed immense self-discipline, a vital quality for those striving to become elegant. However, it was a bit strange to see from a child, at least when the rest of the family didn’t quite match that form.

Ignoring the inconsistency of the family, there wasn’t much defining them as ‘inelegant’ from the get-go, and the inconsistency could be explained as just having different interests in how they passively approached elegance and the world. However as the family approached the statue of the founder, a statue that most did little more than nod or gaze up at, they stopped. At first, it was unclear as to why they stopped, but then they raised their hands to their chest.

‘They’re paying respect to the founder?! How… ELEGANT!’

Henry turned to one of the observers behind him, their job was to keep track of all the individual families and their applicant children. After all, one man couldn’t properly keep track of everyone’s elegance alone, a team was needed. Hastily, he inquired, “Who is that family?! I must know.”

The observer looked out the window and flipped through his clipboard before monotonously stating, “K-212, the Forger Family, sir. They have two daughters applying this year. The eldest, Tanya Forger, passed the exam with a perfect score of 100. By contrast, the younger sister, Anya Forger, barely passed the exam with a score of 31.”

Henry took the clipboard and looked it over, gazing at both of the tests as he grumbled, “Absolutely not elegant! Such poor penmanship!”

“There were some concerns that the eldest sister may have cheated during the test due to the vast contrast in their scoring,” the observer explained.

Henry looked over Tanya’s paper then gazed back out the window and shook his head, “No, I doubt it. The two sisters carry themselves in a very different way. There is even a clear difference in their handwriting. The integrity of our exams is not at fault, instead, it simply appears that there is a clear difference between these two sisters. Perhaps the junior will learn from the senior.”

Henry coughed, handing the clipboard back to the observer, “Regardless. The father is remarried, yes? I shall keep an eye on them for now, best if we make sure this family wasn’t hastily put together for application’s sake. I shall ascertain whether or not they contain true elegance.”

The families continued to move down the walkway of Eden Academy, flowing forward as they began to be filtered into different halls to go down through. It wasn’t often Henry himself took an interest in a specific family, but there came times when even he had to see the true extent of one’s elegance. And this was one of those times. 

As they walked their way towards the interview hall, they neared the first obstacle. It was a test to see how people would act, and thus discern their true natures. A boy was stuck in a filthy gutter, the young student was granted extra credit if he played his part well, and the student did. How people handled the situation would greatly determine their placements going forward.

As people walked by, most simply ignored the child. Some pretended not to notice, while others occasionally said they’d get someone to help when they could. None tried to save the boy as that would risk them getting themselves dirtied on Eden’s sacred grounds. They were smart, elegant even, and highly traditional. The rabble were the rabble, the elites were the elites. The distinction was clear.

Then there were the Forgers… The youngest daughter Anya pointed at the boy and declared that he needed help. It was certainly possible to help the boy out elegantly, but it was almost certainly bound to be a tricky task.

‘Now Forgers… How shall you handle thi-’

Henry stared in startled silence as Loid stepped in and pulled the boy out with a single motion of his hand. It was a brilliant showing of strength, however, it was filthy, sloppy, and inelegant .

Henry scoffed, “It seems I misjudged them… Throw K-212 out immediately. It appears that they’re just some commoners from the countryside.”

As Henry began to walk away, content to resume his observation of the remaining candidates, he overheard the mother speak from the other side of the wall.

“Good thing we anticipated this and brought a spare change of clothes, then!”

‘What?! Who in the world could have ever possibly anticipated that?!’

“So smart… smart and ELEGANT! ” He exclaimed. “Curse you and your cunning, Forgers…”

One of the observers turned towards him nervously. “U-Uh Housemaster… we’re supposed to be observing the children…”

“Silence! Children learn from their parents! Inelegant parents will produce inelegant children, and as such elegant parents will naturally produce elegant children!” Henry explained, still staring at the family in awe.

The Forgers had his curiosity before, but now they had his attention . “Keep them in. I wish to continue observing them.”

The observer nodded, “As you wish, Housemaster.”

‘I’ll make you reveal your true nature, Forgers…’

The rest of the path to the interview was planned to be fairly normal. A few minor obstacles that most should have no issue overcoming with ease, but the main focus was always on the interview itself.

As the families began making their way closer to the interviewing hall, there became a greater emphasis on the planned part of that statement.

A bell rang from another part of the academy’s campus as the ground below them shook. Turning, Henry noticed a countless stampede of Eden’s prized animals rushing down the path. Eden Academy effectively had a small zoo of animals on its premises, from more basic farm animals like cows and sheep to even expensive bald eagles imported from the Unified States.

It seemed that by some strange set of circumstances, the animals had somehow been let out. Panicked, Henry turned to the other observers behind him, asking “Who said to go that far? Do you know how much of a mess this will cause?!”

The observer seemed confused and shocked, nervously muttering “T-This wasn’t you, Housemaster?”

Henry turned back to the window with panic, this wasn’t some strange and radical test, rather this was an actual crisis. The very honor and respect for Eden Academy was on the line now. The repercussions of how they should handle the disaster after the fact would come later. Right now, they needed to fix the problem before it got too out of hand.

“There are some important people among the applicants! Fix this mess immediately! We can’t risk the name of Eden Academy over this!” Henry ordered, causing the observers to scatter out of the room rapidly.

Henry looked back out the window, already dreading the mess that this was going to be to clean up. Not only in the sense that calming down a herd of stampeding wild animals was hard enough as it was, but there would no doubt be some powerful people who would be very upset about this. Eden Academy would survive, of course, but he would soon have to decide if he was to brush this off as ‘just another test’ or admit this was truly an accident. The old housemaster wasn’t sure which would piss them off less, since the former would annoy them greatly and the latter could result in their complete withdrawal.

That wasn’t even getting into all the staff that would need to be replaced. There was no way someone wasn’t getting fired for this, if not multiple. Even if it was nobody’s fault, someone would need to take the fall for it, unfortunately, and he as the Housemaster knew that all too well.

Then there were the Forgers. In the chaos, he had briefly stopped paying attention to the family, and in truth, they were now largely insignificant in the grand scheme of this unprecedented catastrophe. Yet as he was panicking over this crisis, he couldn’t help but observe with curiosity how the Forgers would handle themselves in this situation.

During the pandemonium, a young boy had been left stranded from his family, left before the mercy of a raging bull. There wasn’t anything Henry could do but observe, yet suddenly Loid Forger swept in and saved the boy before returning him to his father. To risk himself and even his interview apparel to save the child of another… Truly elegant, Loid Forger.

Then there was the eldest daughter, Tanya. She was still on the ground, unlike her sister who rested in her mother’s arms. However as Tanya stepped to the side, quickly dodging the bull with impressive speed for a child, Henry watched in shock as she extended her leg, causing the bull to trip into an elegant frontflip with her small frame.

‘Such speed and durability! Even if she was only aiming for the leg, she still managed to trip a bull running at top speed! In such an elegant display too!’

Of course, that wasn’t enough to stop the bull, not by far. It fumbled briefly after landing, and its speed was dramatically halted, but it displayed no intent to actually stop. However, almost as if it was a coordinated assault the mother, Yor Forger, swept in and quickly neutralized the bull within seconds. Even Henry wasn’t sure how she did it. He overheard her mumbling something about ‘pressure points’ and ‘yoga class,’ but that didn’t matter. The truly elegant had their ways of being elegant, and how they did it varied from person to person. 

As he glanced at the rest of the stampeding animals, they had all stopped dead in their tracks. Whether it was out of sheer shock, fear, or something else, he couldn’t tell. The leader bull meanwhile lay trembling on the floor. She didn’t kill the bull, it seemed, merely neutralized it by stunning it. Truly elegant!

Then there was the youngest daughter, Anya. Despite the fact the bull had just been rampaging mere moments ago, she walked over and began to pet it. ‘She’s petting the bull? No! She’s calming it down!’ He watched in awe as the bull stood up and slowly began to leave with the other animals, leading them away. Crisis averted.

“E-E-E-EL-EL-E-EL-ELEGANCE!”

At the shock of the other observers in the room, Henry rushed out of the door, rushing down the hallway as fast as he could. The Forgers had proven their worth, even if they had ruined their clothes yet again; they deserved to apply to the grand Eden Academy.

Suddenly, Henry slammed out the door and into the courtyard, practically panting as he called out for the Forgers who were standing nearby. After taking a moment to collect himself from rushing down the hallway, he shouted, “Forger! You have helped us to avoid a crisis, I thank you. We’ll be delaying the interviews to allow us some time to collect ourselves. Please return to the hall once you’ve had the time to clean yourselves up, you have earned a right to apply to our school.”

Henry glanced away, mostly to skim over the damages from the catastrophe that just swept through the school, however, he turned briefly after hearing Loid’s response.

“Sir, I appreciate your generosity but do not worry. We anticipated something like this may happen, so we brought another change of clothes.”

Henry looked back in time to see Yor stow a sheet away and all of them now in an entirely different outfit than before. How they had managed to change so fast was beyond him, and he had trained with the best of the best.

‘This is beyond elegance! These people just scare me!’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The interviews were a slow yet necessary process. Not just anyone could have the pleasure of attending the grand Eden Academy, only the elites could. And although the walk to the interview alone weeded out the most inelegant among the families, the interview was made to snuff out any who managed to pass the careful eyes of the observers.

Being in charge of the application process as a whole, Henry was once more at the front lines of this operation, spearheading its efforts. This time, he was one of the three judges that would be handling the interview. Alongside him were two other teachers, respected among Eden Academy’s staff.

Well, perhaps ‘ respected’ was an exaggeration. Immediately to his left was Murdoch Swan, Housemaster of Dorm 2, Cline Hall. He was the product of immense nepotism, an unfortunate stain on Eden Academy, but not one he had any authority to cleanse given his own position. He was tolerated well enough among the staff, although some of his comments in the interviews had already garnered some frustration out of Henry. He was in no place to comment, as in the end the two of them were equals. Such inelegance was truly a detriment to the image of Eden Academy. Had they truly needed to place him on the interviewing team?

Almost a polar opposite to the inelegance of Swan was the other interviewer placed with Henry, the man to the far left of him and the housemaster of Dorm 5, Malcolm Hall. He was an older gentleman named Walter Evans. Contrary to his counterpart, he was a kind man and one that Henry could actually respect, at least by comparison to the former.

Henry watched as another family exited the interview hall, the child practically in tears as they left, shuddering with emotion. The hardest part of the selection process was letting down so many children who had simply sought elegance. After all, they simply had an unfortunate upbringing that did not allow them to be raised with the proper elegance required. Children took after their parents’ example, and for many children, their parents had not been elegant enough for it to rub off on them for the admissions process.

In a way, a child was the purest reflection of their parents. Just as you could judge children by their parents, so too could you judge parents by their children. The interview more often showed the true side of the children rather than of the adults. The adults could easily practice, prepare, and act to save face, it happened every year. They could easily hide behind a mask of elegance for long enough to last the interview, but a child… A child could not. The test showed they had the academic elegance needed, the walk here displayed they could present themselves as elegant, and the interview was the last test to see for themselves how truly elegant they were in person during high-pressure situations.

It was a masterful design, and one he had the pleasure of overseeing the past few years. It had worked for over a century now, but there was a certain family he had taken a vested interest in. One whom he wished to see how the interview would reflect on their inner workings. As he saw the assistant in the room pull up another chair for seemingly two children rather than one, he could already guess who was next, and he was strangely excited.

A double application was rare, but not unheard of, after all. But he had interviewed all the other double applicants already. There was only one family left that had two children…

The Forgers.

Evans gestured towards the seats across from them, “Please have a seat.”

Loid Forger politely nodded, “Thank you for having us.”

His family silently took their seats. The parents, Loid and Yor, took their seats across from himself and his fellow interviewers as the others had. Tanya and Anya, the children, meanwhile similarly sat off to the side where every other child had.

Henry was quick to analyze every small detail he could about the Forgers. However, he had already inspected Loid himself plenty, his focus now was on his children. The truest reflection of someone can be found with their children, after all . It was there that the once more a stark contrast between the two sisters was glaringly evident, particularly in their eyes.

Anya’s green eyes gave off a sense of anxiety, but also of interest. It was reasonable for even elegant children to be anxious going into such an important interview, he could hardly blame her for that reaction, he had seen it hundreds of times before. But it was the interest and intrigue in her eyes that fascinated Henry. She seemed to be listening well, even when nobody was talking. Perhaps that meant she was an eager learner.

Tanya’s blue eyes gave off something almost scary, even for his experienced analytical mind. That being nothing . He couldn’t get a read on her eyes at all. The eyes were a window to the brain; many people, especially children, displayed their emotions through their eyes vividly. You could fake a smile, but it was much harder to fake the glint in one’s eyes.

Yet here was Tanya, revealing almost no emotion at all through them. That wasn’t something he often saw from a child. Adults? Sure, there were plenty, military officers and politicians especially, considering they had to be hardened through time. Even Loid himself seemed to have that skill down, similar to Tanya, yet he had never seen a child so skillfully hide their emotions and thoughts. 

Although looking at her father, it was very much possible that she learned it from him… Or was it just genetic? They had the same neutral expression after all.

Evans began the interview as he did all the others, his calmer tone of voice was often much more soothing to anxious children than Henry’s and especially Swan’s. “First, we will start by asking the parents some questions. Starting off, I heard that this was your second wife. If I may ask, how did you two meet?”

Loid gave his answer without hesitation, a good sign of his elegance. “I met my wife at the tailor shop that handles this school’s uniforms, and I was in awe at her grace. I was hesitant to take on another relationship because of my two daughters, but the more I spoke to her the more I felt as though she was a kindred spirit. She truly cares for our family, and so I came to the conclusion that she’d get along well with my daughters.”

‘A respectable answer, Forger. Too many people are quick to shun away remarriages. While divorce is truly inelegant, one can hardly blame a man for seeking someone else after their wife’s death. To raise a child on one’s own is hard work, it would be improper to harm his score over this being his second wife… So long as the family is firm and elegant, that is.’

Evans continued, “I see… And what about you, madam?”

Henry had not gotten much of a read on the wife yet, and though he had become focused on the children, now he was curious about the inner workings of Yor, too. She was the other half of the parenthood, after all. If she was inelegant, then perhaps her children would be too. 

Yor began a bit less firmly than Loid, although she was clearly flustered after what Loid had said. Henry could hardly fault her for that, considering outright declarations of love were rare even here. “W-Well you see… Loid is a wonderful person who truly cares for his children. He is also very considerate of me.”

“I’m glad to hear you have a happy family,” Evans responded.

As if Henry wasn’t allowed to simply sit and enjoy a satisfying and elegant answer to a properly organized question, Swan grumbled and asked, “Why would a beautiful girl like you choose to be with a man who’s got baggage?”

Henry did his best to suppress a sigh, “That question was rather uncouth, Master Swan.”

‘He has been like this all day… The one family I wish to examine further seems to be the one that will annoy him the most…’

Swan was undergoing a divorce and had even lost custody of his child, that much Henry knew and had deemed it rather inelegant, but that was no reason to bring up your frustrations in the workplace. That was especially true when your frustrations could sabotage the future of some of the potentially brightest minds of the next generation.

It was clear that Swan was jealous, just as he had been with any happy family that came through. But with Loid being a remarried man, that was no doubt bound to make him even more upset.

Henry sighed mentally, it was just another headache he would have to deal with for today. He would file a complaint about Swan’s behavior after the day was over, but he doubted–no, he knew it wouldn’t do much. Perhaps, if nothing else, he wouldn’t be assigned as an interviewer next year, and that would be something to be thankful for.

Evans continued, it seemed he was also frustrated with Swan’s behavior, but he too knew not to make a fuss of it in front of applicants. “Now then, can you tell us why you sought to apply to Eden Academy?”

Loid responded, “There was only one reason, sir; the quality of the instructors at this establishment is superior. You are all very intelligent and cultured. However, when it comes to teaching anything such as patriotism to how to properly handle one’s self, the instructors at Eden Academy are second to none.”

‘Elegantly said, Loid Forger. It seems my judgment of you was correct. Although… The elegance of the children remained to be tested.’

“Now then, how would you describe both of your children? Please let us know about their strengths and weaknesses,” Evans asked.

“Anya is a very curious child,” Loid began, already confirming Henry’s own suspicions about Anya. “While she has a habit of sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, I could hardly see it as a weakness. She is a truly intelligent child.”

Henry found his gaze turning towards Anya, ‘Intelligent? Her?! If she’s intelligent, then surely Tanya must be the next Schugel!’

Despite Henry’s internal monologuing, Loid continued, “Sometimes it feels like she could even read my mind which keeps me on my feet. I’d say her main shortcoming is that she’s a picky eater.”

Evans nodded along, “I see, and what of your other daughter, Tanya?”

“Tanya is a curious child in her own way. Whereas Anya is often curious about what is going on around her now, Tanya will often be far more curious about the events of the past. I can hardly count the number of times she has requested to visit the library and take another collection of large history books to learn from.”

‘I see, so she is fascinated by history… There are many great lessons that could be learned by looking at the past of humanity. Truly elegant.’

Loid continued, “She is particularly knowledgeable about the Great War, although she has recently broadened her horizons into other parts of history. She is especially interested in the history of Ostania and the former Empire.”

‘She has the makings of a fine patriot. Understanding the mistakes of the Empire and early Ostania will no doubt help guide her in the future. I am very curious to see the future path this child chooses to take. I am still curious how she scored so high when her sister scored so low, though. Perhaps it is a difference in how they learn. If I didn’t have other duties as a Housemaster I may have considered looking into that…’

“I’d say her biggest weakness is that she isn’t the most sociable. She is a very silent, obedient, and patient child, but she doesn’t tend to play as much as her sister or other kids her age. Although one could simply call her studious.”

‘An antisocial child? Those aren’t unheard of in Eden Academy, but some do have a tendency to be troublemakers down the road. I do hope Tanya doesn’t become one of those… she has potential’

Henry looked to observe the reactions of both children after hearing themselves be described by their parents. Anya was somewhat embarrassed as children usually were, her weaknesses exposed to the judges she had likely been warned to never express weakness to. Tanya once again maintained a blank expression on her face. Does this child just not have any emotions?

Once more, the Forgers were walking the line between being elegant and being downright scary.

Evans turned now to Yor, “I see… And Miss Forger, how would you describe your parenting style?”

Yor subtly clenched her dress lightly and explained, “As you know I’m not their biological mother. I know what it’s like to live without a mother as well, and so at first, I had thought to spoil them quite often in hopes that they would come to like me. However, for the sake of their future, I was hoping to be a bit more strict with them, at times.”

“Mister Forger mentioned that your daughter, Anya, is a picky eater, what kind of meals do you tend to cook at home?” Evans inquired.

Yor was somewhat startled by this question as she muttered, “O-Oh! C-Cooking… Well um…”

Loid interrupted her, “I actually do most of the cooking. Although at times when I am busy, my wife is kind enough to cook for me.”

Henry could already practically hear Swan’s blood slowly boiling over the last few questions before he finally became upset and blurted out, “You’re joking! What kind of wife doesn’t cook for her husband?! You should be stricter with yourself before you worry about those damn children!”

‘I’m starting to see why his wife wanted a divorce…’

Loid once more answered, “Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. For example, she is incredibly tidy and excels in keeping our house clean and spotless. This isn’t even mentioning the fact that she is also an excellent mother to my daughters. I just happen to be very good at cooking, a skill I picked up after my late wife passed away for my children.”

‘An elegant response, Loid Forger.’

Swan scoffed, “Yes, well those are both things women are expected to do. Even if you’re good at cooking, you shouldn’t bother yourself with such menial tasks if you have a woman in the house.”

“That’s–” Loid began.

“I-It’s alright, Loid,” Yor muttered, calming him down.

‘It is reasonable to be angry, Forger. Frankly, I cannot blame you. This nuisance has been annoying me all day, God I wish I had some tape…’

It was pretty clear that even Evans didn’t know how to best handle Swan. For now, he seemed to come to the same conclusion Henry himself had; to deal with him later, or most likely, not at all. Nervously, he continued, “A-Alright, next let’s ask the young ladies some questions… First, could you tell us your name and address?”

“My name is Tanya Forger. I live in Berlint, West District 128 Park Avenue.”

“My name is A-Anya Horger! I l-live in Berlint… West Dish trick 128 Park Ave new!”

“And what do you do on days off, miss Anya?”

“We do moozeums… a-and eat operas!”

‘She’s… a bit off, but there is some elegance to the activities she’s trying to describe.’

Evans continued, “And what of you, Miss Tanya?”

“I personally enjoy spending time in the library reading. I believe that there is much to be learned by observing humanity’s past and present and understanding how human nature has influenced our society and history,” Tanya explained, a faint grin on her face as she spoke.

‘Quite an elegant answer. Perhaps she aspires to be a historian? Loid is a psychiatrist, yes? Perhaps her interest in how the human mind influences history stems from that. She must take after her father greatly.’ Although Henry found an interest in the young Tanya, he couldn’t help but feel strange about her. Something was… off with this child. Part of him worried she would become something truly terrifying in the future. But perhaps he was just on edge. Today was a stressful day, after all, it was best to just not dwell on it, he decided. He still had to handle the stampede later, he internally reminded himself not to allow that to taint his perspective.

Evans nodded as he asked the next question, “And what would the two of you like to do should you get into this school?”

Both were silent for a moment as if both were expecting the other to speak first. After a moment, Tanya quickly took over, “I hope to secure a valuable and credible education so that I may rise the ranks and become a functioning and valuable member of society.”

There was a firm determination in her words and in her eyes. There was no doubting Tanya’s resolve, she truly wished to excel in her studies for her own future. Perhaps that’s where the difference in the two stemmed from. Maybe Anya just hadn’t yet processed the importance of her future, leading to her far less elegant score. Frankly, it was difficult to discern which child was the outlier within the Forgers. Perhaps it was both? Truly, this family felt like an anomaly the more Henry analyzed it.

“Truly an admirable goal, Miss Tanya. And what of you, Anya?” Evans asked.

“I-I uhm… I which to get good grades and exit cell in so shyity!” Anya stated nervously.

‘Is she just rephrasing what her sister said? No, perhaps she simply aspires to be like her sister. Considering her sister’s record so far, that might be a good thing…’

Evans nodded along. “I see, now let's change the subject. What does your father do for a living?”

Anya was quick to answer this, “He’s a spy!-Spy-chiatrist! A speshulist in mental health. A very good one!”

‘She appears to be a bit stuffy… Perhaps she is sick after all that happened today? No, I think that’s just how she talks. I do hope she grows out of it quickly.’

Evans moved on to the next question. “And how do you feel about your new mother?”

“She is very nice! But she’s scary sometimes,” Anya answered.

Yor seemed to be somewhat startled by her answer but Henry ignored it.

“And if you were to give your parents a score, what would it be?” Evans asked.

“A perfect 100 points! Papa and Mama are both so much fun, I love them very much. I want to be with them forever!” Anya exclaimed eagerly.

Tanya shrugged, “90 points, nobody’s perfect.”

‘This child concerns me.’

Henry suppressed a groan as he heard Swan scoff to his left. ‘He’s going to ruin this moment, isn’t he?’

Right on cue, Swan asked, “In that case, would you score your old mother or your new mother higher?”

‘He is lucky that I find punching him in the face during an interview to be inelegant.’

“May I respectfully request an alternative question?” Loid questioned, although from his tone of voice, he was almost demanding it, not that Henry could blame him.

‘Such an inelegant question, I can only hope Swan comes to his senses and drops it…’

“Absolutely not. If you don’t answer, you’re losing points.”

Henry could hardly look, although he was doing his best to silently suppress his own anger at Swan’s behavior. There was no way such inelegance should stand in Eden Academy, yet it was beyond his control. He had no authority here. He would have to handle this through bureaucratic means, unfortunately.

Looking over at the children, he saw tears begin to form in Anya’s eyes as she began to cry, “M-Mama…?”

Then he felt something change. It felt as if the pressure in the room itself had shifted. It didn’t feel like something he was imagining, it felt almost supernatural . It was around then that he saw a flicker of golden light in the corner of his eye, but searching for the source, he found nothing. ‘All this stress must be getting to my head. After this is over I should take a day off if I can get it approved…’

Then he noticed something else, the elder sister, Tanya, had reached over and was now clinging onto her sister’s hand. The look in her eyes had shifted. Throughout the interview, Tanya had been a brick wall of unreadable expressions, but now the expression on her face was clear as day; frustration–no, fury.

Tanya’s gaze fell upon Swan who recoiled back into his seat. Even Henry felt a chill although her eyes weren’t directed at him. Then she spoke, sending a chill down all of their bones, “I will not tolerate this line of questioning. It is improper, informal, and completely unrelated to the topic of this interview. I do not know which loophole of incompetence or nepotism you crawled through to obtain your position, but you do not deserve your position in society.”

Then Tanya retracted her hand, a somewhat startled look on her face as if she had not even expected herself to say that. She sat back in her seat and sighed, “Apologies, I spoke too aggressively. What I meant to say is that neither I nor my sister will be answering that question. Reduce points as you will.”

It was clear that Swan was frustrated, but he was also terrified at the same time, seemingly scared into silence by the little girl. Normally, Henry would consider such a retort inelegant, but it was thoroughly deserved and thus was excusable.

After that display, Evans silently muttered, “W-Well that will be all for now, thank you for your time Forgers.”

The Forgers left in an awkward yet formal silence, just about everyone leaving startled for one reason or another.

Henry sighed, “My, what a headache.”

Swan scoffed, “I know, such insolence shall not be tolerated! They should not be allowed to attend our school!”

“It is not them I was referring to. They answered all of the questions appropriately and elegantly, I say they’ve earned a passing score,” Henry muttered.

“What?! After that display! That little girl has no right to speak back to an adult that way, much less a Housemaster! They should fail!” Swan angrily retorted.

Henry nodded. “So one vote for them passing and one for them failing. What is your decision, Evans?”

Evans sighed and shook his head, “I’m afraid I must side with Henderson on the case of the Forgers, Swan. As he stated, they answered everything appropriately. As for Tanya’s last retort, I’d argue that it was fairly appropriate as well considering the context.”

Swan looked as if he was about to explode. Of course, he seemed to be just as aware of his position as they were. He knew he couldn’t do anything, they were all equals in this room. His connections would only get him so far. Without another word he stormed out, leaving Henry and Evans exhausted.

“Well, that concludes the interviews for today. I do hope Housemaster Swan didn’t scare off such a nice family from attending our school,” Evans muttered as he stood and began to leave.

Henry nodded. “Agreed.”

As Evans left, Henry stood and approached the window overlooking the outside courtyard below. There he saw the Forgers making their way home, the youngest daughter Anya clinging onto Tanya as she seemed to awkwardly try and squirm free.

“A strange family indeed…” Henry muttered to himself before turning his attention to the shelf next to the window. On each layer of the shelf, there were trinkets and memorabilia of the many eras Eden Academy had gone through.

It was that young lady that led him to look at it. Her apparent fascination with history reminded him that he too should remember his country’s history. After all, he had lived through much of it himself. Memorabilia of the Great War brought him back to his youth. He had been 26 when the war began, and although he was never a soldier during it, he remembered hearing all about the events going on at the front through newspapers and radios.

Something about the girl brought him to remember that time of his life, although he couldn’t pinpoint what. It almost felt nostalgic to him now. However, it was then he noticed something strange. On the shelf was an old mana-detecting device; yet the dials had been turned up to the max, as if it had detected a giant magical signature before breaking.

Had it always been like that? Maybe it had and he just never noticed. He rarely glanced at the shelf, after all. Still, whenever this thing picked up a magical signature, it must’ve been quite a massive one in order to outright break it.

Could it be that strange pressure he felt earlier during the interview? No, that’s absurd. He had a list of all applicants that had magical affinities since everyone needed a health evaluation before applying. The only ones with magic would be the children of generals who weren’t immediately sent to war school.

‘I’m thinking about this too much. I really should take a nap. This stress is killing me…’

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Sylvia stood beneath the massive behemoth of a complex that was WISE’s HQ. Just how long had it been since she had last been here? It felt like ages despite how high ranking she technically was within the organization. For years now she had operated almost solely within Ostania itself, being the main handler of agents and spies in the area.

Every movement or operation made by WISE in Ostania went through her first, and although she only had a limited say on which missions were ultimately chosen, she was largely in charge of how they were executed; at least to a large extent.

But there were some affairs that needed to be taken right to the top, whether it be for their importance or her own lack of knowledge on the topic at hand. Mages were a category that fell under both of those descriptions.

Mages were a tense subject for most former countries of the Empire, but no countries suffered more than Ostania and Westalis. The East-West Wars had effectively dropped both nations’ mage populations to near zero, devastating both militarily.

Both nations had been in a silent magical arms race ever since Ostania had broken free from the Russy Federation. If one country could secure a magical superiority over the other, then it was all over. It was their equal grounds in terms of technology and magical power that kept both nations at peace; without it, nationalists from either country would feel emboldened to seize the opportunity to kickstart yet another war.

The news of Operation Strix’s initial successes in getting not just one but two children into Eden Academy was also met by strange, confusing, and partially terrifying reports of a massive magical surge in Berlint.

Ostania was doing quite a good job hiding the event, however, even WISE’s own magical scanners in Berlint were damaged by the shockwave. The nature of the surge made it impossible to triangulate a source, however, there were some worries about SNAKE’s potential revival.

SNAKE was a headache all on its own; they were elusive and almost impossible to track down. It wasn’t until just a few years ago when their main facility, at the time unknown to WISE, suddenly combusted. That facility going down basically ended the organization, but if there were remnants still pushing the limits of mages, then it could prove very problematic at best.

Then there was Strix itself. Strix was a fairly standard operation on its own, but there was an observation made of one of the children Agent Twilight had taken in for the plan. One of WISE’s informants had spotted the girl wearing a unique type of computation jewel from the Great War. Of course, this could all just be nonsense, after all, it didn’t match any records she could find, but supposedly the informant had identified it as matching some descriptions of the White Silver’s jewel.

While reporting this discovery to HQ was certainly one of the reasons she was here, it was largely secondary to giving a first-hand report of the magical surge detected in Berlint and deciding what to do about it. Knowing HQ and the situation they were presented with, she doubted they would do anything at all besides keep a closer eye out for SNAKE or any other magic-related organizations.

After a long wait in the lobby, she was quickly and silently brought deep within the facility before reaching a secluded elevator. It was only there that the secretary politely bowed and informed her, “The Director will see you now.”

‘The director? They’re definitely taking this situation seriously if I’m going straight to her instead of having to deal with the bureaucratic nonsense that is the upper ranks of WISE.’

Soon the elevator reached the top floor, where a hallway stretched forward toward the front office. All along the walls were portraits of the former directors with plenty of room for more. There had only been five directors before the current one, who had so far served for the longest time of any of them. That wasn’t without a reason, she was considered bi-partisanly good at her job. Regardless of which party was in charge, they both wanted her in command; neither could dispute her competence.

Although impossible for a standard person to see, Sylvia could easily spot no less than a dozen security systems put in place within the hallway, with dozens more no doubt hidden even better than an expert like herself could see. 

Although she didn’t need to prove her identity before entering the large doors that led to the main office, she could tell that it had already been silently checked several times as she walked the halls. She hadn’t been shot yet, so that clearly meant the systems were operating as expected.

Entering the room revealed a luxurious yet surprisingly modest office. While many top officers decorated their rooms lavishly with medals and awards, the Director knew well that this was a thankless job. Aside from a few trinkets and memorabilia, the room was filled with little more than a collection of flowers scattered throughout the room. It made a fairly cheerful atmosphere for someone feared across Europa as a faceless master of unprecedented and near-unstoppable espionage.

Officially, WISE was just an “Eastern-Focused” division of the Westalian Intelligence Services, however, that was a lie, or rather a gross exaggeration. Everyone expected Westalis to spy on Ostania, that much was a given, but what the rest of the continent didn’t expect was for Westalis to spy on most countries on the continent to at least some extent. By hiding most of Westalis’ espionage operations behind an organization seemingly targeted against Ostania alone, it became a bit easier to hide things. 

Of course, that mattered little now. All it meant was that despite technically being officially lower than the Director of the Westalian Intelligence Services, the Director of WISE was de facto ranked far above them, as the Director of WIS was a largely ceremonial public role to hide who was truly in charge.

Sitting at the desk was a woman who at first glance could be easily assumed to be someone’s kind old grandma. However, behind the curly gray hair and friendly smile was a woman who had turned the espionage game on its head. The woman played the continent like a chessboard, leaving only Ostania as a lone blind spot on her horizons.

Sylvia quickly saluted, “Director Müller, it has been some time since I last spoke to you directly.”

The Director waved off her salute, gesturing for her to take a seat in front of her desk, “Please, we are friends are we not? I have great respect for the work you’ve done in Ostania. If I didn’t want my best out there handling things directly I would’ve easily given you a nice role here in HQ. All the formalities do get tiring when so few people know my name. Please call me Elena, or if you’d like, my friends call me Erya.”

Sylvia sighed and took a seat. It was quite like the Director to throw out formalities to anyone she trusted. Of course, reaching that point was a staggering mountain few had climbed, and even still she had countless precautions to protect herself if the mountain had been falsely breached, but still it seemed the years of living without even her own name grew tiring for some.

Although she considered herself friendly with the Director, their friendship was purely for their job alone. With both having such important roles, neither had time to act like genuine friends for anyone. It was this friendship and early trust she had garnered with the Director that had aided her in securing her role in Ostania, so she could hardly complain.

The Director meanwhile continued, “It’s not often you come to HQ directly to report something. It must be rather big if you don’t want to have even the slightest risk of a leak.”

“Has your secretary briefed you on my report?” Sylvia asked.

The Director nodded, “She told me the gist. Large magical surge damaged most magical detection equipment in most of Berlint and was too short to allow a chance to triangulate its origin. Also something with Strix and a Computation Jewel?”

Sylvia nodded. “Yes, I suppose it would be easier to start there before moving on to the magical surge. You see, as Strix has gone on, Agent Twilight has acquired two children who have both now successfully made it into Eden Academy. However, one of the children is speculated to have a computational jewel possibly belonging to the White Silver… At least that’s what the informant suggests.”

“Not possible,” the Director scoffed.

“Excuse me?”

“I saw the White Silver get buried. She had the jewel with her,” the Director muttered.

Sylvia was startled, but knowing the Director, she found it strangely hard to be surprised. “I see… Well, I suppose that settles that, but I thought I’d share the family photo with you anyway.”

Sylvia handed the Director a small family photo as she looked it over. At first glance, all seemed normal, but as she looked to analyze the child with the supposed computation jewel, she subtly twitched. Although Sylvia hadn’t noticed and the Director was good at hiding it, the sight of the photo unnerved her in a way.

The Type 95 was buried… right? Did someone dig it up? How many people even know it's there? Is that even the real thing? The girl seemed familiar, maybe she was related somehow to Degurechaff. It had been decades and she had moved on. She didn’t even remember what Tanya looked like, not that she ever got a good look at her outside of a coffin.

For a moment, the Director placed the photo down and listened to Sylvia explain the situation involving the magical surge. In short, it was little more than speculation. In time they would probably find out more, she just had to allocate a bit more resources. Yet the photo lingered at the back of her head.

After Sylvia finished explaining, the Director stated, “I’ll be coming back to Ostania with you.”

Sylvia was reasonably startled by this. It was rare that the Director ever left HQ at all, much less entered enemy territory. Of course, few people even knew what the director looked like, and even fewer would ever be able to see past any disguise she might put on, but the fact remained that she rarely left her office. Was this magical surge issue problematic enough to warrant her direct attention? Or was there something else?

Sylvia, of course, knew to just not ask questions. This was the Director of WISE. If she wanted Sylvia to know, she would know, and if not, then Sylvia would be in the grave before she ever found out.

For the Director, the affair with the magical surge was just yet another mystery for WISE to look into, but nothing she personally needed to attend to. No, she was going to Ostania to satisfy her own curiosity… and to pay a visit to an old friend.

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Editor/Beta Reader Comments

Apply to be Beta Reader in Discord

Swiss - Before anyone asks, no I did not forget that Tanya’s magic cannot be normally detected unless she does something big. Emphasis on ‘unless’ . Anyways join the discord or I will bully you: https://discord.gg/wur2kHqkJx

Fish Tank - Next day's headline: “Massive magical spike destroys every magic detector in Berlint. Could this be a plot of Westalia?”

Dragon1008 - What’s the chances that the Director brings a shovel, the most useful invention known to man, to be prepared for all situations in Ostania?

U2Donyz - There is definitely totally nothing suspicious about that large magical signature that just so happened to destroy most of the magical detection devices in the city in a few seconds. Nothing. Suspicious. At. All. 

Antilene - Truly, Elegant.

Half_Baked_Cat - One can sweetened condensed milk. One can evaporated milk. One can coconut milk. One can coconut cream. Optionally add rum. Blend, serve over ice. This has been recipe time with HBC.

Dr. Rx - To answer Dragon1008, I doubt. And to HBC, minors are probably reading this. So I add a disclaimer that the story does not encourage minors to consume alcohol without parental permission. 

Chapter Text

Magic: Any reaction involving the usage of mana in order to create some sort of effect, often defying the laws of non-magical physics.

Many were well aware of its capabilities, most knew that it existed. Magic defied base logic and reason, at least at a superficial level. The more magic one could muster, the more they could bend the laws of reality to their will. However, it was hardly that simple though, as controlling the chaos of magic and mana took elaborate and often precise formulas. For anyone besides geniuses to have even a chance at attempting that, they would need a Computation Device to handle the sheer amount of information required.

Magic and Mana were not bound by the same laws of physics as normal matter was, and it was because of this that it was chaotic, almost random at times, and most importantly of all: extremely sensitive. A strong and disruptive enough burst of non-determinant mana could disable almost all magic within a certain range if it was weak enough, and stronger ones would be crippled or stunned. And for magical detectors meant to pick up even the slightest traces of magic, a large enough pulse would be enough to completely disable them momentarily, if not completely fry them, requiring either rebooting or replacements.

Of course, the range of which one could disable magical devices was only so far, and oftentimes just trying to disable one would only lead to another one slightly out of range detecting you. Thus, they were relatively few in number besides those working deep in espionage or highly sensitive magical research facilities. 

But what if a pulse was so big and the range that it disabled magic detectors was so large that anything that could still pick up the magical signature were too far to pick up its exact source, even when triangulating?

Such a question was now on all of Ostania’s mind. In an instant, a giant magical pulse had disabled most magic-detecting devices within the entire capital of Berlint. What’s even more confusing was that it didn’t seem deliberate. The few sensors that picked up the signal from outside of the capital itself didn’t seem to portray a formula meant to disable tech, instead, it felt more like a random surge of magical energy; chaotic and uncontrolled. Even foreign espionage wouldn’t do this due to its costs and theoretical inability to do so.

Everyone had their own theories, and a few candidates were tossed around. WISE seemed confident in SNAKE, an organization intent on advancing magic through any means possible, as the primary culprit. Unfortunately for WISE, SNAKE lived up to its namesake and was notoriously hard to track down. There were a few other possible culprits, but the chances of them having the resources and magical capacity to do this seemed unlikely. 

The last time a magical outage like this happened, it had been hardly a year ago and it was ultimately due to a massive magical explosion at a facility later discovered to be SNAKE’s primary HQ after some investigations. That explosion was believed to have led to SNAKE’s collapse, but if there was another magical burst at play… perhaps they weren’t as inactive as once hoped.

Unknown to WISE, however, even Ostania’s own government was unaware of the surge’s source. With their own sensors taken out as well in the blast, they had but a few leads on what it could be. Was it deliberate? Accidental? An attack from WISE? The lack of activity from just about every organization they had their eyes on seemed to imply that it wasn’t. They would have been scrambling to take advantage of the chaos, not performing similar reaches into the metaphorical dark like they were. In such a case, just what the hell could cause such an outage? And who, or what, was behind it?

Yor, however, had the answer, even if she didn’t know the question. She wasn’t aware of the true extent of the surge. She was an assassin, she was only ever told what she needed to know about her targets, nothing more. A magical outage on a city-wide scale wasn’t within a need-to-know basis with her, more for her superiors’ superiors.

While she may have understood the full scale of the surge had she been far enough away, standing just feet from its origin point didn’t allow her much opportunity to know how far it went, just that it happened.

While Yor may not have known the problem, and with Ostania pushing it under the rug, she may never learn, she did know what had caused it: Tanya.

The girl had let her emotions control her mana, and it had surged out in a sudden burst of magic. A trained assassin like herself knew how to hide her killing intent, but a young girl like Tanya clearly did not. With her supposed, albeit quite strange, computation jewel from her former mother, it became clear to Yor that Tanya was born with some inherited magical power, and a massive one at that.

She was ignorant to many things within Ostania, but the fate of most magical children wasn’t one of them. Ever since the Second East-West War, children with magical aptitudes had often been made “useful” to the state, although the specifics of how and where vary based on the magical aptitude of the child and the interests of the state when they are taken. But most children never could regain the simple life they had before. 

Yor had been fortunate, not only was she born with exceptionally high amounts of mana, ranking in at nearly 5.0, but she had found a way to avoid the worst fates of most mages. She was spared from the training camps that led mages to the front lines, and she was spared from whatever fate awaited those who were sent to the labs, and instead she wound up in Garden, where she became an assassin. At least it was better than what she had gathered from scraps in previous missions about the first two.

Since then Ostania had never stopped ‘recruiting’ children born of magical affinity, although Yor no longer knew what became of them. If she had to guess, most were sent to be indoctrinated and trained for military service as high-value pawns, although a rare few might find themselves into organizations such as Garden as she herself had.

Ostania was low on mages. The many wars reaching back to the days of the Empire and the Great War had left Ostania with a weird phenomenon. While Ostania and Westalis both had some of the highest ranking mages in the world, capable of rivaling even world superpowers tens of times their sizes, they also both had the least amount of mages in the world relative to their population due to so many having been slaughtered and buried.

It made sense then why Ostania was desperate to recruit mages for its own defense. Surely Westalis was doing the same thing, after all…

But then what to do with Tanya? Surely Loid knew of Tanya’s magical affinity. Had he somehow faked her tests? Were the tests wrong? Or did the Ostanian government not care? Usually, such exceptions only happen for military children, sometimes politicians, individuals in which the government was confident would raise their children to become valuable assets to the state instead of having to step in themselves.

If Tanya had a magical affinity, the legal thing to do would be to inform the government so that she could be handled accordingly. But then… What would happen to her?

Yor thought for a moment, then recalled the amount of power she had sensed from Tanya for just that brief moment. Even unrefined and untrained, Tanya seemed to have quite a bit. She would no doubt grow to have equal magical power to herself someday, perhaps even more than her under proper training.

If she had that much magical power, then perhaps Yor could get her into Garden. Unlike the other paths, Garden still allowed children to live some semblance of a normal life between jobs, whatever that would be. It was how she was able to take care of her younger brother despite her current job’s risks. If she got the Shopkeeper’s permission, she could even train her and… Then Yor imagined Tanya’s face, as adorable and cute as it was, stained with blood. Her entire outfit drenched in the fresh smell of death and decay, forever permanent. None of the blood was hers, and below her was a small mountain of corpses, a bloodied shovel in Tanya’s hands as she just smiled at Yor, giving off the look of someone who had no remorse for killing. A killing machine.

Yor shook off the thought. It was terrifying, yet strangely fitting. She wasn’t even sure why she imagined Tanya with a shovel of all weapons, but it fit surprisingly well considering the tool’s versatility and innocuous appearance. Nevertheless, she couldn’t do that to Tanya. What would Loid think if he found out? Perhaps that’s why his wife was so insistent on getting them into Eden Academy. The school was full of elites, and often it was that group of people who were exempt from giving up their children if they had magical affinity. It was their one-way ticket to raising the chances of saving the children. 

Perhaps just being in Eden Academy would be enough to protect them from the eye of the government, given that many, many resources were being poured into each and every child for the sole purpose of growing the nation’s greatest families and their support. Yor wasn’t sure if it was even legal, or if perhaps she was thinking too much of this, but clearly Loid cared a lot about his daughters. It would be wrong to take them away from him.

For now she would stay silent, Tanya’s secret would be safe with her. Tanya would need to learn to control her mana a bit better, lest she accidentally unleash her power in front of another mage or a government official, or even in public. While Yor wished to help her with that, Yor also didn’t want to risk revealing her own status as a mage either. If Loid found out, who knows what he’d think…

She couldn’t afford to lose this family, so if it meant doing a little more lying to keep Tanya safe, then so be it.

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Loid was having a massive headache at the moment. Operation Strix was stressful enough, even after they managed to succeed in the first step. But now there came some magical surge that wiped out all of the mana detectors in the city while he was busy caught up in an interview. If he recalled correctly, he did sense the change in pressure from the surge, but he was too distracted with his own frustrations to accurately pinpoint the source.

He needed to keep his emotions under control. He couldn’t afford any more screw-ups. Now WISE was sending agents all over trying to find any clues on the surge’s origins. It didn’t mean anything for Strix, but considering how overstretched WISE was already, it was likely that he would have a handful of additional missions on his plate soon to complete. More work to do on top of his current mission.

Apparently, they were following a lead on a supposed SNAKE hideout now, and it was likely he would be the one sent to infiltrate it when they finally pinpointed the location. The next few weeks would bring a lot of work, that's for sure. But for the time being, he could just enjoy the small victories.

They had managed to get into Eden Academy without any major hiccups. Tanya got in with flying colors due to her high test score and presentation, and although Anya was barely put on the list, she was on the list. Loid would have to find some solution to her frankly abysmal academic problems, but that could come later, for now they had Franky to provide them with the answers to most tests going forward.

Speaking of Franky, almost immediately as they returned home after receiving Tanya and Anya’s scores, he showed up to celebrate their acceptance. Loid knew better than to be surprised that he knew already, the man had more connections than he could ever pin down, but still, he arrived with wine and a bunch of fine food, already prepared for a small feast.

Anya had no problem with it, Tanya was a bit confused but went along with it, and Yor got drunk in two minutes and twenty-three seconds flat. Loid counted.

Half-drunkenly Franky muttered, “This is all thanks to me stealing those test answers!”

“Don’t say that out loud!” Loid whispered to him loudly, albeit quietly enough that the children or Yor wouldn’t hear as Loid stared at him, attempting to get him to shut up before Yor began questioning things. One glance over at Yor however seemed to indicate that she was too drunk to remember it later anyways, cheeks flushed. Tanya seemed to be the only one observant enough to notice, but she was quick to be silent about it as well, it’s not like she used the sheet much at all anyways. She apparently only used it for checking her answers.

“Wha’d’a say?” Yor asked, swaying around in her seat, face looking like a tomato with how easily she had succumbed to the alcohol.

Franky meanwhile simply shrugged and glanced towards the children, at Anya who was devouring her food like a wild animal, and at Tanya who was eating like a relatively normal person who actually knew some table manners. “You know, isn't it great that Loid will give you anything you want for being accepted into the academy!”

“Don’t make promises for me,” Loid ordered, not that Franky was listening.

“I want coffee,” Tanya stated blankly.

Loid made a confused look in her direction. She was a child, and she wanted coffee? He understood well and clearly that Tanya wasn’t a normal child, but that was just plain weird. Perhaps she was trying to be seen as an adult? Either way, he’ll get her some coffee, but she should be prepared for the bitterness she’s going to face.

“Fine. But if you don’t like it I’m not getting you anything else,” he stated.

Tanya shrugged before returning to eating. Anya meanwhile exclaimed, “I don’t want something, I want to do something!”

“I suppose whatever’s fine so long as it’s doable.”

Anya quickly got up and ran over to the television, playing a portion of her favorite spy cartoon as the spy was sent to a castle to save a princess from her captors. It was a fairly basic episode all things considered, so much so that the plot for it was basically reused at least eighteen times and counting from what little he had seen of the show, just reskinned every time. They could change the villains and environment and perhaps a few bits here and there, but it didn’t alter the fact that the story formula was basically the same for many of the episodes.

Whatever the case, Anya pointed at the screen and declared, “I want to play ‘Save Princess Anya!’”

Loid looked at the screen, looking back at Anya and asking, “Does it need to happen in a massive castle?”

Anya nodded. “Yes!”

“Not happening,” Loid declared.

Franky then came behind Anya, still visibly drunk, and muttered, “How cruel you meanie! Now I won’t go to school!”

“You don’t speak for her,” Loid muttered.

Franky looked at Anya. “Anya, do I speak for you?”

Anya nodded.

“See!”

Loid sighed.

Franky continued, “That castle can be rented out, it’s got the same traps and gimmicks the show usually has.” Franky then got in closer, peering. “It’s also in the middle of nowhere, as relatively speaking, the government’s got no eyes out there. WISE uses the region as a rendezvous point for missions all the time.”

Truth be told, Franky was right. It was one of many blind spots in the more open areas of Ostania. Whatever they chose to do there, the government would most likely not see it, especially at such a late hour. Although that could inspire suspicion in itself, if the government’s officials in the region were vigilant. But the recent magical surge in the capital would help to keep their attention away as most resources would be recalled to assist.

With Anya now on the verge of crying, whether genuinely or pretending, Loid sighed again, resigning to his fate as a doting parent. “Fine. Only this once.”

Tanya glanced up from her food, muttering “If I had known the price range was big enough to include renting a castle I would’ve asked for more than coffee! Like expensive coffee!”

Loid couldn’t afford to deal with two absurd requests, instead turning to her and muttering “I’ll let you go to the library on your own more often.”

Tanya folded her arms and nodded. “I’ll take it.”

‘Good, one child appeased, now for the other.’

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Organizing and setting up everything for the castle was a headache in itself. But within just about half an hour he had everything handled, all the bits and bobs. As it turned out, not that many people were vying to rent out a castle in the middle of the night on a random weekday evening, so setting up a time was a rather simple endeavor and the people owning it were more than happy to accommodate him.

Funds weren’t a problem, pretty much all of the money was coming out of WISE’s pockets anyways and could be considered as child-rearing costs. He’d probably need to explain his expenses later, but that was a mess for another day, not now. The castle wasn’t too far from Berlint, but still, a plane was needed if they wanted to get there before Anya passed out for the night.

Thanks again to WISE, he was able to obtain everything he needed in a short amount of time, including more wine for Yor, before quickly getting everyone onto the plane less than an hour after Anya first requested to rent a castle. Anya seemed to have no problem going along with him having somehow gotten a plane in a short span of time, and Yor was probably intentionally too drunk to care.

Keeping Yor drunk this long would normally be best avoided, but if it meant she wouldn’t question how he managed to get all this stuff and the money for all of this, it was probably for the best if he didn’t stop her. Thus, he ordered more booze to be drunk along the trip and at the castle as well.

Tanya was the only one who was shocked by how he was able to pull it off. She was smart and observant, almost problematically so, but she also learned quickly to just stay quiet about it all. It seemed she planned on using this family as much as he was using it for his own interests and didn’t care what Loid’s intentions were. He’d have to inquire about her intelligence later. 

Soon the five of them, Franky included, were up in the sky as Loid flew the airplane towards the castle. Fortunately, the plane could take off and land in water, so a runway wasn’t needed.

Out of everyone on the plane, Tanya seemed the least phased by the fact that she was flying. In fact, she appeared entirely unimpressed, bored even. 

‘Has she flown before? She doesn’t seem at all surprised to be in the air, if anything she seems disinterested. I wonder what kind of life she had before I met her at that orphanage, or maybe she just doesn’t care for flying.’

Anya, curious about her sister’s apparent lack of interest, peered into her mind to find what she was thinking.

‘How the fuck does Loid know how to fly?! Actually , perhaps he served in the Air Force during the war? That’s a logical explanation. Or maybe he just has some strange and frankly expensive hobbies… For a psychiatrist, I don’t know when he’d find the time, though…’

Unfortunately , it would appear that Tanya’s thoughts were once more focused on trying to find logic in everything instead of anything interesting . How boring. Couldn’t she be more excited for the big spy castle? Then she remembered, Tanya cared little for her spy show. If she wanted to get Tanya invested, it would be a lot trickier, but she may have just the idea.

Soon the floatplane landed on the river next to the castle, docking in at a port that led up to one of its many entrances and exits. Once inside, the scale of the castle truly revealed itself and the family soon led themselves to a massive empty ballroom.

As Anya ran around the vast open space, that openness soon became glaringly obvious and disappointing. Sure, she had a whole castle to play around in, but there was nobody to play with in the castle. Sure, Loid, Yor, Tanya, and Franky were all here, but only five people in a massive castle? What kind of spy mission involves only so few people? Of course, there may still have been a solution to that!

Anya eventually stopped her running, looking sad and mumbling, “What’s the point in a castle if there’s no servants in it… I’m sad… I don’t think I can go to school now.”

Tanya planted a face in her hand abruptly as Franky leaned down to ‘console’ Anya, “I can’t blame you, daddy better step up his game.” It seemed Franky was on Anya’s side yet again in pushing Loid’s limits.

With a groan, Loid excused himself and left for another room, as he returned a few minutes later he explained, “I’ve called some contacts from work, they should be able to get a few people here quickly.”

“What kind of contacts do you have that will send people out to a castle in the middle of the night?” Tanya questioned, folding her arms as she leaned against a nearby wall, visibly bored.

“Well I… Called in a few favors, you could say…” Loid muttered. Sometimes he wished Tanya was more like Anya, too ignorant to question anything he did. At least Yor was a mess when she was drunk and wouldn’t remember any of this. Keeping Tanya from being alerted was a lot trickier, though she would probably stay silent with something like a candy bar or a few more books. Seriously, since when were children capable of being bribed with history documents?

Within just twenty minutes, Tanya watched in shock as the entire ballroom was filled up with people dressed in formal attire befitting of an actual ball that one would expect in a castle such as this, down to the nines. Tanya was all the more confused when neither Anya nor Franky seemed surprised either. Yor, she quickly understood, was far too drunk to rely on for any logical thinking anyway. Another reason why she preferred coffee over alcohol.

Anya was probably just too happy to care, she assumed. Franky meanwhile probably just assumed Loid had such contacts, hence why he backed up Anya to begin with. Where Loid got these ‘favors’ was Tanya’s question. Perhaps he was a psychiatrist for some powerful people? You gotta trust someone quite a bit to tell them about some of the things that’s impacting your mental state. For average people, the amount of trust needed was minimal since the worst thing the average person did was call someone a mean name behind their back or at most bullying. For high-ranking politicians and individuals, no doubt they would be placing a lot of trust in their physiatrist, given the networks that flowed throughout politics. Perhaps that’s why Loid has so many connections and strange hobbies…

Tanya didn’t have a clear answer, but she also lacked a lot of information, and that annoyed her. She was trying to find a solution to a formula she didn’t have the variables for. Or perhaps she was trying to find the variables for a problem she didn’t have the solution to? She didn’t really even know what she was thinking about at this point, and for some reason Anya was giving her a confused face as well. Was she making a strange face as she was thinking all of this? Or did someone say something and she was being silent?

“What’s wrong?” She asked Anya.

Anya, having attempted to read into Tanya’s mind only to be hit with a wave of words she couldn’t understand, simply brushed off her confusion, playing it off with, “Why aren’t you excited! C’mon, we’re playing Spywars! I’m gonna put you with Papa!”

“I barely know anything about that show, I don’t watch as many cartoons as you do, Anya,” Tanya stated in response, sighing.

Anya simply made a wide and somewhat smug smile as she proclaimed, “I know, don’t worry about it!”

Tanya was growing increasingly concerned, especially since she had seen her and Franky discussing amongst each other for the last ten minutes. Just what did they have prepared?

As the last people seemed to arrive in the ballroom, the lights dimmed, leaving only a single spotlight on Loid as he announced to the crowd, “Thank you for coming here today on behalf of my daughter. I understand this comes at very short notice, but I thank all of you who could arrive for being here. I would like for each of you to play the part of the enemies of a spy who is coming to save a princess. Thank you again for doing this for my daughter.”

As Loid spoke, he made sure to tap out Morse code on his legs for each of the agents in the room. Him gathering this many people wasn’t because of any ‘favors’ as he told Tanya, he was instead stretching WISE quite thin by requesting so many agents to this place on such short notice. The morse code effectively just said ‘This is essential for Strix, just trust me on this,’ although he knew that he was for sure going to get a lot of flak for all of this once he reported to HQ about this. It was yet another headache, but unfortunately a necessary one for Operation Strix. They would understand.

After he was finished, the spotlight on him turned off and a second one appeared above Franky as he spoke with far more energy and excitement than Loid, announcing, “All right! Let’s announce the cast! Starting with our star for tonight, Princess Anya!”

Anya did a happy twirl as a spotlight appeared on her. She had at some point acquired a tiara to wear to fit her ‘princess’ role, even if the rest of her clothing was unchanged and thus unfitting of her supposed position.

Anya, now with a microphone that Franky had discreetly handed her, pointed to Loid as a spotlight appeared over him as well, proclaiming, “Here is the spy man that is going to save me!” She turned and pointed to the area to the other side of her where Franky quickly dashed to as the spotlight appeared again on him as well. “And here’s the big bad guy, Count Scruffy Head!”

The spotlight then turned on Tanya who moved her arm to block her eyes from the light, squinting for a brief moment. Anya continued her announcement, “The uh… Assistant to the spy man, Tanya!”

Tanya rolled her eyes, lowering her arm and folding it with her other. “Really running out of ideas there, huh?” She muttered, though not loud enough for it to be heard well over the microphone and speakers.

The spotlight then appeared on Yor who still held a bottle of wine and a glass in her hand. Why anyone was letting her drink was beyond Tanya’s knowledge, but to Loid it was quite convenient. Anya announced, “And Mama… Mama can uuuh… Be whatever.”

Yor gave a shocked expression as Tanya again mumbled, “Yep… She’s out of ideas…”

Franky returned to the microphone. “Now then, my very capable subordinates. I need you all to put on your best performances and get in Loidman’s way as much as possible! You all can decide for yourselves how you’re going to get in Loidman’s way, I am not exaggerating when I say the success of this plan is in your hands!”

Loid was getting concerned, muttering, “Uh Franky, you do know that Tanya’s supposed to be with me too ri—”

Franky ignored him, continuing, “Make Loidman suffer as much as possible! Spare no effort for the sake of Princess Anya! Now go get to your positions!”

The entire ballroom impressively cleared out in mere seconds. Franky, Anya, and Yor were already within one of two carts as it lifted out of the room through the roof.

“Ahahaha! Princess Anya is mine!” Franky declared with an overly dramatic flair.

“Save me Loidman!” Anya yelled relatively calmly, a staunch contrast to Franky’s dramatism.

Tanya and Loid were left standing on the floor below, Tanya lifting her head as she slowly watched the cart lift upwards. “Just what kind of castle is this? How come I just get coffee and some trips to the library and Anya gets all of this?”

“Now’s not the time Tanya… Just get in the cart.” Loid grumbled, getting in the second cart that remained.

Tanya followed him and sat down on the seat inside of it as it began to lift upwards much like the first. Tanya folded her arms again and shrugged, “I will be expecting equal compensation to this beyond just coffee and the library.”

Loid sighed as the cart continued moving up, “I’ll see what I can do, Tanya. But don’t get any ideas from your sister, I’m not making a full-scale reenactment of the Great War.”

Tanya scoffed and looked out the window, pouting, “Well there goes that idea…”

Loid really hoped that was sarcasm. He really hoped so. Even HQ wouldn’t accept that no matter what he could argue. 

With her dreams of being able to boss around a bunch of people pretending to be soldiers like she used to be able to now crushed, Tanya immediately began scheming other ways to abuse Loid’s seemingly endless finances. Perhaps access to more expensive literature and resources would do.

Eventually, the cart stopped moving up and started moving left, now facing across from the other cart which was seemingly elevated above another track by a fake balloon of sorts attached to a firm cord track above it.

Tanya looked out to her right to see the massive courtyard as well as the other cart across from them on the other side of it. She turned to Loid with confusion. “Just how much did this cost?!”

Loid groaned in response as Franky continued to speak into a microphone that relayed his voice throughout the entire castle, likely through a bunch of hidden speakers that weren’t easily visible. Whatever the case, he loudly announced, “You shall face several obstacles in order to save Princess Anya! To begin, we have a quiz that the princess created within the last 25 seconds, so listen up! If you get it wrong, you have to put on the outfit!”

Loid turned to see a fairly simple cosplay for the Bondman character from the cartoon show that started all of this on the seat next to Tanya. It was basically just a mask and gloves, but still humiliating enough to annoy him a bit.

“Hey, how come it’s only for me?!” Loid retorted. He didn’t really care that Tanya wasn’t forced to put on anything, but it really seemed that the main focus was to just torment him in particular. More annoyances.

Franky glanced at Anya who glanced back at him before explaining into the microphone, “Bondman doesn’t have a sidekick, so Tanya doesn’t have an outfit.”

“Answer the questions right and you won’t have to worry about it anyway. Simple, right?” Franky explained, a smug look on his face.

Tanya leaned against the side of the cart, uncaring for the events unfolding around her. She honestly just wished she could go to bed soon, even if she could probably fall asleep here. She had no desire to partake in this farce of a roleplay of a show she knew nothing of. Though to be fair, neither did Loid; she at least seemingly had more of a choice.

“Question One!” Franky shouted. “What does Princess Anya like most about Bondman?!”

Loid turned and looked at Tanya, who lifted her head from leaning it against her arm simply to shrug. “I don’t watch that show, how would I know the answer to this?”

Loid sighed, he’d have to make a random guess it seemed. “Uh… His face?”

Anya held her arms up in an X shape, shouting, “BZZT! It’s that he has a pistol with a silencer!” 

“Eh? Really?!” Loid stammered, realizing now that that’s where she got the idea to ask for such a thing … 

Franky scoffed into the microphone, “You’re her dad and you don’t even know that?!”

“Next question!” Loid shouted.

“What is Princess Anya’s favorite food!” Franky asked loudly.

Loid needed no hesitation with this one. “Peanuts!” He answered suddenly.

“Ooh, papa’s correct!” Anya declared happily.

Franky, annoyed, shouted again, “This is the final question! If you get it wrong, you’re putting on the costume, Loidman!

“If,” Loid stated.

“Fine, here’s your question, then. What does Princess Anya want the most right now?”

Loid thought for a bit, looking at Tanya briefly as she again shrugged. “I don’t know, probably a pistol with a silencer or something like that.”

Loid sighed again, shouting out, “She wants a pistol with a silencer!”

Franky turned to Anya who, after a moment of suspense, simply blurted out, “I’m a bit thirsty, so I’d like some water.”

“Looks like you’re wrong again, Loidman!” Franky eagerly declared, pointing at Loid.

“HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!” Loid shouted, his voice drowned out by the booming speakers surrounding them.

“Now put on the outfit!” Franky demanded, Anya watching with wide sparkling eyes, peering through a pair of binoculars.

Loid sighed and put on the mask and gloves, much to his embarrassment and Anya’s glee. 

“Now then, onto the next stage!” Franky eagerly declared as the cart suddenly slammed to a halt, nearly knocking over Loid in the process. Tanya was still sitting like nothing happened.

Loid quickly got up, running inside the tower the cart had stopped at, finding the entrance of a slide as the only thing in the room. Clearly there was only one direction to go. Tanya followed behind, equally as unenthused about all of this as Loid was, but similarly knew it was probably best that she played along.

Loid slid down the slide as it curved around the pillars of the castle, soon ending up in a glorified ball pit where the balls were nearly the size of a full-grown man. Bouncing off of one of the balls, he landed safely on the ground, looking ahead to see all of the agents dressed up in black outfits in front of four massive cannons. Franky and Anya’s cart rolled overhead as Franky explained, “You’ll have to make it up here to save Princess Anya! Ahahaha!”

The cannons began to fire as the agents dashed forward. Loid quickly dashed ahead, swaying from side to side to avoid the balls bouncing around him. The agents running at him proved a more tricky obstacle, but one which he was able to evade with relative ease due to his expertise and their acting, dashing past and around them without much trouble.

At that moment he realized he was missing something. He looked around, realizing that Tanya wasn’t with him. All of these balls would no doubt be too much for a child, especially considering how large they were. He needed to make sure Tanya was fine!

In searching for her, he turned to his left only to see Tanya soaring above one of the balls, turning her body to land perfectly on the ground before dashing forward upon touchdown. As more balls were launched her way, she avoided them with even more efficiency than he did, dodging like the wind.

More agents came after Loid, and while he was worried that they’d be too rough on a child-like Tanya, a quick glance over to her showed her evading each agent with ease, not giving any of them even a chance to catch her. Whether it was them going easy on her or if it was just her using her small size to her advantage was unclear, but either way, it seemed she would be just fine without Loid for now. With him being the primary target of all the agents, he had a lot more on his plate now anyways as he dodged another ball aimed at his head.

Knocking down agents as they came at him, he continued dodging the obstacles as he began to use the impending agents as leverage and platforms. Launching into the air, he was easily able to avoid most of the obstacles now, even as the balls erupted into smoke around him.

He finally got to the top of the stairs above the cannons as the cart began moving up to the top of the tower, the entrance to which was right in front of him. Tanya was already there, leaning against the wall next to the door. She tossed him what appeared to be a gun of some kind, although obviously not one made to shoot bullets. Likely some type of ball launcher, albeit miniature.

“Where did you get something like this?” Loid inquired, inspecting the weapon.

“A bunch of the henchmen-looking guys began running inside as you got close. They started to hand out these guns to em’ so I just took some for myself,” Tanya explained.

“And they just let you take them?”

Tanya shrugged and answered, “Who said they ‘let me’ do anything?”

“I-I see…” Loid responded.

“I got a good look in there before they got set up, it’s a giant spiral ramp up to the top. It’d be faster if we could find a way to go up via a different method, but still, there’s a lot of walls there we can use as cover. They won’t be able to see us if we stick low to the ground near the walls. However, that method is slow. So we can either go guns blazing and try and take them out for an easier push to the top, or take the stealth method of hiding out and slowly taking them out on our way to the top.”

“You’re putting a lot of thought into this…” Loid muttered. “Still, I’m pretty sure your sister wants a spectacle. Going stealthily will not only take long, but it’ll also bore her with how little is happening.”

Tanya nodded. “Unfortunately, you’re right. We have no choice, then.”

“God, this is a pain…” Loid groaned.

“God is a pain, Loid,” Tanya responded as she dashed inside, pressing the triggers.

“What does that even mean?” Loid of course had no time to question Tanya’s strange descent into the realms of Nietzsche as he could already hear the guns inside firing rapidly at each other.

Running inside he found three agents already collapsed on the floor, Tanya hiding behind one of the walls and occasionally firing through a broken-off bit of it that provided a nice place for her to shoot whenever possible. 

Loid ran up near her, balls shooting past him as a smirk appeared on Tanya’s face. “There they are!”

Tanya turned, unleashing a barrage of her own, hitting each of the firing henchmen right in the head, knocking them down within seconds. The accuracy she had was impressive, especially to be firing at such a great distance, even more so for a child. Loid was almost startled, but came to his senses as more balls kept firing upon him, often from places where he was unable to properly return fire.

“Keep your head down! You’re a massive target like that!” Tanya spat out almost commandingly, glaring at him.

She was right, but Loid didn’t need a child to tell him that. Whatever the case, the two dashed forward, making their way up the ramp with increasing speed. Tanya seemed to actually be enjoying this to an extent, even though Loid imagined she’d deny it profusely if asked.

Running out of ammo in her gun, she tossed it at one of the henchmen in front of her, sprinting forward at speeds even Loid couldn’t easily keep up with. She broke into a slide as she approached the next group, reaching them in moments. Now suddenly low to the ground, the balls fired at her passed right over her head. In the next second she had dashed behind them, tripping them and grabbing their weapons as they fell, kicking them in the knees.

Passing one of the weapons to Loid, he took it as he was left in awe at how easily Tanya had just taken out two WISE agents. Was she just that skilled, or were they going easy on her? The latter made the most sense, but her movements and speed made it possible that the former was also true. She was just a girl from an orphanage, a very smart girl from an orphanage, sure, but it made no logical sense for the former to be true. He must be tired, surely. Surely he was just seeing things from all this nonsense. 

The two tore through the rest of the tower. Half of the agents they passed had already been taken out from a distance, most by Tanya herself sniping here and there. As they reached the top, the cart once again began to move away, heading to another tower at the other end of the courtyard.

Loid glanced around for a means to follow them, but only had one real idea. Wrapping a belt over the wire, he then shouted towards Tanya, “Find another way over there, I’ll follow them directly!” 

“Huh? Wha—” Tanya was cut off by Loid flinging himself along the wire like a zipline, using his belt to keep himself up. Although curious as to what Loid’s belt was made of to keep himself up like that, Tanya turned and ran.

Soon she returned to the downward spiral she and Loid had just fought up through. A brief run of all of the formulas related to tracking down targets she knew of revealed that the room was empty, its former guards having likely fled to the courtyard.

“Perfect.”

Tanya leaped over the railings, letting herself fall to the very bottom floor below. The wind soaring against her skin and hair was a sensation she had nearly forgotten, a reminder of one of the only good aspects of being an aerial mage. The sheer bliss of adrenaline and wind.

She didn’t have time to savor it unfortunately as she soon neared the bottom, intentionally tearing through the net meant to catch anyone who fell accidentally through some careful positioning. Activating flight spells, she rapidly slowed her descent, landing safely on the ground seconds later. Rushing outside, she leaped out the entrance and dashed around the tower, arriving on the other side of it. Leaping up onto a light pole, she swung around, propelling herself with brief bursts of flight spells to launch herself over the wall.

She landed in the courtyard, stopping for a moment to gather herself and analyze the situation before her. Above her, she could see Loid nearing the tower, large explosion effects erupting from the other towers he passed by or through. Ignoring her obvious questions about the budget of this whole ordeal, considering the effects here were being spent like pennies, she focused on her own path towards the main tower.

Various henchmen were now moving across the courtyard, most still with the guns they had used to fire at her and Loid. Unfortunately, she hadn’t brought her weapon with her, otherwise this would’ve been a far simpler matter of just mowing them down.

“Whatever. It won’t be the first time I’ve had to steal a weapon from my opponent,” Tanya mumbled to herself before dashing forward into a set of bushes behind the closest person.

The man noticed the noise, turning out of curiosity. Unfortunately for him, Tanya seized the moment, launching out of the bushes with the added force of her flight formulas and almost tackling into him. Nabbing the gun she pulled back, rolling onto the ground before landing on her feet and firing upon the man and the others behind him. Faced with a hailstorm of small colorful balls, the group fell to the ground, Tanya scoffing as she continued forward, “Such soldiers you are, can’t even hold onto your damn weapons.”

By now, just about everyone in the courtyard had heard the firing. Tanya was now the prime focus of just about every henchman there still with their weapons, who immediately began firing.

By now, though, she knew exactly how many balls were in each gun. As such her movements focused on evasion, slowly gaining ground while not pushing herself too close to anyone, particularly those with ammo to spare, as she picked them off one by one.

“Five, four, three, two, one… He’s out!”

Tanya dashed at the now startled henchman, closing the gap between them in seconds. Although he was quick to get Tanya in his sights, he was left defenseless as all that came out of his gun was the sound of the firing mechanism clicking. He tried to fire again, this time relieved to hear the sound of a ball being fired only to then fall onto the ground as said ball hit his face.

Tanya looked around, having kept track of the ammo of several people, most of whom were now low or out.

“Such inefficient guns, and an equally inefficient waste of their ammunition. Regardless, with so few bullets left, do you really have enough left to hit me?” Tanya’s face twisted into a wide grin as she quietly giggled. In seconds, this giggle evolved into a maniacal laughter, “Gahahaha! This is nothing!”

The henchmen, confused, blinked to see only a cloud of dust where the child once stood, only to turn back in horror quickly as they heard the familiar voice behind them, “Even the Dacians had better reaction times than this!”

A hailstorm of bullets soon flew at the henchmen. Unlike their own fire, which had been aimless and chaotic, each bullet was perfectly aimed, even despite how quickly the little girl was shooting them. For most of them, aiming the weapon was difficult due to how different it was from shooting a regular bullet, however, Tanya had already adjusted. Adaptation was critical for survival on the battlefield, after all, you couldn’t guarantee that the gun you had taken was the same model you were used to. Unlike most of these henchmen, Tanya had experienced that fact firsthand under smoke and metal.

Tanya was now between two groups of henchmen who hadn’t yet been knocked down. While Tanya had used all of her bullets on her last attack, the two groups flanking her hadn’t, and soon a hellstorm of giant bullets launched themselves at her, aiming for her weak points.

However, for someone who was used to dodging much-faster magical bullets, moving around giant, relatively slow-moving balls was a breeze even with her relatively untrained body. She dashed at the group to her right, the one closest to the tower she was supposed to be moving towards. Tripping the soldier at the very front closest to her, all the man could see was the wide grin on her face before his own planted into the dirt below, his weapon flying upwards. Tanya was quick to snag his gun, leaping up into the air with a formula-enhanced backflip as she fired her weapon into the crowd of men as she fell back to the ground.

Yet again all of them fell down upon impact, Tanya picking up two of their weapons as they did. Turning and aiming back at the group now to her back, she dodged out of the way of their next onslaught of bullets and fired the weapons in each of her hands, blasting them away.

All that remained in the courtyard were a few remaining scattered groups, each of them readying their weapons as they waited for a more optimal moment to strike together. The route to the main tower was now open and clear with none of the remaining henchmen in any position to stop her, but at this rate, she didn’t really care. Whether it was the formulas giving her a sense of intoxication yet again or just the feeling of letting loose once in a while didn’t matter. She was having too much fun with this, especially now that real lives, particularly her own, were no longer at risk. All of the violence, none of the risks.

Those that remained in the courtyard were left to stare in silent horror as the seemingly golden eyes of the forgotten devil pierced through the darkness, a wide grin on her face as she decided her next victim…

The minutes passed as the courtyard was turned into Tanya’s personal hellscape for any of the henchmen that remained standing. It wasn’t long before Loid and Anya had completed their game at the top of the tower, returning down to witness Tanya having way too much fun subjecting WISE agents to what could only be compared to a battlefield.

Several resignations were filled in the following days at WISE, leading to another round of questioning for poor Loid on what the hell happened. Suffice it to say, he wasn’t allowed to run such a scene again, and his allocated budget was reduced. 

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Being the Director of WISE was no minor position. Just having it painted a massive target on Elya’s back, even despite how much effort was put into keeping her identity a secret. She was a woman who lived in the shadows, ruling them like they were her own personal kingdom, an empire for her to control and command at will. WISE was officially operating solely in Ostania, however, that was a coverup for its true scale, an intelligence network spanning most of Europa and even bits and pieces of other continents. Even despite that, Ostania remained the one place where the shadows weren’t ruled by her. No, the shadows were a battlefield, not unlike the Rhine front she once served on decades ago, at least in a metaphorical sense. The battles had merely changed from screaming men and flying bullets to blackmailing men and singing assassinations.

Three factions ruled the shadows of Ostania, at least as far as she knew, and she knew a lot. The first was WISE, her own organization. The second was Ostania itself, through its various organizations but most notably the SSS, their secret police, and their current main rival. Though if some leads were to be believed, SNAKE may even still be sticking its head around too, even if its actual connection to the Ostanian Government was heavily debated.

The last and the most significant to the Director at this moment was the resistance organization ‘Shovel.’ They had been a power that WISE had largely let be for the most part, given that they conflicted little. Cooperation would occur from time to time as situations called for, however, it had never been in Westalis’ interest to aid them further. WISE and Shovel had two different goals. WISE wished to maintain peace between east and west at all costs. Westalis, and WISE by extension, had no intent to try and subversively push the idea of revolt, let alone unification, in Ostania. Doing so would only start a war if it was discovered. As such, WISE hid in the shadows, taking out those who wished to start that war.

Shovel’s ambitions, however, were to do away with the Ostanian government entirely. While unification did not seem to be their primary goal, rather a likely byproduct of it, their main ambition was to ‘liberate’ Ostania from tyrannical oppression. While the Ostanian government had thawed in the last decade or so, it was still a very corrupt and tyrannical place to live under. Its democratic government was flawed at best, and outright fake at worst, as the government was little more than a facade for Ostania’s oldest and richest families to continue their reign, albeit through unofficial elections instead of public oligarchies. Shovel was aware of this, and sought to remove it entirely. It seemed they cared little if the result was a unified Germania or simply a democratic Ostania, they just wanted the current government removed.

WISE has more or less always seen them as being morally right. While ultimately a keen potential ally should things with Ostania turn south, the fact has always remained that any form of significant help to Shovel, if discovered, would likely lead to the start of yet another East-West War. As such, Shovel has been left on its own. Still, the fact it had continued onto this day was impressive.

Just a mere decade ago, the organization had been a loose network of weak resistance groups, scattered by wave after wave of SSS crackdowns that left their leaders imprisoned. The flaw of their past leaders was that they still had civilian lives they clung onto, giving them moments of weakness that enabled Ostania to execute them like chickens. The leader of Shovel was above that. She had no civilian life, not anymore at least. She was more than invisible. Legally, she was dead. It was a better cover than even Elya could hope to make, however, she knew better than to call any of it intentional.

It was this leader that she had arrived to meet. In the midst of Ostania, the two people the SSS feared the most would meet right under their noses. While under normal circumstances, one might consider this a foreshadowing of a grander war, the truth is this affair was far more personal than the petty politics of the nations themselves. Even leaders are still people. 

It didn’t take long for Elya to find her way to the compound through a series of encrypted messages and hidden middlemen. The entire facility Shovel operated out of was deep underground, with the actual complex being surrounded by a labyrinth made to narrow attackers into easily defendable chokepoints. It was apparently originally some bunker a paranoid official built after the possibility of nuclear war became evident. It had since been repurposed and expanded for the organization’s intent, and thus to this day no undercover SSS member had ever left the place alive, not that the SSS likely even knew where it was to begin with.

Soon she would be brought to a large room, several monitors elevated above a control panel and keyboard below. It seemed that Shovel had some advanced and expensive tech on their side, clearly having been blessed with generous sponsors for their cause. The tech seemed to rival even WISE’s own various bases and headquarters, though it was visibly a lot more rugged and less neat looking than WISE’s standard. Good enough to get the job done, considering their humble origins. 

A few of the monitors were lit up, but Elya paid no mind to them, instead sitting down at one end of a short table in the center of the room. Everyone else in the room had left, likely hearing of the impending meeting.

A few moments later, a lone woman entered the room. Her hair was brown with strands of silver, a clear sign of her aging, even if slowed by her clearly excessive mana. Those with more mana in their blood could theoretically live longer, their aging slowed by the sheer power of magic, so long as they weren’t killed in a war first. This woman had been among the best mages in the world, it didn’t surprise Elya to see that she hadn’t aged a day since they last spoke years ago.

The most notable feature on the woman’s face was a massive scar going down and blinding her right eye, the color of the iris noticeably grayed out because of it. The rest of her appearance could be considered… ‘nostalgic’ in a way, at least that was the nicer way of looking at it. The outfit, or rather uniform, was that of an Imperial soldier from back in the Great War. She had been a war veteran after all, it wasn’t surprising. Around her neck was a rectangular Computation Jewel, a Type 97 from the Great War, although Elya knew personally that it had been upgraded to meet modern standards while preserving all of the memory stored within it. An expensive thing to do, considering it was usually cheaper to just manufacture a new one. 

Two weapons hung at her belt, a single luger pistol and a shovel. Most would assume a shovel to be a simple gardening tool, maybe a construction tool for finer details, yet it appeared Visha had taken its supposed utility as a weapon to heart, and insisted on wielding her sharpened shovel everywhere she went. Elya had never seen her seriously use it, but she had heard she was surprisingly effective with it. To call it a weapon in her hands would be a dramatic understatement, as it had supposedly slain dozens during the Great War alone and even more once she went underground.

The woman sat down across from Elya, a faint smile on her face, though there were obvious signs of the stress that came from leading the single largest resistance organization in all of Europa. Not that she didn’t have similar. 

“Been a while Elya, it’s not often you come to visit,” The woman muttered, placing two cups of coffee on the table for the two of them to drink.

Elya wasn’t sure why her go-to was always coffee, but a drink was a drink, and the woman at least made it well. “I’ve got to make up for all the lost time I missed out on before you became this big-shot resistance organizer, Viktoriya. Sorry again that I wasn’t able to keep up with you after east and west were split. I was busy trying to secure my then exploding career as a spy.”

Viktoriya sighed, swirling the coffee mug around as she spoke, “It’s fine, though I would’ve liked to have seen you at my wedding at least. I tried to invite as many people I knew from the Great War as possible.”

Elya sighed and shrugged, “Sorry again, as I believe I’ve told you before, I was completely cut off from the outside world before and after that. By the time I was able to hear from you again, it was after well… you know…”

“I understand, I know that we don’t meet much, but we don’t need to keep repeating ourselves. The Second East-West War is over, my husband is dead, and now I have to try and make sure Ostania still has a future tomorrow. It’s all exhausting… I wish I could take a vacation, but I can’t risk being vulnerable for so long. For all I know, Ostania knows exactly who I am and is just waiting to strike.”

Elya scratched her chin briefly before asking, “You just go by Serebryakov, yes? I’m surprised your husband chose your name over his, usually it's the other way around. You must have quite a way with men.”

“He didn’t. I adopted his name before he died but stopped using both my first and last names to help hide my identity after I faked my own death. Now I just go by Serebryakov. You’d be surprised how many Serebryakovs there are in the eastern countries.”

Elya groaned, “Tell me about it, I keep hearing of some ‘Serebryakov’ doing something in some random country every month and get confused. There aren’t that many of you, but there’s certainly more than I thought regardless.”

Viktoriya laughed briefly before sighing, her smile dropping as she appeared more serious. “You don’t usually show up without a reason. While I enjoy our chats quite a bit, it’s hard to enjoy your company when I know you’re about to fill my life with more stress five minutes later. So let's just get this over with… What do you want from me?”

“What I want from you is your compliance . I’m going to tell you some top-secret WISE stuff, but I trust you enough to not spill it. I’m telling you in hopes that neither you nor your organization gets in our way,” Elya explained, taking a sip of the brew.

“Fair enough, though it's rare for our organizations to even cross paths, but if you’re asking for me to not get involved, something about it must interest us, then,” Visha muttered, staring into Elya, who sat unfazed.

Elya slid a folder across the table. As Viktoriya picked it up and began to read through the contents, much of which was blacked out for obvious classification reasons, Elya explained, “Operation Strix. A critical intelligence-gathering operation on the upper crust of the nobility. One of our longer-term missions. We’ve situated an agent to play the father of a pretend family of civilians. He has enlisted two children into a school which we will use as a method to get into contact with the target. Once in his inner circle, we can learn more about his plans and ambitions. Though as for what I want you to not interfere with—”

Elya stopped as Viktoriya slammed the folder and her hand against the table, cracking it in the process. Elya sighed, she had known this was coming.

“There is… So much wrong with this photo…” Viktoria mumbled, arm shaking as it held the folder down, the folder being opened to where it showed a photo of the full family, including the children and mother.

“If you’re upset about it, then it must be the Type 95… Nobody seems to know what it is if they didn’t know Tanya personally, so I doubt anyone will do anything about it. However, as for how the child got it, we don’t really know, and it's not worth risking Strix to investigate. I please ask that you don’t go messing with the child that has the jewel, it’s likely she doesn’t know herself. Who knows, maybe there’s another Type 95 somewhere in circulation… Perhaps Degurechaff had a spare…”

Viktoriya went silent. She didn’t move, she didn’t speak, for several minutes, giving even Elya some slight shivers. Instead, she stood there for a few moments before muttering, “If that’s all, I kindly ask that you leave… I won’t interfere with whatever this operation is, but I have my own matters to attend to now.”

Elya nodded, leaving moments later, leaving Viktoriya alone in the room with the folder. She silently picked it up, closed it, and placed it on the console below all the monitors.

She then turned back to the table, staring down at it in silence for a few more seconds.

“GOD DAMNIT!” 

Viktoriya kicked the table, flipping it up into the air until it slammed into the wall in front of her, shattering upon impact into splinters.

Viktoriya walked over to the wall, slamming her fist into the hard metal, making a noticeable dent as she kept slamming into it. “DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT!”

Her hand was now shaking, although not from pain, instinctive magical reinforcement protected her from that. But rather, of memories long past. 

“How… Why…” Viktoriya sighed, “No, I can’t get mad at Elya, I doubt she knew anyway. It’s an unfortunate coincidence, and one I’ll deal with later. However, that child…”

Viktoriya walked back to the folder, grabbed it, and pulled out the family photo again.

“She looks too similar to be a coincidence. Elya probably didn’t notice. She may have seen the Jewel’s similarities, but she doesn’t remember Tanya as vividly as I do… If I had seen that child without the Jewel, I may have been convinced to consider it a coincidence… But when you add the jewel…”

Viktoriya sighed and walked a few steps to her left to begin typing at the console, “I can’t rely on this alone for information. I’m sorry, Elya, but I need to conduct my own investigation. I do hope you’ll forgive my intrusion.”

Viktoriya pressed a button on the console, causing a buzzer to go off in the next room over. A few seconds later a lady with a clipboard and a uniform rushed in. “What are your orders, Miss Serebryakov?” She asked, making a quick salute as she came in.

Viktoriya made a slight grin, “Find out everything we can on SNAKE, it appears that Shovel needs to do a bit of digging .”

The woman blinked a few times and sighed, “Very well, Miss Serebryakov. But please… Don’t say that again…”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

This chapter has been sitting at like at least 60% done for months now. About a month or two ago I bumped that up to 80% done, and over the last few days I’ve finally gotten around to completing it. So yippee. Sorry if it's rough around the edges, I wrote parts of this entire months apart, so keep that in mind. On another note, along with this chapter is the new cover art made by my friend Rimupon who also makes the DailyDegurechaff blog on tumblr, check them out or I will find you.

Anyways, onto the basic stuffs. Discord invite link is ( https://discord.gg/Ghn8qtkaFz ) or ( Ghn8qtkaFz ) if your fanfic website of choice chooses to break the link for some reason. You can apply to be a beta reader there which grants you early access to completed chapters in exchange for looking over them for grammar mistakes, possible rephrases, or giving suggestions on the story. Now below are the Beta Readers who read for this chapter:

Half_Baked_Cat - Doing Beta reading on his 34th birthday. Still got over half my life before SHOVELING off this mortal coil.

The_Lady_Lupine - Genuinely surprised Tanya didn’t go all out Devil of the Rhine on them. She’s learning to show mercy, good for her :D 

U2Donyz - Tanya is about to permanently stunt her growth by drinking coffee

LuckCrusader - My first beta read! Yippee!

Yert - "The shovel is truly an implement born of civilization."

Arvedur - Must be fun living life like that.

Dr. Rx - Gotta DIG DIG DIG!

Fish Tank - Tanya finally gets to let loose a bit.

Here is the cover art I mentioned, though there's no place for it on Ao3, so I'll post it here.

Chapter Text

“Hmm… That’s strange…” The tailor muttered to herself as the measuring rod failed to push down a single strand of hair atop the little girl’s hair. “Quite a strong ahoge you got my dear…” She muttered, failing to keep it down. With a sigh, she gently pushed the girl’s head forward, lowering the bar to finally get a measurement of her head, ignoring the ahoge’s unyielding presence.

Tanya, for her part, sat with a blank, if not bored, expression as her measurements were taken. If nothing else, Loid was just glad she could behave herself. Meanwhile her sister, Anya, swayed around eagerly, energetic as always.

“There we go,” the tailor said with a smile, lifting up the bar and allowing Tanya to step off, “Just a bit taller than your sister.”

Anya pouted, “No fair! How come Tanya gets to be taller? Papa make me taller!”

“I can’t do that…” Loid muttered in response to Anya’s dismay.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, dear. Your sister just happens to be a few months older than you, so it’d make sense that she’d have a bit of a head start. Eat healthy and the two of you should end up at around the same height. You might even end up taller than her!” The tailor explained with a friendly smile, standing up. “Though it was a surprise to hear you were all of a sudden married, Yor! You should’ve told me when you were last here.”

Yor flinched slightly as she stood next to Loid, smirking and looking away with a slight nervousness, though at this point she was largely used to said comments on her sudden marriage, “Oh right… It must’ve slipped my mind, sorry.”

“And to think your daughters would be going to the prestigious Eden Academy,” the tailor continued, “Would you happen to be an Eden alum, yourself?” She asked, looking now at Loid.

“Me? Oh, no, I went to a smaller school off in the countryside,” Loid explained.

The tailor’s tone dropped suddenly, “Then do be careful, there’s a bit of division between parents who are previous eden alumni and those who aren’t. That split also causes divisions among the children. Similar divisions also apparently occur between commuters and dorm students. Oh, and I also believe kidnapping of commuters has increased lately, with the parents of those kids often being richer folk.” 

Anya immediately froze, horrified, as she dashed behind her sister. Tanya stared back at her with a strained expression. “What are you doing?” Tanya asked, turning back to gaze at her sister.

“Hiding from kidnappers! You can protect me!” Anya exclaimed, proudly standing behind her sister.

“So you would let your poor sister get kidnapped first? I see how it is,” Tanya stated, looking away from her and folding her arms.

Anya’s mouth went agape in shock as she tried to rush in front of Tanya in an attempt to defend herself. “N-No! I didn’t mean that!” However, Tanya’s gaze simply kept turning to wherever Anya wasn’t, all the while a smug smile was being suppressed on her face.

“Tanya, stop teasing your sister. And Anya, you’ll be fine.”

“Sorry dear, I didn’t mean to scare you,” The tailor said, “There’s plenty of fun things too… There, all done with measurements.”

With the measurements complete, Loid paid for the uniforms, though they wouldn’t actually be done for a few days. Being informed of where to obtain the remaining supplies, the quartet quickly moved to acquire all they would need for the coming year.

Walking outside of the supply store, Anya clinging tightly to Tanya’s side, Loid asked, “Would you mind if we ate out today?”

Yor nodded, “Of course, that’d be wonderful.”

“Are there any kidnappers at the restaurant?” Anya nervously asked, hiding behind Tanya as she looked around frantically.

“There’s no kidnappers anywhere… Probably,” Tanya muttered, gazing back at Anya.

“Probably?!” Anya shouted, ducking behind Tanya more.

Tanya sighed, “Let's just go get food…”

Loid took them to a nicer end restaurant, their food coming faster than the others had expected as Loid looked down at his steak to see letters written with the sauce. He sighed at their method of communication but quickly understood the message. He would have a meeting in five days, the ministry was spread thin at the moment, so there was a good chance he would be assigned another mission to complete then as well. It was exhausting, but it was his job.

Looking back up from his food, he watched as Anya moved her head from left to right rapidly. After every few seconds she would return to her food before devouring even more of it, then returning to her previous behavior. Tanya just sat to her side, having stopped paying attention to her entirely.

Loid sighed, ‘They better get some more spies in the region soon, I don’t know if I can afford to keep leaving them alone…’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The phone rang for a few moments as Loid walked over to answer it. The voice on the other end was the tailor, informing him of the order’s completion. Putting down the phone, he passed the receipt to Yor, “Sorry, I’ve been called into work today, so could you pick up the uniforms for me. I probably won’t be home until late, so you can just get delivery for dinner.”

“Of course, you can count on me,” Yor exclaimed as Loid began to dress himself up for ‘work.’

Of course, work was truly his briefing, but in both cases it was essential that he remain properly dressed. Waving off his fake family, he headed out the door, making sure to arrive on time to avoid pissing off his superiors.

Heading over to a nearby photo booth he sat inside, allowing the camera to watch his face before the platform began to lower him down into the underground WISE facility. Finally coming to a stop after a few seconds of descent, he stepped into the office, greeted by his handler sitting behind a desk.

“Good day… or perhaps good evening, Agent Twilight,” Sylvia stated, her large hat hiding her glasses in the shade as her head tilted down.

“Greetings, handler. What is this about?” Loid asked, lowering his hat respectfully.

“Before we get to that…” Sylvia muttered, a strain of frustration building up in her voice before she let it erupt out all at once, “What the hell were all those expenses the other day?! An entire castle and furnishings for it?! You think we just have a pool of cash lying around?!”

“I have a couple more bills, actually, taking two kids to school is more expensive than I expected…” Loid muttered, nonchalantly handing two more bills to the frustrated handler.

“The balls to hand me more bills after that…”

“Well they are necessary.”

“And the castle was… You know what nevermind. Anyways… I’m here to brief you on Phase 2 of Operation Strix, not that you likely need it. But before that there’s another mission we need you to cover.”

‘How did I know…’ Loid thought to himself.

Sylvia handed Loid a manilla folder. Taking it he opened it up and quickly began to skim through the text and images within.

“We’ve found a lead on the whole SNAKE debacle that’s been going on lately. While we have no evidence as of now to suggest SNAKE is still operating at full force, there is reason to believe some branches or remnants of it are still up to their old tricks. If the recent magical surge was any indication, it could be problematic for peace. If Ostania becomes confident that they have some sort of edge on Westalis, it will be a lot harder to maintain any peace agreements.”

“I understand, what is it you want me to do?” Loid asked, closing the folder to listen to Sylvia.

“We need you to infiltrate the facility detailed in that folder. From there, your objective is to get a very specific packet of important documents that may give us a lead as to the current operations of SNAKE. That being said, if you find anything else of importance regarding SNAKE or anything else, you are encouraged to take it, but don't jeopardise the main mission for it.”

Loid nodded his confirmation, “Got it, simple infiltration and extraction mission.”

“Indeed, I expect nothing less than success, Twilight. Now then, back to Strix…”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

“Do I look cute, mama?” Anya questioned, eagerly holding her arms out and spinning slowly, now donning her new Eden Academy uniform. The uniform was effectively a black robe with gold detailings and trim with a red ribbon around the neck. It looked as elegant as it did expensive, the gold portions shimmering in the sunlight as if they were made of real gold. Given the price of it, they might as well have been.

“You look adorable, Anya! So does your sister, too!” Yor proudly declared.

“Don’t group me into this!” Tanya pouted, sitting on the couch behind them with folded arms.

“But you are cute, Tanya! Don’t you like your uniform?” Yor asked with a big smile.

Tanya shrugged, looking down at her attire, “It’s fine… Just wish it didn’t have a skirt, even if there are shorts under it.” 

“I think you look good in a skirt, anyways, we should probably head out.”

Tanya sighed, not having a means to explain why a little girl hated femininity. Whatever the case, it really didn’t matter that much to her. She was just tired of being treated like a child. ‘Just comes with the package, I suppose. A few more years of this, then I can finally live a nice successful life free of any wars or gods… I just gotta cope with being ‘cute’ until then…’

Heading out of the tailor, Anya skipped happily alongside Tanya as Yor led the way down the street. Looking up, she muttered, “You know, I didn’t originally grow up in Berun, but every year around this time my mother would bring me and my brother down to this nice park on the outskirts of the city. It shouldn’t be too far from here if you two would like to go.”

“Ooh! Park! Park!” Anya cheered, Tanya simply shrugging along, more or less content to just go along.

Yor nodded and happily brought the two of them over to the park she had mentioned. Mostly an open grassy field with the occasional tree, there was also a larger playground near one end of it which quickly grabbed Anya’s attention.

“Ooh! Playground! C’mon Tanya, let’s go!” Anya grabbed onto Tanya’s hand, pulling her towards the playground, forcing Tanya to hold her ground to stop her dragging.

“Sorry Anya, I just want to sit down for now… I’ll join you at the playground later.”

Anya pouted but nodded. She had learned that forcing her sister was likely not worth the effort at times, resigning herself to running over to the playground after a nod of approval from Yor.

Tanya sighed and walked over to the closest bench, sitting down on the cold metal as she leaned back, folding her arms and tilting her head back to catch her eyes in the sun. Yor followed next to her sitting down at her side, though her gaze remained mostly on the playground and Anya near it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to play with your sister? She seems to enjoy it more than being on her own…” Yor muttered before looking back down at Tanya.

Tanya let out another sigh, “I know, I just don’t have much of a vested interest in things like a playground. Most of those types of things that I do, I do solely to keep Anya appeased…”

Yor let out a silent hum to herself, “You’re very mature for your age. You don’t play much, you read a lot, and your vocabulary is so advanced! It’s no wonder your mother wanted you two to enter Eden Academy. I’m sure you’ve set some high standards for yourself, but you can still live a bit. You’re still a young, growing girl; you have quite a few years before you need to worry about acting all mature and formal. You have a full childhood ahead of you, you don’t want to waste it.”

Tanya sat in the silence of her own thoughts for a moment. She was technically correct, she was merely a child again, perhaps there would be some enjoyment from giving in to her childish side every now and again, but in the end, she reckoned, what was the point? She had had her childhood once, she had parents who pushed her to strive as high as possible, and that’s what she did… She would’ve kept going, too if not for that meddling Being X and her death.

Her second life didn’t give her a choice, it was enlist now or be drafted later. If she wanted to avoid war, she had to take a gamble to sacrifice her childhood now so that she could relax later… Unfortunately, that backfired spectacularly, but she still stands by the fact that it was the best decision at the time.

So what now? She asked herself, and frankly the more she thought about it, the less she had an answer for what she truly wanted. A safe, comfortable life? Sure, absolutely. But what path would she take to get there? She had to strive high, aim for the top. Yes, there was no other path.

In Tanya’s silence, Yor spoke up, “I was not as fortunate as you are… You still have a loving and providing father to take care of you. Growing up, both of my parents passed away when my brother and I were still children. From then on, I didn’t have the privilege of a childhood… I had to work hard to provide for my brother. In that regard you’re lucky, you get a chance that many would kill for; a proper childhood. You don’t need to stress yourself out by pushing yourself too hard. Just have some fun while you can, I’m sure you won’t regret it!”

‘Is she trauma-dumping to a six-year-old?’ Tanya first thought to herself. Though she quickly shook off the thought, ‘No, what she’s saying makes sense… Maybe I’m pushing myself too hard… But that being said, it’s still a little hard for me to mentally want to go do childish things like play on a playground…’

“I heard you had a lot of fun with Anya’s game back the other day… You were apparently really good at it!”

Tanya let out a brief chuckle remembering the random guys sent into a panic as a six-year-old completely decimated them. At a certain point, they stopped going easy on her, and that’s when she truly began to enjoy it. “I suppose it was enjoyable…”

“See! I’m sure there’s something you can do that both you and Anya will enjoy. I could even see if Loid can get you one of those toy dart guns! That would be fun, I’m sure!”

Part of her would normally shrug that off as childish, yet another part of her was imagining all the fun torment she could enact in the middle of a grand dart-gun battle. ‘It’s a bit twisted that I see playing around with toy guns as fun… but I suppose you can learn to enjoy things you’re skilled at, at least when lives aren’t on the line…’

“I suppose that would be fun…” Tanya muttered, now looking around at the nice park they were in. Something about it seemed eerily familiar. Had she been here before? Tanya looked up at Yor and asked, “By chance, is there an orphanage nearby?”

“Hm? Oh yes actually, right up the hill… Why do you ask?”

“Well um… Actually our mother was originally from there, I wanted to go see it real quick if that’s alright,” Tanya muttered, standing up.

“Oh, sure thing! Do you want me to tell Anya or-”

Tanya shook her head, “You remember how she reacted at the interview, best if she doesn’t know right now. Though if you don’t mind, could you keep her preoccupied so she doesn’t wonder what I’m doing?”

“R-Right! If you’re sure!” Yor said, standing up as well and walking over to the playground.

Tanya sighed and turned towards the hill, walking up it to finally see the slightly run-down orphanage resting downhill.

‘I thought I remembered where I was… Good to see they’re still going I suppose. It does look a bit better than it did before. They had a graveyard right? I wonder if… Hmm…’

Tanya made her way downhill towards the orphanage. Soon she noticed where the graveyard was, walking over to the various headstones that were spread out through the field. Some predated both of her lives, and some were as recent as a mere months prior. It was a depressing sight for sure, but she had something she was looking for.

Skimming through the names she eventually found what she was looking for…

Tanya von Degurechaff

July 18th, 1914 - August 8th, 1929

‘So I did get a grave… Huh…’ Tanya murmured to herself.

Looking up she noticed a mug, still full of a liquid she could only assume was coffee, resting atop the headstone. She stepped closer, noticing a small pile of similar coffee mugs stacked up behind the grave.

‘Coffee? And it’s not been here for long either… I’d hardly call it fresh, but after a few days it’d surely go bad… What’s this doing here? Wait… It’s the ninth, isn’t it… That means…’ Tanya lowered her gaze back down to the date of her death. ‘My ‘death day’ was… YESTERDAY.’

Tanya took a step closer, briefly reaching her hand out towards the mug, but instead let it drop down to her side. Tanya Degurechaff was dead, she was there when it happened, after all. ‘For someone to be leaving COFFEE of all things at my gravesite, seemingly on the day I died for… likely years… Well, it’d have to be…’

Tanya let out a chuckle, her laughing continuing louder and louder until she collapsed to her knees, her laughter turning into sobbing. Tears ran down her face while she struggled to hold back her emotions. She rubbed her face with a shaking hand as she finally brought herself to stop. Looking down at her tear-covered hand, she thought to herself, ‘Why… Why am I crying? It’s not like I can mourn myself… I’m still here but…’

Tanya sighed, lowering her arm, ‘They were just subordinates… soldiers… assets… I knew they could die… I didn’t care if one day I wouldn’t see them again so…’

Tanya’s fist raised before slamming into the ground, leaving a noticeable dent in the soil as magic coursed through it instinctively. She sat there in silence, not even her own thoughts drowning it out. She wasn’t sure how long she planned to remain like this, but after a moment she finally stood up, looking down at her own grave and muttering to herself, “Hope you’re doing well Viktoriya… And whoever else hasn’t kicked the bucket either… Though given how well I trained you, none of you better die from anything but natural causes!”

Tanya turned away, walking away from the orphanage and back up the hill. Walking in silence, she was suddenly grabbed from behind. Looking up, she noticed her assaulter, some generic ‘thug’ looking individual paired with two equally idiotic looking morons in her mind.

“Look at this kid, goes to Eden Academy. I bet they’re worth a pretty penny if we hold em’ hostage for ransom,” The man holding her muttered with a cheeky grin.

Tanya rolled her eyes and began calculating the best way to use magic to traumatize them without risking her identity as a mage. ‘Hmm… they’re criminals so I doubt they’d run to the cops saying ‘a kid I was trying to kidnap is a mage’ but I can’t risk it. I might just have to kill these moro-’

“Let. Her. Go. Now.”

Tanya looked up nonchalantly to see Yor standing a few feet away, fury on her face as she stared down the three kidnappers.

“What are you, her nanny? Yeah, well nice job watchin’ er! Go cry to your boss and we can start negotiating for her return”

“I… Am that girl’s… MOTHER!”

Before Tanya even had time to blink, the kidnapper to her right was kicked into a nearby tree as Yor dashed forward, swinging her leg around rapidly straight into his stomach. The second kidnapper to Tanya’s left now dashed at Yor, pulling out a dagger as he charged at her.

The one holding onto Tanya backed up, keeping a firm grip on Tanya as Yor promptly made quick work of his friend. Tanya raised her arm and grabbed at the man’s arm. Silently, she muttered, “Let me go, or I’m breaking this.”

“Like hell I’d- GYAAGH!” The man’s words were interrupted by his own screams of agony as Tanya’s hand crushed his bones in seconds. Swinging her right foot forward, she swung it backwards with an amplified force, aiming right for the man’s critical weak point. The man collapsed over, passed out instantly from the sheer pain. Tanya sighed and patted herself down, looking at the pathetic shaking mess of a man. ‘Probably a bit too much there… But uncivilized morons like him probably shouldn’t be reproducing anyways, so he has no need for that…’

“Tanya! Are you oka- Oh… It seems he must’ve passed out in shock…” Yor muttered, scratching behind her head nervously.

“Yeah… Shock…” Tanya muttered. ‘...Let's roll with that…’

“Are you okay though?! I-I shouldn’t have left you all alone by yourself and I-” Yor began to stammer, Tanya simply shook her head and patted her shoulder.

“I’m fine, thank you for saving me, mother!”

Yor’s face lit up with joy at being called ‘Mother’ for the first time by Tanya, at least for the first time outside of formal situations where it was expected of her. ‘Mother’ was still a bit more formal than she expected, but given Tanya’s nature, it would have to do.

“Well then, let's go get you a toy dart gun!” Yor replied, holding out her hand for Tanya to take.

As Tanya did, Anya rushed up loudly proclaiming, “I want a pistol with a silencer!”

“If they have one on sale, dear.”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Loid, or Agent Twilight as he went by for his missions, walked through the halls of the research facility. Donning a disguise and a fake identity, he had swept through the facility without much issue thanks to the setup WISE had provided for him. All he had to do now was acquire the needed documents and get out with anything else of value.

As he had come to learn, there were some magical experiments going on here, but nothing to quite the scale or expertise of SNAKE. That being said, it was definitely a location WISE would need to keep an eye on, he was likely only scratching the surface with what he’d seen.

Walking into a security room, he tipped his hat to one of the members of the security team as he looked up at the monitors around them. Each screen showed another room of the facility, various scientists and government officials working on various projects and discussing various things. Overall it wasn’t actually that busy, but it was still very much active.

As he watched the other guard spoke up, “Oi, I need to take a quick break, think you can stay here at least till I get back? Can’t leave the cams unattended.”

“Right, go ahead,” Twilight responded with another tip of his hat.

As the man left he relocked the security door behind him as he began to look through the room. On the side was the personal safe of the one believed to have strong ties to SNAKE’s former leaders. Forcing open the safe, he looked inside and began to scan through all the bundles of documents inside. Most were pointless, or at least were unrelated to SNAKE, but one stood out.

‘SNAKE: Project Mithril’

As he began to open the folder, he was startled by the sounds of sirens blaring in the security room and all throughout the facility. For a moment he thought he had tripped something, but looking up at the monitors confirmed this to be false.

He closed the folders and rushed over, looking at the screens as a cloaked figure moved from room to room, showing no regard for subtly as they also seemed to be looking through documents. When met with security forces, their bullets simply ricocheted off a glowing orb formed around them.

‘What the hell is a mage doing so blatantly raiding this place?!’

Twilight groaned at the inconvenience but soon turned as the doorknob shook. Before he could gaze back at the cameras to pinpoint the mage’s location, he watched as a glowing beam shot through the side of the door, sliding up to slice through the padlock keeping the door shut. Then, pushing open the door, the cloak figure stepped forward, gazing at Twilight and then at the open safe, and then back at the folder in Twilight’s hands.

“Give that to me,” A female voice spoke from the mage.

“For what reason?” Twilight asked, eyes squinting at the cloaked figure, trying to make out the details of their face. It seemed they were using some sort of illusion spell to mask their appearance, keeping a shadow permanently covering their details. Smart, though it leaves behind a magical signature.

“It is of no concern to anyone, not even WISE. That being said, I wish to solve this diplomatically, so here, is this what you’re looking for?” The mage pulled out a bundle of documents from her cloak placing it on a table to her side for Twilight to look at.

“How did you-”

“I figured if WISE had someone poking around here, this is what they were looking for. So hand over those documents and I’ll give this to you.” The mage reached into their cloak again, pulling out a luger pistol, now aiming it at Twilight’s head, “I’d rather like to avoid angering WISE by harming one of their prized agents, so let's keep this diplomatic. Give me the documents.”

Twilight sighed, remembering his primary objective as he also placed his documents on the table, sliding them over as the Mage responded in kind. As Twilight picked up his documents, the mage picked up theirs as well. Briefly opening it to check its contents, she nodded. “Pleasure doing business!” They responded, raising their pistol to point into the air before firing. A small explosion erupted from where the bullet hit, causing a hole to form in the ceiling as debris bounced off the mage’s magical barrier. “Now then, if you’ll excuse me.”

The mage leaped up, likely propelled by strength enhancement or flight, landing on the roof as they placed their pistol and the documents back into their cloak. “By the way,” they muttered, “By the way, I pulled some strings to delay a response, but I wouldn’t dodder if I was you. Best of luck!”

The mage then dashed off, vanishing into the night and leaving Twilight perplexed. But he didn't have time to remain so, he needed to leave… Now.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

I uh… Didn’t realize it had been a year since the last chapter… Sorry about that… Well it’s back! Sorry for the wait, writers block hit me hard with this in addition to a dozen other things that have complicated everything. But it’s done now! Yippee! And it almost wasn’t on time! Literally, I’m typing this at 12AM on Sunday the 14th, the day I announced it was being released. Not much time for my editors lol, sorry guys. Hopefully the following chapters don’t take too long. Also this chapter was very light on Anya, I wanted to give Tanya and Yor a bit of a moment. Sorry if this chapter wasn’t up to par with some of my other stuff, it was a mental slog to push through and I couldn’t really think of a good way around it, so the pacing might be a tad wack.

Anyways, onto the basic stuffs. Discord invite link is ( https://discord.gg/Ghn8qtkaFz ) or ( Ghn8qtkaFz ) if your fanfic website of choice chooses to break the link for some reason (idk if these links still work, but we’ll find out, won’t we!). You can apply to be a beta reader there which grants you early access to completed chapters in exchange for looking over them for grammar mistakes, possible rephrases, or giving suggestions on the story (RN those things have been on hold for months, I really should look at those applications…). Now below are the Beta Readers who read for this chapter:​

Fish Tank: Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated style reveal on Project Mithril. Nice to see Tanya realize people remember her, though.

Dr Rx: mending books are difficult to get when villager trades are disabled.