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"So, that's what happened." Tanya pinched her nose with narrowed eyes, after Viktoriya's guilty retelling of the previous day disaster at the officer ball.
They were back in the barrack, within Tanya's room she occupied alone as officer and commander of the 203rd battailon. The door was locked, their voices kept low and Tanya kept herself out of the way of the windows so no-one passing by could see her dragon-like wings.
The often concealed or bounds appendages were flailing around in response to her poor mental state. It took all her focus not to hit Viktoriya with them, as the woman sat Tanya on her lap and massaged her stomach as her commander rode the awful aftermath of drinking that accursed wine. Tanya being nude from the waist up wasn't worth commenting on. None of her clothes had holes for the damned wings, and Viktoriya had taken care of her and her wings too many times in the months since she uncovered Tanya's secret. They were past caring about a seventeen years-old woman handling a ten years-old girl. Especially when Tanya was suffering horrible pain from discovering alcohol did not agree with 'immortal' young bodies, something they hadn't know until Tanya had weaselled a watered-down glass of the best wine in the Empire at yesterday officer's ball
"Do you think the prince will carry through with an investigation?" Tanya asked, vaguely recalling a man who had been one and three headed in turn. She had thought this an alcoholic hallucination. Apparently however, that was third prince Gawain of the Imperial family and nearly the worst person to stumble upon Tanya's secret.
"There were a lot of people around when he made that threat. Even if he forgets... or didn't mean it. I think someone is bound to look up the guest list, at least," Viktoriya answered with a foreboding tone.
"So they'll find me." Tanya grimaced. There hadn't been other children at the party, and it'd be trivial to find that human Tanya von Degurechaff was the young immortal who nearly died yesterday from intoxication.
She felt the older woman nod above her head, a rather subdued or dark response to the threat hanging over the conscripted Russy exile. From what Tanya was told and remembered, prince Gawain was going to find the parents of Viktoriya's 'charge' to tell them of her adjutant negligence. Nevermind the fact Tanya had deliberately slipped free from Viktoriya and caused the mess herself.
"Do you think they'll kill me?" Tanya asked with cold shivers coursing through her back, despite the warmth of the woman behind her. The petite blonde was startled by two hands grabbing her face, then making her head bend diagonally back, toward Viktoriya whose head leaned forward over her.
The hands felt unusually warm over the cool green scales that she usually repressed, but that now sprouted over her face alongside a number of monstrous features. Her eyes sharpened, still blue but lizard-like -she knew-, letting her see all too well the trembling in Viktoriya's green eyes staring deeply into her.
"No," Viktoriya stated and in those words there was a promise that she'd be there to fight and die to make that true. It was simultaneously a great comfort of her loyalty to Tanya, and useless to gauge how people of this world would react to an illegitimate immortal orphan.
At least Tanya no longer believed she was a devil, like she had assumed when she first got her wings in this world. What she actually was in the too elaborate mythology of this world, she didn't know. But it was hopefully nothing as bad as an agent of the Antichrist.
Given her luck, she didn't hold much hope.
"Thank you for the commitment." Tanya put a hand on the older woman's arm in acknowledgement. "But I think the whole imperial army is a bit too much for us to fight off successfully."
"It is," Viktoriya conceded looking away with a grimace and miserable expression. "Then what? Do we go back to the front and hope they forget? Do we run away and hide?"
"There is point in hiding," Tanya said after some moments of consideration, studiously not addressing her fellow female idea of deserting. Slowly, she breathed out and got out of Viktoriya's lap, then looked for her best uniform. "We have t make at least a show of being proper imperials, who didn't hide out of malign feelings or being mistaken as spies."
"So, we report things up the chain?" Viktoriya proposed. Tanya sighed, deeply, with the knowledge that today was going to be long and exhausting.
"No," she disagreed. "We go straight for the imperial palace."
Viktoriya's eyes understandably went wide.
*
The goal wasn't to actually get an audience with the Prince, Tanya had frankly explained to a wide-eyed Viktoriya. There wasn't a time-frame when they could schedule the meeting before the possible investigation caught up to them, nevermind the fact they would have to return to the front within days, or get the meeting.
What they were instead going to do was show up to thank the prince for saving her life at yesterday's ball, in their regular military uniforms propped up by their medals, and insist for the message being passed along even if they had to reveal her immortal nature.
When they got inevitably refused, their persistence would serve as a proof they hadn't kept hidden her true nature out of nefarious purpose. One didn't go on such a highly visible and annoying venture after being discovered. Why hadn't they revealed Tanya's nature earlier? Well, there was nothing stating she should in the regulations, declaring it was expected for an immigrant like Viktoriya but not a native soldier like Tanya. There was an -understanding- that immortals weren't to be deployed for escalation reasons, but that was an ad-hoc consensus and not a written down rule. Tanya admitted that it wouldn't save them from all consequences, but it was much better than looking like they were immediately fessing up when about to get caught.
This was why a whole half-day later Tanya was standing before a butler of some kind in one of the many residences of the Imperial family.
The suspiciously simply dressed man was hopefully the last step in their harrowing trip to find the third prince and carry a message in person to him. It had been a day of countless interactions with non-military people who didn't properly recognize Tanya's rank and had been overall frustrating to deal with.
"I understand you want to 'thank his highness' for his help, but it's very difficult to alter the schedule on such notice. Even for such a small thing."
"I don't actually need an audience with him. Just pass my message along and tell me you've done so. It's the proper thing for me to do, and since I'll go back to the front tomorrow or the day after, I can't push it back."
"Yes, that," The man mused while eyeing her small stature. "What is your name and rank again?" Tanya stated her full name with rank, and status as a commander of the 203rd mage battalion. The butler looked her up and down, likely musing on her age, and not particularly impressed by a major when he must be seeing generals and ministers all the time. He titled his head at Viktoriya "and her?"
"Lieutenant Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, aerial mage and her adjutant."
The civilian servant eyed her too, and Tanya forced herself no to scowl as he looked at her aide's chest. Given how his eyes returned to Tanya and passed over her own non-existent breasts, he was most likely staring at the medals. Her own, in particular, weren't commonly awarded
"I might be able to help," he finally conceded while tapping his leg with some reluctance left. "Is there anything else you can tell me that'd help?"
It seemed he needed some last push to accept, and Tanya racked her fatigued brain for an answer, when one came straight and fast from her adjutant.
"You can say it's the 'young immortal the prince helped at the party yesterday," Viktoriya helpfully offered with a tilt of the head toward Tanya. The later inwardly cursed as she heard the words. She had spent so much effort today leaving her nature ambiguous, with hints but no visible proof.
The blonde understood the exhaustion of her brown-haired aide and attempt to help, but now there would be no skirting around it.
"Young immortal?" The butler repeated with a startle. He stared at Tanya who forced herself to return a bland and impassive expression, when what she wanted to do was glare.
They stayed silent like that for a few seconds.
"Very well," the butler acknowledged with a sudden snap. "Follow me," he added before leading them to a waiting room and telling them to wait there.
Tanya would have preferred a clear refusal, rather than what was likely making them wait pointlessly for some time. She still sat down gratefully after a day of walking around everywhere, looking at Viktoriya who stood besides her despite dropping from exhaustion.
"They're probably going to make us wait for some time, before sending us back," Tanya warned. Her aide glanced at the two old guards nearby, nobody stupid enough to leave two trained mages unsupervised even if they had left the computation orbs back at the barrack.
"I'll stand for a bit," Viktoriya answered. Tanya guessed she feared being unable to get back up if she sat down, and didn't press her. Even Tanya didn't dare to sprawl, when any high-ranked figure might walk by, so she sat proper in the chair. "Sorry for sharing your nature. In hindsight, I think you still wanted to keep it a secret."
"It's fine," Tanya dismissed with a light wave. Even the genius child wasn't sure why she kept a hold on her nature even now, beside habit. There was a nagging suspicion in her mind, like when she got some unclear order from her superiors, that was related but refused to come up to the surface.
Less than three minutes later, the butler was back and ushering them for an audience with the third prince. Tanya felt her well-laid plan falling apart and walked stiffly to what felt like her execution.
*
The third prince only had one head when Tanya walked into the room. With how out of herself she felt, still sick from the wine, he might have had three or six for all she cared.
He was an handsome blond man looking in his thirty, allegedly five hundreds, with blue eyes looking down at her small figure the moment she stepped inside. There was the briefest glance at Viktoriya, with a dark sliver of recognition, before he returned his gaze to Tanya with an intensity that bode poorly for her future prospects.
"I expected you to be in a warm bed and a lot of meat for a while," the prince greeted non-traditionally. Tanya halted a step, saluting like the soldier she was instead of attempting a curtsy she could never pull off.
"Duty calls, I'm afraid. No time to rest before returning to the front," Tanya answered injecting the proper zeal and gratitude in her tone. "But, I did want to thank you for saving my life, and do so before I might not have the opportunity again."
"So, it is you," Prince Gawain said with sudden intensity and eyes that turned gold and thin. The warm and laid back attitude he greeted them with vanished in an instant as he drew to his full height, vastly towering Tanya even if she hadn't been so petite.
"Your Grace?" Tanya managed to ask feeling her voice tremble and break even as her still painful stomach became agony from stress on top of sickness. It was awful and the most terrifying sight for Tanya. Someone so vastly above her in both physique and status, who could ruin her life with a word and ignore the hard work and suffering of years, all enhanced by the uncanny inhuman features dripping into his appearance.
As soon as she spoke, the monster vanished back into the warm prince with a contrite-looking smile.
"Sorry Major," He apologized with an odd note on her rank. "I wasn't aware we had immortal officers of your rank. Much less that young-looking. How old are you, major?"
"I'm ten," she dutifully answered. Her body still wanted to turn toward Viktoriya,just a glance at the older woman to reassure herself she wasn't alone. The little officer knew her adjutant was here. Viktoriya's steps had stopped beside her, and there had been no indication of her departure, but Tanya couldn't tear her eyes away from the royal.
"Ten." His eyes hovered over her small stature and -she presumed- her row of medals each so big on her tiny body. "When did you enter the military?"
"Eight," she answered.
"Tanya von Degurechaff," he enunciated as if testing or even tasting the name. Then his eyes shifted behind her, Tanya risked looking back at her lieutenant standing stiff and looking pale but otherwise holding herself well. "And lieutenant Viktoriya Serebryakov... your?" he asked skipping the middle name and dragging the last word with a finger vaguely aimed at Tanya while his gaze remained on the Russy woman.
"adjutant," Tanya supplied returning her full focus forward. She was feeling increasingly lost as the prince muttered the word back a couple times, glancing between them, before muttering that this was beginning to make some sense.
Tanya disagreed, or wished he would share at last. She considered opening her mouth to ask if there was a problem.
"Your parents?" The prince asked shortly.
"Don't have them," Tanya found herself bitterly answering. The blue eyes flashed gold then back to blue. The prince folded his hands behind him and stood again to his full inhuman height.
"Could you show me your metamorphosis?" He ordered after a time. Tanya hesitated, instinctively wanting to protect her face with her hands.
"I have my wings, but my clothes don't have holes for them." She waited a second to see if the man would backtrack. he simply nodded, which heightened her discomfort.
"I'll help," Viktoriya said behind her while kneeling down. Shivering, Tanya let herself be turned around and have her buttons come quickly undone under the expert touch of her adjutant. To Tanya, the older girl seemed less stressed than she had been the whole day, as if animated with a energy to be envied. It clashed with her frightened retelling of how the prince right there had threatened and terrified her.
Soon enough, Tanya was divested of the black outerwear of her uniform, and Viktoriya worked on the white shirt, shifting it just enough to leave space behind the collar instead of removing it and leaving Tanya nude up top.
With how much stress Tanya felt, it was no trouble at all to let the red and gold wings spring from between her shoulders, then extend to their full -still tiny and 'cute'- size.
There was a heavy step sounding far too threatening for Tanya. The prince loomed close, still in shock, and with all her bravery on the battlefield, Tanya couldn't help but withdraw deeper in Viktoriya's embrace while her wings huddled protectively. She felt the hands of her lieutenant instinctively tighten in a defensive posture around her.
For one frozen moment, Tanya looked wide-eyed between the prince with golden eyes, and her adjutant with steady and considering green eyes.
"Are you going to kill her?" Tanya heard Viktoriya challenge from next to her ear.
"...You're saying treasonous things," The monster prince answered turning into a multi-headed being with four sets of black and red wings, red and gold sparks of concentrated magic stirring around him with smoke spewing out of his mouths and lizard-like eyes promising violence.
"See, you're fine." Viktoriya looked at her with a smug smile, heedless of the many-headed, blazing and monstrous royal in front of them.
"Visha!" Tanya ushered mortified. When did she train all fear out of her adjutant? One needed a healthy amount of fear to avoid taking reckless risks!
She faintly noticed the angry prince pause at the declarations. He seemed to take one good look down at them both. Then all the terrifying display folded back into the human prince like a shuffled deck of cards.
"Are you thinking I'd hurt you?" He asked... presumably her, and pursued his lips when Tanya found herself too shaken to answer. The battlefield she could deal with. A supernatural version of a high-placed superior violence wouldn't work against or even possible without a computation orb... that was beyond her ability to react calmly to.
Viktoriya tightened her embrace once in reassurance, before relaxing the too-tight grip a bit. The prince further furrowed his eyebrows.
"I won't hurt you... Tanya," He added her name after a moment of thinking.
"Okay," she tentatively agreed.
"I won't hurt you," the prince repeated and she nodded, a bit more firmly.
*
For a time, it was peaceful and quiet as people shifted around with soft steps, while obviously giving space for Tanya to calm down.
The ten years-old girl still felt immensely confused, even moreso when Viktoriya holding her had seemed to know more than Tanya had expected. The prince hovered nearby in quiet conversation with a few people, including the butler from before.
They were given snacks and -non alcoholic- drinks, some of which seemed oddly elaborate. At some point, cubes of red meat appeared and Tanya found herself nimbling on them all. They had given her a small blanket with two newly made holes for her wings to pass, and she sat on a furnished footstool to be level with the table. Viktoriya sat behind her in a low chair with her legs entwined around Tanya's location, and the seventeen years old looked a moment away from falling asleep if not for a commitment of making sure Tanya stayed within her reach and Tanya wasn't passing her some of the pastries and drinks.
The prince finally came back to finish their conversation.
"Are you okay now?"
"Yes, sir," She agreed and noticed the address seemed to make him uncomfortable. His eyes moved on to Viktoriya, who laid sprawled and boneless behind Tanya, and thankfully it didn't look like he was about to punish her for the display of improperty. Her older female looked tired. Exhausted.
"Do you know who she is?" The prince presumably asked Viktoriya with a finger pointed toward Tanya. The blonde raised an eyebrow aat him, then looked at her adjutant tiredly raising her head.
"By now I have a guess," The seventeen years-old acknowledged. "But do I have to be the one to say it?"
"That's fair," the prince conceded before fully turning toward Tanya. He let the suspense build up for only a few seconds. "You're my little sister."
Tanya froze, her mind coming to a halt for an indeterminate amount of time at the claim. True, she did notice her wings looked similar, but that sudden claim was far too ludicrous. "Oh."
She narrowed her eyes at the man.
"That's mean," she said feeling a vague of fury and mounting tears in her eyes. "I almost believed you. If that's how you want to legitimate me, that's fine, but you could have brought it up properly."
The prince stared at her with an open mouth, as if he couldn't believe how quickly she had caught on his cover story. Sure, she was an hydra illegitimate child somehow, but that didn't means she was some fairy tale lost long princess. Life and her luck didn't work that way.
There was a slapping sound behind her, and she turned to her adjutant leaning back with both hands on her face. Tanya... didn't think much of it. It hurt. For one second she let herself believe, before rationalization settled in, and her body really wanted to cry.
She glared at her adjutant and the prince who remained speechless for making her feel this way, which they apparently didn't even notice while trading a look at each other.
"...Stay the night...Tanya..." The prince finally told them.
"And the battalion?" Tanya protested wanting to be gone from here and somewhere she could think quietly.
"We delegated it to Weiss while we're gone... they'll be fine Major," Viktoriya answered from her prone position and Tanya couldn't help but feel like she was talking more to others than Tanya.
They accepted the 'offer' to stay the night, which Tanya knew better than to assume was an offer anyway.
*
Tanya was enjoying the sinfully comfortable bed to a degree she herself found decadent. She was happily sinking stomach-first in the pillow underneath her, the room was warm and comfortable, and trustworthy fingers were scratching the spot between her wings in a far too pleasant manner.
The young hydra bent her head with great effort to open an eye toward the young woman massaging her so. Viktoriya had traded her uniform for a high-quality dressing gown, vastly more comfortable for Tanya to rest her head on, and had a blissful smile on her face. Tanya saw her stir at her own movement, the green-eyed gaze focusing more on the face and awaiting Tanya's input while still retaining the content smile.
Were it not for the look of sheer adoration Tanya would have taken her to task about treating her superior too much like a child. As it stood, Tanya had chosen to obsessively cling to her... confidant, lady-in-waiting? It would be far too easy for someone highly placed to send her beloved adjutant back to the battalion, for being an 'unwanted russy-born influence', and Tanya would need to spend far too much effort getting the loyal woman back.
The clinging made her look like a child, but Tanya had quickly come to the conclusion that, maybe, she didn't want to look TOO mature in her new environment. Most of the servants were people too young, too old or unsuitable for the military which meant they were scared of her to a detrimental degree. She didn't trust any of them a bit, and latching on Viktoriya meant they ended up using her adjutant as a shield against the 'lost then found imperial daughter' scathing temper. It was nice, since it meant they'd support Viktoriya's presence, and her aide knew her preference well enough that Tanya could let herself be talked into compromises.
The Russy's presence had been absolutely essential to prevent the deaths of the few deaf fools who had wanted to stuff Tanya into a dress instead of pants.
Tanya yawned, a sight that made the other woman coo, although she knew better than to show it too obviously. The major -was she even still military?- slowly sat up so she could look around with her mind less addled by blessed satin.
The room was big, bigger than Tanya had in every life and particularly for her life in the military. It was still four times smaller than the original room Tanya had been given, next door, but that much space had been too much for both her previous life and current life sensibilities. There was something as too much space, and thus Viktoriya's room felt safer.
Her reasoning had made third prince Gawain look increasingly guilty when he had confronted her about it. Tanya still didn't believe in being a lost then found princess, instead of an illegitimate hydra child. Apparently however, she was the only one who remembered it was just Gawain's cover story. Viktoriya believed it, Gawain had forgotten it was just a cover story, and everybody else clearly hadn't been given a memo. Including her new family.
Yesterday morning, Tanya had been fully prepared to show the full extend of her maturity and achievements to the thousands years-old married ruling couple who were allegedly her hydra parents.
That plan had been thoroughly forestalled by her 'mother' cradling her, then drawing Tanya's attention away from military tactics and the continental situation, and toward the aged hydras inhuman features and how they featured in both history of biology in a manner that was relevant to Tanya's own wings.
Reincarnated or not, Tanya had been thoroughly schooled in how a meager forty years of combined experience did not measure to the social grace of two two-thousands years old rulers of Germania. Tanya had been left enraptured and content to the point of not realizing how charmed she had been till hours after the encounter.
With a little effort she got up from the bed, and was quickly joined by her faithful adjutant -soon handmaiden?- in getting ready for breakfast and the day. True, nobody seemed to actually expect her to do anything, but that was just not Tanya's way when there was so much stuff to be done.
She had to prove useful in the -very slight- scenario where the real princess actually survived her kidnapping by Albion and somehow managed to come back. They hadn't killed the human impostor child snuck in the infant guise, so Tanya doubted they'd kill her illegitimate self if she proved herself both pliant to their authority and particularly useful.
In the meantime, there was still a war going on and just because Tanya got taken away from it did not prevent from bombing her new life into oblivion. A decade hadn't passed since the purge of all immortals in Russy, and Tanya's losing her newfound family was too fitting in the pattern of her life to let it happen unchallenged.
"Come on, dear Visha, we can't just hog all the luxuries while our people are fighting." The dutiful noise of agreement that followed was deeply pleasant.
*
"Just salute, captain Weiss. It'll less awkward for both of us," Tanya magnanimously allowed some time later as she welcomed her greatest subordinate after Viktoriya, and the acting commander of her battalion while both Tanya and her adjutant were... unable to assure command.
"Yes, Madam." Weiss saluted visibly grateful for the instruction after having floundered for a moment between greeting her as upper nobility or as a military officer. She similarly noted the use of 'madam' as a non-incriminating way of dancing around what exactly her current title and status was.
"At ease, captain, we're going to sit for this one because we do have a number of things to talk about." She waved at a table with four chairs placed besides a window, one already taken, because she wasn't going to stand awkwardly with her two subordinates both before and behind her, when she could have them all comfortable sitting and in her line of sight.
Tanya appreciated Weiss' immediate compliance, and took humour in his wild-eyed gaze, not nearly as schooled as his expression.
It was the first time he saw her with her red and gold wings denoting hydra royalty, much less in luxurious clothing more fit a rich noble daughter than the stern military midget officer he was used to. She had no doubt 'Lieutenant' Serebryakov was also smiling back at him, perhaps with a nod, both to greet him and to assure him that -yes- this was real.
They sat down at the table, with her own chair having a pillow so she didn't have to look up to everyone. A consideration she didn't have most times in the military.
Weiss froze as he finally looked away from Tanya and Viktoriya to the final member of their table. He started to bow before prince Gawain waved him back down, leaning backward with one leg crossed. Having meet him for a bit by now, Tanya knew the casualness was exaggerated to let her retain control of the table despite his higher rank and seniority. It was one of the reason for her growing approval of the man.
"How are things faring with 203rd?" Tanya asked first and foremost.
"Well enough. They have taken the additional days to rest and train. Morale remains high, many confused with your... change in status not yet spread through the ranks," Weiss reported. "They'll be ready to move when ordered."
"Good," Tanya responded and thought for a bit.
"...Are you retaining command of the battalion?" Weiss asked with a light wave after waiting for a while.
Gawain sighed to the side. Tanya ignored him.
"My family-" emphasis noted "-is against it. But I'm the highest serving officer in the family, and the only one with experience in modern warfare. When they themselves just decided to join the battlefield, in 'fury for my situation', it'd be quite hypocritical for me to stay behind."
"It's true we can't hide behind a child, and not make Albion pay for this tragedy," Gawain spoke up. Tanya nodded at her reckless 'brother' and went on for Weiss.
"It might just be an excuse for them to deploy," Tanya admitted with waffy hand motions "but now that's the taboo of immortals on the battlefield has been broken by my presence, something must be done. Otherwise people will pounce on the perceived weakness of my withdrawal."
"We aren't at with Albion yet though," Weiss pointed out, wisely choosing not to address the new underpinning of her newfound family. "The François and Legadonien are already a lot to contend with."
"True, but we might as well be," Tanya answered. "After all we already fought 'detached battalions' from Albion among Legadonese forces. Hopefully, the François won't be a problem for much longer."
That got her a politely questioning eyebrow from Weiss. Not an incredulous one, because he knew better.
"My... little sister," Gawain followed up. "proposed we use her kidnapping at Albion's hand and their refusal to commit on the war with François to drive a wedge between both nations."
"Indeed." Tanya nodded. "In the best of worlds, we'll paint the François -and Legadonien- as pawns of Albion setting up its rivals against each other without bloodying themselves. The François in particular should respond poorly to their historically biggest rival setting them up. With our 'furious' immortals about to lay waste to François in order to get Albion faster, they might just fold out of the war, or even decide to take their pound against Albion."
"An optimistic but tempting future," Weiss conceded with fingers joined in serious consideration of her explanation. "We risk losing imperial immortals and losing out on reparations though."
"We might not need to risk immortals against immortals," Tanya offered. "Scorching fertile François territory might suffice to scare their public opinion away from war, better than martyring an old and symbolic François immortal." She thought some more then added. "If somebody did the scorching back to them, the Empire could use it to justify territorial gains from nations who ultimately aggressed them."
"...Tricky, but a lot of room to navigate diplomatically," Gawain acknowledged with a rather intense look at her. She titled her head at him, and he directed a casual gaze at Weiss.
"Reparations are unlikely to amount to much for us anyway," the prince diverted. "The Empire did far more damage than our foes did to us. To keep us contained it's likely third-parties like the United States and the Federation will weight toward US giving THEM reparations instead of the Empire being given its due."
"The nerve," Viktoriya muttered from Tanya's right, with a zeal that visibly grown in recent times. Weiss visibly echoed the feeling, but Tanya caught him looking surprised at her almost-confirmed Handmaiden -still needing formal training for it-.
"That is realpolitik," Tanya stated blithely. "However, with a properly dramatic story like my 'kidnapping' and subsequent participation on the front as an orphan princess child... This is no longer a fight between nations for continental dominance and economic hegemony. This is a grudge match between 'deeply outraged' factions, and third parties should hesitate to step into that mess."
There were some more exchanges on the topic, but ultimately this was more an exposition with a side-talks between 'royals' than a true debate with her subordinates.
*
"This is all well and good," Weiss said after digesting their talk for a bit. "But what is going to be my and the 203rd role in all this?"
"I'm glad you asked," Tanya answered while parching her throat with some more medicine for her years-long neglected body. "Since I don't want to lose my newfound family, I convinced them to train with the battalion to ensure their ability to survive. At minimum, they should also learn to fly, shield themselves and use artillery, with a computation orb."
"...Are you going to be the one supervising the training?" Weiss proved his brain was worthy of the command position she propped him up to, even if his voice was less enthused than it should be. More remedial training needed. Tanya nodded. "...and they accepted?"
"They probably don't understand what that entails," Viktoriya offered from her seat, giving a serene look at prince Gawain who was slowly sitting up straighter. "They looked far too confident in passing Tanya's training, for people about to be shelled for thirty-six hours straight."
"That's probably fine?" The fine offered in a somewhat strained tone. "I thought that was hyperbole from the report?"
"Don't worry," Tanya reassured him with a bright smile. "I can survive this training easily myself, thus I have no doubt that you will too. That's why I prepared a much more thorough training course, and we'll use the forty-eight aerial mages of the 203rd for escalating artillery barrages on top of the mundane one."
"Major, please don't kill our royal family," Weiss muttered worriedly. She dismissed the concern with a wave.
"Of course not. It'd too tragic to lose a family member when the imperial house just got one back." She pointed at herself before continuing. "That's why I'm going to make sure they can only step on the battlefield if they meet my exacting requirements."
"I'm sure you don't have to go that far," Gawain offered and Tanya offered him a bright smile full of teeth. She can't believe just how scared of him she had been days ago.
"Don't worry, big brother. You, in particular, I'll make sure there isn't anything that can kill you afterward." The young officer owned that much to the man who saved her life at the ball after all, not to mention effectively adopting her into the imperial family.
Gawain's growing unease on his face, both at her commitment and at the faces of pity from her subordinates, showed he had a proper sense of survival that would let him survive the battlefield. Tanya couldn't wait to train him.