The Leader and Paragon updated today so I thought... why not join the fray to make you all happier with waves of updates? Especially since raw ch 22 is out courtesy of Miralisque and we should be able to expect a translated chapter soon. So yay for all of us... *clap-clap*
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
6th RECORD
Roses, Apples and Medals...
Back to Rhine, patrol line 02
Alberich flipped over, flying with his back facing the ground. No matter how he looked at the ground or the sky, Rhine's border was a sad place. Fortunately this was his last day to patrol Rhine's gloomy sky. Tomorrow he could go back to Central, see Tanya and his classmates and graduate from OCS for real. Back in his past life, graduation was a solemn affair followed by a rowdy party thrown together by graduates who wanted to get loose after the grueling exams. It won't be too different for their older classmates but… to him and Tanya it would be uneventful.
First of all, at their age they just couldn't stand the rowdiness of teenagers graduating with them. They were orphans so there was no family to celebrate with, and going back to the orphanage was a bit… Even though he wasn't attached to the old orphanage any more than Tanya does, there's some social obligation he owed them. So the plan would be to visit the nuns and kids, bring some food, show your face and tell your ex-caretakers some news about yourself.
Alberich actually didn't care too much about this social visit, but his mother would want him to at least put some effort to care.
'Getting Tanya to come with me would be a pain…' Alberich thought as his feet touched the ground softly.
"Beilschmidt! Bad news!" Shouted Sean.
"Did your girlfriend break up with you?" After a while even Alberich, the rookie, was allowed to crack jokes with his senior.
"I wish-" Sean shook his head, "No, It's Legadonia!"
"Huh?"
Alberich had the shock of his life when a haggard looking Sean informed him that a live radio broadcast from Norden and Central reported that there was a large scale border transgression made by the Legadonia Federation. When Alberich ran in a rush back to their camp, the radio was blaring an ultimatum from the Legadonia government.
Alberich let the indignant voice of the Imperial reporter wash over him, he wasn't really paying attention to the details of the ultimatum from Legadonia. But basically they want the Empire to get the hell out of Norden as soon as possible or else. Just what 'else' this weaker country could do to the Empire? Unless they had developed the atomic bomb early, Alberich couldn't think of any reason for Legadonia to act so high and mighty.
"How is the condition of our forces in Norden? Did they face strong resistance or..." Alberich just had to make sure.
Schwarzkopf was rubbing his temple before saying, "No… we steamrolled their force as expected…"
What?
That silenced his squadron that had just returned from their patrol, all mages under Schwarzkopf were looking at him with disbelief written on their faces. "And…" Sean trailed off, before voicing out their squadron members' collective thoughts. "Why is Legadonia giving us an ultimatum then?" Like they were the ones on the winning side to make any demand.
Schwarzkopf just sighed before he approached Alberich and patted the boy on the shoulder comfortingly, "Apparently, they are that stupid…"
Silence fell in the room as the mages ingested what their commander just said. They couldn't help but recall a somewhat sketchy talk they had a few days ago, that could be summarized to a conclusion that Legadonia would never attack Norden unless their leaders are politically shortsighted, and daydreamers. So it was no wonder that to the rationalistic and pragmatic Imperial Army, their collected opinion about Legadonia's invasion was 'Are they for real?' before firing shells just to test if the invading force wasn't just a figment of their imaginations.
And now at the face of the Legadonian's ultimatum, even the brilliant minds making up the top brass of the Imperial Army were both stunned and confused. 'Aren't we the ones winning this conflict, and not them?' The impossibility of this situation made them do double checks on reality, but the reports saying that the Norden army razed the Legadonians yesterday didn't change to say otherwise.
To Alberich, their ultimatum sounded like the government wanted to fool their own people into believing that they had this conflict under control. However when their focus was fanning patriotism so their people won't topple them from their seats of power, these upper brass politicians forget the ones watching them wasn't just their people. At the rate this was going, Legadonia's standing in the international view was going to plummet to rock bottom.
He sighed as he half-listened to Schwarzkopf telling his squadron to keep what they were talking about a few days ago to themselves and not making wild guesses. Just let their superiors do their jobs to settle this mess. There was no need to worry because they were on the winning side.
'I wonder if Tanya is involved in this conflict in Norden.' There's a very slim chance that the Norden army was that short-handed to involve students-in-training. 'She would be happy to be part of a great victory like this, promotion and what not…' That girl valued her life more than anything, so she shouldn't be doing anything dangerous.
At the same moment, said girl just crashed from Norden's sky.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
The next day
He was still half-awake before his cup of morning tea when Schwarzkopf came to the chow hall and gave him a telegram from his instructor, Einzbern. "Your friend… Second Lieutenant Degurechaff was heavily injured from the conflict against the Legadonia Federation yesterday, so Major Einzbern has taken the liberty to excuse you from reporting to Central today and head to Norden." They were both orphans, and Alberich was the closest thing Tanya can consider a relative according to Einzbern.
He didn't have time to digest the fact that Tanya was promoted, but the main point was…"Tanya… got hurt?" What did that girl do to get herself so injured, to the point their instructor was informed. That meant she was injured enough to be incapable to report back to Central, not just superficial bruises.
"It seems she was on patrol and her area happened to be the closest to the invading force, so she was commissioned on the spot to serve as an artillery observer." Schwarzkopf explained in a somber voice. "And she was hunted by Legadonian mages…" An opportunity followed by disaster.
Alberich paled at that, 'Just what kind of Godly intervention caused her to get stuck in such a situation?!' He honestly forgot that girl had a high and mighty entity after her.
The young mage excused himself before dashing to his room to grab his already packed luggage. He made time to say good byes and thank yous to his seniors and commander Schwarzkopf for taking care of him, pointedly ignoring the light hearted teasing from Sean before he was off to the train station heading to Norden.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
On the way to Norden
It was a long ride to Norden until he reached the north region of the Empire, and when the train made a stop Alberich saw a kiosk on the station selling newspaper. He opened his window as he called the man manning the kiosk to bring him a Londigium Times and Reich newspaper. Seeing him buying newspaper, a middle aged woman with a basket full of roses and baby breath approached his open window and asked.
"Would you like some flowers too, boy?" He got a bewildered look from both sellers when they caught sight of his military coat. "I mean, young soldier."
He was about to refuse before he remembered he was going to visit a sick person. "Ah…" His mother in his past life always stressed the importance of bringing gifts for this kind of occasion, but flowers for that Tanya? Won't that girl shoot him if he brought her flowers? Roses of all things?
His dilemma ended prematurely when a youth with a basket full of apples came to offer the same.
He was about to decide to just bring some apples for courtesy sake, but then he locked gazes with the flower selling woman. Her eyes spoke as if saying 'Won't you buy flowers from this poor woman?' to him. Alberich would like to think he was a person with firm resolve, but he was also weak against pleas.
"I will buy them." And just because a single rose would give off the wrong impression he decided to buy all of them. It wasn't like Alberich was still a poor orphan, he could afford to splurge a bit from time to time now. Especially since this was quite further to the North, away from Berun so the price of his purchase was much cheaper.
With apples and bouquet of roses in hand, Alberich continued his journey to Norden. After finishing reading the newspaper, he left his compartment and headed to the buffet car. Alberich ordered his meal, before asking the waitress if they have an empty vase and water to keep the roses fresh.
Looking at the beautiful red roses and tiny flowers of baby breath in between, Alberich was overcome with the feeling of wasting a good bouquet on someone who won't appreciate it. He just finished sketching the flowers when they arrived in Norden station.
From there, Alberich had to walk to the garrison. He couldn't fly there because he wasn't registered to fly here.
'Aah… having magic in this world sometimes isn't so magical, you'd think flying with your own ability without vehicle won't require any permit." Alberich thought as he left the train station, 'Then again…' Flight via magic was monopolized by Mages from the military, identification was needed so CP could detect invading Mages easily.
He wondered if Tanya also thinks the military hoarding and monopolizing mages is a waste of human resources. If the Empire isn't so militaristic, they would have wider choices of profession as mages. Then again, considering the geopolitical situation of the Empire it was a logical choice.
Alberich's musing was cut short when the Northern Garrison came to view, briefly admiring the architecture before going in. He greeted the military police manning the front desk and asked him the direction to their medical room. Alberich didn't miss the double take the MP did due to his young appearance, the bouquet of roses he haphazardly wrapped with a Longinium Times newspaper and a basket full of apples in his hands.
Maybe he should have just left the roses on the train. "I am visiting Tanya Degurechaff." He added just to fill the silence.
"Ah, yes… she is in medical room number 4." The MP answered after checking the thin file with a list of patients. "Just go straight down this hallway, turn left and you will find our medical wing there."
"Thank you, Sir." He walked in a brisk pace, and before he left the reception area he swore he overheard the MP muttering 'kids these days…' and wondered if the man misunderstood something. He didn't ponder about it for long as he soon found the room with the sign plate he was looking for. The door was left ajar, considering the room should be shared by four patients the medic probably expected a steady traffic of visitors to not bother closing it.
Though only two beds were occupied now, and Tanya got the bed closest to the window with plenty of sunlight pouring in the room. The man occupying the bed closest to the door took one look at him, before he sat up and excused himself. It confused Alberich, but the man seemed to be quite fine to walk around since he only had both hands bandaged and not his feet. What a considerate person to give a visiting friend privacy, Alberich thought.
"Al…" Tanya called him flatly, "Why are you here, and what's with the roses?"
Of course, it would be the roses that got Tanya's eyebrow twitching like that. "Your get well soon gift." He returned flatly, pulling a nearby stool to Tanya's bedside.
The little girl scowled, "I'd rather you give me the wrapping newspaper." She wanted to know what the heck was going on in the world since she blew herself up.
In this world or their previous one, Tanya would be the only girl that prefers the wrapping over the gorgeous rose bouquet. Alberich sighed as he set down the basket of apples beside the roses, he should have known. "I will tell you the summary, you can read it later." Alberich winced when he took a good look of Tanya's condition.
"What?" Tanya got annoyed by his blatant staring.
"Oh my God, Tanya… what did you do to end up like this?" He couldn't help but say. She was injured heavily, mostly all her limbs judging from the bandages were covered in gun wounds. Since she was flying airborne, he also could imagine the cast was for the broken bones she got from crashing to the ground.
Tanya growled at him, most likely because of his mention of God. "Why don't you ask Being-X, just what did he do to me?"
"I told you, I don't worship that one. But… I got to say, a series of coincidences that landed you to this state is undoubtedly go- I mean… demonic intervention?" Alberich concluded awkwardly, picking an apple and pocket knife all soldiers carried around with them.
Tanya watched Alberich idly casting a spell to clean the surface of the ripe red fruit, "Definitely, I won't even put it past him for rotting the Legadonian leader's brain to go that far with their stunt yesterday." She scoffed, "Their soldiers didn't even spare me, who looks like this." Tanya looked a bit put off by this. "Truly, a blind belief in altruism of humanity is dangerous."
Alberich wondered if he should tell Tanya, while she was right that it's dangerous to trust in humanity's altruism, what happened yesterday proved the danger was in believing humanity's intelligence. "Anyway… what our local newspaper say about this latest conflict is basically mocking Legadonia Federation for their brazen border violation, and praising our army to high heaven for our prompt response." Said response was a hail of shells, divine punishment from war god the artillery.
Tanya rolled her eyes at that, "Yeah, I guided those shells flying myself."
He hummed softly at that, as he stabbed the knife in the fruit to scoop out the leftover stalk. "Londigium Times on the other hand… criticizing Legadonia's imprudent action that ruined their country's good will when setting up the benevolent Londinium Treaty, and also the Empire for resorting to violence so quickly." As if the treaty didn't matter.
Tanya rolled her eyes at that, "Typical… our country is fanning patriotism while the Unified Kingdom acts like the wronged party, as if everyone owe them something."
"I haven't gotten my hands on a Republican newspaper, but they must be anxious now. It all depends on what our superiors decide I suppose..."
Tanya growled, "If I ever get my hands on the idiots who ordered me to delay those mages…"
Indeed, that was quite unreasonable to expect Tanya to delay a squadron with a one to twelve odds. Even the vaunted Oda Nobunaga won his famous Okegahara battle with one to ten odds, and that was after utilizing both weather and terrain to his advantage. Mages only had their shells, and the sky had no cover to hide aside from clouds but Tanya was observing for the artillery units, so her altitude would be around 4000, clouds float in a much higher attitude than that.
They might as well tell her to die, and she escaped by making herself almost dead to leave the battlefield. Tanya managed to save herself in such a extreme way was worthy of praise. Alberich couldn't imagine what he would do in that situation.
"Al, put 'cushioning spell' or other safety spells in your list of spells to develop, for an aerial mage to drop like a fly is insulting."
Alberich supposed that safety spells, aside from orthodox mage's shell, should be developed soon. Flight spells could fail for various reasons, and a parachute that slowed descent would make them a good target for enemy mages. "Didn't you break your computation jewel?" Mage's shell could have saved her from broken bones, but a broken computation jewel means Tanya won't be able to use her mana properly to interfere with the world.
"That's not the point… See this? I wanted to look like I fought hard and forced to leave the battle, but I almost died and it's my luck I was found quickly by our infantry soldiers." She hissed in a lower voice, she would be damned if it was overheard that her heroic deed was faked.
Alberich chose not to point out to Tanya that, regardless of her true intention, her habit of falling into roles makes her heroic action yesterday anything but fake, especially as she said she really did almost died. He put his hands up in a placating gesture, "I get it, I get it." His gaze lowered to her body, "But really… so many wounds, what a tragedy for a body of a maiden to be littered in scars…"
"Alberich, I don't care and you-"
A nurse came right at that moment, overhearing the last two sentences. "Hello, how do you do today, dear?" Tanya groaned at her pampering. "There's no need to worry! The skills of our military doctor here is praiseworthy, and I can assure you that little Tanya's fair skin won't get scarred at all!" She said, letting out a 'ohoho' those high class ladies liked to do.
Being smiled at prompted Alberich to do the same courtesy. "I am glad to hear that, uhm…" His gaze lowered to her nameplate, "Miss Calla, thank you for taking care of Tanya."
The nurse, Calla smiled benignly. 'My… what a polite boy, unlike the rowdy little brothers I have at home.' Her eyes wandered at the bouquet of roses sadly forgotten on the bedside table together with the apples. "I can find a vase for you, and there's a plate in the bottom drawer."
She was a very thoughtful and attentive nurse, Alberich praised inwardly. "Then I will trouble you, Miss Calla."
She quickly checked Tanya's condition, noting her bandages didn't have to be changed for now and reminded the girl to call if she needed any help. "Then, excuse me… just call if you need me." She said again, sighing as she gave the pair of children one last look before exiting the room. 'Aah… who says all military men are crude, little Tanya is so lucky!' She decided to take a long while to look for a vase to give the two some privacy.
Tanya's left eye twitched at the retreat of the blushing nurse, "I am so sick of hearing women giggle whenever you go."
"I shared your sentiment before because of my brother." He said as he fetched the plate from the bottom drawer.
Whether or not his brother in his previous world had both ADHD and autism, a handsome boy was still a feast to look at. Alberich remembered when they were kids, a lot of adults fell in love with his brother's dimpled smile. They thought he was an angel for the first ten minutes of meeting him until all hell broke loose when his brother throws a tantrum. Even after he calmed down as a teenager, said brother still had a lot of women sighing and giggling in admiration. As an older sister, he could only be envious his brother got more New Years money just for being pretty.
Humans are superficial creatures, they like beauties in any form.
Of course, he could no longer laugh at his little brother now. Alberich was exploiting his looks in this life, then again, for a hungry orphan the extra money those ladies and madames give for a smile was too good to pass up for dignity's sake. Though now, his facial muscles always smile on reflex in the presence of female kin. The old Japanese saying, if you make a certain face all the time it would stuck was quite true.
"Oi, Al… can you please not make an apple bunny?" Tanya glared at the apple slice Alberich shaped meticulously.
"It's cute right ❤?"
The blond gave Alberich a disgusted look, unappreciative of his sense of art. "Woman, do take care to remember that such words shouldn't escape your mouth when your body is a boy." Tanya hissed, before picking a slice with her left hand to eat.
"That's quite a contradiction, calling me a woman but-"
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Since when was the door closed? Did nurse Calla close it when she went off to find them a vase? The door opened after the third knock, and an apologetic looking Calla came in with a simple vase in hand. "There are visitors from Norden HQ coming to see you, little Tanya." After she opened the door fully, revealing a group of well-built officers.
The slice of apple was still stuck in her mouth before she swallowed the slice whole, almost choking on it. "Cough!" Tanya sucked in her breath. "Am I going to be reprimanded?" She whispered in shock, after all, she had failed to delay the enemy until reinforcements arrived.
Alberich whispered back. "I don't think so." It would be unreasonable to get angry at a soldier who almost died following their orders, and said order was suicidal in the first place. Alberich quickly stood up, saluting the officers and stating his rank and name while in the background nurse Calla hastily put the flowers in the vase and made a hasty escape.
Looking at their expressions, they seemed to be in a good mood so Alberich and Tanya calmed down. "Ahem." The highest ranked personnel, that Alberich noted from his shoulder guard ranking him as a Colonel, fished out an official looking letter, a lot fancier than usual. "Here is a decree from the upper brass, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff! During the battle with-"
Alberich watched the Colonel reading a short list of achievements, basically they considered that Tanya had succeeded in detaining the enemy soldiers, protecting friendly artillery units and managed to score four confirmed and two unconfirmed kills. It was a very brief, precise and lack of flowery words for a speech to someone they considered a hero.
"The Imperial Army recognized your courage and effort, and to you... we award the Silver Wing Assault Medal." He finished with relish, followed by clapping from their comrades. The older officers were oblivious of the two children's mood wasn't in sync with theirs.
Did they hear that right? Wasn't that medal the highest honor and value in the Imperial Army? Tanya was frozen stiff at how generously her effort was awarded, but she couldn't bring herself to be happy. While Alberich just robotically followed the other officers to clap and congratulate Tanya, inwardly thinking, Tanya was really screwed. Won't they send their new hero to the frontline by the first train at this rate? Of course there won't be any Child Protection Services that would step forward for Tanya's sake in this era.
There's no medal that could be seen, these guys were here just to inform Tanya the good news. "The awarding ceremony's date isn't decided yet, but unfortunately because of what happened recently, and with your injured state, it would be delayed for a while."
Liar! Tanya and Alberich thought in unison, weren't they just delaying the pomp and ceremony to make a grander one for propaganda purposes and drag it on as long as they could to fan national spirit in the Empire?! The propaganda-dept will milk this for all its worth.
Alberich caught Tanya's pleading gaze, well- more like a helpless look. Shaking his head, Alberich could only sigh. 'There's no way I can get you out of this one…'
'Goodbye peaceful life, and hello bullshit days of a hero.' Tanya thought, barely noticing Alberich patting her shoulder in a show of sympathy as they watched the group of officers left the room.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
Central, Imperial Army Headquarters, Manpower Department Branch's Head Office.
Lt. Col Rerugen had a headache, as no one in his department was going to support him to reject the join signature from Norden to give a certain wunderkind the most valued medal in their army. She just finished her deployment training and was just about to graduate, not earning a medal after almost killing herself delaying hostile forces in Norden.
So he could only watch with a heavy heart when the letter was sent this morning to Norden, informing the awardee of the good news and delayed grand ceremony that was requested by the propaganda department themselves. The surreal image of a little girl in OCS screaming and kicking junior cadets was still fresh on his mind, followed by the almost execution by the same girl.
'If her friend wasn't there…' Someone's brain would be painting the OCS's training ground.
He had ran a background check on Tanya Degurechaff, and it was as clean as a new sheet of paper. As Einzbern informed him beforehand, Degurechaff was a foundling of a deceased soldier. The orphanage was also a normal one, cared by a group of dedicated nuns who wouldn't mistreat the children. The financial situation of that orphanage was a bit tight in recent years, but not to the point where their children were starved and the psych evaluation says the kids were quite healthy considering their situation.
And there's another variable by her side.
Alberich Beilschmidt, also an orphan with a deceased soldier parent. His background on the other hand, while as clean as Degurechaff's, does have some odd details. He wasn't a bastard like Degurechaff, but was abandoned by his soldier father who couldn't take care of him when his wife passed away from child birth. Nothing odd with this because a soldier wasn't an ideal single parent. However, Beilschmidt was adopted once before being returned back to the orphanage at the age of three. The middle-aged couple that adopted him were also clean, and now they were taking care of a relative's child as their adopted children.
'The boy, when he was in our care, was strange, he couldn't stay still and we can't understand him at all. He is so unlike normal children, it's unnerving. So we can only give him back to the orphanage' Was the confusing testimony when his friend from intel-dept tried to inquire further.
Strangely enough even with this, Rerugen wasn't so worried about Beilschmidt's mental stability like he does Degurechaff's. In OCS, Beilschmidt was described as an introvert boy but not completely closed off to the idea of friends. He was quite a pleasant individual to know as long as his classmates made the move to befriend him first. He tend to daydream when idle, but it does wonders to his talent in developing spells. In short, unlike Degurechaff in spite of possessing maturity unfitting of a child, his personality wasn't that of an ideal soldier even though they should have a similar upbringing.
The evaluations of other instructors aside, including an over-embellished one from Einzbern, also rated the boy highly, with some notes about random zoning out moments and other minor issues. Though some did note they had a concern about the boy's independence from Degurechaff which made Rerugen scratch his head in confusion.
He had gone out of his way asking for a early report from Schwarzkopf to know how the boy fared without Degurechaff around. Schwarzkopf had nothing but praises for the boy, very obedient, eager to contribute and, even though he was a bit shy and awkward like any other new recruit, he could get along well with his seniors relatively quick. The boy even thought up a solution to the muddy water problem that had plagued the Rhine Theater for years. It won't win the boy war merit or medals, but it boosted his personality evaluation a lot to Rerugen as the boy had shown an attentiveness for people's needs.
In short his instructors' worry was unfounded, Beilschmidt was totally fine without Degurechaff around. Were they mistaking it for the other way around? Shouldn't they worry about Degurechaff without Beilschmidt? Rerugen was most inclined to think so, considering what the girl had gotten herself into in Norden.
"Maybe we should assign these two as a pair." Beilschmidt could act as her handler, it wasn't like he didn't do that all this time. That incident back then happened when that girl was out of her childhood friend's sight after all.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
Central, OCS
After everything was said and done, Alberich still just had to ask Instructor Einzbern if there are any plans to throw Tanya to the line of fire as she was the Empire's new heroine. For good or bad, Tanya was his friend and they had survived together in this harsh, so he couldn't just turn a blind eye on Tanya's fate.
"Rear line duty?" He echoed in shock.
Instructor Einzbern nodded, "I am surprised myself, but I suppose it won't look good if Degurechaff is stationed in the foremost frontline again…"
And why did you do so in the first place? Just because she was conveniently there? Typical of rationalistic and practical Imperial Army. "I see…"
"I know you're happy for Degurechaff, but…" He leaned in, whispering. "I think you should worry for yourself more, it's confidential until you get the letter but it seems you're going back to Rhine."
Alberich resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "I will do my duty as ordered… No offense Sir, but..." Sending another ten year old to Rhine was contradicting what they just said about Tanya.
"I think so too, you being with familiar people is the upside I'd say…"
Which meant First Lieutenant Schwarzkopf asked for him back to Rhine. "If you say so, Sir."
"I think it's just to give you plenty of experience on the field before having you join my training department." Instructor Einzbern informed him. "So hang in there, and we will do a lot of fun things with other expert mages." The older mage winked.
He grinned at that, "I don't know, Sir. Maybe I will get too comfortable in Rhine. Especially since my skin is sensitive to sun." For reasons known only to Being X, both Alberich and Tanya had pale skin.
"Nonsense…" Instructor Einzbern shrugged in an exaggerated fashion. "White bread can only be eaten on the rear, you know?"
They both laughed, knowing very well they shared a common dislike for the dark colored bread everyone on the front eat. "If you don't mind, Sir… where did they assign Tanya then?"
"Eeh… they will wait until she is cleared from the hospital by the end of the month." Even with magic, broken and fractured bones like Tanya has took time to recover. "But maybe the training-dept too." Last time he saw his friend, Rerugen seems to be keen on the idea of putting his protégé in a pair with Degurechaff. However, unlike his childhood friend, Alberich had not gained sufficient experience on the field to be pulled all the way to the rear yet.
"Eeh… Tanya and training recruits is a bit…" After the last disaster, he'd rather not see her anywhere near new recruits.
He was of the same opinion as Alberich. "Don't worry, she won't… there are plenty of jobs in our department that doesn't involve teaching impressionable rookies." Instructor Einzbern assured him.
Wow, all things considered, this had gone swimmingly well for both of them. "I see…"
"By the way, the Mage Management Bureau is going to give Degurechaff a honorable second name in addition to the silver wing medal."
Second name? He recalled that was a 'named' status given by their own allies as opposite to one given by enemies. "Hoo… what are they going to name Tanya with?" He was laughing now, imagining Tanya's reaction. "We already have our very own loli mage." It was an awful nickname, as opposite to his wizard-boy nickname that was more of a stating the obvious rather than a mocking insult.
"I get early spoiler…" Instructor Einzbern cleared his throat, "It would be… Tanya, the silver wing… Argent."
Alberich's smile turned stiff at that, "That sounds honorable indeed." Said his mouth while inwardly he was thinking, 'It's official… Imperial people have a terrible naming sense, of all things they call her 'white silver' as if her character is pure and noble.' To him, who knew about Tanya's real character, that sounded like the worst joke of the century.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
BTW if you see the cover, the boy on the photo is what Alberich looks like. I want him to have similar hair to Armin from Attack on Titan like bob cut but... in space battle forum, Rastalaan and his fic "Path to Enlightenment" told me he/she imagine his/her Si with the same hairstyle when I offered to draw him.
Wow, what a coincidence or maybe it's just looks good. So I decide to re-design Alberich from eye shape to hairstyle. Because the theme is fairy, I try to find fairy-ish style that's not long and end up with his current hairstyle. All things considered, I am a thousand times happier with his current look.
Have a fun Monday~ and drop some soul food for this starving author please!
3rd Revision by Mr War
