Edited by BrazeRancor and Ocean Sailor (*´ー`)[]( ￣▽￣)[] [](≧▽≦ ) It's a hard work fixing this chapter.
Also I proudly announce that poll for Second Name is closed!
Here goes Elenium-95 ARC!
I am pretty nervous about this arc because of Paragon is a very outstanding fic by Lord Kevin fleshed out this arc from LN so well. For sure, my Schugel is nowhere as awesome as his.
archiveofourown works / 11845647 / chapters / 28769640 This is linked to AO3 but with bonus character image of Alberich.
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13th RECORD
Mad Scientists aren't Fictional in this Universe
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Central Military Hospital, Berun
He disliked oats. The taste was fine, but if it wasn't soggy enough he found the texture unpalatable to his tongue and unpleasant to swallow, and in his past life he would often choke on any type of food labeled whole grain. However, the saying 'hunger was the best seasoning' was true so he couldn't complain about his meal.
"That damned Being-X possessed you?!"
Alberich polished off bowl after bowl of oatmeal, his body was starving after exhausting all of his mana and it craved protein and carbohydrate. According to the regulations he should have been fed constantly by the nurse who carried a big pot of porridge, but for the sake of having a private conversation Tanya had volunteered to feed him instead.
The porridge was soggy enough to easily drink from the bowl and it was tastier than the watery soup they got at the Border since they had mixed in lemon juice, yogurt, lentils and raisins. "Haaa… another bowl please."
"Are you listening?" Tanya growled as she handed him more.
Alberich nodded enthusiastically, "I am listening and yes… Being X controlled my body. It was a terrible experience…" A gloomy cloud hung over him as he gulped down another serving. "It was very scary too, being trapped inside my own mind while watching my body slaughter those mages…" Alberich trailed off, "And think he make me sing a requiem repeatedly on an open channel." He was mostly horror he felt, but shame was the next strongest emotion.
Tanya scrunched her nose at that, "No one mentioned about you singing though."
Alberich nodded, "Either they bleached that part from their memories or I had already stopped by the time they arrived… Seriously, I don't want to be sent to an asylum." He couldn't exactly remember if he'd done something easily missed like press the right buttons on his radio. There had been bigger things to worry about.
Tanya shook her head at that. After all, if the Imperial Army cared about sanity they wouldn't have employed Schugel as their Chief Engineer. "I don't think you're in danger of that. Our glorious army seems to be very tolerant towards the insane." Working under Schugel made her wonder if the psych evaluation back in OCS meant anything at all, or if sanity requirements had ever been established.
Alberich licked his lips, suddenly craving some fresh fruit to go with his oatmeal. "All things considered… I am sure Being X is a devil now."
"Huh?"
"What happened to the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill?" He made me kill people! And those Republicans?" Alberich trembled as he set the mug down, "They were praying, calling out to God to help them…"
"God, give me strength to slay this monster!"
"Oh, God!"
"Help!"
Alberich smiled bitterly, "Isn't this part of his experiment? Both sides… The Republic and the Empire will pray for salvation from war." He clasped his hands together, "He will not reach his invisible hand to them, he'll be content to watch them pray and pray in futile faith…"
Tanya chuckled softly at that, "If he wants me to be like that he should give up. I'm not so weak to rely on a metaphysical being like him."
Alberich smiled wider at that, "True… you're very strong indeed."
"Flattery won't get you anywhere" She huffed, "But aren't you being too lax?"
He beamed, "I've made a complete recovery and should be re-deployed back to Rhine in a week! It can't be helped since casualties are skyrocketing in Rhine, so I can't be idle in the rear for long. Major Einzbern is unhappy but-" He became somber as he remembered he was going back to that hell soon. "I will figure something out."
He looked so cheery now after waking up from his coma, and from what Tanya had seen Being X hadn't inflicted any lasting damage on the boy, but he had acted quite weird yesterday when the nurse offered to administer a painkiller to help deal with his depletion symptoms. She knew those particular pains very well and took a mild painkiller herself every time she tired herself out in the same manner. However, Alberich had vehemently refused after the nurse said the medicine would make him a bit fuzzy headed. For some reason Alberich prefer to be in pain than to be high.
"That's not what I meant."
"Huh?"
Tanya held up a beautiful silver medal, a falcon with its wing spread wide and a crossed scepter and rifle above it. "This."
This was Alberich's first time seeing the medal up close, "What wonderful craftsmanship!" Unlike other medals, which were usually made with a mold, the Silver Wing Assault Medal was actually crafted meticulously by hand like a tiny sculpture. Then again, it wasn't given away so often so he supposed the Imperial army could afford to splurge on them.
"You do realize what you accomplished in Rhine was an amazing rear guard action for the sake of your comrades and the Fatherland?"
"I have been told I should be eligible for an Air Assault Medal or an Iron Cross but-" Alberich's eyes shifted nervously.
Tanya rolled her azure blue eyes at Alberich's attempt to escape from reality, "In the first place, what the hell were you thinking pulling such a heroic last stand?"
There was no way he could say that he was carried away by the mood of the battlefield... "Erm… Actually I thought I could pull something off to escape later in a way that no one could call me a coward." With friendlies evacuating from both the ground and air Alberich had no one keeping an eye on him. "Also… I used a doping spell and it seems like it had a stronger effect than I expected." Once the magic had kicked in any shred of rationality had been thrown out the window.
"Were you in that much mortal peril that Being X had to come rescue-read-screw you?"
Alberich became quiet at that, "Uhm…"
"You know, when it comes to combat you're more reliant on pure magic than anyone in our batch." That included Tanya herself. "But...you're also a better escape artist and stealth expert than any of us." If she didn't know better, she'd think Alberich had secretly been a ninja in his past life. No one in their class could catch Alberich when they played hide and seek in training. He would throw decoys, lower his mana signature and use other diversionary tactics that would make even Tanya lose her patience.
Alberich grew quieter at that before answering, "Well… I was planning to stall for time fighting them actively and then…" As flashily as possible. "Then I could have slipped away when they shot at me with volley fire, using decoys animated to fly higher while I went down. Oh! I can also use a more mana intensive spatial bombardment spell that doesn't leave a trail to its caster, so I would exhaust enough mana to make everyone assume I'd simply run out and retreated!" Finding a safe place to crash would be troublesome, but he wouldn't have been as vulnerable as Tanya was in Norden which made survival much more likely.
Tanya stared harder at him as Alberich sweated bullets. "So? You weren't in mortal peril in the first place." Of course this was true.
Alberich had folded himself in two, burying his face on his knees. "I'm such an idiot…"
Tanya laughed mirthlessly, "Even if you avoided your last stand tidbit under Being X's influence, you'd already earned enough war merit for this medal beforehand…"
"HOW?!"
"You saved all your comrades and threw the Republic's artillery units into disarray…" Tanya listed on, "Your unorthodox methods won't look good on paper since you're being sneaky, but the results speak for themselves." The upper brass is pragmatic, they'll turn a blind eye on how their subordinates get the job done as long as it's done effectively.
Alberich made a sound like a dying cat.
"Oi, stop running from reality! She hissed at him, "I'm sure if the commanding company in Rhine wasn't so busy with the war effort they'd finish gathering the joint signature for your medal even sooner. Be a man!"
"I refuse!" Alberich snapped, "I thought you thought of me as a woman?"
"Oh, come on! Act like the soldier you are..." Tanya trailed off sarcastically. "Other people think you're a guy. My opinion doesn't matter."
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"See?" Tanya cocked her head towards the door. "Come in!"
Alberich stammered, "My heart is not ready ye-" Much to his relief, the one coming was just Major Einzbern followed by Ludwig. Most likely the teen wanted to say goodbye, he had heard he would return to Rhine this morning. It wasn't a group of high ranked personnels bearing the news of-
Ludwig had a silly grin on his face which made Alberich confused, while Tanya had a feeling she would have a very legitimate reason to inflict harm on the idiot. "Wipe that grin off of your face Second Lieutenant Ludwig."
The brunette continued smirking, "Well, if there wasn't a war going on at our border I would say that we could come back later. Right, Major?"
Einzbern wasn't impressed. "Ludwig..." He growled in warning.
Tanya gaped. She wasn't unfamiliar with this routine. Being somewhat isolated from their peers due to their age and talent her familiarity with Alberich had often become subject of teasing from the other cadets in OCS. Both of them ignored it. Besides, it wasn't like Tanya had never gotten it from her previous mother, who had taken joy in teasing her son whenever any girl in kindergarten had spoken with her baby boy.
Even back in the orphanage a lot of the girls were jealous of Tanya for being the one closest to Alberich. Unlike other boys, being a former girl and older in soul made Alberich very caring and gentle when interacting with young children, so he was popular. Unfortunately Alberich showed no interest in anyone but her, so the girls became resentful of Tanya for monopolizing Alberich. Tanya of course didn't care about these little girls, and she was even thankful they left her alone because of it. They stopped inviting her to tea parties and princess play because of him.
Also, being mistaken as an orphan pair in puppy love earned them a lot of sympathy points when they worked in the church, so Tanya deemed that letting the people around them to have their little delusion was more beneficial. She didn't feel like sparing any effort in convincing them otherwise, especially since Alberich also took the same stance. So when they got the same treatment in OCS Tanya had stopped worrying about it and was more concerned about her grades. Such a thing lead to this exchange.
"So even if Beilschmidt's heart isn't ready we have to interrupt your moment." Ludwig turned a deaf ear to everyone.
Tanya flushed, "What the hell do you think we were doing?!" They were ten for fuck's sake!
"This and that-" Ludwig could rarely get a raise out of Tanya so finding this particular button made him bolder.
While Tanya was incensed, Alberich was relieved because there was no sign of high ranking officers coming to his room bearing the bad news. Major Einzbern crushed this hope by stopping Ludwig from agitating Tanya when he said: "We can't keep the people outside waiting. Save your teasing for later."
People?! WHO?!
Then the dreaded group came in. A colonel came forward bearing an official looking envelope with the Reich's two headed dragon seal on it. He took out a paper and began to read. "Second Lieutenant Alberich Beilschmidt." Yep, that was his name. "In battle against the Republican army in Rhine you have shown valor and perseverance as an Imperial mage of our glorious army."
What valor was this senior officer speaking of? In the first half of battle he was hiding and sniping enemies while throwing out decoys as a distraction. Also; perseverance? If it wasn't for Being X he was going to bail from the battlefield as soon as no one was looking! A quick look around the room showed that Tanya's doubtful look was mirrored on both Major Einzbern and Ludwig's faces. Any classmate close enough to Alberich to know his studying habits could tell that, aside from magic, he had a policy to not put any more effort than absolutely necessary to score slightly above average! Heck, he would even cram a day before test!
"Your quick wit in assisting your flight to rescue your comrades, throwing enemy artillery units in disarray-"
Alberich gaped at his kill list. He had downed ten enemy mages! "Colonel, I wasn't conscious for half of it because of the magic rush and adrenaline-"
Tanya covered his mouth, "Shut it!" Even if more than half of Alberich's kill was Being X's doing, suggesting that he wasn't conscious when killing them wasn't going to erase the recorded score. "Never mind, Colonel! His brain is still a bit confused."
The senior officer nodded and easily ignored Alberich's abnormal reaction, which didn't surprise Tanya one bit. The upper brass tended to look at decorated subordinates through rose tinted glasses. "And so to you; the pride of the Imperial army and Mage Corps, we award the Silver Wing Assault Medal." And the silver falcon identical to Tanya's was placed over his shoddy hospital gown.
Everyone in the room clapped for him but Alberich could only look at the medal on his chest. No matter how long he stared at it the falcon wasn't going to fly off out the window. After another round of applause and congratulations they exited the room, leaving an awkward silence behind. Tanya was the first to speak, "Major Einzbern, they're giving the medal to Al now? No ceremony?"
"Well, unfortunately… due to the invasion in the West there's no effort to spend on a grand ceremony." He chuckled softly at Alberich's relieved sigh, he knew how much his protege loved peace and quiet. "And there's still the awarding of your Second Name."
Alberich wanted to scream! There had to be a limit to how unnecessarily generous the upper brass could be! This was certainly Being X playing a joke, repeating Tanya's scenario on him. Who wanted to be a national hero anyway?!
"The Rhine Theater officers are too busy to pool their joint signature, but they unanimously voted to grant you this honor so my friend in the Personnel Department helped expedite the process!"
Who the heck did such an unnecessary thing? Mind your own business, damn it! This friend of Major Einzbern better be praying to Being X that he would never meet Alberich in a dark alley!
Somewhere in Berun a certain Lieutenant Colonel shivered.
"Hel-"
Tanya once again covered Alberich's mouth. Seriously, why couldn't he stay calm when it was his turn to waltz the catwalk of national herodom? "I assume there's no ceremony for that either?"
"It would just be on paper, and he will get his dress uniform picture taken. Along with the announcement of the second silver wing assault medal of the year and his Second Name." He winked at them, "Your Second Name is a secret for now but you will find out soon, right before you go back to Rhine! There's also some other photoshoot requested by the propaganda department for you and Degurechaff too."
The photoshoot aside he was more concerned about this Second Name business, "A Second Name…"
Ludwig resolutely refused to meet his eyes, "You… were told by Major Einzbern, weren't you? About the name you will get."
I'm sorry for joking about this earlier, Beilschmidt…" The brunette stammered.
"That's not-"
He was also grumbling, "I don't want a Second Name anymore…" It was every mage's dream back in OCS. It was an even worthier honor than a medal because it was unique to the rewardee alone. "You're right about no one asking about your opinion before deciding it…" Ludwig covered his mouth, "You'd wonder if it was on purpose."
Tanya agreed, "These exquisite ironies one after the other can only be deliberate…" Now the idea of a clearly unfitting Second Name sounded like a punishment rather than reward.
These Second Names had somehow become more of a punishment, as anyone who know the two mages personally could attest. The names were terrible lies, and apparently the Mage Management Bureau had a terrible habit of picking names that clashed with the personalities of the rewarded mage.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
The next day
Since Alberich showed no signs of brain damage according to the mage doctor who had examined him thoroughly, he was allowed to leave the hospital. He was warned to not overdo anything whilst recovering though. He was restricted to light duties, told to eat well, sleep well, be careful with his still bandaged limbs and was, under no circumstances, to indulge in the kind of heavy exercises he was known for.
The soulless military transit officer's quarters assigned to him only just qualified as a room but he couldn't stand the hospital's scent of antiseptic anymore. On the bright side, this was like getting a paid vacation until he was sent back to the Western Theater!
As he read a book about Hannibal that he had borrowed from Tanya, he couldn't help but sigh. "I wish I didn't have to go back to Rhine." While feeling sorry for his squadron fighting in the cordite-filled sky and the bloody, muddy, flea-infested trenches, he wasn't eager to go back to that underworld. "I'll pig myself out with warm food before I go back, then." He only had a week of medical leave, or rather just three days before that dreaded photoshoot he was obligated to attend.
"Hm? Speaking of photos, Tanya was also ordered to participate." She would be fed up with all those fake smiles and pomp of propaganda by now, but they still wanted pictures of the two. It would look good for both national heroes to appear together, but wouldn't it make the adult soldiers look bad if children were fighting harder than anyone else?
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Alberich snapped the book closed and stood up to open the door. "Yes?"
A military policeman in a crisp uniform saluted him, "Second Lieutenant Alberich Beilschmidt? A letter for you, Sir!" It was from the Office of the Inspector-General of Logistics, Tactical Training Department. He signed the receipt, confused about why should he get a letter from them. He could see no connection whatsoever.
"Thank you," the MP excused himself. Alberich closed the door and opened the envelope. Inside was an invitation from the Chief Engineer of the Elenium Lab to observe a trial of their experimental Operational Orb. Along with the letter was a pass to enter the restricted facility. "That's where Tanya works. So her boss is inviting me to watch her work?"
A strange invitation, but since he would be idle for the next three days it wasn't a bad idea to visit Tanya tomorrow. He could drop by her favorite cafe and buy something, she must be sick of potato and sausage by now. So Alberich dropped the letter on the cheap desk and took the pass for safe keeping.
He never noticed what was written on the back of letter.
Deus lo Vult.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
Sanctuary
"So We will speak to the man in question and enlighten him with Our divine words…" Relayed a facet of Being X to his companions.
Being-X's main facet hummed, "I'd like to delay the blessing for now."
"Won't it be better if we apply this plan as soon as possible?" Asked Brahma, the deity with many hands.
A god with canine ears and one eye clasped, "Oh, is it about the believer led astray by the man we reincarnated as a little girl?"
He nodded, "Yes. The miracle should be witnessed perfectly and the stray lamb must see the truly impossible task of completing the project. Surely after witnessing our miracle, he will come to believe once again?"
If Tanya and Alberich were there they would have protested that their problem with faith ran much deeper than the possibility or impossibility of miracles.
┬┴┬┴┤幼女と少年戦記├┬┴┬┴
Cruscos Airport
He thought she would be happy to see him, but instead he felt wronged because she was looking at him as if she were a high school student whose parents showed up at school to bring their forgotten bento instead of letting them buy bread instead. That was a strange analogy, but that was what he felt. "I brought you ham sandwiches from that cafe you like." He offered the peace offering.
"You're coming just to watch a disaster."
He blinked owlishly at that. Why did Tanya sound like a hit and run victim getting pissed about people watching and posting about her on Twitter? "Eeh… When I told the MP at the gate that I was invited by Professor Adelheid von Schugel he gave a warning to be careful around some 'walking disaster,' but..."
"That's his nickname." Tanya confirmed promptly.
The chief engineer was nicknamed 'Walking Disaster?' That didn't sound reassuring. "He is a disaster to whom, exactly?"
Tanya's flippant reply to his inquiry was; "Everyone. But mainly me. I'd go with you to Rhine even if only to escape him."
If Tanya would rather come running to the frontlines than be around Schugel the man could possibly be more terrifying than Being X. "Eeh…"
"Back in the past I thought mad scientists were just fictional comedic devices. But the reality is..."
"The reality is?..." Alberich echoed.
"I hope you're not slandering my name in front of this other soldier, Lieutenant Degurechaff!" Howled someone from behind, startling both of them out of their wits. Alberich swore Tanya's pupils shrank as she called out the man's name. "Doctor Schugel?!"
Patting his thrumming heart he turned to see the man in question. He was a very tall man with broad shoulders and his hair was greying and wild. He had thick eyebrows like untamed grass and a very intricate looking monocle over one of his dark eyes. Alberich guessed those many lenses could rotate for convenient use when tinkering with an Operational orbs' small components. Frankly, while it was an ingenious design for efficiency he didn't think wearing that thing all the time was a good idea. It could ruin this man's eyesight.
"Professor Schugel?" He tried hesitantly, "I am Second Lieutenant Alberich Beilschmidt, thank you for inviting me to your facility."
"Don't thank him." Tanya rudely added from the side.
Usually Tanya wouldn't be rude to superiors even if she think they are incompetents; for Schugel to earn this much animosity meant he had crossed some sort of threshold. The scientist shared the same sentiment with Tanya, ordering her to do her job and ushered Alberich to an observation room. "Erm… if I may be so forward, Professor. I've been wondering what you need me for?" He asked once they arrived in a room with a clear view of the runway where Tanya was standing.
He cleared his throat, "You see… I found your thesis and I am very interested in how you laid out the theories of the most basic decoy spell. You're a very unorthodox mage, and very flexible in controlling your mana. Quite unlike the plain old brute force mages employed in the field, like your dear friend over there." He jerked his thumb at Tanya's general direction.
Actually, despite the similarities between 3D modelling and optical decoy spells, he preferred refining the mage knife and neural interference spells simply because explosions and loud noises offended his hypersensitive hearing. He hadn't been bothered with explosions on the TV back in his previous life but hearing them live was irritating to his ears - that was another reason why he hated the battlefield to the bone.
"I am flattered." Or so Alberich said, but inside he was confused on how his thesis could have landed in Schugel's hands. As far as he knew the Military only had two copies; one stored in MMB's archive and another that Major Einzbern had kept for personal use. Even if he knew that the OCS had typed a mimeograph stencil, not even a chief engineer should easily get his hands on it. 'Something is off.'
"So I wonder if you're interested in taking over Lieutenant Degurechaff's job, Lieutenant Beilschmidt? I think she is more interested in fighting on the front lines than contributing to science."
No, Tanya was interested in a peaceful life. "Erm…but I-"
"I considered your flexible use of mana, so I happened to develop a variation of my masterpiece that Lieutenant Degurechaff is testing!" He announced excitedly, before dangling an orb before his eyes. Unlike the one Tanya had told him about these cores weren't the same size. There was a trio of smaller cores in a triangular formation with a larger primary core in the centre. It definitely looked more like a fancy art piece than his MK-13. "In comparison of Type-95X, the principle is similar but Type-95ß. is a precision based orb, so instead of firepower I designed it more for flexible and precise mana manipulation."
It would be a lie if he said he wasn't tempted to have a Operational orb tailored to his needs. Any mage would be frustrated if they had to hold back and use the Operational orb delicately while fighting with their life on the line and he could very well imagine how early combat mages felt with their flimsy primitive orbs that couldn't handle even a common mage's mana.
However a device with 'experimental' attached to its name just wasn't for him. "I am not sure if you noticed this in my file, Professor, but… I am not the most suitable test mage when it comes to Operational orbs because I-"
SLAM!
"Schugel! Who gave you permission to drag Beilschmidt here?!"
The boy in question blinked owlishly, "Major Einzbern?"
The doctor, outraged at the interruption, shouted, "He isn't from your department!"
"Not yet!" Einzbern hollered back. "But he's my protege!"
"All the more reason he should get involved in this project! You should be proud! The Elenium Type-95 series is the epochal orb of this century!" He howled before shoving a thick stack of bonded paper titled 'Elenium: Type-95' at Alberich. "You will be pleased to be a part of history, I am sure."
Nope, he wasn't pleased at all. "Eh-"
"And Major, I told you to not come unannounced!"
The boy glanced at the arguing pair and then back to the papers in his hand. It seemed that due to both models only a bit different the doctor put both design in one paper.
"Lieutenant Degurechaff, you may begin now." Said an assistant into the wireless comms.
He walked closer to the full length window glass, letting Schugel argue with Einzbern in peace. "Hm, Tanya is just flying for this test?"
There didn't seem to be anything particularly interesting, so he started reading to understand what the big deal was with this new orb type. His eyes scrolled left and right as he read the first page. "The Elenium Type-95 is a revolutionary Operational orb built around the brand new concept of Orb Core Synchronization." That sounded interesting enough, but why did he suddenly feel like this was a familiar concept? Not from this world, but his past life? When was that? It was long ago… back in university?
The development of a next generational Orb involved data collection at the most basic level, with the goal of researching more advanced technologies. So this project was seen as a completely new concept, even though it was akin to simply adding more engines for horsepower. That didn't sound right, instead of another engine the extra core was more like…
An image of jovial man sitting with all sorts of spare computer parts surrounding him came to mind. His previous self asked something and held up four fingers then eight enthusiastically. The man laughed before shaking his head, tapping a rectangular metal box before correcting a misunderstanding.
"Wait-" His train of thought halted, his free hand rose to draw something in the air.
Schugel and Einzbern had stopped arguing and were watching Alberich wave his forefinger in the empty air, his eyes unfocused as he contemplated something.
"What is he doing?"
Einzbern chuckled. "Ah, Beilschmidt does that often when he is deep in thought." It was a funny habit, but usually the boy would come up with something brilliant afterward.
"Maybe he is contemplating the sheer genius of my masterpiece!"
Einzbern snorted, "You think so Doctor Schugel? I'd let you know, mana capacity wise there's no one better than Degurechaff and Beilschmidt in our newest batch of graduates. Their knowledge is also superior, due to their unique situation as mana powerhouse they have a better understanding of how an operational orb works than their peers."
The accelerated program meant a lot of course was cut off from OCS, and the first to be excluded were the lessons on how the technology of Operational Orbs worked. Of course their students still got the basic understanding about their orbs, but it leant more to the practical side rather than the theoretical. You didn't need to know the parts of a car to drive one. Alberich and Tanya were special cases due to their mana capacity, so they needed more in depth knowledge that would allow them to delicately control their orb.
"But as testing personnel…" Einzbern trailed off.
Schugel wasn't listening however as he was trying to wrestle the wireless comm from his assistant, "You should be able to get to 18000ft, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff!"
[Standard operating altitude for us mages is 6000ft, Doctor!]
"Theoretically-"
Einzbern stared in disbelief. "Why did you just ask her to do?!"
Alberich was still off to his own world, and he walked towards the table where Schugel had left the Type-95ß. It looked more like delicately crafted jewelry rather than military equipment. And that was the problem. He experimentally probed the orb with his mana, and was shocked out of his wits when the orb greedily devoured his magic like a vacuum.
"GAH!" He jumped backward, as far as he could from the orb.
His yell attracted everyone's attention but he ignored them and rapidly flipped through the report file in his hand in haste. He was just ten pages in when he reached a conclusion.
"What the hell is this defective piece of junk?!" Alberich howled, his face became as red as his hair in anger.
"Lieute-" Schugel was about to call out but was silenced when the document was thrown right into his face and the spine hit him square on the nose.
WHAM!
"My nose!"
Assaulting the Chief Engineer, ck-ck! Alberich... you're such a hot head at times!
To be fair Ocean Sailor and I agree it's longtime coming for Schugel for being a magnificent jerk lmao
BTW I just realized the OC is increasing so, I will introduce them shortly.
-Einzbern is getting more and more appearance, he is so persistent like cockroach. Then again his character is meant to be overbearing as rebellious runaway noblemen. He is Erich's classmates, his batch is one of the best in Empire and the members hold important position in army which is why Erich and Elric have extensive connection in Imperial Army. He is the red oni to Erich's blue.
-Ludwig is the bratty hot-head with competitive spirit, and he sees Alberich's talent in spell creation makes the boy his worthy rival. But post-Rhine invasion he is more in awe of his young friend as sees Alberich as leader and a wall to surpass. He is also from noble family.
-Wolfgang is the cool older brother character, and the more mature partner to Ludwig. He has a very caring character, quiet and also a great cook. He come from commoner family and struggled to send money for his family.
-Krause, the flight leader of 205th and Alberich's current partner. A family man with warmer personality than Schwarzkopf's and treat his subordinates like his sons.
(^ﾉω^)ﾉ :｡･:*:･ﾟ' ,｡･:*:･ﾟ' Review please :･ﾟ' ,｡･:*:･ﾟ