Third Time's the Charm

by SugarcaneSoldier

Just as she was about to finally get her place behind lines, where Being X and his war couldn't have touched her, Tanya is killed. Due to her body's age and her soul's origin, however, Tanya manages to reincarnate once more thanks to a certain 'goddess.' She knows exactly what she will wish for if she kills the Demon King.

39. Coping With the Truth

On a day like any other, with clear skies and singing birds and croaking Giant Toads wandering around the plains of Axel…

Nothing too exciting was going on. A few teams were out and about looking around for Giant Frogs before they went into hibernation, and a few more people with the time to spare were enjoying the temperate weather. Nothing exciting was going on.

Farther away, however…

"EXPLOSION!"

A shockwave billowed out from the point of impact, blowing wind through the trees and shrubs, shaking everything. The ground shook a little, birds and all manner of wild beasts were scattering due to the loud, unexpected boom, and, after all the riotous noises of the animals fleeing the loud, echoing explosion quieted down…

The sound of something collapsing could be heard by a teenager from Japan of average build – only as it applied to his body, as his adventuring equipment was all subpar at best and pity-inducing at worst – with brown hair and green eyes.

"Ha! Worthless abandoned castle on a faraway hilltop, crumble before the might of my Explosion magic!"

They waited for a moment, and then…

Kazuma glanced down at her as the castle didn't collapse. "Hmm."

"Hmm? What's that supposed to mean? If you have something to say-"

"Can an Archmage that only knows one spell really call something else useless?"

"Y- You… get over here! I, the foremost Archmage of the Crimson Demon Village, will prove to you the awesome power of my chosen craft!" she shouted.

Kazuma didn't understand half of what she was saying, but he got the gist of it.

Normally, the only thing impeding someone's understanding of the girl was the cultural barrier, but considering Megumin was screaming into the dirt, his comprehension was probably just a bit more impressive than usual.

Regardless, Kazuma rolled his eyes and lifted her up, grabbing her staff and putting her on his back. He heard her mutter thank you into his ear, and he nodded.

"You know, I think that one was better than the one you used during the Monster Rush," he commented. He felt her shift slightly on his back.

"Oh? Tell me specifically what it is about my Explosion spell that you admire, Kazuma!" she shouted.

He winced at the volume ringing in his ear. "Ugh… I suppose that it was a lot brighter today? I think there wasn't as much smoke as last time, though, which brings down the point total."

She was silent, for a moment, and then she said, "Hmm. I think Kazuma needs to learn more about the awesome art of Explosions so that the person with the worst job in our party can do more. Luckily-"

He just rolled his eyes. "Hey, if you want a more wordy grade, you should talk to Degurechaff…" he said, trailing off at the end.

Their conversation died after that. Degurechaff…

Well, at least she was proving to him that there wasn't a spell or item that could cure drunkenness in Axel, because if there was one, someone would have used it on her out of pure pity.

Of course, if Kazuma had it, he'd demand a fee for using such a thing on someone other than Aqua, but that went without saying.

As he continued walking away from the derelict and abandoned castle, he wondered if this would become something like a routine for them. They could just go out on quests and have her use her Explosion on an actual monster…

But honestly, they got plenty of money during Monster Rushes. If there wasn't a need to go out, he'd much prefer to laze around all day.

He smirked to himself as he saw the town's walls come into view. Of course, doing this also earned him a bit of money on the side…

He would only get that money if Degurechaff was sober though…

Kazuma shrugged. Dust and Luna said that Degurechaff was, among other things, pretty reliable, and that she would make sure all parties involved followed through on their agreements, according to them. Why Dust got a far off look in his eye after telling him that, Kazuma didn't know, but-

"Hey, what are you shrugging for? Are you attempting to feel up a defenseless girl?"

He rolled his eyes again. "No. If I were doing that, I'd pretend to trip and squeeze your thighs while readjusting."

"That sounds too specific, and the fact you didn't hesitate makes me nervous to not have mana."

They bickered and talked all the way back, both hoping that they wouldn't run into Degurechaff, with Kazuma being more worried for the off-chance that drunk her didn't care about their agreements and only focused on the fact that Kazuma had brought Aqua down and that Megumin was the cause of an unfortunate incident in the barren shop of a Lich.

-OxOxO-

"UGH…"

Tanya immediately ran what she personally liked to call her 'diagnostic check.' It reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

Her diagnostic check reported one very simple word back to her: whhhheehh…

"Why…"

Her vision was blurry, her everything hurt, and she could hardly stand – or even check her surroundings.

"What… what did I…"

Eventually, she managed to make out a block of her vision that was slightly less gray than the rest of the room she was in. Guessing that it was a door, she pushed on it.

She sank to the ground in a boneless heap. It was locked. Probably.

She rested against it for a moment, trying to remember what she had done. A good guess was that it involved alcohol or drugs, but she doubted that last one, because she'd never be drunk enough to-

The door opened, and she fell face first out of the room she was in, smacking her face into the ground. She groaned, loudly, but-

"Tanya von Degurechaff! My savior!"

She groaned again and tried to ignore the sounds banging the inside of her skull. What…

She glanced upwards and squinted. There was a light behind the head of the person she was talking to, but she could faintly recognize the voice…

"Smith? Is that you? What the hell happened?"

He squatted down, and she inched away from his looming face. "You've made me a wealthy man! I thought…"

He shook his head. "Oh who cares! With what you taught me, I'll never work as a Blacksmith again!"

She blinked rapidly. His words probably would have made her head spin normally, but the alcohol did plenty of that without new revelations. "Wh- What? What did you-"

He chuckled again and hoisted her up. She fought the urge to vomit, and managed, though the smell and taste of the burp she let out made her want to puke up whatever was in her stomach anyway.

He chuckled again. "Woah! That stuff you made really does have a kick, huh?"

She glared at him while he set her down on a chair that she almost could feel. "What do you mean? I don't remember anything! What time is it? And why aren't you working as a Blacksmith?"

He smiled widely at her. "I'm an Adventurer, of course. You convinced me after making that wonderful stuff last night."

She blinked. "What? What did I…"

Then she realized where they were. They were in the backroom where she'd spent hours using his forge to make weapons and to make her rifle.

Only, it was different.

No longer could she find a forge anywhere in the room, nor was there a sign of the tools that he'd used to make weapons. Instead, all she could see were…

Bottles. Dozens and dozens of bottles lined shelves on the walls, either filled with liquids of varying colors and sealed with… corks, or empty and ready to be filled.

The forge was gone, replaced by… three great metal tanks that looked like the little cylindrical brass weights a high school student might use during science class. Metal tubing ran out of each of them, snaking into each of the three apparatuses and around the room towards other unmarked vats, one of which had a fire burning underneath it.

There were also wooden barrels stuffed into one corner, and a similar barrel was connected to one of the metal tanks.

On the table where he had once worked on weapons, there were a lot of pieces of glass on his table that looked more like they belonged in a chemical lab than in the workplace of a Blacksmith, and underneath that table were bags of what appeared to be yeast.

She shook her head. "Please tell me what I did last night. I have a bad feeling about it." She hoped he'd say something encouraging…

He laughed uproariously. "Ha! I should have known that your better drinks would cause worse hangovers."

That statement did not fill her with confidence.

He cleared his throat, and he gestured around the room. "Late a few nights ago, you practically broke down my door. You dragged me from my bed, and you began to show me… wonders!"

Tanya blanched, trying desperately to remember what she'd done. "Like…?" she began, hoping that she hadn't done anything too detrimental.

He nodded quickly. "You explained how the drinks here are all trash. How the wine and beer and ale were all too weak, and how neroid was no substitute for something a real person would drink."

He gestured around himself. "You were working for hours, constructing this baby, going around requisitioning materials – yeast and wheat and water – from whoever was up, drinking alcohol and leaving a trail of bottles after you."

"I was confused, but when you began tearing apart my place to make way for this… gadgetry, I tried to stop you!"

He chuckled again. "As if I could stop you! But, you were kind, and you explained to me how I would become rich beyond my wildest dreams."

She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head. "But… what about Blacksmithing? Isn't it your life?"

For a moment, Bill Smith looked mournful. "Well… yes. It was. But…"

He smiled, waving a hand. "It was just a job, really. I came to Axel in the hope that I'd be able to make it big as an adventurer, only for… well, the Hero Candidates to show me up, like with anyone else."

He shook his head again, his somber expression falling away and revealing joy. "Whatever. I'll be able to retire early with all the money I'll be making now. Who knows! I might even be able to snag a wife someday!"

He shook his head and continued. "Anyway, with your skills – and what odd skills they are – you transformed my workplace in a night, started up production by the morning, and by the next evening, we had our first glass!"

He quickly brought forth a goblet of clear liquid, and offered it to Tanya. She grasped it nervously – her… everything seemed to be working not quite right still – took a small sip-

And nearly choked. No flavoring besides a very fiery burning sensation. It tasted almost like…

No wait, without a doubt, it was vodka. How-

She'd only had the stuff once in her first life! She was fairly sure that you couldn't even make alcohol like this in only a few days! The Chemical reactions took too much time! How…

"Bill, I'm going to need a detailed explanation of exactly what we did later. First however…"

She groaned again as she tried to remember. "What was it that got me like this?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, but everyone knows that you were drinking nonstop for nearly two days."

She blinked again. "Wait. I was doing that for… two days? How did I metabolize the alcohol? How long was I out for?"

"Ah, well…" he said, trailing off. His nervous smile chuckled and rubbed a hand behind his head "You didn't actually drink that much alcohol. Maybe something like… five bottles of beer, some test versions of this stuff, and a few sips of the 'perfected' version of this stuff?" he said. She winced, and he smiled and winced back at her sympathetically.

"As for the second question… I think it was… another day?"

She tried not to groan at that. Three days. She'd been drinking for two and passed out for one. She'd be lucky to have a working organ if it happened again.

She sighed. "Alright… can you contact… Viktoriya? Or Lorelei? I just wanna go home… You can write down everything I did and leave it at that…"

Worrying about what had happened would come later… or, was that a good idea?

And as he told her he'd fetch her immediately, and that he would be eternally grateful, she nodded off into the chair, which was feeling quite plush at the moment…

Wait. He was getting…

She jerked forward. Viktoriya!

She'd…

She growled at her own idiocy. Tanya had been so affected by Viktoriya's decision to go out with Mitsurugi that she'd gotten blindly drunk, convinced a friend into changing his profession-

She shook her head. No, she wasn't getting distracted. She'd…

She groaned again. Nearly two and a half days gone because she couldn't confront the truth of the situation before her…

She glanced speculatively at the bottles on the ground as she thought about Viktoriya and how Tanya obviously, undeniably, would never have a chance with her…

She blinked again and tore her gaze away from the bottles. No! She was stronger than that, and, more importantly, she would confront her feelings. Burying them under alcohol was worse than simply burying them in the back of her head, even if the things she was trying to forget were completely different in nature compared to the usual things she buried back there.

-OxOxO-

As much as Tanya wanted to go home, immediately, she had some other things she needed to ask Bill before she forgot.

Thankfully, she was able to grab him on his way out, even if her aching head was begging her to off herself.

They sat down at the bar – how had they gotten so much work done? – and she glanced at him.

She had questions, and she didn't doubt that the other two would hide her away in the mansion the moment that they got their hands on her.

She wished, for a moment, that she could create ice using a spell…

She looked at her Adventurers Card. She had witnessed Wiz teaching Viktoriya the Freeze spell, so all she had to do was-

She blanched. Ah.

Her skill points, the ones she'd been building up thanks to all the good food she was eating, were gone. She looked through her stats, trying to figure out which ones she had leveled up.

She hadn't memorized the number of points she had invested into each skill, which meant…

She blinked. Wait, no… she remembered it clearly now. She'd invested two of the points into her Smith skill so she could create a lot of the piping and valves on the distillery…

She groaned. Why had she wanted to make vodka? Was it just the drunk, momentary desires of her own mind that had conjured it out of nothing?

She began to think harder. What could vodka and alcohol be used for?

Getting drunk was the most obvious answer, and…

She groaned. No, there really wasn't any other use for vodka, was there?

Her eyes popped open. Wait! Alcohol could be burned because of… ethanol, right? Which meant…

She grinned to herself. She had been thinking of the future when she'd practically forced a man into changing his entire way of life so she could get more drunk. This stuff could probably be refined into some sort of fuel. Considering she didn't have the faintest idea of how to refine crude oil into gasoline, the ethanol this thing put out might be a good substitute for fuel for a tank.

She nodded to herself, self-satisfied-

"…Hey, are you going to let me go find your friends, or are you going to keep staring at that thing and muttering and making odd poses?"

She looked up from the card and glared at him. "Yes, I'm going to ask you questions. The first one is how you changed jobs."

Indeed, she had been wondering that for a while. Lorelei had been a Tailor, after all, and unless she still had that same job, which was doubtful, she had changed it. Somehow.

He stiffened up, in his hunched over, unhappy crouch, and Tanya leaned away from him as he got a far off look in his eyes. "Oh, that was the worst part. While Adventurers can switch to any job, no job can be downgraded, only upgraded."

He shivered. "You have to rip up your Card and get a brand new one printed, which forcefully reverts all of your stats to what they were when you got your first card. It… hurt."

He shook his head, smiling shakily. "S- Still, I've got a bright future in front of me! With this 'distillation' process you've taught me, and all of the skills you gave me, I'll become the best brewer in all of Axel! My best stuff will sell to nobles for a premium, and I'll outproduce anyone trying to sell to anyone else…"

He didn't look all that happy about it with his mind on his job reset, so Tanya brushed past it and resolved to ask Lorelei about it later.

"Anyway… what skills did I teach you? I'll probably need you to sign an NDA if you've learned anything you shouldn't-"

"You're way ahead of you," he said, scoffing as he brought out a sheaf of papers, all of them in Bill's apparently scrawling handwriting.

"It isn't self-enforcing – that costs too much money for you, somehow – but it's been legally verified," he rattled off. Tanya's ears mostly ignored what he was saying as her eyes sprinted down the page, looking through to figure out-

She jerked her head up. "I taught you my Reinforcement spell?" she asked, aghast. He nodded happily.

"And to save you the headache of reading this, you taught me Smith, your 'Short Interval Enchantment' spell, as well as Heal because… well, look!"

He brought out that same bottle of vodka, and smirked at Tanya. "Enchant alcohol: Heal!"

Her eyes widened in shock as he picked up a spare blade – probably one of the last ones he had left in the room – and pricked his hand with it. He then brought up the bottle…

And he downed a swig. He began to blink rapidly, and a satisfied look breached his face as the wound on his hand slowly disappeared.

"It's… whoa, this stuff is really strong, Tanya… an- anyway, this stuff doesn't work as well as a regular Heal. However, I could sell it as a sort of weak potion that expires much faster than a normal one, or I could hand this stuff out after battle and make a killing undercutting the Eris Priests… hehe…"

She smiled. That was good news, at least. "Eh…"

She raised an eyebrow, and he smiled. "Oh yeah! You also taught me… uh… Forge!"

She tilted her head. She didn't have that skill. "What are you talking about?"

He blinked and then rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, right. Well, you said you'd be working with more bulky stuff than weapons in the future. Since I might need it to do upkeep on those things in the back, I asked to learn it from you once you learned it from me."

She blinked, once again wondering what her thought process had been… before realizing what it obviously had been.

She would need to work with a lot more metal in the future, supposing that she ever did get around to constructing stuff like cars and tanks. Smith wouldn't be good for that kind of work, unless she wanted to use a lot of mana.

She nodded her head to herself and looked back down at the NDA as he began to speculatively eye the bottle of vodka. She shook her head and looked down the list of-

Her eyes widened. "I… I taught you…"

His gaze drifted away from the alcohol and towards the Non-Disclosure Agreement, and he snapped his fingers. "Yeah! You taught me that Chemical Conversion spell, and I put a bunch of points into it! We never would have been able to make so much of it so quickly if you hadn't. I think I'm close to discovering whatever it is that a neroid's essence does that makes neroid swish taste so… well, swishy, too!"

Tanya merely raised an eyebrow at him. He was using a spell imagined as a way to circumnavigate her second world's international law's unfortunate lack of ruling on magical weapons, a spell developed for turning the Chlorine in the air into a gas, a spell used for committing war crimes against her enemies…

…To make alcohol and invent carbonation?

She just sighed. "Whatever. Just don't experiment-"

"Again, you already thought ahead," he said, gesturing down to a line that Tanya hadn't yet read.

She nodded. Yes, it did seem as if he was absolutely forbidden from using the spell to create weapons, and it required him to attempt all experimentation as safely as possible…

He sighed happily as he sipped on the vodka. "Ooh… I think I should maybe flavor this stuff… the kick is great, but I'd like something a bit more fruity…"

She rolled her eyes again and continued reading. What kind of penalties were there for…

Her eyes widened yet again. "You'd really submit to being placed under house arrest for the remainder of your life and only making what I want if you violate the contract?" she asked, stunned.

He nodded. "Yep! It's worth it, if I get all this to earn some real money…" he said, trailing off.

He grinned sheepishly. "That reminds me. Can I have a loan? I want to buy the buildings next to here to expand the brewery, make a bigger bar, and maybe some sort of testing area so I don't violate the contract. Or maybe I should move…"

She agreed – she was starting to wonder just how much he had wanted to do this and how much he had been bullied into it.

With that, she let him go, holding her head in her hands. He left quickly, muttering under his breath about becoming the only supply of good alcohol and giving out samples to attract customers as he left to get one of Tanya's friends.

Tanya ignored him. She had just remembered that she had had four skill points before this, and she used only three to increase her Smith skill and learn the Forge skill. She began scrolling through her skills, looking for anything out of place.

She found it quickly. "Sharpen Blade?" she asked out loud to an empty room filled only with barstools, alcohol, and dingy lighting.

She scowled as she took a closer look at the spell… and her eyes widened.

Like all of her spells, it had changed upon her arrival to this world. If she said 'Sharpen Blade' out loud, it cost less mana, and she could now upgrade it with the proverbial click of a button instead of having to work on restructuring the math behind the spell itself. All of this she knew.

She could increase the factor of the sharpness of the object she was casting the spell on. She could decrease how much mana it cost, she could-

She blinked. Elemental variants? She'd never seen those before.

Indeed, she could apparently make it so any blade she used the spell on got covered in fire, ice, electricity, and a host of other materials. Some of them cost less than others – perhaps related to other spells she knew? Or was there some other reason?

Tanya shook her head. She wasn't sure why she'd want something like that – again, stabbing something usually did the trick against most things that liked to be alive – though she could have used the electrical upgrade instead of learning the Lightning spell…

She squinted at the card. Wait. None of those things had any skill points, and it didn't look like the mana requirements or sharpness of the blade had increased or decreased, so…

Her eyes widened. "Aesthetic Enhancements?!" she cried out.

She shook her head, aborting her concern. No, just as with the other two things she had used her Skill Points on, this had to have some kind of important usage…

Her shaking hand drifted over to the blade that Bill had abandoned on the table they were seated at. She cleared her throat, held up the short blade, and said, "Sharpen Blade."

VWOOSH

Hmm.

Well, that certainly didn't support her theory that her drunken mind had coerced Bill into changing his job in preparation for her future plans.

In fact, this completely destroyed that theory.

Normally, the Sharpen Blade spell did make the object they were increasing the sharpness of glow slightly. It was inevitable and unfortunate that such waste occurred, but it could only be stopped if someone used that spell and nothing else.

Despite that, the glow was not exactly bright or noticeable, so no one really cared that a miniscule amount of energy was given off as light instead of being used in the sharpening of the blade.

This though? This was bright.

And though the color was off – the blade in her hand was a teal color, not bright green, bright blue, or even red or purple – it was undeniable that the blade in her hand now greatly resembled that of a fucking lightsaber.

The sound – and a spell like this wasn't supposed to make noise – that her spell had made upon activating also sounded like a lightsaber activating.

Tanya groaned. Never again would she touch alcohol. She'd convinced a man into changing his lifelong profession, reinvented several chemical processes, created a copy of a well-known drink from her original world, and wasted valuable resources to turn a valuable spell in her arsenal into a LARPing tool.

None of it had been done out of some concern for her future. Instead, she had just wanted more alcohol, done what she had to to get it, and seen a flashy, nostalgic way to remind herself of her old world in her skills and wasted valuable resources on it.

Considering how she'd already promised not to touch the stuff, there was no telling how far her next drunken idea would go.

She rested her head against the long table that served as the bar. Never again…

-OxOxO-

Tanya raised an eyebrow at the purple-haired Succubus. "I know you all feel indebted to me because of that whole thing with the Tranquility Princesses, but you shouldn't push yourself so hard, Tiffany," she said, lightly scolding the Demon.

She shrugged helplessly. "Sorry. You know we have quite a lot of paperwork, and all the business coming into Axel has been giving us tons of stuff to do."

Tanya made a vague sound of agreement as she finished Healing up the Succubus's bruised arm. She was trying not to talk too much – the last of her alcohol-induced headache was nearly gone, and she didn't want to exacerbate it.

After lying her head down, she had woken up in her bed with Lorelei waiting outside her door, who had been nice enough to tell her some more of what she had done while drunk.

In excruciating detail.

On the plus side, it appeared that only the most suspicious people still thought that Tanya was a greedy, horrible governor like Alderp had been.

On the negative side…

Well, temperamental, slightly crazy, and alcoholic were all adjectives that had been attached to her.

A bunch of people had also heard her muttering under her breath, and rumors were beginning to form about what she had planned for the town.

She sighed as the Succubus got up. In addition to spending more time figuring out what she had done, she'd have to spend an exceedingly large amount of time trying to come up with ways to smooth this over…

Would the Demon King mind losing one of his Generals? If she killed one of them and used the bounty on them to fund some kind of festival, she'd probably earn enough goodwill to make everyone forget her drunken wandering around town…

"Ah… I guess I'll be going now, Tanya," the Succubus said, slowly inching away from them.

Tanya tilted her head at the Demon as she exited the room. She turned to Viktoriya. "Any idea what that was about?" she asked.

Viktoriya shook her head stiffly. "Not a clue."

Tanya now gave Viktoriya a glance… before remembering where she would be tomorrow and turning away. She had work to do before the sun set – mostly to satiate her conscious's railing against her behavior when drunk, but also because she didn't want to be reminded that Viktoriya was indeed going on a date tomorrow.

Tiffany, meanwhile, was groaning. She'd bruised herself in an attempt to get Tanya to Heal her, and what had that led to?

Viktoriya was there, glaring at her and daring her to try and present the idea that the two of them were attracted to each other.

With a huff, she pushed past the doors. Well, Viktoriya might have been preparing for nearly three days for her date with that Mitsurugi guy, but Lolisa had seen her dream and reported it accurately.

There! Was! No! Way! She! Liked! Anyone! But! Tanya!

Still, they'd need to come up with some other way. Lorelei would likely have to be involved, and it would take everything, but…

She let out a heavy, heady groan. They would get together! No matter what.

-OxOxO-

"Keh Keh Keh! Back again, oh mistress of invention?"

Tanya merely raised an eyebrow at the old man who ran the patent office of Axel as he tried to smile at her.

It was missing too many teeth to try and convey anything like what a smile normally would, though, so Tanya just sighed. "Hello to you too. I do have more stuff to patent."

His not-grin widened as she distributed stacks of paper onto the table that dominated the front of the shop. He continued to cackle as he looked at them all.

She also began placing the objects themselves on the table. "A stopwatch, a sleeping bag, a padlock, 'tampons,' 'pads,' a backpack, and a telescope-"

"Ho!" he exclaimed as she brought out the last of her portable inventions. "What is this? And these tampons? I have no clue what they do!"

She winced as he stopped bouncing the tampon up and down on the string coming out of one end of it to fiddle with the telescope. "The telescope can be used to chart the movement of stars, planets, the moon, and other celestial bodies."

He looked up sharply. "I see… I've heard of a spell unique to the rare 'Astrologer' advanced job that shares the same name, but for something like that to be made into a metal contraption…"

He turned back to the tampon, observing it, pulling on it, and-

She groaned. "I'll let you figure out what that is from the documentation. Moving on, there's clearly more patents here than I have inventions, but that's because a bunch of them can't be moved. Bill here will take you to his shop to see them."

The man didn't seem to be listening to her, as he was staring down at the patent for the tampon. The other two with her, Bill and Gerrard, were looking between it and her repeatedly, undoubtedly confused.

He looked up, his smile gone and a thoughtful look on his extremely wrinkled face. "Ooh, I think that my daughter and granddaughters will like something like this!"

She breathed a sigh of relief as he got up. "Now, I'll come and take a look at these other things. But first…"

He smiled at Tanya as he glanced at the two men behind her. "Where do you plan to sell these period plugs? These-"

She groaned irritably, ignored whatever else he was saying, and left the building as the other two followed her out as he continued cackling behind them. None of them talked for a long, long while, which made the whispering and staring that followed Tanya around on the lips of the people of Axel all the more obvious.

Bill spoke first. "Well. I guess I'll just go and wait at my shop…"

He peeled off as Gerrard continued to walk next to her. "Ah…"

"I thought that someone as old as you, who had a wife, would be a bit more mature about such things, but I guess that was expecting too much from you," she said, fully aware that she wasn't exactly a paragon of maturity in regards to that particular invention.

It wasn't as though she wasn't used to using them by now. No, it was…

She shivered. Those things reminded her of the pain her body underwent during her periods, despite the fact that Tanya was planning to have the organ responsible for her pain replaced in the near future.

And, of course, it was yet another reminder that Being X had ripped her out of her old male body and put her in the puny thing she now inhabited.

Gerrad cleared his throat and brought her out of her internal musings. "Well… I mean… it's just, not exactly, I guess… my business…" he said, stopping and starting while trying to make some justification.

Tanya let the matter drop – she didn't want to talk about it anymore than they did – and things were quiet again as they traveled around town. Tanya was heading towards Wiz's shop and, later, the small workshop where the people working for the Mithril Foundation did their work. Considering Wiz's shop was a good distance away from the police station, she knew Gerrard had something else he wanted to talk to her about.

She wasn't disappointed. "T- Governor Degurechaff, I mean… I just wanted to thank you, once again, for allowing me to keep my job."

She sent him an amused glance. "Who else would I have run the police, Gerrard?"

He shrugged. "Any of my subordinates, or, if you got me thrown out for associating with Alderp – because even if I didn't allow him to bribe me or my police, I did technically have to work with him on the budget – a noble you wanted favors from would work just fine."

She blinked, and then she shrugged. "My job as Governor is to ensure Axel is peaceful and prosperous. You've done a very good job at that, despite Alderp's corruption… and, if what you were saying when I was leaving Axel was true, then I'd like to promote less nepotistic aristocratic cronyism, and more of a unjudging meritocracy."

She saw him blink rapidly out of the corner of her eye, and he sighed. "That's a lot of fancy words you just used to say that you're doing a better job than Alderp," he chuckled.

She chuckled right back. Of course, she was also making sure everything was in top condition on the off chance Iris came over for a visit…

She groaned. Her drunken prowling around the streets of Axel didn't help that, though.

He began to drift away from her. "Hey, wait up. I'm thinking of naming some of the streets of Axel."

He squinted at her and raised an eyebrow. "You know that the streets already have names, right?"

She nodded. "Yes," she admitted, "but we should put up some signs to help merchants and tourists and to make everything more… official. Plus, I'll get nobles involved who'll undoubtedly want their names immortalized in some form or fashion," she continued, not noticing the wide-eyed look Gerrard shot her way.

"We can have votes for them. If nobles want their names on street signs, they'll have to invest money into repairing the street and the buildings surrounding it in order to convince people to vote for their name. People particularly attached to a more popular name won't be swayed by anything less than an outright bribe, allowing us to catch those more inclined to utilize that method of coercion to get what they want. The infrastructure of the town gets cleaned up regardless, and we might even be able to snag some extra cash during the naming ceremonies by hiring Cooks and Chefs to provide overpriced food at nearby stalls…"

"Uhh…" Gerrard began eloquently, but Tanya just shook her head. "I'll send you the details of what I need you to do in a few days. Mostly security from you," she said, finishing her rambling with a smile and a quick turn towards Wiz's shop.

With a wave at a man whose head was still spinning, Tanya walked off, intent on getting to Wiz's shop to discuss her latest inventions.

As she did, Tanya took care to listen in on any nearby conversation she could. It seemed that everyone was guarded when she walked past them, but that was easily fixed by shooting a quick Voice Amplification spell at them when she was a few meters past them and 'walking away' when they grew mystified by the sudden increase in the volume of their voice.

Most of the snippets of conversation she captured that way were… enlightening.

Everyone did talk about how she had been walking through the streets drunk… though, everyone seemed to be qualifying their distaste for her self-destructive actions by being thankful that she wasn't as bad as Alderp, at least. It was more of what she had expected, at least.

As Tanya turned the corner, blinked in confusion at the sight in front of her, and began to walk towards where Wiz's shop should have been, she once again promised herself to get signs up at every street corner.

Because, really, she had somehow managed to get herself lost. The line coming out of the shop where Wiz's shop was supposed to be located told her that much, as did the smiling, intrigued, and exceptionally curious faces of the people that made that line. She sighed, turning around and-

"Come on, move it! I want to get one of those lighters!"

"I need one of those medkits with bandages! I won't feel guilty about not bringing my children to the Eris Church anymore!"

"I've got to purchase some stuff for some weird noble living out in the northern forest! I've got the quest to prove that he doesn't want to come into town. I need some Paralyze spell-enhancing potions, as well as Teleportation and Magic Canceller scrolls."

"I wonder if she'd sell those… 'card board' cutouts…"

Tanya paused, groaned, and turned around, anger plastered on her face.

Someone had stolen Tanya's products? It was remotely possible for some other Reincarnate to have invented them, but for them to be sold here, instead of in the capital, where most of them were concentrated, was-

She blinked in confusion. Wait. The colored glass serving as the window of the shop…

The door that was damaged near the hinges, showing signs of having been forcefully broken into at some point…

The dusty, unreadable sign hanging above the entrance that couldn't be cleaned…

This was Wiz's shop…

She tilted her head. How had it gotten so popular?

She marched up to the crowd, intending to push her way through…

Only for the crowd to quickly bend around her, giving her a five foot circle of free space. She glanced around herself, shooting suspicious looks at all of them as they all attempted to look painfully casual while observing their shoes or practicing their whistling.

For the moment, she decided not to interrogate the crowd and instead moved into the shop. There was a lot less room for people to maneuver around in, but the shoppers still managed to give her a wide berth as she stalked towards the counter.

There was only really one reason she could think of that could explain how the shop had suddenly become popular: she had done something during her drunken escapades.

What could have resulted in this, though? If there was something that could have boosted Wiz's income this much, she would have done it to earn Wiz's thanks, if nothing else.

Speaking of Wiz, she was currently glancing at Tanya with a very unique gaze.

One part pure apprehension, one part unresisting joy, and one part hesitant desperation; Tanya hadn't seen that expression on anyone else, ever. Tanya wasn't sure how to feel about it, so she instead motioned towards the back room and gave a verbal order while staring at Wiz.

"Get out. We'll be back in five."

It seemed that no one else in the shop had any illusions about who she was giving that order to, as they all swept out, quickly paying for what they decided to buy and shutting the door behind them.

Wiz had already headed for the backroom, and Tanya quickly followed. The darkness blinded her for a moment, and then Wiz flicked on a switch.

Tanya glanced around… and decided that she'd tell Wiz to spend a bit of the money she was making to refurbish her shop.

For one, the room behind the storefront served the dual purpose of being both Wiz's living quarters and her workspace for designing new products.

For another, Wiz was clearly embarrassed about that fact.

What else could she be feeling as she shoved the gutted remains of Tanya's inventions in a bag, stashed that bag under her bed, swept up a small pile of trash, and straightened out the tilted, small pieces of memorabilia she kept on the bedside table that was stained and covered in pieces of some broken potion bottles?

Tanya shook her head and sat down on the singular chair in the room. She had gotten quite lost in her thoughts there, staring at Wiz.

She took in a deep breath as Wiz sat down on her bed, staring nervously at Tanya.

"This isn't some kind of inquisition, Wiz. I'd just like to know how you got so much business… and if it has anything to do with me," she explained, outwardly calm.

She was doing her best to remain as calm on the inside as she was on the outside… but that was getting harder the more things she discovered she had done while drunk.

She felt a single shiver pass along her body as she imagined the many things she might have done while uninhibited…

Insulting a great many people over their lack of professionalism, ability, or cleanliness came to mind, as she had wanted to do a great many times as she gazed at the guards or adventurers populating the guild and streets.

On the other end of the spectrum, complimenting every last woman that caught her eye was also possible, though not quite as much as the first possibility presented to her by her own consciousness. No matter how nice many of the women of the town looked – and drop-dead gorgeous in the case of Darkness – she never felt much of a desire to voice those thoughts as much as the disparaging ones.

Assaulting Mitsurugi was possible – she still felt quite upset that… Viktoriya was going out with him. Not out of any hatred of him, but more out of… jealousy…

She groaned. Could she have done something as idiotic as telling Viktoriya about her unattainable feelings in some attempt to get her to go out with her instead of Mitsurugi in that drunken haze? Sure… but Viktoriya would have been a lot more awkward while Tanya had Healed that Succubus if that were the case…

"Uh… Tanya?"

Wiz's voice snapped her back to reality. "Sorry. I'm just… concerned. What were you saying?" she asked.

Wiz shrugged helplessly. "Well… uh, a lot of them were actually merchants… they were asking about getting… bulk orders of your inventions, to take to other towns, and even the capital…"

Wiz propped up her head on her hands as she stared off into space dreamily. "I… I might not have to ask the Demon King for funds… I might be able to send him some money… I'll prove I'm-"

Tanya cut her off. She didn't have anything against her daydreaming, but Wiz did have customers.

The merchants were actually expected. She had been talking about her inventions with a few of them on her way to the capital. Perhaps they had just needed to finish whatever projects they'd been contracted to do before heading here?

She shook her head. Regardless…

"Wiz. If a lot of them are merchants…" she said, trailing off in apprehension.

Wiz blinked and became a lot more nervous. "Ah, well… when you were, uh…"

"Yes, yes, I got drunk. Get on with it."

Wiz cleared her throat. "Well… you see, while you were drunk and getting a lot of water from the guild, Aqua, the- I mean, Kazuma's Archpriest teammate… offered to get you some," she said, gulping.

Tanya nodded, nervous. She hadn't corrected Wiz when she told her Aqua was a simple Archpriest instead of a being claiming to be a goddess.

No one believed she was a goddess – and wasn't that wonderful? – and even if Wiz knew because of her nature as a Lich or something, Tanya didn't exactly have a good reason for why she knew that Aqua's claims weren't completely bogus.

"And…?" she asked, prompting her for more. Wiz gave her a nervous half-laugh. "Oh, it was… she challenged you."

Tanya blinked owlishly. "To what?"

Wiz visibly gulped. "Well, you, uh, apparently tried to get her to fight you, but she suggested an… entertainment competition."

Tanya… was relieved. It could have been worse, at least. "Really? That doesn't sound so bad."

Wiz's expression didn't grow any less nervous when she heard Tanya's platitude. "Well, Aqua's performance apparently wowed a bunch of people… so you pulled out all the stops."

Her eyes widened as Wiz regaled her with tales of her exploits.

She had swallowed an entire bottle of alcohol, brought out her lighter, and spat out a gout of flame in the shape of a dragon.

She had used a deck of cards to pull off miraculous tricks, like knowing what card would hit the floor last when someone threw them in the air or divining what card a person picked out of the deck while she was blindfolded and someone else shuffled the cards.

She had brought out a sleeping bag and demonstrated its similarity to a 'burrito,' and then she had made a burrito, to the acclaim of everyone who tried one.

She had even been able to steal everyone's money pouches without any kind of apparent skill.

All the while, Tanya nodded along, fairly sure she knew how she had done those things. The first was by applying her Flight spells to the fire she spat out… though she wasn't sure how she'd managed something so complex, considering she had been drunk, which certainly didn't help her use her spells.

The second one was simply her Basic and Intermediate General Cooking skill, while the last two were applications of her Agility Reinforcement spell. It seemed she hadn't done anything too outrageous, then…

Tanya raised an eyebrow as Wiz began to recount how Tanya had apparently used her Detonation spells to create fireworks. "How did me doing party tricks get people to come here?" she asked, cutting her off.

Wiz remained silent for a moment, until she took in a great sigh. "Ah, well, when you won and made Aqua cry, you apparently accepted money from people for your performance and claimed that my shop would give them discounts for a bunch of stuff…"

Tanya narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure about that? Couldn't everyone be trying to trick you?"

Wiz shrugged helplessly. "Well… ordinarily, I might be a bit suspicious, but, uh, considering you led a lot of people here and showed them what they could get for cheap… including the high quality Manatite… I don't think that I should be…"

Tanya sighed. So Wiz wasn't even getting paid the full amount for everything she had been selling, and she was operating at more of a loss than usual, considering the people coming in? And it seemed that the merchants were probably trying to get in on the bargain, while most of the products that Tanya didn't produce were being ignored completely.

Tanya had undercut Wiz's profits. Whether it had been simply because she had been drunk or, more likely, she had been feeling giddy about pulling one over Aqua, she was causing both of their profits to fall…

Tanya hummed, and then she nodded. "Alright. First off, since I was the one who did this without telling you, you can have all of my profits for the next week. Secondly…"

She grinned. "I've got some new products on the way. Announce a sale on all the old stuff… let's say… ten percent off. Also, think of a way to bundle the stuff you don't normally sell as much of with the stuff that sells a lot. Maybe a buy one, get one 50% off deal. I'll make a poster… maybe I'll even get some different Ready-to-Eat-Meals to help advertise it…"

Wiz's head looked like it was beginning to spin, and Tanya sighed. "Really, Wiz, I thought you'd be able to keep up with this kind of stuff if you wanted to run a business…"

She shrugged helplessly, and Tanya shook her head. "Maybe if you hired some help… though you'd have to be making a lot more money for that, considering…"

She dismissed the thought. "Well, whatever. Those are only my suggestions – and that you sell the new stuff at a fifteen percent markup for the first month or so. Other than that…"

She sighed. "Fix up the area behind the storefront? You must have more room back there, right?"

Wiz nodded glumly. "Yeah… but I use both the rooms for storage for the things that don't sell well…"

Again, Tanya shook her head. "That's your decision, but separating your work and your relaxation areas leads to less distraction and more productivity."

Wiz nodded, and Tanya sighed once more. Well, with this done…

She would probably head for Luna next. If there was anyone that had a handle on what went on with the adventurers of Axel, it was her.

Tanya was, after all, still an adventurer. Hopefully, Luna had kept a handle on what Tanya was doing, if for no other reason than to coerce her into doing community service.

Tanya drifted back into the front of the store, gulping at the sight beyond the windows.

Though distorted by the colored glass, the image of the merchants trying to barter with the people who had managed to snag a trinket or two, waving around sacks of Eris was… tantalizing.

Tantalizing…

Tanya grimaced. Why now did her mind have to draw a comparison between the swinging sacks of cash, that word, and Visha's-

She grimaced and thought back to the rows upon rows of bottles that decorated the inside of Bill's bar. Maybe…

She shook her head. No! She didn't need to drink to forget about her nonexistent chances with Viktoriya. If she just started working, she would forget. Eventually.

Right?

As she opened the door and pushed past the people rushing back into the store, she decided to do just that, starting with considerations to start building a second wall around the first one.

Axel was growing and prosperous, so perhaps she should expand. The capital was supposed to have had four rings of walls, before the middle two had been demolished to make way for more housing. With how busy Axel seemed to be getting – especially if she increased its economic growth by applying more of the things she had taught Revi – more space would be necessary.

-OxOxO-

Tanya nodded at the papers on her desk. Things were going… well. Surprisingly.

Yesterday's attempt at finding out just what the hell she had done had gone well enough – Luna had diligently relayed that Tanya had already found out most of everything. Still, she had given her new information, like how Megumin had been the one to goad Aqua into challenging her, how Aqua had cried a lot, how Tanya muttered a lot and caused a number of conflicting rumors to pop up, how Rex and his party had attempted and failed at getting her to stop, and that she had been rude to a number of nobles.

All in all, it wasn't nearly as bad as she had expected it to be.

Recently, as far as her businesses went, Tanya had written down instructions for constructing her latest inventions – in easy to understand stages so they could be adapted, in part, to the assembly line the Mithril Foundation had – Wiz had been getting more money than ever, and she had given Bill a large, mostly interest-free loan to help him expand and not at all because she felt bad about 'convincing' him to change jobs.

Tanya still needed to talk to Darkness about a few things – how would she go about expanding Axel being the main one – but she had realized that she had never talked to Darkness about the revelation that she had been involved in…

She grimaced. Calling her near-rape 'unsavory business' didn't do it justice in the least, so she'd simply not think about the content of what their next meeting would likely contain and instead think about how to broach the subject with Darkness.

She hadn't known that Tanya had gone through such things, and Darkness was bewildered, at the very least, that Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin – three near strangers – had found out before she – a tried and true friend – had.

Tanya sighed. Well, she could set up some sort of business meeting with the Dustiness family as pretext, and then go over and discuss her work in Elroad. It would give Darkness some information on what she'd been up to and demonstrate her ability with economics to… Ignis, right?

She nodded to herself. Yes, Darkness's cousin had said that that was the name of Darkness's father and the head of their family, or something like that.

After that first introduction, she'd discuss her ideas with the man, and then, in a more private setting, she'd give Darkness a bit of information. Her party would likely tell her some details, but Tanya would give her some more, renewing their friendship and ensuring that she wasn't hurt in the long.

Tanya nodded to herself, satisfi-

"I'm going now, Tanya."

Tanya's eyes widened, and her plans and the roll she seemed to be on all shattered like spun glass as she stiffly turned to Viktoriya.

Viktoriya looked… even better than usual. Even if she'd like to lie to herself in some futile attempt to deny that she had feelings for Viktoriya and say she didn't appeal to her, she simply couldn't. She just looked too good.

And too familiar.

During the 203rd's transfer to the southern theater to fight the Francois in their colony, they had all been stationed in a town in one of the southern regions of the Empire, Bavoria. That night, Tanya had finally figured out where, if she was living in a version of Germany, the clothing she saw in pictures from Oktoberfest in her first world was: the southern, more rural parts of it.

The barmaids that had been serving them at that bar had been wearing dirndls, and, though Tanya had been thoroughly focused on their upcoming mission at that point, the men certainly hadn't had eyes for anything but the ladies.

Viktoriya's clothing was not an exact match to their clothing, however. For one thing, Tanya had a tiny inkling that the barmaids' clothing had been far more… practical than what Viktoriya was wearing.

The quality of Viktoriya's clothing was far greater than theirs – she was wearing more delicate silks and velvets instead of hardy cotton and linens – and…

Well, their skirts had been floor length, while Viktoriya's was only just down to her knees. Viktoriya's blouse was also lower than theirs were, giving Tanya a lot more…

Tanya twitched. No, she wasn't going to hide her feelings behind wordy descriptions of her adjutant, even if she was going to hide her feelings from everyone else.

Anyway… Tanya was greatly enchanted by the top of Viktoriya boobs that were peeking out of her blouse, and the only thing she would ever thank Mitsurugi for in this whole endeavor was this view.

Along with that, the only thing that was definitely the same as the outfits of those barmaids were the puff sleeves, but if Tanya certainly didn't mind the lengths of her arms and legs on display, then Mitsurugi certainly wouldn't.

"Are you still upset about your clothes? You didn't exactly give me much to work with," Lorelei said, pouting. Viktoriya sighed.

"Not really, I just wish they were more… colorful. And also, you know, more like something a peasant would wear than this," she lamented. Lorelei simply scoffed.

"Oh please. You're going on a date, not working in the field. If I'd made it to your specifications-"

"So you admit that you knew what I wanted and changed it?"

"H- Hey, I don't exactly have a lot of materials here. We've got the most black and white materials to work with-"

"And you couldn't have just gone to the store. Besides, it's cold enough that I need to wear a jacket, so-"

Tanya cut them both off by clearing her throat and leveling a glare at them, which she desperately marshalled to ensure it didn't turn into a stare at Viktoriya's cleavage.

She sighed. Turning to Viktoriya and staring her in the eyes, she asked, "I trust that you've made sure that you won't be defenseless while on your date? I would come to your rescue regardless, but-"

She smiled disarmingly. "Of course, Tanya! I've got the Type 97 in one of my pockets, and, taking a leaf out of your book…"

She hiked up her skirt and brandished her even more bare leg, bound by pieces of leather and-

"See? I've got my pistol strapped to my leg, like you did with your sword back at Iris's party!" she declared enthusiastically.

Belatedly, she noticed that her former adjutant's pistol was indeed strapped to the side of her leg with all that leather. Fighting to keep her breathing even, she closed her eyes and smiled at Viktoriya.

"Then I hope you enjoy your… date, Viktoriya," she declared, flashing her a thumbs up as she looked back down at her paperwork.

Things were quiet for a moment as Viktoriya readjusted her skirt in silence. Tanya was trying desperately not to make any sound or expression of outward emotion, because…

Because…

Fucking hell, Viktoriya looked so good, and she wanted to tell her how good Tanya thought she looked and everything else about her that Tanya adored just as much, and she wanted to blast that stupid Mitsurugi off the face of the planet, and she wanted to go kill the Demon King so she could wish that she had her dick back and that the Empire had some kind of fantastical tradition that allowed homosexuality to exist so that, maybe, Viktoriya might like her back, and-

"Lorelei?"

Once more, Viktoriya's words broke through Tanya's thoughts, and Lorelei sheepishly glanced towards both Viktoriya and Tanya. Meanwhile, Tanya leaned back in her seat.

She sent a glance at one of the cabinets attached to her desk. In it was a bottle of Bill's alcohol, which was still unbranded, something she had been pushing him to fix. She would eventually give him names of her first world's alcohol if he couldn't come up with anything… catchy, but the name he chose would undoubtedly sound more organic to this world's inhabitants than anything she could come up with.

The unmarked bottle of alcohol was tempting, but Tanya could withstand temptation. She had only given in to Being X in the most dire of straits once in nearly seventeen years, so she could withstand the temptation to drink away all her desires and feelings for Viktoriya…

Right? She could do that. She was sure. All she had to do was think about work.

She nodded to herself. Yes, that was it. She looked down at the papers on her desk…

She blinked. Oh, right. A bunch of nobles had come to the mansion asking about their position in the town. Alderp had had a bunch of second and third sons of less wealthy nobles doing grunt work for him.

With Darkness's family helping out with the areas surrounding Axel, she didn't have a lot for them to do, especially since all of them were undoubtedly corrupt.

She looked up from her problem to find that her friends were waging a silent war just by glancing at each other. Tanya smiled fondly at the sight. She had done much the same in her first life with a number of people slacking off outside her office. Just glaring at them had sent them scurrying off.

She shook her head. "Hey Viktoriya, any idea as to what I should use the nobles in Axel for? Alderp had them do grunt work, but I don't think they can really be trusted."

She paused her silent war with Lorelei. "Hmm… could you put them to work in the bureaucracy or military? I think that the Russy Empire did something similar under… Pyotr the Great? Something about a table of nobility…"

Tanya nodded slowly. Yes, Revi had been doing much the same as Viktoriya suggested with the nobility that was willing to work under his more meritocratic rule. Applying the same here would work, as long as she – somehow – found a way to monitor their actions to ensure they weren't back to their corrupted ways.

She smiled at her once more, writing away. Maybe getting them to work at the school the Mithril Foundation was running would be a good gauge as to who could be trusted to do their jobs well, regardless of what it was?

Regardless, she'd give them all a definite answer at her birthday party on the 24th, in… eight days…

Tanya blinked once again. Although she was already seventeen, it shocked her just how fast time had seemed to have flown by during their time here. They had done so much, but it had only been a few months since their arrival.

"Well, while you're gone, I suppose I'll train with the guards. Maybe I'll do a quest, too…" Lorelei said. Viktoriya smiled triumphantly, gave one last goodbye to Tanya, and then left the room while closing the door with a lonely click.

Tanya's smile immediately dropped as she glanced down once more at the cabinet with the alcohol in it. Neither of her friends had asked why she had gotten so drunk, and while 'testing stuff with Bill's new bar' had barely worked, it wouldn't work again.

With a much louder sigh, she turned back to the paperwork. It was fine, and she'd keep telling herself that, even if…

Even if Viktoriya came back and said she'd had a great time with Mitsurugi, because Tanya was her friend, which meant she'd support her friend despite her own unjustifiable feelings…

-OxOxO-

The guild wasn't overly populated today. It was an easy, not-so busy Friday. If he had to guess, most adventurers were either taking easy quests or just relaxing.

The doors banged open, and Kyouya cast a glance towards them. No, it had just been the wind, and she still wasn't there yet…

He sighed. He was… almost sure that they were, at the very least, intent on industrializing and weaponizing the whole of Belzerg, if they weren't just straight up Nazi's.

He'd run into Degurechaff three days ago, and the look she'd pierced him with…

He shivered. That girl was absolutely terrifying. No one in the Demon King's army – not the Chimera, not Verdia, and certainly not the weaker stuff that worked under the Demon King's Generals – could match a look so filled with absolute hatred and loathing…

Only to immediately reverse that expression and begin wandering away, muttering about 'requisitioning materials' – for some kind of attempt at creating more modern weapons, no doubt.

And why would the nobles that ran the city let her do stuff like that? It could only be that they were either people who wanted a person in charge that would let them get away with their excesses, or they were naïve and thought they could change the system from the inside or-

He shook his head. No. No matter what, he wouldn't jump to conclusions. Kyouya wasn't some typical shonen protagonist who would make hasty conclusions that would lead to him ending up in a pointless struggle in some sort of filler arc against someone he could easily befriend instead.

He nodded his head and took another sip of his beer. Pursuing that line of surety, he'd made sure that his companions wouldn't interrupt him and turn Viktoriya against him by misinterpreting the situation, either.

Doing so was relatively easy – he'd simply ordered them to go on a quest to get a bit stronger. Though, getting them to actually follow through was a bit harder.

He smiled in remembrance. Often, when they or he talked about them 'going to get stronger,' it was a euphemism for them going on a date in a secluded place where they wouldn't be seen for a few hours.

Thus, this time, he'd actually given the Archer and the Lancer a quest to kill some Horned Rabbits. Though they'd scowled at him, he'd just shrugged and said they did need to get better.

He frowned. Indeed, if he was forced to do battle with Degurechaff, he would need their help… and, perhaps, if things did turn out for the worst-

"Mitsurugi!"

He turned sharply, a hand drifting towards his side-

He blinked and smiled back at his… date. He nearly flinched at that thought, but he made sure not to let any of the trepidation he felt leak out.

As he gazed at the girl he was going on a date with, he realized something.

He'd… never actually gone on a date, with a guy he liked. Or anyone else, for that matter…

Crap.

He stood up. "Serebryakov! It's nice to see you again! You look…"

He stopped, looking her up and down.

He nodded. A mid-length black skirt, a white, open blouse, all covered with that green jacket of hers to combat the cold sweeping through Axel. It looked like she had gotten dressed up for the occasion, but it wasn't formal, like something he or his friends would wear to meet Iris.

"You look great!" he said, praising her. She let off a blush and smiled widely. "So… what do you have planned?"

He smiled confidently – both because he was going to interrogate her subtly and because it would hide his slight panic.

He had spent the past four days training with his teammates; again, because he needed to make sure that they might be able to keep up with – or, in the worst case, escape from – Degurechaff and her allies.

"Hmm… well, I… don't actually know Axel that well. I've travelled through it occasionally, but I got pushed to the capital for a bit of advanced training and to fight on the frontlines after getting here, so… maybe you could show me around? You two stayed here for a while, right?" he explained, posing an innocuous question to her.

She considered it for only a moment before nodding. "Sure! We've been around here. I don't mind showing you the sights," she said, spinning around towards the door she'd just walked through.

Kyouya nodded and followed her, taking care to pull his coat closer to him as the cold whipped around him.

He'd taken care to pull out some of his own better – but still casual – clothes for this. The dark blue dress pants that he wore when meeting the Princess in his most formal attire complemented a pale yellow shirt and a navy blue jacket.

The only things that were as casual as Serebraykov's jacket were the black sneakers he was wearing – they were one of the last things he had from his last life, and he'd honestly spent a lot to ensure that they wouldn't wear out, despite his journeys.

Of course, there was also something else he had with him.

A short sword, hidden within his pants, ensured that he wouldn't be defenseless if the town were to be attacked… or if Serebryakov turned on him suddenly.

He wasn't useless without his Divine Relic, after all. He'd learned skills associated with his Job, and he'd even applied them in ways that ensured that he continued to survive and surprise the Demon King's army.

Soon, they were walking through Axel, talking about nothing – it was starting to get colder, the overcast sky wasn't exactly a good backdrop for a date, Axel sure was busy – and Kyouya continued to study her.

She… wasn't gazing at everything as if she wanted to tear it down to rebuild it in the image of a madman and his poisonous ideology. She didn't contemptuously glare at the ordinary lives of the people around them. It… didn't seem like she was some kind of indoctrinated Nazi bent on enslaving people they believed were lesser…

He shook his head. No, even if he wasn't going to jump to conclusions, he wasn't going to simply believe that they couldn't be Nazis. Though he didn't know of any, among the few Reincarnates in the capital that had been there for decades, tales were told of Reincarnates that switched sides or did horrible things to the people or other Reincarnates.

"Say, now that I think about it, why did you two stick back here?" he asked.

Viktoriya paused in her tracks, for a moment.

She had spent the last few days preparing for this date, waiting for him to sweep him off her feet with his looks and bring her on a romantic date with picnics and fine dining or endear her to him by using their time together to perform a bit of charity work…

It hadn't happened. There wasn't some… amazing release as she gazed upon him and realized he was the one, or anything.

He looked good, of course – dashing and handsome too, obviously – but…

She shook her head. Her expectations were probably too high… or something…

Though, it wasn't as if she was any good with relationships in the first place…

"Well," she began as she summoned the relevant memories, "We stuck around in Axel to…"

She smiled. The best lies were the ones that were mostly true. "We needed to get our weapons and Computation Jewels back, and… well, they don't exactly have infinite durability."

He nodded with false enthusiasm. Nothing about that seemed… objectionable. Maybe…

Maybe they weren't Nazis? He knew that the fascists hadn't stayed in power after they lost their World War – whichever World War that was – so… perhaps they were just from a version of Germany?

It was… possible. He knew for a fact that Japan had definitely been very militaristic around the turn of the century, so maybe that extended to European countries of the time too?

He nodded his head slightly. Maybe he was overreacting…

"Hmm…"

He turned to her, an eyebrow raised. "What is it?" he asked.

She shrugged, and they started walking again. "Oh, I was just wondering why so many Reincarnates rush to the front so fast."

He raised an eyebrow. "I mean… we were sent here for a reason, right?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, but if the war hasn't ended in thirty years, is one person really going to change the tide?"

He gave her a sidelong glance and a skeptical frown as they stalked the streets. "I don't know, Serebryakov. If someone showed up on a battlefield with the power to ignore bullets, do you think that they would change the tide?"

Viktoriya's subsequent pout was annoyed at the sass, but his glance remained flat and blank. "Because that happened. Someone showed up, and he can't get hurt by sharp objects. It's ridiculous, and-"

She groaned. "Okay, okay, I get it. Knock some sense into me next time, why don't you…"

He rolled his eyes, smirking. "Hey, chin up. You've got your looks, at least."

She leveled another amused look at him… and they quickly devolved into laughter.

They both continued on… for a moment. "Hey, you can call me Viktoriya, you know."

He blinked and turned back to her. "Uh… okay. You can call me Kyouya too… just don't let my friends hear you call me that," he said, quieting his voice at the end.

She shot him a puzzled expression. "Hey, what is the deal with those two, anyway? You aren't dating them, obviously, so…"

He sighed. "Oh, it's a long story…"

She shrugged. "We've got time."

He sighed again…

Well, he'd never had trouble acting the part of an idiot who couldn't see what was going on around him. Making up a lie about his friends' past shouldn't be too hard…

"Well, I was in the capital, attending one of the Princess's parties…"

And as he talked and told the story, Viktoriya supposed… that this wasn't too bad.

She hadn't been expecting this – she had been worried that he'd be a lot more… boring or self-centered, like at the party – but this was fun.

She shrugged. Maybe he had to put on airs because of the Reincarnate thing? She wouldn't doubt it – Tanya had been a Hell of a lot more strict when she had first formed the battalion.

Regardless, she simply smiled, walked, and responded occasionally as they headed towards their first destination.

-OxOxO-

"Hey, what's that?"

Mitsurugi paused his story. He'd finally decided to tell her about the parts of his friends' past that didn't involve their love for each other – disliking all the officiality of the nobility and the general oppressiveness of their families – and inflate those instead of mentioning anything potentially triggering for a potential Nazi.

He blinked at the sight before him. By all accounts, the building that they were staring at from a block away was an Eris Church. It looked like all the other ones – besides the ones where Archpriests and the Cardinal resided in – with steepled roofs and towers and colored glass depicting some Hero Candidate or a past Cardinal or Archbishop or Eris herself.

Same grayish-white stone, same decoration, same great wooden door at the front.

Only, Kyouya could hardly see the door. Instead, there seemed to be a large group of people staring at someone wearing… a lot of white. He was gesturing around himself, pointing up at the church often and then down at the people listening to him.

Both of them walked closer. "Is he giving a speech?"

Kyouya blinked. "You can tell from this distance?"

Viktoriya shrugged. "You can tell, once you've seen a lot of speeches."

They drifted closer. His nature was telling him to trust her, and to believe that she wasn't some evil being, but his mind was trying to convince him that she was trying to lure him into believing her, that she was attempting to co-opt him into-

He shook his head and took a deep breath as they walked past the Priest – "…should people give their meager wealth to a decadent, bloated Eris Church that doesn't do its duties? The graveyard was moved by a staunch resistor of the Church to a better location, so…" – and Kyouya…

He stopped. Viktoriya wasn't by his side any longer.

His hand once again drifting down to his waist, he turned around and found that Viktoriya was not staring at the architecture of the Eris Church, or at the green-haired, pink-eyed, short Priest wearing white and purple clothing instead of a purple and white cassock that most male Priests wore. Instead, she was staring at a small depression in the ground at her feet.

He glanced at it. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about it, to him. It just seemed like an area where someone hadn't laid down the cobblestones correctly.

"You… alright?" he asked nervously. The crowd behind him seemed to be getting riled up, and he didn't want to stick around if he had to.

She snapped up, no longer bending down over it, glaring scornfully. "Oh. Sorry. It's…"

She took a look at the crowd, cast a glance at him, and sighed. "Well, I guess we'll move on to somewhere else. They seem… pretty energetic."

They were off in a flash. The conversation that had flowed earlier was now gone…

But Kyouya was curious. What had happened there?

He voiced his question again, with a bit more insistence, and Viktoriya sighed. "It's not a secret or anything, so…"

She grimaced. "After your battle with that Greater Demon, you, Darkness, and some of Tanya's other contacts were unconscious. She Healed them up and helped out Darkness, and as we were leaving…"

She glared at the ground, and Kyouya backed away. That glare…

It matched Degurechaff's. They were-

"That… thing, the Axis Cultist… she had come to help you all, but she…"

Her glare intensified, and Kyouya gulped. Killing intent was pouring off of her…

She shook her head. "Nevermind. We put her in her place, and that depression is where she landed when I threw her away from Tanya. I don't want to think about it."

He nodded along, but he made sure that his hand was near his sword. It seemed that they had done… something to that Axis Cult Priest that had Healed him and come to back him up in their fight against Hoost.

His mind was spinning. He… he didn't want to believe that they were Nazis, but…

They wouldn't ever tell him that stuff outright. If he asked, they'd obviously deny it or play dumb. He had to figure it out, and it was looking more and more like…

He shook his head and smiled at her again. "Alright. She must have done something… unjust for you two reasonable ladies to have done such a thing. Do you have anywhere else to see here?"

Her face brightened, and they were off again. He was still trying to figure out some way he could be absolutely, 100% sure that they were horrible people…

Cecily had been good to him, preaching about being your own person and loving whoever you wanted.

He smiled wanly. Some of the other Reincarnates didn't get why he liked Aqua so much, but…

Well, he hadn't ever expected to find an organization that not only tolerated and welcomed homosexuals with open arms, but also appealed to people whose love was suppressed.

Well, they did exist, but those kinds of organizations in his first life were mostly exclusive to homosexuals.

Meanwhile, the Axis Cult, while not as mainstream as the Eris Cult, did have large followings of people who were simple people – farmers asking for predictable, plentiful rain and more coastal people who were tied to the ocean tides and weather than the mostly interior nation of Belzerg.

How couldn't he express admiration for someone like Aqua with all that in mind?

He shook his head. He'd get to the bottom of it, one way or-

"So… do you want to hear about our first big battle?"

He perked up. More information on them was always welcome.

He smiled. "Sure!" he said excitedly, trying his best to give off the feeling that he wanted to move past their last destination and conversation.

Viktoriya sighed thankfully. "Alright. Well, Tanya had just finished off fighting against Chris – you remember her?"

He nodded again. This time, he was fairly sure that their understandings of that girl were identical.

There wasn't exactly much that could redeem someone who threw a grenade at someone else's face, after all.

Viktoriya nodded. "Anyway, we heard the sound of the Receptionist at the guild speaking to the entire town…"

As she continued her story, Kyouya nodded along. He probably could have defeated their attackers in a couple minutes… though, considering how weakened Degurechaff was, and how long she waited to utilize her Divine Relic, he didn't think she'd handled it badly, despite the mistake of thinking that the walls would protect her from the undead.

"…When suddenly, she… ran off, leaving the rest of us left to clean up and make sure everyone was okay." She finished with a nostalgic smile, and he sent her a curious glance.

She chuckled. "It's just that… it seems that she does that a lot. Running off after the fight's over."

He nodded along. Kyouya… could honestly say that he didn't get as invested in his fighting as he should and complete things to satisfaction, sometimes. The Cursed Sword Gram just did so much work that going on autopilot was inevitable.

He looked around… only to find that they were at the gate she had described. The defenses had indeed been repaired and bolstered…

There was even a beautiful, otherworldly mural to the right of the wall, depicting Degurechaff utilizing a great blast of magic to destroy a swirling black mass of undead. Below it was a metal plaque with a small description of the battle, describing-

His eyes widened. "It would have slaughtered the town?" he asked, aghast. She blinked and looked towards him.

She raised an eyebrow. "Well… yeah? Isn't that assumed?"

He shook his head slowly. "Not… really? There's a treaty that both sides won't kill noncombatants, brokered by a mysterious and powerful Lich under the employ of the Demon King."

"Huh," she muttered. Kyouya shook his head.

It seemed she'd been through a lot, to think that the devastation of civilian life was not only possible but expected…

Or, of course, she had done some of that herself-

Once again, he shook his head. No, they'd stopped something that could have turned an entire town into undead. It would have been blamed on that one Undead Mage, and the Demon King's forces would have gained a lot of undead.

Were those the actions of people bent on conquering the world?

He didn't think so-

Wait.

Tanya had eventually used her relic, but….

He turned to look at her suspiciously. "What was your Divine Relic? Or Skill?"

She blinked in confusion, before blushing and looking at the ground. "It's… well, kinda personal… and it wouldn't have helped anyway."

He shrugged his shoulders. There were some that didn't really help in combat. But… the way she said it seemed… odd.

Besides, most people bragged about their powers and skills… unless they were morally questionable.

Eventually, after more conversations about Reincarnates both had met – Mitsurugi had run into a number of… eclectic characters in the capital and farther up and down the front with the Demon King, and Viktoriya knew a few that had elected to stay in Axel for reasons she didn't know or, in his mind, wouldn't divulge – they began to walk around the more posh parts of the town.

They walked down the wide, expansive roads leading to the various residencies of the nobles of Axel. He marveled at the all – they lied outside the walls of Axel, surrounded by tall trees and iron fences.

"Really… all of this is really pretty, right? The open air… I wish there were more of it in the capital," he mused. There wasn't exactly a lot of environmental devastation caused by the war…

Well, both sides often targeted the resources – animals and crops and clean rivers – of the other sides if the forces involved were more limited. The land around the capital was guarded fiercely, but it was also put to use as areas to house soldiers, build defenses, or grow food. There wasn't a lot of natural beauty left after 30 years.

Viktoriya nodded. "Yeah… the same thing happened back wherever the frontline with the Federation was…"

She sighed tiredly, and he drew closer in concern. "Are you alright?"

She nodded slowly. "Yeah… just remembering some of the battles we fought in."

He nodded back sympathetically. He continued to admire the scenery, and she hummed unhappily. He looked towards her, and she shrugged. "It is all nice, but… it's a bit too close to the city for Tanya's liking."

"Oh?" he asked. They were close, sure, but it wasn't as if stationing nobles far away from adventurers and guards would be very good when a passing Dragon or Griffon destroyed an isolated estate.

She nodded again. "Well, with all of the business pouring into Axel, Tanya's been thinking of building up a second wall around the town. She wants to offer them some money if they move farther away, live in more modest accommodations, and assist in converting their mansions into government buildings or hotels."

He blinked in surprise and then narrowed his eyes. "Is business in Axel really growing that fast?"

Viktoriya stopped, for a moment, and then she shrugged. "Well, maybe not yet. But she's got plans to increase trade with other towns and countries and create a larger consumer base, I think? I don't know much about all the economic stuff she goes on about, but I'm trying to get a hang of it."

He nodded back. It didn't seem like anything nefarious was afoot in that area – they weren't kicking the nobles out… unless they would if they refused.

He smiled tiredly. "That's good! Being interested in your friends' activities is always a way to grow closer together. I wish my teammates would do the same…"

He shrugged at her curious look. "I'll tell you later, during… what I've got planned. Is there other stuff you wanted to show me, or do you want to go do it now?"

She smiled widely. "I want to see what you have planned, since you insisted on seeing the sights."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Oh? I don't think I insisted. Do you perhaps have weird standards for that sort of thing?"

She crossed her arms and pouted. "I'll have you know I'm completely normal. You're the weird one, with your… weird looks and… odd name and…"

She struggled for a moment, and he snickered. "Having trouble critiquing me? It's not the first time I've suffered from an inability to be judged unfavorably, but I had hoped that a prospective girlfriend would-"

"Oh yeah? Well, at least I'm not blind to the feelings of those around me!"

He almost broke out into laughter – he didn't ever get to play off of people like this – but he quickly schooled his expression. "What are you talking about?" he asked, as if confused.

She opened her mouth, about to spell out how obtuse he was for not realizing his friends were crushing on him… when she decided to stop with a sigh. That would go a bit too far into her messy feelings for Tanya. "Nevermind. You said you've got something else that you have planned."

He wiped the confusion off of his face and smiled instead. "Yep! You'll love it!"

She nodded back.

She nodded slowly. "Let's get going, then," she said. They turned around, walking back to the gate, prepared to reenter Axel-proper, when…

"Erk! U- uh… M- Miss Serebryakov! Lovely to see you out today…"

Both of them turned to find that a noble was nervously eyeing the two of them. Though his method of avoiding eye contact was much less obvious than most, Kyouya did notice that his gaze was focused on a spot between his and Viktoriya's heads rather than either sets of eyes staring back at him.

She raised an eyebrow. "And to you…"

He blinked at the expectant look she was shoving towards him, until he scrambled into something that resembled the stiffened, deferential posture, he'd seen everyone give Iris at every turn. "Ah! I am Marshal Jackson Blount, the current Treasurer of the Tennessee estate and a… ah, a former employee of both Governor Alexei and Governor Degurechaff… I-"

She gave him a quick nod. "Well, be on your way, Lord Blount. As I am currently occupied, you can bring up your concerns at the party celebrating Governor Degurechaff's birthday in around eight days time."

He nodded quickly, thanking her and scurrying off. As she sighed and muttered something about 'troublesome duties,' he wondered why that noble had seemed so nervous.

He wasn't a fan of the nobility in general – they were, down to the individual, controlling and obsessive about something, from fetishes to religion to ideologies – but he found some that were mostly fine – hi party members – and he did understand that they were also the next best thing between the Demon King and the regular, normal people of this world, after the Reincarnates.

Nobles did not get nervous easily. Even the ones that got investigated for massively abusing their powers never got anything more than a reduction of their power, and only doing something truly foolish like threatening a noble of higher standing or the royals themselves got anything like banishment from the Kingdom or execution.

He'd only seen a grand total of three nobles, four years ago, get truly nervous like that man had been.

What were they doing to elicit such a response? What did that man and the guards of the estates and the nobles watching the two of them from their front doors know that Mitsurugi didn't?

He shook his head again. They had lunch to get to, after which…

Well, they'd find something else to do, they'd call it… and Mitsurugi would make his judgement.

-OxOxO-

As they walked up to the restaurant – not that anyone would think it was a restaurant from the outside – Mitsurugi smiled. These places hadn't been half bad in his first life, but here, with the backing of Hero Candidates, they had become amazingly high-class restaurants.

Of course, in order to avoid the scrutiny of the general public, they were hidden away, only catering to the nobility and high class patrons that knew of their existence and how to find them among the winding alleyways that existed in every town worth their name.

"Mac… Donalds?"

He nodded to her. "Yep! It's one of the most prestigious eateries that exists in all of Belzerg. Reincarnates that know of it – which is, of course, any and all of them that come to the capital – can bring their friends in and eat for free, as long as they make sure to prove that they've done something truly heroic in the past month."

Viktoriya nodded rapidly, and then she stopped. "What have you done?"

He blinked, and then he smirked as they walked through the entrance and the golden arches above it. "During the last of the Demon King's army's attack on the capital, I was able to hold off Verdia, the Hero Slayer, long enough for someone to cast a blast of powerful magic at his head, sending it flying and causing his army to dissipate."

Viktoriya nodded, keeping her face straight valiantly as he secured their seats with the waiter. But…

She chuckled a bit under her breath. Honestly, he was sweet, and though things hadn't gone as well as she wanted, stuff was still… progressing… right?

She shook her head, smiling as she banished her doubts. Still, despite how sweet and fun it was to hang out with him, how didn't he know that Tanya had taken care of Verdia? Had one of his teammates lied to him, or…

She shook her head as they took a seat and began to look up and down the menu. Well, if they were getting a free lunch out of it, would Tanya really care that he misunderstood the situation?

Kyouya sighed happily as he looked at the menu. Although a lot of the things that had once been unique to the restaurant – fries, hamburgers, and milkshakes had all once been served exclusively at MacDonalds centuries ago – were no longer served only at the secretive, high-class restaurant, it still had some of the highest quality food around.

"Uh… I… don't know what most of this is," the voice of his… date said from across the table. Kyouya looked up from his menu, startled, for a moment, before he snapped.

"Right! Sorry about that. I forgot that you two aren't actually from Japan," he said, making sure not to phrase it in an accusatory way at all.

She nodded absently, for a moment, before wincing slightly. "Um… well, actually, we're…"

She trailed off as he impaled her with a skeptical look, asking her if she was really going to try and deny it. She looked down, embarrassed. "How'd you figure it out?"

He shrugged noncommittally. This was another thing he had fun doing – pretending to be some mastermind detective when, really, all he did was act a bit more skeptical than most and make sure that he had all the facts he needed before moving forward.

But… he sighed. It didn't really seem like there was anything wrong with her or Degurechaff. They were definitely not like most Reincarnates, yes, but…

Iris had trusted them enough to give them a Governorship. The other Reincarnates in Axel weren't fleeing from her, and the likelihood that Aqua had missed Nazis was laughably miniscule, especially with whatever system of 'karma' they had in Heaven.

She hadn't allowed the town to be destroyed by that monster – or even helped – which definitely would have netted her influence in the Demon King's army, more than even Iris could just bestow on a complete unknown.

The nobles were nervous… but that Darkness character who had gone with him to save her from that Greater Demon was a noble of some kind, which meant that the nobles' nervousness could simply be due to politics.

Was there some things he would like clarified? Yes, especially her interactions with Hoost and Cecily. There was a lot that went on around and involving them that he wanted explained.

He smiled conciliatorily. "While her mastery of Japanese is a good smokescreen, your lack of knowledge of Japan's history and both of your being able to speak German, along with what you told me about the time you're both from, reveal the truth," he stated frankly.

She raised an eyebrow. "And our looks don't mean anything to you?"

He shrugged. "Eh. Considering the range of people that have been sent here from some… very, very weird versions of Japan, looks aren't exactly the most telling sign."

She began to pout, and he rolled his eyes at her. "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure that whatever… military operations the two of you performed didn't go half as badly as this operation. I'm the only one whose figured it out, after all… unless, of course, no one else is stupid enough to tell you to your faces."

Her pout became a glare, for a moment… but they both devolved into snickering. Honestly-

"Ah, Lady Serebryakov! I had heard that you had come in today, but to see you now…"

He turned to the side, tilting his head. He seemed to be…

Viktoriya smiled shyly. "You have me at a disadvantage. What might your name be?"

He nodded happily, and gestured to himself proudly. "I am Leon Prove Burren, the manager of the Axel branch of MacDonalds. I have introduced myself in order to… thank you."

She blinked owlishly, and he grabbed one of her hands, shaking it vigorously. "I just wanted to thank you and Lady Degurechaff for getting rid of Alderp. He often came in here, demanding to be served for free, despite our rules... Though I can't quite remember why we let him get away with it so much…" he mused. Viktoriya, smiling, extracted her hands from his grip.

Burren shook his head. "Regardless, her simply not abusing our hospitality is enough to earn our thanks… but her reimbursement of my business, as well as the tax breaks she's given all retired, veteran adventurers like myself is allowing us to offer even better service. Honestly, we might have had to close down soon if he kept demanding our catering services to provide free 'hamberders.'"

He briefly glared at the ground at the thought of this 'Alderp,' but then he was back to his continual nodding. He brought out a piece of white piece of paper with writing all over it.

"I bought these bonds and recommended all of my business connections to do the same as well. One good deed does deserve another, and…"

As Kyouya raised an eyebrow and Viktoriya's patient face began to grow less patient, the manager shook his head. "Well, I won't interrupt your date anymore. Just know that if either you or Governor Degurechaff require anything of one such as I, I won't hesitate to provide it."

Both of them nodded to him, and he quickly left. Mitsurugi shook his head – would Nazis be able to inspire heartfelt devotion like that without even a hint of doubt? – and smiled genuinely at Viktoriya.

"Anyway. I think you should get the Genial Sausage-Chicken sandwich… unless…"

He fixed her with a playful look. "How hungry are you?"

She smiled down at the menu. Though she didn't understand a lot of what was on there, she did understand enough that her mouth was watering. "Monstrously."

He nodded back and pointed to an item father down. "Then I recommend the Mega Mac. I promise you'll never have eaten a bigger burger."

She blinked slowly. Bigger than any other one she'd ever had…?

"And, for desert, I think a Scrumptious Choco Pie-"

"Choco!?" She exclaimed. He nodded rapidly, and she smiled widely.

She almost wondered, out loud, if Tanya had ever eaten at MacDonalds… until she realized that she'd just be giving out more information about Tanya that Kyouya didn't have.

Instead, she just smiled. "I suppose I'll have to bring Tanya here soon."

Kyouya smiled. Though he had questions, those were for later. For now, he'd enjoy his lunch and continue to think about the future.

Like what he would do with all of his time when they told him, definitively, that they weren't Nazis. He could keep looking for a Mage to bolster his party with…

Or who knew? He was sure that he could get his teammates to agree to having them in the party… once he sussed out whether or not they would be accepting of their and his sexualities, of course…

He grumbled, for a moment, wishing that things could just be easily defined and he didn't have to constantly weigh his options… but then his own food arrived, and he decided to forget it for a while.

For now, it was time to eat!

-OxOxO-

He stared, slack jawed.

He couldn't ever get very far when he bet on… anything – part of the territory that came with being very much not accepted according to the Luck Goddess's religion – but this…

It was ridiculous. Amazing. He had a surprising amount of respect for the both of them.

"Do-nothing degenerate. You'll fall swiftly against me!"

"Heh. At least I don't suppress part of myself for no good reason. How's the relationship with the boss, by the way?"

Viktoriya froze, glaring murderously at Kazuma. "Wh- Ho… I'll destroy that-"

Kyouya and the rest of the room backed away from the two of them – or, more accurately, the killing intent that Serebryakov was giving off.

For his part, Kazuma was still the image of supreme confidence, even in the face of her killing intent and onslaught. "So unfocused! You'll never win anything! All it takes is a single taunt to throw you off balance?"

He placed down another tile. He only had one left, and he knew it, with the relaxed position he assumed, all victorious smirks and confidently crossed arms. "Ho! Do you really think you can still win? I've just returned my train to its original position! I've only got a single tile left! What do you have, when I have three positions to play against?"

Though he had long been eliminated, he still shouted his support. "You can do it, Viktoriya!"

She nodded back at him with a smile. She lowered a hand towards the pile of unused tiles, picking it up.

She sighed… and then she smirked. "Fool! I almost never lose!"

She placed down the tile on the tertiary position – the one where neither of their trains were – and smiled.

He looked defeated…

And then he didn't.

He chuckled as he placed down his last tile in front of the third train that wasn't being used by either player, smirking widely. "Ha! And I also never lose any game that includes Luck, my highest stat!"

The crowd began to cheer this 'Kazuma's' name as he stood and began to bow to the cheering people, sloshing around the drink in his hand.

Viktoriya too stood, glaring down at him. "Boasting about your Luck being highest… well, I guess that one of your stats has to be the highest, even if it is by default."

He just glared at her as he gathered up his winnings – the lost bets of everyone else that had been participating in their game of competitive elimination train. "Sore loser who doesn't even have a special power."

She arched an eyebrow. "Well, you're a sore winner who somehow managed to pick something ever worse than having nothing as his power."

With that, she spun around and walked away from the table. Kyouya fell in line with her as she stormed towards the door. Cheering and boasting echoed behind them as he raised an eyebrow. "You know that you're only proving him right by storming away."

She glared at him, and he backed away… and she let out a sigh. "I know. I just…"

She smiled in remembrance as they left the gambling den by ascending a set of stairs to the inn above it. "Back in the Empire, I used to get our battalion extra supplies by playing cards. This isn't that, of course…. But I wanted to surprise Tanya…"

He shook his head again. Though the word 'train' had obviously been misinterpreted by the people of this world – they used little wooden carvings of a train of wagons instead of locomotives – the dominoes with two numbers, zero to twelve, on them meant that it resembled a game that he'd learned from some transfer students at his High School.

They were quiet for a moment. Going to the gambling den had been a spur of the moment decision on both of their parts, after finishing their sweets at MacDonalds.

He took a deep breath. This would at least prove if they were willing to talk with him about their decisions. That Kazuma fellow had said something interesting – in addition to his insinuation that… something was wrong with the relationship between them – about her not having a power – her Divine Relic or skill, undoubtedly.

"Hey. What did he mean when he said you didn't have a power? I thought that you used it during that fight with that undead monster?"

She blinked, slowly coming to a stop. The streets were mostly empty – though, with four o'clock approaching, he doubted that the rush hour would let that stand for long – but despite that, she still looked around to make sure that no one was watching them.

She looked into his eyes. The look she thought she'd seen during some of their conversations, the one that told her that he was bluffing, was long gone. Still, she wasn't sure that trusting him would be a good idea…

He stepped forward. "I promise, if it's something… weird, I won't tell anyone. There are plenty of people who chose ill-fitting powers. I knew someone who chose to get power over fire, and the whole of the Demon King's army started having their Mages use water spells exclusively in order to keep them weak."

She raised an eyebrow at how he had clearly just talked about someone else's secret power, and he winced. "They've found work outside fighting, and they said they didn't mind people talking about it. He's quite good at buffing weapons, actually…"

She bit her lip. "Do… do you expect me to be your girlfriend after this?"

He blinked rapidly. His immediate answer, no, of course not, didn't quite reach the open air.

Viktoriya was many things, but she didn't do anything for him. Still...

"What is it you want?" he asked her, cautiously.

Her expression hardened. What did she want?

Kazuma's words drove a bayonet into her mind, reminding her of how she was suppressing a part of her 'for no good reason.' As if he'd ever had to deal with rejection before, the-

Their lunch at MacDonalds came to mind next, where she'd been tortured with her mind's contemplation of Tanya's first life, wondering if Tanya had eaten there in a past life, and if she'd want to go sometime soon, and what a date-

When they were walking around Axel, she'd been assaulted by memories of their time there, working together and going on quests and working to get better.

Staring down at that depression in the ground, thinking about her hatred of Cecily…

…and the horrible guilt she'd been wracked by for feeling, underneath the concern for Tanya and the hatred of pedophiles who desired children, a kernel of jealousy that the Axis Cultist had been the one to clutch Tanya to her chest.

Even when she'd first seen Kyouya, she'd wondered, briefly, what Tanya would look like in a suit – one that Lorelei had promised to make for her party.

She looked up at Mitsurugi and shook her head. She'd never forget Tanya. There was just too… much for her to try and ignore.

She smiled sadly. "I… no. I… I thought that I'd feel… sparks flying or fireworks going off or… some kind of instant connection to go off," she admitted.

Or, that would be the only thing that would let her think about loving anyone but Tanya. If it was anything less, she'd always wonder, in the back of her mind, about Tanya. She just-

He shrugged back. "Well, thank you for being honest, at least. I'm not the kind of guy who expects to be showered with the attention of a female just because I exist and who rages at some imaginary 'friendzone.'"

Though she was confused at the specific term he used, she got the idea. She sighed, relieved, and they continued to walk forward, still looking around Axel. "Hey, uh… would you like some advice?"

Viktoriya blinked, and then she nodded. Kyouya smiled. "I… take it you don't have a lot of experience with… dating? Or romance?"

She slowly nodded, and he smirked. "Alright! Well, I… have it on good authority that instant connections aren't exactly reliable. Building up trust with someone and deepening that bond usually leads to better relationships. There's a reason that a lot of adventurers end up marrying people in their party, after all."

She slowly nodded, as if he were just confirming her own ideas, and then…

She smiled conspiratorially. If he was going to give her advice, she'd do the same. He hadn't shown any of the self-importance he had at Iris's party during their date, and, after learning what she had from Tanya about her past life and her attempts to be the perfect soldier…

"Well. I have it on good authority that constantly forcing yourself to act a certain way isn't particularly good for you. Acting like you're a self-absorbed narcissist might turn you into one," she said.

He rolled his eyes, but he did make a note to consider the advice. He… had been pretending to be a pretty boy that appealed to the widest possible demographic for years now, and… maybe he should give it up and… well, do something to get people off of his back about joining the party of a 'great and famous' adventurer. Maybe he could get Iris or Tanya to help…

He smirked. The look on everyone's faces in the main guild in the capital would be priceless if he acted like anything less than a total meathead…

He sighed happily. Things seemed to be looking up, alright!

They definitely weren't your average Reincarnates, sure, but when she answered his innocuous little question and proved that they'd be willing to let him ask his questions, they'd-

"Oh right, you asked about Kazuma's weird question about my power, right? Well…"

She cleared her throat. "Tanya was… reincarnated accidentally. She and God don't really get along – she's an atheist, and he took that personally – and she wouldn't have ever been sent here if Aqua had been able to access her file. Uh… anyway, she got here two months before me, and in that time, God built this 'Kill Tanya von Degurechaff' clause into the contract. I wasn't about to do that, so I renounced the contract and gave up my power of having an intrinsic understanding of anything that could be considered an item… ah, and that's the real reason she stayed in Axel so long. She wanted to make sure that none of the Reincarnates that Aqua sent down would kill her. Some of them even tried to assassinate her thanks to that no-good Thief, Chris, after she graciously let them live."

Ah.

Well.

Hmm.

That… certainly reversed every single impression he'd had of the both of them.

He felt a fog descend on his mind, but he didn't really care. If anything, it was snapping everything into place for him.

A Nazi was surely one of the only kinds of people who'd never get Reincarnated – why would God just pick some asshole Atheist to pick on? There were plenty of Japanese people here like that. That Kazuma person was undoubtedly one of them.

A Nazi would get a hit put on them. He'd heard in the capital that he and the other Reincarnates there had had a lot more work for around two months because Hero Candidates stopped coming. They were the reason for that, likely killing any that wouldn't bow to their will like those other three obviously had.

A Nazi might know German and Japanese. Hadn't he been the one to wonder if Degurechaff was the daughter of an ambassador between the two countries? And hadn't they been allies during one of the world wars?

Degurechaff had said something about 'requisitioning materials,' so she obviously wanted to rebuild her nation's army of darkness and subjugate the continent-

His eyes widened. A Nazi would attempt to gain as much power as possible, taking morally questionable quests to earn money, becoming a Governor and befriending the Princess and helping to forge ties with a neighboring nation in desperate need of aid – and hadn't the Nazis taken advantage of some kind of economic recession in order to seize power?

Was she doing the reverse of that now? Using her knowledge to build up Axel economically and earn enough power and influence to either make people turn away from her crimes or even convert them to her side?

"Kyouya? Are you alright?"

He blinked rapidly, staring at Vik… the woman. He gave her the best smile he could.

And, though it pained him to admit… a lot of people hadn't mindlessly hated those different than them. They were just uncaring of who was in power and willing to work with the worst kind of people to achieve their goals.

Viktoriya didn't seem like a bad person, but…

What could inspire a person to go to such lengths, to decide that a friend could fight against all of Heaven and win?

There were many things, but the most important one here was, obviously, ideology. The preachings that a party and their leaders could do anything and everything, as long as it 'strengthened the state.'

It must be that. It had to be. It couldn't not be.

He nodded, perhaps a bit too fast. "Yeah, I am fine Serebryakov. Do you… want to call it here?"

She blinked, but she nodded slowly. "Sure! We've been at this for four hours… that seems like enough time."

He turned around, but she stopped him with a word. "Wait!"

He spun around again, a hand carefully positioned over his hidden blade. He had to be ready…

"We… are still friends, right?" she asked nervously. He smiled again and nodded.

"Yep. Shake on it?"

She nodded back, and they shook hands.

They parted ways, each heading off in opposite directions.

Viktoriya sighed. That had been a bust, and… it was looking increasingly unlikely that she'd ever find someone to love. But…

She shrugged. She hadn't lost Kyouya's respect or anything, and he was fun to hang out with. Maybe he and Tanya would even choose to go on some quests together sometime, if she suggested it.

Mitsurugi resisted every urge in his body to turn and cut her down. If he attacked now, it was just as likely that he'd be killed as he would kill her.

Indeed, if he didn't get Degurechaff and Serebryakov – and maybe even that beastman – at once, the other would be sure to hide away and make themselves unreachable.

No, he'd have to… plan things. Acquire better armor, perhaps, or maybe even team up with some other Reincarnates.

He nodded to himself. He had to get stronger, to take her down, save the Kingdom from the poison spreading inside it, and then, eventually, slay the Demon King.

Why else would he be here? That was what he was sent here to do, right?

-OxOxO-

It had been hard, convincing people that this… bazaar? Farmer's market?

He shrugged his shoulders and readjusted his grip on his helmet as he looked around at the tables that people were crowded around. He didn't know the word for it, but he was sure that a new one would get invented soon enough.

Dust very much doubted that a noun existed describing a market run by Dragon, after all. Though, 'bizarre' was definitely an adjective that captured the idea nicely.

He pushed past another merchant, nodding his head to a beat he couldn't hear. Indeed, when the Dragon had landed outside of one of the smaller gates leading out of Axel, the guild had been called.

To the surprise of everyone, even his party – those bastards – Dust had stepped forward. And while everyone had made their remarks about him being drunk to think he could take on a Dragon or about him being desperate for money, only one of those things was true.

He'd come out, marched up to the Dragon…

And spun around, a Voice-Amp item in one hand, smiling at the crowd gathering by the gate to watch him getting killed. "Come one, come all! For today only – this week – this Dragon is selling all kinds of rare metals, gems, and items – from idiots that tried to kill him," he said, adding a few disclaimers underneath his breath.

Predictably, no one had believed him… but his next words did the trick. "Indeed, Governor Degurechaff used the awesome power granted to her by her lineage – probably – to communicate with the great beast, and now, it no longer seeks to kill – unless you piss it off. Now, it seeks to do business with the people of Axel – and make a killing."

That, it seemed, was enough to bring out a gaggle of merchants that Dust didn't recognize – he recognized everyone he tried to mooch off of or trick into giving him money, merchants included – who offered to allow the Dragon to display its wares on folding tables they had brought along.

A few had begun to edge closer to the Dragon, when Dust had sealed the deal. "Fret not! Degurechaff has also given me a tiny sliver of her ability with Dragons, and I can communicate with it. Should there be any disagreements, I will be able to soothe the beast."

It had snorted at him for that, but people had come over, and then more, and now, there was a small square of people looking at everything the Dragon had brought, from equipment to jewels to magical items to pieces of its shed skin.

He patted the side of the Dragon. "It looks like my plan is going wonderfully, then."

Indeed, when he'd gotten over his shock at Degurechaff revealing that his dream about her asking him about gender-swapping items was not, in fact, a horrible nightmare he'd had, he had been vehement in his un-desire to not have anything to do with 'one of the biggest cooperative operations between humans and Dragons,' in the words of Degurechaff.

He focused his attention on two merchants standing behind a crowd that was betting on a large sword. "To think that Degurechaff could do this much…"

"Hey, I heard a neighboring country had a Dragon Knight that disappeared or something. Could it be…?"

He smirked widely. Of course, then he'd thought about it for a few minutes, and he'd realized that this was perfect!

He could continue to divert attention away from himself and towards Degurechaff, as far as anyone looking for a Dragon Knight as concerned.

Using his ability to greatly exaggerate a person's feats for someone other than himself wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd first imagined – he did it often enough to get drinking money from his friends, acquaintances, and anyone around him when he ran out of money-

WOOSH

He glared at the head of the Dragon that was now giving him a very… unimpressed look. He fought the urge to flip it off – no one would believe he was anything less than Degurechaff's supposed equal in taming Dragons if he didn't immediately get incinerated for that – and instead said, "Hey, don't give up the game. You're getting what you want, right?"

It did slowly nod and look off towards the side. A lot of merchants had brought their own goods out, and though the Dragon wasn't interested in any items, it was interested in any and all food they had to offer. There wasn't a lot in the area it inhabited, apparently.

It stilled completely for a moment, and Dust raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

It rose from its position, and Dust began to protest, waving his arms about. "Hey, hey! What are you doing?! This isn't-"

But it paid him no heed as people began to grow quiet. The bidding was silenced, the conversations and general wonder people had at being so close to a Dragon had receded, and everyone was waiting to see what it would do, ready to flee in an instant if it suddenly stopped trying to trade with them.

Dust sprinted around the side of the Dragon and saw what had captured its attention. He gawked.

Instead of getting ready to kill everyone, it was looming over a man and his small cart. Dust might have called the dichotomy hilarious, but he didn't know that word, so he just thought that the difference in size and presence was funny… as long as you didn't remember that the Dragon might kill everyone there if he didn't intervene.

Specifically, the Dragon, looming over the darkly-tanned man with wispy hair on his face and graying hair on top of his head… it looked puppy-like as it stared down at him with its great, looming slitted eyes and wagging tail and-

Dust rushed forward. Dust couldn't have gotten a Dragon to look like that if he tried without a Hell of an incentive, so what-

"Ah… Mr. Dragon, sir, um… are you perhaps interested in my spirits?"

Panting, Dust cast a glance up at the Dragon… and he blinked rapidly.

"You think his alcohol is really good or something?" he asked, genuinely unsure if he was reading it right. It gave him a look, and Dust smiled nervously, spinning around and clearing his throat as he regarded the man peddling his alcohol…

He blinked, for a moment. "Hey, wait a minute. Aren't you the Blacksmith?"

"Hey, I'm not the Blacksmith. I keep telling that Receptionist…" The man's innocent, slightly panicked look up at the Dragon faded as he looked at Dust closely… and it soured incredibly fast. "Oh, Dust."

Dust levelled an angered finger at the man. "Hey. What's that supposed to mean?"

The man rolled his eyes. "You still haven't paid me back for the sword that I 'loaned' you, you little…"

He shook his head. "Anyway, I'm not a Blacksmith anymore. I'm… selling my alcohol. Do you and," he looked up at the Dragon, giving it a genuine smile, "the Dragon that has the unfortunate displeasure of being in your presence want samples?"

The Dragon nodded immediately, and the man brought out a small shot glass… before he wisely put it away and brought out an entire bottle of some kind of clear… liquid. Dust tilted his head at it – if it was alcohol, where was all of the color and debris? – but the Dragon didn't care.

Dust stared incredulously at the Dragon as its wagging tail began to shake the ground. Dust snatched the bottle from the man and opened it, taking a deep breath…

He glanced down at it inquisitively once more. It smelled… like nothing. He couldn't get a whiff of anything. Just what was in this stuff… he couldn't just be selling water, because the Dragon really wanted it, but…

He shook his head and stuck his arm in the Dragon's mouth and turned the bottle over, watching as the liquid poured out onto its tongue…

Dust swore. The Dragon was smiling. It wasn't just giving off all of the usual signs of being happy – slightly widened eyes, flattened wings, and stilled movements – but it was actually smiling.

Most people didn't know – and how would they even find out? – but Dragon's didn't exactly have lips. For it to contort its face enough to show that it was happy meant it wanted to show someone who couldn't understand Dragons at all that it was pleased with them.

He looked at the former-Blacksmith with newfound respect. "Say… Mr. Blacksmith, could I have a taste of that stuff?"

The man blinked at the crowd that was now gathering around him, all of them wondering just what he had that could please a Dragon. He glared at Dust.

"Firstly, my name is Bill. Bill Smith. And secondly… sure. Pay for that sword."

Dust glared at him once more, but he did bring out a small bag of Eris. He had been planning to spend this money on a drink later anyway…

He gave Dust a shot glass – and a half-full one at that – and waited, watching. Dust merely raised the stuff to his mouth, drinking deeply-

His eyes flew open.

"Whoa…"

It, truthfully, didn't taste like much, which was about the only bad thing he had to say about it.

A widening grin split his face as it burned travelling down his throat. A potent heat began to burn through his body as it hit his stomach. "Ho… Mr… Billsmith, the… Dragon's happy. Thought it was about time that someone on this continent… made this stuff? Think he's from far away. Uh… whataya call this stuff?"

That… brought Bill up short. Tanya hadn't ever given him a name for the stuff, despite her muttering about wanting 'the good stuff.' She wanted him to come up with something, saying something about it sounding more 'natural' if a native came up with a name.

He didn't really understand her decision, but he respected it regardless. He brought a hand up to his face, puzzled… before he realized that the crowd of increasingly curious people wouldn't stay around forever.

Well… considering who had given it to him…

He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest as if he'd always known what it was called. "Why, considering who helped me make it? Indeed, Governor Degurechaff was not wandering through the streets last week aimlessly drunk. No, she had a purpose!"

He brought out a bottle with a blank label on it and began to write using a pen he'd brought with him to write down suggestions. Tanya's habit of drawing the 'schematics' for all of the things she had made with him had rubbed off a bit. He'd get it formalized later…

He raised the bottle up in the sky, the simplified image of the Governor's face next to the name he'd written on it. "This alcohol, crafted by the Governor, is called Degurenbrew!"

The crowd paused, and they nodded along with him.

"Sounds like a good name to me."

"Eh… should have put 'burn' at the end instead of brew, but…"

"Who cares! I want to try some!"

Hurriedly, he began to fill shot glass after shot glass, quickly running out and buying some more simplistic cups from one of the Dragon's tables, and filling up any glass that landed on the table.

He was sure that more than a few people had gotten more than a single free sample, but the number of orders he had received had quickly exhausted his stores, and absolutely everyone wanted more.

Now, people were milling about, angrily muttering about not having more. He smiled at them all, his hands full of bags of money and I.O.U.s. "Everyone!" he shouted.

They turned to him, curious. He smiled. "You will be able to purchase Degurenbrew and more soon enough when my bar and business, the Blonde Pixie, opens later next week. Until then, I hope you'll be satisfied with what the town's other establishments can offer."

They all cheered raucously now, and he walked away, content and happy that he'd switched jobs… even if it had hurt.

Dust, meanwhile, was not acting as a translator. The Dragon had taken a full crate of the man's alcohol and curled up in the center. The big guy'd be fine on his own for a while.

Dust had money to get back. Luckily, he had brought his helmet with him today for this particular plan.

Normally, he'd never get a good price for anything he tried to sell. He didn't have Luck and, more importantly, he had long burned through any and all goodwill anyone in the town had for him. Thus, any attempt to sell this last piece of his history would end badly.

Of course, if he lied and said it was part of a Dragon's hoard, or if everyone was too drunk to remember clearly all the shit he'd done to them, well…

Market value wasn't just guaranteed, he'd get thousands of Eris, maybe even more!

He set up on a now empty table – probably formerly filled with paper that was used to write I.O.U.s or something – laying out the helmet.

It didn't take long for people to begin to gather around. He smirked.

This would be easy.

"This helmet is one of the best in the Dragon's whole collection! No where else will you find such a rare piece, unless you're willing to travel far and wide in search of a cheap copy."

He gazed at the crowd, blinking slowly…

He pointed at a man. He looked… vaguely noble-like. He had well-tailored mustard clothing and meaty hands, but he was wearing a wide-brimmed hat that he was pulling down slightly to obscure his face.

The noble pointed a shaking finger towards himself, and Dust nodded. "Yes, you. Can you vouch for the quality of this helmet?"

Really, it wasn't that rare, but Dust had seen this man hanging out around the not-Blacksmith and drinking. Hopefully, his hat and the drink he had consumed would make his vision as blurry as Dust's had become after so much of that… Degurenbrew.

The man picked it up, turning it around in his hands and inspecting every inch of it as Dust muttered about disliking the name.

"Could it be? Perhaps…"

The man turned around, taking off his hat and putting it on. He stood up straight… and Dust blinked. Was he… sniffing loudly?

Dust glared, ripping it off. If it had become flawed or poorly ventilated in the time since he'd worn it regularly, he didn't want that getting out. "Hey! Don't… don't touch the merchandise."

The man put his hat back on and spun around to face Dust. "Just one moment… f- fine sir… if I could get one more look at it…"

He stepped closer, once again taking a sniff of the air. Dust glared at him quizzically as he began to… shake.

"This…! I will buy this for you! Name a price, and I'll give it to you!" he shouted this, and though the crowd was beginning to murmur about wanting to bid, Dust raised an eyebrow.

"You'd do anything for this helmet? You'd give me… anything?" he asked, once again, trying to catch a glimpse of the man's face.

He turned away expertly. "Yes. I'd give you everything and anything. Even…"

The man had trailed off and was panting even harder. Dust, for a moment, was concerned that the man was about to have a heart attack or something…

But then he smirked, winking at the man and hoping that he could see it. Obviously, he was hyping up how much it was worth so that the bidding would bring its price even higher. He'd want a cut of Dust's profits for helping out, but he didn't mind… and he couldn't pull off something dirty without being a lot less drunk than he currently was.

He shrugged. "You'd give me… five million Eris?" he asked, sure that-

"Of course. All that and more…"

Dust just blinked, sure that he was hearing things. He was willing to pay five million for it?

He shook his head again. No, he was simply playing a part. Dust turned to the crowd. "Did you hear that? Clearly this man knows what this kind of item is worth! Is anyone else interested?"

He smirked, visions of a flood of Eris – or Degurenbrew – filling a pool in his mind as people began to drive the price ever higher. Six, seven, eight million.

He heard the man behind him say something – "How despicable… but, I suppose that that is part of why…" – but he paid it no mind. For how much this thing was earning, he'd-

"Twenty million Eris!"

Dust spun around, gobsmacked, as the noble with the hat shouted out that ridiculous price.

No one else was bidding, so Dust spun around, confused.

He shrugged and handed the man the helmet. "Sold. My earnings?"

The man turned around to put the helmet on, and when he turned around again, Dust could sense the man's vision placed squarely on Dust. "Ah yes… if you'd just follow me-"

He cut himself off, and the crowd began to disperse unhappily. "No! I must… resist the urge… it's just the alcohol spurring me on…"

He shook his head. "I'll have an… employee deliver it to you tomorrow, in Axel's guild," he said, holding up a sweaty, meaty hand as Dust opened his mouth to argue. "And yes, you can bring down the wrath of the Governor on me if I don't deliver."

Dust fixed him with one last glare before turning around. "Oh, but I'd never stand you up… Dust."

He looked over his shoulder one last time and saw… nothing. The man had gone.

Dust shook his head. That last part, uttered in a very… odd tone must have been the wind.

He stretched out happily. Soon, he'd be loaded. Of course, if he spent it all on regular alcohol, he'd not have any left by the time the 'Blonde Pixie' opened up…

He shrugged as the Dragon began to rise from its position, fixing him with a look that said it wanted a cut of his money. He nodded to it and continued to think. He'd just go bug Tanya for some to save money. Until then, he'd finish up this job… and find someone else to leech money off of.

The Dragon, satisfied that it was getting some of Dust's not-completely-legitimate money, took another look at him, at some point beyond him, and began to… laugh?

He shook his head. Maybe there was such a thing as too much alcohol, if he was imagining that the Dragon was laughing…?

He chuckled. Nah.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: Hi. Things are different.

I'd like to blame COVID for the long wait time, but I can't, since it didn't actually change my lifestyle too much.

The only thing I can really blame is the fact that I started college, and even that isn't a good defense, since I still could have written more. I guess I just wasn't motivated.

My apologies!

Alright, other updates… well, I've added some edits to all of my chapters, so I need to update them all again. Nothing major plot-wise, you don't need to worry about it. If you're on Ao3, however, you will want to go back to the beginning chapters, since I've added pictures to the beginning of the chapters. You might enjoy them!

I still haven't uploaded to SpaceBattles, might do that. Also, I might start responding to reviews again. If you have pressing questions, comment again, otherwise, you'll need to wait a bit.

What else… I watched the Isekai Quartet anime I hadn't – Re:Zero Season 1, Shield Hero, and Cautious Hero. All are good… and, now that I know more about all of them, expect a crossover between them in the future.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. We had the date, Mitsurugi is playing right into Eris's trap, despite his best efforts to break out of the mold he's been forced into, and Tanya's regretting alcohol once again. Dust is involved in his own shenanigans, but things are coming to a head, now that Viktoriya thinks that if she can't get Tanya, she'll have no one.

A/N 2: Oh, some of the references for those that didn't catch them:

The items on the MacDonalds menu – and I hope you enjoyed that absurdity. It shocks me that Kazuma is somehow the only one to think of recreating stuff from their world on a mass scale, so… someone ripped off a brand and an idea to make big bucks with the rich and/or nostalgic – are based on things that are or were on the menu for Japanese McDonalds, according to my research.

The 'Genial' Sausage-Chicken sandwich is a German sausage chicken sandwich, the Mega Mac is the same, the 'Scrumptious' choco pie is a Senkaku choco pie, and the game Kazuma and Viktoriya play is Mexican Train.