Chapter 18 Operation Monarch II: Saint's Briefing

My countrymen, it is with the heaviest of hearts and the most wounded of souls that I deliver terrible news this evening. The Empire has proven themselves, betrayers and villains, they plot to destroy our motherland, steal our wealth and bring our city to its knees. Already they have turned my brother against us and seek to use him as a puppet.

So as of this moment, The Grand Duchy of Letzenbourg officially declares War on the Empire and Allies with the François Republic. May God have mercy on us all. – Prince Regent Ludwig Albert Felix von Hozollern's War declaration

May 5th Unified Year 1925

203rd Temporary Command Centre 00:35

Tanya couldn't help feeling a warm twinge of pride as she saw her troops lined up smartly for their briefing. She knew they must be tired, having little time to recover since their last deployment but still, her loyal war dogs were raring to go. She truly had formed a posse of true war maniacs, even the injured and those with depleted mana had shown up. She wouldn't be letting those be deployed however, she wasn't about to let her military record be stained by losing men due to exhaustion or injury.

She was also glad her officers were thoughtful enough to question what they had seen in the chapel rather than reporting it as the rules prescribed. To them, it must have seemed she was assaulting a superior officer, they had no way to knowing everything else that had occurred. If they did, they'd probably think they were both mad, fortunately, she had been able to use the excuse that she was being rough on the colonel because of hysterics. They had seemed content with this and she'd added asking the medical staff for advice so that she could be seen to be doing everything she could to improve her management skills. It was kind of odd how enthusiastically they reacted to that though, but ultimately, she'd managed to retain her image as a caring and thoughtful commanding officer and escaped any risk of being reprimanded.

She felt her warm feeling cool as she saw the source of seemingly all her current stress chatting to his staff, having noticed her, he beckoned her over to join them. She had known he'd been plotting something with the high command for a while now but she hadn't expected anything as destabilizing as overthrowing his own brother. She wasn't sure how, but somehow Wilhelm had known his brother would turn on the Empire and had been planning for it, he may have even triggered it.

What annoyed her was that she had been excluded from the whole scheme. She knew the military had many secrets that were often 'need to know', perhaps Wilhelm and Canaris thought this was the same and she didn't need to know. It still irked her that she hadn't been part of the planning though.

Wilhelm obviously didn't trust her, he'd had her dancing to his tune rather than sharing his plans and working with her. That annoyed her too, she didn't like feeling like someone else's pawn, it felt like an attack on her personal freedoms. After this was all over she didn't want anything to do with his scheming again, he could have his stupid box back and leave her out of it.

Wilhelm had seemed to have decided the best way to spend the last half hour was to dress as if he was trying to impress the imperial court with tales of his heroics. If she didn't already know he'd concocted a strategy, she would have expected to be forced into a repeat of Lord Cardigan's disastrous charge of the light brigade. Instead, she settled for scoffing at his arrogance, in his mind he'd already won the upcoming battle.

"Major," He greeted tipping his cap with a slight smile. "You're up to speed I assume?"

She nodded in acknowledgment. No thanks to you, she thought wryly. He'd left the job of apprising her of his strategy to his subordinate, although it wasn't a strictly a rule it went against accepted military procedures. She swore he was trying to annoy her, it was probably some convoluted way of saving face after she had found him blubbering on the floor. She wouldn't let him get to her that easily.

She explained the expected loss combat efficiency due to their casualties and he frowned thoughtfully. It seemed even he wasn't completely ignorant of the potential problems a depleted unit might face, at least. Maybe he had paid some attention at the war college.

"We'll only take one company into the city" He began thoughtfully, "We'll have to work a bit harder, but we should be fine once we regroup with friendly forces. The rest will have to do their best to slow up the republican advance." He finished before frowning and studying Tanya for a moment.

"We don't have Wiess, you'll have to…" He began but Tanya cut him off.

"Koenig and Neumann can handle that, I've been ordered to keep you safe remember." She stated flatly, leaving no room for argument. More specifically she had been ordered to support him, keep him safe and extract him if things went south, by force if necessary. Currently, her military career was entirely dependent on keeping this bloodthirsty scheming idiot alive. She'd drag him back unconscious in a sack if necessary. She was beginning to really believe he had been sent by Being X, not for his apparent murder spree but as yet another thorn in her side.

Wilhelm stared at her with a strange look of confusion before his lips curled into a sly grin once more.

"Tanya! I didn't realise you cared" He teased "I'll leave the specifics to you then, let's begin." He finished striding onto the raised platform she usually used for briefings, while Tanya called the room to attention. In perfect unison, every soldier in the room stood straight and professionally snapped to attention. The prince took Tanya's usual place and regarded the group before adopting a sad but serious look on his face.

"By now you will all know why you are here" He began sounding sombre, "My brother has led my beloved Letzenbourg down the path to ruin and turned his back on his longest and dearest friends." He paused for a moment, He probably thinks it makes for good dramatic effect she thought dryly.

"I consider myself an Imperial as much as I consider myself a Letzenbourger, I have a duty to protect the Empire!" He continued proudly before injecting sadness back into his voice "But Letzenbourg is also my home and I must defend her too, even against herself if necessary. Therefore, I will be going to save her!" He took off his hat and coat and put them carefully on a nearby table as he spoke.

"Most of you joined to protect the Vaterland, it must seem like there is no reason to do anything to help your traitorous neighbour. You are correct, it isn't your fight, it is my duty and my responsibility, that is why I will not order anyone to join this mission." He stopped still, clenching his fists tightly while shaking slightly.

"I'm ashamed I'm so weak, I'm ashamed I have to ask this, but like you, I would do anything to save my motherland. I cannot do it alone, I need help" He said sadly, and Tanya saw tears form in the corner of his eyes.

Abruptly his voice hardened, and eyes met the assembled soldiers with steely determination.

"I don't stand before you today as a prince or colonel." He declared before carefully kneeling in front of them, causing a slight murmur of confusion from the assembled troops.

"I kneel before you as a comrade and I hope a friend, asking…..no begging for your help!" He paused once again before looking up at them with pleading eyes and an earnest innocent expression.

"Please, will you help me save my home?"

A cheer went up from the room, with enthusiastic cries of 'of course!' and 'down with the republic.' To her dismay, it seemed even her adjutant was swept up in the moment and wore a determined expression as she joined in.

Reluctantly Tanya had to admit that the little colonel was pretty good at getting the troops fired up, although they rarely needed many excuses. Rather than ordering them though, he had persuaded them to join his crusade voluntarily, he'd made them think they were helping a small innocent boy take back his homeland. In reality, they were staging a coup and there was no innocence at all about the Machiavellian colonel.

And the Oscar goes to…. She thought to herself, smirking before catching herself and ordering the troops to quieten down.

"Thank you all!" The little manipulator finished, concluding what Tanya thought to be an award-winning performance. "Now, the plan."

Their first objective was to advance on Letzenbourg city and regroup with loyal forces there. Their exact numbers were unknown, but they had been receiving intel that troops loyal to the regent were skirmishing with friendly forces within the city. Additionally, the prince's own mages had been imprisoned in a government facility on the outskirts, their rescue was a priority. Letzenbourg had few mages of its own aside from the Prince's volunteer corps, and no air force, having relied on its allies for air support. Once they were reunited, they would have effective control of the sky.

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th companies would then break off and head towards the republican advance, their job was to skirmish in order to slow down the enemy advance until General von Han's reinforcements arrived. "No heroics!" The little colonel warned, "I want to be giving you all medals, not funeral wreaths."

Meanwhile, parts of the colonel's wing were to capture the radio station and broadcast some recordings that he had made, urging the enemy Letzenbougers to surrender, or switch sides and for civilians to keep hidden. Apparently, everyone seemed willing to believe he'd recorded them in the last half hour rather than the weeks preceding the operation. His agent's Christina and Sophia would broadcast safe locations away from the fighting so that the non-combatants could take shelter.

The rest of the group were to assault the enemy command centers. He added the extra objectives of capturing the Ducal palace, which also held the parliament building and several supply depots but stressed these were secondary objectives. Tanya was pleasantly surprised at this, from the intel they had, the regent Ludwig had stayed in the city. She had expected the little colonel to abandon strategic sense and attack there directly to take him on.

She was begrudgingly impressed with the plan, although it was perhaps lacking in places on a tactical level. On a strategic level, it was fairly solid, assuming all went well, it even made sense not prioritising supply depots as they weren't planning for a prolonged battle and they'd be better leaving there capture to the footsloggers.

She would have to make up for some of his tactical shortcomings, even if the enemy didn't have mage support, taking enemy CP's wouldn't be quite as easy as he made out and they couldn't count on his broadcasts to sway every soldier in the city. Still, she appreciated the flexibility he'd left her with on these details and at least the broadcasts meant they'd be unlikely to run into civilians.

The trouble was, the entire plan relied on how long they'd be able to hold until either reinforcements or the enemy would arrive. The thought of her chances of survival being so much in the hands of others was not pleasant. Something as simple as a mechanical breakdown or a supply problem could make all the difference, but there was little anyone could do about that. That's war I suppose She thought at least I have permission to pull out with Wilhelm if things get too rough.

All in all, she felt reasonably confident, even with their depleted numbers. The only thing that had really bothered her about the whole brief was that Wilhelm seemed to keep looking over to her with a strange look. It was almost as if he was checking she approved, but if that was the case, he should have included her in the planning. Maybe she should say something to him though, this operation was obviously important to him it made sense he would be nervous and he probably still hadn't fully recovered from his earlier breakdown. He was starting to look unusually worried, and no soldier wants to see their commander looking worried.

He thanked them again before dismissing them and they filed out to prepare. She was about to follow them to give them their individual assignments when the little colonel grasped her hand.

"Major, could I speak to you?" He said looking slightly distracted, "In private..."

Xxxxx

May 5th Unified Year 1925

St Willibrord's Church Letzenbourg City

Corporal Clemes couldn't help but feel uneasy as he hurried through the dark and wide avenues of Letzenbourg city, towards the ancient St Willibrord's church. He always felt this way when he had to see the boy, he somehow felt unnatural. Still, the Regent had asked him to fetch him and he couldn't say no to him, especially since he'd managed to get Clemes released from the Imperials after that mix up about Prince Wilhelm and his medicine.

Thinking of the situation made him shiver, that girl had been terrifying, no wonder the Republicans had taken to calling her the Devil of the Rhine. She'd been supported by one prince Wilhelm's minders too which made it all the worse. The Regent, Prince Ludwig had long ago explained poor Wilhelm's illness, unfortunately, the Imperials had stuck their noses in and interfered with his treatment.

But he was ill, seriously so, much worse than the old Duke, all the signs were there but the prince had become confused and paranoid and now believed that people were trying to hurt him. He was right, but it wasn't Ludwig, it was the Imperials that were using the boy. They'd turned his staff to their cause and surrounded poor prince Wilhelm with people to reinforce his delusions. All the time his mind was slowly collapsing on itself, he knew it was breaking prince Ludwig's heart.

He finally reached the large wooden portal of the Church and knocked loudly. He could hear sporadic gunfire echoing around the city, not everyone liked Prince Ludwig's decision, and some had taken up arms and declared prince Wilhelm should be the Grand Duke. It seemed the Empire's meddling had seeped all the way into the very fabric of society, how could this happen to their peaceful little country?

Fortunately, he was in a secure area for the moment, most of the resistance had been bottled up but that didn't make him feel much safer. There were still groups breaking the cordons and infiltrating throughout the city causing trouble. No doubt there would be enemy reinforcements soon too, the Imperials wouldn't stand idly by, but it wasn't the gunfire that was making him feel anxious.

An elderly priest gingerly opened the door, he was understandably worried by all the noise, he recognised the corporal and quickly ushered him in.

"Corporal Clemes, it's good to see you. I assume you're here for young Damian?" The elderly man questioned. He nodded and followed the shuffling priest towards the altar.

Moonlight illuminated the old temple, piercing the darkness the ornate stained-glass windows bathing the inside with a strange ethereal light. Each of the windows depicted a different saint or holy figure leading towards the altar where Letzenbourg's own patron saint looked down protectively over his congregation. At the steps below the shrine knelt the boy, praying as always. Clemes shuffled uncomfortably, not wanting to disturb the boy while he was praying.

As far as Clemes knew, Damian had lived here in the church since he was a baby and had been brought up by the priests. Few people knew he even existed and as far as the corporal knew only one man knew where the boy had come from, the Regent. The boy had been quietly bought here by the regent as a child and he had asked Father Michael to look after him. Ever since Clemes and his predecessors had periodically visited to secretly check on the child and perform various errands on behalf of Prince Ludwig, including arranging the boy to learn mage craft and how to shoot. The Regent himself hadn't seen the boy since he'd been bought here, despite looking after the boy he hadn't seemed interested, until today.

The boy said his Amen and raised himself from his knees before turning and bowing to the corporal. There were several things about Damien that made Clemes feel uneasy and he felt a twinge of discomfort once again as he studied the boy. Aside from being slightly taller and perhaps surprisingly looking better fed and healthier, he looked eerily similar to Prince Wilhelm.

"I'm sorry for making you wait for Brother Clemes, Hetold me you'd be coming soon, in my dreams." The boy said in a calm and eerily peaceful tone as he cocked his head to one side.

"Dreams?" asked Clemes, he didn't like the thought of appearing in the boy's dreams, he'd always described them in weirdly cryptic and uncomfortable ways, but despite this, he couldn't help but be curious.

"I dreamt of a demon leading a child in chains, but the child wore them gladly thinking the demon was their friend. The Devil promised great rewards so forced the child to do terrible things, but the demon betrayed the child and the child lost everything. Despite that the child kept going back to the demon, not because of the chain but because they had no one else. Then a light came and spoke to me, it said 'break the cycle, they will come soon'" The boy explained staring off into the glass stained moonlight, "so you see I knew you would come for me."

Clemes shuddered, he'd been bought to fetch the boy because they had so few mages, but also because Prince Ludwig still wanted to save his brother. Damian was powerful, Ludwig hoped that the boy would be able to snatch the young prince from the Devil of the Rhine and get him to safety. Prince Wilhelm was being used by the Empire, he was like the child in chains, he shook his head. This was another thing he didn't like about Damian, it sometimes seemed like his dreams meant something more than a dream.

"Yes, you're to come with me, the Regent would like you to help him rescue Prince Wilhelm, he's been misled, he's currently with-" Clemes began but the boy raised a hand to cut him off.

"He's with the Devil," He said sadly and he stared into Clemes eyes, "I Damian Willibrord, swear on these holy relics that I will fight the devil and return Brother Wilhelm to the flock." He finished with iron conviction before turning and bidding the corporal to lead him away.

His eyes he thought that's what really makes me uncomfortable, eyes shouldn't glow like that.

Xxxxx

May 5th Unified Year 1925

203rd Temporary Command Centre

Will had spent so much time practicing his presentation, he could now deliver it word for word and movement by movement without really thinking about it. This meant he could turn his attention elsewhere and he let his mind wander as he informed the troops of the plan for Letzenbourg. He wished he hadn't.

Will made no secret that he didn't believe that any world could truly be meritocratic, the people with status and wealth were just too greedy and power-hungry for it to ever really work. They would take advantage of you while you were useful of course and even advance you to where they could squeeze the most from you. But you would never gain what you truly deserved, and you would be used until you ceased to be useful anymore. All the time they would dangle the idea of advancement over you to keep you in line.

He felt like he was walking proof of how unfair the universe was. He was allowed to do so much, simply because he was Prince Wilhelm Viktor von Hozollern, or rather they thought he was. It was laughable, his wealth and social status was incredible, and because of his assumed close relationship to his Imperial Majesty, it seemed that half the continent believed he could do no wrong and he could do as he pleased.

It had seemed all the more absurd when he found out the whole thing wasn't even true. Had he been the real prince he wouldn't have deserved any of it. The world treated him like a god but if they ever knew the truth, they would think he was utterly worthless. All the hard work and effort of his old life was meaningless, his counterfeit status was all anyone cared about anymore. Sometimes he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

This didn't mean he didn't believe people's hard work shouldn't be rewarded, quite the opposite in fact. If he believed that he couldn't justify to himself what he had and live the life he knew he deserved. He just believed that the powers that be, wouldn't ever deliver.

Now he was one of those with the power and influence, he could do things differently. He had long ago decided to use what he had to help those who helped him, he always had in his previous life, at least he had the feeling he did. Tanya would probably laugh at him and say he was trying to make his own personal meritocracy with him deciding where the merit lay. Well maybe he was, but the rest of the world wouldn't reward them so why shouldn't he use what he had to do it instead?

He'd been quietly been syphoning some of his personal wealth into the 203rd since he'd joined them. They actually wanted to fight to protect their country, unlike the bunch of mercenaries that he'd assembled in Letzenbourg, and army wages were underwhelming when you considered what they were asked to do. The battalion had a decent budget from the general staff, however, so instead of boosting that, he'd quietly been funding savings for each of them, when the war was over, they'd have a pleasant little bonus.

They were not the ones he really cared about though, it was his few most trusted that he wanted to see succeed. He considered their happiness intertwined with his own vision of his promised paradise, after all, they would be the ones that helped him make it finally happen.

Hausmann was the easiest, his desire was so simple Will had already arranged it. All he wanted a house in the country for his family and for his son to receive a good education, he'd probed further but it seemed Hausmann only craved a quiet life. He'd arranged for the boy to go to a top boarding school in the Waldstätte Confederacy and bought a house ready for them after the war. Hausmann had instructed his son to report all his progress at the school to Will, and he found he looked forward to receiving every letter.

Neither of the Zerbist sisters had shared with him what they wanted, they claimed to be happy serving him, but he wouldn't have that, so he had started thinking of ways to reward them. He thought Sophia would suit politics, it would probably take some doing though. Letzenbourg and the Empire were more progressive than a lot of the world, but equal rights were still a ways off. You only had to look at how few female officers there were to prove that. She deserved greatness though, he swore he would make her a minister someday. Maybe she could be his prime minister.

Christina could be anything, she excelled at everything she put her mind too. She'd come up against barriers when she had tried to learn medicine and mechanics, they didn't think it was 'proper' for a woman of her station to learn those things. He had taken a great deal of pleasure using his status to bully those idiots into letting her learn whatever she wanted. She should be a doctor or a scientist, he felt guilty he had to rely on her so much, on all of them.

Then there was Tanya. She had helped him too, even before they had met, he had reasons to thank her and although they hadn't necessarily seen eye to eye she had kept her side of the bargain thus far. She was someone he'd like to reward too, if he didn't the Empire would use her and toss her aside like a spent shell casing. She was like him, she was better than that, she deserved more, but unlike the others, he didn't know if he could trust her.

He knew the box was somewhere in the mansion grounds, she'd had no opportunity to move it, but he wasn't sure where. He'd let her have too much free reign with it. He hadn't been able to do anything about it though, she liked to keep an eye on him, and circumstances had kept everyone else too busy to look for it. That wouldn't matter soon enough, it would be gone for good, and she wouldn't have the proof anymore. She would still know he was a fraud, however, and she was intelligent, perhaps too intelligent, there was always the risk she could bring everything crashing down on him even without solid proof.

On top of that she knew about the sword, if she started telling people that he thought he had to kill people to survive they'd lock him up! He'd be sedated again, and that monster would end him.

Would she do it though? She'd never threatened to expose him. He hoped that meant she could still be persuaded to be on his side. If he could just get her to say she would keep it a secret he would be willing to believe her, and in return, he'd give her anything she wanted, just like he'd promised all along.

But what if she didn't?

The more he thought about it the more it terrified him, and he'd figured out why.

If you kill her then you'll be exactly like them, just like you know who A voice told him. Suddenly he saw an image of a shadowy figure holding the thinker, in his mind's eye. He'd felt himself shudder involuntarily when he thought about it during his presentation to the troops.

He almost wanted to laugh, he was feeling guilty for putting her in this position. It was entirely his fault, he'd given her the box, he'd told her the secret and now his subconscious was punishing him. In a way he almost felt thankful, as he'd watched the numbers on the sword tick up, he'd felt his capacity to feel guilt wane. People die in wars, that was a sad fact, he could justify those deaths, for the most part at least. But this barely counted as self-defense, this was like he had given her a gun and told her to shoot it at him. He had feared he was becoming an uncaring monster, but Tanya was proving that wrong. Just how will you reward her for that? By becoming her murderer? His inner voice asked darkly.

He'd initially felt confident on finally winning Tanya over, he felt he'd learned more about her personality now at least even if he didn't know much about her true self. He felt he should have been able to avoid some of his earlier mistakes at least.

Then even better news she'd insisted on staying with him on the mission, that must be a good thing. He'd found himself absent-mindedly looking over at her to see if he could read anything else from her expression but as always there was nothing but a thoughtful frown.

It was frustrating, he was normally good at persuading people, you could only do that if you can read them, but Tanya was keeping a poker face. He usually enjoyed prying some emotion from her, but he couldn't risk upsetting her now. As he continued delivering his plan, he felt his confidence waver, what if I really can't persuade her?

He felt his head begin to spin as his thoughts became darker and darker. If he failed to persuade her, he'd put himself in a no-win situation. He felt sick, on the one hand, she could single-handedly destroy his life, on the other if he was forced to kill her it would be a sad parody of what happened to his old life. He really would be a monster.

As soon as the brief was done, he grabbed her and practically dragged her into a nearby planning room before closing the door behind them. She stood by a window looking annoyed, he cursed himself for not being courteous enough to brief her himself, of course, she'd be annoyed. Well, it was too late to change that now, it seemed that he hadn't learned from his earlier mistakes when dealing with her.

He at least had some strategy though, he had learned over the past few months that she liked people to be direct. This seemed to be doubly so for him, but then again, she had an uncanny ability to see through him, she probably didn't like the extra effort.

He couldn't exactly say "keep my secret or I have to kill you, but if you stay quiet, I'll figure a way to make you chancellor" however. He would ask her how she planned to proceed after this mission, he'd be truthful and direct, he'd ask what her opinion on him being the Grand Duke would be and depending on her reactions, he'd let her choose her reward. But what if she reacts badly? The dark voice asked.

He opened his mouth to speak trying to ignore the voice but something in the darkened window behind Tanya caught his eye. For the briefest second, it seemed like his reflection loomed over her, holding that statue, its eyes were bloodthirsty, and it wore an evil looking grin. He blinked and it returned back to his normal reflection and he felt his mouth go dry.

"Was there a reason you dragged me in here Wilhelm? There's a lot to do if you want to be in the air within the next 20 minutes." Tanya asked not bothering to hide her irritation.

He felt his heart racing, what was that he'd seen? Was his subconscious really feeling it that badly? Was it the lack of sleep or the pervitin? Was the monster playing with him? Or was he really that terrified of becoming that? His strategy fled his mind completely as he scrabbled around his head to string together a sentence. Out of habit he drew his sword and stared at the number, as much as he hated the thing it direct his thoughts and helped him focus on his ultimate goal.

He saw Tanya drawback warily and it took him a moment to realise why. You moron you just drew a sword on her! He yelled at himself inwardly. He dropped it abruptly and stepped back murmuring an apology while she raised a confused eyebrow at him, and he saw the evil reflection flicker in the window once more.

"Are you ok? Your acting odd even for you." Tanya asked as he struggled to find any words to answer her with. She was searching his face with a sign of concern.

"Just tired and a bit of nerves." He stuttered in return, desperately trying to pull himself back together.

"If you're worried about your plan it was…fine, I'll deal with anything else on the way." She said sounding as if she was attempting to be comforting.

"The plan…. Yes," He murmured "but…"

"I would have preferred if you'd consulted me," She interrupted, "but it should be fine if your reinforcements arrive." Will now felt even more confused and out of control of the situation, this was perhaps the closest he'd ever heard to praise from her. He felt a pang of hope again, maybe she really wouldn't turn on him, maybe he could trust her. She must have seen his spirits begin to lift because her face hardened once more.

"Now pull yourself together colonel, you of all people should realize no soldier wants to see a weak leader," She reprimanded him before striding away.

He felt the stress lift from him, and the dark shadow seemed to fade away. He could feel his confidence returning, he could even feel a smile returning. Instead of dread he began feeling excitement for the upcoming mission, she was accepting him as being in charge, surely that meant he could trust her didn't it? He wouldn't have to do anything to her, no, instead he could reward her as he'd promised!

"Your reward," He said calling after her "You never told me what you want me to do for you after this, as a thank you."

She stopped and turned giving him an icy cold glare. There wasn't often a great deal of friendliness in Tanya's eyes, at least not for him, but there was nothing but cold loathing in her icy blue eyes that moment. Suddenly all the stress and dark fears returned as her stare sapped all his newfound confidence.

"This again" she hissed angrily, "I don't care what new game you're playing Wilhelm, but I won't have any part of it."

What did I do? What did I say wrong? His mind raced, there is no game what was she talking about?

"Just to be clear colonel, if the brass orders me to work with you I will. Other than that, I want nothing to do with you or your plans." She seethed still holding him in place with her eyes.

He couldn't speak, he didn't understand why she had suddenly turned on him like this, what had he done to provoke her? Please, I don't understand.

"Get a grip colonel, I thought you wanted to save your home," She sneered before storming out of the room, leaving him to feel lost and confused.

He still had no answer, he still didn't know if she would expose him, but now it seemed more likely she would. It had all gone wrong, even his own subconscious had turned on him. She was right about one thing though, he had to pull himself together.

He stared over at his reflection, feeling a newfound hatred replacing the usual feeling of discomfort. What happened to doing anything to get what you deserve? It seemed to say to him mockingly.

He took a deep breath and arranged his thoughts as he concentrated on how he needed to project himself to the world. He was going to be the saviour of Letzenbourg, he had to start acting like it, the reflection was now looked back at him with determination and he felt slightly better.

There was a knock at the door and Christina entered carrying his flight gear, seeing her made him feel more confident again, he still had those who he could count on.

"I hope I'm not intruding my prince, but we need to get you suited up." She stated bowing. He suddenly felt foolish, this whole situation with Tanya had snowballed so much that he'd almost forgotten that today was to be the most important day of his young life.

As Christina started helping him into his boots and strapping the mana storage units to him, he couldn't help but feel like a knight readying for a crusade. Today might not go down as one of the greatest victories in history but it would be a personal triumph and a huge step towards getting everything he and his loyal followers deserved.

"I handed Lieutenant Wiess your sealed orders and instructed him to carry them out as soon as we leave," Christina reported slightly hesitantly as she fastened a boot, "Are you sure you really want to do it?"

"It's necessary" He replied nodding, "besides it'll be a fresh start."

"Very well sir" She acknowledged, "I couldn't help notice Miss Degurechaff looking a little distressed as she left."

That's an understatement, and she's not the only one he thought trying to avoid eye contact with her. She knew him too well, she would see that something was bothering him if he didn't work hard to hide it.

"We had a disagreement that's all" he replied feeling the dread rebuilding inside him at the mention of Tanya. Talking hadn't worked, perhaps actions would, hopefully, there'd be some opportunity on the mission to scope out her intent. If not…..

"I see" replied Christina, "I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, sir, but I'll be glad when we see the end of her. She's disrespectful and you two have nothing in common."

Another vision flashed through Will's mind for a second, and he felt a cold dread. This time he was stood over the lifeless beaten form of Tanya holding that accursed statue. He could feel the weight of it in his hands, he could smell the blood dripping from it and spreading across the floor.

"I hope we don't have anything in common" he whispered quietly

Authors Notes

Thank you all for continuing to read this! It's great it really inspires me to carry on!

It took longer to get this chapter ready than I intended, it's been hard work and I ended up rewriting half of it for reasons I will explain below. But I still managed my personal deadline of 1 chapter a week, so I feel good about that, even if I'm not super sure on this one overall. :/

There are a few things I want to talk about with this chapter (for those that actually read these parts), so I'll try to go in order.

Anyone who doesn't know, the charge of the light brigade happened during the Crimean war, during the battle of balaclava (presumably between inventing knitwear). The English Light cavalry brigade under Lord Cardigan misinterpreted their orders and charged through a valley towards a bunch of cannons. Needless to say, it didn't end well. There's an old film, a poem by Tennyson and Iron maiden did a song called the Trooper about it all of which are pretty good.

Wilhelm's speech and plan, hopefully, the speech was actually somewhat persuasive, if I have to make him do that again I'm going to have to do way more research if not. Equally I hope his plan seems logical, I'm no tactical genius but I did find out that its not unusual for supply areas to be secondary targets in military operations.

That corporal is back again! I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that guy, but he was convenient to introduce Damian Willibrord. I kinda wish I'd put something earlier but we're tying up an ark and I wanted someone for Tanya to beat up (he's got other uses too, but I want to write Tanya kicking butt).

Wilhelm wanting to reward his followers. This was the part I left out of the last chapter, and hopefully, it humanises him a bit. He was always supposed to be hypocritical in that way, he's just so bitter about his own past he can't accept that his new life would be any different.

His conversation with Tanya was the part I had to scrap a lot of and rewrite, it was originally Tanya's POV carrying on from the 1st section and it ended up with the 2 arguing about the meritocracy. There was a bit I really liked that explained a bit more of the prince's warped view of the world, but I had to scrap it because it felt like the argument would kill the story. I have put it below though, its obviously not story cannon but if you fancy reading it feel free.

I also came to the conclusion that Tanya and Wilhelm don't understand each other at all and that's largely Wilhelm's fault. Because of his secretive and paranoid behaviour so far, by this point Tanya should be suspicious of everything he tries to promise her, so I found keeping that conversation from her POV inevitably turned the conversation into an argument and didn't convey what the prince was trying to do. It also occurred to me most of what you guys know about the prince (other than a few bits from Sophia and Christina) is all from Tanya and she isn't exactly a fan. I try to write as the character sees it rather than what is necessarily true, just what they think and feel at the time.

So instead I bought forward part of an idea I was going to use later, loosely based on Macbeth (note Wilhelm's reading list) and explored the prince's guilt. I know it seems odd him being guilty about murder of all things but so far, the only killing he's done, he's been able to justify to himself through the war. He's done other horrible things but always to further his goals. The situation with Tanya is all his fault so he is struggling to justify it to himself. That I think is a key difference between him and Tanya, she justifies her actions as a way of survival, Wilhelm is trying to justify his actions to himself and as a way to reach his goals. I do worry I bought it forward too early though.

Thank you again as always

Xanen

The bit I cut out

"You forget the military is a meritocracy, I can…." She began before he cut her off.

"MERITOCRACY IS A SHAM!" the boy suddenly exploded slamming a fist on the table. "Look at your superiors, Zettour's family have been nobility for generations, Rudersdorf is from wealthy gentry! I know they're good at what they do but do you honestly believe that they'd be where they if they hadn't been born with those advantages? Even you only got this far because of how you were born!"

"I think you're getting confused colonel" she answered keeping her voice calm "if you recall, I was brought up in an orphanage, we didn't have enough food, let alone privilege." She explained, the boy must have thought she was mocking him, and his face contorted further into frustrated annoyance.

"I'm not stupid Degurechaff!" he hissed in irritation "I meant that you were born a mage!"

She hadn't been expecting this and blinked at him in confusion. Since when did magical ability have anything to do with being promoted by merit?

"Do you really think you could have achieved even half of what you have without magical talent? The Imperial army only relaxes its recruitment policy for mages and it's the only time they take on female officers, that's why the rules for female officers are so outdated." He began explaining as a cruel and bitter look crossed his face.

"If you weren't born a mage, you'd still be starving in that orphanage. You'd have no cadet school, no war college. You wouldn't be able to afford a decent education without the state paying for it and they wouldn't consider a little urchin girl worth the trouble to invest in. The Empire might be a little more progressive than some places but equal rights is still a long way away, the best you could ever hope for is being married off to someone well off enough to look after you. If you weren't born a mage you'd be nothing! Nobody would even have given you the chance!" he spat venomously at her.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, he truly believed this warped logic and was trying to make it seem like it made sense, but it was all so completely wrong. She knew that she was capable, and would always find a way to not just survive but to succeed, if for no other reason than to spite Being X. Wilhelm seemed utterly convinced that your natural talents, social status and wealth are hard caps on what you can achieve and that without them you are doomed to failure. She wondered what must have happened for him to believe this, he sounded so bitter that he clearly had experienced something that made him feel this way. Knowing him though, it was probably his own fault.

"And who do you have to thank for your good fortune? Being X or whatever, you called it, that thing gave you all of this, that thing let you succeed." He said fixing her with a strange look. He somehow made it sound as if this life was a gift from Being X, rather than the cruel joke it really was.

"Is that why you pray to it Tanya?" he asked looking disgusted at her "thank you oh lord!" he mocked, and she felt her anger begin to rise.

"You'll thank that thing for making you an orphan, but you won't even consider letting me help you get what you actually deserve," he continued to mock bitterly. "Maybe you should just give it all up and go back to the nuns, I'm sure you'll make a fine bride of God"