Chapter 21: Operation Monarch V: Fortress Letzenbourg
Before the Great War, the borders of the European nations were formalised within The Treaty of Londinium. In truth, this was not one treaty but several signed and underwritten by the great powers and the appropriate lesser power each treaty pertained to. It was of course up to all the great powers to enforce the terms of these treaties, whether or not they were properly enforced, depended entirely on the political situation at the time.
A notable example would be the 4th Treaty of Londinium of 1890, which created the demilitarised zone in Nordon between the Empire and the Legondia Entente Alliance. We know it was the Entente that crossed into the demilitarized zone thus starting the Great War. Technically the treaty required all the Great powers to act against the Alliance, this, of course, did not happen for fear of an Imperial hegemony.
Another example is the 3rd Treaty of Londinium of 1870, this treaty required the fortress city of Letzenbourg to dismantle its fortifications and remain neutral in any conflict. In reality, Letzenbourg remained an ally to the Empire and several of its fortifications remained intact. The complicated political conditions of the next 50 years meant that none of the other powers intervened, for fear of losing power in the great political game being played out. – Excerpt of Was The Great War Inevitable by Prof. J. R. Gordon
April Unified Year 1925
Rhine Theatre
Artillery Captain Claus Böhmer was excited to finally get some action. Usually, in the artillery, you were expected to keep a constant torrent of fire on the enemy, at least until the poor bastards in the trenches were supposed to advance anyway. They would toil day and night to feed the hungry Gods of the battlefield so that they could rain death down upon any that dare stand before them. His guns remained eerily quiet however, instead of delivering their lethal cargos, his Gods stayed silent and menacing, as they waited to be unleashed once more.
He and his battery had spent the last few weeks sat twiddling their thumbs, they wore bored out of their minds and the only duty they'd had was to clean and maintain the huge artillery pieces. They'd been deployed miles behind the lines, this wasn't especially unusual for weapons that could fire over such long distances, but the rest of the 7th Artillery regiment had been deployed much further north and had been enjoying blasting the hell out of the Republicans.
It was frustrating, nobody seemed to be able to explain why they were here and the orders had asked them to set their guns facing the wrong direction, it was insanity! He hadn't been able to question it though, the pretty girl from command who had given the two sealed envelopes was explicit about who he could and could not contact.
The first set of orders had been to provide artillery support for the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, while the second set was only to be opened once they received a message with the code-word Carthage. This had struck him as odd, to begin with, what do mages need Artillery for? Although their guns were more devastating than anything a mage could manage, he had heard their artillery spells could easily deal with anything they might be asked to do. He doubted they'd use an entire Battalion to spot for them, besides they were miles away from any enemy, so they sat and waited for further instructions.
They'd not even heard anything from their new commander, Major von Degurechaff, hell they hadn't even been told where her command centre was! He couldn't help feeling a little insulted, it was common courtesy to meet the officers under your command. He was also privately disappointed, he'd been looking forward to meeting the heroic figure, it seemed her reputation as a hard-ass was justified.
The pretty girl from command had visited regularly to reassure them though, that was a welcome and refreshing breath of fresh air. She was a slim young lady in her 20s with beautiful hazel eyes and long chocolate hair and the way she smiled almost made his heart leap out of his chest. Her uniform was well fitted and clung tightly to her body, perfectly accentuating her lithe figure, while emphasizing her considerable assets. He struggled to remind himself that he was a married man when the girl was around, so when she assured him that he was doing a good job of following orders he didn't want to question her.
The only other remotely exciting thing to happen to the battery was when a bunch of trainee mages had shown up, with a rather excited kid. It just went to show what strange breed combat mages were, the kid looked as though he still wet the bed, yet they bundled him up in a uniform and bought him along with them to a warzone. The kid didn't even seem fazed by it all, he didn't know if mages were fearless or just dumb, but whichever it was it, they must have been born with it. He'd much rather stay behind his cannons than be one of those lunatics.
While they visited, they indulged in the age-old soldier's tradition of trading contraband and swapping rumours, while some of the troops showed the kid the Howitzers, he' seemed so excited about them they couldn't turn him down. He hadn't been able to talk too much about the orders, of course, it was a secret after all, and he wouldn't want to do anything to upset the pretty girl from command. It had been nice to get some news from the outside and they'd managed to make decent trade-in contraband.
Now finally they'd had radio transmission with the code-word so they could open the second set of orders, finally their guns would sing again, finally, they had a chance to contribute to the war!
He rushed to the command tent and ripped open the envelope enthusiastically before studying the contents. There were orders to shell a wide area in and around a set of coordinates for no less than 2 hours. He quickly cross-referenced the coordinates with his maps and was puzzled to find it was a nearby manor house belonging to the Letzenbourg royal family.
He considered this information for a few moments, although they had been under strict radio silence, they had still been listening to the radio chatter. It seemed the Letzenbourgers had gone rogue and switched sides, they must have some forces held up in that house. But how on earth had Degurechaff known? They said she was a prodigy, but was she really so good she'd foreseen they whole uprising before it had happened? She really must be something else.
With a grin on his face, he strode confidently out of the command tent and scrambled his men, cursing slightly for letting discipline slip and allowing them to overindulge on the contraband. He screamed for their spotter to deploy quickly and for his men to get the guns primed and ready. The fire controllers double-checked their calculations, although it was unnecessary, that house had been pretty much the only thing they could aim at these past few weeks.
With a cocky grin, he ordered them to open fire, by the time they were finished, the house and everything within a mile radius would be atomized. If there really were Letzenbourg traitors hiding in the building, they'd soon be praying to god himself. This is the only God that'll answer you though he smirked to himself cruelly and patting a Howitzer.
2 hours later the spotters confirmed there was nothing left but smouldering craters. He shared some of the good US cigarettes they'd procured as well as some schnapps with his men, they'd successfully done their part to secure the Vaterland.
2 days later he was summoned back to a furious regimental commander, apparently, they'd been listed as MIA. He'd tried to explain the orders they'd received from the pretty lady, but nobody had ever seen or heard of her. Worse still, their target had turned out to be Major Degurechaff's HQ and it belonged to Prince Wilhelm, the Imperial backed leader of Letzenbourg. He was to be investigated and court marshalled, what would he tell his wife? I was led astray by the pretty girl from command.
May 5th Unified Year 1925
Letzenbourg City, Fort Lamberd 03:45
The Bratty colonel had managed to shock and confuse Tanya once again, this time by making competent and rational decisions. She had initially suspected that his decision to give her the job of coordinating the city forces was some sort of ploy to drag her into whatever was the next step of his convoluted plans. She had already told him she refused to be involved any further but as always the brat didn't seem to be able to contemplate that things don't always go his way.
To her surprise, however, he hadn't started promising rewards or tried cajoling her into anything. He had simply pointed out that she was the best person for the job and that it would look good to the brass. Both of these points were true, she was the most senior and experienced field commander they had so it made sense that she organize the ground forces and she had yet to command multiple units so it gave her an ideal opportunity to further prove her worth to command.
The fact that he gave her the job at all was almost strange, she had fully expected him to take over himself to further his bizarre hero complex. Instead, he insisted she do it, citing that it was better he be seen by the troops. It was puzzling, she had been certain that he didn't trust her, but as he'd pointed out he had given her the power to deploy him wherever she deemed necessary, it was almost like he'd given her the power of life and death over him and the mission. It was quite the gesture of trust, all the more so since she had just tried to remove him from command for psychological reasons, it was fortunate he hadn't realized.
It appeared too good to be true, Wilhelm never seemed to do anything without an ulterior motive, he must not want her looking over his shoulder she reasoned. She'd left Serebryakov to relay information to her so she could still accompany him and insisted he stay with her 1st company, at least that way she could keep an eye on him. She'd been certain he'd raise objections, but he simply accepted it without a fuss, as far as she could tell, he was being honest and had given her the role because she was best suited for it. For someone who doesn't believe the meritocratic system works, he certainly doesn't have a problem assigning work on merit She thought, wondering if he would see the irony.
It did, of course, make a lot more work for her, which wasn't ideal when you're trying to avoid being shot at. The colonel was being somewhat helpful in that regard, he had nominally put himself in charge of the remainder of the 1st company, although she knew if push came to shove they'd follow her orders over his, it did help lessen her workload a little. He also regularly made suggestions about troop deployments and movements, as well as help with the local geography, easing her task a little too.
He also helped ease some of the communication issues she was having, at least when the radio connections were working properly. Letzenbourg had its own language and dialect that had been shaped by centuries of being sandwiched between the Empire and the republicans, although most of the officers also spoke either Imperial or François. However, many of the senior officers had defected and the gaps filled with NCOs. Imperial wasn't the first language of these men, worse still several of the soldiers didn't speak it at all and this was causing her some problems making herself understood. She had learned some of the Federation, Commonwealth and Republican languages at the war college, but doubted he could be counted as truly fluent. Letzenbourgish was an optional course, however, and she hadn't considered that it would ever be especially useful. The language was similar enough she could get the gist but she often had to fill in the gaps.
The colonel had obviously been keeping an ear free to listen to her troubles however as he would occasionally interject whenever there seemed to be problems. He even forced an apology out of some of the soldiers after one such incident. She hadn't much thought about it before, but the boy seemed surprisingly articulate in several languages, his radio broadcasts were of course in Letzenbourgish, but he spoke Imperial so well she would not have assumed it wasn't his preferred language. She'd also heard him speak fluent Francois as well as read newspapers from the Commonwealth, Federation and Waldstätte Confederacy.
Tanya was beginning to feel a strange, unfamiliar and entirely unwelcome feeling about the bratty colonel, respect. Although it was very much begrudged and generally, he was still fairly infuriating, he had started to make decent decisions and be useful. She just wished he'd been like this from the beginning, it would have made the last few months far more palatable.
Despite outranking her, she had never seen the little colonel command a mission. The way he acted made her assume, he'd used his social status to essentially buy his commission. His attitude was that it had been owed to him and he had always claimed he actually had trouble with the brass trying to remove him from the front lines. All of this had led her to believe he would be ineffectual at command, but to her surprise, he actually seemed to have the potential to be a capable officer.
She couldn't say he was necessarily a good military commander, he seemed to delegate a little too much for that and had an overreliance on his plan. She would, however, admit he was a good leader. Although his management style was far too relaxed for her liking, she had to admit it seemed to be working for him. He adopted a very hands-off style of supervising his troops, delegating to those he decided were suited for the most part. Once he'd given instructions, however, no matter how vague, he trusted that they would be carried out, although he did keep an ear on what was going on and interjected occasionally.
His way of delivering orders was strange as well, she'd originally silently mocked him but later realised he was subtly manipulating again, his calm and friendly requests seemed to put people at ease and some even seemed to feel like they were doing him a favour. He didn't chastise any failures or objections, allowing her to play the bad guy in those situations but was always quick to say or do something to restore morale or mediate disagreements. He acted more like a politician or a diplomat than a soldier but somehow, he made it work. Overall all it seemed his calm and confident demeanour was infecting those around him, she wondered how much of it was part of the act.
He had been right about one thing though, it was important in this battle that he be seen by both friendly and enemy troops. She'd thought his dress-up act and annoying broadcasts to be wasteful, or at best a convenient distraction, but seeing the effect they'd had on the people of Letzenbourg she began to wonder. It was all purposeful and rehearsed, she realised, it was another part of his psychological warfare tactics and it had been remarkably effective.
His broadcasts had had several effects, it had caused a few defections among the Regent's forces, but more importantly, it clearly caused problems for enemy morale, while boosting the resolve of friendly forces. If anything, it had perhaps worked too well, some of the citizens had begun forming militias and were turning against their traitorous ruler. Rather than helping this had actually caused more problems for them, they were even less coordinated and mostly got in the way of real soldiers. The only upside was that seeing their own people turn on them was crippling the Regent's forces further and groups of the enemy had begun retreating.
Due to all this, they had managed to take their own objective with very few shots fired, most of the enemy had retreated or surrendered as soon as they saw 'The Saint' and had abandoned their positions. This meant that Fort Lamberd had been almost defenceless by the time the friendly ground troops arrived to occupy it. Most seemed to have retreated to either the Ducal palace or the Casements du Bach, a vast set of tunnels being used as a command centre, that Hausmann's group was assaulting. Those that did resist were ferociously gunned down by friendly troops as the little colonel's presence spurred them on to fight harder to defeat their traitorous countrymen.
This is where she began to understand why the boy had so much faith in his plan, the reason was such a Wilhelm thing she almost laughed out loud. He had to be confident because the plan revolved around him, he'd made himself a hero and a symbol for both friend and foes alike. He'd arranged it so that his presence could quickly turn the tide of an engagement so it required him to show completely unshakable faith that they would succeed, and it seemed to be working. If not for the time limit imposed by incoming republican reinforcements, he could have probably pulled this off without mage support. Still remembering how he had been in the briefing room before, she wondered how confident he really was, how much of this was an act?
She'd even began wondering if the little colonel was quite as reckless as she had originally thought, or if it was all part of the act. Aside from a few opportunistic shots, he hadn't even engaged himself since the first combat drop, even he seemed to understand that if he should fall the plan would fall apart. He wasn't taking any unnecessary risks it seemed.
He was mostly waving his sword around like he was a medieval king spurring on his troops. Although she swore she would never think using a sword in this day and age was anywhere near sensible, no matter how good he was with the blade, it was having the desired effect of encouraging the troops.
Realising this she began to consider how reckless his flying style really was too and she considered what she had been taught about mage flight. Her experience was entirely based on her military training and combat experience, she hadn't even seen a person fly before she joined up.
She remembered almost laughing out loud at the absurdity of a person flying without the aid of an aircraft, but when she'd seen it, she'd been forced to accept it as truth. It was one of the many little jokes that Being X had played on her when he flung her unsolicited into this familiar yet alien world. So, once she'd accepted it, she had thrown herself into it as she would with any other work task, training hard in the cadet school and letting her healthy sense of self-preservation do much of the work on the battlefield.
She had heard it said that she soared above the battlefield like a fairy, although she wasn't especially pleased with saying. Apparently, it was meant as a compliment, that she was adept, perhaps even graceful in the sky. She knew, of course, this was nonsense, it was another slight on her height and a bitter reminder that she was wearing the body of a small girl. Besides, there seemed to be the implication that it was almost instinctual for her and nothing was further from the truth.
She had worked hard at the cadet school to master flight, she had studied the flight textbooks meticulously and observed the other cadets to learn from their mistakes. She trained hard until it stopped feeling alien to her and when she attempted a manoeuvre, she did it knowing it would work because she had seen the numbers that told her it would work. It was only because she had studied the science behind the magic that the insane Dr Schugel had persuaded her to put up with the absurd testing for the type 95.
There had only been a few times, notably in the north, that she'd ever really needed to improvise, and then it had been life or death and instinct took over. It was only through practice and determination that she was adept as she was, that most others weren't as proficient as her was due to their own lack of due diligence, not because she was naturally more talented in the craft than them.
Wilhelm's induction to mage flight had been very different, he had told her about it one day while bothering her in her office. She hadn't really been paying attention, in fact, she'd been trying to ignore him, but from what she understood, the magically gifted elite often learned to fly as a leisure activity. He'd often tried getting her to go flying with him, but she'd thought it a waste of time, she'd never even considered the possibility of it being a recreational activity. But in hindsight, this went some way to explain his cavalier attitude, to her flight was simply a tool, to him, it was a hobby. It was the difference between learning to drive on a racetrack or on the road, learning in a Ferrari was vastly different from learning in a small hatchback.
After he lectured her on the different types of mage gear, she realised something, he had very different flying experience than her. The proof of that was back in the equipment shed back at the HQ, it contained flight gear from almost every mage capable nation and although she'd never seen him use them, he was clearly knowledgeable on their designs and capabilities. Her experience was gained entirely within the military, using the Imperial standard model of gear. His had started as play and doing tricks for the people watching like in the shows, he and Visha had described, so he had always flown to show off his prowess. This would explain his flourishes while in the air, they were likely habits from learning to fly as a civilian that nobody had bothered to correct when he joined the military or perhaps part of his hero persona.
She had noticed he had been flying differently since being back in his Letzenbourg gear. At first, she'd assumed it was more showing off, he did seem to think he was the hero of this endeavour after all but the other Letzenbourg mages were flying in a similar manner. The gear seemed to allow for sudden stops or abrupt changes in direction much more easily than with the imperial variant and the low-level hovering it afforded, meant that they didn't need to slow as much before landing.
Additionally, he'd also shown he knew its limitations too, it wasn't usual for a mage to carry a spare computation orb outside of test flights. She only had an extra because she refused to use the type 95 due to its mind-altering effects. He was using his in the same way a paratrooper would use a reserve shoot, this at least showed he was not ignorant of the risks he took and was, in fact, trying to minimise them. He was being efficient with his flight gear she realised, or he would be if not for insisting on using his sword.
His use of the archaic weapon still boggled her mind. He seemed to think he needed to use it to fulfil his pact to Being X or whatever false deity he'd bargained with, although so far, she hadn't confirmed the point with him yet. The only thing he had mentioned about it was a number that only he seemed to be able to see. If not for the link to Being X she'd have questioned this, but she had her own cursed object to deal with and didn't particularly want to have anything to do with another.
She'd be happy to admit he was incredibly skilled with the weapon, that he could employ it at all on a modern battlefield was miraculous, but she just didn't see the benefit of using it. It wasn't even if he was a bad shot when he did bother to use his rifle, she didn't think she'd ever seen him, miss. That he was such a proficient shot just made watching him wave around that lump of metal all the more annoying.
With all this in mind, she now felt like she had not utilised Wilhelm as well as she should have while he had been with the 203rd. In fact, from a human resource point of view, she'd been unforgivably wasteful with the abilities of both him and his staff. They all had skills that could have been used to improve the battalion, Wilhelm had even offered as much but she had allowed her mistrust of him to dissuade her from using them. Equally, because she had neither tried to find or use Wilhelm's own talents, he had not been given the opportunity to put his skills to proper use to prove any worth to her.
She had also failed to utilise his psychological warfare and inspirational abilities to their full potential and now she had seen his potential as a half-decent officer she had failed to cultivate his leadership abilities into something useful for the Empire. As a former HR manager, Tanya thought of this as an unforgivable waste and lapse of good judgment on her part. She was slightly disgusted with herself, this wasn't how she did things.
From a certain point of view, you could consider the colonel's team being attached to the battalion as almost like having sub-contractors, of course, they had their own goals for their own business but that didn't mean you shouldn't use them you simply had to manage them differently and make sure your goals don't conflict.
This was key, Wilhelm may have been plotting this operation for some time, she couldn't say it conflicted with those of her and her superiors. Although it seemed to have been hidden form much of the military command structure it had been given the green light by at least one member of the supreme high command. As much as she didn't like the situation, it was the desired outcome of the Empire's top level of governance.
What she wouldn't concede, however, was that Wilhelm's dealings with her had been handled any better. Perhaps it was operationally necessary that certain parts of command were left out of the loop for this operation but until she'd had the telegram from Admiral Canaris she'd received nothing close to official orders. Instead, Wilhelm had tried to bribe cajole and ultimately blackmail himself in order to get her to go along with him.
It was clear he could have arranged orders to be attached to her unit if he wanted to, even with her trying to block him. Instead, he seemed obsessed with trying to persuade her to join him willingly, he was like a rival company trying to poach a talented employee. The only explanation she could really come up with was that he had used too much of his influence trying to get her there in the first place by engineering his own rescue. This just showed how poorly he'd tried to manage their alliance in the first place.
His covert way of dealing with things ran counter to the way she liked to see things work, she counted on the safety net that orders provided, anything he offered, only afforded the protection that he would give personally. With someone as ambitious and prone to taking risks as Wilhelm, that was far too dangerous. Meanwhile, this lack of trust between them meant that she had been kept out of the loop, further exacerbating the problem.
Ultimately both of them had dealt with each other in entirely the wrong way. There had been mistakes made by both of them and Tanya didn't like mistakes.
"We should move to reinforce Hausmann, the enemy commanders seem to want to hold onto those tunnels," said the Colonel snapping her out of her thoughts. "Are you ok Major? You seemed a little preoccupied for a moment" he continued with a smile. Out of habit she searched his words and expression for hints of mockery but was relieved to find none. Perhaps he's rightly concerned that the officer he put in charge of coordinating forces seemed to be daydreaming, she chastised herself.
"I'm fine Colonel, I was just thinking that if you were my subordinate, you've shown enough aptitude that I might be able to make you a decent officer." She replied smiling slightly, eliciting chuckles from her company and even a few nearby Letzenbourgers. You're not the only one that can inspire troops she smiled to herself.
"I can only hope that one day I can be half the commander you are Major" he grinned and bowed in return, "Now we better be off."
They took back to the air with the shouts of some of the Letzenbourg militia shouting something she didn't understand as encouragement. She was slightly concerned to see a strange look cross the little colonel's face as he heard it and his face reddened slightly. Apparently whatever the militia had called out had obviously caught him off guard and had cracked through his hero façade. She was curious as to what it might be, this wasn't a good time for him to be losing his composure.
"What did they say?" She asked with genuine interest.
"Mir freeën eis op d'Kréinung fir Iech an Är Prinzessin" He replied hurriedly averting his eyes from her, "They wished us good luck and that they look forward to the coronation."
"Didn't they say something about a princess?" She asked mentally trying to translate the phrase, there might be some subtext she wasn't picking up.
"You must have misheard. Anyway, let's focus on the mission" He finished cutting the conversation short. He was right of course, he'd now seemed to have pulled himself together so now it was a moot point.
They soon reached the outer pickets of the forces attacking the Casements du Bach and Captain Hausmann approached and reported his lack of progress apologetically.
She could see why the Letzenbourg Captain was having a tough time of it. The structure was a fortress built on and into the side of a solid rock cliff, atop and surrounding it were several the now-familiar AA batteries laying down a suppressive barrage of fire on anything airborne that dared get close. Cut into the cliff face itself were several weapon gun emplacements using the natural rock as an almost impenetrable pillbox. If it weren't bad enough that many of these contained heavy machine guns, several also housed small field guns capable of taking out swathes of infantry and even piercing armour, not that they had any.
On top of that, since this fortress housed the Letzenbourg commanders their morale had remained solid. They couldn't rely on defections or surrender so they needed to find a way to break in before the republicans arrived. The task must have looked so daunting to the besieging ground troops, Wilhelm would be needed just to keep them from fleeing. The Colonel's psych attacks were no more useful penetrating that rock than their own troops were. Even a barrage of artillery spells was Likely only to punch a few holes for them to exploit.
"I thought this was supposed to have been torn down in the treaty of Londinium" Complained Tanya. The War college had taught her that Letzenbourg had once been a fortress city with many such fortifications as this, the treaty was supposed to keep the country neutral and it was supposed to dismantle most of its fortresses so that neither the Empire or the Republic could take advantage of them. Obviously, someone had been sloppy with enforcing those stipulations, if anything it looked more like they'd been fortifying further since the 19th-century treaty.
"Nobody in the Empire was complaining when its occupants were pro-empire," Wilhelm retorted with a frown.
He had obviously come to the same conclusion as her, this would be a tough nut to crack. The AA guns were keeping the mages at distance and the firepower aimed at the approaching troops would make storming the structure costly. They had no armour or artillery support and they didn't have the luxury of time to starve them out. It would be tempting to leave them completely but from this bunker, they had command of all the Regent's forces in and out of the city and could cause major problems even after reinforcements arrived.
Even once they got past all that there were supposed to be miles of tunnels underneath to deal with. Once they were in the tight underground passages the mages lost the advantage of mobility, they'd essentially be tougher infantry, but in those close confines, they could easily be overwhelmed. They would need the ground troops once inside.
She found herself staring at the type 95 in her hand, she was worried but not entirely surprised that she had no recollection of taking it from the chain on her neck. Being X's baleful influence must have urged her to take hold of it and she found herself feeling slightly sick at the idea of the faux God interfering with her free will. She knew if she used it, she would have both the firepower to blow the fortress wide open for them and the range to avoid the AA batteries. She didn't want to use the cursed object unless it was a life or death situation though.
"You don't use that often I notice, I've heard people say you can perform miracles with that thing," She prince said staring at the relic in her hand before meeting her gaze with a serious expression. "Is that why you pray when you use it?"
She narrowed her eyes and felt the bile rise in her stomach at the comment, was he going to order her to use it? She wouldn't do it, she would refuse to lose more of herself to Being X for the boy's foolish ambitions. She needed to think fast, there must be another way to break into the fortress.
"If that's so I forbid you from using it, singing the praises of that thing will ruin my victory," The colonel said much to her surprise. "Besides, it makes me feel…strange when I hear you praying, I don't like it" he finished while his face contorted into a frown once more.
There would be no argument from her, but she was still surprised, she was sure Wilhelm would have jumped at the opportunity to finish them off quickly. She wondered what he meant by it making him feel strange, perhaps the type 95's malign influence affected him too. She hated Being X with everything she had, he, however, seemed terrified of the wannabe God and terrified of the prospect of no longer existing, it was possible the device triggered some deep dread in him.
Wilhelm was now staring out at the fortress, watching some groups exchange fire, they needed to find a way in and soon. It looked like it would be a costly assault, but they did have the numbers, although she wasn't keen on such high attrition rates being attributed to her 1st command of multiple units. There didn't seem to be many alternatives however unless there was more about the structure she was unaware of. She looked over to the little colonel to see if he knew more but stopped herself as she saw a grin spreading across his face,
"If it's a miracle we need to get in, I will provide one" he smirked, "although I might need to be a little reckless, but I have my knight in shining armour to rescue me if it goes wrong again, don't I?"
Author's Notes
Hi all and thanks for reading
Sorry it's been a while, I don't really have a great excuse, I got stuck so binge-watched a few anime's and didn't really accomplish anything for about a week. So, I failed my update every week idea :/.
There was initially going to be more stuff going on between Tanya and Wilhelm in this Chapter, but I felt I needed to get Tanya into a place where she's starting to see some good things about the prince before he inevitably screws it up. To do this I had to have Tanya look at it all a little more objectively so that's why so much of the chapter is her analysing his decisions. Things should all start coming to a head in the next chapter though.
Finally, the box is gone! Yes, Wilhelm (definitely him not me) is so desperate to get the box away from Tanya, he is willing to blow up his whole house! I've been planning this for a while, that's why I mentioned the Artillery stationed out in the boonies all the way back in chapter 13.
I feel a little bad for the artillery captain, he's been set up for quite the fall. The prince might feel bad about maybe killing Tanya, but he still has no qualms about utterly destroying a man's career to get what he wants. I never said he was a good guy.
'The pretty girl from the command' was Sophia, keeping an eye on the artillerymen was one of her little jobs from the prince.
Mir freeën eis op d'Kréinung fir Iech an Är Prinzessin is Luxembourgish for We look forward to the coronation for you and your princess. Obviously, the rumours about Tanya and the prince are no longer limited to the 203rd. Wilhelm, quite wisely thought it better not to tell Tanya about it, I can't imagine she'd be pleased.
Hope you liked the chapter, I will try to get back to regular updates again form here on.
Xanen