Pov Tanya
After months of being on the eastern front, getting back to the capital is nice. The food is better. The coffee is better than the mud they serve, and the beds are warm. Sadly being a member of the imperial army makes you wish you would arrive in a coffin since otherwise, they will work you till you drop. Luckily, the environment is just like Japan, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. What will be is why I'm being called to the rear, being nothing military-related but rather an odd request. My old orphanage made a fuss that I needed to be in the capital by a specific date. It annoyed the religious consultant of the kaiser, who in turn bugged the kaiser to yell at the military to send me here. All in a week, which is quite shocking over the influence of that bastard being X, but that left the question of why the order didn't say why and considering they sent a full bird colonel to tell me and temporarily promote both Weiss and Grantz to cover me was odd. As I look out the window, knowing we will be at the station soon, I decide to waste some time talking to Visha.

"Should be there shortly. How many more letters?"

"A few more for this bag. Why? Is your hand hurting, or do you need more coffee"

"Neither right now. Just getting sick of these letters."

Another reason I hated doing that photo shoot and being a significant propaganda figure was that I got fan mail and why it was odd when mail calls came. There were a few more bags, like a box car full of them, and half as much blank paper with orders to reply to at least half. Apparently, as a sales campaign for war bonds, if you bought one with the Argent on it and wanted to, you could get a stamp that would send a letter to me instead of the usual channels to the propaganda section to be kept and given a standard reply. Still, these stamps promise a guarantee to reach me, and a 50% chance of a reply only offered a basic safety check, nothing deadly inside. Most were from children. Quite a few were great and morale-boosting even for me. Others were just funny childish examples that kids don't know how to write my favorite sample was the one that said

"Dear arggzent
I wanna be bread
shiserly Hans"

That one I kept in a box of my favourite to not be used to keep the fire warm. My Kampfgruppe spared some since they made many feel good to be reminded of what they were fighting for. Truly smart of them. My least favourite was the one made by adults. Some said rather mean things to me, some threats. Some blamed me for soldiers I had never met death. Some of the men who wrote were pedos, some women too. Those were first in the fire and never got a reply. Visha helped me write them, and she seemed to enjoy writing the responses.

"What do you think is why the general staff called you back."

"I truly wish I could tell you, but the circumstances that led to me getting called back is odd, and normally I would think that it was the fact that I am a child and maybe they were protesting that I was fighting, but this falls apart when I recall that it was the nuns who took me to the recruiting office and while they were disappointed that I wasn't going to be a nun they still had no issue with me going to war."

"You must have one idea, though?"

"The best I got is that they want to rebaptize me so I can defend the fatherland with a clear conscience."

Pov Visha at the orphanage later that day

The colonel's confusion only grew once we left the train station since there was. Usually, some Officer at the station explained what we would be doing, even if only to tell us that we were on vacation. Still, all we found was a military chaplain who said to us that he would be driving us to the orphanage. The car ride was dead silent until the colonel asked the chaplain otto, I think his name was, what the purpose of the trip was. He chuckled and said she should be having a fun month before returning to the front. The colonel's eyes got big for a second, one of the only ways she showed surprise. I, too, was surprised since I was under the impression it would be for two weeks at most, which would require a lot of things to go wrong. The ride ended when we reached the orphanage, a relatively small church with a small area for the children's rooms. It was weird to imagine the colonel growing up here though the oddest thing about the orphanage was not the building itself but the fact that both general Rudersdorf and general Zettour were standing in the front smoking and talking to each other on the path into the orphanage along with what looked like a pair of nuns when the colonel saw this her eyes got big once again. She mumbled what most likely curses about the strangeness of the day. Once the car stopped, the colonel got out, walked to the generals, and saluted. I got out after her, saluted when she did and was surprised when the colonel spoke first.

"As much as I love to return to my first home, I assume there is a rather important reason the general staff called me to defend the homeland."

Zettour chuckled at this but responded quickly, "straight to the point as always, colonel."

Rudersdorf chimed in, "as much as we wish we could tell you it was an important reason, it mostly is for a family matter. We just came to say congratulations and talk to your parents."

When Rudersdorf said "family matter," the colonel's eyes got more prominent than I'd ever seen them, but she completely shut down when he said "parents." Knowing that the colonel had been overwhelmed with this and it would take her a second to regain composure, I asked the obvious questions.

"What do you mean, parents? I was under the idea that the colonel was an orphan since she grew up here."

"Rudersdorf, you ruined the surprise," Zettour said, punching Rudersdorf's arm, "yes she is an orphan colonel Lerugen checked for that for the war college, but it seemed that a nice couple adopted her, and while previously her guardian was the state, both when she lived here and when she joined the military but because she belonged to the state and was technically was on loan from the orphanage she has been in a weird area where she is both her guardian but also not since she is below the age to be considered an adult so when a couple decided to adopt a daughter and decided to pick the colonel the state had to provide her to her parents and ask them questions since the signing of the document her career as a soldier could end here and now if her new parents decide to not consent to their daughter being a soldier it's amazing that no one figured it out I know that if I knew I could adopt her, I certainly would have."

About halfway through this lengthy explanation, the colonel snapped back to herself and chimed in.

"While I am flattered to hear that, general Zettour, it sounds as if you have not met my new parents."

"That would be correct. The sisters here would not let us in until you arrived."

"Well then, I better not keep them waiting if I may, generals."

The colonel gestured to let her through, which they did willingly. She walked up to the door, took a deep breath, and pushed the doors open.