This is a Youjo Senki Fan Fiction Only.

The order for the new rifle my friend actually designed for me came through and it was a thing of beauty. I could not help but feel my magic sing as I loaded my first test shot, and the effects were exactly as I hoped, the rifle had a grappling hook that I could use to tether myself on any surface.

The sights made my monocle efficiency double, and while the rifle lowered my rate of fire by some degree, the amount of magic I could chamber in each shot more than made up for the difference. With my previous rifle I could fire five to seven more shots before the rifle fell apart on me but this new rifle I could fire one shot that did more damage than ten shots with my previous rifles.

The thing I been working on was redesigning our air gear, it seems the enemy had better stability on their for lack of better terms, ski looking air gear, I deduced that the added surface space of their gear offered better stability and cause the air to flow better than our own air gear.

Thanks to this grappling hook, however, this was not much on an issue for me. As long as I found a hard enough surface to serve as an anchor, there is not a single place the enemy could hide from me. The absence of the interference from Being X, however, made me think that something bad was in our future.

I could not hope to guess what he is thinking, but deep down I got the feeling that Being X is planning something and whatever it is, it would not be pleasant for either me or my friend Tanya.

So my squad was pretty much my shields, they keep an eye on the enemy and maintain a defense perimeter around me, but it was better this way because if my spells worked as intended they would not need to fight, thanks to this new rifle, I had a longer range and could use my actual magical strength behind each shot. If I had this when I was taking care of those artillery cannons from before I could have done that in less time and harmed the enemy by eliminated a lot of their troops.

This works perfect with my scouting monocle, I can really let loose and get to work for the Fatherland. "Fire, be my blade, Wind is my arrow, from the depths of my heart I call upon thee, come forth and join together to vanquish my enemies." As I finished saying that I felt the that my spell was ready and fired. Being X wants for me and my friend to pray, right? Well, I will pray to everything but him. That will teach him faith is something that like respect, it is not given, it is earned.

The spell went through different changes as it flew towards the enemy and someone else would have considered it quite beautiful to look at, except that you would not say that if you noticed what it was doing as it flew towards the main target, it was causing everyone in its path to suffocate, that is right, the spell someone could consider beautiful was quite literately stealing the very air from the lungs of our enemies to continue flying towards my target.

By the time it reached the center of the formation I was aiming, my monocle showed me that 300 enemy soldiers had died from lack of air alone, and when the shot hit the center of the formation it caused a tornado that immediately burst into flames as soon as it reached peak velocity, this caused the death of another 300 enemies and these included some of their mages, it is one thing to fly in the air, it is another being roasted alive while doing so.

That is when I heard his voice again, "Once a long time ago, you were one of my most faithful, you prayed to me for your family, the people you cared about and even about a person you were once considering to marry. Now you avoid praying to me to the point that you will pray to anything except me, why my child?"

I was not expecting this from Being X, I was in the middle of a battlefield, killing the enemies of the Fatherland and keeping my squad members safe, I didn't need this distraction at the moment. "Could you at least stop time like you often do, cause I don't need the distraction, a moment that I am distracted could cause the death of my squad and other of my countrymen."

Time stopped I guess he wants a more personal answer to his question after all. "I told you, your own commandments negate my existence, thou shall not kill, I am a soldier, a warrior, all I do either leads to or causes someone to die, therefore I am killing directly or indirectly. How am I going to pray to someone asking him to help me, to do something that he hated so much he made a law against it?"

"You consider me being sacrilegious I think of myself as being considerate. You do not have to help me do something you clearly hate so much." That is when I heard him laugh, and laugh so hard that someone else if that person was sitting on a chair he would fall of it.

"I do not hate war, if I did so many wars that have happened would never occur in the first place. I killed the first born of Egypt, I brought down the walls of Jericho, killing all the soldiers on them, I brought fire and brimstone on armies, I destroyed two cities because of their perverse practices, I flooded the world and you think I would be offended if you asked me to kill your enemies?"

Damn it, I had forgotten that, I spend so much time thinking of strategies to keep my men alive and the fellow countrymen that I totally forgot about those myths I read in that book. I always felt that the people writing those words were to justify their own actions, but now he mentions it, and I realize no human could do that level of destruction at least not with the level of technology at the time each happened.

"No, I think that is an excuse much like your friend Tanya, yes, you are very much like each other it seems, it seems you simply are not desperate enough, needy enough to once again be my faithful child, to be one of my flock again, I see, I must give you reason to call on me again."

I do not like the sound of that, I don't like the sound of that at all I fired my shot and caused yet another trench to collapse and bury another dozen enemies of the Fatherland. The enemy was retreating and it seemed that at the very least the fighting was done for today, "Alright, let's go back to camp, I don't know about you, but firing so many spells has made me a little hungry."

I swear I hear my squad laugh as I told them that, and we took off in the direction of our encampment.

At long last I could have a bit of food and rest, it is a sad thing when the stuff they serve you starts to feel like the stuff you would expect in your home, potato stew that looked like an animal ate some potatoes and threw up than anything edible, bread with more sawdust than flour and a tea that looked so pale it might as well be boiled water, wait they did boil the water right?

I was trying very hard to swallow when someone came running into my tent, yes I eat alone, trying to think and it helps if the place where I am eating is quiet, as I was saying a person came running in, either a forest was in flames, and I set quite a few acres of forest aflame so that is not out of the realm of possibility, or I was going to be given some bad news.

"Sir, the two soldiers that were transferred to the pillbox are dead." I took a drink and looked at her, she honestly looked sad when she said this, I don't see a problem with the situation, they requested the transfer to a new position and I being the kind man that I am granted their request.

"I honestly don't see why you are so upset about this, I am trying to eat and you come in running to interrupt my meal, I have reports to read, paperwork to do, strategies to write and present for future actions and you consider the worst that two soldiers that transfer out of our unit dying."

She looked at me with these confused glances and eyes that showed that she had been crying since she heard the news. When will Victoriya ever get over her fantasy idea of warfare? I guess this is part of something that made her actually the little beam of sunlight around here, so I shouldn't complain.

"The two men in question wanted to and I quote to die for the Empire, so I granted them that request, I should have sent them both in chain for insubordination but instead I granted them their request to be in a place to die serving the Empire, a pillbox in the back is there for one and only one purpose to draw artillery fire and expose the location of artillery units."

She now looked shocked when she heard me say that, how much longer am I going to see this sad puppy dog look that makes me think I kicked a puppy while I was going somewhere and then I stepped on the puppy's stomach. How naive can she be? This is war and that means we are in hell.

"So you sent them to that pillbox to die? How cruel can you be sir? These were men in our unit, our fellow imperial soldiers, our brothers in arms, did you not care they would die or died you already know that they would die when you signed the transfer orders?"

I took my spoon and looked at her, "Did I know? Yes, I know, but you fail to realize that by having four men die, we exposed the location of five artillery units, all of which have been destroyed and the enemy soldiers there killed, which saved hundreds of our fellow soldiers. I consider that to be a pretty good day actually, we saved hundreds and four soldiers died exactly the way they wanted, heroes, to our glorious Empire."

I ate a bite and I looked at her waiting for the information to finally make it through all her fantasy notions inside her mind, which by the looks of it where plenty. I finished my stew and now was just trying to wash it down with my stale tea, I sure hope they boiled the water, I really don't want the enemy to get some help from our cook, because I am sick due to them not having common sense. If this happens I will have the idiot cooks severely punished.

"So you see Victoriya, I did not assign them to die simply out of spite, I granted them the requests that they both made to me, I grant a wish and here you are giving me this look like I am the single worst monster you ever looked at. Speaking of monsters have you any reports on my friend Tanya? I happen to worry about her and her squad."

She looked at me and she said there was nothing out of the ordinary, they took down a group of mage scouts on their last missions, no injuries to report. She looked mad for some reason, well I guess she never heard about the cruel calculus of war before.

"Now I don't mind talking philosophy with you, but if I am going to do that, but since I am doing this will take some time, sit down and help me with this paperwork, I could sure use the help if I am going to discuss wartime philosophy with you."

She turned around and told me to have fun doing my own paperwork, she really was mad, I wonder if it is because I sent two men to die, or the fact that I said that I worried about the welfare of my good friend Tanya, Victoriya actually jealous over little old me? No, that is crazy, she just finished showing me that she feels like I am a vile, evil monster, right?

I began doing my reports, the reports on the rifle and continued to work on my own designs for a new fight unit, I also finished the proposal for a few quick strikes against Republic supply lines, I just finished destroying a supply base, but something tells me if they hid ammunition in a hospital, maybe they had other supplies hidden in other places, maybe a church or an orphanage.

I finally put down my ideas on how to deal with civilian targets in a military situation, I spent five hours writing none stop the justification of attacking, seizing, and destroying of civilian targets and the situation when these actions were justified, "And in conclusion the fact that these civilian facilities are being used to camouflage military supplies, arms, and personnel makes it necessary to re-designate these targets are military target. To protect our glorious Empire and our citizens we must not fall prey to such devious tactics."

I began to work on my rifle as I finished my work and submitted it through the correct channels. "What must I do to make you say a simple thank you prayer, even for your daily substance? You didn't even say a prayer before your meals, are you that ungrateful?"

Darn, I knew I had forgotten to do something, I threw a flower into the nearby camping fire and dropped to my knees, "Thank you, Hestia, for my daily meals, and your continued care in my safety." I open my eyes and I walked back to my tent, sat down and began to continue to do the daily maintenance of my rifle.

"If you think I will offer a single prayer to the person that struck me in this hell, and continues to make demands without showing me any reason why I should offer you any thanks, then insanity is not limited to mortals it seems. My meals consist of gruel and stale tea, why should I thank you for that?"

This finally made Being X stop talking to me and I could concentrate more on what I needed to concentrate on, or at least I try with this many interruptions. That is when my final interruption of the day happened and not in the way I was expecting.

It seems Tanya actually found my thesis on a nearby tray and she actually when through it rather quickly, I mean five hundred pages in less than an hour is pretty quick for most people. "Karl I have to say, I loved that thesis, I particularly loved the implication that the enemy could be using civilian locations as arms and supply depots, especially the ones hidden in churches. Being X must be furious over the idea that if implemented churches that exist to allow his followers to pray to him will be bombed into oblivion. You can skip my next birthday present, this will do nicely, very nice indeed. Do you have any idea why Victoriya was glaring at me as I walked towards your tent?"