Disclaimer: I do not own Youjo Senki

Further note: This story's discussion thread is on SpaceBattles Forum's Creative Writing section.

A\N: As always, constructive criticism welcome.

Chapter 4

October 10, 1925, Essen, The Empire

Visha was surprised at how easy it was for her to take a leave of absence. Or perhaps not so surprising. With the 203rd still grounded, she couldn't exactly perform her duties, and she supposed the higher-ups thought it better to allow her leave than to keep her inside the base where she could continue raising hell about the Major's continuing imprisonment.

If they knew what she was up to then they would definitely change their minds. Her visit to Essen was rooted in the long and fruitful discussion she'd had with the Major in their shared cell.

They had decided that no matter how difficult it might be for the Major to break out, the real trick would be disappearing afterwards. Her face had already been well known in the Empire, and once the tribunal kicked off it would be known everywhere else.

Make-up was not an answer. It was slow, needed constant maintenance, and neither of them were in a position to acquire the necessary skill or knew someone trustworthy who already had it. No, if the Major was to go incognito, the best way would be through a subtle use of illusions. Which meant a computational jewel. A civilian one, since military jewels were not only too well guarded, but too 'noisy'.

And wasn't that a revolutionary concept. Every competent aerial mage learned how to detect magic in their surroundings in order to spot illusions and for that extra bit of warning against enemy mages. But she had never realized the logical conclusion - make a spell small and efficient enough, and you could cast it right under an enemy's nose without being spotted. In this case, with Tanya planning to blend if and when she got out, trying to use a military jewel would simply raise the alarm the first time she set foot in range of a magic scanner or a trained mage.

In an ideal world, the Major would simply do what she had already been doing, and find a way to cast illusions without an orb. Unfortunately, even for someone of her skill and power, that was asking too much. Without an orb, even relatively simple spells like body reinforcement could only be kept up at a weak level for minutes at a time. While illusion spells cost little in the way of power, they were at the high end for complexity if you wanted them to be realistic. Far too complex to perform without a jewel. Which brought her here to Essen, heart of the Rhine industrial area, and perhaps the single largest concentrations of civilian mages in the Empire.

Of course, she wasn't going to steal them. Apart from the immorality of such an act, even civilian orbs were expensive enough that the theft of one would draw attention. No, as it happened, the Major had well over a years' worth of salary sitting in a bank doing nothing. Forging checks is surprisingly easy if you had access to all the account holder's correspondence. Visha consoled herself that it wasn't really stealing since Tanya was the one who had insisted on it. Now she could only hope the money had been put to good use.

Entering a certain beer hall, she spotted her quarry in a corner table. With a smile she took the seat next to him. "Teyanen, it's good to see you. You're looking well, I see."

The former Warrant Officer returned her smile. An average looking young man with a solid jaw, dirty blond hair and brown eyes, his face was thinner, but at least he no longer looked at death's door, unlike the last time she saw him. "It's good to see you too, Lieutenant. The doctors say I've almost fully recovered. I'd have come back to the unit, but then you lot just had to go and finish the war without me."

"Well, look on the bright side. After what happened to you the Major went on a rampage against the Supply Corps. Now no quartermaster dares give our battalion anything but the best." Visha threw him a mock salute. "Your sacrifice was not in vain, soldier!"

"Ah!" Teyanen gave a sage nod. "I was wondering what I did to earn all those medals the Major put me in for."

The two spent several minutes catching up and commiserating on lost comrades. Like Visha, Teyanen had been a conscript. Now that the war looked to be winding down, instead of trying to re-enlist he had gotten an internship as a magical technician at a firm working on making precision tools. Visha had known he lived in Essen which is why she had reached out to him, and his new employment only made things easier.

Once they had been served their beer and appetizers, Visha decided to get down to business. "You said you had them. Was the money I sent you adequate?"

"Oh yes. In the bag down there, four Junghan Mark II-G general-purpose Class-C computation orbs. I also put the leftover money in the bag - I was able to get a good deal on them."

"Excellent. Thank you very much for getting it done so quickly, Nika."

"Don't mention it, Visha. What did you say you wanted them for?"

Visha looked him in the eye, and kept her voice even. "With the war winding down, I'm thinking of leaving the army for a civilian magical job. I just thought it would be useful to get some experience working on a civilian orb."

"Ah," came the flat response. Teyanen studied her for a moment, then drawled, "And the reason you bought four is because, as an A-class mage, there is a very high chance you'll burn some out experimenting on them."

"Exactly."

"Glad to hear you're being cautious. I'm on the lower end of power for a combat mage, and even I came damn close to burning some out, and that was with a trainer watching over me all the time."

"Thanks for the warning, Nika. I'll be very careful."

"Please do." A corner of his lip quirked up in a faint smile. "If you make a mistake... might be a lot worse than a case of food poisoning."

October 11, Berun Military HQ, The Empire

Zettour scowled down at the map in front of him, but his ire couldn't change cold hard facts.

You would think that a nation that ruled a large portion of Europe after two years of victorious war would be in an unassailable position. The problem was translating those conquests into wealth and weapons. It would take years, if not decades to pacify the territories the Empire had conquered. And that's without foreign nations supplying insurrectionists, which they were. Until then, all that conquered territory was a constant drain on the Empire's strength, a liability rather than an asset. And the Empire's strength was rapidly draining.

His eyes moved to a report that had just come in. The Empire's strategic reserves of oil was just weeks away from falling into critical levels. The Americans had declared an embargo within days of the destruction of Brest. The Empire had already used an enormous amount of their reserve to carry out the conquest of the Francois Republic, the embargo could not have come at a worse time for them. While their new territory in Dacia produced some oil, their fields were underdeveloped and ultimately inadequate for the needs of an Empire. The other option was to import from the Middle East, but the Allied Kingdom had shut that option down years ago.

But even as the Empire's resources dwindled, their enemies' grew. In spite of years of effort, even on the best of days, the Empire's navy was barely a match for the Allied Kingdom's. And then the Royal Navy had taken advantage of the Empire's naval commitments in Legadonia to position their own fleets. No one was shooting yet, but the Empire's navy had gone from being outnumbered and outgunned to being outmaneuvered as well.

On the Eastern front, the Rus were carrying out a massive buildup. Within a matter of months, they would have the strength necessary to make a push into Dacia, and then the Empire's oil situation would go from bad to disastrous. True, the Empire had the rail network to match any Rus buildup. Except that would take away the troops from the Republic and leave them wide open for a landing from the Royal Army, which had been massively reinforced recently with colonial troops.

And that's to say nothing of the Americans. Apart from the trade embargo, they had already sent over two naval battle groups to reinforce the Royal Navy, and over eight divisions of 'volunteer' troops had landed on Albion soil, with full armor, artillery, aircraft, and aerial mage support.

That's not to say the Empire couldn't make a fight of it. But after two years of privations, the various rationing and austerity measures had finally been lifted on the Empire's citizens as the Empire celebrated the Francois downfall and declared an end to the war. Now having to go back to that, with no end in sight, would be an utter disaster for public morale. Not to mention the strategic disaster of having to fight a two-front war.

No, the fact was, no one wanted to see the fighting start up again. The AK and the US really didn't want to have to invade the continent and forcefully eject the Empire from the territory of their allies. And after two years of war, the Empire was badly in need of a rest to recoup their losses. And neither of the two sides wanted to see the Communists expand into Eastern Europe at their expense.

Already, the Kaiser and their ministers were persuading themselves (and the public) that occupying Stockholm and Parisee had taught their presumptuous neighbors a firm lesson, and now they should be gracious victors and give them back their countries - in return for suitable concessions, of course.

And as for one of the key figures in this victory, one Major Tanya von Degurechaff? Well, in spite of her celebrity as an aerial mage and hero, she was 'only' a Major. The only reason she was known at all outside the Army was the Empire's propaganda department - a department that was already turning its skill towards erasing Tanya von Degurechaff from the public consciousness. The recent debacle involving the Secret Police had only highlighted the dangerous levels of popularity the Major had attained, and now the government was moving to correct it.

This was, of course, preparation for offering her up as a sacrifice. The Empire, in an effort to allay fears, had already agreed to an international ban on research into quad-core computational orbs. Now, the only thing left was to neutralize the only person who had ever gotten a quad-core orb to work.

Worst of all, when Zettour saw the list of concessions that the other powers were willing to offer the Empire in exchange for giving up Degurechaff, he was forced to admit that the only reason he was finding the situation distasteful was because the Major was someone he knew and had personally raised to her position. Had she been some random aerial mage he had never heard of, his voice might well have joined others in suggesting that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

Of course, it wasn't going to be a sacrifice in the literal sense. No amount of concessions could have persuaded the military to give up one of their own to an unjust execution. The exact sentence would be determined by the judges, but it was already understood that the final result would be Degurechaff being sent into a quiet exile far away from any sort of military command.

Zettour's mouth twisted into a bitter smile. A quiet retirement far away from danger or responsibility might sound nice to an aging veteran. But to an ambitious young firebrand like Degurechaff? In spite (or perhaps because) of her youth, the girl lived and breathed conflict. Zettour had known other soldiers like that. They lived for the challenge, and ate pressure for breakfast. It was perhaps even worse for Degurechaff because this sort of life was the only thing she had known, and she thrived in it.

He had no doubt the Major would face down the tribunal with all her usual steel nerve and eloquence. But if she knew what her fate was to be, he suspected she might deliberately try to provoke the judges into giving her a swift end by firing squad.

October 16, 1925, Londinium, Albion

It was in a room hung in soft green silks in a discreet wing of Whitehall on a chilly October day that the fate of the world was decided. Or, at least, so the people in the room thought. Considering the power of the nations they represented, they might well have been right.

The representatives from the Empire had been feeling distinctly outnumbered throughout the discussions. But two years of continuous victory carried a weight all on its own, no matter how precarious the actual situation.

The peace treaties were yet to be finalized, but the broad outlines were already in place.

The Empire would be withdrawing from the Francois Republic and the Legadonian Entente. Well, not entirely. The Empire's Norden holdings would be significantly expanded. In exchange, the Francois and Legadonians both agreed to limit the size of their armies, pay substantial reparations, and agree to surrender all claims to Empire territory. On top of that, the Francois would give up large chunks of their African holdings, mostly to the Empire, and a few consolations to the Ildoans.

There were a few other things here and there. The Rus had demanded, and gotten, a demilitarized zone all along their now increased border with the Empire. And the Empire had gotten Albish agreement to stop blocking their attempts to establish trade agreements in the Middle East.

As for Dacia? Dacia was the bribe. The quid pro quo to the Empire giving up a 12-year-old girl who also happened to be the greatest aerial mage in the world. In exchange of losing the services of the Argent Silver, the Empire's conquest of Dacia would be formally recognized as legitimate by all the great powers. There were a few more concessions to go along with it, but that was the big one.

As the ambassador from Empire stood to stretch his legs, he glanced over and so the Albish and American delegations in deep discussion, with some others listening in on the edges. He already knew what the argument was about - who, exactly, would get to hold Major Degurechaff?

What a lot of fuss over some little girl. The Imperial ambassador had never met Degurechaff, but he knew blatant propaganda when he saw it. Whatever her ability as a mage, to attribute so many successes (and atrocities) to a 12-year-old was absurd in the extreme. And yet, the other countries were buying it! Well, if they were fool enough to give up bargaining points for some girl, he would be a fool not to take it, and thankfully the Emperor himself seemed to agree.

Still, he should get over there. Even in this case, he had clear instructions - he was to try his utmost to get the Major exiled to Waldstatten, and failing that, to the Unified States. The reason, of course, boiled down to the disaster at Brest. One of the first agreements the nations had hammered out was to ban research into quad-core computational jewels to prevent a repeat of the incident. Naturally, every nation was drawing up plans to discreetly violate the agreement before the ink was dry on the signatures.

The Empire, as creators of the original, had a leg up on the competition. As the only person to use one in combat, it was conceivable that Degurechaff would represent a similar leg-up to whoever managed to get access to her. With the Francois and Legadonians too weak to press their claim, that left the Albish and the Americans. Waldstatten was only in the running as the Empire's chosen candidate, thanks to their famed neutrality. In fact, Waldstatten was perhaps the only nation that might actually follow the quad-core ban. Naturally, that made them completely unsuitable in the eyes of everyone else. The ambassador would try his best, but it was looking more and more like he would have to support the Americans on this. If Degurechaff can't be exiled to a neutral country, better she be sent to one largely uninvolved in Europe. Squaring his shoulders, he headed into the (very polite) scrimmage. For the Fatherland.

October 30, 1925, Amstredam, The Empire

Even though I'd spent quite a bit of time in the Low Countries fighting the Francois, I'd never actually had a chance to visit what in my time was one of the most famous tourist destinations. From what little I could see from my transport on my way to the docks, this Amstredam had been given over to the brutal practicalities of war... not surprising considering it was relatively nearby where the Francois army had been lured by Operation Revolving Door. I did not catch a single glimpse of the tulips that had been famous in my past life.

However, as I waited in my cell-slash-cabin aboard the ship that would transport me to the tribunal at Londinium, I was graced by a sight far more pleasant than any tulip. Of course, I would never express such a sentiment out loud to Visha, lest it cause some kind of misunderstanding.

While I was still holding out hope that this tribunal would be something other than the kangaroo court it promised to be, if reality was what I expected then Visha (and to a lesser extent, Weiss) would be my key to getting out of this alive. The two of them had been practicing to develop an undetectable illusion spell for use on civilian orbs, and when the time came they would pass on to me the orb with the spell already programmed in and ready to go. With an illusion to cover my distinct appearance I could disappear into the teeming populace of Londinium, an international melting pot far larger than Berun.

Of course, not even the greatest mage in the world can perform a spell first try based only on a pre-programmed orb. Luckily, in the last few days, the terms of my imprisonment had been relaxed and I was allowed visitors. Visha came by regularly to keep me company and alleviate my boredom with a game of chess. In reality, she was tutoring me in everything she had discovered in her magical experiments while we pretended to play. We had to be a bit circumspect about it, but it was easy enough to disguise our conversations as theoretical discussions on spell theory. Unless they were paranoid enough to not only record our conversations, but get a top mage or magical researcher to go over the recordings, we would be in the clear.

As we set up our regular game, she spoke openly about general topics. "Me and Weiss will be leaving the next day. They've ordered us to take a separate ship, they don't want anyone who knows you to travel on this one."

"But you are being permitted into Londinium as witnesses for my defense, right?"

"Oh yes, there's no problem there. Lieutenant Meyers set it all up."

Meyers was my council for defense. A pleasant enough gentleman, he seemed to be under the illusion that I had a very high chance of being set free and clear. Well, to be fair to him, if you just went by the facts then I should be in the clear. I guess not everyone can be sensitive to politics, although I did consider it something of a failing in a lawyer. In this case, he had been quite open to my suggestion of getting Visha and Weiss to act as witnesses, both to my actions and my character. Which meant my co-conspirators would be joining me in Londinium.

Sometimes, I felt a bit bad about dragging them into committing what some might call treason. I consoled myself with the thought that if all went according to plan no one would ever know of their involvement and they could go back to their lives and careers unimpeded. After all, their only part in the breakout would be handing me the computation orb after I had broken out of my cell. While it would be much better to get the orb before the breakout, checking for attempts to smuggle in magical foci was the one thing my guards were paranoid about, and I didn't see that changing when we got to Londinium. No, for the breakout itself, I would be relying on my own skills. After that, I would meet up with Visha or Weiss at some predetermined location, pick up the orb, and disappear. Since no one seemed to have realized just how much I could do without an orb, I felt my chances were good.

We settled into our game, though none of us really paid it attention since we were both focused on what Visha had to tell me. There really wasn't much new to say, Visha had already filled me in on the essentials of the magical theory. Now it only became a question of how fast I could put that theory into practice if and when I had to flee. She did describe having successfully designed a short-range communication spell to use on the civilian orbs, and the theory indicated the spell might be possible to use without one.

As we wrapped up our game, I decided to test Visha's ideas on the communication spell. In theory I should be able to send a few words and emotions a short distance. The emotions in particularly were only possible because I was doing it without an orb, and I was itching to test it. So I focused inward, called up my spell, and tried to send Visha a few words and feelings of gratitude.

Unfortunately, I bungled it. While I was sure the words went through all right, the emotional payload ended up being a lot more than simple gratitude. I wasn't sure exactly what I'd managed to broadcast, but at least I knew it had to be fairly positive. Perhaps a bit too positive, considering how Visha went ramrod straight and turned as red as a tomato. Crap, why did I think it was a good idea to test untried spells on the person I'm relying on to help me escape?

I was frantically trying to think of how to explain my mistake to her without raising the curiosity of any eavesdroppers when there was a knock on the door. Oh no, was that spell somehow detected? I almost sighed in relief when the door opened to reveal Colonel Lergen.

"Major, I hope you might have a few minutes before the boat leaves. Unless I'm interrupting something?" he asked, looking at the blushing Viktoriya.

"We were just about done, Colonel. Lieutenant Serebryakov, thank you again for your support in this difficult time. I shall see you in Londinium."

"R...Right! Best of luck, Major!"

I and the Colonel waited in silence as Visha collected the chess board and decamped. Once the door closed behind her, Lergen took her seat.

Looking at me for a moment, he broke the silence. "While we may have had our differences in the past, I wanted you to know that I was one of those who spoke out against this."

I understood he was referring to that little set-to where he'd stopped me from disciplining some lazy and insubordinate cadets. Well, I'd always thought Colonel Lergen was a bit too kind for a soldier. I suppose it came with his having spent most of his career in a rear-echelon posting. Fighting down the little stab of jealousy, I reminded myself that the same kindness meant he was against the Empire permitting this trial, and I could use all the friends I could get. After all, if the tribunal proved as biased as expected, with officers like him speaking against it the Empire might just decide to pull me out lest it lose face.

Not that I expected any such thing. The papers had been busy covering the terms of the soon to be signed peace treaty. Surprisingly generous given we were potentially facing three superpowers in a two-front war. If I were the Emperor, I'd have cheerfully sacrificed a Major to secure such a favorable peace. No, as dangerous and infuriating as it was to me personally, I couldn't blame the Empire for doing the pragmatic thing.

Still, I needed to give a response, and begging to be let out of here wouldn't be appropriate. "You shouldn't risk your career over me, Colonel. Ultimately, the Empire is simply making the best use of its assets."

He seemed almost frozen at my response, then replied, "I guess you would know about that. You wrote the paper on it after all."

I couldn't stop the smile breaking out on my face. It was always good to hear one's work was appreciated. "Yes. It's such a shame none of our enemies had read it. Things might have been quite different then." If our enemies had understood the value of the human assets they would be wasting by provoking this war, I might have been able to grow up in a time of peace.

"It is good to see you are ready to face whatever the future holds."

Oh dear. If someone as well-connected as Lergen was this worried, the situation must be very bad indeed. Still, I couldn't tell him I had no intention of suffering my sentence meekly, so I just had to put a brave face on it. "The game is not over yet, Colonel. I was told the press was going to be present at my trial, and the Allied Kingdom is ultimately a democracy," I said. In fact, just remembering that tidbit made me smile even more broadly. "I will be interested to see exactly how they justify their verdict to both themselves and their public when the facts are on my side. Whatever happens, it should be quite the show."

Lergen must have been short on time, because he took his leave immediately after that even though there was still a while before the boat was due to leave.

Left alone with my thoughts, I wondered if I was being a bit too ambitious with my escape plan. If I had really wanted to, I was certain I and Visha could have arranged my breakout any time in the past week, at which point I could vanish into the Imperial countryside. However, there were a few things that prevented me from taking the simple option.

First, too many people in the Empire knew my face, thanks to those propaganda pieces celebrating the Argent Silver. Not even I could live under an illusion all the time, so sheer probability dictated someone would glimpse my real face sooner or later, and better it happen in a country where I had not been the focus of a propaganda campaign.

Second, there would be no practical advantages to staying in the Empire. The only place I was familiar with outside of various military camps would be Berun. And the only people who would help me, members of the 203rd, were also the first people suspicion would fall on. Since I was bound to be stuck in an unfamiliar place with no support, better it be Londinium, an enormous port city where the transients were almost as numerous as the residents and people were used to strangers of every possible nationality.

Finally, there was an element of revenge. Throughout the war, I had felt Albion's invisible hand working against the Empire. They had supported the Legadonians, supplied the Francois, diplomatically isolated the Empire, and arranged for the involvement of the Americans. Not to mention that ambush on me and mine right at the end of Operation Lockpick that had nearly gotten me killed. I could call them villains behind the scene almost on par with Being X. Now, I would have the chance to meet this foe face to face. I intended to do my best to expose the hypocrisy of this tribunal using the Albish press, and finally to leave them looking like incompetents when I pulled my disappearing act.

The last reason was, I was forced to admit, somewhat irrational, but I could not help but look forward to it. Yes, there would be no early escape for me. It would be in Londinium, capital of the greatest empire in this world, where I would roll the dice. Even the latent threat of interference from Being X couldn't keep me from feeling the thrill of impending battle.

Now, how did that song in that Hollywood musical go? "There is a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it's filled with people who are filled with shit, and it's a place called London..."