Tanya spun her latest acquisition in her now fully-gloved hands. Really, it was getting too easy to dupe these Reincarnates.
Since that first one, who Tanya had lost track of – she hoped that was a sign the girl was enjoying a nice, quiet life away from adventuring – Tanya had taken care of ten of them in the past three weeks.
Five of those encounters, like the one she'd just finished, shared the same progression as that first one: she'd taken their weapons, given the unfortunate teenager money, and either sold the weapon to the General Store or given them to Chris in exchange for skills.
And while she couldn't exactly get a good price from the General Store manager – she had to accept a smaller reward in return for his agreement that he wouldn't sell the items to Hero Candidates – she did get over 70,000 for each.
Her other five encounters had gone differently.
Three had dropped their weapons and said the words, but the power had not faded from their weapons in the slightest. Their weapons hadn't shrunk down or changed in any way.
After she allowed a warning shot to miss their heads, two of them had folded and repeated the words with feeling. Their weapons had changed to reflect that.
But one of those three, the one with a pair of blades, had still not meant the words. She knew because his pair of weapons had reappeared in his hands as he attempted to flee from her.
They had still intended to kill Tanya, and, when she had easily caught up with him, she had gotten… creative.
Or, more creative, anyway. He was only a teenager, after all, and employing real torture against him would have been unnecessary, as well as distasteful.
A slice to the leg and a few Optical Decoy spells had gotten the kid to cave. She had healed their leg, but not given him, or the other two that hadn't meant their words the first time, any money.
They had tried to subvert her desires for a minute too long, and they should have taken her deal at the beginning.
She grimaced as she remembered the other two outlying encounters. They had gone... horribly.
Neither had had a weapon, but a skill, like the Shapeshifting Reincarnate that had attacked her after the festival. She had still made them swear not to hurt her, but…
The beings that claimed to be gods and goddesses had likely altered their very being to give them those powers, delicately altering their DNA to enact changes on what they could do.
In taking away most of that power, heaven had been decidedly less delicate.
It had taken most of her mana, but she had been expecting it the second time. Casting Heal had saved the Reincarnate's life.
The first one who had had a skill instead of a weapon, however…
They had ended up a piece of mangled flesh. She hadn't been expecting them to collapse and begin screaming the first time, and she had been unable to help them in time.
After getting rid of what was left of them – this time, she'd fed it to a Giant Toad, which was a much simpler way to dispose of the body, given their willingness to eat anything that wasn't made of metal – Tanya had added their needless death as another reason on her mental list of reasons as to why she hated Being X and his cadre of beings.
Still, she hadn't needed to kill anyone else.
Not that she wouldn't have, if she had needed to, but she really didn't want to. That the truth-detecting item would definitely catch a crime like that after a while was only one reason.
Shaking her head, she dropped the latest weapon off at the general store and grabbed a bag of money the owner had silently placed on the counter. Sometimes, Chris would take some of it in return for a skill.
She probably just sold whatever Tanya gave her to the general store – or some other store that specialized in weapons – for a profit, but Tanya didn't mind, since she'd gotten training in how to best utilize the skills Tanya learned from her.
Pulling up her hood as she left the general store, Tanya walked down the streets of Axel, relishing in the feeling of no one being able to tell her what to do. With all the money she had earned from giving the general store the weapons, as well as everything she had been able to earn from the quests she could easily complete with her rifle, she had paid Darkness back and given Luna enough money that she waive the remainder of the community service time.
Everything seemed to be looking up for her.
She thought that, knowing full well that thinking that usually meant things would end up bad for her. And with how her Luck stat had somehow fallen in the last three weeks, she was sure she would regret daring the universe – or the 'goddess' Eris – to spite her.
However, the point needed to be made that, while she was having a good time, no one else seemed like they were.
Except Darkness and Chris, but that was because they were with her.
Monsters had disappeared farther into forests than anyone could remember them ever going. Adventurers were beginning to take on harder and harder quests in an attempt to earn money, and Dust had even asked for compensation for his services in teaching her Spearmanship.
Tanya had given in, aware that she was one of the only adventurers with money to burn, let alone enough to survive.
She was living well off of all the weapons she managed to sell, and, when she had given up a lot of her cash to pay off that community service, the three of them had just gone on a quest to kill a One-Hit-Kill Bear.
Tanya had eviscerated it, and they had eaten well.
However, while many adventurers and the people that supported them – Priests, Blacksmiths, some Merchants, and others – were suffering, many were taking the change as a good thing.
Less monsters meant farmers could farm more and only have to fight with their crops instead of also contending with monsters. Merchants could lower prices on their products since they didn't have to hire adventurers to protect their caravans.
Of course, if a large portion of the population didn't have money to spend, businesses might start hiking prices up in order to compensate, keeping even more people from spending money on them, which…
She shook her head. The people running Axel were likely responsible, well-adjusted members of society. If the economy began to get out of hand, they could step in. She had nothing to worry about, probably.
Regardless of Axel's economy, Tanya was just glad she had a source of income beyond adventuring, even if it was, at the very least, extortion.
Scowling at the bag of money in her stone gray gloves, she adjusted them again. She didn't like them as much as her old fingerless ones, but they were longer, and she had even managed to stash a few 'surprise knives' in both.
Even if she somehow lost her gun, she would have a distracting and potentially life-saving weapon thanks to them.
In addition to the new gloves she'd acquired two weeks ago, she'd also constructed a pair of goggles last week, which hung from her neck.
She didn't think she'd need them very much – her Passive Barrier could replicate their function effectively – but Reincarnates could present problems, if they managed to slip away from her for some reason. Using any frivolous spells, no matter how small, to replicate goggles in a battle against a competent Reincarnate could be deadly.
Walking into the guild, Tanya brightly sat down next to Darkness and Chris. "Hello. Have any ideas for any quests today?"
Darkness, equally radiant, held up a piece of paper. "Yes. It's a quest to stop two rampaging beasts on a plot of land. They're both rumored to be super strong. I don't care if you need time to use that 'rifle' of yours. You'll be too distracted with one, and when the other escapes your notice, it'll ravage me!" she cried out.
Tanya looked at it. "Denied."
Darkness's head dropped a fraction of an inch, but she didn't seem all that upset. "You really are relentless, huh?"
Tanya looked at Chris, who shrugged noncommittally. She had gotten like that ever since Tanya had begun to learn skills from her.
Tanya sighed. She needed to explain to her that Tanya wouldn't drive her out of their party after learning all of her skills.
Tanya had gotten a few of them that seemed useful – like Lurk, which lessened your physical presence by obscuring you from an enemy's senses. It was basically a much better version of trying to use her Optical Decoy spells to hide herself, except those couldn't erase her scent or any sounds she made.
But others, like Enemy Detection – she had her Observation spells, which would only fail if they had very little mana – and Steal – she didn't have the Luck to trust something like that – she had waved off.
Tanya shook her head, focusing back on Chris's words. "Nothing easy. All of the monsters are in hiding, since something strong has moved into the area."
Seeing Tanya's inquiring gaze, Chris let out a put-upon sigh. "Luna announced it a few days ago, while you were doing your part-time job," she said, reminding Tanya that she needed to get more of that explosive potion Wiz had.
She had used up the last of it in the past few days, making as many bullets as she could. She had twenty rounds, arranged in clips and packed into pockets attached to a belt – or a 'bandolier,' as Lavendula insisted it was called – she had bought and hung from her shoulder to her hip.
"If there's a strong monster around, anything that it could kill hides, waiting for it to move on," Chris continued, unaware of Tanya's thoughts.
Tanya nodded, and then cast a quick gaze around the guild. There didn't seem to be as many adventurers. She knew that there was still work to do – people that needed part-time work done, or farmers that needed help harvesting their crops – but none of it yielded much experience or money.
"Do we know what it is?" Tanya asked Chris, ignoring Darkness's continued attention on Chris's words, the fantasies they created, and…
She shook her head. Darkness only seemed to be moaning more, now that Tanya was actively ignoring her.
Chris opened her mouth, but then closed it with a snap. "No. All the guild knows is the general area where things like Fire Drakes and Squirrels have gone quiet. It's probably around there."
Tanya nodded, coming to a decision. In her time in the Empire, she had wanted a bit of fame. Too much – and, if she was honest, the amount of fame she had acquired – would mean she would be promoted to a rank where, if the Empire lost, she would have been thrown out or executed for the trouble she caused her enemies.
Too little would have meant she would be constantly on the front lines, waiting to be killed by a large enough group of mages that even she couldn't fight. Her efforts to become less than famous had been… less than successful, if her being put in command of the 203rd and becoming a propaganda magnet was anything to go by.
Here, however… if she wanted that wish, she needed to kill the Demon King. Doing so would require that she get close enough, and doing that meant she would need to spearhead some sort of group that could stand toe-to-toe with him.
Getting as much fame as she could would hasten her rise to the top of the list of Adventurer Parties that populated the countries newspapers.
Newspapers had been a shock for her – people were literate here? – but it seemed that most adventurers, no matter how rich or poor, learned at least a small bit of the written language, in order to accept quests.
Mind made up, she announced to Chris. "Well, we should deliver the adventurers from this plight, right? Let's try to find out what this threat is, so that the capital can send supporting forces, at least."
Chris looked curious, and Tanya thought she saw her mutter something under her breath, but she didn't catch it on the part of Darkness, who, after hearing Tanya's declaration, had shouted in glee.
"To be ravaged by something that scares even Griphons away… berated and derided for being stupid enough to seek something like that out… just the thought of it-"
Tanya cut off the masochist. "Yes, yes, you wouldn't be able to contain yourself. You can talk all about it to Chris while I go get business done."
Trying to ignore the armor-clad girl behind her, she walked to the front desk. Her eyes flicked down towards Luna's impressive bust for only a moment – she didn't want to be caught, like Dust always was – she smiled at the woman. Luna smiled back.
"Is there a quest for scouting out the new monster?" she asked. Luna's genuine smile fell, replaced by the resigned one Luna adopted whenever she tried to convince Tanya to change classes.
"Technically, yes, but the guild strongly recommends that under-leveled parties stay well away from that sort of thing," she said, already taking out the quest from behind the counter. Tanya smiled and picked up the piece of paper.
It was nice to know that she could learn that Tanya was going to ignore her 'recommendations.'
Honestly, Tanya suspected that it was some sort of contractual obligation. Luna knew Tanya was strong enough to take on Fire Drakes and Slimes, and she even had backup these days. How much worse could this be?
The quest was worded, surprisingly, much like the one for the quest she had taken on the Brutal Alligators. Go in, figure out what is causing the problem, gauge their threat, and leave. Only, the last command was worded much more strongly.
Instead of a vague suggestion that they shouldn't try to fight Brutal Alligators, this one almost screamed it at her. It even mentioned her by name…
Wait.
"Did you write this, Luna?" she asked, both annoyed and amused. The discouraged smile was replaced by a small frown, and Tanya's eyes rose.
Luna never showed anything other than a smile.
"Tanya. You are one of the only adventurers in this town who has ever accepted community service. I, quite literally, have never seen someone else do that. Pardon the concern I've shown one of the most moral and reckless adventurers I have ever met," she uttered.
Tanya brushed off the compliments. If Tanya was moral – and she had no qualms about killing other people, if the rewards outweighed the risks by enough – then there were probably more people like Dust in here than she thought.
"Aww… I didn't know you felt that way, Luna," she said, trailing off suggestively. The receptionist was probably just trying to get her to reject the quest, with such confession of admiration.
Tanya wasn't going to listen.
The woman scoffed, but she didn't let her smile fall. "I am not an Axis Cultist, Tanya."
With that, she began filling out information related to her and the quest on the paper she had been shown. Tanya looked up at her cap, deep in thought for all of the two seconds in took to seriously consider her latest though. Then, she shook her head.
There was no way that was some sort of… euphemism, right? No religion would alienate so many people by catering to the desires of a very limited section of their population.
Right?
Shaking her head to get rid of that ridiculous notion – how many people could even be gay, in Medieval times? Twenty people? – she snatched the quest out of Luna's hands, walking over to Chris and the still-aroused Darkness. This would be a nice, easy quest. They weren't going to fight whatever it was, after all.
Not unless a chance to surprise it and bag a nice, juicy reward appeared.
-OxOxO-
After a few hours of getting together supplies – Tanya wanted to come back with results, after all – and they were about to set out towards the north, where the thing was rumored to be stationed.
Then, some… thing stopped them.
Tanya blinked and shook her head. Well, calling it a thing was a bit mean, so Tanya amended her thought.
Dust stopped them, party in tow.
He was standing leisurely by the gate to the town, while his party argued behind him. They all seemed rather angry – not even with him, what a rarity – but Dust was just staring down at the ground with a small smile on his face.
Tanya was suspicious. Dust didn't often leave his natural habitat – the bar of wherever was naïve enough to waive his debts for an hour before realizing their mistake – but she walked out of the gate anyway.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing, you flat-chested Thief!" he shouted. Sighing, Tanya turned around.
Dust was pointing at his boot, where a scuff of mud had suddenly appeared. Chris looked slightly embarrassed, but she seemed more enraged.
"Excuse me?" she asked, voice dangerously low. Tanya shook her head.
Why the woman tried to ignore the obvious – that her breasts were pathetic – Tanya didn't understand.
Tanya, with her spitefully provided female body, had long grown to accept that there wasn't a whole lot you could do to change your body…
Wait…
Tanya thoughts crashed to a halt, and she inhaled deeply, ignoring the outside world.
Unless…
Shapeshifting, while a dirty cheat supplied by Being X, had appealed to her, in part, because she had wanted her old body back. Constantly using her energy to convince herself that she was still a man, despite the change in… circumstances, had been tiring and wasteful throughout the last sixteen years of her life.
What if… this world, with its utter lack of care for physics and math when it came to magic or potions or anything, could give her what she had lost…?
She shook her head, trying not to get her hopes up. Another question for Wiz, or perhaps Dust, who wouldn't remember anything as long as she gave him enough alcohol.
Speaking of Dust…
She looked again at Dust, whose face was tinged red and wearing a smile. He seemed a bit unhappy that she hadn't responded to him, but he was, indeed, smiling.
Tanya groaned.
If he was smiling, he was drunk.
She ran over, and separated Dust from Chris, who looked murderous. "Look, we don't have time for this. Nice seeing you Dust, I'll see you tomorrow for the lesson, have a good day!" she said in one breath. His companions looked over curiously, while Dust looked down at her.
A lecherous grin overtook his face, and Tanya heard Darkness gasp at that. "Right~. See you Tanya!" he said, giggling. The other three approached, all glaring at Dust, while Tanya just groaned internally. She wanted to find whatever this thing was as fast as possible, and-
"Did he give you trouble?" questioned Lynn as Taylor took ahold of the man's arm, while Keith looked on, flashing Dust an apologetic look.
Chris nodded, while Tanya tried to wave them off. "Not at all! We were just heading out on a quest, so-"
"What quest would that be?" Lynn interrupted.
Tanya blinked at the ravenous look in the girl's eye, and cast an appraising eye at the three of them. All of them looked like they had seen better days, if the unwashed quality that pervaded their equipment – still stained with the blood of monsters.
Tanya quickly realized what they wanted.
"Would you like to come with us?" she asked hesitantly, already planning to ask Dust that question when they came back. All three lit up, while Dust only seemed disgusted.
Earlier sympathy forgotten for his blond-haired friend, Keith stamped down on Dust's foot before he could insult them. "We would love to!" Lynn, Taylor, and Keith shouted in unison while Dust swore.
As they walked out of the gate, Tanya increased the priority of trying to fight whatever this monster was. It seemed it was affecting Axel worse than she had assumed, if these three were willing to go on a quest with her before even hearing about what it was.
Tanya turned to them the moment they walked out of the gate, and she began to lay out what they were doing. None of them looked particularly happy about doing this quest, but they still decided on going.
Chris was glaring at Dust, who was staring at her curiously, as if he was confused about why she was staring at him.
How drunk was he, for him to forget that he'd tried to con her only a few moments ago?
Trying to ignore that question, Tanya set off on the road with everyone else in tow. They walked through plains, eyeing the idyllic scenery, absent of any and all monsters.
It was nice to have even less to fight than usual. Nothing as difficult as the front lines of her last life had presented itself, that pair of Reincarnates excluded. This world was a cakewalk, so far, and it seemed almost inevitable that she would achieve her goal, eventually.
She breathed in deeply. This was what she had dreamed of, when flying in the skies above the Eastern Front. A warm town sequestered away from any fighting, where she could live out her days doing her job and ignoring Being X.
Another half hour of walking set them in front of a forest. "Now," Tanya said, interrupting Darkness's rambling about the foe they would face and the feelings of discomfort shown on the faces of the other party that was accompanying them.
"We're here to figure out what is living around here. Luna says that it could be anything from a very strong Dragon to a minion of the Demon King. That means that they're most likely living in some sort of cave, or somewhere hidden from normal view," she said, walking backwards over a rise in the path through the forest.
The others caught sight of something behind her, and Tanya sighed internally. She really wished she had the 203rd here. They knew how to listen to a briefing, at least.
"Luna said that there are plenty of caves hidden in this forest, so we should stick together in our parties and look around. We'll meet up here in two hours and report what we've found. Got it?" she asked. All of them were still looking behind her.
She glared. The nerve of them, to ignore her while she was speaking. "Hey! What's so…" she trailed off as she looked behind her.
Right. That would count as a possible hideout.
A large, gloomy castle marred the beautiful landscape, placed on the top of a large cliff. There seemed to be at least four towers, thick, intimidating walls, and numerous buildings contained within.
It gave off a feeling of foreboding, which was rather impressive considering they were at least a mile away. "Good eyes, everyone," Tanya declared, not daring to turn around.
That much scorn directed at her would definitely not be good for her, especially since she could hear Chris, Lynn, Dust, and Keith all snickering.
No one moved, staring at the impressive sight in front of them, and Tanya hesitated.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Chris. Still, no one moved, and even Tanya was put off by the foreboding feeling emanating from that thing.
Darkness, unsurprisingly, took the first step forward, face red and panting. "To think that something could control that place…"
She was already heading down the path. Tanya turned away from the sight in front of her to the other members of this quest.
The four tagalongs seemed quite unsure as to whether they should go, and Dust seemed to have sobered up at the sight of the towering castle. "Hey… should we really try and go over there? Maybe we can just head back now…"
Tanya shook her head vigorously. "No. We need to figure out what it could be, at least." She also wasn't letting Dust get away until she'd asked that question and knocked him out with alcohol.
With the end of her declaration, she followed after Darkness, wishing the Crusader would at least start running so Tanya could imagine that her panting was due to exhaustion instead of lust.
After that, the others seemed to have made up their mind. They followed, wary of whatever could call that castle home.
-OxOxO-
Tanya followed behind them as they neared the castle. Using Chris's and her own Lurk skill, they had kept a low profile, closing in on the imposing structure. Their tagalongs had lost whatever enthusiasm they had had back in Axel, favoring their lives over this quest.
Tanya did too, but she was sure she could survive whatever this was.
Darkness's moaning had only begun to grow louder as they approached the castle, which was setting off warning bells, sirens, klaxons, and many other loud, jarring sounds in Tanya's head, making her wonder if she should reconsider. Still, they pressed on.
Tanya was behind the rest, ensuring that the back half were protected, while Chris led them forward. Tanya was also casting Observation spells at the castle quietly. She wanted to use better ones, due to the readings she was getting, but doing so risked Lynn turning around and seeing Tanya doing magic she had never heard of.
And the readings she was getting…
She hadn't found much. All of her magic was insisting that nothing living was present within the castle, which meant it was faulty – not entirely improbable, since she still didn't have a Computation Jewel besides the Type 95 – or this monster was some sort of undead.
Thus far, Tanya had begged off quests involving the undead, since she wasn't entirely convinced her bullets would work that well on things that didn't feel pain.
There was no doubt that she could just blow them up, but using the number of Explosive Vaporization spells that would be necessary to take them out if they surrounded her was daunting, especially if she were underground or somewhere else where using that spell could mean collapsed roofs.
None of that even took into account that using that spell repeatedly would leave her tired and probably immobile after a while.
Soon, they would be in sight of the front door, and Tanya began to maneuver into the front of the group. If they got there without figuring out what it was, Tanya would need to go in. The usage of Flight magic would be necessary, and she didn't want to display that openly.
Behind herself, Dust and Chris seemed to be the most composed of their group. Chris wasn't new – she had proven herself reliable and cognizant of the strengths of her teammates – and Tanya had begun to expect more from Dust since he had started those lessons.
His skill with a spear – better than anything she had ever seen – begged the question as to why he was a Warrior, instead of something that specialized in spears, but Tanya had promised not to pry into his past.
In the past three weeks, she would show up at the guild, he tutored her in the middle of a nearby dump, and she benefited greatly from knowing how to better use her gun as a spear, if she ever ran out of ammunition.
The gates of the castle loomed, and Tanya sighed. She didn't know what was in there, which meant she would have to go in. Chris motioned towards a bush, and all of them took refuge behind it, staring up at the towering castle. "Well, now what?" asked Taylor. Tanya opened her mouth, but then Chris spoke up.
"I can see that the place is crawling with soldiers. They're patrolling the hallways, towers, a few of them are stationed at the gate. As long as we keep Lurk active, though, we should be fine…" she relayed.
Tanya's eyes widened. That must have been the Thief's Enemy Detection was more useful than she gave it credit for, if Tanya couldn't get anything out of her Observation spells.
"It's… they're undead; I can see one through the uppermost window. They're all undead."
Tanya looked at him, bewildered. "How can you see that?" she asked.
A few Observation spells could be used as substitutes for binoculars by 'zooming in' on faraway images, but she didn't have the capability of doing that without a Computation Jewel; what did he have?
"My Farsight skill. I can see stuff far away, and it has night vision and thermal vision at higher levels," he relayed, staring intently at the various windows and walls, looking for more confirmation. Tanya nodded, thinking rapidly.
She had no idea about this. She didn't have knowledge of this world, and what she knew about undead amounted to 'they were once living things,' which was sort of implied by the name.
Tanya stood. "Well, I guess I'll go in and confirm what we're facing."
Darkness and the other four looked at her skeptically, while Chris looked rather pensive. "You're kidding, right? There's no way we can fight our way through that many undead, not without a Priest," Taylor pointed out. Darkness nodded her agreement, before her face also became pensive.
Darkness voiced her thoughts. "If we go in, we'll definitely be torn apart, ravaged by the undead who are attracted to life and pushed to destroy it in equal parts. No doubt, you all will need to escape while I am left behind as a sacrifice. They'll beat on me, and then their terrifying leader will appear…" she panted, eyes becoming unfocused.
Chris didn't voice her thoughts.
If The Atheist went in there, she would definitely get torn to shreds by the thing that waited inside, a Demon King's General.
It was kind of hard for a Goddess like herself to miss the movement of that many undead, so she knew precisely what was in there, even if she couldn't give any proof to the guild. Still, she knew what was in there, and if she gave The Atheist the slightest bit of encouragement, she would definitely attempt to start fighting.
She was the Devil of the Rhine, after all. Why wouldn't she want a good fight?
Chris smirked internally. This was it. The Atheist would get what they deserved, and they would be the one bringing about their own end through hubris. It was perfect!
"I think we should go in," Chris said, nodding to Tanya.
Tanya shook her head. "I'll go in, Chris. You guys don't need to trouble yourselves-"
Chris cut her off. "You'll need the skills I have, right? I can use Unlock to help us move through faster. You need me." Tanya looked at the other four, who all looked as if they agreed.
Just as Tanya was about to nod, she felt ping on her Observation spell. Trying to look as deep in thought as she could, she began to pace, turning her spell towards the direction Axel was in.
Yes, another Reincarnate had come in, judging by the geyser coming from the south of their current position.
Tanya grit her teeth. She needed to get back. She didn't want to fight with them, and the more entrenched in the idea that they were 'god's chosen' became, the higher the possibility that she would have to threaten or fight them rose.
Plus, if they had a skill instead of a weapon, Tanya would rather attempt to Heal them while she had mana.
Tanya licked her lips. She needed to go back. Now. She tried to calm down, hoping that her voice wasn't shaking in worry. "Dust, Taylor, Keith, and Lynn: any ideas as to what it could be in there?"
If they could figure it out based on what they knew – lots of undead, strong enough to scare all monsters away from Axel – then they could just leave and give Luna their best guess.
All of them looked at each other, while Lynn rubbed the back of her head. "Well, only high tier undead can control other undead, so that means that it's anything from an Undead Dragon, a Vampire, a Lich, or even a Dullahan…"
She gasped. "Could it be the Demon King's Dullahan?" she asked, turning to the others.
Taylor gasped, as did Darkness, if for different reasons. "You're right!" both shouted.
Darkness was panting even harder, and Taylor looked legitimately fearful. "It's definitely him. And if it is, then we need to leave. Now."
Chris looked frustrated. "But-"
Taylor shook his head. "I know you and Darkness are devout Eris Cultists – and I am too – but we can't take something like that on."
He and the other three already seemed to be running back the way they came.
Darkness seemed undecided, while Chris looked upset.
Tanya was wishing she could remove the fact that she was leading two religious nutcases – how had she missed that Chris was an Eris Cultist? She usually never missed things like that – and helping their religion at the same time from her head.
Chris grit her teeth. They'd be back later, and she had no problem with abandoning the loli then. She began to stalk after the others.
Tanya followed, dragging a nearly catatonic Darkness behind her, wondering why she had to be the one who dragged the masochist through the forest and trying to think of how to take care of this newest Reincarnate.
Looking back at the castle, she grinned. She might be leaving, but that didn't mean she couldn't leave the supposed general with a parting gift.
-OxOxO-
As Verdia walked through the halls of the newly renovated castle, he sighed appreciatively. Finding a place like this to stay had been a boon, and it would be a shame if this place fell into disrepair.
Originally, he feared he would have to stay in some moldy, wet cave. While his night vision was obviously excellent, he knew that even he could make mistakes, and tripping, losing hold of his head, and spending half an hour trying to reunite his body and head seemed like a particularly frivolous waste of time.
Of course, the weaker undead he could gather still suffered from decay, even if he didn't. Their degradation wouldn't assist in building power, and a wet cave would only speed up decomposition.
Just as he prepared to head into the secret addition of the parlor, a knock sounded on the wooden door. He gave a sound of consent, and one of his higher-leveled Undead Knights wandered in.
"My General. Enemies have been spotted approaching the castle." The animated body said this listlessly, and Verdia nodded. He left the room, followed by the soldier.
"Interesting." Without another word, he stuck his head out of the nearest window, leaning out to try and catch sight of the front of the castle. He saw nothing.
He brought his head back in, and tilted it. "It seems they've left…"
Scowling, he headed back into the parlor. "Increase patrols. They were probably here to figure out why the monsters have disappeared, and it seems they've been scared off, after realizing what was here." The knight bowed his head slightly, and then stalked off to inform the rest of the castle.
Verdia didn't want to interrupt them from their cleaning work. He pulled on the unlit mana-fueled lantern that hung on a nearby wall, and watched in satisfaction as the secret entrance to his lair opened. He chuckled as he walked down the stairs.
Even if Vanir, the Demon King's Duke of Hell, was the one famous for wanting a nearly unconquerable dungeon, Verdia occasionally liked to fit the aesthetic of a brooding boss, awaiting some chosen hero.
He looked around. The throne, the completely dark room, the temperature…
All of it fit perfectly. He looked around, for a moment, and then sighed dejectedly as he sunk into the throne at the back of the room.
It would be perfect, if he wasn't stuck here.
He would never disobey a command of the Demon King – the being had proved his leadership abilities too many times for that – but still. Axel?
The town of rookie adventurers? A rinky-dink town in the middle of nowhere?
But his King had explained it easily, and Verdia couldn't find fault with them.
Monsters wouldn't dare come out thanks to his presence in the area. Without them, new adventurers would be deprived of experience.
Stopping the flood of reinforcements from here to the Capital and elsewhere on the front lines was important, and he was the only one free enough right now.
He sighed as he thought of the other reason he was there. He was supposed to determine if the 'double blessed' 'Hero Candidate' was still there. If they were, he was supposed to take them out.
He doubted it; all Reincarnates had been able to arrive at the front lines within a week of arriving and given preferential treatment so that they would withstand his King's forces. The prophet – damn that charlatan – had suggested they investigate, and his King had ordered him to comply.
He moved his wrist and shook his head.
He could begin to build up his forces at least; the graveyards of Axel were unlikely to have many good corpses, but the rumors of a Griffon and a Manticore battling for territory nearby intrigued him. Turning either of those into an undead would be a huge pro on the chart of why the hell he had to come here, of all places.
A thought occurred to him, and he sighed dreamily, lifting his head higher, as if it were really in the clouds. Wiz, a General in her own right and the 'bandit of the Demon King's coffers,' was supposed to have set up a shop in the town. If his head were screwed on straight, he'd pay her a visit…
Oh well. He'd need to inquire about the 'Hero Candidate' soon enough; as the strongest mage in Axel, Wiz would be sure to show her face when he made his appearance in front of the city and threatened the rookies with death.
The kingdom was unlikely to send any of the Reincarnates to someplace like this, not with how few of them had been showing up recently.
He thought back to the adventurers that were supposed to have shown up in front of his new base. They weren't likely to amount to much, but maybe they'd provide some sort of fight if he visited the town?
BOOM!
Verdia's head was sent flying, tumbling away from his body. Head shouting, the body scrambled to reclaim the seat of its thoughts. The back wall, where the throne had been situated, crumbled away, leaving the room bare to the windy mountain air.
His head tumbled precariously close to the edge, but his body managed to grab it. Verdia sighed, and secured his head under his arm.
That done, he looked out into the air. "What…" he trailed off as he gazed out over the land. The very familiar land.
He nodded to himself absently. Yes, this was the land underneath the cliff face his new base was situated. The question of how this – him staring out at it from his formerly-underground lair – had happened was not readily apparent, but he identified it soon enough.
Just as he could perceive all motion around himself and dispatch with anyone who threatened him using a special technique, and how Rangers could look into the distance, muttering a skill allowed him to pick out minute details in the far away from himself.
Of course, he was undead; that meant that the skill was focused on finding large pockets of power, in the form of a soul.
He soon found it. They were small, and had some sort of oddly shaped staff with a blade on the end of it.
Interesting. Mage's didn't usually care about self-defense, trusting in their allies to protect them. He deactivated his enhanced vision – staring at people's souls often gave him headaches – and squirted at the figure in the far off distance.
While her physical appearance was vaguely interesting, his thoughts were much more intrigued by the markings on her soul. They meant one thing.
"Reincarnate…"
It appeared that their party had scouted out this position had left with a parting remark, or they had attacked his castle in some sort of show of courage.
He surveyed the magically-created hole; he wasn't a Mage, but even he knew that this had to be something strong, like the usage of Detonation magic.
The temptation to pursue them, but he stayed his hand.
If they were audacious enough to use magic on his castle as a parting remark, they would be back, and if they had wanted to showcase their courage as they fled with a tail tucked between their legs, then they wouldn't.
He grinned. If a Reincarnate that could use Detonation Magic was in town, then they might actually put up a good fight.
Smirking, he went back inside and rose through the staircase. No doubt, that explosion caused some sort of ruckus inside. It wouldn't be as bad as if they had attacked the castle directly, but there was going to be some damage. He'd finish cleaning up, gather reinforcements from where he could, and then wait.
The Demon King had told him to await reinforcements, after all, and he knew how to follow orders, unlike many of his fellow Generals…
-OxOxO-
Tanya sighed in satisfaction. Even though the moment was tainted by using the Type 95 to mutter praises of Being X, the sizable explosion in the side of the cliff looked good. It seemed to have even opened up some sort of cave, if the depression near the center of the blast was anything to go by.
She might have liked to do more actual damage by hitting the castle itself, but damaging its foundations would hurt it more in the long run than anything else she could do to the building directly.
At least she didn't have to drag Darkness anymore, who seemed to have finally recovered from the news that they were facing one of the Demon King's Generals and from the fact that Tanya had been dragging her along for a mile as if she were a piece of freshly-killed meat.
Standing, she asked the one question Tanya hated getting whenever someone realized that she was singing the praises of a god. "You're religious?"
Tanya sighed tiredly. She couldn't really get mad at her. In a Medieval setting, it was expected that she be religious. "No."
Darkness was taken aback by the vehemence in Tanya's reprisal. "But you-"
"Imagine you could kill any monster that faced you, Darkness," she began. She knew that she had to illustrate these things.
She nodded. "Imagine: you aren't a helpless Crusader that can only carry out her goddess's will with the help of others. There is just one, tiny, minute problem: in order for you to kill anything, you have to declare that your god is nothing but a figment of peoples' imaginations," she said, spitting out each word.
Darkness's decidedly uncomfortable expression told Tanya all she needed to know about that notion. A moment of silence reigned, and then Tanya began to walk off. She had a Reincarnate to attend to and some questions to ask an inebriated Dust.
Personally, she was hoping that they had something more interesting than a weapon or a skill; maybe they would have something more similar to her circlet?
-OxOxO-
Chris and Darkness, thankfully, parted from Tanya rather quickly. They wanted to get a bath, and Tanya just told them she had some other business to attend to.
Lynn, Taylor, and Keith were standing outside the guild, waiting for Dust to stop stumbling around and walk in with them. Tanya quickly put an end to that as she wrapped an arm around Dust's shoulders – which was very hard to do when you were as short as she was. She smiled at the other three.
"You all go sort out our pay! Chris and Darkness will get back very soon, and we'll be back soon enough as well. I need to talk to Dust."
They peered at Tanya and Dust curiously, but they didn't complain, and Tanya dragged him off down a side alley.
He was confused and sputtering, but she paid him no mind. "Listen here, Dust. I need to ask you a question I don't want you to remember, so… how much money do you need to get blackout drunk and not remember any of today?"
He gawked at her, but she didn't blush or let her gaze waver. Dust was a very straightforward man whose vices were simple. He might have a complicated past, but she didn't honestly care beyond a faint curiosity.
Tanya saw him fight the call of his alcoholism for all of five seconds before greed took over. "50,000 Eris will get me the required amount of cheap alcohol, but the better stuff will cost you 100,000."
Tanya sighed, but she did as asked and divided out the larger amount of money. She would earn a lot of it back using the Reincarnate.
He didn't even count out the money, and Tanya took a deep breath.
Tanya asked her question.
His eyebrows both seemed to be trying to join his hairline, but he answered diligently and asked for another 50,000 Eris. She gave it to him, and he left, completely ignoring the guild and heading to where she was sure some gambling den was.
Tanya, meanwhile, was smiling. Not smirking, or grinning. It wasn't sarcastic or sad.
She was happy.
She turned back to the guild. The Reincarnate would be no trouble at all, and then she could continue to grow stronger, earn money, get ready to fight the Demon King, and, now that she had her answer…
She could save up to purchase a gender-switching item from wherever she could find one.
-OxOxO-
She gasped, drawing in a deep, heaving breath as she woke up. Where…
Where was she?
Her horizon seemed dark, unendingly dark, but a single light illuminated her surroundings and fended the emptiness off. She was in a chair, unrestrained, and another chair was opposite of herself, empty.
Had she been captured by the Cordiale's forces?
The sound of slow, even steps reached her ears, and she spun around. Or tried to.
She was stopped by the chair she was sitting in, and before she could throw herself out of it, the sound of a voice that grew louder in time with the steps interrupted her panicking.
"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. Welcome to the afterlife. Unfortunately, you passed away only moments ago."
Then it all came back to her, making her thankful that she was sitting. She would have collapsed if she wasn't.
The bar. The bombs. The explosion. The smell of the air as a building burned, consumed in a blaze of destruction. It wasn't that different from other air raids, except that her friends, the people she'd spent years with, had…
They died.
Grantz and Neumann, killed in the month before the attack. The rest of the 203rd nearly destroyed by that… monster. She gasped as one last name entered her consciousness.
Tanya.
The leader of the 203rd. The White Silver. The one she-
Numb to the breakdown Viktoriya was having, the woman continued to speak. "Your life was a difficult one, full of hardship and strife. But you persevered."
Viktoriya's breathing calmed. She had won?
"How… how did the Cordiale's forces get so far?" she pleaded. She had to know, and hoped for another reason, any other reason, than the one she suspected.
Dresdun was deep in the Empire's territory, far from the front lines in Northern Ildoa and deep in the Russy Federation, and even farther from any effective attack from the Albish. Additionally, no air raid sirens had gone off, and they had had no warning.
Some of that could have to do with people not wanting to bother Tanya after… what had happened near Moskva, but for them to have absolutely no warning…
"It seems the Alliance Cordiale's spies infiltrated the city and disabled all of the alarm systems," she said, looking into the small book by her side and confirming Viktoriya's fears.
She clenched her eyes and grit her teeth, but she made no noise.
Tanya had complained often about the Empire's problem with spying and nationalistic insurgents. The General Staff simply thought that they didn't need to concern themselves with either of those things, which had led to the Empire being surprised by several declarations of war, some scattered uprisings from within the Empire's disputed territories, and, most annoyingly, other countries' desire to aid them.
She almost sighed at the thought of Tanya's hour-long rant about the General Staff not seeking allies, which brought her thoughts back to Tanya…
She continued to try and stifle her tears. They were the cause of her own death and the death of-
Viktoriya gazed at the woman lifelessly. It didn't even matter anymore, if this woman was telling the truth. She was dead, and any lasting hatred she felt burn within her would be wasted on hating people she couldn't touch any longer.
Viktoriya doubted that the woman before her was lying. With her beauty, Viktoriya wouldn't have doubted her if she said she was an angel or representative of God.
"Well, did I at least take some of them with me?" she asked, hoping for a consolation prize.
"Yes. You took down… quite a few before your death."
Viktoriya sighed. She'd avenged the Colonel, at least. "At least I died fighting…"
Blue hair shook, as something flashed across the woman's face. Before Viktoriya could categorize what it was, though, it was gone. "Yes… well, you have questions, no doubt, so I'll begin to explain a few things," the woman said, standing from her seat in the white chair.
"My name is Aqua, and I am a Goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife," she explained.
Viktoriya's eyes widened as she tried to digest that. More than one god? That was certainly odd, by Christian standards.
She shrugged internally, trying to suppress how… peculiar that was. Someone must have gotten things wrong when writing the Bible… or something.
At some point. The evidence stood before her.
Apparently.
"Now, thanks to some recent… events, the age of what is considered 'young' up here has been vastly increased. You now qualify under that definition, and won't be sent to Heaven automatically-"
"Er…" Viktoriya interrupted. Aqua paused her speech, an eyebrow raised condescendingly and a hand on her hip. "Yes?"
Viktoriya shrank in her seat a bit, but asked her question regardless. "I have options?"
The woman scoffed. "Yes. If you hadn't interrupted, I would have explained immediately. Since you died 'young' and have enough karma, you can either choose to be reincarnated without any memories in that world you just left, or go to Heaven."
Viktoriya's heart soared. That meant…
Tanya could be in Heaven.
Then she sighed. Of course, her loyalty to the Empire meant that she could have just gone right back in for even the smallest chance of fighting for them again.
This… stumped her. Tanya might be in Heaven, memories intact, or she might have been reincarnated and lost to her forever.
Viktoriya shook her head. Tanya wasn't here, and she needed to decide on her future for herself.
Tanya had playfully criticized Viktoriya's desire to stay near her, and if she could see her now, she'd probably scold Viktoriya for just following her, instead of thinking for herself.
If only…
She sighed. But, no, Tanya had practically spelled out that she wasn't interested in a relationship or in her that way. Still…
It was hard not to want to stay near the one constant of the war. Her immediate family had been murdered in the Russy Federation's purges, and Elya had been sent to a different part of the army. Through being shifted from front to front, mission to mission, Tanya von DEgurechaff seemed to be the one familiar thing she knew.
"Of course, there is a third option."
Viktoriya's head snapped up. "What is it?"
Aqua grinned, and began to speak as a heavenly light sprung into being above her. "A world, which has long enjoyed peace, is being threatened by the oppressive Demon King and his army. Everyone lives in fear of the terror he inspires!"
Viktoriya sat, transfixed. It sounded like this world was suffering, much like the Russy Federation's people had under the harsh hand of communism.
"Since that's the sort of world it is, no one wants to be reborn, and the population is declining. So we decided to send people born in other worlds to oppose him," she said as the light above her faded.
Viktoriya nodded, and vengeful rage sprung to life once more. Whether or not Tanya had decided to go there, she needed to.
She hadn't seen her homeland freed, even if the Empire had been close to finishing the fight. She'd settle the score with someone who seemed just as bad as the communist rats had been.
"Also, the Gods will be doing you a big favor by sending you down with any one item of your choosing," she said.
Viktoriya nodded thoughtfully. Powerful equipment would be extremely helpful, if Tanya's mysterious Type 95 was anything to go by. Having something like that of her own was tempting.
Viktoriya hopped out of the chair. "Where do I sign?"
The woman grinned again and shook her head. "While you don't have to sign anything, there is a contract."
She presented a pamphlet to her that made Viktoriya wonder how she had pockets on such… revealing clothing At least, it was revealing compared to their uniforms-
She shook her head. This was not the time. Viktoriya took the pamphlet and began to read some of it.
The title proclaimed: "Contract of Reincarnation and Opposition to the Demon King" in bold lettering, while a smaller line underneath the title said, "and The Atheist."
Viktoriya looked up. "The Atheist?"
The Goddess's face, wonderfully beautiful until that point, became a twisted pout. "Yes. They were someone we reincarnated mistakenly, around two months ago, in the time of the world you're going to. They have two of our relics, and they might join the Demon King. They both need to be killed."
Viktoriya nodded. The Colonel wouldn't forgive her for not trying to understand everything about her situation that she could.
She sat back down in the chair, cracking her knuckles. She had questions she wanted answered.
-OxOxO-
Aqua suppressed another groan. This-
This time-wasting, breast-padding bitch!
She had asked question after question, going on and on for over half an hour, and that had been before Aqua had shown her the relics.
Couldn't this girl tell that she, the magnificent and beautiful Aqua, had other people she needed to attend to?
Sure, the souls that were awaiting her guidance wouldn't be cognizant of anything until she met them, but what did that matter? She wanted to get done with her work so she could watch some anime!
She looked at the girl again. Aqua didn't know why she was trying so hard.
She had died while fighting, not doing the action itself. She hadn't even shot that many people!
Aqua suppressed another round of laughter at the thought of the girl's death. She had only taken out as many enemies as she had because the anger-fueled mana overloaded her 'Computation Jewel' and detonated it.
While laughing at the girl's death might have been stress relieving, it also might have alienated the girl, which she had been told not to do, since the Boss had gone through all the trouble of raising the age and expanding the number of places she got souls from.
Plus, with how many Hero Candidates were rejecting the contract, they couldn't keep sending down people without being sure they'd follow the guidance of the Gods.
They'd sent a number of people through who… probably didn't have the karma necessary for anything more than a few centuries of purgatory, all in the hope that their fanatical devotion to Heaven would stop them from reneging on the contract.
Eyes felt up the woman as she continued to sort through the various pieces of paper and card in front of her. She was certainly nice on the eyes, if nothing else, but those breasts…
Aqua glared at them enviously, even as contained as they were by the girl's restrictive clothing. She had to be wearing padding to make them look bigger than hers. Just like Eris.
No one was as pretty as her!
Grumbling, Aqua summoned a bag of chips and began to snack. Napping on the job had been banned.
Or, napping on this job had been banned, since The Atheist had been the one to suggest the idea. She sat there, waiting and answering questions and waiting and answering more stupid questions!
She sighed internally. At least Aqua had been able to mitigate how important The Atheist was. A few words of assurance had totally convinced this girl – like all the others – that they wouldn't have to worry about them, as long as they had a cheat item.
She was sure none of them, no matter how devoted to Heaven, would try and fight that crazy bitch if they knew who she was.
Finally, after nearly another half hour of waiting, the girl finished. Standing up, she walked to Aqua holding up a piece of paper. "I'll have this skill, please!"
Sighing in relief, Aqua stretched her arms, grumbling about the indignity of having to wait an hour. She stole the paper from the woman's grip, slapped it down on the table, and watched as it disappeared. As it left, a large magic circle appeared beneath the girl, and she gasped.
Happy that someone seemed to be in awe of her power, she quickly handed a bag of Eris over to the woman.
Watching the girl rise, Aqua marveled at her apparent ease in the air. Many of those she reincarnated panicked as they rose, but she didn't.
As she rose up, Viktoriya called down, "Thank you, Aqua!"
Aqua smirked, and began the last portion of her speech.
"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. You will now be sent to the new world, as one of the candidates who will defeat the Demon King. If you do, you'll get a gift from the Gods."
Viktoriya blinked. A gift beyond being able to live again? "A gift?"
Aqua smiled. "Yes. The Gods will grant any one thing you ask."
Viktoriya gasped. If Tanya was dead…
She could wish for her back!
"Don't worry, Colonel! I'll defeat this Demon King, and I'll save you too!"
With that, the floating woman disappeared. Aqua sighed in relief, releasing a bit of pent up stress. She had another hour before she would be required to talk to another human.
She didn't know how long it would take to keep up the increased workload without taking out a bit of stress on the hapless humans, but she was sure it would happen eventually.
She didn't have anything against them, but she couldn't even berate her underlings anymore. Not since that incident.
All of them except for Eris would just bring up what had happened, and then they'd begin to laugh at her while she denied being the only person at fault.
Besides, the Boss took out his anger on The Atheist all the time. She could certainly do it to a few humans she'd only see once, right?
Aqua settled into her chair and smacked the table by her side. A TV soon sprang into being in front of her, and, unaware of the boon she'd just delivered to Tanya, began to watch a bit of daytime television.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: Well, hello again, everyone! I am… beyond happy with all the comments I've been getting, so please, continue to tell me what you're enjoying.
We're getting a bit of backstory on Verdia – who was criminally underused in the light novels and got a few hilarious moments to stalk Wiz in the anime. It's fun to imagine what he would have gone through to turn him into a Dullahan, and I think I've got something… interesting.
The presence of a gender-switching item in the Light Novels is confirmed, even if the only way that has ever paid off was in the sixth LN with a certain relic. Suffice it to say, Tanya will be interested in that, even if more pressing matters are currently rising to the forefront.
As to the logical reason that someone in a medieval society would want an item like that: different gender identities and kinkiness were not invented in the 20th century, and… the Axis Cult.
Also, what you thought I wouldn't include Viktoriya?! HA! I laugh at the thought!
Anyway, I'm happy that another familiar face from Tanya's second world has arrived, but I'm sad to say that we won't be getting anymore.
Not for a while, anyway.
Now, regarding the whole 'Tanya spelling out that she wasn't interested in a relationship' thing…
Well, Tanya has often misunderstood her way into relationships in this fandom, so the only thing that I can imagine that is more hilarious, unfortunate, and tragic is her misunderstanding herself away from a relationship that she would totally enjoy.
Anyway, as a question… is the manga of Youjo Senki any good? I've heard good things about it from BleedingBlade and their story 'Amor Enim Vult' – go read it, by the way – but I haven't looked at it. Is it worth the energy?