Third Time's the Charm

by SugarcaneSoldier

Dying again was much more painful the second time for Tanya von Degurechaff, but what came after was intriguing, to say the least, and she was nothing if not opportunistic. Taking the opportunity presented by Aqua would expand her opportunities by much more than she could have dreamed possible… but why did the good have to come with so much insanity!

29. Misplaced Thoughts

Rain and Claire shared a look as the mirror of their Princess finished her story with a smile on her face. Both were trying not to panic too much.

On the surface, everything was fine. The marriage had been dissolved, and Claire was happy to have the legal documentation that said it was so, because he could easily go back on his word if they hadn't gotten it.

They'd even secured the defense funding and an additional bit of offense funding.

Iris had muttered something about investing in infrastructure with some of the defense funding, but she'd exploded into a small rage at Claire's pronouncement that she would not have cared if they'd gotten that stuff, as long as Iris was free from being wed to Revi.

So, if Elroad had been fixed, if the relationship between the two nations had grown better, if no one had gotten harmed all that much, then it seemed that there really shouldn't have been much need to worry.

However, they said they'd gotten extra lizard runners from a group of 'rough looking' men. Four men, exactly, actually, who had equipment and some amount of training.

Those would be the adventurers that Claire and Rain had hired.

They had hired them, told them to follow the Princess and to make sure that Degurechaff didn't get up to anything bad.

All of them had been killed.

Tanya von Degurechaff had murdered humans. Adventurers, sure, but humans nonetheless.

Claire felt she could forgive the action. They might have been resourceful adventurers whose only bad mark was a single night of weakened security, but they were commoners, and Degurechaff had completed her orders better than she had honestly expected.

She didn't think that she could forgive the influence this Degurechaff might have on Iris, however. Murdering opponents was not something a Princess should be doing. They needed to separate them.

Immediately, if it was possible.

Rain didn't want to forgive the action or the influence. If she was willing to kill humans, there was no telling what she might be capable of.

Neither of them allowed emotion to show on their faces as they thought these things. As Rain began to talk to Iris about the banquet they were having later to celebrate, Claire stepped forward, shaking Tanya's hand and, after a moment of hesitation, Viktoriya's as well.

"As agreed, you will be gaining rewards for guarding Iris," she said. She leaned closer towards them and began whispering as Rain and Iris hugged. "You will both receive additional rewards from me for the job as well."

Tanya smiled. "When will we discuss them?"

Before she could speak, Rain walked over. "Iris said that you have a reward in mind for your duties?" she asked.

Tanya smirked. Finally, she would get a place where she could begin to amass something that resembled an assembly line where she could begin to produce more weapons and bullets than she could ever use.

"Yes. As payment for the stories that I told Iris, for protecting Iris, and for helping fix Elroad's economy, I want to be given aid in locating and purchasing a tract of land with a few buildings on it," she relayed.

They looked at her curiously. "Wouldn't you rather prefer money, or perhaps some kind of weapon or piece of armor from the royal treasury?" asked Rain.

Tanya opened her mouth, about to refuse the offer, but then she stopped. She shook her head.

"No," she said, sending a very knowing look towards Claire, "I already have a way to earn money. I want help in buying land and seeing as how patents require a host of procedures to be followed, I'm sure that having the Princess's help me might smooth things over."

Claire nodded slowly, quickly interpreting Tanya's look as having meant that she wanted the reward for the extra job of ensuring the destruction of their marriage to be purely monetary.

"Although…" Tanya continued, pressing a finger to her chin and furrowing her eyebrows, "if something catches my interest, might I ask for something from the treasury for a reduced limit on the type or amount of land I can obtain?"

If there was some kind of relic or armor in there that caught her fancy, she would want to have it, if only for the resale value.

Maybe they'd have a Divine Relic that could change her gender?

It would be nice to get that out of the way right now.

-OxOxO-

Tanya was blushing madly under the scrutinizing gaze of Viktoriya. She had known that she'd probably regret getting them, but…

"There was nothing else in that treasury but money," she said, trying to avoid Viktoriya's gaze and put her body between her eyes and the small cart she was dragging behind her.

Claire had walked them to the second floor and showed them a very strong magical barrier – stronger than either of their Active Barriers, in fact – that was supposed to be impenetrable.

While browsing the various items inside the vault, Viktoriya and Tanya had discussed how long it would take to get through in Germanian.

Viktoriya thought it could be done in a few hours by shooting a couple thousand rounds at it, while Tanya thought that it could be cut through in minutes using all their mana on their Sharpen Blade spells.

The barrier might have been great for defending a single location, and it would slow them both down if they tried to get through it. Both knew, however, that no barrier was impenetrable without an infinite amount of mana to match.

Tanya knew of only one way that might allow her to get that much mana. She wasn't likely to ask for it from him, though.

As Claire had claimed on their way to the vault, a great many treasures were arrayed inside. Swords and knives and pieces of armor and mountains of cash and pieces of jewelry had been strewn throughout the vault, and all of it looked like it held power.

Tanya, however, wasn't interested. She had enough problems with two Divine Relics, and she wasn't sure her psyche could handle having more of Being X's cursed items placed on her body. She didn't know which were cursed by him and his cohorts, so she'd steered clear of them.

Viktoriya had also been rather uninterested, if only because she had started a conversation with Claire about Tanya and Iris's looks.

Tanya felt her face curdle like unrefrigerated milk at the way Claire had reverently described Iris. That had been weird to listen in on…

Still, she had eventually thought that leaving the vault with nothing would be fine.

Then… she had seen them. Several stacks of books, laid out in a pile, in one of the corners of the room. She'd wandered over and found a startlingly large number of works from her first life.

Like the Shakespeare book she had found in the library that she had met Verdia in, all of them were familiar pieces of popular, legendary writing. Some were similarly high-brow classics from Europe and beyond.

Others… were not. Trashy teen romance novels, the Harry Potter series, encyclopedias, and other works of fiction and nonfiction were present. She found some scientific books that might even help her in constructing her weapons or other kinds of explosives.

And, of course, there was manga. Lots and lots of manga and its more… illicit cousin.

She'd asked Claire why they were in the vault, and she'd been told that, though a past king had paid money to get them, the translators couldn't decipher the language.

Tanya had nodded understandingly at that; the language of this world was much closer to European languages with its individual letters that meant nothing until strung together instead of the logographic system used in many East Asian languages.

So, she'd taken some of the scientific books, some of the more acclaimed books that could be translated and sold, and some of the manga and… hentai.

All of it would be worth twenty times their weight in gold.

The acclaimed fiction books and manga would probably earn a lot, if made cheaply and sold widely. The scientific books would be used to improve her weapons and magic. And… the hentai… would be good for whenever she finally found a way to change genders. And she could sell it too.

This place was Medieval. Tanya was not sure there would be a lot of porn lying around for her or anyone to buy – well or crudely made.

Viktoriya sighed. "And like I've told you, Tanya, I don't even know what those books are about, so it looks more suspicious if you keep talking about them."

Tanya, finally, stopped herself from apologizing, deciding that she was speaking just a bit too much right now.

After a few moments of idly walking down the street, she cleared her throat.

"Claire said that we could each bring a plus one, right?" she asked, looking towards Viktoriya.

After that meeting, Tanya had given back Claire's medallion, and the retainer had led them to the sturdy gates of the castle. At the behest of Iris, who had rushed out of a meeting with Rain on the nobility attending her banquet, Claire had invited them to come to the party.

Tanya had been against going, but she'd melted against Viktoriya's pleading eyes and reminder that they hadn't taken a break in a while.

Even if Tanya could have argued that what they were doing now was nowhere near as straining as fighting on the front lines and might count as one long break, or that their job in Elroad – filled with stops at restaurants and casinos – counted as a break from their quest against the Demon King, the look on Viktoriya's face meant that she just had to agree.

That didn't mean, however, that Tanya didn't have a plan to get out of it – and that dress – early.

She had done more than enough to cement herself in Iris's good graces. If nothing crazy happened, she'd at least attempt to retire early. If she was unable to retire simply because she wanted to – maybe Iris would ask her to stay longer or something – she was also sure she could get 'asked' to leave too.

Viktoriya nodded, adjusting the bag she held in her hands.

They'd used up their packed food while they were travelling, so Tanya had just stuffed her own bag inside of Viktoriya's.

Tanya narrowed her eyes at the thought of her faithful friend.

Viktoriya was… what, twenty-four? Twenty-five?

She wasn't exactly getting any younger, and while Tanya had a plethora of reasons to stay away from romance – only creeps would like her body, she was… intense, according to the 203rd, and she had absolutely no desire to touch a penis that wasn't her own – Viktoriya didn't have the same excuses.

Tanya shook her head. She wouldn't dedicate so much time to thinking about something so inconsequential, but it seemed that this world would attempt to remind her that, even if she wasn't desirable, political marriages existed as well.

It was only logical that she would think about the ever-present woman who'd not left her side in what felt like years.

And, if Viktoriya was interested in someone, Tanya would like to approve of him.

"Do you have your eyes on anyone in particular? I know we haven't exactly run into a lot of… upstanding individuals so far, but…" Tanya asked, trailing off suggestively and raising an eyebrow.

Viktoriya colored herself red in embarrassment, and Tanya let a small smile shine through her even gaze.

She shook her head. "No, I… I don't think so."

Tanya nodded, and let the matter slip from her mind – if she didn't want to talk about it, Tanya wouldn't pry – and focused on walking and ignoring the slight amount of shame she felt about the small, red wagon of book that were trailing them.

Oh, they were covered, and no one could see their highly suggestive covers. But still…

Eventually, they had reached their inn once again. Both were about to go inside, when Lorelei jumped them, panting slightly.

She glared at them. Viktoriya fidgeted under her gaze, while Tanya just raised an eyebrow. The beastman threw down the bag gripped in one of her hands.

Tanya guessed that it held all her belongings, considering the beastman had said that she took most of what she owned with her whenever she travelled because she thought that the place that she was staying at would throw them out, even if she paid in advance.

"I ran all the way to the castle, looked for you two, and was told in no uncertain terms that my kind wasn't welcome with a celebration going on. And where do I find you? Strolling back towards your rooms like you don't need to get dressed and prepared!"

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. We don't need to prepare all that much," Tanya said, aware that their baths would take longer than any preparations.

They had both become accustomed to life on the front, where makeup was nonexistent and your appearance didn't matter to the enemy.

Tanya almost retched at the thought that her appearance mattered to one of her former enemies, and then she buried the thought in a hail of mental gunfire. And artillery fire. And just plain old fire.

Tanya would spend a bit more time attempting to make her hair behave, and then she'd put it in a ponytail or allow Viktoriya to braid it, even if having her hair arranged felt… odd.

Viktoriya wouldn't take too much more time, either. She put on a bit of makeup that made her glow – not literally, as that was probably an option in this bizarre place – and arrange her own hair, but she wouldn't take hours.

Tanya stopped, looking at Lorelei with an appraising eye. Then, she smirked, wondering if this was how she might be 'asked' to leave early. "Say Lorelei. Do you have any plans this evening?"

The beastman blinked, tilting her head in confusion. Tanya then smirked, and she heard Viktoriya groan behind her.

"Lighten up, Viktoriya. I might not let you doll me up too much tonight, but you have someone right here to do with as you wish."

Lorelei backed up. She didn't seem entirely happy about the idea, but she hadn't rejected it yet.

"Uhh… now that I think about it, you have some letters, Tanya. From something called the 'Mithril Foundation' and some girl named 'Wiz.' Shouldn't we take care of that first?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, jumped forward, and grabbed the woman's arm. "Thank you for telling me! I'll grab them after getting ready."

Lorelei seemed to whimper, but Tanya didn't let go of the taller girl's arm. Viktoriya grabbed the other one. Both smiled at her, and if Lorelei had been in another circumstance, she would have called those smiles saintly.

Unfortunately, they contained a hidden malice that Lorelei could feel in the adamantine grip on her arms. She sighed.

If she really didn't want to, they'd probably let her go, but Lorelei would be lying if she declared that she didn't want to go, if for no other reason than a desire to see what everyone was wearing. Lorelei didn't know when the next opportunity to see the height of fashion would present itself.

Hanging her head and her ears, Lorelei picked up her bag. Tanya smirked, and turned her head to Viktoriya.

"Go find a Tailor and purchase their services. We'll probably end up late to the party, but I don't think we'll be too late."

Viktoriya smiled and saluted, and they went their separate ways, one contemplating how she could frame the whole experience as the first part of Lorelei's training, while the other was wondering if she should start looking for a… romantic interest.

Viktoriya wasn't getting any younger, after all, and maybe she wouldn't think those blasted – wonderful – thoughts about Tanya if she had actual experience with a boyfriend.

-OxOxO-

Back from the trip to the Tailor with a plan to meet in twenty minutes in her room, Viktoriya sighed as she looked at the head of the lonely beastman resting in the large central bath.

Tanya had left a note on her door addressed to Viktoriya that she was taking a quick shower in her room, and that she should hand her dress over to the Tailor so he could make a number of listed alterations.

Her note had mentioned she would be heading to the guild and pick up the letters Lorelei had mentioned after she was done with the shower and her dress was fixed.

Viktoriya shook her head as she pushed open the door.

She didn't mind bathing with Tanya… if it was to keep up appearances, of course. She had no doubt that Lorelei would probably begin to have very pointed questions about their situation…

Again, she shook her head as her thoughts began to drift towards how nice it would be to bathe with Tanya. Instead, she simply slipped inside the room, trying not to make any noise and honestly wondering how comfortable Lorelei could be in the bath with how tall she was.

Lorelei heard her, and the beastman turned around almost as quickly as her ears had with a questioning look on her face. Viktoriya just smiled politely as she gazed at the beastman who was neck-deep in the water.

There was no rule against utilizing the communal bath, even if they were the only two people there due to the late hour. The sun had dipped below the walls, but Claire had assured them that the party wouldn't start until around 10.

Viktoriya sighed as she stripped down and took off the Type 97 and her other necklace from her throat. She stared at the necklace fondly, idly wishing that she had some sort of pocket watch to help her plan.

Tanya had said something about inventing one, and Viktoriya hoped that she would. It was getting annoying to have to rely on vague approximations determined through the position of the sun and moon, and neither of them had ready access to the tall grandfather clocks that were in Iris's castle.

Lorelei watched the woman.

Lorelei wasn't an Axis Cultist, of course, but sometimes she stared in remembrance of what she had lost.

She was also curious. Her ears had allowed her to hear through the walls of the hotel they stayed at in the capital of Elroad, and she had heard the two of them taking separate showers.

They were allowed to do that, of course, but Lorelei thought it was a bit odd. Adventurers, and more importantly, same-sex adventurers who had to penny pinch, were inclined to do such things together to save money. Showers weren't cheap by any means, after all.

Lorelei had shrugged it off at the time; she didn't like to bathe where anyone else could see her, so they probably had their reasons. She just…

Lorelei grimaced. If Viktorya and a Tailor were dressing her, there was little chance she would be able to continue to wear the long, flowing pants that obscured her legs hidden.

With a small splash, Viktoriya sank into the water, sighing contentedly. Lorelei nearly jumped up, but she shook her head and calmed herself.

Lorelei stared at Viktoriya again. Maybe…

Maybe Tanya had some reason like Lorelei's for not wanting to bathe with others?

Leaning back on the edge of the bath, Lorelei sighed. This situation didn't seem to call for much subtly, and Lorelei wasn't inclined to try for any in a bath.

"So… why don't you two take baths together?" she asked, tilting her head. Suddenly revealing what else had changed about her because of the accident would be weird.

The question she had asked wasn't any less weird or sudden than revealing the changes, but Lorelei felt a lot more confident about talking about anything other than her own… malformed body.

Viktoriya felt a grimace flash across her face, but she smoothed it out, trying to think of an excuse.

Lorelei probably wouldn't think their origins were as insane as many people in their last world, with how bizarre this one was, but Viktoriya didn't think she'd accept Tanya's story like she had.

Lorelei was about to fill the silence herself, but Viktoriya spoke up just in time. "Tanya has some… circumstances that make revealing herself detrimental to our capabilities as a unit," she explained, trying not to trip over her words.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "That was certainly impersonal," she stated blandly

Before Viktoriya could add to the statement, a question came flying at her. "Was she cursed or something? She isn't a Monsume, but…"

Viktoriya pursed her lips, idly wondering if Tanya thought that her reincarnation as a girl counted.

She decided to tell a half-truth. "She was cursed, yes, but it wasn't physical," she said.

One of those truth-detecting devices couldn't have detected the lie, since Tanya was forced to pray to a being she didn't believe in to activate the Type 95. A different curse than the one Lorelei probably imagined, but a valid way to lie nonetheless.

Lorelei nodded absently, wondering what it could be. Tanya hadn't seemed very cursed, but maybe it was one of those finicky ones that could help you in some situations and hinder you in others.

"You know…" Viktoriya trailed off as she read the tension in the beastman's upper body, "if you really don't want to go to the party, you don't have to come. I can always cancel the meeting with the Tailor…"

She let the offer hang in the air, and Lorelei sighed, bringing her hands up to her face for the first time. "No, that must have been expensive-"

Viktoriya shook her head. "Oh, it wasn't a problem! I just said that we were going to the Princess's party and that she, along with everyone who was expecting us, would be rather upset if we didn't arrive on time. He was very cooperative after that, and he even gave us a discount!"

Lorelei's hands paused by her bangs where they had been adjusting her hair.

She looked at the smiling woman, a concerned smile on her face.

She wanted to ask if she had been subtly threatening the man, but she sounded so… innocent when retelling it that it was hard to think that could be the case.

Viktoriya's eyes widened as she stared at Lorelei's now-visible arm, and the beastman winced. She'd caught sight of one of her other changes. Viktoriya's eyes flicked away, and Lorelei sighed.

"No, it's fine. I… I really shouldn't be keeping secrets from you all, and you've already done a lot for me-"

Viktoriya suppressed the guilt that had been growing at the mention of secrets, shaking her head and groaning as she hit herself in the face with her wet hair.

"Lorelei… you don't owe us anything. To put things as Tanya would, we're all 'allies,' which basically means friends, as far as her dictionary is concerned. We're not going to pressure you into anything unless you've done something to us."

Lorelei nodded absently. They might not realize – neither of them fit the word 'average' very well – but that was an incredibly generous offer.

Tailors weren't expensive; they were exorbitantly costly, and the woman had even blackmailed someone with the threat of the royal family for her.

"It's just… the last time I told my adventuring party about what happened, they abandoned me. That was the whole reason I had to leave Axel in the first place," she admitted.

The implication was obvious: she thought that if she revealed more of herself, they'd ditch her like they had.

Viktoriya smiled reassuringly. "We won't abandon you. We've stuck with you this far, right? Tanya doesn't abandon people without good reasons, and this seems like something she'd shrug off and say 'Why should I care? You're still contributing to the party, right?'" Viktoriya said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

Viktoriya watched Lorelei chuckle at her imitation. She then watched emotion fight for dominance on Lorelei's face. She saw trepidation and nervousness, but it eventually crystallized into determination.

"I told you two that my hair turned white and I got rabbit ears, right?" she asked, making sure that she hadn't inadvertently told them what had happened already.

Viktoriya nodded, and Lorelei continued, supposing that this was it.

"Well, that wasn't… everything that had changed. My height increased, and my nose also shrank. I have a tail, too, but that's hidden easily enough," she said dejectedly.

"I've got patches of fur that run up the top of my arms, and…"

The beastman grimaced once more and shifted her position, bracing her arms on the side of the pool so she could see.

Viktoriya could see that fur did indeed run up the top of her arms, beginning with an arrow point-shaped start on the back of her wrist and ending on her shoulder.

Before she moved again, however, she sighed, and moved some of the wet hair near the side of her head. Viktoriya's eyebrows rose.

In her many years of fighting, Viktoriya had not seen many wounds, compared to Medical Mages, doctors, or even regular infantry.

Aerial Mages didn't often survive wounds, since getting a bullet put inside you usually destroyed a mage's ability to concentrate, which was a main component of using magic effectively.

The 203rd was able to take more damage than most, but even Tanya hadn't thought that shooting them to get them to build up pain tolerance was a good idea.

Despite her lack of experience with wounds, Viktoriya could easily tell that something wasn't right with the image before her. Instead of human ears, or even a disturbing patch of smooth skin, there was instead an angry ball of muscle.

What Viktoriya thought might have been some odd parasite or growth was actually intermittent hair that resembled the short fuzz on her arms.

Before she could ask, however – did the teleportation with the rabbit destroy her human ears? – Lorelei lowered her arm and braced herself again, lifting a leg out of the water.

Viktoriya managed to stop the full-body lurch that she felt at seeing it. She was unable to hide the grimace on her face.

It had no hair, but it would have been better if it had. They would have looked more like an animal's instead of some sort of upsetting addition to a human body, like Frankenstein's monster.

It seemed like her legs had been stretched from the knee down, and that included her feet and toes. Each of the five digits raised in the air looked like they were almost as long as Tanya's fingers, even though they looked nothing like a hand in the slightest.

The skin looked just as stretched as the limb did. The arrangement didn't seem like it was physically painful, but Viktoriya wasn't sure if that was because of Lorelei's familiarity or if it actually didn't hurt.

Viktoriya shook her head and looked at Lorelei's face. The determination was bleeding into fear. Viktoriya sighed, and decided for an attempt at levity.

"I'm guessing this is why you wear those terrible pants?"

Her ears, hanging down past her face to compound the nervous sadness that was present, jumped up, and her leg splashed down into the water as indignation surged forward.

"What do you mean?! They might not be the best, but no one's said anything bad about them! They allow for a lot of movement and I don't have to show off twenty thousand inches of skin in the process like a Thief! Who do you-"

Viktoriya was trying not to chuckle – she didn't want to interrupt the verbal crusade – but she failed to hold it in.

Twitch.

The glare, the twitching ears, and the way her face was all scrunched up… it was just too much.

As she broke out into laughter, Lorelei pouted and crossed her arms. "Oh, how very funny. See how I act next time you have some deep dark secret revealed."

Her laughter abruptly ceased as she tried to keep thoughts of Tanya and a blush off of her face. "Lorelei…"

She trailed off, and the beastman turned to her, still pouting.

"I just want you to know that I don't mind."

Viktoriya sighed as Lorelei became confused instead of happy. "Back in the Empire – the place where Tanya and I came from – she volunteered at the age of eight to join the army."

Lorelei seemed to resemble a different type of beastman with how owlish her gaze had become. Viktoriya nodded.

"The Empire was a meritocracy where what you could do meant more than your appearance, age, or gender. I may not have been born there, but Tanya's proved that appearances aren't everything," she explained.

Lorelei became quiet after that, and Viktoriya tried to fill the silence. "Just… be aware that even if everyone else judges you for what you look like, as long as you're comfortable with what you are, we'll support you."

Lorelei looked at her, hope shining on her face. "Really?"

Viktoriya tried not to sigh. "Yes, really," she confirmed, aware that she wasn't exactly following her own advice in regards to Tanya.

But… there were plenty of reasons she could pick to ignore her odd feelings.

Tanya didn't seem remotely interested in her, or anything regarding sex or love. She was dedicated to her job and securing safety for herself and getting revenge on that dastardly Being X.

She was physically a girl… and Tanya seemed perpetually unhappy with that fact.

There just wasn't any way it would work, and Viktoriya was better off finding someone she would be fine with and stop embarrassing herself.

Lorelei picked up on the conflict she was feeling. "What's wrong? I… I told you a lot about my past. You can rely on me, right?"

Viktoriya's returning smile was thin. "Yeah, I guess… I wish Tanya would talk about her past too…" she muttered, trying to ignore one problem by focusing on another.

Tanya didn't want to talk about the end of the war, and while Viktoriya wouldn't push her – never again – she was her friend.

Didn't that mean they could tell each other their problems?

Viktoriya caved under Lorelei's unwavering gaze. "Tanya, among her names, was known as Mithril. She killed several enemy mages single-handedly, holding out for ten minutes… back when killing ten mages on your own was legendary and not expected of us. They gave her the name because of her… value compared to other metals, the magic that is intrinsic to her, as well as her… 'purity.'"

Both paused as that, until they both began to chuckle. Viktoriya wasn't exactly how she had somehow been thought of as pure, but the valuable part certainly applied.

"Anyway… do you know what Mithril is?" she asked. Lorelei's eyebrows furrowed. "I think it has… something to do with magic?" she ventured. Eventually, she just decided to shake her head. Viktoriya began to explain.

"It's basically a form of magically-treated silver. It has the power to soak up massive amounts of mana from its surroundings, or it can transfer it from one place to another," she said, pointing at the lights above them and gesturing to the water around them.

"Most appliances, like the lights and the water heater in this room, as well as other things like refrigerators, have a small amount of Mithril in them that allows them to suck mana out of the people nearby and from the air in order to function."

They had both deconstructed a light in the room in Axel that she and Tanya had shared a few weeks ago and found a bit of the metal.

After Tanya had calmed down in the face of the drain on her mana touching the metal caused, they had discussed its presence.

Their world – Tanya's second world – didn't have the resources to make enough Mithril to use it instead of electricity, which meant this world could probably extract it like any other ore, or some job gave its owner the ability to produce it quickly.

"Like Manatite crystals?" she asked. Viktoriya nodded.

"People can't draw the mana out of Mithril, however, and it usually turns back into regular silver after a while," she said.

She took a heavy breath and clenched her fists. Even thinking about that despicable, horrible, blight…

"She… that horrible stuff was used against Tanya," she finished, gritting her teeth at the memories this discussion was bringing up.

"Well… like you said, I should be comfortable with myself, which extends to you two, too. If she wants to talk about it, I'm here," she assured her, smiling.

Viktoriya smiled back thankfully, and then shook her head. "Enough of that stuff. I think that the Tailor is going to get here soon, so we should hurry up," she said.

Lorelei nodded, leaving the feeling that there was more Viktoriya wanted to talk about than she was letting on alone, for now.

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed again as she thanked the people she was passing by while suppressing the twinge of anger. That was the third time she had been mistaken for the Princess.

It wasn't hard, of course. The dress she was wearing was similar to the one Iris had been wearing during her meetings with her and Revi, when she wasn't fighting whatever he had brought in for the day.

In fact, it was the same dress that Tanya had been wearing, with a few key alterations that made it slightly more bearable.

It was no longer made to… accentuate her in any way, and it also had pockets. Instead of strapping a pistol to her leg, she'd strapped her Seitengewehr and its sheath there instead, choosing to put her pistol and the Type 95 in her pockets.

The Type 97 strung to her neck, the mental fortitude ring on the middle finger of her left hand, and the circlet on top of her head didn't help her look any less than the Princess, even if circlets were equipment for adventurers.

The damnable Circlet of Greatness still glowed and reflected the light coming from the numerous street lamps in an odd way, even after months inside of her hat. That headpiece had been the first people mentioned after greeting her as the Princess.

She had kept up the ruse. She and Viktoriya could bring two people to the party, and while Lorelei was an obvious choice, she had been unsure of who else to bring.

Fortunately, she did remember one person that Iris had spoken of somewhat fondly and who had advised her on what to wear during her first meeting with the Princess.

Opening the doors of the guild, she looked around for a moment, attempting to locate the man. She could see a number of adventures, all of them with odd arrangements of armor and ridiculously sized weapons.

Tanya was about to wade through the crowd of drunk and boisterous adventurers, seeing as she couldn't locate him. She took a moment to try and guess if he'd be closer to the counter or to the entrance of the Pit.

"Is that the PRINCESS!?"

Tanya suppressed a groan as every eyeball in the place – because she could see that more than a few people were sporting eye-patches – turned to her, curiosity marking their faces.

Instead, she just smiled and made her hand move back and forth in an effort to appear like she was actually the amiable Princess and not an adventurer who would like nothing more than to violently replace her current clothing.

"It totally is!"

Twitch.

Tanya tried not to glare at them for the squealing coming from some of them and the gasps from nearly everyone else. She needed something, and she would clear the, of their presumption soon enough.

"Hello! I was looking for… Kyouya Mitsurugi? Is that Hero Candidate in the building?" she asked in that high-pitched voice of her's, all the while attempting to keep her anger controlled.

She wanted them to think she was the Princess, at least for the moment.

The cacophony rose, for a moment, but then the man in question burst from the crowd, trailed by his nervous and jealous looking compatriots.

"Princess Iris! I heard you need me? What's the matter? Do you want to be told of my latest adventure, or is there some sort of threat that requires my assistance?" he asked, almost out of breath.

Tanya dropped her kindly demeanor, glaring at the circle of adventurers around them. "It's Tanya, actually."

He stared at her blankly. "My name, that is. I'm not actually Iris. I've been invited to a party, and-"

His friends seemed to understand her before he did. "How dare you! Why would the wonderful Kyouya want to hang out with a girl like you?"

Tanya sighed, and grabbed the bridge of her nose. "I need to invite someone. We recently returned from Elroad, and I wanted to invite you, considering I haven't spent enough time in the capital to meet many other people."

He nodded in understanding, but before he could answer, Tanya turned her glare towards his friends and continued to speak to him. "And to make things clear: you are coming as my friend. I have no desire to date you."

The pair, again, seemed to want to speak up, but he spoke first. "I don't have any other plans, so I think I'll take you up on your offer. And… ah, your opinion on dating me is appreciated."

Tanya smiled. No doubt he was happy she didn't want to date him; the two women that hung off of him seemed intent on making sure that they were the only two that could compete for that honor.

"Good," she said, turning to leave. She needed to get caught up, and some innocent questions about what had been happening would seem innocuous enough as dinner conversation that he wouldn't recognize it as the interrogation it was.

Plus, he was supposed to be strong, so he would be a good person to know, even if all she needed was some hired muscle if one in her position decided to oppose the Demon King.

Then, just as her hand graced the doors, she sighed. Right, the letters. She turned back around and made her way to the counter, happy that the crowds parted as she made her way towards it.

That same receptionist, at her inquiring glance, held up her letters.

"A beastman came to ask about your letters. Is she-"

Twitch.

She smiled as nastily as he'd made that word sound. "Please make sure that you don't insult people who use your services. While the guild might be funded by the state, I'm sure the nobles I know wouldn't appreciate hearing that you've been insulting your own employees," she bit out as her eyes narrowed.

For some reason – it couldn't possibly be the look she had sent him – he made no more attempts at conversing with her, and Tanya quickly plucked her letters from his hand. She'd go through them later.

She hoped that the golden lettering on the Succubi's card was indicative of their success and not an attempt to impress her, because she would not be impressed by a bit of flashy writing.

She left quickly, making her way back to their inn and only giving the passing people a quick wave as they gasped at seeing the Princess. Hopefully, they would realize that she was in a hurry and not in any mood to speak.

Tanya's eyebrows creased as the lights around her began to flicker into darkness.

She thrust a hand into her right pocket, placing a hand on her pistol even as the last light died. If those things were going out, someone was damaging them or pulling the mana out of them.

A light tap on her shoulder sent her spinning around, pistol drawn and pointing away from her.

Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight in front of her. It was hard to tell, but they were a tall figure garbed in a voluminous cloak that hid their features well. The concealment of their features might have made them more inconspicuous if they were shorter, but their height made their shady cloak stand out even more.

She slowly let her pistol drift downwards at the sight of hands held up in a placating manner. If they had wanted to attack her, they could have done so without alerting her, before they were turned to shreds.

"I'm sorry, Ma- ma'am. I am a Demon, here to deliver to you a letter," he explained, letting one hand slowly drift into his cloak and retrieve it.

She scoffed. "I could guess. Your magic reeks of the same stuff that hangs on the Succubi in Axel."

He sighed at her declaration, and then continued on. "The… Demon King wishes to open a dialogue with you." He shoved the letter into her other hand, and she winced at the sudden, cutting pain in her hand.

She looked down and saw, in the limited light from the stars and the moon, a minute cut. She looked back up at the demon and saw that what she had assumed were fingers were actually… sharp knives that were as red as the face that had been revealed by him jumping back in surprise.

Before she could ask the… familiar voice who he was or why he was delivering the letter, a bright light began to emanate from him.

"What? The payment…" he trailed off, and then stared at her again.

"MA-!"

That was the last she heard from the demon as he faded into a bright light that made her look away.

She opened her eyes again, to find that the street was bright once more. She looked down at the letter and grimaced.

The only thing written on the blood-red letter was 'Degurechaff.' That meant there was definitely not any chance that they could have been mistaken.

She sighed, and then continued to walk towards their inn, which was now in sight. For someone in her position, this could be an enticing offer to switch sides. On the other hand, someone in her position might have also grown to care for some of the people present in Belzerg and Elroad.

Tanya sighed again. She would think about it later. For now, she had to drop off her three letters, meet up with Viktoriya and Lorelei, and head to the party.

After that, she'd hopefully get through the whole ordeal quickly and move on to whatever house or mansion or property she could afford with the cash she was getting and the help of the Princess.

-OxOxO-

After getting through the front gates – where a pair of knights had mistaken her for the Princess and had only been confused by the lack of fruit in her hair – Tanya had come into the so-called 'banquet room.'

She had been… confused by the building it was housed in, to say the least.

The room's look could have been summed up in a single word: Japanese.

There were tatami mats on the floor, shoji had been used in place of regular doors and windows, and the outside of the building situated in the middle of the castle's courtyard had the sloping roofs present in a wide variety of traditional East Asian architecture.

If Tanya could sum up what it looked like in two words, however, she would say that it looked stereotypically Japanese.

The doors didn't actually slide to open; they opened like any other door Tanya had encountered thus far.

The tatami mats might have looked okay at first glance, but many of them were different sizes instead of the regular rectangles they were supposed to be.

Tanya supposed that was to be expected. Most people didn't really know the meaning or purpose behind a lot of cultural practices – she certainly didn't remember all of them – but for things to have strayed so far from what they had been in the Japan she remembered…

How long had Being X been tossing Japanese teenagers into this world?

Iris had mentioned something about her ancestors being related to 'Hero Candidates,' but if they had been Japanese and the reason for the doors sliding had been forgotten, then how long had that infuriating thing been meddling in other people's lives?

Tanya was startled out of her musings by a choking sound. She looked towards the first source of it.

Iris was staring directly at Lorelei, slack-jawed. That surprise was quickly wiped away, and she walked towards the girl with a confused expression on her face.

Tanya turned to the other source of the choking noise, to find that Mitsurugi had arrived and was behind them, staring at the woman's back.

"The b- I… I mean, uh, Lorelei? How…?"

Iris's question dragged Tanya's attention back to the Princess, who had not asked her question and was instead staring at the tall woman. Tanya knew why.

Claire and Rain were both hovering near her, looking at her in concern and trying to find whatever fault Iris saw in Lorelei.

They could see nothing wrong, but Iris could look past the fancy clothing and see the beastman that had made it past the gates and into a room filled with nobles that disliked her kind.

Tanya was well aware of other people's willingness to look past oddities, however. With how she was dressed, Lorelei didn't really seem like she was anything other than a very tall, white-haired woman. Those were the only visible incongruences with her image of a well-dressed woman.

Tanya shook her head. If she could blend in so easily, it was a wonder why everyone disliked them.

Lorelei was just as beautiful as anyone else there, besides Viktoriya and, maybe, Iris's retainers. The beastman had chosen to wear a dark green dress with lots of golden highlights. Just like her regular jacket and pants, there was more fabric than was strictly necessary, likely to help her hide what she didn't like. Still, every inch of it looked lovely.

The dark green gloves that wove their way up past her elbow and neared her fabric-covered shoulder completed the image of a tall, wonderful looking woman.

It might have looked odd on someone else, but with her height, she was able to pull it off, and she had taken her compliments with a smile on her face.

Viktoriya, on the other hand, had begun to sputter at Tanya's complement of her own dress.

She had also chosen to wear white, although her dress was shorter than the one Tanya had on, and she had a small amount of gold ornamentation strewn throughout her clothing.

Tanya shook her head as she remembered how low the dress dipped past the woman's… assets. It wasn't as scandalous as something Darkness might wear so that she could revel in the lecherous looks others gave her, but it was certainly more than Tanya had seen with anything else she had worn.

She shook her head as images of Viktoriya from their visit to the hot springs of Bidin-Budin, a small, resort-like town back in the Empire, flashed through her mind.

Tanya really did think both of them looked magnificent, even if she was sure her familiarity with them was coloring her assessment somewhat.

She even felt a tiny bit sorry for hoping she could use Lorelei as an easy way of getting out early, if need be…

Tanya turned her attention to the conversation. Iris was complementing Lorelei's hairstyle, and Tanya had to suppress a sigh.

Both of the other members of her party had, with the help of the Tailor, proved resourceful enough to hide her ears by building her hairstyle around the ears they had pinned back.

Tanya turned her attention to the other three, and then…

Twitch. Twitch.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she could actually feel her hair twitching furiously, for once.

Iris was wearing the dress she had worn to meet Revi. Rain was wearing the same dress she had worn to meet them every time they had seen her.

Claire was wearing a suit. She was wearing a suit in front of some of Belzerg's most important nobles

She was wearing a suit in a social situation like it was nothing.

She. Wears. Suit.

Tanya was impressed with herself as she walked towards the turned backs of Lorelei, Claire, and Rain. She didn't immediately interrupt their conversation to get a straight answer.

"Claire," she nearly growled as Lorelei finished answering Rain's question about her dress. The woman in question turned around, and Tanya took a deep breath as Claire stepped back.

She wasn't angry at the retainer of Iris – who had wisely backed up the moment she and Viktoriya had seen Tanya storm over.

No, she was angry with the people who had made her wear the stupid dress.

For. Almost. Two. Weeks.

If she could have been avoiding the indignity of wearing a dress when she was a male at heart…

If she would have been wearing a suit instead of a dress during her meetings with Revi…

If Lorelei, someone who had been trying to become 'one of the best Tailors in Belzerg,' knew that she could have been wearing a suit…

"I was wondering, Claire… I'm new to this country, and where I'm from, I was only allowed to wear a uniform to one of our… King's parties because of my notoriety among the military and my strict adherence to professionalism. Do you have the same status here?"

She let the anger drain from her face and pitched her voice higher in an attempt to draw forth her fondness for Iris.

It worked, judging by the smile she sent her. "Well, while I do have status compared to others due to my household and my closeness to Iris, Belerg has no such antiquated notions of dress," she explained.

Tanya raised an expectant eyebrow, and the woman hastened to explain. "Women who prefer to wear suits may due so, and men who would prefer them are allowed to wear dresses."

Tanya smiled. "Thank you, Claire!" she said.

The woman smiled back at her, and then Tanya, her repressed anger now back out, turned to the nearby and nervous beastman.

"You knew," she declared. It was clear from her nervous expression and the pleading looks she tossed back to Viktoriya that probably translated to 'save me from the loli,' that she had known.

Tanya gave her own stone cold look to the woman, motioning towards her with a single finger. Viktoriya rushed forward.

"Stand still."

With no further warning, Tanya jumped up on top of Viktoriya's shoulders, activating the Type 97 that Viktoriya had neglected to wear – she didn't think anything would happen tonight that needed it, but Tanya wanted to be safe – in order to stabilize herself. She heard several people – more than were taking part in their conversation, which meant eavesdropping nobles – gasp at the move, but Tanya didn't mind the attention.

She leaned forward, now higher up than the beastman. Lorelei shrank back.

"Don't worry," she said, smiling angrily, "I wouldn't do anything that could ruin the party," she lied, knowing full well that she would at least interrupt it if she thought she'd get out of this – obviously unnecessary – dress. "You will, however, be going through what the battalion that I trained went through at a minimum."

Lorelei just nodded meekly as Tanya glared at her. She sighed and hopped down from Viktoriya's shoulders, adjusting the stupid dress that she hadn't even needed to wear. Both of the other members of her party were blushing.

Tanya sent a single glare at the crowd that was watching them, and they turned back to their own conversations in an attempt to make it appear that they weren't watching.

Tanya turned to the Princess. "Iris, what can we expect from the party? Claire neglected to mention what we would actually be doing."

Claire, still blinking in shock at Tanya's actions, shook her head and looked towards them.

Iris sighed, and then she drew herself up to her very inconsiderable height. "We'll be having a buffet where the nobles will mingle, talk, make deals, and generally smile at each other while secretly planning to stab each other in the back later. Then, there will be a toast to the health of the Monarchy of Belzerg, and I will open the gifts that were given to me, my brother, and the King in an attempt to gain favor."

Tanya blinked at the information. Her reaction was nothing compared to the nervous looks of her retainers.

Claire put a hand on Iris's shoulder, attempting to speak to her quietly, but she just scoffed.

"Why should I keep quiet about what's really happening? Everyone knows that that is what's going on, so there's no use in ignoring it. We're all just using each other as a means to an end anyway, and they'll all ignore this so-called 'altercation' in the hopes that they'll be able to worm more favors out of me for silence, even though all of the nobles around them also heard, rendering their attempt at blackmail useless. We'll be able to charge them with such, and then-"

Tanya took the initiative and clapped a hand over the Princess's mouth. Claire and Rain were alternating between trying to kill Tanya by just staring at her and silently pleading with the nobles around them and with Iris to become unconscious so that they couldn't continue to listen anymore.

Iris turned her eyes to Tanya as she drew away a bit. "What? You told Revi that-"

Tanya clapped her hand on Iris's mouth again. She had told Revi that if the nobles wouldn't cooperate with his new ideas that they could either improve or be removed.

She had meant that in the logical sense: move them to some place where they couldn't harm anyone and hope that you wouldn't need them again. She had done that with her time on the Rhine by moving that idiotic pair into a pillbox, and it had worked fabulously.

"I meant that he should move them to positions where they can't do harm. Permanently removing them means that you don't know the new people as well, and-"

Tanya felt Viktoriya's hand clap over her own mouth, and she decided that maybe they should start doing that mingling thing before the fear of the other nobles and the killing stares of Claire and Rain actually managed to send them out of the building, if not out of Belzerg entirely.

Before Viktoriya could drag her off, Tanya distracted everyone by releasing the hand she had put on Iris's mouth. She jumped out of Viktoriya's grasp as well.

"Is it all right that we didn't bring a gift?"

Iris nodded her head as Claire and Rain, realizing that they couldn't use some skill that let them kill Tanya just by staring, began to apologize to the other nobles. "Oh, it's fine. To tell you the truth…"

She looked up from where she'd just been staring nervously at the ground, a bright, sunny smile on her face. "Just having you three here is a gift enough!"

Tanya nodded happily, retreating from Claire, Lorelei, and the other nobles who seemed to be choking on the sheer cheesy innocence of her statement. Tanya was optimistic that that had probably distracted the nobles from the… unfortunate words that she and Princess Iris had said.

-OxOxO-

The party had been going on for well over an hour, and most people there were happy to have attended.

Lorelei glowed as she received another compliment. She had no illusions that at least half of them were motivated by her apparent closeness to Iris and her lookalike.

That just meant that half of them were genuine compliments that she hadn't received from anyone other than Tanya and Viktoriya in a long time. It was nice.

Viktoriya sighed as she walked around. Without Tanya by her side, these people looked like they thought she was below their notice. She wasn't blonde, after all, even if she did have blue eyes.

She didn't mind too much, however. As long as she had Tanya and Lorelei, she'd be fine.

A patch of hair less blonde than anything else jumped out of her, and her eyebrows furrowed. She made her way through the maze of nobles, only to come upon that Mitsurugi guy that Tanya had invited.

She quashed a brief flare of… something at the thought of him and Tanya, and then straightened her own hair. He was from Japan, apparently, and Tanya had shown off their rifles in front of the entire guild and revealed that they were also reincarnates.

Maybe he could tell her a bit about Japan? It would be interesting to learn a bit more about Tanya's real homeland.

Tanya meanwhile, had slowly been making her way back to Claire, and was now within range. She had just finished apologizing to that last noble, and now Tanya could move in.

"Claire! I was wondering if we could discuss some… things?" she asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly and letting a small smile drift onto her face.

Claire seemed to wince slightly, but she acquiesced, following Tanya towards the buffet table.

Tanya saw a lot of what passed for the usual fare of this world's nobles – lobster and seafood seemed especially prized, but there was lots of meat from monsters Tanya hadn't heard of present as well.

She picked up a few things, planning on coming back for more after she had finished talking with Claire.

She watched the noble pick up a few things as well, besides one glaring omission.

"You don't drink?" Tanya asked, perplexed. She wouldn't drink – not when she wanted her facilities about her – but she thought that someone with Claire's disposition might want to.

She blushed, slightly. "Err… well, I do… it's just that I can't hold my liquor very well…" she trailed off, chuckling at the end.

"I can't either," Tanya said.

They stood there for a moment, silently marvelling at the apparent similarity between them, and then Claire cleared her throat.

"I assume you wish to discuss your compensation?" she asked tiredly. Tanya smiled and nodded, taking her plate towards one of the corners of the room where fewer nobles were gathered.

All of them scattered when they approached, and Claire explained quickly. "Those were all of the lower ranked nobles who don't have the money or political power or resources to come to these things, and they respect that we have business."

Tanya nodded, and then began to pick at her food. Claire did the same, apparently unwilling to begin the conversation.

Tanya shrugged internally; she was fine with eating first.

Across the room, Viktoriya nodded at the man's story from his youth. He had been a top-of-the-class student before his untimely death at the hands of a mugger, and since his meeting with the beautiful Aqua, he'd been trying to grow and defeat the Demon King for her.

Viktoriya thought he was nice enough – maybe a bit self-absorbed, but she'd met people twice as conceited as he was – but his descriptions of Japan were what really interested her.

"Why are you so interested in Japan, anyway?" he asked, confused. She laughed nervously, but she decided to use the excuse that Tanya had concocted.

"I didn't come from your version of Earth, actually. Tanya and I actually fought in a… sort of mix between the two world wars of your world," she explained.

His eyebrows rose. "How did you find out about my world?"

"Tanya and I both talked to a few of the other 'Hero Candidates' about the differences. Our war had the technology and ideology of the first one with the basic progression of the second one."

He nodded, seemingly curious, but his eyebrows were furrowed. "You mean… you two fought other people with guns and in trenches? You didn't just choose those as your weapons?"

"For some of it, yeah."

He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry for all of the things you two must have gone through. I don't know much about that kind of war, but it must have been grueling."

Viktoriya felt a small blush touch her cheeks as she nodded. He dropped his hand.

"So, where are you going after this?" she asked.

"I felt a…" he trailed off.

Viktoriya's eyebrows rose. Even this far away from Axel, someone without any magical ability had detected the disturbance?

"You felt it too?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "I felt a magical surge of energy coming from Axel, even though I'm not a Mage. Because that's usually where Reincarnates come from, the Reincarnates here voted and decided I should go to see if something went wrong or if there's someone I could recruit."

Viktoriya smiled. "We might be headed that way as well. Maybe we'll see each other?"

He smiled. "Yeah. That wouldn't be too bad."

They parted ways, and Viktoriya looked around. She spotted Claire and Tanya discussing something in a corner, and she decided that maybe she'd try her luck talking with Rain. She seemed down to Earth.

Claire, a pained and hopeful expression on her face that had worked its way there through the course of their meal, looked into Tanya's eyes. "I don't suppose you would like to take stories about Iris in her childhood as payment?"

Tanya resisted the urge to snort, but the blank look she sent Claire seemed to be just as disheartening.

Tanya sat up in her chair and cleared her throat. "You seem to be dreading this meeting for some reason. Do you think I'll make unreasonable demands?"

She looked at her with a decidedly uncomfortable expression. "Well… not specifically…"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, but the noble remained mum on the subject.

Tanya wasn't especially happy about that, but she ignored it.

"...I was thinking that we should begin negotiating the price," Tanya began, hoping easing Claire into this would dispel any odd fears she had. Claire, again, began to look quite uncomfortable.

Tanya groaned. "Why is this so bad for you? You asked me to do this with the expectation that you'd have to reward me, yes? Elroad is doing fine financially, and Iris told me all about how much Rain complained about your wealth."

Tanya continued to glare at the woman, but she just sighed. "You're right, I suppose. I can't stiff you on this-"

Tanya interrupted her quickly. "No you can't. We signed a contract, and unless you want to trigger the protections of the contract and invoke my wrath, you'll start making some offers."

"'Your wrath?'"

Tanya glared. "Iris might see the necessity of punishing you if you won't uphold your bargains. And what would the King think of someone so untrustworthy so near his daughter?"

Claire resisted the urge to incredulously cry out 'I'm the bad influence?'

It wasn't worth it, and if she wanted the girl away from her precious Iris, then she had to go.

She sighed again. "Fine. I'm willing to offer you five million Eris," she grumbled.

"DEAL!"

Claire peered at the girl in confusion as she leapt up from the table. Tanya, however, was more than happy about that amount.

She could probably get more, if she wanted to, but she would already be using Iris's connections to get in contact with people to buy a piece of property and to buy high-grade materials.

The five million Eris would help her get a production line started, and with her Smith skill, she'd have bullets, bombs, grenades, and anything else she could possibly want.

Tanya groaned at the sight of the crowd in front of her and Claire, who seemed to be growing increasingly distracted by Iris's maneuverings through the crowd at the other end of the room. It would take at least an hour of talking to people she had no intention of ever meeting again, and-

Then, she grinned as she remembered one of her skills and activated Lurk.

She made her way through the crowd, dodging past people and intending to talk to Iris. She needed to make sure that they had an appointment planned for them to go somewhere and check out a location.

If Lorelei didn't mind, they could probably teleport to Axel to begin.

There was, after all, that large magical disturbance that needed to be investigated, and putting her base of operations there would lessen the secrecy she would need to use, as long as she could get the Succubi to keep the police off of her back.

She'd keep everything legal, of course, but with nobles who could abuse their power around, Tanya was fairly sure that they might try and concoct some sort of false accusation against her in order to gain entry.

If they were going to try and break the rules, she'd use her resources to ensure they faced more obstacles. Having whoever replaced Gerrard on her side would help immensely.

Tanya finally found Iris, and she ducked behind a nearby pillar before deactivating Lurk. She stepped around it and smiled at Iris, who beamed at her.

"Hi Tanya!" she greeted her. Iris took Tanya's hand as they began to drift towards the banquet table again.

Iris's face suddenly fell, and before she had even touched the Onion Duck, she turned to her.

"Tanya, what are you going to do after the banquet?"

Tanya smiled. It was nice to see that her lookalike was so quick to pick up on her thoughts. "Well, I was thinking about spending a fair amount of time at the property you'll help me get… tomorrow?"

She phrased the ending as a question, and looked at the Princess's face for any sign of confirmation. Instead, she only seemed saddened.

"Um… well, I don't think I have too much to do tomorrow, but… if you wanted, you could stay here at the castle! There's a lot of room here that isn't being used, with so many on the front lines," she said quietly.

Tanya shook her head immediately. "Sorry, Iris, but I don't think that Claire and Rain like me too much."

That was part of it, but she really didn't want anyone catching wind of what she was trying to do. She had signed that other contract with Verdia, and until someone in her position decided on which side to join, said person wouldn't violate it by inadvertently giving Belzerg access to modern weapons.

Someone in her position, after all, did have a letter stored away in her hotel that they would need to read.

Again, Iris's face fell, and Tanya sighed. "It's not like I can't just teleport over here and stay for a few days after I leave, as long as you don't have any work you need to do."

Iris lit up once again, and then turned around, facing away from the table. Before she could ask what she was doing, Iris snapped her fingers.

A butler came rushing over with that familiar, megaphone-like magical item held on a padded cushion. Iris picked it up.

The butler then turned to Tanya, gave her a once over, and then grabbed a glass of wine from the table and thrust it into her hands.

Before she could ask, however, Iris's speech began.

"ATTENTION EVERYONE!" she shouted into it. Tanya winced slightly, but made no move to cover her ears.

Rifles and the battlefield in general were much louder, and Tanya was fairly sure that she might have permanently damaged her hearing.

Making a mental note to cast some more overpowered Heal spells on herself and Viktoriya – just in case – Tanya readjusted her ring as Iris began to speak.

"Everyone! While the food is delicious and the gifts will be wonderful, I need to say a few things. Thank you for attending this banquet! Usually, we wouldn't hold these until the first snowfall, but we have a special occasion."

She turned to Tanya, and she plastered a smile as the best of Luna's as Iris continued. "Tanya von Degurechaff, despite not being a noble, has greatly helped improve the relations between Belzerg and Elroad!"

Several of the nobles began to look at her. She could see a myriad of gazes looking towards her, and she was sure that more than a few of them were probably very interested in her.

"Thanks to this sixteen-year-old's protection and economic prowess, I no longer need to marry King Revi and our nations are still closer than ever."

Tanya continued to smile pleasantly even as she began to wonder if she should stay away from the Princess in retaliation for the pitying looks that she was now receiving and despised.

"A toast! To the health of the Monarchy of Belzerg, and to my friend, Tanya von Degurechaff!"

Everyone raised their glasses, and Tanya raised the one that had been thrust into her hands. She drank from it, and glared at it at the headache that began to build.

She wouldn't touch another glass. She shoved the thing back into the butler's hands and then began to drift into the crowd of nobles. They would want to talk to her, and she had no doubt that she wouldn't like what they had to say.

Then, she ran into Rain, and she sighed in relief.

"Hello, Rain."

She let out a small sound of surprise as she turned around. "Tanya! How nice to see you again."

Tanya raised an eyebrow at the… friendliness in her voice, but she just shook her head. "Yes. I was wondering… was it really okay that we didn't get Iris anything?"

Rain blinked rapidly, before nodding. "Yes, it's fine. I think she really meant what she said about having your presence here. Besides, I just got her a small magic item. It's not like that's much…"

Tanya scoffed. "Honestly… Iris will love whatever you got her because it was you. You don't have any need to curry favor with her if you're already so close to her, so she'll know that what you got her was something you thought she'd like instead of some attempt to get her attention."

Rain blinked, as if coming out of a daze, and then nodded. "Yes… I suppose you're right. Thank you, Tanya!"

Tanya smiled as she turned away from her, only to see a veritable line of nobles. They weren't arranged in anything so 'plebeian' as an actual line, but it was clear from how they were all glancing at Rain's retreating form that they were here for her.

Tanya fought to keep down her revulsion towards the group of nobles, trying and failing to see a way out of this.

She adjusted her warm ring again and steeled her shoulders. How hard could it be?

-OxOxO-

Very hard, it seemed.

On her way to the party, she could ignore the people mistaking her for a Princess or a noble easily enough and just pretending to be the Princess for a few moments and then moving on. They left her alone very quickly, since she was the Princess and had much more important things to be doing than conversing with random passersby.

Now, however, she couldn't avoid the people who knew she was close to the Princess.

"Why, Lady Degurechaff! How nice it is to speak to one of the people the party is being thrown for…"

"Are you sure you aren't a noble? My contacts in Elroad have spoken very highly of you…"

"It is very odd that you look so much like the Princess. Care to shed any light on the situation…?"

"I have a son around your age, Lady Degurechaff! He is an interesting man helping fight some of the Demon King's fiercest forces…"

Time and time again, Tanya was forced to smile, nod, and patiently explain that she wasn't the sister of Iris.

She wasn't a noble, and people from her country were born with blonde hair all the time.

She wasn't remotely interested in marriage.

Unlike Revi, who had seemed desperate to think of her as a noble, or Darkness, who had taken days to convince, they only needed to be told once to get the picture. She was happy about that, because if she had needed to explain to all of them more than once, she might have gone properly insane.

Just as she finished assuring her latest conversation partner that yes, his son sounded lovely, and she hoped he would find a wife of proper standing soon, a small tug on her dress alerted her to someone else desiring her attention.

Tanya sighed, adjusted her uncomfortable ring, and began to turn around.

She found that the space where she was looking – above her head, since every noble in the room was taller than her, barring Iris – was empty.

She looked down, and found that, miraculously, someone here was actually shorter than her.

Tanya stared at the person before her, and tried to shake the image of Darkness away. Unfortunately, it didn't leave, and she was left confused as the image curtsied.

"Hello, Lady Degurechaff. I am Sylphina Ford Dustiness, niece of the great Ignis Ford Dustiness, right hand of the King of Belzerg, and attending the party in his stead."

Tanya's eyebrows shot up. "I thought you were Dar- I mean, Lalatina, for a moment," she admitted to the young girl.

Here eyes widened. "You know my cousin?!"

Tanya nodded happily. Finally, a topic of conversation that didn't revolve around her relation to Iris and the other people in the room. "Yes. I adventured with her for a month or two a while back.

Happily, the spitting image of Darkness in her youth – even if Tanya hadn't ever seen Darkness back then, the girl just… looked like Darkness probably had – began to talk about her.

"I don't think Lalatina's mentioned you in her letters, but she doesn't talk about her adventuring stuff much anyway…"

She shook her head again, and Tanya tried not to visibly react. She had forgotten to send Darkness any letters.

As Tanya hoped that the Crusader wouldn't be too upset, Sylphina spoke again. "It's fine. I-"

A loud, raking cough burst from her, and Tanya held out a hand towards her. "Are you alright?"

Tanya helped the small girl stand, and she gave Tanya an apologetic smile as she readjusted her hair, making it once more resemble Darkness's. "I'm sorry… my Mommy's family has little immunity against sickness…"

Tanya nodded. "It's fine. In fact…"

She smirked as she extended a hand towards her and began pouring mana into the Type 97 around her neck. Darkness would hear about this later, and maybe that would make up for not sending her any letters.

"Heal!"

She waited for the child to grow more healthy, but… she didn't. Tanya's eyebrows furrowed in confusion – had she used the spell incorrectly? – but the girl simply smiled sadly.

"Ah, magic like that doesn't work on illnesses. Only potions can really do anything for me…" she trailed off, a sadness welling up in her eyes. Tanya shook her head.

"My apologies. I was unaware of that fact," Tanya admitted, hoping not to have slighted the girl. The girl shook her head.

"It's fine. How did you learn such magic, anyway? The inheritors of noble estates aren't allowed to become Priests, and since the Dustiness family is so close to the royalty, we often get barred from using their services because we take the King's side against them."

Tanya shrugged. "I'm not really a part of the nobility, even if everyone here seems to keep insisting that I must be."

With that, Sylphina smiled, before a concerned expression began to brew on her face. "I'm feeling a bit tired after all of this…"

Sylphina shook her head. "Is it weird that Iris is staying up this late? Her retainers don't often let her do this sort of thing for so long…" the child muttered.

Tanya felt her eyebrows furrow. "Well... "

Iris was part of the royalty.

More was expected of the Princess.

Staying up late was totally fine.

Everything was within her exact expectations.

She shrugged noncommittally. "Probably. Honestly, I don't know much about the particulars of these sorts of parties."

Sylphina also shrugged, and then ran off, promising to bring her father over. Tanya smiled at her retreating back.

The clearing of a throat had her spinning around and putting the ring she had been messing with back in place.

"Ah, I just noticed that you said you knew the heir of the Dustiness family?" came the inquisitive voice of the man in front of her.

She raised an eyebrow at his appearance. For one, his hair was a 'plebeian' burgundy. That seemed to be a rarity among nobles, or at least the ones the royal family made nice with, considering she hadn't seen much other than varying shades of blonde.

"...Yes," Tanya answered simply, narrowing her eyes at him. What kind of person admitted to eavesdropping?

He smiled kindly. "Ah, I only inquire because my father was trying to set up a marriage between the young lady and I. My duties as a knight come first, however, and he seems rather uninterested in the prospect, now."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "Who are you, again? I'm sorry I don't already know, but Darkness wasn't particularly interested in talking about her 'other' life."

His own eyebrows seemed to crease at that. "It's no problem. I am Walter Barnes Alexei, son of Alderp Barnes Alexei."

Tanya scowled as she heard the name. Alexei…

Her eyes widened. Hadn't that been the thing built like a brick wall that she had insulted?

She gulped. "Right. I think I might owe your… uncle an apology…" she muttered.

His expression seemed to grow happier, oddly. "That was you? Father was complaining about how Aurip required assurances from all of the knights serving them both in order to coax him out of his room."

Tanya felt the tips of her ears heat up, but he waved a hand. "No, it's no problem. Neither my adoptive father nor his brother are very… nice nobles, but they can be reasoned with. I'll make sure they understand everything."

Tanya sighed. That sounded like he was probably expecting something in return. "You said something about being interested in Lalatina?"

He nodded. "My father doesn't often abandon his plans, especially concerning his attempts to live… vicariously through me, and that he has done so with this one has intrigued me."

She shrugged. If the noble wanted to, he could probably get plenty of stories about the Crusader named Darkness.

If Tanya was telling them, they'd probably even be more accurate, considering it seemed like that 'goddess' Eris was looking out for Darkness by making sure no one realized how perverted she was.

"Well…"

She told him of her first few quests with her – keeping out her own mental commentary she had about her seeming obsession with getting injured – and finished with their heartwarming separation.

All through the stories, he seemed to grow ever more attentive. As she finished, he sighed.

"...She sounds like an interesting woman. Perhaps my father was a bit too fast in cutting off the negotiations…"

Tanya shrugged. It would be nice if Darkness didn't have to adventure – she might actually get what she wanted and get captured and tortured by some monster eventually – but Walter didn't seem like the type of man who would help facilitate her fetish, much less enjoy it with her.

Tanya – thankfully – could only imagine what that might be like. She wouldn't wish it on a friend.

He bowed slightly towards her. "I'm afraid I must go. Father wanted to introduce me to some of his… business associates. They're concerned with a new criminal group, although I think they care more about the loss of profit more than the people being harassed…"

Tanya nodded absently, and turned to the buffet table, where most of the food had been cleared to make way for a mountain of gifts.

All of them seemed to be wrapped in brightly colored paper, and considering how expensive that stuff seemed to be here compared to in her old worlds, the paper was probably as meaningful as whatever gift was inside.

Iris seemed to be scanning the crowd, and, with a heavy sigh, Tanya began to make her way through the crowd.

She appeared next to the table, and Iris motioned for her to sit next to her.

Next to the open seat, Viktoriya was conversing with Lorelei, who seemed to be extremely happy if the smile chiseled into her face and the nervous, jittery tapping of her feet – barely visible due to the length of the table cloth – was anything to go by.

As soon as Tanya sat down, Iris, Claire, and Rain rose, and Tanya, Viktoriya, and Lorelei did as well.

"Thank you all for coming! I will open the gifts now, and then the carriages will begin to send people home, along with the customary thank you gifts!"

A small cheer went up at that, and Iris stepped forward towards the pile.

HISS

Tanya flinched, and she looked down at her hand. The ring she was wearing was… glowing, and smoke seemed to be coming up from where her finger met the metal.

All at once, she realized that it was burning her finger.

Her eyebrows creased as she cast Heal on it and the pain retreated. Why was she wearing this thing? She wasn't married.

It wasn't on her ring finger, though, which meant it was probably important.

She shook her head, and began to look around.

The nobles were all looking at Iris – whose smile seemed to be less than genuine – attentively, but everyone else in the room…

Tanya shook her head again as she looked for the guards. There didn't seem to be many of them.

That seemed odd. At the last party like this she'd been to, there had been a few hundred of the Empire's best soldiers guarding the building, since most of the military's and monarchy's most important people were there.

Tanya turned to Viktoriya, who was absent-mindedly picking at one of her nails.

Tanya resisted the urge to slap her on the arm. "Viktoriya!"

She looked up suddenly. "Huh? What is it?"

"Why aren't you paying attention?"

She shrugged. "I'm a bit distracted right now. Mitsurugi was nice and interesting, and-"

Tanya cut off the pang of misplaced – because a relationship wasn't and wouldn't be happening between them – jealousy and grabbed Viktoriya's arm. "Focus. Do you know if the gifts were checked?"

She shrugged and went back to picking at her nail. "I don't know. Rain said the gifts were interesting, but…"

Tanya felt her ring burn her again, but she simply cast a silent Heal on herself and moved on to Claire.

She was standing most closely to Iris, who seemed to be trying very hard to be interested in the gifts.

Tanya tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned around a bit. Tanya stepped back at the… giddy, drunk expression on her face.

"Claire? Were the gifts checked?"

She smiled. "No need to worry, Princess Iris, just pat me on the head again."

Tanya suppressed the urge to growl as she turned to Rain. She mentally took back what she'd thought about Walter as well.

Darkness was a masochist, Aurip was a pedo, and Claire had a thing for Iris. It was likely that their inbreeding had done more unkind things to them than their outward appearance suggested.

Obviously, the hair and eye color thing was the result of inbreeding, but how they'd gotten something so innocent instead of infertility or missing bones or protruding chins was beyond her.

Whatever the reason – and she wouldn't rule out the interference of so-called deities – it seemed all of them were probably perverse in some way.

Tanya blinked, and then shook her head as her ring heated up again. She needed to get to Rain.

"Rain."

The girl acted like she hadn't heard her. She was staring enviously – blatantly – at the gifts Iris was receiving and at the wealth in the room, muttering under her breath.

Tanya shook her head. Something was wrong. She wasn't sure what, but there were no guards and everyone was distracted, and the ring that she had for some reason was heating up. That had to mean something.

In a way she hoped was subtle, Tanya began to mutter Observation spells under her breath, going over the gifts. She needed to rule out if something was attempting to get to Iris, and then go from there.

She was having trouble with concentrating.

She shook her head again. The gifts that had already been opened were clear. She turned to the unopened ones…

Her eyebrows furrowed. The Observation spells had reported that everything was fine.

They said that nothing was wrong.

Magic had no presence in them.

There was no opportunity for harm.

Tanya nodded. If it wasn't magic, then there was no way this backward land could make something that would harm Iris-

A pain shot through her chest, and she gasped. The contract!

She was supposed to make sure no harm befell Iris, which meant… that her thoughts were wrong. However…

Her spells had denied magic's presence.

Iris could not be harmed now.

She shook her head again, trying to keep herself from freaking out. Observation spells always detected magic. Even if there were no active spells, there was always some background interference from something Tanya suspected was related to radiation.

With how many nobles were in the range of her spells, she should have gotten something.

Tanya gasped again, and looked at her hand. The ring was burning again. Something was wrong.

She looked at the gifts. What could be inside them that could harm Iris?

Wait…

Rain had claimed that she had gotten a magic item for Iris. Then…

Her magic was acting oddly, or her brain wasn't-

Her eyes widened as she remembered what the ring on her finger was for – it was supposed to protect her from mental manipulation – and she audibly gulped.

This wasn't good.

Tanya strode forward, stopping Iris from touching the next present by grabbing her arms. The nobles gasped, but the people behind her and Iris herself, in an unfortunately predictable manner, said nothing.

Tanya grit her teeth as her ring continued to heat up. Something was attempting to trick her, and it had already tricked the others at this table.

There was exactly one thing that she knew of that could control people's minds.

"Princess Iris, there is a problem. As your contracted bodyguard, we need to be careful."

Unlike their usual energy, her eyes seemed far away and dull. "But… you're going to be leaving. These things don't matter if you're going to leave me…"

Tanya growled, and turned to Claire. "Claire! Iris is in danger!"

That shocked her out of her stupor, and sent more gasping through the crowd. "What! Who dares-!"

Tanya grabbed her by her shoulders. "Something with powerful mental magic is attacking. Gather the guards and block the exits, or Iris could be harmed!"

Claire was off like a rocket, and she ran to a corner of the room where one of the few guards was. He was leaning against his spear, and Claire had to shake him in order to get him to comply.

Tanya, meanwhile, turned to Viktoriya. "Block the exits. There could be a traitor in the room."

She seemed listless, and Tanya growled again. "Viktoriya, I need you! Please!"

The woman inhaled deeply, and nodded silently, no longer picking at her nails but instead thrusting a hand into her pocket, hopefully to grab her pistol.

"Get Mitsurugi!" she shouted. The woman nodded, heading into the crowd of nobles as Tanya spun back around, grabbing both Lorelei and Rain.

"You two, protect the Princess," she said. The nobles were beginning to grow anxious, but Tanya had no time for them.

Tanya slowly approached the Princess, positioning both Lorelei and Rain behind her.

"Iris," she said softly. She blinked, before turning, slowly, to Tanya.

"Yes?" she asked. Her eyes were still far away.

Rain made to move forward, but Tanya held her back.

Rain glared at Tanya, but she shook her head. "Do you know what could happen if the thing doing this realizes we've caught on? Do you know what they could do other than make everyone distracted?"

Rain paused, and then she sighed. Tanya smiled, and then turned to Iris. "Continue to open your gifts Princess. It seems that something may be wrong. We're not sure how dangerous it is."

She nodded stiffly, and she turned to her gift.

"I'm the one protecting Iris. Not Claire; I can do it, even if my family isn't important." Rain was smirking as she stared at Iris's movements.

Tanya grit her teeth. It seemed that she was being distracted again.

Her ring continued to heat up, but Tanya just continued to pour Healing magic on her finger. She activated her spells once more, and scanned the gift in front of Iris.

"Do not worry yourselves, fellow nobles. Things will definitely play out favorably. Degurechaff is trusted, so we should trust her, too." Tanya looked up to see that Walter was calming the crowd.

She shook her head. She needed to pay attention to what was in front of her, not what everyone else was doing.

One by one, Iris went through the gifts. Tanya was now setting aside all of the wrapping paper, sending glares at the nobles.

Tanya blinked at the fearful expressions on their faces. She grinned.

This was it! She wouldn't have to endure their looks and leering and planning to use her as a pawn.

She belonged to no one, no god!

She stepped forward, keeping a spell aimed at Iris. "Everyone! There is something going on here. A malevolent entity is using magic. Our minds are now at risk."

Their eyes grew wide, and Tanya hiked her dress up to her thigh as she grabbed her blade. She drew her sword from its sheath.

"Hopefully, it is an attack from the Demon King. If it is not that, however…"

She gestured to the present on the table. "Everyone, take up your presents now. Present them to the Princess yourselves. If any discrepancy is detected then…"

She raised her Seitengewehr and slashed down towards a nearby table, cleaving through the tablecloth and sending a resounding crack around them room.

As one, the nobles rushed forward to grab their gifts, and Tanya turned her attention back to…

She blinked, and grit her teeth until they hurt. She had forgotten what they were doing! She'd thought that getting to leave early and get her dress off at a time like this was important.

She glared at her finger, and stopped using Heal.

Immediately, she began to feel the damage the Heal spell had been reversing the moment it happened.

Her breath stuttered, but before anyone could ask or notice, she poured a small amount of mana into a Heal spell.

The pain was still there, but she had managed to take some of the edge off of it. She needed the pain to keep focused, right now.

She refocused on the line of nobles. Some of them, those that had already seen their presents given to the Princess, were standing off to one side.

One by one, people began to present their presents. Claire arrived, and more guards came in. Viktoriya and Mitsurugi appeared next to Claire, and Tanya heard something crackling in her mind.

She blinked, and accepted the magical radio message. Viktoriya's voice echoed in her ears. "The guards are all drunk now. Someone suggested that they should all get drunk because of the party."

Tanya growled. That meant they'd be even more susceptible to suggestion. With how distracted she could become with a ring on, she had no doubt this would not go well.

Still, she continued to keep up her spells on the gifts, trying to think of a way to get rid of the mental suggestion and control.

The ring was supposed to do that, but since it wasn't meant that this was probably a powerful type of magic.

She needed to know if it was Being X. If it wasn't him…

She shook her head. Focus!

Then, a familiar face came forward. She smiled. "Walter. How nice to see someone competent."

He nodded, his eyes shining. "Of course."

he turned to Iris, and bowed his head. "Princess Iris Stylish Sword Belzerg: the gift from the Barnes Alexei family."

Tanya nodded. That meant that their last names were similar to the 'von' of her own last name-

She shook her head again – she needed to focus – and scanned the gift in the hands of Iris.

Nothing was wrong with the present.

She shook her head, panting suddenly. All of the other gifts had been tainted with magic. That meant that this was the problem.

No, that could not be right.

Walter was a nice looking man.

Also, there was no sign of Being X. Her Observation spells weren't tainted with-

She shook her head again, and ripped the gift out of Iris's hands. Tanya looked to Lorelei.

"Grab him."

Lorelei ignored her completely, and Tanya swore. She needed… more power.

Tanya grimaced. She sent a mote of mana spiralling into the Circlet of Greatness.

Her arms began to tremble from the weight of the gift in her hands, but she breathed a sigh of relief. She could think again, even if everything was beginning to grow bright and humorous and shiny.

She grinned and reactivated all of her Observation spells, even as Walter began to plead his innocence. That he was thinking clearly enough to argue was suspicious.

Slowly, her spells began to report something different. There was not a lack of magic, but a massive amount of magic.

The screen floating in front of her was bright. Her spells were reporting something familiar.

Tanya turned around and waved towards Claire. She rushed over.

"It is… like Iris's sword."

Her eyes widened, but before Tanya could move, Iris snatched the box out of her hands, ripping into the wrapping paper.

"Claire! Hug Iris!" Tanya shouted as she withdrew the mana from the Circlet.

She did not need it anymore.

She had now scanned it successfully.

The Circlet was no longer required.

The black, polished wooden box was opened, but Claire reached Iris before anything else happened. She grabbed Iris, and Tanya picked up the box herself.

Viktoriya walked over, followed by Mitsurugi, while Tanya stared at the item in the box.

The others crowded around her, and Tanya inspected the necklace. It looked somewhat ordinary, all things considered.

There were no gaudy or expensive jewels on it. It just seemed to be a golden chain with over twenty pieces of thin, golden strips hanging from it.

She turned it over, and her eyes widened. "Is that…?"

She didn't need to answer the Japanese Reincarnate. There were indeed Kanji on the back, one character on each of the golden strips.

If she put the necklace on…

She smirked. With three Divine Relics, she could take on Being X. He needed the help of his other 'gods' to make them, after all, and he didn't have anything like she did, did he?

He was a pathetic, weak coward.

His power had failed her once.

His power would fail him too.

She snatched it up, and was a moment from putting it on. She just had to. She needed it-

"Tanya! Tanya, stop!"

She shook her head, and saw that Viktoriya was holding the necklace. She shook her head.

"I… I'm sorry, Viktoriya. I guess…" she shook her head again. They didn't have time!

Suddenly, the sound of clattering armor reached her ears. She looked towards the sound, and saw the guards.

Claire stepped forward. "What are you-"

She never finished. They brushed past her, and began to tear up the wrapping paper.

Tanya wouldn't have been worried – it was just paper, after all – but her memory was apparently much more fluid than she thought, and she needed it to remember who the criminal was. She…

She needed to be clear headed, but she couldn't clear her head.

Claire and Mitsurugi cried out, and Tanya saw that they were both on their knees in front of Iris.

Viktoirya seemed to be freaking out about something.

Lorelei was standing stock still, not moving but for the slight twitch of her hair and her face.

The nobles in the center of the room were growing increasingly skittish.

Tanya needed a clear head, and she wasn't used to dealing with this kind of mental corruption.

Wait. Mental corruption…

She blinked as a new idea came to her, and she skipped over the long drawn out sigh she wished she had the time for.

She slipped a hand into her dress and clipped the Type 95 next to the Type 97.

"Oh holy god, please grant this believer the power to vanquish the unseen foes of these believers!"

She felt it. The power was flowing into her body. The cloying, disgusting desire to perform for her G-

No! Not her god!

She turned to Iris. The guards were destroying the presents. They were scarring the guests.

They were also drunk and open to suggestion, which meant Iris needed to command them. Iris seemed to be heavily affected by everything going on.

Tanya turned her attention to the stinging annoyance that dared to burn a-

She shook her head, looked between the ring on her finger, and remembered the words contained in the Kanji on the back of the necklace.

She smirked, making her way towards Iris and grabbing her arms. She had a hunch that the Type 95 was telling her was right.

"Iris. I need you to take this," she said, pointing at the ring on her finger. Claire seemed to have been shocked into silence by the guards actions, while Mitsurugi had moved on to attempting to stop the guards.

He could stop them physically, but they would recover faster than he could stop them all.

Tanya turned back to Iris, who nervously grabbed the ring on Tanya's outstretched finger.

"Your things are mine, my things are yours. I'll turn into you," Tanya whispered, hoping that this would work like she hoped it would.

The whole of the Divine Relic began to glow, and Tanya closed her eyes as the ring on her finger was taken off and god GOLD GLORY TO HIS EVERLASTING-

Then nothing.

There was no more pressure. The constant weight of the Circlet of Greatness was no longer on her head. The chains that constricted her actions and thoughts weren't there.

The cursed Type 95 and its suggestions to simply give in, to use its power to slay everything in her path and to believe, truly, in their god, were gone.

Her eyes opened to find that her body – no the person in her body, Iris – had collapsed. She seemed to be foaming at the mouth and muttering constantly. Viktoriya was hovering over her, desperately shaking her.

Tanya strode over, calmly picking the Type 95 off of her body and taking the Seitengewehr from the ground.

She turned around. "Guards!"

Their actions slowed, and Tanya strode over, her steps growing more sure. She couldn't feel any of it.

She smirked.

"GUARDS!"

They stopped, as one, and turned to look at her in confusion. Tanya tried, for a moment, to cast Heal on them – maybe it could cure drunkenness…

But it didn't work. Tanya knew the words and the magic, but she wouldn't use it.

She blinked, and then shook her head. "I order you all to stop the nobles."

Because they were gone. They seemed to have taken leave of themselves, leaving only a few nobles behind.

"All of you, spread out. Begin to search the castle for intruders, and raise our security to maximum. Alert the garrison and have someone man the gates. No one leaves the city without my say-so. Understood?"

They nodded in unison, flocking towards the doors. Tanya strode over towards the ruined wrapping paper.

She could pick out bits and pieces, but it seemed that most of the name tags had been destroyed.

She growled, and turned back to the others, who were still crowding over 'Tanya.'

Tanya rolled her eyes. "She'll be fine. We need to figure out who did this."

They all turned to her, perplexed and confused and hurt, and Viktoriya got a very... scary look in her eyes as she glared at her.

She fought the urge to back away from Viktoriya – where had she learned to glare like that? – and smirked instead.

Viktoriya and Claire both paused. Tanya pointed towards her body. "That is Iris. The Divine Relic switches the minds of the invoker and the wearer. We need to figure out who did this."

They all seemed to reel at the revelation, but Tanya wasn't done.

"Does anyone remember who did this?" she asked.

It must have happened during the transfer, but she couldn't remember who had given Iris the gift.

From their precautions, it should be someone near them, but Walter was too nice, Claire and Rain were too devoted to Iris, and Tanya knew she could rule herself, Viktoriya, and Lorelei out.

Walter stepped forward, his face unhappy and angry. Tanya tilted her head in confusion.

"I… I did it!"

Tanya and the others reeled back, but he continued. "I gave the gift to Iris, but since my Father was the one who entrusted me with the item…"

Tanya nodded in understanding. "Claire, detain Walter."

He looked shocked, but Tanya shook her head. "You could be trying to throw him under the bus."

Tanya turned to Rain and, more importantly, Lorelei. She eyed the top of her head, a plan forming. "Can you find him? He is one of the fattest nobles, so he's probably weighing down whatever carriage he has. It'll be a bit harder than listening for those dickwads on our way to Elroad was, but…"

Rain seemed confused by the inclusion of his weight, but Lorelei nodded in understanding. With only a moment of hesitation, she began to undo the hair on top of her head.

The complicated curls were slowly unwound, until all of it hung down. Rain gasped, bug-eyed, as Lorelei's ears were revealed, but she just closed her eyes as her ears rotated on top of her head.

She nodded. "Yes. He's heading west, right now."

Tanya nodded, and grabbed the woman by her waist. It seemed she was physically strong enough without her Reinforcement spells to run fairly quickly and carry heavy loads. Rain still seemed to be gaping at Lorelei, but Tanya began to run out of the doors.

"Oh, please tell me we aren't-"

They were. They rounded the corner, and once Tanya made sure to deploy an illusion before they took off...

But she couldn't. It seemed that even her magic that wasn't dependent on this world wouldn't work for her in Iris's body.

She scowled. That shouldn't be right. A person's soul probably didn't matter for that kind of magic… unless her magic had been affected in a way she couldn't detect by its arrival into this world. Or that magic was very particular to that world.

Or a million other reasons she couldn't think of.

She sighed, and came back to the room. She picked up the knocked out Iris, and turned to Viktoriya.

"Carry Iris?" she asked. Viktoriya seemed frozen for a moment, but she nodded.

The four of them began running. Rain, left behind, began to console the nobles that hadn't run off, while Claire began to direct the guards.

Tanya shook her head and turned back around. She wouldn't activate her Reinforcement spells, which meant…

"Lorelei, carry me. I can't fly and I don't have my magic," she ordered.

The beastman nodded, and they began to make their way through the streets with Lorelei directing them occasionally.

Tanya glared ahead of them. They had a piece of shit to catch, and if he was willing to use mental magic against anyone to get what he wanted, Tanya wasn't sure she'd be able to hold herself back when they finally found the fuck.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: And so, another chapter is done and dusted! Enjoy it? There was certainly a lot there.

From Lorelei growing ever-closer to the party, to Claire and Rain's growing mistrust in Tanya, the OCs and side-characters are doing a lot of growing. We've also got Mitsurugi's curiosity with Tanya and Viktoriya, the message of that Demon, and a concerning amount of corruption from the Relics.

But hey! Tanya's got a way to switch bodies, right? Too bad she can't keep her powers, or it would be perfect. Don't worry, though; that Relic isn't simply going to disappear. A certain Thief is still looking for it, after all. At least she'll get a proper suit, and not a dress, right?

Anyway, did you all like what I did to signal the mental corruption, only using six words for a statement? I thought it was kinda neat.

Oh yeah, and it looks like Alderp's involvement is getting wrapped up lightning fast. Still, does Tanya seem like the type to throw away valuable sources of information?

Make sure to leave your thoughts in the Reviews!

A/N 2: When the adventurers exclaim in disbelief 'Is that the PRINCESS,' I imagined them saying it like the 'is that a SUPRA' meme. For your reference.

A/N 3: Responses to Reviews from (02/17/2020) back:

fwterrorista: As it happens, I was thinking of doing something like that for an Omake or two, in response to the idea that Tanya really could simply decide to join one side and then steamroll her opponents.

PervySageChuck: I like how you think!

Pyromania101: I would call you insane for thinking that 'Megumin in Smash' was possible, but we got Isekai Quartet, the embodiment of fanfiction. And, with that mobile game coming out…

SoleReclaimer: Oh, no doubt, it was still an excellent episode, despite the lack of the ship we all want.

SuperiorFreak: A bit taller than the Anime, but she'll realize that she's grown a bit soon enough.

Quaver Ava: See, this is what I like. Some people complained earlier on that she was going to get her dick back, but it'll be even more funny seeing everyone else having to deal with Tanya.

As for Viktoriya… she's trying to delude herself, which will be very unfortunate considering who she's going to try and get with in an effort to move on (when she really doesn't even want to). The big change is coming – but not exactly soon. We've got a lot to cover before then, but it is beginning to loom on the horizon.

Thank you for the feedback with Revi – I like what I'm doing with him.

I will – and have been – taking some fan suggestions for small details. However, there won't be any big things – like a vote that will alter the course of the story – for a very long while.

animeman12: And I say thank you for reading, even if you don't know some of the source material. It is an… interesting experience to learn about a fandom through fanfiction first, and I hope I don't disappoint.

MarkoncioX: That's only if Tanya thinks of her as a threat requiring a battle at all. Since Megumin can't really use that magic in Axel, she'll have to settle for grand claims and insults on Tanya's ability.

Harmless Orange:

CH 023 Comment: Since it would be very hypocritical of me to suggest that you not wreck your sleep schedule like that, all I'll say is that I hope it was worth it.

CH 024 Comment: Ah, a fan of puns. I think you'll find the conclusion to the dress situation quite… suitable.

Ba-dum-tss

CH 027 Comment: And you will see something of the sort… though not before you get a few chapters of careful preparation and wariness, along everything else.

And, as always, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing! We've passed over a hundred thousand views, and the story isn't stopping anytime soon. See you all later!