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!

35. Training, Love, Bad Dreams…

Tanya's eyes began to creep open, though she stifled the groan she wanted to let out.

As was usual in these situations, Tanya immediately ran what she personally liked to call her diagnostic check. It reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She was laying under some blankets, which meant she wasn't bleeding. She also could feel her clothing on her, which was a relief.

She could also feel bandages covering her face, crisscrossing her head. She groaned audibly.

What had hit her again?

"Colonel! You're awake!"

Tanya blearily opened her eyes to look at her surroundings. She seemed to be in a bare-bones room, snuggled into a comforting bed that would look very out of place on the front lines.

Viktoriya and Lorelei stared at her worriedly. She had been knocked out for a few hours. Everyone else that had participated in the quest were at the guild, probably enjoying their food. Luna had been apologizing profusely all the way to the Eris Cult's Church and then on their way home.

Tanya blinked owlishly at them. "Lieutenant Serebryakov?" she asked, bleary eyed and groaning.

Viktoriya blinked. Lieutenant?

Her eyes widened and something very unpleasant landed in her stomach at the usage of one of her old ranks. Tanya continued, unaware of her feelings. "Where are we? And…"

Tanya looked very concerned. "Who is that? I…"

She looked down at the bed, for a long moment, and then asked the white-haired woman, "Ma'am, are you aware of the… things on your head?"

It was Lorelei's turn to blink owlishly, but Viktoriya jumped forward. "Tanya! What's the last thing you remember?"

It couldn't be. She'd only hit her head, right?

Tanya blinked. "Um… I think it was just after our first offensive leading the Kampfgruppe. I got a bit wounded due to…"

Her expression darkened. "Damn, it's that girl from Tiegenhoff. Do we know if she has a name? Lieutenant?"

Viktoriya was trying not to panic. "C- Colonel… that was years ago. We… we're not even in the Empire!"

Tanya blinked. "Really? That sounds hard to imagine…"

Tanya could see the beginnings of tears forming the corners of Viktoriya's eyes. She frowned and quickly began to speak again.

"Besides, if we're not in the Empire… then why are you calling me by that rank?"

Viktoriya blinked. Tanya's face remained questioning.

She blinked again. Tanya grinned.

Viktoriya felt her eye twitch as Tanya's grin began to wobble, and Lorelei, sitting on a plush chair to her right, stiffened.

Finally, Tanya couldn't take it anymore. She doubled over into full-blown laughter. Viktoriya thought it might have been quite nice, to see her so clearly relaxed. "Y- You actually thought I had amnesia!? What kind of trashy fiction books do you read, to think that?"

She continued to laugh. Viktoriya might have described it as wonderful as the songs of birds or as beautiful as the sunset or some other wonderfully poetic comparison, but she was currently not feeling all that happy.

She leaped forward, climbing on top of Tanya's bed and staring down at her with an angry pout on her face. "Don't do that! It wasn't funny! What if you actually didn't remember anything that has happened in the last four years, huh?"

Tanya's laughter died down, and even her smile faded as Viktoriya continued. "What if I actually had to explain to you everything that had happened? Everything we had been forced to do and everything that had been done to the 203rd? To you?"

She leaned down and looked into Tanya's eyes. Tanya could make out every detail of her wonderful face at this distance, and Tanya could also see the emotions Viktoriya felt were being etched into her own mind.

Viktoriya was on the verge of tears, and Tanya felt burning shame well up inside her throat. She grumbled, more due to the emotion than a desire to apologize. "Alright, I'm sorry! You're right, having to explain everything that happened in the last few years wouldn't be fun, and I shouldn't joke about something like that."

She sniffed. "Promise?"

Tanya nodded hurriedly. "Yes, of cour-"

Viktoriya was now grinning at her, just as smug as Tanya had been.

Tanya glared at her and assaulted Viktoriya with her tiny fists while screaming obscenities for tricking her back. Lorelei watched them intently.

Tanya extracted a promise from the woman that she wouldn't call her Colonel anymore, no matter what. She wanted to be called Tanya, since they were friends and not superior and subordinate and since they were moving on from the war as best they could.

Lorelei nodded to herself. Not tonight – the injury would cause Tanya to be extremely careful – but maybe in the next week. Tomorrow, at the earliest, Lorelei was calling the Succubi.

Tanya sighed as she got out of bed. "Right. Where is everyone else? What happened after I got knocked out?"

They explained, and Tanya peered at them. "And you aren't there with them? You'd get a lot of good food with good experience, compared to their regular fare, and you decided to just stay here with me?"

Viktoriya nodded for the both of them. Tanya opened her mouth to ask why, but she didn't ask. She sighed.

They were her friends, after all. This sort of thing was expected, she supposed.

-OxOxO-

After a late dinner – a wonderful meal full of experience that made Tanya thankful she had required Alderp's chef to stay with them – she went up to her room.

"Well, I think I'll get in a few hours of… translating work," she said.

She had finished a lot of the books. Most of the more pleasure reading ones – some Manga, as well as other, more internationally acclaimed books – were finished by now. She only had a few more to do…

They weren't the science ones. She was keeping those to herself, for now. Releasing them could be seen, in accordance with her contract with Verdia, as a breach.

No, the ones she had yet to finish translating were sure to be big sellers, even if Tanya felt just the tiniest bit squeamish about it.

Porn was a very large business with an even larger pool of consumers to draw from, from her limited understanding. The devout Eris Cultists might see it as blasphemous or something, but people like Dust who didn't care or only paid lip service occasionally would indulge themselves.

Both Lorelei and Viktoriya nodded, and she quickly jumped into her room. Viktoriya went into her's, and-

She blinked. Lorelei had followed her in. "You know you're still wearing her shirt, right?"

Viktoriya looked down as she felt a bit of panic, and Lorelei slipped in. She made a beeline for her jacket. Before Viktoriya could say anything, Lorelei shouted. "AHA!"

She grinned and held up her-

"No! Don't touch that, please!" she cried out. She attempted to grab her Adventurer Card, but Lorelei held it high above her head.

"Oh no, I want to talk to you for a bit about some… uncomfortable topics. I need a bit of collateral, and your card obviously has incriminating evidence on it," she said. Viktoriya's face darkened, but she nodded eventually as a glare began to build itself on her face.

Lorelei smiled happily, but Viktoriya wanted this done quickly, especially considering the topic she guessed was coming up. "Come on, can't we do this later? The lights are a bit draining, and I want to go to bed."

Lorelei just raised a skeptical eyebrow. It was true the lights drained mana in order to function, but Viktoriya hadn't exactly done much today.

Lorelei smiled. "Alright, just answer a question for me."

Viktoriya nodded, prepared for anything that she could say.

"Do you love Tanya?"

Viktoriya felt her face light up guiltily.

Okay, she wasn't prepared for anything.

She tried to keep up her poker face, to stop herself from giving up the goat, but she felt herself involuntarily bite her lip. She shuffled her feet unconsciously, and wrung her hands as she tried to refute her question. "Uhm…"

Lorelei grinned. "I knew it! You've been sending each other looks for weeks, I just thought it was some weird thing from that Empire place you come from. You two are Axis Cultists!"

Before Viktoriya could become too irate, Lorelei held out a hand. "By the way, that is the polite way to ask if you're homosexual."

Viktoriya's stormy expression at the insinuation that Tanya would ever bow down to a Goddess was frozen, for an instant. It contained fury, anger, and a desire to defend Tanya.

Then, Lorelei's words hit her in the face and danced across the tracks of her train of thought.

Then, she looked down at the ground, looking very much like she'd like to reassess her life.

"Y- you mean, when you asked us if we were Axis Cultists, you were asking…?"

Lorelei nodded once, grinning. She was waiting for a response.

A flustered realization, a clunky attempt at deflection, even a backhanded, 'so what?' were all anticipated.

Instead, Viktoriya calmed down and just… sighed. She cleared her throat. "Lorelei, I really don't think anything will happen," she admitted. Nothing but… sad acceptance took root on her face.

Lorelei stared at her incredulously, and Viktoriya nodded. "Tanya just… isn't interested in love. I'll tell you that she does like women, as far as her preferences are concerned, but she isn't… interested in anything beyond the physical."

She took a deep, slightly sad breath. "I've come to terms with it. She… turned down my… advances, once, when we were on the front…"

She shuddered. "God, that was embarrassing. No, she gave me an easy out, and I haven't mentioned it again."

She shrugged helplessly. "Now that we aren't there anymore, I've been thinking about trying to… well, not settle down, the Demon King still needs to be dealt with one way or another, but… try for more normalcy. Get a boyfriend. Go on some dates. Normal stuff that I couldn't do fighting a war."

Lorelei was hit by a sudden wave of indecisiveness. She thought that it was just a simple thing about miscommunication, but…

Lorelei growled. "But what if she does, and she's just been… unlucky?"

Viktoriya raised an unsure eyebrow, and Lorelei pushed forward. "Like I told you two, Luck affects everything, including relationships. It's entirely possible that she thought you were talking about something completely different."

"But… no, how often would that happen?" she asked Lorelei.

Lorelei sent her an skeptical look. "Seriously? Off the top of my head, there are no less than twenty acclaimed comedies detailing the effects of Luck on a person's life, and nearly half of them involve misunderstood love."

Lorelei blinked and Viktoriya's continued skepticism. Did she really not know of them? "Haven't you heard of them? 'Miscommunication with this Girl I like' and 'I wish my Luck was better so I could wed my love' were both showing in Elroad, even."

Viktoriya shook her head and looked as if she might be reconsidering, if the pained expression on her face was anything to go by, but she finally shook her head firmly. "No. It's… she…"

She sighed angrily. "I've made my peace with this. I'll keep my feelings for her to myself and when I find someone suitable, I'll… move on."

Lorelei was staring at her sadly, and Viktoriya took her chance. She activated a quick Flight spell and applied it to the book, knocking it out of Lorelei's hands and into her's.

She stood. "Now, if you would please…"

She gestured towards the door with an unhappy glare. Lorelei needed no more prompting and left quickly. That…

That hadn't gone as well as she thought it had. She hadn't thought that she had tried before, but she was fairly sure that it was probably Tanya's Luck, even if Viktoriya seemed to be attempting to ignore it.

If she left any room for misinterpretation, then it was very, very easy for horrible Luck to make Tanya think Viktoriya was talking about something completely different. She sighed.

She'd try tomorrow, then, after a lot of sleep. Today had been oddly draining, despite the fact that it was supposed to be a break day.

She blanched. Was she becoming a… workaholic?

She shook her head. No, she wasn't becoming obsessed with her work, and she was fairly sure that Tanya was a good example of one.

Lorelei wasn't anything like her in that regard.

Right?

-OxOxO-

Lorelei stretched out in her bed. Her covers had been snatched away from the evenly distributed position she left them in when she made her bed and were concentrated on top of her.

She was sure that her hair was a tangled mess and that one of her ears was probably caught in it, but for now, she didn't care. Laying in bed for a while, just relaxing, was a luxury she hadn't been able to partake in since…

Well, since before she'd become a beastman, she supposed with a sound at the back of her throat. Still, despite the sudden reminder of her past, she was stubborn and ignored it. Her relaxation wouldn't be ruined, not by-

"GOOD MORNING!"

Lorelei jerked herself into a sitting position, covering herself with her blankets. What- Who-

Tanya was grinning down at her while… flying. Lorelei stared for a minute, and then sighed. She let her blankets drop.

"Woah, wait a- oh, you're wearing pajamas. Yeah, get dressed, though. Breakfast is ready," she said. She then proceeded to lazily glide out of the room.

Lorelei shook her head. It still amazed her that they treated being able to fly as a simple secret and not something… more.

She wasn't a scholar or Archmage, and she didn't work at the Kingdom's Magic Research Institutes, but she knew that such a thing shouldn't really be impossible, or everyone would be doing it.

She sighed and, after Tanya left, she began to dress herself. Just as she was about to leave, however, Tanya's voice sounded through the door.

"Lorelei? Make sure you put on your adventuring gear. We're going to be doing a bit of work today."

Lorelei blinked and then scowled at the door. She'd put on something much more casual than her usual jacket-over-chestplate and long black pants, and now she was making her change again?

She just shook her head and went back to get her gear. Honestly...

She was downstairs within the next five minutes, and she found herself staring at Tanya and Viktoriya as they ate. Nothing seemed overly out of place. The birds were chirping, and they were just eating their food, quietly discussing something in words she couldn't yet make out.

This was, however, an odd scene for them, for a number of reasons. For one, the servants of the household that hadn't yet left out of fear were standing around, looking nervous.

Tanya usually ordered them to make themselves useful by tidying up or by helping her fill out paperwork. That they hadn't been dismissed yet was different.

Next, the fact that Tanya and Viktoriya were discussing something was also odd. They usually saved that sort of thing until after breakfast.

Of course, they also usually paid very little mind to etiquette. They claimed that since they used so much mana, they needed to eat a lot in order to get most of it back. Lorelei, however, thought this was just an excuse for how much food they could make disappear, especially in the case of Viktoriya.

That they were quietly eating and not shoving as much food into their mouths as they could was decidedly odd.

Lorelei quickly walked across the expansive room and sat down next to them. They both smiled at her before turning back to their food, and Lorelei immediately realized what had changed.

Tanya was holding a cup of coffee in one hand and staring at Viktoriya.

Her stare might be called 'thankful' by those without a large vocabulary, but Lorelei could think of a number of much more… advanced words that would describe it.

Tanya sighed happily. "It's wonderful, isn't it? Thanks to Elroad's trade, we've been able to import coffee beans more regularly. And the guards have almost finished helping us convert the west wing of this horribly space-inefficient mansion into a factory where I could even house workers, if I ever trusted them enough for that."

Lorelei sat in her seat gingerly. She knew that something was wrong, but she wasn't quite sure-

The sound of clinking silverware and food being eaten stopped, and Lorelei cast a nervous look towards Tanya and Viktoriya.

Viktoriya looked apologetic, mostly, but Tanya seemed to be deliriously happy, if the maniacal grin splitting her face was anything to go by. "How wonderful. I thought it would be harder to convince you to sit down."

Lorelei felt her eyebrows come together, and she tried to stand. She couldn't however; whenever she tried to push herself up, a force would push down on her.

Tanya continued to smile. "Our Flight spells might be used primarily to allow us to fly, but they are really misnamed. They should be called 'Force spells', because all they do is apply a force in a direction. A basic example would be using some mana to keep you seated."

Lorelei gulped, and Tanya sighed. "Really, you have no one else but yourself to blame. If you'd dressed me in a suit instead of a dress, we wouldn't even have to do this."

Lorelei opened her mouth, but Tanya shook her head. "No. You saw how unhappy I was at the thought of wearing a dress, and yet you neglected to tell me that I could wear a suit."

"Now, without further adieu…"

Lorelei felt herself rise in the air as the servants that hadn't left yet grabbed her chair. They carried her around the table, and…

She turned around as much as she could. "Hey, wait a minute-"

But they were already up. They were also wearing their standard adventuring gear, and Tanya had her 'rifle' out.

Tanya shook her head. "Nope. Besides, I'm training the guards today as well. You might as well get a bit of training in as well."

And, just like that, the servants threw her out of the open window. She crossed her arms in front of her face-

CRASH!

Lorelei was in the air with the bright sunlight beaming down on her. She could hear shocked gasps coming from a group of people she only caught a glimpse of as she nearly hit the ground.

Tanya, however, wasn't that mean. She jumped out of the window after her, shot to the ground, and slowed her fall unnoticeably using her Flight spells. Both Viktoriya and her were standing on the ground, looking at the guards.

They began to make their way towards their perch. Tanya would have liked to fly above them, but she knew that humans in this world didn't have that kind of magic. Instead, she'd be getting on top of the large mound of dirt she and Viktoriya had constructed hastily in the early hours of the morning using the Type 97.

She stared down at the group. It was certainly a larger number of people than the one that she had trained before – there were a few hundred people in front of her instead of fewer than seventy five – but she was still confident that she could make them into proper guards.

Honestly, she should pay herself using Axel's money. She was, after all, training the guards of Axel as well as the men under her own employ.

Tanya smirked as she began to climb the hill. "Hello, everyone. You are all aware of who I am, and I know very well what you all are."

She got to the top and glared down. "Disregarding Lorelei, you are all weak at best, and cowardly traitors at worst. You have disregarded your jobs for even the slightest hint of cash, leaving the police to pick up your slack."

They were not arranged into columns, something she would be rectifying soon. However, making an important impression came first.

She let a little bit of unfocused mana slip into her Type 97, casting a very ominous light on them all despite the rather sunny weather. "I will be rectifying that. You are part of the guards, which means that you work for the benefit of Axel, then me, and then yourselves and your families. Not the other way around."

Some of them seemed to be getting the idea – they straightened up and held their spears more tightly – but most of them didn't. She sighed.

"Alright. Since some of you seem to need a bit of motivation…"

She pointed towards the odd boxes that were stacked in the shade of the mansion, which was a few hundred meters away. "You all will be retrieving tools from those boxes. You will then be digging defensive trenches."

They might not be fit for a modern war that included tanks and planes, but trenches had proven not completely useless during the initial days of the fighting, way back then. Tanks were expensive and new, so the General Staff hadn't wanted to use them all that much, which had reduced much of the fighting in the west to trench warfare. As time wore on, however…

Well, tanks began to be produced in massive numbers, and the fears of losing them, either due to capture or destruction, became mitigated when both of those things happened to the small number of tanks anyway.

She was almost thankful for it, as she was sure the fighting in the east would have devolved into similarly useless trench warfare too.

She shivered at the thought. Trench warfare on the scale of the eastern front was stomach-turning. So much waste…

Here, however, where none of those things would exist for a few hundred years – or until Tanya invented them – trenches were a viable tactic, when you didn't have the walls of a castle to hide behind. She would endeavor to drill it into these people's heads.

As they began to grumble as they meandered towards the crates – only Lorelei was running – Tanya aimed her rifle.

"Enchant bullet: Explosive Vaporization." She lazily aimed towards where they had been standing and fired. The explosion shook the ground, and many of the people collapsed to their knees. It didn't take long for them to turn around and stare at her and the crater.

She smirked. "Ah, did I mention that we'll be attacking you all with Blast and Detonation spells? It must have slipped my mind…"

She shrugged and took aim, even as Viktoriya fired a round off at the ground. They all panicked and began to run to chase up with Lorelei, who had already pried open a box with her sword.

As it collapsed, Tanya could just make out her ears shaking as she found not shovels, but a number of Horned Rabbits. Viktoriya continued to fire, and Tanya continued to speak loudly. "Ah, be careful about working together. If you don't work together, you'll be forced to take on the monsters alone."

Tanya could not help the laugh that built up in her throat. They all seemed to run faster after it, but she didn't have the faintest idea of why. She was…

She was just enjoying her memories. It had been far, far too long since she had been able to train the 203rd, and it was honestly nice to be able to help people rise above their ineptitude and to something that resembled competency.

As they finally began to open up the crates and fight off the monsters that some of them contained, she and Viktoriya moved off of the hill to stand next to them. Their Reinforcement spells ensured that they were there in only a few seconds, where their run had taken nearly sixty.

Tanya spoke up. "You all will now run back while we fire at you. We won't fire on the building, and," she warned as she saw a few of them get a cunning look on their faces, "if you try and take advantage of that fact by camping over there, your friends will be peeling your remains out of the bricks when I'm done with you."

They all began to run, and she frowned at a worrying sight. "If you abandon your weapons, you can take them out of your guts when I throw them at you. Soldiers that think abandoning their weapons at the first sign of danger are useless!"

She would, of course, Heal them afterwards, but they didn't need to know that-

She blinked. Actually, wait, they should know that. They'd be much more motivated in not getting hit if they thought even a near-death experience wouldn't save them.

"And, if any of you start to get wounded, don't worry; I'll be able to Heal you so you can continue immediately."

She grinned as they began to dig their trenches. She glanced towards her adjutant and blinked at the odd sight in front of her.

It wasn't the clothing or the concentrated look on her face, but her rifle. At the end of it, her bayonet was mounted. It seemed like it was always there.

"Isn't it odd how we don't take off our bayonets anymore? We used to do that every time we came down from flying, but now…"

Tanya shrugged, and Viktoriya nodded her head. "We can't always use our rifles, though. I guess it makes sense, even if it is new. That doesn't mean it's bad, though."

Tanya gave her that. "Yeah, it was a bit annoying to take it off and have to clean it…"

She smiled and shook her head as the far off guards shouted. "Hey, remember how we were told to conserve everything, including clips?"

She smiled at that. "Yeah! What were they thinking, ordering us to do that? I know resources were tight, but to have to conserve even those tiny pieces of metal seems…"

Tanya shrugged as she aimed her own rifle. "Well, no one has ever claimed the General Staff were perfect."

"Only you, right?" she asked, and Tanya giggled at that.

"You know, you're not too shabby yourself," she said, complementing the woman. They fell into a companionable silence after that, taking almost hilariously wide shots at the mounds.

Eventually, all the movement stopped, and Tanya and Viktoriya went to their hill. Everyone was crouched down, staring worriedly at the walls. Tanya even saw that some of them were still digging, making an increasingly complicated series of trenches behind the small, earthen wall they'd made.

She nodded. "Alright everyone, we're moving on! Next up, you'll be forming into groups and going through this obstacle course while monsters chase you all around."

They all groaned again, but she glared, and they stopped quickly.

She smirked.

Good. The bumpkins out here could listen to orders after all. It would be seen if any of them could be competent guards, but they at least had a bit of groundwork laid.

-OxOxO-

Four hours. It was now fours hours since she'd been thrown out of a window without even getting to eat.

She was sweaty and sore by the end of the first.

She was aching by the end of the second.

She was close to begging them to stop by the end of the third – not that that would have stopped them.

And now, after the fourth, she had finally collapsed.

Things had deteriorated after that first exercise. They'd been told to go through the obstacle course, obviously, but the monsters chasing after them were much more problematic.

Giant Toads had been used to motivate them. Some – those that had bothered to get armor, like herself – had had a much easier time, but a few people had been taken into their mouths for a few terrifying seconds before they were saved by their fellows.

After that, a short break was called. It had, however, been just as tiring. Those two monsters had quizzed them on the laws of Axel regarding allowing people and products into the territory that the Dustiness family now helped administer.

Any time they failed, the two of them would order them to do an exercise, and if they failed that too much, they'd begin to take lazy shots at them.

Thankfully, Lorelei was exempt from that task, not that it mattered in the long run.

After that, it had been a course on proper equipment handling and upkeep, as well as tactical formations. Many of the guards didn't even have Adventurer Cards, much less actual training.

Those that suggested they didn't need it were given twenty minutes to run around the entire estate ten times or to be given a more permanent punishment.

Then, they had decided that normal monsters weren't enough, and they'd ordered them to attack a monster. The first had been… pathetic.

A single Orc, despite their strength, was no match for all of them. The next beast, however…

She shuddered. It had been a Giant Slime. They were slower than normal Slimes, they were easier to hit, and they even did less damage, due to the diffuse nature of their bodies.

However, they were also very, very dangerous. The only part of a slime that mattered, its core, was deep within it, and none of them had any spells, which meant it was virtually unreachable. That, however, would have been manageable, if it were just a larger-than-average Slime.

The Giant Slime, however, produced regular Slimes at an astonishing rate compared to any other slime. Tanya and Viktoriya had needed to step in to protect the guards, and they'd called them all pathetic anyway.

The ease that they had taken the Giant Slime out – only one or two spells each – probably convinced many of them that going against them would be suicide.

After that, things had been better. Their next quiz had been more lenient… except for Lorelei.

She was told to match the answers of the Guards, and she realized she should have paid more attention during the first quiz. They had taken shots at her every time she'd failed, making her run laps and still answer questions while running at a breakneck pace.

Now, they were giving some kind of speech to the guards, introducing their new commander, or something.

"Men, I think that if you continue to improve yourselves and uphold Axel's laws, we won't ever need to repeat this exercise."

Lorelei glared from her position on the ground. Still, all of that would have been acceptable. However…

She glared at the pair petulantly. They had the audacity to tell her that her outfit could use a bit of sprucing up.

As if they weren't the ones who had forced her to get covered in grime.

"This," Tanya said, gesturing to the woman at her side, "is Captain Aloerina Vola Essex. She is your commander, and you will treat her with the same respect you do me."

They all looked at the woman nervously. She had, after all, been one of them a few weeks ago, until Alderp had recommended her for promotion.

She was dressed like they were. Brown leather covered her chest, shins, thighs, and upper arms. Unlike them, she had a sword at her side instead of a spear in her hands. Tanya continued to gaze down at the troops below her.

"Of course, if you all can't continue to improve under her, then I will have no problem stepping in again." They all straightened up at that, while Aloerina stepped in front of her.

"Ah, Governor, that isn't necessary." She held out a hand in front of her, and Tanya saw the people below her all wince.

She fought off the urge to smirk. This was, of course, all calculated. If the idiots below her thought that Aloerina could stand up to her, then they would listen to her orders, if it meant avoiding Tanya.

Tanya didn't exactly like making a good portion of the town's defense fear her, but she had decided it would be the best tactic to actually get them to do their damn jobs.

She sighed, and she dismissed all of them. Those not being paid by her followed Aloerina out in two columns of two, forming a great train of soldiers that would go back to their barracks and set out on horseback to their assigned towns.

They shouted as they left.

"Eris, forgive me. I'll never miss another Sunday if it means I won't see her again."

"Finally, we'll be free to go back! I'll never accept another bribe!"

"You guys, it wasn't that bad. Having someone standing over you like that, holding your life in the palm of your hand…"

Tanya resisted the urge to beat herself in the skull to forget that last one and the unsavory things it implied, and then she shook her head.

Honestly, she thought she might have gone a bit overboard, but Viktoriya's suggestion to test out Alderp's summoning 'Divine Relic' had been a good one. They didn't really know how it worked, after all.

Besides, Tanya hadn't wanted to upset her. They had been having such a good time just… talking.

The Relic, as it turned out, was simple. Like Alderp had said, you just shouted 'Summon' and watched as your monster appeared.

That Tanya had gotten an Orc was absolutely due to her horrible Luck, and she was thankful Viktoriya had beaten the thing's head in a bit before tossing it to the guards.

Viktoriya's summon was much more interesting, even if she couldn't control it. Releasing something like a Giant Slime in enemy territory could be interesting…

Tanya walked over to Lorelei, who was still lying on the ground. She raised an eyebrow. "You haven't fixed yourself up yet?"

Lorelei felt her eye twitch violently. "No, your graciousness."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Oh, relax, you big crybaby. I hope that you know that worse things than this await you if you make me a suit that suddenly turns into a dress, yes?"

Lorelei nodded slowly. As Tanya turned away and smiled at Viktoriya, she thought that at least this had done one thing.

Throughout their exercises, Lorelei had been watching Tanya and Viktoriya. What she had seen confirmed it.

While they hadn't done anything, Lorelei could see that both of them were looking at each other when they were sure the other wasn't.

When her own heart wasn't trying to murder her body for making it work so much, her ears meant she could hear the way that their heart rates increased when their conversations turned from talking to complementing each other.

It showed that Tanya was interested in Viktoriya, even if they both denied it. Or, even if they both privately acknowledged that they had feelings and still didn't act on them, Lorelei wouldn't wait.

She swore she was going to make them so fucking horny for each other that the Succubi would find it hard to stay away. It would take a bit of doing, of course, but…

If she could figure out what they liked – perhaps from Viktoriya's diary or a small bit of innocuous conversation…

If she then used that knowledge later, during dinner, perhaps…

She smirked. Oh, this would totally work. And, in the meantime, maybe she would alter Tanya's suit.

Instead of being black and white, she'd switch the traditional colors around a bit. She'd look good – Lorelei hadn't ever made something that didn't look good – but she would also look just a bit… different.

-OxOxO-

After a quick lunch they headed out. Tanya had neglected to bring her mantle, and was instead letting her rifle hang on her back instead of having it be in the way.

She would, however, have to start wearing either her mantle or her jacket whenever she went outside. It was just getting too cold out, and she knew that Heal didn't work on diseases.

They were headed to Wiz's shop. Tanya hadn't gotten the chance to ask her about how magical items were made, and she wanted to ask her if she could teleport to the Crimson Demons.

That was, if Wiz was even there. Tanya knew she had a lot going on these days.

The cemetery, while now much closer to the city than it had been, still needed to be maintained by someone who was responsible, which meant that the Eris Cultists were definitely out.

She was also escorting the children of various 'middle class' families to the orphanage for school. Tanya was hoping Aloerina or Gerrard would recruit some Mages into the guards so they could take over that job, but until then, Wiz would do it.

Finally, while she had plenty of items that sold wonderfully – most of which were Tanya's inventions or derived from them – she also bought just as many expensive and seemingly useless ones as well.

Tanya pushed open the door and smiled as she entered the room. Wiz was there, speaking to a pair of adventurers that seemed interested in buying some of Tanya's products.

After they bought it and left, Tanya walked up to the counter. "Wiz! How are you doing?"

The Lich smiled. "I'm doing fine. It is a bit tiring to have to cleanse the graveyard and protect the children, but I'm doing okay."

Tanya nodded, and then she scowled at the thought of the children. Or, more accurately…

"Wiz. If you see a suspicious Axis Cultist attempting to stalk the children, make sure to alert the police. She's getting thrown out of the town if she does something like that." She was staring down at the counter angrily.

The police, at her request, had tailed Cecily. She was, supposedly, gone. Tanya didn't completely trust the police however – if the guards had been so bad, could the police be corrupted too?

Wiz blinked, and then looked between Tanya and one of the two behind her. Tanya turned around and saw she was staring at Viktoriya.

She turned back around. "Is something wrong?"

Lorelei saw Wiz attempting to reconcile the fact that Tanya was practically ordering her to call the cops on an Axis Cultist when Tanya herself was suspected to be an Axis Cultist.

"But…" the Lich began. Lorelei stepped back, away from Viktoriya's line of sight, and began to shake her head. Wiz really shouldn't ask, since Tanya was more likely to blow a hole through the roof than let her finish a sentence containing the words 'are you' and 'Axis Cultist'.

Tanya stared suspiciously at Wiz. She stopped her earlier sentence and began a new one. "Ah… would you all like some refreshments?"

Tanya tilted her head, and Wiz explained. "I've begun offering to make tea and coffee for people in the hopes that they'll come back more often."

Tanya shrugged. "Sure thing. I'm not here to buy anything besides the usual potions, but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions."

She nodded happily and went into the back, and they busied themselves with looking at the shelves. There was most of the usual stuff that she wouldn't dare touch without first learning what their drawbacks were.

The most odd was a 'Friendship Crystal.' Despite the name, she could feel it drawing on her mana, which meant that there must have been quite a lot of Mithril used in its construction.

"Here you all go!" she said, bringing both a pot of coffee and a teakettle. Lorelei took a bit of tea, while Viktoriya and Tanya had some coffee.

It wasn't… bad, per se, but it wasn't Viktoriya's. As Tanya stared down at the cup, she thought about that.

It was quite weird that even the chefs in Alderp's mansion couldn't make coffee better than her's. They had many, many more skills related to cooking and preparing ingredients, but no matter what, Viktoriya's just tasted better.

She shrugged and put it out of her mind. "Wiz, I was wondering if you knew how to make magical items? You are an accomplished Archmage, after all, and your shop's products are… powerful. Plus, you made those fans, right?" she said, neglecting to mention that, disregarding the items she provided through the Succubi, they all also had undeniable drawbacks.

Wiz glanced at her curiously. "But… what about all of your items? Aren't they…?"

Tanya shook her head. "No. I told you, they might seem magical, but none of them involve anything magical, even if the… fan that you created uses Mithril."

After thinking for a second, Wiz shook her head, and Tanya's hopes sank. "No. I did, after all, just want to become the owner of a magic items shop. We don't usually make our own products, and I get most of mine from the Crimson Demon Village."

Tanya tilted her head. "But… you're a Lich right? Aren't you guys supposed to have tons of skill points? Why wouldn't you put some into something as useful as that?"

Wiz might not have been alive, but she certainly did sweat like a normal person. "Uh… actually, I mostly focused on learning spells and a bunch of skills I got for becoming undead…"

Tanya stared at her with an annoyed expression, but Wiz continued on. "Umm… besides, there isn't a spell that makes magical items."

Tanya raised an eyebrow, and Wiz nodded. "Not initially, anyway. There are a few spells – like Explosion – that Archmages and Mages can't learn unless they've studied it or seen it, no matter what. That goes for a few skills as well."

"As is expected, the Crimson Demon's don't even have to learn the skill in order to make magical items, and, if they do learn the skill, they can supposedly match any creation of a non-Crimson Demon using a small fraction of the skill points. The fan was mostly just me messing around. I couldn't make anything really impressive," she finished, giving Tanya an apologetic smile as compensation.

Tanya was, however, happy enough with what she'd been told. "I don't suppose you could just teleport me to the Crimson Demon village?" Tanya asked.

Again, Wiz shook her head. "No. I'm afraid that I haven't registered them yet. I mostly get my supplies through an intermediary, although…"

She blinked in confusion. "Ah… though, I probably should have saved a teleportation point there, when I last traveled there…"

Tanya, with a disgruntled look on her face, shrugged. "Well, I can make my own way there, eventually. I have a number of items I want made, and I suppose that they'll probably be my best bet for getting them done."

Wiz asked what they were, and Tanya told her. "Well, I need three different rings, mostly to prevent blood loss and mental attacks, among… other things," she said, trailing off at the end.

If she was going to get an item made, she was wondering if they could get her a gender-swapping item. The Succubi still hadn't found any, despite the fact that they were common enough to be pointed to as something seemingly outlandish that magic could do.

Wiz blinked, and then she stared at Tanya. Then, Tanya stared at Wiz, because the Lich was blushing. It was pretty easy to make out due to her pale skin, but-

"Ah… with my knowledge of how well connected you are to the Succubi… the item they're searching for would also probably be made there."

Tanya's blush matched and then exceeded anything that the Lich could probably mutter, and, with a muttered goodbye, she left without inquiring as to the nature of that odd Friendship Crystal.

Lorelei soon followed the blushing pair out of the door. What…

What item was she searching for?

Viktoriya and Tanya were now speaking quietly to each other. "Ah, was she speaking about the… gender-swapping item you mentioned a while back."

Tanya nodded mutely. "Honestly, how unsubtle have they been? And how does she know exactly what I'm looking for anyway? I never told the Succubi what it was. Or does she even know?"

After a few moments of silence – and a promise to herself to go talk to them – Tanya shook her head. "Well, I suppose I'll just be making myself a bit of Adamantite armor with the stuff we purchased. Hey, do you want any, Lorelei?"

The beastman in question shook her head, and then she huffed as her ears slapped her in the face. "Um… no, I'm good with my chestplate. I shouldn't really bug you about it-"

Tanya scoffed. "Nonsense. You might not technically be my personal Tailor, but you are in practice. I really would pay you, but since we're friends and party members, I'll just ask that you let me make you something for once, alright?"

Tanya didn't really want to pay Lorelei, if she were honest. Alderp claimed that Tailors usually demanded a lot of money, since their job was a very niche one that didn't have a specific guild to protect it.

Besides, she was trying to be nice, and the beastman did eventually agree to having an arm guard fashioned out of Adamantite, after a bit more needling.

Soon, Tanya and Viktoriya left Lorelei.

She wanted to do her own thing for a bit, while Tanya wanted to drop off all of the books she had translated. With her finally having finished that task, she was hoping that she would get some more money.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei stared at the Succubi, her mouth wide open.

"Sh- Tanya is really like… that?" she asked, not quite sure that she was awake. Maybe Tanya had learned skills from the Succubi to make her have bizarre dreams as an extension to her punishment?

As one, they shrugged. "Well, she hasn't told us that that's what she wants, but, based on the exhaustive lists of items – yes, multiple lists of highly exclusive items – we've sent her over the past few weeks, there isn't much else it could be. We… aren't sure why she wants something like that, but we're fairly sure it isn't out of some odd fetish. She would have to be an Axis Cultist – a real one – if that were the case." Lorelei nodded in time with them.

Tanya didn't seem the type, but… why would she want a gender-swapping item otherwise?

Lorelei shook her head, and the so-called Receptionist Succubus stepped forward. "Ah… you realize, if she finds out that we told you, there will be consequences, right?"

That statement might have been a threat, in different circumstances. However, their plain, friendly outfits – the generally plain and pragmatic garb of the peasants – and Tanya's involvement meant that they were both aware it was a genuine warning.

She would first take revenge on Lorelei, and then she'd turn her attention to the Succubi. She would ignore their pleas for help and cries of blame and punish them all the same anyway.

They all shuddered, and Lorelei shook her head. "Well, whatever. You have chosen someone to do this thing, right?"

They all turned to the Succubi that was referred to as 'Lolisa,' and she smiled and saluted. "I'm ready!"

It had been a pragmatic choice. If Tanya woke up, then there was a very real chance she would try and kill anyone that came into her room unannounced, and only ask their cooling corpse questions afterwards.

Lolisa was probably familiar enough with Tanya that that wouldn't happen. Hopefully.

Lorelei nodded. They would do this tonight, as long as Lorelei was able to… spice things up between them, so to speak. She would need a few things, though…

Namely, she would need chocolate, coffee, perhaps a dress or hair catalog, uh… potatoes, maybe? They'd said something about them when they'd ducked behind Tanya's door to dress for their break.

And, of course, she would need a large amount of Luck.

If she stopped on the way back, she'd be able to attend a Saturday prayer and ask for Eris to help her in achieving her goals. After that, she would be as well off as she could be.

-OxOxO-

Tanya wiped sweat from her brow and surveyed her work. It had been… very interesting, to say the least.

She had enough skill points to work the metal using Smith, thankfully, and she had constructed both her chainmail and Lorelei's arm guard in a few hours. She had gained a lot of experience – practical experience, not the kind that would level her up – working with the metal, and…

She shook her head. It really was miraculous stuff.

She was fairly sure that Adamantite was as effective as tank armor that was two times as thick, even though Adamantite was at least four times lighter…

She wasn't sure if her bullets could pierce either her chainmail or Lorelei's arm guard. Definitely not without magic, and even then…

She sighed and cast a small Flight spell at her chainmail, and she marveled as it nearly went flying off of the table. Magic seemed to be Adamantite's one weakness.

It didn't block or absorb magic at all. Iron, supposedly, did at least a small bit to help defend against magic, but Adamantite just… wouldn't.

She shrugged. With both her Active Barrier and her chainmail, she very much doubted that any conventional weapon in this backwater would hurt her, as long as they aimed at her torso.

She looked off to the far end of the table and glared at her last creation. It…

She scowled and shook her head. It had been… quite easy to work the Mithril into whatever shape she wanted, when it was hot, but her Smith skill had malfunctioned a few times.

She had no doubt it was due to that metal's nature.

She turned away to the leftover materials deep in thought. Now that that box was made, she could keep all of the so-called Divine Relics in there without having to worry about some servant or Alderp getting any of them.

Or for them to try and continue corrupting her mentally.

It was locked – using a padlock she had invented and would probably end up selling in Wiz's shop – and only she and Viktoriya knew the way to open it.

With the leftover Adamantite, Tanya wouldn't be able to make much of anything. There wasn't even enough for a dagger. Maybe she could offer it to whoever made her rings in the Crimson Demon Village?

CRASH

"I'm BACK!"

Tanya jumped up and grabbed her pistol, while Viktoriya launched the book she was reading into the air in her rush to grab her rifle.

Tanya soon saw that it was Lorelei, and she sighed in relief. The book hitting the ground with a muffle 'whap' sounded around the room, and Viktoriya hastily went to pick it up.

As she really should have expected, books were copied and reproduced at frightening speeds using a skill. The Librarians Guild told her she'd have to become an apprentice to learn even the name of the skill that produced the books.

That wasn't happening – she had too much to do – and Tanya didn't mind that much.

Even the sigils of the Eris Church that had been displayed at the place hadn't gotten her too angry. She was fairly sure that the church of her last life had had something to do with preserving books in Europe in her last two lives too.

Lorelei was rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but…"

Then, she just smiled at them. Tanya squinted at the woman, and then turned around quickly, heading towards the Mithril box.

She needed to put up the relics, then she'd deal with whatever Lorelei was failing at hiding she was doing, judging by her face. She supposed that all was fair in love and war, but Tanya really hoped Lorelei wouldn't take her training that morning personally.

Having to participate in some kind of prank war would probably end up getting pretty tiring.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei smiled at Tanya. They'd just finished dinner a few minutes ago, and Lorelei had whispered something to Viktoriya before nearly pushing her out of the door.

Unfortunately, neither of them seemed all that tipsy from the sparse amounts of alcohol the servants had served with dinner, so Lorelei would have to take a bit more direct action.

Though… she would have been disappointed if she hadn't had to use all the stuff she'd bought to try and get them thinking about each other.

Meanwhile, Tanya couldn't take it any longer. Lorelei had been acting very… odd. She hadn't critiqued their decision to wear their adventurer clothing while Tanya had been working.

She might have gotten used to it, and Tanya would have written it off if it wasn't for the other inconsistencies.

On their way to the treasury – to get Alderp's Relics – her room – to store the Type 95 and Circlet of greatness inside the box as well and leave it there – and the dining room, she hadn't mentioned the vast number of changes to the west wing Tanya's guards had been directed to make.

Instead of opulent rooms that served a single purpose that could have been fulfilled by a similar room in another part of the mansion or by a single object – honestly, having so many mirrors was just wasteful – a whole twenty rooms of this place were now dedicated to other, more useful purposes.

The first was a barracks. The guards were now housed inside, instead of a virtual shed on a corner of the property. They'd be able to more effectively deploy themselves from here now.

The next was her production line. A large ballroom, as well as a few other rooms she'd knocked down walls to get into, were now dedicated to housing the equipment she needed to produce bullets, guns, grenades, and anything else she could think of.

The rest were more miscellaneous – storage for materials and resources, mostly – but they could be changed into something more specific if she ever needed anything.

And Lorelei hadn't mentioned anything that had been replaced. Most of the gold and silver had been melted down, and the rest of the more valuable items had been moved into the east wing.

Art, statues, weapons, clothing – all of it, more fit for a museum than for a place where people lived had disappeared from this portion, leaving it feeling, in her opinion, like the General Staff's Headquarters in Berun.

Lorelei stretched out. "Hey, are you ever gonna get married?"

Tanya tried not to choke on the small bit of their dinner – lobster, the head chef had said – that she was still chewing on, and she only just managed to send Lorelei a bewildered look before she swallowed.

Lorelei shrugged. "I mean, you are a noble, right? Viktoriya and I might be well past the technically marriageable age of 14, but you're not all that much older."

Tanya felt a light blush descend on her cheeks. "Lorelei, what did I tell you when you gave me the spiel about the Luck stat?"

Lorelei nodded her head as if she'd been expecting it. "Yeah, but you never know when you'll find the one."

Tanya crossed her arms. "Well, then you have your answer. Unless I find someone like that and foolishly decide that they might actually want something as ludicrous as that-"

"Maj- I mean, Colo-" Viktoriya shouted as she burst through the door. She descended into a coughing fit, and Tanya just smiled fondly at her former subordinate's inability to call her by her name.

"T- Tanya, look!" she said, and, from behind the door, she revealed a sight that had Tanya nearly drooling.

Chocolate, in the form of bars, kisses, and a giant boulder, were displayed on a cart. As Viktoriya wheeled it into the giant dining room – Tanya had been told that not having a room this large for eating would make any other noble that ate here tremble from claustrophobia – more servants came behind her.

Tanya could see a giant coffee pot surrounded by bottles of wine and sake on the cart they were wheeling in, while the other servants were carrying stacks of… catalogs?

She blinked at the odd sight, and-

Twitch.

The last servant was bringing in a bowl of what appeared to be potatoes. Why-

Lorelei grabbed her attention. "Well, I thought it was high time for a small party celebrating what we've done. Solving the economic woes of an entire country, saving a Princess from a potentially life-threatening plot, and effectively governing Axel would be wonderful achievements for a person's lifetime, and you've accomplished them all in less than a month."

Tanya blinked at the effective summation of what they had managed to get themselves into, and she sighed. Honestly, all she had ever wanted was a safe, peaceful, nine-to-five job, and here she was, over seventeen years later, eating chocolate, potatoes, and coffee inside a mansion fit for royalty inhabiting a body that wasn't what she wanted.

Viktoriya seemed to be trying to decide between the chocolate and the potatoes, and Tanya shrugged as she stood up to join her.

Lorelei smirked behind their backs and waved the servants out of the room. It had cost her most of her money, but she had bought some of the best wine that nobles could buy.

She was, after all, helping them realize their affections for each other, and if Lorelei sprinkled in a bit of harmless fun – like hiding a camera behind a false mirror she had found in one of the storage rooms – as revenge for having to do training, well…

They wouldn't mind right?

"No! I want the chocolate! I'll play a game of cards for it!"

"Ha! I would be a fool to do such a thing. Instead, let's play the knife game."

"No! I won't let you lose a finger! We'll split it!"

"I have a better idea: we'll eat as much as we can as fast as we can!"

Lorelei watched the food disappear with slack-jawed awe. Usually, children as small as Tanya might devour sweets in order to taste as much of it at once as they could. Adults that also had a sweet tooth, like Viktoriya, might take a bit of time to savor their chocolate.

These two did neither of those things, instead choosing to grab as much of it as they could and begin stuffing anything that still had a package into their pockets.

That wasn't to say that they did something different with anything that was still packaged, they were just a bit more careful about it.

Finally, all that was left was the giant boulder of chocolate. Lorelei had thought it might be a bit much, but they didn't seem to think so. They stared at each other, and Lorelei wondered, for a terrifying second, if she'd wasted all of her money on something they would come to blows over.

Thankfully, that wasn't so. They just giggled at each other and moved on from the remaining chocolate. They would probably revisit it.

"How about… you'll eat the potatoes first, while I begin to have some of the coffee?"

Viktoriya shook her head with a smile on her face. "Ah, Tanya, you shouldn't make me eat all of this, and that wine does look good." Tanya rolled her eyes as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the giant coffee pot.

Then, she blinked, and looked between the coffee in her cup and the potatoes that Viktoriya was offering to share with her. She sighed.

"Alright. Even if coffee or wine doesn't go well with potatoes, I'll eat them together for you." Viktoriya beamed, and Tanya felt the warm familiarity of… coffee… well up in her chest as she drank some of the good stuff.

She smiled warmly. Yes. The coffee was making her feel all fuzzy inside.

She eyed the wine. It looked awfully expensive, and while she hadn't yet fit the amethyst into a ring, she carried around the two stones in a pocket. They'd done wonders during the dinner, but this much might overpower them…

She shrugged. What was a little alcohol? She might be a lightweight, but it was all good fun. The only problem might be Aqua, and she didn't seem like much of a threat, from their observations yesterday…

Lorelei was there, watching them all the while. When they began to drink coffee and wine and sake and offer her some, she would always take a small bit and be sure to keep a clear head.

When they began to eat the potatoes and… stare at each other, Lorelei raised an eyebrow. She hadn't thought that one could have fun eating potatoes, but they had fun spearing the ones that weren't yet cooked and tearing into them.

When Tanya got up from one side of the table and sat next to Viktoriya, Lorelei had to rub her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly. They were… giggling. And feeding each other potatoes.

Wh… t… they were potatoes. W… how could vegetables be associated with memories good enough for them to look at each other like that?!

Then, an hour in, they began to feed each other the chocolate they had so fiercely divided up at the beginning, eating their own and then taking bites from each other's candy as well.

They even began to toss the little kisses into the air, only for the other one to catch it or miss it. Either way, they'd be giggling by the end of the toss and prepare for another.

When Viktoriya carted the last hunk of chocolate over – looking as if she was using the cart for support as much as she was just retrieving it – and began to try and take chunks of it…

Lorelei was left wondering if she was being pranked… because she didn't think that there was any other explanation for Tanya sitting in Viktoriya's lap, placing the boulder in her own lap, and then feeding Viktoriya chunks she cut off using some odd spell that turned her fingers into blades.

It just… Tanya was staring at Viktoriya lovingly. As if she were all that mattered.

Tanya the Evil. Tanya the Sadistic. Tanya the girl who rested her head on Viktoriya's chest and fed her chocolate. They played with each other's hair, giggling occasionally due to Tanya's ahoge, which tickled Viktoriya's nose.

Viktoriya was looking at one of the catalogs with interest, speaking in their language that sounded made up half the time. She pointed out things occasionally, and Lorelei was almost having a breakdown due to how much time Tanya spent considering the things in the catalogs, regardless of if they were for men or women.

Twitch. Twitch.

She glared at the two women ignoring her. Lorelei couldn't not feel that she was being pranked.

Like, wow, they looked like they were already married or something.

Her hands grasped her forehead painfully. Had they been? They were usually very circumspect about it, but their war must have taken a good many years, and a lot could happen during a war.

Were they playing one long, drawn out trick on her, to see how far Lorelei would be willing to go to try and see if they liked each other? If she found Dust in whatever gutter he was sleeping in, would he tell her in a matter-of-fact voice that they'd been together since the day they got there? Had Lorelei just been so worried about her own situation that she hadn't noticed?

She shook her head as the boulder of chocolate finally disappeared, as did the last of the coffee. They looked ready to sit there for a good long while, so Lorelei got out a bit of paper and began doodling on it.

Tanya had told and shown her that drawing what you were trying to create helped a great deal when it came to trying to create it or make modifications to the original. Lorelei didn't know what their Empire must be like for them to have even half the stuff that Tanya managed to come up with, but Lorelei was thankful for the advice all the same.

Tanya's suit would be wonderfully made, if odd in coloring. Lorelei was also considering making something else…

Perhaps Viktoriya would like something that had been more specially made? The dress she'd worn to the Princess's party was nice, but it had also been a bit rushed, even with her maybe-threatening the Tailor she'd hired. There was only so much you could make in a single night.

Finally, after nearly half an hour of quietly drawing and watching Tanya and Viktoriya nearly nod off, she put her foot down.

The entire table shook, and Lorelei quickly stood. "Alright. I think we should head off to bed, right? Tomorrow is Sunday, and I'd like to be able to go to Church without having to wait until eleven."

That seemed to startle them out of their stupor. Tanya was the first to realize what their position was, and she was able to get to her feet, even if she looked unsteady.

"Stupid… stupid body. Stupid wife…"

Lorelei's face twisted into a horrified expression aimed at the back of Tanya's head.

No…

Th- they were pranking-

Tanya apparently realized the fault in her own words, and she spun around fast enough that she began to turn green. "Ugh… no, not what I meant. It… it's just a stupid joke. We- I'm not married."

She turned around and began to grumble again. "Stupid religious values…"

Lorelei saw her chance, and, as Tanya slipped out of the door and Viktoriya began to wake up, she began to walk next to her. "You know, while the Eris Cult frowns on… differences like that, the Axis Cult actually welcomes sexual deviants. Homosexuals included."

This time, Tanya did spin hard enough that she lost her balance and wound up on the floor. She was groaning, holding her head, and muttering. "No… no one's that stupid… you'd have to alienate so many other people… such a failed business model… I'm too drunk…"

Lorelei just shook her head and helped Tanya up. She was snoozing softly now, and she breathed a sigh of relief that she wouldn't have to clean up her vomit, or something.

Lorelei took her to her room, set her down in her bed, and cast one last appraising look back at her.

Yes, she was still wearing her ring. Hopefully, the alcohol and interaction would prove distracting enough for Lolisa to get in, slip it off, and then take a look at her dreams to see if she was dreaming about Viktoriya.

Lorelei went back down to the first floor and into the dining hall, only to find that Viktoriya was already gone. She raised an eyebrow at the seemingly empty room, wondering how she had managed to miss her.

Lorelei shrugged. They'd get to her room soon enough.

She cast a long look around the room and then went to the largest, most expensive looking mirror she had ever seen. She pushed down on a section of it and watched as a room was revealed to her.

Tanya and Viktoriya hadn't noticed that the alcove that was usually there was now occupied by a mirror. She grinned as she looked in.

Instead of a bust of the King, Lolisa was there, giving her a thumbs up and a wide smile as she stood behind that camera. "I got a whole bunch! Looking in on their dreams is almost a formality at this point – only magic can force you to do things you don't want to – I should make sure that they're open to the idea without so much alcohol."

Lorelei nodded. "Good. I'll lead you to Viktoriya's room."

Lolisa nodded, and they began to make their way through the mansion. As they walked around – Lolisa had donned a robe to hide her 'work' clothing – Lolisa struck up a bit of conversation. "Say, how many people are in this place again?"

Lorelei blinked, and then tried to remember what Tanya had told her. "Uhh… I think she said that fifty guards were being used as manual labor, since she'd probably end up protecting them more than anything. She also said that twenty of the servants stayed after her 'week of work.' Besides that, it's just us and them."

Lolisa blinked, and she appeared to be staring off at something in the distance that only she could see. "Uh… I think you guys have got a squatter, then. There's an extra person."

"How can you tell?" asked Lorelei, and Lolisa endeavored to answer with a shrug.

"Well, it's pretty simple. Since weaker Demons have to feed on emotions to supplement our lack of souls, I can sense the emotions and, by extension, the souls of everyone here. Even if they don't have many emotions when sleeping, I can sense that there's an extra person here."

Lorelei blinked, and then sighed. "I… I guess we'll have to tell Tanya? Unless she knows…"

She trailed off and tried not to think about it, and Lolisa's silence was telling. Neither of them really wanted to know what Tanya was doing to an extra… guest she didn't want anyone else to know about.

Eventually, they got to Viktoriya's door. Lorelei looked to Lolisa, and the Succubi gave her a thumbs up.

Lorelei nodded and slipped into her own room. She wanted plausible deniability, just in case, and getting into her pajamas was first among that.

As she retreated, Lolisa squared up with the door and cast off her cloak.

It hit the ground with an inelegant thump, but Lolisa ignored it and rubbed her hands together. This would be a very tricky assignment, but she hoped that her initiative would get her promoted.

A promotion didn't really do much in this tiny community of theirs, but if a stronger demon ever showed up for whatever reason, she'd get to interact with them sooner.

"Unlock," she whispered, barely even allowing her voice to be audible. The spell was very helpful when she was getting into places, and she wasn't about to get found out during this easiest stage.

She slowly looked around the room. There was a four-poster bed her target was sleeping in, while the room was decorated.

There was a plant next to the window, which was closed and locked, and her wardrobe was slightly ajar. She fought the urge to snoop around and focused on her task.

She looked at the ground. There were various pieces of clothing strewn about – mostly plain shirts and positively sheer underwear – and the dresser by her bedside was stacked with pictures of Viktoriya and Tanya.

She shook her head and focused on Viktoriya. She had a job to do.

The woman hadn't even taken off her clothing at this point, just laying there. Her rifle was close to the bed, and she seemed to be grasping something in one of her hands. After nodding to herself, she began to ready her mana.

These two seemed to be almost impossibly perceptive around mana, so the Succubi had spent hours training to make sure that they were as efficient as they could be. Lolisa unfurled her wings and quietly took to the air, making sure that she was above the ground and the clothing on it, but not too high.

These two were very paranoid, and she didn't doubt that Viktoriya might have set traps in the room, just in case.

Then, after a minute of slow, quiet flight, she was next to the girl, staring down at her.

Honestly, she wasn't sure what Tanya saw in her. She was sort-of pretty, yeah, and her chest was ample, but Lolisa was fairly sure that there were plenty of other people with more and less of both, especially among the nobility.

Still, she was betting with the other Succubi on them getting together. They seemed too connected to each other for anything else to happen.

Then, Lolisa began to work her magic, peeking in on her dreams. This process was especially tricky to pull off on the unsuspecting – which was a reason they'd become a business in the first place instead of trying to steal emotions – but they weren't Demons for nothing.

Then, after a rush of wind she was in. She twirled around, trying to see if she and Tanya were dating or if they were having a wonderful moment under a tree or-

Lolisa's eyebrows rose, as she realized what she was seeing, and then she felt her mouth open slightly. She looked away and-

She shook her head. No! She might not be one of the more powerful Demons related to lust, but she was a Succubus, damnit! She could look at this without flinching from embarrassment. She looked up-

And she immediately turned red. She looked away again.

Well… Viktoriya certainly had a… vivid imagination, then, to be able to think of Tanya like that and also imagine using their spells like that…

She shook her head and sighed, preparing to change the dream. This, they hadn't told Lorelei about.

To make sure that they really might be interested in each other, they wanted to see if they were having a lewd dream and turn it into something more… classically romantic, or vise versa.

She began to work her magic, choosing to speed Viktoriya's… honestly breathtaking subconscious mind forward. Now, Viktoriya had experienced it all at once, even if she would be a bit more hazy about the details when she woke up.

Then, Lolisa began to work her magic. A battlefield wouldn't be any good, even if they'd spent a lot of time on them together.

It took her a moment, but she eventually snapped her fingers and began to work. A battlefield wouldn't do any good, but perhaps flying high in the sky would be a good backdrop?

Soon, she was high up in the sky. She pulled Viktoriya's subconsciousness into the dream, and began to have it fly about. She was alone, for a moment, and then Lolisa worked a mirror image of Tanya into the dream, flying next to her.

Then, she watched. If things didn't change, then she might have to reconsider. But…

She smiled softly. They began to weave about each other, playing games and having fun. This was good…

Then, her eyebrows rose again. They were… hugging. And kissing each other softly. She smiled happily, and left Viktoriya to fly around some more.

That was confirmation enough that the Succubi could at least try and get them hitched up. Letting so much lust go to waste would be horrible, if Tanya reciprocated.

She found herself back in her body, staring down at Viktoriya, whose expression had gone from… vaguely guilty to happy.

With a quick movement, she turned to leave. Hopefully, Tanya's meeting would go just as-

"Ah… Colonel… look out… Explosive Vaporization…"

Lolisa's content expression rapidly shifted into one of abject horror. She turned around, only to see that the woman was just tossing and turning in her sleep.

She sighed. Really…

Then, something in her clenched fist began to shine brightly, and everything in the room began to float.

Including her.

Luckily, she was a Succubus. She began to float forward, but a pair of underwear hit her leg, and she couldn't help herself.

She bent down to examine them. Really, having such negligee lying around was inappropriate, and-

Lolisa's amusement faded as she realized that they were much too heavy for simply panties. She began to ruffle inside it, and she pulled out one of their odd explosive devices.

Lolisa felt herself growing pale as she looked at the other floating pieces of clothing. She could see, in the glint of the moonlight flowing through a crack in the curtains, that each one of the pieces of clothing also had the explosive devices.

She quickly left the room, taking care not to slam the door shut behind her. She waited, for half a moment, for Viktoriya to begin shouting, but nothing came of it.

She nearly sank down and began to relax – one wrong step would have seen her erased in a ball of flames, and she hadn't even known it – but she wasn't out of the woods yet. She had one more thing she needed to do before she left to give everyone confirmation.

She stood up straight and looked at the door to Tanya's room. Despite its outward appearance of being identical to Lorelei and Viktoriya's rooms, she knew that Tanya would be the hardest.

She had that ring on, and the only people who were concerned about mental attack had been attacked mentally before and expected to be again. Slipping in would be hard, but she had been training for this.

She could do this!

Slowly, she turned the knob, holding her breath. As much as she was interested in the outcome, she wasn't going to let Tanya catch her if she could. Lorelei could be trusted not to sell them out if they didn't know who to blame, but she would sacrifice Lorelei for her own sake in the face of Tanya's anger.

She peered into the room. There was a small amount of light, and Lolisa looked around for it. Her curtains and wardrobe were closed, and she knew that the amount of light in there wasn't right, if the only light coming in was from the hallway, so-

She found it. Next to her bed, there was a box that was softly glowing white-blue. Her eyes were drawn to it for a moment, and then she continued to assess the room. There weren't any clothing or other items on the ground where she could hide traps.

Her staff – as well as its attached blade – were also closer to the door. She suspected she had one of her tiny, handheld, metal wands somewhere near her bed, but if she didn't have the staff, there wasn't much she could do.

Probably.

As she floated in, she scowled. No, Tanya had her fingers, which could be used as blades using some odd spell none of them knew about.

She knew that from experience, and while she didn't have scars from their earliest interaction, it left an odd taste in her mouth to be so thoroughly beaten by someone who hadn't even known what a Succubus was.

Lolisa shook her head and floated over, taking care to look at Tanya's sleeping form. She was currently smiling, though whether that was the after effects of the alcohol or some nice dream was hard to say. Hopefully, it was the latter, because if Tanya was too drunk to have dreams, she would have to give up for tonight.

She continued to look her over, trying to find that damn item. There, on the middle finger of her left hand, was a gold band that stood out against the rest of her outfit.

Lolisa smiled, and then crouched down next to her bed, taking care to keep flying despite the odd position. Her hand was hanging off of the bed, so it was just a matter of slipping it off.

Her eyes, for a moment, were drawn to the softly glowing box next to her bed. If she wasn't mistaken, that was probably Mithril, but she sensed something… else coming from it…

She shook her pink-haired head. She had a job to do. She refocused on Tanya Degurechaff's hand.

She blinked. Actually, it looked like something – possibly the ring – had caused a bit of pain there, if the white scaring was anything to go by.

She lifted up a hand. Doing this and flying at the same time was hard, but she could pull it off.

Slowly, she grasped the ring with two of her fingers. Her hand was, thankfully, similar in size to Tanya's which meant she didn't have any maneuverability problems.

The seemingly simple gold band was warm to the touch, and she began to slip it off. Just a bit more-

It was off of its starting place and near the middle of her finger when Tanya began to shift.

She quickly let go and backed up, expecting the worst. Tanya didn't change her position, however, instead choosing to settle back into her previous position. Tanya's expression seemed troubled, but she wasn't awake.

Lolisa didn't dare sigh in relief, lest she wake the girl. She crouched back down in the air, eyed the ring, and then took hold of it again.

It was hardly connected to her now. Gravity had almost taken care of it, and all she needed to do now was nudge it off.

Quick as a flash, Lolisa grabbed the ring. She smirked and-

Lolisa gasped as the other girl's expression became completely blank, her breathing evened out, and her form, laid out in a haphazard tangle of limbs, straightened until she was as straight as a board.

Then, as Lolisa began to let her guard down, the girl sat straight up in her bed. She had only a moment to choose, and she decided to try and rise to the ceiling to hide. She pressed herself against the cold stone.

Thankfully, she didn't see Lolisa. She was just…

Lolisa sighed in relief. She wasn't staring at the far wall of her room, where the wardrobe was. Her eyes were closed. Lolisa activated the powers granted to her by her demonic nature, and she grinned.

She was still asleep. She was just sleepwalking.

As she got up from her bed, Lolisa wondered if she would go and try to join Viktoriya. That would certainly prove that the woman was interested in Viktoriya.

She got up from her bed and walked over towards the glowing box. Lolisa blinked in confusion. Was it brighter now?

She heard a chuckle from below her. "Oh, Tanya. You're getting far too sloppy."

She furrowed her eyebrows. She'd heard of people talking during their sleep, sure, but usually those were just fragments…

She continued on, "Really, 06, 01, 19, 31? The month, day, and year I died? Sure, no one here might know it, but you never know…"

Lolisa tried to contemplate what that was supposed to mean, and she decided she didn't want to know as the girl giggled happily.

Lolisa began to make her way across the ceiling to the window. She might be able to get a dream if she waited, but she wanted to be sure that she had an avenue of escape in case she woke up suddenly. Lolisa looked downwards.

She was retrieving objects from the box. One looked to be a familiar necklace from when they'd first… brought her to their building without her consent. Another was an odd piece of headgear she hadn't seen before.

A necklace, simpler in looks than the first, was put around Tanya's neck before Lolisa realized that she was moving with too much fluidity for her sleepwalking to be real. Lolisa began to activate a spell…

Lolisa's face scowled. How this human could be giving off readings of being asleep and signs of being awake at the same time?

The girl below her palmed something she couldn't make out, and Lolisa gulped.

She turned around and stared up at Lolisa, her eyes wide and open and empty, and a wide grin split her face. Her head tilted, and she seemed more amused than angry at the Succubus.

Lolisa's next move was caused by pure panic. Lolisa couldn't get out of the window in such a short amount of time, she sure as Hell couldn't beat her in a fight, and the grinning girl was gathering her mana to her, preparing for something.

She launched herself into her dreams.

-OxOxO-

Lolisa inhaled, and she tasted ash. Something was ringing in her ears.

She tried to look around, but the fog – was it fog, if it was green and yellow? – clouded her vision. She rose up from the fog.

Gray. All she could see were gray expanses of what might have once been farmland, with a sky filled with brewing storm clouds above the gray landscape. Now, it was a patchwork of craters and…

Lolisa shook her head in denial. There were bodies, hundreds of thousands of them. They stretched as far as her eyes could see, filling the craters like drops of water in an ocean.

The ringing grew louder.

She rose higher, to escape the land, but they were multiplying, rising up. She couldn't see the green gas, and she couldn't see the ground.

The bodies were rising, and she couldn't fly. She was falling to the ground. The bodies were rising to meet her.

The ringing grew louder.

She was standing on the bodies, and a tidal wave of force hit her side. She was tumbling over the bodies, being thrown and tripped by the corpses. They were crying out, hateful and filled with terror.

She hit her head, but her vision remained clear. Lolisa got up and looked around.

The ringing grew louder.

Her eyes grew wide. In the far distance, a mushroom-shaped cloud rose, red and yellow and burning. She looked down at the bodies.

The ringing grew louder. Everything gained a yellow tint, like she was wearing tinted glasses she couldn't feel the weight of.

The bodies were leaving her and forming a mound. She fought to keep her balance on the bodies as she stared at what they were moving towards.

They were crawling towards a hill. She looked up the hill.

The ringing was not ringing.

The ringing was laughter.

A figure with hair that was stained red was laughing, spinning. Her eyes glowed yellow. She was pointing the odd staff that Viktoriya and Tanya had at soldiers, who rushed at her with similar weapons or swords or shovels.

The figure cut them down. She detonated them. She spread more of the yellow-green gas, and the men and women facing her collapsed, clutching at their throats. She hit them with her hands, tearing chunks of their flesh away from them.

She laughed.

They got close to her, and hit her with the odd weapon's attached knife. They pointed it at her, and a loud ringing assaulted her ears as flashes of light assaulted the girl. They beat her with their swords, their knives, their shovels, their fists.

She laughed.

She bathed in the blood. In their blood. In her own blood.

The yellow tinting grew stronger.

She launched them away from her easily. The bodies began to rise. Missing arms, feet, hands, heads, organs, dead men and women rose. They marched out from her position on top of the hill, and she laughed.

They did her bidding. They attacked faceless thugs. Two old men, frightened and panicking and wearing green, official looking uniforms. An ageing old man with a pointed beard and more medals than even the King could have. A dark-haired man with glasses who looked oddly satisfied.

They ripped into familiar faces. They tore Dust to pieces. Lorelei had her head split in two. Luna was ripped in half.

They…

They bowed down. Not to her, but to the source of the yellow tint, a shining ball of light in the sky. The ringing laughter was gone, replaced by pleading…

"I am but your humble servant! Please, give me more! More enemies which I must destroy! Let me use the faithless undead to drive a spear into their fellows! Allow me to exalt your name! Let me rip into the flesh of the nonbelievers. Let me taste their blood!"

Something echoed from a far off place. "Please! Please! I'll do anything! Just please-"

She was laughing again, and the light from the ball in the sky – not the sun, but the girl's necklace – overtook everything. Everything was yellow, and-

Lolisa was laughing hysterically. All she could hear was the laughter – her own, the other thing's – the terrifying, insane laughter of a madwoman. A white smile broke the haze of yellow in Lolisa's vision.

Lolisa was burning. Every inch of her skin was on fire. Her wings were turned into ash. Black, tangy ash filled her mouth, her nose, her-

-OxOxO-

Lolisa cut off the connection. That was no, dream, it was a nightmare, a horrifying vision of something worse than Hell-

"Ah, you've seen my happiest dream."

Lolisa was forced to the ground, and as her vision swam, she looked up.

The thing was staring down at her. Lolisa had been on the ceiling, and now she was on the ground. She was pointing a sword at Lolisa.

She took a deep breath. "Now, let's get down to business. I will suffer no Demons to exist, and after you, the rest of this heretical town, then the nation, and then the world will follow."

She was laughing, her eyes and the items she had put on were glowing yellow, and Lolisa wasn't in that dream anymore.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: That got… pretty heavy. When I started this story, I never imagined things going in this direction, but I think it's interesting. I don't have much more to say on the subject, other than I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you don't mind the cliffhanger too much.

A/N 2: As with using the announcement system to find Aqua in the first LN, Wiz not being able to teleport directly to the Crimson Demon village in the 5th LN, despite going there in Megumin's prequel stories to seek out Megumin's father, is an oversight.

That was sort-of kind-of fixed in the movie, with them being teleported to the Orcs directly instead of to Alcanretia, but that doesn't really excuse the oversight.

Whether it is an oversight on her part, the writer's part, or both, is debatable. You decide

A/N 3: Did anyone nearly have a heart attack when it looked like Tanya might have amnesia? That was just as much a prank against you all as it was a prank against Viktoriya lol.

A/N 4: Tanya saying 'stupid wife' is a reference to the mini-series of 'Youjo Shenki.' 'Kami,' the Japanese word for god, can also mean wife when it's 'Kami-san,' according to the translation I watched.

A/N 5: Responses to Reviews:

Pyromania101:

CH 033 Response: Funny that you should mention them, considering that they are on the path to the Crimson Demon Village…

Yeah, she'll go there eventually, don't worry.

CH 034 Response: Nearly! Chapter 36 is when they get introduced, as does an unfortunately named 'Friendship Crystal.'

Amazing: No.

wolf girl811:

CH 033 Response: I would love to, but do you have a more concrete idea of where the special was? The idea is good enough for an Omake on its own, but if I have a know where it was exactly, then I might be able to work it into the story – kind of a 'where did these books come from, can I trust them' gig.

CH 034 Response: Please, I beg of you all… stop giving me good ideas, there's already so many plot threads going on…

Navarone2013: Most characters from KonoSuba are actually pretty strong, when they aren't compared with the unfortunate attempts at overpowered characters that the main cast is.

DNWorks: Hypothetically, it would mostly come down to equipment, allies, and Tanya's willingness to use the Type 95 to its fullest.

If she were willing to pray to Being X, then she'd win without a doubt, he'd hand the win to her on a silver platter. Though, that's like arguing that Batman would win if he'd just kill people... *Ahem* If not, then…

It probably comes down to equipment and allies. Tanya with a gun and Circlet might be able to practice a bit of guerrilla warfare to even the odds before putting the Crimson Demons in a trap that utilizes their quest for awesomeness to keep them in place, but it's just as likely that home field advantage and their strength would let them win.

If we brought possible allies into it with a few years of preparation, they would remain relatively evenly matched, as tanks would fight the golems that rebuild the Crimson Demon's village. If she had enough people, she could flood the town with numbers…

Overall, it would come down to Tanya using the Type 95 to its fullest effect and the Crimson Demon's willingness to ignore their chuunibyou nature and walk into a trap in the hopes of turning it around on her.

JLBB: Glad you took the chance on it, and thanks for the praise!

xbox432: Thank you for the praise for the battle! As I've said before, I struggle a bit with the action scenes, so getting positive feedback makes it worth it. Your guess about Rex is pleasing – let's me know that what I'm trying to do there is working well.

I hope you continue to enjoy!

Monkey Typewriter: I mean… it has a much more… slow approach in the Light Novels – Megumin is forced into talking with her to get money, and… anyway, it came off as a lot more creepy than anything Kazuma did to his teammates. That's why she's a bit more... obvious about it.

121698:

CH 026 Response: While technically feasible, it does do to remember that you have to be an adherent of a Deity and to convince a large number of people into changing their ways in order to instigate a Break – even if the original spark for the change is a King of England wanting to get divorced and declaring himself the head of a religion.

Though, if you had centuries, I suppose it's probably possible, but you'd probably have to spread it to all corners of the globe, find a local Deity that is associated with some of the things Eris is, and then rename everything to make it appeal to the pagans a la Christianity.

CH 032 Response: Ah, well, I'd suggest waiting a bit longer, because it's going to take longer for these two love struck idiots to finally see what's right in front of their eyes…

Amatsumi: Are you sure about that? I'd agree with you if I was only using the Light Novel or Anime versions of Tanya, but the Manga version of her gets into some pretty kooky misunderstandings.

Zorix: *Writes down a good idea that I hadn't even considered*

Also: it was a more gradual process, but she hasn't exactly been using the Circlet since the Capital, and would have no reason to think that it had decreased so much – though the fact that she couldn't find anyone reliable to help with the paperwork should have tipped her off.

SuperiorFreak: Lapis is up there for me too, though I'm more partial to Peridot because she gives a lot of info on the society of Homeworld and smol.

Father Chaos:

CH 033 Response: Sounds interesting, and I haven't seen it done before. With the lock down going on, I'd even have enough time to read it.

CH 034 Response: To answer the question as to whether Tanya would have heard of Rome and Greece and the homosexuality present: Probably not.

While I am sure that there's a word for it, I know it is a poor idea to apply my limited experiences to other people's and cultures, but judging by the fact that, as an American, I did not hear about a single bit of the homosexuality present in history – despite the fact that I took lots of history classes – it strikes me as improbable that a Japanese man raised in the 80s, whose culture has very little to do with the Mediterranean and the people in it would hear that much about European History in his schooling beyond Imperialism coming into Asia.

And… yeah, it is stupid that she won't listen to anything about the Axis Cultist, but her last life had a Christianity that was similar enough to her first life's that she could equate the two easily. She's done much the same here – assumed that they praise a different God and do mostly the same things and convinced herself that wasting more energy on a topic that brings up memories she hates would be just that: a waste.

MarkoncioX:

CH 033 Response: Thank you very much! I struggle with the more action-oriented portions of the story, so the appreciation matters!

CH 034 Response: Chapter 36. We're nearly there!

Shadows from Twilight: *Chuckles Jojo-ly* That assumes that I'm not currently having a meltdown trying to juggle everything!

TheAceol: Yeah, but as I've said, it does develop – at least a little bit – as it goes from the first Light Novels to the later ones.

Still plenty of silliness, though.

Anyway, you're welcome, and I hope you continue to enjoy.

tylermech66: The problem with talking to them bluntly is that they're scary as fuck… and part of Lorelei's thing is that she's really happy about being accepted despite her 'flaws,' and she doesn't really want to either push them away or do something reminiscent of people talking down to her because beastman.

And as always, thank you to Imperial warlord, Sprengkamp, Boyzilla, and SoleReclaimer, and everyone else who continues to support the story!