AN: Edited by Gremin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid

1949, April 15th, in Hambruck, in a trolley:

I flipped through the newspaper and sighed as I doodled rough sketches of political cartoons that summarized the dramas that had been occurring for the past few months. Maybe I was expecting too much out of my successors.

The President was proving to be a great enthusiast of nuclear technology. Too much in my opinion. While he had no direct control over laws being voted on by the Diet and the Chancellor signing them, the continuing chaos among and within the various political parties had him starting to gain enough influence to start pushing for bold actions.

For starters, after the delays and cost overruns with the Flottensanierung und Modernisierung Block 1 project became public, he put out a bold proposal of killing that project, implementing an overall funding cut to every section of the military, and instead wanted to focus more on nuclear weapon delivery methods such as heavy strategic bombers and long range missiles. He announced in a speech that in the face of the overwhelming power of nuclear bombs, all conventional forces were obsolete.

I saw it as a bad omen when the Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor publicly disagreed with the President over that speech, yet the Chancellor still replaced Willy Kohol with a new Minister of Energy. I'm curious what happened in the backroom negotiations for the Chancellor to publicly disagree but go with the President's choice of a new minister. One of the biggest signs of a dysfunctional management is when executives are publicly clashing and everyone can see the shitshow unfolding.

And where would the President get the plutonium to feed his nuclear bomb addiction? Coincidentally, after the minister swap, the Ministry of Energy proposed accelerating the nuclear power plant constructions by making them more cost efficient, by getting rid of the containment structures. And of all the people, Captain Rickover publicly criticized that plan and appears to have picked a fight with the President. Now I understand why the Unified States Navy got rid of him.

Speaking of international politics, the election situation in Caucasia was getting worse with accusations of voter intimidation and election fraud being cast by both sides, while the communist insurgency was flaring up again. Visha told me that she heard a rumor that the Rus had considerably increased their logistical support of the insurgency. As if the fire didn't need any more fuel, a Waldstatten law firm reported that one of their election monitoring personnel had gone missing in Caucasia. As for the Unified States, the new President Robert A. Taft was continuing with his isolationist foreign policy.

Hmm… Ah, I have an idea for a comic with the President, Chancellor, and Deputy Chancellor bickering over the nuclear future, while Caucasia burns in the background, with the communists trying to cut a portion off of Caucasia, and the Unified States putting on their ear muffs. I smiled to myself as I sketched out a draft of the comic until I felt someone breath on my neck and I turned around. A boy and a girl, probably close to becoming teenagers. They were looking over my shoulders.

"Can I help you?" I asked. There was a look of shock on their faces.

"Uh, we were…" one of them said before the other one completed the sentence. "We thought your cartoon sketches looked cute."

I blinked a few times and was about to say something when their mother pinched both of their ears.

As the two kids squirmed, the flustered lady said, "I am so sorry Chancellor. My kids shouldn't have been so nosy into other people's business."

I gave her a small smile, "Please, just call me Tanya – I'm not involved with politics anymore."

And that was when other people in the trolley noticed me as well. There were some murmurs at first, and then someone built up the courage to ask: "Chancello- er, Miss Degurechaff, will everything be alright?" The man had been reading a newspaper before he noticed me and put it down, "I recall how much of a stir was caused by you going public with your relationship, but now that would seem like a godsend compared to the current free-for-all."

The trolley went quiet and I bit my lip. I didn't want to give them false assurances because I didn't know the successors that well other than Dressler, who by now probably has a different idea of how to run Germania, and Adenaue who seem to be stuck in a no-win situation with the fracturing Diet. But it would also be petty of me to tell them that they're all worse off without me, and besides, I would rather enjoy my retirement in relative peace instead of going back into politics.

"The fate of politics lies in your hands." I say, effectively delegating the answer to the question to the crowd. But then again, is it really delegation if it's supposed to be their responsibility in the first place? "While an individual vote doesn't seem to matter, democracy needs as many people as possible to cast the ballot. It is up to you to decide what the Germanian government looks like, regardless of what is happening in Berun or in the local governments."

Now that I acknowledged and gave attention to one of them, I had to spend the rest of the ride chatting up the crowd and answering their questions about politics, with me largely sticking to the message I had given earlier. I hadn't planned for this and just wanted to sketch during a quiet ride, but politics finds a way and all it took were two kids who decided to be nosy with my cartoon sketching.

At a local aerial lacrosse league's manager's office:

Back when Carl Zander was looking through the applications, he thought the "Tanya von Degurechaff" applicant was some sort of a joke.

He realized it was no joke when he looked out the window to see the former Chancellor-President getting off a trolley, and started walking down the street towards his office.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT!"

He had done some cleanup of the office before the interviews, but of all of the people, the last thing he expected was her. He looked around frantically in his office and saw Green was busy working on a game plan.

He switched to a rough, heavily accented Albish. "Green! I need you to delay Degurechaff so I can fix up this office!"

"What?" Green looked up, with a hint of fear in his face.

"The former Chancellor is about to walk in! Buy me time! Uh, maybe 30 minutes!"

As Green cursed and rushed to the lobby, Carl Zander ran to the locker room where the players were getting ready for a round of practice and shouted, "I need everyone to start cleaning the entire place! Degurechaff is coming here!"

One of the players laughed, thinking it's a joke, but once they left the locker room and the skeptical player looked out a window, he got his comrades to move at record speeds.

I was about to walk into the office when I saw Green. Of all the people. It's ironic, he spent years in Africa keeping a large distance away from me, and now I might become a coworker.

"Good morning Chancellor." Green greeted with a polite nod. I noticed he had a bit of an uncomfortable look on his face, maybe I interrupted something?

No matter, I smiled and returned the nod. "Just call me Tanya – or Miss Degurechaff. I'm not a politician anymore."

"Ah, of course." He said before looking back to the empty lobby. "The league manager is running behind schedule with interviewing someone. How about we go for a walk in the meanwhile?"

It seems like I did. "Shouldn't I wait in the lobby?"

Green shook his head, "Nah, it'll be fine. The manager already knows, anyway."

As we walked down the street towards a park, I asked "How is your new job?"

"Sorry?"

"Well you were in the Bharatian War. Just wondering how you have been doing?"

"Other than trying to learn Germanian and still stumbling over the basics, It's a nice change of pace from the military." Ah, I could see that. His accent is still very much noticeable. "What brings you here anyways?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Change of pace as well. I've spent months cooped up in my apartment writing books, and I would like to get back into aerial lacrosse. I was looking for a part-time job while I'm still finishing writing."

"What kind of books?"

"An autobiography and books that discuss economics, social issues, politics and warfare."

"Big change of pace from running Germania, that's for certain." He hummed, "I thought you were going to crown yourself Kaiserin and be the next Napoleon."

"And then lead Germania on a warpath to dominate Europe like what Napoleon did? I have no interest in any of that."

Not when it would likely have me reenacting the second world war and have it end the same way. And with nuclear weapons being developed, it would likely end up being worse. No, better for everyone to realize the value of peace and the value that can be made in peace.

He had a brief look of skepticism on his face. I laughed a bit, "I'm guessing you weren't the only one in the Allied Kingdom to be distrustful of me."

Green shrugged his shoulders. "That would be correct. Never have I seen so many people get upset when it became clear who South Bharat would be aligned to. And that was the mistake they made. They didn't want to invest resources into stabilizing South Bharat, which made it an inevitable juicy target for someone else to try to seize it. Of course they didn't care for a mere lieutenant's opinion on that matter."

"Mmm. Reminds me of getting verbally ripped apart when I told the Empire's strategic command that they should sue for peace, long before the Unified States dropped their neutrality. They didn't take that too well."

Now he definitely had a skeptical look on his face. "You wanted the Empire to settle for a peace treaty early on?"

"I saw the writing on the wall. The first Europan war was going to be a lost cause. I could see it in the logistics nightmare that was forming long before the defeats started becoming more frequent. But what's a mere major supposed to do when the emperor himself made the final call to never surrender after all of the generals got done yelling at me? All I could do at that point was just ensure that I kept my battalion and myself alive, not be charged with treason by my government, and not get shot as a war criminal by the growing anti-Empire coalition."

"And that time in North Africa?"

"I actually appreciated that you kept your distance."

There was a long awkward pause. "What?" was his only word.

I sighed, "I get it, you were thinking I just wanted to tear apart all of the Albish mages in my way. I hated being in North Africa. It didn't matter how many battles the Empire won down there when their logistics couldn't keep up at all. The previous mage commanders before you actually irritated me by acting foolishly and ended up giving justification to the Empire to continue throwing away resources in North Africa. Once those victories stopped with us dancing around at a long distance from each other, that was when I could finally get out of that hellhole."

"Hmmm. Interesting." Green hummed and silently contemplated my words. I bet it's quite interesting to hear about what the enemy you saw as a speck in the distance thought during that time and place in the past. After a moment, he then looked at me like he was searching for something. "And if you weren't in North Africa, where would you have been instead?"

I shrugged. "Somewhere where I'd be more useful." Like an assistant to Ugar or something, but I doubt he knows the man.

"Ah." He says, and I notice him wince. Green must've thought back on how he felt the same way back then. "Such as Londinium?" He asked, giving away that he'd been thinking of home.

I chuckled, "That's a silly thought. Surely that city would've had heavy anti-air protection to prevent the 203rd mage battalion from vandalizing government buildings. I wouldn't be there unless if it were to discuss terms of surrender."

He winced again, no doubt imagining how badly that would have gone for an attacking mage force.

I spoke up again after a moment, "Anyways, what do they have you doing at your new job?"

"Ah." He said, sounding relieved, "Assisting the coaches with training and revising sports strategies and tactics." He shrugged his shoulders. "Not too long ago we had a match where a team tried out a strategy that I had been working on. Turns out it was overly defensively focused."

"How did that team score if they were constantly focused on the defense?"

"The opposing team was frustrated and lost their patience. That was when they started making some serious mistakes, resulting in goals being scored against them. The only reason the opposing team was then able to also score their own goals was when the defensive team got too greedy. The opposing team's coach was furious after that game and had a 'talk' with my league manager."

I chuckled. "I wonder where did the inspiration for that 'frustrate the opposing team' strategy come from? Couldn't be from the North African campaign could it?"

He laughed as well. "And I suppose you would be introducing the 'find a weakness, hit hard, get back into a defensive play, and wait for an opening to hit hard again.' strategy?"

I hummed non-noncommittally but we both knew the answer. "So, what did your manager have in mind for a new hire?" I asked after a moment.

"He probably had some ideas until you showed up." He then looked down at his watch. "Speaking of which, we should probably head back to the office for your interview. Although it's probably going to be more of a tour of the facility and the manager eager to offer anything you want."

After the interview:

Carl Zander waited until the former Chancellor had left the building and got into a trolley, and breathed a sigh of relief. He opened his office door and looked at Green. "Come on in. We need to have a chat."

After the two of them got seated, Zander spoke, "I know it's still very early, but I think this league has a very bright future. Think of the publicity and ticket sales with her just being at the game."

"Is she going to be the head coach?" Green asked.

"She said that she would only agree to a part-time job for now. But, I did offer her a small fraction of the ticket revenue."

Green raised an eyebrow. "The other coaches would find that unfair."

"She knows that people will flock to the games if she's there. There are very few people in this world that can match her popularity. And it would be embarrassing for her if our team fumbles, so she will have to commit time for the training days to help ensure the team plays well. I can't make her work full-time, so she'll have to make the best use of her limited hours."

"You have heard of how she trained her mage battalion back during the First Europan War." Green narrowed his eyes.

"It's just sports." Zander shrugged his shoulders. "As long as no one gets injured too badly during training, I don't see how she will be a problem."

1949, April 25th, somewhere in the Alps:

Paul Henschel had never experienced such bullshit before. He heard stories about how the 203rd mage battalion was trained, and how the Germanian mages were trained based on that.

When the former Chancellor showed up as a part-time coach, he had thought that maybe she had calmed down ever since then. After all, she had reasons to retire from politics instead of continuing to keep her power.

But it became very apparent that she was still sharp as ever as an aerial mage. And worst of all, she also brought her lover with her, who was rumored to be "The last aerial mage instructor you want to see if you end up in the remedial classes."

The first week was just focused on physical and mental conditioning. He had seen players break down and cry. The war veterans weren't as bothered, but they did admit that it felt like being thrust back into their days of the mage academy.

Of course all of this was purely optional, but dropping out of her training was guaranteed to be noticed by the coaches and potentially put an end to someone's career aspirations to play professional aerial lacrosse.

All he could do is grit his teeth and survive this insanity for another few weeks. At least there hadn't been artillery. He'd heard the stories…

1949, October 20th, in Hambruck:

I heard the doorbell go off as I was scribbling rough sketches of cartoons. The books I've written were all in the mass printing and distribution process, and now I'm experimenting with political cartoons. Visha was busy experimenting with a new dish for a volume two cookbook while she was waiting for the editor to finish looking over the draft of her first cookbook.

"I'll answer the door!" I shouted as I walked over and opened it.

It was Gunter Groz for the interview.

"Good morning Madam von Degurechaff!" he cracked a smile.

"Please, come on in." I motioned toward the table in our apartment.

He took a quick look around at the room that served as the kitchen, dining room and living room. "It's a comfy place with the two of you, isn't it?"

"Yes. A bit of a change from our previous residence."

Visha walked over. "The stew will take about an hour or so, so we could have a late lunch after this interview."

"Do you mind if I record this interview?" He asked.

"No problem. Go ahead." Of course that means I'm going to have to be cautious of what I say.

When we all got seated, he started off the interview by asking us what led up to our decision of not staying in office. I explained how for a long time I wanted to quietly retire and all of the events where I thought I had an opportunity, but was unable to do so. Visha added in about how she observed my high levels of stress and exhaustion after the Bharatian War.

"I'm assuming your autobiography book goes in depth about what your personal plans were during all of that?"

"Of course."

The conversation then shifted to Visha and I discussing what we had been doing ever since our retirement from politics. He seemed to have taken an interest in Visha's upcoming cookbook and that I was now working part-time at a local aerial lacrosse league.

"Do you have any plans of returning to politics?" he asked.

"I've only known war and politics ever since I joined the military as a young girl. I'm enjoying a much more relaxed life now and with someone that I love. I'm not sure what would convince me to return to politics."

And if the successors did decide to plunge Germania into an unwinnable war, there's always the option of quietly disappearing and living somewhere else such as the Unified States under a new identity.

Gunter hummed as he scribbled some notes. "Speaking of politics, you've probably seen the news by now, but what's your opinion of Alsace-Lorraine declaring itself as an independent nation?"

I shrugged, "If it helps maintain peace in Europe, I'm all for that. Besides, the people there have the right to decide their own future."

"Would you say the same about places like Malagasy then?"

Damn it, damn it, DAMNIT! He led me straight into that trap. I should have been more cautious, not let myself get lulled into complacency after having left the chancellor's office!

"Well…" I stalled for a moment to figure out a way to extract myself from that diversion. "If a large majority of the inhabitants want independence?"

"You wouldn't want to stop something damaging Germanian prestige?"

I wanted to huff but stopped myself. "Tell me how that's going for the colonial holdings in east Asia? I don't see any Frankish or Albish prestige over there." I considered Groz with an intense stare. "I think my point on this should be clear. I have no interest in denying a people their freedom with Germanian blood, and neither should anyone else. Obedience won with violence is worth far less than loyalty earned. Now, let us move on from this. I have left politics after all!" I gave a fleeting chuckle. "On that note, how about you test one of the recipes out of Visha's book made by the woman herself?

It was after our pleasant lunch when I got a phone call from my publisher.

"Good afternoon Tanya von Degurechaff, this is Ernst Cramer-Klett. Um, we had a bit of a problem with your books."

"Go on…" I said.

"The printing of "The Future Struggles" is running behind schedule after an unexpected machinery breakdown. There's going to be a larger time gap in the already staggered launch plan."

"Well, not much we can do about that."

"As for "In Search of Bread", the bookstore that was supposed to host the upcoming book signing event was forced to sell all of the books."

"By who?!"

"A large mob had gathered in front of the bookstore all clamoring for your books. That bookstore had all of your books displayed behind the front windows for everyone to see."

I rubbed my head in annoyance. "How long do you think it would take for us to try the event again? And this time with a bookstore that keeps the books secured in the backroom."

"We did reduce some of the bookstores' orders to concentrate them at a library that had agreed to host the book signing event. It seems our estimates of how many books would be sold were too conservative based on the reports from bookstores around the country that are asking for more orders because they all sold out."

"Is the police aware of the book signing event? Just in case we attract a massive mob?"

"That's a good point."

After discussing the topic about the book distribution to other countries, we ended the call. I turned to look at what was on the TV. The CSR had begun publicly contesting Akitsushima Dominion's hold over the Formosa Island, especially the smaller islands closer to the CSR's mainland such as Kinmen.

I sighed as I walked towards the TV to turn it off. Even if I had remained in office, there was only so much I could do. Even the 21st century in my previous life didn't have easy solutions to some of the problems that I'm seeing. Retiring from politics was a good call for my sanity.

Then something caught my attention. The Akinese publicly showed aerial reconnaissance footage of a ship that was under construction in the CSR's Shanghai shipyard. CSR was quick to announce that it was a downsized destroyer they were constructing, and threatened to shoot down any further foreign aerial reconnaissance operations within 50 nautical miles of their mainland, including over Kinmen island.

Downsized… Did the CSR have a destroyer in their possession to build a smaller version of it? I thought we sunk them before they had time to reverse engineer them? Why are they so quick to publicly announce it instead of claiming that it was just a coast guard ship? And they're building the ship in a very visible area. Maybe they want everyone to focus on the ship instead of something else they are working on?

When they played the footage again, I spun up my orb to enlarge the display, and that was when I noticed the hull seemed to be filled with something black in between the steel layers, instead of just being a solid gray. Are they experimenting with composite armor?

I sighed and decided to turn off the TV when the news broadcast shifted its focus to the Southeast Asian colonial wars that continued to rage on with no end in sight. Those developments are troublesome, but I've already got Germania to a point where it could respond effectively. Besides, I'm not a part of the government anymore and so there's no point in worrying about things I had no control over.

1949, October 22nd, in Hambruck:

I immediately regretted my decision to participate in the book signing event. It's been hours and there's still a massive line that extends out of the library and out onto the streets. And that was even after I sped up the process by using a magic spell to print my signature in the book. The crowd loved that and I actually got some who endured another wait to get a second 'magical signing'. I had also been talking almost non-stop to the various fans, and at some point, the questions were getting repetitive. To save my vocal cords, I ended up using stealth casted spells to put out words while pretending to move my mouth.

I have newfound respect for those people back in my world who did things like this.

There was some commotion in the back of the line. I stood up to get a closer look, and it became very clear what the source was.

Protestors looking to have my books banned. Not exactly sure what they had in mind, but I guess I'll find out soon. I'd say it was quite brave of them to show up at an event where they were massively outnumbered by my fans. And smart of them for queuing in line until they got into the library to get past most of the police before breaking off to make a beeline for me. There were two police officers trailing the protestors, but there was no way they would be able to stop a riot if one started.

A woman was leading the protest group.

"Good afternoon." I said as I spun up my orb for a stealth recording of the inevitable argument. "And you are?..."

"Elisabeth Ilse."

I offered my hand for us to shake, but she instead had an icy cold stare at me. I withdrew my hand. "You seem quite calm about this. I'm guessing this isn't your first protest?"

She smirked. "I may or may not have had a role in the riot at the burned down queer nightclub. Doesn't matter because the police had opted to drop the charges."

"Interesting timing of your current protest, waiting until more than a year after I left politics to enjoy my retirement in peace."

"And your retirement hasn't stopped you from continuing to push your radical, twisted beliefs on Germania." She turned around and pointed at my fans. "Look at all of those gullible fools, clutching your books!"

"I'm just earning an honest living." I shrugged my shoulders. "Asking someone to voluntarily stop their legal source of income is a fool's adventure. You would be better off petitioning the local and provincial governments to ban my books. Maybe even the federal one, if you can get the politicians to agree on anything."

She was about to say something but I continued. "Besides, even if I completely disappear from the public view and the books were never published, how exactly do you think that would improve things in Germania?"

"You intentionally set up the Germanian government to fail without you! You are leading the moral decay of society!"

There was a moment of silence in the library. The two police officers nearby had worried looks on their faces. A few of my fans were about to settle the argument with their fists when I raised my hand to motion them to stop.

"Where were you when I was in office?" I asked calmly, but pointedly, "I didn't pay much attention to your riot at the nightclub because there were no indications of any further violence threatening society. Where were the consistently large political rallies where your supporters weren't constantly being far outnumbered by those that disagreed with you?"

"That's the talk of an overconfident, lazy incumbent."

"You think you're an underdog?" I raised an eyebrow, "Well you suck at that. I took a political party that had a rounding error of seats in the Diet and made it a powerhouse that didn't need to form coalitions with other parties. Every one of my goals had a specific purpose to improve Germania. But I think there's a major reason why your political movement is so weak that you're targeting those that had already exited politics."

"And what is that?!"

"You're a coward. I'm disappointed that it took you this long to gather up the courage to organize a protest when you had plenty of opportunities to do so when I was in office."

I pointed at someone in the line. "How many times did I hold a public speech?"

"About a few." was the response, along with a few head nods from others.

"And how many of those were there a protest against me that successfully drew attention to themselves?"

"What protest?" someone snickered, and other people started chuckling or laughing as well.

I turned to the bigot with dripping sarcasm. "If you were at those protests at my speeches, some fine protest organizing you did there. If not, what, were you hiding in the shadows?"

She continued to glare at me. I gave her a few seconds to come up with a rebuttal before continuing. "Look on the bright side, you get to practice your protest skills against a new government that is struggling to get anything done."

"Why should I protest against a new government that is debating on rolling back legal protections for queers? You're not in charge anymore to stop them from restoring the natural order!"

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Truth be told, I'd be surprised if they manage to settle on something so divisive. The argument continued on for a bit, until I decided enough was enough. I did notice there were significantly more police officers in the library.

"You have the right to your opinion. And I have the right to ignore you, which I will now do. Now, who was next in line for the book signing?"

She pushed one of my supporters who was walking up to me and knocked them to the ground, followed by her throwing a small object at me. I put up a magic shield to block it at the last second and realized what it was when it fell on the table.

It was an aerial mage badge.

There was an awkward pause in the library. I could see one of the police officers facepalm at the impending shitshow. I heard another mutter, "I'm not getting paid enough for this."

Carefully, I picked up the badge and inspected it. "Did I pin this on you years ago at the mage academy?" I asked, "Or did it belong to a loved one?"

"It doesn't matter anymore." she shot back as people began to approach each other with hostile intent.

I took a deep sigh. "I will not allow anyone to trash this library that was so gracious to host this event!" I shout at the crowd before sensing something that has me turning back to Ilse, "What are you doing?"

I quickly got my confirmation that Elisabeth is a mage when she powered up her spell and kicked the table at me in an attempt to pin me against the wall. I jumped up as the table slid underneath me. Everyone else backed away, either to leave the library or watch the fight between two mages.

As we eyed each other for the next moves, I ran through my mind of how I would best counter an aerial mage that I myself had helped train. I wasn't going to let her beat me, no, that would be embarrassing. But I didn't actually want to fight her since that would cause too much damage. If I'm going to take her down, I'd have to be quick. And in order to catch a mage off-guard I'll have to get them to commit a mistake…

Then I had an idea. Blind her with anger.

"Do you know what other political party tried using violence to settle an argument against me back in the 1930's?" I asked with a smile.

She glared at me. I continued. "It was the communists. You're actually no different from them."

"What are you talking about? Comparing me to godless hea-"

"The extremists of any political or religious affiliation share more similarities than they would like to admit." I cut her off, "You believe that you are fully righteous and that there can be no compromise, just like the communists!"

She charged at me and attempted to punch me, which I grabbed her punching arm to intercept it, used my other hand to slap her in the face and anchor myself. As she bounced off of me and fell onto the floor, I continued my speech.

"You believe in using riots and individual violence to further your agenda, just like the communists. You believe that all dissent must be silenced, just like the communists. So tell me – how are you different from them!?"

She charged at me again. I jerked off to the side and stuck my foot out to make her trip. As she tumbled, I lunged at her to pin her to the ground, only to dodge at the last minute when she withdrew a magic blade and sliced a portion of my hair off. Now I'm getting annoyed. Yet another irrational person trying to murder me, and she's also a mage so I can't just casually toss her out the window.

"And you are willing to win at any costs no matter how many norms and rules you break. You would have fit quite well in the communist party. Too bad democracy has no need for extremists like you."

Before she could make a move, this time the police intervened. Turns out while we were posturing and I was enraging her, they had been calling in a lot of reinforcements, including aerial mages. Interesting, I recall a few months before my retirement seeing a report about the Bundespolizei, the Federal Police, experimenting with tactical response mage squads made up of war veterans, temporary Magical Civil Defense Corps members, and mages that didn't want to join the military at all. The intention was to create squads that could deal with criminal mages and other situations that were difficult for regular police but inappropriate for military force application.

She headbutted one of the police officers as they surrounded her. I turned to my supporters, ignoring the ensuing chaos behind me and took notice that her supporters were leaving the scene, and asked, "Well, any recommendations of a good hairdresser?"

When I got back to my apartment, Visha was in the process of preparing ingredients for dinner. She already had something simmering in a pot. Smells like sauerbraten.

"How was your day?" Visha asked as she checked the contents inside the pot before turning back to look at me.. "...I like your new hair." She eventually said.

I smile weakly, "The book signing at the library… took longer than expected. And oh, I got the meat and produce that you asked for dinner prep."

"Thank you!" She smiled back widely as she took the bags from me, "Could you also wash the vegetables? The potatoes are almost done being steamed so I'll need you to make potato dumplings."

"On it."

Visha paused. "Why did you get a new hair style all of the sudden? I know you generally don't go to the hair salon."

"Just a spur of the moment." I shrugged my shoulders.

She walked over to the TV. Oh I see where this is going.

"What are you doing Visha?"

"Just a spur of the moment?" she said with a bit of an edge in her voice as she turned on the TV and switched to one of the news channels.

An aerial mage duel occurred at the Berun State Library during Tanya von Degurechaff's signing of her recently released 'In Search of Bread' autobiography books. Police say that Elisabeth Ilse had organized a protest group against the former Chancellor's book signing, which then escalated to physical violence. Eyewitnesses said that Elisabeth Ilse attacked the former Chancellor with a magic blade.

Visha then switched to another news channel and they were reporting the same event. Visha turned to face me with her hands on her hips, and had that look of disappointment.

"Alright. Alright. It was some girl that hated homosexuals who picked a fight with me and used a magic blade to slice my hair." I said and put my hands up in the air, "But hey, it's free publicity for my book!"

I quickly realized that that may not have been the smartest thing to say when Visha's look of disappointment turned into that of anger.

"Really? And what if that magic blade went into your face instead!?"

My eyes widened, "Visha I… I know that I should have just destroyed her on the spot instead of accepting a physical sparring match, but I wasn't expecting her to escalate to attempted murder…"

"Tanya, you… you…" Visha struggles to figure out her words for a moment before sighing. "For even allowing a fight to happen in the first place…" I hear her mutter before glaring at me, "Do you not remember the conversation about me wanting you to be safe?!"

"She pushed one of my supporters to the ground and kicked a table at me to start the fight..."

"Really?" Visha asked, audibly annoyed and visibly disappointed as she crossed her arms. "You're going to use the 'they started it' excuse like a child? You're 35 years old!"

Visha continued before I could respond. "And besides, you could have just kept your distance until the police intervened!"

I could've. But I wasn't so sure that the library would have survived that unscathed. Still…

"I suppose you're right… I should've taken a page out of Green's anti-Tanya tactics handbook." I mutter out the last part.

Visha had a confused expression for a moment before asking: "Tanya, my point?""

I lowered my head a bit. "Yes, I get it – No more mage fighting." I sighed. There's no denying it, I am the one at fault here. I get into a potentially lethal sort of trouble and Visha is left to worry for my own safety. Although we both rationally know that we can take care of ourselves, love and worry do not care for such things.

Visha stayed at a distance for a moment before sighing and walking over to give me a hug. Well, it was more of a bear hug, really, she was crushing me in her arms.

"I worry about you." she whispered in my ears. "Can you imagine what it would be like if you ended up getting killed when you just started your retirement after years of war and politics? When we just got time to spend for the both of us? I'm not sure what I would do on my own."

I wanted to say something in response, to reassure her that I wouldn't be so careless about my life and her happiness. But when Visha tightened her embrace further I knew that she wasn't looking for words. What she wanted is for me to be here; safe and with her. With guilt rising in my chest, I rest my head on her shoulders and wrap my own arms around her.

"I'm sorry." It was all I could manage to let those words out as a whisper.

Afterward, as we went about doing our tasks in the kitchen, I asked Visha, "How is your cookbook coming along?"

The weight of the conversation that we just had still lingered in the back of my mind, but it also has me just wanting to take in small moments like this with no-one else but Visha and I. Thankfully, Visha seems to be of the same mind when she hummed and replied: "I finished the final draft and submitted it to the publisher. They said the printing could probably start in a few months." She said from where she's checking on the potatoes, "Also, I started on another book."

"Oh?" I said, pausing briefly from where I'm mixing the flour. "What's it about?"

"My personal life. Somewhat similar format as your personal life book." She said as she brought some steaming hot potatoes over on a plate, "Though I wanted it to be a bit different… Could you draw those cartoons that you drew for me in the cookbook?"

I hummed as I continued to mix the flour, "After dinner, I can."

AN:

wiki/Irma_Grese

wiki/Battle_of_Guningtou

Another article about how a country slashed spending for conventional forces to focus on nuclear warfare or defense against nuclear bombs: wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow

In August 1957, the Diefenbaker government signed the NORAD (North American Air Defense)[63] Agreement with the United States, making Canada a partner with American command and control. The USAF was in the process of completely automating their air defence system with the SAGE project, and offered Canada the opportunity to share this sensitive information for the air defence of North America.[64] One aspect of the SAGE system was the Bomarc nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missile. This led to studies on basing Bomarcs in Canada in order to push the defensive line further north, even though the deployment was found to be extremely costly. Deploying the missiles alone was expected to cost C$164 million, while SAGE would absorb another C$107 million, not counting the cost of improvements to radar; in all, it was projected to raise Canada's defence spending "as much as 25 to 30%", according to George Pearkes, the minister of national defence.[65]

Defence against ballistic missiles was also becoming a priority. The existence of Sputnik had also raised the possibility of attacks from space, and, as the year progressed, word of a "missile gap" began spreading. An American brief of the meeting with Pearkes records his concern that Canada could not afford defensive systems against both ballistic missiles and manned bombers.[66] It is also said Canada could afford the Arrow or Bomarc/SAGE, but not both.[67]

By 11 August 1958, Pearkes requested cancellation of the Arrow, but the Cabinet Defence Committee (CDC) refused. Pearkes tabled it again in September and recommended installation of the Bomarc missile system. The latter was accepted, but again the CDC refused to cancel the entire Arrow program. The CDC wanted to wait until a major review on 31 March 1959. They cancelled the Sparrow/Astra system in September 1958.[68] Efforts to continue the program through cost-sharing with other countries were then explored. In 1959, Pearkes would say the ballistic missile was the greater threat, and Canada purchased Bomarc "in lieu of more airplanes".[69]

As for the "composite armor": wiki/Plastic_armour

Terrell coined the term "plastic armour" for his invention, partly because it was plastic in the sense of being malleable and ductile while hot, but also because he thought that the term might be confusing to German intelligence, who might assume that the product was made with the synthetic wood plastics then available.[9]

Plastic armour replaced the use of concrete slabs, which although expected to provide protection, were prone to cracking and breaking up when struck by armour-piercing bullets. Plastic armour was effective because the very hard particles would deflect bullets, which would then lodge between the plastic armour and the steel backing plate. Plastic armour could be applied by pouring it into a cavity formed by the steel backing plate and a temporary wooden form. Production of the armour was by road construction firms and was carried out in a similar way to the production of road coverings

Plastic armour was available in large quantities and cost only £12+1⁄2 per ton – compared with heat-treated armoured plate at about £150 per ton and in short supply (though weight-for-weight somewhat more effective than plastic armour).[17] Plastic armour went into full production in October; facilities were soon in place in every major port involving every major road-building contractor in the country. Word spread abroad to Britain's allies. By the end of the war, plastic armour had been fitted to some 10,000 ships. Plastic armour was even used on the fighting ships of the Royal Navy, although in these cases the Department of Naval Construction insisted on referring to it as "plastic protection".[18]

Development and testing continued. Eventually, the bitumen of the original formulation was replaced by less expensive pitch and the Penlee granite was replaced by flint gravel. Elsewhere in the world, people used whatever stone was available.[19]