Chapter 6
January Royal College Clinic
Friedrich Nietzsche was attending the case of a woman whose record was tragic. His colleague Ed Bloch passed the case to him after witnessing a disturbing scene in the royal hospital.
Everyone was merry about the Central Alliance's repeal of the communists. When the woman was ready to receive visits from a set of her acquaintances, some of them noticed her change in demeanor and little forgetfulness. The doctors consulted Dr. Bloch about this, and he thought about observing the visits of crucial personalities in her life individually. At first, the people coming and going were familiars and civilians; nothing happened.
But during the visit of Ms. Hildebrand and Ms. Serebriakov, nothing was out of the ordinary, but Bloch was there regardless, worried by the concerns coming from various women concerns about their friend; Tanya was with the babies in her arms at the time. He noticed the incongruity about such a beautiful young woman being a commander in the Great War, but then when suddenly, unexpectedly, General Rommel visited in uniform, her eyes got big like a predator, even changing color; Rommel did not even get to utter a word of hello to the now mother when suddenly something impossible happened.
Suddenly, objects in the room began floating regardless of size or weight, flying around with chairs and tables. The lights in the building blinked for the strong magic in the air, and lightning sparks of shining hue were flying around enveloping the bed due to the mother's mana; all military men, along with the general, protected him with uncanny reflexes, but the outburst even destroyed the walls, she was yelling.
-you are never going to take them away to War.
-over my dead body, you are going to make them war machines.
-are you not happy with my husband and my Tasha?
-I don't care which old God comes; I will kill them even then if necessary.
From the shock, Bloch does not remember well what happened to unfold the madness, how they were still alive after witnessing what waste the building had become on the scene's moments prior just unfolded. One nurse, by chance and reflexes, has put so many sedatives on the mother to knock off a horse, bringing an end to the unreal scene. The two women protected one child each. The General who received a sharp object that by a miracle did not put a hole in his chest for always putting in that pocket his diary spoke along with the misses and told him that the cute blond woman who was now asleep, which had been a commander was none other than the argent the most powerful mage alive in history.
Her history as a child soldier, plus the depression post birth added to the loss of the now deceased husband, may have triggered some underlying repressed trauma, which made the case too much for Dr. Bloch. The history was unbelievable, but the damage to the building was still there as testifying the truth.
Now, reviewing her file, he was obliged to believe that the argent was not propaganda but a (real) person. The truth was wilder than the tales about her. The rumors do not do her justice if every page he reads is true and he discovers what is there. There was only one way to fix her, and he needed to investigate thoroughly, even using the diaries of Mr. Erich Rerugen and any file in existence. He was out in detective mode for longer than ever.
-now, Ms. Rerugen, do you know what we are going to do
-Ms. Degurechaff again now.
-All the Rerugen clan are sorry about your loss and are concerned about Erich's loss. They want you to keep your surname and have always been proud of you having it.
-Something rich is coming for a house eager to have a mage bloodline.
-they expressed their willingness for you to raise your kids as you please,
-I think the misunderstanding comes from how nobles need to act strong and mighty
-In that, all plebeians would agree,
-they already apologized to you in the past and will do so if you do not attempt to end your life.
-I never have the intention of ending myself
-but you are thinking about it often.
-…
Your silence tells me that your acquaintances help keep those thoughts aside for now, which is good. Could you tell me about Project ARTHEMIS and Project VALKERYE?
-I want my children back
- and you will have a life back once we end with the checkouts; you are with your children all the time but with supervision; now, how if we start from the beginning?
Doctor log.
The doctor was having problems with the willingness of the Misses; she kept avoiding answering about the critical elements of her trauma; the worst enemy of one person indeed is oneself. If a Superman exists, she is a superwoman. There is no doubt about it;
the concerning part is that the more one digs out, the more one finds. She has been keeping to taking tricks out of a magic hat; time and time again, concepts and ideas have been popping out all over the years.
It was the thing to have been a Jean d'Arc; even if the concept was fitting for her, the doctor was willing to accept it; the problem comes from her career as a secretary after the War ended.
The general staff took her under their wing to avoid her misuse, but the doctor did not understand how someone who spent most of her life in the War was the same, having proposals and reforms passed under the name of Erich, her later husband. Tanya, previously referred to as the argent and later as the fairy of personnel, was a mystery.
The General has always had a weak spot for her; he even protested having a child as a soldier back then. The general staff thought about even him taking responsibility, and he relinquished to the surprise of no one to marry her.
the truth came from the journals of the late husband; at more than one point in his life, he noticed that his later wife changed personalities,
at the time, he, like everyone else, thought it was because she was growing up, but paranoia overcame him years after the loss of Tasha. The nail of the coffin was a visit he made to the catholic orphanage where his wife came from,
the difference was that this time, he was in civilian clothes; he revealed he had married the argent and shared his concerns about how this had not been the first time she had overcome a change in personality to a degree he believed something had swapped places with his wife,
the concerned nuns asked him if he thought her to have been swapped before when she was young and then explained something that shattered the world for the late General, something that made him storm the confidential Archives in the general staff office, war college, and Academy, finally stumbling with the culprit when in spite came to the old basement archives using this time the passcodes his friend Rommel always trusted to him in his business, then read the content of projects ARTHEMIS and VALKYRIE, after that, he was ready to confront his wife, and he did not write anything more than the two rescuing their marriage.
Now, one asks how the argent has mastered the art of War and the pen in so little time. When she meets something, she goes from novice to advanced in record time but then advances like everyone else to be an expert. Tanya has no perfect memory but writes everything down and needs a lot of space for references.
It was apparent the part about Jean d'Arc was genuine. She has spoken with God and received enlightenment, which explains why the papers, thesis, and economic reforms were implemented over the years, even during and after the War.
Now, how she changed her life after marriage is the key to fixing her; after a few sessions, she has been progressing and mellowed down; maybe this day, we could dig deeper.
-Your husband has always defended you and even opposed having you as a child soldier, but there is something you have not discussed: Who is Tasha?
-my lost child, the one I pleaded for her safety to the old and new gods.
-Not that Tasha, the first Tasha, your twin.
- what are you talking about? I was a single orphan back in the orphanage.
- your first assignment was to be an artillery spotter, but that is work in pairs you were even so young; one is supposed to observe and speak, and the other is to take the calculus, the same as a sniper, one delivering one giving instruction I was a medic mage before, so I knew it.
-I was correcting volleys against Norden, then I was shot down, not without downing them, earning me the silver wings assault medal, then
-No, you were never alone. You played with your twin, who those people across the street adopted her, the bakery couple. You were a quiet girl because you were never there. You were constantly fed because she always gave you all her bread.
- I was then doing the test on the type 95
-you two were separated at birth but always kept playing together when the test for mages came for you two. One of you decided to enlist early because volunteering would skyrocket your career.
- I was doing a prototype test
-but that was all part of the ARTHEMIS project; your purpose was supposed to take over enemies as disposable pawns when the enemy mages came after you. You both knew there was only one way: to be a war hero.
- I was doing a prototype test
Then you got into Project Valkyrie. You were never there to adapt to the type 95; you were also the type 95. Dr. Shugel did not make you work; he was adapting you two. One became the type 95, the other Tanya.
-I was doing a prototype test
-You two were never supposed to enlist early, so the army needed to keep everything under wraps. You were supposed to never be together on missions, and the spotter position assembled hastily, which is the only reason you two ended up together that day.
-I was doing a prototype test
-What Dr. Shugel never knew was that you both always kept swapping. You did it in the test, you did it in the Academy, you did it in Elynium factories, and by the time your test finished, no one, not even you, knew who Tanya or Tasha was.
-I was doing a prototype test
-that infuriated Dr. Shugel. All the work put into place for those two projects was wasted because he, not even you, knew who Tanya or Tasha was, then that damned atheist repented his sins embracing religion, hunted down by his sins seeking salvation.
-I was doing a prototype test
-those times you were doing promotional, you saw the girlish side of your image so alien to you, you didn't want your child to have put a foot on no man's land, you hoped for your child to have a good and genuinely happy life, like the one out of a fairy tale, one where even if she were a mage you two never have to see her drafted.
-Tasha… (she started to break into tears)
-calm down; I know you had a lot of conversations with God and know not all of them ended up well,
-Ta…. sha… sister…
-It is not a secret for people who know you that you were trapped in your persona when you were so perfect; you were hurting yourself, and that's why they followed you.
Later, after a few more sessions, Tanya recuperated and was discharged with one condition: "to be sincere."
The shock came from her close acquaintances, and Tanya was unsure if she was Tasha or Tanya. They had constantly been swapping at the time, and the one who survived and received the silver wings medal could be either.
The people in charge of such inhuman experiments were long gone. The passage of the Great War claimed the lives of the people responsible, giving Rommel a bittersweet satisfaction.
When Dr. Shugel confessed on Rommel's knees to what mess he was into at the time, he revealed there were not only a few iterations of Project ARTHEMIS but various that the scientist didn't know about; he was only a pawn.
Project VALKERYE was never to take such a drastic turn. They silenced him but reneged, making him forever expelled for working under Heisenberg. Nevertheless, he decided never to stray from the right path again, even if getting banned from the Copenhagen Circle was the price to pay.
Rommel was not satisfied, but regardless, the truth was dug, not like the culprits buried with tombs long forgotten. The king obscurely protected the Copenhagen circle, making questioning Heisenberg impossible, giving a bitter closure.
-sometime later in one Berun neighborhood-
Eventually, one day, Tanya was playing The Suit of Ghibli by Joe Hisaishi and more songs from her last life, like the usual way to kill time, which is one habit she has when purchasing supplies for her kids.
The songs from the movies in the music store attracted the attention of the regulars.
To the surprise of Tanya, the late General Lergen helped the store manager during the Great War to transition from selling new instruments to also functioning as a kind of pawnshop for buying and selling used instruments, from nobles to plebeians, saving his business and making common folk afford the top high-end instruments the rich left behind.
Tanya was playing the usual Steinway piano when the manager spoke:
-your late husband, Erich, helped many people during the Great War, me included. He didn't ask for anything in return, not even money, but he always spoke of you after the War; he gave me instructions that if you fancied one of the grand pianos, I would gift you that instead.
That story and display earned the admiration of a record agent who signed her for an album. Later, Miss Rerugen was known more as an ambassador of culture than the argent; it wasn't until a concert in Rome that she made public her maiden name.
The same happened to the typewriter store, the bakery, the carpenter, the furniture store, and many more; not a single person was left in the vicinities, helped by Erich somehow.
The general may not have been able to lead the front lines at the beginning of the War. Still, he has always been fighting for the sake of the people, earning him the nickname "knight of the common folk." This gave Tanya tears of happiness; in some way, Erich's care still lingered around her.
