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Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warnings:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive WarningsGraphic Depictions Of Violence

Fandoms:

Characters:

Tanya von DegurechaffEmilia (Re:Zero)Reinhard van AstreaFelt (Re:Zero)Roswaal L MathersNatsuki SubaruCrusch KarstenRem (Re:Zero)Petelgeuse Romanée-ContiRegulus CorneasBeing X (Youjo Senki)

Additional Tags:

CrossoverOpen for suggestionsOther Additional Tags to Be AddedIllustrationsMild GorePost-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSDPoliticsMagicCross-Posted on FanFiction.NetAuthor Is Sleep DeprivedOne Day I will probably rewrite this but who knowsCanon-Typical ViolenceMysteryMemory Loss

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English

Series:

Part 1 of Isekai Adventures of a Salaryman Next Work →

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Published:2021-04-07Updated:2022-08-24Words:132,758Chapters:67/?Comments:1,654Kudos:1,699Bookmarks:279Hits:99,080

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 33: Regrets and findings

Notes:

I have thought long and hard about how I am going to write this story and come to the conclusion that I will have to be a little more patient with some of the things I want to happen. But at the end of the day I am just doing this for fun and it will not be perfect. Hopefully somebody will get inspired by this and make their own version that will be better than mine.

Until then criticisms are always welcome!

It shows me that you care and that warms my heart :)

I also should post the chapter tomorrow after I checked for typos, but I don´t care

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 33

Tanya knew that they probably stood no chance against the monster which had been a constant source of gruesome legends for generations. Rumoured to be the spawn of the jealous witch sent to torment the good people of Lugnica it remained undefeated for centuries. Despite not even having to do with the thematic of the respective chapter she had read multiple times about the White Whale in the history books as a allegory for certain defeat. If a fully prepared army could not defeat such a creature then her probability of success practically equalled zero.

Luckily she wouldn't need to kill it to achieve what she was going for.

It was, at the end of the day when you took everything into consideration, just an animal. A large, magical and extremely dangerous animal... but an animal nonetheless. And animals followed basic instincts that could be predicted. What could be predicted could be influenced. And what could be influenced could be manipulated. That at least was the basis of her main plan and she was relatively sure she could pull it off. Her expertise was fighting huge groups of human targets, both on land and in the air which was far different from what she was now attempting, but The White Silver, The Ace of Aces, The Angel of the Empire was anything if not adaptable.

The greatest problem in her strategy was that Subaru had foreseen three of them at once. Distracting and "mock engaging" one beast was difficult enough, but handling three of them would be almost impossible. Almost.

"Ram can you cast magic?" she asked.

"Yes Milady. I am proficient enough with water spells."

"Good. Can you heal?"

"Yes, but only minor wounds. I unfortunately never really got to train the healing arts."

"It will be enough." assured Tanya.

She checked her equipment once more to make sure everything was at its right place. Spare bullets, magazines, her pistol, the cutlass, her combat knife and multiple other miscellaneous items. Good. Now began phase one.

"Listen up everybody. I have no time to explain, but I know what I am doing. Despite how miserable our situation seems I can promise you that you are nowhere as safe as with me."

She couldn't promise that in fact, but morale had to be upheld somehow to keep this impromptu team functioning. Lying to your troops before battle could end up poorly, but history had shown it to be an effective tool most of the time.

"Our mission appears hopeless, but I have fought against worse odds singlehandedly and come out on top. If you follow my orders then I will guide you to safety. It will not be easy, but we all are going home if you can trust me on this."

This was also a lie. In case of an emergency she was perfectly prepared to sacrifice her two guards as bait. They were expendable. Reinhard would not be happy, but it would ultimately be easier to explain than the loss of her ally's subordinates.

Not letting anyone voice their doubts she quickly continued: "Turning tail and fleeing is impossible as I have no estimation of how fast we could accomplish that. Either we would manage to escape and possibly lead the monster to the Mathers domain or the fog would catch up to us anyway. By continuing forward at full speed we will pass through the mist as fast as possible. The only problem? The White Whale is in there."

If the strange mist had any similarities to naturally occurring fog then it would not only impede vision but muffle sound as well. The whale would need to rely on another form of orientation to find prey and direct its movement to it. Most logical would either be a keen sense of smell or a mana sensing ability similar to one of her formulae. (It was a magical creature after all so nothing was impossible.)

Identifying and subsequently triangulating the exact position of a mana signature had been standard procedure back in the Empire. Even the François had been able to do it so an animal should have no problem.

Because both these potential senses were rather vague the beast would search out the bigger, more delectable source if it had to choose between to targets. Radiating excess mana and dousing herself in blood would make her the more alluring victim in the White Whale´s mind which would hopefully keep the beasts from immediately going after the carriage.

"Now I am going to fly a few hundred meters away and distract the whale. I will silence a few parts of the carriage as best as I can, but the spells will not hold for long, so be quiet and slow down under no circumstances. Winfred and Tog, you are going to relocate inside the cabin and keep the windows closed. Don't talk, don't sob. Avoid all noise."

The last part was especially important so she made sure to stare Subaru deep in the eyes when she said it. For some reason he looked offended.

Keeping the noise of the driving coach to a minimum was a task as important as it was difficult. The sheer mana expenditure of holding up several spells over long distances was enormous, but necessary. In a normal, hour-long tactical engagement it would have been unthinkable to waste energy like that, but these were far from normal circumstances. If nothing went wrong (as it always did) then they would cross the fog before her mana ran out.

"Rem, if I tell you to drive right you will change course as fast as possible. If I tell you to drive left the same applies. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Lady Degurechaff." came the composed response from the maid. That girl had seemingly more backbone than her own bodyguards. Maybe she should hire her, but the Margrave was unlikely to part with such an excellent servant.

"If I do not return after you leave the fog then don't wait for me. I can take care of myself and fly back to the capital if I have to. Do not stop until the ground dragon feints from exhaustion."

Tanya did not wait for acknowledgement before she opened the door and flung herself outside. What would have been a potentially lethal jump for any normal person was nothing to worry about for a trained aerial mage of her calibre. Years worth of instincts kicked in and stabilized her mid air even though the wind dragged heavily at her deceptively diminutive form.

With a boost in power that created a small shockwave behind her she took off in the direction of the rapidly approaching mist. Meanwhile her fingernail flickered and extended into a tiny, bright glowing cutting edge.

Carefully, in order to not cut too deep with her razor-sharp mage-blade, she skimmed over the surface of her skin and opened up shallow wounds all over her body. Blood flowed freely and ruined her tattered clothing further. A pity. She had liked the shirt. At the current rate that her heart was pumping she calculated that she would suffer from symptoms of anaemia in twenty-three minutes and fourteen seconds. More than enough time to get the job done hopefully.

Of course her enhanced metabolism as a mage meant that her blood already had began to clog and she would need to reopen fresh lacerations in a few minutes to prevent the old ones from healing, but it was good to stay safe. Dying from self-inflicted wounds after all the tribulations she had been through would be a cosmic joke that she wouldn't grant Being X.

Now she properly reeked of blood and her high man output would make her even more noticeable. If she hadn't grossly miscalculated then she would be irresistible for the beast.

Maybe a bit of auditory stimulation would also be beneficial?

"WHERE ARE YOU MONSTER? DO YOU CRAVE HUMAN FLESH? DON´T LET MY APPEARANCE FOOL YOU! I AM THE TASTIEST ONE AROUND!"

It sounded lamer than she had initially though, but the White Whale most likely couldn't understand her flimsy taunts anyway. Everything that mattered was that she was loud and smelled appetizing. Luring it a good distance away was top priority and then the real fun could begin.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subaru was more than a little afraid and with good reason. Apparently this White Whale was an even bigger deal than he thought and seemed nigh invulnerable. Not to mention that the terrible beast had already killed him once and the strongest person at the moment was not here to protect him!

Well, dying was a far less scary prospect for him than any other person in the world, but that didn´t make it any less uncomfortable. If worst came to worst he could simply restart and try something different. It was a blessing as much as a curse, because he was confronted with his mistakes again and again. Why did he have to be so powerless? Why did he have to be so weak?

He scowled at his inability to fight that stupid whale. Now Tanya had to go out there and save his sorry ass, because he was too weak! He should be the hero of this story and face all problems head on, but instead he ran away like a little child. It was simply not fair! Everybody saw him as a nuisance.

By now his fear had turned into rage. He was angry at the whale, at the world and mostly at himself.

He would be no longer useless! He would impress Emilia and show the world that Subaru Natsuki was not a pushover! He would not let them down any more!

In that moment all he could think about was his blinding fury and reason or self-preservation no longer mattered to him. His mind fell into a frenzy of negative emotions which led to a decision that would alter the course of the fight.

In a heartbeat he was up from his seat and rushed to the door of the carriage. With all his desperation and anger he nearly ripped the handle off as he opened it and leaped into the open. And then...

Pain.

As it turns out jumping out of a fast moving vehicle onto hard ground was not a pleasant experience. He couldn´t help but whimper in agony for a few moments before he mustered enough strength to stand up. Every bone in his body seemed to ache and he was sore everywhere. All in all a typical day for Subaru. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The carriage had already disappeared in the thick white fog that was surrounding him and everything was eerily silent. It felt like the whole world had been swallowed by the milky miasma and he was all alone...

Slowly doubts were beginning to form in Subaru´s mind. Fear resurfaced and cleared the haze of irrational anger away to reveal a growing list of second thoughts. Maybe this had not been such a great idea after all?

Indeed it hadn´t as the tomblike silence was ripped apart by a ear-piercing screech and intelligible yelling. What was going on?

Now that he had probably already doomed himself he was going to investigate. Information would be the key to defeating the monster next time, he was sure of it. Maybe he could even be useful and aid Tanya in whatever she was doing.

Again and again the horrible screech nearly forced him to his knees, but he was coming closer. He wouldn´t give up now! Although it was pretty difficult to find the location of the battle, because he could barely see his own feet in the mist.

Suddenly though everything became quiet again and he feared for the worst. Had Tanya lost? Was she killed? Where even was she?

That question got answered as subtly as if god himself had extended his finger and pointed at her location. Golden light pierced the fog and seemed to nearly split the heavens themselves. Brilliant radiance exploded with such brightness that he had to avert his eyes even with the mist obscuring the land around. It was so overwhelming that fell to floor in pure awe at the power that was consuming everything in his vicinity.

Subaru wouldn't have been surprised if someone on the moon could see whatever was happening in front of him.

Interlude 2

Far off in the depth of the far reaches of space, in a particularly chaotic junction of the infinite multiverse an entity only called "Being X" by his most ardent detractor, was seething. His lost lamb, his little atheist was still missing and he had found no lead on her whereabouts. Who had stolen her away? Who dared to ruin his favourite pet-project?

He raged in fury and indignation about her unexpected disappearance so much that he was practically unaware of the time he wasted on his mad quest. His own worlds remained unattended and millions of souls were denied passage to the afterlife, because he was not there to reincarnate or otherwise process them.

Instead he had spoken with countless other gods and creatures that exceeded mortal imagination and asked them for help in his feverish search, but most of them had simply ignored him. They would all pay for their disrespect! (Like Aqua who had just plugged in earphones and watched some terrible TV show instead of listening to his extremely important massage.) Kos of the Great Deep Sea had at least tried to be of use to him, but her very nature was incomprehensible even for him and her "words" had only confused him further. Truth had nearly been equally as cryptic and on top demanded a price for his services! Laughable! Didn´t he know who he was talking to? Being X was far too great to be charged with prices like a simple human! The insolence...

And so he aimlessly scoured the multiverse, throwing world after world into chaos and peril when he looked under every leaf and stone to find his rightful possession. Although no matter how hard he looked he could never find his plaything. Even his near infinite patience was running thin and he was secretly considering giving up for a while when he suddenly felt a familiar sensation tugging at the edge of his perception.

There it was.

His glorious power that he had graciously bestowed upon the ungrateful mortal was being used and he could feel it. With great haste he threw the world he was currently inspecting away into the eternal abyss and rushed to the origin of the feeling.

It was a magical world governed by a crystal called the Od Laguna, but he couldn't care less. What could a measly crystal of magical energy do against him, the perfect existence? There were also other powerful entities present, but he wasted no time on studying their pitiful lives. Compared to him they were (of course) nothing .

With a ripple in reality foretelling his arrival he descended upon the heavenly plane of this world and searched for the traces of his energy. A few moments of concentration was all it took for his divine mind to comprehend the entire geography of the planet and track his little nonbeliever down. Now he had her back! She was his once again! Oh, he couldn't wait to make her pay for all the trouble she had caused him! Suffering for a million years would not be enough to appease him.

Just as Being X was preparing to pluck her from this world again and bring her back to his domain something unexpected happened. He couldn´t do it.

What?

He tried to do anything at all...

And he failed to move even a nanometre.

What in his holy name was happening?

Only now did he realize that the entire world seemed to have stopped moving. Like when he communicated with lost lamb, but this wasn't supposed to happen to him. He was a god! He was above such petty tricks to awe mortals! Why couldn't he move?

Deep purple shadows were beginning to slowly encroach on him and practically oozed pure malevolence. They were darker and deeper than anything he had expected from this unimpressive world. He had to admit he had not expected anything here to challenge him.

"...YoU CaN noT Be alLoWeD to RuIn mY pLAnS..." whispered a surprisingly beautiful but at the same time distorted voice directly into his mind. His skin would have crawled if he had any.

"And why is that? Who does so boldly speak to me?"

No response. He got angry.

"The little human is mine and only mine!"

"...sHe nEedS tO HelP mY BelOvEd..."

"I want her back! You are nothing to me! Leave me alone before I obliterate you!" he screamed in equal parts unease and irritation.

"...I wiLl NoT PerMiT thAt..."

Suddenly a second, more youthful voice chimed in and seemed to address the first one. It appeared to be female in origin as well.

"My, how interesting. You are after Tanya, right?"

"Free me! I am a god! You are not even worthy of my attention! Tremble and bow bef..."

"The false god was silent." she calmly stated as if fate had already decided that outcome and to his growing horror he found himself unable to speak.

"See? Much better now. Leave it to me Satella. You don´t need to worry about him messing with your beloved anymore."

"...bEtTEr KiLl hiM nOw..."

The girl sighed and emotionlessly said: "The witch of envy was back in the Pleiades watchtower and had never encountered or noticed this false god here."

From one moment to the next the dark, shadowy presence was gone as if she had never been there to begin with.

"So what do I do with you now... Being X?" she asked with unnerving gentleness.

In this moment he realized that he should have let the atheist go and forgot about the whole affair altogether when he had the chance. This was not worth it! For the first time in his existence Being X was afraid. And rightfully so.

Notes:

Don´t worry, the next chapter will reveal what I "skipped" over. Tanya´s perspective is going to be fun. (I hope)

I couldn´t resist the temptation of adding a few cameos from some of my favourite franchises as well and they won´t be the last XD

Meanwhile, who is your favourite Re:Zero character (aside from Subaru)?

Rem? Crusch? Reinhard? Pandora?

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Entire Work ← Previous Chapter Next Chapter → Chapter Index Edit Bookmark Mark for Later Comments Share Download

Work Header

Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warnings:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive WarningsGraphic Depictions Of Violence

Fandoms:

Characters:

Tanya von DegurechaffEmilia (Re:Zero)Reinhard van AstreaFelt (Re:Zero)Roswaal L MathersNatsuki SubaruCrusch KarstenRem (Re:Zero)Petelgeuse Romanée-ContiRegulus CorneasBeing X (Youjo Senki)

Additional Tags:

Language:

English

Series:

Part 1 of Isekai Adventures of a Salaryman Next Work →

Stats:

Published:2021-04-07Updated:2022-08-24Words:132,758Chapters:67/?Comments:1,654Kudos:1,699Bookmarks:279Hits:99,080

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 34: Invoking confusion

Notes:

Extra long chapter today. I just couldn´t bring myself to split it up. Still too short for my tastes.

EDIT: 11.111 hits! What a magic number.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 34

She had begged for the monster to show itself and it heeded her call. Barely a few seconds after her entering the fog and screaming for the beast to get her, a giant object pushed through her detection spell with astounding speed. Something as big as a whale was easy to pick up on with a simple sensory formula, but the downside of that size was that in just a few moments it had already traversed half of her effective range.

At least Tanya felt satisfied with her hypothesis that the White Whale oriented itself via smell or mana sensing. Due to her moving through the mist at moderate speed it should have been impossible for the monster to track her, but so it did. Just where were the other two that Subaru had told her about? Were they hiding? Or worse, were they working together to ambush her?

The last possibility implied an uncomfortable level of intelligence and skill from the creatures. She would need to be extra cautious. For now she could use the isolation of the first whale to her advantage.

Tanya had no hopes of actually killing the monster so weakening and incapacitating it were her goals instead. To do so she would attempt to cripple its mobility first and then ground it for a while before she did the same to the other two creatures. With some luck they would even come out of hiding to aid their wounded comrade. On the flip-side, this would become a problem fast if there were in fact more than three whales.

With its impressive velocity the creature was closing in on her position fast, so she decided to test his willingness to pursue her. While loudly chanting the imperial anthem she turned at a seemingly physics-defying angle and flew straight up. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that the dark shape in the fog was still following her with apparently no difficulty.

Its current speed correlated to roughly fifty percent of her maximum speed so she would be able to outmanoeuvre it at close range easily. Not to mention that she was a small target to hit.

Deciding to surprise the beast a bit she promptly changed direction again and flew directly towards it. In one smooth motion she unsheathed her black cutlass and channelled mana through the shimmering blade.

"Let´s see how well you bleed." she grinned.

An unintended side effect of the artificial combat drugs that she was pumping through her system was a heightened bloodlust. Moreover, this got worsened because she didn't have to hold back, due to her foe being an animal. No human rights or martial laws applied to this situation to limit her (not that that had ever stopped her before). Those kinds of regulations didn't even exist in this world! She had checked.

Closing in rapidly on her target she readied her blade and dodged at the last moment with a burst of flight magic. While she avoided the gaping maw of the giant creature she made eye contact with it.

Its big, strangely expressive eye was an obvious weak spot and she showed no mercy as she drove her blade straight through the middle. Blood and vitreous fluid splashed her front as she opened the eye up from one end to another.

A scream of rage and pain followed. From her close proximity to its mouth her eardrums were nearly blown apart had she not reflexively deafened herself to the noise with a formula, like she had done with thousands of explosions before.

Seeing as her slash had achieved moderate success she continued with her attack. Reinforced blows cut through the whale´s hide like butter and blood sprayed in comically large volumes. Tanya idly wondered how high the beast´s blood pressure must be to produce such fountains of life fluid.

She struck again and again and again until its body was littered in shallow lacerations. Regardless how much the creature tried to turn and twist, its large body was unable to reach the much more mobile aerial mage assaulting it from all side.

Honestly, so far this creature had not provided a decent challenge. As much as he detested senseless violence all the years of constant warfare had etched themselves into her mind and changed her. Rationally she tried to avoid combat as much as possible, but now there was a tiny part of her that immensely enjoyed a good fight and thirsted for challenge. Killing and risking her life had never been pleasant, but it was nearly all she could remember. One could perhaps call it a habit or a tradition.

This whole affair was taking too long. Bleeding it out would waste precious minutes. The other two whales had not revealed themselves and were possibly already hunting the carriage. She had hoped to lure them to her location, but luck was apparently not on her side today. Only overwhelming force was an option at this point. Without her rifle this meant one thing.

Tanya really didn't want to use it...

But she had no choice.

Not anymore if she wanted to incapacitate the beast for at least a little while. Subaru had foreseen her using a "normal" explosion against the whale and in his vision it turned out to be ineffective. Armed with this knowledge it would be the height of foolishness to attempt something similar again and expect different results. The definition of insanity postulated so.

Still, nothing could be as revolting, as demeaning, as utterly disgusting for Tanya as giving into the alluring curse of her supernatural tormentor. It went against her very being to pray to such a repulsive entity, but this time she had absolutely no choice. With a thought the flow of mana switched from her Type 97 to her Type 95 and the accursed orb above her chest began to glow.

As always the treacherous words came easy to her. Too easy. As if she had been born to say them out loud. She wanted to retch.

"Have faith brothers and sisters!"

A familiar, sickening glow spread through her entire being and filled her mind with poisonous cotton candy.

"Our salvation is near."

The words dripped like sweet acid from her tongue and she had to fight for every moment of lucidity.

"No man can stand against our might!"

Righteous wrath for the enemies of god exploded inside her and the feeling of the implanted emotion sickened her.

"And no beast can survive our wrath!"

It felt like she was floating. Pure golden holiness radiated from her body and she seemed to detach more and more from what was happening in front of her eyes. The whole world was being swallowed by a golden radiance.

"For the Lord is with us"

Yes! It felt so good. God was so wonderful to grace her with even a fraction of his unimaginable power. She needed to thank him more. Pray to him more! Show him her honest worship. He was the rapturous core of her entire existence! She was nothing without him. He would never abandon her and she loved it.

"Till the end of time."

An invisible dam was bursting inside her and a wave - no - a tsunami of energy was bursting forth, cleansing the impure, tainted abomination in front of her. The creature was an affront to his divine right to rule all sinners! Only he and his followers had the right to spread death and misery, for he was almighty and all-knowing. It was his right! His!

The heretical beast let out an ear piercing shriek and Tanya laughed in unadulterated bliss.

"Ha Ha Hahahahahaha!"

She was the force that would bring judgement to the sinners and reward the faithful, for god was with her.

A golden light in the fog

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the miniature sun in front of him began to shrink Subaru lifted the hand from his eyes in wonder what he was seeing. Never had he experienced anything comparable to the sheer might that had just occurred before him. Even as the light slowly vanished he could still see the white afterimage that had burned itself into his retina.

He blinked the temporary blindness away and stared at the now fogless area. A strong gust of wind must have cleared the field, but he nonetheless couldn´t see anything out of the ordinary. Just patches of dirt and grass as far as he could see.

Suddenly a gigantic boulder dropped from the sky and smashed into the earth, raising a dust cloud. What was happening? Subaru was highly confused.

"Tanya? Are you there?" he shouted as loud as he could.

"Greetings Subaru! Isn´t today a wonderful day to punish those that sin against the lord´s creation?" she asked while floating down to meet him.

Like an angel a voice in his mind supplied. He was glad that she was okay, but her manic voice sent a shiver down his spine. Gone was the reserved, factual voice that Tanya typically used and instead it was replaced with an uncharacteristically giddy and cheerful tone which for some reason sounded rather sinister.

"W-What?" he stuttered trying to comprehend the situation.

"Do you not see it? Our good god has mercifully bestowed a miracle upon us to smite this abomination and as always his divine light strikes true! Hahaha"

Subaru looked where she was gesturing at and noticed the slowly dissolving boulder. No...

Rocks generally didn't do that and now that he looked closer the object didn't appear to be stone either. It was charred, roasted... flesh. He almost vomited when he realized that these had to be the burned remains of the White Whale. Had Tanya´s magic done that? Based on her satisfied grin it seemed likely.

Another shiver ran down his back. How powerful was she?

And more importantly, what had happened to her?

Never before had she shown this twisted smile, the crazy giggling and those golden eyes. Subaru was pretty sure that her eye colour had been blue an hour ago. Hopefully she would turn back to normal soon, because the new Tanya was creepy.

Tanya´s joyful voice interrupted his increasingly worried thoughts.

"But my work is not finished yet. It appears as if its foul siblings have decided to come and be purged as well. So be it!"

She pointed at the sky were two large shadows were clumsily drifting through the air. The other two whales as Subaru understood immediately.

One of them looked to be barely clinging to life with a huge chunk of his body missing and scorch marks extending from his tail up to his mouth. The other appeared to be in slightly better shape, but had clearly suffered grievous wounds as well if its blackened head was anything to go by.

"Thank the lord for his grace Subaru! Be thankful and pray!"

Still cackling with joyful laughter she rocketed into the sky towards the two crippled creatures. Subaru would have felt sympathy for them had the White Whale not killed him in his last loop.

Not wanting to gaze upon the bloody spectacle above he turned his sight on the land around him. He slowly turned his head and came abruptly to a stop when he noticed the great accumulation of mounted soldiers a kilometre away staring in his direction.

Was that an army? Were the hell had all these soldiers come from? Were they here to help?

So many questions and only one way to find out. Tanya seemed to be distracted with the fight in the air above so she would without a doubt appreciate it if he went and collected some information. He would finally do something useful! Otherwise the painful jump out of the carriage and the expected admonishment from Rem would have been for nothing.

With resolve in his heart and determination in his soul he made his way over to the lady in front of the soldiers who looked to be in charge. She would surely know what the matter with the small army behind her was.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crusch had a splendid day so far. Finally she would secure her standing in the royal selection once and for all! She was of course convinced that she would make for objectively the best candidate who would help Lugnica the most, but she was not so arrogant to think that victory would come easy. Oh no! Her claim to the throne would need to be earned through much sweat and blood. Only because of her effort would she prove her worthiness to the people.

So, to show her military might and tactical expertise she had vowed to destroy an ancient evil that plagued the land since four hundred years ago. What better way was there to endear herself to the hearts of the populace than to rid them of one of their most feared nightmares? The White Whale had even managed to defeat the previous swordsaint which had increased its formidable to almost god levels of strength. This beast was a seemingly insurmountable danger...

But Crusch would demonstrate to the people that humans didn't need to cower in fear before gods and their ilk! Only man was fit to rule the world! Together they would overcome every obstacle and every foe in their path. From the witch´s cult to the divine dragon... They would all crumble before the fury of mankind. Lugnica no longer needed these supernatural entities.

Sadly not everybody understood that true freedom required for humans to take destiny into their own hands and become strong in order to defend their personal freedom. Many would ignore her noble ideas in favour of money, or naive idealism, or because they thought somebody else was stronger than Crusch. And that worried her.

So she had sped up her preparations as much as she could and taken to the field the moment any sign of the accursed whale had been reported to her. She could not afford to lay low and wait for the other candidates to make their move first. The future of Lugnica was at stake!

Secretly, she would never admit that to anybody, she was most intimidated by the fifth candidate. Even though Tanya von Degurechaff looked like a little girl that had barely reached adulthood the cold, predatory look in her eyes had been entirely unbefitting of her appearance. When she had shown everybody at the royal selection how her homeland had been decimated Crusch´s Divine Protection of windreading had detected no lies in her description. If this strange, foreign girl had not found a way to trick her Divine Protection then she was a veteran of unparalleled experience.

Tanya had knowledge about fighting techniques and magic that were entirely unknown to Lugnica and that scared the duchess. The cute, little girl was a hardened killer with many secrets to hide which made her an absolute wildcard in Crusch´s plans.

Furthermore, Tanya had been the first candidate to form an alliance even though she didn't know the extent of the agreement between the Degurechaff camp and the Emilia camp. Her informants had only reported that a carriage from the Astrea household had accompanied Lady Emilia´s coach back to the Mathers estate and returned later without any passengers. That alone showed how much Tanya trusted the Emilia camp, because she obviously intended to stay for quite a while. A puzzling decision as many of her advisors called it.

Emilia was out of all the candidates easily the one with the worst political standing due to her heritage as a half-elf. Her greatest asset was her confusing sponsorship by Margrave Roswaal who was the strongest magician in the country. The man was odd, but undeniably powerful.

Now that Crusch thought about it she realized that Tanya was in a similar situation: She was a foreigner with no political ties to Lugnica, but was backed by the strongest warrior in the world, the swordsaint Reinhard van Astrea.

Together they would be unstoppable, regardless of how many troupes Crusch managed to assemble or of how many legendary fighters she managed to rally to her banner. Against both the court magician and the swordsaint any army in the world would fall. It was not even a question. This prospect became only more worrying when they both were commanded by the aforementioned wildcard, Tanya von Degurechaff.

Yes, it seemed like her biggest problem so far would be Tanya. Whatever she did Crusch would need to pay close attention. Of course that did not mean she would neglect to observe the other candidates as well, but none had the potential to be as "unexpectedly disastrous" as Lady Degurechaff.

All these reasons had brought her here. Indeed, like her scouts had told her the typical fog that signalled the whale´s presence hung heavy over the land. They had been exceptionally lucky to arrive at the right time to catch the normally rather elusive monster. Even though they were near the Mathers domain she had not dared to contact the margrave for aid lest he steal the glory of her own operation. The credit for killing the White Whale needed to be indisputably attributed to her camp.

With her loyal men behind her back and her trusted sword at her side she felt ready for anything. This was the moment she had been waiting for, for years! Especially old Wilhelm was itching for revenge against the monster that took his beloved wife from him. She had planned and prepared for dozens of scenarios and was confident of her victory.

She may not have fought in a war like Tanya, but she had been on the battlefield multiple times and commanding a small army was a task she was intimately familiar with. Together with some of Lugnica´s finest warriors and the sword demon himself she would obliterate the beast!

Now was the time.

She breathed in deeply and opened her mouth to command the magic casters to fire into the fog to draw the whale out when something unthinkable happened.

A blinding flare of golden light pierced through the dense mist. It´s dazzling intensity turned a large portion of the fog seemingly yellow and illuminated the fields around even though it was still daytime.

"What was that?" shrieked a soldier behind her.

"By the Od Laguna..." muttered another.

Whatever magic had been released had been devastating in power. To possess such enormous abilities was incredibly rare. It appeared to be yang magic in origin as well which only a handful people in the country could cast. Nobody besides Roswaal L. Mathers would be able to accomplish anything like that.

Had the margrave decided to deal with the whale himself before it came too close to his territory? Had all her investments into this mission been for naught? Could fate be so cruel as to deny her victory mere moments away? Had the court magician stolen her hope of making a head start in the royal selection in front of her eyes?

No, she would not give into despair. It would be unbecoming of the future queen and of her status as a noble to give up before she even had confirmation. Nothing was certain yet. Until all hope was lost she would continue with her operation for such was her duty.

The mist surrounding the diminishing light had began to disperse to reveal three large bodies floating in the air. One of them suddenly dropped and crashed into the ground while the other two remained floating. They were mostly white in colour, but had huge patches of black on them as well. Their shape was like that of a whale... Hold on.

Her men soon realized it likewise.

"I-Is... Is that the White Whale?"

"Are there multiple?"

"What? You´re tellin´ me there is more than one?"

Everybody was either too shocked to answer or broke out into an intelligible mix of courses and prayers. Crusch couldn't fault them even though she did not approve of the loss of discipline. Who could have known that the monster of legend had actually at least two twins of which one appeared to have been killed?

She debated with herself if she should advance or retreat. On one hand the whales were clearly weakened, but on the other she hadn't planned for two of them at the same time.

What should she do? She desperately needed more information.

"Milady! There is someone coming in our direction." whispered a nearby commander into her ear.

Indeed somebody was approaching her. Whoever the stranger might be, they would need to answer to her for this strange phenomenon. This concerned the safety of Lugnica after all.

Notes:

Crusch and Suabru meet for the first time... How will it go? Any wishes/ideas?

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Tanya von DegurechaffEmilia (Re:Zero)Reinhard van AstreaFelt (Re:Zero)Roswaal L MathersNatsuki SubaruCrusch KarstenRem (Re:Zero)Petelgeuse Romanée-ContiRegulus CorneasBeing X (Youjo Senki)

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Published:2021-04-07Updated:2022-08-24Words:132,758Chapters:67/?Comments:1,654Kudos:1,699Bookmarks:279Hits:99,080

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 35: Insides and insights

Notes:

For everybody who doesn´t know: season 2 of Youjo Senki has been announced! I am pumped!

EDIT: Haven´t updated in weeks but still got 12.000 views!

EDIT2: 12345 views!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 35

Tanya wanted to make the two beasts that had dared to survive god´s divine miracle suffer. Their last wretched thoughts should be pleas for forgiveness to the almighty one. Of course no such mercy would be granted to lowly beasts.

"Retribution has come! You shall taste heavenly wrath today! Haha ha."

Once more she drew her sword and drove it through the thick hide of the less wounded whale. She couldn´t allow the wretch to escape, now could she?

Her body became near invisible to the unseasoned onlooker as she flew in a straight line along its belly and opened it up horizontally. Tanya blurred into existence again for a second and then continued her work on the other side before the monster even had the chance to scream. Nowhere near as much blood as before oozed from the deep wounds, much to her disappointment.

She chose to torment the other monster while her current victim would hopefully recover some strength for the next round of their little game. The "black twin" as she mockingly called the specimen with mostly charred skin and half of its tale missing proved to be far more interesting. Tanya silently thanked the lord that he alleviated her from her boredom.

From what remained of its skin it produced a dense fog that raced in her direction. Her instinct told her that this was no normal mist, but instead something far deadlier. Not that it could kill a messenger of god of course.

After evading its initial attack she opted to play with it in a different way then she had with the other one. Because most of its receptive nerves on the surface of his body had been burned cutting it yielded suboptimal amounts of pain from the beast.

Instead she humiliated it by first relieving its torso of its pectoral fins and then its head of its eyes. The heretical witch spawn wouldn't need them in hell anyways. After a minute or so its desperate cries stopped amusing her so logically its accursed existence came to an end.

Deciding to finish this waste of skin and bones off she rammed her arm as deep as she could into the empty eye socked of the creature until she could feel her fingers pressing into the soft flesh of his incompetent brain. The beast doubled his howling and trashing around, but it was for naught. Tanya would not let her prey escape judgement.

"Begone foul monster!"

Deciding to use something new she learned in this world she focused mana through her computation jewel into her fingers and supercharged them.

"El Jiwald"

Inside the whale´s head five burning claws of white mana cut into his brain, instantly liquefying it with their heat. The cry of pain and despair stopped and was replaced with the near inaudible sizzling of its meat being cooked from the inside out. Tanya retracted her bloody arm and let the giant carcass drop out of the sky like a dead fish.

"Praise the lo..." she began to intone, but stopped. Somehow this didn't feel right. Like there was a part of her that was screaming at her to stop. Just a heartbeat ago this joy coursing through her had felt so wonderful, but now it was almost making her dizzy with disgust. What was happening?

There was something she couldn't quite grasp. Something she had forgotten.

She needed to remember.

Remember!

Did she not enjoy worshipping god? No...

There was no god. Gods in general were an illusion! Yes! They were mental crutches for the weak and hopeless. A scapegoat for all the mistakes humans committed and were too lazy to fix themselves!

"What? Our harvest this year was ruined? That had to be the work of god and not our own fault for wrongly fertilizing our plants. Let us offer him a goat to appease him. That will definitely solve the problem!" So moronic. People like this were pathetic.

Then why had she believed in such a god just a moment ago? There was another puzzle piece that was missing. She recalled her last memories.

The fog.

The White Whale.

She had needed to kill it fast.

Not enough time.

She had activated her Type 95 computation jewel...

Being X. That was the name she had given him. And that absolute asshole had just brainwashed her. Tanya couldn't contain her rage any longer.

"BASTARD!" she yelled out into the ether. How dare this piece of shit! Some day... Some day she would make him pay.

She needed to finish this before she made even more of a fool of herself then she already had. Due to how difficult it was to retain information with the full power of the Type 95 active she could only hope that she done nothing she would come to regret later. Chance was on her side. The only people in a perimeter of a few dozen kilometres should be those inside Rem´s carriage. In conjunction with the fog obscuring her position she was optimistic that she hadn't been observed by anyone ranting like a fanatical lunatic.

Judging from the disintegrating corpses below her she guessed that she had finished off at least to whales. The only alive one that she could detect was weakly crawling through the sky away from her while showering the ground below it in blood. It would have been humorous to watch it struggle, but she had no time to waste.

Flying up to it she thought of different strategies to dispatch the crippled monster. At the short range even her pistol became viable, but she chose to preserve bullets. They were too precious for the time being. Alternatively the whale´s slowness coupled with its gigantic size allowed for manoeuvres that would be impossible with human opponents. Especially those with magic capabilities.

Checking her mana reserves she deemed the expenditure of more magic acceptable and tried something new, now that she the perfect chance to test an idea she had for a while. With a few calculations Tanya created a small orb-shaped barrier inside the whale were she presumed his heart to be and contracted it.

Normally a mage shell would only direct force outwards, but if you inverted the shield then it could form a miniature prison. Capturing enemy mages this way would not function due to them being able to divert the mana flow at close proximity. Killing or wounding would also work poorly, not to mention that a bullet through the cranium would always be more effective.

Groans of pure misery escaped its throat, but the monster was obviously not dead so she had guessed the position of its internal organs wrong. Practice had only taught her human anatomy, not that of (typically) aquatic mammals.

Another try and the whale regurgitated copious amounts of blood, and began to fall towards the ground. Still not good enough so she just repeated the procedure inside its brain with the result finally being satisfactory. The reason why she had initially opted to spare the head was that she intended to preserve it as a trophy.

Nobody would believe her otherwise. Vanquishing a threat that had plagued this kingdom for hundreds of years was no easy accomplishment. If she could deliver proof of her victory then that would surely boost her reputation quite a bit.

However such an act could gather uncomfortable attention as well. If she dominated the royal selection right from the start the other candidates might feel threatened and organize a violent confrontation which could devolve into a civil war. She had seen similar things happen with the enemies of the Empire after all. Most humans were unfortunately not rational enough to suppress their premature reactions.

Furthermore her ally and business partner Emilia could be alienated if she perceived Tanya announcing her feats as glory hoarding. Her servant Subaru had relayed critical information that had turned the battle in their favour so the whole endeavour could very much be seen as a group effort. Leaving Subaru out of the story would undoubtedly be perceived as treason or deceit.

That meant that Tanya would need to begrudgingly share her achievement with him. However she couldn´t reveal Subaru's special ability to the public. Nobody other than herself and her allies was allowed to catch onto the fact that they could now predict the future. To keep the boy´s true involvement a secret she would need to find a different reason how he had contributed to the fight.

It would be most believable if she told the public that Subaru had spotted the White Whale and discovered its two twins as well, because this was (in a twisted way) actually the truth. She would also need to overplay his usefulness to fit her equal partnership with Emilia.

The point of contention would be that Subaru was at the end of the day just a butler with no military history to speak of. If she exaggerated his skills too much then that would become painfully obvious later and she would turn into a laughingstock. "Have you heard that Degurechaff needed help from a boy who can't even swing a sword right? How pitiful." She could already imagine the derision among the nobles.

Implying that a simple servant could hold his own against the White Whale and fight besides Tanya would inadvertently slander her reputation. So she needed to portray him as someone with incredible potential as well as someone who had not reached said potential yet.

Maybe...

A knight in training would be ideal. Knights were highly regarded as the best warriors of the kingdoms, only outclassed by the royal knights, but the vague descriptor "in training" could signal anything. Even the most terrible or mediocre performance could be chalked up to being a trainee.

Unfortunately Tanya was in no position to declare Subaru a knight candidate for Emilia´s camp... But if a misconception should arise... Who was she to deny such claims if the immature boy called himself a knight?

Yes, Subaru seemed like the kind of naive fool who would simply love the idea of swinging a sword around. With a bit of outside influence it would hopefully be easy to convince him to play the role she would give him. As a bonus he would consequently learn to defend himself which would ease her work load when she didn't have to worry constantly over the security of one of her most valuable assets.

Also another bodyguard for Emilia would be nice. The careless half-elf went everywhere without visible protection. That practically attracted trouble! Aughhh...

Her mild headache exploded in barely suppressed agony. Why did she have to take care of everybody around her? All of these incompetent people went about their lives without a care in the world and left all the work to her as usual! First she had to fix the Empire and now Lugnica! Was the continuous stress of her life another one of Being X´s curses? Probably. She hadn't had a proper vacation in nearly two decades!

Someone like Subaru had it far better. Truly, ignorance was bliss...

Speaking of the devil, where was he?

As she scanned the horizon for his carriage she noticed said vehicle standing in front of a small army just an MG-shot away.

Tanya inwardly cursed herself for the critical lack of situational awareness. Her lapse in attention was probably a result of sleep deprivation and rapid mana consumption. Otherwise she would have never made such a fatal flaw. Or else she would not have survived this long if she had.

Optical formulae zoomed in and she reflexively snorted. Even though she lived now in the Middle Ages, people on horseback (or in this case ground-dragon-back) still gave her Dacia flashbacks. The apparent leader turned out to be the familiar face of Crusch Karsten. Oh joy.

Well, if Subaru and Rem were there she would have to check the situation.

Time to make an impression.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subaru was not sure how to feel. Tanya had gone slightly insane. The White Whale was being taken care of or at least stopped for a short while and he was as useless as ever. Damn it!

No, those were unproductive thought. He knew that. Whining would help nobody. Maybe he could convince those soldiers to help Tanya fight? They seemed capable. At least the green-haired girl in the front would have some answers. She was pretty and had a commanding aura surrounding her so he should probably introduce himself first and explain the state of affairs at hand.

"Hey there milady! I am Subaru Natsuki and I am the butler of the awesome, enigmatic, wonderful Lady Emilia! I just wanted to know who y´all are what you´re doing here. You see the White Whale is hanging around here."

Stunned silence seemingly froze the world for a moment. The patented Subaru charm just worked on everybody, he thought smugly.

The green-haired lady in armour recovered first.

"I am the duchess Crusch Karsten and candidate for the throne of Lugnica. We have come to exterminate the threat of the White Whale once and for all and put an end to its reign of terror."

"Awesome! I think Tanya could use some help over there."

He turned to point at the battle behind him only to wince as one of the beasts fell from the sky and raised a large dust cloud upon impact.

"Or not..."

"Say Subaru, did you happen to refer to Lady Tanya von Degurechaff?"

"Yeah. I guessed you would know her. With the whole royal selection business and all that."

Before she could formulate a response her gaze snapped to his left and was slightly surprised to see their carriage emerging out of a portion of the remaining fog. It made a straight beeline for them. No, correction: for him.

When Rem´s visage became visible she looked utterly fixated on him and if the dark look she was giving him was anything to go by then she had nothing pleasant in mind.

"I messed up, didn´t I?" thought Subaru.

Rem brought the carriage to a grinding halt and gracefully leapt from the front seat to the ground. As always, she bowed prim and proper to the nobility in front of her.

"Excuse me your highness, but I will have to borrow this unruly servant for a short while."

He silently begged Crusch with his eyes to intervene, but...

"Very well. If it does not take too long."

Betrayal. Why had she sold him out? Ahhhhhh...

"You have my thanks Lady Karsten."

With more force than he thought was necessary the blue-haired maid dragged him behind the coach.

"Subaru what were you thinking?" she hissed.

"I, uh, I..."

No words wanted to form in his mouth. Rem was terrifying! He had already known that, but chosen to forget.

"Subaru why did you do such a reckless thing? Do you want Rem to suffer?"

"Eh, what? Of course not!"

"Then why did you risk your life in such a stupid way? Can´t you imagine what I would have felt if you had died out there? Without me by your side?"

"Ehm..."

Again words were failing him. Did... Did she have feelings for him? Impossible.

"Eh, Rem... Why do you care? I mean I only became a real employee a few days ago and it´s not like I can get anything right. Without me both you and Ram would be perfectly alright. You managed before."

Pain.

What just happened? Had she slapped him? And if so then why so hard? He blinked the tears away only to find out that Rem was nearly crying as well.

"Don´t say such idiotic nonsense Subaru! Of course you are precious to me. How could you not? You saved me not only from death, but you showed me light in my life again. You gave me hope that I could be something other than my sister´s replacement. Thanks to you I can walk my own path and I want to walk it with you!"

"Wha-"

Subaru was feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. How could anybody say stuff like that about a worthless boy like him? Yes he had helped her out a bit, but that hadn't been, anything special. With a bit of time Rem would have realized how amazing she was all by herself without him needing to tell her that. And without him she would have never been in danger of the mabeasts in the first place!

"You´re amazing Subaru. So don´t you dare and die on me! We will talk later about this alright?"

Her question left no room for argument and he found himself dumbly nodding along.

Stepping back around the carriage, everybody gave him a knowing look which indicated that they had clearly heard everything what had been going on behind the coach. He tried his hardest to turn invisible in order to avoid the embarrassment, but as always the universe seemed to hate him.

"Sooooo... What are we going to do now?" he questioned idly while rubbing his hurting cheek. Rem seriously packed a punch.

"It appears as if we came here for naught. Nonetheless we should inspect the corpses and determine if Lady Tanya really felled the White Whale on her own."

Her steely voice betrayed a tiny amount of bitterness and Subaru could emphasize with her. He would be pretty miffed too if someone pulled a kill steal after a lengthy quest. What flag had the poor woman triggered to deserve this?

"I understand. Claims of that magnitude require proof. Sadly at least two of the bodies seem to have dissolved already."

Huh? Where had Tanya come from? The girl was silent as a ghost. Well, maybe everyone besides him had noticed her approach, because they didn't look nearly as surprised as he did. This day really wasn't the best for all of them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crusch felt hopeless. She had to stand by and watch while her rival defeated not one, but (somehow) three of the most powerful beings in Lugnica in a matter of minutes and without help. How could she compare to that? What could she do to surpass this? All her life she had been hailed as a capable warrior and tactician. Someone who would be able to overcome all difficulties that life presented her with. But now... The best way to describe her feelings about herself would be "inadequate".

Still, she would not give up. Never. Her loyal supporters and vassals trusted her with their lives and she would not let them down by despairing. The future was still uncertain. Only her own actions could determine what would become of her. Like her father had said: "Who does not try cannot win."

If Tanya could swat the White Whale out of the sky like a pesky fly so what? What did that prove?

Only that she would be a formidable opponent. Good. Only with an exceptional adversary would she herself be able to grow exceptional as well. If Tanya defeated the White Whale then Crusch would just do something even more incredible. She would give her best and go beyond her limits. She would give everything she had for this kingdom and more. Because the people deserved it.

So she took courage and steeled her soul. This temporary setback meant nothing. Two years were a long time to surpass the other candidates. Through the power of determination she would prevail.

Tanya on the other hand looked thoroughly dishevelled. Wounds littered her entire body and her clothes were literally dyed red from blood. It should not have pleased her, but inwardly Crusch was relieved that the young girl had not come out of such a gargantuan battle unscathed. Such power would have been truly inconceivable.

But the closer she looked the more oddities became obvious. The countless cuts for example were too clean to be inflicted by a monstrosity like the whale. Indeed they looked exactly like knife wounds. Also her only weapon appeared to be cutlass of some sort sorts which was strange. Well, the girl was a magician, a powerful one at that, but to win with only a rather short blade and magic...

Thoughts for later. First she would inspect the corpse of the whale. Certainly this would teach her much about her powerful rival.

Notes:

I kept writing and writing and writing until I had to break off the chapter forcefully. As a result I´m not really happy with how it turned it out, but I wanted to release it on schedule anyway.

EDIT: I added a picture to chapter 34. Check it out! It took me way too long to make.

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Tanya von DegurechaffEmilia (Re:Zero)Reinhard van AstreaFelt (Re:Zero)Roswaal L MathersNatsuki SubaruCrusch KarstenRem (Re:Zero)Petelgeuse Romanée-ContiRegulus CorneasBeing X (Youjo Senki)

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Part 1 of Isekai Adventures of a Salaryman Next Work →

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Published:2021-04-07Updated:2022-08-24Words:132,758Chapters:67/?Comments:1,654Kudos:1,699Bookmarks:279Hits:99,080

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 36: Evaluating the future

Notes:

It´s been a while. The kidnapper A. Nxiety that held me hostage in his basement was arrested yesterday and I was finally able to finish this chapter. /s

Emilia-tan has tought us all to be thankful rather than remorseful so I say:

Thank you for being patient! You guys are the best <3

Also check out chapter 34! I added a cool illustration to it :)

EDIT: 333 Kudos!

EDIT2: 13.000 Hits!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Chapter 36

Crusch had found her resolve again, but she had still no idea how to address the visibly wounded and fatigued royal candidate in front of her. Should she offer the services of one of her healers? Or maybe new clothes to replace the dirtied, tattered rags that clung to Tanya´s body? Because they were rivals for the throne she was not obligated to help her out, but the good will that she could earn by doing so could be worth it. It might even strengthen the image of her upstanding and chivalrous persona in the eyes of her followers.

No. It could be misinterpreted as patronizing or condescending. Possibly offending her greatest opponent in the royal selection was not a good idea at the moment. She would not comment on Tanya´s disastrous appearance and pretend as if she looked as presentable as at the tea party.

"Lady Tanya, would you mind escorting us to the place of battle. As a duchess of this country I am rather invested in what is happening to the land and would like to take a look."

A mere excuse that was easy to see through. Still, Tanya nodded as if expecting to hear that before she turned to the blue-haired maid and commanded:

"Then let us ride back in the coach so I can rest my back a bit. Come with me Subaru. It will be faster this way."

The way she said it made it seem like a completely normal request, but a nagging feeling at the back of her head told Crusch that something more was at play here. While the way over to the remains of the whale would take a few minutes on foot, Tanya had flown the distance in barely a couple of seconds. Did she want privacy? What for? And why did she need to be alone with Subaru of all people for a moment?

Maybe she was becoming too paranoid. The winds of truth had blown around Tanya; even if they seemed a bit more hesitant than normal. Either she had told half-truths or important information had been left out. Well, she often felt that way around Tanya in general; not unlike a certain merchant princess from Kararagi.

Subaru... that name hadn't rung any bells for her until now. Wasn't this the boy who Lady Emilia had begged to be healed by Felix? If she remembered correctly then he had a damaged gate which could only be fully treated by her knight. The stress and excitement from the whale hunt must have seriously messed with her attention to forgot him like that.

To be honest Crusch had only agreed to the deal, because she hadn't managed to secure any other alliance with the rival camps. Priscilla was too proud for a treaty and Anastasia had this suspicious glint in her eyes like she would stab you in the back at the most opportune moment.

Compared to these two and the veteran child soldier, Emilia was painfully open and honest. Those were traits that were highly valued by Crusch as well, but she knew the limits of "niceness" in a political environment. Meanwhile the half-elf would never utilize underhanded methods out of fear for being further shunned as dishonourable and traitorous due to her heritage. In that sense she was the ideal business partner.

Crusch was violently ripped from her musing by the wave of disgusting odour that assaulted her nose. They had arrived at the crash site and now had the opportunity to admire the bloody work that Tanya had carved into the dead flesh of the titanic creature.

A huge dead whale carcass XD

(Image is not entirely accurate btw.)

While its body was mostly unrecognizable it was still undeniably the White Whale. The thing had been a terrible monster, but she shuddered to imagine how it must have felt when it died. Huge chunks of his skin were melted or burned away. Deep cuts littered its body and the blood flowed freely into a humongous puddle beneath it. Multiple people would be able to bath in it if any citizen of Lugnica had been crazy enough to soak themselves in such a vile substance.

The remains of its one visible eye were a fleshy ruin that she really didn't want to expect any further than she had to. While she had seen her fare share of death and suffering it was never a pleasant experience. Poor Felix wouldn't have the stomach for it as well.

Looking over the disfigured carcass she nodded sagely to keep up her wise and collected appearance. Her inspection was complete and she had all the information she needed. Tanya von Degurechaff was dangerous. Highly dangerous in fact. More so than she could have ever imagined.

But Tanya was still human and all mortal creatures had flaws. Even the strongest would have a weak point somewhere. By the Od, the so called gods who flaunted with their power and influence were probably the most flawed beings of them all!

Whatever it was that could bring Tanya to her knees she needed to find it and find it fast. Magic was obviously her strong suit. Light magic from the looks, but she would consult a few experts on that later. Meant that that she was weaker in close range? No, obviously the White Whale had been attacked by a sword multiple times so that couldn't be the case. If she could find some way to nullify magic though...

Perhaps she should organize a friendly spar against more human opponents to test Tanya´s pure skill with an unenchanted blade. The sword demon, Wilhelm van Astrea, could doubtlessly put up a fight despite his age if Tanya were to be deprived of her more long-ranged attack options.

Just as she was beginning to put a plan into action Wilhelm took the initiative and approached her greatest rival.

The old man knelt down on a relatively untainted piece of grass and bowed his head to the unperturbed looking blonde girl who had defeated the monster. With a voice full of gratefulness he spoke the words that Crusch knew came directly from his heart.

"Thank you Lady Degurechaff. My name is Wilhelm Trias and I thank you from the bottom of my soul. For avenging my wife and slaying this beast I will be forever in your debt. Its suffering brings joy to my old heart."

"There is no need. I am honoured that you feel the desire to thank me, but what I did was more of a accident really. In truth, I hadn't meant to kill the beast, but I got too carried away in the act and used more force than necessary."

Incredible, this girl was arguing that she hadn't meant to kill with her awesome display of power and she was not even lying! What would have a killing blow from her looked like? Crusch unnoticeably shivered at the image of what else this monster in human skin was capable of.

"I also do not deserve the sole credit of defeating the White Whale. This boy, Subaru Natsuki was integral in forming the plan that lead to its undoing. Without him I would have most likely not succeeded."

Subaru sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Was this some sort of game?

"There lies incredible potential in him. So much in fact, that even I would dread to take him on should he be able to further polish his skills."

How? Was her Divine Protection failing her? Impossible! This meagre boy with nasty eyes and uncouth behaviour could even put fear into Tanya who had just slain the White Whale? Perhaps she had severely underestimated Emilia´s camp. Her competition grew more menacing with the minute it seemed.

"Due to hectic circumstances nothing has been finalized yet, but he recently expressed his desire to attain knighthood to me. After contributing so greatly to the destruction of one of the three great mabeasts he has more than earned his right to try at least. No doubt you will be hearing more of his career in the coming months."

"Yeah! That would be awesome! I bet Emi will love it when I can properly protect her with a big, long sword!"

Some of her soldiers snorted and he blushed intensely while gesturing wildly.

"Th-That totally came out wrong! I d-didn´t mean it that way!"

Even Wilhelm´s lips quirked upwards for a split-second.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tanya wasn't so sure if Subaru was just an excellent actor of if he really was a fool. Well, maybe that assessment was not entirely fair, seeing as he was just as gullible and naive as one would expect a child of the twenty-first millennium to be. He had probably not known mortal danger or careful diplomacy before coming to this world. Nonetheless, ignorance was never a very good excuse for failure in Tanya´s opinion.

Every human should possess the intrinsic capability to learn and adapt. Those that refused to do so were inevitably swept up in the waves of progress never to be seen again. History did not entrust success to the care of the weak-minded or overly trusting. After a few days or weeks at this point Subaru should have realized that guarding his emotions and thinking things through could only benefit him in the long run.

Whatever. She shouldn't complain since his social obliviousness played in her favour. The easier he was to read, the easier it was to manipulate him after all.

For example her little "persuasion" inside the magically insulated carriage had worked wonders on his impressionable mind:

"Your accomplishments with defeating the White Whale will certainly make the rounds soon. Whatever happened here is too grand to be hidden from Lady Crush so you have no choice but to play along. Now is the time to finally gain a substantial reputation if you make use of the current situation. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Ehm... Not really? I didn't do anything..."

"Oh, on the contrary! Without you I could have never made the correct plan to defeat the White Whale! Not all important positions are located on the front lines. I know that better than most. You conveyed strategic information to me that turned out to be critical in this operation. You should be proud of yourself Subaru!"

It hadn't taken much convincing afterwards to subtly plant the idea of knighthood into his head without her directly suggesting it. Exploiting his relationship with the half-elf turned out to be a great motivator for the boy who no doubt wanted to prove his usefulness to his employer. When he had hesitantly inquired about how one could potentially become a knight and she had to pinch herself to keep the satisfied grin of her face.

"Do you have an interest in attaining knighthood, Subaru?" Tanya had asked innocently.

He had taken the bait and promised her with obvious determination to become "the best knight ever". (Subaru´s words not hers.) Sadly, their conversation had come to an end as they had arrived at their destination already. They couldn't remain indoors or else Crusch suspicions would grow.

This whole debacle was slowly slipping out of control when she noticed that the third White Whale corpse was against her expectations not rapidly decomposing like the others. Why? That didn´t make sense? Was that particular creature different from the other two? Regardless, her hopes that the disintegration would hide the specifics of her fighting style from her enemies had been squashed. Now Crusch held the informational advantage.

Damn it!

At least she was able to shift the collective attention from her to Subaru when she conveniently brought up his involvement in the battle and exaggerated his importance with a few white lies. One truth could cut deeper than a thousand lies after all, or however Lieutenant Grantz´s saying went.

Embellishing his choice of career served to make the announcement more official, but she didn't know of it would be enough to convince the actual warriors present. Honestly, she could have done a much better job in her opinion if she hadn´t been exhausted already. Surviving combat while under the influence of sleep-deprivation and hunger was basically muscle memory at this point, but giving convincing political speeches on top was not typically required of her.

Well, with some luck it had been sufficient. She was just weighing the pros and cons of cutting the monster´s head of right here and now or waiting with it until Crusch´s forces withdrew when Subaru suddenly alerted her to what was going on behind her.

"Rem, what is it? Are you feeling unwell?"

The maid was clutching her head and seemed to be in some sort of discomfort.

"It´s sister! I can feel her through our connection and she is... afraid. Ram is never afraid. Something terrible must have happened at the mansion."

Tanya resisted the urge to facepalm. Of course these stupid maids couldn't have the decency to get in trouble without her noticing! Even if Ram was dying couldn't she understand that Tanya urgently needed a nap and a warm soup? No? Now she was forced to deal with whatever trivial problem was plaguing the Mathers household. Why couldn't she get one week without trouble? Being X truly was a spiteful bastard.

Notes:

How likely do you think is it for Tanya to survive whatever Rem sensed? Hmmmm? *cue evil laughter*

On a different note would you belive that the picture in this chapter was the indirect reason for the delay? I originally just wanted to learn more about MS Paint, but then I realized that I would need one more day than normal to finish the illustration, which broke my "writing rythm" and I got hit by anxiety. (And stress, because I had to move all my stuff from one house to another.) In the end it didn´t turn out as good as I wanted, but what can you expect from MS Paint?

EDIT: Did you know that this fic has become the 9th most read work in the Youjo Senki fandom with the second most comments? Incredible.

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Chapter 1650 - 36