Courtly Chronicles 5

[Tanya Degurechaff von Goethe aka Tenya Deguchiya aka Archduchess von Goethe, circa 1925, age 11]

"What was that!?" Were the first words spoken to Tanya after they had successfully evacuated Arenne. Generals Rudersdorf, Zettour, and Volken sat in front of Tanya, in a formation reminiscent of a military tribunal. To their right, von Shugel and Archduke von Goethe sat smugly, while at their left was von Lergen. Volken was the one who spoke.

Tenya yawned and sipped their coffee. "A busy day at work." They replied flippantly. "The entire office was on vacation so I had to work some overtime. As one of the agency co-heads, such an oversight in scheduling is my full responsibility." Even by hero industry standards, fourteen hours of work without breaks was excessive. If not for the mana solidification formula, they would have exhausted their reserves in just twenty minutes. "Once the paperwork clears, I'm going to buy a spa." Tanya giggled deliriously at their joke. They don't get paid for this anymore, after all.

Volken sputtered at Tanya's answer. "What are you talking about!? Your job isn't to evacuate civilians, much less over ten thousand of them! We pay you to teach mages!"

Tanya nodded in agreement, bringing up a formula to increase their alertness.  "And I'm sure you'll find that my students learned quite a bit about urban rescue. Not every school can afford the kind of simulations that mine could, I had to work with what was available." It was important, when dealing with people who were not in charge of you, but who liked to think they were, to make sure they did not forget that first fact. General Volken was in charge of the Western Front, after all. Matters of training and research was for General Rudersdorf, who liked Tanya.

Volken took a deep breath in preparation for a screaming fit. "Volken." Zettour interrupted. "After the evacuation, the Francois were so intimidated that the 202nd mage battalion was able to defeat the remaining combatants in urban combat with only a single casualty. The trains are running, and that's what matters." Tanya suppressed a scowl at the reminder. Grantz was sloppy, and if Tanya was his commanding officer… well. No need to speculate.

Volken glared at both Zettour and Tanya. After a beat, Tanya figured they were being prompted to speak: "While apprehension wasn't on the syllabus, urban traversal is urban traversal." Tanya was rather proud of the scanning formula they fit into an alternative low speed flight formula, meant for urban environments. Get too close to an obstacle outside of the visual cone and it shifted that body part as a warning. Magic detection was a sharper movement but it was the same principle. It made it a lot harder to ambush the mages with anything dangerous enough to threaten their barrier spells. Well, if they heeded those warnings.

"That said," Zettour continued, frowning: "-when you said you were going to lead the evacuation, this wasn't what I expected. Was that the kind of work you used to do? And please, for Volken, bring out your old face."

Tanya obligingly brought up an illusion of Argent Silver, layering the alterations of their voice. Unlike before, the futuristic helmet wasn't left out, and his logo was on full display. "In the interests of full disclosure, I didn't have mana solidification back then, so I wouldn't be able to accomplish such things for so long." Unless he called on One for All, which he usually avoided doing. "I did, however, lead an agency of two hundred, so I wouldn't need to." And the idea that his agency would have exclusive access to that evacuation was absolutely ludicrous. Deku alone… "But in the abstract, yes, that was the kind of work I did." There weren't even any villains and all of the buildings were intact, it was easy work, there was just a lot of it.

Volken had put his head down, clutching the sides of it. “What the hell is this, Rudersdorf?”

The man in question chuckled at his subordinate’s dismay. “Tanya here is a time traveler, sort of. History got distorted enough that her knowledge of the future is questionable, but she has more years of experience fighting as an aerial mage than anyone in the world.” Volken once more stared at the illusion of Argent Silver, then back at Rudersdorf.

“A close enough approximation of the situation, General.” Tanya said to allay Volken’s concerns. “To clarify, General Volken, I was what was known as a professional hero. An industry that was basically plucked from fiction to be a sort of… paragon, in addition to law enforcement and disaster management duties. It is difficult to explain, as the first costumed hero comic book wasn’t published until 1937, “ Hero Art History included many facts that weren’t particularly useful, but it was generally important to know the history of how things came to be to understand where it is going. “-and the level of celebrity involved, even in films, just doesn’t exist in this time period. You don’t have the mass media necessary to understand the full context.” Tanya had given the subject of the disconnect an awful lot of thought, when they were refining their explanation.

Volken looked around, probably wanting a drink. “Okay, I get it, we’re all primitive yahoos. What does the future say about the Great War?”

Tanya shrugged. “Different timeline, so I couldn’t give you dates… or accurate names for locations or notable figures for some reason, but the treaty that ended World War One” That phrasing immediately redoubled Volken’s attention. “-ended the Kaiserreich,” Another alteration of phrasing that passed without comment, as it was understandable enough. “-split it up into several nations, and put such punishing reparations on the remnants that World War Two ended up happening twenty years later.” The magical superiority that the Empire has over their foes does complicate matters, but it’s probably going to end the same way. After all, the Russy Federation hasn’t joined in the dogpile yet. “Well-designed democracies have many advantages, but obeying treaties imposed by force isn’t one of them. Eventually you’ll get some nationalist demagogue elected that will throw the whole thing out, with varying levels of success. Very bloody business, you understand.” Granted, the demagogue problem occurs even in the absence of such treaties, any unhappy populace can be vulnerable to the allure of authoritarianism. It was why the Meta Liberation Army was able to be such a problem… Damn Neo-Destro. He was a lot more competent than Re-Destro was.

Rudersdorf hummed at that repeat of Tanya’s previous warning. “Tell me, what was your plan for when that happened?”

“Depends on any number of things.” Tanya replied. “The new German state won’t be able to afford nearly as large of an army, so I was thinking of contacting all of my old students and starting some kind of company taking advantage of the magical expertise of the now unemployed ones. Security, construction, lots of possibilities.” Such a demographic would be prime villain material, and getting them gainful employment would cut that problem off at the source. “Such a plan’s specifics are difficult to pin down until I have a better idea on what resources I’d be able to retain, acquire, or rescue from the invading armies.” Tanya had been secreting away funds in dollars, as while currency speculation isn’t the most popular financial market, Tanya didn’t need their degree to understand that Americans sending out loans that would need to be repaid in dollars meant that the dollar will rise in value in comparison to, say, the franc or the pound, much less the mark. “If I can’t access my former students or any other local resources, I’ll just flee to the States. No one ever invades the Americans.” Except that one time, until well into the next century. Tanya’s not counting on making it past age one hundred, after all. “I’m sure I could think of something. Comic books, perhaps.”

Archduke von Goethe spoke up at that. “Now you’re thinking like nobility, Tanya!” He turns to the Generals. “Hey, even if we win, you’re going to be letting a bunch of mages leave the military, right?” He was practically salivating, presumably at the idea of having his own private army of mages. What a depressingly feudal way of thought… although CEOs tended to have a similar attitude, at times. “I’m sure Tanya can keep them ship shape, just in case.” Note to self: Do not make them into a security force.

Zettour was just as unimpressed with the Archduke as Tanya was. “It’s too soon to be talking about the disposition of the mage forces post-war.” He said, diplomatically. Turning back to Tanya, he moved the conversation back on track. “Jokes aside, the diplomatic apparatus of the Empire has been begging for some kind of explanation. Albion had some observers, and are being very insistent on receiving some kind of explanation for the magic readings.”

“Just tell them the truth.” Tanya said, waving dismissively. “Archduchess von Goethe took it upon themselves to evacuate the civilians from a combat zone, and when that was concluded, the Empire was able to attack and capture the city of Arenne in a legitimate military operation.” Tanya made their eyes flash with reflex enhancement. “I’d be perfectly willing to meet with the Albish ambassador to elaborate in person, if necessary.” It was just the reality of things that status made any oddity in a person into eccentricity rather than insanity, so throwing titles around was a good way to lean into that. Also, it would grant an opportunity for Tanya to get involved in diplomatic talks.

Zettour clearly disagreed with that proposal. Well, as a current leader he would know the international community better than Tanya would, politics changed a lot this century, after all. “Perhaps we should explore alternative options.” He said, just as diplomatically as when he was addressing the Archduke.

Well, it was worth a shot. This will take a while.

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Mary was a peculiar student. Anything she tried to do, she was able to accomplish with very little practice. It reminded Tanya of Nezumi, in that respect. Unlike her High Spec, whatever Mary was doing didn’t extend to her understanding of what she was doing.

The first few weeks of training were centered around following orders, mostly. Tanya made sure that Mary was as familiar with her kit as any soldier, ensured that she understood the lingo used when orders were issued, and taught her the intricacies of radio etiquette. The first of these were easily mastered, with every hour of practice giving her a week’s worth of ingrained knowledge, at least. The other two, on the other hand… she was no different than any other soldier. She slacked off a fair bit, but was easy enough to motivate by reminding her that she was free to quit and go home, unlike other members of the Empire’s military.

That would no longer be true once the training was complete, as it was the difference between washing out and deserting. Also, there would be some negative blowback on Tanya for not ‘whipping her into shape’, but such subtleties were beyond Mary’s immature viewpoint.

The true surprise came when Tanya was teaching Visha orbless magic. “Again.” Tanya said, pointing at the target they had erected.

“Yes sir!” Visha said, sweating and tired as she once more fired the most dangerous laser, known as an ‘optical formula’ in local parlance, that she could manage at the target. She preferred a nice yellow color for her lasers, faintly visible as it got slightly diffused by the air along its path. The wooden target burst into flames as the laser impacted, leading to Visha jumping up and down in joy. “I did it!”

“Excellent.” Tanya said. This proved that regular mages were capable of mastering specific spells the same way Tanya did in their last life, by repeating the calculation so many times that it became a thought pattern as ingrained as any other trained technique. Seeing as how maximum output of a spell was directly related to how quickly it was calculated, this was a critical skill. It was a little strange that Tanya never noticed any such limit in their past life, but chalked it up to Quirks being weird.

“There you are!” Mary shouted as she entered the gun range. Safety standards were shockingly lax in the twentieth century, but most of them were wasted when they were practicing lasers, so it was fine. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Tanya deliberately twitched an eye to convey irritation. “Didn’t I set you to exercising?” They asked.

“Yeah, but one of the soldiers noticed it and you’re giving me way too much of that!” Mary whined. “The other soldiers don’t even get half as much crap piled on them, you just want me to fail, don’t you?”

Rubbing the bridge of their nose, Tanya sighed, the very picture of the aggravated teacher. “Exercise isn’t an objective list, Mary. I will give you enough exercise to push your limits and no less.” Her aggravatingly high limits. Tanya was beginning to suspect she had a real quirk augmenting her growth. “The point of military training is to instill discipline, not to be fair. The fact that you thought that you could stop just because some weaker and lazier soldier gets an easier exercise regimen is exactly why you get a hard one.”

Mary glanced at the target, the flames dying down. “...What are you doing?” she asked.

Visha decided to answer before Tanya could do their best drill sergeant impression. “Ah, Tanya’s been teaching me orbless casting! I’m getting better at it.”

“...What, like it’s hard?” Mary scoffed. She pointed her palm towards the scorched target, muttering to herself as she put her other hand in front of her in prayer. After three lines of prayer, an explosive spell launched from her hand and obliterated the target. “There. Orbs are faster, but God provides.”

That… explained a lot, actually. “So you’ve been using physical reinforcement even without an orb.” Tanya deadpanned. “Of course you are.” In Tanya’s previous life, they had a similar tendency to sneakily use reinforcement even when they weren’t, strictly speaking, supposed to. The ability to use their quirk subtly was the whole reason why they were disqualified from quirkless sports.

Normally, getting a little taste of their own medicine wouldn’t be a big deal. Any evaluation that mattered allowed for quirk use, and workouts were one of the times where physical reinforcement was generally not used. However, Mary refused to respect any authority that was not straight from the mouth of Being X, assuming her prowess was truly gifted by that bastard rather than her just being delusional. The ones who saddled her with the type 95 did not or could not restrain her in this respect. Nevertheless, perhaps Mary could be swayed by logic. “Good for you.” Tanya said, pretending to be unimpressed. “Orbless casting wasn’t ever in your curriculum, but if it was, we could safely remove it.”

Mary huffed at the dismissive statement. “I’m tired of you wasting my time. God wants me on the battlefield.”

The sad thing is that it was entirely plausible that he did. “Visha, set up a new target.” Tanya said as she moved outside, gesturing to Mary to follow them. Once the sky was above them, Tanya took off into the air, assuming Mary could manage at least that much while orbless if she was going to be so arrogant about it. “Come on, I want to show you something.”

Grasping her hands in prayer, Mary concentrated while murmuring, after a moment rising into the skies at a reasonable pace. Whatever quirk she was using to use magic, it was probably closer to a computation orb than to Mathemagician. Tanya kept on flying upward, waiting for Mary to start flagging.

“This is high enough.” Tanya said as Mary shivered, finally catching up. Tanya erected a set of barriers, using a set of miscellaneous formulas to make the conditions closer to the surface. “You can stop flying.” Mary dropped onto the floor of the skybox, panting as she looked around.

“How high are we?” Mary asked. “...and are we still going higher?”

“About two kilometers, and yes.” Tanya replied. “The flight ceiling of the computation orb has to do with the fact that computation orb casting uses environmental mana to supplement its power. The less air there is, the less mana there is to use. When you use purely internal mana, with orbless casting, there’s no hard limit as to the height you can reach.”

Mary frowned. “I guess…” She paused, looking over the ground beneath her, the cloudless sky providing no barrier. “...why are we here?”

Tanya gestured around them. “What do you see?”

Looking around some more, Mary started biting her lip as she thought through her answer. Tanya smiled as her wayward student took a question seriously, for once. “God’s green Earth.” She eventually answered.

Tanya winced at the religious connotation, but it was good enough. “Yes. Now, what is it that you don’t see?” Instead of letting her guess, Tanya continued. “We’re currently stopped at about twenty kilometers in the air, the highest height conventional flight technology can reach, anything beyond this is in the domain of rocketry.” In their last life, Tanya used special support equipment whenever they wanted to see this, but as long as Tanya kept the discussion to under thirty minutes, they should be able to manage. “At this height, the horizon is about seven hundred kilometers away. This is far enough to see most of Europe, as you can see by those lovely coastlines between those clouds over there. What isn’t visible, however, are national borders.”

Looking over the scenic vista, where even the greatest cities of the Empire begin to become difficult to see in favor of the rolling grasslands and hills, Mary scrunched up her nose in confusion. “What’s your point?”

“My point is that you’re begging to fight and kill for… what?” Tanya gestured to the expanse of the world. “The Empire will tell you that the war was started unprovoked, and that the enemies of the Empire seek to destroy everything about it for their own greed.” After a moment of letting Mary digest the implication that they were wrong, Tanya spoke again. “They’re right.” At Mary’s surprised look, Tanya continued. “This war is a waste of human life and capital, fought over things that don’t matter because of their stupid fear. You and I, we have powers beyond that of even normal mages, and yet, it is not enough to sway the fates of nations by itself.”

Mary seemed insulted at the very thought. “The power of God is limitless. With his light, I can sweep aside the enemy and win battles with nothing else.”

Tanya chuckled at Mary’s naivete. “I’ve often wondered; exactly how large of an army it would take to kill me, if my disagreements with the Empire’s policies came to violence.” Mary frowned, as she asked herself the same question. “I can fly faster than anything currently in existence, present company included, and across continental distances. I was always assured that if nothing else, I could hide out in one of the less technologically advanced nations after fleeing any attempt, but if I stood and fought? Used every scrap of violent knowledge that I’ve accumulated as if all were but automations of meat and sinew?” Tanya shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that. I never will. But what’s certain is that the number exists, and it’s less than the total number of forces a modern army can bring to bear, in total.”

“What, so you’re just saying I’m not invincible?” Mary accused. “You didn’t need to bring me up here to tell me that.”

Tanya wasn’t so certain of that. Mary was much more attentive when they were scraping the ozone layer. “Armies are large things. Even with all of your power, you are merely a battalion’s worth of mages in one person. We measured it, if you recall.” Well, a reinforced battalion. The type 95 had about thirty times the output of the type 97, but the reduced load from all of the various life support, reinforcement, and mobility magics made up the difference. “The Empire has forty battalions of mages, currently. Maybe less, if there’s been some bad battles, but that’s how many I’ve trained minus the casualties I know about.” Class sizes got pretty big as the conscripts passed basic mage training, but given how the other parts of the military are fielding men in the hundreds of thousands, less than two thousand mages mattering at all really told you how potent the computation orb was as a weapons system. “My point, is that war, despite the waste, is serious, and even with all of this, the heights we can reach with our own personal strength, is that it’s not much in the grand scheme of things, much like this is but a small fraction of Earth’s surface, and how despite how high we are, the Moon is forty thousand times higher in the sky. You need to think like a soldier, if you are to be one. Even if you will be an important part of whatever battle plan you’re involved in, you will still be only a part of something grander in scope than you could fully comprehend. If you do not… You will die.”

Finally, Mary seemed to have gotten the message, as she scanned the horizons, and looked towards the moon. “...if you’re from the future, why haven’t you shared a bunch of technology? It’s been bothering me.”

Tanya chuckled at the basic question. “In a way, I am. You must understand, I was not an engineer or scientist, my knowledge in things beyond my immediate profession was fairly extensive, but far from comprehensive. I have knowledge in circuit design in computer chips, for example, but computer chips haven’t been invented yet, and I don’t know what machinery one uses to make them. I have knowledge of many advanced chemicals… without synthesizing instructions. Fantastic alloys… which require rare metals that can’t be economically mined yet.” Not to mention the detailed knowledge of nuclear physics, which does include enough to skip past most of a bomb development program, but there was absolutely no way Tanya would dream of giving warmongers like the Empire the Bomb. “Using my knowledge of computer programming to help program the computation orb is a minor boon towards the war effort, but it’s one that can be granted within the short time frame that we have.”

Mary looked once more on the vista below them. “...How do you stand it? My father’s out there, and could die any day, and you say it’s a waste? Why do you let people die if the reasons are so terrible?”

Tanya sighed. “Long practice, unfortunately.” At Mary’s surprise, Tanya chuckled. “The future wasn’t peaceful, you know. There were still skirmishes among militaries, and as a Hero… I wasn’t allowed to intervene directly. It would take some serious war crimes for heroes to be deployed in a military capacity. I wouldn’t know how much it would take exactly, it never happened.” Mostly because any military in existence would be sorely outmatched if international heroes were allowed to just fight them instead of just evacuating civilians and refugees. “When the communists took over China, any aid the hero community gave had to be circumspect, subtle, and usually against the orders of their countries of origin.” Being a woman for a week wasn’t a particularly unpleasant experience, but no longer benefitting from the passive mental enhancement of Mathemagician was horrible. At least they didn’t have to suffer alone, and as it turned out those skills would come in handy after dying. “As much as we liked to think ourselves bastions of justice and the best of humanity, we were still only human. We couldn’t help everyone, be everywhere. One man can’t carry the world on his shoulders, not even Yagi managed it, and he came closer than anyone else did.” Midoriya never really managed the level of celebrity All Might did, in Japan or in the wider world. The man attributed it to having stronger competition, but Tanya thought that his general honesty and sincerity just couldn’t compete in the public consciousness with the bombastic lies All Might used to restore peace. “

“...I’d like to go back down now.” Mary said calmly. “I’ll do the exercises.”

“Good.”

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