52

Chapter 52: Surprise visitNotes:

EDIT: 24.000 Hits!

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

Chapter Text

Chapter 52

Eight people died and fourteen more were wounded by the blade of hardened air? Energy? Tanya was not sure what Regulus had used, but she had seen how it had cut through the mage shield of her illusionary clone like smoke and that scared her. Invincibility as well as impossibly powerful ranged attacks? No, thank you very much. She would attempt to stay as far away as she could from that monster for the rest of her life.

Fear was a natural reaction of the body that had kept her alive many times. Of course she did not let her emotions control her actions, but on occasion she let them guide her. Right now she had the feeling that if she ever crossed paths with that man again and it came to a confrontation she would die. Her rational brain agreed to this assessment.

To their collective luck Regulus became bored again and decided to leave which no foolish knight objected this time. He simply walked off from where he came before suddenly leaping incredibly high into the sky and disappearing in the clouds.

Tanya as the logical person that she was immediately jumped into action and treated the injured to the best of her abilities. She was no healer, but her first aid measures were sufficient to buy Rem enough time until she could properly close the wounds with her water magic. Some of the soldiers knew such spells as well and further helped speed the process along.

The carriage was repurposed to serve as a temporary hearse which meant that Subaru needed to sit behind another man on a ground dragon. A decision which obviously caused Rem dismay, but otherwise the coach would have become too heavy and they were already slowed down by the many wounded who could not ride very fast unless they wanted to aggravate their injuries.

"So damn slow..." Tanya though as she flew far over the convoy.

After years of flying at speeds only comparable to sports cars on the ground movement seemed like such a chore. At this tempo they would not reach the capital before midnight. All of a sudden she spotted someone running in their direction with great speed.

"Please don´t be another sin archbishop! Being X, I even swear to curse you name slightly less next time we meet if you grant me this small mercy!"

When she could finally make out the features of the rapidly approaching person she sighed in relief. It was Reinhard!

Hadn´t she told Crusch to send a messenger to the Astrea Estate to announce her late return? Had the duchess ultimately ignored her request? Had Reinhard perhaps misinterpreted the message? Or...

Ah. Now she remembered.

That hadn´t happened in this life. Tanya had totally forgotten about asking Crusch for that favour the second time around, because of how urgent it had been to eliminate the sin archbishop of sloth. Damn it! Never before did she have to deal with time travel before!

She descended in front of him and casually waved at him while he kept running with unhuman speed:

"Oh Hello, Reinhard. Am I that late for you to come all the way out here?"

"I was simply concerned and decided to quickly check on you Milady. It is good to see you again, but forgive the question, why are you covered in blood? Are you alright?" he asked slightly alarmed. A reasonable reaction she supposed.

"Nothing to worry about, my knight. None of it is my own."

"Then who´s is it? Please do not tell me... Did the negotiations go that poorly..."

"No!" she hastily interjected before he could get the wrong ideas. "In fact both the margrave and Lady Emilia were surprisingly cooperative. We set the terms for an official alliance yesterday that will hopefully benefit us as well as the people of Lugnica."

Tanya decided to make the plan to save her skin sound more altruistic than it really was. Reinhard was a royal knight of Lugnica after all and had sworn to protect the state above all else. A bit more focus on the social aspect of her work couldn´t hurt. (It was not like she was lying either. More peaceful cooperation would not negatively influence the populace.)

"Milady, is the reason for your... state of dress the same that kept you occupied for so long?"

"Yes. You see Rem, Lord Roswaal´s maid and our coach driver, had a... vision of sorts that led me to believe that the Mathers Estate could be under attack."

"I am deeply sorry to interrupt you Lady Tanya, but why would Rem be the one to drive you home? Whatever happened to the coachman who arrived yesterday? I do not see him among this troupe."

"Well, he never arrived. I suspect that he fell prey to the White Whale."

"The White Whale?" he flinched back.

Was even the Sword Saint scared of these beasts? They hadn´t been that hard to kill honestly. Mary Sioux had been way tougher. Although you could make the point that comparing an animal and a human was unfair, in Tanya´s opinion Mary had behaved more like a rabid dog than a human being capable of higher thought.

"Indeed. We actually encountered it on our journey-"

"You what?" he nearly screamed wide-eyed, his knightly composure abandoned momentarily.

"Yes. Together with Subaru I devised a plan to lure it away from our carriage, but I ultimately ended up killing the monster. Well actually there were three of them, so there might be more out there, but I doubt that seeing as Hakugei has not been reported to appear at multiple locations simultaneously, right?"

"Milady..."

Reinhard seemed to be at a loss for words.

"I would be very thankful if you could send a team of butchers with a cart out there to recover its head. It would make for a great trophy to impress the nobles."

"Of course, Lady Tanya. I know that you speak the truth, but to believe that such a great terror has been slain by you..." he trailed off into a barely audible whisper, "Even after the last Sword Saint was not able to..."

Did he have cramps? For a moment he looked to be in pain.

Suddenly he bowed deeply:

"House Astrea thanks you on the behalf of the Dragon-Kingdom of Lugnica! With your permission I shall deliver this fantastic news to the sage council, so that the whole world may hear of this miracle. I am humbled that my mistress has already carved her name into legend a week after the start of the royal selection!"

Tanya smiled awkwardly and tried to roll with the punches. To refuse him would be disrespectful, but actually she did not want to become famous this early on in the game. That would paint a huge target on her back. Oh well. She could also use the ensuing popularity to her advantage and get ahead of everybody in the royal selection before it even really begun.

"I accept your gratitude my knight, but I could not have accomplished this great feat alone. Lady Emilia´s servant Subaru has been most helpful when we were making plans to defeat the whales. Due to his low status it would not be good if he were to be recognized publicly, but it would only be proper if you would mention in him your report to the council. He strives to become a knight one day and with some initial training I am sure he could achieve his goal."

"Most certainly." he nodded.

"Upon the field, after I had already ended the beasts, I came across Lady Crusch´s soldiers who were led by her there for the same purpose."

"Then where is she...?"

The red-haired knight gasped and looked down at her viscera covered clothes.

"No! Again, not what you are thinking! Honestly, what are you assuming me to be? Some kind of twisted murderer?"

"I would never think of you like that Milady! Please forgive me for the misunderstanding! I meant no insult to you Lady Tanya! I am extremely sorry for the perceived insult!" he bowed again.

"It´s alright Reinhard. Anyways, as I was saying earlier, Rem had a vision and I flew back to the Mathers domain only to find it under attack from the witch´s cult. The sin archbishop of sloth attempted to conduct a barbaric ritual of some sort, but I ended him and his followers which led to my outfit being sullied."

He stared at her shocked. She noticed now that if you summarized the events of the last few hours it sounded pretty insane.

"My liege, to smite two of the greatest evils in the world over the course of one day is not only remarkable; it is an accomplishment worthy of the Great Sage himself! I have known it before, but it fills my heart with unbelievable joy that I have chosen my master correctly. Of all the candidates you are the only one fit to rule, I am certain."

"Noooooooooo!" she cried internally. While comforted by the apparent loyalty of her knight, Tanya had no desire to become queen. The only reason she participated and attempted to win in the royal selection was because she did not want to be murdered by the nobles! If she could she would gladly push all the responsibility unto another, more capable person when the time came.

Quickly she tried to deflect the praise before he developed impossible to meet expectations:

"Thank you, but please do not get the wrong impressions about my abilities. There are plenty of things beyond my capabilities. For example, after I had rested a bit we also met the sin archbishop of greed on the way. Luckily, he was relatively peaceful, because we all, including me, were powerless against him."

"You survived coming face to face with two sin archbishops?" he yelped.

Oh boy. The trip back would be annoying.

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

Reinhard was awed with every fibre of his being. Not only was his Lady powerful, but she was humble too! She would be a perfect queen! No one else could compare.

His Divine Protection of wind reading had confirmed that Tanya´s claims were true and while that filled him with joy and pride for his master, the fact that she had killed the White Whale...

Also filled him with an emotion he couldn´t place.

It felt like loss mixed with... hope? How strange.

The hated enemy that had caused his grandmother´s demise...

The tool of his greatest crime besides merely existing...

The symbol of his shame...

Was gone.

What would his grandf- no Sir Wilhelm say about that? He had lost the right to call him his grandfather when he had murdered Theresia, but would the old man at least find a little more peace after the accursed Hakugei had been destroyed? Reinhard hoped so. He himself did not deserve solace, but Wilhelm did. Hopefully the Sword Demon would not mind that it had been Reinhard´s Lady who had vanquished the monster or monsters as Tanya had described it.

Absent-mindedly he wondered if maybe through his service to the future ruler he could begin to atone.

Notes:

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you want to hug our sad, OP boy?