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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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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:99,104

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 50: Generous fate

Notes:

Over 90.000 words!

EDIT: 23.000 Hits!

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

Chapter Text

Chapter 50

Astonishingly, Rem reacted before Tanya could and threw her Morningstar (where did she hide that?) at the sin archbishop. Tanya stalled her shot to observe what the man in white would do. Petelgeuse had an invisible force field that could block her bullets and rip people to shreds. Did Regulus have the same?

The spiked ball of Rem´s weapon closed in at blinding speeds, but to Tanya it looked like slow motion. Her target made no sign to dodge or acted startled in the slightest. Had she overestimated his abilities?

Then the heavy steel orb impacted him with the force of a train only to bounce off like it had hit a wall of stone instead of flesh! Not even his clothes appeared rumpled by the attack!

What?

There had been no shield to block that throw. Tanya´s magically enhanced eyesight had catalogued every detail of the collision and she knew that the weapon had not missed by even a millimetre. Was he invincible? Hopefully that was only temporary.

It looked like her theory was being tested by Rem who swung her Morningstar again and again, hitting Regulus each time, but failing to damage him at all. She studied his facial expressions carefully in search of any indication of fatigue or effort that could mark the limits of his invulnerability. Instead she saw only boredom and annoyance.

Finally he sighed and with one lazy hand movement the sin archbishop swatted the chain away which broke the thick steel apart like it had been porcelain.

"Hey! Stop this! I am a reasonable and collected person who despises senseless violence, but if you keep this up you are giving me no choice but to retaliate!" he scolded the blue-haired girl like one would do to a naughty child.

Physical attacks obviously had no effect on him. Had he some kind of magic spell to deflect any and all projectiles? Or was he just generally impenetrable? Was the super strength part of his ability or something different? So many unknowns.

Close range could perhaps be more effective to find a weak point, but she would certainly not risk coming closer to the terrorist. With some effort she could maybe create a ring of fire around him to cook him alive while depriving him of oxygen, but with all the people in close vicinity that would only end in disaster.

Peacefully deescalating this situation just like she had done with Petelgeuse was the best option. So far Regulus seemed relatively reasonable and calm after all. He was at least leagues better than that complete maniac Petelgeuse. If she could get him to go on another long tangent then that would buy her time to further scheme.

"Rem, stop this at once! You can do nothing to him. He´s invincible!" she ordered while stepping outside the carriage.

At first she didn´t appear to register Tanya´s words as she swung the remaining chain of her Morningstar wildly, but after a few seconds she huffed and reluctantly halted her assault.

"Mr. Corneas forgive us. We just had a run-in with another sin archbishop recently and that ended rather unpleasantly as you can see."

She pointed at her blood encrusted torso. Tanya consciously omitted the fact that she had most likely killed sloth and all of his followers. As a fellow member of the witch´s cult he would not react well to the news that she had eliminated his co-worker.

"Those fools can´t do anything right. Pathetic as usual, but I am neither petty nor merciless as I am completely satisfied with my life. Indeed, I am the most satisfied existence there ever was! So I forgive your fruitless attempts at harming me and come to the point. My time is not limited, because I am immortal and perfect and will persist long after all you far less satisfied lives have faded away. Nonetheless do I like to spend my precious, irreplaceable time in the comfort of my own home, for I have no real requirement to venture outside. I am completely satisfied after all and the world holds no wonders that could even compare to my own greatness."

Damn, if he had not introduced himself as the representative of greed then Tanya would have thought that he was the sin archbishop of pride! Regulus liked to hear himself talk way too much and boasted his ego with the casualness of someone telling facts about the weather. It was quite repulsive how someone could be so full of themselves.

In a way it reminded her of Priscilla who believed herself to be a goddess walking amongst mortals, but she had the decency to endlessly talk about her assumed perfectness. Tanya could respect her self-confidence at least, where Regulus seemed to try painfully to convince his audience that he was in fact awesome. A symptom of a fragile ego, not of untouchable superiority.

Tanya used his egotistical posturing and replaced her position with an illusionary clone in a quick moment of distraction. She slipped away behind the coach unnoticed, her footsteps silenced by another spell.

"But enough of that. I have come here to hand you this crystal which allegedly is of grave importance for the future. I seldom consult my gospel, because I am already satisfied with my life as any good human being should be, but fate was oddly insistent that you must receive this trinket."

He held up a necklace with a diamond shaped, golden gemstone hanging from it.

"Luckily for you I was in the area and could deliver it to you quickly. Is that not convenient? Is that not nice? As I am perfectly content with how I am and what I possess I naturally have no need to help others, yet I went out of my way to provide you with this artefact which holds no value to me. And what do I receive in return? I am attacked, belittled, insulted and looked down upon!"

Not wanting to interrupt him lest he would become angry Tanya loudly cleared her throat and raised the hand of her illusion. She needed to stop his rant before he could talk himself into a fit of rage and become even more mentally unstable.

It did little to quell his angry tirade, but the clone diverted his attention for long enough so that she had time to get into his blind spot and take to the air. Most humans made the critical mistake of never bothering to look up more than forty five degrees and the sin archbishop was no exception. Evolution had not conditioned them yet to look out for the ultimate predator of the air: combat mages.

"The misfortune and injustice I have to suffer on a daily basis is absolutely abhorrent! I give and give and give to this world and only earn scorn and disrespect! A less kind-hearted and generous man would have destroyed you all! You do not know how easy for me it would be to turn you to dust, but I held back! Even though you deserve punishment for attacking a peace loving, polite and perfectly reasonable individual like myself I will temper justice with mercy today."

Tanya couldn´t help but scoff quietly. What had he expected when he introduced himself as an enemy of the state and leader of possibly the most hated criminal organization on the planet?

Regulus gestured at her decoy: "Honestly, if I hadn´t wanted to confirm if you were a suitable candidate to become my eleventh wife after the spot had recently been vacated then I would not have bothered to walk all the way out here."

Wife? He wanted to take her as his wife? She was seventeen for crying out loud! Was he a disgusting lecher like that thrice-damned pervert Loria? Her trigger finger twitched erratically and she bared her teeth at the loathed memory.

"The other candidates were all disappointments so far. Well, maybe the half-elf could be different. Her beauty is rumoured to be extraordinary. You on the other hand are unfortunately also not what I am looking for. You must feel terrible right now, but do not worry! In a few years your body will certainly have developed and you will be welcome to seek out my judgement again."

She wanted to strangle that bastard! As if!

"Now I have to get going. My lovely wives are waiting for me and I have missed their company for too long already. Take the crystal and I can leave."

Tanya forcefully calmed herself down and projected her voice through her illusion to command one of her bodyguards to come and pick the item up. Her decoy could not interact with solid matter and she had no intention of coming close to that lunatic. (Not to mention the very real chance that the crystal was cursed or was another trap of some kind that could be dangerous to her.) The guard on the other hand was expendable and would not be missed by her should Regulus decide to turn him into minced meat.

He was too scared to move though.

A gentle burn from an invisible heat-ray formula (basically an overpowered laser normally used to start campfires) broke him out of his frightened stupor and sent him on his way. Every step towards the impatiently waiting Regulus made the man quiver in fear like he was approaching certain doom. An understandable reaction in Tanya´s eyes, but his low self-control showed his lacking training.

With trembling fingers he grasped the necklace and sprinted back to the carriage. Everybody watching let out a sigh of relief.

"Good enough I guess. If you will excuse me, I will be going now. Not that I would need an excuse, but in contrast to you I am polite."

The sin archbishop turned around and began to walk away at a leisurely pace without a care in the world. His back was wide open for an ambush, but his apparent invulnerability proved that he had no need to be cautious in this situation.

"We can´t let him get away!" yelled one of Crusch´s soldiers. Many agreed loudly.

Surprisingly Rem stepped in: "Fools! We can´t do anything against him!"

"We are knights of Lugnica! We cannot let evildoers go unpunished!" he replied.

"You are going to get killed! Think of what your Lady would say to that!"

Tanya´s opinion of the maid was rising. Overall she had very good head on her shoulders. Sadly the shouting idiot wasn´t half as sharp and recklessly charged forward on his ground dragon.

Notes:

Hmmmmm... Why could his gospel suddenly have changed? Hmmmmm...

Do you know what the gift could be?

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Rating:

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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:99,111

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 51: Administering punishment

Notes:

I cut his monologues short, because they are boring and kill the pacing. Just imagine Tanya drowning out most of his spiel.

EDIT: 1111 Comments!

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

Chapter Text

Chapter 51

From her position high up in the air Tanya had a perfect overview over the ensuing scene. The suicidal moron dashed towards the retreating Regulus and swung his sword. Her mental enhancement allowed her to take in every miserable detail of his disastrous assault and think carefully about the disaster unfolding below her.

Should she shoot the guy before he could agitate the sin archbishop? Would the sacrifice of one fool be enough to save the rest from the wrath of an invulnerable terrorist? Perhaps she could only incapacitate his ground dragon, but there was no guarantee that he wouldn´t continue his chase on foot. Maybe timing two explosions left and right of him to hit him with a concussive blast would knock him out...

No.

There was no time for risky, peaceful options that would also compromise her strategic position in case of a retaliatory assault by Regulus. No one had noticed her up here yet, most likely because they had been too occupied with the sin archbishop. It would be irrational to give away her element of surprise and draw attention to her easy escape route should things turn south.

She had to make a decision within the next two seconds. Either she killed the man or hoped that Regulus would just ignore him until he lost interest. Tanya had confidence in her ability to evade his attacks in the air, but Rem, Subaru and the others did not have that luxury. If the representative of greed was actually invincible then their chances of survival were low.

Subaru could apparently revive after being killed, but neither of them new the exact limits of that ability. For all she knew it could have a limited number of uses or was only effective under special conditions. Losing him was unacceptable.

But shooting one of her rival´s soldiers, even if to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, would also end in a political scandal. Crusch would most likely not be amused by the act of Tanya killing or severely injuring one of her men regardless of the reasoning. If worst came to worst even a civil war could break out. Tanya still remembered that fateful day clearly when the Legadonian Entente had chosen to "only" invade a few square kilometres of land and it ended in a war with millions of casualties.

Damned if she did and damned if she didn´t.

Time was ticking and her options were narrowing by the second.

Ah, well... she had to do something. To just wait and stay passive would be the height of imprudence.

Her illusionary clone shouted as loud as her ranged voice amplification spell allowed it:

"REGULUS, WATCH OUT!"

She had made her decision.

The weirdly white man (seriously what was up with the hair colours in this world?) turned around with painfully slow movements and promptly received a blade to the face. Any other human would have at least attempted to dodge or would have been shocked by the imminent danger. He just blinked unimpressed and took it head on.

The resounding "snap" of his swing had rather painful consequences for the attacker considering his arm seemed to have been dislocated at minimum. Nothing else could have been expected from basically striking a brick wall at full speed. Well, at least that proved that the invulnerability of the sin archbishop was not limited to ranged weaponry.

"Why are you unlawfully attacking me? I have done you no harm and you nonetheless decided to harass me! That violates my right for peace and quiet!"

Tanya wanted to scream in frustration when she saw the idiotic knight turn his mount around and try again with his useless sword to inflict damage upon his target.

"I take my rights very seriously, because they indicate what I deserve as the perfect existence! There - you failed again! What are you hoping to accomplish? Instead of taking an example from my politeness and cultural refinement you act like an animal! Indeed you pathetic existence is not worthy of being called human at all! I shall end you like the beast you are!"

He kicked the ground forcefully and sent a few barely visible stones and dirt particles in the direction of the knight. Tanya had no time to wonder what the purpose of that manoeuvre was, because instead of dropping after a few metres, the projectiles continued their trajectory and perforated the ground dragon.

Yes, perforated.

She had to blink and up the power on her optical spell to take in all the details. What should have been a few harmless pebbles and earth crumbs had entered the body of the beast without resistance and exited it at the same angle on the other side.

What. The. Hell.

How?

Her danger rating for Regulus jumped up from "Highly dangerous" to "Avoid at all costs or be damned".

The skewered animal shrieked before toppling over dead, no doubt succumbing to its internal bleeding within moments. Its rider also let out a shrill cry of anguish for the first time in their "battle" as he slipped from the back of his now deceased mount. She did not need to look closer to notice that one of his legs had nearly been severed at the thigh and the other was missing chunks at his calve. Major blood vessels had been perforated and without immediate treatment h would lose a lethal amount of blood. (Not that she would step in to save the suicidal prick. He had brought this punishment upon himself!)

"Be silent! You have the nerve to further inconvenience me with your noises? Does your greedy selfishness know no bounds? Whoring for attention like that?"

Although dying while being berated by that narcissist Regulus was perhaps too much of a punishment. Tanya knew she wouldn´t want to meet her end like that at least.

She carefully scanned the ranks of Crusch´s other soldiers and found many faces contorted by pity or righteous anger. Hopefully they had learned their lesson from the failure of their comrade and would not pointlessly throw their lives-

"NOOOOOO!!!" yelled an old man, whose most defining feature was his goatee, ready to come to the rescue of the bleeding and crying imbecile on the ground. His fellow soldiers had the wisdom to try and hold him back, but they were not fast enough to stop him. All their yelling and frantic attempts to grab him proved for naught as he jumped from the back of his steed and sailed through the air in a surprising feat of athleticism. Tanya thought it a shame that such a capable human resource was about to be wasted.

The sin archbishop was still disdainfully looking at the downed man and was about to raise his immaculate white shoes for another kick aimed to end the annoyance before him when his leg was tackled and gripped tightly by the newcomer. He stared down at him for a full second before shaking it to remove the pest cling to him.

"What is the meaning of this? Why do you dirty my robes with your unwashed hands? Can you not see that I am busy at the moment? That is a direct infringement on my right for personal space! Show some respect!"

"Never you monster!" he roared back.

"How dare you?" seethed Regulus and seemed to push the air in front of him away with his left hand. The normally invisible gas rippled and shot downwards, bisecting the knight clutching his leg. Idly, Tanya noted that not a single drop of blood stained Greed´s clothes.

"Calling me a monster is laughable. Like dogs were you barking and throwing yourself at me!"

Not even death could stop Regulus from lecturing you it seemed. Another half-hearted kick completely obliterated that shaking warrior who had caused this entire ruckus. Regulus turned to face the crowd and raised his leg again, making everybody present flinch in terror.

She needed to intervene quickly:

"They are not my men! I have no control over their action and distance myself from their shameful behaviour! Please Sir Corneas do not associate our little group with Lady Karsten´s servants! I cannot speak for them, but I believe they were simply overwhelmed by your power and lashed out in the only way their simple minds knew how to react: with anger! They were not raised to be as considerate as I and my companions."

She threw them under the proverbial bus to save her skin. So what? These idiots had it coming.

"Is that so? I am most kind and merciful, but even my patience has its limits. Their lesser intellects might have driven them to commit this madness, but that does not excuse their actions! They will learn not to assault innocent travellers in the future!"

And with these words he swung his hand down in a horizontal slash.

Notes:

For the lore nerds among you:

Does the authority of greed work only on the surface of Regulus or on his whole body down the cellular level? Could you poison or drown him?

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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:99,111

Tanya starts from Zero

A_Morte_Perpetua_Machina_Libera_Nos

Chapter 52: Surprise visit

Notes:

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?

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Chapter 1654 - 50-52