23

Chapter 23: Spiritual acquaintanceNotes:

I feel like I suddenly got ADHD, because I can´t concentrate on writing. Sorry for the later update.

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Chapter Text

Chapter 23

She wanted to immediately go and speak with Beatrice, but she cautiously refrained from doing so. Her urge to finally learn more about elemental magic was strong, but it would be unwise to bother the librarian so soon after they had just met for the first time. The not-quite-human girl seemed to prefer silence and loneliness, as expected from someone who guarded a library without many visitors.

Instead she would use the rest of this day to get closer to Emilia and her servant Subaru. Even though both gave off a naive and immature appearance they were integral to her plans. The half-elf, because she was a rival and ideal scapegoat for Tanya´s future misdeeds and the (probably) japanese boy, because his knowledge could potentially augment her own and was too dangerous to be controlled by anyone else other than her. After sixteen years of steady memory loss she had sadly forgotten many achievements of the modern world and his help would surely prove invaluable in recovering the wisdoms of more enlightened times.

The first on her mental list was Emilia. Consulting with her servant before her could be misunderstood as an affront or even treachery. It would simply not do to speak with Subaru after they had just met at the dining table. The problem was just that she had no clue where the silver-haired half-elf was at the moment. When Tanya left Roswaal´s bureau the whole mansion appeared deserted. Where was everybody?

A partial answer to this question revealed itself when she spotted both people she wanted meet outside on the front lawn. How unbecoming of a royal candidate! Was Emilia not aware of how that looked? Lazing around on the bare ground with peasant no less! Tanya hurried to the front door and didn't even bother to spy on their conversation, because the stupid grin on Subaru´s face told her that it could not possibly be something important.

"How fortunate to find you both here. Am I interrupting something?"

"N-No!" stuttered a faintly red-faced Emilia.

"Yes!" came Subaru´s unsurprisingly shameless reply. His lack of tact did not compel him in the slightest to hide his indignation. He undoubtedly lacked all forms of self-restraint.

Tanya chose to ignore his childish scorn in favour of focusing on the more important member of their little group.

"Very well. I chose this moment to say thank you for your hospitality. We have known each other for little more than a few days and you have already invited me into your home. For that I am grateful and I appreciate the sign of your trust."

"Oh think nothing of it. This alliance could help us both immensely. It is just common decency to show you how I live if you have done so as well."

Wonderful! She had taken the bait again.

"To that I agree. Good friends are far trickier to make than bitter enemies. On a different note... how much do you trust your servant here?"

This was a perfect opportunity to observe how close these two really were. With luck both had feelings to each other that would make them predictable and easier to use. If you knew what somebody wanted and how much they wanted it then you could dictate the prize for the object of their desire confidently.

"Rather well? I mean we met only a few days ago and I don´t know too much about him..."

For a brief instant Subaru's eyes revealed a deep hurt and sorrow within them. Was he delusional and expected Emilia to return his unrealistic feelings of affection after only a few days? Or was there something deeper at play here?

The silver-haired girl continued: "But he has already done a great service to me by protecting the village and I believe that he has a pure and honest heart... even if he is a bit silly at times."

He dramatically gripped his chest and loudly proclaimed: "My heart melts from Emilia-tan´s kindness! It´s just too much. Ahhh!"

Tanya only raised an eyebrow. If her recruits had displayed such behaviour they would gotten latrine duty for a month. How did Emilia expect to be taken seriously with subordinates like that?

"Then I guess he can stay during our little conversation. Although I would advise you to not bring him to our first round of negotiations tomorrow. He would certainly lighten the mood, but his presence would otherwise be unneeded."

"Hey!"

"Of course. What have you come here to talk about?" said Emilia in an amateurish attempt to sound businesslike.

The poor girl had no experience with things at all! She must have had insane luck to be found by Tanya or else even a toddler could have taken advantage of her. Tanya would do that as well, but at least she would do so with both their best interests in mind. Manipulation was only unethical if it benefitted just one party after all.

"I wanted to learn a bit more about you. I showed you some of my memories at the royal selection so I thought it would only be fair if you told me about your past as well."

This was a bold move that unfortunately seemed to leave no positive effect on the girl. A problematic childhood was the likely reason if she interpreted the reluctant dissatisfaction on Emilia´s face correctly. Maybe she could use this trauma against her? Psychological warfare was the best! (Probably because no means of production or infrastructures got damaged by it.)

"You don´t have to go into much detail if you don't want to. Our past is not always pleasant to talk about. I know that better than anyone."

By appearing sympathetic to her tragic backstory she would hopefully appear similar to the naive girl, what in turn would lead her to feel a sense of "camaraderie" at their shared suffering. Pity was not something Tanya usually wanted, but now it would aid her well in acquiring trust.

"Well... I already told you that I come from the Elior forest that was frozen. When I awoke there I remembered only very little of my time before I was frozen so I can´t actually tell you much. But it was at this moment that I met Puck for the first time and we formed a contract."

"Puck?"

"Oh, yes. I forgot that you have not met him already. He is my contracted spirit."

She tapped the gem on her necklace a few times and suddenly a small, grey cat floated out it.

A cat. A spirit cat. What the hell. Magic here was so ludicrous!

"Ah Lia, what is it? I was dreaming so peacefully right now."

"Sorry Puck, but I wanted you to introduce yourself to Tanya here."

"Hi! I'm Puck! Lia´s protector and cutest spirit around. I hope you don´t try anything unsavoury towards her or I will have to intervene." cheered the cat even though his voice took on a more sinister quality at the end.

"Yeah don't even bother to try anything, because he can read your emotions."

She had to suppress a smile. Subaru, the glorious idiot had gifted her with another piece of invaluable information. Had she been left in the dark about Puck´s abilities then she would have made a potentially fatal mistake while negotiating. Now she could plan around that and prepare herself. This guy was helping her more than Emilia it seemed.

Because the mind-reading spirit had gotten in the way of her plans she directed the chat into safer territories. A meaningless conversation of pleasantries and humorous anecdotes ensued which hid her true intentions well. This cat really was a nuisance.

Half an hour later and Tanya excused herself to practice the techniques Reinhard had shown her for her sword training. She had no doubt that she could already kill pretty effectively with her cutlass, but more finesse never hurt. It proved also to be a decent enough method to kill time.

As the evening progressed she made sure to send her driver back home with a message to Reinhard that detailed that she would be returning home in exactly five days. This served as a safety measure to ensure that he knew if something unexpected happened to her. Should she arrive too late then he would with a bit of luck be already on his way to meet her or search for her.

Roswaal was not trustworthy and who knew what he may have planned for her. So she was very happy when one of the maids "accidentally" overheard her conversation with the messenger so that she could report those words back to her master. If Roswaal knew that the Swordsaint awaited her return then he would definitely not dare to ambush her during the journey.