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Chapter 29: Acquiring wisdomNotes:

Would have written a longer chapter, but my family wanted to go hiking.´

EDIT: 7777 Hits!

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

Chapter Text

Chapter 29

Back to sword training and magic studying. Oh joy. Well, there were far worse recreational activities. (Like burning dead bodies or digging a trench or doing extra paperwork, because everybody else was too stupid to handle it correctly.) At least she experienced a feeling of accomplishment when polishing her abilities that would ultimately ensure her survival.

Wielding a long blade was unusual for Tanya, but she got pretty decent with it. At least when you took into consideration that she had her cutlass for less than a week at this point. As long as you knew which end of the sword to point at your opponent and you were faster than them, the match was won. Technically it could be considered cheating if you stimulated yourself with artificial drugs and enhancement spells, but it had the effect that even her sloppy and untrained movements became faster than the normal eye could see.

She would need to practice more with Reinhard, but against anyone who wasn´t a sword fighting prodigy it would suffice. Her new magic abilities were similarly just brute forced to achieve impressive results in the least amount of time. (A staple of her military career.) For some unknown reason the magic in this world functioned based on a tier system of "El", "Ul" and "Al" that determined the power of a spell. As if it wasn´t bad enough that she had to openly announce what she conjured by loudly saying for example "Shamak", she also had to use these stupid prefixes.

Not even Beatrice had been able to tell her from which language these words were derived from, because they sounded unlike any other dialect in the world. How strange. Anyway, using these words in conjunction with a spell increased their power as well as their difficulty. Sometimes this could lead to nasty repercussions if the spell was not absolutely mastered by its user.

Her strategy of avoiding this consisted of simply pumping more mana into it, because she could afford it. The Type 97 reduced the energy cost around thirty percent after all, so she had plenty to spare. This heightened power output imitated the next higher tier of magic without actually using it. For example a simple "Shamak" would become similar to an "El Shamak" by utilizing more mana than normal without her needing to put any extra effort into it.

Sadly this worked not on "Al" tier magic for whatever reason, but she would need to test this at home. The destructive potential of some of these spells was pretty huge and she didn't want to damage Roswaal´s forest anymore than he already had with his mabeast purge.

Some of her favourite new tricks were "Jiwald" (the ability to shoot burning beams of light from her fingertips) which reminded her of her mage blades, but more distance oriented and "Minya" (the ability to summon and shoot crystallizing shards of purple energy) which would serve as her ranged attack until she found a way to replicate bullets for her gun. There were of course other, more exotic spells like "Nect" that allegedly allowed the user to connect the gates of multiple people and produce a form of telepathy, but to test those she would need willing participants. Risk of injury was too high for it to use on Subaru even though he probably wouldn´t refuse.

"Murak" was borderline useless to her, because she could already fly and reducing her gravity would only confuse her in a fight due to years of muscle memory that would be invalidated by having no momentum. Still, it could also be cast on objects which would allow her to transport heavy things easier and for longer distances.

Its opposite "Vita" increased the gravity of an object which could be insanely overpowered if used at the right moment in a fight. If cast onto an opponent mid jump then they would plummet down to the earth and be unable to move if they weren´t incredibly strong. Should they still be able stand then they would hopefully be slowed down enough to allow for a quick attack from above or behind.

Tanya gleefully imagined what would have happened if she could have used this back in the empire. Droves of enemy mages would suddenly stop moving and drop to the ground like dead flies, ready to be picked up like the cannon fodder they were. The very thought brought a wicked smile to her face. Anyone who would have looked in this moment at the seemingly cute girl would have felt a shiver running down their spine.

Of course there were many more spells, but they were either just worse versions of stuff she already possessed or were unbelievably tough to replicate. Beatrice used her "Door Crossing" to distort space itself which was a feat that awed Tanya. How was that even possible? Didn´t that break the laws of continuity? Magic was incredible, but it followed very strict mathematical and physical principles. To bend space and somehow even time like it was described in one of her books boggled the mind, because it nearly transcended these rules.

When she had asked the little librarian how she had done it, she had either given a none-answer or claimed it to be "Betty´s secret". As Tanya now knew she was a great spirit of yin and was likely one of (if not the) greatest shadow magician in the world, so it didn't bother her too much. The likelihood of Beatrice becoming her enemy was very low and she was so protective of her secrets that she would probably not tell anyone who could use such teleportation spells against her.

Yang magic in general was also hard to learn, because books on the subject were even rarer to find in the Forbidden Library than yin books. Furthermore she couldn´t ask anybody other then Roswaal for help in this regard. How was that even fair by the way? Why could the margrave control all six elements, but she couldn´t? Maybe the fame had gotten to her head, but she had been heralded as the greatest combat mage in the world two weeks ago and the thought of now sharing her fame left a sour taste in her mouth for some reason. Healing magic or throwing fireballs sounded so useful! She wanted it!

The world was unfair. It always had been. Crying over spilt milk wasn't productive in the slightest so she would have to work with what she had. She should almost certainly be thankful that she had affinities for two elements which was pretty rare. Being compatible with both light and shadow was practically unheard of! Even if a person was born with such a skill set they would probably not be able to make much use out of it, because both yin and yang magic required astronomical amounts of mana to cast compared to the regular elements.

All of that had required barely a few hours to find out and made Tanya feel very satisfied with herself. When she went on her way to the dining room for dinner she was very content with what she had managed to achieve already in her short time being here.

The first thing that attracted her attention when Emilia entered the room was that she looked rather glum. When the troubled look didn´t leave her face after several minutes Tanya decided to break the ice and end her silence.

"What´s the matter Emilia? Has something happened?" she asked worriedly.

She made sure to be actually worried in order to fool Puck again. The mood of her hostess and business partner was really important to her after all so it wasn´t too difficult.

"Oh, just... While you were away a messenger arrived and brought some... confusing letters. I am not sure what to make of it."

"If you want to you can tell me. I have a lot of experience with politics and these kinds of things. Perhaps I can help you."

Her desire to help was real. Taking this opportunity would improve Emilia´s opinion of her and would allow her to demonstrate her superior management skills.

She hoped this charade was enough to fool the cat spirit.

"Eh... it´s kind of embarrassing..."

"I swear I will not judge you before you have explained everything. Do I look like somebody who got so far in life just by making premature assumptions?"

"Well... some nobles... asked for my hand..."

"They what?!" yelled Subaru.

Honestly, the boy showed his childish emotions way too openly. And he was unnecessarily loud on top. He wouldn't last a second in any meaningful negotiation with this attitude.

"You know? They want to marry me..."

"Yes. I think we all understood that."

"Never! They won´t take my beautiful Emilia-tan away from me."

That was creepy. He should hide his possessiveness more. Ram seemed to agree.

"Pervert Barusu."

"Iiiiisn´t that wonderfuuuul?" added Roswaal.

Tanya decided to intervene before the poor girl got too flustered and died from a heart attack or something.

"No it is really not."

Questioning stares from all around the room followed and she felt compelled her to elaborate. Was it really so hard to understand?

"Forming alliances through marriage may sound compelling for some, but you have to be aware of your status Emilia. These people don´t see you as a normal girl or even a real royal candidate. They sadly only regard you for your influence and power. What you are trying to achieve is totally unimportant to them and they do not care for your personality. Even worse, when they look at you they will only see the witch of envy in their stupidity."

The silver-haired half-elf flinched at the mentioning of the name which caused her so much pain.

"When these kinds of people try to impress you then they don´t really mean it. Only your money is what counts for them. The council has prohibited the candidates to marry during the royal selection for good reason and the nobles know this as well. They have no intention of binding themselves to someone who looks - in their opinion - like the devil. They only want to manipulate you into deluding yourself that they care."

It was a bit hypocritical of her to lecture her about manipulative nobles, but it was true.

"Reply to them in a polite manner to not alienate them, but otherwise you don't need to waste a single second to think about such a ridiculous offer. Throw these letters in the trash. I doubt you would want to marry someone who you don't love anyway."

Subaru gave his unneeded opinion as well: "Exactly. There is only one right man for you."

She would have voluntarily prayed to Being X to avoid hearing him finish his little speech.

"Me!"

Both Tanya and the maid twins winced in pain for different reasons.

"As charming as you might be Subaru, I believe you should probably gain more of a social standing before you say things like this. Maybe become a knight or found a successful business."

If you wanted something then you had to also offer something in return. Preferably something of equal value. That was just common sense.

"Hmph. Even that will not be enough. Being Barusu is a curse in and of itself. No girl could ever want a loser like that."

The boy took the poisonous words in stride. He clutched his heart in mock-hurt and dramatically exclaimed: "You wound me Ram-chan! How will I ever recover from this? I will probably need much consolation form Emilia-tan to sooth my aching heart!"

"Really?" asked the innocent half-elf worriedly which contrasted heavily with the upset Ram´s next statement.

"What did I say? Don´t call me that! Or do you want to clean the attic again?"

"But I already did that..." he whined.

"Sister, you are being too harsh. Subaru is actually wonderful. He saved me and the children after all."

"Yes sister. I guess he was useful that one time. This shows that he at least qualifies as a passable meat-shield for my precious sister."

"As amuuuuusing at this iiiiiis, I agreeee with Lady Degurechaff´s assessment. You shouuuldn´t pay attention to thooooos offers."

Tanya wanted to use the situation in her favour. Now was her time to shine by distancing herself from the scheming nobles in the capital. Hopefully this would be enough to cement herself as "trustworthy" in Emilia´s mind.

"If somebody truly wants to establish an honest relationship with you then they will make an effort to meet you face to face. I realize that I am not necessarily in a position to say this, but it is true. I came here to this mansion to learn more about you, precisely because I was sincere when I offered you an alliance. As much as I like to mention that it is your choice to accept, it is mine as well. Had I found out during my stay that you were not the kind-hearted, honest, caring person that I expected then I would have retracted my offer."

That was the truth. If Emilia had turned out to be a sadistic bitch for example then she would have not affiliated with her. Her reputation was at stake!

"Only because I took my time to get to know you better I could be sure that you will be the right one for my plans and the opposite is also true. You best make a decision after you understand how your potential partner acts and thinks. Only sending a letter after they have met you once is not enough."

She hoped the message had been clear. Tanya von Degurechaff was a trustworthy individual with no bad intentions! Only she was trustworthy enough for Emilia! She gave her advice after all.

"Yes... I understand..."

Tanya smiled genuinely and thought about the most pleasant thing she could come up with at the moment. A happy memory of Visha´s coffee was all it took to deceive Puck´s mind reading. What a pleasant day.

Notes:

Spoiler:

How hard do you think fighting the White Whale will be for Tanya on a scale of 1 to 10?

1 is a walk in the park and 10 is killing fully powered Mary Sioux.