Interested Parties 2

As Verdia walked through the halls of the newly renovated castle, he sighed appreciatively. Finding a place like this to stay had been a boon, and it would be a shame if this place fell into disrepair.

Originally, he feared he would have to stay in some moldy, wet cave. While his night vision was obviously excellent, he knew that even he could make mistakes, and tripping, losing hold of his head, and spending half an hour trying to reunite his body and head seemed like a particularly frivolous waste of time.

Of course, the weaker undead he could gather still suffered from decay, even if he didn't. Their degradation wouldn't assist in building power, and a wet cave would only speed up decomposition.

Just as he prepared to head into the secret addition of the parlor, a knock sounded on the wooden door. He gave a sound of consent, and one of his higher-leveled Undead Knights wandered in.

"My General. Enemies have been spotted approaching the castle." The animated body said this listlessly, and Verdia nodded. He left the room, followed by the soldier.

"Interesting." Without another word, he stuck his head out of the nearest window, leaning out to try and catch sight of the front of the castle. He saw nothing.

He brought his head back in, and tilted it. "It seems they've left…"

Scowling, he headed back into the parlor. "Increase patrols. They were probably here to figure out why the monsters have disappeared, and it seems they've been scared off, after realizing what was here." The knight bowed his head slightly, and then stalked off to inform the rest of the castle.

Verdia didn't want to interrupt them from their cleaning work. He pulled on the unlit mana-fueled lantern that hung on a nearby wall, and watched in satisfaction as the secret entrance to his lair opened. He chuckled as he walked down the stairs.

Even if Vanir, the Demon King's Duke of Hell, was the one famous for wanting a nearly unconquerable dungeon, Verdia occasionally liked to fit the aesthetic of a brooding boss, awaiting some chosen hero.

He looked around. The throne, the completely dark room, the temperature…

All of it fit perfectly. He looked around, for a moment, and then sighed dejectedly as he sunk into the throne at the back of the room.

It would be perfect, if he wasn't stuck here.

He would never disobey a command of the Demon King – the being had proved his leadership abilities too many times for that – but still. Axel?

The town of rookie adventurers? A rinky-dink town in the middle of nowhere?

But his King had explained it easily, and Verdia couldn't find fault with them.

Monsters wouldn't dare come out thanks to his presence in the area. Without them, new adventurers would be deprived of experience.

Stopping the flood of reinforcements from here to the Capital and elsewhere on the front lines was important, and he was the only one free enough right now.

He sighed as he thought of the other reason he was there. He was supposed to determine if the 'double blessed' 'Hero Candidate' was still there. If they were, he was supposed to take them out.

He doubted it; all Reincarnates had been able to arrive at the front lines within a week of arriving and given preferential treatment so that they would withstand his King's forces. The prophet – damn that charlatan – had suggested they investigate, and his King had ordered him to comply.

He moved his wrist and shook his head.

He could begin to build up his forces at least; the graveyards of Axel were unlikely to have many good corpses, but the rumors of a Griffon and a Manticore battling for territory nearby intrigued him. Turning either of those into an undead would be a huge pro on the chart of why the hell he had to come here, of all places.

A thought occurred to him, and he sighed dreamily, lifting his head higher, as if it were really in the clouds. Wiz, a General in her own right and the 'bandit of the Demon King's coffers,' was supposed to have set up a shop in the town. If his head were screwed on straight, he'd pay her a visit…

Oh well. He'd need to inquire about the 'Hero Candidate' soon enough; as the strongest mage in Axel, Wiz would be sure to show her face when he made his appearance in front of the city and threatened the rookies with death.

The kingdom was unlikely to send any of the Reincarnates to someplace like this, not with how few of them had been showing up recently.

He thought back to the adventurers that were supposed to have shown up in front of his new base. They weren't likely to amount to much, but maybe they'd provide some sort of fight if he visited the town?

BOOM!

Verdia's head was sent flying, tumbling away from his body. Head shouting, the body scrambled to reclaim the seat of its thoughts. The back wall, where the throne had been situated, crumbled away, leaving the room bare to the windy mountain air.

His head tumbled precariously close to the edge, but his body managed to grab it. Verdia sighed, and secured his head under his arm.

That done, he looked out into the air. "What…" he trailed off as he gazed out over the land. The very familiar land.

He nodded to himself absently. Yes, this was the land underneath the cliff face his new base was situated. The question of how this – him staring out at it from his formerly-underground lair – had happened was not readily apparent, but he identified it soon enough.

Just as he could perceive all motion around himself and dispatch with anyone who threatened him using a special technique, and how Rangers could look into the distance, muttering a skill allowed him to pick out minute details in the far away from himself.

Of course, he was undead; that meant that the skill was focused on finding large pockets of power, in the form of a soul.

He soon found it. They were small, and had some sort of oddly shaped staff with a blade on the end of it.

Interesting. Mage's didn't usually care about self-defense, trusting in their allies to protect them. He deactivated his enhanced vision – staring at people's souls often gave him headaches – and squirted at the figure in the far off distance.

While her physical appearance was vaguely interesting, his thoughts were much more intrigued by the markings on her soul. They meant one thing.

"Reincarnate…"

It appeared that their party had scouted out this position had left with a parting remark, or they had attacked his castle in some sort of show of courage.

He surveyed the magically-created hole; he wasn't a Mage, but even he knew that this had to be something strong, like the usage of Detonation magic.

The temptation to pursue them, but he stayed his hand.

If they were audacious enough to use magic on his castle as a parting remark, they would be back, and if they had wanted to showcase their courage as they fled with a tail tucked between their legs, then they wouldn't.

He grinned. If a Reincarnate that could use Detonation Magic was in town, then they might actually put up a good fight.

Smirking, he went back inside and rose through the staircase. No doubt, that explosion caused some sort of ruckus inside. It wouldn't be as bad as if they had attacked the castle directly, but there was going to be some damage. He'd finish cleaning up, gather reinforcements from where he could, and then wait.

The Demon King had told him to await reinforcements, after all, and he knew how to follow orders, unlike many of his fellow Generals…

-OxOxO-

Tanya sighed in satisfaction. Even though the moment was tainted by using the Type 95 to mutter praises of Being X, the sizable explosion in the side of the cliff looked good. It seemed to have even opened up some sort of cave, if the depression near the center of the blast was anything to go by.

She might have liked to do more actual damage by hitting the castle itself, but damaging its foundations would hurt it more in the long run than anything else she could do to the building directly.

At least she didn't have to drag Darkness anymore, who seemed to have finally recovered from the news that they were facing one of the Demon King's Generals and from the fact that Tanya had been dragging her along for a mile as if she were a piece of freshly-killed meat.

Standing, she asked the one question Tanya hated getting whenever someone realized that she was singing the praises of a god. "You're religious?"

Tanya sighed tiredly. She couldn't really get mad at her. In a Medieval setting, it was expected that she be religious. "No."

Darkness was taken aback by the vehemence in Tanya's reprisal. "But you-"

"Imagine you could kill any monster that faced you, Darkness," she began. She knew that she had to illustrate these things.

She nodded. "Imagine: you aren't a helpless Crusader that can only carry out her goddess's will with the help of others. There is just one, tiny, minute problem: in order for you to kill anything, you have to declare that your god is nothing but a figment of peoples' imaginations," she said, spitting out each word.

Darkness's decidedly uncomfortable expression told Tanya all she needed to know about that notion. A moment of silence reigned, and then Tanya began to walk off. She had a Reincarnate to attend to and some questions to ask an inebriated Dust.

Personally, she was hoping that they had something more interesting than a weapon or a skill; maybe they would have something more similar to her circlet?

-OxOxO-

Chris and Darkness, thankfully, parted from Tanya rather quickly. They wanted to get a bath, and Tanya just told them she had some other business to attend to.

Lynn, Taylor, and Keith were standing outside the guild, waiting for Dust to stop stumbling around and walk in with them. Tanya quickly put an end to that as she wrapped an arm around Dust's shoulders – which was very hard to do when you were as short as she was. She smiled at the other three.

"You all go sort out our pay! Chris and Darkness will get back very soon, and we'll be back soon enough as well. I need to talk to Dust."

They peered at Tanya and Dust curiously, but they didn't complain, and Tanya dragged him off down a side alley.

He was confused and sputtering, but she paid him no mind. "Listen here, Dust. I need to ask you a question I don't want you to remember, so… how much money do you need to get blackout drunk and not remember any of today?"

He gawked at her, but she didn't blush or let her gaze waver. Dust was a very straightforward man whose vices were simple. He might have a complicated past, but she didn't honestly care beyond a faint curiosity.

Tanya saw him fight the call of his alcoholism for all of five seconds before greed took over. "50,000 Eris will get me the required amount of cheap alcohol, but the better stuff will cost you 100,000."

Tanya sighed, but she did as asked and divided out the larger amount of money. She would earn a lot of it back using the Reincarnate.

He didn't even count out the money, and Tanya took a deep breath.

Tanya asked her question.

His eyebrows both seemed to be trying to join his hairline, but he answered diligently and asked for another 50,000 Eris. She gave it to him, and he left, completely ignoring the guild and heading to where she was sure some gambling den was.

Tanya, meanwhile, was smiling. Not smirking, or grinning. It wasn't sarcastic or sad.

She was happy.

She turned back to the guild. The Reincarnate would be no trouble at all, and then she could continue to grow stronger, earn money, get ready to fight the Demon King, and, now that she had her answer…

She could save up to purchase a gender-switching item from wherever she could find one.

-OxOxO-

She gasped, drawing in a deep, heaving breath as she woke up. Where…

Where was she?

Her horizon seemed dark, unendingly dark, but a single light illuminated her surroundings and fended the emptiness off. She was in a chair, unrestrained, and another chair was opposite of herself, empty.

Had she been captured by the Cordiale's forces?

The sound of slow, even steps reached her ears, and she spun around. Or tried to.

She was stopped by the chair she was sitting in, and before she could throw herself out of it, the sound of a voice that grew louder in time with the steps interrupted her panicking.

"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. Welcome to the afterlife. Unfortunately, you passed away only moments ago."

Then it all came back to her, making her thankful that she was sitting. She would have collapsed if she wasn't.

The bar. The bombs. The explosion. The smell of the air as a building burned, consumed in a blaze of destruction. It wasn't that different from other air raids, except that her friends, the people she'd spent years with, had…

They died.

Grantz and Neumann, killed in the month before the attack. The rest of the 203rd nearly destroyed by that… monster. She gasped as one last name entered her consciousness.

Tanya.

The leader of the 203rd. The White Silver. The one she-

Numb to the breakdown Viktoriya was having, the woman continued to speak. "Your life was a difficult one, full of hardship and strife. But you persevered."

Viktoriya's breathing calmed. She had won?

"How… how did the Cordiale's forces get so far?" she pleaded. She had to know, and hoped for another reason, any other reason, than the one she suspected.

Dresdun was deep in the Empire's territory, far from the front lines in Northern Ildoa and deep in the Russy Federation, and even farther from any effective attack from the Albish. Additionally, no air raid sirens had gone off, and they had had no warning.

Some of that could have to do with people not wanting to bother Tanya after… what had happened near Moskva, but for them to have absolutely no warning…

"It seems the Alliance Cordiale's spies infiltrated the city and disabled all of the alarm systems," she said, looking into the small book by her side and confirming Viktoriya's fears.

She clenched her eyes and grit her teeth, but she made no noise.

Tanya had complained often about the Empire's problem with spying and nationalistic insurgents. The General Staff simply thought that they didn't need to concern themselves with either of those things, which had led to the Empire being surprised by several declarations of war, some scattered uprisings from within the Empire's disputed territories, and, most annoyingly, other countries' desire to aid them.

She almost sighed at the thought of Tanya's hour-long rant about the General Staff not seeking allies, which brought her thoughts back to Tanya…

She continued to try and stifle her tears. They were the cause of her own death and the death of-

Viktoriya gazed at the woman lifelessly. It didn't even matter anymore, if this woman was telling the truth. She was dead, and any lasting hatred she felt burn within her would be wasted on hating people she couldn't touch any longer.

Viktoriya doubted that the woman before her was lying. With her beauty, Viktoriya wouldn't have doubted her if she said she was an angel or representative of God.

"Well, did I at least take some of them with me?" she asked, hoping for a consolation prize.

"Yes. You took down… quite a few before your death."

Viktoriya sighed. She'd avenged the Colonel, at least. "At least I died fighting…"

Blue hair shook, as something flashed across the woman's face. Before Viktoriya could categorize what it was, though, it was gone. "Yes… well, you have questions, no doubt, so I'll begin to explain a few things," the woman said, standing from her seat in the white chair.

"My name is Aqua, and I am a Goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife," she explained.

Viktoriya's eyes widened as she tried to digest that. More than one god? That was certainly odd, by Christian standards.

She shrugged internally, trying to suppress how… peculiar that was. Someone must have gotten things wrong when writing the Bible… or something.

At some point. The evidence stood before her.

Apparently.

"Now, thanks to some recent… events, the age of what is considered 'young' up here has been vastly increased. You now qualify under that definition, and won't be sent to Heaven automatically-"

"Er…" Viktoriya interrupted. Aqua paused her speech, an eyebrow raised condescendingly and a hand on her hip. "Yes?"

Viktoriya shrank in her seat a bit, but asked her question regardless. "I have options?"

The woman scoffed. "Yes. If you hadn't interrupted, I would have explained immediately. Since you died 'young' and have enough karma, you can either choose to be reincarnated without any memories in that world you just left, or go to Heaven."

Viktoriya's heart soared. That meant…

Tanya could be in Heaven.

Then she sighed. Of course, her loyalty to the Empire meant that she could have just gone right back in for even the smallest chance of fighting for them again.

This… stumped her. Tanya might be in Heaven, memories intact, or she might have been reincarnated and lost to her forever.

Viktoriya shook her head. Tanya wasn't here, and she needed to decide on her future for herself.

Tanya had playfully criticized Viktoriya's desire to stay near her, and if she could see her now, she'd probably scold Viktoriya for just following her, instead of thinking for herself.

If only…

She sighed. But, no, Tanya had practically spelled out that she wasn't interested in a relationship or in her that way. Still…

It was hard not to want to stay near the one constant of the war. Her immediate family had been murdered in the Russy Federation's purges, and Elya had been sent to a different part of the army. Through being shifted from front to front, mission to mission, Tanya von DEgurechaff seemed to be the one familiar thing she knew.

"Of course, there is a third option."

Viktoriya's head snapped up. "What is it?"

Aqua grinned, and began to speak as a heavenly light sprung into being above her. "A world, which has long enjoyed peace, is being threatened by the oppressive Demon King and his army. Everyone lives in fear of the terror he inspires!"

Viktoriya sat, transfixed. It sounded like this world was suffering, much like the Russy Federation's people had under the harsh hand of communism.

"Since that's the sort of world it is, no one wants to be reborn, and the population is declining. So we decided to send people born in other worlds to oppose him," she said as the light above her faded.

Viktoriya nodded, and vengeful rage sprung to life once more. Whether or not Tanya had decided to go there, she needed to.

She hadn't seen her homeland freed, even if the Empire had been close to finishing the fight. She'd settle the score with someone who seemed just as bad as the communist rats had been.

"Also, the Gods will be doing you a big favor by sending you down with any one item of your choosing," she said.

Viktoriya nodded thoughtfully. Powerful equipment would be extremely helpful, if Tanya's mysterious Type 95 was anything to go by. Having something like that of her own was tempting.

Viktoriya hopped out of the chair. "Where do I sign?"

The woman grinned again and shook her head. "While you don't have to sign anything, there is a contract."

She presented a pamphlet to her that made Viktoriya wonder how she had pockets on such… revealing clothing At least, it was revealing compared to their uniforms-

She shook her head. This was not the time. Viktoriya took the pamphlet and began to read some of it.

The title proclaimed: "Contract of Reincarnation and Opposition to the Demon King" in bold lettering, while a smaller line underneath the title said, "and The Atheist."

Viktoriya looked up. "The Atheist?"

The Goddess's face, wonderfully beautiful until that point, became a twisted pout. "Yes. They were someone we reincarnated mistakenly, around two months ago, in the time of the world you're going to. They have two of our relics, and they might join the Demon King. They both need to be killed."

Viktoriya nodded. The Colonel wouldn't forgive her for not trying to understand everything about her situation that she could.

She sat back down in the chair, cracking her knuckles. She had questions she wanted answered.

-OxOxO-

Aqua suppressed another groan. This-

This time-wasting, breast-padding bitch!

She had asked question after question, going on and on for over half an hour, and that had been before Aqua had shown her the relics.

Couldn't this girl tell that she, the magnificent and beautiful Aqua, had other people she needed to attend to?

Sure, the souls that were awaiting her guidance wouldn't be cognizant of anything until she met them, but what did that matter? She wanted to get done with her work so she could watch some anime!

She looked at the girl again. Aqua didn't know why she was trying so hard.

She had died while fighting, not doing the action itself. She hadn't even shot that many people!

Aqua suppressed another round of laughter at the thought of the girl's death. She had only taken out as many enemies as she had because the anger-fueled mana overloaded her 'Computation Jewel' and detonated it.

While laughing at the girl's death might have been stress relieving, it also might have alienated the girl, which she had been told not to do, since the Boss had gone through all the trouble of raising the age and expanding the number of places she got souls from.

Plus, with how many Hero Candidates were rejecting the contract, they couldn't keep sending down people without being sure they'd follow the guidance of the Gods.

They'd sent a number of people through who… probably didn't have the karma necessary for anything more than a few centuries of purgatory, all in the hope that their fanatical devotion to Heaven would stop them from reneging on the contract.

Eyes felt up the woman as she continued to sort through the various pieces of paper and card in front of her. She was certainly nice on the eyes, if nothing else, but those breasts…

Aqua glared at them enviously, even as contained as they were by the girl's restrictive clothing. She had to be wearing padding to make them look bigger than hers. Just like Eris.

No one was as pretty as her!

Grumbling, Aqua summoned a bag of chips and began to snack. Napping on the job had been banned.

Or, napping on this job had been banned, since The Atheist had been the one to suggest the idea. She sat there, waiting and answering questions and waiting and answering more stupid questions!

She sighed internally. At least Aqua had been able to mitigate how important The Atheist was. A few words of assurance had totally convinced this girl – like all the others – that they wouldn't have to worry about them, as long as they had a cheat item.

She was sure none of them, no matter how devoted to Heaven, would try and fight that crazy bitch if they knew who she was.

Finally, after nearly another half hour of waiting, the girl finished. Standing up, she walked to Aqua holding up a piece of paper. "I'll have this skill, please!"

Sighing in relief, Aqua stretched her arms, grumbling about the indignity of having to wait an hour. She stole the paper from the woman's grip, slapped it down on the table, and watched as it disappeared. As it left, a large magic circle appeared beneath the girl, and she gasped.

Happy that someone seemed to be in awe of her power, she quickly handed a bag of Eris over to the woman.

Watching the girl rise, Aqua marveled at her apparent ease in the air. Many of those she reincarnated panicked as they rose, but she didn't.

As she rose up, Viktoriya called down, "Thank you, Aqua!"

Aqua smirked, and began the last portion of her speech.

"Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. You will now be sent to the new world, as one of the candidates who will defeat the Demon King. If you do, you'll get a gift from the Gods."

Viktoriya blinked. A gift beyond being able to live again? "A gift?"

Aqua smiled. "Yes. The Gods will grant any one thing you ask."

Viktoriya gasped. If Tanya was dead…

She could wish for her back!

"Don't worry, Colonel! I'll defeat this Demon King, and I'll save you too!"

With that, the floating woman disappeared. Aqua sighed in relief, releasing a bit of pent up stress. She had another hour before she would be required to talk to another human.

She didn't know how long it would take to keep up the increased workload without taking out a bit of stress on the hapless humans, but she was sure it would happen eventually.

She didn't have anything against them, but she couldn't even berate her underlings anymore. Not since that incident.

All of them except for Eris would just bring up what had happened, and then they'd begin to laugh at her while she denied being the only person at fault.

Besides, the Boss took out his anger on The Atheist all the time. She could certainly do it to a few humans she'd only see once, right?

Aqua settled into her chair and smacked the table by her side. A TV soon sprang into being in front of her, and, unaware of the boon she'd just delivered to Tanya, began to watch a bit of daytime television.