Deus lo vult

Deus lo vult is the 1st volume in the Youjo Senki Light Novel series.

Short Summary
There is a child whose name become notorious and infamous.

Will she succeed of carrying own life against the tyranny of the world and God?

Chapter O: Prologue
The book opens with the birth of Tanya, described in the second person. It is only when Tanya is being spoon-fed and the food ends up in the narrator's mouth, that they come to realise that Tanya is not someone else, but is in actuality, themselves. "Why me?"

The themes and philosophy of the story begins to be expounded upon with a summary of the Stanford Prison Experiment, making a brief mention of the Milgram Experiment. The implication of this research is summarised like so: people act according to their environment, they take on roles and work within the rules given to succeed, they perceive those that do not as being lower than them. Anyone could have been a guard at Auschwitz, given the right environment to see them take on the role.

Thus begins a recap of the narrator's life. Incorporating the elements of roles and environment. The narrator realises that to achieve a level of income similar to their parents, they must attend a good university and then find a decent job. Those are the rules presented in 21st century Japan, and there are but two roles given to elementary school children: good kids and bad kids. All of the kids want to be good, and so the bad kids are looked down upon. These roles evolve into the roles of the good student and the bad student. The good student works hard to keep themselves afloat while looking down upon the bad students. Our narrator is one of those good students, but not one of the excellent ones. In university, the narrator discovers the Chicago School of thought that, to them, explains the relationship between rules and freedom. Again, not being one of the truly gifted people of the world, when it comes to the post-graduation job hunt, the narrator uses their cunning and connections to find a good position. They accept the role of corporate slave and adapt to that role and environment to work efficiently and effectively. They do this in the pursuit of freedom, that is, to have both the time and money required to enjoy free time away from work. It's not that they love their job, it's their freedom they value first and foremost. As the years pass by, the narrator becomes very well acclimated to that role of the faithful corporate drone and their income begins to match that of their parents. They are succeeding in that role, and to do so, they just have to take care of the incompetents on the other side of the divide. Good kids and bad kids, guards and prisoners, competent and incompetent.

Despite the warning of their director to watch their back at the station, they don't heed this warning, and they find their life suddenly cut short from being shoved into the path of an incoming train on the Yamanote line (at the hands of the employee they just mercilessly laid off). And suddenly, the narrator meets an otherworldly existence.

That existence refers to themselves as the creator, but our narrator deems them to be Being X, certainly not a god. After all, if god existed, there's no way he would overlook all the injustice in the world. But Being X is despairing. The current state of the world means that humanity is losing its faith. After a back and forth argument between the narrator and Being X, the narrator digs their own grave. “So you don’t believe because you were born male, in a world of science, in an era of peace?”

And thus the narrator is cast into the exact opposite of that scenario.

June, Unified Year 1923, Third Patrol Line, Norden Theater, Northern Military District
Magic Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff, having graduated the military academy mere days ago, is acting as an artillery observer at the northerly border between the Empire and the Entente Alliance under the callsign Fairy 08.

It's June of Unified Year 1923. Tanya is just 9 years old. A girl as young as her has been allowed to enlist because the Empire has no age requirements for aerial mages, and considers magical aptitude to be a sufficient condition for enlistment. Securing the military strength necessary to face enemies in every direction is a priority to the Empire. Tanya surmises that the General Staff has reached the point where they are happy to exploit anyone within reach.

The Empire and the Entente Alliance have been struggling with unofficial border conflicts for some time. Multiple isolated incidents have occurred along the border where 'unintentional' fire has sparked firefights due to misunderstandings. While the incidents were dealt with on a local level and resolved, it is apparent that tension has been mounting at the border.

Less than 24 hours ago, emergency warnings from outposts scattered along the border indicated that there were signs that the Entente Alliance was planning to conduct a large-scale cross-border operation.

The political situation in the Entente Alliance had already been cause for concern for the Empire. There had been a marked rise in nationalism, and now that doctrine had come to fruition: The Alliance was at the border, demanding that the Empire withdraw. A declaration of war.

As a result, the Empire had gone by-the-book and prepared to intercept enemy forces. But such an action from the Alliance seemed rather unrealistic. The border between the Empire and the Alliance was right on the Federation's doorstep, and the Commonwealth and the Republic had been supporting the Alliance for some time. The vast majority of military officers and soldiers believed that one of these major powers would put the brakes on the Alliance's seemingly suicidal advance.

Yet, the non-sensical and ill-advised offensive, lacking a single shred of justification, went ahead regardless. The Alliance crossed the border, and the Empire declared war in response.

For Tanya, it's a one-in-a-million chance to get herself on the promotion track, fighting a totally one-sided battle, as well as a chance to become properly recognised as an imperial mage and not just a little girl who happens to be in the mage corps.

Lieutenant Colonel Anson Sue, a skilled Entente Alliance aerial mage, laments the absurd actions of the politicians who incited the conflict. It seems the possibility of war was scarcely considered a possibility. His battalion moves to assist the retreat of the Alliance forces. To do so, Sue decides the most practical support his battalion could offer would be to eliminate the Empire's artillery observers and interfere with the Empire's bombardment of the Alliance forces.

Sue's forces break through the aerial warning line, and a theater warning is hastily issued. The rules of engagement are transitioned from border patrol to mobile air defense. The Empire's aerial mages that had been placed on standby move to intercept them. But Sue’s men push through the intercepting imperial mages to focus on the imperial artillery observers. They leave a handful of men behind to secure their escape route and move to engage Tanya.

The battle is going well. The Empire’s bombardment of the Alliance’s ground forces is proving effective, and they are dominating the battlefield. However, with the company of Alliance mages encroaching on the area currently placed under Tanya’s supervision, she worries that allowing them to break through here would go down as the one and only black mark on the battle, and make her stand out as being exceptionally incompetent. After being denied permission to withdraw from the area and doubting that she can defeat the company of Alliance mages before imperial reinforcements arrive, she decides that for the purposes of her career, and therefore her survival, she has to at least give the appearance of fighting with everything she has. "I won’t go down alone. I’ve made up my mind. If we’re gonna die, we’re all going together."

- Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff

Cursing her bad luck, Tanya resolves not to go down alone. If she’s going to die, then she’s going to drag the enemy along with her.

Tanya makes preparations for her ‘unavoidable’ but ‘honorable’ loss. The ideal scenario for her is to get shot down near friendly forces, while still giving off the impression of having fought hard. To that end, she starts to seemingly rejoice over her radio at the opportunity to directly engage the enemy, before ditching the heavy airman’s radio set in preparation for direct aerial combat. She engages Sue’s men, downing two of them and severely injuring one. As her final attack, Tanya self-destructs her computation orb, having succeeded in delaying Sue’s forces until the Imperial reinforcements were close-by.

Imperial Capital Berun, Imperial Army General Staff Office, Personnel Division, Section Chief Office
Major von Lergen of the Imperial Army’s Personnel Division is reviewing suggestions for distinctions and medals. One such nomination is for Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff to receive the Silver Wings Assault Badge, in addition to being assigned the alias ‘White Silver’, in recognition of outstanding bravery during the battle in Norden.

However, von Lergen knows of Tanya from her time in the military academy. On one occasion, Tanya, acting as a First-Class Mentor for the other students at the academy, moved to execute one of her subordinates on the spot for insubordination, as dictated by military law. To von Lergen, Tanya is a dangerous element, an outstanding officer, but lacking in humanity. He fears giving such an award to Tanya, because of the clout and prestige that come with the Silver Wings.

Eventually, he comes to a decision. Tanya represents a child turned into a perfect weapon. To him, such a thing is terrifying. But the only thing to do with such a weapon is to turn it on the enemy. "I’ll support you however I can to make certain you can fight. I’ll do all of that. So please, I’m begging you, fight on the front."

- Major Erich von Lergen

Tanya’s award is approved and handed down by the General Staff with unprecedented speed.

Same Day, Imperial Army General Staff Office, War Room
Brigadier General von Rudersdorf, Brigadier General von Zettour and chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General von Ludwig are debating what steps the Empire should take next in regards to the war with the Entente Alliance. Lieutenant General von Ludwig advocates for a major mobilisation of forces against the Alliance, arguing that as none of the other major powers show signs of mobilising, this is the best opportunity the Empire will get to stamp out their Northern problem for good. Rudersdorf and Zettour argue that such a committed mobilisation is unnecessary as the war is already going well, and would deprive the Empire of the flexibility to maintain their internal defense strategy: Plan 315. Plan 315, sometimes referred to as the Interior Lines strategy, is a finely tuned defense plan for the Empire, which is the only of the world’s major powers to be completely encircled by the other major powers. The plan focuses on the efficient transport of troops and supplies across the Empire to delay enemy forces, while a larger main force moves to crush the enemy. This plan is the only plan the Empire could come up with that gives them even a good chance of defeating two or more major powers. It relies on impeccable coordination and timing. Thus, Rudersdorf and Zettour worry that a major mobilisation on the Alliance would come at the cost of Plan 315, and therefore, the Empire’s entire defense strategy.

But the opportunity to break free of encirclement for the first time in the Empire’s history is just too good to pass up.

The Empire’s main force advances north, aiming to take care of the Entente Alliance once and for all.

Airspace Over Kruskos Army Air Corps Testing Lab
After recovering from her injury sustained during the Norden Incident, Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff has been reassigned to the domestic combat instructor unit. To Tanya, it seems like the perfect assignment, except for the fact that the instructor unit part is just a formality. In reality, Tanya has been loaned from the instructor unit to headquarters as technology inspection personnel, working to develop a prototype computation orb.

Unfortunately, that orb is the extremely ambitious Elinium Arms Type 95 computation orb. A computation orb so advanced it could be considered to be more advanced than ‘next-next-gen’. The Type 95 has four synchronised computation cores, requiring at least 4 times the mana to operate in addition to exponentially more precision and delicacy.

The orb is fragile and dangerous, it’s prone to exploding and it’s very difficult to use properly. Tanya makes a conservative estimate that the Type 95 consumes at least 6 times the amount of mana that the current standard-issue computation orb does. However, even in this state, the Type 95 is revolutionary. Chief Engineer Dr. Adelheid von Schugel has successfully managed to synchronise and miniaturise a computation orb with 4 cores. Theoretically, the orb is capable of allowing flight up to 18,000 feet (the current standard-issue computation orb has a limit of 6,000 feet), as well as being capable of mana fixation, something which is thought to be possible on paper, but that no one has ever managed to achieve in practice.

Tanya and von Schugel frequently clash over the development of the orb. Schugel believes his orb to be brilliant, but that Tanya is just not using it right. Tanya believes the orb to be a piece of unreliable, defective junk, that while revolutionary, is totally impractical for use in combat. After having the Type 95 meltdown once again, Tanya has had enough and resolves to submit a transfer request the same day.

Imperial Army Supply and Logistics Headquarters, Technology Division
The Technology Division considers Tanya’s transfer request and deliberates over axing the Type 95 project.

The Type 95 is revolutionary, but is it too revolutionary to be practical? Should the project be allowed to continue guzzling up funds? Why was Tanya specifically chosen to test the Type 95?

On the request form, Schugel’s reason for requesting Tanya becomes clear. She’s a skilled mage who isn’t set in her ways using conventional computation orbs. The Technology Division realises the implications of this reason: that they wouldn’t be able to train and outfit existing mages with the Type 95 were it to be completed. "From the looks of it, we’re not ready for synchronization technology yet."

- Unknown Officer of the Imperial Army’s Technology Division

Further development on the Type 95 is halted.

Beyond the Realm of Perception
The gods of the many worlds are faced with a problem. While trying to encourage humanity’s self-reliance so that they can achieve higher-order cognition, doing so has resulted in a lack of faith. Time and time again, the development of the natural sciences seeks to reach the realm of the gods, but then results in declining faith as more and more phenomena are explained away.

The cherubim suggest the creation of another holy relic, but many have already been bestowed upon humanity. Most of them had ended up as decorations. But the gods resolved to try bestowing a miracle where one was needed to boost the faith of mankind.

And one such case of someone needing a miracle had already presented itself. There was a human researching an item just a step from the godly realm, in other words, a singularity. Given a thousand years, it could be successful.

The gods would bestow a miracle and make it successful.

Kruskos Army Air Corps Testing Lab
As a result of Tanya’s transfer request, the Type 95 project has had further funding suspended, and Tanya is to be returned to the instructor unit. However, with the knowledge that the project is to be frozen, the engineers have decided to carry out the tests previously deemed too unlikely to succeed. Tanya is to attempt mana fixation using the Type 95, the ultimate goal of the project.

Dr. Adelheid von Schugel has changed. Suddenly, he claims to have received a divine revelation and has begun to exercise such alien traits as humility and respectfulness. Standing side-by-side with Tanya to conduct the final experiment, he reveals his great revelation: "That’s right. If we say a prayer to God for success, those who believe in him shall be saved."

- Dr. Adelheid von Schugel

Tanya starts pouring mana into the Type 95 to conduct the experiment, but the cores start running amok. None of the safety features are working. Tanya has no choice but to keep supplying mana to the orb to delay its destruction, but delaying is all she can do.

Suddenly, a god reveals themselves to Tanya. This time, it’s a more dignified existence that Being X. They inform Tanya that a miracle is to occur. They will bless the Type 95, and it will bring forth such miracles that words of prayer will naturally flow from her mouth.

And that’s exactly what happens. The experiment is completed successfully. The Type 95 works. Words of prayer come pouring from Tanya’s mouth whenever she uses it, irrespective of her will.

Tanya wants nothing more than to move onto the next assignment, and just in time, the François Republic to the west declares war on the Empire.

The Rhine Front
Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff has been ordered to fly solo, on the front lines, as part of the airborne early warning team. Her job is to fly ahead, search for enemies and notify the friendly advancing troops. But she doesn’t have much time to carry out these duties, as she is quickly engaged by a company-sized group of mages (around 12 mages). The scenario previously envisioned by Brigadier Generals Zettour and Rudersdorf in Chapter 1 has come to fruition. The Empire’s major mobilisation of troops to the north has left the Empire vulnerable to attack from another front, and the François Republic took advantage of this and began a pre-emptive strike of its own. To the Republic, the fall of the Entente Alliance and the end of the complete encirclement of the Empire would be an untenable outcome. Just as the Empire has a plan for winning a war on multiple fronts, the other world powers, including the Republic, have a plan to counter this. But their Exterior Lines strategy requires a multi-front war, aiming to pin the Empire’s main force to one front and then to surround it from every front. That means that the Empire’s mobilisation of their main force to the north meets one of the requirements of the Exterior Lines strategy. But if they win against the Entente Alliance, the strength of the plan will be irreversibly weakened. To the Republic, just like the Empire with the Alliance, now is the moment to strike.

But the Republic have been unable to cleanly break through the Western front. The Empire’s Western Army Group has managed to carry out their responsibility under the Interior Lines strategy by delaying the advance of the Republic. But their defense isn’t going to last much longer. With the main force still deployed to the north, normally desperate measures have been implemented. That means deploying units that would normally be in the rear, such as instructors and technology personnel. As an instructor, Tanya has been sent to the Western front.

The company-sized group of mages, the Republic’s 228th Reconnaissance Mage Company, chases after Tanya, who has climbed to 8,000 feet. Tanya manages to dodge their volleys of formulas, seemingly effortlessly, and shrugs off hits from sharpshooting formulas with the power of her Type 95 computation orb. The Republican mages attempt to execute the Named Killer, a famous tradition of the Republic that aims to take out Named mages using six sharpshooting formulas while using an explosion formula as a smoke screen. But even the Named Killer fails to down Tanya. The Republican company leader makes an emergency call over the radio. They’ve encountered an unknown Named mage and request reinforcements as well as permission to return to base.

Registered Mages, also known as Named, are mages of such skill and strength that they are given names and registered as formidable adversaries by foreign armies. In the mage world, if you shot down five enemy mages, you were called an ace, and when your score hit fifty, you’d be recognized as an Ace of Aces. Units with six or more aces or individual mages with over thirty kills crossed a threshold. Crossing that threshold means being registered and becoming a Named mage.

The mage that the 228th had come across hadn’t been registered, but they were clearly a mage of significant skill and threat.

Imperial Army Technology Research Lab Board of Review
The Type 95 has been given to Tanya for continued field testing, and the results continue to amaze. She essentially took out an entire company of Republican mages by herself. The General Staff are excited with the results and wonder why the project was halted. However, the engineering team put a rain on their parade with the simple fact that Tanya is the only case of someone who has managed to use the Type 95 successfully. They simply don’t understand the Type 95, and the reasons behind the sudden stabilisation of the orb during the mana fixation are frustratingly opaque. Even the Type 95’s chief engineer, Dr. Adelheid von Schugel doesn’t want to continue development, declaring that going any further with the project would be blasphemy to God.

It's clear that the Type 95 is miraculous is more than one way, and so there’s only one thing the General Staff can do. "It might be better to just glorify Lieutenant Degurechaff as a hero."

- Unknown Officer of the General Staff

Cadet Corps Dormitory
Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, Visha to her friends, is fresh out of the Cadet Corps. While, in general, enlisting in the Cadet Corps is voluntary, Serebryakov was eligible to become a mage and thus was forced to enlist. While she was initially bitter about being drafted, she felt she couldn’t stay mad after becoming good friends with a fellow cadet, Elya.

Serebryakov, as her name might suggest, was born in the Russy Federation, but fled when she was very young to live with relatives in the Empire (presumably after the Federation became communist). That’s why fighting for the Empire feels a little strange to her.

Having been sent to the Rhine Front, today is the last day she will enjoy spending time with Elya, as today is also the day both of them will be assigned to their respective combat units. Elya, ever in the know, seems to know exactly where the two of them will be assigned to. She’ll be serving as an artillery observer, and Serebryakov will be assigned to a platoon led by a veteran mage with the Silver Wings Assault Badge.

While Elya jokes that she will be relaxing and making tea in the rear, Serebryakov is taken aback by the fact that her platoon leader has earned such a prestigious award and lived to tell the tale. "But wow, someone who is still alive got the Silver Wings Assault Badge… An awesome imperial soldier? More like an awesome human being."

- Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov

(A Few Days Earlier) Imperial Capital Berun
Tanya is being reassigned from the Instructor Unit. She is to be leader of the 205th Assault Mage Company’s Third Platoon, and as a little bonus, is awarded the Aerial Assault Badge. She packs up her clothes (which consist only of her made-to-order uniforms) and belongings and departs immediately for the Western Front.

After touching down, she meets with her company commander, First Lieutenant Ihlen Schwarkopf. Schwarkopf is somewhat sceptical about a girl as young as Tanya, with no experience leading a platoon, being able to lead a platoon made up entirely of recruits who are fresh out of the Cadet Corps. But Tanya meets his scepticism with absolute confidence. "Please give me the order. I will give you results."

- Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff

Schwarkopf chooses to trust Tanya, after all, a living recipient of the Silver Wings is worth at least that much trust. To her, it seems the entire value of her existence is summed up with that one badge. Moving on, Tanya and Schwarkopf discuss the current state of the Rhine Front.

The Empire is still committed to the Northern Front, and in the best-case scenario, would still take two weeks to move the Great Army to the west. As a result, the Western Army Group has given up on delaying the Republic and is instead switching to a mobile defense strategy. The 205th Assault Mage Company has been chosen as a mobile strike force. Basically, that means the 205th will have the job of rushing around the place and counterattacking where needed, in other words, putting out fires. And much to Tanya’s displeasure, the mobile strike force she’s part of will be sortieing from the forward-most line, it’s a dangerous assignment. "This is the worst."

- Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff

Tanya’s assignment is as follows: Leading a platoon of recruits as part of a mobile strike force, sortieing from the forward-most line, counterattacking to repulse the enemy, and to top it all off, they are prohibited from abandoning their position. Their options are victory or Valhalla.

Same Day, Rhine Front
Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov is waiting to be introduced to her platoon leader, the living recipient of the Silver Wings Assault Badge, Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff. Her first impression of Tanya is: “Vampire”. "Her skin was so white she looked sick, and her sharp eyes seemed to loathe the sun. It was quite a shock."

- Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov

The other 2 members of Serebryakov’s platoon are the first to introduce themselves, Corporals Walhorf and Vist, two volunteers. It’s Serebryakov’s turn next, but she is feeling somewhat embarrassed that the details of her last assignment will give away the fact she was conscripted. But Tanya’s response surprises her. "You have my respect for fulfilling your obligations, Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. It’ll be tough, but do your best to survive."

- Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff

Eventually, the two volunteer corporals prove to be too rebellious to take care of on the front lines, and they are assigned to defend the company’s base in the rear. Serebryakov remains as the sole member of Tanya’s platoon, and the two fly together on the front lines.

Present Day, The Rhine Front
The 205th Assault Mage Company is performing well as a mobile strike force. Together with well-coordinated strikes from artillery, the company is proving effective at repulsing Republican attacks. Tanya laments the loss of human resources that war brings about while attacking the Republic’s ground forces with a barrage of formulas. Corporal Serebryakov is making progress, now she moves like a totally different mage and maintains her defensive shell even under rifle fire.

Serebryakov, on the other hand, participates in combat in somewhat of a daze. She scatters formulas at random, hoping to avoid having to open fire on retreating troops. "Of course, as Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov, I should shoot, but as Visha, I have no motive."

- Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov

Returning to base, the company settles down for the night. But they are roused by Lieutenant Schwarkopf with an urgent message. The 403rd Assault Mage Company, tasked with handling the next enemy wave, has suddenly been engaged by two penetrating companies of Republican mages. The 205th’s task is to rendezvous with the 403rd, provide support and rescue the friendly artillery observer currently under attack. Tanya objects to the rescue under the grounds that Serebryakov seems to be at her limits. However, Serebryakov realises the dangerous nature of being an artillery observer. Thinking of her friend Elya, also assigned to be an observer, she comes to the resolution that she has to save the friendly artillery observer currently in trouble. Serebryakov, with newfound determination, volunteers for the mission, leaving Tanya seemingly astonished. Serebryakov begins to think that Tanya is a little more emotional than she lets on. "It was weird to realize just then how unexpectedly important I was to her. And it was a bit late in the game, but it also struck me what a young girl it was taking care of me."

- Corporal Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov

And so Tanya shows Visha an admiring smile, one that she returns, firm in her resolution to not abandon anyone.

Unfortunately, the friendly artillery observer is downed before the 205th are able to rescue them. However, the 205th are already in range of the two Republican mage companies. Turning tail means risking a pursuit, while taking the initiative and striking now means facing an enemy on their way to exhaustion. So, the 205th decide to engage the Republican mages. 2 companies of mages means six platoons to deal with. Tanya tells the mages accompanying her, Corporal Serebryakov, Sergeant Schones and one other that she will take on three platoons while the three of them take on the other three companies with the rest of the 205th.

Schones jokingly asks if Tanya is trying to monopolise the title of ace, to which Tanya responds that if she takes out ten more mages, she’ll get a bonus and vacation time in the rear. This reward is given to any mage who manages to down 50 other mages, while Tanya’s memory has been muddied from using the Type 95, her confirmed count of enemies downed is currently sitting at 40.

Tanya remarks that war is only fun when you’re winning, and Serebryakov takes the rare and unexpected step of joining Tanya and Schones’ conversation to ask if Tanya doesn’t like the war either. Tanya responds that even she prefers a quiet life. Among the four of them, Tanya makes a bet, if they can down more than Tanya does, she’ll steal Schwarkopf’s secret wine stash. Schones and the others put their allowance for the day on the line. And with that, Tanya ascends to 12,000 feet to engage the Republican mages.

The Republican mage companies, among the Republic’s finest, take fire from Tanya’s superior altitude and can scarcely believe that it is a mage and not a fighter plane that’s engaging them. They ascend to 8,000 feet. If they don’t take out Tanya, their ground forces won’t be able to escape, so the company focuses all of their fire on Tanya. But as they move to engage the mage who is firing upon them, they get a hit for the target’s mana signature in the Republican library. They are taking on a Named mage, the Devil of the Rhine, registered as having taking down more than 60 Republican mages.

Tanya, not expecting the Republican mages to come charging straight at her, shifts from using sharpshooting formulas and prepares to use mana fixation to cause a massive spatial detonation. Requesting a theater warning from command, she decides to try negotiating with the Republican mages and try and avoid having to fight. Switching to an open channel, she tries to ask questions that sound innocuous enough to anyone listening, yet leave room to encourage the Republican mages to surrender or retreat. However, the only response she receives from them is a volley of formulas, and so she resigns herself to causing a massive spatial detonation to eliminate as many of them as possible. After CP issues the theater warning, she unleashes the huge explosion, single-handedly annihilating the Republic’s 106th and 107th Reconnaissance Mage Companies, two elite Named units.

In the Aftermath of the Rescue Operation, François Republic
The Republic’s tactical council has been assembled in the wake of the annihilation of the Republic’s 106th and 107th Reconnaissance Mage Companies. An investigation of logs from recovered Computation Orbs and the few rescued survivors reveals a Named Imperial mage with capabilities far beyond what was thought possible. That mage is equipped with an unknown Computation Orb. That mage flies at 12,000 feet and shrugs off direct hits. That mage is capable of mana fixation. That mage is the Devil of the Rhine.

That mage is Magic Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff. "…Dear God, have mercy on our souls."

- Unknown Officer of the François Republic

Imperial War College Admissions Committee
The Imperial War College Admission Committee is conducting their third round of reviews. The committee traditionally conducts three rounds of reviews for admissions, to ensure that exceptional candidates are not dismissed as being unfit. The process has produced great results before and in fact, Zettour and Rudersdorf, now entrusted with the future of the army, were both selected for admission in the second round.

But before business as usual can commence, Major von Lergen from the Personnel department has lodged a request for re-evaluation of a candidate who was approved in the first round of reviews. The candidate was given a ‘Superior’ rating in the review, which was carried out anonymously to ensure impartiality. And yet, von Lergen is raising doubts about the top candidate.

As far as the selection criteria goes, the candidate has exceeded all expectations. No objections even from the extremely particular Intelligence and military police departments. There’s only one word for this candidate, ‘brilliant’.

But von Lergen still objects, and so he reveals the identity of the top candidate. Magic First Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff, eleven years old. Her age is enough to give the admissions committee pause. Is she really capable of large-scale strategic thinking? But her graduation thesis she produced in the Academy, ‘The Logistics of Swift Deployment’, is plenty proof that she is. That thesis was thought very highly of by the Railroad Department, and demonstrated a solid grasp on operational logistics.

But von Lergen isn’t objecting on the grounds of Tanya’s age. Lergen is still deeply unsettled by what he saw during her time at the Academy, specifically, that incident where she moved to execute one of her subordinates on the grounds of insubordination. "She’s abnormal. I’ve never seen an officer candidate with a fully formed personality and perspective who regards people as objects."

- Major Erich von Lergen

One only needs to take a look at the remarks written by Tanya’s instructor at the Academy to see the word ‘abnormal’ scribbled at the top of the page. Itself an abnormal comment to make.

There’s more. Tanya had previously been submitted as a candidate for admission to the War College, but was denied by von Lergen in light of her lack of experience. And then there’s one more peculiar nomination she was put forward for. A recommendation for her to receive the Iron Cross Second Class, submitted during her field training. In other words, there are indications that she saw actual combat before even being commissioned as a second lieutenant.

The committee is unshaken by Lergen’s concerns about her behavior. Coming down hard on new recruits wasn’t exactly unusual. Instead, the committee sees Lergen’s objection as being an indirect way of criticising the actions of Intelligence, and contrary to his intentions, no one tries to stop Tanya’s admission to the Imperial War College.

Imperial Capital Berun
Tanya’s days on the Rhine Front have come to an end. After being promoted to first lieutenant and admitted to War College, First Lieutenant Schwarkopf assures her that he will recommend Corporal Serebryakov for the officer track so that Tanya can attend the War College with no worries. To Tanya, that means saving her the effort of having to act like she cares about her subordinate. And so, Tanya’s golden opportunity arrives. In the rear, career track laid out in front of her and with plenty of opportunities to market her value to the kind of important people who can make sure it stays that way.

Tanya keeps her rifle and computation orb close-by, as she’s started to feel somewhat incomplete without them. After all, she doesn’t know when she’ll have to kill a mad scientist or get the opportunity to kill Being X. She’s gotten into the routine of leaving her rifle and one of her computation orbs with the commander of the college guards. And as another way to fight back against Being X and the mind contamination she suffers from using the Type 95, she attends church every morning to fixate on her hatred of the self-proclaimed god. But unbeknownst to her, that serious sort of behaviour is earning her respect in the minds of some of those around her. One Sunday, Tanya has come to the War College to make use of its library. Fearing for her career after the war is over, she makes use of the library to educate herself on the law, aiming to join the legal profession once war is no longer a viable occupation. Well, that’s what she was intending to do today, but her diligence has paid off and results in a chance encounter with Brigadier General Hans von Zettour.

Zettour is interested in Tanya, having heard quite a bit about her. Perhaps unexpectedly, he asks Tanya for her thoughts about how the war is going to turn out. Tanya is reluctant to say too much and damage her reputation, but saying nothing would be just as worse. Drawing on her knowledge of the previous world, she predicts that the other major powers will join the war to prevent the creation of a dominant state, and the war will become a world war.

Zettour is intrigued, and asks Tanya how she thinks such a war should be handled. She proposes that the Empire should focus on attrition of enemy human resources to rob their enemies of the ability to continue fighting. In addition, she proposes switching the Empire’s main strategy to infantry defense and mage offense. Zettour points out that mages aren’t suited for capturing positions, but Tanya points out that the objective would be to eliminate enemy soldiers, not to capture positions. "As such, I’m convinced our main purpose should be to exhaust enemy soldiers with tactical disruption and penetrating raids from aerial mages."

- First Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff

Finally, Zettour asks Tanya that if, hypothetically, she was to use mages to carry out this strategy, just how many would she want? Tanya replies that a battalion should suffice.

It’s just a hypothetical, for now.

The Imperial Capital, at the Desk of the Deputy Director of the Service Corps in the General Staff
Zettour has been sitting at his desk ever since he returned from the War College, notes scattered all around him, his eyes bloodshot. He just cannot shake the words of the pint-sized lieutenant he met earlier that day. Tanya has managed to put into words what was previously just a vague feeling in Zettour and Rudersdorf’s heads. A world war resulting in total war. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t find a hole in that theory. And so he considers the implications of her being right, if the Empire really did have to go to war against the world. "If that happens, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give her a battalion. If we can’t win unless we go insane, then we’ll just have to do that."

- Brigadier General Hans von Zettour

Meanwhile, Major von Lergen has been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and reassigned to the Operations Division of the General Staff. He reports to the deputy director of the division, General Kurt von Rudersdorf, where he quickly receives his new orders. He is to travel to the northern front and assess the situation there. Once he has done so, he is to travel to the western front. The purpose of these visits is to decide on which front to settle.

Those members of the General Staff who advocated for a large scale mobilisation to the north have been dismissed or demoted, acting as a tailwind for the rapid promotion of new talent, von Lergen included. Just before Lergen heads out to the northern front, Rudersdorf gives him a paper to read, one that Zettour passed along.

While von Lergen rides in his first-class cabin to the northern front, he takes out the paper and begins reading it. The paper is titled ‘Predictions on the Shape and Direction of the Current War’, and it makes the case that the present conflict will inevitably escalate into a global conflict. A world war. And the Empire will be driven to engaging in total war, that is, mobilising all of the resources of society to fight the war. "I should be somehow familiar with both total war and world war. Er, there’s no way I could be familiar with awful things like that, but I definitely have some memory of them. It’s like I have a memory in some other sense…"

- Lieutenant Colonel Erich von Lergen

The argument is believable, yet mysteriously familiar. It’s like Lergen has seen some part of this before, but he just can’t quite recall the memory…

In the Mountains of Mainen
First Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff is on the traditional staff trip as part of her military education. Interestingly, as one of the few female officers in the rear, the regulations about how a female officer is to be treated are quite antiquated. To be specific, the regulations were written with the treatment of an imperial princess and her attendants in mind, meaning that Tanya gets to sleep in a bed while the other male officers sleep in pile in a trench they themselves had to dig.

But she doesn’t get off easy on everything. She’s hiking through the mountains, carrying over fifty kilograms of equipment. On top of that, their instructor is mercilessly quizzing the officers over what orders they would give in hypothetical combat scenarios. One such hypothetical scenario is the presence of an enemy defensive firing position on a hill in front of them. One of Tanya’s fellow officers is asked to propose a strategy, but the only suggestion he can come up with is to move around the position, a task that is impossible given the steep terrain of the mountain they are on.

The instructor demands Tanya come up with a strategy to tackle the firing position. She suggests taking the emplacement with mages and infantry, but the instructor asks her to suppose she only has infantry. But in those conditions, Tanya can’t come up with an effective plan.

Instead, she informs the instructor that she thinks capturing the emplacement to be impossible, or at the very least, costly and impractical.

The instructor says he’ll take a note of it, and the march continues. Tanya hopes getting noted doesn’t turn out to be a bad thing for her.