“The Imperial Ygeia Company, by the charter of the Imperial Government of Virtus, shall be formed to operate in the Principality of Ygeia and facilitate its economic development for the interests of the Virtus State. To the people of Ygeia, let it be known that we have one motto. To face the sea for the triumph of mankind.”

- Declaration of IYC takeover over the Principality of Ygeia.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Rousselot City

JUL 20, 1538 CE

Day and night had already rapidly passed in Hans’ and Adelyn’s stay in Rousselot City. Quite frankly, it was all time for Hans and Adelyn to acclimatize at least with the new world that they found themselves in. One month. For one month, Hans and Adelyn had been here, forging bonds, alliances, and agreements with the locality.

Adelyn’s grand strategy was hers though. Hans had resigned himself to his normal job as her secondary officer. Those jobs were the maintenance of both his and Adelyn’s Wanderpanzers, the vigilant surveillance of any and all immediate threats to them in this city, though, they somehow lacked that, and if anything, Rousselot City was becoming their greatest ally by proxy to their unofficial service to the ruling lord. And of course…intel gathering.

Hans closed another “history” book that he was reading. It was of course a waste. That wasn’t a history book. It was a goddamned grimoire that detailed the general historical development of magic and he didn’t understand crap about it.

He sighed. He just spent two days skimming through the technical details of many spells all while only taking the critical intel. Quite frankly, he’d probably need some guidance to understand all this specialized knowledge, but it wasn’t like he was looking to use it.

No…he was reading the book to understand the development of magic and the system-based “skills” that supported it. Of course, all skills that the ‘system’ could give, whether it was passive, active, or even the most likely unique ‘upgrades’ that they use for their mechs due to their [MECH PILOT] class were magical in nature. But, apparently, in the system-based “skills”, there were still two types outside of passive and active skills.

If a passive skill was something that applied to an individual at all times, and an active skill was something that would be activated by an individual at the cost of AP—open and closed skill types also existed in tandem to describe their nature. Thus, a passive skill could be open or closed—and so would an active skill. It could either be open or closed.

Essentially, open skills were something most individuals salivated over due to their flexibility. These skills allowed the use of spells that individuals could learn, develop, and use—but only if the spells/magic type was covered by the open skill. In Adelyn’s case, [ACT: Wrath of the Law] opened the possibility of her using specialized anti-demon fire magic to purge them.

Both as spells if she used a foci that was attuned to her (e.g., a wand, staff, or, even a gun) to channel her AP into magical spells, or, she could use it to enchant items that she wanted. Of course, that required knowledge of magic theory, so all she could do for now was the basic spell that the skill provided—the ability to enchant her bullets into anti-demon incendiary ones.

Quite fitting as usual for the Angel of Justice—burning demons for a living.

That was of course separate from what Hans had. [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA], [PAS: CYCLE OF TRUTH], and [PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES] clearly fell under the so-called “closed skills”. He wouldn’t be able to use these skills to conjure up his own magic. These skills only did what was stated in their description, nothing more.

For example, the most common skill of the [MUSKETEER CLASS], generally used by Tier I commoner soldiers, was [ACT: IMPROVED SHOT I]. It was an active, but closed skill. It wouldn’t give a user the ability to enchant or enhance their bullets for something more special outside of its stated ability to increase the speed and energy of their shots at the cost of AP.

Magical, yes—but they were no mages.

This meant that at the moment, while Hans knew he certainly exhibited magical qualities naturally (he could literally loop back in time—that was beyond black magic, even Hans knew that), he was no mage, just like the average commoner soldier. In fact, if anything, the new skill that Adelyn took, [ACT: WRATH OF THE LAW] essentially turned her into a fire mage. Thus—only she could count as a mage (and definitely a very low-level one).

She now had basic fire magic attacks. Most of all, if she spent time reading these grimoires and forayed into magical theory, she could, again, do more than turn her bullets into specialized anti-demon incendiary rounds by consuming her AP.

Hans meanwhile…well, what would he do with [PAS: PROGRESS OF LIES], aside from, well, lying about his stats? Sure, not even Adelyn could poke through him now, much like how they could not simply just do a [TARGET STATUS CHECK] on full-fledged demonic monsters, and he did ensure that he would at least find some use in dying from now on.

But…well, what more?

And thus, Hans’ early obsession with finding counters to all forms of magic. He’d absolutely not get curb stomped by some Virtus mage who spent a decade in some fancy academy to learn the ins and outs of using their innate skills to cultivate powerful magical attacks—no, absolutely not.

He’d rain goddamned lead on their face first. And if he dies in the process, he’ll put more by the next life, more effectively. If he wasn’t destined to be some mage with four open skills that allowed them to do four types of magic classes or whatever, then he’d find a way to kill them first by avoiding the abilities their magicks could inflict on him.

After all, once their spells failed—they sure as hell wouldn’t be able to talk crap to a 90mm MPAT. In fact, it seemed that to Hans, even demons cracked whenever their primary defense was shattered. The first one relied on extreme, unnatural stealth—Hans' skill negated that, and they killed the bastard within a few shots.

The Rodent of Pestilence was no different. Its main defense was its magical active protection system, as Hans likened to call it. He struggled against it due to the fact that it was seemingly perfectly designed to take on around forty shots from heavy artillery. That essentially would turn it invulnerable to almost all combat engagement, due to the nature of mobile battles. One cannot simply afford to fight a creature that could negate more than forty shots. You would lose.

But Hans’ stratagem of war, the act of baiting it straight right where sixteen artillery pieces and hundreds of musketeers were waiting, decimated its primary defense—which allowed Hans’ and Adelyns’ main guns to put it to an end.

In other words, he and Adelyn were powerful glass cannons, which was literally the entire design point of the Wanderpanzer. They were meant to be a numerical force multiplier with their extreme mobility, firepower, and sensor systems. The downside, once they were exposed to attack, not many defenses outside of mobility existed.

It meant that Wanderpanzers always suffered constant casualties on the frontlines even if they could kill hostiles in a two-to-one or three-to-one ratio. And in this case, unless Hans could find a way to ensure that the 90mm would talk first and bash through a magical foe’s primary defense, he would most likely be dead meat.

Thankfully, it seemed that we could do a lot against that. Most of the spells he saw were some combination of firing a magical projectile, enchantment of certain weapons (like swords), stealth, and among others. Though of course, it still seemed that the Wanderpanzer would be vulnerable to a dedicated magical attack, Hans knew that unless there was a complete surprise, like an ambush, the Wanderpanzer’s extreme mobility, long-ranged sensors (and thus the ability to fight at extreme ranges), and weaponry meant that when all the novel threats that a hostile could present had been identified, Hans and Adelyn would triumph.

It was how they beat the Rodent of Pestilence after all. Hans eliminated and accounted for every new thing it could do, determined its exact weaknesses and positioning, and annihilated it at a distance.

Stolen story; please report.

Still…being at level seventeen, and with Adelyn still stuck at fifteen (though, she advanced extremely well during the takedown—it seemed that she did the most damage from that fire), they were still dealing with severe logistical challenges. Level twenty-five and [UPG: ARCANE AUTOFABRICATOR] would be something akin to a holy grail to them right now. It was either they get that, or they would run out of munitions and fuel and die.

And Hans wasn’t a fan of dying.

+++

“Um…Sir Hans. Hello, I am…Alizée…I am…my name is…”

“Whoah, gee…” Hans clapped. “Captain, you’re a fine teacher. She can talk now.”

“Did I say it right?”

Just immediately, the little girl went to her little notebook and began reading out line after line again. While Hans certainly wanted to poke Adelyn a bit about her little teaching side job, Hans only smiled as he watched the girl dedicate herself to learning “Continental”.

“Can’t say I’m doing it well,” Adelyn looked down at a book she held as well. It was a book that translated Vanus words and phrases into Virtus. “It’s mainly the church staff doing the heavy lifting, in reality.”

“Well, it’s to be expected,” Hans said. “Y’know, I’m just noticing. She sticks to you a lot, doesn’t she?”

“I guess I’m just that good at children,” Adelyn smugly smiled. “Dealing with orphans in the shelters my family founded has given me great experience.”

“Yeah…it’s great I guess,” Hans said.

“Though…I think it’s not just because of that,” Adelyn said. “Hans, she’s…she’s very scared, from what I understood when I try to talk to her with this.”

“Scared? Scared of what?”

“Scared of those who attacked her family,” Adelyn said. “Hans…you know what happened right?”

“Look, for goodness' sake, there’s no reason anyone would pick on her just because she’s an Amboise. It’s a damned ten-year-old girl. An orphan.”

“Or someone would find a way to put a nail in the coffin of her family.”

“Alright, maybe someone will,” Hans crossed his arms. “They’ll go through my guns first.”

“And mine,” Adelyn declared. “But still…at the same time, being with her isn’t going to make her safer.”

“It’s a tough dilemma…”

“As I was saying, she’s scared, Hans,” Adelyn said. “That’s why she’s trying her best to learn this language. Apparently, she has been kept hidden by her family after all. Insulated. Just to protect her. Now…she’s got no protection left. She’s a kid that can only understand the language of a race of mostly fallen nobles.”

“I think the Countess will figure out something eventually,” Hans optimistically said. “Or not, but until then, I’m not sure what other plans we could have.”

“Leaving her in the orphanage is a no-go,” Adelyn muttered. “She’s a Vanus. And worse, a Vanus who cannot speak continental. She’d get picked on.”

“That’s such a pain…”

Hans looked at the kid as she tried her best, her very best, just to read every passage and translate it into her own language. Quite frankly, while the kid would smile and smile at Hans’ presence, at a distance, it was almost like he was just watching a terrified young girl trying to cling on whatever she thought would help her be safe.

Thus…study, study, study. Just to not end up in an unfortunate situation.

Just like Adelyn.

Just like Hans.

+++

“Hmm…now what is she doing?” Hans found Alizée meandering about in the library section of the church. She seemed to be trying to sneakily grab a book that she was probably not supposed to grab. It was high up, it seemed, and she was trying to balance the chair that she probably took.

Hah…couldn’t she just have asked the people here?

“Kiddo,” Hans said, mustering a smile as he approached her. The girl almost tumbled off the chair she was trying to climb, spooked by Hans' sudden appearance. “Now, now, what the hell’s the bad girl doing? Around here? You could have just asked, you silly muffin.”

Alizée stared at Hans for a while, then, she was suddenly slightly tearing up.

“Me? I have been called a bad girl by Sir Hans?”

Crap! Damage control! Damage control!

She really could understand a lot of phrases now. But not enough to understand Hans’ overly sarcastic lines. Naturally, Hans began fumbling to the girl to explain himself posthaste.

“Okay, okay, wait,” he pointed at her. “You, yes you. Good girl. Okay? Good? Please understand me, please.”

“But you said bad, so how?”

“Okay, crap, she’s really about to cry…wait, how do you say it’s a joke in Flandrian again?” Hans immediately pulled out a little pocketbook in the sling bag he carried around with himself. Flipping through the translation manual for Flandrian to Lotharingian, Hans desperately tried to find something useful.

Surrender or die.

If you fire, we will fire back.

Your emperor is a pig.

Your leaders abandoned you.

Raise your hands.

Raise your white flag.

Lower your weapons.

He now started panicking further. This was all useless! And she was now nearing a full-on crying session. Goddess, he wouldn’t be able to salvage his reputation with Adelyn if she found Hans near a crying Alizée!

Go home, invader.

Your food is terrible.

He really wanted to strangle whoever propagandist officer thought it was more important to add twelve pages of insults to Flandrian culture than something that would actually be useful! These fools must be asking for their soldiers to get shot if they ended up as POWs.

Until Hans saw the pages for the actually useful phrases like greetings and stuff.

Of course, they’ll put the peaceful ones behind the more ‘useful’ ones. Goddamned jingoistic nationalists.

“Um, okay, Alizée, it was a joke, okay?”

The little girl stopped her little lite-crying moment, and then she laughed at Hans.

“Got you! You looked so scared, Sir Hans!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hans laughed. “I was just joking. Good to know you get it. Nice one kid. Now…”

“I tricked you!”

“Yeah, I swear, I won’t do it again,” Hans stood up with a laugh. Oh, he de-escalated that quickly. He could at least breathe a sigh of relief. He pointed at the books she was trying to reach. “Now, what up there were you trying to take?”

“That…that one,” Alizée said, pointing at a book with a red cover. It was pretty damned thick, so that was surprising. Hans took it, trying his best to avoid having an avalanche of falling books if his hands managed to screw up the simple act of pulling a book out. When he had it, he looked at the title of it.

Ah, well…it’s in Flandrian, or…well, Vanus.

He sighed, checking the book itself. It seemed to be about certain magical stuff. A grimoire perhaps? Gee…why was a ten-year-old girl searching for something like this? He didn’t really fully know, but hey, he did see Alizée play with magic. Hell, she even had something…which she…

He remembered that one.

She attacked that demon with that thing, didn’t she? She had some form of combat magic in her hands that she could use. But why? Why the hell would a child be taught how to fight with such a dangerous tool?

Hans kneeled down to her level and showed it to her.

“This, really?”

She nodded rapidly.

“Um…okay, you know, why not storybooks or something else?”

“Thank you, Sir Hans!”

“Okay…whatever you said, that sounded like you really wanted this,” Hans opened the book again and scanned its contents. He didn’t understand jack.

He looked back at her.

“You almost slipped off that chair all for this thing,” Hans said. “A kid your age reading something this complex. Have you even unlocked skills to use…anything out here?”

“Um…please give…”

Ah, well, she’s already begging for it in Continental, even if it's a bit broken. Hans smiled and handed it to her. He swore, the girl’s eyes almost sparkled for a moment. Funny how that happened.

“Well, whatever,” Hans stood up. “If you want to find some more party tricks there, go on. Just be careful.”

Immediately, Alizée skipped off from the library with the book in her hand, as if she found a new toy to play with.

You know what? Hans sighed to himself. I should probably keep watch of her today.

He looked up at the place where the book was from.

After all, it’s magic. He laughed to himself. Wouldn’t want her slipping into an accident there either.