Omnes una manet nox

**Release Date** | January 12, 2018

**Omnes una manet nox** is the 9th volume of of the Youjo Senki light novel.

## Short Summary

Another day for Tanya, a day for a big crisis that is happening inside her own beloved nation.

What kind of new disaster is currently held in their place?

The Entente Alliances starts their move to commence a counter attack. Will they succeed?

## Summary

### **Chapter I**

When Tanya arrives in the Berun train station, she meets Colonel von Lergen, informed about the delay of trucks from General Staff because of the insufficiency of vehicles. The members of Lergen Kampfgruppe can enjoy a short vacation in Berun, but before that, Tanya shall get in a car ahead to General Staff Office with Lergen and Visha to report their arrival. Lergen sends Visha away for borrowing a car from the National Railways for a while and tells her of 3 information.
1. General Staff have fierce dispute with Supreme High Command Council about the supposed major operation on the Eastern Front. Supreme High Command Council believe the Imperial Army shall set the withdraw as the first phase of a major counterattack like Operation Revolving Door, but General Staff explain that Eastern Front is so much wide that all defense fortifications, concentrated troops, and the advantage of terrain lack, which are necessary for elastic defense. Moreover, if they mistake the direction of Federation major offensive, the Eastern Army Group is done.
2. The extreme aggravation of Western Air Campaign. On the west, the Imperial Air Forces have shifted from offensive to defense and sent more aircraft to the east. Now the Low Lands Industrial Region is the routine destination of Commonwealth bombers, and even Western Industrial Region is suffering from the harassment of Commonwealth heavy bombers.
3. With the trembling tone, Lergen informs Tanya that she might have to bomb the Supreme High Command Office because of “some mishaps during an exercise”. Not only that, Tanya shall also secure the survival of the politicians. General Staff hope that it can awake the politicians from the daydream and comfort zone of homefront. Tanya is utterly stunned, strongly criticizing its effect and risks. Luckily, Lergen relieves her that it is not an upcoming mission yet. Finally, they get in the car driven by Visha and ahead to General Staff Office.

Lt. General von Rudersdorf is thinking about the dispute with Supreme High Command Council. The politicians and the subjects of the Empire have been possessed by the dead from the Great War. In order to pay all the losses from the Great War, they let the chance to end the war slip out their hands and invested more national power into the bottomless marsh of Eastern Front. Once getting more exhausted by the endless political dispute, he starts analyzing the possibility to make a surgical strike to the problem. Lergen Kampfgrppe stationed in Berun recently is a good chess piece, but that’s not enough with a single kampfgruppe. Rudersdorf trusts Zettour that he can hold up the Eastern Front to buy time for their homeland, and with that he may concentrate more units, such as Southern Continent Expeditionary Corps, into Berun for his reserve plan. Thinking here, he rouses from the delusion and welcomes Tanya.
Tanya notices that Rudersdorf looks more emaciated than before. After some chitchat, Tanya asks Rudersdorf about the raid of Imperial capital. He shows his confusion and says it must be a joke. Next, Tanya inquires about the next step after the failure of Operation Andromeda. In her opinion, it’s time to reduce the length of frontlines to free up more troops and strengthen the military forces of the Council for Self-Governing. Tanya wanna further extend her analysis, but Rudersdorf interrupts her and asks her to whether say her conclusion or leave now. Finally, she asks him about the true strategic goal of the Empire, which she never hears from anywhere. His answer is short but terrifying. Except of the more victory, Supreme High Command Council don’t have **a clear and definite goal**. They don’t even define how much the reward of victory they need to meet their next plan. In other words, the Imperial government have abandoned their duty to build up the national strategy. With the draining national power, General Staff can only secure the relative stable situation on every front and try to persuade the government into the more realistic peace deal.
The talk is gonna end. Rudersdorf tells her the reassignment of her subordinates for reorganization. The armored company of Lergen Kampfgruppe will be stationed in the outskirts of Berun to reorganize and outfit, the self-propelled guns will get repaired, the reinforced infantry battalion and the members of self-propelled artillery battalion will be stationed in an ex-Republic military port alongside the Inner Sea, and 203rd Mage Battalion will be stationed in Berun waiting for next mission.
Once she leaves Rudersdorf’s office, she gets caught by Lergen and accompanies him walking around General Staff Office for a while. They have some short discussions about the public opinion of the Empire.

### **Chapter II: Home Front**

For the pilots of Commonwealth bombers, it is not a good day, either. The average lifetime for Commonwealth bombers is 50 to 60 flying hours because of the strong air defense over Low Lands Industrial Region. The Commonwealth pilots even call it “the Airlane towards Hell” which drops thousands of both aerial bombs and tommies. Tonight, it seems the absence of cloud and the misjudgement of Commonwealth weather forecasters are about to lead the unfortunate men to their doom. Though they can see the target through cloudless sky, when they look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into them. The Imperial searchlights catch some of their bombers, and then thousands of both 20 mm machine gun bullets from Imperial night fighters and shells from anti-aircraft guns lighten the night of Low Lands. Breaking through the barrages of enemy fire, the remaining Commonwealth bombers release all their aerial bombs and flee from the sky over Low Lands with no turning back. With the chasing Imperial night fighters on the rear, their homeland is still far away.
Back to the Western Air Control Command, the officers are calculating the damage from the night raid of Commonwealth last night. Although an enemy bomber group didn’t get baited by the anti-aircraft gun positions, their air divisions caught them and beat them back. Dealing with the accustomed reconstruction affairs, some generals are discussing about the aggravation of Imperial air forces. They had sent many fighter pilots and aerial mages to Eastern Front. Before the Great War, the passing line of well-trained Imperial pilots was 600 flying hours, but now they even have to deploy the young pilots who have less than 100 flying hours. Apparently, their resources are slowly running out. Everyone in Western Air Control Command has a bad feeling about the predictable future of the Empire.
General Staff are discussing about the suitable candidates to support Western Command. Before the Great War, since they don’t need many field officers in decisive battles based on their national defense plan, they thoroughly invested their resources into the elite staff officers. Even in the bloody Rhine trenches, they could still send some field officers with a promising future to war colleges due to the narrow Rhine Battlefield. In the case of Eastern Front, a fluid and wide defense line, they can never have enough field officers. Colonel von Lergen recommends Rosenberg, a baron, ex-legislator, and Dacia military government official. He has good relationships with Imperial family and is excellent in dealing with disputes between government and citizens. Rudersdorf rejects it because his role is too important in Dacia oil supply to get replaced. Then Lergen commends Lt. Colonel Schultz, his mate of the same graduating class. He stays on the rear for a long recuperation period but gains many experiences in logistic and political affairs. However, Rudersdorf informs him that Schultz has been chosen to be an adviser in the Council for Self-Governing by Zettour who is working on founding the army of the Council for Self-Governing recently. Next, Lt. Colonel von Ugar is judged to lack power of discourse, and even himself(Lergen) is a workhorse of General Staff that would better stay in General Staff. Eventually, they choose Lt. General von Romel, an excellent field general who has many experiences in fighting with Commonwealth and Republican Army. To begin with, he will stay in General Staff for gaining experience in military governing affairs first.
On Eastern Front, Zettour attends the conference of Eastern Army Group Command. 31st Division is under the attack of multinational coalition forces. Their offensive keeps pressuring Hofen Salient and forces Imperial Army to choose keeping it or leaving. Although Eastern Army Group have massive troops on paper, their losses are huge, too. Right now, they only have an armored division, a mechanized division, an aerial mage battalion, and some half-strength infantry divisions as strategic reserves. As an inspector, Zettour points out that sending most reserves to defend a mere critical point(the salient) will lead to pointless attrition. He also suggests the staff officers to watch out for the location of multinational coalition forces. He believes they will appear in the start point of their main attack group during Federation’s next major offensive.
On the other hand, Drake is glad of the enemy’s retreat. They are orderly retaking the homeland with only few reports of engaging the Imperial Army. As his mage battalion finishes the search and destroy mission and arrives the camps, Colonel Mikel and Political Officer Liliya meet him and discuss of next operation. However, Drake finds Mikel keeping silent while Liliya who is supposed to be an interpreter explaining the mission they received and is irritated. Though she excuses her dereliction of duty by saying they have made the consensus before his arrival, Drake still stresses the importance that Mikel should join the discussion and know what’s going on. After she behaved herself, Drake listens to her and gets the point. Moskva hope them to research for mage decapitation strike and execute it during next major offensive. Their target is Eastern Army Group Command, especially the inspector Lt. General von Zettour. The Federation intelligence believe he is the person in charge of many counter-Federation movements.
After reading the reports and data he received, Drake realizes Zettour has many experiences in planning decapitation strike and is moving around frequently. As studying more reports about him, Drake gets more worried about how to deal with that cunning enemy. It even reminds Drake of the beginning of Operation Revolving Door. From their point of view, the collapse of Rhine Army Group Command was so sudden that they almost got no information of how Imperial Army executed their operation. At this moment, 1st lieutenant Sue enters his office and reports her mission result. Thank to the absence of the Devil of Rhine, her mentality has remained stable for a long time. Drake decides to ask the war correspondents who have the experience on Rhine Front at dinner time.
When Drake has his great dinner on Eastern Front, Tanya is having dinner with Ugar in Zolka Café. Tanya was stunned when she saw the table was filled with every kinds of food substitutes. Ugar is satisfied with her reaction and says he usually has his meal times in General Staff's dining room 1 because he gradually feels nothing different to eat outside. Before the Great War, the Empire exported many agriculture products. Because of the large-scale replanting to potatoes and the insufficiency of livestock, the agriculture of the Empire is extremely declining. Tanya reliefs Ugar that the life on homefront is still better than the one on frontline, but it somehow offends him. He suggests Tanya shall think more from human nature, which deeply confuses Tanya. Ugar says he also suggested Rudersdorf and Zettour see how the subjects of the Empire live now. He is trusted by General Staff as a railway expert who is also excellent in negotiating with citizens. He has lived too long with citizens and lost the hardhearted and calculating mindset trained from war college period. In his opinion, Tanya is resolute and rational towards everything. However, she won’t realize the life on homefront and then the true crisis of their homeland with that mindset. Their last topic is about the negotiation mediated by Kingdom of Ildoa. It seems Supreme High Command is dissatisfied with the treat the Kingdom offers and rejects it. Before she leaves, he invites Tanya to walk around with Rudersdorf in Berun tomorrow.
Next day, Tanya and Rudersdorf attend the routine memorial service for the war dead nearby Berun train station. They both dressed in black mourning cloth and had to pretend as the relatives of the war dead so that people would give them a way to take a close look. Tanya notices the guards carrying the caskets look strenuous to do their job. Next, she finds they are probably consisted by the wounded soldiers and the youngsters on the rear. But all of them look tired and undernourished. Patients and youngsters are carrying the dead. In Tanya’s opinion, this scene reveals the actual state and the future of the Empire. Rudersdorf tells her to look around. Firstly, Tanya sees the relatives and the friends of the dead trying hard to suppress their grief. But next, the others seem have gotten used to the mourning service and gotten unconcerned about it. It was only this moment that Tanya realized something she had never noticed before because of the onerous military affairs. In Berun, and probably in the entire homeland, the normal life of the subjects has twisted into the abnormal one, and they have gotten used to it. Now, even the growing casualties can’t mean anything more than a number to them.
Leaving the memorial service, Tanya tries to relief Rudersdorf by saying that scene at least means they can face the abnormal life with calm and it is good to their negotiation with the Kingdom, too. Unexpectedly, she is scolded severely instead. Rudersdorf rebukes her for understanding nothing of the heart. He says she is a typical character who can use psychological tactics but can’t understand the heart, which only confuses Tanya more. At the moment, he recalls Tanya’s life and gets very confused as well. After a short while, he apologizes for forgetting the military made up the majority of her life. He decides to take some military experiences for example. If people can shout and argue, it means they still have energy to struggle. But if they are burned out and silent, it will be dangerous. The subjects are like the desperate soldiers who are sitting in trench and waiting for the whistling sound for charge. They are exhausted, stop thinking, and will collapse if things go out of their expectation. For short, if the Empire can’t gain the reward equal to the losses, they don’t dare to think how will the subjects respond, but things will only get worse if they keep going that way. Although Tanya believes the citizens of the country losing in total war like Japan and Germany in WWII will accept the fact of defeated, Rudersdorf opposes that those countries most have completely drained off their national power. They won’t let it happen, so they will have to deal with another situation. They must do everything to secure the calm and peaceful post-war life of the Empire. Tanya praises peace to Rudersdorf and surprises him. Tanya says she loves peace because she is a coward, which is laughed at by Rudersdorf that can be a good topic of tale. Tanya then says she shall enjoy the comfort life with royalty income if General Staff really publish that tale, which makes him burst out laughing. Finally, Rudersdorf promises her if the Empire can get the peaceful future they want, he will write a picture book about a hero awarded Silver Wings Assault Badge is actually a peace-loving coward, and she will own the whole royalty income.
After saying goodbye to him, Tanya is walking on the street of Berun and thinking of whether to stay and try to save the dying Empire or flee from it.

### **Chapter III: Necessity is the mother of invention**

At the same time in Londinium, Whitehall, the higher-ups of Commonwealth are discussing the upturn of Southern Continent Campaign. They receives the information that the enemy troops have ceased all offensive movement. Although the enemy beat back their reconnaissance-in-force and built the tough defense, the intelligence detected that they have been secretly sending their heavy armaments and tanks back to their mainland. Now they conclude that the enemies are planning to retreat. At this rate, they can nail them by their navy. Thanks to the effort of Commonwealth foreign affairs ministry, Kingdom of Ildoa have guaranteed they would strictly observe their neutrality. They decide to send several fleets containing battlecruisers and aircraft carriers to blockade Inner Sea. Besides, due to the pressure from the Federation, they will execute a limited amphibious operation. Unlike the operation last time that assaulting several Imperial ports by carrier strike groups, this time they will land 8 assault companies to attack about 2 or 3 ex-Republic ports near Ildoa border. They expect to gain the experience of amphibious operation, decrease the strength of Imperial submarine, and hold a stress testing to the Kingdom.
In Berun, Tanya is explaining the details of Operation Barbarian to her mage battalion. They will protect Romel’s troops as a “travel agency” and expel those who urge him not to leave Southern Continent. Sadly, although the Empire have magnificent history of maritime traffic in Inner Sea, it is not famous for military transport but commerce. Now, they shall fight against the enemy warships over the sea that they are both not quite familiar with. Their major goal is to secure the safety of Inner Sea lane and protect the transport ships carrying the retreating troops. Tanya alerts her mages to adapt the maritime environment and learn how to fight against warships.
Grantz questions Tanya about the strength of Imperial fleet taking part in Operation Barbarian. The answer is depressing. In her opinion, the surface warships of Imperial Southern Fleet are totally slackers. Except of the well-equipped submarines, the Imperial Southern Fleet only have some old fashioned armored cruisers, ex-Republican war ships, pseudo heavy cruisers with 203 mm main guns, and few destroyers. Since in the past, the Empire and Kingdom of Ildoa reached the consensus that the former took charge of the north and the latter, the south, the Empire made light of Southern Fleet. Although they could invest more resources in the other projects, the Southern Fleet can’t be counted as available units now. Luckily, General Staff have some ideas to help them complete the mission. As Lergen enters the room and shows his appreciation to Tanya, she has a bad feeling about something upcoming. Dr. Schugel bursts into the room and says he has prepared the key she needs to resolve the trouble.
They were led to a storehouse by Schugel. Here they find a weird and huge torpedo equipped with a cockpit. He pours out words about how religious this weapon is and says it is the fruit of their union which Tanya sowed and he got impregnated. Tanya feels very confused and asks what is he talking about. He only promises her that this torpedo won’t have any technical problem like the ones made by the navy. Lergen says it had been tested in the army experimental field, which makes Tanya nervous about the aggravation of interservice rivalry.
When it comes to V-2 “general-purpose underwater acceleration apparatus”, we must know how was it born. Back in the past, when Tanya was working in the Strategic Research Office, she once attended a military research meeting as a veteran field officer. It was to find an efficient way to fight against the Commonwealth and remaining Republic Navies. In the meeting, Tanya was fed up with the attending officers endless talking about big ships with big guns and argued why wouldn’t they just destroy the warships with anti-ship attack aircraft or torpedoes. It was at this moment she knew the Imperial air forces didn’t have any torpedo bomber. Although they did sink some enemy warships, those were the results of dive bombing against light warships such as destroyers and transport ships. The Imperial air forces focus most on air superiority and battlefield support, needing about 1 or 2 years to research aerial anti-ship warfare and even more time to get practical.
About the torpedo attack from submarine, the hit rate were also limited by present technology affecting the quality and few skilled sailors affecting the quantity. Hence, Tanya suggested set a mage cockpit on torpedo to increase the hit rate which had less to do with technology improvement and available human resources. She took the idea of Italian MAIALE which could secure the survival of its driver. If the drivers are well-trained marine mages, they could even keep underwater and leave. The active reconnaissance and oxygen supply formulas the driver needed were also not different to what mages used at high altitude. If they set battery in warhead and decrease explosive charge, the problem of speed and maneuver could somehow be resolved. Finally, this project of new torpedo was transferred to the Imperial Technical Arsenal. Now, it gets back and bites her.
The scenery changes to Imperial Inner Sea Navy. Recently, the lethal defect of torpedo fuse had been improved. Normally, they used the torpedoes in hunting the enemy transport ships, but today their submarines are equipped with some weird-looking fixed apparatuses. July 12, 1927, the Inner Sea submarine units were ordered to carry this cargo even if it would lower the speed. For the crews from the other warships, they would only say: “What the heck is this?” to each other, but for the ones knowing what it exactly was and carrying it, they only wanted to scream: “They are insane!”. Strictly speaking, even the mages carrying out the mission and the engineers from the Technical Arsenal had the same feeling with them. Only the inventor was full of confidence, instead.
The Imperial submarine units take part in Operation Barbarian. Tanya and some of her subordinates are on the desks of the submarines sailing on surface. Feeling the sea breeze on her face, Tanya starts to daydream about a Commonwealth aircraft rakes the port with machine gunfire and blows up the engineer. She also complains about how ridiculous General Staff asked them to search and destroy the enemy fleet with a mere submarine fleet in her mind. Later, she finds that the military education of the Empire focuses on land and makes utterly light of navy. She thinks that probably none in General Staff has ever gotten a systematized naval education.
Soon, they receive enemy contact report from the reconnaissance aircraft of 16th Air Fleet. She gets in the submarine and discusses with the captain, Lieutenant Commander Bachert. From the coded telegram, they receive the location and other info of a Commonwealth fleet comprising a battleship or battlecruiser, 2 heavy cruisers, and 4 light cruisers or destroyers. Tanya notices the absence of Commonwealth aircraft carrier. Anyway, the submarine fleet will go towards the location they choose for ambush.

### **Chapter IV: Love from underwater**

13 hours and 25 minutes after the Operation Agreement got executed, the 2nd Squadron of Commonwealth Home Fleet were ambushed in Dakar. The flagship Hood, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and the cruiser Iliadelar unexpectedly explode and start sinking. The remaining warships disperse and detect several sound sources of submarine propellers. They aim the submarines with hedgehogs, but the enemy mages jump out of the water and strike them. The hedgehogs, torpedoes, and depth charges are induced and sink the warships. Bermuda, Louis, and Victory are sunk. The last one Vinson had thrown away the explosives, but most of her facilities on deck are blown or burned. The mages start shooting her broadsides and making holes in her. Thankfully, the Commonwealth mage brigade arrive and drive out the enemy mages. Tanya has her mages not to stay any longer, leaving the battlefield as the Commonwealth mages are rescuing the seamen overboard.
At night, her mages arrive the supposed assembly area and send the codes by flashing 3 times. Soon, a submarine surfaces and flashes the signal lamp. Weiss notices it is not among the ones carrying out the mission with them at dusk. The submarine U-091 picks them up and sails in surface. Tanya is confused about not submerging for stealth, but she is immediately asked to meet with the captain Otto von Herm. Before leaving, she orders her mages to help the submarine get on the alert. Tanya and Herm have a meeting in his office. After having a short chat, he gives an envelope and some documents to Tanya. She signs on the documents and then opens the envelope. It is an order from General Staff for them to attend a sightseeing in Ildoa. The Kingdom Navy will welcome them and escort their submarine. After they finish the diplomatic affairs, her mages will return to the Empire by the train of the Kingdom. Tanya leaves his office and talks with Weiss about the order they receive and General Staff’s purpose. She alerts Weiss to the danger of aggressive mindset. The beginning of the Great War is just the best example. At all events, they shall still keep civilized and seek acceptable peace with the other countries. Now they shall think about where to get their formal clothes and how to show as the models of their homeland to their neighbors.

### **Chapter V: Sightseeing**

The Imperial mages and the submarine crew are welcomed by Kingdom’s military band and even the kids holding a bouquet. Tanya surprisingly finds that it’s her first time that not leaving the submarine in a concealed pen for U-boats. She also notices the absence of the press and the ordinary people surrounding and watching them. The Kingdom’s receptionists invite them to board the train which vertically travels across the lands of Ildoa.
On the dinner car, Tanya is stunned by many things. The glass containers on the table remind her of the shaking train when traveling in the Empire. Ugar, a rail expert, may tell her the technological differences between the Kingdom’s train and the Empire’s, but for Tanya, she can only say that this train is well-maintained. The second one surprising her is the breadbasket on her table filled with the fragrant bread, which reminds her of the unpalatable bread substitutes. Although being irritated by the sweet-smelling fragrance, she still decides to wait Colonel Calandro who delays in arrival. She even daydreams that if Calandro delays on purpose, she will shoot him down immediately. He finally enters the dinner car. He apologizes to her for his delay. He just warned their local military bureaucrats so that their visitors can enjoy a free sightseeing. They only need to attend an unofficial banquet in the evening.
Tanya is delighted by his concern. However, Calandro starts chatting about the genial sunshine, history, lemon, and how delicious blood orange is. Those actually irritate Tanya more. He apologizes for chattering away and answers her that the Kingdom isn’t that stingy to ask the visitors to board a military train. Tanya receives the menu from Calandro and asks what does him recommend. She gets a quite enthusiastic answer. Although the meat are tasty, there are the fantastic seafood cuisines they can find from nowhere else. Since this train just stayed nearby the military port, Calandro promises that the ingredients of seafood are high-quality and freshest.
She decides to order kipper as the main course and steak tartare as the starter. She tastes the steak tartare, amazed by the proper balance between salt and pepper. The quality of meat takes the vital rule of how the steak tartare tastes. In this case, the spices perfectly bring out the sweet taste of its fine meat. Tanya also enjoys it with the Republican baguettes and sparkling mineral water. Tanya praises the chef for the wonderful cuisines and welcomes her main course, the whitefish kipper. As a Japanese in her previous life, Tanya is quite fastidious about seafood. At first glance, the kipper is well decorated, made up of a kind of perch and several unidentified ingredients. She checked if there’s any flaw in this dish and then is satisfied. Tanya believes there are rather few sauces that can season the fish nicely. However, at the moment she takes a bite, she tastes a rich flavor of fresh citrusy sour, and then the sauce with light saline, sweet tastes further enrich the flavor of whitefish. Finally the olive oil and vinegar play a brilliant concerto with each others. She expected the sauce must be intense and tangy, but this clean and rich flavor instead brings up the kipper to another level of delicacy. Tanya drinks the sparking water to wash away the remaining sauce in her mouth and takes more bites. The taste never gets weakened. It amazingly sublimes the taste of the kipper.
Tanya completely admires the cooking skills of the chef. Calandro is glad that their chef makes a hero awarded Silver Wings Assault Medal surrender. In his opinion, people earn exploits by their outstanding fortes whether they are holding a rifle as an soldier or holding a kitchen knife as a cook. This sounds a bit off to Tanya. She insinuates that Ildoa allies the Empire but never helps its friend from military aspect, but Calandro doesn’t agree. He gulps down a glass of red wine, then telling her it must be the difference between Ildoa and the Empire. Although they live in the same world, the Great War had dissimilated their senses toward many things. She is about to go. Before leaving, she requests him to deliver her words to the chef that the fish was fantastic and she honestly looks forward to next time enjoying the dishes here.
The Imperial mages were settled in 2 first-class cars of the train. After leaving the dinner car, Tanya is resting in her stateroom. She feels uneasy here. The peaceful, civilized, and wealthy living is what she yearns for throughout her life, but her homeland had lost it because of the Great War. Sitting here as a foreigner makes her nervous. Visha comes and expresses her concern for Tanya. It seems that leaving the front lines for a while gives her much time to think about her future. Tanya asks Visha to buy tea leaves, coffee beans, and sugar as the presents to their relatives and friends in the Empire.
July 18, 1927, the reinforced infantry battalion and self-propelled artillery battalion of Salamander Kampfgruppe had been stationed in a military port within Ain Defense Zone for a while. Southern Army Group is in charge of the coast defense alongside the Inner Sea. When the first time the unit commanders of the kampfgruppe Meybert and Tospan met the local coast guard, they were stunned by their tidy appearances and clean attire. Not only the equipment are outmoded, but the teenager and elders take a large part of the guards. Although they are glad to not be stationed in the proving ground at the suburb of Berun like their tank company, the “unrealistic” life at the rear is quite hard to adapt for them. They also suffer from the annoying bureaucracy. The uniform must be well-maintained, not fold their service cap into side cap, not shoot the strangers trying to invade restricted area at once, write tons of documents, etc. Ahrens and his tank company might perform maneuvers everyday, they don’t have to deal with the unnecessary and over-elaborate formalities, either. They realize working under Tanya is quite free to fulfill their jobs.
The self-propelled guns are now being repaired, so Meybert’s battalion was assigned to man the coastal guns. They want to fortify their position, but the officers of navy cavil about their ignorance to the rules. Even just fortifying their position with sandbags needs the documents about the source of soil, the confirmation of ownership, the corporation with existing defense and building plan, etc. Meybert and Tospan are reminded of Visha who is practiced in document processing. He has confidence to load shell no matter how much does it weigh, but now he feels exhausted to move the pen on his hand. Meybert is checking the classification manual to fill the blanks on the paper while Tospan is reading the engineer regulations manual.
When Meybert sees through the window for relaxing, he finds a suspicious convoy is approaching the military port. He orders his subordinate to check schedule and identify the ships before they arrive the port. Apparently, there are only few submarines supposed to enter to port. They might be the allied retreating convey from Southern Continent, but the coast guard don’t receive the codes or the other signals from them. Tospan asks his unit to go on guard and prepare for battle, leaving the office to command the infantry. Meybert phones the Port Command to alert the other units. But Lt. Colonel Paul tells him to wait until they receive the signal from the convey. This makes Captain Meybert nervous.
The convey is about to enter the port. He decides to order his unit to give the unidentified ships warning shots and hangs up. His subordinates have prepared to warn the ships by their coastal guns. Paul calls him again and sounds furious, but Meybert just tells him he will undertake the responsibility and hangs up one more time. The first warning shot perfectly gets close to the target. Paul phones him again and rages at him. At the same time, the unidentified ships fire as response. He hangs up and commands his units to fire the enemy warships. The ships start charging, which has Meybert realize they are the remodeled transport ships. The heavy armor-piercing shells they use to attack the supposed warships instead simply pierce through and cause little damage to them. Several assault boats charge from the transport ships, and a light cruiser starts bombarding their position. Meybert finds the allied units are in chaos. Tospan’s unit detects the mana signals from enemy ships. The allied mage company takes off to counterattack. Meybert commands his unit to load high explosive shells to aim the landing enemies.
The enemy warships crush the port, and many assault infantry are landing from them. The artillery cover are limited because of the facilities on the port. The warning line had been infiltrated. What's even worse, Tospan’s infantry position is under suppressive fire from another allied force, and several enemy mages disguising as infantry have infiltrated deeply and assaulted them. The concealed pen for U-boats is blown up. Paul calls Meybert and asks the kampfgruppe to retake the pen for U-boats, but he answers that the enemies have gotten on the allied units. He only has confidence to blew up everyone in that occupied pen and tells Paul to order him as he makes the decision. Hanging up the phone, Meybert asks all his subordinates to prepare for close combat.
Back to the capital of the Kingdom, the train arrives the central station of Ildoa. The central station of the Empire is huger on logistics scale, but you won’t feel the gloomy ambiance and hear any weeps and sighs here. Tanya gets off the train and breathes the bright and delighted air in the Ildoa station. They are separated from the ordinary people by the guards of honour and escorted to the station office building. After they enter an office, an Ildoan major waiting for them gives Calandro an envelope, has a short talk with him, and then leaves. Calandro informs her that the stuff inside the envelope are their visas, available identity cards, and the blank checks drawn by the General Staff of Ildoa. Tanya jokes about how extravagant her mages are, and he says that except they drink aviation gasoline as water, they won’t need to worry about it. It is at this moment she knows the Kingdom is supporting the Empire in secret with the aviation gasoline. The Kingdom is a neutral country de jure, so not allowing the Imperial troops to enter their territory makes sense. The Kingdom is also working hard to mediate the armistice and next the peace deal for the Empire. Calandro believes they have fulfilled the obligation as the Empire’s ally.
Tanya heckles him if they think an ally without the willing to bleed for each other can still be count. In her opinion, their behavior to replace the blood flowing out for the ally with aviation gasoline is utterly ridiculous. On the other hand, Calandro says the Kingdom is supporting the Empire from military aspect with a clear conscience. He tells her that he knows she is one among the 12 knights of war college and what she wrote as her graduation thesis. Tanya retorts that she never knew he not only specializes in mountain battlefields but also “has a sharp ear”. There’s no way for a normal foreign military officer to read the thesis of war college and knows so many military secrets of the Empire.
They decide to get along again. Tanya tells him that he can do a good job as a diplomat, but he says that he actually has visions of being a brilliant officer like her. Anyway, he hopes Tanya and her mages may have a wonderful trip in his homeland.
July 21, 1927, Tanya’s unit are about to board the train towards the Empire. All the officers from Imperial embassy have a farewell with them in the station. They are settled in the first-class cars of the international train, chatting about the foods, snacks, wines, and many wonderful things they found during the trip. Tanya feels a bit reluctant to leave. She wishes the Empire could retake the peace and wealth in the future. At the night, she is awakened by the shaking which she is familiar with. She feels quite upset to realize they have entered the territory of the Empire from the sudden aggravation of railroad maintenance. In the gray ambiance, she falls asleep again to get rid of the worry.

### **Chapter VI: At Dusk**

Afterwards, she enters Rudersdorf's office and is congratulated by him. He knows she sank many Commonwealth warships during last operation. Tanya appreciates his kindness yet also points out the weakness of V-2. In her opinion, it is a revealed trick which won't work twice. From now on, Commonwealth Navy must be extremely careful to the magical signal below the sea. They will probably deploy more marine mages in battleships and carriers. Besides, V-2's speed is up to 40 knots, which is actually slow to attack the carrier and on-guard enemy ship. It's also a headache to find those who are capable to sail with celestial navigation on sea when using V-2. This topic is about to end. Rudersdorf mentions that one of Tanya's subordinate said that her mage battalion can defeat 3 times more mages who just complete the crash course. To his surprise, Tanya tells him her battalion can wipe out them no matter how many times they outnumber 203rd Mage Battalion unless they are the elites.
They change to another topic. Rudersdorf is glad that he received many reserve divisions from Zettour. The soldiers from the Council for Self-Governing reliefs the shortage of personal in Eastern Front. Tanya alerts him that conscription on occupied land is a violation to war laws. Rudersdorf says they are actually volunteers, which worries her that those soldiers' morale and motive to defend the Empire are so hollow that they shouldn't be the available source. Thankfully, Rudersdorf confirms that the Empire has promised them the post-war independence. However, Tanya notices that he looks quite uncomfortable and nervously shakes. He tells Tanya with his trembling tone that Supreme High Command is secretly planning to betray those supporters. They want to annex the occupied land at east. Additionally, they also asked General Staff to occupy Ildoa Kingdom. Tanya is utterly irritated and complains to him about the stupidity they come up with. Those idiots are living in their own world isolated from the reality. She urges him to stop them from destroying the Empire, but Rudersdorf only tells her not to interfere with politics by military and forcefully ends this topic. Tanya is frustrated and finds a chance to leave his office. At the moment, she bumps into Lt. General von Romel. He wants to thank for her protection during the retreat operation from southern continent in officers' club.
Tanya once got blocked by military police at the entrance of officers' club, but this time with a Lt. General, she doesn't meet anyone trying to block her. Inside the secret balcony, Tanya is surprised by Romel. He didn't say a word and drank a bottle of liquor. As Tanya is enjoying her tea, he finally says something more. Tanya is alerted not to believe in all words from Rudersdorf. The homefront is now filled with “brainless detectives”, so he has to keep his mouth shut at some moments. Romel tells Tanya how much his expeditionary corps were depreciated by the politicians. In his words, they were almost forgotten when he and his comrades fought hard in southern continent. Recently, they were asked to leave the continent and accept the triumph. When he finally returned and knew it's for the sake of politicians, he felt humiliated.
He thinks that all military officers fulfill their duty for their vanity. It will eventually be internalized as obligation and responsibility, but initially it's just a tiny pride to not be laughed. The triumph utterly pissed him off. He want to earn the true victory and exploits but not the fake ones remaining as excess flesh. His comrades died for nothing. As an Imperial military officer, he had vowed to protect the royal house and the fatherland. If the politics is wrong, it must be corrected.
At that moment, Tanya realized his intention goes further than hers and feels nervous. She even uses the words she just received from Rudersdorf to calm him down. Romel says if the politics become a military threat, they have reason to correct them. Tanya doesn’t agree with him and tells him he must be drunk. The talk is about to end. Before leaving, Romel invites Tanya to his base to talk about the “reserve plan” another day. Based on his words, the diplomatic movement with Ildoa was once the main plan. Anyway, they will work together at western command tomorrow.
July 23, 1927, in the meeting of Operations in General Staff, Lergen just finished his report of “the strategies to break the deadlock” provided by Supreme High Command. To sum up, they urge General Staff to take more troops from the south. If the neighboring country bothers them, they are supposed to directly neutralize Ildoa Kingdom. It comes no surprise that he sees everyone in the meeting turns to a pale face. They had sent every available unit from Southern Army Group to the east and there is no way to take more. Meanwhile, they also fear that the extremely unbalance between Southern Army Group and the Kingdom Army will lead to the invasion from Ildoa. The border region is made up of mountains, so the local Imperial troops have taken advantage of terrain to reduce the amount of defending units, but they are still suffering from the shortage of equipment and materials. Since the Great Army are held up in Eastern Front, now they even have trouble defending the borders with their second-string divisions.
On the other hand, the Kingdom Army stationed at the border consist of regular army, gendarmerie, and several full-strength mountain regiments. Based on Lergen’s experience when visiting Kingdom’s military drills recently, he can only find an optimistic element. The Kingdom Army’s equipment in service contain weapons made from several countries, so they can’t wage a long term offensive from logistic aspect. Except of that, the Kingdom Army undoubtedly receive sufficient training and supplies. Lergen extremely opposes the offensive against Ildoa, yet Rudersdorf still tells him to research the local military geography for “all contingencies”. About the exact plan, they will discuss it in future.
After the end of the meeting, Lergen returned to his office and smoked a cigarette. He believes Rudersdorf won’t press the trigger to kill their homeland, but even he is forced to prepare a plan which will ruin their only hope to end this Great War (kill the mediator). He knows as a military officer, he shouldn’t intervene in the politics. However, if the politicians screw up, who else may correct their mistake? The unbelievably huge war has already devoured countless lives of people, yet it’s still not enough to end it. Could he still work as a gear wheel and fulfill his duty, or should he take action to find another way for the survival of the Empire? But would either way even give the Empire a good result? The night is going to fall and the day must come, but who on earth can escape from the fall of night?