The girl ran through the back alleys as quickly as she could, she had come too far for it all to fall apart on her so suddenly. The city, or at least the section she resided in, was poor and run-down. The greed of the region’s nobility had kept it this way for years. With how poorly the management was, and how greedy the nobles could be, it would only get worse before it would get better.

That’s why the girl had resorted to such lows as theft and crime. She didn’t take pride in it, but it had to be done, she had no other choice. She was a weak girl in a chaotic community full of rival gangs and factions, she had done what was needed to survive. She lacked the strength to do much herself, but she had the intelligence to control those around her and forge her own path to success in this chaotic city, no, world.

It also didn't help that her situation had been poor from the start, and while there seemed to be something sketchy in her past, she was too young to remember, and now too far past it to care. Whatever her true origins were didn’t matter anymore, they were far out of her reach regardless, and it was much simpler to not even bother with it.

Though currently, for all intents and purposes, she was one of the most powerful people in the city. She had taken a scattered group of disorganized and formerly unrelated thugs and grew it into a faction that nearly controlled the entire lower-class section of the city. All of this without lifting much of a finger. It was truly wonderful what money could do for those smart enough to utilize it properly. Yet now it was all falling apart.

All it took was a few morons in the wrong place at the wrong time to start a large-scale factional war among just about every faction in the city. At first, her’s held strong and asserted their own control, but it only took a few over-confident idiots to push their luck and end up screwing over an entire operation. What followed was a cascading domino effect which, while not initially unsalvageable, quickly led to much of her faction turning on each other and her. From there, all was practically lost.

Even still, there was a chance she could’ve fled with the loyal few who remained and took the money to restart operations elsewhere. If she got away on her own, the money might’ve been enough to live a comfortable middle-class life, but still, that too failed. As a small section of her fleeing escort group turned on the rest, she had barely managed to escape with what money she had left on her.

Having evaded her former men that were now hunting her for the time being, she assessed her options. She didn’t have the strength or stamina to escape properly, and while she considered herself fairly adept at magic for someone of her background, it still likely wasn’t enough to defeat people she hired as some of the best fighters with the best gear in the area.

There was one solution but…

It was a gamble, but she had no choice. If she did nothing, she would certainly be hunted and killed, if it worked, then she would most likely be indebted or face some harsh consequence. In the first option she dies, in the second, regardless of the potentially disastrous consequences, she at least had a chance to live.

She poured the money onto the ground, the bag size was easily that of a small backpack or purse, however with the amount of high-valued coins in the pile, it would certainly be enough. She would be basically bankrupt after this, but at least she’d come out alive.

Suddenly a magical circle appeared from the ground as her coins were whisked away in a bright light. The ritual was one she had found in her desperate search for a potential solution, primarily in her studies of magic as a means of self-defense. She thought it unrealistic to try, and information on it was too unreliable to fully trust, but regardless she had no choice now.

After a few seconds, a Demon appeared in the circle, offering a polite smile and a bow. The girl froze in shock, though was confused to see the demon looking just about the same age as her, if not a bit younger. Regardless that didn’t matter, Demons were said to take on many forms, so a demon in the form of a child wasn’t impossible by any means, nor did it determine anything about them. “Demon! I require your aid!”

The demon looked at her for a few brief moments and nodded, smiling, “I believe I understand your situation. Your name is Mia, correct?”

The girl was frozen again in shock, any cover of confidence now shattered, “H-How do you-?”

“You’ll find my information network spans farther than you think. Your antics haven’t been unnoticed by this region’s nobility, but it has been ignored. Had you tried to stretch beyond the poorer sections of the city, they probably would’ve taken action.”

“I see… but even the nobles knew, why would you know and memorize something as obscure as some thug in a city that I’m sure is only one of many in your ‘vast network’”

The demon smiled and shook her head, walking past as she pulled what appeared to the girl as a strange contraption out of her pocket. While the girl couldn’t recognize it, the demon knew it as a Luger pistol, meant to replicate the same kind from her own world; it was ultimately the one she was most familiar with.

“I wouldn’t call someone who could create a massive enterprise from nothing in the span of a few years at such a young age a mere thug, Mia.” The demon lowered their hand and pointed the pistol at the end of the alleyway, shooting once as the first man turned the corner, and shooting once more as the second did.

She placed the gun away and turned to Mia, who was now standing there, frozen again in shock for the third time now, “I-I see… I-I suppose you’re right.”

“Now then, you have two options, though I’ll consider the gold offering you gave me as payment for shooting those two. Your first option is that we leave it at that and I’ll be on my way, with you handling yourself from here, or alternatively, you could work for me.”

“Work for you?”

“Well, judging by the fact you don't seem to be in the best situation right now, I thought I’d be kind and offer you a job. Don’t worry, it's not anything murderous I assure you, you’re not cut out for something like that anyways. It won’t be a particularly easy job either, but I believe you’re cut out for it.”

Mia sighed, “I don’t think I have much of a choice… Even if I make it out of the city alive, I ain’t got nothing left. Alright then, I accept.”

The demon smiled, “Good. Though I trust that you’ll keep my identity as a demon a secret, you’ll find that most don’t take too kindly to it.”

“Huh?”

The demon waved her hands as suddenly the black-haired crimson-eyed demon turned into a normal blonde-haired blue-eyed girl that you’d expect to see among nobility. “My name is Tanya Tempest, but for now you will know me as Tanya von Degurechaff. Come along now, we have a business to run.”

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A few days following the signing of the Treaty of Tempestia, the King of Dwargon returned once more with his escorts. Tanya and Rimuru quickly arrived at the front of the city to meet him as he descended rapidly. Upon landing, he brought out a man in a lab coat, though from his rugged look, it was apparent he had not had the best time over the last few months.

“I assume this is Vesta, then?” Tanya asked as Gazel nodded in response.

“It seemed a waste to have such a great mind sitting around doing nothing, but I cannot in good faith have him serve under me.” The king turned to Vesta whose head and body were slouched in shame, “Vesta, devote yourself to working here. Make sure you’re of use to the Tempest Research Institution.”

Vesta bowed, “Y-Yes! I shall. My king, this time… I will live up to your expectations.” Vesta straightened up a bit and turned to Rimuru and Kaijin who had also arrived upon hearing word that Vesta would be handed over, “Kaijin, Rimuru, I am truly sorry. If you would allow me, I would like to do my best in service to you.”

Kaijin turned to Rimuru, “I’ll take responsibility if anything happens, just trust him and give him another chance.”

Rimuru nodded, “I had intended to regardless, but it's good to have your support in the decision. Vesta from now on you’ll be working under Tanya here, she has big plans but… Try not to let her get too carried away.”

Vesta nodded and bowed, “Thank you! I will do my best.” He bowed again afterward, now towards Tanya, seemingly having no issue with her demonic appearance, or rather was simply good at hiding it, “I look forward to working with you.”

Tanya nodded and gestured for him to raise his head as she took a file of papers and documents from one of Gazel’s subordinates. She flipped through the paper briefly, reading through many of the documents at a rapid pace, though deciding to look over them in more detail later, “I’m sure you’ll be of good use. While I’ve got a few projects I want to plan out before we can start work on it, I would be interested in looking into the mechanics of this Magisoldier project of yours.”

“H-Huh? You don’t mean…?”

“Outright recreating it might not be the way to go, but perhaps the basic fundamentals can be reshaped from something humanoid to something more… mobile. Though replacing the human resources needed for warfare with machines does sound appealing. Whatever the case may be, we can analyze its faults later, for now, I have other projects we need to get done.”

“I understand, I will do my best.”

“I already had the Orcs build a lab in the easily-defendable cave a bit to the north, I’ll show you there soon, it should have all the accommodations you need. I’ll see about getting you some more members for the Institution in the next few weeks.”

With everything handled, Gazel finally left, leaving with his escorts as the nearby crowd applauded, the Treaty of Tempestia was now in full effect. 

But now there was another issue.

Both Rimuru and Tanya turned their stare towards the group of lizardmen clapping with everyone else, Gabiru front and center with more exaggerated clapping than anyone else.

In unison, they both sighed and muttered, “What are you doing here, Gabiru?”

Gabiru froze for a second before making a fake cough and proclaiming, “My father has sent me here so that I may be of some use to you!”

The lizardmen behind Gabiru began praising him instantly, though Eiga silently stepped out from the side, punching her fist into her other hand, “I’ll punch him for you this time, Master.”

Gabiru raised his hands in a desperate defense, “WaitwaitwaitWAIT! My father, Kurt, has sent me here to gain experience by serving under Miss Tanya. He said something along the lines of serving under you may help me gain skills needed to succeed him as Chieftain or something like that.”

Tanya sighed, ‘That god damned lizard! Of course he dumps his idiot son onto me! Whatever… I should’ve expected as much, I can’t blame him for not wanting him to be the next chieftain as he is. Kurt never actually disowned him like he technically should’ve, but he made it damn obvious that he wasn’t going to be the next chieftain at this rate. It seems he wants me to break proper leadership skills into his thick scaly skull. He’s got some good traits in there, but I have to dig through a bunch of shit first. I’ll find a use for him somehow, he’s a skilled fighter at the very least.’

Gabiru knelt down and continued, “I will do my best to be useful to you!”

As he knelt, Gabiru’s sister, who Tanya had previously named ‘Souka’ during one of her prior trips met with the Lizardmen, approached and knelt as well. “My father, Kurt, has also sent me and some of my men to learn from this village as well, though, unlike my brother, my father has not insisted upon me serving you, so please place me wherever you see fit.”

Tanya grumbled to herself but managed to keep it quiet. Gabiru’s sister was far more competent than Gabiru was but lacked the desire to be chieftain. Gabiru had all the desire to be chieftain but none of the competence. The request from Kurt meant that ultimately Tanya couldn’t just dump Gabiru onto Rimuru, unfortunately.

“Right, you can both serve Tempest, I’ll find places for you both,” Tanya replied, already contemplating places where they could be of use.

Before she could decide, Souei appeared kneeling beside Tanya, “If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to take the Lizardmen with the Chieftain’s daughter to serve under me.”

Tanya turned to Souei and folded her arms, “That’s fine with me, but are you sure you don’t want Gabiru instead?”

“I’m certain.”

Tanya sighed, “Alright sure, but Rimuru will handle their names. I already have to name all of Gabiru’s men now.”

Separating Souka’s men from Gabiru’s and letting Rimuru handle the former as she handled the latter, Tanya moved out of the way to begin naming Gabiru’s men. As she did, she noticed the increasingly jealous and pleading stare of a lizard from behind her back. She sighed and turned towards Gabiru who stood behind her, practically giving her puppy eyes as she rolled her own eyes. “You have a perfectly fine name, but if you insist I’ll just give you your father’s last name or something. From now on you’re Gabiru Eidech, serve me well or… whatever.” 

Tanya turned back to continue naming the Lizardmen, not expecting any more reaction until she turned to see Gabiru glowing and evolving, “Huh?! You can override names? Whatever… at least he’ll be a Dragonewt too…”

At the end of naming them all, she had about a hundred dragonewts, not enough for any sort of full-scale dragonewt division, though she considered recruiting more lizardmen for that. However, as she noticed their wings and their ability to fly she got another idea.

A hundred men wasn't enough for anything close to a division or any meaningful unit, but what it was enough for… was a battalion.

Suddenly the Demon knew just what to do with the newly evolved Dragonewts.

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“I’m more adept with a spear, but I can understand how this may be useful in combat. We’ll try our best to master this new weapon, Miss Tanya!” Gabiru made an exaggerated salute as the demon simply nodded along.

In Gabiru’s hands was a rifle reminiscent of Tanya’s own from her past life. While many of Gabiru’s men had a weaker version of the first rifle Tanya had made, Gabiru himself had been given Tanya’s own rifle, or rather, the one she used before getting an upgrade.

While Tanya would’ve liked to equip all of the Dragonewts with a similarly powered rifle, their magicule count didn’t yet meet the necessary amounts needed to make full use of it. As such, she had Kaijin make numerous weaker variants, utilizing Rune magic within the rifles in order to create bullets. All the Dragonewts needed to do was funnel magic into the rifle in the right way, and it would do everything from ‘reloading’ to firing without much input. 

Only one problem remained: None of them knew how to use it.

The lizardmen tribe, having long hunted for fish with spears, based their military almost entirely around the spear. While this worked well for mounted units, of which the Lizardmen had plenty of, it fell short of the rifle in terms of aerial usefulness. Of course, without the rifle, a spear may have been a solid choice, but since they do have rifles, a spear is basically useless.

Tanya’s plan with the Lizardmen was to turn them into a specialized Task Force, her own 203rd, except this time she would be the General Staff ordering them around. Though, when considering all the forces Tempest already had at its disposal, she doubted she would have to rely too heavily on them for now.

Training them was the main headache, however, if she could turn her last 203rd into an elite force within three months, then she was certain she could do the same with these dragonewts. 

Satisfied with the Dragonewts’ new arsenal and decided on training them later rather than immediately, she walked through a nearby door into the large lab she had constructed for the T.R.I.

While the room was mostly empty, it had its fair share of equipment, materials, and plenty of workspace. A few portions of incomplete or failed projects lined some of the tables, and while Vesta was the main contributor, a few of the Orcs and Goblins had taken up some engineering, showing promise in their progress.

Currently though, the only one inside of the room was Vesta who was tinkering with a Computation Jewel, using a few precise tools to mess with its inner mechanisms with absolute precision. Upon Tanya entering he put down his tools and turned to greet her, “Miss Tanya, I’m glad you’ve arrived, I just finished up progress on those Computation Jewels you wanted. Follow me.”

Following, Vesta led her to a table containing roughly a hundred identical computation Orbs, each with a spherical red orb at the center surrounded by a silver border and a pair of wings shooting out from the sides. The design reminded Tanya of those badges often given to pilots, but she had let Vesta do what he wished with the design, and while he had gotten Kajin to actually make all of the wing portions, he was still proud of how it came out.

Sticking out amongst the table of silver and red was a single orb with a gold design rather than a silver one, picking it up, Tanya examined it closely as Vesta commented, “That one’s a Quad-Core while the others are all Tri-Cores. I managed to get a stable Tri-Core design down that I was able to make consistently enough for all of the Lizardmen. Making a stable Quad-Core was difficult, and while I could possibly make a few of those, it would take me about a day to make each one. With the Tri-Core models, I could make nearly ten a day once I got the hang of it.”

Tanya smiled and nodded, “Great work, you’ve done what that moron couldn’t.”

“Who’s this… moron?” Vesta asked.

“Some mad scientist who didn’t know the first thing about safety. He was smart, but that didn’t make him not a moron. He was the one who originally made the Quad-Core system… That thing was so unstable you were lucky to have it not explode on you. Regardless of if it was just because I gave you better materials or if you’re just smarter than him, you made what he couldn’t. Though, I can tell it still needs some work. I have other projects for you to work on, so I don’t want you spending all of your time on these.”

“I understand, I’ve heard you talk about a few of them over the past few weeks, may I ask which you want to work on first?”

“Actually I came here to give you this.” Tanya pulled out a binder that she was carrying with her, placing it on the table for Vesta to examine. As he did so, Tanya explained, “There’re a few projects I wanted you to look at in there. Some of them are fairly simple, others are more complex. There are some in there that were put in at Rimuru’s request like that potion production project. For now though, there are two I want you to work on. If you can get these to work we can move on to bigger projects.”

Tanya placed down the Computation Orb and flipped through the binder, pointing at a page titled ‘Shield Generator’. Before Vesta could ask, she explained, “Before, it was impossible to cast formulas without a person since they were the only sources of mana, or rather, magicules. Now we have this.”

She held out her right hand and created a small transparent orb, clenching her hand against it, it suddenly began to glow and fill with magical power, “This is similar to the spherical crystals I gave you to put into the cores of the computation orbs, the main difference is that this is meant to hold and store magicules, rather than being a conduit for their flow. With this, it can serve as a magical battery for which we can make a device to cast formulas and perhaps other magic.”

Vesta read over the paper briefly, mostly skimming for the time being as he nodded along, “I see, and you want to try and cast a shielding formula with it?”

“Correct. There’s no need to waste precious magisteel on heavy armor if we can compensate for it with magicules.”

“The only problem there is well… the magicules. We have an overabundance here but…”

“Yes, while Rimuru or I could easily power a few of these, relying solely on us may grow a bit annoying. I’m curious about looking into magicule generation, but from what I can tell so far, there’s no way to just ‘make’ magicules. Alternatively, I believe we may be able to use the immense aura of everyone in the village to our advantage.”

Vesta understood what she was saying, “With how many monsters there are there, and how powerful some of them are, races like humans or in my case Dwarves find ourselves somewhat under pressure whenever we go inside of it. If we can somehow funnel their magicules into these ‘batteries’ as you call them, we could not only solve the growing problem of too many magicules but also make quite a few of these things in the process.”

“Precisely my plan. See how well you can make a magicule shield generator as well as a mechanism to turn the aura of the villagers into stored magicules. I have a few of the Orcs and Goblins working on a bigger project, It's in the binder there somewhere. Once you can get that generator working, join them in that project.”

“Understood Miss Tanya, I will not disappoint.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

Tanya then left the lab, quickly informing Gabiru about the Computation Orbs and telling him to retrieve them for his men while she left the cave. Exiting it showed her construction teams already at work, building up towering walls and defenses to guard the entrance of the cave. The entire mountain, though more specifically the cave’s entrance was being turned into a fortress. This was both to defend the valuable resources inside as well as to guard its research.

The fort was also intended to be a good rallying point for the military should operations need to be launched against human nations like Blumund or Falmuth, though in the case of the latter, she had already developed a contingency plan of sorts. Said contingency would take time, however, and she wasn’t sure if it would even end up working. The conditions needed to be just right for it to work, so it wasn’t enough to fall back on alone. Blumund, however, would be a pushover in any conflict. Thanks to her own growing economic connections, she could probably collapse Blumund, or more specifically its economy, the second they raised arms against them.

For now, the only real threats to Tempest were Falmuth, though that situation could soon be alleviated in theory, Dwargon, who was aligned to Tempest, the southern Demon Lords who could perhaps be negotiated with, and the Eastern Empire. Threats existed beyond their borders too like the Luminous Church which opposes monsters or other Demon Lords which may seek to control the forest. The possibility of another True Dragon getting involved was also there, but considering the lack of information on any of them, Tanya knew little of their goals.

Regardless she was satisfied with the fortress, it wouldn’t stand up against a Demon Lord, she was sure of that, but it would be a formidable obstacle to any human nation which tried attacking it. In the end, considering its location, that was all it needed to protect against.

Tanya flew back into the sky, hovering over the forest as she flew just east of Tempest, looking over progress on the second of the first two ‘Autobahns’ she had planned out. The first one, set to connect Dwargon and Tempestia, was being built by Rimuru’s High Orcs, meanwhile, the connection between Eidechia and Tempestia was being built by Tanya’s Dark Orcs.

The differences in their evolution were noticeable but didn’t actually seem to impact much. Through analysis, Tanya figured out that while Rimuru’s High Orcs, seemingly a parallel to High Elves seen in most fantasy worlds Tanya had heard about, and likely existed in this world, were far more physically inclined. These High Orcs were stronger physically, though the strength of the Dark Orcs were still more than enough to take on the labor-intensive jobs needed to build infrastructure.

The Dark Orcs meanwhile had noticeably more magicules than their High Orc counterparts while also seeming to be a bit more intellectually inclined. This allowed a few of them to take a greater interest in engineering and research. Whether this was a fortunate coincidence or if they evolved that way due to Tanya’s will was something that Tanya decided would require further testing in the future.

Ultimately the main difference between Tanya’s Dark Orcs and Rimuru’s High Orcs was their visual appearance. The high Orcs had a large range of colors but tended to range from shades of orange, brown, and pink. The Dark Orcs meanwhile Tanya noted as looking more like Kurobuta pigs from her life in Japan, or rather Berkshire pigs as they were known in the west. The main attribute of said pigs was that they were black in coloration, rather than the pinks and oranges that other pings tended to be. For the time being, however, Tanya resisted her desire to cook them into Kurobuta and descended to check on progress.

Mere moments after she landed she was greeted by the Dark Orc King, an Orc of exceptional strength and intelligence she named ‘Otto’. Otto knelt before her, many of the Orcs joining in with him as she gestured for them to raise their heads, “I keep telling you guys that it's unnecessary. Keep at your work and that's all the formalities I need. It’s a waste of time to do it here where we’re not in an official gathering.”

“The fact remains that you are one of the leaders of this country, Chancellor Tanya, we must still show the proper respect.” Otto said, standing up as the other Orcs returned to work, “So what did you come here for today, Chancellor?” Despite Tanya being the only one in Tempest with a slight accent to her speaking, Otto had somehow developed a firm German accent. Such strangely wasn’t too uncommon among the Dark Orcs, but Otto’s accent very much stood out as the ‘most German’.

“I came to inspect progress on the Autobahn, judging from the giant line from here to Lake Siss which lacks any trees, I take it you’ve finished clearing out the forest?”

“That is correct, all that's left for us to do is lay the stones and make the road. I suspect we’ll be nearing completion in a month’s time. After that, we’ll begin on the border town between Tempest and Dwargon as you requested.” Otto explained proudly.

“Good work. I see you’ve made the roads as wide as I requested, too.”

“Of course, they should be more than capable of carrying the weight of any vehicle on the road. Speaking of which, I take it Brawn and Olbert have been working hard in the Institution?”

The ‘Brawn’ and ‘Olbert’ Otto reference were the two Orcs that showed the most promise among all of Tanya’s new subordinates to serve in the TRI. Their growing adaptiveness and interest in the fields of science and engineering led to Tanya recruiting them to the job at which they’ve since grown ever better.

“Indeed. They’re valuable assets, I’m sure their upcoming project will be successful. If it is, roads like these will need to be strong enough to not be crushed under the weight.”

“There’s no need to worry, Chancellor, we’ve got it all covered. I’m not too confident about the High Orcs, however. They’re hard workers, of course, but from what I’ve heard you’ve not informed them of your projects.”

Tanya sighed, “If I told Rimuru of the project before I had examples to prove its effectiveness he would probably shut it down immediately. That slime can be so blinded by his own vision of a utopian world that sometimes he forgets the cruelness of reality. If nothing else, at least he’s begun to realize that or is at least compliant with me modernizing our military further.”

“I for one am excited to see what weapons come out of your projects, Chancellor Tanya,” Otto commented.

“Are you deciding to take the role of its commander, Otto?”

Otto thrust a hand against his chest as he turned to Tanya, “I will do whatever mein Chancellor requests.”

Tanya sighed and shook her head, her hands planted at her side, “You just want to drive one, don’t you?”

Otto laughed, “It seems you’ve detected my true intentions, Chancellor.”

“Work hard enough and I’ll see if I can remake one of the bigger ones so you can actually fit in and drive it.”

“I would appreciate it, Chancellor. What was it that you called these vehicles again?”

Tanya replied simply, “Panzers.”

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Thanks to various editors and helpers on the Discord who helped with things like plot decisions, grammatical errors, and other aspects of the chapter:

Terraman60, Dtrackt

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