Saga of Slime and Devil (Remake)

Vol 2 | Chapter 3 | Milimkampfwagen

"Is there a reason you picked Blumund for the base of your plans, Miss Degurechaff?" Mia, a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes followed behind Tanya, adjusting her glasses as she did so. Her eyesight was perfect, but these weren't normal glasses, they were a magical artifact Tanya had acquired for her, allowing her to use her recently acquired skill with much better efficiency.

In signing a contract with Tanya, she gained a number of her skills, or rather she was able to utilize a fraction of their skills. The only skill she had full use of was 'Sage', meanwhile she had limited access to 'Transcending Eye' and 'Illusion Master'. She, like all other contract holders with Tanya, had also acquired 'Mental Influence Resistance' as a result of the contract.

This was done mostly through a loophole Tanya found within her own skill, 'Oberst'. Through Oberst, she found that she could grant some of her skills to anyone serving directly under her. Normally this would only apply while in combat or another scenario, however, she found that through a contract, individuals could technically always be directly serving under her. While this indirect method limited how many skills she could give out and how effective they would be, it did allow her to at the very least give Mental Resistance to everyone she made a contract with as well as give a few stronger skills to a chosen few. Mia was among the lucky ones.

The glasses that Tanya had given her enhanced her eyesight beyond what was already considered perfect. It also had the useful side effect of amplifying the effectiveness of Transcending Eye. While this was unfortunately useless for Tanya due to her already having full access to the skill, it worked well for Mia.

Tanya walked into a large manor she had purchased as the base of her operations as she responded, "It's simple. Blumund is small. It's a nation that must tread carefully lest it find itself brushed aside by its neighbors. If we gain enough power here, we'll not only be too big and threatening for them to risk removing, but our presence would add a deterrence against other nations attacking Blumund, making it much more profitable to keep us here."

"I see, so you basically want to take over Blumund?" Mia asked in response, following Tanya inside as she was led upstairs.

"Not exactly. Of course, I want to keep Blumund well under my influence, but I feel it would be better to keep them friendly out of willingness than out of force. If we mess up and end up agitating them, it could see them turn to some bigger force for stabilization. Best case scenario, they become a vassal of a nearby larger power like Ingrassia or Falmuth. Worst case scenario, they become a closely aligned state to the Church. Frankly, I'd rather not have a bunch of theocratic commies on my border."

"What's a... commie?"

"Don't worry about it. Be lucky they don't really exist outside of that damned 'Holy Empire'. I don't even understand how you can combine the two concepts, but if their god is anything like Being X, I can't say I'm really surprised."

"Being X? I'm confused..."

"Sorry about that, I went on a bit of a ramble. Onto the matters at hand, if we tried to create a centralized bank in Falmuth, we may have some success, but we'd have just as much opposition too. Blumund is small and has only a limited number of nobles. From what I've heard, the Guild or perhaps just the Guild Master has about as much power as the actual nobility, that is, not much at all."

"I see, so not much to oppose us, after all." Mia replied as Tanya led her into a room as she stared at what she saw in confusion, "What is that?"

Before her was what seemed to be a sleeping elvish girl with blonde hair in a ponytail and in many ways looked like Tanya when she wasn't showing off her demonic appearance.

"It's convenient, that's what it is." Tanya said with a smirk as she approached it, "It's a homunculus. They're made in the Sorcerer Dynasty of Sarion. It was quite hard acquiring one, but with enough wealth and connections, it's a lot easier than one might expect. It's damn expensive, though."