Hearts of Iron 4 Player's Guide to Save the Isekai World

Rattled Saber

She came, she saw, she ran. But like her footsteps, Erich's thoughts were fading as the pain in his head was flaring.

"Erich."

"No need to excuse yourself, Annalise. Running is good for your health."

If she played the game, she'd be as befuddled as anybody else by looking at the Artillery Research Tree—or any tree for that matter—in its current configuration.

The vanilla artillery branched out into the field gun and howitzer branches, the former retaining the original production cost but lower in soft attack damage, and the latter costing almost the same as a light tank without the armor, yet still less soft attack than the original.

"That's not what I meant."

Or so she says. Erich stopped detailing his thoughts and started bullet-pointing the rest of it before she disoriented him any further. A glance was enough in cases like these to keep it moving, and he barely heard her.

"That was the first time I've seen her."

"'That was the first time I've seen her.' You? Metaphors?"

She scoffed. "So heartless."

Telling Mauser, Bergmann, and Schmeisser's Force ghosts to drill the damn gas port was more productive to the Infantry Technology Tree down the line than listening to the emotional plight of the woman who proclaimed herself his friend and enemy, but he's getting ahead of himself.

What was 'enough' won the contracts, and the artificial scarcity of his powers showed. The Production Cost fluctuated just by shortening the rifle barrel—crucial inches of steel saved for something else. Settling for a bastardized Walther/Makarov chambered with a knockoff .380 ACP? It made the prospects of a Wondrous Nine(submachine gun) cheaper.

"A crown princess is valuable, and you know it."

"Sure."

He faced the corner on the left, a good place for a blackboard. With the patents popping in his head like fun facts, he might even Frankenstein an SKS and a Sten that won't jam in front of a monster.

"Are you even listening?"

"Hm? Yeah. If I were to assume what you saw was the person wearing the armor, you are safe to assume that I've seen the extent of that armor. And it didn't listen."

"I understand your resentment, but–"

"She had good intentions. Tragic, isn't it?"

Annalise paused mid-summarizing. Erich went back to sort out the mess with the artillery. The donkeys and horses needed to haul a single piece around an infrastructure backwater were so abysmal that a mountain gun was more forgiving.

The silence that followed his words was too sharp to be unintentional. Annalise's chair screeched.

"You'll use her for your schemes, and she'll consent. To her, it's the least she could do. But if you refuse even that, you might find yourself more compassionate when you express your true feelings about her."

And with that, Annalise left. There were no slamming doors, no last look, just footsteps fading down the hallway.

***

Aurelia wasn't far off, already past the gatehouse and strolling further into Parkam Street, almost at the gate to the palace. Even after seeing the two people she wronged, she still had the presence of mind regarding the implications of a princess running out from the hero's residence.

Annalise propped up a smile, a hand on her satchel sling like the good girl she was, and hastened her pace, waving the knights closing the gate to hold it and beaming a brighter smile upon passing by as thanks.