The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Everyday Frontlines ー12 Peaceful Days of Tanya and Vishaー

Episode 12: Tanya Dreams of Peace

On a freezing winter night, the barracks cafeteria of the 203rd Air Mage Battalion was filled with a warm atmosphere. On the tables were a variety of potato dishes that First Lieutenant Visha had concocted with great ingenuity. The savory smell of oil, the steam from the warm stew, and the light clatter of dishes. The soldiers all gathered around, smiling as they ate.

“Hey, we have training tomorrow, we can’t eat this much and still run!”

“So what! Let’s have a bet on who gets the most seconds!”

Such small exchanges only made the atmosphere in the cafeteria more cheerful. Major Tanya Degurechaff watched the scene silently. In her mind, this peaceful dining table was being analyzed as an extremely rational military situation.

[ENTRY] CURRENT STATUS: MORALE, AT PEAK LEVELS. EFFICIENT USE OF RESOURCES, CONFIRMED. SQUADRON CONTROL, STABLE.

She realized that this scene of "perfect logistics" was built on a series of inefficient events. Her thoughts began to trace back to the past.

“…That bread scuffle, in hindsight, was not just a simple matter of resource distribution. It was a basic training exercise to learn the concept of logistics.”

In her mind, every routine event had a military meaning.

“First Lieutenant Visha’s high-calorie cooking was a performance evaluation of an inefficient weapon called morale enhancement. The uncontrollable factor of babysitting was a starting point for analyzing an unknown variable called emotion.”

She recalled every past event one by one.

The pure joy of combat she felt when infusing a snowball with magic during the snowball fight, the cold air stinging her cheeks. The irrational rage when her identity was denied by the “child’s fee” at the hot spring.

“...Did those inefficient emotions, in the end, build this peace?”

Tanya’s rationalism began to wander in the face of this contradiction. In her mind, the judgment logs of “efficient” and “inefficient” were blinking furiously.

[ENTRY] BREAD SCUFFLE: INFFICIENT. RESULT, ORDER RESTORED. JUDGMENT: EFFECTIVE.

[ENTRY] BABYSITTING MISSION: INEFFICIENT. RESULT, EMOTIONAL VARIABLE DETECTED. JUDGMENT: UNDEFINED.

At that moment, Visha placed a steaming bowl of potato stew in front of Tanya.

“Major. Would you like a refill?”

Visha’s smile seemed to symbolize this contradictory theory. Through the steam, Tanya caught a glimpse of a memory from her past life.

—The feeling of emptiness from slurping a cold instant noodle late at night in a tired body, clutching a meager paycheck. The sound of a photocopy machine in a corporate office on the verge of death from overwork, and the sound of dishes clattering in this cafeteria.

“…Hmph. First Lieutenant Visha. That redistribution of supplies is extremely accurate. I am grateful.”

Tanya said, taking a sip of the stew. The gentle flavor of the potato soaked into her tired body. It was inefficient, illogical, and… a peaceful taste that her logic could not explain.

In Tanya's mind, an unresolved log was still blinking.

[ALERT] UNKNOWN VALUE SYSTEM, RE-DETECTED. CODE NAME: PEACE.

She quietly put down her spoon and looked up at the starry sky outside the window. Something she could never obtain while pursuing rationalism in her past life. What she had always wanted was a “safe life.”

But now, facing this peaceful scene, her thoughts became muddled.

“This is not peace. I would call it a side effect of logistics management. Who would call the accumulation of such inefficient emotions a beautiful story?”

Tanya muttered, trying to convince herself.

And then, she quietly asked herself.

“...As a logistics manager, should I welcome this outcome?”

“...As a single human seeking peace, what should I think of this scene?”

She could not find the answer herself. And so, the story closes quietly, leaving that question for the reader.