AN: I wrote a thing. I hope now is Ok time to post it. I remember there being a discussion about when it is good idea to do so, but I can't find it.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Kasia Schwarzer.
As someone who is unbound by fate, her choices are limitless.
However, some possibilities are more likely than others.
A wandering witch.
An opera Singer.
A chancellor.
She can choose any of these and many more futures.
But,
One does not necessarily have to limit oneself to just a single of these choices.
Chancellor of fire and steel
It has been 5 years since the Ascension cult tried and failed in their initial attempt to summon a demonic army to this world, 3 years since empress Alfin's coronation and one year since she named Kadia Schwarzer the Imperial chancellor. Today, she who united the warring faction of Erebonia called for a national address, and while she did not give an official reason, everyone knows what this is about – the remnants of the cult which recently attempted to assassinate both the empress and the lady chancellor.
"The clock is about to hit noon with lady chancellor and prince regent set to take the stage for their national address, with the attempted assassination of both our beloved empress and chancellor, the message they intend to convey will undoubtedly shape the future of Erebonia, and with it, our lives"
"Our reporter, Kasia, is in the plaza right now and will be reporting this historic event live"
"Greeting Erebonia it's me Kasia, not Schwarzer of course, just Kasia, and I am sure that you are all curious and tense with anticipation on what our lady chancellor and prince Frederick has to say. Prince Frederick has just arrived, let us listen to what he has to say."
"Dearest people of Erebonia, I am Frederick Reise Arnor the crown prince and the current regent of the empire as a result of the empress's current condition, who while not in critical condition is still currently in coma."
"Over these last few days, I and our dear chancellor, Kasia Schwarzer have been discussing and investigating the incident, and of course, how we should respond to it. Now we intend to inform you of our choice. Lady chancellor please go ahead."
The Lady chancellor, new scars adorned her face – healed but still raw and red- together with grim expression on her face, sword at her side and determination in her steps - stops at the centre of the stage and begins to speak.
"Citizens of Heimdallr, fellow countrymen, Erobonians far and wide, I thank you for your attention. I am pleased to inform you that the vile assassins have all been apprehended and while the attempt on my life has left me scarred, but I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger!"
"However, this incident demonstrates how low our enemies are willing to go. On the other hand, it also allowed us to finally learn the identity of the cult's leader."
She takes a deep breath and after slight pause, continues.
"It is none other than the current mayor of Crossbell! Not only that, but majority of the city's government are members of the cult! And not long after their failed attempt, they closed the city and are using Crossbell guardian force to ensure nobody goes in or out."
"Naturally, we will not stand for this, not simply because of their odious action against our empress, but also for the people of Crossbell and in fact for all the world, we will gather the empire's full military might together. To deliver onto the cult justice. With fire and steel as our instrument, we will storm into the city, wipe them out once and for all!"
Once the lady chancellor's words have been spoken, the cries of cheer could immediately be heard from the gathered citizens.
The wandering witch
In the state of Crossbell, near the temple of the moon, several women, a young girl and a cat can be seen talking. The 1st women, a witch in fact, Emma Schwarzer begins.
"Kasia, can you feel it?"
"Yes, the spirit veins have been very subtly disturbed, if we didn't come here to perform a deeper scan, we wouldn't even notice anything's wrong."
The deceptively young girl, who is in fact the oldest here continues her analysis.
"And yet, despite appearing normal to passive observation, a single nudge would send the entire Crossbell network into complete chaos, no doubt allowing for summoning of countless cryptids and demons.
The group becomes silent for a moment. Until the black cat speaks up.
"So, we are going to just ignore it?"
"Ignore what?"
"You are invading Crossbell Kasia!"
While none of the other witches knew how to bring the topic up, it is obvious they wanted to talk about it. However, not all of them are as, agitated, about the situation as others. For example, certain daughter of the Azure Abyss.
"Come now Celine, she isn't "invading" Crossbell, she is liberating it. She isn't planning to bring it back to the empire, right?"
"Of course not."
Emma, who is also not exactly happy about the situation, decides to express her opinion.
"Still, you should have let the Radiant Wings handle the situation, we knew the cult was hiding in Crossbell, and were working with SSS to hunt them down."
"Yes, I know, I also was helping you with that when I could if you recall. It's not like this is my first choice of action either, but after the latest revelations, I am sorry, but I just can't hope that you will be able to stop them in time, not when they brainwashed the entire Crossbell military and populace.
"Perhaps, but – "
Emma's words were cut short as a giant fiery demon comes into existence, immediately it tries to send bolts of fire at the witches. Something that it soon comes to regret.
Emma Schwarzer, the quencher of flames, immediately puts the firebolts out, dissipating as if they never existed. The fire demon, much weaker than Mcburn couldn't hold for even a couple of seconds against her power before he too, perished.
However, he was not alone. Suddenly, all around the witches of the Hexen clan, an army of demons of various elemental powers have arrived.
"It seems the cult noticed out presence"
"Let's just defeat them and get out of here, we did what we came for"
"yeah/ok/all right" came out various responses to the elder of the clan, as each witch prepares their attacks, annihilating their opponents with magic and steel.
The Crimson Diva
The Garnier district of Heimdallr is famous for two things. It is a high-class shopping district. It is also where the Heimdallr opera house is located. Considered to be the largest and oldest opera house in all of Zemuria, it is a place of entertainment and relaxation for the people of Erebonia that everyone wishes to visit at least once in their life. It is a place of history, with its own legends and mysteries.
One such mystery is that of the azure diva, who had suddenly disappeared from all of Zemuria, with no one aware of her current whereabouts (except for the author of a certain book series, who claims that it is actually Emma Schwarzer, the wife of the Divine blade, Rean Schwarzer, and mother of Kasia, the current chancellor.)
One, more recent mystery, is that of the so called, "Crimson Diva". A masked singer, who appeared couple of years ago, and took Heimdallr by storm. Her singing, while carrying a note of inexperience, is beautiful and invigorating to listen to. Her latest performance, an opera with music made by the continent-famous Elliot Craig, a script containing poems written by his son - Edward Craig. This father-son collaboration is already enough to make it of interest and will without doubt be played for centuries to come: However, all would agree that the main reason they came today is to see the Crimson Diva.
And what a show it was, even now as the audience slowly leaves the hall, they cannot think of anything else other than wanting to experience it again. And as they descent the stairs, they notice her. The Crimson Diva, speaking with the reporters of imperial chronicle.
"As, always I have no intention of revealing my identity, however you are free to ask questions"
"If I may, there has been a rumour that you are connected to the Azure Diva, Vita Clotilde, is it true?"
"Well, I will not deny that she was my teacher, and let me tell you a little secret. I have been trying to convince her to perform with me, and I think she might finally accept"
Her words are almost explosive with how much it catches them off guard, and immediately they start asking an avalanche of questions.
"So, it is true that you are her daughter?" And many more questions regarding her identity.
Even though only a mask hides her face, no one can figure out who she is. There are many theories of course, such as her being the daughter of the previous sensation of the opera house, or that she is Olivert Reise Arnor in disguise. Ther is also the utterly ridiculous idea of her being Kasia Schwarzer, but only a few conspiracy theorists claim this, everyone knows the chancellor is far too busy to be singing in an opera house and those who subscribe to this theory are generally mocked for it.
Which makes it a bit ironic considering they are right.
The Phantom Thief
Within the Sutherland province, there is a hidden village hidden in the leaves of the Isthmia Great Forest, it is the Village of Eryn, Home of the witches of the Hexen clan. It is a magical place, where witches train in their abilities and serves as a haven for them. It is also a home to the Divine beast of fire, the Burning sphinx, Roselia Millstein who is also the elder of the Hexen clan. Within her atelier, one can find many magical artifacts, among them is also counted Merseburg the Scarlet, an ancient spellbinding staff imbued with the secret arts passed down the generations, it changes its colour based on the wielder's magical prowess. When its true power is released, it is known as Merseburg's Scorching, a great staff capable of unleashing the true power of a holy beast.
When not in use, Merseburg the Scarlet is stored within the Rose's Atelier, in a room on the second floor. At first sight, it seems as if the mystical staff is not guarded at all, the room even has a window in it, anyone could just break in and take it. However, those who would try to do so, would quickly be caught within the myriads of magical traps around the staff, and if you get through them and actually grasp the staff. several alarms would sound off, informing not just the Crimson Roselia, but the whole village. Of course, Merseburg the Scarlet also has a spell upon it, which constantly informs its owner of its location. The deceptively unguarded treasure, is in fact one of the most guarded items in the world, as is befitting of an ancient staff belonging to the holy beast of Aidios.
Even so, there are those who would attempt to steal it.
A raven flies through the window, phasing through it, as it wasn't even there in the first place. It lands on the floor, and immediately a magical circle appears on its feet. A second later, a woman appears in its place.
Wearing a raven mask, and dressed in a black attire, with decorative feathers all over it, she quickly looks around assessing the situation. This woman, if she were to introduce herself, would say she is called Phantom Thief K.
"Good, the alarms haven't gone off"
The alarm spell is set to ignore certain people, including our thief. If it had been otherwise, this would be much harder to do.
One, careful step at a time, the raven masked woman approaches the staff, taking care to avoid the traps around the floor. Thanks to her own ability to sense magical energies, she can simply step over them without a problem, but even without that, her confidence shows that she already knew where these traps were. Naturally, this entire venture was months in planning, entire weeks spent doing nothing but charting the best possible path through the traps.
Suddenly, her entire body freezes.
"That was close"
Just a couple of centimetres before her, there is a thin line made of magic, invisible to the naked eye, and even her magical sense detected it almost too late.
"However, now that I know it exists, all I need to do is focus"
And indeed, after spending just a couple of seconds of focus on detecting it, she found out an entire web of thin magical wire, disturbing it, would no doubt send a signal to the Elder.
"This could be tricky, but as long as I am careful…"
The thief continues, dancing around the lines, it takes her much longer than she would have preferred, the Holy beast is currently at the hot spring, enjoying some well-earned rest after a full day of work, while she entered just a little while ago, the thief does not know when exactly she will leave.
"Finally"
Standing at last before the staff, she could just grab it, however that would be a mistake. The staff is floating above a pedestal, if it was removed by unauthorized person, then a trap would activate, one that would catch the would be a thief.
"Which is why a brought this"
The thief holds out an arm, and within her hand a wooden staff appears. It is shaped just like Merseburg the Scarlet, but made entirely of simple wood, and the single magical thing about it, is the spell that makes it give off the same presence as the real one.
"Now comes the moment of truth, if this doesn't work, then I will be caught."
Using a quick teleport spell, the thief switches Merseburg and the fake wooden one with each other.
She stills.
Seconds pass.
And then she smiles.
"It worked, now I just must get out of here. Oh, and can't forget this."
On the pedestal, she places a single envelope with a letter inside. Turning around, she retraces her steps, and a mere minute later she is back at the window.
"Opening it from withing won't trigger an alarm"
Doing just that, she jumps out. An eager voice greets her,
"Amazing work as always my lady, I knew you would succeed"
"Thank you, E, I wouldn't be able to do this if you didn't teach me, still let's hurry back to the capital, I have a lot of work to do in the morning"
Both phantom thieves E and K quickly leave.
Bonus:
"By the way, how do you even have the time for all of this?"
"It is simple, I just don't sleep."
"But then where do you get the energy for all this?"
Kasia assumes a stance.
"Eternal Recovery Stance. It draws upon the power of the septium veins and gives me a constant supply of energy. However, it alone only provides about 50% of the required amount to forgo sleep."
"Where do you get the other half then"
She opens her bag and bring out a thermos flask and a cup. She pours herself a…. black sludge?
"coffee"
"In what world is that considered coffee??"
AN: Well, this is it, my 1st Omake. Kind of surprised I even managed to finish it. This was born out of all the discussions about Kasia's future. Then an idea came to me. Why not do all of it? And now here we are. I started writing this about a week ago, and probably could have finished it in two if I didn't get distracted by Wartales.
Anyway, some explanations. The whole cult and Crossbell situation is just something I made but to give Kasia a reason to invade it. I also took a lot of inspiration from the Osbourne's speeches. Wandering witch unfortunately just ended up being an extension of Chancellor thing as it mostly focuses on the political events, so I am not really happy with it or with the Chancellor one for that matter. The Crimson Diva was hard to write, I have very limited knowledge about opera and so on. Phantom thief kind of just happened. I remembered there being a discussion about Elsa's parents, and I think one theory was about it being a Blueblanc? Well combined with the Witch Heist, I made Kasia and Elsa into a Phantom thief Duo, E and K.
There was also an idea for a Grandmaster of Ouroboros 2.0! Kasia with Ignis as Enforcer I., Isabella, Elsa, Lianne as Anguis, but that's as far as it got before I ran out of creative juice.
