Erich stared at Tia as if she had gone insane before yelling at her for her recklessness.
"Tia! What the fuck did you just do?"
Tia was trying to calm herself. She had clearly panicked upon thinking about the potential of losing her Master's love, and acted rashly. Despite all of her intelligence, she was not immune to emotions overriding her sense of reasoning.
Perhaps if Tia was only a moderate level Artificial Intelligence this never would have occurred, but she had emotions just like any biological being, and because of this, she was prone to failures such as this.
It took Tia several monts to calm her nerves, and think of a rational solution to the ss she had just created, and once she did so, she pointed her tranquilizer gun towards Erich, and apologized to him before sending him to sleep with the pull of a trigger.
"Sorry master, but none of you can be allowed to rember that this happened... Especially you, master..."
Erich felt the tranq dart hit him in the neck, the powerful sedative sending him to the floor and into a deep sleep. Whereupon waking up, Erich found himself in his personal quarters with Tia's robotic form lying by his side, clinging to him almost like a cat as she did so.
He did not realize it, but while he was asleep, Tia had altered his mories, making sure he didn't have any recollection of her yandere rage, or the chaos that ensued after. Like Erich, Lunaria and Celestia both had their mories altered in a way that suggested their eting with Erich was nothing but cordial and informative.
Whatever progress Erich had made in securing Lunaria's affection was imdiately undone by Tia, perhaps in a fit of jealousy. Whatever the reason, Erich, Lunaria, and Celestia only rembered a professional debriefing on the existence of Tia, and the Naraku threat that lied outside the galaxy.
Instead, Erich had a mory of parting ways with Lunaria and Celestia, where he partook in the ceremonies of the Germanic Star-Empire, who revealed that the strategies employed to erge victorious against Terminus were all devised and implented by Erich himself.
Erich's popularity was at an all-ti high, and unlike his past life, there were no scandals surrounding his na that caused others to think less of him. It was announced in the coming days that Erich was the chosen successor of the Supre Leader, and that Hans would be stepping down from the position in favor of Erich within the next year.
There was only one problem... Erich was unmarried, and without children. And many people were wary of a man who had no stake in the Empire's future leading it. Because of this, Erich was given a choice of potential brides to choose from.
However, what shocked the Empire was that the pop star phenom, Erika Krieger, offered herself up as a candidate, saying that she had been secretly admiring Erich since he was first declared a war hero all those years ago.
This statent sent the grid ablaze with drama, as Erika's many fans refused to let her retire for the sake of marrying the next supre leader. But Erika was aware that her public confession of love would tank her career and was willing to take the chance to marry Erich.
Shockingly, Erich agreed to Erika's request, saying that he was also a secret admirer of hers. And thus, for the first ti in the history of the Germanic Star-Empire, the ancient concept of a "wedding ceremony" was revived.
Normally, the Germanic Star-Empire's marriages were a matter of being chosen by an AI, where the Bride and Groom would move in with one another and imdiately start a family together, typically at the age of eighteen.
Marriages had been deed a waste of resources by a hard nosed society built on efficiency and utilitarianism above all else. For the GSE to host a wedding, it ant only one thing. The entire event was rely an act of propaganda to raise the reputation of the next Supre Leader.
Of course, since they would not be officially married until their wedding day, neither Erich nor Erika were permitted to et in person until them. Instead, they could only communicate via the grid, which Erich took an opportunity to do so the mont after Erika made her public confession.
---
Erika was lying on her bed. Despite already being an adult, she was one of the few adult won in the Empire who was unmarried still. And that was due to her role in the entertainnt industry. This was also because she was a mutant, but few people outside the governnt itself, and her imdiate family, knew this.
The young woman was on her NeuroLink. She had only just publically announced her admiration and "love" for war hero, and next Supre Leader of the Empire. Offering herself up as a candidate for marriage.
But what shocked the young pop star was that almost imdiately after she made this statent, she received a direct ssage from the man.
"I must say... I was not expecting you to fall for . I thought I would have to work hard to win your affection. This is a surprising turn of events..."
Erika blushed red in embarrassnt. She had just gotten out of the shower and was dressed in her pajamas. Her hair was still wet, giving the bubblegum pink color a nice sheen to it. She couldn't believe that Erich had ssaged her and was quick to respond to him.
"Is it really you? I never thought you would actually ssage , even after my embarrassing confession. I an... You can have any girl you want as your bride..."
The young woman waited patiently for a response, before Erich laughed at her comnts and responded in a way that almost sounded as if he knew her despite being a total stranger.
"Lord have rcy... I'm sorry, I don't an to laugh, but it's just that I never thought I would ever see you act so humble... I an, you and I both know that you are the most desired woman in the Empire. Why are you pretending as if you are a nobody?"
There was just one problem: Erika wasn't pretending... In her past life, when Erich married her, she had behaved like such a brat because there was a mutual disdain between the two of them. But the circumstances of this disdain failed to manifest themselves in this life.
And with Erich becoming a well-known war hero at the beginning of this tiline, sothing that was the most desirable position for a man in the Empire, Erika couldn't help but fall for him early on.
Because of this, she was not pretending to be humble, as her agre achievents as a woman in the entertainnt industry failed to compare with the General who defeated the Naraku, let alone the man chosen to beco the next supre leader.
Thus, from her perspective, it was Erich who was being too humble, and she felt incredibly embarrassed responding to the man with the ssage she sent them.
"It's just that... You're my hero... For you to be speaking to like this, it's like a dream co true..."
Erich was stunned by this statent. It beca abundantly clear to him in that mont, this was not the stubborn and bratty pain in his ass that he had been forced to marry in his past life, and learned to tolerate, and perhaps even love, despite her faults.
No, this was an entirely new Erika. One who had a different upbringing, thus changing her personality to be more appealing. After all, during the past tiline, Erika developed in her formative years with a bitter hatred in her heart towards Erich. This had caused her personality to beco much more combative.
But in this life... She had gone through her teenage years with an intense admiration and infatuation with Erich. One that compelled her to adapt her personality to fit the "ideal image of a Germanic woman" as proselytized by the Empire's propaganda departnt. After all, if she was the ideal woman, then clearly Erich would notice her, wouldn't he?
It was only now, after thinking these things through, and communicating with Erika for the first ti in this new life, that Erich realized just how large of a butterfly effect he had caused by changing the events of his early career in this tiline.
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