The faint groans inside the granary finally went quiet. Greg wiped the tears from his face and silently looked toward FrostNova.
Petrova made a slow circuit around the building. Everyone in the village was here, in this single granary, and the food that had been stored inside was long gone. That alone made one thing clear: this was not the work of the Ursus. They would never rummage through a village's supplies. To them, anything related to the infected was filth they refused to touch.
With the wrong answer dismissed, only one conclusion remained.
"There are still people in the village."
Greg's eyes were sharp. Through the granary window he spotted silhouettes in the distance and whispered urgently, "There are a lot of them."
FrostNova stepped to the window and accepted the telescope that Petrova handed over. She focused on the far end of the village.
Petrova and Greg both felt the air around them grow even colder. FrostNova lowered the telescope. Extremes of fury flickered in her eyes.
"They're Reunion soldiers. The ones who deserted three weeks ago."
"…"
Greg took the telescope and clenched his teeth. "They're still wearing Reunion uniforms."
Petrova, though weighed down by grief, managed to remain rational. "There are over thirty on the other side. Big sis, there are only three of us."
FrostNova exhaled, her tone turning icy. "One of me is enough."
The weather darkened without warning. Over thirty deserters sat around a bonfire, cooking meat and chatting idly. The next instant, a raging blizzard swept in, overturning their pot. The precious stew spilled across the ground and vanished into the snow.
They didn't even have time to swear. Ice and frost surged toward them like blades. Several were impaled instantly. The others scrambled for cover, raising shields or ducking behind houses.
The blizzard continued to howl. FrostNova sensed three figures heading deeper into the village. With a wave of her hand, the storm dissipated, revealing ground pierced by countless ice shards.
"FrostNova, how could you do this to us!"
The deserters recognized her and exploded with anger. "Do you want to become a traitor to the infected?"
FrostNova opened her mouth, but as she saw who had arrived, the frost in her expression eased slightly.
"A traitor to the infected? You should think carefully about what you're saying, Sven."
A voice burned with fury, coming from behind the deserters. They turned and found Talulah standing there in full uniform, her face dark and grim, one hand resting on the hilt of her blade.
"Talulah!"
Sven jabbed a finger at her, shouting, "You betrayed us! We're infected, and we live like dogs! Freezing and starving in this wasteland! When we attacked the mine, we could've taken the whole city, but your hesitation ruined everything!"
Talulah's expression tightened. She looked toward FrostNova, who simply gestured to the granary behind her.
"Talulah. You should look for yourself."
Talulah walked toward it step by step. The deserters blocking her path moved aside instinctively, whether from fear or something else.
Two minutes later, the granary erupted in towering flames.
"They begged you. They trusted you."
Talulah stepped through the fire as she returned to the village square. Every word she spoke was like a dragon exhaling scorching breath. Her cold eyes swept over every deserter present. "Because they were infected, they let you into the village without a second thought."
"They had no weapons. They were ordinary infected. They had no strength to fight."
"We are infected too. So are we not terran?"
Sven's voice cracked with fear. "Why do they get food when we don't? They were just weaklings. Old, sick, and frail!"
"In this brutal land, the weak don't deserve resources!"
He roared and pointed at Talulah. "This is the ideology you spread! This is what you wanted, right? Infected fighting for their own rights! I'm just following the law of survival! What did I do wrong?"
The flames suddenly died down. Talulah's voice cooled.
"When they begged you, how did you react?"
The temperature began to rise.
"When they screamed… what expressions did you wear?"
"When you severed their limbs… when they lay dying in the granary with their eyes still open… what were you feeling then?"
Talulah suddenly let out a broken laugh. FrostNova found herself, for the first time, thinking Talulah looked truly pitiful. Perhaps Talulah's original intentions had been good. She wanted to lead the infected forward. She wanted them to live with the same rights as anyone else, to walk with their heads held high.
Just as the author Avdotya once wrote in Tales of the North:
"Suffering and oppression cannot break a person's spine, but hope that can never be reached will."
Along the way, Talulah had likely realized that she had made mistakes. That the current state of Reunion was wrong. But as a leader, she could no longer stop. Reunion's soldiers had gone from rescuing the infected to looting villages, infecting civilians, burning property, and now murdering their own kind.
How many years had passed since then?
The bitterness and gloom in Talulah's heart clung to her like tiny gnats that refused to leave, constantly gnawing away at her spirit. In those same years, Pioneer had risen from a simple faction leader to the head of a recognized nation. Even the powerful Brotherhood now operated under his banner.
He had accomplished what she could not. Talulah let out a silent, bitter laugh. He could gather the infected and the uninfected, let them live in harmony, inspire unity, and build trust.
She could not.
A whisper crawled into her ear again, low and insidious. Talulah's eyes snapped open, tinged with red. Flames roared upward.
"I will execute you all."
"You think you—"
Sven never finished his sentence. A flaming blade cut through him, splitting his body cleanly in two.
The remaining deserters froze, stunned by Sven's sudden death. Some drew their weapons, desperate to fight. Others dropped everything and tried to flee.
It was a massacre, a completely one-sided slaughter.
Just as they had once cut down the unarmed infected, Talulah now walked before them one by one, swinging her blade and ending them as easily as chopping vegetables.
Blood splattered across the frozen ground like scattered petals.
Talulah approached the last one. He had collapsed, scrambling backward as he screamed in terror.
"You killed them the same way… didn't you?"
A flicker of pain and disappointment crossed Talulah's face. It wasn't grief for the fallen deserters. It was grief for herself—for everything she had done along this road. She knew she could have guided them better, could have given Reunion a better future.
She was disappointed in herself. It felt as though everything she had built cracked apart in an instant, like the final stone dropped onto an already shattered heart.
With her last downward strike, the blazing red flames briefly took on a faint shade of black.
When Talulah opened her eyes again, she looked at Alina with cool detachment, then toward FrostNova who stood behind her with tightly pressed lips. Talulah gave a slight nod before turning away and walking toward the camp.
"It's done here. Let's go back."
That was all she said, her tone carrying a faint, irritated hum.
Alina collapsed to the ground. She understood exactly what had happened in the village, and the weight of it crashed over her until she could barely breathe. FrostNova stepped forward and helped her up.
The girl looked toward the direction where Talulah had disappeared. A trace of confusion flickered in her eyes before fading away. Talulah carried a heavy burden. She deserved support—more than she received.
FrostNova stayed silent. She felt as though she had already surrendered to Pioneer. The future she once described to him with such confidence felt further away with every step she took.
One week later, at the Holy Knight Federation outpost, Mr. Han rubbed his eyes as he read the scout players' reconnaissance report.
"What? Reunion attacked Belmor Town?"
"Tch, what a mess. Belmor Town trades with us, you know."
Someone swore under their breath.
Xiao Ran Asagiri sat at the far end of the table.
"This is completely abnormal. Why would the Reunion Movement suddenly attack Belmor? They've never done anything like this before."
"Maybe it's because of the mines?"
Mr. Han narrowed his eyes and closed the book in his hand, a collection of essays by Avdotya. To be honest, if he weren't an Infected, he would really like to meet the author. The writing was tinged with melancholy and sentimentality, but it hit exactly the part of him that felt the same way.
"Belmor Town is governed by Baron Belmor. Their mines are to the north. Could that be the reason?"
Mr. Han spread his hands. "The Reunion Movement rescuing Infected isn't new. They've done it more than once."
"But they've never taken a whole town. That's not the same thing."
Xiao Ran A's tone grew heavier as he tapped lightly on the table.
"As of now, we have no idea what's happening inside the town. We don't know how many NPCs died. And our trade route is finished."
The group continued arguing over the Reunion Movement's occupation of Belmor when a player hurried into the wide meeting hall.
"A messenger from the Reunion Movement is here. They're waiting outside the gates, with a long caravan."
Everyone rose to their feet, exchanging puzzled looks before rushing toward the city gate.
There, they saw unfamiliar faces — not that it mattered. What did matter was the thick noble-style military coat the man was wearing, and the pride and confidence written all over his expression. When he saw the adventurers, he politely bowed and stepped aside to reveal the caravan behind him.
"The Reunion Movement and the Holy Knight Federation maintain cooperative relations. We express deep regret over the capture of Belmor Town. We understand the importance of its trade ties with the Federation… These are the spoils obtained after we secured the town. Our leader offers them as gifts, as an apology."
Mr. Han looked at the crates filled with glittering jewels — clearly looted from noble estates. In truth, he thought these things had been stolen by nobles from the people to begin with. Aside from jewels, there were silver tableware sets, wooden furniture, and on the last wagon… several Ursus girls tied up, clad only in thin camisoles that left much of their skin exposed, blindfolded and gagged.
They seemed to be noblewomen.
"What is this supposed to mean?"
Mr. Han pointed at the last wagon.
The messenger chuckled, giving him a look every man understood. He stepped back and bowed deeply.
"May the friendship between the Reunion Movement and the Holy Knight Federation endure."
With that, he climbed into a kerosene truck nearby and drove away across the snow-covered ground.
"…"
The players stared in silence until Xiao Ran A finally spoke.
"What is the Reunion Movement playing at? Do they think we're idiots?"
The moment he said that, even the players who had been sneaking glances at the bound girls straightened up and nodded solemnly.
"Something's wrong with the Reunion Movement."
Mr. Han inspected the gifts again.
"In the past, the Reunion Movement would never take a town by force. And look carefully — these 'gifts' aren't just noble property. A lot of them came from commoners."
He picked up a sack of black rye bread — something no noble would ever eat, but commoners did.
"So… this time, the Reunion Movement didn't just target nobles. They robbed the common folk too."
A Forte player spoke up.
"I'll send members of our guild to scout immediately."
"Thanks."
Xiao Ran A pressed his lips together. Something about the current Reunion Movement felt wrong, completely unlike before.
"They destroyed our trade route and handed us compensation. Another group might accept these gifts without question."
"But we are the Holy Knight Federation. We're members of the Brotherhood. We're also one of the strongest forces under Tomorrow's Development. This is not the behavior of an organization planning for the long term."
Xiao Ran A's voice went cold.
"All I see are people warming themselves beside a dying fire."
Mr. Han nodded.
"Something must have happened inside the Reunion Movement, something that forced them to act in complete opposition to their usual methods. We should notify War God's Bloodline and the Mighty Rat."
The group quietly began preparing to move. Some players gathered supplies and set out as messengers for the other two outposts. Others dragged the Reunion Movement's compensation wagons back toward the settlement.
Xiao Ran A glanced at the NPC girls on the last wagon, crying and struggling against their bonds, and frowned slightly.
"Before we register them as permanent NPCs in our camp, get them talking. We need to know what really happened."