Patriot's words punctured the balloon known as Reunion, exposing the emptiness within to Talulah, telling her that everything she had now was merely a castle in the air.
"Even if Jeanne never leaves us, are you truly certain your friendship can endure countless conspiracies without being shaken? Can you make everyone accept her, a non-infected?"
Facing Patriot's questioning, Talulah was speechless. She knew very well that neither the current Reunion nor she herself had the capacity to handle all of this.
All of this was actually a gift from Jeanne and the God behind her! If a Reunion like this entered the public eye, conspiracies targeting both Jeanne and Reunion would come raining down... All it would take was creating conflict between the Infected and non-infected, then using that opportunity to attack Jeanne's status as a non-infected. At that point, even if Talulah wanted to speak up for Jeanne, she might not even have the right to be heard.
Such a scheme was simple. Talulah believed that if Kashchey were given ten minutes of freedom, he could craft a hundred such plans—he could even make them run on autopilot. This realization made Talulah shudder. She remembered Kashchey saying they had to learn to face the storm themselves, because these were the things they now had to consider.
If one day Jeanne truly left Reunion, would Laterano still be as friendly as they were now? Would the Emperor still plan to hold peace talks with Reunion?
Impossible! Without Jeanne, even with the Black Snake's persuasion, the Emperor wouldn't let them off so easily. Talulah even suspected this was a carefully laid trap by the Emperor—a sugar-coated cannonball. He wanted to see what they would become after swallowing it.
Right now, they didn't need to rush to the mobile city. They needed ample time to prepare for everything; otherwise, it would be too humiliating to be driven back to the tundra again.
"Jeanne, I plan to unite the other guerrilla groups to deal with any trouble that might arise in the future. What do you think?"
At this moment, Talulah thought of the other guerrilla squads wandering this snowy plain. Many of them were groups gathered specifically to resist the tyranny of Ursus. If such a band of disorganized warriors could one day be integrated into one, it would be a fighting force that could not be underestimated!
"Uniting the other guerrilla groups on the tundra? That's a great idea! Which guerrilla group surviving on this plain isn't battle-hardened? However, are you confident you can manage them?"
Jeanne certainly knew the value of those people, but they were a bunch of "old foxes." Even Patriot might not have been able to rally them back in the day, let alone a young girl like Talulah.
"You underestimate me too much! I am Talulah! Is there anything in this world that can stump me? You're so naive."
Jeanne didn't say a word. She just sat there with a "watching you act cool" expression, an "auntie smile" on her face as she watched her "silly little dragon" inflate with confidence.
"What? I'm being very serious with you! Don't look at me with that face!"
Looking at Jeanne's expression, Talulah felt something was wrong. That gaze made her feel increasingly shy, yet Jeanne continued to stare at her without speaking. To break the awkwardness, Talulah lunged onto Jeanne's bed and launched a fierce offensive!
Talulah attacked Jeanne's face with lightning speed, her hands beginning to rub and squish Jeanne's cheeks! Jeanne's expression was successfully broken as Talulah intended; Contestant Jeanne is on the defensive!
Contestant Jeanne counter-attacked—she actually grabbed Talulah's tail! Talulah instantly lost her combat effectiveness and is currently trying to figure out how to rescue her tail from Jeanne's demonic palms!
Unfortunately, Contestant Jeanne does not have an "external attachment" like a tail, so Talulah cannot take the same action against her! Having her tail attacked seemed to affect Talulah greatly—after all, this is the most sensitive spot for creatures with external organs!
Jeanne pinned the incapacitated Talulah beneath her, looked into her eyes, and said, "So, you think you're pretty brave, huh?~"
"Please, I'm super brave~"
Feeling indignant, Talulah responded almost instinctively. The moment she said it, she knew things had gone south. Jeanne revealed a strange smile, gripped her tail, and said:
"Let me see!"
"Brother Jeanne, no!~"
"Church inspection of the dorms, nobody move!"
At that moment, a voice came from outside the door. Jeanne turned her head and saw that Alina had returned at some point. She was currently sitting to the side, watching with great interest.
Meanwhile, because her tail had been attacked, Talulah scrambled back into a corner. Her tail, having suffered under Jeanne's "ravaging," bore witness to everything that had just happened.
"I've been defiled, I'm no longer clean... Alina, you have to stand up for me!"
Talulah, feigning the victim, turned to Alina and wailed, as if she had experienced something particularly inhumane.
Alina was already familiar with everything happening before her. The current situation was likely just Talulah and Jeanne acting up again, and clearly, Talulah was no match for Jeanne. This wasn't the first time; Talulah never managed to gain the upper hand against Jeanne. Yet, she was "addicted despite being bad at it," always feeling that this time she could pull off a counter-kill.
Looking at this pitiful, helpless, yet hungry little dragon making a fuss, Alina let out a motherly sigh.
Meanwhile, in Kazdel, within an organization known as Babel, in an ordinary office, a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt was eating her midnight snack.
She could be seen putting dry noodle blocks into her mouth, then pouring boiling water directly in. Even more terrifyingly, she was soaking the noodles directly in her mouth! If a normal person did this, they would likely burn their esophagus, and without timely medical attention, it would certainly be life-threatening.
After the noodles had soaked in her mouth, the "young hero" before us took a fork, stirred them around in her mouth, and swallowed the instant noodles like a snake. This method of eating simply exceeded the limits of human endurance.
"Aren't you resting yet? It just so happens we obtained some intelligence regarding Theresis's recent movements. Take some time to look at it tomorrow."
As she spoke, a cold voice drifted in. A Feline wearing a light green off-the-shoulder outfit entered the room, holding a paper intelligence report which she handed over.
Hearing this voice, the person with her back to the Feline quickly put on her mask and said in a slightly low voice:
"I understand. Just leave it on my desk. I'll take a look at it when I find the time, Kal'tsit."