With the strategic plan for the Catastrophe mine finalized, everyone threw themselves into a flurry of activity. Each member took their assigned tasks and began to move with purpose.
FrostNova's Yeti Squadron, known for their ability to traverse the snowy plains like ghosts, took on the mission of contacting the various scattered squads across the tundra. Meanwhile, Patriot initiated further communication with the Sarkaz mercenaries who had fled to their territory.
However, these Sarkaz were still hesitant. Their uncertainty intensified when they learned that the leader of this movement was not Patriot himself, but someone else entirely. The primary reason they were even willing to consider an alliance with Reunion was Patriot; on this foreign soil, the legendary Wendigo was the only soul they felt they could trust.
Though Patriot had led his entire bloodline away from Kazdel many years ago, his legends remained a staple of the stories sung by this generation of Sarkaz. They believed in this pure-blooded Wendigo—believed that he wouldn't look down on them or use them as mere cannon fodder simply because of their shared race.
"Mm... we are willing to believe in the sincerity you've shown. However, we still wish to meet your leader—or at least the person who will be managing us—face-to-face. Tell Patriot we'll do this by the Sarkaz rules."
The leader of the mercenaries fell into a brief silence after hearing the proposal from Patriot's messenger. He wasn't entirely sure if his decision was correct, or if he was being overly paranoid. Ultimately, he chose to trust them for now, largely because they had no other choice; their supplies were dwindling, and no one else was willing to trade with Sarkaz, leaving them unable to restock.
As for the "Sarkaz rules," it was simple: might makes right. No matter who Patriot sent, as long as they could defeat him in combat, the mercenaries would follow that person's orders.
"May Her Highness protect us. I hope my choice is the right one," the Sarkaz leader muttered, gazing toward the distant horizon in the direction of Kazdel, his thoughts unreadable.
"I'm impressed, seriously! What were you thinking? Using your Originium Arts just to melt snow!"
On a patch of land buried under layers of ice and frost, Jeanne watched with a look of exasperated admiration as Talulah leaned against a tree, gasping for breath from sheer overexertion.
Over the past few days, the Draco had indeed managed to scout out a location suitable for a new village—a site with flat terrain and rich, black soil perfect for farming. The problem, however, was that the land was buried under dozens of centimeters of snow and solid ice. Clearing it manually would have taken ages.
Talulah had headed out early that morning and hadn't returned. If it weren't for the fact that this dragon knew how to hold her own in a fight, Jeanne would have worried about a Fang-beast making a snack out of her. When Jeanne finally tracked her down, the first thing she saw was the ground awash with slush from melted snow and blackened scorch marks where intense flames had licked the earth.
As for Talulah? She was naturally weakened from the excessive use of her Arts, recovering her strength solo against a stump.
"You're only able to do this because you have such a resilient constitution," Jeanne remarked, watching the embarrassed expression on Talulah's face. She felt a mix of anger and amusement; after confirming the girl was just exhausted and not injured, she began to nag in her ear. "Anyone with a weaker body would have passed out cold by now."
"Listen, I didn't do this just to speed up the land reclamation," Talulah retorted, a bit of her competitive spirit flaring up. "It was mostly to practice my control over my Originium Arts."
She looked at the concerned Jeanne. She had specifically sought out this desolate wilderness to train because the main village was now overcrowded, and flammable materials were everywhere. That environment made her Arts—which could easily trigger a catastrophic fire with almost no effort—far too dangerous to practice.
"Look, the terrain here is wide and open, and there aren't many trees nearby. I don't have to worry about setting the whole forest on fire. Isn't it the perfect place to train?"
Between the endless chores and the unsuitable environment, Talulah's training time had been severely squeezed. Yet her abilities required constant practice; most of the time, she had to figure things out on her own, and she was far from satisfied with her current level of mastery.
"Then you should have told me! I spent the whole day wondering where you'd disappeared to. I turn my back for one second while we're working and I've already lost a dragon."
As she spoke, Jeanne helped Talulah up to start the walk back. Whatever "control" Talulah was practicing, the raw power of the Arts was certainly there, even if it left her completely drained of energy afterward.
"You don't need to carry me like this; I can walk after a little rest," Talulah said. "By the way, weren't you busy? How did you find the time to come looking for me?"
Talulah remembered that Jeanne was supposed to be managing the warehouses. Their main stores were hidden in a suitable cave system within the mountains, with only a smaller portion kept in the village. Because their recent purchases were so extensive, the warehouse was currently undergoing a massive reorganization, and Jeanne had gone to help.
Talulah had long since noticed that Jeanne possessed an incredible talent for logistics and management. No matter how much inventory they had, it became perfectly organized under her hand.
"I finished that ages ago. The messenger from Patriot's meeting with the Sarkaz mercenaries is back. They said they want to meet you—or someone else—in a few days. From the sound of it, they're looking for a fight."
Jeanne had heard about the Sarkaz rules. Patriot had mentioned that in Kazdel, if two mercenary groups wanted to cooperate, the first question was always: "Who's in charge?" For a joint operation to work, there had to be one voice that could override all others to ensure decisive action. Thus, when both sides wanted command, they settled it the traditional Sarkaz way.
"You really are amazing," Talulah said, reflecting on her own attempts to organize the stores before Jeanne's return. "Just looking at that pile of supplies made my tail ache. I spent days on it and still couldn't make heads or tails of it."
The influx of new supplies combined with their existing stock had created a chaotic mess. Yet Jeanne had finished it in half a day. Talulah decided she needed to learn those organizational skills when she had the time. To Jeanne, however, it was simply common sense—though it wasn't just her Revelation at work; Jeanne genuinely had a knack for bringing order to chaos.
"Anyway," Talulah said after they had walked a bit further, a new thought occurring to her. "How about you go to the meeting with the Sarkaz mercenaries?"
Jeanne glanced at her with a puzzled expression. "What? Is your body that weak? Or are you worried you can't beat them?"
Jeanne didn't understand why Talulah wanted her to go. As the leader of the movement, wasn't she the most appropriate person for the meeting?
"Think about it," Talulah explained. "They clearly have the intention of joining us. But we need to think about who will manage them. The person they meet tomorrow is effectively their future commander."
Jeanne understood the logic. The mercenaries wanted a fight not just to show off their own strength, but to ensure their future boss wasn't a weakling.
"Besides," Talulah continued, "among our command staff, you're the only one without a dedicated unit of your own. You can't keep borrowing the Yeti Squadron every time you go out on a mission, right?"
Talulah had given this serious thought. Managing a group of Sarkaz mercenaries was a task few could handle. FrostNova had her Yetis, and Patriot had his Shieldguards; neither group would easily integrate a bunch of outsiders. That left herself, Crownslayer, and Jeanne. Since Jeanne still lacked a personal squad, Talulah saw this as the perfect opportunity. She couldn't have Jeanne relying solely on summoned Wyverns or raw recruits every time she moved out.
"If you put it that way... I'll give it a try. But honestly, Talulah—having a Laterano Saint manage a bunch of Sarkaz? You've certainly got a unique imagination."