Jeanne and Talulah engaged in a light, casual discussion about the incident, ultimately concluding that while those schemers had truly gone too far, dwelling on it now was entirely meaningless.
Jeanne never harbored any desire to chase after the group to give them a thrashing, and since Talulah had already permitted them to walk away, she had no intention of pursuing further vengeance either.
In truth, those exiles should have been celebrating in secret. Had the two maidens chosen to press the matter, given the severity of the plot, the troublemakers would have been exceptionally lucky to escape the mobile city with their lives.
At that very moment, the outcasts who had fled the gates with their meager bundles of bread were staring back at the massive, towering structure, their hearts bleeding with regret. They had completely transformed into a laughingstock in the eyes of everyone present.
The mobile town, which they had so confidently claimed as their own property just hours ago, now stood before them as an incredibly alluring prize. This bitter reality of losing both their dignity and their prospects left them wondering if they had fallen into a terrible nightmare.
They simply couldn't comprehend how their flawless scheme had unraveled so spectacularly. Everything was supposed to proceed precisely as they had envisioned, and that soft-hearted Draco should have surrendered to their demands in the end!
The instigator of the confrontation prided himself on understanding Talulah's temperament, but since his foolproof plan had collapsed at the very first hurdle, the rest of the group was now loudly demanding an explanation from him.
They had only agreed to confront the Draco because this fool had promised them a grand prize—the chance to claim an entire moving town for themselves. Otherwise, they would have happily remained under Talulah's banner, biding their time and waiting for a better opportunity.
"You cannot lay the blame on me!" the leader scrambled to defend himself, desperately seeking an excuse to keep his disgruntled followers from burying him in the snowdrifts or doing something far worse to his person. "If it were the Talulah we all know, she would have yielded instantly! She only refused because that strange woman has completely clouded her judgment! And did you not see how the other guards reacted?"
Listening to his vehement shifting of blame, the crowd's lingering resentment and hatred instantly redirected toward Talulah, Jeanne, and every single soul remaining in the camp.
A thoroughly unprincipled Ursin villager excelled at nothing more than blaming his own failures on the actions of others, framing the very folk who sustained him as the source of all his misery.
"But what are we supposed to do now? Do we simply walk away like this?" a resentful voice called out from the gathering, immediately sparking a wave of loud, anxious chatter among the exiles.
They were profoundly unwilling to slink away like whipped hounds. What earth could they achieve with a handful of stale bread? Return to the old village and spend the rest of their days tilling the frozen soil? Having tasted the prospect of wealth, they could never reconcile themselves to a lifetime of labor.
"We bide our time," the leader spat, glaring toward the distant horizon while hatching a dark plot to 'repay' Talulah for the humiliation she had visited upon them. "I heard rumors that they do not intend to tow every single chunk of this platform along on their journey. They will be forced to leave a few city blocks behind. When the time comes, we shall see if those sections can still be brought back to life!"
Unwilling to completely abandon the prize, they trailed the massive platform from a distance. They no longer possessed the courage to venture anywhere near the walls, so they merely hovered on the snowy horizon, tracking its steady crawl with venomous, hateful eyes.
Their burning glares made it look as though they wanted nothing more than for a sudden catastrophe to strike the city, burying it and everyone aboard beneath the snowfields.
"I caught wind of the disturbance that unfolded here earlier. It appears it failed to dampen your spirits too severely."
Over on the other side of the central complex, Patriot had just concluded his inspection of the lanes. Upon hearing about the confrontation near the operations hall, his very first words upon crossing paths with Talulah addressed the matter.
The old general had initially worried that the betrayal might deal a heavy blow to the young Draco's resolve. Yet, seeing her chatting casually with Jeanne, she looked far less disheartened than he had anticipated.
Hearing Patriot bring up the unpleasant affair, Talulah offered a slight, helpless smile, waving her hand lightly as she discussed the matter with the seasoned veteran.
"I am faring well enough. At first, I couldn't help but wonder if I had erred in my leadership, but after Jeanne shared a few choice words with me, I realized there is absolutely no reason to take such nonsense to heart."
Her demeanor was perfectly natural, confirming that she had indeed shaken off the sting of the betrayal.
"That is excellent to hear. I was concerned you might let it weigh upon your spirit," the old general grunted, his heavy armor clanking as he nodded. "In a desolate expanse like this, one is bound to cross paths with such loathsome elements sooner or later. If you treat their petty malice with too much gravity, you will only break your own resolve."
Seeing the Draco leader as vibrant and clear-headed as ever, the old gentleman chose to dismiss the matter entirely. To his mind, those folk were nothing more than a pack of deserters trying to conjure up a righteous excuse for their own cowardice.
If their earlier reluctance to march could be excused as a simple desire to remain in their homes, their attempt to wrest away a mobile city won by the blood of others was a display of pure, unadulterated malice—a treacherous act that earned nothing but the profound disgust of every true warrior.
However, Patriot had grown entirely accustomed to such behavior. Throughout his long decades in the wilderness, what manner of scoundrel had he not laid eyes upon? In his estimation, these particular schemers were merely a rather childish variety of parasite.
"Rest assured, I will not allow a minor incident like this to disrupt my focus," Talulah answered firmly. "Furthermore, their demands this time were truly beyond the pale... I am merely wondering how many more of our folk will choose to walk away before our journey truly begins."
Rather than dwelling on the outcasts, Talulah's true anxiety lay with the remaining villagers—those who harbored no desire to leave the northern barrens and might choose to sever ties with the movement as the departure date drew near. She wondered how many dedicated companions would actually remain by her side when the dust settled.
The vibrant community they had painstakingly built over the months was on the verge of splintering, and that reality alone was what had cast a brief shadow over her mood earlier.
Patriot fell silent for a few quiet heartbeats upon hearing her concern, pondering her words before replying in his slow, deliberate cadence:
"We were bound to face this sorting sooner or later. Just as you have noted, it is impossible for every soul we rescue to grow into a true warrior capable of marching alongside us. For those who harbor no desire to walk this path, a clean break at this early stage is the best possible outcome for everyone involved."
The old general actually felt a sense of relief regarding their departure. It was infinitely better for these untrustworthy elements to reveal their true colors now, rather than hatching some treacherous plot while the caravan was actively on the move.
Furthermore, he had never been a proponent of forcing faint-hearted individuals into their fighting ranks to begin with.
"Yes, the best outcome for everyone..." Talulah echoed with a soft sigh. Then, shaking off the last remnants of melancholy, she turned back to the old warrior with a bright expression. "Let us leave those matters aside for now! We ought to inspect the mechanical state of this platform first. Ensuring we can actually guide this massive prize back to our main camp is our immediate priority."
With those words, she turned and strode back toward the primary command hall. She needed to verify the stability of the engines, ensuring the ancient mechanism could endure the grueling journey across the wastes without breaking down halfway through the march.
Sure enough, a thorough examination revealed that two outer sectors of the city block were completely unfit for a long-distance trek. Their only options were to uncouple those sections and abandon them in the drifts, or perhaps hand them over to the nearby neutral villagers—assuming those folk even knew how to operate the machinery.
Had the outcasts not mounted that shameless display earlier, Talulah would have been more than willing to gift those two abandoned sectors to them as a permanent shelter. But as things stood now, even if those schemers wished to creep back and salvage the remains, the guards would never permit them to set foot on the metal plating.
Meanwhile, a short distance away in the snowy barrens, fortune smiled upon the exiles in a rather unexpected fashion. While tracking the city, they managed to stumble upon a small squad of rebel soldiers who had successfully slipped out of the town amidst the chaos of the assault.
Before the fleeing soldiers could even register the presence of the outcasts, the desperate villagers swarmed them, overwhelming the guards through sheer numbers.
The weapons and precious travel supplies carried by the rebels instantly fell into the hands of the exiles! But what truly elicited a chorus of ecstatic cheers from the group was a compact, portable wireless transmitter found strapped to the sergeant's pack—a piece of technology that was an absolute rarity in these forgotten wastes.
"Who... who among us actually knows how to work this contraption? I cannot make heads or tails of these switches!"
After the initial wave of shock subsided, the outcasts suddenly realized they had absolutely no idea how to operate the military device. Its structural design was vastly different from the crude civilian hardware they had encountered in the past.
"Step aside, I have seen this model before," one of the villagers muttered, shoving his way to the front. "It appears to be an imperial military design from a few years back. I caught sight of the veterans using something similar when I was laboring under that old monster, Patriot. It should breathe to life if we throw this toggle."
After a considerable amount of frantic tinkering, the man actually managed to coax a faint hum from the console, establishing a basic connection. Gazing down at the blinking lights of the small device, a sinister, twisted glem flared in the eyes of the exiled leader.