Hovering high in the winter sky, Jeanne looked down at the massive landships below, a rare wave of hesitation washing over her. She felt as though the events unfolding beneath her wings belonged more to a bizarre dream than to reality.
Had anyone suggested to her just a day ago that an armored fleet of the Ursus empire would turn tail and flee right before an engagement, she would have assumed they had overindulged in cheap tavern ale. The imperial military simply did not retreat.
Furthermore, the faction riding the mobile city was composed almost entirely of Infected. Under normal circumstances, that fact alone would be enough to whip the imperial officers into a frenzy, eager to capture them all to secure heavy bounties and prestigious military decorations.
Yet, this inexplicable scene was playing out right before her eyes. Jeanne narrowed her focus, trying to deduce what manner of dark scheme or hidden trap these forces might be preparing for them.
Determined to test their resolve, she angled her flying mount downward, leaning into a sharp, menacing dive to see if the landships would unleash any anti-air armaments against her.
Instead, she watched the lumbering hulls accelerate, thick black smoke billowing from their exhaust vents as if the helmsmen had slammed their throttles through the floorboards and were desperately pouring every drop of fuel into the furnaces.
Those crews wanted nothing to do with a fight. Jeanne couldn't help but chuckle; she suspected that if these proud soldiers didn't have the daunting reputation of the empire to uphold, they would have happily hoisted a white flag of surrender right then and there.
Though she couldn't entirely fathom what had broken the iron nerve of these notorious northern garrisons, she simply watched from above as the massive hulls dwindled into tiny specks on the white horizon, continuing until they vanished from sight completely.
Even though she had flown out with every intention of tearing the vanguard apart, resolving the crisis without drawing a blade was a much better outcome. No matter the underlying reason, keeping her companions out of harm's way was what mattered most.
Shrugging at the sheer absurdity of the encounter, Jeanne guided the flying dragon around and headed back toward the moving town, eager to share the incredible news with the rest of the leadership.
The moment the draconic shadow departed from the upper clouds, a collective sigh of relief echoed through the primary command deck of the leading imperial landship. A dozen seasoned officers slumped into their chairs, their expressions mirroring that of men who had miraculously cheated a grim execution.
"What is the meaning of this?! Why are we executing a retreat?!" a newly reassigned officer demanded, slamming his clipboard onto a console. He was entirely blind to the localized reality of the northern wastes. "Those Infected are in possession of a functional mobile sector! If word of our flight reaches the high command in the capital..."
"If you harbor such a burning desire for a promotion, take your personal guards and pursue them yourself. The rest of us will not be joining your suicide march," an exhausted commander replied coldly, offering no further explanation as he turned his back on the novice.
"You... how dare you take such a tone with me?!" the young officer flushed with anger. Had they not been standing inside the main command hub, he would have dragged the veteran outside to settle the dispute with cold steel.
Their formal ranks were identical, and his own aristocratic lineage technically gave him seniority over these rugged frontier lifers. Who did this graying soldier think he was, acting like a supreme commander?
"Come now, he simply possesses a gruff demeanor. There is no need to let your temper flare," a mild-mannered staff officer intervened quickly, stepping between the two to keep the peace.
"You only arrived on this front a few weeks ago, correct? That explains why you failed to recognize the entity flying through the clouds. That creature is a beast tamed by Reunion."
The moment that name left his lips, the aristocratic officer froze, his outrage evaporating into a sudden chill. Even in his brief tenure in the north, he had become thoroughly well-acquainted with the terrifying reputation of Reunion. No regiment in the frontier ever wished to cross paths with those militants.
This was an organization that had repeatedly shattered elite imperial divisions in open combat. Rumors even whispered that the Emperor's own Blades had suffered a devastating defeat at their hands. Faced with such a terrifying adversary, a tactical withdrawal was not merely understandable—it was basic self-preservation.
"So that was the rebel vanguard... but I saw no massive infantry formations on the snowfields?" the young man muttered, his voice dropping to a humbled whisper as the mild-mannered officer brought up the reconnaissance footage captured by their long-range lenses.
Gazing at the crystal-clear display of the maiden standing casually upon the back of a soaring dragon, the novice fell completely silent. He never uttered another syllable about launching an assault.
To wage a surface battle against an opponent who held absolute dominance over the skies was simply an invitation to an early grave. He was paid a comfortable state stipend to maintain the border, not to throw his life away in a hopeless clash against a legendary monster.
To put it plainly, the entire fleet had lost its nerve. They would simply strike the encounter from the logbooks and pretend they had seen nothing but empty snow.
Back aboard the moving city, a wave of profound confusion washed over the vanguard when Jeanne landed on the deck.
Their primitive sensors had confirmed the rapid departure of the imperial fleet, but no one could comprehend why the government forces—who held every material advantage on paper—would choose to abandon the field without firing a single shell.
When they pressed Jeanne for details, the maiden could only offer a helpless shake of her head. She hadn't exchanged a single word with the captains, leaving her just as blind to their internal deliberations.
However, Patriot and Talulah shared a silent, highly skeptical glance. An amusing, almost unbelievable theory formed in their minds: could the legendary imperial army truly be terrified of a lone flying dragon?
Under normal circumstances, such a notion would be laughable. This was the iron military of Ursus, an empire built on conquest... yet, considering the sheer destructive power Jeanne had displayed in past skirmishes, the theory felt remarkably grounded in reality.
"Regardless of their motives, let us not waste our focus on idle speculation," Talulah announced, her voice commanding the attention of the room as she noted the puzzled expressions around her. "Our immediate priority is to guide this platform back to safe territory. We can analyze the politics once our people are secure."
Nodding in agreement, the engineers returned to their stations, guiding the rumbling metal city toward the distant horizon. Despite the sudden jolts and unexpected betrayals along the way, the excursion had concluded on a highly triumphant note. In truth, their spoils far exceeded their initial estimates.
Furthermore, the crisis had inadvertently purged a highly unstable element from their ranks. While those treacherous exiles hadn't been eliminated in a physical sense, their greed had forced them out of the shadows, revealing their true colors in plain sight.
Once they returned to the main camp, they would need to remain vigilant. Though those outcasts had been banished from the territory, their burning resentment might drive them to orchestrate some petty sabotage or strike from the dark during future supply runs.
As Talulah pondered these security details, she shifted the council's attention toward a far more practical dilemma: where on earth were they going to conceal an entire mobile city block?
This wasn't a minor trinket that could be tucked away into a pocket or hidden beneath a canvas tarp. Steering a massive industrial platform directly into their quiet agricultural village was entirely out of the question, prompting a flurry of debate among the vanguard.
"Say, Jeanne," Talulah murmured, stepping closer to her companion. "You mentioned previously that Fafnir possesses a unique brand of spatial Arts that allows her to store items. Could she perhaps utilize that magic to swallow this entire city block?"
Both she and Alina had realized long ago that the little dragon girl possessed an extraordinary spatial capability. After all, a child who could conjure fresh pastries and warm meals out of thin air at any given moment was bound to turn a few heads after a few days of observation.
"Not a chance," Jeanne replied, shaking her head with an amused smile, instantly deflating the Draco's hopeful plan. "While her personal storage dimension is remarkably vast, expecting her to swallow an entire mass of industrial iron and stone is simply asking for a miracle."
"Why don't we park it within the hidden chasms of the mountain range?" Jeanne suggested, recalling the labyrinthine paths of the colossal peaks they called home. "There are several expansive, empty valleys hidden between the ridges. We can leave it resting there, and simply fire up the engines whenever the time comes for our grand departure."
Protected by the towering stone walls of the peaks, the platform would remain entirely invisible to the outside world. Unless an imperial scout possessed the rare ability to fly through the clouds, locating the hidden vessel would be more difficult than constructing a new city from scratch.
The council eagerly embraced the suggestion, and the vanguard directed the rumbling platform toward the shadow of the mountains.
Meanwhile, far out on the frozen plains, the exiled conspirators remained huddled in the snowdrifts, shivering violently as the biting wind began to numb their senses. They were still waiting for the thunderous roar of artillery that would signal the destruction of their former companions.
Yet, after hours of agonizing silence, they realized the landscape was completely still. Panic setting in, the outcasts rushed out from behind their ridge, only to find the vast expanse entirely deserted. The imperial fleet was gone, and the mobile city had vanished into the gray horizon.
The entire band stood frozen in utter bewilderment. This defied all logic—why on earth would the merciless imperial soldiers allow a group of Infected rebels to walk away without a fight?
"Could it be..." the ringleader whispered, a dark, twisted realization dawning on his features as he looked around at his desperate followers. "Could Talulah and her inner circle actually be secret agents of the government? They must be working hand-in-glove with the imperial generals! That is the only reason those landships left them unharmed!"
Finding comfort in a lie that excused their own failure, the outcasts eagerly began whispering the new conspiracy among themselves, their hearts burning with a renewed, toxic venom.