When Talulah heard Jeanne's deflective tone, she instantly realized that her friend had already laid groundwork behind her back to help the Taran people.
To do all that without telling her first? That was something Talulah simply couldn't tolerate!
With sleep completely out of the question, Talulah sat straddling Jeanne's waist, pinching her cheeks as she demanded to know what kind of secret plan had been cooked up behind her back.
"Hey—let go! Get off me!" Jeanne squirmed beneath her, trying desperately to shake her off. Of course, if she really wanted to, she could easily escape.
What followed was a chaotic, utterly ridiculous wrestle beneath the covers. Yet, through some baffling turn of events, the struggle flipped—leaving Jeanne sitting triumphantly on top of Talulah.
Before Talulah could even register what had happened, she found herself flat on her back! How on earth had she ended up on the losing side of that?
Jeanne's sheer strength was in a league of its own. No matter how much Talulah thrashed beneath her, she couldn't dislodge Jeanne, leaving her to stare up in utter humiliation.
"I told you not to mess with me," Jeanne gloated, playfully pinching Talulah's cheeks just as the dragon had done moments before. "You know you can't beat me in a raw contest of strength! Now I was already having trouble sleeping, and you've gone and made me wide awake!"
Talulah turned her head away, refusing to make eye contact. How had this happened again? She always lost these sudden bouts of wrestling!
"Though, to be fair, you weren't wrong," Jeanne continued smoothly, settling comfortably onto Talulah's stomach. "I did come up with a solution—even if it's a bit of a stretch."
Hearing this, Talulah completely forgot about the embarrassment of being pinned down. She strained her neck upward, looking at Jeanne—who was casually twirling her dragon tail around her fingers—and urged eagerly, "What trick do you still have up your sleeve? Tell me!"
Jeanne looked down at the dragon pinned beneath her, who surprisingly hadn't forgotten about the task at hand despite her current predicament. Twisting the tail gently in her hands, Jeanne let out a soft sigh and explained her secret preparations.
"Remember when I mentioned that Victoria was willing to send a bunch of insufferable grandees to Iberia to help clean up the Seaborn threat?"
Talulah nodded. How could she forget? When Jeanne first told her about the deal, Talulah had been furious at the sheer arrogance of the Victorian nobles.
"I spoke with Pope Yvangelista earlier," Jeanne explained. "He left Londinium a while back and is heading toward Laterano to rendezvous with advance forces from other nations before marching into Iberia. And as you can guess, their path passes fairly close to our current route."
Feeling a bit uncomfortable sitting in one position for too long, Jeanne shifted her weight on Talulah's stomach to get comfortable, continuing her story without pause.
Talulah, now completely engrossed in the explanation, didn't even notice the shift, her mind racing with the strategic possibilities.
"That's definitely promising news, but the conspirators behind this incident hold massive political sway," Talulah mused thoughtfully. "Do you really think soldiers ousted from Londinium by Victorian nobles have the power to bring all this to light? What if they buckle under the pressure and just destroy the evidence to sweep it under the rug?"
She wasn't trying to be pessimistic, but she knew all too well how despicable Victorian nobles could be when they cast aside their morals. Could simple soldiers truly stand up to that kind of authority?
Back when she helped Kashchey manage his territory, she had seen countless instances of soldiers betraying their own convictions simply because an order came down from above. To her, such compromise was practically second nature in politics, making it a very real risk.
"You don't need to worry about that," Jeanne reassured her with confidence. "Even though they were driven out of Londinium by scheming nobles, when it comes to matter of basic justice, those men will stand firm. Besides, given a golden opportunity to throw a wrench into those nobles' plans right before leaving the country, I doubt they'd pass it up."
Jeanne had absolute faith in them—especially considering how much those soldiers would enjoy sticking it to the high-ranking elite who had wronged them.
"What, are you going to tell me those soldiers are Steam Knights or something?" Talulah joked lightly. She found it hard to believe that Victorian nobles would ever deploy such high-profile assets for an overseas task.
It sounded absurd on its face. The steam armor of the Steam Knights was Victoria's ultimate ace in the hole. Who in their right mind would hand their crown jewel over to outsiders?
"You actually guessed it?" Jeanne gasped, genuinely surprised. "I didn't even give you a hint!"
"Wait... they actually threw out the Steam Knights?!" Talulah's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. She reflexively sat straight up, completely forgetting that Jeanne was still sitting on her abdomen.
BANG!
Their foreheads collided with a sickening thud. Talulah immediately collapsed back onto the pillow, clutching her head and groaning in agony. "What... what on earth do you have on your head?!"
Talulah had never understood why Jeanne wore that metal headpiece in her hair, but right now, she painfully recognized its defensive value. Maybe she should forge one for herself when they got back!
"You need to be more careful!" Jeanne said apologetically, hurriedly unclasping the metallic headpiece. She had completely forgotten she was wearing it! The loud crunch of the impact made her wince just listening to it.
"Why the *Ursus profanity* are you wearing armor to bed?!" Talulah wheezed, rubbing her bruised forehead for a long moment before glaring up at Jeanne, looking ready to throw a punch.
Once the throbbing pain finally subsided, Talulah recalled what they had been talking about, still struggling to digest the sheer absurdity of the reality.
How ridiculous was it? It was as if Emperor Fyodor had dispatched every single one of his Emperor's Blades to assist a foreign nation—no, even more absurd than that! Emperor's Blades were bound to their host bodies and couldn't be replicated, but the technology behind the Steam Knights could easily be stolen by rival nations if left exposed.
"Now do you see why I said this place is a complete disaster?" Jeanne shrugged, throwing her hands up. "Those high-ranking officials are willing to betray their own kingdom's pride just to secure their power. Is there anything they won't do?"
Talulah fell quiet, feeling a profound sense of disillusionment. To think that people had come seeking her out, trying to leverage her heritage for political games in a nation like this... The Victoria standing before her was vast radically different from the legend she had grown up hearing about.
This was no longer the untouchable, glorious empire described in historical archives. Though its military power remained formidable on paper, it resembled a lion's pride without a leader—fractured from within and balancing precariously on the brink of collapse.
Talulah used to think Ursus was corrupt beyond saving, but compared to Victoria, Ursus almost looked stable. At least Ursus had an Emperor trying to reform the nation, using iron-fisted methods to wrestle power back from the old aristocracy.
Meanwhile, Victoria looked like a grand ship slowly sinking into the abyss, with not a single soul aboard willing to take the helm to save it.
"So... where are those Steam Knights right now?" Talulah asked, closing her eyes to process the information.
"The Steam Knights?" Jeanne paused to recall the details of her last communication. "They should be about three to four days away from County Hillock. Though since they need to conceal their movements, it might take them an extra day or two."
Relying on her divine intuition, Jeanne gave a firm estimate, letting out a quiet sigh of relief. If all went according to plan, this entire ordeal would be resolved in six days at most, allowing them to finally leave this chaotic land.
Once they put out the flames in County Hillock, they could depart Victoria for good. Jeanne certainly had no desire to return to this mess anytime soon.
She just hoped everything would proceed smoothly from here on out, without any more unexpected twists.
At least, one can hope.