Both Flandre and Hong Meiling turned a completely blind, indifferent eye to the worker's intense weeping.
After all, those engineering laborers were the ones who had autonomously made the reckless decision to bypass security protocols, so they naturally had to bear whatever lethal consequences followed their whims. Flandre and her guard had already gone far above and beyond the standard call of duty by manually diving into the pressurized depths to pull the two cold corpses out of the drinking water supply.
Standing nearby, Red offered a deep, heartfelt bow, thanked Flandre profusely for stepping forward to assist their organization once again, and immediately turned around to bark orders at the local guards to collect the bodies, secure the scene, and contact the deceased men's immediate families.
Flandre casually waved her small hand through the air, pointing her index finger straight at Hong Meiling.
"Meiling was the one who actually dove into the deep water to fish them out; you should be directing all your official thanks toward her instead!"
Red turned his gaze toward Hong Meiling, who merely waved her hand off in a casual, breezy manner. She stated smoothly that she had only been executing orders to stay close to Flandre, and that diving into a small mountain pond to fish out a few heavy objects was just a tiny, insignificant matter for her martial capabilities.
Just then, a sudden, piercing wail of profound grief echoed from the adjacent corridor as the frantic family members of one of the deceased laborers sprinted onto the rocky shore. Seeing the weeping crowd gather, Red offered a rushed, apologetic bow to the two Gensokyo guests and hurried off into the cluster of people to personally manage the volatile situation.
Flandre reached out, tugging Hong Meiling along by her sleeve as the two of them chose to quietly slip away from the crowded bank, keeping their heroic deeds entirely unsung.
After walking along the structural pathways for a while, Flandre finally tilted her head, asking about a minor technical detail she had grown slightly curious about during the rescue: exactly how long could Hong Meiling physically survive submerged inside that specific type of pressurized, sub-zero water?
Hong Meiling scratched the back of her head, a slightly troubled, thoughtful expression crossing her features.
"Hiss... to be entirely honest, Second Miss, I've never actually tested the absolute limits of my breath-holding capacity in a stagnant pond before. But based on my internal energy circulation, staying down there in the dark for ten days to half a month straight shouldn't pose a single biological problem to my system."
Flandre nodded her head, an 'as I expected' expression washing over her bright face.
After leaving the perimeter of the engineering pond behind, the duo hiked up a nearby rocky trail, eventually finding a high, completely secluded mountaintop to sit on. It was currently mid-April, and the seasonal spring sunshine was exceptionally bright and warm, piercing through the ambient thin clouds.
Flandre stood right at the edge of the steep cliff face, her crimson eyes staring intently toward a very faint, unnatural red tint hovering across the northern horizon. Her gaze triggered a sudden memory regarding the high-tier concealment formation she had personally carved into the bedrock of that northern valley nearly a year ago.
Realizing that almost a full year had quietly slipped past since she last monitored that sector, she decisively resolved to take a quick flight out there to check up on her handiwork. As her dedicated personal follower for the day, Hong Meiling naturally wouldn't dream of stopping her. Within seconds, the two of them kicked off the peak, flying in a swift, silent aerial trajectory toward the exact geographic coordinates where Flandre had anchored the magical boundary.
"Wow, Second Miss, your practical mastery over mass-scale magic is actually quite impressive!"
Standing just outside the absolute perimeter of the valley, Hong Meiling carefully sized up the churning wall of Red Mist towering before her eyes and exclaimed in genuine admiration.
This defensive formation could technically be classified as looking remarkably simple on paper; it consisted purely of a thick, localized concentration of Red Mist infused with complex layers of psychological illusions, making it structurally impossible for any mundane travelers who stumbled inside to perceive where they had originally entered or which direction they were walking. Of course, if the individuals traversing the mist happened to be Infected citizens of Terra, the specific neurological effects of the magical fog would be automatically halved, and their minds wouldn't be affected by the disorientation or hallucinations whatsoever.
This design was originally a secret, desperate fallback plan Flandre had intentionally left behind for the exclusive benefit of the Reunion Movement. She wanted to ensure that even if the fledgling regime ever found itself driven into an absolute dead end by the grand empires, they could still safely preserve and hide a significant portion of their military strength within this obscured sanctuary.
Right now, the grand formation's greatest practical function was to completely block and hide the single exit of this massive northern canyon.
However, the moment the two immortal entities drifted directly above the jagged lip of the canyon, they discovered to their surprise that nearly two-thirds of the winding canyon road Flandre had previously collapsed with her explosive magic had been systematically cleared and excavated all over again.
The military governors of Ursus had clearly never abandoned their aggressive imperial designs on this strategic zone. Finding themselves entirely unable to discover an open breakthrough path anywhere else along the heavily guarded southern borders, the high command had eventually remembered this hidden, collapsed 'dead end' to the far north.
But quite obviously, those northern generals hadn't expected Flandre to randomly come wandering back over to this forgotten sector on a total whim today. And so, through a complete stroke of luck, she had accidentally stumbled right upon the exact supply road they were only a few weeks away from successfully breaking through.
Watching the scattered, tiny figures moving like ants far below them on the valley floor—each carrying heavy baskets of shattered stone away on their scarred backs—Hong Meiling turned her head to look at Flandre, waiting for a combat order.
Flandre stared down at the laborers, a rare hint of hesitation flitting through her expression. Her eyes allowed her to instantly perceive that these sweating people weren't professional Ursus line soldiers or armored guards; they were merely ordinary, impoverished commoners and starving serfs who had been forcibly conscripted by the local nobility to execute this brutal, hazardous labor.
After she and Hong Meiling touched down silently onto the rocky mountaintop, Flandre immediately utilized her communication device to contact Alina, calmly breaking the news regarding the active excavation progress inside the northern valley.
Upon receiving the unexpected intelligence, Alina took the security breach with immense seriousness. She explicitly requested Flandre to maintain a stationary watch at that coordinate, stating that she would mobilize and fly over to meet them immediately. Flandre replied that she had absolutely nothing else pressing on her schedule anyway, so she would gladly wait for her arrival on the cliff.
Barely ten minutes later, a soft hum of wind magic echoed from the southern sky, and Alina landed smoothly onto the grass.
After landing, she first offered a polite, respectful nod to the two Gensokyo residents before walking straight over to join them right at the precipice of the steep cliff, peering down into the active construction site below. After meticulously observing the workers' clothing, tools, and guard rotations for a long while, she finally pulled her gaze away, letting out a soft sigh.
"Flandre, your visual assessment is entirely correct. These workers aren't enlisted Ursus soldiers; they are merely ordinary, innocent peasants who were forcefully conscripted from the border villages to perform this dangerous manual clearance. They are all incredibly pitiful people trapped beneath the nobility's thumbs; there is absolutely no valid reason for us to launch a mass slaughter against them."
Alina paused, adjusting her glasses as her strategic mind whirled. "Here is what I am currently thinking."
The harsh reality that the Ursus Empire would continuously harbor aggressive designs against this territory didn't actually come as a surprise to Talulah or Alina. In fact, the high command had already drawn up several permanent fortification blueprints for this specific mountain pass months ago.
However, because the Reunion Movement was currently forced to attend to a million different humanitarian matters during their frantic winter rebuilding phase, and because Flandre's initial mountain-collapse magic had been calculated to delay Ursus's movements for at least a year, the physical deployment of troops to this harsh region had been repeatedly postponed by the council. Had Flandre not randomly noticed the activity today, the Reunion Movement's border scouts probably wouldn't have dispatched a formal patrol to investigate this canyon until the very end of the year—at which point the imperial army would have already breached the line.
Now that the exact parameters of the problem were laid bare, the solution was relatively simple.
The surrounding mountain ranges stretched on for hundreds of miles. While there were several accessible, rolling paths leading up the mountains toward the fertile south, the northern perimeter consisted almost entirely of sheer, vertical cliffs and impassable stone walls. That precise geographical isolation was exactly why this specific low-lying canyon passage was so highly valued by military strategists.
But for the Reunion Movement's current developmental layout, they possessed absolutely no practical need for this northern passage. After all, attempting to utilize this narrow canyon for international trade was not only exceptionally dangerous due to the terrain, but the road also led straight into the heavily fortified, ancestral territories of the hostile Old Nobility.
Thus, the northern area had always been considered by their tacticians to be a classic 'chicken rib'—an area of incredibly little practical value to hold, yet a deep strategic pity to discard entirely to enemies. After learning that the passage had been thoroughly buried by Flandre's magic a year ago, the council had never once entertained the thought of reopening it for themselves.
Since the imperial forces on the other side of the ridge still hadn't given up their aggressive designs on the pass, they might as well just use supernatural means to block the canyon off completely and permanently.
As for the exact mechanics of how to block a massive mountain pass—didn't they see Flandre actively pointing her index finger straight at her own nose, looking so eager and anxious to cast magic that she was practically about to jump up and down on the spot?
Alina blinked in amusement, then looked down at the vibrating little vampire with a warm, affectionate smile. "Little Flandre, would you be willing to help our people permanently block this passage up for good?"
Hearing Alina explicitly ask for her direct physical assistance, Flandre's face immediately beamed with joy, and she cheered, declaring that it was absolutely no problem at all. Then, right under Hong Meiling's deadpan gaze—which looked entirely as though she were watching a total idiot get tricked into doing free construction labor—the little girl began to gather her immense mana, preparing to slam the two facing mountains together right then and there.
Fortunately, Alina quickly reached out and firmly pulled her back by her arm.
Alina pointed out gently that those hundreds of innocent conscripted peasants were still actively working on the valley floor below; if Flandre unleashed her explosive, mountain-crushing magic at this exact moment, wouldn't she be needlessly and cruelly taking hundreds of innocent lives?
"Ah... then what exactly should we do?" Flandre asked, blinking her large eyes as she suppressed her glowing magic circle.
"We will execute the plan at night," Alina gave her a gentle, tactical suggestion. "The environmental conditions inside this canyon are notoriously treacherous, so the Ursus guards certainly won't risk continuing the manual labor after total darkness sets in. There won't be a single laborer left inside the mountains tonight. Besides, the length of the passage you previously destroyed is vast; their engineering team definitely won't be able to achieve a breakthrough before sunset."
Flandre thought about the chronological logic for a moment, decided it sounded perfectly reasonable, and happily agreed with Alina's terms to return to the cliffside right after sunset to permanently handle the border trouble.
After Alina took to the air to return to her administrative duties, Flandre, who still possessed a massive surplus of physical energy, dragged Hong Meiling down into the dense primeval forest sprawling beneath the peaks.
Within thirty minutes of exploration, she successfully tracked and hunted down a massive, wild beast—a monstrous, bear-like creature that was structurally even larger than her entire physical frame. Completely filled with glee, she hoisted the colossal beast directly over her head with her immense vampire strength and happily carried it through the air all the way back to the mobile module.
Because the carcass of the beast was so absurdly massive, its fur and limbs completely hid Flandre's tiny body from view as she flew. Consequently, many lower-deck citizens and guards walking the streets didn't see the little girl at all; to their absolute horror, they only witnessed a gargantuan, blood-stained Manglerbeast soaring gracefully through the upper atmosphere, diving straight toward the residential module at high speed.
The terrifying sight almost caused massive, panicked rumors of an apex monster invasion to spread wildly across the entire city.
Upon finally returning to the safety of the inner courtyard and dropping the giant, furry prize onto the deck, Remilia walked out of the lounge. She looked down at the massive, dead bear-thing leaking onto the pristine grating, and then turned a slow, highly judging glare toward Hong Meiling.
Hong Meiling immediately did a French salute, a thoroughly helpless expression on her face as she gestured wildly to indicate her total innocence. Flandre had absolutely insisted on physically carrying the heavy apex predator back all by herself to show off, and as a mere subordinate guard, she only possessed the regulatory right to offer mild tactical suggestions—she didn't dare cross the line to order the volatile Second Miss around.
Fortunately, Remilia was deeply aware that her younger sister had become unusually, sweet-temperedly warm-hearted and hyperactive ever since she arrived in this world—or perhaps the girl was just profoundly bored and looking for any random task to occupy her time—so she didn't choose to blame the gatekeeper.
The Eldest Miss turned her head back around, only to see that Flandre had already happily balanced the giant bear's severed head directly on top of her own hair, holding the massive paws out as she began crawling around the carpet, gleefully pretending to be a ferocious wild bear...