Seeing Talulah gradually regain her composure, Jeanne let out a sigh of relief. The "Dragon" had returned to normal.
"I know you're angry, Talulah. The moment he attacked Alina, I felt the same fury you did. But this man shouldn't die at our hands," Jeanne said. She had sensed something deeply wrong the moment Talulah raised her sword; her intuition told her that if Talulah committed that execution in a state of blind rage, it would cause irreparable damage to her soul.
"It was my mistake! I was possessed, I was a fool! Please give me one more—ghhk!" The collaborator's plea for mercy was cut short as Jeanne delivered another sharp kick to his gut, leaving him retching.
"Think about it," Jeanne continued, ignoring the man. "How angry must the people be who were sold to the mines because of him? Their hearts are filled with hatred; they lost their homes, their land, and their families. Their rage deserves an outlet more than yours does."
Talulah remained silent, looking at the man with cold, distant eyes. She slowly sheathed her weapon. "I understand. I will leave his fate to the villagers once we rescue them. Thank you for waking me up in time, Jeanne."
With a heavy expression, Talulah turned back to the map. Every scrap of information they gathered meant one more life potentially saved. Meanwhile, Jeanne bound the collaborator so tightly he couldn't move, gagged him, and tossed him into a corner.
The captured Patrols didn't even need further interrogation. Knowing what was at stake, they spilled everything—codes, guard rotations, even the locations where they hid their stolen gold coins.
Based on their Intel and the map, there was indeed a hidden Originium mine in a secluded, difficult-to-access ravine. It was the perfect place for illegal transactions. They decided to strike immediately. They had the heavy truck, which could ignore the blizzard and reach the destination quickly.
The only problem: Who was going to drive?
Neither Talulah nor Alina had ever touched an Originium vehicle. Jeanne had driven a car in her previous life, but she had never handled a beast this large.
"Let Jeanne try," Alina suggested. "Otherwise, we're walking through the snow season, and that will take too long. We have to try."
Jeanne nervously climbed into the driver's seat. The cabin was a mess of food crates and half-empty bottles. "Let's see... steering wheel, accelerator, clutch... what's this? Ah, the headlights..."
Fortunately, the technology of Terra was largely reconstructed from "ancient" archeology. This primitive truck functioned remarkably like the ones in her memory. "Alright... ignition... Whoa!"
It was a bit jumpy, but she got it moving. In the vast, lawless snowfields, traffic rules were a non-issue. They threw the prisoners into the iron cages at the back, locking them in. The prisoners, who had transported so many "cargoes" in these cages, were now the cargo themselves.
Worrying they might freeze to death before reaching the mine, the girls wrapped the six men in thick animal furs until they looked like giant zongzi (rice dumplings), leaving only their heads and chains exposed.
The truck set off, shivering and swaying. In the back, the six "dumplings" were tossed around the cages with every bump, promptly vomiting up the lavish meal they had just eaten. Inside the cabin, however, the girls were warm and sheltered, though Jeanne was white-knuckled with anxiety. In her old world, driving without a license meant jail; here, she was a brand-new "road killer" in the making.
An hour later, Jeanne had gotten the hang of it. "Sorry about earlier, Jeanne," Talulah said softly. "I was... out of control. I didn't know what I was doing."
"It's okay. If he hadn't hurt so many people, I wouldn't have spared him either. I kept him alive so the villagers would see that not all Infected are trash like him. They need to know people still want to help them."
The three fell into a somber silence. They wanted to change this land but felt so small against its vast cruelty. They didn't even know if the villagers would thank them—it was likely their reception would be cold, or even hostile.
As twilight fell, the truck arrived at the mine recorded on the map. Even from the outside, the scene was hellish. Scattered corpses littered the perimeter, a testament to the blood-soaked reality of the operation.
It was hard to believe the people running this place had any conscience left. Or perhaps they had devoured their own hearts long ago, leaving only beasts in human skin.
The sheer number of bodies made Jeanne realize why the mine owner needed four villages worth of people—they were clearly being worked to death as disposable toys.
Talulah and Alina turned pale, covering their mouths to keep from gagging. This went beyond "harsh life"; it was a massacre in slow motion.
Suddenly, a gate opened above, and ten more bodies were unceremoniously dumped down the ravine. They appeared to have died of exhaustion or cold. The guards didn't even bother to burn them; they just left them there as a feast for the tundra's scavengers.