That night, as Jeanne looked at Fafnir lying beside her, already fast asleep while clutching her tail, she had a multitude of words she wanted to express, yet found no opportune moment to say them aloud.
Throughout this entire day, Jeanne had practically been plunged into the life of a parent. For a moment, she couldn't quite fathom how her original intention of summoning a dragon to aid her in battle had somehow evolved into this current state of affairs.
Reflecting upon her experiences of the day, and then looking at the little guy curled up into a ball beside her, she felt that this kind of life was actually... not as bad as she had imagined? Come to think of it, was her maternal instinct becoming increasingly vibrant?
At this moment, Fafnir no longer possessed the vigilant defensiveness she had shown toward her surroundings during the day. It seemed that because Jeanne was keeping watch by her side, she slept incomparably sweet and soundly; looking at her like this, however, only made her feel that the child resembled Talulah even more.
The only thing Jeanne currently found impossible to accept was this child's facial appearance. It felt as though no matter how she explained it, it wouldn't have a very good effect.
Sigh, this truly is a problem... Jeanne sighed as she looked at the little Talulah beside her. For now, let's just leave it at this. Anyway, when the time comes, I'll think of a better way to phrase it!
Jeanne sat by Fafnir's side just like that, using a thoroughly gentle force to pat this seemingly tiny little guy piece by piece, hoping she could enjoy a good night's sleep tonight.
In truth, she could also tell that this child was indeed harboring some unease in her heart. Even if she possessed the shared memories common to the wicked dragon known as Fafnir, this little guy, whose psychological age was not very advanced, certainly couldn't adapt to the environment so quickly.
Sleeping while clutching her tail just like she was now proved that this little dragon child, who appeared to ignore everything around her, was still quite frightened. It was merely that she hadn't exposed this timidity in front of Jeanne or strangers.
Because she knew she had to protect Jeanne well, she always appeared so cold and indifferent when by Jeanne's side, using that demeanor to conceal the unease she felt due to the unfamiliarity of the environment.
But despite being somewhat uneasy, as long as this seemingly tiny little guy stayed by Jeanne's side, she could cast away all her weakness. At those times, she was invincible!
Sure enough, as Jeanne's hand patted Fafnir's body one stroke after another, the other party's breathing seemed to begin slowing down, as if she were gradually relinquishing her vigilance toward the environment, or entirely trusting that Jeanne would protect her safety.
Furthermore, because Jeanne was here, Fafnir's tail even began to sway slightly out of sheer joy. Looking at it from this angle, it looked as though a small snake were wagging its tail there.
At this moment, a slender beam of light suddenly shone into the darkened room, illuminating this inconspicuous little guy more dazzlingly than ever before, making her look like an elf that had tumbled down from an alternate world.
Jeanne felt her heart practically melt as she looked at this little guy. To think that this child, sporting a face identical to Talulah's, could look so incredibly adorable while asleep; if she had been sporting a face identical to her own instead, wouldn't she have been cute beyond all recognition?
However, Jeanne was also preparing to lie down and rest now. After being tossed about for the entire day, she was indeed quite fatigued. If it hadn't been for taking care of Fafnir, she would have found a nice place to rest long ago, rather than staying up until now without having closed her eyes once.
This was not only because the summoning had depleted her energy, but also because the mental consumption from being tossed about all day was truly somewhat severe. Moreover, she had spent the better part of the day roasting sheep for this fellow!
Driven by this exhaustion, it didn't take long for Jeanne to sink into a dreamscape. Seeing that Jeanne had fallen asleep, Fafnir shifted slightly closer to Jeanne's side and continued her slumber.
That scene... if you were to say these two didn't possess some sort of blood relation, absolutely no one would believe it! The frequency of these two individuals' breathing almost overlapped as they slept; if someone claimed they were actually the same person, people would believe it!
While Jeanne and Fafnir had both fallen asleep over here, not far away there were individuals who couldn't sleep because of them, and outside, there were even more people unable to rest due to Fafnir. For a time, undercurrents began to surge violently.
Babel, situated right at the center of these undercurrents, also felt that things weren't looking too good for them at this time. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the three higher ups to completely forego rest at such a late hour, sitting together to discuss countermeasures.
Right now, Kal'tsit was quietly listening to the Doctor recount the observations she had gathered as a bystander throughout the day. Although these words were interspersed with all kinds of unnecessary lamentations—making Kal'tsit wish this fellow would just stick to the important details—she listened on.
And precisely because the Doctor's words frequently went off-topic, even after she finished speaking, no one stepped forward to respond. They all merely stared at her in silence, seemingly waiting for her to continue.
"I've finished speaking on my end. What are your views?" After the three of them spent a long time staring blankly at each other, the Doctor finally found the silence unendurable and was the first to speak up, questioning the other two.
Seeing that the Doctor had concluded, Kal'tsit finally let out a sigh, and then spoke in an unhurried manner: "Then, in your view, is it safe for them to live at a distance so close to us?"
What Kal'tsit was truly anxious about was the matter of safety. She wasn't about to automatically assume this little guy was safe just because Fafnir looked diminutive and adorable; in her eyes, she was consistently an existence capable of erasing them in the blink of an eye.
What was even more unsettling was that they currently possessed absolutely zero ability to confront the other party! Even with Kal'tsit's wisdom, she couldn't conceive of any technology that would allow them to implement corresponding defensive measures.
"I cannot guarantee it! I can't even be certain whether that dragon will kill us in the next second. That is a mythical-grade malevolent dragon, after all; we simply have no means of resistance."
The Doctor spoke with absolute composure, as if the ones currently facing a mortal threat weren't themselves, but rather some entirely unrelated individuals.
Under normal circumstances, Kal'tsit would likely have grabbed her, slammed her against the wall immediately, and demanded with gnashing teeth to know whether her brain was still functioning normally to perform such a dangerous stunt.
But right now, Kal'tsit merely spared her a highly tranquil glance, her emotional state entirely composed. She also understood that a matter of this nature couldn't really be blamed on the Doctor, and furthermore, the situation was still within a controllable scope.
After all, that wicked dragon seemed to execute every single one of Jeanne's words unconditionally, and they themselves wouldn't engage in any behavior that would cause friction with Jeanne. Looking at it currently, it shouldn't escalate to a point where their lives were threatened.
"That kind of creature... should be the prototype of a Draco, right? Is that child truly so powerful that she doesn't possess a single shred of a weakness?"
Theresa still found it somewhat difficult to believe. She felt that Fafnir was indeed exceptionally powerful, but to claim she was a perfect organism devoid of weaknesses truly exceeded the imagination of humanity in this era.
After all, no matter what kind of organism it was, it would invariably retain a weakness. Just as there had been methods to confront those once incomparably powerful gods, Fafnir, as a biological entity, theoretically ought to possess some sort of weakness as well.
"We cannot achieve it. Dragons do indeed possess weaknesses, but they are not things we are capable of harming! At least not without proper technologies..." The Doctor merely shook her head and began explaining to Theresa.
"If we possessed weapons capable of countering dragons, we might still have a modicum of counterattack capability. As for Fafnir's weakness... it should be that hero named Siegfried. However, I don't believe that just anyone named Siegfried can achieve it."
Ever since she returned, the Doctor had retrieved all the texts recording this wicked dragon named Fafnir from the archives. Yet, even within mythology, the records concerning Fafnir weren't considered extensive, and they existed in all kinds of different versions that gave her quite a headache to read.
Even conducting research in this manner, the Doctor hadn't discovered any of those potentially existing weaknesses on her body. Or rather, one could say that aside from her fated enemy, Siegfried, a concept like a weakness simply did not exist upon her person.
But just as Jeanne had thought, that so-called Siegfried couldn't be found in this world either. In fact, prior to Fafnir's appearance, the Doctor hadn't even believed that Siegfried genuinely existed in history.
Faced with this response, everyone lapsed into a mode of remaining completely silent. The minds of the three individuals were directed toward entirely different matters, yet even the three of them couldn't quite divine each other's thoughts.
Even when Kal'tsit departed, the three of them didn't engage in any further communication. It wasn't until Kal'tsit had walked a certain distance away that the Doctor finally turned her head to look at Theresa beside her, appearing as though she had some innermost thoughts she wished to speak to the other party.