A few days later, in a stretch of wasteland situated along the border of Rim Billiton, a group of vagrants loitering about the area were discussing yesterday's sudden, catastrophic explosion with deep anxiety. They were equally unsettled by the legions of armed personnel who had completely cordoned off the site today.
"What on earth do you think that was? Could it have been some kind of Catastrophe?"
"What kind of Catastrophe looks like that? If you ask me, those high-and-mighty figures are hunting for something valuable. Why don't we head over and see if we can scavenge some decent loot for ourselves?"
"Are you out of your mind? With our measly scraps of meat, you wouldn't even know how you died when the time came..."
...
Within this modest little settlement, the populace was entirely consumed by discussions regarding yesterday's terrifying detonation. They hadn't possessed a single shred of courage to step outside their homes while it was happening, only daring to exchange rumors now that the situation had stabilized.
Yesterday, a violent explosion had suddenly ripped through the neighboring rocky desert! In its wake, countless influential figures—at least in the eyes of these vagrants—had descended upon the area to seal it off. If any ordinary person dared to approach now, they would likely be forcefully conscripted as miners on the spot!
These drifting conversations naturally found their way into the ears of two individuals sitting just a short distance away—a pair who looked like they could either be sisters or mother and daughter. Upon overhearing the gossip, the elder of the two froze slightly.
Following that, she cast a helpless glance toward the little guy beside her, who was currently munching happily on a flatbread. The child was eating with such unbridled joy that the frequency of her wagging tail had significantly increased!
Indeed, the individuals who had arrived here were none other than Jeanne—who was currently training Fafnir—and her summoned beast (daughter), Fafnir. Yesterday's seismic disturbance had been entirely engineered by the young dragon.
It had occurred because Jeanne wanted Fafnir to practice downscaling the destructive output of her breath weapon. The immediate result of that attempt was a gargantuan fireball unleashed by Fafnir, which instantaneously reduced the surrounding terrain within a hundred-meter radius into a patch of scorched earth.
Fortunately, Jeanne possessed her Noble Phantasm to shield against Fafnir's breath. Otherwise, even if her body could withstand such a massive, sweeping torrent of flames, whether her garments and hair could survive the ordeal remained a highly dubious matter.
Still, the realization that this child could already restrict her breath weapon to a precise hundred-meter radius proved that her pedagogical efforts were yielding tangible fruits. Once they successfully narrowed the threshold down to a five-meter radius, Fafnir's preliminary training could be officially classified as a success.
"I want to eat meat!" Having just endured two consecutive meals consisting entirely of flour-based starches, the omnivorous Great Dragon—whose culinary preferences had grown somewhat discerning of late—voiced her desires, her large eyes staring pleadingly at Jeanne.
She was a dragon! Dragons were fundamentally supposed to consume meat! Flooding her digestive tract with these mundane snacks day in and day out simply wasn't a sustainable state of affairs!
Even though Fafnir had already mastered the ability to absorb mana via the ambient Originium particles in the atmosphere to sustain her passive daily metabolic consumption, her psychological appetite hadn't diminished by much. At best, her consumption rate per meal had merely dropped from five whole sheep down to four and a half.
"Did you not already consume ten whole sheep yesterday?" Jeanne could acutely discern that while Fafnir's raw volume of consumption wasn't quite as ravenous as before, her pickiness regarding her dietary options had become significantly more severe!
You've changed, Fafnir! You used to chew through catastrophically hard black bread with absolute joy! Why have you transformed into a dragon that demands meat for every single meal?
For this, Jeanne experienced a minor pang of heartache—a subtle wave of maternal shame born from her temporary inability to fully satisfy the child's voracious appetite. The blunt reality was that this immediate geographical region was entirely devoid of any large wildlife capable of filling Fafnir's stomach!
They had already departed from Babel for three full weeks, and they had been stationed in this specific border territory for nearly four days! The meager rations they had initially brought along had long since been scraped entirely clean, and even the livestock raised by the regional herders had been almost entirely bought out by them.
This sector was inherently impoverished, meaning the local populace couldn't possibly afford to maintain herds consisting of dozens of cattle or sheep. A relatively affluent household might own two sheep at best, and essentially all of them had already wound up inside Fafnir's belly.
"Uh... is that a no?" Fafnir appeared visibly dejected. It had to be said that Jeanne's dedicated efforts over this recent period were yielding psychological results; at the very least, Fafnir's emotional expressions had become infinitely more varied.
Beholding this profoundly pitiful little guy, Jeanne felt her emotional defenses instantly capitulate yet again! This is dangerous—was this child raised on a strict diet of pure cuteness? She's so adorable that even Talulah's face can't dilute it!
Talulah: Just you wait... see how I deal with you once you return!
The surrounding patrons naturally took note of the situation, though they all remained entirely silent, observing the interactions between this apparent mother and daughter with the casual detachment of bystanders watching a harmless spectacle.
Even though Jeanne herself didn't look particularly advanced in years, it wasn't an impossibility for a girl of her age to possess a daughter in a lawless border territory like this. It was just that the pristine condition of the duo didn't suggest they were enduring a grueling, hand-to-mouth existence.
Furthermore, no one in the vicinity was foolish enough to actively provoke the pair. The sheer, terrifying volume of food they were capable of processing was a blatant indicator that these two were by no means ordinary civilians; a regular household simply couldn't afford to finance such an astronomical stomach.
As for Fafnir's vocalizations, the patrons merely treated them as amusing, childlike banter. None of them harbored any absurd notions that Jeanne was actively mistreating the child or withholding nourishment.
Forget it, I'll see if I can scout out a location later to hunt a few wild Fowlbeasts just to pick her teeth with, Jeanne sighed inwardly, thoroughly resigned to Fafnir's digestive capacity.
"This time I will only eat two! I will be able to completely stop eating meals very soon!" Sensing Jeanne's internal helplessness, Fafnir hastily offered an earnest guarantee, promising she would absolutely never cause her any further logistical trouble over sustenance in the future.
Beholding such an incredibly well-behaved Fafnir, Jeanne gently ruffled her hair. With that settled, the two prepared to vacate the settlement to venture further out into the periphery.
Given the massive disturbance they had engineered yesterday, continuing Fafnir's pyrotechnic conditioning in this immediate sector was entirely out of the question. It was indeed time to move on.
Moreover, through their high-profile movements during this period, Kal'tsit and her contingent back at the base had successfully slipped out of the spotlight. At present, virtually every major intelligence apparatus was aggressively tracking Fafnir's migratory trail; who would waste focus on a random group of archaeological excavators?
However, if they advanced any further, they would officially breach the national border of Rim Billiton. Before long, she and Fafnir would find themselves crossing back into the sovereign territory of Kazdel. Had the two of them perhaps strayed a bit too far out?
Chewing on this thought, Jeanne quietly departed from the settlement. The residents paid little heed to her exit, treating them like any other transient travelers who had passed through their lives.
The only exception lay with those specific individuals who had recently managed to approach the epicenter of yesterday's detonation. Within that landscape of still-smoldering, calcified earth, they had unexpectedly discovered a perfectly pristine patch of ground—an unmistakable footprint left behind by a human presence!
Yet, by the time their faculties registered the profound implications of this discovery, Jeanne had already put an immense distance between herself and the sector. Even if they managed to extract rumors regarding Jeanne's descriptions, they no longer possessed any viable window to track her down.
While they were executing a frantic, high-speed sweep of the neighboring towns, Jeanne was busy guiding Fafnir through the wilderness to harvest high-legged Fowlbeasts for food. The process of the duo hunting down these avian packs could only be described as an absolute slaughter.
Watching Fafnir feast with unadulterated joy, Jeanne began to ponder their subsequent destination. Should they continue to wander through these desolate wavelands, or was it time to redirect their course elsewhere?
Jeanne sat upon a rock, her gaze drifting toward the horizon. The lands stretching out in that direction already belonged to the territory of Kazdel. She could almost faintly hear the phantom echoes of distant artillery and explosions rippling through the air, though she knew it was merely an auditory hallucination born of the region's bloody reputation.
How could any Kazdel military units possibly manifest in a remote border sector like this? If those volatile elements truly filtered down here, this settlement wouldn't be enjoying this level of tranquility.
During her travels, Jeanne had personally witnessed villages that had been thoroughly pillaged by wandering Sarkaz raiders. In those places breached by the mercenaries, not a single living soul could be found; every scrap of logistical supply that couldn't be efficiently transported had been systematically reduced to ash by arson.
However, rumor had it that these Sarkaz factions had grown significantly more subdued of late. The overarching reason was precisely Fafnir's high-profile wandering throughout the region, which had triggered immense paranoia among the local warlords; the raiders had promptly retreated back into their strongholds to avoid crossing paths with the unknown behemoth.
Should we... go take a look inside Kazdel proper? A sudden, spontaneous impulse flared up within Jeanne's mind. Come to think of it, despite her current deployment to Kazdel, she hadn't actually witnessed what this nation truly looked like on a systemic level.
In truth, back when the Doctor had been hovering around her in circles, Jeanne had faintly surmised that the woman harbored a latent desire to request her martial intervention. However, since the Doctor hadn't explicitly articulated the plea, it wasn't appropriate for Jeanne to proactively volunteer her services.
But now, Jeanne felt that even if she were to ultimately extend a helping hand to Babel, she ought to at least witness the unfiltered reality of Kazdel before committing to the conflict, shouldn't she?
"Let us go. We shall see for ourselves what the true state of Kazdel looks like." With those words, Jeanne reached out to stroke Fafnir's head, discovering that the child's head possessed a significantly better tactile texture than her tail.
Why does Talulah's head not feel this satisfying to pet? Jeanne wondered. Their heads are structurally identical. Could there be some sort of mystical, specialized variable at play here?