Hearing Jeanne's offhanded remark, Talulah let out an outraged shriek and lunged at the utter villain, grabbing her by the collar as they began wrestling right there in the stone corridor.
"My day turned out pretty well?! It was eventful alright—eventful enough to make my head explode!" Talulah fumed, her voice crackling with exasperation. "I told you, you crow-mouthed jinx, keep your mouth shut when nothing's happening! Keep it shut! But did you listen? No! Look at what happened now! Did every single word that tumbled out of your mouth come true?! You..."
Recalling everything Jeanne had blurted out back in Hillock County—despite Talulah's desperate attempts to silence her—a fresh wave of pure fury surged straight to her brain.
Even though Talulah logically understood that Jeanne's words didn't literally place a curse on the universe, having such a flawless excuse to beat up this unluckiest of souls was an opportunity too good to pass up. Why wouldn't she take it?
Meanwhile, off to the side, Fafnir—who had just been stripped of her hoard—was cheering with all her small might. The dragon seemed to have completely forgotten who her guardian was, enthusiastically pumping her tiny fists in support of Talulah.
From a distance, the scene looked remarkably like a mother and daughter teaming up to bully a defenseless bystander.
"Why is it that every single time I bump into you two, you manage to offer me a completely unprecedented view of human behavior?"
Having finished her private exchange with Gawain, Kal'tsit stepped out of the inner sanctum. The very first sight that greeted her was Jeanne casually pinning a grief-stricken, indignant Talulah to the floor, while Fafnir cheered Jeanne on from the sidelines.
Something about the dynamic was profoundly wrong...
"Ah, wait, there's still someone inside?" Jeanne blinked, as if she had completely forgotten about the doctor in the room behind them. After taking the upper hand and thoroughly messing with Talulah for a moment, she looked up at Kal'tsit in genuine surprise.
"Wait, shouldn't you have left with the Rhodes Island team earlier? If you're still loitering around here, who's currently steering that massive landship of yours?"
"The Doctor recently returned to the vessel to undergo the second phase of treatment," Kal'tsit replied smoothly. "During rest periods, the Doctor can temporarily step in as field commander to direct operations. Furthermore, all our elite operators are present. My temporary absence does not impact Rhodes Island as significantly as you seem to think."
With practiced familiarity, Kal'tsit used her key to lock the heavy iron gates behind her. Turning the strange mechanism, she glanced at the intricate key in her palm before addressing the two women. "Would you mind if I kept this object? It possesses... a certain utility for us."
Jeanne glanced at the brass-and-iron key, which looked virtually identical to the one Talulah held. It was clearly the royal Aslan key Theresis had been carrying earlier.
"The Aslan heir is currently aboard Rhodes Island?" Talulah caught on instantly, her sharp eyes fixing directly on Kal'tsit as she waited for confirmation.
"Yes. You have likely crossed paths with her before—Operator Siege."
Kal'tsit's answer brought back memories of a sullen, worriesome Feline with wild, bushy hair. Thinking back, that voluminous mane really did resemble a majestic lion's mane... But wait, why would a female lion have a full mane? Wasn't that exclusively a feature of male lions?
Having long perfected the art of reading facial cues, Doctor Kal'tsit thoughtfully offered an explanation. "An Aslan's mane-like hair does not vary by gender."
"Then you keep it," Talulah said, looking down at the artifact that should technically have been part of their spoils. "Handing it to her... counts as returning it to its rightful owner."
If she were acting purely on maximum political self-interest, Talulah would have destroyed the key on the spot. That would have left her holding the only key on Terra capable of unlocking the royal mausoleum, giving her immense leverage over Victoria's domestic affairs whether she actively chose to intervene or not.
Yet... sometimes, throwing aside greedy calculations was simply a much cleaner choice.
"I offer you my gratitude on behalf of my operator," Kal'tsit said, slipping the royal key into her coat pocket with a quiet sigh of relief.
That key was indeed critically important for Siege. Although Rhodes Island had yet to decide whether to plunge into the deep, murky waters of Victorian succession, holding this bargaining chip would inevitably prove invaluable down the line.
"What are your next plans?" Kal'tsit asked.
"Go back and sleep!" Talulah answered, rolling her eyes. "I only learned about this place through an acquaintance back in... through a friend, and I came here merely to look at a site connected to my bloodline. Who could have guessed that a simple sightseeing trip would turn into such a chaotic mess?"
As she spoke, Talulah shot another sharp glare at Jeanne. She still hadn't forgotten how Jeanne's mouth had turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy; she was going to hold this grudge for the rest of her life!
"Indeed. This night has certainly been eventful for you both," Kal'tsit agreed with a slow nod. The sheer volume of insane events they had packed into a single night was enough to fill a multi-volume epic.
"In that case, I shall take my leave first. While your business here has concluded, mine is far from over. I doubt that deathly paranoid Duke will simply accept defeat without a fight."
With a sharp glint in her eyes, Kal'tsit strode down the dark stone corridor. She needed to have a very thorough, very firm conversation with the Victorian noble who had invited the Sarkaz into the city. Only by settling that score could Rhodes Island safely sail their landship out of Victorian territory with their high-value captive.
"There is one more matter you may find noteworthy," Kal'tsit paused near the exit, turning back one last time. "Three days ago, in the marshlands of southern Victoria, Rhodes Island operators rescued a severely injured Draco. The girl calls herself Reed, and she appears to be suffering from profound psychological trauma. She is currently receiving medical care aboard our landship."
Kal'tsit dropped the news and vanished into the shadows. Jeanne and Talulah exchanged a silent, knowing look—at last, they knew where the missing Draco had ended up.
"Why do you think she ran off to a place like that? And how did she manage to get so badly hurt?" Jeanne wondered aloud. "Even if she isn't the strongest fighter, a Draco should naturally possess enough strength to protect herself."
Hearing that Reed was safe brought an immediate wave of relief to both of them. Regardless of what the poor girl had gone through after being captured, surviving was the best news they could ask for.
"I suspect she was trying to accomplish something on her own," Jeanne recalled the bizarre state the girl had been in before her departure. "Remember those moving corpses?"
"I doubt those shambling soldiers are an isolated occurrence in Victoria," Talulah reasoned softly. "She likely got injured trying to put a stop to those creatures... But these are merely guesses. Perhaps we'll see her in person when we visit Rhodes Island."
With their business concluded, Jeanne and Talulah strolled out of the ancient ruins like tourists with nowhere urgent to be.
Barely a few minutes after their departure, a heavily armed squad burst into the ruined vault.
"It seems we're too late," a heavily armored Feline soldier muttered, scanning the pools of dried blood and deep footprints shattered into the stone floor.
"Can you confirm which side claimed victory?" his commander's voice crackled through a encrypted comms channel. "Can you find out whose hands that Draco fell into?"
Judging by the commander's tense tone, this faction had known full well that something monumental was taking place down here.
"Unclear, sir. Far too many factions joined this clash; the tracks are a complete mess. But I believe... those two monsters have already departed."
Looking at the utter devastation left behind in the mausoleum, the soldiers could hardly imagine the scale of the battle that had unfolded beneath the surface.
Before long, more footsteps echoed down the stone hallway. Nearly every major force monitoring the capital had dispatched scouts to investigate the underground disturbance.
The cataclysmic summons Jeanne had used earlier had caused a colossal commotion. People across the district had heard subterranean thunders echoing through the earth, sounding like a hundred heavy construction crews tearing down the foundations simultaneously.
And the incinerated Sarkaz ancestral spirits that followed had unleashed a wave of psychic terror across the city. Almost everyone near the district had felt a sudden, suffocating chill, as if the ghosts of the past had broken free.
A lingering, furious roar had echoed in the minds of the citizens. The closer one got to the mausoleum, the more terrifyingly vivid it became. Rumors were already spreading like wildfire through the dark streets: people whispered that the ancient emperors had awakened in fury over the return of the Draco line.
"What a pity. Whether it's your group or ours, we all arrived too late," a scout sighed, looking around at the gathered agents. "There's nothing left to salvage here—unless you have a way to break down that heavy steel gate."
Standing in the ruined threshold, the scouts from various factions began squabbling and throwing accusations, an argument that threatened to drag on until the break of dawn.