"So, my spot in this household is officially gone, is it?"
Once all the Victorian refugees were settled in, Jeanne returned home with Alina, only to find her bedroom swallowed whole by towering stacks of documents. She stared at Talulah with a hollow, vacant gaze, desperate to know just what kind of cosmic joke had turned her private quarters into a public archive.
Talulah felt a brief pang of guilt under that accusatory stare, but she quickly straightened her back and adopted an unyielding stance, crossing her arms as she glared right back.
"Don't give me that look! Do you even remember how many days you've actually spent sleeping in this house since we moved here? This room sits empty more often than it's occupied. Leaving it vacant was a waste of space anyway, so I just used it to store files that need processing."
Talulah's tone was so fiercely unapologetic that Jeanne actually shrank back instinctively, feeling like she had committed some serious moral failing against the household.
Wait a minute, Jeanne thought, her brow twitching. I was out on a grueling, continent-spanning journey for months dealing with world-ending threats! I wasn't out joyriding!
Realizing the injustice of it all, Jeanne's spine suddenly stiffened with righteous indignation. She squared her shoulders and locked eyes with Talulah, ready to fire back a scathing defense.
"Alright, you two, cut it out," Alina intervened with a soft, gentle smile, stepping between the bickering pair. "You both act like you've been missing each other half to death the entire time you were apart, but the second you're in the same room, you're ready to claw each other's eyes out. Tone it down, both of you. We have a room to clean."
Alina shook her head at their childish antics. Honestly, how old were they? Anyone watching them bicker like this would suspect them shared some scandalous, secret relationship.
Well, even if they did share some scandalous, secret relationship, it wouldn't be the end of the world—but right now, manual labor took absolute priority.
With Alina joining the fray, the two troublemakers dropped their staring contest and set to work clearing out the bedroom, hauling the heavy stacks of paper out of the way.
Proposal for Urban Zoning Redesign, Division of Infected and Non-Infected Residential Districts, Port Expansion Blueprint...
Title after title stared back at Jeanne, filled with dense blocks of Ursus text that made her head throb on sight.
She recognized every single letter, so why did looking at the paragraphs make her brain swell with pressure? Was reading bureaucratic paperwork supposed to passively grant her an intelligence boost or grow her brain cells?
Jeanne tilted her head, briefly entertaining the absurd thought before banishing it to the deepest corners of her mind.
Still, it was truly impressive that Talulah managed to process this mountain of work single-handedly. If Jeanne were dropped into that seat, she would probably have to rely entirely on prophetic insights just to stumble through the correct decisions without having the foggiest clue what she was actually doing.
As expected of someone with prior urban administration experience. Across all of Reunion, very few people possessed the administrative chops for this kind of work besides Talulah.
Most of their members hailed from ordinary working-class backgrounds, compounded by the constant shadow of Oripathy. Expecting everyone to have professional city-management experience was simply asking too much.
"Are you suddenly developing an interest in administrative work?" Talulah asked, pausing as she hoisted a cardboard box. She caught Jeanne staring dreamily at the paperwork piles, and her golden eyes lit up instantly.
If she could trick Jeanne into taking over this paperwork, it meant she would finally have free time to tackle other projects!
As for whether a warrior possessed aristocratic administrative talent, Talulah didn't care in the least. With Jeanne's prophetic instincts backing her up, minor details like competence were completely irrelevant.
"Seeing you look so fascinated—care to take over processing these files?" Talulah's eyes practically twinkled with wicked inspiration, flashing a look that made Jeanne break out in a cold sweat.
"Not interested! Looking at these papers gives me a migraine, why would I ever want to touch them?!" Jeanne shook her head so quickly it blurred, projecting an aura of vehement refusal that even Fafnir could read across the room.
Talulah simply patted Jeanne's shoulder with a knowing grin, mentally kicking herself for forgetting just how effortlessly she could exploit Jeanne's talents. She just needed to figure out the right angle to weaponize those insights.
"Honestly, Talulah, must you start working her to the bone the moment she walks through the door?" Alina sighed, shooting a reproving glance at the self-appointed workaholic. "Give her a break. She's been through hell and back out there, and she needs time to catch up on what's changed in Chernobog before you dump a mountain of tasks on her."
"Please," Talulah scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Throughout the entire journey, apart from watching her drag me through one chaotic mess after another based on her prophecies, I didn't see her suffer a single bit of fatigue. If anything, she was the one wearing me out!"
"You two..." Alina chuckled, shaking her head at their endless back-and-forth. It had been far too long since she last witnessed this specific flavor of domestic chaos.
She turned her attention to Fafnir, who was quietly helping haul smaller folders. Patting the young dragon's head, Alina offered a piece of maternal advice.
"Fafnir, make sure you grow up a bit more mature than these two, alright? They look like adults on the outside, but underneath, they're just two overgrown kids throwing tantrums."
Fafnir blinked, nodding sagely with a completely blank expression, though she looked thoroughly bewildered by whatever emotional warfare was playing out between the older two.
Despite the initial chaos, Talulah's filing system turned out to be remarkably orderly, and it didn't take long to clear out the room.
Once finished, the space was spotless, decorated with small, cozy ornaments Alina had picked out during Jeanne's absence. It wasn't overly luxurious, but it radiated a deep, comforting warmth. Standing in the room she rarely got to inhabit, Jeanne felt a profound wave of nostalgia.
Before she could sink too deep into sentimentality, Alina and Talulah cornered her for a proper debriefing. The little deer finally got her chance to satisfy her burning curiosity about the outside world.
Jeanne recounted their harrowing adventures in Iberia, while Talulah eagerly chimed in with dramatic embellishments about their exploits in Victoria. For Alina, who rarely stepped foot outside the city walls, the tales sounded like wild fantasy.
When Alina heard about the Seaborn—creatures possessing an unfathomable capacity for endless evolution—she was shocked at the sheer horror of such an enemy.
And when the topic turned to their accidental brush with the Sarkaz military, Alina's breath hitched, her heart squeezing tight with lingering anxiety despite knowing both women were sitting safely right in front of her.
Seeing the genuine worry etched across Alina's face, Jeanne and Talulah felt a sudden twinge of guilt, as if they had selfishly run off on a grand vacation while leaving their dearest friend behind to worry. Exchanging a guilty glance, they silently synchronized their thoughts.
"You know, next time an opportunity comes up, you should pack your bags and come with us, Alina," Jeanne said, wrapping an arm around the deer's shoulders. "You can't just spend your entire life locked inside a single mobile city."
"Huh? Me?" Alina blinked in surprise, instantly waving her hands in frantic denial. "I couldn't possibly! Who would look after the kids here? I don't have that kind of free time..."
That was classic Alina. Even when given a direct invitation from Jeanne, the gentle deer would never abandon her responsibilities, instantly deflecting with her endless workload.
"Oh, nonsense. Hand the kids off to someone else for a change and take a breather," Jeanne insisted, arching an eyebrow. "Even God mandated a day off after working six days straight, let alone a mortal like you, Alina."
Still, as far as destinations and timelines went, the three of them would have to sit down and plan it properly when the time was right.