The Ursus Empire, atop the Northwestern Tundra. This land is under constant assault from severe cold; even the thought of staying in one place for long is a mere fantasy.
In the village of Kobevich, Talulah, dressed in worn military fatigues, was quietly slipping into the settlement. Only after checking behind her to ensure she wasn't being followed did she find a secluded spot to sneak in.
What she didn't expect was that, in the very next moment, a pair of warm, soft hands would cover her eyes.
"Let's see what we've caught sneaking in. Is it a naughty little Draco? Where did the little one who promised to chop wood with me the day before yesterday go off to play?"
Hearing the slightly teasing voice, cold sweat broke out on Talulah's forehead. Embarrassed and wanting to change the subject, she hurriedly said, "Aha, good morning! Jeanne, I didn't expect you to be up so early."
"It's already afternoon. If you had come back any later, I suspect Grandma would have thought you'd been taken away by those 'men in black'..."
Jeanne watched Talulah's clumsy attempt to play dumb and change the subject with a look of helplessness.
"Alright, alright, I'm back, aren't I? Quick, take your hands off! Your hands are so cold!"
With a slight exertion of force, Talulah pulled the two hands away from her eyes. She turned around to see a girl standing before her, dressed in black civilian clothes with golden hair and a single ahoge swaying in the wind.
"Why do I get caught by you every time I try to sneak back? I was being so stealthy!" Talulah couldn't help but complain. Every single time she returned in secret, she was intercepted.
She glanced at that ahoge, which was swaying because its owner was in a good mood. She had wondered countless times what would happen if she just plucked it out.
"Who knows? Maybe it's telepathy or something? My intuition told me you'd be passing through here," the girl named Jeanne replied easily. Her smiling expression, paired with her beautiful face, was quite captivating to Talulah.
For some unknown reason, this girl seemed to possess a special magic over her; her every move drew Talulah's attention. Talulah also found herself subconsciously agreeing with whatever Jeanne said—no matter how absurd or unbelievable, her first instinct was always that Jeanne wouldn't lie to her.
"Alright, let's go! You're in for it this time; Grandma is worried sick." Saying this, Jeanne grabbed Talulah's hand and, ignoring Talulah's panicked expression, pulled her toward the house.
Her full name was Jeanne d'Arc, though those close to her simply called her Jeanne.
She vaguely remembered that she once lived in a world with a highly developed civilization. Back then, she didn't have to toil just for winter heating or basic survival, and the winters in that world were never this harsh.
She also remembered that her current body belonged to a character she deeply loved from a game in her past life. She had spent a significant amount of money to raise every single one of her forms to NP5. Because of that, she had lived a very frugal life for a long time.
Her last memory of her previous life was returning home after work. The moment she turned on the light, a mysterious explosion occurred, blasting her straight to this place. Who knows if it was a gas leak or if someone was actually conducting a Holy Grail War? To be honest, she preferred to believe the latter.
When she next opened her eyes, she was in this world. She had landed in the middle of a wilderness where she couldn't see a single person, not even a bird. However, waking up to find two massive weights attached to her chest gave her quite a scare.
Upon closer inspection, she realized her body had transformed into the Jeanne from her game. Fortunately, she also inherited Jeanne's powers, which prevented her from freezing to death in this icy wasteland.
Strangely enough, she could freely switch between her "White" and "Black" forms as if she were changing outfits.
By following her Revelation, she had eventually found this village. She stayed there under the guise of being a poor refugee who had lost her home to a Catastrophe. There had been some misunderstandings at first; the villagers were wary of her "Black" (Alter) outfit. She had to explain for quite a while to convince them she had no connection to the Infected Patrol.
It was then, seeing the animal ears on the villagers and listening to their stories, that she realized she had arrived on the continent of Terra.
The problem was that her knowledge of Arknights was limited to the general lore and main plot; she couldn't remember the specific years when events took place. Furthermore, the various event stories made the already complex timeline even messier. Even if she wanted to change things, she didn't know where to start, so she simply made up an excuse to stay.
Following her Revelation proved to be the right choice. Though the village wasn't wealthy, it was exceptionally friendly and harmonious compared to the xenophobic settlements elsewhere in the tundra. Despite Jeanne's suspicious story, seeing that she had no luggage, the villagers believed she was a refugee.
They granted her request to settle down, and a kind elderly couple took her in.
The moment she met the young Elafia, Alina, she knew roughly which time period she was in. And so, after arriving in another world, she began a cheerful rural life.
Though life in the village was hard, she grew to love it. Perhaps because she had become Jeanne, someone who previously only knew "farming" as picking fruit could now manage all household and farm chores perfectly. She could do the workload of an entire family by herself. This led the villagers to remark that the old couple had truly found a treasure.
And since the "clumsy" Talulah had moved in, Jeanne occasionally found time to go into the forest to hunt game. Wild animals couldn't outrun someone with the strength of a Heroic Spirit, so hunting was easy for her.
Back in reality, hearing Jeanne's words, Talulah felt a wave of panic. She asked hurriedly, "Wait... wait a minute! How did Grandma know I snuck out? Didn't I tell them I went hunting in the mountains with you?"
She still felt a lingering fear of Grandma's nagging. To ensure her travels over the past few days went smoothly, she had claimed she was accompanying Jeanne to chop wood in the mountains to protect her. She left early the day before yesterday, and Jeanne wasn't the type to gossip.
She couldn't understand—how did her foolproof plan fail?
Looking at the question marks practically stacking up on Talulah's face, Jeanne let out a sigh.
"Someone promised to be back the next day... it's now the afternoon of the third day. I even stayed on the mountain extra long just for you. It was very cold."
Jeanne looked at the embarrassed Talulah with a sense of resignation. This girl was usually quite reliable; why did she become so air-headed whenever it came to things like this?
Could there be a parasite in her brain absorbing her IQ?