The first thing the soldiers saw when they burst in was Sergei lying on the ground, his life or death unknown, while Misha remained in a state of unconsciousness.
Upon closer inspection, Sergei had several puncture wounds caused by a sharp blade across his body, but a very faint breath could still be detected, flickering like a flame in a storm. The group scrambled to save him. Fortunately, the medic in their squad was quite skilled and managed to forcibly pull Sergei's fading life back from the gates of hell.
"Dammit, where did the people in this room go? How can we not even find a single corpse! Do they think they can play dead after causing such a massive mess?"
The officers in the room, seeing that they hadn't spotted a single soldier responsible for the interior in all this time, couldn't help but curse under their breaths. Sooner or later, they were going to report someone for dereliction of duty...
"Boss, you'd better come with us and take a look. We found the interior team. It's just... they're a bit..."
The men looked at the soldier, who seemed unable to find the right words to describe the scene, and signaled for him to lead the way without minding his stuttering. When they reached the doorway, the sight inside truly opened their eyes. They saw a vast number of soldiers piled on top of one another in every direction; the guards for the entire house were all incapacitated, their status unknown.
"It is confirmed that everyone here is in a coma. No one lost their life due to what happened today. However, they'll need time to recover—all of them are unconscious due to heavy impacts, and a few have minor fractures..."
The commanders stared at this room full of "corpses" for a long while without saying a word. What could they say now? It only went to show that the intruder was merciful and disliked wanton killing. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a room full of unconscious soldiers, but a room full of bodies! How hard would it be to kill a group of unconscious soldiers? It was something that could be done with a casual flick of the wrist.
"Report this to the superiors. This is no longer a field we can interfere in."
After a moment of silence, the squad leaders gave a unified answer. This was their most humiliating operation yet; they hadn't even managed to touch a single hair of the mysterious intruder...
At the same time, having finished all of this, Jeanne was taking Lyudmila away from that den of trouble. At this moment, Lyudmila looked like she had lost all hope in life as she was carried by the waist by Jeanne.
Like a little wolf cub wanting to go out and play being bitten on the scruff of the neck by its mother, she had no way to escape. She had broken her vow once again and boarded the "Jeanne Express."
She was currently enjoying treatment that even a Silver Lance Pegasus didn't get. Jeanne was sprinting away at an extremely high speed, wishing she could modify her own body into a more streamlined shape.
It wasn't until they had run five blocks away that Jeanne reached the safe zone indicated by her Revelation and finally stopped to rest. Jeanne wiped the sweat from her forehead, lamenting that it had been a long time since she had run at full power. She had almost forgotten how fast "Jeanne the Sprinter" could be; she had run quite happily today.
However, Lyudmila, who had drifted off into a "dreamland" on the other side, certainly didn't think so. At this time, our poor Lyudmila had begun to spit out a white, mochi-like substance from her mouth; it looked like she had lost more than half her life on this trip.
In a daze, Lyudmila seemed to see a misty bridge. Standing on it were her deceased parents, smiling and waving at her. Lyudmila wanted to run to them, but she had no way to get close to her family. Through the enveloping clouds, she saw her father give her an encouraging gesture, while showing a very relieved expression regarding her recent actions.
In the next moment, a flock of white pigeons flew in and surrounded Lyudmila. Ignoring her struggles, they carried her further and further away from that space, finally vanishing into the horizon.
Lyudmila could only watch as her parents grew more distant. At the very end, she saw them bid her farewell, and she could only wave back until everything turned white.
When she woke up, she saw Jeanne covering her mouth with both hands, as if trying to stuff something back in. Seeing her wake up, Jeanne breathed a sigh of relief.
"I swear... even if there is a next time... I will absolutely not let you carry me while running! I think I saw my parents waving at me from a very unlucky-looking bridge..."
Upon waking, Lyudmila immediately complained to Jeanne about that speed which no ordinary person could withstand. She vowed once again that she would never let Jeanne carry her while running.
However, having the strength to complain proved she was fine. It was just that after such a trip, her legs were still a bit weak, and she slumped down onto a nearby crate.
"Wasn't that just to get away from that area as quickly as possible? Otherwise, if they found you—the one who once tried to assassinate Sergei—nearby, it wouldn't be so easy to leave."
Seeing that Lyudmila was okay, Jeanne sat down beside her, shaking her hands which were a bit numb from hitting so many people. She prepared to rest for a while before heading back. Knocking out such a large group of soldiers by herself was a technical feat; even if the armor on her hands could serve as gauntlets, hitting that many people still made her hands tingle.
At this moment, she couldn't help but think of her former colleague who used to tame giant dragons with her bare fists. How on earth did that person do it? Jeanne admitted that her own fists couldn't achieve something like taming a dragon. Of course, Talulah was an exception—subduing a single "Ta-rua" was still within her capabilities.
By now, Lyudmila's physical condition had mostly recovered. She walked and hopped around on the ground, feeling that her body was fine, save for some stiff muscles.
At that moment, a fleet of Originium vehicles roared past them. Judging by their direction, they were likely coming from Sergei's house, presumably to transport him to the hospital for further treatment.
"I really didn't expect that, in the end, you actually gave your enemy a chance to live. Before going in, your eyes didn't look like the eyes of someone who would leave him with a life!"
Watching the Originium vehicles speed past, Jeanne was certain that Sergei must have been rescued by that group. Now, he was merely being sent to the hospital for follow-up care. As for the soldiers with minor fractures, Jeanne truly hadn't intended that—under those circumstances, she was lucky to ensure they weren't in life-threatening danger; she couldn't worry about broken bones.
Hearing Jeanne's words, Lyudmila also fell into deep thought. She recalled her emotions from earlier and remained silent for a long time before saying:
"I didn't let him go. I gave him injuries severe enough to be fatal. As for whether he can survive, that depends on his luck."