On this bright and sunny morning, outside the gates of Chernobog, two vehicles sat quietly, prepared to drive in opposite directions. Two close friends were currently in the middle of a "sentimental" farewell.
"Jeanne... when you get to Lungmen, you must... watch out for your safety! If there's any danger... even if... the cooperation is canceled... you must come back!"
"Don't worry, and you... be careful not to... get lost on the snowfields! In the past... if I hadn't gone out looking for you in advance, who knows... you might have vanished during one of those times you... snuck out..."
Beside them, Lemuen and Lyudmila watched with expressionless faces. They could only respond to this scene of hugging and parting with silence.
To be honest, such a scene should have been quite touching. However, the two observers remained entirely unmoved for one specific reason: the two protagonists of this scene were simply the wrong people. As long as it wasn't these two "sisters" pinching each other's cheeks, the scene would have worked—heck, even a farewell between Patriot and Kashchey would have had more emotional weight.
Ever since the farewell began, these two had been smiling and pinching each other's faces. Anyone who didn't know better would think they held a deep-seated grudge.
"Shouldn't we go over and talk them down? Looking at the situation, neither of them shows any sign of stopping!" Lyudmila looked at Lemuen beside her. She couldn't quite understand how a group of people who were supposed to be serious acted like this in private.
Lemuen, meanwhile, expertly pulled a piece of apple pie out of the car and started eating, a can of beer in her other hand. Both hands were quite busy.
Looking at this, a sentence immediately surfaced in Lyudmila's mind: This organization I joined is doomed!
"Don't worry about them, just let them mess around. These two are always like this. They'll quiet down in a bit." Lemuen was long since used to this. In the short time she had followed them, she had seen this scene at least five times. She had become accustomed to it long ago. She could even explain these things to Lyudmila with the air of a senior. One could only say that time truly changes everything, even an angel.
Hearing Lemuen say this, Lyudmila sat on the car and started eating her own portion of apple pie and drink. As an assassin, she tried her best to avoid alcohol.
"How is your stamina seemingly inexhaustible? I'm exhausted, yet you act like nothing happened." After their struggle, Talulah looked at the breathing-unfazed Jeanne, feeling that she might never truly beat this "beast" of a woman in her life.
Weren't Dracos supposed to be stronger than average people in every aspect? Yet every time she faced off against the woman beside her, she was toyed with like a little Liberi.
"Trying to fight me with just a 'Tal-rua' level of effort? You're still too young. Come back after another two hundred years of training. My stamina is actually my weakest stat."
To this, Talulah indicated she had a string of profanities to offer, but since she was no match for her opponent, she gave up. While chatting with Jeanne, her small movements didn't stop; her tail was sneakily swatting at Jeanne, occasionally trying to strike at the weak point on her waist.
However, the tail failed to achieve its goal. Jeanne would occasionally grab it and refuse to let go, though Talulah's tail was as slippery as a snake and very hard to catch.
"You actually waxed your tail! How did you think of that? Heroine, your train of thought is truly eye-opening!" Jeanne looked at Talulah. To counter her habit of messing with the tail, Talulah had clearly learned some new tricks. Her degree of tail control was unprecedented; even the Draco ancestors probably didn't have tails this flexible.
"Wasn't I forced into this by you?! If you tormented it a few times less, would I need to spend all day figuring out how to protect it?"
"Haha, true. Consider it me stimulating your potential!" Jeanne laughed, agreeing with Talulah's words.
"It's time to head out. Any later and we might not reach Lungmen today, then we'd have to sleep on the streets." Jeanne suddenly changed the subject. Although the two cities weren't too far apart, the distance still required a significant amount of driving time.
"You be careful too! Especially since I won't be by your side this time. Watch out for those Gendarmerie when you head back. A cargo truck as conspicuous as yours is easy to track." Jeanne began instructing Talulah on things to watch for on the road. Without her acting as a "living radar," a vehicle like this was basically a lighthouse on the snowfields.
At this moment, Jeanne was like an older sister worried about her slightly clumsy younger sister going on a long trip, taking the opportunity to rub Talulah's head.
"I know, I'm not a child. Didn't I return safely every time I went out alone before?" Talulah managed to dodge Jeanne's "devilish claws" just in time, saving her hair and horns from further destruction.
Talulah fell silent for a moment, appearing to hesitate over her next words. Finally, she spoke:
"If you happen to run into my sister in Lungmen, help me see if she's doing well. Though, I'm not sure if she's even in Lungmen right now. If you do find her, don't tell her about my situation!"
Talulah still couldn't stop worrying about her sister. She truly wanted to know what kind of life the little girl who used to hide behind her was leading now.
Hearing this, Jeanne pulled a camera out of her backpack—no one knew when she had bought it. Jeanne waved the camera at Talulah and said:
"If I meet your sister, I'll definitely find a way to take a photo of her! The same goes for your childhood friends. You'll be able to see for yourself how Lungmen has changed!"
Seeing the camera in Jeanne's hand, a smile touched the corners of Talulah's mouth. As expected of Jeanne; even before she had spoken, Jeanne had quietly prepared everything.
"I'll head out first! Remember to say hello to Alina for me! She must be worried since she hasn't seen me in so long."
With that, Jeanne waved goodbye to Talulah and walked toward her own vehicle. This time, she would have to drive to Lungmen herself, because the designated driver, Lemuen, had already started drinking.
"I can do it! It's just two cans of beer! My sister and I once drank three crates of beer and then set the speeding record for the City of Saint Peter. This is nothing!" Lemuen wasn't ready to give up. Was she, Lemuen, really going to be kept away from the steering wheel by just two cans of beer? If Exusiai found out, she'd never hear the end of it!
"Don't drink and drive, and don't drive if you've been drinking. That's the bottom line, Little Lem! Even if there are no traffic laws in the wasteland, you have to follow it. Get in the passenger seat; we'll talk once the alcohol wears off!"
Under Jeanne's insistence, Lemuen could only sit in the passenger seat with a face full of grievance. She truly loved driving, especially the chance to speed across the wasteland... and now it was slipping away.
As Jeanne and Lemuen faded into the distance, Talulah sat in her own vehicle and watched them go. She then drove away from Chernobog with Lyudmila. At the very end, Talulah looked back at the grand mobile city one last time. The next time they met, it would likely be when she became its master.