The two didn't linger in the city for long. As soon as Jeanne's vehicle had been serviced and readied, they immediately set out to rush back to the village.
Originally, their schedule hadn't been this tight, but the situation had shifted. They needed to return as quickly as possible to relay this information to Patriot.
"I really admire your way of doing things! I'm honestly curious—if it weren't for me, how did you plan on getting back to the village from here?"
Jeanne spoke as she drove the vehicle rapidly forward, glancing at Talulah sitting beside her. This Leader hadn't even come here in her own transport!
According to her, she had relied entirely on her own two legs to walk here. Luckily, she had encountered a merchant caravan halfway and hitched a ride to the city.
If Jeanne hadn't been there, Talulah's likely choice would have been to hoist a pack over her shoulder and trek into the snowy wilderness overnight, walking all the way back.
In a favorable scenario, she might have caught another merchant's wagon. Those people generally wouldn't bother asking if she were Infected, as it served no purpose. Even if they realized her status, all she'd need to do was show a bit of her strength—picking up a stray as a temporary bodyguard was a trade worth making.
More likely, however, people simply realized they couldn't beat her, so even if they objected to her presence, it wouldn't have mattered much.
Hearing herself described by Jeanne as someone who could starve to death after being away from home for half a month, Talulah defended herself indignantly:
"I'm not as bad as you make me out to be! It's not like I haven't traveled alone before. Didn't I come back safely every single time?"
Although she knew that traveling on foot wasn't exactly ideal here, it wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker for Talulah. After all, she had the power to ignite fire. In a land covered in timber, the most dangerous factor of the tundra—the freezing temperatures—held no sway over her. Even if she ran out of food, she could always try hunting wild beasts. There were plenty of ways for her to make it back to the village.
"You should be glad your Originium Arts are fire-related. If you had ended up with an ability like FrostNova's, I'd be genuinely worried about what you'd do."
Jeanne replied with a laugh. The two continued their casual banter as the vehicle pushed forward under Jeanne's steady hand.
As for whether they would get lost? With her Revelation, Jeanne never worried about that, which was why she never bothered to memorize the local roads. The main issue was that the roads here were notoriously difficult to remember anyway. Jeanne hadn't traveled far many times before, so aside from a few landmark forests and mountains, she hadn't memorized much of the geography.
Consequently, Jeanne often found herself in situations like this—sometimes even she didn't know exactly where she was driving. But as a person with an "omni-navigation" system built-in, these weren't problems. The destination of this road had been determined long ago.
"Speaking of which, is there something wrong with the route you chose? The road near the forest is clearly the fastest way back to the village. Why did you end up in the mountains?"
Talulah looked at the vast, white snow before them. This place was so remote that there wasn't even a trail carved out by travelers, making it clear this wasn't a standard route for travel.
If she didn't trust Jeanne's infallible intuition, Talulah would have suggested turning back to the main road. In a place like this, once night fell, visibility would drop to nothing, and they could easily end up driving straight into a mountain range.
Jeanne glanced at her surroundings. This was her first time here as well, and she didn't have much of a bearing on the place. However, she still trusted her Revelation. Though the "system" occasionally had bugs, the results it queried had never been wrong.
"I'm not sure. My gut tells me this is the most suitable route to take today. Maybe there are people on the main road, or perhaps the inspectors are out on patrol?"
Jeanne's tone suggested she couldn't be certain of the specifics, but her foot didn't lift off the accelerator for a second. Even if she couldn't confirm it, the thought of what Fiolet had said—about people looking for Patriot—forced her to stay on high alert.
Their vehicle was quite conspicuous here; it wasn't wise to drive out in the open on the main roads where they could be tracked. In this region, even the inspectors had few vehicles, relying mostly on their feet or snowmobiles. For civilians and most merchant caravans, it was even harder—most didn't even have snowmobiles.
While Jeanne had joked about Talulah walking, the most common form of transport here truly was one's own legs, or perhaps a sled for those who were more well-off.
"I see... then never mind. It's better to be safe. But since we have some time, why don't you tell me about your experiences in Laterano?"
Hearing Jeanne's reasoning, Talulah agreed that having people wandering the main road was a risk, and taking this path was likely safer.
In Talulah's mind, the greater likelihood was the inspectors. But really, how many times had they decimated those inspectors now? Those guys were like locusts; no matter how many you killed, they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and...you get the point.
Lately, perhaps because the New Year was approaching and they needed to collect taxes to send up the chain, they had become active again. This might actually be related to Talulah and the others; several times this year, they had cleaned the inspectors' clocks like they were beating stray dogs. This had led to heavy losses for the inspectors and a significant shortfall in tax revenue, forcing them to come out and try to "fill the holes" in their budgets.
Hearing Talulah bring up her trip to Laterano, and looking at the desolate landscape where not even a bird could be seen, Jeanne spoke up:
"Alright then! Since we're on the road, I'll tell you everything I went through! Just make sure you hold onto the handle—don't get too shocked!"
After cracking a joke, Jeanne began to recount her time in Laterano in a relaxed pace.
The exceptionally lively festivals and the explosion-loving Sankta; the Great Bell that hadn't rung for a thousand years; the unique Sankta of mixed heritage; her official declaration as a Saintess...
And the most important matter: the small object hanging around her neck—a weapon capable of destroying the world.
"..."
After hearing the summary of Jeanne's experiences, Talulah's brain went into a state of total shutdown due to the sheer volume of information received in such a short time. Her eyes went blank, staring vacantly at the road ahead. For a moment, Jeanne almost thought she could see steam rising from Talulah's head.
Perhaps that was the physical manifestation of her "internal CPU" overheating from the overload. It was truly asking a lot of her to process all of that at once.
"Uh... how do I put this? Your experiences during this time... just hearing about them feels like an eye-opening ordeal!"
Her eyes fixed on Jeanne's porcelain-white neck, where a small, golden, horn-shaped model was hanging. She had noticed it earlier but assumed it was just a souvenir Jeanne had bought in Laterano; it seemed to suit her temperament well enough.
"This is that Horn? Such a tiny thing has that much power... the more I think about it, the more miraculous it seems! What do you think would happen if I blew it?"
Talulah was naturally curious about a weapon that could create Catastrophes at will. Of course, a trace of fear remained deep down. But knowing that the person wearing it was Jeanne put her at ease. She believed that, no matter what, Jeanne would never wake such a terrifying power.
Jeanne glanced at the "curious kitten" version of Talulah. Hearing her suggest blowing the horn, she gave her a flat look.
"What would happen? You would die from the side effects of the Horn. As for the impact... given your condition, it might have the power to affect a third of Ursus?"
Jeanne knew exactly what happened to anyone other than herself who tried to use the Horn. Aside from death, there was no other possibility. Furthermore, in the hands of someone who wasn't the "chosen one," it could only trigger standard Catastrophes; it couldn't achieve the world-ending Great Catastrophe.
Otherwise, wouldn't the Sarkaz have destroyed the world countless times when they used it?
"I see. Then I'm relieved. I thought anyone who used this thing could trigger a Catastrophe."
Talulah nodded. If that was the case, she felt much better. It seemed this thing was "soul-bound" equipment!
As they were talking, the two suddenly felt the car dip. No matter how hard Jeanne pressed the accelerator, the vehicle wouldn't move forward.
"No way... I actually drove into a ditch? Let's get out and check; something feels off."
Seeing the car stuck, Jeanne and Talulah hurriedly hopped out to inspect the situation. Jeanne clearly remembered seeing no ditch in this area!
Sure enough, two of the wheels had fallen into a deep pit. But this wasn't a natural formation; they quickly realized the trench was a trap! From the look of it, it might have been a hunter's trap for catching wild beasts, and they were the two unlucky souls who had stumbled into it.
"Don't move! This is a... a robbery! Hand over... hand over the food!"
While they were inspecting the damage, they suddenly heard a child's voice from behind them. However, the voice sounded incredibly weak and breathless, as if he hadn't eaten in a very long time.
Turning around, they saw a young boy pointing a bow and arrow at them. Standing behind him was another child—a boy who looked extremely timid, cowering fearfully behind his companion.