"Why be so polite!"
Flandre followed Talulah, walking at the very back of the crowd.
"If it weren't for you this time, given the weapon configuration inside, we would have suffered heavy losses even if we took this place."
It can be said that you saved many of us.
This word of thanks is necessary."
Talulah said very seriously.
"So we're withdrawing now, but what about Buldrokkas'tee's side?"
Flandre asked as she walked.
"No need to worry about that. The intelligence officer has already sent word of the successful rescue. They will also withdraw from the battle quickly and return to the home base."
Although she didn't see how Talulah and the others transmitted intelligence, since the other party said so, they must have corresponding channels.
In any case, she didn't plan on staying with the Reunion Movement permanently, so there was naturally no need to keep questioning.
As long as she was sure that everyone on the Reunion Movement side had safely withdrawn from the battle, it was fine.
The next day, the Ursus people, who had not received any news from the factory, arrived, but all they saw was an empty factory and a pile of corpses burned beyond recognition.
The officer who came was extremely furious.
His own men had pinned down Buldrokkas'tee, yet this place, which should have been the safest, had met with disaster.
"Don't be so quick to anger, sir... I think our opponent might hold more than just the Buldrokkas'tee trump card."
A man beside him, appearing to be a staff officer, came to the side of the pile of nearly incinerated corpses after carefully inspecting everything.
"Sir, don't you think it's strange?
This room is far too clean."
He spoke while crouching down to rummage through the indistinguishable corpses.
"Hmm, what do you mean?"
A flash of killing intent appeared in the officer's eyes.
"Of course, I'm not saying there was a traitor in the Reconnaissance Squad. After all, with over fifty people in the squad, if they were all traitors, they couldn't have all died here.
And if there were too few traitors, they couldn't have ended the battle as cleanly as they did in this factory.
It's as if everyone didn't resist, or died before they even had time to resist.
Bloodstains can be found in many places in the room, but there are no marks around them resulting from a battle, indicating they didn't even have time to act in resistance before they died.
These people belonged to different Reconnaissance Squads. It would have been difficult for our opponent to plant traitors among them, let alone plant enough traitors in every squad to kill the others.
Furthermore, these people died in different locations, meaning they weren't ambushed while gathered together.
I recorded all the places with bloodstains, and I can confirm that they discovered an enemy attack and were in a combat state.
Then the enemy killed them directly before they even had time to fight back... It's too efficient, simply terrifying."
The staff officer's eyes finally lit up.
"Found it!"
He pushed aside a corpse that hadn't been completely burned and shouted in surprise at the empty chest.
"The heart is gone... and the chest was ripped open from the front to pull the heart out.
Just what kind of monster could do such a thing?"
The staff officer muttered to himself while poking the corpse with a wooden stick.
Considering that this staff officer did have some real skill, the officer suppressed his anger and waited for the staff officer to finish inspecting everywhere.
Finally, he delivered a report to the officer.
After reading the report, the officer's expression became even more furious. He looked at the staff officer.
"You mean to say there's a mysterious expert among our opponents who can move at high speeds of at least a hundred meters per second, can fly, and cleared the entire factory within ten minutes, ripping the hearts out of all our people from the front?"
The staff officer nodded, then adjusted his glasses.
"Other than that, I can't find any other possibility.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however absurd it may seem, must be the truth.
Sir, I mean no offense, but this is the conclusion I've drawn from all the intelligence collected in the factory."
"Then tell me, who is the enemy? A Mindflayer?"
The officer said helplessly; he also knew his staff officer was telling the truth.
But he couldn't submit this report, which looked extremely absurd.
"According to my knowledge, there is indeed a branch in the Sarkaz called the Mind-Whipping Demons, but they don't eat hearts." The staff officer's words almost made his blood pressure spike again.
In the end, he didn't submit the report.
After all, if he submitted this thing, the higher-ups would likely think he'd gone mad and transfer him somewhere to retire.
So he reported that there was a traitor within who used poison, causing the personnel stationed there to die of poisoning, and they were currently tracking the traitor.
However, the opponent was very cunning and burned the others to ashes, so it was temporarily impossible to know who the traitor was.
Although he would still be punished, because there was a "traitor," it could seem excusable. With a little maneuvering, he could maintain his current position.
Even if it cost some money, as long as he kept his position, the money would always find its way back into his pockets.
Flandre and Talulah didn't know that because Flandre killed so quickly, the enemy officer couldn't report the absurd scene to his superiors and chose to file a false report, which successfully kept her out of the higher-ups' sight.
By the time they returned to the camp, it was already noon on the third day.
Buldrokkas'tee, who had returned first, had told the home base the good news of Talulah's successful rescue of everyone, so everyone was looking forward to their return.
Seeing the people returning whole and intact, cheers erupted one after another in the home base.
Upon learning that the great hero who saved so many people was actually that Blood Demon girl they had been afraid of two days ago, many people showed surprised expressions.
Alina looked at Flandre, who was walking at the back of the crowd and preparing to sneak back to her room, and walked over quickly to give her a hug.
"Little Flandre, you're the great hero this time. Everyone is looking forward to seeing you, you can't run away now!" Alina picked Flandre up and walked into the crowd.
Looking at the curious, grateful, and surprised... all sorts of gazes directed at her, Flandre showed a slight smile.
Feeling the cheers from everyone around her, she kept nodding her head in response.
This was different from her sister's praise, but it also made her feel very happy, and this feeling was actually quite nice!
Flandre smiled while giving herself a mental thumbs-up.
Because she had saved many people, the gazes everyone cast at Flandre were full of goodwill.
Although those who were rescued and those who participated in the rescue knew how gruesome the deaths of those who died by her hand were, everyone remained silent about it.
Not a single person mentioned it.
The only consequence of this event was that every morning during exercises, a group of children would run over to join in.
This habit of morning exercises quickly became popular throughout the home base.
"Everyone is so happy!" Talulah sighed as she looked at the crowd doing exercises not far away.
"Indeed, it's been a long time since everyone has been this energetic.
Although there are still many stubborn people who think it's inappropriate to cooperate with a Blood Demon, Miss Flandre did indeed perform a great service last time, one that left certain Old Stubborn One with nothing to say.
I think we can ask her if she's willing to help with that matter."
Standing beside her was a white-haired Cautus.
She had a scar on the bridge of her nose, but it didn't dim her appearance; instead, it blended softness with iron-bloodedness.
The Old Stubborn One she spoke of was her adoptive father, Ursus's "Patriot," the last pure-blooded Wendigo, the leader of the Shield Guards, and the military leader of the Reunion Movement—Buldrokkas'tee.
Of course, since that rescue operation, he hadn't stopped others from contacting Flandre, but due to the influence of his bloodline, he still couldn't trust a Blood Demon.
So he simply avoided her quietly.
Flandre was well aware of this, but she felt she wasn't money; if some people liked her, naturally some wouldn't.
She didn't need to change herself or do anything just because someone didn't like her.
After all, besides her older sister, other people were unimportant in her eyes; it was just that the influence of the other soul had given her more humanity.
After finishing their workout, everyone dispersed from the open space and began their respective work.
Talulah came over to Flandre and Alina, who were talking to each other.
"Alina, I made something good for you, want to go take a look together?"
Alina looked at Flandre, and after Flandre nodded, Alina left with Talulah.
Flandre turned her head to look at the approaching honorary Operator of Rhodes Island, captain of the Yeti Squad, the white rabbit "Frostnova"—Yelena.
The other party's goal was clear: she was here for her.
To this end, Talulah had even specifically lured Alina away.
So there was some combat-related need for her help, and because they were worried about Alina's attitude, they had tricked her away first.
She looked at the newcomer.
"Hello, Yelena!"
"Hello, Miss Flandre, how about we go somewhere to chat?"
Frostnova pointed to a small platform not far away, cobbled together from a few stones and wooden boards, usually used for drying things but also for sitting and resting.
After the two sat down, Frostnova stated her purpose.
Winter in Ursus was extremely cold, so besides food, firewood for the winter was also a very important item.
But they couldn't cut down the forest here, as it was an important barrier protecting them from discovery.
So their logging camp was established in another location fifty kilometers away.
However, bad news had come this morning: that place had been discovered by the Reconnaissance Squad, and many people had been captured.
Because there were many people, Frostnova and Talulah were worried that someone might reveal the news of the home base out of fear.
The news hadn't returned from other directions yet, so the people here didn't know.
Once they found out, it would likely cause a significant disturbance.
Because the distance was too great, by the time the Shield Guards or Yeti Squad got there, the news of the Reunion Movement's home base might be completely exposed, and the situation would have turned irreversible.
And now winter was approaching; if they were forced to migrate, they were worried about whether the elderly, weak, women, and children here could endure it.
So Talulah thought of Flandre.
After the last incident, she had great trust in Flandre's speed and combat power.
As long as she was willing to help, there might still be room for maneuver.
"Alright, tell me the location. There's no time to lose, I'll set off now!"
Since she was just idling around anyway, and if she didn't help here, she'd have to go play with those children, Flandre agreed decisively.
"On behalf of the Reunion Movement, thank you for your help.
By the way, take this. The place with the red mark is the destination; there's a signal base station there, and this can receive the station's signal to give you real-time positioning."
Frostnova reached out and handed over something similar to a radar signal receiver.
It had already been calibrated, and the only target was that signal station.
Flandre picked up the receiver and soared into the air amidst everyone's exclamations.
Under the children's gazes, she quickly vanished from the spot.
Alina ran back after seeing this and saw Frostnova standing there.
"I'm very sorry, Ms. Alina, but we have something very important that needs Flandre's help, so could you lend her to us for a day?"
Frostnova's words left Alina not knowing how to respond; you've already borrowed the person before coming to discuss it with me, what's the point.
"Remember, Flandre is only staying here temporarily, she's not one of our Reunion Movement members, and she's still a child.
You can't just arrange for her to do dangerous things."
Alina wasn't stupid; she had noticed Talulah's eyes were a bit shifty before, and seeing Flandre leave, she naturally knew Talulah had deliberately lured her away to give them a chance to talk.
But since they were doing this for the Reunion Movement, she couldn't say much; she could only remind them that Flandre wasn't a member, so they'd better not make her do too much, or they wouldn't be able to repay the debt of gratitude later.
"I know that, of course, but this matter was urgent, and indeed, besides her, we couldn't find anyone more suitable."
Frostnova apologized again and stated she had other things to handle, leaving Talulah alone to face Alina's questioning.
Flandre spent less than ten minutes flying the fifty-kilometer distance to the sky above the logging camp.
Looking down from above, there were indeed many Reconnaissance Squad members in Ursus military uniforms, while many Infected were still resisting by relying on the terrain of the logging camp.
But when unprepared Infected miners faced fully-armed Ursus Reconnaissance Squad members, the difference in combat power was more than just one level.
If Flandre hadn't arrived, these people would have all been captured in ten more minutes at most.
The person in charge of the capture operation was a man wearing gentlemanly glasses, looking quite elegant.