Faced with Jeanne's blatantly nonsensical answer, Ch'en could only remain speechless. If you really didn't want to tell me, you could have at least made up a plausible lie; why go as far as to mock me like this?
Ch'en stood there in silence for a long time. She stared at those horned reptilian creatures, and the more she looked at the pair of horns on the giant's head, the more familiar they felt. After a moment of deep thought, Ch'en remembered where she had seen horns of that shape before! Her classmate back in Victoria—that rare friend at the Royal Guard Academy who actually knew how to drive a tractor!
Fiona(Bagpipe)... she was a Vouivre!
And that connected the dots. Could this giant beast actually be the Ancestor form of the Vouivres? No, it should be the "Prototype" of the Vouivre race! If that were the case, it was understandable why Jeanne was being so secretive. If the rest of the world found out about this, it would be a world-shaking event that would cause a sensation across all of Terra!
In Terra, it was perfectly normal for every race to have its animal prototype. It wasn't exactly a secret you could hide—take the common Felines and Perros, for example. Because of this, many people on Terra would directly refer to others by their race or even more specific details. For instance, it was common to call Cautus "rabbits" or Pythians "snakes."
But... some races were different. Their biological prototypes simply could not be found! Such creatures had never appeared on the continent of Terra; they existed only in paintings and legends. For example, the Gryphon represented by Mr. Hellagur, or the Pegasus represented by the Nearl family of Kazimierz. More specifically, for races like the Vouivres and Dracos, there was absolutely no record of an animal prototype ever existing.
Of course, the "Angels" of the Sankta and "Demons" of the Sarkaz were exceptions; their prototypes were long considered to be themselves. One might argue that the "Lung" race had the True Dragons of Great Yan as their representatives, but even with Terra's advanced archaeology today, not a single trace of a Vouivre or Draco prototype had ever been found! They hadn't even found a single scale to prove their existence. If these two races didn't still walk the earth, Terra's scholars would likely believe they never existed at all.
And yet now... a creature proven "non-existent" was standing right before her eyes. What a monumental discovery!
"I understand. I'll do my best to ensure those who saw this keep their mouths shut," Ch'en said, naturally grasping Jeanne's intent. As long as Jeanne didn't admit it herself, no one could prove the connection between this creature and the Vouivres; at most, it would be seen as a mutated giant lizard. "But in the future, when you talk to others, maybe don't mention 'Giant Originiumslugs.' It's a bit too far-fetched, don't you think?"
If news reached the rest of Terra that such a creature had appeared in Lungmen, the city would become a target for everyone. That wouldn't be good for anyone. So, a "Giant Originiumslug" it would be. Such things could be managed behind the scenes, and Ch'en had the authority to exercise that level of "flexibility."
"But the problem is, what do we do with them now?" Ch'en continued, her head beginning to ache at the logistical nightmare of hiding a Vouivre-beast. "Look at their size. The moment they move, they'll be spotted. We can't exactly have them dig a tunnel to the city outskirts, can we?"
The smaller ones were manageable—one truck could solve the problem. But the big guy? Finding a transport vehicle that large in Lungmen would be a struggle, if one even existed.
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that. Just have everyone back away a bit," Jeanne said, not quite comfortable explaining that she was the mastermind behind this entire incident. She felt she couldn't explain it clearly to Ch'en anyway, so she fell back on the universal excuse: Originium Arts.
After all, the people of this land still hadn't fully unraveled the mysteries of Originium. There were many unsolved enigmas, so there was always room for one more "eccentric talent." Even so, what was about to happen would be quite shocking to ordinary people. If possible, Jeanne preferred fewer witnesses.
"Alright, that makes things easier," Ch'en said, her heart finally settling. She ordered the nearby officers to go and search the underground facility. Since that place could hide so many soldiers, the secrets buried within must be equally large.
Come to think of it, while their operation seemed smooth so far, they hadn't caught many researchers. Did that make sense? Not at all. Clearly, the secret chambers below held some shameful secrets. Fortunately, the "Vouivre-beast's" rampage underground had forced open all the hidden entrances.
As for Ch'en, she stood curiously by Jeanne's side, eager to see how she would transport them out. She had imagined several possibilities, including calling an even larger creature to fly over and carry the big guy away.
But in the next instant, the massive creatures simply vanished from her sight as if erased by a giant eraser, as if they had never existed at all. Even an officer as well-traveled as Ch'en stood there in a daze for a long time, unable to react.
What happened? Was I seeing things? Was the giant beast just a hallucination, and the reality is that there's nothing here?
But looking back at the bottomless crater in the ground—didn't that hole prove the monster's existence? Then where did it go? What did she miss?
Utterly baffled, Ch'en turned her gaze toward Jeanne. Her small eyes, filled with confusion and bewilderment, stared directly at Jeanne in silence for a long time.
"Wait... what just happened? Where are the 'Originiumslugs' we were just looking at? The massive one that was right here a second ago?" Ch'en gestured wildly with her hands, trying to illustrate the scale of the vanished creature. She couldn't comprehend how something that big could disappear in the blink of an eye.
"Don't you dare tell me that was Originium Arts! No one's Arts have that kind of power. Go ask any Operator classified as a 'Summoner' if they can do that!"
This wasn't "Terra" at all! Even during her studies in Victoria, searching through all their records of strange and unique Originium Arts, she had never seen anything that could make something that large vanish instantly.
"Haha, it's just a very rare ability. I simply sent it back to where it lives," Jeanne replied with a smile and a vague answer. She knew her ability was likely unique on Terra, beyond the description of standard Arts.
What she had actually done was recall the ten Earth Dragons back into the Imaginary Space. You could say they "went home," but Jeanne could call them out again whenever she pleased. However, this ability to store summons in a pocket dimension probably had zero to do with Originium Arts. She had never met anyone with an ability similar to her own.
During her time with Reunion, Jeanne had never seen any space-type Arts among the thousands of Infected. Such an ability would be a strategic game-changer in a place like the tundra, even if only used for logistics and transport. Talulah had once been quite envious of this power; if it could store people, it would be invaluable for rescue missions or military maneuvers.
"Could you be any more dismissive?" Ch'en couldn't help but complain, hearing Jeanne's tone that sounded like she was humoring a toddler. "You know Originium Arts aren't omnipotent, right? Don't just slap the label of 'Arts' on every weird, inexplicable thing you do!"
Hearing what sounded like Jeanne teasing her, Ch'en grumbled, "You must be joking with me!"