After returning to the village, Jeanne took the opportunity to rest thoroughly for an entire night, as if clearing out all the fatigue accumulated from sleeping in the rough during her long journey.
"Did you stay up all night? And... wait, have you been crying?"
Upon waking, Jeanne looked at Talulah standing before her. Those slightly reddened eyes and her exhausted mental state suggested she hadn't rested at all the previous night. With that "ascended" look common to those who pull all-nighters, Jeanne wouldn't have been surprised if Talulah claimed she was about to achieve spiritual enlightenment and fly away right then and there.
"No, I just... stayed up a bit late, that's all," Talulah replied.
While she told Jeanne it was just a late night, the truth was that Talulah hadn't slept a wink. Her mind was so full of racing thoughts that sleep was an impossibility. Looking at her, Jeanne felt that perhaps giving her Ch'en's photo the night before hadn't been the best timing; if she'd waited until morning, the initial wave of excitement might have passed, allowing Talulah to actually get some rest.
The night before, the Draco had spent a long time plying Jeanne for news about her sister. Seeing how much she had missed her sibling over the years, Jeanne had handed over the prepared photo album. The very first picture was the one she'd obtained from Ch'en—an old photo of the two of them as young children, the only photograph of them together in existence.
"You have no idea," Alina chimed in, walking out with breakfast in hand. She looked at Talulah's reddened eyes and spoke to Jeanne with a teasing smile. "I saw her light was still on last night and thought I'd check on her. I didn't expect our brave Talulah to be secretly wiping away tears all by herself."
It was, in fact, the first time Alina had ever seen Talulah cry. No matter what they had endured or how severe her injuries had been in the past, she had never seen the girl shed a single tear.
"Alina—!" Talulah let out a moan of protest, her face turning as red as her eyes at having her secrets exposed. She hadn't realized Alina had peeked in on her. Her focus had been entirely consumed by the image of Ch'en and the flood of old memories. In the blink of an eye, the shy little girl who used to hide behind her had grown up; she was no longer the small child who needed her protection.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop," Alina said, noticing that not only were Talulah's eyes red, but her cheeks were flushing too. Talulah's tail was standing straight up—a clear sign of agitation. Jeanne felt that if they pushed any further, Talulah might actually breathe fire, even though she still hadn't figured out how to manifest her flames since her "reset."
She had previously snuck off to secluded spots to practice, trying to see if she could still unleash those terrifyingly destructive flames. Unfortunately, she'd only succeeded in making herself hoarse from shouting without a single spark appearing. Later, FrostNova had complained that there were "wolves howling" near the camp early in the morning.
"Do you have any missions today? If you're free, I have something to discuss," Jeanne said. She sat there acting like an expressionless eating machine, finishing three bowls of porridge single-handedly.
Even Alina remarked that while Jeanne hadn't gained any weight on her trip, her appetite had certainly grown. It was a mystery where all that nutrition went; she ate like a horse but didn't put on a gram of fat.
"Nothing major, just helping the villagers harvest the crops. I'll go call Patriot and the others in a bit," Talulah said. Even for them, raiding mines wasn't a daily occurrence; most days were spent training or assisting with agriculture.
Today's harvest was particularly vital, as it was the last batch of crops they could pull before the deep winter set in. Usually, this harvest determined whether they survived the season. However, this year was different; thanks to the Holy Water's ability to accelerate growth, they had already harvested enough to see them through the winter comfortably.
"Good. Call FrostNova and Patriot. We found something on the road. Also... is there any more porridge?" Jeanne held out her empty bowl, and Alina let out a helpless sigh looking at the now-empty pot.
"Did you eat anything at all in Lungmen? I don't remember you having such a huge appetite before!" Talulah looked at the empty bowl, realizing the scale of Jeanne's new "stomach." It was as if she'd had an organ transplant.
"I used to hold back because food was scarce," Jeanne explained. Truthfully, she felt she was awakening in the direction of an Artoria-level appetite, though she hoped she wouldn't reach that extreme. The real reason was likely that after the recent release of her Noble Phantasm, her internal capacity for Magical Energy had increased significantly, leading to a higher caloric demand.
Once the porridge was gone, Jeanne sat with the others and finished off two fist-sized potatoes for good measure.
"Alright, everyone is here. What's the matter?"
After breakfast, Talulah gathered FrostNova and Patriot around a campfire to listen to Jeanne. Jeanne recounted the intelligence she had gathered: the temporary camp built around the open-pit mine created by the Catastrophe.
She emphasized the abnormal firepower she had observed. As expected, Patriot, who had dealt with these forces for years, immediately sensed something was wrong.
"This is unusual," Patriot said, his voice deep and gravelly. "Even if a Catastrophe leaves behind a massive amount of surface Originium, the Ursus authorities wouldn't deploy that level of firepower just to secure it."
Having fought the Ursus military and Gendarmerie for decades, he knew exactly what a standard camp's garrison should look like. The configuration Jeanne described—mortars, grenade launchers, and bombardment drones—simply didn't appear in remote backwaters like the snowplains. Frankly, even if they mined every shard of Originium there, it was doubtful it would cover the operational costs of such a heavy deployment.
"In the past, when they mined surface Originium after a disaster, the most they would have were a few officers with heavy crossbows," Patriot added. While Catastrophes weren't as frequent as snowfall, they happened every few years.
Jeanne nodded. A few heavy crossbows were usually enough to keep the Infected from thinking about resisting. While Infected could perform Arts without staves, their actual combat effectiveness was usually only marginally higher than a normal person's.
"If that's the case, do we have the strength to rescue the Infected inside?" Talulah's focus was entirely on the captives. It explained why some of the smaller mines were empty—the Infected were being consolidated at this central site. If there were hundreds of people being held there, they couldn't just stand by, but they needed a sound plan.
"It will be difficult," Patriot estimated. "With that level of firepower, a frontal assault would be time-consuming and costly." Even with his Shieldguards leading the charge, they would suffer significant losses against mortars and drones.
"And the biggest problem is," Patriot continued, "even if we break them, they would have more than enough time to execute all the Infected before we reach them. If that happens, the mission is a failure."
Furthermore, they couldn't commit their entire force; they had to leave a detachment to protect the village, leaving their numbers stretched thin.
"What if my Wyverns lead the way?" Jeanne suggested. "You've seen those creatures. I can lead an aerial assault from high altitude."
She thought of her Wyverns. For a defensive position unprepared for high-speed aerial targets, a dragon strike would be a "dimension-shaping" blow.
"If you can use those creatures to destroy their heavy weaponry first," Patriot conceded, "the battle will become much, much easier."